by T. S. Joyce
“Apex made a drug,” he said suddenly. “A shifter can inject themselves, and it’ll keep the animal asleep. It has some side effects, though.”
She frowned and shook her head. “I…I don’t understand.”
“I have a sister. She’s an addict.”
Well, anyone could’ve knocked her over with a feather right now. “You have a sister?”
Rhett pursed his lips. “A twin sister. Her lioness is white like my animal. Blue eyes and everything. She looks a lot like me. But her animal…” He chewed the side of his lip for a few seconds. “Well, she doesn’t have much control. My father is Alpha of the Pride we grew up in, and he wanted us to be perfect. But my sister kept Changing, two, three times a day. And she Turned someone by accident. He had to bring them into the Pride and cover it all up. So he began giving her the drugs Apex made. They call the drug DeClaw. It’s not legal or approved by any government sanction. Your animal sleeps, but the side effect is you get high as fuck. And it’s addictive. My sister wanted to make my dad proud, and now she’s in a rehab center halfway from here to Portland. Guess how many times my dad visited her?”
“Oh my God,” Juno whispered.
Rhett looked disgusted. “God didn’t have anything to do with what Apex made.”
“Is that why you went into hiding?”
Rhett shrugged. “I was out on the road, fighting every agent and label rule, getting the soul sucked out of my music, trying to Change in secret, surrounded by people but completely alone… And while I was out there playing shows, my sister’s life was falling apart just so she could keep a place in that damn Pride. She called me one night, and she was crying. You have to understand, Sara never cries. I was sitting on this curb in Tucson, talking on a cell phone with barely any charge left in it, headed to the last show of the tour, and she just…broke down. Told me everything the Pride had been doing, told me all her mistakes with DeClaw. And she said, ‘I need help and I don’t know who else to ask.’ She’d never asked for anything her whole life. All she ever did was give all of herself, try to make everyone happy, and put everyone else first. So…I left the tour, left my manager and team on the tour bus. I took the guitar because Sara had given it to me,” Rhett said, pointing to the treasure Juno cradled still. “I hitchhiked all the way to my sister, and I found her a rehab center far away from the Sage Pride. That’s what I’m really doing here.”
“That’s why you ran.” She didn’t ask it, just stated it as the realization hit her. He’d left everything on a dime just because his loyalty to his sister was so big. Left. Everything. She couldn’t admire a person any more than she did right now.
He nodded once. “That’s why I ran. I became Sara’s Pride when she couldn’t stand on her own. I heard about this last-chance Crew with Grim as the Alpha close to her rehab center, and I thought, why the fuck not? I had no place to stay, no job, no way to access my bank accounts because my fucking team I thought cared about me froze my accounts the second I reneged on my contract. So now I’m a has-been singer turned lumberjack who will do any-fucking-thing for my sister and never have a moment of regret so long as she’s all right.” He swallowed hard. “And this is the first time I’ve told anyone that.”
And that admission right there—the one that said he’d just opened up to her—demolished any dam that remained.
He didn’t realize it, and she would never get the chance to tell him, but he’d just become hers to protect.
“Don’t worry,” she murmured, strumming a C chord. “You’re safe with me. I’ll take your secrets to my grave.”
Chapter Ten
Juno stared at the screen of her phone. It was lined with dozens of text messages from her boss and co-workers at Halfstone Records. She had to find a way to fly out tomorrow or she was fired.
Another text vibrated her phone. Pick up your fucking phone.
And then immediately following was an actual phone call from her boss. Which she ignored, because it was midnight and, really, she didn’t like being ordered around like this. She’d already told him she would be on a flight tomorrow so fuck off.
She’d had the best night she’d had in as long as she could remember. She and Rhett had talked for hours, even sang a couple of Beck Brothers songs together. She’d tried to argue that she wasn’t a songbird, but Rhett had disagreed and made it fun and easy to sing with him. Not once had she thought about her phone or the outside world. And when she’d started dozing off on his bed, he patted her leg, moved the flyaway hair from her face, and told her she should get some sleep.
Gentleman.
Did she want him to be a gentleman? He hadn’t even tried to kiss her when he’d walked her back to 1010. He’d given her a lopsided sexy smile, tipped his imaginary hat, and sauntered right back to 1009.
Juno glared at the vibrating phone and huffed a frustrated sound, pushed off the bed, and gathered her shower things. As she washed her hair, her head swirled around and around one country crooner niceboy named Rhett Copeland. He was so different than anyone would even guess. He was so, so, sooo much better.
She stepped out of the baby-puke-brown tub onto a soft gray bathmat and then dressed in an oversize sleep shirt and her cutest granny panties because, truth be told, that’s all she’d brought or even owned. And then while towel drying her hair, she padded back across the squishy floors to the bed. Out of curiosity, she checked her phone again. Five new texts and another phone call.
Seriously? She’d put her phone down to have a life for a few hours, and this is what happened? A billion missed calls and angry messages?
Death-glaring her phone lying there all smug on her bed, she asked out loud, “What has my life become?”
“I think I feel your pain,” Rhett said from the bedroom doorway.
“Aaah!” she yelled, but it wasn’t a high-pitched, cute, girly scream. It was deep and growly thanks to her bear.
“Oh my God, you scream like a man.”
Juno couldn’t even laugh at his tease because she was too busy clutching her hideously oversize Boomer’s Beer T-shirt and trying to convince her heart not to catapult from her chest. “You scared me!”
He chuckled and laid his phone next to hers on the bed, and with a knowing look at her, he scrolled through a ton of text messages. “I hate this thing.”
Ew, it looked like her phone.
Heart settling a little, she said, “We should burn them.”
“Don’t tempt me.”
Whoa, he looked good in his sweatpants, no shirt or shoes and wet hair. He smelled like shampoo, and could a person actually get high just looking at another person? His injuries from the fight were nothing but angry red marks and weren’t bleeding anymore. Strong man.
“So…I have an admission,” he murmured before she could say something stupid and put them on the fast track to awkward-land again.
“Oh, no,” she groaned. “Regrets?”
“What?”
“Well, I just had my favorite night in forever, and now you’re here to take it back, right?”
“Say that again.”
“You’re…here…to take it back?”
“Nah.” His smile was slow and laced with something. Hope? “Say the first part.”
Her cheeks heated as she ducked her gaze, too chicken to look him in the eyes when she murmured, “That was my favorite night.”
Rhett hooked a finger under her chin and lifted her gaze to his. “I should’ve kissed you.”
Okay, now she couldn’t control the smile if she tried. “Yeah, you should’ve.”
“I was trying not to be a ruiner like my asshole Crew said and be all respectful of you, but then I went back to my place and couldn’t sleep and not even a cold shower helped get you off my mind. So…I’m here for this.”
Rhett leaned forward and slid his hand to her neck at the same moment his lips pressed against hers. He held her there, mouth moving so gently with hers she got completely lost. It could’ve lasted hours, or seconds, she didn’t kn
ow. All she knew was that when they touched like this, the outside world didn’t exist and everything simplified.
With a soft smack of his lips, he eased away and rested his forehead on hers, eyes closed. “Just so you know, I don’t do this.”
“Do what?”
He opened his eyes, and they were as blue as the sky. He shrugged his shoulders. “Care.”
Oh, her whole body fluttered with happiness, and now the heat was back in her cheeks again.
This man really liked her.
She leaned into him and kissed him again, wrapping her arms around his neck. He smiled against her lips, and she giggled and jumped up. The man had good reflexes—he caught her and held her legs around his waist. His stony erection pressed against her just right. Felt so good as she rolled her hips. Rhett let off a soft, sexy growl and eased her onto the bed, ground against her until she was gasping with pleasure. “Rhett,” she pleaded as he slid his hand down between them. “More.”
His muscles tensed with every rock of his hips, and when he slid his fingertips in through the side of her panties and felt the wetness he’d made there, he let off the sexiest groan she’d ever heard. When he pushed his finger slowly inside her, Juno arched her back against the mattress, dragging her nails up his broad shoulders. His lips went to her neck, and she could feel his teeth there, right at her tripping pulse. So good. More. She wanted more. So she writhed against his touch, soft gasps escaping every time his hand hit her clit. She was so wet, his finger slid into her easily, but still, it wasn’t enough.
Nothing mattered when they touched. Nothing outside of them.
She pushed the waistband of his sweats down to unsheathe his thick erection, which he pressed between her legs. Stupid panties were in the way, but he yanked them farther to the side, pulled his finger out of her, and settled the swollen head of his cock at her entrance. And now she was delirious with need.
He pushed into her by an inch, and then more and more. “Open up for me, Juno.”
Arching her spine and throwing her head back, she moaned as he pushed into her all the way. His hand on the back of her neck gripped tight and held her in place as he rammed into her. The other found her breast and massaged it. So sensitive. Her body was so sensitive to him. Close…close… He pummeled into her faster, filling her, his dick so hard and thick.
“Fuck,” he gritted out against her neck.
Harder, faster, she was screaming his name now, claws on his back, sinking into his skin, dragging down…
He arched his back and gritted his teeth, growled a monstrous sound as he slammed into her. Then he pulled out slower, slammed in, out slow, his entire body tensing.
She shattered. From the inside out, she shattered. Gripping her tightly, he bucked into her again and held, his dick throbbing deep to match her own release.
They’d lost their minds together tonight. Or found them. He stayed buried in her until she was finished with every pulse of pleasure. Until he’d filled her completely. Until they both lay there in each other’s arms, sated and spent.
That was…everything.
When he eased out of her, she thought he would leave. That’s what boys did when they got what they wanted, right? And he did leave. To the bathroom where she could hear the water running. As she curled in a happy little ball, she caught a glimpse of herself in the dresser mirror. Hair wild, panties disheveled to the side, goofy smile on her face.
Rhett returned with a washcloth. “What are you doing?” she murmured when he climbed on the bed and pushed her knees apart.
“Cleaning you.” He cupped her sex with the warm cloth and looked at her face with an awed look, like she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
“You’re special, Rhett,” she said softly.
“To you. I’m something different to you.”
And she got it. To the masses, he was a sex symbol with the voice of an angel and sex appeal for days. He was this unreachable personality they could find on stage or in interviews or award shows on TV. But to her, he was real and flawed and loyal and kind and funny and protective—she smiled as he tossed the cloth into a hamper in the corner—and very thoughtful and sweet.
He turned off the lights, and now was the time, right? Now he would leave? She didn’t want him to, so she was happy when he came back to bed and tucked the covers tightly around them, hugged her against his pounding heart.
“Juno?” he asked in a deep, gravelly, sleepy voice in the dark.
“Mmm?” she asked in that in-between spot between awake and asleep.
“I know you think you’re going to die, but you won’t.”
Juno opened her eyes in the dark and inhaled his scent, committing it to memory. “Do you know who Beaston is?”
Rhett swallowed audibly and drew her in closer. It was a full minute before he responded. “Yes, I know who and what he is.”
“Good. Then I won’t have to explain too much. He was the one who told me I would die in my twenty-seventh year.”
“Is he ever wrong?”
She wished with all her heart that her answer could be different, but that wasn’t her story. “No. He’s never been wrong.”
Chapter Eleven
Rhett scribbled faster in the first rays of dawn. Juno was lying in bed, a soft smile on her lips, her hair wild on the pillow, her leg and arm draped over the other pillow he’d slid there in his place. He hadn’t wanted to wake her, but his muse was restless. Whatever magic Juno possessed, she’d woken up the music in him again.
He put the last line down and then stared at it, barely legible on the paper. He’d scratched notes all over it, marked out words and verses to improve them, changed the rhythm of the song twice, but this was it. It felt big. Important.
It was “Juno’s Song.”
She sighed in her sleep and stretched her long legs under the covers. It was cold this morning, so he’d gotten up, started a pot of coffee, and put a space heater by the bed, pointing it right at her. He turned and looked at his reflection in the mirror, scrutinizing the long, half-healed claw marks down his back. Did she realize what she’d done?
“You’re still here,” she murmured in a sleepy voice. God, she was beautiful. Her silver eyes were all crinkled at the corners as she smiled at him. She didn’t know it, but a piece of him already lived for that smile. When a man could make a woman smile like that…no power could compare.
He folded the piece of paper and shoved it in his pocket. “I made coffee. And I’m pretty good at scrambled eggs, or we can do a breakfast date in town.”
“Gasp,” she murmured. “Breakfast, too? Rhett Copeland, are you trying for perma-pussy?”
He blasted a surprised laugh. “Hell, yeah, I am. Get dressed woman. I have something else I want to show you.”
“Another big share?”
He nodded as he sat on the bed beside her.
She slid her hand over his knee and squeezed gently. “What is it?”
“You’ll see.”
“Ugh, I’m terrible with surprises!”
He snorted when she kicked her legs dramatically under the covers. “Surprises are awesome. You’re being ridiculous. Next time remind me to hit it and quit it with you.”
Juno smacked his leg, and now he was really laughing.
“I have to go back,” she said suddenly.
The laugh died in his throat. “What do you mean?”
“I have to finish what I started. I’m supposed to fly out today to meet a band. I’ve already committed, and they’re all waiting for me to get there. I have the offer and contract for them. It’s a big moment for any band and it’s something I need to follow through on.” She looked like she was going to cry, and he wanted to fix her sadness. “I wish I could just stay here for the rest of my life, but I have loose ends to tie up.”
Her words felt like a punch in the gut. Not because they were a betrayal, but because it felt like losing her.
“I’m supposed to be working today, but I can take you to the
airport while we’re in town.”
She squeezed the fabric of his sweats in her fist. “I’m sorry.”
“I have conditions.”
“Okay, name them.”
“Before we go to the airport, lets treat the day like tomorrow is a million years away.”
Her smile appeared, faltered, then appeared bigger as she nodded. “Deal.”
Rhett moved to get up and make her coffee because he really did want to do this. He was going to try his damndest to treat today like they had hundreds more ahead of them. She deserved good days, especially if hers were so tightly numbered.
He wanted to be a good memory. The best one, maybe, shoot for the stars and all that shit.
“Hey, Rhett?” she asked before he got to the door.
“You want to give me a blow job? That’s what you were about to ask, right?”
Juno giggled. “No, that was definitely not what I was going to ask.”
He leaned against the doorframe. “Then what?”
“Someday if I came back here, would this be the same?”
“Are you asking if you mean something to me?”
She nodded.
“You just said no to a blow job, so probably not.”
He belted out a laugh as a pillow sailed across the room and hit him square in the chest. He shook his head as he made his way into the kitchen, reveling in her cute giggles.
Crazy girl.
Couldn’t she feel it?
Didn’t she know what she’d done by marking up his back?
She didn’t just mean something.
Now, she meant everything.
Chapter Twelve
“Where do you think you’re going?” Remi called from behind them.
Juno winced and gripped the inside of Rhett’s bicep harder. She adjusted his guitar case in her hand and turned slowly. “The truth?”
Remi looked like a pissed-off little hellion, her wild black hair waving in the wind and her eyes glowing green, her arms crossed over her chest. “The truth would be nice.”
“Honestly, I was hoping to sneak out of here before you saw us and text you to meet us in town for lunch before my flight after I had my suitcase all loaded up and you couldn’t trick me into staying.”