Stay

by A. L. Jackson

  “I’m worried about you,” he said, the contempt suddenly missing from his tone.

  That was Bates. Cunning and sly. Always using words to get his way.

  My laughter was nothing less than a scoff. “You’re worried about me? That’s rich.”

  “That head of yours was always full of fairy-tales, Willow. I can’t help but feel responsible to step in when I see you letting yourself get carried away by one of them.”

  Outrage bristled through my nerves. “That’s funny, considering you’re the one who showed me firsthand not to believe in them.”

  “I’ve changed.”

  Scorn wove into the words. “You’ve changed?”

  “Yeah.”

  My gaze traveled over his shoulder, to the street where a truck was parked at my curb. I barely made out the silhouette of the man sitting in the driver’s seat.

  It didn’t matter. I recognized him.

  A quiet wrath saturated every cell in my body, this hatred I couldn’t quite fathom that built in my spirit. “You have the nerve to show up at my door, with Billy nonetheless? After what the two of you did?”

  “I told you before, he had it coming. The last thing I’m going to do is sit aside and watch you get tangled up with a man like that.”

  Sickness clawed at my belly. “A man like that? Are you really that clueless, Bates? You really think after what you did to me, you have a say in who I see or what I do?”

  “I love you. I made some mistakes, but I’m here to make up for them. Can’t you see that?”

  Mistakes?

  He ruined my life.

  His words soured on my ears. I hated them. Because maybe it was that moment when I realized I hated him. Wholly. There were no parts left inside that secretly wished we’d found a different outcome.

  “My love died for you a long time ago. Now you and Billy need to be on your way. I have plans.”

  His eyes traced my body, the dress I wore. His nostrils flared. “I’m not giving up on you, Willow. I promise you that.”

  I shook my head. “Well, that’s too bad, because you’re wasting your time.”

  twenty-one

  Ash

  I turned onto Willow’s street. Anxious. Eager. Which was probably about the damned most ridiculous emotion to be experiencing. But none of that seemed to matter. Because there it was, growing stronger the closer I got to her place.

  That grin slid off my face when I saw the big ass truck pulling from her curb.

  A surge of something fierce and lethal slicked like ice through my veins. Every nerve in my body fired with a hatred so thick I was sure I would choke on it when I made eye contact with the bastard at the wheel.

  Fists, feet, and that rod.

  My glare coasted to the fucker sitting in the passenger seat.

  My hands tightened on the wheel and my teeth grated in unspent fury, the anger on my chest crushing so tight I was at a loss for air.

  Rage spun my head.

  Both our vehicles slowed as we passed. Glares locked down in a silent, impending war.

  Maybe Lyrik had been right. Maybe I should have pressed the cops. Taken care of this bullshit the way rational, normal people would. Because the reckoning I was itching for now had disaster written all over it.

  The second he passed, that asshole Billy gunned the engine, and I was left with this protectiveness that swelled up to consume my spirit when my gaze traveled to the girl standing in her door.

  God damn it.

  Why’d she have to affect me this way?

  Make me feel crazy and different and better and worse.

  But I couldn’t stop it. Couldn’t stop the desperate need to get to her when I flew into her drive, threw my SUV in park, and cut the engine.

  I jumped out like some kind of deranged madman, stalking toward her and doing my all to control the anger seething in my muscles as I climbed the two steps to where she stood.

  “Peaches.” My hands landed on either side of her neck.

  Relief.

  “You okay?”

  She was heaving her own angry breaths. “Yes.”

  “What the fuck did he want?”

  “Me.”

  I choked out a laugh. Of course he did. Who wouldn’t? Sometimes even idiots came to their senses.

  “And?”

  “And I told him he needed to leave because I had much better things to do with my life.”

  I laughed again. This time something soft wove into the sound as I dropped my forehead to hers. “Good girl.”

  She smiled up at me. “Hey, I have an infamous rock star to tame. This is serious business. I don’t have time for any of his nonsense.”

  Why’d she have to be so sweet?

  “Peaches…what am I gonna do with you?”

  “Kiss me.”

  I groaned, kissed her deep and long and slow, my hands on her jaw and my heart beating far too fast. She clung to my wrists, kissing me back. Soft and tender. Delicious. Delirium.

  I pulled back. A sharp edge of seriousness stole into my tone. “Need you to tell me if that asshole is bothering you, Willow. I don’t want him anywhere near you.”

  “And I don’t want him anywhere near you. Either of them. What they did…”

  I swallowed hard. “Don’t worry about me.”

  Her brow drew together. “I hate that he was a part of it. I hate him so much for hurting you.”

  I shook my head. “I promise you, I’ll handle it. For both of us. Understand? I don’t want you dealing with that asshole.”

  She nodded, but it seemed reluctant.

  “Tell me,” I demanded a little harder. Because shit. I wasn’t joking about this. Not with her. Not with someone like him.

  “Okay,” she said.

  “Good. Because you were right…we have much more important things to get on with. Like this date.”

  I slung my arm around her shoulder and began to guide her toward my Navigator. Could feel the tension drain from her as she cuddled against my side. I pressed a kiss to her forehead before I slanted a smirk at the couple of paps waiting to snag a pic on the other side of the road.

  “Seems you’re getting awful popular, Ms. Langston,” I muttered with a gesture that direction.

  She buried her face in my chest, and I could feel her smile fluttering over my heart. “It’s a small price to pay to get these moments with you.”

  I grabbed the picnic basket and blanket from the seat behind me and quickly rounded the front of the Navigator. Opening her door, I dipped into the most exaggerated bow I could find. “At your service, madam.”

  Willow giggled, that free, tinkling sound that wrapped around me like an embrace. “Well, aren’t you the gentleman?” she said in her cute little country drawl as she slid out of her seat.

  God. That sound alone made me want to eat her up.

  And that dress…

  The woman was trying to kill me.

  I quirked a brow. “And whatever gave you the impression I’m not a gentleman?”

  This time, she laughed. “Um…hello, mister spread the love everywhere you go. That in itself should be proof enough.”

  I threaded her fingers with mine. “How in the world could spreadin’ the love ever be considered rude? Sounds pretty nice to me.” I leaned down, whispered at her ear, “And I always say please and thank you. See. Gentleman. Through and through.”

  She rolled those pretty eyes. “You just keep telling yourself that, rock star.”

  Chuckling, I tugged her a little closer as I led her up a bank of small dunes. Sparse, high grasses grew up from the sand, swaying in the breeze that moved with the mellow waves that tumbled and crashed on the shore of Tybee Island.

  “How’s this?”

  Locks of mahogany whipped around her as she took in the display. She gave my hand a squeeze, glanced over at me. “It’s perfect.”

  I spread out the blanket and set the basket on top, unpacked everything tucked inside, wine and cheese and crackers. So yeah. I’d
had to suck it up and call Shea to ask her advice on what to bring, while the girl had squealed over the phone, proclaiming her win on our bet was just on the horizon.

  She just didn’t know that shit was impossible, so I’d let her goad and tease and harass, wondering again what the hell it was I’d gotten myself into.

  But seeing Willow standing there? That delicate dress clinging to her thighs and her hair whipping in the wind? The adoring expression on her face? Knew it was worth it, to give in just for a little while.

  We kicked off our shoes, sat on the blanket, fed each other little bits of food while we laughed and sipped on our wine like we were a normal couple sharing another peaceful evening. Our conversation easy and relaxed. Our touches playful and sweet while the air cooled a fraction as the day slipped away, the heavens growing darker and darker by the minute.

  Content.

  I wasn’t sure I’d ever felt it so strong.

  Willow suddenly jumped to her feet, that free smile turned at me from over her shoulder as she went running down the bank and onto the deserted beach. She went straight for the water.

  I was right behind her.

  Laughing as I chased her.

  She splashed me and I splashed her back, the thin material of her dress getting soaked through at the hem, thoroughly clinging to those thighs.

  God.

  She was stunning.

  Different in every way. We romped and played for what seemed like forever, until my chest felt too full and my cock was begging for attention.

  And I knew I was getting in deep. And for just this little while, I chose not to fucking care. Because this kind of pretending felt like the best thing I’d ever done.

  She yelped when I suddenly grabbed her and tossed her over my shoulder.

  “Ash…what do you think you’re doing?” she begged, all panted breaths and a growing hunger that was impossible to miss.

  “Carrying your sweet ass up to that blanket so I can get a taste of you.” I gave that sweet ass a good swat. “What does it look like I’m doing?”

  “Oh my God, Ash, put me down.”

  “Not a chance.”

  Her giggle was nothing less than seduction. “Oh, watch yourself, Mr. Evans, I don’t belong to you.”

  I laid her out in the center of the blanket, caged her on every side.

  Her hips rocked up, seeking friction, her shoulders pressed firm to the blanket as she writhed. I gazed down at her with the shadows playing across her face, the faint glow of the moon that’d taken to the sky striking on her creamy skin.

  My dick throbbed. I leaned down and rubbed myself against her sweet, sweet heat.

  Bliss.

  Willow shivered and gasped, then gave a little giggle when I nipped at her jaw, my voice rough. “Right now, you’re mine. All. Mine. And there’s nothin’ you can do about it.”

  “And what if that guy I’ve been waiting for suddenly comes walking over the hill, looking for me?” It was all a raspy tease.

  “I’d tell him to turn right the fuck around because I’m not finished yet. We still have some lessons to learn.”

  “Oh, we do, huh?”

  “Mmhmm…all kinds of lessons.”

  One’s that were sure to test my limits.

  Good thing, because I was up for the challenge.

  I let my hand slide up the outside of her thigh, slinking beneath her dress, and palmed her ass. She moaned.

  Laughter rang through the air, voices carrying from the beach.

  We both froze and Willow’s eyes went wide.

  She pressed her face into my neck, hiding her self-conscious laughter there, the sound working through me like a caress, neither of us willing to move until the voices faded away.

  I pushed back onto my hands, smiled down at the girl. Softer than I meant to. “Think we’d better save this until we get back to my place. We don’t want to give the paps too much to talk about now, do we? Last thing that lucky bastard is gonna want is a picture of you going at it on the beach with me.”

  Kind of choked on it, because I was hating the thought of that more and more.

  Low laughter rolled from her, before her eyes filled with something deep. Adoring. She brushed her fingers through the long pieces of my hair. “You deserve to be loved, too, Ash. I hope you know that. I hope you open up enough to find it one day.”

  I stilled, before I shook my head to refute it.

  She ran her palm down to that spot on my side where all my mistakes haunted me before it traveled up, her hand set flat against the thud of my heart. “Do you know what I think? I think this giving heart is frozen in time. A prisoner to the past.”

  My mouth opened to stop her, but she continued, cutting me off, “I think somewhere along the way you got your heart broken and now you’re terrified of allowing it to happen again.”

  Grief spun around me like a whirlwind. Like it rose up from the depths of the sea and crashed over me like a devastating wave.

  A wave that unveiled the spot I wanted to keep buried forever.

  “Who broke your heart, Ash?”

  I cupped her cheek, the admission rough. “I broke it, Peaches. I did. And I won’t ever do it again. You need to remember that.”

  twenty-two

  Ash

  “What the fuck? And you didn’t call us?” Baz flew forward from where he sat on the couch, while Lyrik shot from it and started pacing the room. Austin sucked in a rigid breath, and Zee’s jaw locked tight.

  Hostility was palpable in the confined space.

  It ricocheted between all of us.

  We were down in the basement of Baz’s place where the killer studio was tucked in the back.

  We’d been down here for the last couple of hours, going over shit, rehashing some lyrics, and working through some riffs.

  So, yeah. Technically, I was still supposed to be sitting on the sidelines. But like I said, those assholes weren’t about to hold me back or shut me down.

  Assholes who’d become the focus of our conversation.

  I blew out a strained breath, still trying to work through the reality of it. “Asshole walked in that reunion like he owned the place. Like the world owed him something. Until I got in his face. Get a guy one on one and suddenly the douchebag isn’t such a badass. Go figure.”

  Lyrik gripped both his hands in his hair, raging through the room. Typical. “Yeah, until you rolled up on two of them. Those odds are heading less and less in your favor. Told you, you can’t be out there wandering around by yourself. This is bullshit, man. What if that’d turned into a repeat of the first time?”

  “Had it handled.”

  “Yeah, but what about the rest of his friends out there? Now you’ve got two dickbags running around pissed that their girls chose you. And I’m betting after that encounter at the reunion, you didn’t exactly leave him with a warm, fuzzy feeling.”

  I scoffed. “He might have been red, but I wouldn’t exactly call it warm.”

  “I bet.”

  Baz clasped his hands where they dangled between his knees. “So, what are we going to do about this?”

  Lyrik pretty much sneered, bouncing an amped-up beat on his toes. “Know exactly what I want to do about it.”

  Austin flicked the pick he was fiddling with into the air, caught it in a fist, and flicked it again. “I’m game. I say hunt the fuckers down. End this now before you get yourself in a situation you can’t get out of. They’ve already proven they’re the kind of lowlifes to gang up on one man. Or maybe you need to get the fuck out of Savannah. Head back to LA and lay low until things cool down. We can hold the album a bit. Already a couple of weeks behind. A few more aren’t gonna hurt.”

  “Yeah. I vote LA.” Zee wasn’t about throwing blows. Not his style. But if push came to shove? He’d be right there with gloves on, climbing into the ring.

  I gave a harsh shake of my head. “Hell no. I’m not tucking tail. And seriously? Lay low in LA? That’s like some kind of twisted oxymoron. This right he
re is where I’m supposed to come to relax.”

  And Peaches was here.

  I tried not to let the fact that was my first thought penetrate too deep. But I’d made her an offer—a promise—and I intended to keep it.

  I sat forward. Anger kept ripping at my chest, trying to chain me down. I looked toward the ground, raking back the long pieces of my hair that were falling forward. “I don’t know what the fuck to do. Fact he’s Willow’s ex…it…”

  A ball of rage clotted off my words.

  Fuck.

  I wanted to erase him. In so many ways.

  I blinked. “It complicates things.”

  Lyrik frowned. “This isn’t about her.”

  I flinched, and his words dropped to a hiss. “Shit. It is about her?”

  I flopped back in my chair. “You know it’s not.”

  It couldn’t be.

  “You sure about that?” Lyrik pressed.

  “Don’t even start with that kind of bullshit. You know I don’t get tangled up like that.”

  I shot him a warning glance. He knew better. He was heading into that dangerous territory where he knew he wasn’t allowed.

  “Yeah? And why was it when I was all twisted up over Tamar, thinking I couldn’t have her, you were right there to pull my head out of my ass? Forcing me to face what was right in front of me?”

  I tried to keep my voice light. “That’s because you thought you didn’t deserve her, man. I made a choice to live the way I do. Chose to go it alone. And I don’t need any one of you telling me that choice was wrong. You were a miserable fuck, and I’m as happy as can be. Big difference.”

  I wondered when that started to be a lie.

  “We’ve all got histories, man,” he prodded, voice dropping lower because he knew he was skating thin ice. “When are you going to learn you don’t have to be a prisoner to yours?”

  The vision slammed me before I could stop it.

  Blood.

  Handprints.

  Smeared.

  Cold.

  Agony clawed at my chest, and my hands fisted on top of my thighs. “Don’t.”

  Baz started pushing, too. “You do know you’ve been feeding us your own brand of bullshit since we were like nine? I smell it from a mile away, and from where I’m sitting, it smells real bad. What went down was a long damned time ago.”