Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

TRISTAN

Fuck.

What the hell was I thinking?

I'd forgotten to take this off earlier. Stressed to the max about the Chicago show, I'd been messing with this damn scrunchie a lot, stretching and twirling it every which way. As much as I had orchestrated some of what went down tonight, the scrunchie was a total slip-up on my part.

"It's yours," I admitted, as if there were any doubt.

She stared down at it. "I know. But how did you get it?"

"I walked away with it accidentally the night I visited you on the bus."

"Why are you wearing it around your wrist? Your hair isn't long enough to warrant that."

I laughed, never imagining she'd consider I was using it for my hair. "I like to twist it around my fingers. Pull on it. It's a nervous habit."

"You've been corrupting my poor hair accessory all this time without my knowledge?"

Better than other things I've dreamed about corrupting lately. "Once again, guilty." I looked down at it. "Honestly I didn't realize I had it around my wrist."

"Well…you can keep it if you enjoy it that much." She shook her head. "Weird as it may be."

"Thanks. But let's get back to the subject of you being attracted to me."

"Let's not. Let's instead ask what's up with your alleged allergies. You don't seem stuffy."

I loved that she was calling me out. "My eyes were watering earlier," I lied. "I wanted to take something as a precaution. Sometimes when I stay in hotels, my allergies act up. Not sure if it's something in the cleaning shit they use or what…"

Except in this case, it was an excuse to see you.

I'd requested the meds knowing damn well they'd ask Emily to deliver them. Except after I texted Stephen, I felt really damn guilty about it. I knew she was out with Kieran and hadn't been sure whether she was back yet. But maybe I'd wanted to interrupt. That made me a piece of shit. Kieran was Atticus's nephew, for Christ's sake. What kind of man tries to disrupt the date of a kid who looks up to him? But I was fucking jealous. It was the first time in my life I'd felt this way. And it would've been nice if the object of said jealousy wasn't a girl practically young enough to be my daughter.

"Interesting how your allergies seem to have disappeared." She crossed her arms.

It would've served me right if they'd sent someone else to deliver the meds instead of Emily. In the midst of waiting for her to show up, a groupie named Angel came to my suite. Atticus had given her the code and sent her upstairs. He did shit like that all the time. In the past, it used to be a welcome surprise. But lately, I found it annoying.

Yet I'd decided to let things unfold with Angel, hoping Emily would walk in on us. Not because I wanted to freak Emily out, and believe it or not-not because I liked the idea of her watching, though that was an unexpected surprise. I'd let her walk in on me with Angel for her own good, my way of warning her away from me.

But I hadn't accounted for her standing in the doorway and watching. I'd only let Angel give me a lap dance, but when Emily didn't leave, the whole thing became about putting on a show for her. I was a sick fuck that Emily watching had turned me on so much. When she'd run away, though, I worried I'd upset her.

And now here we were. Stuck, thanks to me.

"Are you going to move this elevator?" she asked again.

"I'm having way too much fun teasing you." I moved aside. "But if you want to push the button, go ahead. No one's been stopping you this entire time."

Much to my pleasure, she didn't budge.

"I have a question," I said.

"What?"

"Why did you really stay at the doorway when you could've just left the medicine? Was it shock? Or something more?"

She glared. "How about you tell me why you called for medicine to treat a fake allergy instead?"

I laughed guiltily. "You answer first."

She looked away a moment. "I was just curious, I guess. That's why I stayed."

That was probably as honest an answer as I was going to get. I decided to reciprocate. "And I called you to bring me medicine because I wanted to see you, not because I needed it."

Her cheeks reddened. "Oh."

"So…you were curious…" I pressed.

She shook her head. "It wasn't a voyeurism thing. At first I was in shock. Not sure why. I just assumed you were alone if you weren't feeling well. But then the shock wore off and…I don't know. I just…"

She seemed a little worked up. And though I was sort of getting off on that, I needed to pipe down. "You don't have to explain," I said. "I'm sorry for messing with you tonight."

"You're making me flustered, and I don't like it." She looked beyond my shoulder. "Shouldn't you be getting back to your friend in there?"

"She'll be fine."

Emily rolled her eyes. "If she has any self-respect, she'll be gone ."

"Let's hope she is." After a moment of silence, I added, "I wasn't going to have sex with her."

"I didn't need to know that."

"Well, you seemed to assume that was my intention, so I wanted to clarify. I'm sure it looked like that's where things were headed."

"Why would you start something if you weren't going to have sex with her?"

I didn't have an answer for that, since I couldn't admit the truth-that it had all been a show. That I'd done nothing but think about Emily lately. And sometimes, I fantasized about her sweet, innocent eyes looking up at me while I fucked her in ways she'd probably want me to go to hell for, even if I knew it could never happen.

"How are you feeling about tomorrow night?" she asked.

"Not very confident." I exhaled. "I told Ronan about my voice issues."

"You did?"

"Yeah, he brought it up. He was the first of the guys to do that, though apparently, he and Atticus had been talking about it behind my back. I told him the truth about the polyps on my vocal cords."

"I'm glad. I think the hardest part has probably been hiding what you're going through from them."

"He was cool about it. He wants to research things I can do while on tour. Knowing Ronan, he'll come back with some woo-woo shit he wants me to try or tell me I need to smoke pounds of weed."

"Well, sometimes you don't have anything to lose by trying out-of-the-box things. Though, not the pounds of weed necessarily." She laughed. "But maybe other unconventional stuff."

I wanted to ask if she would be into trying new things, too-namely, older men.

She gestured to the panel behind my shoulder. "Are we planning to move this elevator anytime soon? I already admitted why I stayed at the doorway. Not sure there's much more you're gonna get out of me tonight."

"If I hadn't stopped the elevator, you wouldn't have given me a chance to talk to you. I like your company."

"Well, you don't need to hold me captive to get it."

"The way you ran off tonight, I kind of did. Also, if I hadn't pulled the medicine excuse and just called you to hang out with me, would you have come to my room?"

"No," she answered emphatically.

"So I have to resort to creative ways to see you." I gestured to the panel. "Anyway, I've already pointed out that you can press the button anytime."

Emily looked over at it but didn't push. It pleased me to know that she was choosing to be here with me right now.

"Why do you like my company, anyway?" she asked. "You could get almost anyone to hang out with you…"

"When I'm with you I feel more like myself," I answered.

She blinked. "I don't know what to say…"

"You don't have to say anything about that at all. But I would like to know more about you, if you're willing to share."

She licked her beautiful, red lips. "What do you want to know?"

"Why haven't you posted on social media for over a year?"

She took a step back. "How the hell do you know that?"

"I googled you once."

"When?"

"The night you told me what happened with your mother's boyfriend."

Her bottom lip trembled. "You thought I was lying?"

"No, Emily. Not at all. It was just...more like a fascination with you. I wanted to know more but didn't want to upset you by asking for details. So I went in search of the information myself. That's it. I swear. I'm sorry if that seems intrusive."

Her voice shook. "I haven't posted because I don't have anything interesting to post."

I took a step closer to her. "Your last post was a photo of you and some guy. You alluded to missing him. What happened between you and him?"

Her breath hitched. Then she turned away.

Fuck. I'd struck a chord.

"I'd rather not talk about that," she murmured, her eyes filling with tears.

Nice going, asshole. First you trap her in an elevator. Now this. Why the hell did I have to pry? I wished I could take back my question. I placed my hand gently against her cheek. "I'm sorry I upset you."

Emily sniffled. "You didn't do anything. It's me."

"Yeah, but I brought up a subject that clearly triggered you. And I shouldn't have been so damn nosy." I wanted to hold her, but I knew that wouldn't be appropriate. Instead, I did what I should've done all along and pushed the damn button to move the elevator-not up to my room, but down to the ground floor.

"Thank you for setting me free." She smiled. "Even if this was oddly entertaining."

"Until I made you cry, yeah."

She wiped her eyes and laughed a little through her tears.

"Any chance I could convince you to come back upstairs with me?" I asked, holding both palms out. "I swear to God, I'm not insinuating anything. I just want to make you some tea and be sure you're okay."

Her forehead wrinkled. "You want me to hang out with you and your groupie up there?"

"I doubt she's still there. If she is, I'll kick her out."

"You're so respectful."

"I offer respect based on whether someone deserves it."

"Thanks, but I'm gonna head back to my room."

Good girl. I don't blame you.

Stay away.

"Okay."

She slipped the scrunchie off of my wrist. At first I thought she was taking it back, but instead she flung it at me playfully as the elevator doors opened.

Then she left without saying another word.

I held the doors open, smile plastered on my face and not even feeling guilty for how much I liked watching her ass as she walked away.