I shrugged. “I didn’t say it was going to be easy. They deserve some payback for breaking our hearts. It’s not fair that they got to move on while we are stuck in misery. It’s obvious that they want another chance, so we will let them think they can have it, let them get their hopes up, their hearts invested. And then we get one last good fuck, the closure that we both need, and drop their asses, shatter their hearts like they did ours. Don’t tell me that the idea doesn’t tempt you, Nat.”
She bit her lip, taking her time to think over my offer. Yes, I knew that it made us little better than Devlin or Zander making their bet, but I really didn’t care. I wanted my revenge, and if Natalie didn’t want to participate then I’d still go through with it on my own with Wroth. I wanted to make him beg, and I wanted for him to give me what he’d denied me the first time around. I wanted him to be my first lover, and then I was going to leave him broken and bleeding as I walked away. Just as he had done to me.
Just like I still was.
“What are we betting?” Natalie finally asked. “What does the winner get?”
I hadn’t really thought that far ahead. “If you win, I’ll take over your job for a week and you can take a vacation.”
“Holy shit that would be awesome.” Natalie rubbed her hands together, apparently warming to the idea. “Okay, okay. So if you win, I will switch rooms with you.”
I offered her my hand, the idea of having the larger room back at our apartment adding to the incentive to win our bet. “Deal.”
“Wait, what is the time frame? How long do we get to accomplish everything?”
I shrugged. “Everything has to be accomplished by the end of the tour.” That sounded like a reasonable time frame. Three months was plenty of time to torture Wroth Niall in my book.
“Okay then. Deal.”
Wroth
Natalie was spot on that we would be doing nothing but rushing once the bus stopped outside the arena where we would be preforming tonight. While Trance and Alchemy got ready to go on stage to open, OtherWorld and Demon’s Wings had to do meet and greets and sign merchandise for fans. Our road crews had arrived two hours before us and were already setting things up for us, like each band’s merchandise tents and our equipment.
I didn’t see more than a glimpse of Marissa here and there for the rest of the day. Since OtherWorld was closing tonight—and then Demon’s Wings would close at the next concert before switching back and forth for the rest of the tour—it was past midnight before I made it back to the bus. I was exhausted, grumpy, and still wired from our closing performance that had had the sold out stands shaking from the fans as they screamed our names. That never failed to get my blood pumping and now I was too wound up to relax.
When I got back to the bus it was to find Shane, Harper, Axton and Dallas waiting in the living room. They were all dressed up as if they were going out. I didn’t feel like going out. All I wanted was to find my roost, see if I could talk Marissa into lying down with me so that I could finally relax and maybe I would finally get some decent sleep for once. It felt like I hadn’t had a full night’s sleep in a decade. I either couldn’t fall asleep because thoughts of Marissa would always haunt me, or I would wake up reaching for her only to find the bed beside me empty. When that happened, I couldn’t fall back to sleep no matter what I did.
Of course I knew that convincing Marissa to willingly come near me would be a miracle in and of itself. Which was made even more blindingly obvious when Marissa walked down the narrow hall dressed in club clothes with Linc. My jaw clenched so hard that my teeth began to ache when a third person appeared behind them.
Rhett Fucking Tomlinson.
“We’re ready,” Marissa announced with a smile as she sat down on the couch next to Dallas so that she could put her shoes on.
“Your hair smells good,” Dallas said with a sigh as she leaned forward to sniff Marissa’s hair. “What shampoo do you use? I want it.”
I didn’t hear what Marissa said because Rhett sat down on the arm of the couch beside Marissa and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. Linc joined them by lifting Dallas and sitting in her spot, carefully arranging her on his lap. Beside him, Axton grumbled something snarky that made the muscle head laugh but he didn’t move.
“Hey, Wroth,” Harper greeted when she spotted me standing in the doorway. “Want to come clubbing with us?”
I turned my gaze to the beautiful woman sitting beside her husband and some of the rage I was feeling at the sight of some other bastard touching my girl eased. Just a little. Harper wasn’t anything like the girls I’d seen Shane Stevenson with for so many years. She was gorgeous, but it wasn’t all outward packaging. She was sweet, gentle, reminding me of Marissa in so many ways that I would have given Shane a run for his money over the chick if Marissa hadn’t already owned me. Harper was also broken, something that you could see in her startling violet eyes; but I admired her deeply for how brave she had been. Not many people could deal with all the things that she had to go through.
“Who’s all going?” I asked, offering her a small smile.
“All of us plus Natalie, maybe Jesse. Devlin and Zander most likely. And I think Felicity is going to come with us. Emmie wants her to have some fun too.” Harper stood and sat on Shane’s lap, something that the Demon’s Wings bassist looked more than happy to accept. “Here, you must be tired. Take my seat.”
Before I could move toward the offered seat the door opened behind me. Jesse stuck his head inside. “Hey, the limo is waiting. Let’s go. I want a beer.”
Clubbing had not been on my mind for ways to end the evening, but there was no way in hell I was going to let Marissa go out without me. Especially if the fucker who stood to follow her off the bus was going to be with her. Just the thought of him out with Marissa made my blood boil. So with a frustrated sigh I followed Shane and Harper off the bus and then climbed into the back of a waiting limo.
Natalie, Felicity Bolton, Zander, Devlin and Jesse were already inside waiting. Felicity, a hot chick with short obviously dyed red hair and a curvy body sat between Zander and Jesse with her legs crossed in front of her. She was Emmie and Nik’s nanny and from what I had heard she did a really good job at taking care of the kids. I’d also heard that Zander had tried to get in her pants once—and only once. Felicity wasn’t looking for hookups or even a relationship apparently. Or so Axton had assured me when he had eventually stopped laughing his ass off long enough to tell me how convincing Felicity had been when she had told Zander to get lost.