Jersey Six - Jewel E Ann Page 0,76
knowingly manipulating her. “Wait … what do you mean threatened you with death if you touch me?”
“He’s a little possessive of you, Jers. If you weren’t going to kill him, I’d warn you to watch yourself. Guys like him are bad news.”
“He said if you touched me, he’d kill you?”
Chris scratched the back of his neck and nodded. “I get it. I want to rip out his vocal cords every time he touches you.” He gazed out the window.
Jersey opened her mouth to speak. Then clamped it shut. Most of the time, Chris did a good job of hiding his insecurities, but in that moment, everything from his broken tone to his inability to look her in the eye reeked of insecurity. Ripping out someone’s vocal cords felt possessive too.
Did sleeping next to him cross a line in his mind? Did he misinterpret their friendship?
“Well, if anyone kills you, it will be me. I won’t let Ian do it.”
He shot her a quick glance, and she returned a toothy grin.
“And you’ll make ripping out his vocal cords part of his slow death, right?” Chris looked to her for reassurance.
Jersey chewed on the inside of her cheek for a few seconds before giving him a slow nod. An odd chime sounded from the other side of the kitchen. She glanced over her shoulder.
“Your phone, Jersey. It’s ringing.”
She looked for her phone, finding it under a kitchen towel. “Hello?”
It continued to ring.
“Swipe right, Jers.”
She held it out and swiped right, bringing it back to her ear. “Hello?”
Ian chuckled; it was louder than she expected. “Hold it away from your face. It’s a video chat.”
Jersey looked at the screen and saw Ian’s sexy smile and messy hair. He sipped a cup of coffee. Her grin took over her face. When she caught Chris’s frown out of the corner of her eye, she took her tiny live version of Ian up the stairs to his bedroom.
“Coffee for dinner, Coop?” She shut the bedroom door and plopped down on his bed, resting her head on the padded headboard.
“Breakfast. It’s early morning here.”
“And where are you again?” She turned her head to the side and released her hair from its ponytail.
“Lisbon, Portugal.”
“Where is—” She bit her lips together for a moment. “Uh … so when’s your next concert?”
Ian set his coffee down and combed his fingers through his messy hair. Long bangs swept low onto his forehead. “Portugal is a southern European country next to Spain.” He smiled—a sweet, nonjudgmental smile. “In case you were wondering. I’m terrible at geography. Thank god for the internet and instant maps.”
“It’s weird that you’re that far away and I can see you like you’re right here with me.”
“Mmm … yes. But if I were in the same room, you’d feel me. In that way, video is incredibly inadequate.”
Jersey wet her lips, unsure how to respond. She just liked seeing him on her screen.
“And the concert is tonight. I have a full day of press, so I wanted to seize my chance to chat with you before you went to bed. What did you do today?”
“Worked out—”
“Wait.” He took another sip of coffee. “Start from the beginning.”
“That is the beginning.”
“No. You skipped the part about waking up.”
“Um … okay. I woke up. Worked out—”
“Woke up in my bed?”
Jersey cocked a single brow. “I’m not your girlfriend or even your sometimes girlfriend. So if you think—”
“Why not?” He removed the lid from his coffee and blew on the steam. “If I don’t have anyone in my bed and you don’t have anyone in … well, my other bed with you, then you could be. Right? You could be my girlfriend. My sometimes, anytime, or all-the-time girlfriend. Right?”
“No.” She laughed.
“Have you ever had a boyfriend?”
“No.”
“I could be your first. You could do worse.”
“Which means I could also do better.”
“True.” He inhaled and let it out slowly as his lips turned downward.
“Coop, you’re supposed to say I can’t do better than you.”
“Well …” He lifted a single shoulder while glancing away like Chris did when he made his awkward confession in the kitchen. “That would be a lie, wouldn’t it?”
Jersey didn’t respond because she didn’t know what to say. So she propped the phone up against the adjacent pillow and rolled to her side, resting her cheek on her folded hands. “What would you do if you weren’t in a band?”
“Curl up next to you in that bed.”
A shy smile overtook her lips. “That’s not a profession.”
“I don’t know.” He sipped more coffee,