I didn’t even care that she knew it was her I was imagining. It could never be anyone else ever again. No use pretending.
When my movements turned jerky, and I couldn’t control my grunts, I knew there was no turning back. Grabbing the second item I borrowed, I groaned long and hard as I used it to catch my cum.
I heard the growl Braxton tried to conceal when she recognized the purple panties she’d been wearing earlier.
I smiled to myself.
After cleaning my dick off with them and figuring she might want ’em back, I tossed them on the floor before rolling onto my stomach.
Now I could sleep.
You might lose love
It might fade in the wind as if it had never been
You might mourn the good years left behind
You might curse the lonely ones that follow
And when you wake up, you realize
It’s only the beginning
Listening to Houston sing the words I’d written, I thought about my father’s offer for the first time since he made it. I didn’t count Colorado because I’d been bluffing as usual whenever Houston pissed me off.
The bitter truth is that my feet were firmly planted.
I couldn’t walk away from my friends as easily as I’d done my parents. It’s why I hated them so much. I loved them just as deeply.
No matter how much Houston and Rich hurt me, I’d keep coming back for more. The three of us were toxic as fuck, together and apart, but we were all we had. It hadn’t always been like this, and I think remembering all the good is why we stayed through the bad.
Seventy-thousand people were on their feet by the time we walked off the stage at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. It was a rush I never got tired off. We had maybe twenty minutes to collect ourselves before the first round of meet-and-greets began. I was actually looking forward to it since it was the only time we got to see Braxton smile these days.
When she wasn’t cursing one of us in her head, that is.
She hadn’t remarked on the stunt I pulled last night, but I expected no less. I think she figured out that I thrived on attention, so she punished me by depriving me of it. Figures. It was like she’d flipped a switch and became the center of my universe. Everything I am revolved around her. I never even considered trying to undo what she’d done.
Two hours later, the meet-and-greets were over, and Braxton immediately headed back for the bus.
Houston, Rich, and I stayed behind to give her “space.”
We used that time to have a powwow with a few roadies as if they didn’t have an entire stage to tear down.
“Has it been enough time?” I snapped once we were done distracting our crew. They had enough shit on their plate without us adding in our melodrama. “Can we go back to the bus now?”
“Relax,” Houston responded dryly. “It’s only been ten minutes.”
“This is dumb as fuck if you ask me.” I cut my gaze at Rich, who noticed.
“There’s a reason no one asks you.”
Fuck this.
I walked off, and they shouted my name once they realized the direction I was headed. It didn’t take them long before they were hot on my heels. They didn’t try to stop me either—not that they could—when I climbed inside the back of the SUV.
The drive back to the bus was only fifteen minutes, but it felt like fifteen hours. I couldn’t understand why my palms were sweating, and my heart was racing. I only knew the stirring in my gut that told me Braxton was up to no good.
I screwed with her, and she’d been compliant.
I should have known better than to trust it.
She was a devious little thing.
Before the SUV fully rolled to a stop, I was out and taking off for our bus. I could hear a baffled Houston and Rich talking shit behind me, but I paid them no mind. They were unaware of what I’d done last night. If they knew, they’d be going crazy too.
Bounding up the bus’s stairs, I slammed my palm on the button to activate the sliding door. Stepping inside, I peered through the dark interior. It wasn’t until a low whimper drew my attention that I spotted Braxton on the couch, naked as the day she was born, red hair cascading down her back, and straddling my goddam pillow.