He stood there for a long moment, staring me down, and I dropped my gaze to the floor. We might have still been standing there if London hadn’t tugged on my arm. “Let’s finish up. I’m sure we don’t want to keep Sin from anything.”
“I have work anyway,” he muttered, but he didn’t move.
I let London lead me away. “Bye, Sin.”
“Later, sweet girl,” he called softly after us.
Chapter 9
Sin
Fifteen months later
Something soft, warm, and squirmy shifted beside me, and my eyes popped open, only for my head to feel like someone was drilling straight into my eyeballs with a dental drill. Silky-soft hands touched my back from behind me, and I groaned as memories of the night before flashed before me like a movie on fast-forward.
Going to some dumbass party with Cash. Getting drunk off my ass. Taking two skanks home from said party.
Now I realized I had more to deal with than just the mountain-sized hangover that was currently making me feel like I was going to die.
“Sin, baby, lick my pussy again,” Silky Hands purred from behind me. “Your tongue is like magic.”
I shrugged off her touch and sat up in the middle of my bed. Her makeup was smeared under her eyes, her lipstick staining around her mouth. Her dark brown hair was in tangles spread over my pillow. Whatever I saw in her the night before didn’t interest me right then and there. “Get your shit on, and get the fuck out.”
I nudged the girl to my left, who might as well have been her twin with the way her makeup was faded and her dark hair was tousled into knots. “Both of you, get out.”
I didn’t give them time to argue or try to entice me to let them stick around. Instead, I climbed out of bed and went into the bathroom. “You’re not out in twenty minutes, I’ll have the security downstairs drag you out.”
They both huffed as I locked the door behind me, but I wasn’t interested in how much they hated me now. My focus was in purging all the alcohol I’d consumed the night before and then calling the cleaning service I used to get the smell of their combined perfume out of my bed and the rest of my apartment.
After puking my guts out, and mentally making empty promises about never drinking to excess again, I took a hot shower. Taking my time to give them a minute to get dressed and out the door, I let the powerful spray ease my tense muscles.
This shit was getting old. Drinking and then bringing home a girl or two—or three—was starting to become boring as hell. Never thought I would think that, but it was true. This whole famous thing had been fun with all the pussy getting thrown my way on top of what I usually got, but I was already tired of it all.
Not just the chicks either. It was the constant flashing cameras snapping my picture if I so much as walked to the deli down the block for a sandwich or if I walked down the beach with my shirt off. Paps printing articles about what chick I was dating when they caught me leaving a bar or a club with someone. At first, it was kind of funny, but now it was just annoying as fuck.
Tainted Knights had been shooting upward on the charts, thanks to a few of Kin’s songs and with the help of our sweet-ass deal with Petrova Records. The summer-long tour we’d just gotten back from only spread our name out there more, and Emmie was already talking about us headlining our own tour in the fall of the following year. By then, I was hoping the Blondes could be our opening act.
Checking the time on my phone, I cursed and headed back into my bedroom. The two chicks were gone, but their perfume lingered. I texted the cleaning service, making sure they knew to change out everything on my bed, then got ready.
In the kitchen, all I could find was day-old pizza and week-old leftover Chinese food. Other than a few microwave meals, the freezer was empty with the exception of the bottles of vodka I kept in there. My stomach was tossing, and I knew I needed some grease or I was going feel like shit.
Grabbing my keys and wallet, I left my apartment. My car was parked downstairs in the garage, but I figured I would end up taking a cab after drinking later, so I walked to the deli down the street.
A five-pound burrito later and I was feeling halfway human again.
Keeping my sunglasses on and a ball cap pulled low, I walked around for a while, killing time. I had nowhere to be, having quit my job before the ink was even dry on the contract we signed with Petrova. Gray was home with Kassa, both of them still recovering from the grief of Kassa’s miscarriage. Kale was on vacation with Santana, and who knew what Cash was doing.
I figured Jace and Kin would be at First Bass if they were going out anywhere tonight, but I didn’t want to hang out with them. Jace was an even moodier motherfucker than I was lately, and considering I was still in the goddamn friend zone with Roanna, my moods were pure shit.
Thinking of the Blonde who took up too much of my mind on any given day, I debated going to the club and watching their show later. The summer tour that forced me to keep away from her hadn’t helped this addiction just to see her like I wanted it to. Since we’d gotten back, I still went every Thursday, I still stuck around after like some lost puppy wanting attention from its favorite person.
And she let me, damn it. I could see it in her eyes, could see the longing that was a constant ache in my gut flash at me when she didn’t think I was paying attention. She wanted me just as fucking much as I wanted her, but she was too stubborn to let me close enough to show her we could be good together.
I dicked around for a few more hours until the show was about to start and then grabbed a cab to First Bass. Instead of going upstairs to the VIP, I stayed on the first floor. The wait at the bar to get a beer was long because there were only two bartenders working. Upstairs, the crowd was just as big as on the first floor, but Nate seemed to be able to handle that shit all on his own, whereas it took at least three bartenders down here.
I waited my turn, keeping my sunglass on even in the dimness of the club because my head was still fucking throbbing.
“Hi,” a husky voice murmured from my left.