Rhett stared for a moment, and this time I didn’t shift awkwardly under his gaze. The fabric of his shirt was still warm against my skin and smelled of him, the spice of his aftershave with underlying smoke. It was weirdly intimate and did nothing to quell the building attraction between us.
“So… what now?” I asked, breaking the tension before I could do something stupid. Like blow him.
He gave me another lingering look, then swept a hand over his messy turquoise hair. “Uh, I’m supposed to go get you set up with our crew. If that’s still cool with you? Because I’mmorethan happy to just hide you in my room.”
I grinned, appreciative of the offer. “Nah, I was serious before. I’mhappyto work in exchange for your help. Although I have no idea what yourcleaning creweven does, given you’re on a road tour.”
Pushing my feet back into my worn-out shoes, I followed Rhett out of his room. The living area was empty save for Aquaman—Gray—who seemed to be in exactly the same seat as earlier. He wore big noise-canceling headphones with his head resting on the back of the sofa. His eyes were shut, but the drumsticks in his hands beat out a silent tune on his thigh, indicating he was awake.
“That’s Grayson,” Rhett told me, jerking a thumb toward the big guy as we passed before exiting the penthouse suite entirely. “As for the cleaning crew, uh, you’ve got a good point. Each venue has its own staff whoclean.On top of that we have a massive stage crew who drive the multitude of trucks to each venue. You have no fucking idea how many people and how much crap it takes to put a tour on, even a grassroots one. But there’s a smaller cleaning crew for the tour buses. We had a security incident a few years ago, and us musicians are nothing if not superstitious. So, for the sake of our own paranoia, we keep our personal cleaning crew small.”
The elevator arrived, and Rhett swiped his card to access one of the lower floors. Much,muchlower.
“And this exclusive cleaning crew just happens to have an opening?” I wrinkled my nose at him. “How convenient.”
He cracked a smile. “Trust me, it would have been more convenient if theydidn’thave an opening. Then I would have an excuse to keep you all to myself until we reach New York.”
Holy shit. I could have sworn the temperature in the elevator just ratcheted up by twenty degrees because suddenly my palms were sweating. Maybe that was my excuse for the way I shifted closer to Rhett, tipping my head back to meet his… eyes. Yeah. Eyes. I was just trying to makeeye contact.
The elevator ding and slide of the doors jolted us both out of the little trance we’d slipped into.
Fuck. Had we been about to kiss? That would have gone downgreatwith Jace.
“Stupid, fast elevators,” Rhett grumbled under his breath, taking my hand in a casually intimate gesture as he led me down the corridor.
My cheeks were so hot they had to be red, and I was grinning like a love-sick fool behind him. I needed to get my shit under control before I embarrassed myself. Rhett probably had girls throwing themselves at him every time he left the hotel; I didn’t need to become one of them. A groupie.
Rhett stopped in front of a door and knocked a couple of times. A yawning, dark-haired woman, maybe in her mid-thirties or slightly older, answered and didn’t look surprised.
“This is her, then?” She asked the question of Rhett but was already looking at me from head to toe. “She looks like a groupie.”
Rhett gave a small growl. “She’s wearing Flo’s clothes, so careful what you say, Dora.”
The woman, Dora, just flashed him a grin. “Calm down, Silver. You got a name, hon?”
I nodded, pasting on a polite smile. “Yeah, I’m Billie B—uh, Billie Thorn. Nice to meet you.” I put my hand out for Dora to shake, and Rhett gave a small sigh. He nodded, though, so I suspected I’d just passed some kind of test.
“I’m Dora, team leader. Let’s go introduce you to your roommate, Kristie.” She stepped out of the room, starting down the hall once more.
Rhett was frowning, though. “She’s sharing with Kristie? I thought—”
“You thought we could magically make a vacant room appear in this sold-out hotel?” Dora cut him off, tossing a skeptical look over her shoulder. “Or did you forget the mighty Bellerose is playing in Siena tonight.The town it all began in.Half the city is booked out for the concert.” Her sarcasm wasthick,and it made me like her instantly.
I grinned, giving Rhett’s hand a squeeze. “It’s fine,Zep. I would happily sleep in a bathtub if it meant getting out of here unnoticed.”
His expression remained tight, but his lips twitched at my teasing name for him. “It’s only for a few days,” he murmured. “I’ll push the lawyers to work faster.”
I shrugged. “It’s already Friday; you and I both know they won’t do shit until next week. It’s fine, though. Seriously.” Okay, we both knew that theBelleroselawyers were likely on call twenty-four-seven but I’d bet my panties that Tom told them not to hurry.
Dora gave us a curious look, then rapped her knuckles on another door. The three of us stood there, waiting, but no one answered. Dora heaved a sigh and knocked harder.
Eventually, a half-asleep girl maybe my age, or a touch younger, answered the door. “Fuck, Dora, do you know what time it is?”
“Yes, I do. And I don’t care if I woke you up. This is Billie; she’s your new roommate.”
The girl yawned, scrubbing a hand over her face. Then her eyes widened when she saw Rhett. She looked from Rhett to me, then down to where his hand still held mine… and her eyes narrowed.
“Billie,” she repeated, her gaze returning to my face with a touch of…venom. “How fun.”
