by K. A. Linde
“Are you sure I can’t do something to your hair?” Cheyenne asked.
She brushed her fingers through it, and I swatted her hand away.
“Let’s just go. Who knows what kind of debauchery they’ve gotten into already?”
“All right, Aribel.” Cheyenne stepped back and knocked into my purse.
It fell over onto the floor and spilled the contents, including the prescription birth control I had picked up earlier from the pharmacy.
Cheyenne’s eyebrows rose as she picked up the packet of pills. “Whoa. Things are serious, aren’t they?”
I snatched the prescription out of her hand and stuffed it into a drawer, out of sight. “Forget you saw that.” I quickly scooped up everything else on the floor and threw it back in my bag.
“What? It’s just the pill. I’ve been on it since I was sixteen.”
“Well, I’m not you, and I haven’t told Grant. So, forget about it.”
Cheyenne laughed. “Whatever you want, but I think he’ll be excited. Then, you won’t have to use a condom.”
I blanched.
Her laugh turned into a cackle. “Oh, my sweet, innocent Aribel.”
“Leave me alone, Cheyenne.” I stuck my finger in her face. “And don’t say a word.”
She mimed zipping her lips. Her eyes twinkled with delight. She loved taunting me about this shit. I grabbed my purse, and we left the apartment. We got into Cheyenne’s car, and she zoomed toward the League.
“Where are Gabi and Shelby anyway?” I asked.
Cheyenne shrugged. “Studying, I think. If I know them though, they’re probably ditching the library and on their way to see the guys. No one ignores an SOS.”
I sulked further into the seat. It was no wonder Grant was ignoring my calls. How many groupies was I about to walk through to get to him?
Another thought nagged at me. What would happen if they got signed and went on tour? He’d have all his vices around him all the time. I wanted to trust Grant, but everyone had limits with the amount of temptation surrounding them.
“Girl, I can see the worry all over your face. Just relax. Grant’s crazy about you. I’m sure it’s fine.”
“He hasn’t returned my messages today,” I whispered.
“Probably because he was out with the guys and didn’t hear his phone. Don’t think the worst until we find out what’s going on.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Since when did you become the sensible one?”
“As soon as you fell in love with Grant McDermott of all people.”
“Yeah. What was I thinking?” I asked.
“Best sex you ever had?”
I glared at her. “Honestly?”
“Oh, right—the only sex you’ve ever had.”
“Don’t fault me because I’m not a whore like you, Cheyenne.”
She shrugged her shoulders and smirked as she pulled into the League parking lot. “We can’t all have such high aspirations as me.”
“Oh, is that what you call it?”
“So, I like rock-star dick. I don’t see you complaining.”
“No complaints here,” I grumbled. No complaints about the sex at least. Just all the complications that came with it.
The parking lot was packed full. Cheyenne finally found a spot on the street a couple of blocks down, and we walked the short trek back to the bar. I braced myself for pandemonium before following Cheyenne through the door.
The League looked like every other night when ContraBand was in the house. Female bodies filled more than three-quarters of the room, and there was a crowd of screaming people by the stage. Cheyenne grabbed my hand as she elbowed her way through the crowd. We stopped once we reached the table where Miller, McAvoy, and Vin sat, staring up at the stage with shit-eating grins on their faces.
Where the hell was Grant if all the guys were here? My eyes traveled away from the table and up to the stage. My heart sank.
The entire time I’d been getting through the crowd, I hadn’t truly paid attention to what was going on. I knew Bank Avenue was playing. I knew the lead singer was gorgeous. But I hadn’t anticipated this.
Grant was on the stage, holding a microphone in his hand, singing with the lead singer of Bank Avenue. No, he was singing to the lead singer.
And not just any song…my song.
My hand fell onto the back of Miller’s chair as ice filled my veins. What the fuck was happening?
“Shit, Ari,” Miller cried over the music. He stood abruptly. “This is not what it looks like.”
I threw my hand up in the air. “Save it.”
He opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something more, but it was good for him that he realized it was a lost cause.
All I could do was stare as my boyfriend serenaded another woman with the song he had written for me. Cold fury took over, and rational thought fled my mind. The only thing that was there was Grant standing on stage in my favorite pair of his jeans and a black button-up, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His hair was perfectly tousled. His expression had the serenity that always took over when he got lost in his music.
Then, his eyes flickered open at the end of the second verse, and he stared straight ahead at the skinny bitch in an outfit much the same as I had found on the band’s website.
The chorus seemed to play over and over again. Their harmony blended together as if they had done this before.
Every time I see you. You make me feel better.
Every single day. You push away the pain.
You push away the memories.
You’re my life raft. In an endless ocean.
You saved me from drowning.
You saved me from myself.
You’re my life raft. In an endless ocean.
I waited there, paralyzed, until the end. The crowd erupted into cheers. Grant cracked a confident smile, looking out across the room at his many admirers. I knew the instant his eyes landed on me, and I could read his lips all the way across the bar.
Oh fuck.
“Oh fuck.”
Ari’s face in the crowd silenced the cheers. Even through my buzz, I wasn’t stupid enough to have wanted her to see that.
Thanks, I mouthed to Killian.
She winked at me and said something else, but I shoved the microphone in her face and jumped off the stage. The crowd was unyielding as I attempted to reach Ari.
“Fucking fuck,” I grumbled under my breath.
I nearly knocked someone down while trying to get to her.
Her icy glare should have stopped me in my tracks, but I barreled right through the protective wall she had put between us. I grabbed her around the middle and pulled her against my chest. She smelled fucking amazing.
Fuck. I just wanted to take her home and forget this day had ever happened.
“Let’s go home,” I said into her ear.
She yanked herself from my grasp and crossed her arms.
“Great show, man!” one person said, clapping me on the back as he walked by.
I nodded at him, but I kept my focus on Ari. She hadn’t said shit yet.
A series of interruptions kept us from speaking.
“That was amazing,” one groupie said.
“Oh my God, you guys should sing it like that all the time.”
“That’s the best I’ve ever heard it.”
I ground my teeth and tried to block it out. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
She continued to glare at me as if I were the only fucking person in the room who had done something wrong. Why was she up on her fucking high horse when she was the one who had pushed me away this morning? She had things to account for, too.
I roughly grabbed her by the arm and hauled her toward the entrance. She gasped and tried to pull away, but I held on to her tight. If she wasn’t going to speak up, then she’d have to deal with this.
As soon as we stepped out of The Ivy League, Ari wrenched her arm free from me and walked around to the side of the building. I purs
ued her.
“What the fuck is your problem?” I demanded.
She turned around, crossed her arms, and stared at me. She just fucking stared at me. I could see she was seething. It was all bubbling up under the surface.
“The cold shoulder? You’re not going to fucking say anything?”
Ari turned her head to the side, looking out toward the parking lot.
“Okay, fine. You know what? Don’t say anything. I have enough to say for the both of us,” I spat at her. “I thought we were over all this shit. I’ve never been in a fucking relationship, but I can pretty much guarantee that it’s not supposed to work this way. You’re acting like a fucking crazy person, Princess. If I wanted to fuck around, I’d be banging every girl in the League tonight.”
“That’s good to know,” she ground out.
“But I’m not. I was fucking pissed tonight. I came here to get wasted. I wanted a distraction after you didn’t fucking pick up your goddamn phone.”
She turned her head back toward me. “Will you always need a distraction when one day doesn’t go as planned?”
“I’m not a fucking saint, Princess. You knew that when you signed up for this. I play in a fucking rock band. Girls throw themselves at me left and right, but not a single one of them compares to you.” I ran my hand along her jawline and up into her messy blonde hair. “What’s going on with us?”
She stepped away from my touch and closed her eyes. I wanted to lash out at her all over again, but the ice was cracking. Pain was written on her face. Her eyes were scrunched together. She swallowed a couple of times as if she was trying to keep from…crying.
No, she couldn’t cry.
“Ari,” I groaned.
I pulled her into my arms. She rested her head against my chest and gripped my shirt in her hands.
“That song, Grant? My song?”
“I know. It was impulsive.”
She pushed away from me again. “You’re always impulsive.”
“Killian called out ContraBand, and she said her favorite song was ‘Life Raft.’ Everyone went crazy, Ari. You should have heard them.”
Her lips pressed together in a thin line.
“Everyone pushed me toward the stage and chanted for us to sing. What the fuck was I supposed to do?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted.
When she didn’t say anything else, I kept talking, “Are you going to tell me why you ran out on me this morning?”
She shook her head.
“Fuck, Ari. Just tell me.”
“No. I’m not ready to talk about it,” she said. Her voice wavered, but she stared me straight in the eyes.
“Fine. Fucking fine. Take your time.” I was itching for a cigarette right now like nothing else. “Maybe you should go.”
Her eyes hardened but not before I saw a spark of hurt in her eyes. “Maybe I should.”
“Find me when you’re ready to talk about it.” I turned and walked back toward the entrance to the League.
“Grant, wait.”
“What?” I snapped. “What do you want me to say? Something is bothering you, and the most straightforward, outspoken, and mouthy person I know in the entire world won’t tell me what it is. So, it feels a bit more like my princess is walking out on me now.”
“No. I’m not…I’m not walking out. I just…I’m scared.”
“Of what?”
Scared? Aribel Graham was scared? Now, I’d heard everything.
She closed her mouth. Her hands were shaking at her sides. Tremors traveled up her arms and through her whole body.
“Jesus, Ari, what is it?”
“I kissed someone else,” she blurted out.
“You did what?” In shock, I stumbled backward a step. “You fucking cheated on me? What the fuck? Of all the people I’ve ever known…I never.”
“No. No, Grant. It was while we were broken up. It was an accident. A total mistake.”
“You’re goddamn right it was a mistake. Biggest mistake you’ve ever made in your life, Princess,” I snapped. “This was someone other than Donovan? Or was Donovan actually a real thing, and you were covering it up when we got back together?”
Ari closed her eyes. “This is why I was scared. I knew you’d react this way.”
“How else am I supposed to react?” I yelled at her.
“It meant nothing. My parents were trying to set me up with Henry after New Year’s when I thought—”
“When you thought I’d done what you did.”
“No! I thought you’d slept with a groupie. I would never have…” She ground her teeth and sagged. “I’m sorry. I went out with my brother, and the guy showed up. We shared a bottle of champagne, and he kissed me. He tried to convince me to go back to his place, but I told him no, and I left.”
“I don’t know what the fuck you expect me to do with this, Ari. Your parents were setting you up with other guys over break. Do they even know we’re dating?”
She bit her lip and cast her eyes away from me.
“Fuck, they don’t know,” I said, momentarily stunned. “What? Are you fucking ashamed of me?”
“Grant, no. God, I’m not. I just…with my parents. It’s hard.”
“Are you fucking kidding me right now? It’s hard with your parents?”
“I didn’t mean that as it being more or less difficult than anyone else’s parents,” she said. Her hurricane-blue eyes pleaded with me to understand. “All I’m saying is that it’s hard when they expect so much from me. You’re amazing, Grant, but I know my parents won’t appreciate that,” she said, the last part so soft that I had to lean in to hear her.
“Why? Because I’m in a band? Because I’m not on track to be a CEO? Because I don’t have a fucking trust fund?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “All those things and more. I don’t care about that though.”
“Maybe you will one day.”
“I care about you.”
“Enough to fucking kiss someone else and not tell your parents that we’re together.”
Ari straightened and crossed her arms. “I apologized for what happened, okay? Neither of us is faultless in this situation.”
“What do you want me to do, darlin’?”
She frowned. “Darlin’? Really? We’re back there?”
I shrugged and leaned my back against the brick building. “Tell me what you would do if I’d kissed someone else and no one in my life knew who you were.”
“We’ve been through that before, Grant. I screamed at you and told you to sober up. More or less what I want to do now.”
“You left.”
She sighed heavily. The weight of carrying around her secret must have been killing her. I could already see that she didn’t look as stressed as she had before. She looked uncomfortable as hell, which was fine by me, but not upset like I’d thought she’d be since I was yelling at her.
“Apparently, everyone makes mistakes,” she said.
“Even a princess.”
A tentative smile crossed her face at the use of her nickname.
Fuck, that smile ruined me. I sighed and gave up the fight. I wanted to be angry, but I was fucking happy to know what was wrong with her. If I were honest with myself, I was glad it wasn’t me.
“Come here,” I said, pulling her toward me.
My hands slid through her loose hair, and my lips greedily landed on hers. Her kisses were hot and needy. She pressed her body against me, and my mind raced ahead of me. How fast could I throw her back against the wall and get under that dress?
I was going to find out.
Grant swung me around and slammed my back into the wall. All the breath whooshed out of my lungs with the force of it. His lips crashed back down onto mine, and all that existed was here and now with him.
My fingers gripped his button-up and drew him closer to me. Suddenly, his hands were everywhere—dropping onto my shoulders, sliding over my waist, lifting the hem of my dress. I groaned into his mouth, an
d his tongue slid over mine. All of that built-up anger and frustration cracked open between us.
I had been so worried about what he would think once I finally told him what had happened that I hadn’t even been able to be myself. I’d started acting like the person I thought he wanted. We’d been having a lot of sex and doing very, very little talking. For me, it had almost been easier. Maybe it was because it was all so new, but I couldn’t let that continue forever. We had real issues that weren’t going to be worked out with one conversation. At least we’d initiated the conversation though.
“Grant,” I moaned.
“Just kiss me.”
He gripped my hips in his hands and gyrated his body against mine. I leaned my head back against the wall. My eyes fluttered closed. Heat traveled up my body, flushing my skin and making my heart race.
“I fucking want you, Ari.”
“I’m yours,” I breathed.
“Right here. Right now.”
He hitched my leg up around his waist and pressed himself against me. Shit. I could feel him through his jeans. My body ached for his touch. This most certainly had never been our problem.
I heard his zipper, and my eyes shot open. Wait. Did he actually mean right here? As in, against the brick wall outside of the League where anyone could walk by and see us having sex?
His hand brushed against my panties, and I squirmed beneath him. Fuck, I was already wet. I saw the moment when he realized that. A smirk crossed his face, and all the cocky arrogance that was Grant McDermott flooded to the surface.
I pushed him back a step and straightened my dress. “I’m not going to have sex with you against a brick wall. Who do you think I am?”
“My girlfriend?” He shoved me backward against the wall and ran his hand down my dress. “Be a little adventurous, Princess.”
“That’s right. I’m your girlfriend. Not some groupie slut.”
“Can I treat you like one for a minute and fuck you backstage?” he asked.
“You’re a real charmer.”