Save Me From Myself (6 page)

Want to see proof?
 

My eyes widen at the thought of seeing David naked, even if just in a picture. I must have taken too long to reply, because he sends another message

Kidding again. I’ll show you mine when you show me yours. ;)
 

When? Does that mean he’s planning to see me naked? A shiver runs down my spine just thinking about him and me together - naked.
 

Are you still there?
 

Oh crap! I was so caught up in thinking about him without clothes, I forgot to respond!

Still here, sorry

You were thinking about me naked weren’t you? It’s okay, I do look pretty good naked.

Pretty good? If he looks half as good naked as he did in that black t-shirt he was wearing today, I may combust if I ever get to see him like that!

Don’t be conceited

Not conceited. I prefer confident

Of course you do.

LOL I need to get back to work. Distributor orders won’t fill themselves. Text me when you get home so I know you’re safe?

Why wouldn’t I be safe?

Not saying you wouldn’t, I’d just feel better knowing you are.

I melt.

Ok. I’ll text you when we get home

Good. Feel free to text me an address.

Planning to stalk me?

Princess, I won’t need to stalk you

There you go again, being conceited. Someone really needs to knock your ego down a notch.

Confident, not conceited. We’ve been through this. You’re pretty adorable in text princess. You didn’t talk nearly this much at Ruby’s, princess. I like it

You’re kind of intimidating in person.

You mean distracting?

Intimidating, distracting. Whatever helps you sleep at night.

Dreaming of you helps me sleep at night

Does that line really work for you?
 

I am enjoying this way more than I should.

Don’t know. Never told a girl I dreamed about her.

Whatever

Seriously. Never have. But, I dreamt about you last night. In my dream, you were dancing with me, not the guy you were with last night.

Oh my.

Jealous?

His response is quick

You have no idea! Now, let me get to work. And, don’t forget to text me when you get home!

Yes sir!

I like you obedient ;)

I blush again

Bye David

Later princess

I send him a text when I get home, letting him know that I am, in fact, safe. I don’t see his response back until I check my phone the next morning. We spend the rest of the week flirting via text message. He’s charming, smart and makes me laugh like I haven’t in a very long time.
 

Friday night comes quickly, and I have to meet Ben at the Kings of Leon concert. Knowing Ben, there will be lots of jokes, and embarrassing comments made at my expense, so I’m not exactly looking forward to tonight.
 

When I arrive at the arena, he’s waiting for me with a smile on his face. As per usual, he’s vibrating with energy, which reminds me of Anna. When I reach him, he pulls me into a hug.

“Hey girl! You ready to do this thing?” He’s grinning from ear to ear, and it’s impossible not to grin back.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I reply.

He hands me my press pass, and leads me over to security where they inspect our credentials before allowing us backstage. We walk around and Ben points out different people. Some are from the opening acts, and some are just people he knows that work for the tour. Having been doing this gig for awhile, he has lots of contacts. Ben leads me over to the seating area, and then goes off to interview the band.

I haven’t been sitting there long when I hear a familiar voice. Looking up, I see David standing across the room with a group of people. He’s talking to a member of the opening act which shouldn’t surprise me. He does work in a bar that has live music. I just wasn’t expecting to see him tonight. It’s Friday, and that’s a busy night in any bar. Since he hasn’t seen me, I’m free to look at him as much as I want. And boy, do I want to!

Tonight, he’s wearing another snug t-shirt. This one is grey with some kind of black design on it that’s hard to see from this far. It’s stretched tight across his chest, and I’m not the only woman in the room admiring the muscles being showcased by that shirt. He’s also wearing a pair of jeans that are so worn, there are holes in a few places. He’s standing in a way that gives me a perfect view of his rear end, and it’s one of the nicest asses I’ve ever seen!

As I watch him, I notice a few people who look vaguely familiar nearby. One is the guy that was sitting at the bar when I went to pay my tab last Sunday.
 

He’s about the same height as David, but he’s not as built. He’s lankier, with short dark hair and unlike David who is clean-shaven, he has a little scruff on his jaw. The blonde who bumped into me in front of Drench, is here too, along with the dark haired girl she was with. I wonder how they know David, because they seem a lot younger than him and his friend.

The guy he’s talking to is a few inches shorter than him, and has spiky black hair. From here, I can’t tell what color his eyes are, but his face is strikingly beautiful. Almost too beautiful to be a guy. He’s got a wide grin on his face when he claps David on the back. Then, David calls the blonde over to him, and putting his arm around her shoulders, introduces her to the guy he was speaking to, then motions to the other girl and she waves with a small grin on her face. I’m watching them so intently, I don’t notice Ben’s returned until he places his hands on my shoulders from behind and whispers in my ear, “I’d tap any of those asses,” making me gasp and jump about a mile.

Twisting around, I say, “Benjamin! Seriously? That’s just…ugh!”

He doubles over with laughter over the look on my face, saying, “Oh my GOD L! You should see your face right now. I wish I had my camera out!”
 

He’s not making any effort to keep his voice down, and I’m praying David doesn’t hear him talking and look over here. Holding my breath, I look back towards David, but he’s still engrossed in the conversation. I relax, and Ben follows my eyes.

“Mmmm,” he moans, “I really wish Tyler batted for my team. He’s just too pretty for words.” He mimes wiping the drool from his chin, and I can’t help but laugh.

The name sounds familiar though, and I can’t help myself from asking, “Tyler?”

“Yeah, he’s the lead singer and guitarist for Twisted Destiny. They’re one of the openers tonight.”

Oh, right. Now I know where I’ve heard the name. They’re playing at Drench next weekend and David said he knew them when we saw him at lunch earlier this week.

“Come on L. Let’s go watch the band. Kings of Leon is getting ready to go on.” He grabs me by the hand dragging me out of the backstage area, and over to the side of the stage. There aren’t any seats over here, but the majority of the press people are in this section watching the show. When the band comes on stage, the screams are deafening, and as the music starts, they get even louder. Ben may be one of the loudest, as he’s screaming, shouting and jumping up and down with excitement.

I’m not sure how much reviewing Ben is going to be able to do, because he’s doing more dancing than anything else.
 

By the time the band is halfway through their set, my feet are aching from dancing so much. Ben’s not the type to let you stay in the background, which is where I’m most comfortable.

***

When the concert’s over, we go backstage again so that Ben can ask any last minute questions, and get some “after the show” pictures. As I head back to the seating area, I’m hoping that he won’t take too long. I’m ready to go home! I haven’t seen David since earlier tonight, before we went out to watch the show, so hearing his voice say, “Lyric?” from right behind me causes me to jump.

I turn around slowly, and find him looking at me with a grin on his handsome face.
 

“Oh, hey David.” I greet him, not wanting him to know that I saw him earlier. Then he’ll want to know why I didn’t go say hello.

“What are you doing here?”

Looking away from him, I reply, “Sebastian sent me here with Ben to help with his review. So I’d see how they do things for when I start doing my own.”

“Ahh, so did you get to meet the band?”

“No, not really. I’m just basically here to observe. Not so much to meet people.” And, honestly, that was fine with me. I’m positive that meeting a bad this big, would cause me to stutter and stammer, embarrassing myself.

He raises an eyebrow at me, “You can’t go to a concert and not meet at least
someone
that’s in a band. Come, we have to remedy this!” With that, he turns and walks away, obviously expecting me to follow. And, of course, I do.

We cross the room, and stand in front of the extremely pretty guy David was talking to earlier. Putting his hand on the small of my back, he introduces me, “Tyler, man, this is Lyric. Lyric, this is Tyler. He’s in the band Twisted Destiny.”

Leering at me, Tyler takes my hand pressing a kiss to it. Up close, I can see his laughing eyes are a really light brown, with flecks of green. “Well, hello, sweet thing,” he says, with a faint accent that I think is British. Oh my. Even with David next to me, I can see how girls must drop their panties as soon as they meet him!

David clears his throat, smacking Tyler on the back of the head. “Stop flirting asshole,” he groans, causing Tyler to laugh.
 

He releases my hand and puts his hands up in the air as he backs away from me. “Sorry mate, I didn’t realize she was yours.”

“She’s not mine,” David replies, scowling at him. At his words, my stomach drops and I’m not sure why. I’m not in Nashville for a relationship, so why does the fact that he’s not claiming me hurt?

After a few more minutes of talking, though I couldn’t tell you a thing that was said, Tyler gives me a brief hug and tells David he’ll see him later. Then, he walks back to the rest of his band, smirking at the girls standing around. When he reaches them, a girl with short white blonde hair leans up and kisses him. He wraps his arms around her and kisses her back, putting on quite a show.

David shakes his head, “Don’t mind him. That’s his girlfriend Aimee.”

I nod my head, saying nothing, searching the room for Ben. I see him walking towards the seating area he left me in, and knowing he’ll worry when he doesn’t find me, I pull out my phone to text him. I don’t get the chance to, because as he looks around, he finally spots me. Grinning widely, he starts walking towards us. I can feel David stiffen beside me as he gets closer.

Ben puts his arm around me and kisses my cheek. “Hey baby doll,” he says with a grin and winks at me. Turning to David, he holds out a hand and says, “I’m Ben.” David takes his hand and shakes it, but doesn’t say anything, just glares at Ben.
 

Since he doesn’t offer an introduction, I say, “Ben, this is David. He works at Drench.” At my words, David narrows his eyes at me, and I’m not sure what I said that offended him. I don’t get a chance to say anything else, because before I can open my mouth to ask what’s wrong, David says he needs to go find the people he came with. He leans down to kiss my cheek, telling Ben goodbye before walking away.

When he’s out of earshot, Ben lets out a low whistle, “Wow, talk about tension!”

“I know! What was up with that?” I’m so confused. I don’t know why David went from being playful, to completely closed off. It makes no sense!

Ben snickers, “I think someone was a little jealous.”

I frown, “Jealous? Of what?” What could this man, who I barely know, be jealous of?

“Um, baby doll, of us obviously.” Ben’s outright laughing now, and I’m even more confused.

“There is no us, Ben. You play for the other team, remember?” This whole conversation makes no sense. I feel like I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole.

Ben rolls his eyes, “Right, like I’d forget that I prefer cock to cunt. But your boy there doesn’t know that.” Oh.

“Gross, Ben. Are you ready to go? It’s getting late, and Anna wants to go shopping tomorrow morning. Have I mentioned lately that I hate shopping? If not, it should be noted. Anna swears I must not really be a girl, but shopping just isn’t my thing, it’s more my sisters, Aria and Kaitlin that enjoy shopping.

Ben, however, must love it, because his eyes light up, “Shopping! Oooh, I wanna come with!” Great, now I’ll have Anna
and
Ben to contend with. I’ll be broke before the day is over.

“You’ll have to take that up with Anna,” I tell him, knowing that she’ll be glad to have someone else along that likes to shop as much as she does.

“Thanks baby doll, but I can’t. Toby and I are going wine tasting this weekend, but next time, I’m going with!” Lovely. After that statement, he’s finally ready to leave, and I can head home to bed.