by Elle Viviani
Bryce’s arms are around my shoulder before I can say no. I stand up and shake him off. “Wait. I have an encore to give before I can crawl into bed and ignore reality.”
“Hartman,” Bryce murmurs, his voice low and tight with concern. My eyes take on a will of their own, raising from the ground to meet his. I forgot all about trying to act normal as I stare into their depths. They’re bottomless like they could swallow the world.
Something stirs in me, something wild and potent that I had locked away a long time ago, and I realize that all these years apart haven’t changed a thing. I still can’t imagine any place I’d rather be than gazing up at this man.
The sound of my fans begging for more songs tethers me back to reality, just in the nick of time, too. I’m not sure I could’ve pulled my gaze from Bryce’s chiseled face without a damn good reason.
“I’m sure,” I say firmly, heading for the stage.
The volume of the crowd hits me like a brick wall when I leave the sheltered alcove. I steal one last look back at Bryce as I walk out under the bright lights, hating the way my heart flutters as we lock eyes. Then I push everything out of my head and focus on the one thing that’s never been complicated for me: music.
Chapter 6
Autumn
“Do you really expect me to believe that?”
“And are you really going to start this right now?” I brandish Dolly’s leash in my hand. “Dolly is literally about to take a dump.”
“I’m not an idiot,” Cody plows on, oblivious to the high-pitched whine coming from the Dane pawing at the bus door. “I know you care more for your childhood friend than me.”
I try to grab his arm, but he shakes me off. “Cody—”
“Is that why you played tonight?” The question catches me off guard, but I knew it would rear its ugly head sooner rather than later.
“No. I chose to play tonight because I wanted to.”
“So Bryce had nothing to do with it?”
“He only confirmed what I already knew in my heart.”
Cody gives me a hard look before letting out a weary breath. “Baby, when are you going to understand that I’m not against you? I only want you to be happy.”
“And tonight, I was. I love playing, that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”
“But you said you’d give these changes a try.” Hurt nips at his words. “Tonight didn’t look like trying.”
I watch Cody pace the small confines of our tour bus for a few seconds before answering. “I’m sorry you feel that way, but I was being truthful when I agreed to dance before. It’s just, I don’t know, don’t it seem wrong to you?”
“Wrong?”
“I’m known for my playing just as much as my singing. Giving my fans one without the other…” My fingers twist the leather of Dolly’s leash. “We’re about to hit Texas, for Christ’s sake. Changing my act now rubs me the wrong way.”
“I’ve gone over this, Sunny’s gone over this—do you want some other reason for why we’re asking you to do a little bit more dancing and a little less playing? Because it’s always gonna be the same: it will attract new fans. Pop fans.”
I throw up my hands. “But why do I need pop fans right now? I’m country, not Britney!”
Cody rolls his eyes. “Why don’t you ask Bryce’s opinion. I clearly don’t know what I’m talking about.”
OH MY GOD.
I turn on my heel and grab the door handle. “You know what? That sounds like a great idea. I’m taking Dolly for a walk before she lets one rip.” I clamber down the bus steps after my pup and slam the door behind me.
While Dolly takes her sweet-ass time checking out every single bush in a thirty-foot radius before deciding on the perfect place to bestow her gift of nature, I mull over my (failing) relationship. I’ve just about had enough trying to patch things over with Cody. Things weren’t always this rocky but, hell on earth, were they headed south. He was my manager for a year before we got together. We were at some music industry party two months ago when he asked me to dance. Before I knew it, dancing had turned into kissing, and the next day we were officially an item. Things were just peachy…until this tour.
A wave of nostalgia hits me as I remember when Cody whisked me away to the Caribbean when we first started dating. We spent two lazy weeks in July on a catamaran, no meetings or rehearsals or photo shoots. Just him and me, relaxing in the sun and drinking mai tais, while the real world went on without us.
Dolly looks up as I sigh. “Why can’t things be like they were in Turks and Caicos?”
“Are you asking me or the Dane?” a deep voice murmurs behind me.
I nearly jump out of my skin as Bryce materializes from a shadowy patch of parking lot. “Holy hell, where did you just come from?”
Dolly loses all interest in the sketchy-looking bush she was sniffing and makes a beeline for him. Bryce holds out a hand to stop her from bowling him over, and then uses said hand to rub the crooks of her ears. She melts under his expert touch. “I’ve been trailing you this whole time.”
“Watching me?”
Bryce’s eyes narrow slightly. “Protecting you.”
“Sorry. I’m still getting used to having you around all the time. Though I’m not saying I hate it. You’re my favorite bodyguard ever.”
“I prefer the term protective services.”
I give him a look. “That so?”
He shrugs. “Bodyguard doesn’t exactly cover what I do. Or my skill set.”
Something about the way he said “skill set” makes me shiver. I lick my lips as he draws closer. “Oh really?”
“Really.”
“Is that why you’ve been different since you came back?" I force a laugh. “Still acclimating from life in the SEALs?”
Bryce stops a few feet from me. His eyes are in shadow, but by the grim set of his jaw, I know I've crossed into dangerous territory. "I'll never leave that life behind," Bryce practically growls. "I can’t. I thought you of all people would know that.”
“I did," I scramble to say. "I mean, I do. I just didn't expect you to be so different—"
“War changes people.” A shock runs through me as he locks eyes with me. “What did you expect, Autumn?”
“I don't know. I hadn't really…” Heat begins to sear my cheeks as I hold Bryce’s steely gaze. The hardness I meet frightens me.
Two long seconds later, I rip my gaze from his and steel myself not to look at him again. That doesn’t seem to apply to him, though. I can feel his dark gaze burning a hole into me.I clear my throat and force a smile. “If this protective services stuff doesn’t pan out, then you could always become a professional stalker. Did you study under a jewel thief on ‘how to move without making a noise’?”
After a few moments of strained silence, the tension breaks. Bryce’s lips tug back. “Or the Navy.”
I throw back my head and moan. “Am I out of it tonight or what?”
“You weren’t out of it before.” Bryce falls into step next to me as Dolly pulls me forward to do more shrubbery reconnaissance. Whatever happened between us moments ago is behind us as we walk the pavement. “I’ve never seen a show like that. You rocked it.”
A flush of pleasure burns through me. There are many things I regret (such as letting Susan Huxley give me fringe bangs in ninth grade), but adding Bryce to my team isn’t one of them, even if it's a rougher, more complicated Bryce.
“I did, didn’t I?”
“Don’t go getting cocky.” He jabs my arm with his elbow and I jab him right back.
We walk for a bit in silence before I have the gumption to say what’s on my mind. “Cody and I had another fight.”
Bryce tenses next to me. “Did he hurt you?”
“What? No!” Something menacing settles deep in his gaze as he stares at me. “I swear.”
He didn’t talk much about his years as a SEAL, but I’d gleaned enough to know they had been dangerous. There’s an added roughness to him now, a lethality that thrill
s and flusters me in the most heart-pounding way.
“We never fought before,” I continue, hoping to steer the conversation away from its overprotective turn. “We were always going out, hitting up restaurants and clubs. It was fun being with him, easy, and now…”
Bryce nods. The dangerous glint is still there, but fading. “Maybe that’s the problem. You don’t know someone until you’ve stripped away their walls, their barriers.”
The rawness to his words shocks me. “You sound super G.I. Joe.”
Bryce shrugs. “I just know what raw stress feels like. When you’re on a mission, you’re with your platoon twenty-four seven. You rely on them for everything. Nothing cuts through the bull like fear and the unknown.”
I frown as the truth hits home. “Yeah. Maybe.”
“But that honeymoon period you’ve had with Jensen?” Bryce’s jaw tenses as he glances away. “That’s not real. Relationships are work. People are work.”
He goes quiet for a moment. When he talks again, his voice has a hard edge. “Loving someone is hard, and sometimes it drives you crazy, but you do it because the thought of not being with that someone drives you even more crazy.”
I’m shocked into silence. I’ve never heard Bryce talk like this before, but then again, we haven’t really been close for the last nine years. Not since that day. It shows me how much he's changed. He's not my childhood friend anymore. He has baggage. He's seen things—awful things—that I can't make go away no matter how much I wish I could.
“At least, that’s what I’ve heard,” he says before I can speak. He picks up his pace.
“That doesn’t sound like second-hand knowledge,” I say, trotting to keep up with him. “It sounds like you’ve been in love. Will you wait?” I grab his arm and tug when he doesn’t stop. “Bryce!”
His jaw clenches as he grinds to a stop. “It’s not important.”
“Of course it’s important. It’s important to me.” I reach out and place my hand on his chest, right above his heart. He jumps back like I’ve struck him. Hurt blooms in my chest as he backs away.
“It’s late. You should be getting back.” He throws a look over his shoulder. “You have an early morning tomorrow.”
My mouth opens and closes, words proving elusive as I watch my friend eye me like I’m something dangerous. I try to shake the phantom feel of his hard chest beneath my palm, but it’s impossible with his spicy scent lingering in the air around me.
When Dolly notices that her favorite person is leaving, she half-tackles Bryce. He staggers back as her paws make a grab for his shoulder, and the tense look on his face fades away as she shoves half a dozen kisses up his nose.
“Looks like Dolly’s just as sad to see this walk end as I am,” I say before I can stop myself.
Bryce looks up sharply. His mouth opens as if to say something, but then shuts. He shakes his head. “Come on, I’ll escort you back.”
An uncomfortable silence settles over the three of us as I’m “escorted” back to my bus. Even Dolly seems affected based on the droop of her long tail. I’m about to mount the bus steps when two thick arms wrap around my waist and lift me off my feet.
“Don’t be mad, Hartman,” Bryce mutters. Warmth trickles through my thin long sleeve and spreads across my breasts as he holds me against his chest. “I’m just tired, okay?”
The hug sends my head swimming and thoughts racing, and any lingering icicles clinging to my heart instantly melt away as he holds me in the safety of his arms. “Okay.”
I close my eyes and lean into him, curling my fingers into the soft cotton of his shirt. The sexy smell of pine and sweat fills my nostrils as I breathe him in. My knees goes weak under the assault of pure, undistilled alpha. I lift my face away from his warmth and look up into his face. My gaze traces the perfect curve of his square jaw before rising to his light brown eyes.
“Bryce, I…” My words die on my lips as a slickness sears through me, hot and heavy as it pools deep in my belly. That feeling from before, the one I’ve fought to keep locked away for years and years, shifts and loosens.
I let out a small gasp as my toes hit the dark asphalt. The sudden impact of my Chuck Taylors on the gritty surface sends a few rocks skittering away. Bryce steps forward as I grab my forehead and turn away.
“What’s wrong?” The deep rumble of his voice shakes that damn lockbox again, sending another wave of pure heat through my limbs.
I take a deep breath and force a smile. “You’re right, I’m tired.”
“You sure?”
“Yes,” I answer, quicker than necessary. He steps back, and suddenly I can breathe again.
“Okay,” he says in an uncertain voice. “Then I guess I’ll say goodnight.”
“Yup! Goodnight!”
I don’t look back as I walk up the steps of my tour bus, but I don’t have to; I feel Bryce watching me with his sharp eyes like I’m staring right into them. Having his undivided attention used to give me courage. Now it only makes me nervous. Nervous because I don’t know how I feel about him anymore.
I follow Dolly into the bus and let out a sigh the moment the door closes behind me. It’s like a cord has been cut, the energy leaving me in one fell swoop. I sink to the floor and plant my head in my hands as the awful reality of it all hits me hard.
Cody may have crossed the line tonight, but maybe the real reason we’re fighting so much is because I’m not being honest with myself. Maybe my boyfriend only voiced what’s been running through my head ever since Bryce Hill walked back into my life.
That we could be more than friends. Much more.
Chapter 7
Bryce
“How much longer will this take?”
Zoe glances up from her phone with a shrug. “No clue. We’ve never done anything like this before. It can’t last that much longer, though. She still has a press event before the show.”
“I see.” I look back at the stage and watch Autumn maneuver through a complicated dance routine involving a lot of ass shaking and hair flicks. She’s been rehearsing with some big-shot dance instructor ever since we got to Austin.
Autumn finishes the last sequence to a series of clapping from her instructor. “Bravo, Ms. Hart! Just a few more times to work out the kinks…”
“Autumn’s a lot of things,” Zoe continues. “Musician, singer, songwriter, Country Music Magazine’s Sexiest Singer three years in a row. But dancer? We needed professional help for that one.”
I watch Autumn strut across the stage, her bare legs long and toned in her sky-high stilettos. She moves with the grace of an athlete.
“She looks like she knows what she’s doing,” I say with grudging respect.
“When Autumn decides to do something, she doesn’t half-ass it.”
I see my opening to ask the question that’s been on my mind since we left Dallas. “So she decided to do this?”
Zoe throws me a look. “I think you mean did Cody decide? Let me put it this way: they weren’t talking to each other before lunch, and then after a talk behind closed doors, Autumn announces that she’ll give dancing a try tonight.”
“I see.”
“Is that what you say when you really want to say something else?”
“No idea what you’re talking about.”
Zoe winks. “Right. Read ya loud and clear.” She grows quiet as we watch Autumn stop to draw her hair back into a messy bun. Her cheeks are flushed from the exertion, and I know she must be exhausted. But the Autumn I remember would rather wear hot pink than admit that something bested her.
“I bet you think this is a piece of cake compared to your old gig,” Zoe says. “You’re not storming beaches in the dead of night or jumping out of airplanes.”
“You forgot the part where I swam three miles in shark-infested waters to avoid being captured by Somalian pirates.”
“You. Sharks. What?” Zoe’s eyes go round as saucers.
“Kidding.” Zoe pouts and goes back to her phone. I lean i
n and lower my voice. “About the sharks.”
She looks up with a gasp. “No way!”
I let a shrug be my answer. “But in all seriousness—” emphasizing the serious part because I know who I’m talking to “—this is like any other detail I’ve been assigned to. SEALs have this reputation for doing crazy shit, but there’s downtime, like this. The trick is not getting comfortable. Strikes can happen when you least expect them.”
“So, like, tigers could storm the stage at any moment and eat the band?”
Yup, didn’t get through.
“Uh, yeah. Sure.”
Zoe looks down as her phone chirps. “Just a sec, it’s PR… What’s up, Michaela?”
I reach my arms over my head and stretch my tight biceps and lats as Zoe turns her attention to the call. I’d gone through a few rigorous training exercises this morning between reviewing the venue’s layout and security parameters and was beginning to feel it.
“Cool if I stretch my legs?” I look down when Zoe doesn’t answer. She wears a dazed look as she stares at my chest. “Aussie?”
Her nickname does the trick. With colossal willpower, Zoe drags her eyes to mine. “Huh? Oh, sure. And could you find Cody?” she adds, holding her hand over the phone. “Michaela’s looking for him.”
I nod and head for the door. My legs groan in protest as I weave through the corridors in search of the stairs. Maybe a few suicides would help my muscles chill the hell out.
I’ve just exited the stairwell when the door across the hall opens. A group of ultra-fit ladies wearing workout clothes walks out, chattering animatedly about the show tonight.
“Can you believe Autumn Hart is really here?” the first one says over her shoulder.
“I know,” a blonde one gushes, “like, two floors away!”
The woman behind her runs her manicured fingers through her long black hair. “And we get to be there for her first dance perf—oh my.”
A collective gasp sweeps through the group when they spot me. The first one stops so suddenly that the blonde runs right into her.