“Do we now?”
“Yeah, but you know I won’t let anyone else on the bus with us. Right? Then I get to keep my promise to use my tongue to write lyrics as we travel from town to town.” His voice drops lower, his scent thickens so much it tickles my skin. “And I’ve got lots of songs that need writing, Sin. I never get those damn lyrics right the first time either. Such a bummer.”
I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to stem off the sudden rushof fire burning through my blood. The thought alone of him buried face deep in me for hours is a good one.
I push him away. Gently. “Ryder, no offense, but I think you might need to go work somewhere else.”
I feel his laughter vibrating through his back and into my chest. “No chance, Sin. I’ll be good while you make your calls, and then I’m pretty sure I heard Hen’s idea of…”
Then it’s Ryder’s turn to get silenced by my hand on his mouth. I leave it there until his scent stops smelling like honey-dipped sex.
Reaching over with my spare hand, I drag the work he brought placing it on his lap before I hold my phone up in front of his face as I power it up.
The mood between us shifts when alert after alert hits.
My light-hearted happiness starts to dissolve the more sounds my phone makes. He scoops an arm around my leg, holding me tight. Without saying a word I know he’s letting me know he’s here for me.
I flick through the screen, somewhat relieved that the alerts aren’t as important as I initially thought. The most concerning is from the chat the girls and I are in; Heidi has been offline too long. I scroll back through the chat, catching up on what’s been happening while I was in heat, grimacing at the message I sent saying I was ‘indisposed’. The girls are going to give me so much grief for that comment, I mean it’s not great.
I barely finish reading another thread between Tristan and Raney, both of them also chatting about Heidi and not being able to get through, when my phone lights up. Tristan’s details flash on my screen.
“Far out, Rye, do I look okay?” I ask, suddenly worried about how I’m going to spin where I am, and what I’ve been doing. Indisposed is never going to cut it for the girls. Seriously, what the hell was I thinking?
Ryder moves so fast my head is spinning. But in a couple of experienced moves, he has my hair straightened out, my face looking fresh. My surprise must be written on my face. He smiles as he answers. “I’m a pro at this, don’t forget. Getting ready for promo in a few seconds is a necessity in my line of business. I had a stylist working with me because I had to also deal with the makeup and costume, but it’s easy when you know the basics. Hendrix likes to test I’m still at the top of my game getting ready in a flash, which gives Dominic heart palpitations, but…” He smirks as he keeps running his hand over my hair and face.
Tristan’s call nearly rings out, but I give us an extra few seconds by requesting a FaceTime call with her instead.
She accepts my call, and the way her phone jerks around, almost the same as mine does, doesn’t make me suspicious, it makes me feel relieved. We’ve all got secrets but that doesn’t stop us being there for each other. I definitely want to tell the girls I’m packed, because holy heck, plus I want them to meet Ryder, Dominic and Hendrix as soon as we can. But until the emancipation is done and Brody is dealt with, I’m not prepared to. Also, there’s no way I’m telling the girls something so momentous and amazing in our thread. It needs to happen face to face.
The call barely connects, and Tristan is talking. “Any news?”
Typical Tris. Which is a relief, and lets me know in a roundabout way, she’s safe and happy.
I smile, for her benefit but also to let Dominic and Hendrix know I’m on the phone so they don’t start talking as they walk back in. “Hello, I’m well, thanks for asking.”
Tristan might be okay but she’s certainly up to something. My suspicion increases when she keeps talking a mile a minute as she wiggles around, trying for subtlety but I’m pretty sure she’s never been subtle. She’s trying to undress, orhide something, and a flash of a snow jacket appears before it disappears. And then as a way to hide her slip up, Tristan starts somehow talking even faster. Typical Tristan avoidance strategy.
“Are you okay, Sim? I knew you would be which is why I’ve left you alone, not bothering you too much, but the other not exciting news is that I got caught in a storm! And… I may have just smoked, so go easy.”
Dominic walks across the room, his briefcase in hand. “Sounds like fun,” I answer Tristan belatedly. In my defence, I was getting lost in what Dom and I were talking about before. I have to shake myself to stay present, and my pack obviously see my struggle and they chuckle quietly, knowing I’m fighting a losing battle.
Before I get a chance to say anything either of them, I try adding Heidi to the chat. And it works.
“Wow! Hang on. I think I got through to her.” I juggle a few different conversations at the one time.
“Put her through!” Tristan demands.
I ignore her dramatics, focusing on patching Heidi into our chat without losing the connection.
All the while my mates are distracting me. Simply by breathing if I’m honest.
And because of them, and the stress of being the one to coordinate everything, I don’t notice Raney’s already in a call with Heidi, so when the connection works all we get is the reverberation of Raney’s screams. My phone nearly goes flying through the roof.
That stops Dom and Hendrix dead in their tracks. I laugh at my mates; the girls miss it. Interestingly, Tristan acts even weirder when Raney’s face appears in our four-way video chat. I’m the only one to notice it but that’s nothing new in our group dynamic where the girls are the energy. I watch their antics quietly and from a safer distance.
Tristan steals the attention. “Did you keep the kittens?”
Raney’s face twists into a grimace when Heidi lifts up a kitten, and it gives Tristan another chance to keep covering her tracks—diversion 101.
