Dangerous Hearts: Rock Star Romance, 1 (Lyric & Wolf) (22 page)

Now I’m starting to get pissed. How can
she let some silly song lyrics keep us apart? “You’d rather leave the tour than
let people know you wrote some songs? Lyric, you have to know how ridiculous
that sounds.”

“Ridiculous?” She
's
fum
ing
. “You think my secrets are ridiculous?
If you remember correctly, you stole my secrets, and now I’m getting kicked off
a tour because of what you took from me.”

“What?” I don’t believe what I’m hearing.
She’s pissed at
me
?
Is she even listening to herself? “You mean
the
secrets you tossed in the trash? Meant that much
to you, huh?”

I don’t know why I’m provoking her, or
why we’re arguing about the lyrics. We’re both insanely heated and borderline
irrational. We agreed
in the beginning
it
would all be a secret
,
and I fully intended
to respect
her wishes. But the thought of her
leaving the tour crushes me. Whatever feelings we’ve built up toward each other
are
about to blow up in our faces
,
and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.

Without another word, Lyric grabs her
over
night bag and begins packing. “What are you
doing?” She can’t
fucking
leave.

“What does it look like?” She doesn’t
even look at me.

“Babe, stop.” I reach for her, but she
slaps my hand away.

“I need to pack.”

I sink onto the bed, my chest tightening
until I have to focus on breathing. I watch as she flies around the room,
gathering her things and shov
ing
them into her
bag. I’m racking my brain for anything I can say or do to help this fucked
-
up situation. When it looks like she’s gathered
everything, I think she might stop and say something to me
. B
ut when she heads straight for the door
instead,
I
shake off
my fog and reach the door before she can open it. I slam my hands on either
side of her head until she turns around to face me.

“Is that what I deserve? You’re going to
walk out the door without so much as a good
-
bye?”

Her eyes spit fire back at me. I haven’t
seen this look on her face since the night she walked in on Jenn and me. It
weakens me. “Good
-
bye,” she says, but it’s not
as cold as her expression is. I hear her voice crack. I know she’s reacting to
the situation. This can’t be a reflection of our time together, our connection.

“You don’t need to leave. We can figure
this out together.”

Lyric turns away. “It doesn’t sound like
I have a choice. It’s either you or my
ridiculous
secrets. I think I’ll keep my secrets, thank you very much.”

Her words hurt like fuck, but they’re
also revealing. There’s something she’s not telling me. Before, when she was
upset about people know
ing
she wrote those
songs, it seemed like she just didn’t want the attention or the money. Now, I
think her reasons run deeper than that, and I’ll be damned if I don’t get to
the bottom of it.

“I’m going to talk to Crawley. I’ll toss
him if I have to. I don’t trust him after this. If you want to leave and work
things out at the office, then go. I’ll fix the PR mess, and then you can come
back. If you can’t come back as my road manager, then maybe you can take a
break and travel with me.”

Her eyes narrow. “You mean be your
groupie?”

“No, Lyric. Fuck.” Why is she talking
like this? “I mean be my girlfriend. Work doesn’t have to get in the way
anymore. I just want you here with me.”

“And what about
my
job, Wolf? I can’t just give up my life because I met a hot rock
star with a new outlook on life. This was never supposed to be anything more
than a one-night thing, and you know it. We took it too far
,
and now look at us.”

I didn’t realize Lyric could turn her
feistiness on me and sting me with her words. But there she goes. Her words are
her weapons
,
and I’ve lost count of how many
times she’s stabbed me. All I know is that it fucking hurts.

I move away from her and hold my hands
up, not liking the way this is ending one bit, but I won’t let anyone speak to
me like that. “You know what? You go take care of you. Keep your lyrics locked
away. Do whatever you need, but don’t you dare play the victim card here. I’m
asking you to stay. To be with me. To figure this out
with me
. If that’s not what you want
,
too
,
then get the fuck out.”

Her gasp is the last thing I hear before
the door opens and slams shut behind her, effectively shredding my heart.

Fuck
love.

Never a-fucking-gain.

Lyric

Doug
meets me in the hotel lobby with a sympathetic look. If anyone gets life on the
road and mixing business with pleasure, it’s him. He’s one of the most
successful tour directors in the business, and he’s not only married to one of
his ex-clients, he’s gay. He knows how the drama of the business can either
embrace you or chew you up and spit you out. He can see that I’ve been gnawed
on. Still, his sympathy doesn’t help my situation. I’ve read through about a
dozen entertainment news articles shared all over social media about my
infidelity to Tony.
My infidelity.
It
makes me sick.

Doug wraps his arms around me, and it
warms my heart. I’m not surprised by his affection. He’s has always been fatherly
toward me, less so now that I’m an adult, but at times like this, the comfort
is appreciated. “Let’s go grab a drink.”

I laugh and wipe a tear from my eye.
“It’s nine in the morning.”

He winks. “As good a time as any. Come.
We only have an hour.”

He leads me to the hotel bar and orders
us drinks and some food before turning to me with a sigh. “How are you holding
up?”

I shrug. “I woke up to a million messages
telling me I’m an asshole for cheating on Tony with Wolf and that I’m off the
tour. Doug, the media can say whatever they want about me. I don’t care. But
they should know that Tony and I have been over for a while now. And Wolf—I
think I really fucked things up with him. My career too.” I bury my face in my
hands. “If this is the end of my career, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“Are you and Wolf really a thing?”

His question doesn’t surprise me. I guess
I’ll be asked this a lot. I nod. “It surprised me too.”

“That’s new for Wolf, but I’m not
surprised he fell for you.” I want to smile at the compliment, but my heart
still hurts. “I guess you knew it wasn’t going to last with the way his
reputation precedes him.”

I can’t agree with Doug on this one. I’ve
gotten to know Wolf pretty damn well, and he’s done nothing but prove everyone
wrong. He’s never once hurt me—except for today when he called my secrets ridiculous.
My secrets being my lyrics. I know it wasn’t his intention, and in his defense,
I haven’t exactly confessed my reasons for keeping my lyrics private. I wasn’t
ready to go there. Even after he told me about his parents . . . it just wasn’t
the right time.

“I don’t believe rumors anymore.”

“Really?” Doug asks, but I can tell he’s
reading in between the lines. “Okay, then, care to tell me who the mystery
songwriter is? This ‘Dangerous Heart’ song is a sensation, and it hasn’t even
been recorded yet.”

My face heats. Doug is one of the few
people who knows about my songs. “It’s a mystery for a reason.”

He sucks in a breath. “Holy shit, Lyric.
I’m right. Your dad would be so proud.”

“The point of the mystery,” I say dryly.

He sighs. “Lyric, you’ve got to let it
go, don’t you think? This grudge you’re holding against your parents. It’s only
hurting you. Maybe they deserve to suffer for everything they’ve put you
through, but you deserve to be happy.”

“I was happy until Tony showed up and I
got kicked off the tour.”

“This isn’t about one tour. This is about
your life and understanding your self-worth. You had a unique situation growing
up; it wasn’t the best—I get that. You’ve done pretty damn well for yourself
despite it all, and that’s something to be proud of. But you’re holding
yourself back. Settling on these one-off road jobs for what? To get away from
your problems? They’re never going to go away. Why don’t you take this time for
yourself? Deal with the heavy shit and then come back?”

“Come back on tour?”

He shrugs. “Maybe after you deal with all
of this, you’ll have a better idea of what you want for yourself. I can tell
you one thing—suppressing your songwriting is a mistake. A huge mistake.”

“I’m not suppressing it,” I say. “I’m
just hiding it. I don’t need that kind of attention on myself.”

Doug groans. “Hiding it is suppressing
it. Writing for yourself may be healing, but that kind of talent should be
shared with the world. Shit, Lyric. You don’t see it, do you? What you can do
with words?”

“You sound like my father. Doug, really.
I get what you’re doing, but right now, all I can think about is what the fuck
I’m going to do once I leave this tour.”
And
how much I’m going to miss Wolf.

Doug’s hand reaches the back of my neck
and squeezes. “Okay. I’ll let up on you. Just go talk to the executives. I
don’t think your career is over unless you want it to be. I was only trying to
convince you that maybe this was all for the best. Sometimes you need hurdles
like this, the kind that come out of nowhere and make you stumble. Because when
you get back up you have a chance to dust yourself off and change direction.
But it’s your life, and the path you choose is your choice to make.”

My
car is waiting for me when Doug and I finish breakfast. I’m buzzing from the
alcohol, too, which is probably a good thing, because it helps when I see the
buses pulled up to the side of the hotel. Band and crew are already stepping
onto them. I try not to pay attention to who is getting on, afraid to make eye
contact with one person in particular. And then a warm body rushes past me and
my heart stops. I know it’s Wolf by the smell of his aftershave and the
electricity that moves with him. When he continues walking without a word to
me, my heart cracks a little. I know the silence is my doing. This time, I have
no one to blame but myself.

I want to reach out to him, to run after
him when he nears Bus #1. I want to jump on it with him and say to hell with my
career. He deserves an apology, at least. An explanation. He’s earned so much
more than I’m giving him right now. I know that getting in the company car
without talking to him could be the absolute end of any communication between
us from here on out. My throat constricts at the thought. My chest is heavy,
making breathing the most difficult fucking thing in the world.

“Do you want to say good-bye?” Doug asks.

I take a step toward the bus, my eyes
never leaving Wolf’s back, even when he steps onto the bus. My eyes follow the
faint outline of his body as he walks straight down the narrow passageway
toward his room. And then I stop myself and swallow, knowing there’s too much
damage to try to undo right now. There are no promises that can possibly make
anything better.

I shake my head and face Doug, running a
finger below my eye to catch a falling teardrop. “Oh, sweetie.” Doug pulls me
in and holds me for a minute, but it only makes the tears fall harder. “I’ll
call you in a few days, okay? Everything will be okay.”

With a final nod, I push my shoulders
back and slide into the backseat of the car. My eyes return to the rear windows
of the bus, hoping to catch another glimpse of Wolf. At this point it’s hard to
make anything out through the tinted windows, but I know he’s there. I know
he’s already shredding every last thought of me, because while I came on this
tour to run from one dangerous heart, I smacked right into another, and then I
became my own dangerous heart in the process.

Next in the Lyric & Wolf
Series .
 . . COMING SOON! Keep reading for more.

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