I sat down on the bed and stared at the rug at my feet. I was still pulsing, my heart pounding, blood thrumming through my body from the sex we’d just had on that rug. From that feeling—the feeling of coming, of plummeting right over that edge, because hemademe come. He made me come while he looked in my eyes. And the feeling of his kisses on my skin… The way his hands moved, so carefully, over mybody.
Sometime later, I heard the taxi pull in. And when the car pulled out of the driveway, when Seth was gone, I did something I hadn’t done since Jesse leftme.
Icried.
Chapter Twenty
Elle
Two dayslater I was sitting in a meeting with my band; a meeting about the next round of auditions we were planning. The meeting was at Brody’s house in North Vancouver, in his home office. Jessa wasn’t here, but the room was full. Besides Brody and myself, Maggie, Jesse and Dylan were here. Zane and Woo, who were still down in L.A., joined us via FaceTime on Brody’slaptop.
Brody and Woo had been screening more hopefuls, and apparently they still had a lot of options for us, including some promising guitarists who’d applied in the first round but hadn’t yet auditioned. It was quickly decided that we’d work a slightly less-aggressive schedule this time. Six days of auditions, which the network had agreed to pay for. Three days on, one day off, then three days onagain.
After that, we’d see where we were at, and consider going back to L.A., or possibly the east coast, on Dirty’sdime.
It seemed obvious that our best prospects, Johnny O’Reilly and Boz Bailey, were no longer being considered, since Brody hadn’t brought them up again. But I felt the need to askanyway.
“Where are we at with JohnnyO?”
“Johnny O’Reilly’s a prick,” Jesse said. “I can’t work with thatguy.”
He was right; Johnny O’Reilly was kind of a prick. But he also had a hell of a lot of fans, and would fit, musically, with Dirty. Besides that, I didn’t personally have a problem with him. “He’s always been nice to me,” Isaid.
“That’s because of what’s between your legs,” Zane said bluntly. “You don’t want that guy in theband.”
“I can handle Johnny O,” Isaid.
“No one wants him in but you, babe,” Zanecountered.
I sighed. If that’s the way it was, there was no chance. “Because I don’t have a problem withhim.”
“Yet,” Zanesaid.
“I do,” Jesse said at the exact samemoment.
Yeah; no chance. Johnny was clearly out of therunning.
I glanced at Dylan. He met my eyes and shrugged. “What about Boz?” he asked, though there was hardly anypoint.
“Boz Bailey isn’t welcome down south,” Brody said. “So he’sout.”
“Too bad,” Dylan said. “He’d begreat.”
“Not if he can’t be there for our American tour dates,” Brody replied. And we all let it lie; Boz clearly wasn’t gonna work. Not until he cleared up his issues with the U.S. government, and who knew when that would ever happen. We could hardly wait on himindefinitely.
We’d waited longenough.
“What about Seth?” Zaneasked.
Brody inhaled, long and slow, as the rest of us sat in silence… then exhaled just as slowly. “WhataboutSeth?”
“Just wondering, brother,” Zanesaid.
I met Brody’s eyes, and everything Jessa said to me over the phone—and right in front of Brody—replayed in mymind.
Seth Brothers is not a rapist, and he didn’tdoanything to me. So if you hear Brody or my brother say any such thing, you can tell themto—
“Seth won’t work,” Jesse said flatly. “So when do we start the auditions?” He posed the question to Brody, and Brody and Maggie got to work filling the rest of us in on the proposedschedule.
