The show was incredible. The crowds were getting wilder. Word had spread about our success in Los Angeles and San Jose, and curiosity made them hungry.
With each song we performed together, it felt less like I was some weird attachment that Bound couldn’t shake and more like I was Bound.
Mine.
I allowed myself to linger on the fact that I’d claimed them before realizing that it was calmness I felt. They were mine now, but they hadn’t earned me yet.
Rich boarded the bus wearing another hoodie despite us being in the desert and gave me another one of those weird looks. I’ve been getting them ever since the show. He was trying to see past the wall I erected and figure me out, but I didn’t like intruders.
On the other hand, it was only fair that I let him since I’d given Loren the cliff notes to my past. At the time, I didn’t understand why. After two days of the cold shoulder and long, sullen silences from all three of my bandmates, I’ve had time to ruminate.
I wanted to scare him off.
Instead, I dangled fruit in his face and then forbade him to feast from my garden. Now Loren was pissed, and I understood why, but that didn’t mean I would spread my legs to make him feel better.
“You want the shower first?” Rich offered. He was the only one to do so my first two nights on board. I learned quickly not to shower after Loren, who took longer showers than Houston, Rich, and me combined.
“Sure.” I stood and took my dinner plate to the sink. Apparently, Bound traveled with a team of caterers along with a bevy of people eager to do their—our bidding. A girl could get used to this. My dinner usually consisted of cheap wine and string cheese.
After rinsing and sticking my plate in the empty dishwasher, I smiled at Rich, who was busy eyeing one of the three steaming hot plates left on the counter and covertly watching me with the other.
“Thanks, Rich.”
“No problem.” His lips barely moved—I knew because I was admiring them and his piercing a little too closely—as if it wasn’t what he really wanted to say.
I almost stayed to delve into his mind before deciding the distance we’d kept was best.
As I headed to the shower, I wondered where Loren and Houston had disappeared. I’m sure they were out turning Vegas on its head. We had one more show in Vegas tomorrow before heading to Glendale, and then it was Denver, Dallas, Houston, and New Orleans after that. The rest of the cities were a blur within my chaotic thoughts.
Figuring Rich would join his friends, I took my time under the hot stream of the shower. I almost felt ready to tackle the world when I finally stepped from the glass enclosure. Steam had completely fogged the mirror and poured from the bathroom when I opened the door to air it out.
I was not prepared to find the bedroom occupied.
The steam billowed out, quickly filling the room and clouding the two people rolling around on the bed like they were alone. I didn’t recognize the girl with her tiny tits exposed thanks to the dress bunched around her waist, but I did recognize the infuriating asshole on top of her.
He’d just been begging to fuck me two days ago, and now he’d already moved on?
As the walls closed in on me, I worked to control my anger before the smell of burning coals could seep into my lungs and strangle me with a phantom hold.
“Was there a sign I missed that I should have hung up, or was the running water not a clue that this room was occupied?”
Loren lifted his head from suckling the girl’s brown nipples, letting me see that he was drunk out of his mind.
Oh, that’s just great.
“You can join us if you like.” Loren’s intoxicated gaze dipped to the rest of me, still painted in water droplets and covered only by a towel. “You’re almost attired for the occasion. Drop the towel.”
The girl beneath him giggled out of control, but I didn’t find a damn thing funny.
Neither did Loren.
His head swiveled, and then he was staring down at her like he disapproved. “We were having a conversation.”
The girl’s lips formed an O, and then she lay there pouting while waiting to be used and tossed aside before morning.