Anytime we hosted a party, we had security monitoring these stairs. Guests were not allowed up unless accompanied by one of us. Connor and her stupid boyfriend occupied the last bedroom.
Fucking perfect.
Tonight, that annoying little prat would be the one slipping between those gorgeous thighs, and there wasn’t a goddamn thing I could do about it.
She opened Calum’s door, and with every step toward it he grew heavier, bogging both Evan and I down until we had no choice but to shove him onto the mattress fully clothed.
Connor set the water bottle down on his nightstand, leaning forward just enough for her cleavage to swell out of her dress for half a second before she straightened. I swallowed hard, my mouth watering from the tantalizing sight.
Fucking Evan snickered, catching me, and I scowled, picking up Calum’s heavy legs and dropping them onto the mattress.
Connor moved around, completely unaware of the effect she had on me. She paused beside me to pull her brother’s shoes off. I froze, every fucking nerve in my body tuned in to her closeness—feeling her. I stepped back automatically, hoping the distance would break the spell, but it didn’t.
It just gave me a better view of her ass as she wrestled with the blankets under her brother. Throughout all of this Calum didn’t move, and Evan didn’t stop quietly laughing to himself—until Connor turned with a frown. Then his expression sobered, and he straightened.
“Well, I think you two have this handled. I’ve still got a lot of party in me, so I’m heading back down. Catch ya guys there, maybe,” he said, eyes sliding to me for a moment, his grin carrying a mischievous glint before he disappeared from Calum’s room and my sight.
Leaving Connor and me alone.
Sort of. Calum’s drunken snores penetrated the quiet, and she shared a small smile with me when I helped her free the sheets by lifting up his lower half. She pulled the sheets up, tucking him in. We left his room, and I paused in the hallway, tugging the door closed behind me.
Connor waited in the darkened empty hallway; her face turned to me expectantly. I could feel the warmth of her body, and her close proximity to me had every nerve ending wired for sound. Every part of me wanted to close what little distance separated us and touch her, kiss her, but I stood…frozen in place. The way she peered up at me, with eyes wide and brows a little pinched with concern, stole my breath. “He’s drinking more, isn’t he?”
Jaw ticking, I forced my gaze away from her face to the closed door. Calum’s snores could still be heard, muffled behind the thick wood. I nodded, taking a step away from it. She followed, keeping in step with me.
“Is he doing drugs?” she asked, as if terrified of the answer. Early on in our career, about a year or so in, Calum went almost completely off the rails. He’d been using drugs, booze, and women as a means to try and move on from what happened back home.
Evan and I couldn’t stand seeing him like that, and it wasn’t good for the band, so we had a quiet intervention and made Calum spend a few months at a rehabilitation facility up north.
Cal said he hated it, but I think he secretly enjoyed it. He practically wrote our next album while there and he came back changed. He still drank, but only when we had events happening. He said he couldn’t be sober and deal with “people and their bullshit,” but he’d stayed away from the hard drugs…which is all we could ask of him at this point.
“No. I mean, he smokes a shit ton of weed, but he hasn’t touched coke in almost four years now. You don’t need to worry, Connor. We’re taking care of him.”
“I appreciate it, and I know everyone else does too. Gramps thinks if he would just come home for a few days, then he would see…” she trailed off and glanced over her shoulder at his door.
I nodded in agreement. Calum used work as an excuse to stay as far away from Lunenburg as he could.
Mostly, it was because of his estranged relationship with his dad. They hadn’t spoken a word directly to each other in years. But it was more than that, Calum didn’t seem to be able to face his ex, Harper. I think he was afraid to go home and find she’d moved on, just like he thought he’d wanted.
“We’ll get him back soon. Even if we have to knock him out first,” I replied, feeling the heaviness of guilt on my chest. I was no better than he was, letting him keep staying away when I could have just as easily insisted we go back more. I figured he wasn’t ready to do that.
My mom still worked and had her friends, but I was her only family left, and I knew I should visit her more than I had been. Evan also had family in town still, but as the second oldest of five boys and two girls, he often felt like his parents and siblings didn’t notice his extended absences and had no qualms about staying away.
We were both worried that going back would push Calum the rest of the way into the darkness of his regrets, because a visit with his father would likely never result in settling their differences, but maybe he needed the closure.
I made a subconscious promise to myself that I’d start going back more, and drag the rest of the guys back too. Even Calum. If he had to crash on the couch at my mom’s place, so be it. His method of dealing with the situation—as in, never dealing with it—clearly wasn’t working.
Her hand came to rest on my elbow, and I swallowed heavily, eyes lifting to hers. Even such a simple, casual touch from her made my body buzz with how good it felt. Those beautiful lips I fought against tasting lifted into a smile that twisted a phantom knife in my heart.
“Mom would love that. She misses him so much. Just don’t tell her you had to knock him out to get him there.” She laughed, the sound of it was music to my ears. She stepped away, moving toward the stairs, my eyes hungrily following Connor’s fluid body as she walked away. It was impossible not to look, especially when I had the opportunity.
Her slender hand reached for the railing, and she glanced over her shoulder at me, catching me perusing her. I forced my face to fall blank and unreadable, thankful the dark hallway hid how she really affected me. “You coming, Dare?”
“I’ll meet you down there.” I needed a minute—a minute to breathe air that wasn’t infused with her scent—to remind myself she wasn’t mine to touch and to keep my fucking distance. It was harder to remember the line I couldn’t cross when she stood so close.
“Okay.” She smiled, her slender hand running along the railing as she made her descent.
Letting out a deep breath I hadn’t been aware I was holding, I stomped toward my bedroom.
