I turn back to my band, raise the mic to my face and scream, “Okay, Seattle, let’s
fucking rock!”
Chapter Twenty-Six
~Samantha~
The after party is in full swing back stage. Fans who won back stage passes for autographs
and photographs have come and gone. The band made it very clear that this party was
just for them and their families.
There are still more than thirty of us.
“The show was ah-mazing!” Stacy exclaims and snuggles into Isaac’s side, a drink in
her hand.
“It was,” Brynna nods and smiles at Meg and Will, sitting on a couch, Meg in his lap.
“Will, that was quite possibly the most romantic proposal I’ve ever seen.”
“I’m a romantic guy.” He shrugs and offers us all a cocky grin.
Meg explodes in laughter. “You’re a lot of things, babe, but romantic isn’t one of
them. Did Luke give you pointers?”
“Hey! I have my romantic moments!” Will frowns at her and then leans in to whisper
in her ear, making her blush.
“Oh, yeah, that’s right.”
“I don’t want to know.” Matt shakes his head and then turns to Caleb, who has been
dead silent all night, even during the concert. His eyes have been narrowed, his body
on high-alert. “You doing okay, man?”
“Fine,” Caleb confirms with a nod.
Brynna frowns up at him. “Are you sure?”
“I’m fine.” His jaw is tight, but his voice is firm and leaves no room for questioning.
“Hey, Sam.” Jules approaches us from across the room. “Leo was looking for you a few
minutes ago. You must have been in the restroom.”
“Do you know which way he went?”
“Out into the hallway.” Jules points toward the door.
“Okay, thanks.” I check the time on my phone as I head out into the corridor. I wonder
how long we have to stay before we can tactfully leave. The guys are leaving in the
morning for the tour, and I want as many hours alone with my man as I can get.
I hear voices murmuring in the hall as I turn a corner. Leo is standing with his back
to me, facing Rick his manager, who is facing toward me, but hasn’t seen me yet.
“You’ll destroy her, Leo. She loves you.”
“I loved her too, but I sure as fuck can’t trust her now. What would you propose I
do? The sooner it happens, the better.”
What the fuck did I do?
Rick glances over Leo’s shoulder and sees me. His mouth flattens in a grim line and
he exhales hard. “Hey, Sam.”
“Fuck,” Leo mutters under his breath, lowers his head and props his hands on his hips,
and my heart feels like it’s going to beat right out of my chest. “Go back to the
party, Sam.”
His voice is cold. Angry. He doesn’t turn around to look at me.
Rick shakes his head. “No, I think this is a conversation you need to have.” He slaps
Leo on the shoulder and pats my own shoulder as he passes by me, leaving Leo and I
alone in the stark white, quiet hallway.
“Yeah, it sounds like we need to have a conversation.” I pull my walls up around me.
Do not let him see you hurt, Samantha.
I walk around to stand where Rick was moments ago. Leo won’t look at me; he keeps
his eyes trained on the floor. “Look at me.”
He pulls his head up, but instead of looking me in the eye, he focuses over my shoulder.
“Fucking look at me, Leo.”
He shakes his head, clenches his eyes shut and swears under his breath again.
“Look, Sam…”
“No, fuck this. Just tell me what I did wrong.”
His head whips up and finally he pins me in his stormy, gray gaze, scowling. “You
didn’t do anything wrong.”
“But you just said you can’t trust me. I heard you.”
“No.” He shakes his head adamantly and rubs his hands up and down my arms. “You didn’t
do anything. I wasn’t talking about you, baby.”
“What’s going on?”
“Fuck,” he mutters again, sighs and swallows hard. “I don’t know how to tell you this,
Sam.”
“You’re scaring me,” I whisper.
“I’m just gonna say it, but before I do, please know that I am so, so sorry.” He’s
looking in my eyes again, worried and sad and so pissed off.
“What?” I ask, exasperated.
“It seems that someone took photos of us in L.A., at my house, making love on the
balcony.”
“What? How? Your beach is private.”
“Yeah, well, who knows?”
“How do you know this? Have you seen the photos?”
He scowls and shakes his head. “No. Melissa is blackmailing me. She says that if we
fire her for the photo leak of you, she’ll post the photos online.” He shoves his
hands through his hair and paces away. “So, I won’t be firing her until I can figure
out how to handle this clusterfuck.”
“Fuck that.”
“What?” He turns back to me, his eyes wide.
“She is not going to bully you into keeping her damn job, Leo. Call her bluff. Fire
her. If she posts the photos, so be it. We’re consenting adults in a loving relationship.
If anyone doesn’t like it, they can kiss my ass. I won’t have her turning the most
beautiful moment of my life into something dirty.”
He just stands there, his mouth gaping open, and then blinks rapidly. “Wait, where
is this coming from? With as pissed as you were about the photo last week, I thought
for sure this would destroy you. I’m not worried about me, but I won’t have something
like this surfacing about you.”
“Look, I might have overreacted over that photo. This shit’s going to happen. It’s
just a part of being with you.” I pull my fingers down his face and offer him a small
smile. “I love you, Leo. We’ve established that I’m yours and you’re mine, and we’re
in this for the long haul. I refuse to have people like Melissa dictating how we live.”
“This could turn into a major shit storm for you, baby.”
I shrug and wrap my arms around his still naked waist. “I bet she doesn’t post them,
Leo. She doesn’t want to ruin her own reputation in this business. She’d be an idiot
to let them leak. We don’t even have proof that they exist.”
“You’re sure?”
“The bitch is gone,” I confirm. “Now, let’s go enjoy our families, have some drinks,
and then go home so you can give me some orgasms.”
“Lead the way, sunshine.”
***
“What time do you have to leave?” I ask quietly, not wanting to disturb the sweet
silence of the early morning. We’re curled up in bed. It’s not quite daybreak. The
cat is curled up on Leo’s stomach, purring, and I’m draped against his side, my head
on his chest.
We’re still sweaty from early morning sex, my skin is still humming, and Leo’s fingertips
are brushing up and down my back.
“I have to be at the airport at nine,” he whispers.
“What do you want to do until then?” I ask and trace the letters tattooed over his
chest.
“I think we should go for a run.”
My head whips up to look him in the face. “Seriously?”
“Yeah.” He grins down at me. “I won’t get to run with you for two weeks.”
“I’m going to meet up with you in New York this weekend,” I remind him. Even five
days seems too long.
“We won’t be running in New York, baby. We’ll be lucky if we make it out of the hotel
room.” He chuckles and kisses my forehead. “Come on, out of bed. Let’s go.”
I follow him out of bed and we pull on our running gear and head down to the street.
I realize he’s wearing the same shorts and t-shirts he wore the morning of our first
run.
“You know,” I mention casually as we jog down our usual path through the city. “I
can run farther than we normally do.”
“Just run. I’ll follow you.”
“You don’t want to know where I’m going?” I ask with a smile.
“Nope, I’ll go where you go.”
“Okay, but you’ll have to keep up. I’m not slowing my pace for you.” I throw him a
mock glare as he laughs.
“So noted.”
Damn, he’s sexy. He’s just as sexy to me now as he was that first morning we ran together.
Even more so now that I know the man beneath the tats and the piercings.
“So, who’s your favorite band?” He asks with a grin.
“I don’t know.” I shrug and keep my face neutral. “I like Daughtry a lot.”
“Try again.”
“Train.”
“I will spank you.”
“I might have a thing for Nash,” I reply, laughing.
“We’ll work on it.” He chuckles.
We run, side by side, our breathing and steps matched… thud, thud, thud, all the way
to the park where he pulled me onto that picnic table to rub my legs.
“My legs aren’t shaking today,” I boast with a grin.
“I’m not inside you. Of course they aren’t.”
I raise an eyebrow and then burst into laughter, shoving his shoulder. “You’re such
an arrogant ass.”
He nuzzles my ear, breathing hard, as we stroll down to our café. “Am I wrong?” he
murmurs.
“No. Just arrogant.”
A waitress shows us to a booth, hands us menus and takes our drink orders of juice
and coffee.
Neither of us needs to open the menu.
“How is your job going, baby?” Leo asks and leans his elbows on the table, his eyes
happy, a half smile on those kissable lips.
“Good.” I nod. “No assholes named Bob at this one, and it’s unlikely they’ll want
me to do a story on my family, given that we run exposes on wines.” I wink at him
and reach over to grab his hand in my own so I can trace the ink on his fingers.
“Are you excited for the tour?” I ask and watch my finger on his skin.
“It’ll be fun to play and be with the band for a couple weeks, but I’m already looking
forward to coming home.”
“It’s only for two weeks. That’s better than nine months.” I snicker. “Nine months
would kill me.”
“Nine months isn’t going to happen unless you’re with me,” he states, as though that’s
the end of the discussion.
I nod, just as my phone vibrates in my bra and Leo chuckles as I pull it out.
“I do love your storage system.”
I stick my tongue out at him and check the text. It’s from Caleb.
Family meeting, today, 6pm. Brynna’s house. Mandatory.
I frown and turn the phone to show Leo.
“What’s that about?” he asks, his eyes narrowed.
“I don’t know,” I shrug. “Probably has something to do with Brynna’s security issues.
I wish she’d just tell us what the hell is going on with her.”
“It’s probably none of your business.” He reminds me with a smirk. “You’re just nosy.”
“I’m concerned,” I disagree and then laugh. “Okay, I’m nosy.”
“Call me later and let me know what’s going on.”
I shrug and frown. “The meeting is late today. You’ll probably be busy with the sound
check.”
“You can and will call me anytime, baby. I don’t give a fuck what I’m doing. I need
you to know that even when I’m not here, you’re the priority. I want to know what’s
happening here.”
I shrug again and sit back as the waitress sets our plates before us. “It was good
to see Lori last night, even if it was just for a few minutes.” I throw him a sassy
grin and he laughs out loud.
“Way to change the subject, brat.”
I take a bite of my eggs and blink innocently, making him laugh more.
“She wouldn’t have missed the show last night for anything.” Leo nods. “Plus she wanted
to meet your family.”
“Meg seemed over the moon to see her. How do you guys know her?” I ask and nibble
my bacon. “Besides her being Gary’s wife,” I add.
“Meg and Lori always got along really well. It hurt Lori that Meg and I didn’t speak
for a while.” He takes a bite of his bacon and a sip of coffee. “I’ve known Gary forever.”
Leo begins. “Aside from Meg, and now you, he’s probably the closest person to me.
We met Lori after a gig here in Seattle. She had been in town and came to a show,
and being a celebrity, came to the after party to hang out with us. I was determined
to fuck her.” He laughs and leans back in the booth, his face full of humor.
“What happened?” I ask and push my plate aside and lean on my elbows.
“She wanted nothing at all to do with me.” He shakes his head ruefully. “She took
one look at Gary’s ugly face, and it was all over for both of them. If I’d have made
a play for her, he would have shoved his foot up my ass.”
I chuckle and trace his tattoos on his hand again. “Poor guy, you lost the girl.”
He grows quiet, and I glance up to find him quietly watching me. “What’s wrong?”
He shakes his head, as if pulling himself out of a daydream, and flips his hand over
to link his fingers with mine. “We’ve come a long way since the first time we sat
in this café.”