by K. A. Linde
We landed in DFW Airport and took a car to the hotel near AT&T Stadium. Campbell was already at the venue, doing sound checks for the show tonight. He’d gotten us all rooms at the hotel the band was staying at. Being in Campbell’s world was something else,.
I’d come to a few of his shows in LA before he was famous. It wasn’t a red carpet as they were fighting their way up. But after their first album took off, the first show I went to with Dad and Nora was a disaster of epic proportions. Campbell and Dad had gotten into it, and a fire had been lit under all of us. Dad pretty much didn’t come to shows anymore after that. He loved Campbell’s fame enough to not want to cause any trouble for him.
Everyone was getting ready for the show. Campbell had promised to send a car for us to get to the venue. I had time to kill before we had to do that. And still, all I could think about was Piper.
My cock was already filling my pants. I pressed the heel of my palm against it to push it down. I was hard, just thinking about her. I’d seen her half-naked a week before, and now, this.
I’d enjoyed riling her up for a while. It was our dynamic. But something had changed when I saw that ring, when she let me put her in my shirt. Now, I wasn’t just getting under her skin. I wanted to get under her. Or over her. Or put her over my knee. Whatever the fuck way she’d let me take her, I was up for.
And thinking about it right now was helping nothing. My cock certainly wasn’t listening. Or maybe it was because my head was full of filthy thoughts of Piper Medina. It was stiff as a board now. So fucking hard that it was painful.
Jesus! I needed to get this under control before we went out again.
Which, of course, was the moment I considered how Piper could help me get it under control. I had a very vivid thought of watching her deep-throat my cock, and it was all I needed to pop the button on my jeans and slide down the zipper. Maybe I’d take care of this before we all left.
I’d just slipped my hand into my boxers when someone knocked on the door to my hotel room. I stared at the ceiling in dismay.
“Yeah?” I called out.
“Hey, Hollin.” Piper’s voice carried across the divide.
I groaned softly, my eyes rolling into the back of my head. Even her voice was turning me on right now. I was fucked. Seriously fucked.
I stuffed my cock back into my pants and adjusted them to hopefully hide the giant boner I had for her. Then, I opened the door, covering most of my lower half with the door.
“Yeah?”
Her eyes flitted across my face. Uncertainty in every glance.
And, fuck, she’d changed out of her jeans and T-shirt and into a fucking black minidress. She didn’t wear a ton of dresses. But now, I got a full look at her toned golden legs. I jerked my head back up to meet her gaze.
She crossed her arms, which only pushed her tits up in the square cut of her dress. “Julian sent me down here to let you know that we’re drinking in his suite. He’s two doors down if you want to join us.”
Julian must have gotten a sick pleasure out of asking Piper to get me. He’d seen the way I looked at her last weekend. The way I’d been around her on this trip. He was probably laughing his ass off right now.
“Sure,” I said automatically. “Let me grab my…wallet. I’ll meet you.”
“Fine.” She sashayed her tight ass away from me.
I bit back a groan at the sight. Fuck.
“Go down. Go down. Go down,” I hissed at my dick as I stepped back into my room.
It had a mind of its own, but after a few minutes, it wasn’t entirely noticeable, and I headed down the hall to Julian’s suite. All I knew was that I was walking into a concert still so fucking turned on, with the woman I was interested in, wearing nothing but a skimpy dress, and I hadn’t had time to take care of business. Fuck. Me.
Campbell hadn’t sent a car. He’d sent a fucking stretch limo.
The girls giggled together as the driver came around to open the back door. “After you,” he said.
It was a tight fit with eight of us in the back of the limo. Especially considering how tall I was. The girls scooted down further to give me more room, but no matter what happened, my entire left side was pressed firmly against Piper. She moved closer to Blaire again, but it was no use. There wasn’t enough space. And none of it was helping how turned on I was. I adjusted my jeans and cleared my throat.
Julian caught my eye and smirked. I had given him so much shit when he and Jennifer first started out. He was deeply pleased that he could do the same for me. And Piper and I…we weren’t anything like him and Jen. Piper had hardly even looked at me while we were drinking.
She wasn’t looking at me now either. She was talking to Blaire and Nora, but she kept shifting and adjusting, which meant the bare skin of her thigh kept rubbing against my leg. I closed my eyes and tipped my head back, trying to stop thinking about her. What the hell was my problem?
I liked sex, but I wasn’t normally this horny all the time. She’d lit a fire under me, and now, I couldn’t make it stop. I couldn’t keep from thinking about what she’d feel like. And it didn’t help in these close quarters.
She’d just done it again, and I couldn’t take it anymore. I urged her thigh down with the palm of my hand.
Her eyes jumped to mine. “What?” she gasped.
“Stop moving,” I said, low and husky.
She gulped at the heat in my voice. Her pupils dilated as I held her firmly against the black leather seat. Her eyes traveled to where my large hand covered her leg and back up to me. Something sparked between us. Like the first heat of a firework before it burst into the sky.
Then, Piper came back to herself and shoved my hand away. “Don’t touch me.”
I grinned at her. “Sure thing, babe.”
But she stopped moving around. In fact, she sat very still.
Blessedly, the drive to the venue wasn’t too long. The last thing I wanted was to get hard again in the back of the limo. There would have been no escape and no way to hide it. I wasn’t sure how obvious it was that I was horny.
When we rolled up in front of AT&T Stadium, we all piled back out of the limo. The driver gave Jordan his card to use for after the show when we were ready to come back. He pocketed the card and tipped the driver.
He nodded his head at the lot of us and said, “Shall we?”
I laughed. He was such a Wright. “Yeah. I have the tickets.”
We walked through a metal detector, and I scanned all eight of our tickets from my phone. We were directed to the Owners Club one floor below. We took the stairs down and showed our tickets to the people manning the door. Each of us got a green wristband that allowed us entrance to this room, and we entered into a different world.
I tried to keep my jaw from dropping, but it was difficult. The Owners Club was an enormous central meeting space that branched off to each of the individual boxes. It was filled with lush couches, hundreds of televisions to watch the concert from any angle, a fully stocked bar with premium liquor, and a manned buffet for whatever your heart desired. It was pure luxury.
And that was before we even got to our seats.
“Whoa,” Piper whispered next to me.
“I love it,” Blaire said. She glanced at Jennifer. “Think we can take a few pictures for the blog?”
“I’d be insulted if you didn’t want me to,” she said.
“Pipes, you coming?” Blaire asked.
“I’m going to check out our seats,” she said. “And then get some food. Is that prime rib?”
We watched a plate of succulent meat pass us. My stomach grumbled. I hadn’t even realized I was that hungry.
“I like her plan,” I said.
Piper looked at me and frowned. “On second thought, maybe I will come with you.”
Then, she disappeared with the rest of the girls.
Julian clapped me on the back. “Better luck next time, bro.”
“You’re a dick.”
Jordan furrowed a b
row. “What am I missing?”
“Hollin has it bad for Piper.”
Jordan snorted. “No way. All you two do is argue. You’re constantly at each other’s throats.”
Julian arched an eyebrow. “Can you really talk? You and Annie argued every time you saw each other for three years.”
“That was different,” Jordan said smoothly. “We’d already hooked up. It was…” Julian crossed his arms and waited. Jordan huffed a breath. “Fine. It’s similar. But Annie liked me at least. Doesn’t Piper hate you?”
“Yeah. I guess she does.”
We stepped into our own private suite off of the main Owners Club. My eyes widened at the perfect, uninterrupted view of the Cosmere setup on the Dallas Cowboys football field. It was spectacular. Hundreds of seats had been added to the floor around a giant stage with wings on either side and a long runway through the front. That way, Campbell could walk forward during some songs, as if he were a part of the audience. It was brilliant. I’d never seen anything like it, and it wasn’t even lit up yet.
Jordan appreciatively ran his hand along the back of the first seat. “This is the way to live.”
I laughed as Julian nodded. “Isn’t this what you’re used to?”
Jordan and Julian had been raised in Vancouver under the tutelage of their douche father, Owen. Jordan worked for Wright Construction as an executive vice president. They came from money…a lot of money.
They exchanged a look and shrugged.
“Sure,” Julian said.
“I suppose,” Jordan said. “I didn’t have a whole lot of time to enjoy it though. That’s the beauty of moving to Lubbock. I work a lot less, believe it or not.”
That was hard to believe. Jordan was the biggest workaholic I knew. Even worse than Piper. Even worse than Annie, who was a doctor. But I was thankful that he had any time for the winery he’d helped us build from the ground up.
“Glad you have the time,” I said. “I’m glad you’re all here.”
Jordan leaned back against the seat, facing away from the show as the opener was announced. He crossed his arms. “So, what are you going to do about Piper?”
I ran a hand back through my hair. “Fuck if I know.”
“You can’t play games with her,” Julian said. “If you like her, you’re going to have to be straight with her.”
“Yeah. Sure. That sounds like me.”
“She’ll eat you alive if you pull the shit you pull on everyone else,” Julian said.
“I concur,” Jordan said, eyeing me suspiciously. “She seems like she’d be a match for you. Good luck.”
Just then the girls prowled back inside, drinks in hand, laughing. Piper met my gaze, and she smiled. She was having a good time. And I liked that she was having a good time.
The guys were right about one thing at least.
If I wanted her, I’d have to tell her.
And I intended to do just that.
11
Piper
Hollin wouldn’t stop looking at me. I’d chanced a glance at him through the first two openers, and he’d quickly looked away. I had gone to grab another dessert, and his eyes had followed me. I’d sung along to the hit song for the second opener, and I could feel him staring at my lips.
I didn’t know how to process this. How fast things had gone from us needling each other to this. Whatever this was, I had no idea. But I couldn’t deny that I liked the attention. I liked him watching me. I liked him looking appreciatively. But I didn’t know what it all meant. I didn’t know if he was being a dickhead like normal and there was going to be some antagonistic punch line, because that seemed more like him.
Especially after he’d touched me. I could still vividly remember the way it’d felt to have his hand on my thigh. And not just…touched. He’d held me down. Held me in place with that one massive hand on my bare skin. It had set fire to my core like nothing else. I should have abhorred that touch. And now, I couldn’t stop thinking about what else those powerful hands could do to me if I let them.
I hopped up from my seat. “I’m going to go look at the bar again. Anyone else want anything?”
“I’ll take another gin and lime,” Blaire said.
“You know the bartender can get that stuff for you,” Jordan said.
Annie swatted at him. “The girl wants to move around and get another dessert. Just let her.”
I laughed. She wasn’t wrong. The desserts were delicious. I’d tried them all. I was a fan of the pecan pie.
“My bad,” Jordan said.
“I’ll go with you,” Hollin said as he climbed out of his front row seat.
“Why?” I snapped before I could stop myself.
He raised an eyebrow. “I wanted to check out the whiskey selection. I heard they have an Owners Select Maker’s Mark, which was crafted by Jerry Jones himself.”
“Oh,” I whispered. “Sure.”
I wet my lips and backed out of the suite. Hollin fell into step with me. We rounded the corner out of the hallway for the suites and into the main area of the Owners Club.
“You like bourbon?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“Want to try the Maker’s with me?”
I looked over at him, waiting for the antagonism. It didn’t come. “Sure.”
He ordered us both tasting samples while I requested the two gin and limes for me and Blaire. He swished the shot of bourbon around in its glass. I picked mine up and sniffed it. Smelled like Maker’s to me. I didn’t have a discerning palate for bourbon like I did for wine. But that was my job. This was just for fun.
He held his glass up to mine. “To free tickets.”
“To Campbell,” I offered.
He grinned. “That’s right. To my asshole brother.”
I chuckled and tipped the shot back. It burned on the way down. I liked it. It tasted sharp and clean, all at the same time.
“That’s good.” I set my glass down next to his. “I’d drink that.”
He winked at me. “Excellent.”
He raised his hand and ordered the Owners Select with Pepsi. Jennifer had complained that they didn’t have Coke. She’d been hate-sipping 7-Up all night, and Julian had been poking fun.
“Is it weird that everyone is here to see your brother?” I asked before I could think better of it. “That there are thousands of girls here with his face plastered on their T-shirts? And that people have signs that say Marry me, Campbell on them?”
He thought about it and then shrugged. “Sometimes. I’m happy that he’s doing what he loves. Most people don’t get this opportunity. And when he’s home, he’s just my little brother, you know? It can’t be that different than Peyton.”
I hadn’t even put two and two together, but it was remarkably similar to Peyton. She’d been a principal dancer. People from all over the world were obsessed with her work. She’d performed in front of thousands night after night. But at the end of the day, she was still just my sister. Somehow, Campbell felt bigger by magnitudes.
“I guess it is. Most people didn’t wear my sister’s face on their boobs though.”
He chuckled. “No. But they bought her dirty shoes.”
“Oh God,” I said with a laugh. “They definitely did. It’s so weird.”
“Sometimes, it’s weird. That’s why it’s important to treat him like everyone else. Otherwise, his head would get bigger than it already is.”
“He seems pretty down-to-earth.”
“You’re welcome,” Hollin said with a wink.
We headed back toward the suite. I passed my drink off to Blaire as the second opener finished.
She’d been deceptively upbeat about this whole thing. When I’d first invited her to the show, she’d thrown a pillow at my head. But eventually, I’d convinced her to come with us even if I hadn’t gotten the story about her and Campbell.
Everyone hopped out of their seat to flood the Owners Club before Cosmere came onstage. I waved them off and found a seat. Instead of ret
urning to where Hollin had sat earlier, he dropped into the seat next to mine.
We’d had an actual conversation. I hadn’t known it was entirely possible for him to not get on my nerves every time he opened his mouth. But here we were. I didn’t trust it. Even a temporary truce felt like a concession.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Sitting next to you.”
“But why?”
“Because we’re the only two people in here right now.”
“So, you’ll go back to your seat when people come back?”
He leaned his elbow on the armrest between us. “If you want me to.”
“Good.”
I glanced away from the Cupid’s bow of his lips and the sensual way he looked at me.
“Can I ask you a question without you slapping me?”
I looked to the ceiling with a sigh. “Maybe.”
“Are all the books you read like that?”
I whipped my head to him. “Are we back on this?”
“I mean, I watch a lot of ‘books’ like that.”
“Are you equating romance to porn?” I snapped. This was why I didn’t let my guard down, because he started saying stupid fucking shit like this.
“Are they that different?”
“It’s not porn. Not that there’s anything wrong with sex work. Women are vilified for anything they enjoy or anywhere they can make their own money. Romance and erotica are a female-dominated industry. Women make all the money in it. And God forbid that a woman chooses to read about women finding men who care for them and want them and are desperate to give them a happily ever after. Yes, there’s sex. Yes, sometimes, the book is just about sex, but there’s nothing wrong with anything that makes a woman feel powerful.”
Hollin’s mouth dropped open slightly. “Tell me how you really feel.”
I laughed softly. “I’ve heard it before…the porn thing. It raises my hackles.”
“Anytime you need to yell at someone about a woman feeling powerful, feel free to do it to me,” he said with a smoldering look.
I swallowed. “Is that right? You don’t seem like a man interested in a powerful woman. Considering how often you bag and ditch them.”