Rhett looked at me with wide eyes. I shrugged, not knowing what to tell him. This was typical Noah playing head games.
Speak of the devil… The movie star waltzed back into the room with every ounce of his red carpet swagger as he adjusted his hundred thousand dollar piece of jewelry around his wrist. One day, he would learn to not leave jewelry like that lying around.
“Well, I’m sure I’ll see you, babe. We do run in the same crowds.”
“Goodbye, Noah.”
“Don’t let the bloodsuckers down there harass you too much,” he offered as he grabbed the doorknob.
“I never do.”
He looked at me and cocked his head. “Did Rose fill you in this morning?”
“About what? She tried to call me a few times, but I’ve been a little busy.” I saw the corner of Rhett’s lips pull up. Not the time, cocky bastard. I kicked my legs out at him to cut it out.
“I may or may not have been photographed with a few women last night. My publicist had to make a statement this morning that we had already broken up. Don't worry”—he waved his hand indifferently—“I said it was amicable.” Of course he did…
“Damn it, Noah. You couldn’t have been a little more discreet until we both could have made a statement? No one has made a statement on my behalf?”
He shook his head. “The vultures are hungry.” He gestured with his thumb toward the door. “Be careful, babe.”
“Could you cool it with the ‘babe’?” Rhett finally piped in.
Noah smirked at him. “Enjoy her. She may not stick around for long, but she's worth every damn second. I fucked that up and let her think there was something better out there. None of us are irreplaceable.”
My breath caught at his words. It didn't change anything, but I hadn't realized he felt that way. I hoped Noah found the girl that would make him want to stay faithful. It wasn't me, no matter how much he thought he would miss me. We weren't right for each other.
The door closed behind Noah, and Rhett marched across the floor, quickly sliding the deadbolt into place. Now no one, even if they had a key, was coming inside. He promptly returned and regarded me for a long time. I kept quiet since it appeared he was trying to figure something out. When he finally spoke, it was the last thing I had expected him to say. “Do you want to go after him?”
“Not even a little bit,” I whispered with no hesitation whatsoever.
“Why’s that?”
“Being single might be fun for a while.” Humor danced in my eyes.
He grumbled under his breath, something about me being a pain in the ass. I laughed as he pushed me until my back was once again flat against the marble countertop, and then he dragged my hips to the edge.
“I need to fuck you.” His voice was honey, and I was dissolving beneath his hands.
“Such a romantic.” I gasped as he pulled my robe open.
“Pipes, I’m so fucking romantic, you can’t handle it.”
I giggled as he ran his lips across my stomach, lightly teasing and tickling. The buildup to my lost orgasm from earlier quickly resurfaced when Rhett continued his downward path with his lips. God, those lips. He almost always had something between them, but my favorite was when I was between them.
A weird chiming sound rang throughout the suite, and Rhett and I both froze. When it continued, he groaned from between my legs. “Now what the fuck is that?”
“Please ignore it!” I almost shrieked in frustration. When it sounded again, I knew that wasn’t a possibility. “I think it’s the doorbell.” I hadn’t even realized there was a doorbell. Usually, Beau intercepted anyone coming down our hall before they could get this far.
“Shit, it’s room service.” Rhett lifted his lips from my heated skin.
“You just had to eat…” I was literally holding back tears from another missed orgasm.
“I was about to, if you couldn't tell.” He kissed the inside of my thigh and added, “One minute and I'll take care of you.”
I hopped off the counter and pulled my robe tight, not wanting to freak out the nice people that worked here. As Rhett walked away, I couldn't stop staring as his perfect ass moved underneath his comfy cotton pants. The muscles in his back shifted with each step, and I wondered what his skin would look like with scratches from my nails. That was definitely something I wanted to try out as soon as possible.
Rhett slid open the deadbolt and pulled the door open with a warm smile, flawlessly concealing his sexual frustration. Or maybe I was the only one dealing with that. The force of the door looked to have caught him off guard as two figures came barreling inside.
A man and a woman rushed past Rhett, and I instantly noticed the camera in the woman's hands. It wasn't the expensive professional kind the paparazzi lugged around. Crazy ass stalker fans.
“What the fuck?” Rhett thundered.
“OH MY GOD! EVER JAMES!” The girl screamed at the top of her lungs. “Is that Rhett? OH MY GOD, he’s even hotter in person!”
She was about my height with a short black bob. Her ripped concert tee had my smiling face on it, with all of the guys in the band standing behind me. It was a shirt we sold almost six years ago.
The man bolted toward me while the girl pointed her camera my way and began to blind me with the flash. Panic struck as I watched two people I didn’t know run toward me with only the kitchen island between us. To my horror, the guy started to rip his shirt off as Rhett tackled him to the ground.
“Ever, do you remember me?” the guy shouted from beneath Rhett. “Remember, we met at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre two years ago!”
“I’m s-s-sorry, no,” I stuttered as terror pounded through me.
The woman tried to round the island, and I sidestepped in the opposite direction.
“Ever!” the man shouted while Rhett continued to hold him down. “Ever, there was a spark between us! I know we are meant to be together! Now that Noah’s out of the picture, we’ll be the perfect couple. You’ll see!”
“Ever, get out of here!” Rhett was trying to shout over the man’s crazy fabricated delusion. I had heard my name shouted from a thousand different directions before, but it had never felt this disturbing.
“Wait! You can’t go, Ever James!” the girl shouted. “Did you get my letters and flowers? What about all the gifts I sent you? Where are they? Do you wear my necklace? Did you like the picture I made of us?" The flash from her camera continued to blind me.
“You can’t be in here.” I tried to sound confident, but I was failing miserably.
"Ever, out!" Rhett yelled again as he struggled with the lunatic on the ground who had begun to buck wildly. I couldn't see much of him, but I could tell he was heavy-set and easily outweighed Rhett.
“Miss James? We heard shouting?” I heard my security guy, Mark, call into the suite. When he rounded the door, his eyes bugged out at the scene before him. He immediately slammed a panic button that Beau had installed on the wall. I had forgotten about that! A lot of good it did me when I was under duress. “Shit!”
He looked back and forth between each intruder and then went after the woman first. He raced across the living room and captured her in his arms, causing her to scream at the top of her lungs. I turned my head at a loud pounding noise and realized Rhett and the man beneath him were now exchanging blows. I wondered if the pair knew they were finished here, so they decided to give it everything they had.
I started to dart toward Rhett when he looked up at me and yelled for me to get out again. With Rhett distracted, the man got a good jab into Rhett’s temple. I immediately ran back, circled the island until I located the utensil drawer, and pulled out a knife.
I highly doubted I could actually use the thing if it came down to it, but they didn’t know that.
“Ever James, wait… I just came here to give you some gifts! I have a ring for you and a tape I made,” the guy hollered. My stomach dropped at the madness of it all.
Roger and Gabe sprinted through the door. The two intruders were quickly detained, and Rhett tore across the room to me. Security removed the lunatics from the suite with impressive speed, and Mark called out that he would return as soon as they handed the pair over to the authorities. He stated that he would send in a few extra men to make sure everything was clear, but I shook my head.
“They just want to make sure you’re okay,” Rhett whispered while gently removing the knife from my trembling hand.
I shook my head again and buried my face in his chest. "No one except Beau comes back in here." I was still wearing my robe, so I tried to hide my body behind Rhett. I heard him relay my message to Mark.
The door closed and my legs instantly gave way. Rhett scooped me up into his arms and carried me down the hall to his room.
I had woken up this morning feeling so confident in myself, and in mere moments, all of that was squashed. The adrenaline was now leaving my body and it shook from the loss. Rhett squeezed me tighter, and I hated that—yet again—I needed him to help me through another substantial part of my life. He seemed to be handling it okay, considering it was his first experience with crazed fans. But when the shock wore off, would he run, like I wanted to?
And would I be able to stand on my own two feet one day? He couldn’t always be the knight in shining armor.
— EIGHTEEN —
Rhett sat down and scooted to the middle of the bed with me still in his arms. I felt him turn me so we were facing each other, and then he laid us down and pulled the comforter up over our bodies. I savored the warmth and comfort of his body next to mine.
“Your heart is about to beat out of your chest,” he whispered. I nodded, unable to speak. “Is it because of my unbelievable sexiness?”
I couldn't help but laugh, his stupid joke making a lot of my fear melt away. We lay there for I-don't-know-how-long as Rhett stroked my hair and softly rubbed my back.
“Please tell me that doesn’t happen a lot,” he said softly, his words tickling the skin on my neck.
“Not a lot.”
“But it has happened?” I heard him gulp.
"No one has ever gotten into my private space like that before… not without security being with me. One time, a fan hid in my dressing room. Beau entered the room before me, so I barely saw any of the commotion. But… I've never heard someone say those kinds of crazy things to me. I've been told I get some pretty outrageous letters, but I choose not to read them." I remembered the man's words and couldn't hold back the shiver of fear. Rhett gripped me tighter.
"Beau's going to kill me." His resolute tone sounded as if he had already accepted his fate. I lifted my head and eyed him with confusion. "I didn't even look through the peephole before opening the door! I just let those fuckers walk right in! Shit, I thought it was room service."
“It wasn’t your fault.” I placed my hand on his cheek and finally took a good look at him. “Rhett! Your eyebrow is bleeding!”
“Is it?” He reached up and wiped the crimson liquid from his skin. “It better not swell, or the label will kill me for having a swollen eye on TV.”
"Oh my God, we have to be on TV tomorrow!" I groaned. "We haven't even been in the studio to practice."
Rhett leaned over and grabbed a tissue from the nightstand then held it to his eyebrow. "And whose fault is that, Miss I’m-Going-To-Ignore-Rhett for a week?”
“Shut up. I just went through something traumatic,” I grumbled half-heartedly.
“Yet I was the one who got punched in the face,” he teased.
We lay on our backs underneath the warm blankets and stared up at the ceiling. His curtains were still closed, but tiny slivers of light filtered through the sides.
“We’re going to be great tomorrow,” he said with his usual confidence.
“Of course we will be,” I said with mine.
"We know those lyrics backward and forward. And the guys and I are ready with the music."
“I trust you.”
“Do you now?” He pushed up and hovered above me. His adorable dimple made a rare appearance. “Do you finally trust that I’m not here to steal your band, your fame, or whatever insanity was happening in that brain of yours?"
“Stand in my shoes for a second,” I huffed. “Imagine you worked your ass off to get where I’m at today. Moved from your home, the only place you knew, to New York freaking City, recorded in a studio for months and months straight. Put through rigorous voice lessons and stage appearance lessons. I clawed my way to where I am today. And then along comes this guy. He just likes to play his guitar and sing some songs, but he gets to cut in line. Past all the hard parts and go straight to the big time. Tell me you wouldn’t feel slighted.”
Rhett sighed heavily and let his head drop to my shoulder. "I understand, and I'm trying to be sensitive to that. But imagine all you've ever wanted to do your whole life is play music. While you're doing what you love, someone comes along and says, ‘Hey, how would you like to get paid for doing that? Oh, and you'll get to do it on a much bigger stage where more people can hear you.' You say, ‘fuck yeah', right? So yes, I can see what you’re saying, but we have to be professional—”
“I am a professional!” I interrupted.
“Not showing up to your studio sessions?” he scolded.
“Okay, you might bring out this new and improved side of me, but you also drive me insane.”
His lips crushed mine. I became lost in the feeling of his lips and tongue until he disengaged both and whispered, “Why do I feel like we only get along when we’re either fucking, about to fuck, or making music?”
“Because, those are the only times I actually like you. All the other times I…”
“You what?” he asked with that annoying cocky tone.
“Want to strangle you!”
"The feeling's mutual, Pipes," he retorted. My eyes went wide. "What? If you can lie, then I can too." I turned my face away from his but didn't push him off of me. "You want this just as much as I do," he said, his lips grazing the side of my neck as he pulled my robe open. "You can't deny how good we are together. You're so damn hard-headed, and I’m so damn hard."
My legs opened for him as he pressed his length against me. I dipped my hands beneath the waistband of his thin cotton pants and grabbed his ass, grinning when I realized he’d gone commando. “I know how good we are together.”
"No! Whoa!" A deep voice called out from across the room. "Shit!" My hands ripped free from Rhett’s pajamas, and I instantly covered my face. Beau had just waltzed right in, and it was almost as bad as being caught by my dad. "Ever?" he asked. I didn't know if he could see me… I was literally underneath Rhett, who was also underneath his comforter.
Rhett pressed his lips to my ear. “When we get to the apartments, we are getting locks on the doors—and no one else gets the key.”
I couldn’t agree more.
“Errr… yes, Big Guy?” I timidly called out. There was no way I was coming out, but I peeked around Rhett to see Beau covering his eyes with his hands. Thank God.
“Um… shit…” Beau was rarely at a loss for words. “You guys threw me for a loop with this one.”
“Really?" Rhett chuckled. He tried rolling off of me, but I held on as if he were my shield. Because he was. "I thought our chemistry was pretty obvious." I pinched his nipple for that one. He handled it surprisingly well and only bit down on his lip to conceal the pain.
Beau was a father figure to me. He had never—not ever—walked in on me with a guy before. Pretty impressive considering we kept close quarters.
“What the hell are you two thinking? You know what…” He stopped and backtracked. “No. I don’t have time for this. Did they touch you, Ever?” I knew who they were.
“No. Rhett held the man off. He even got punched in the face,” I added, hoping that would help Rhett’s case a little bit.
“I heard.” Beau’s boots shifted on the wood floor,
and I heard the doorknob jiggle. I could picture him dying to get out of this room as quickly as possible. “I’m taking care of the security problem.”
“Don’t fire those guys. I’m sure it wasn’t their fault. It was just a crazy situation.”
“Of course they’re fired,” Beau barked.
“We need them right now, Beau. Things are getting heated with Rhett joining the band and an album release sooner than any of us thought possible. You just said the other day how hard it was to find good guys with the right experience.”
“Obviously, I need to add even more experience as a job requirement.”
“Can’t you just give them a good tongue-lashing and then make them take some kind of refresher course? I mean, they were alert enough to hear us shouting, and then they had the situation handled in seconds. Do you know how those two crazies even made it on the elevator?” A key card was needed just to open the elevators that went to this floor.
I pulled the sheet up to my neck so I could sit up and speak face-to-face with Beau. Rhett rolled to the side, and I wasn't sure but I thought I heard Beau growl slightly. "Your boyfriend wasn't paying attention when he exited the elevator, and those two delinquents slipped in before the doors closed."
“Ex-boyfriend,” Rhett coughed. I rolled my eyes and Beau glared. “I just wanted to make sure the facts were known. It’s kind of important.” I kicked him under the covers. “Well, it is!”
“Would it be too presumptuous of me to ban Mr. Reynolds from admittance into our building?” Beau asked me directly.
"No, it wouldn't,” I quickly replied. “Noah doesn't have any reason to have access.” Beau nodded, obviously enjoying the sound of that. He hadn’t cared for Noah, but he usually kept his opinions on my love life to himself.
“Okay, then. I guess I’ll go….” He moved to leave and then whipped back around and said, “How the hell am I supposed to leave for a few days when security is a complete shitshow?” I knew he was anxious about leaving me to go see his mom, and this incident hadn’t helped in the least. He hadn’t seen his elderly mother in over a year. I refused to be the reason he didn’t make it home for her birthday.
Ever Lonely (Ever James Band Book 1) Page 25