across the parking lot when Annie’s voice from across the fence stops me. “Where are you going?”
“Home for a shower and to change before Shay’s show.” I cross to where she’s standing, slide a hand between the fence posts, and wrap my arm around her waist.
Her lips curve. “I got some good writing done today.”
“Sing for me?”
Annie laughs. “You listened to musicians all day long.”
“None I wanted to fuck.”
Her gaze drops down my body. “You have a change of clothes in the office? You could have dinner with us at the house. Shower after.”
Twenty minutes later, we’re arranged around the table in Jax’s dining room. Sophie’s devouring chicken fingers while the rest of us have grilled salmon.
“Forgive the catering,” Haley says. “It’s been a busy few weeks, and it’s getting busier before it gets easier.”
“This is great. Thanks, Haley,” I say, and she smiles. “Shay’s set is tonight,” I remind Jax. “You could come.”
He turns it over, glancing at Annie. “It’s fine. My wife could pop any minute.”
Haley rolls her eyes. “Jax, I’m not going to pop.”
They share a smile that makes me cut a look at Annie.
“How’s work going?” Haley asks Annie.
“I’m so close to finishing the last song. The reading is scheduled for the first week of September. It’s a chance for a number of people to show off new ideas. Ian’s assistant organizes it and he hosts, but there are lots of other contacts there.”
“Ian’s the ex,” Jax says gruffly.
“He’s one of those guys who wears suits for fun,” I add before Annie can speak.
Jax’s gaze narrows. “A douche.”
“First-class.”
Annie’s jaw drops, and Haley hides a smile behind her napkin.
“Thank you for those uninvited opinions on my love life. You don’t know anything about him,” Annie tosses.
My muscles tighten in response, my voice lowering. “I know he had you and he let you go.”
Silence falls over the table as I hold her stare.
I remember what Jax asked me once: whether I loved Annie the way he loved Haley.
I do. I know it, which only makes the reality of our situation harder.
“Anyway,” Annie goes on at last, a flush crawling up her cheeks that makes me want to drag her to the nearest room or closet or front-fucking-lawn and devour her. “These funders like to go in on things together. But, I’ve learned that a few of Ian’s friends have invested independently in the last ten years. So I’m going to focus on them.”
After dinner, Annie crooks a finger at me and I follow her down the hall.
“Where are you going?” Jax asks.
Annie tosses him a look. “Tyler and I are going to hang out, Dad,” she says in a mock-whiny-teenager voice.
He grumbles something inaudible before heading back toward the kitchen, and I laugh under my breath.
“He wants to make sure we’re not having sex in the shower,” I tell her as we ascend the stairs.
At the top, she turns, peering up at me. “You don’t want to have sex in the shower?”
Her innocent voice sends every ounce of blood to my dick.
“Fucking yes, I do.”
She laughs as we get to her room and shut the door behind us.
As I strip off her clothes and make her mine, one slow drugging kiss at a time, I wish I could shut the door on LA and my fears just as easily.
After dinner, we meet Rae at the venue where Shay’s playing.
Thanks to a delicious dinner and the fact that I made Annie come twice in the shower and once more in her bed, tonight’s already feeling like a solid win. Now, I try to push the email from Zeke from my mind as I get ready to share the night with the woman I love and her friend, watching an artist that I found and nurtured.
As we crowd around a high top table, Annie pries stories from Rae her life on the road as a DJ trying to make it. The woman’s always been hard to get a read on, but I’m fascinated hearing her experiences.
Unlike me, she sounds like she could travel forever.
“You okay?” Annie asks, leaning over.
I slide a hand over her knee, resting my fingers on the inside of her thigh as I brush my lips across her jaw. “Yeah.”
I look up as the band starts, and Shay takes the mic, but she’s not looking at the crowd—she’s looking at the floor.
Alarm stirs low in my gut. I can’t put my finger on the warning feeling, but I know something’s off.
“What is she doing?” Rae asks.
She misses