my first thought was to break his nose and maybe a couple of ribs if I could, but Houston would murder me.
Option two it is.
I spun on my heel and shoved Loren with every ounce of strength I had. Since he was hungover and not expecting it, he was forced back several steps before catching his footing.
The confused look in his eyes only riled me up more because I knew then that he had no recollection of last night. Wasn’t that just great?
He hurts me, and I’m the only one left with the memory.
“What the hell is your problem?” he spat when he found his tongue.
“I don’t see anyone else two seconds from losing their balls, do you?”
As if I hadn’t just threatened him, he closed the distance between us. “Whatever I did, I’m sorry. I’m stupid when I drink.”
I had no words as I gaped at him for that lame-ass excuse. Sadly, I’d given him more credit than he’d deserved. “So what’s your excuse when you’re sober?”
He flinched. “Let me make it up to you.”
“It means nothing when you can’t remember what you did.”
He shook his head, his stare searching the deepest depths of my soul for a chance, even if it was a slim one. “I don’t want to. I don’t want to think about me hurting you.”
“You should have considered that before it was too late.”
“Braxton…” He stepped closer to me, and I immediately backed up. All it did was trap me again between him and the sink. Only this time, I was facing him.
“No.” I shook my head, warning him off.
He didn’t listen, and now he had his arms wrapped tight around me. Loren reeked of whiskey and the girl he screwed while he knew I was listening.
Resting his chin on the top of my head, he sighed. “You’re too good for me, Brax. Consider last night me making sure you knew it too.”
Slowly, his hand moved over my back, caressing and massaging, until all the tastes and smells assaulting my senses were under control. “You succeeded,” I told him while I pushed him away. “You can go now.”
His smile was sad as he backed out of the bathroom. When I was finally alone, I tried to make sense of it all. How could it feel as if we’d broken up when we were never together?
Without answers, I had no choice but to face this new day as blind as I was the day before. When I stepped from the bathroom, Loren was sprawled across the bed, out cold again, making me wonder if I’d imagined the whole thing.
I wasn’t the only one left awake, though.
Houston, sitting on the side of his bunk, stared at the floor between his planted feet with an expression that gave nothing away. When his head lifted and turned, that changed. He stared at me like I was either a problem to fix or a puzzle to solve. When I lifted my chin in silent defiance, in his eyes, I found I was something more.
An obstacle.
A rock that would force a river to split if he didn’t find a way to obliterate it.
I wasn’t just losing control of Bound. I was losing it altogether. With Braxton around, I didn’t know which way was up.
This wasn’t going to work.
She was Bound now, and that wasn’t changing until the tour ended, but that didn’t mean we had to torture ourselves in the meantime. The moment we reached Arizona, I was having her ass sent to another bus. All the easy access made it impossible to think of anything else. Braxton would be safer sticking her head in a lion’s mouth.
My chest was still damp from my shower when I yanked my T-shirt over my head, but I didn’t care.
I was on a mission.
Leaving the bedroom, I followed Braxton and Rich’s voices to the front of our bus. Loren was still sleeping off another binge in his bunk. I wanted to be pissed at him for breaking our pact, but I understood him for the first time in years.
Braxton had that effect.
“The collection is huge,” I heard Rich recite. “They have over fifteen thousand from all these different places.”
“Sounds amazing,” Braxton gushed. “I can’t believe I’ve never heard of it.”
“I think you’d like it.”
Neither of them said anything more, and it wasn’t because they noticed me standing there. I couldn’t see Braxton’s face, but Rich practically had hearts in his eyes.