He winced. “She would, too.”
“Oh, I know. Now, if you assholes, Kiana excluded, will excuse me, I have an intervention to make.”
Ignoring their laughter, I made my way over to Joz and Roman, who’d now been joined by London and my dad. I was only joking earlier about ‘the chat’, but I wouldn’t have put it past any of the men in my family to take a chance to embarrass me or Joz—preferably both—for their own amusement. When I got within earshot, however, the first thing I heard was London asking if he could have an advance copy of the album Joz had just finished recording.
I inserted myself into the group. “No, you can’t.”
As though it was the most normal thing in the world, Joz slid his arm around my waist and pulled me into his side. “The boss has spoken.”
London made a disgusted sound, Roman muttered, “Told you so,” and Dad…. Well, Dad simply looked at where Joz’s hand rested on my hip and nodded in approval.
“Come on, sis. We’re family,” London pleaded. “That comes with perks.”
“Since when? You can stream the album when it releases like the rest of the world.”
“That’s my girl.” Dad grinned, his gaze shifting from me to Joz. “Although it looks like I’ll be passing that moniker on pretty soon.”
“And this is where we make our exit.” I hooked my hand through Joz’s elbow and yanked him away from my family before Dad got all maudlin and embarrassed me further.
“You have an incredible family,” Joz said once I’d created a safe distance between us and them and found a quiet spot away from the rest of the guests.
“I’m sorry they’ve monopolized you.”
“I think it was the other way around.” He tucked my hair behind my ear, his fingers grazing my neck along the way. Goosebumps erupted everywhere he touched. “I couldn’t get enough of the stories they told about you.”
I groaned. “Great.”
“They were all harmless.” He flashed a grin. “Mostly.”
“I don’t want to know. Come on. Let’s find Mom and say goodnight. It’s getting late.”
“It’s not even eleven.”
“Like I said, late. I’m tired.” I stared at him pointedly.
An amused smile played around his lips. “Are you hoping to have your way with me again, Spitfire?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I plan to do.” I spied Mom on the far side of the living room chatting to her best friend, Babs. “Wait here, otherwise we’re never getting away. Babs has an eye for hot guys young enough to be her son.”
“Hot, huh? What other adjectives would you use to describe me?”
“Stop fishing for compliments.”
I headed over to the sound of Joz’s laughter behind me, and I could not strip the smile off my face. Asher was right. I’d fallen in love with a fucking rock star.
Not that I had any plans to tell Joz. He hadn’t made a single comment that would lead me to believe his feelings ran deeper than lust, and I wasn’t planning to voluntarily have my heart stomped on.
“Mom, I’m beat.” I yawned for effect. “I’ll make sure I see you before I leave in the morning.”
“You better had.” She hugged me and kissed me on both cheeks. “Don’t leave it so long next time. I miss my baby.”
“I’m twenty-eight, Mom.”
“Doesn’t matter. You’ll always be a baby to me. Wait until you have your own. Then you’ll understand.”
I nodded, seeing absolutely no point in ruining her birthday by telling her I had no plans to make babies. I wasn’t the mothering type. She had London and Roman for that, although neither of them had shown any interest in settling down either. Roman had been married once, briefly, but that ended years ago, and he hadn’t had a serious girlfriend since. As for London, he was having far too much fun playing the field to settle down.
“Aren’t you going to bring that fine man of yours over to say goodnight, Aspen?” Babs asked.
