I almost groaned out loud when “Lose Yourself” by Eminem began playing in my head.
Great.
I didn’t pay much attention to my surroundings as Casey led me to a conference room, but I couldn’t ignore the drastic change in atmosphere when I stepped inside the large room.
My gaze fell on Oni Sridhar first.
Brown skin, black hair, and even darker expression, the A&R rep looked understandably pissed as she sat at the long conference table. The apology I rehearsed was on the tip of my tongue when my nervous gaze shifted to the other occupants in the room.
Genuine surprise tasted tart like ripe, green apples—crisp, sour, sometimes sweet, and while mostly refreshing, this wasn’t one of those times.
The power running my brain flickered uncontrollably until blinking out completely—a total fucking blackout. When the backup generator finally kicked in, my first thought was that Casey had made a huge mistake. This was the wrong room, the wrong meeting.
It had to be.
And there wasn’t just one reason.
There were three.
The first leaned against the floor-to-ceiling windows. Bundled in a white hoodie with long arms folded, his gray gaze shone like silver, and the gold in them rivaled the center of our solar system beaming through the windows behind him. As that sun touched his black hair, I was tempted to run my fingers through the messy strands. His hair was so dark that the white cotton of his hoodie appeared starker than freshly fallen snow, his pierced lips a tempting pink like strawberry icing on a cupcake.
God, I wanted a taste.
The second lounged carelessly in a high-backed chair, his blond hair gelled and pushed off his forehead and tucked behind his ears. While he lazily chewed a stick of gum, I ran my gaze over his torso, unsurprised that the dress shirt he wore was splayed open, despite him being in the middle of a business meeting. He flaunted and seduced as if it were second nature. The strong column of his neck even sported the medallion he never seemed to be without. I’d never been close enough to see what was on it, but I was told it was his family’s crest. He’d been the only one of the three to come from money.
The final earth-shattering reason stood at the head of the conference table. His gray T-shirt was fitted enough to show off his impressive chest without making it obvious he wanted everyone else to notice too.
You know the type.
I admired his arms and the corded veins until my gaze reached his large hands planted on the table surface. When his finger tapped the wood impatiently, my gaze shot up to his styled brown hair, though not as thoroughly as his bassist, before finally meeting his gaze. Instantly, I was drowning in a forest of green. Instantly, he hated me.
Hester, give me strength.
My eyes had to be deceiving me.
What was unfolding…couldn’t possibly be.
The only flaw in my logic was that no one could ever mistake Houston Morrow, Loren James, and Jericho Noble.
It was them.
Bound.
Time stood still when she walked through the door.
Wearing a burlap sack and red hair like living fire, her brown eyes seemed to stretch wider than humanly possible when she realized who occupied the room. I was genuinely surprised she recognized us. I would even have been flattered if I weren’t so pissed. She looked like she’d come straight off the prairie. That hideous dress she wore covered her from neck to ankle. Her too-big eyes and lips made her look weird as fuck. And unpredictably stunning.
I couldn’t look away from the beautiful paradox, and there were a few reasons why.
The first was because she’d rudely interrupted me. I was in the middle of telling Carl Cole and his flunkies exactly how I liked my dick sucked when she barged in. Now I couldn’t think of anything other than enlightening her. Those lips of hers looked perfect for the job—even if the rest of her wasn’t up to the task. No way she wasn’t a virgin—not that she’d say no.
The seconds ticked by, too many of them, and she still hadn’t spoken. Her only reaction was her full lips parting. They were red and swollen like she’d been kissed to within an inch of her life. Even as my jealousy struggled to surface, I wondered if they were natural. My dick told me they were. My gut was too busy tying itself into an endless knot.
“Are you lost?” Loren inquired, always the first to