by Kira Blakely
“Why? To watch the same stunt that killed my brother?” I laughed bitterly. “To prove his point that he could be the best at it?”
“You know JJ better than I do. Do you think he’s that asinine?”
“No,” I said, letting out a shaky breath. I rested my head against the wall with a sigh. “I don’t think so. I don’t know why he even wants me here.”
“He wants you here because he wants to make it up to you,” Chuck said. Cheers erupted from inside. “It has nothing to do with fame for him. He just wants everyone to see that he made a shitty situation better by hard work.”
I rose to my feet when another set of cheers erupted from inside the arena. The concrete walls even trembled from outside. I caught Chuck’s eyes as I passed by him in the doorway.
“Just for himself,” I said. “He didn’t make it better for anyone else besides himself.”
Bitterness tore at me as I walked along the hallway back to the main entrance. A flurry of movement was followed by the sound of a dirt bike engine. I stopped behind a group of fans who were bouncing excitedly with VIP passes around their neck. Two of them were younger women, no older than nineteen, and dressed in skimpy shorts and tank tops that showed off their perfectly toned bodies. They waved excitedly in Jude’s direction when he handed off his dirt bike to his team of mechanics. He pulled his helmet off, blue eyes gleaming, swung his dark, sweaty mane about, and grinned at them as he stripped out of his protective gear.
They giggled giddily in response. I hugged myself to fight off the surge of jealousy as I tried to pass them in the hallway, but I stopped short when Jude’s eyes landed on me. His grin turned seductive, smug. He started to walk toward me, but the group in front of me surged forward to talk to him eagerly. They handed over what appeared to be pictures of Jude dressed up in his gear from an early photoshoot. It sported the Nike logo on the very top corner. Endorsement deals. Legions of attractive fans. He didn’t need me. He didn’t need anyone.
I turned on my heel sharply to walk in the other direction. I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t stand the cheers or the hype. Any of it. I needed some peace and quiet to get centered again if I was going to travel with this sort of exhibition for the next five cities.
Chapter 9
Jude
It was 11:39 p.m. when I managed to pull away from the backstage party, I headed for the bus parked in the private part of the arena. Several other buses were parked there, too. The celebrations that usually took place after the exhibitions kept everyone in the parking lot afterward. Loud music thumped from inside a few of the buses. A gaggle of young women ran to another tour bus as I kept an eye trained for Ava, who’d managed to disappear twice on me—once during the show, and then a second time backstage.
Anger simmered in me as I stalked through the hot night in the direction of my bus. I had no idea what Ava’s problem was, but I planned on finding out tonight. Part of her job was to get the entire feel of what it was like to live my life. She wanted to write the damn article about me. She’d accepted the job proposal.
It didn’t help that she wanted to fight against any sort of relationship we could have. I never asked for a commitment. I just wanted her for myself, at least for the short period of time we would be together.
The flash of headlights caught my attention. I stopped walking as the black SUV pulled up alongside me. The window rolled down to reveal Chuck, who looked exhausted and sweaty from the entire evening.
“You heading back to the bus?” Chuck asked.
I rested my forearms on the edge of the window. “Yeah. I’m too tired to even think about celebrating like the rest of these fuckers around here.”
“Might be a good idea to pass on it. There are some young and questionable women running around the parking lot.”
“Good to know,” I said wryly. “I’ll make sure some of the other racers use common sense when it comes to women.”
Like I have any sense when it comes to Ava.
Chuck seemed to read my mind as he nodded to the bus in the distance. Lights were on, a sure sign that Ava was still awake.
“She’s been in the bus for the past couple of hours,” he said. “She figured you were out enjoying another female’s company, so she voted to stay in the bus instead of a hotel room.”
I rolled my eyes at her noble decision to step aside to let a female groupie have her way with me. I had seen the jealous spark in her eyes before she turned away to hurry in the opposite direction.
“Very nice of her,” I said cynically. “I’ll give you a call in the morning. We have to roll out within a few hours of dawn.”
Chuck nodded his balding head. “Right on, boss. Have a good night. Stay out of trouble.”
“I always stay out of trouble,” I said, taking a step back as Chuck rolled up the window with a chuckle.
I walked past another tour bus but stopped short when I heard Billy Thor, a nineteen-year-old racer, call out my name. He sat beneath a sunshade next to his bus with his team and a few fans. He reminded me of a country boy, with his damn cowboy hat, his tight jeans, boots, and a ripped shirt. He was a scraggly thing, too, but he could race his ass off when he really concentrated.
“What up, JJ?” he asked, clasping my hand tightly. “Just wanted to say good show out there, man. You’re the best for a reason.”
I nodded at him. “You did great, too, bro. I was able to watch a little bit of your exhibition when I was backstage.”
I swept a glance over the young female fans who were seated beneath his sunshade. I caught sight of a cooler next to them that was undoubtedly full of beer. Years ago, I had done the same thing. I had thrown my first party at fourteen years old, when my parents were in jail for a weekend for hitting one another.
Curling my fingers around the back of Billy’s neck, I pulled him in close to me to whisper into his ear, “Listen, man. I really like you. Just be careful about those girls over there, okay? I don’t want to see you go into the slammer for tapping the underage ones running around here.”
“You don’t tap any groupies?” Billy asked, visibly surprised by that. “I figured with all the woman around you—”
“It’s rare,” I said, and it was rare. The women I had slept with over the years rarely came from the exhibitions, despite what the tabloids said. I refused to let that part of my life be tainted by getting tangled up with the wrong woman.
Billy glanced at my bus in confusion. “I’m confused, then. There’s a woman doing yoga in her bra in your bus. You’re telling me that you aren’t hitting that?”
I fucking wish that I was. I glanced over at the bus, but I couldn’t catch any sight of Ava. I looked over at Billy, who looked away with a guilty expression. I couldn’t help the grin tugging at my lips.
“I’m sorry,” he said, cheeks reddening. “I thought you were in there, so I was peeking through the windows when I saw her.”
“If it was someone else looking at her, I’d kick their ass,” I said, squeezing him fondly. “Just a bit of advice is all, bro. Stay out of trouble tonight.”
“You, too. I appreciate it, man.”
Billy returned to his seat beneath the sunshade. I nodded goodbye to him before I hurried along the row of buses until I reached mine. I peered inside one of the windows to find Ava in a pair of black yoga pants and a white sports bra. Her dark hair was in a loose braid around her back. Music, the type of serene music I heard in elevators, played softly from inside.
My mouth went dry as I watched Ava bend over gracefully to touch the front of her toes with her fingers easily. It gave me a nice view of her perfectly tight ass cheeks that were highlighted nicely through those yoga pants.
“Fucking beautiful,” I murmured, already throbbing with need.
Our last kiss on the bus had ended in disaster. Ava had remained guarded throughout the rest of the drive to Boston, but all of that was going to change tonight. She had kissed me back. Her body had responded to my touch. We both wanted each other, but she
had to be so damn stubborn about everything. That was just Ava’s nature.
I opened the bus door as quietly as possibly before closing it shut behind me. I slid the lock into place before drawing the shades down. I didn’t want Billy sneaking another glance in my bus to see what we were doing.
Ava remained oblivious to me coming up from behind. Her eyes were closed. A serene expression spread across her face as she breathed in deeply, holding that position with her ass high in the air. Perfectly level with my cock.
I reached out to grasp her hips firmly and pulled her backward against me. Ava let out a startled shriek, and she tried to twist around to look at me. Not willing to let her argue her way out of this one, I pressed my lips against hers in a deep kiss that muffled her protests. She struggled against my arms encircling her waist, but her lips glided beneath mine as she returned the kiss. Our tongues tangled for a brief moment before I spun her around so that I could press myself up against her.
“Stop,” Ava gasped, pulling away before I could kiss her again. “Jude, stop it. We talked about this. You know why we can’t do this.”
Frustration tore through me. “Why though? I don’t understand.”
“I already told you why.” Ava slipped away from me, grabbed her shirt, and tugged it on before turning to face me. “I thought you were going to be with someone tonight, so I didn’t think you were going to be in the bus.”
“It’s my bus,” I stated flatly. “And the only woman I’m with is you.”
Ava turned away from me to head in the direction of the bunks. She paused before climbing into one of the bunks to look at me with guarded eyes.
“There are millions of them out there. I think you’re going to be fine without me.”
“What the fuck, Ava?”
She didn’t respond and drew the curtain closed. I listened to her settle down in the bunk before complete silence descended over the bus. My erection throbbed painfully from inside of my pants. I debated ripping the curtain off the damn pole, but I forced myself to stalk back into the bedroom to slam the door shut. There would be no sleep with this damn erection throbbing for the one woman who didn’t want anything to do with me because of her own doubts.
“Fuck this,” I grumbled, stalking to the private bathroom in the back. “I’m going to get pleasure tonight, either way.”
I twisted the hot water on. Slipping out of my clothes, I stepped into the hot spray with a relieved sigh, despite the ache between my legs. I let the hot spray work away the aches in my muscles from riding hard for the past few hours before focusing on the one organ that needed Ava’s attention the most. I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to spoil an amazing orgasm, but I couldn’t stand it any longer. My entire body was going to go blue by the end of all of this.
I slammed my hand into the shower wall to resist the temptation, though. It wasn’t going to happen like this. I refused to let Ava have control over what happened between us.
After a shitty night of wet dreams involving Ava tangled up in my bed, I rose early in a foul mood to call Chuck and my driver back to the bus. Ava stepped out of the small bathroom with a towel wrapped about her damp hair when I came back inside the bus. Just thinking about her soapy and naked didn’t help matters as she climbed back into the bunk and pulled the curtain shut to avoid contact.
Breakfast was just as unbearable. Chuck attempted conversation with Ava, who answered politely, but she pointedly kept her back turned toward me. I downed a cup of coffee with a sigh of aggravation. I couldn’t stand the cold treatment anymore because it was driving me crazy in all the right, fucked up ways.
“I need to talk to you,” I said before Ava could climb up into the bus. “We need to talk about some shit before you get on that bus.”
Ava turned to look at me with a cool expression. She folded her arms across her chest as she came back down the bus steps. “What is it?”
“You’re coming along to write a piece about me,” I said, coming to a stand in front of her. “But you refuse to even get close enough to talk to me. You haven’t spoken a damn word to me all fucking morning.”
A flicker of nerves went across Ava’s face as she took a step back to put distance between the two of us. As usual. She cleared her throat as she looked away from me.
“Sometimes I have to recharge before I write. That’s all I’m doing. Writing’s a hard task that you—”
“Bull fucking shit,” I gritted out, not buying the excuse. “Are you even taking any of this seriously, Ava? Or is it some fucking joke to you?”
Ava snapped back around to glare at me.
“Of course I’m taking this seriously. Have you ever taken anything seriously in your life?”
I curled my hands into fists to keep control of my rapidly fraying temper. “Yeah, once. Back in high school. She told me to go to hell.”
Ava reared back in shock at those words. I stomped by her to go up the bus steps to let something painful settle into her for once. She had no idea what it felt like to be told to go to hell by the one person she loved more than anything in the world.
Chapter 10
Ava
The lush greenery of Charleston, South Carolina surrounded the bus when we pulled out onto a cobblestone street. I leaned up against the window to watch everything go by, and the buildings reminded me of an Antebellum movie. My head ached horribly. I pressed my forehead up against the cold glass. I tried to focus on the interesting and historic sights of Charleston as we drove by, but it was useless.
I felt confused about everything when it came to Jude. He had made a career out of himself being a total jackass who wasn’t capable of having any true emotion. Women lapped it up eagerly. The girls in Gypsum back then had lapped it up, too. There were a few other girls after our summer together, after Andy’s death. He never looked my way again after that. We never spoke again.
A headache pounded in my temples, and my eyes slipped closed. I had been wrong about a lot of things back then, but it still didn’t make up for everything. It didn’t bring my brother back from the grave.
The bus came to a slow stop. I opened my eyes to find the bus pulled up in a luxurious hotel parking lot. I stared at the fancy sign out front with an inward groan. There was no way in hell that I could afford a place like this. My editor would have a field day with all these costs
Chuck rose from his position at the small table behind the driver’s seat. He let out a groan as he stretched before jogging down the stairs to open the door. I waited for Jude’s bedroom door to open, but it remained firmly shut and silent in there. My legs ached as I followed Chuck off the bus into the humid and balmy summer air. He and Mike were glancing over a few papers in the parking lot when I walked up to them.
“What’s up?” I asked. “What are we doing here?”
“Stopping for the day,” Chuck said as he rifled through documents in a folder. “JJ hates staying holed up on the bus for too long. The show isn’t until tomorrow, so he wanted to get off the bus.”
“He’s been holed up in his room all morning. How did you know that?”
“I know my athlete better than you think,” Chuck said, winking with a chuckle. “He likes to travel with his bikes, but he hates being holed up all the time.”
“That doesn’t surprise me,” I said, folding my arms over my chest. “This place is expensive. Does he always go to the most expensive hotels, too?”
“Will there be a problem with payment from your boss?”
“Well—”
The bus door pushed open. I turned to watch Jude stroll by the group of us with a bag in hand. Dark shades were pulled over his eyes. His coal hair was a fringe of messy spikes. He paid little attention to us as he walked into the hotel lobby, humming to himself. The cold shoulder. I recognized it from afar, so I shook my head at Chuck.
“I’ll just stay on the bus tonight,” I said. “Thanks, Chuck.”
“If you’re sure,” Chuck said, shrugging his broad shoulders. “I’m not going
to push you to do something you don’t want. Just don’t wander off too far.”
The two older men followed Jude into the hotel lobby. I climbed back up into the bus and pulled out my laptop to check my bank account. Only 232 dollars left. There was no way a hotel like this would offer a room below a hundred bucks. My editor would throw a fit if I asked for money to stay at a fancy hotel like this.
I tapped my fingers against the table top. A few sports magazines were following Jude around, begging him for an interview. I imagined the price tag on a piece like this with one of them would be more than enough to cover hotels like this, but most of them would require a steady job contract in the professional sports field. Stumbling into an opportunity like this only happened because of Jude. He didn’t trust anyone else to do this piece about him. That was one of the qualities that I could write in depth about.
Jude was a private man when it came to his feelings. He didn’t trust random strangers entering his life because of the wealth he had accumulated over the past few years, but no one knew it was because of his family. No one knew that Jude used to ride his motorbike down the streets on his paper route, which woke everyone every single morning with all the racket. Those were the quirks about Jude that no one knew about like I did.
No one knew about Andy’s accident, either. He never mentioned it to anyone, besides Chuck, and I had no idea if that was out of respect for my family, or if it was guilt.
I closed my laptop with a sigh before gathering my purse to head off the bus. Charleston was a bustling city full of history, but this hotel happened to be located in the French Quarter. I didn’t plan on staying inside the bus with my own haunted memories and conflicted emotions about Jude. I downloaded a map to my phone before setting out across the parking lot in the direction of the historic downtown district that had little shops full of various souvenirs. Trips like this were once in a lifetime with my limited bank funds.