Broken and Screwed 2 (BS #2)(41)

“Braden!” she growled.

“Shut up,” a low warning came from beside me.

A guy was on the ground with a guitar in his lap. His shoulders were being rubbed how mine were, but instead of Jesse, he got a blonde bombshell. Her hair was sun streaked and instead of the flannel shirt Bri wore, this girl only wore a black tank top. It resembled more of a tube top as it rested high on her stomach and barely covered her cle**age. Tight black shorts disappeared in her lawn chair as her golden legs wrapped around the guy in front of her.

Jesse chuckled and gray eyes shifted over to us. A menacing look was in them. I felt blasted with his coldness, but it didn’t have the same effect on Jesse. He cursed at him, “Stuff it, Luke.”

The drummer, identified as Braden now, pumped a hand in the air. He held two drumsticks in it. “Yeah, Hunt! You tell him.”

Bri’s lip curled up. “Just what we need, two superstars getting in a fight.”

A guy in the back commented, “It’d be good publicity.”

As they continued to tease Jesse and the guy beside me, I was even more jolted to recognize the lead singer of Braille. I hadn’t put two and two together. My gaze had skipped over him and I assumed Luke Skeet was elsewhere.

As I studied him, he sent a withering look across the fire to Bri, whose gaze cooled at his first growl and she lifted her beer. An eyebrow went up, defiantly, and she took a long slow swallow from her can. His head moved down a notch as he glared at her, but he seemed riveted by what he was seeing.

She caught me staring and winked.

Maybe I should’ve been flustered. Maybe I should’ve been embarrassed. I wasn’t. I grinned back and then caught a beer that was tossed in my lap.

“Jeezus, Hunt. Your date’s probably parched by now. Good manners.”

His fingers dug into my skin, but a low chuckle was his only response.

I risked a peek over my shoulder, but found myself in my own riveted state. His gaze had darkened and smoldered down at me. My throat went dry. My legs began to throb in answer.

I didn’t know who moved first. It might’ve been me or it might’ve been the shift in his fingers, but we moved as one unit. I was transferred from the ground and into his lap. As I laid my head against his chest and his arm wrapped around me, one of the guys asked, “Hunt, you ever going to introduce us? This is the second time you’ve brought her around.”

His arms tightened. He growled, “You’ve got a girl in your own lap, Emerson. Pay attention to that one.”

“Yeah, pay attention to me.”

“Fine, Hunt. Rude, but fine.”

I grinned as I settled in Jesse’s lap. Bri sent me another wink from across the fire. She lifted her beer can in salute. Reciprocating the motion, we both broke out in grins. Jesse’s chest lifted up and down underneath me in a big yawn. As the night wore on, we didn’t talk much. I remained on his lap and the guys continued to talk for the rest of the evening. Bands changed for background music and every now and then, one of the guys would disappear from the group. They’d come back with a tray full of food. I realized each campfire made their own food and people were encouraged to share with each other. It wasn’t until the end of the night, after I’d had too many beers, that the guys began to grow restless. A break in bands started and they stood, one by one.

It was their turn.

Jesse pressed a kiss to my forehead and soothed some strands from my forehead.

And then Braille took to the stage.

It wasn’t fast and energizing like most of their usual music. When Luke gripped the microphone and started singing, this was new music. His voice was a smooth and gravelly. It was caressing and seductive in the same manner.

His eyes were trained on our camp, on Bri, who was looking down at her lap the entire time. Her eyes were closed tight and she was biting her lip. She glanced up once, saw me staring again, and brushed away a tear before she turned to the side in her chair.

In that look, I understood. It resonated deep in me for reasons I didn’t want to acknowledge. This girl was in love and it was haunting her.

I drew in a shuddering breath and Marissa’s voice came back to me. “I’m sorry about your parents. I knew what they were doing to you.”

Pain sliced me and then I heard Luke’s voice in the background.

With tears streaming down, I look up with my head tilted to the sky. Looking, searching, eyes on a quest, but I’m unseeing, the clouds everywhere. Where are you? I wondered.

Closing my eyes, I tried to stop my own memories. Marissa’s voice came back, though. “She’s going to contact you, just for her conscience probably.”

“She’s hardcore, like your brother.”

My heart started pounding. It wanted to push its way out of my chest and I drew in a gaping breath. I pressed a hand there to keep it in, as if I could do that. I tried to stop from hearing more.

“He was going to turn you against him.”

I failed. They kept coming at me.

“I was a shitty friend to you, no matter what you think. I wasn’t loyal and I didn’t stand up for you.”

I was curled in a ball on Jesse’s lap as the memories assaulted me. She’d only said those things to me, but they stemmed from the years before. The history was my undoing. I couldn’t hold up against the past. It was weighing me down.

“Hey?” Jesse nudged me with his shoulder.