Rock the Heart
Page 22
I throw my hands up. “Hello? What are you doing back here?”
He furrows his eyebrows like I’m not speaking English. “What do you mean, why am I back here? It’s my room.”
I fold my arms over my chest. “Yes, but when you told me that earlier that I’d be sleeping in your bed, I didn’t think you meant with you in it.”
Noel shrugs. “I told you there wasn’t any room in the foxholes. I thought I made the sleeping arrangements very clear.”
“I’m not sleeping back here with you!”
He raises an eyebrow. “If you want to sleep in on one of the seats out front, be my guest. But I warn you, the other guys never come home alone, and most of the action takes place right up front.”
I turn and peer down the hall at the two swivel seats and tiny love seat and shudder. No way do I want to witness the guys’ sexual escapades out there. I sigh and drop my arms. “Fine. But so help me, if you touch me, I’ll punch you square in the balls.”
He laughs and pats the spot beside him. “I’ll be a gentleman. I promise.”
Reluctantly, I walk over and slide under the covers next to Noel. The full size bed doesn’t exactly leave much space between us, so I scoot as close to the edge as I can get and roll on my side away from him.
The light flicks off, and the bed shakes as Noel settles down on his pillow. It’s quiet. Too quiet actually. With nothing to distract me, all I can think about is how close his body is to mine. How if I wanted, I could roll over and have amazing sex with this man.
I tuck the cover around me and close my eyes. Right before I drift into sleep after an exhausting day, Noel says, “I’m sorry about tonight, Lane. I shouldn’t allow myself to get so jealous. You’re a hard one to let go.”
My heart pounds, and I’m suddenly fully awake. There are a million things I can say to him. But if I’m not careful, one sentence can either piss him off or turn him on and neither of those would be a good thing.
We lay there in silence, but I can’t bring myself to say anything. Noel eventually takes the hint and lets out a heavy sigh before he turns over and doesn’t speak a single word.
CHAPTER TEN
My cell rings on the small night stand, and my eyes pop open. Relief engulfs me when I roll over and see the other half of the bed empty. I grab the phone and answer it as I sit up and run my fingers through my tangled bed-head.
“Good morning, sunshine.” Aubrey says in a sing-song voice.
“What time is it?” I question and flop back on my pillow. The motions of the moving bus are steady and very sleep inducing. Must be why I slept so late.
She laughs into the phone. “Someone had a late night? It’s nearly noon. Tell me, any action with that sexy rocker yet?”
“Ugh. You would not believe what that asshole said to me last night.”
I rehash all the grimy details of how it seems like Noel is a crazy lunatic only interested in getting into my pants. Of course, I leave out the details about how amazingly hot he is when he becomes so suggestive because knowing Aubrey, she’ll encourage me to take him up on the offers because she knows it’s been a while for me in that department.
“So tomorrow my flight comes into Dallas at two thirty. I’m renting a car so I can drive myself over to the hotel while I wait on you to get there.”
I sigh. “You don’t know how excited I’ll be to see a friendly face.”
“Pssssssssssh. Whatever. After that story you just told me, sounds like you’ve been seeing plenty of ‘friendly’ faces between Noel, Riff, and that sexy British dude.”
“You mean Striker?”
She giggles. “I need to Google him, even his name sounds yummy.” I hear Aubrey tapping on the keys of the desktop computer in our little apartment and I suddenly feel a little homesick. “Ah, there we go. Let me just…Oh yeah, he’s fucking edible. No bag needed for that one’s head. That’s for sure.”
I shake my head. “I doubt he’ll ever call me. Noel chased him off before I could make a good impression.”
“Noel’s just jealo—Oh-my-god, Lanie have you searched your own name in the last twenty-four hours?”
“Um, no. Does anyone really look themselves up that often? Why?”
“Go get your laptop and search your name, and then call me back.”
“Wait. Aubrey. Why?”
“Just go do it.”
After I promise to call her right back, I hop off the bed and change into a pair of jeans and black t-shirt. I grab my computer from the cabinet and boot it up. I’m surprised to find there’s a Big Bertha Wi-Fi signal. After a failed attempt to connect, I make my way out to the front of the bus, laptop in hand, where all the guys are up eating breakfast.
“What’s popping, Lanie?” Trip asks before he takes a huge bite of cereal.
Tyke and Riff are locked into some battle on the game system attached to the flat screen TV in the sitting room. Noel sits to the side watching them go at it, ignoring that I’m in the room.
“Trip, what’s the Wi-Fi password for Big Bertha?”
He wipes his chin with the sleeve of his shirt and grins. “It’s kinkysexgod69.”
I roll my eyes. “What is it with you guys and your obsession with sex?”
I sit my laptop on the counter next to Trip’s bowl and type in the password. Once it’s connected, I type my name into the search engine. A couple milliseconds tick by and my name accompanied by pictures pop up in the results. I click on a picture, and it redirects me to a celebrity gossip site where Noel and I are the prime story with a headline reading: Black Falcon Front Man Caught with Secret Lover. My eyes widen as I take in the picture with Noel holding my hand in the airport.
He furrows his eyebrows like I’m not speaking English. “What do you mean, why am I back here? It’s my room.”
I fold my arms over my chest. “Yes, but when you told me that earlier that I’d be sleeping in your bed, I didn’t think you meant with you in it.”
Noel shrugs. “I told you there wasn’t any room in the foxholes. I thought I made the sleeping arrangements very clear.”
“I’m not sleeping back here with you!”
He raises an eyebrow. “If you want to sleep in on one of the seats out front, be my guest. But I warn you, the other guys never come home alone, and most of the action takes place right up front.”
I turn and peer down the hall at the two swivel seats and tiny love seat and shudder. No way do I want to witness the guys’ sexual escapades out there. I sigh and drop my arms. “Fine. But so help me, if you touch me, I’ll punch you square in the balls.”
He laughs and pats the spot beside him. “I’ll be a gentleman. I promise.”
Reluctantly, I walk over and slide under the covers next to Noel. The full size bed doesn’t exactly leave much space between us, so I scoot as close to the edge as I can get and roll on my side away from him.
The light flicks off, and the bed shakes as Noel settles down on his pillow. It’s quiet. Too quiet actually. With nothing to distract me, all I can think about is how close his body is to mine. How if I wanted, I could roll over and have amazing sex with this man.
I tuck the cover around me and close my eyes. Right before I drift into sleep after an exhausting day, Noel says, “I’m sorry about tonight, Lane. I shouldn’t allow myself to get so jealous. You’re a hard one to let go.”
My heart pounds, and I’m suddenly fully awake. There are a million things I can say to him. But if I’m not careful, one sentence can either piss him off or turn him on and neither of those would be a good thing.
We lay there in silence, but I can’t bring myself to say anything. Noel eventually takes the hint and lets out a heavy sigh before he turns over and doesn’t speak a single word.
CHAPTER TEN
My cell rings on the small night stand, and my eyes pop open. Relief engulfs me when I roll over and see the other half of the bed empty. I grab the phone and answer it as I sit up and run my fingers through my tangled bed-head.
“Good morning, sunshine.” Aubrey says in a sing-song voice.
“What time is it?” I question and flop back on my pillow. The motions of the moving bus are steady and very sleep inducing. Must be why I slept so late.
She laughs into the phone. “Someone had a late night? It’s nearly noon. Tell me, any action with that sexy rocker yet?”
“Ugh. You would not believe what that asshole said to me last night.”
I rehash all the grimy details of how it seems like Noel is a crazy lunatic only interested in getting into my pants. Of course, I leave out the details about how amazingly hot he is when he becomes so suggestive because knowing Aubrey, she’ll encourage me to take him up on the offers because she knows it’s been a while for me in that department.
“So tomorrow my flight comes into Dallas at two thirty. I’m renting a car so I can drive myself over to the hotel while I wait on you to get there.”
I sigh. “You don’t know how excited I’ll be to see a friendly face.”
“Pssssssssssh. Whatever. After that story you just told me, sounds like you’ve been seeing plenty of ‘friendly’ faces between Noel, Riff, and that sexy British dude.”
“You mean Striker?”
She giggles. “I need to Google him, even his name sounds yummy.” I hear Aubrey tapping on the keys of the desktop computer in our little apartment and I suddenly feel a little homesick. “Ah, there we go. Let me just…Oh yeah, he’s fucking edible. No bag needed for that one’s head. That’s for sure.”
I shake my head. “I doubt he’ll ever call me. Noel chased him off before I could make a good impression.”
“Noel’s just jealo—Oh-my-god, Lanie have you searched your own name in the last twenty-four hours?”
“Um, no. Does anyone really look themselves up that often? Why?”
“Go get your laptop and search your name, and then call me back.”
“Wait. Aubrey. Why?”
“Just go do it.”
After I promise to call her right back, I hop off the bed and change into a pair of jeans and black t-shirt. I grab my computer from the cabinet and boot it up. I’m surprised to find there’s a Big Bertha Wi-Fi signal. After a failed attempt to connect, I make my way out to the front of the bus, laptop in hand, where all the guys are up eating breakfast.
“What’s popping, Lanie?” Trip asks before he takes a huge bite of cereal.
Tyke and Riff are locked into some battle on the game system attached to the flat screen TV in the sitting room. Noel sits to the side watching them go at it, ignoring that I’m in the room.
“Trip, what’s the Wi-Fi password for Big Bertha?”
He wipes his chin with the sleeve of his shirt and grins. “It’s kinkysexgod69.”
I roll my eyes. “What is it with you guys and your obsession with sex?”
I sit my laptop on the counter next to Trip’s bowl and type in the password. Once it’s connected, I type my name into the search engine. A couple milliseconds tick by and my name accompanied by pictures pop up in the results. I click on a picture, and it redirects me to a celebrity gossip site where Noel and I are the prime story with a headline reading: Black Falcon Front Man Caught with Secret Lover. My eyes widen as I take in the picture with Noel holding my hand in the airport.
