Annabella's Oblivion (Hard World Tour #1) (38 page)

He already had the ring and showed me the pic; it was perfect for Megan. It was a princess-cut diamond with a platinum band. He must have really saved money for this; his law practice didn’t bring much money, and he refused to take any from me, even though I wanted to join our accounts.

What was mine was his, but he didn’t see it that way, and there was no power to convince him otherwise.

He paid for our lunch, again never letting me pay. My brother must have been from the last century, a gentleman to the core.

He walked me down to the limo that was waiting for me. His office was a ten-minute walk from there, so he didn’t need a lift.

“
So I’ll see you this Tuesday, yeah? At the concert?” He nodded and hugged me close, and for some reason, I couldn’t let him go. I hugged him back and hid my face in his chest. He rocked me from side to side and kissed me on the top of my head like he always used to when we were kids.

I leaned back and, for some reason, had tears in my eyes. I laughed and wiped them away.

“
I have no idea why I’m so emotional right now.”

He gently wiped one last tear with his finger and his eyes looked softly at me.

“
Happens sometimes.”

“
Okay, I really need to go or Jeremy will kill me.”

“
Go then, and tell everyone I said hi.”

“
Will do.” He started to walk in the direction of his office and I was about to get in the car when I heard him calling my name.

“
Yeah?” I turned around to look at him and he smiled.

“
I love you, baby girl. Always remember that, okay?”

I blew him a kiss. “Love you too, big bro. See you soon.”

Ryan

My head was killing me, and I didn’t even have a drink. Jeremy and Drake kept on bitching about the fact that both their women wanted nothing to do with them, and they just needed a good plan to convince them otherwise.

At one point, Drake considered kidnapping, but then figured out Jane was already his wife, so what exactly would he demand from her? He gave up the idea, but Jeremy seemed excited. He then proceeded to ask us for help and I just shook my head at all this nonsense.

Finally, after, I believe, their third bottle, they were both knocked out on my office floor and I went to the kitchen to grab some aspirin for my head.

No wonder the girls wanted nothing to do with them; those guys didn’t even know how to behave themselves with the ladies. I looked through the window in the kitchen and wondered what my girl was doing. It was awfully quiet in the house, and I hoped they didn’t end up killing each other.

I felt soft, warm hands circle my waist, and the smell of lavender invaded my space. I took her hands in mine and rested them on my chest.

“
How are the boys?” she whispered.

“
Passed out.” For some reason, I was whispering as well.

“
It’s only six o’clock.”

“
Trust me, I know.” I felt her smile behind my back, and then she slowly and gently rubbed my chest.

“
How is my man then?” Everything in me stopped, and I turned around in her arms and leaned back. She was standing between my legs, looking at me with those expressive violet eyes. I palmed her face and rubbed her lower lip with my thumb.

“
Am I your man?” We never talked about our relationship, if there was one. I knew she was attracted to me since the first moment we saw each other again, and then we had all those moments together, and there was sex.

No. Not sex.

Making love.

With her, it was always making love. It was different because every moment counted as something special.

Every breath, every touch, every kiss.

She stood on her tiptoes and kissed me on the lips gently, her lips barely touching mine, and then her hands palmed my face and she just stood there. We were having this moment together.

“
Yes,” she whispered, and gave me another kiss. This one was more sensual, but still didn’t give me full access to her mouth. When I tried to deepen it, she moved away and took a step back.

“
No. The girls are downstairs waiting for me to bring them some food.”

“
So you guys are good? I thought you would kill each other.” She giggled and took out sandwiches and a big bottle of orange juice from the fridge. She raised her brow.

“
Don’t you want to help me?”

“
That depends.”

“
On what?”

“
If I can get a kiss for it.”

“
I gave you a kiss just now.” She pointed two fingers at me. “More than one, if I might add.”

“
You did.” I nodded and grabbed the four glasses and plate of food. “And I enjoyed them very much.” I came closer to her and she held her breath as I leaned down so our lips almost touched. “But I want more. I want your mouth, baby. Hot. Deep. Passionate. Where I can taste your properly and suck on this pink tongue—”

“
I may have come in my pants right now.” We both froze and then looked in the direction of the doorway. The trio was standing there, watching us with fascination in their eyes.

Ariel moved forward—she was the one who had made that comment—and slowly tried to touch me with her finger when Bella snapped from her shock and slapped her hand away. Ariel just laughed.

“
God, relax, I’m just kidding! But you guys should have seen your faces.” Sam and Jane chuckled, and Bella sent them an annoyed look. I smiled back and bowed my head.

“
Thank you for the compliment. Flattered. But I’m dirty only for my girl.” Bella finally relaxed beside me and kissed me on the cheek.

Which meant I did something right.

“
What are you guys doing here? I told you I’ll bring food.”

Jane came closer, took a cucumber from the plate, and munched on it. “We were starving and figured you were taking your sweet time, so here we are.”

“
How is the practice going?” I had no idea; Bella and I practiced what, two times? Then she had that song with the ranchers, but that was about it.

“
It’s good, actually,” she said, and then looked back. “We’re working on my voice, but it’s getting better. You know, it’s like with the gym. Once you’re back, then it’s easier to get into a routine.”

Well, thank God for that.

To be honest, I was surprised how quickly they settled their issues together. I thought the grudges each one of them had would last longer.

But then they were family, weren’t they? Maybe the dynamics here were slightly different, but they’d already lost so much time with each other.

I could relate.

“
Do you, by any chance, know where, um, where Drake is?” Jane asked hesitantly.

It was the last thing I expected her to ask me.

“
He’s in my office with Jeremy.” Everyone tensed and I thought it was damned funny. Solved all our problems my ass. They had a long way to go, because although they were okay with each other, they still had upcoming issues to deal with. “They kind of passed out. Drank a bit too much.”

“
It’s my fault. I should have been honest.” She bit her thumb and looked genuinely worried. Since she was my kind of sister-in-law, I had the need to reassure her.

“
Hey, it’s not. They are guys. They wanted to get drunk, so they did. Don’t make it bigger than it is.” After a moment, Jane nodded and smiled, though it didn’t reach her eyes.

I knew they said she was the Plain Jane, not to mention that article that practically diminished her as a woman, but I could see the appeal she had for Drake. She was pretty in her own way, not so much for me, but she definitely had charisma and charm. I just hoped she would appreciate my brother for what he was, and soon. The dude would reach a breaking point, and based on today, it wouldn’t be pretty.

“
Look, not that all this talk isn’t nice, but I could really use some food. I haven’t eaten since yesterday and my stomach is killing me.” Ariel clearly liked to speak her mind whenever she wanted to. She grabbed the plate and cups from me, and gestured for Jane and Sam to take the rest. “Sorry, handsome, but if you’re in the room, I feel like our front vocalist wouldn’t do her work as she is supposed to.” Bella murmured something under her breath but said nothing out loud that I could comment on.

I think I could be friends with Ariel.

They also took some fruits, nuts, and the pot with coffee.

Wait a minute . . . 

“
Bella, no coffee for you, remember?” She rolled her eyes.

“
Sure, as if Marie on my back wasn’t enough.” Her eyes sparkled with laugher, although she had a pissed-off facial expression.

I blew her a kiss and they all left the kitchen. I heard some of what they said on the way downstairs.

“
Well, girl, if he can deliver on his talking, then he must be one hot guy in bed.”

“
Ariel, seriously, stop talking about him in bed. I wanna punch you in the face when you do that.”

“
Oh, come on, I haven’t had sex in months. I deserve some details.”

“
Stop lying. You had sex with that guy from the studio.”

“
Yeah, right, Sam, like you know where and with whom I have sex.”

“
Can we just drop the sex conversation already?” Jane’s words were the last I heard and their talk just made me shake my head.

And they said guys were perverted.

They should really listen sometimes to what girls had to say.

Annabella

“
That wasn’t so bad. Let’s do it again.”

“
Sam, I seriously can’t anymore. My back is killing me.”

“
My hands can’t play the keyboard anymore.”

“
My voice needs a rest. I don’t want to overdo it on my first serious day of practice.” I stretched on my stool and thought about all the work we’d done today. We practiced songs from the new album, but I was familiar with them all and, oddly enough, remembered the words. I had some problems with controlling my voice, and some songs that were sang back to back were hard for me, but it was workable. It had to be for the concert; people paid good money and came to listen to great songs and a good performance. I couldn’t disappoint my fans like that. At some point, Marie made me hot water with honey and that shit did wonders for my throat. I had no idea it worked that well, or I would have used it all those years.

Generally, it was like any other day and nothing interesting happened. We didn’t raise topics we didn’t want to talk about; well, except Nate, and that was it.

“
Fine. We need to start tomorrow, first thing in the morning.” We all nodded and glanced at the clock. It was almost midnight. No wonder we were all so tired.

“
Not that I’m not happy with all this practice and shit, but is there anything interesting to do in this city? Like, you know, to have a night out?”

Shit.

They didn’t know.

I had to tell them.

“
It’s kind of my hometown.”

“
What?” Sam’s voice was shocked. She knew better than anyone how much I hated this place.

“
Yeah, apparently, Nate bought a ranch here. I haven’t gone out. I have no desire to go and see the city. Nothing probably changes in a town like this, and I experienced enough humiliation as it was here.”

“
They have some interesting places to shop though,” Jane pointed out.