“It’s rum and raisin, not chocolate chip, and seeing as you have picked all the raisins out of your trail mix for the last two days, it seems like a poor choice.”
Swallowing with a grimace, Tatum placed the rest of the treat on the table, muttering something that sounded like “You seem like a poor choice.”
Turning back to our lead singer with a smile that meant trouble, she sidled closer until he took a step back to avoid body contact.
“You seem particularly interested in my eating habits. Careful, I might start to think you like me.”
His scowl was instant, and I barely suppressed a chuckle at his discomfort, but he rallied quickly.
“I don’t want you thinking you can get anything by me. Try to pull something on us, and I’ll know. I see everything.”
“Are you two going to fuck, or should we let the VIPs in?” I asked just to fuck with them. And maybe a little because the sexual tension was making me feel left out.
“Fuck off, De Beaux,” Calix snarled, predictably, as Tatum moved toward the door to give the okay to the security staff.
“Naww, did I interrupt your special time with the boss?” I cooed, dodging his elbow with a laugh.
“Harvey,” Otis warned, reaching up and pulling me down onto the sofa with him. “Behave, please,” he muttered as Calix moved to the single seat lounge so no one could sit near him.
Tobias disappeared into the attached bathroom, likely to top up on the coke, though maybe he’d start on the downers since the show was finished for the night. Tatum noticed his absence immediately as she guided the first set of fans into the room and introduced each of us before slipping away to retrieve our wayward drummer. Otis pushed up from his seat to go with her, but a look from our manager was all it took for him to turn his attention back to the frumpy teen boy beside him.
“Harvey De Beaux, you’re my idol.” A young girl with braces and freaking pigtails stood in front of me, her eyes shining with hero worship. I pasted a smile on my face and crouched so we could see each other eye to eye.
“Thanks, kid. You play guitar?”
She nodded enthusiastically and started to tell me in detail about her classic guitar coach, and how she had been promised a new Maton Blackwood acoustic if she got good grades for the school year.
This was the thing about VIP passes. They were expensive. Which meant you could guarantee the only people who could afford them were entitled brats who had never had a day of hardship in their lives. Was I making assumptions? Hell yeah, but I couldn’t find it in me to care. As the girl continued to talk—it seemed like she was on some tangent about school—I took the opportunity to eye her chaperone. Young. Early twenties, maybe? Which meant she was a sister. Or maybe a young mom. Millennials looked crazy young these days. I wasn’t fussed either way, since what was important was the interest I saw in her eyes. While the young girl looked at me with hero worship, the chaperone was eyeing me in a whole other way.
“Hey, have you met Calix yet?” I asked, waving her toward our lead singer and fellow guitarist.
The girl’s eyes lit up, and she bounced toward the surly fuck, conveniently leaving me with…
“I missed your name,” I said, stepping in toward her before someone else could speak to me.
She grinned, her eyes sweeping over me as she answered. I didn’t bother paying attention to what she said; instead, I watched her closely as I intentionally moved well inside her personal space.
“Feel like having an extra special VIP experience with me?”
She licked her lips, eyes darting toward her sister who had made it to the front of the Calix fan club.
“She won’t even know you’re gone.” I let my lips linger against the shell of her ear, enjoying the way her shoulders hiked in a shudder.
“Okay.” The word was little more than a breath, but it was the approval I needed to take her hand and draw her toward the bathroom Tobias had used earlier to feed his habit.
At the doorway, I did my own quick sweep of the room. Tatum was whispering urgently in the ear of a spaced-out Tobiaswhile Otis chatted with the same kid from before. Calix was surrounded by preteens who all seemed to have missed his personal space memo. With a wicked grin, I pulled the girl inside and shut the door on the VIP circus.
“I never do this,” she said as I gripped her hair and pulled her mouth toward mine.
“I know, baby.”
Her lips tasted like watermelon when I took them in a hard kiss, gauging how far I’d be able to take this. Some girls were freaks from the get go. Like Lainey. Others wanted to play at being good girls for a while first.
“I don’t.”
I paused, pulling back to give her my best earnest expression.
“If you want to stop, we stop. I’m not judging you. But you’re stunning, and I didn’t want to miss my chance with you.”
