Redeeming You (Before You #2)(21)
“How many days are we on the bus?” she asked.
“Four or five and then we have two nights in the hotel.” He twisted her hair around his finger just as he twisted her heart around his finger.
“That’s a long time,” she said, leaning into his hand, his gentleness making her throat tight with longing.
“I didn’t think so a few minutes ago, but now that I see you staring at me with that adorable, slightly puzzled look on your face, I’m starting to agree.” He shook his head. “You’re right. Being around you without being able to touch you or kiss you will be torture.”
Stepping away from him to gain some small but imperative space, she broke eye contact as she chewed on the inside of her lip until it felt raw. It was a nervous habit she hated, but she could never seem to stop herself.
“Tay, who hurt you?” He stared at her with an intensity that contradicted his normal carefree attitude and charismatic smile. It penetrated her heart, the same heart that she promised to shield and protect at any cost. Cam was much deeper and more complex than anyone gave him credit for. Sadly, this was the first time she saw it, and it sucked her in like nothing else could have done.
Her mom, Miles—too many people. She wanted to reply in answer to his question, but she didn’t. It wasn’t his business and she wasn’t Cam’s responsibility. Besides, nobody wanted to hear about the ugliness of her life, not even her. It was easier to wrap it up with a nice little bow and pretend that it never happened.
“It’s not worth talking about, especially tonight, when you just finished such a brilliant performance. You looked sexy out there,” she prevaricated hoping to change the subject without exposing the broken puzzle pieces of her heart.
He didn’t say anything for a few tense prolonged seconds. Then he smiled faintly. “Maybe someday,” he said studying her reaction a little too closely for her comfort.
“Maybe,” she answered shrugging noncommittally. Unless she wanted a cold empty life, trust had to start somewhere, but she didn’t know if she wanted to gamble on Cam. His history confirmed that he was too much of a risk for someone like her.
Lifting their entwined hands, he kissed the top of her hand softly. “I hope so.”
For anyone else, it would have been a cheesy gesture, but from him it was sexy and too disarming for her own good.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Five days later, Taylor couldn’t wait to get off the bus. Sleeping in tightly stacked bunks with very little privacy had her standing near the door of the bus, ready to jump off the minute it stopped, maybe before if she could pry the door open.
If it weren’t for the flashing lights of Las Vegas, she wouldn’t have any idea where they stopped this time. The last five days had been a blur. She vaguely remembered stopping in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Salt Lake City, Utah and maybe somewhere in Arizona, but when they went from venue to venue without seeing anything but miles of highway in between, everything started to look the same.
Luckily, she didn’t have to deal with any groupies on the bus. Jax had Bre and they slept on their own bus. Her brother…well, she didn’t think he’d ever bring anyone around, at least not while she was on the bus. Marcus had his own groupie madness that didn’t include letting any of them step foot on the bus. He routinely chatted up a few women after a performance and then he’d disappear for an hour or two. The guys joked that rather than being a one-night guy, he could only stand a woman for as long as it took to get him off. She didn’t know Marcus’ story. On the surface, he seemed happy, superficial and easygoing, but she suspected more happened in his head than he allowed others to see. Even his appearance was a contradiction. He looked more like someone who worked on Wall Street than someone who played bass in a band.
And Cam…Cam surprised her. He laughed with guys after the show and avoided every temptation in sight. Unfortunately, she suspected he considered her a temptation, and while he treated her with respect, he hadn’t tried to kiss her or touch her in days. She missed it and that realization gutted her.
The label was happy, the band was happy, but she felt strangely bereft, and it was a feeling she didn’t enjoy. It was crazy, but she missed Cam even though she hardly knew him. With each passing minute of impersonal politeness he projected in her direction over the last five days, she refortified the armor around her heart and she became colder and more reserved than ever before. She made sure they were never alone—not even for a second—because she suspected that’s all it would take for him to claw his way under her defenses again. It was fine. She didn’t need Cam, or anyone else for that matter. She could deal with being alone.
She sighed when the driver opened the bus door. Thank God. A three-day stretch in Las Vegas meant her own hotel room, a lot more privacy and seventy—two hours to readjust her feelings toward Cam before they swallowed her whole.
As she walked through the automatic door to the hotel, she felt a hand at the center of her back and she shivered, already sensing to whom that hand belonged. The heat from his hand penetrated her thin gray cotton dress, and part of her wanted to lean into his touch to absorb every molecule of that forbidden heat, even though he had ignored her for days.
She quickened her pace to the hotel reception desk. Even with his evident indifference toward her recently, she suspected she lacked the kind of willpower essential to resisting Cam.