This Love of Mine (Raine Series #1) (11 page)

He
pulled up next to me and a small cloud of dust blew past as he put the truck in
park. He rounded the corner of the front end and stopped, staring. The
expression on his face was unreadable and I glanced down at myself, wondering
what was wrong. He still stood unmoving, and I suddenly became extremely
self-conscious.

"What
is it? Do I have something on me?" I frantically moved my hands across and
down my dress and then across my face.

A smile
tugged at the corners of his mouth and before I could respond to his rude
behavior, he was standing directly in front of me. His hand went up to my hair,
tucking a small amount behind my ear.

"You
look absolutely beautiful."

I blushed
at his genuineness and I smiled up at his gleaming face. Before I could
respond, I couldn't help but take in his appearance. I know I hadn't known him
long, but he looked damn near perfect in this moment. He had on a pair of dark
wash, low slung straight-legged jeans, which formed to the muscles I knew he
held underneath them.

His
purple and black plaid, button up shirt, was only fastened half way up with a
solid black T-shirt underneath. And just when I thought it couldn't get any
better, I glanced over and saw all of his ink on display. He had his shirtsleeves
rolled up to his elbows and the meticulously crafted tattoos stared, urging me
to touch them.

As I
made my way back up his body, my eyes skimmed right past his face and straight
to the top of his head. His always baseball cap sheathed head was now free of
the binding material. His hair was a beautiful shade of brown and I wanted more
than anything to run my hands through its thickness. It was shorter than I had
first thought and I accredited it to the fact that his baseball cap more than
likely pushed it down, making it appear longer.

When I
made my way back down to his eyes, I wished I hadn't. He was staring at me
knowingly, and I almost gasped at the intensity of it. In two days, this boy
had gotten under my skin more than anyone I'd ever known. I replayed my
conversation with Cami over and over and finally decided to let myself live.

I
reached my hands up into that dark thick muddled mess and pulled his lips down
onto mine. I tugged gently, trying to pull him further into me. His hands
snaked around my waist, but I could feel the hesitation in his touch.

As I
pulled back, his eyes caught mine and I couldn't stop the smile that spread
from ear to ear. His hand slid down the backside of my dress and grazed the
back of my thigh as he helped me up into the cab of the truck. He placed a
gentle soft kiss to the back of my hand just before he closed the door and ran
around the front of the truck, and into the driver seat. Our eyes connected one
last time as he threw the truck into drive and we headed out towards town.

We were
only a few minutes away from the town limits, when I decided to strategically
place my hand in the middle of the bench seat. I needed to know if the feelings
I had were going to be reciprocated and when he settled his hand on top of
mine, I smiled in triumph.

When we
pulled up to the small bar at the end of the main street through town, I
suddenly felt the emptiness as he pulled his hand away. I wasn't exactly sure
how this night was going to play out, but I was hoping and praying that I would
end up sprawled across the seat of his truck. Oh my god, what was I even
saying. It's not like I was a virgin. My ex had made me do things, only people
much older than I, had ever experienced. But everything just felt so unexplored
and new with Madison.

I
blushed at the memories, when I caught sight of Madison walking around the
front of the truck to fetch me from my side. I reached for the handle just as
he flung the door open. I glanced up at him and noticed his demeanor had
changed from sweet and soft, to hard and unreadable. Well, if that was how he
was playing it, then I would just show him that two could play that game.

His hand
reached for mine so he could help me jump down out of the truck. I looked
directly into his eyes and smiled a tight smile, just before stating very
matter of factly. "I can do it on my own, cowboy." I winked and he
stood back abashed. Finally, he would know just how it felt to be in my
position.

Madison

Words
failed to explain how breath-takingly beautiful she looked when I saw her
standing at the end of her drive. I wanted to swoop her up and run far away
from everything, and have it just be me and her. I knew I looked like a
complete idiot standing there waiting for her to say something. I felt like a
coward when she made the first move, but I needed
her
to do it. I was following her lead on this one, and I wasn't
about to push her to do something that she didn't want to do.

I was
relieved when she pulled me into her. My body reacted instantly, betraying me
at every turn. There was no way I was going to be able to hide what her close
proximity did to me for much longer. She didn't say anything once we started
heading towards town. Not that I expected a full blown, heart wrenching
conversation, but something would have been better than the silence that was
strangling the air right out of the truck.

I kept
an eye on her every move out of my peripheral vision, so when she placed her
hand on the seat between us, I knew exactly what she was doing. I didn't
hesitate to set my hand on top of hers, when that was all I had wanted to do
the entire ride. I thought we were finally on the same page, and I would have
continued to think that way, had she not copped some shitty attitude once we
got to the bar. I wasn't exactly sure what happened between the time I picked
her up to now, but something was seriously off.

I knew I
was going to have to sneak her in, so I turned on my serious face and hopped
down to fetch my lil' country girl. Only when I reached her side of the truck,
she had all but shut down,
again
.
Holy hell, I couldn't win with this fuckin' girl. When she called me cowboy, my
dick twitched and made its presence known. The things this girl did to me with
just a word, was out of the ordinary. I caught Glenn out of the corner of my
eye and nodded in his direction. When I pointed towards KJ, her back was turned
the other way and he shot me a wide smile and a thumbs up.

Dumbass.

He ran
over to us a second later, after helping Brandon and Bryce with our equipment.
We had all known each other since we were little and it just so happened that
over the years, we all fell in love with the same kind of music. Brandon and
Bryce were brothers and I swear if you didn't know them, you would have thought
they were twins.

They
both sported short blonde faux hawks and had brown eyes. They were the exact
same height and only a year apart in age. Brandon was definitely the nicer of
the two, but once they started talking it didn't really matter. Girls were
drawn to their heavy Texas drawl and there was usually a few that fought over
both of them.

Glenn
came running up to us and introduced himself to KJ promptly.
 
"Hi, I'm Glenn. You must be
Kayla." His shit eatin' grin made me want to beat the shit out of him
where we stood, but I knew he was just being polite to the girl that I couldn't
shut up about.

"Hi
Glenn. Yes, but please call me KJ." I noticed her wink and shoot a flirty
smile in his direction.

"Okay,
so now that we have that out of the way. Can we please get her inside so we can
set up?" I was only slightly irritated, but I must've come off like a dick
because when I reached for her hand, she quickly pulled it back to her side.
Damn it, why couldn't she just let me touch her, without consequence?

"Yeah,
bro lets go. Ryan is around the side, waiting for us."

Glenn
led us over to a side entrance that I didn't even know existed until now and
sure enough there stood a huge bouncer. I had never met Ryan before, but Glenn
said he was a good friend of his brother, so I let him make the introductions.

Man, I
felt dwarfed in comparison to Ryan. He had to be at least six foot five,
probably around two hundred and fifty pounds and solid fuckin' muscle. Goddamn,
he was huge. He was wearing a short sleeved black t-shirt, and was covered in
tats just like I was, but his traveled all the way up and around his neck and
throat.

Shit!

"Ryan
this is my buddy Madison and his girl KJ. Guys, this is Ryan."

I
reached out to shake Ryan's hand and noticed just exactly how many tattoos he
had. They covered his entire hands, top and bottom. Impressive. He had a stoic
look on his face as he shook my hand in return, but then placed an easy smile
on his coarse face as he looked over Kayla. I was jealous instantly, and wanted
to pull her back to my truck and drive her straight home, but I ignored the
small flare of jealousy and watched her closely as she held her hand out to
shake his. What happened next, was not what I expected at all.

This
hard as shit man in front of me, bent down and scooped her up into one of the
biggest hugs I have ever seen a guy give a girl. I wasn't sure if maybe they
knew each other previous to now, but I got my answer when she responded with a,
"nice to meet you."

Glenn
eyed me a few times, gauging my reaction to the scene playing out in front of
me, I'm sure. When my hands balled into fists at my sides, he aggressively
patted my shoulder.

"Alright,
let's get her inside, so we can finish loading the equipment on stage,
yeah?" He whispered.

"Yeah."
Was all I could manage to strangle out of my dry throat.

"Don't
worry about it fellas, I'll take good care of your girl here." He reached
his hand out for Kayla to take it, and when she did, Glenn had to hold me in
place as he walked her inside.

I
quickly turned and glared at Glenn. "Who the fuck does he think he
is?" I growled.

"Bro,
you need to calm the fuck down. He knows she's only sixteen. He won't fuck with
her."

"Seventeen."
I mumbled to no one apparently, because Glenn had since run over to the van.
 
I caught up with him and said my hellos
to Brandon and Bryce, before we started moving our stuff inside. I wasn't
exactly sure about the emotion coursing through my veins, but I was damn sure
going to get to the bottom of them by the end of tonight.

I pushed
the cart of drums over the lip of the side door, when I caught sight of a very
scantily clad Taryn, headed in the direction of sweet, innocent KJ. I was about
to drop everything I was doing to go intervene, but it looked as though Ryan
was taking his babysitting duties to the extreme. I watched as he whispered
something in Taryn's ear and then shook his head. She quickly retreated and
headed back to the bar. That was definitely not a situation I wanted to deal
with tonight.

When I
reached the stage, Brandon was already reaching out for me to hand over his
drums. So much for trusting your friend and band mate huh? I quickly handed off
the rest of his gear and then made my way over to Kayla. She glanced up from
her cell phone and gave me a quizzical look.

"Hey
pretty girl, whatcha doin'?" I sat in the seat right next to her and
placed my hand on her exposed thigh.

"Nothin'
much, cowboy. Aren't ya supposed to be helpin' those boys out?" She
pointed in the general direction of the rest of the band.

"Nah,
I'm the singer." I winked at her and could instantly see the blush creep
up her cheeks.

"I
see." Her voice sent my blood pressure through the roof and I knew if I didn't
walk away now, I was going to do something very inappropriate for public.

I placed
a small kiss to her head and then went in the direction of the stage. I needed
to start warming up and I was in desperate need of a cold shower. I could feel
her eyes on me as I turned the corner and I let out an audible sigh as I almost
ran right into the back of Glenn.

"Sorry,
bro."

"It's
cool. What's got you all worked up?" He started laughing and I couldn't
help but find the irony in it all. I was always using girls, and now I was
caught up in a girl that was all but using me at the present moment.

"Funny."
I sneered.

*****

About an
hour and half later, a couple beers and some extra time with KJ, and I was
geared up and ready to go. The crowd started filtering in and it was definitely
much larger than we had anticipated. Good to know Bryce had been doing his job getting
the word out. I leaned over and kissed Kayla right on the lips, leaving her
breathless in my wake. I smiled at myself and headed up the side of the stage.

To my
surprise, it was Ryan who would be introducing us and despite that, I was still
pumped. Every time I hit that stage, everything else ceased to exist and I
could be, me. It was my small escape in a world full of uncertainty. I lived
for this shit, oh and baseball. Baseball was the only other thing that could
get me going the way performing did. That was until I met Kayla.

I stood
behind the mic, waiting for Ryan to announce us and for the curtains to fall to
the side. I shook my head, clearing all other thoughts out of my mind.
Suddenly, remembering that Kayla was out there was making me nervous like I had
never been before.