Creed of Redemption (S.I.N. Rock Star Trilogy #2) (18 page)

“I would never betray your trust like that Lourdes. Whatever you tell me will stay between us,” she promises.

I believe her and it’s comforting that I can trust her. I start from the beginning when I first met Diesel and how I wanted to stay away from him because I knew he was a manwhore. I tell her about Brooke, the rape, me falling for Diesel, our relationship, and finally the deceit. I tell her how my world was shattered to learn he had a twin. One that I had spent time with, but not sexually. I explain that he has redeemed that part of our past, but I wouldn’t divulge what Diesel shared with me when he, his brother, and I had that talk. That’s not my story to tell. All she needs to know is that they had a reason for the switch and that I have forgiven them.

“Holy shit, girl.” She shakes her head. “Had no idea you were dealing with so much.” She gets up and hugs me and tears threaten to fall.

“Yeah. It actually feels good to let that all out. So you can see why I’ve been so emotional lately. I know I need to move on, but a part of me is still holding on to the time we had when things were good. He let me in once and now that is not even a possibility.”

“I know it’s hard. Thing is, you can’t keep holding on by yourself. If it was just sex, that’s one thing. You have real feelings for him still, so unless those feelings are mutual, you’re setting yourself up to be crushed.”

She’s not telling me anything I don’t already know. I nod in agreement. “Come on. Let’s go plan what we’re wearing tonight. You just need to meet your next distraction. Things will get better, but it’s just going to take time. Even more time because you’re seeing him every day on this tour.”

“I know. Yeah come on. I have a nice buzz and I don’t want to ruin it with thoughts of Diesel.”

We head to the bus first to get some clothes to choose from. We’re surprised to see Sevyn sitting in the living area flipping through channels. I assumed he went to rehearsal with the guys. He looks up at us when we board the bus and gives us a sexy smile.

“Hello, distraction,” Lily says too faintly for him to hear. I laugh my ass off as we head to the closet in the bedroom.

“Uh no. You’re crazy!” Okay I kind of omitted the freaky part of the afternoon I spent with Sevyn. Ending result being he rejected my ass. “From what I overheard from the guys, he’s leaving tomorrow anyway.”

“I guess it would have been pretty fucked up anyway. Regardless of Diesel’s stance of no longer wanting a relationship, I think he would flip his shit if you banged his brother. You don’t want to come between two brothers. Pay me no mind,” she giggles. “I have lapses in judgment sometimes.”

“So do I, apparently.” I nod in agreement. If she only knew the truth behind that statement. Hopefully the day at the movie theater will stay between Sevyn and I.

We ended up not going back into the house before the party. Lily told me about her life back home, the classes that she’s taking this semester, and her career goals. Thank God you don’t get much work the first couple weeks of online classes, aside from reading, because neither of us has cracked open a book. After we get back on the road, we need to remedy that. The book I’m working on and my online classes can be the distraction,
hopefully.

Lily turns on some music to get us in party mode and it works to rid some of the weight from our earlier heavy conversation. I find myself dancing to the beat. I’m not sure of how to dress for something like this, but I’m going with classy and not the obvious slutty choice. I’m sure there will be a few thirsty ones, but this a celebrity party. The desperation to be seen should be at a minimal, right?

“Ooh, that one,” Lily says eyeing the dress I have in my hand. I was thinking the same thing. It’s perfect and it just happens to be red. It’s a Herve Leger cross chest strap bandage dress. It forms a keyhole between my breasts so they are slightly on display without being overly so. I don’t have many expensive purchases, but this is one of them. It makes me feel sexy and that is what I’ll need tonight, being surrounded by all the gorgeous women who can buy their beauty.

“I agree. I’ve never really had an occasion to wear her out,” I say giving my dress an identity. “I’m going to pair it with my nude stilettos.”

“I
wish I owned a dress like that,” Lily admits. “I’m going go with my black sequin strapless tube dress with silver pumps.” She holds the dress up and I nod my head in agreement.

“That will be super hot on you.”

“Thanks. I’m going for sexy not slutty.” She grins.
My sentiments exactly
.

“Same,” I agree.

I use the shower first after laying my dress on the bed. When I come out, I get the shock of my life. I let out a deafening scream and then the tears start. I can’t help it. Brooke is standing in the center of the bedroom and from the looks of it, she’s dressed for the party. She’s wearing an electric blue bandage dress and looks fabulous.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” I say giving her the tightest hug ever. Lily stands off to the side, just smiling.

“Oh my gosh, how rude of me? Brooke you remember Lily, right?”

“Of course. We had a chance to get reacquainted while you were in the shower, too.” Lily walks up to me and hugs me too before going to take her shower. I turn my attention back to Brooke.

“What are you doing here? How did you know where we’d be?” I fire so many questions at her. “Why didn’t you return my calls? I was worried about you!”

“Slow down, chica,” she giggles. “One question at a time. Diesel called me. He said he got my number from your phone. He knew you were missing me and wanted me to join you guys for a weekend. He paid and arranged everything. He sent a car to pick me up from the airport.”

That is seriously the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me. Diesel went to great lengths to set up a surprise visit from my best friend and I couldn’t be happier. Shit like this makes it even more difficult to move on from him.

“I’ll have to thank him later. Gosh, I still can’t believe he set all of this up.”

“Yeah, I couldn’t either. I figured you guys must have made amends. That boy sincerely cares for you,” she says. I fill her in quickly about Ivy and Melissa even though he told me he didn’t have sex with her. “Regardless of his bed partners, you still have his heart Lourdes. I can tell that just from my conversations with him during our planning to get me here. Not saying that you two need to be together or that he’s going to change his manwhoring. I’m just saying, at the root of it all, he’s definitely still in love with you. Denial is a powerful thing.” She winks.

“You found time to talk to him. Why didn’t you return my messages?” I ask, pinching her.

“Ouch!” she shrieks, rubbing her arm before laughing. “Okay, I deserved that.”

“Damn straight. That and then some,” I laugh with her.

“To be honest, I was busy with the start of classes and trying not to miss my best friend. When Diesel reached out to me, I knew if I talked with you, I would let it slip. You know how hard it is for me to keep shit from you and that’s just regular shit. This was huge and I didn’t want to ruin it.”

“I had to hold a lot of crap in. I had nobody to rant to. I finally shared my feelings with Lily today so it was nice to get it all out with someone I can trust.” Brooke gives me a fake frown. “Stop it. You’re still my bestie. You just weren’t around when I needed to unload all this emotional turmoil. I feel like I was on a damn rollercoaster that I couldn’t get off of.”

“It’s barely been two weeks,” she argues.

“Yup. Plenty of time for shit to hit the fan. Did you know that Sevyn is here?”

“Shut the fuck up? Really? Why?” She pulls me down on the bed. Apparently, she didn’t get my message about that. “Oh my God. You have been dealing with a lot if he’s here. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you and I’m glad you had Lily to talk to.” My goal wasn’t to make her feel bad.

“It’s okay, Brooke. He had some business he needed to work through with Diesel from what I can gather. They sat me down and explained the reasoning for what they did and we’re okay now.”

“What was it? Why did they switch in and out at the lake house? Because for the life of me, I can’t understand why he would need to keep the fact that he had a twin from you.”

“I can’t tell you that. Diesel shared some things with me in confidence that I can’t share. Just know the reasoning was legitimate, and I forgave them.”

“Well, that’s all I need to know. Then I forgive them too. Diesel had already somewhat redeemed himself with me when he showed how intent he was on getting me here to be with you for a weekend.” She wipes away the new tears that have leaked from my eyes. “None of that. Let’s get you ready so I can meet some of the celebrity hunks.”

“What about Michael?” Is she already done with him?

“Meh. He’s moving too slow. He hasn’t made me his, so I’m free to do whatever I please.” She smiles. Michael is an idiot. Brooke doesn’t give options for more. She’s not a womanwhore because she doesn’t sleep with all of the men she dates. She’s just very picky and it’s hard for them to keep her interest. She gets bored easily. So if she was willing to have more with Michael, it means she really liked him. Guys can be so dense sometimes.

“His loss,” I say shaking my head. “He better hope that one of these celebrity guys don’t snatch you up this weekend.”

“Yup. Now let me do your hair. You know I love that fucking dress on you. This is the perfect time for her to make her debut,” she says about the dress. “I know exactly the hairstyle for this.” Brooke does my makeup first. Lily comes out and asks for hers to be done next. Brooke agrees, but she first does her magic on me. After she finishes my makeup, she puts my hair in a low chignon. I almost don’t recognize myself. I look and feel beautiful. I’m ready for the party now. It’s amazing the confidence you can get from looking the best you’ve ever looked and having your best friend by your side.

Now nightfall, we finally head into the house where the party is in full swing. It’s mostly contained out back and under the covered lanai. Rock music seems to come from every direction and the wait staff walking around with drinks are plentiful. There are also a few open bars scattered around the perimeter. We lose Lily almost instantly because she ditches our asses to find her man. I swear those two can’t be separated from each other for any considerable amount of time. It’s just Brooke and I until the drummer from Reckless Ambition asks her to have a drink with him at the bar. I think his name is Jack. She looks over at me, unsure because she doesn’t want to leave me alone. She’s not my babysitter so I tell her to go and that we will meet up later. She hesitantly leaves with Jack. I grab a drink from the next waiter guy that passes. I have no idea what the hell it is, but it’s brown and nasty as shit. I gulp it down anyway because whatever it is, it’s strong and I need my buzz back. Now that I’m standing alone, I’m not so confident.

I consider going to the bar and just people watching, but strong arms wrap around my waist from behind.

“Hmmm, wearing red again I see.” I don’t have to look over my shoulder to know it’s Diesel. “Did you wear this for me, Lourdes?” I look around nervously because we are out in the open. People can see us. I try to pull away, but he pulls me closer into him.

“Someone will see us,” I comment nervously.

“Maybe,” he agrees. “Come with me then,” he urges. I can smell the heady scent of whiskey.

“What if I don’t want to?” I challenge. He rubs his hardened cock against my ass and I squeeze my legs together.
There goes those damn vagina butterflies again
. Logically, I know what will happen if I follow him, yet in this moment, I ache for him. I ache for the inevitable.

“Your choice, princess. We can stay right here and let the whole party watch me,” he says twirling a lock of hair that has escaped my chignon.

“Watch you do what?” I ask breathily. The way he calls me princess is so damn hot. He hasn’t called me that in a while and I realize I’ve missed it. My skin is heated and wetness coats my panties, just from his proximity and thinking about what he wants to do to me—just from him calling me princess.

“Do you really want to find out?” I turn my head slightly to look at him and shake my head no. He winks at me. That wink has to be the sexiest thing ever. He’s toying with me again and I’m letting him. “Thought so. Follow me, babe.”