Take Me With You

by K. A. Linde

  I didn’t want it to matter. I was a strong woman who could make my own choices. Over Christmas break, I had realized how truly alone I felt in the world my parents had created, and that was only due to the changes that came with Grant being in my life. But my parents’ opinion still mattered to me.

  I wanted them to like him for who he was. I hated the fact that they were going to judge him before they ever got to know the Grant I had fallen in love with.

  With a resigned sigh, I wove Aaron out of the auditorium, through the theater lobby, and to the entrance to the backstage. I flashed our backstage passes, and then we entered the chaotic world behind the scenes. The crew was frantically switching out equipment from ContraBand to The Drift. A small line of fans were still standing in front of the remaining Drift members, who were taking pictures and signing autographs.

  But I didn’t spot Grant.

  I ushered us through the crowd and almost made it to the dressing rooms before a staff member stopped us. Then, Donovan Jenkins appeared out of thin air. It was as if he had a fucking radar for my presence.

  “Ari,” he said. He nodded his head at me and gave me a devious smirk. “So glad you could show up again.”

  “Donovan, do you know where Grant is?” I asked impatiently.

  “Somewhere around here, I’m sure. And who is this?” he asked, pointing out Aaron. “I feel like I won a bet or something. You’re here with another guy. It’s almost too perfect.”

  I sighed. Asshole. “Donovan, this is my brother, Aaron. Aaron, this is the lead singer of The Drift. We wonder how he’s talented when he’s such an asshole, too. Don’t worry. Common reaction.”

  Donovan gave me a disbelieving look and then shook Aaron’s hand. “What’s up, man?”

  Aaron nodded at him, completely unfazed that he was meeting a celebrity. We were definitely related.

  Then, Grant rounded the corner, and my eyes were only for him.

  “Donovan, you near my girl again?” Grant asked.

  He smirked. “Just meeting her brother.”

  Grant staggered a half step, and then he quickly recovered. He continued to swagger down toward us. He had toweled off after the show and then thrown on his leather jacket. His hair was still damp from sweat.

  In that moment, I didn’t care who was watching—not Donovan, not my brother, not anyone.

  I rushed forward and threw my arms around Grant’s shoulders, knocking our bodies together as we collided. His arms wrapped around my waist and tightly tugged me against him. He breathed in my hair and sent shivers down my spine as he kissed my neck.

  “I missed you so much,” I whispered.

  “I missed you, too, Princess.”

  And then, he kissed me.

  It was like breathing again for the first time. This was what I had always been missing. That depressing ache in my chest lifted. All I could feel was a desperate longing for this moment to never end.

  “Ahem,” my brother coughed into his hand.

  “Sorry,” I murmured, reluctantly pulling back from Grant.

  “Aaron, this is my boyfriend, Grant. Grant, my brother, Aaron.”

  “Nice to meet you, man,” Grant said. He extended his hand toward Aaron, who was too polite not to shake it.

  As soon as he dropped his hand, Aaron pointed his finger at Grant and narrowed his eyes. “I couldn’t figure it out before, but now, I remember how I know you.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Grant asked hesitantly.

  “You’re Grant McDermott?”

  Grant questioningly glanced at me, but I shrugged. I didn’t know how Aaron could know Grant. This was the first I’d ever heard of it even though I’d never told Aaron who I was exactly dating.

  “Yeah, this is Grant.”

  Aaron shook his head in disgust. “Aribel, you have no idea what you’re getting into. You absolutely cannot date this guy.”

  Who the fuck did this guy think he was?

  No one could fucking tell Ari that she couldn’t date me. I didn’t care that he was her brother. He couldn’t fucking dictate who she dated. And how the fuck did he even know me? Sure, my name was somewhat known in Princeton but not outside of that. Something wasn’t adding up.

  “Aaron,” Ari groaned.

  “Oh, this is good,” Donovan muttered. “I’ll get the popcorn.”

  I shoved Donovan out of the way and straight into Ridley and Trevor as they came out of the dressing room. “Get him out of here.”

  Donovan opened his mouth to say something, but Ridley shook his head. “Not tonight, man. We still have a show.”

  Ridley and Trevor half-dragged Donovan away from me, and I was thankful for that. I didn’t need a reason to unleash the pent-up fury.

  “Come on, Aribel,” Aaron said, latching on to her arm. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “Are you kidding me right now?” She yanked her arm out of his grasp. “I’m not leaving. I thought you’d be the reasonable one in the family.”

  “Well, you clearly know nothing about this guy.”

  “How do you know anything about me?” I finally asked.

  He ignored my question and kept looking at Ari. “He’s scamming you. He will sleep with anyone who walks by.”

  Aribel sighed heavily. “That’s just his reputation, Aaron.”

  “People get reputations for a reason.”

  “Sure they do,” I said. “I got it because I fucked anyone who was hot, but that was before Ari.”

  “Right,” he said disbelievingly.

  He grabbed on to Ari again, and she leaned back toward me.

  “Seriously, Aaron. Since when did you become so judgmental? You don’t even know Grant.”

  “I don’t need to. I heard enough stories at Princeton to know what happened. He even admitted it.”

  Oh. The pieces were falling into place.

  Aaron must have gone to Princeton, and so he’d heard about me. He was a couple of years older than Ari. Maybe he was even my age. If he knew my reputation, then he was probably worried I’d fuck up his little sister. Maybe he was right, but I did love her, so that changed things.

  “Yeah. I’m not denying the kind of person I was. But I’m not that way with Ari. So, it doesn’t matter who I was.”

  “It might not matter to you.”

  “It shouldn’t matter to anyone,” Ari said. “Grant and I are together, and we’re happy.”

  “How do you know he hasn’t slept with a million different girls on this stupid tour?”

  “I don’t,” she answered. Then, she glanced up at me. “But I trust him. If he wanted to sleep with other people, then he wouldn’t be with me. He wouldn’t put up with my shit.”

  I laughed. “Sounds about fucking right.”

  Aaron wasn’t hearing a fucking word we were saying.

  What did I have to do to get it through his head?

  It had fucking surprised everyone that I wasn’t banging every girl who threw herself at me. Hell, it still surprised me.

  But I loved Ari. In the end, she was worth more to me than some cheap pussy ever would be.

  “Look, Ari, either he believes me or not. I’m not going to stand here and try to get him to fucking listen.”

  “I know. I know,” she mumbled. “Give me a minute.”

  She grabbed Aaron’s arm and yanked him away from me. She sounded as if she was bitching him out. From being on the receiving end of that, I knew it wasn’t a pleasant experience.

  I ran a hand back through my messy hair in frustration. This was not how I’d wanted to start my Boston trip. I’d thought it would be more of Ari and I being alone in my hotel, fucking all night until she couldn’t walk in the morning—not dealing with her fucking moronic brother who didn’t know shit about our relationship.

  I heard the stage crew calling for The Drift to get ready to go onstage, and I stepped out of the way. Trevor and I fist-bumped as he passed with Donovan, Nic, and Joey in tow.

  Ridley ambled out a second later. He clapped me on the b
ack. “Hey, man. Everything all right with your girl? Tried to save you from Donovan’s stupidity.”

  “Thanks for that. Meeting her brother for the first time, and he thinks I’m fucking every chick on this tour.” I shrugged.

  Ridley laughed. “Dude, let me talk to him. I’ll be the first to tell him you’re a one-woman show. I was fucking shocked that you didn’t even touch that chick in Atlanta. Tall, blonde, and throwing money at you?”

  “Bad taste. That chick had crazy written all over her.”

  “She also wanted to be fucked pretty desperately.”

  “Someone else took care of her,” I said.

  “Ridley!” Trevor shouted from the front. “Get the fuck over here, man. We’re about to go on.”

  “Good luck with her brother!” he said as he jogged backward toward the stage. “I want to meet your girl though. Heard too much about her.”

  “Yeah, all right. Maybe after she’s better rested.”

  Ridley cracked up. “You’re going to run her into the ground.”

  “That’s the idea.”

  Aribel returned a few minutes later, looking defeated and frustrated. I wanted to kiss the worry off of her face. In fact, I wanted to kiss every inch of her body. Taste, lick, and touch a road map of her lush figure. Mostly, I wanted to fuck her senseless, and seeing her standing before me—even in jeans, a blue-and-white striped shirt, and my leather jacket—was making me ache for her.

  Who was I fucking kidding? I’d been aching for her every day since I’d left.

  She threw her hands up. “He’s an idiot.”

  “What happened?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. We argued. He thinks I’m young and naive. I know he’s trying to protect me, but I don’t need to be protected from you. I’m old enough to make my own choices.”

  “So, what? Did he just split?”

  “Yeah, I guess.” She sounded totally dejected.

  I wasn’t used to that from Ari. She was usually so confident about all her choices. Then, she pushed her shoulders back, and a look of defiance crossed her face. There was my girl.

  “We’ll see him tomorrow at dinner with my family. He’d better be on good behavior.”

  “He’ll come around,” I said. Though I wasn’t sure. Her family seemed to be a tough egg to crack. And I didn’t have experience dealing with family—period.

  She looked doubtful. “I hope so.”

  I reached for her hand and pulled her to me. “There is a positive to his absence though, Princess.”

  Her blue eyes found mine, and she gave me a coy smile. “What would that be?”

  “I get my girl all to myself.”

  Hours later, after we were spent, exhausted, and had thoroughly made up for lost time, we slipped back into our clothes and joined the guys at a local bar. Ari flashed her fake ID to the bouncer who barely looked at it, and then we pushed through the crowd to get to the back corner. The two bands sat in a circle, drinking heavily. There were at least two or three girls for every guy.

  Ari stiffened next to me, and I followed her gaze. McAvoy had his arm around a brunette groupie. I thought her name was Amanda or Mandy or something like that. She’d followed us to the last couple of shows and had attached herself to McAvoy, who seemed to like having a constant to fuck on tour.

  Ari averted her eyes. I could tell she wished she hadn’t seen that. From what I’d gathered, the girls were pretty beat up about us being gone, and Gabi was the worst of them all. Ari didn’t want to have to report back that McAvoy had replaced her already.

  Miller saved me from saying something stupid by standing and giving Ari a hug.

  “Good to see you, Aribel.”

  She looked relieved and sat down next to him. “Hey.”

  I crashed down into the seat next to Ari and introduced her to the rest of The Drift. I knew she had seen them before, but no introductions had been made.

  Ridley vigorously shook her hand. “Good to finally meet you. McDermott won’t shut the fuck up about you.”

  “Oh,” she said with a giant smile on her face. “Nice to meet you, too.”

  “Hey, baby,” a girl said, sliding onto my lap and planting a kiss on my cheek. “It’s good to see you out with the guys again.”

  Aribel glared at the girl. “Who the hell are you?”

  “Don’t worry, honey. There’s enough of him to go around.”

  I stood, depositing the girl on the floor. I had no patience for her antics. She was hot and had been throwing herself at me since New Year’s. I was fucking tired of it. She knew she had no fucking shot, and she was acting this way to try to piss off Ari.

  “Jaci, go blow Vin or something.”

  She scrambled to her feet, straightening her tiny skirt out. “What the fuck, Grant?”

  “Nothing has ever happened with us Jaci. Nothing is ever going to happen with us. If you didn’t notice, my girlfriend is here,” I said, pointing at Ari. “Get some fucking manners.”

  “Will she be at the next show? Because I’m free.” She winked at me.

  “Are girls normally this brazen?” Ari asked in shock.

  Miller shrugged. “With Grant.”

  “Whatever, Jaci. You know I’m not fucking interested. Wouldn’t you rather take it up the ass with Vin again instead of acting so fucking desperate around me?”

  Her cheeks colored. I didn’t feel bad calling her out about it. Maybe I was finally getting through.

  “Fine,” she grumbled and then stomped toward Vin.

  His face lit up at her approach, and then they were exiting the building.

  I shook my head and sank back down. With her ridiculous demonstration out of the way, I slung my arm over Ari’s shoulders and tried to enjoy the rest of the evening. It was damn good, having my girl here with me. It felt right.

  It was the piece that had been missing on this tour. But I knew she would never follow us around like these sluts. She was too smart and independent for that, and I wouldn’t fucking change that for the world. It was what had made me fall in love with her.

  On nights like this, with her nestled in my arms after hours of sex while surrounded by my friends, it started to sound like the dream.

  But tomorrow, I knew that reality would return with all its nightmares.

  Grant and I stood outside of my parents’ house. He couldn’t stop staring at the massive building, and I couldn’t blame him. It was an enormous six-bedroom brick creation that had been built in the early 1800s. My parents had purchased it when I was three, and it had undergone more historical upkeep and renovations over the years than the White House.

  “This is where you grew up?” Grant asked.

  “Um, yeah. Home sweet home.”

  “Fuck.”

  I nodded. I couldn’t imagine what this was like for him. He’d come from a broken home, his parents had been lost to him at ten years old, he’d grown up and worked at his uncle’s pizza place on the shore…and now, he was seeing this. It made me feel self-conscious, which was a feeling I certainly wasn’t used to.

  “Come on. Let’s go inside.”

  I’d ditched my leather jacket in favor of a pale blue sundress and ballet flats. I’d even been sure to pull a straightener through my hair, which was well past my shoulders at this point.

  Grant looked presentable but still like…Grant. He didn’t have a lot of clothing choices on tour and even fewer opportunities to iron his clothes, not that I suspected he did it at home either. He was in dark-wash jeans and a plain black T-shirt. His hair was still unbelievably messy but in a way that made me want to walk him back to the hotel and give it a reason for being messy. I could tell his nerves had set in, making my confident boyfriend ill at ease.

  We were a match set.

  I brought Grant in through the front door even though I typically entered through the garage door. The house opened up into an impressive two-story foyer and a large winding staircase. My father’s office was off to the left, so I immediately walked G
rant in the opposite direction.

  “Aribel,” my mother said. She greeted us in the formal living room, looking like a Stepford wife in an A-line dress, perfect pumps, and pearls. Her blonde hair was coifed and stunning.

  I’d always been told that I looked like my mother, but I was as stubborn as my father, so I frequently felt like that resemblance was lacking.

  “Mom.” I smiled softly. There were no warm hugs in my family. “This is my boyfriend, Grant.”

  She reached her slender hand out and shook his once, almost as if she were afraid his germs would rub off on her. “Pleased to meet you.”

  “You, too,” Grant said.

  Then, we all stood there in awkward silence. My mother, the ultimate hostess, made us uncomfortably stand there as if it were the most natural thing for her to do.

  “Mother!” I snapped. “Dinner? Dad? Aaron? Don’t we have plans?”

  She blinked. “Yes, of course. I’ll go speak with your father. Why don’t you show your friend around?”

  My friend.

  Great, Mom.

  “Come on, Grant.” I tugged him away from my mother and into the kitchen. I sighed when we entered the bustling room. “Sorry about that.”

  “Went better than I’d expected.”

  I warily looked at him. “Really?”

  “Sure. She just kind of ignored me. She didn’t, you know…outright hate me.”

  “Oh, Grant.” My arms wrapped around his neck, and I tightly held him to me.

  This wasn’t the way it should be. My parents really should be more open-minded. I knew it had taken me a while to get to know Grant and accept the type of person he was. But shouldn’t my parents respect my good judgment?

  It wasn’t as if I was a bad kid. I had even seen Aaron with a different girl than his girlfriend when we had gone out together. I would never have done that, and I never would be with someone like Grant if he were still sleeping around while being with me. And I didn’t think I was too stupid to know the difference.

  “It’s all right, Princess. I’m glad to be here with you. I was the one who pushed you to tell them who I was in the first place. You said it would be difficult, and I haven’t fucking forgotten.” He softly kissed me on the lips. “If I get you out of the deal, then I can get through one evening with your parents.”