Dangerous Hearts: Rock Star Romance, 1 (Lyric & Wolf) (14 page)

12:19
AM
 
Wolf
:
Please

He’s just confused. And drunk. That’s
all. People don’t change overnight, and men who love to play the field
certainly don’t decide monogamy is for them the moment they meet
the one
. That’s a fairytale. I don’t
believe in fairytales. I believe in strength and happiness and loving yourself.
Wolf is no knight in shining armor. He’s not going to swoop in and fix my
fucked
-
up insecurities. No. If I’m not
careful, he will completely ruin me
,
and I’ll
be left on the curb mending yet another broken heart.

Convinced that I finally have my shit
figured out, I power off my phone and
close
my
eyes, giving my racing heart a few minutes to relax before finally drifting off
to sleep.

Wolf

I
hate the chase. Fucking
hate
it, but there’s one thing
I hate more
.
R
ejection.
What the fuck?
How did we get here?
It’s been two weeks since
our
orgasm-a-thon
,
and we haven’t spoken a word outside of
conversations about the tour
.
E
ven those are brief and cold
—
like my showers lately.

Every attempt I’ve made
to
get Lyric alone has been skillfully
thwarted
. It seems as if Crawley is on her team
,
too. The rare moments I spot her alone, targeting
her with my eyes before moving in, Crawley is pulling me in a different
direction. I get
that
he doesn’t want the
distraction, but it’s my life, my band, my tour, my
crew .
 . .
his job description doesn’t include being a
cockblock
.

If I’m honest with myself, I haven’t made
the grandest of attempts to get Lyric alone
to
talk to her. My ego is still bruised by the words she left me with. I could let
her in. Tell her things. If she only knew what my life was like before she
walked into that elevator and how vastly different I want it to be now, she
wouldn’t be so quick to judge. I
never used to
think twice about hurting a girl’s feelings. All I cared about was making my
intentions clear so I could justify my actions.

What Lyric once said
about one-night stands
turn
ed
out to be completely true. I see that now.
O
ne
person
always has
expectations coming out of
it. Sex
is
rarely just sex. Even I know that.
But I never cared before because I was never the one
getting
hurt. Sex has never meant anything more than pure fucking pleasure for me, but
now it seems I’m getting a taste of my own medicine.

Lyric may be the only woman I’ll ever
want to claim as my own. She’s the only one who
makes
me crazy
at the thought of another guy touching her
.
Like now, as I star
e
at her from across my
dressing room
while
she laugh
s
with a guy from security. The same asshole who
's
made it known to the crew
the dirty
thoughts he has
about
Lyric. I want to pummel him. Smash his face into a wall and carry her to our
tour bus
so I can
remind her how my mouth
feels on her delicious cave.

Stryder hands me a shot
,
and I throw it back without thinking. We all drink
a little before getting up on stage but save the real partying for after the
show if we’re not taking off for a new town right away. We’re in Gilford, New
Hampshire tonight and have the night off before heading to Columbus, Ohio first
thing in the morning. Which means tonight, we drink.

Lyric’s eyes meet mine from across the
room. She’s
midlaugh
, looking gorgeous as ever
with
my face plastered
on
her breasts. I think she wear
s
that shit on
purpose. Seeing a hot girl in my clothes is always a turn
on, but Lyric kills the competition. Her innocent
eyes search mine briefly before turning back to the security dude. I stand to
go to her, but she’s already making her exit.

Those little glances she’s been throwing
my way recently tell me this isn’t over. Whatever wall she’s put up is starting
to crumble. Maybe she needed the past two weeks to help her realize this
attraction isn’t going to fade. She has to know there’s been no one else in the
time we’ve spent apart.

Lyric is still mine.

I’ll get to the bottom of her resistance
,
and I’ll fix this. There’s no other fucking
option.

The
backstage traffic is heavy tonight
. Concert security
surrounds me
as they clear a controlled
walking path
. Head of security, a big bald dude who I wouldn’t even mess
with, leads us toward a waiting area just before the stage
.
Fans are lined up against the cement-block walls, screaming,
reaching for me, begging for autographs, and trying to snap photos. Lights are
popping off, faces become spotty, and I hear the roar.

The waiting crowd is already chanting my
name as they wait eagerly for my howl—that never gets old—and my adrenaline is now
pumping triple
speed.

Chaos surrounds me, yet I see her. One
glance at Lyric standing on the sidelines causes me to shift my attention. My
heart stops. Even with the screaming crowd ahead of me, she’s what I want.

“Over there,” I yell to Rex. I point to
Lyric and he nods.

Rex takes over the lead, forcing security
to follow until I’m right where I want to be. Directly in front of Lyric. I lean
in and brush my lips across her cheek and stop at her ear. “Can we talk? After
the show?”

Her eyes are as wide as saucers, but she
nods.

I smile, loving that I still have an
effect on her. With a quick nip at her ear, I continue the walk to the stage to
join my band. I don’t care who just saw my
dis
play
of affection. Hopefully everyone. Most won’t think anything of it, and the ones
who care don’t matter. All that matters
is
ending this
silence between us.

One thing is
certain
as I cross the backstage gap from the hallway to the stage and hear the crowd
noise escalate at the opening chords of our intro
—t
his
is going to be a great fucking show.

Three songs in, I speak to the crowd,
introduce the band, and kick off
“
Dangerous
Heart.
”
It’s been a hit since the San Diego
show, but now that the song is officially
ours
,
the label has been eating that shit up and promoting it
like crazy
on social media. We’re recording it at the end of the
E
ast
C
oast tour,
which will make for a tired-ass week. It was supposed to be our week off. We
rarely get breaks on tour, but when recording get jammed into the schedule
,
that means less sleep and higher stress for all. I
don’t think any of us care
,
though. We’re
excited to release it officially and celebrate our next hit.

“This song you should all fucking know by
now. If you don’t, well, pay attention. I stumbled upon these lyrics
,
and somehow, magically, they became ours. You know
those people in life
who
do things because
they love them? Not for the money, not for the fame, but because they have a
passion for something? Those people are rare. The writer of this song wants to
remain anonymous
,
but I’ll have you know,
she’s the best thing that
's
stepped into my
life. Maybe one day you’ll get to meet her, but for now, this song is called
‘
Dangerous Heart.
’ ”

I lock eyes with Lyric during the song
the way
I do every single night. She’s always on the
side stage, mad at me or not, supporting the band, supporting me. After the
show
,
I have every intention of showing her,
not telling her, what that means to me.

Somehow
the backstage crowd
has
tripled by the time we
end our last song. I’m surrounded by security as they part the way, Rex on my
tail.

“Who the fuck invited all these people
back here?” I explode when I’m in my dressing room. We couldn’t get out the
back entrance due to an even bigger crowd outside.

“They’re clearing it now. We can leave in
ten,” Crawley says, pacing. “I’ll talk to Lyric.”

My eyes narrow darkly at him. There he
goes again. His problem with Lyric is fucking pissing me off. “You and I both
know this isn’t Lyric’s doing. How many passes did the label hand over to the
radio stations? I want to know whose fault this is. It makes me look like an
asshole when I can’t even stop to talk to my fans. I can’t even see them beyond
security. It’s not their fault they were all handed badges. They expect to see
me.”

“So what do you want to do?” Crawley
asks, annoyance in his voice. His
uncontrolled
stress
levels and
finger
-pointing grates on my last
nerve. He needs to be dealt with.

“I can set up a meet and greet,” a voice
calls from across the room. Lyric entered at some point and
now
stands there, calm as ever. “We can have security
keep the line moving so it doesn’t take too long
,
but at least you’ll get to see some of your fans.”

“Okay,” I say immediately.

Crawley’s jaw is ticking
,
and I can’t for the life of me understand what he
has against Lyric. “Fine, but this is on you to set up
.
”
H
e narrows his eyes at her.

She shrugs. “I said I would.” Without
missing a beat, as always, she pulls out her phone and makes a few phone calls
to the promotion teams at the radio stations
before
radio
ing
the head of security to meet her in
my dressing room.

For
the hour it takes to set everything up
and usher the crowds to a private room, my thoughts are all on Lyric. I’m a
jumble when I think about what I want to say to her, wondering
how
I can possibly convince her I’m not a bad guy.
And although I’ve never been interested in a relationship with anyone before,
she makes me want something different. Something more.

Lyric
leads
me into the private room they’ve set up. I’m happy to see my band here with me.
As much as I want this over sooner than it started, it will be good for our
fans. They’ve supported us since our
early days
four years ago
,
and it’s because of them that
we’ve catapulted into headliners. The days of being an open
ing band
are
far
gone. We want to thank the
fans
whenever we
get a chance.

She stops at the table and turns to me,
apparently
surprised
at
how close I am. I smile; she looks away, but I catch the flicker of sadness.
Whatever the reason
for
her avoidance, it
cracks the surface of my normally ice cold heart. Okay, I’ve never been
heartless, but I’ve never cared to be understood
,
either
. Until Lyric.