Gibson drew in a deep breath and I saw the strain my constant indecision was having on him clearly for the first time. When he let out a shaky breath and stared pleadingly at me, something shifted in my head that lightened my heart and filled my insides with relief. His words had somehow penetrated my hardened shell and touched me deep inside. Something on a spiritual level seemed to radiate between the two of us. At that very second, Kace was history.
Only when I felt free did I realize that even after everything that had happened between us, Kace had still managed to tuck himself into a corner of my aching heart. But when I saw what that was doing to Gibson any feelings I had for Kace, good and bad, were wiped out by a strong emotional ache of need in my body for Gibson.
Concerned grey eyes stared back at me with a dark, grim expression on his face and it made my heart bleed. Suddenly I knew without doubt, Gibson was the man I really cared about. Gibson Barclay was my future if I wanted it.
Did I want this? God…I wanted it more than I knew until that moment. Trusting any man was going to be difficult with what had happened in my life, but I had learned to deal with it day by day and hopefully Gibson would keep giving me reason to believe I could have a happy ever after with him.
“Thank you for taking care of me, Gibson. I’m sorry, I haven’t been fair on you. You’re right. Nothing that happened to me was your fault and nothing you did when you were a teenager should affect your life today. If you were some normal guy, I’d have had no idea about your past.”
Gibson was staring intensely at me and sitting stock still, holding his breath. His lips pursed together, and I became aware of his body humming as he looked at me with the same dark worried look, but this time a glimmer of hope shone in the look he gave me.
“You know how you said you like me, Gibson? Well if I’m honest with myself, I really like you as well.”
Gibson’s serious expression relaxed and his tongue flicked nervously between his lips before they curved up in a smile. His eye contact was softer, then seemed to twinkle with delight.
“Oh you do? Well hot damn girl, it sounds like I just might get lucky tonight…if I play my cards right.” His roguish smile was damn sexy, but there was a mixture of emotions at play on his face. Then his smile dropped as his serious glance held my gaze for a second longer before looking down as if in thought.
Leaning closer, Gibson suddenly placed his lips against mine, shutting his eyes and I could hear him have difficulty swallowing. His normal reaction to something I did that pleased him would have been for his kiss to be passionate and consuming, but there was a reverence in this one that felt like he was relieved. Just as he moved back, his gruff voice was barely audible but he whispered huskily into my ear, “Thank you, darlin’.”
Reacting out of character, Gibson straightened and sagged back in his seat, but reached out to clasp my fingers in his before closing his eyes and sitting silently. Initially, I thought he was going to sleep, but as I continued to watch him I could see he was thinking and taking time out from our interaction. It dawned on me that Gibson truly wanted my acceptance, and now that I’d given it to him, he didn’t really know how to deal with it.
By the time we took off Gibson had fallen asleep and with one hand I awkwardly put the headphones on to listen to some music. Ronan Keating began to sing “When You Say Nothing At All” and I sat back to listen to the words.
When I told Gibson that I really liked him, the smile he gave me lit up his face and I could see how my words had touched him. Tears welled in my eyes and one overflowed, spilling down my cheek. Emotion grasped my heart as I swallowed hard, thinking that Gibson had been patient with me.
My hand gave a tight, involuntary squeeze against Gibson’s and all the emotional feelings and thoughts I had been suppressing began to bubble up into my throat, but this time I was even more scared about being in a relationship with him. This was the very moment that all his thoughts, actions and protective caring ways made me fall in love with Gibson Barclay.
Luckily, Gibson slept for the rest of the journey while I tried to regain my composure. There was no doubt in my mind that I was getting stronger. On previous occasions when my emotions were tested I had become overly emotional, dissolving into a hot, teary mess but this time it was a quiet, dignified kind of release.
Arriving in Chicago, Gibson continued to be attentive as we transferred from the plane to the car and saying that we weren’t going back to the cabin because he wanted to fly straight to Seattle after the concert. I was feeling fed up being told where I was going, but now wasn’t the time to bring it up.
M3rCy was playing two dates there and he reasoned if we went straight there, we’d overlap with Toby Francis and his band Gametes who were playing there as well. Toby was Gibson’s childhood friend and they had both hit the big time with their music talents, but had very different tastes in music.
I had met Toby when we spent time with his band and the rest of M3rCy when I ‘won’ the competition. Gibson had already told me their quality time together was very rare due to their schedules, so as soon he mentioned that Toby was playing in Seattle, I knew that he’d want to get there, rest up and save his energy for after the gig, so that they could meet.
My first reaction when he told me was stilted. I wasn’t sure how I felt about facing Toby again. From the first time I met him, I could tell that his opinion had already formed and he thought I was just like all the other girls Gibson had been with. That made me cringe, because I could only imagine what he thought I was doing sexually to keep Gibson’s attention and float his boat.
As soon as I thought the word ‘boat’ I smiled affectionately, feeling a little excited inside, because when I won the prize to meet Gibson, the day trip involved boats. Various events occurred where I was accident prone or uncoordinated, and each time Gibson told me I had an issue with boats. In fact, it was because of our candid sex session on a boat that I was even invited along on tour at all.
Settling back into the car seat, Gibson pulled me tight against him and kissed my head. No words, but then again, I had none of my own to offer him anyway. I was still coming to terms with my revelation about my feelings for him.
We traveled in a comfortable silence, but he was still holding my hand in a firm grip and as his thumb lazily grazed back and forth over the skin on the back of my hand, his little gesture gave away his secret thoughts, because it told me his thoughts included me.
Once we arrived at the concert venue, Gibson dismissed Johnny to rest because he was flying us to Seattle later, and Jerry was taking the helm from him. The ultra-modern venue was much more comfortable than the other places we’d been so far it even had a dining space in the suite with a table where we could actually sit to eat, instead of the usual buffet type stuff that was laid out for us.
The aromatic smells of the Chinese food wafted out of the room before we entered it and tantalized my taste buds. My stomach instantly growled in protest, feeling deprived of sustenance. Neither Gibson nor I had had any lunch. On the plane I had kept my eyes closed, so with Gibson asleep and me seemingly so, we had been left uninterrupted.
Lennox beckoned us over as soon as we walked through the door, but Gibson put his hand up and turned to face me, gazing with furrowed brows.
“Not you, I know you’re hungry. Your belly sounded like Victorian plumbing on the way over here.” Inclining his head toward the dining space, he licked his lips and smiled affectionately at me. “Get started and I’ll be with you as soon as Len tells me what’s happening.”
Cartons of noodles, special fried rice, chili beef, lemon chicken, tiger prawns and spring rolls made my stomach growl again at having to wait a second longer to devour it. As soon as I eased my way into my seat at the thick smoked glass table, Tori came over with her teenage boy attitude and climbed up on the black leather chair across from me, sitting precariously on the backrest with her biker booted feet planted firmly on the seat.
God forgive me, but I was willing the dini
ng chair to fall over or snap. I didn’t want her hurt, just to knock herself out for ten minutes so that I could enjoy my food without getting indigestion. But with all the will in the world, I knew that wasn’t going to happen. Gibson was out of earshot, had his back to me and was deep in conversation with Len, so Tori was taking full advantage of this.
“Still here? Girl, your pussy must do some amazing things for Gibson’s dick if he’s keeping you hanging around. I thought he’d have broken you by now.”
I watched her drag her gaze exaggeratedly in an up and down scan of my body, then she continued, “Sooner or later he’ll tire of you. Gibson’s way too much of a bad boy to keep you for much longer. You’re a pretty, shiny little plaything…a novelty, and we all know that they never last.”
Tori’s blunt and condescending assessment of what I was to Gibson made me furious, but I knew she mustn’t get a rise out of me with her snarky comments. Looking her dead in the eye, I stared her down, tired of seeing the same stupid, smug smirk on her face. I almost hoped that she’d do something like sneer, or just anything but that. The one thing I was damned sure about, was that it would take a lot more than Tori’s comments to make me back down.
My training at the hands of Kace made me an expert at hiding my feelings when I was under threat. This time I would at least be able to show this skill off for my own benefit.
“Well Tori, I guess you could be wrong this time. You see, Gibson moans— a lot when he’s inside me. And…oh girl when he comes, he just keeps right on going. Did you know that…that he fucks himself hard again? And there is just something in that incredibly dirty mouth of his that is so sexy it sets my pussy swimming. I mean for a guy, he’s pretty vocal and it almost makes me insane with lust.
“Let me tell you, I’ve never experienced anything more erotic than the guttural sounds that come out of that man when he comes.” I left a pregnant pause for her to get her head around everything I was saying, until I saw her smirk quiver, then I delivered my death nail. “So I’m not sure, but maybe you’re right, maybe my pussy does do amazing things but I guess you’d have to ask Gibson about that.”
Tori wasn’t looking half as confident and cocksure of herself by the time I delivered my informative and rapid response to the verbal slap she had tried to deliver me. “Oh, and Tori…what’s the bet that I’ll still be here and Gibson will still be sticking it to me long after you’ve gone?”
Staring her out, I couldn’t believe I had actually said all of that to her. If someone had told me I’d say something that crude to another woman I’d have been mortified, but desperate times called for desperate measures. And to be frank, I couldn’t have cared less what she thought about me after her earlier treatment anyway.
By the look on Tori’s face, I could see that she hadn’t finished with me, “What does it feel like to be a groupie, Chloe? To constantly wonder when the guy that’s fucking you will suddenly get bored?”
Tori was changing tact and trying to humiliate me. Breathing steadily, I busied myself dishing food onto a plate, conscious not to react to her attempt to draw me into her manipulative argument. Picking up a fork, I glanced at it and I smirked, because I was sorely tempted to flick some food at her for her bitchy behavior.
However, I knew her game so I took a deep breath and didn’t do it myself, because that’s exactly what someone like her would have wanted. Instead, I shuffled the food around my plate with the fork and then made another conscious effort to stuff some food in my mouth to prevent me from rising to the bait. Chewing it slowly, I had no intention of responding until I had swallowed it down. All the while I was chewing, I was figuring out what to say.
Making Tori wait was making her agitated and I noticed her knee start to bounce as one heel rose off the chair and she bounced on the ball of her foot when she became even more impatient.
“I have no idea, Tori, I would have thought you’d have more of an idea what that feels like than me. Didn’t you say that Gibson had done a ‘one and done’ on you before? Maybe it’s you that needs to share the low-down on those feelings, because having had Gibson inside me many times now, it just keeps getting better and better for us. Plus, if you factor in that we’ve just come here fresh from doing media interviews today about being a couple, I sense that you fall into the ‘groupie’ category much more than me.”
Tori looked as if she was still trying to formulate her retort, her mouth opening and closing like some fish out of water, when the door to the hospitality suite opened and Emma slipped into the room. After a quick reconnaissance of the situation, she strode over like a little dynamo in my direction.
“Hey, Chloe. Finally! I made it. Mmm,” Emma gushed with a familiarity that made her seem as if we were close. Turning her nose up, Emma sniffed the culinary delights in front of me. Humming in appreciation, glancing warily at Tori, and I could see Emma was obviously assessing the scene. From where I was sitting, it was easy to see that Tori was most definitely ticked off about something. “Is that Chinese food? Is there any going spare?”
Tori stood up on the chair seat and tugged at the hem of her t-shirt, straightening it down over her hips, then stepped down onto the floor. I watched Tori regard Emma, sizing her up, but she began to address me.
“Chloe, didn’t Gibson tell you…band members only? If you want to bring your… little friends to one of our gigs, ask Charlotte to leave tickets at the door, for fuck sake. This space backstage is where we relax.” Checking out Emma’s non-reaction to her comment, the sneer was back on Tori’s face. “It isn’t a fucking café for your mates to drop by. You just don’t get it, do you?”
The only reaction from Emma was a raised brow, but before she could speak, I placed my fork on the plate and cleared my throat which got Tori’s attention away from her and back on me.
“Tori, this is my friend Emma. Get used to seeing her, because I intend on taking her everywhere with me from now on. You don’t like it, I suggest you take that up with Gibson.”
Emma snickered back at me, her eye contact reassuring me that I had done well, before she sat on the seat Tori had been standing on and shuffled it in toward the table.
“Guess the mistress of the house has spoken, Tori. Seems to me that I have nothing better to do with the rest of my life anyway, so travelling with a band and Chloe… well, it sounds like there are loads of fun times ahead. Count me in. You think we should invite Lois as well? I hear she’s hysterical to have around.”
Whatever else Emma did in the future was alright with me, because at that moment I could have kissed her when I saw Tori’s back straighten and her chin draw back about three inches in reaction to Emma.
Tori strutted around the table and slapped her red chipped nail polished hand in front of Emma on the table. She leaned closer to Emma’s face, but side on. My eye was drawn to Tori’s t-shirt, which gaped at the neck. I could see all the way down to her navel.
Tori drew breath and spat her retort at Emma, “You have no fucking idea who you’re talking to, do you?”
Emma’s threw me a glance and a slow half smile curled the edges of her mouth, then she pushed her seat out, sagged back against it and crossed her leg at the knee, then I saw a deliberate eye roll for effect before she stared intensely at Tori.
“Actually, I do. Tori Sparks, 26, Born February 24th 1989, state of Michigan. Parents—Ida and Stan Sparks… no siblings. Moved to the Midwest at seven years old when your father began working for Steps Engineering Company. Education: Mustang High School graduate, didn’t progress to college because a private benefactor paid for your place at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Flunked out of there after two years to play in a mediocre indie band called ‘Wintler’. The band folded after three male band members committed a felony on a minor in a motel room and went down for a long time.
“You then toured with various B-list bands as their sessional keyboard player. But you know all that. Anyway, criminal history: seventeen parking tickets unpaid in the Boston area
alone. A fine for antisocial behavior… defecating in a public place, two assaults on females in the state of Massachusetts—you want me to continue?”
Tori’s terrified face was a picture—her face distorted—eyes wild. “What the fuck is this? Where did you get all this information? Who the fuck, are you?”
Emma stood slowly and swiped a spring roll off the paper plate, took her time to inspect it, then bit into it. Lifting a napkin, she wiped her mouth while chewing, then swallowed noisily. After this she turned her head to look Tori square in the eye.
“I’m Emma. I thought you’d established that already. That’s who I am. The ‘what’ this is…well like I said, I’m Chloe’s friend. You fuck with my friends, you fuck with me. Got me? How do I know about you? Well, that’s my job…to know who is most likely to pose a threat to my friend here. Although, to be honest from what I’ve seen so far, Chloe is more than a match for you. However, I doubt you are smart enough and are probably too insular, up your own ass and self- important to have figured that out for yourself yet.”
Emma’s knowledge stunned me in regards to Tori, she’d only been hired this morning. Pushing my chair back, I stood up in time to see Gibson watching out of the corner of my eye. Turning to look at him, I smiled warmly at him and thought he was worth the aggravation of handling Tori. Gibson smiled warmly, looking a little shy at being caught watching me. It made my heart flutter that he was seeking me out from across the room.
That little smile was all the fuel I needed to deal with Tori and her bad-ass behavior. I strolled around the table and stood next to her. Then placed my hand on her shoulder, feeling about half as confident as I wanted to, but knowing I had to make an impact on her. Patting her shoulder, I said, “Like I said, Tori, it seems like Gibson wants me around so much that he’s hired not one, but two bodyguards, to make sure I’m kept safe from spiteful bitches like you. So…Tori, suck up or pack up, because your little dude-attitude is going to earn you a one-way ticket home if you can’t change your ways. That’s not me saying that by the way, that’s my observations of how tired my boyfriend seems to be of the way you’re treating me.”
Trusting Gibson (Last Score Book 2) Page 12