Love on the Rocks (Love on Tour #1) (15 page)

He shrugged. “No idea. I’ve never seen her before. I suppose Mike and Tony are working on figuring that out right now.”

“So you’re saying I over-reacted?”

“No. You reacted exactly the way any woman would if she saw what you saw. Well, maybe not any woman. Some of them would have started screaming and bitch slapping.”

“I over-reacted.”

“No, your reaction was normal. But Baby, that man is crazy about you. I know him better than anyone. He would never, ever cheat on you.”

“I don’t know why I believed he would. It just, came into my head you know, that maybe I wasn’t enough.”

“Well, you’re wrong.”

“Where is he?”

“He’s standing over there.”

I could see Sean through the trees. He was pacing in a tight circle at one end of the pond, rubbing his chin obsessively. I’d just watched him shave that chin an hour ago. I was laughing at him because it took so long. But he insisted that it kept him from getting nicks.

“He’s about to have a freaking heart attack. I’m actually kinda worried.”

“I suppose I should talk to him.”

“Up to you. I’m going to sit here and do whatever you want.”

“I love you, Henry.” I threw my arms around him again.

“Love you, too, kiddo.”

I got up slowly and walked out of the trees. By the time I reached the edge of the grove Sean was coming toward me.

“Baby, please.” It was all he said.

I launched myself into his arms. “I’m sorry I freaked out.”

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

I pulled back and looked at him. His eyes looked so sad, and scared.

I swallowed hard. “I over-reacted.”

“No, you didn’t. God, I’m sorry. She came out of nowhere. I have no idea who she is. I swear.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“Baby, it is most definitely my fault.”

“That’s silly,” I said tracing my finger on his chin.

I stared into his eyes for a long moment. Then I said. “I’m okay now. We can go back to the bus.”

“I don’t want to.”

“What?”

“Let’s hang out here for a while. It’s really pretty and we’re all alone.”

“It is pretty. But we’re not alone. Henry is right over–”

But Henry was gone, disappeared.

“Come here.” Sean pulled me down to the grass and tucked me into his lap.

“Don’t we have a tight schedule?”

“Fuck the schedule.”

21

Despite our detour on the grass, we were still on schedule to get to Atlanta with a little time to spare, thanks to Tony’s expert driving and drive-thru food stops. But Sean and I still needed to deal with our shit and it was really apparent to Mike, so he built an additional stop into our route.

“You have two hours,” Mike said, looking at his watch.

We’d pulled up outside of a swanky-looking hotel.

“Mike,” I said, handing him my phone. “I’ve learned my lesson. If this rings, will you answer it? If it’s my mom, well charm her silly. If it’s anyone else…”

“I’ll take a message,” he said, taking the phone.

“I appreciate it.”

I refused to leave my phone on during my time with Sean, but I was exhausted by the prospect of missing a call from a member of my family or a close friend and coming back to an urgent voicemail, or worse, an impromptu visit. At least this way Mike could deal with whoever it was, and cut any hysterics off at the pass.

“I appreciate it, too,” Sean said.

We made our way to the room in silence. It was just a regular room with a king size bed this time, no need for a suite when you only had two hours.

“Are you going to leave me?” Sean asked, as soon as he shut the door behind him.

“What? No.” I moved over to him and put my hands on his chest. “You think I’m going to leave you over a girl who forced her mouth on you?”

“Not just her. All of it.” There was a look of terror in his eyes.

“Sean,” I moved my hands under his shirt so I could touch him, feel his skin under my palms. “I am working on adjusting to your life. I just need a little time. Besides, things will be easier after the tour, won’t they?”

He let out a long breath and wrapped his arms around me. “Yeah, they will.”

****

Two and a half hours later Sean and I re-boarded the bus. I was feeling happy and relaxed, until I saw the look on Mike’s face. To make matters worse, Henry sat beside Mike, arms folded on his chest, stern Sean-like expression on his face.

“What’s going on?” Sean asked.

“I think you both should sit down,” Henry said, gesturing to the seats opposite him and Mike.

“Okay,” I said slowly, as I lowered myself into the booth. Sean sat down beside me.

“What’s up?” Sean asked. The bus started to move. “We’re late, is that why the long faces?” He asked with a grin.

“You got a phone call Baby,” Mike said.

Oh crap. “Who was it?”

Mike and Henry exchanged a look. Then Mike turned back to me. “A guy named Brynn.”

I went still. Beside me, Sean tensed up. “Is that who I think it is?” He asked.

“Um, yeah, I guess. I have the same phone number I had six years ago. So it’s conceivable…”

“So he’s the guy?” Henry asked.

“You told him?” I looked at Sean.

“I only told him a couple of things.”

“Why am I not allowed to know?” Henry asked. “You’re my baby sister. Why can’t I know?”

“Okay, this conversation is getting away from us. Start from the beginning,” I demanded. “Sean, what did you tell Henry?”

“That you had a boyfriend in college. He was an asshole and as a result you were sensitive about certain things. I told them because I wanted their help in keeping certain girls away from you,” he said defensively.

“
Them
!”

Sean sighed. “Yeah, both of them,” he gestured with his eyes across the table.

“There weren’t a lot of details,” Mike said.

I stared at Sean. I couldn’t decide how mad I was at him. On the one hand, he’d betrayed my confidence. On the other hand, I knew that in his mind he was trying to protect me.

Instead of sorting through those feelings, I turned to Mike. “Tell me about the phone call.”

“He said he was your ex-boyfriend. He said you would be happy to hear from him. He wanted to know who I was real bad, but I kept the drilling one-sided. It was when he said that you’d dated for two years that I figured it must be the guy Sean mentioned.” He looked at me expectantly.

“Yeah, that’s him,” I confirmed. “What did he want?”

“At first he claimed he just wanted to talk. Then, when I pressed him, he said that he was living in Atlanta now. He went on about how he was a college professor or some shit. He said he’d heard you were going to be in Atlanta tomorrow night and wanted to know if he could say hi.”

“Yeah, so then Mike asks him how the hell he knew where you were going to be,” Henry interjected.

“By this point I had him on speaker phone,” Mike admitted.

“Great,” I moaned.

“And?” Sean prompted.

“So he admitted that he’d seen you with the band in photos and apparently talked to a few of your friends as well,” Mike continued.

“Fucking stalker,” Henry mumbled.

“Bottom line is, he’s going to be at the concert,” Mike said.

“Fuck.”

“Apparently he already had the tickets. He’s a big fan,” he gave Sean a look that could only be construed as a smirk, “of yours.”

I hung my head in my hands. “Fuck.”

“So here’s where you get really pissed. Henry offered him backstage passes.”

“What?” I jerked my head up to gape at them.

“Hear me out,” Henry said.

I wasn’t listening. “Why the hell would you do that?”

Sean still hadn’t spoken. I turned to look at him. I could not determine the meaning of his expression.

“Here’s the thing, Baby,” Henry tried again. “I think that Sean might like the opportunity to meet this guy. And quite frankly, I would too.”

I turned to look at Sean, searching his expression. He looked guilty. Henry was right. Sean did want to meet Brynn. If the roles were reversed, I would want to meet the woman that screwed Sean up for life. So I got that. But it was more complicated than that, because Sean thought he knew about me and Brynn, but I had kept some things from him. And knowing what I knew now about Sean, I was glad I had.

I was completely unsure what the hell to do, so I deflected. “What are you going to do, Henry? Beat him up?” I asked.

“No. I’m more civilized than that.”

“You don’t want to see him, do you?” Mike asked me. “It was a bad idea, Hank.”

“She doesn’t have to see him,” Henry retorted. “
I
just want to meet him.”

“Baby,” Sean said softly. “We can stop this whole thing right now, if that’s what you want.”

I knew that he was curious about my past, especially this part of it. And I didn’t want to deny him the chance to understand me better. Furthermore, I needed to confront my demons. I’d known it from the moment I told Sean about my tattoo in the hotel room in Denver. I had to move on so I could be with Sean without the insecurities that had been plaguing me for the last six years. But I was going to be walking a tightrope, because there were certain things about my relationship with Brynn that Sean couldn’t know about, at least not until after we were across the country and he could no longer get his hands on him.

“Okay. We’ll do this. But I set all the rules.”

****

I looked at my three men. Sean was wearing his look of concern and insecurity, mixed with his Mr. Protector stance. Henry was bouncing up and down on his heels. Mike actually looked a little mean.

“Look,” I told them, as I stopped them at the doorway to Sean’s green room. “I am going to go talk to him alone first. If things go well, you can meet him.”

“And if they don’t go well?” Henry asked.

“I will send him out to the pit.”

Sean looked like a mother about send her baby into a war zone. And this was the face he was making now. I couldn’t imagine how he would feel if he knew everything. Actually, I could imagine it. There would be no way in hell I’d be going in there at all, let alone by myself.

“I will come and get you all when I’m ready for you.” I pointed my finger at each of them to make sure they knew I was serious.

I walked down the hall slowly, second-guessing this decision with each step. I knew I needed to do this, but I really didn’t want to. I opened the door, walked through it, and shut it behind me. I heard Brynn even before I turned around.

“Dani!” He exclaimed. “Oh my God, girl. Come here.”

I flinched as Brynn bolted toward me and pulled me into a hug. It was like walking back into a cage I’d escaped from.

“Hi, Brynn,” I mumbled.

I was struck by how little he was, barely 5’10, not muscular at all, and a bit soft around the middle. It was deceptive though. I knew how strong he really was.

“Nice to see you.” I pulled away from him and stepped back in the guise of wanting to look him over.

“Dani, these are my friends, Thad and Lance. They’re also professors at the college.” His eyes were wide with excitement. “We’re all big fans of Chrome. But then again, you already knew that about me.” He gave me a crooked grin, and I wondered how on earth I ever thought it was cute.

“Yeah, I guess I should have known you’d show up at a concert sooner or later.”

“Yeah,” he was full of energy and excitement. “And you! You’re traveling with them. You’re actually traveling with Sean Rush! How did that happen?”

“I met Sean and Hank in a diner one night.”

Now that I was here with my demon, I had no idea what to do with him. How does one vanquish a demon?

“Well, it was a great coincidence for me because I’ve been meaning to get back in touch with you,” he said.

“You have?”

A black spot struck the pit of my stomach and began to grow. Maybe coming in here alone was a bad idea.

He stepped closer to me. “Yeah, maybe we could get together after the show?”

I took a step back. “I don’t think so, Brynn.”

I reminded myself that he couldn’t control me here. He couldn’t hurt me anymore.

He shrugged. “Well, we could at least watch the show together.”

“No. Actually, I watch from backstage.”

He cocked his head. “Why’s that?”

“Sean and Hen- Hank don’t want me to get hurt.”

He put a hand on his hip. “So amazing. I mean, I didn’t know you were even a fan, and now you’re so close to them. What do you do for them?”

“Excuse me?”

Anger was good. It pushed away the fear.

“I mean, do you do PR or communications, or something like that?”

He was definitely making it easier to cling to anger.

“You think I work for them?”

“Well, that’s what I assumed, yeah.”

That’s when I realized what this demon was all about. I didn’t come here to face my fears of this man. Sean took care of my base fear by merely being in the building. I didn’t come here to deal with the sexual demons. Sean had helped me work those out, too, even though he didn’t know it. And in truth, those issues had been pretty well dealt with back when I was with Kevin.

What this was about was that every time a person questioned what I was doing with Sean, whether it was the doctor, or a hotel clerk, or the groupies, it made a little shadow on my self-confidence. Here was a man who’d been with me and threw me away. This demon was the voice that whispered in my ear that I would never be good enough for Sean. I had to face it, and the moment had come.

I took a deep breath and told him, “I don’t work for them. Sean Rush is my boyfriend. We’re together. It’s pretty serious.”

Brynn’s two buddies looked like they believed me. They looked shocked, but still, I thought they believed me.

Brynn on the other hand, smirked. “Come on Dani, be real.”

He took another step toward me. I didn’t back up this time. I refused to be intimidated by him anymore.

I took another deep breath. “I’m serious. Sean and I are together.”

“Look, you don’t have to do this.”

He stepped toward me again. He was within touching distance. My body was tense as hell, but I stayed where I was.

“I totally want you back. You don’t need to try to make me jealous,” he whispered.

“I don’t want you back, Brynn. I’m with Sean now.”

I looked over his shoulder at his friends. They stood there watching, blank expressions on their faces. I was just realizing the mistake I’d made, when Brynn reached his hand out and wrapped it around my waist.

He tugged me toward him roughly. I practically tripped into him. My right arm was pressed between his body and mine. He grabbed my left wrist and held it at my side.

This was a move he’d used on me many times before. I knew what came next. It played out in my head as if it were yesterday. First was the pain, then his hands pushing on my shoulders, then the whisper,
be a good girl now
.

But this time would be different. I screamed for all I was worth.