Trouble Rising (New Adult Rock Star Romance): Tyler and Katie's Story #3 (10 page)

“Oh, speaking of moms.” Tyler’s fingers moved lightly over my skin, petting my shoulder and upper arm, sending delightful little shivers through me. “Mine called, too.”

“Oh yeah, she called me, too.” I’d almost forgotten. “She wants to come over and bring those baby pictures.”

Tyler snorted. “Oh great, you get to see me naked in the bathtub.”

“Baby, I can see you naked in the bathtub whenever I want,” I reminded him, sliding my hand down the ridges of his abdomen.

He chuckled. “Lucky you.”

“Tell me about it.” I smiled, tracing the dark line of hair running down from his navel. “Hey, you came up short, you know.”

“Huh?”

“Ten screaming orgasms?” I reminded him. “I only counted six…”

“Who says we’re done?” Tyler’s hand moved under the covers, cupping my breast. He thumbed my nipple, making me gasp and open my eyes. Then I heard it again—my phone buzzing.

“I guess I should get that, before we start the engines again.” I bit my lip, starting to slide across the mattress away from him.

“Oh no.” He grabbed my hip, keeping me close. “I’ve got four more orgasms to give you first.”

“First?” I laughed, trying to twist out of his grip. “But what if it’s an emergency.”

“Orgasm emergency, maybe.” He grinned, lifting the edge of the comforter and diving underneath it.

I squealed, back-pedaling toward the pillows, but he grabbed my legs, yanking me back under the covers.

“Ty!” I cried, trying to wiggle away, but he held me fast, nipping at my thighs, soothing the nibbles with his tongue, working his way up toward my sex. I was still swollen and starting to get a little sore, but the feel of him between my legs made my pussy start to throb.

“Mmmm more dessert,” he said, his voice muffled under the covers. “There’s always room for Katie.”

I laughed, squirming in his hold, knowing that fighting him was impossible. He was already parting my thighs, settling himself fully between them, and I moaned with his fingers found me.

“Ty,” I said, biting my lip to keep from crying out when his tongue found me, too. “Oh God… wait… Ty… did you hear that?”

“Hear what?” His voice was muffled by more than just the covers now.

“I thought I heard a door. Downstairs.”

Tyler’s head appeared as he threw the covers back, his head cocked, listening. I listened, too, hoping I hadn’t heard what I thought I had.

But now there were footsteps on the stairs.

“Jay.” I looked at Tyler, feeling my heart lurch in my chest.

“I thought she was spending the night at Sabrina and Rob’s?” He sat back on his heels, his gaze sweeping over me, completely naked on the bed, and I could almost read his thoughts.

“Something must have happened.” I swung my legs off the bed, reaching for my robe, which was draped across a chair. “Maybe she got sick? Oh crap, I bet that was Sabrina on the phone.”

“Come back.” Tyler groaned, his voice muffled in a pillow now.

“I’ll be right back.” I promised, smiling back at him over my shoulder. “She probably just ate too much junk food. I’ll get her some Pepto and tuck her in bed.”

“Then come back and tuck me in.” He rolled onto his side, propped up on his elbow. The covers fell across his hip and just looking at him made my mouth water.

“Promise,” I promised, slipping out into the hallway.

We’d put Jay in a room down at the end of the hall—far enough away that I could have loud, if not screaming, orgasms, but not so far we couldn’t hear her if she needed something. I saw her door shut and the light go on as I padded barefoot down the hall.

“Jay?” I called, knocking gently on the door. “Are you okay? Did you get sick?”

I waited for a response—I’d spent the week reading about teens, and “a sense of privacy” was apparently a big thing, and from my own not-so-distant teen years, I knew this was actually the case. I used to hate it when my mother would just walk into my room without knocking. Or, somehow even worse, knock briefly and then open the door without waiting for a response.

So I knocked again. “Jay? I just want to know you’re okay.”

“Go away!” Her voice was pillow-muffled. And it sounded like she’d been crying.

Crap.

“Jay… honey?” I cringed at my own invasion, but I turned the knob and eased the door open. “What is it?”

She was face-down on the bed, her hair in a long braid down her back—to keep it out of chubby, grasping baby-hands, I was sure—wearing a pair of her new jeans and a pretty, paisley peasant blouse. She was fifteen, but to me, she looked so little and vulnerable in the middle of that double bed.

“Are you all right?” I went over to sit on the edge of the bed beside her, putting a hand on her back. She flinched but didn’t say anything. “Are you sick?”

“Yes.” She nodded into the pillow, not pulling her face from it. “I’m sick. Very sick. Go away.”

“Do you need anything?” I stroked her hair, smoothing the little flyaways down. “Some Tylenol? Pepto?”

“Noooo.” She shook her head, sounding like she was holding back a sob. “Just… go away.”

She took a deep breath and turned her face to the side, away from me. I could see mascara smudged on the pillowcase. Poor thing. She’d been crying.

“Please, Katie,” she whispered. “Just go away. I want to sleep. Okay?”

“You sure?” I squeezed her shoulder. “I could get some ice cream. We could hang out and talk about… whatever…”

“Noooo!” She howled, turning her face into the pillow again. Her shoulders shook with silent sobs, and just watching her broke my heart.

“Okay,” I relented, knowing now that whatever had happened, I was going to have to ask Sabrina. Jay wasn’t going to tell me, at least not tonight. “Do you want me to turn the light out?”

“Yes, please.” She sniffed as I went over to the door.

“If you need anything, we’re right down the hall,” I told her softly, flipping the switch to leave her in darkness. “Goodnight, Jay.”

“G’nite,” she whispered as I shut the door behind me.

I padded back down the hall and found Tyler sitting up in bed, his ear to his cell phone.

“Right. No, I get that. Of course.” Tyler waved me in and I shut the door behind me, going to sit cross-legged on the bed beside him. “I totally understand... I will. Okay. Yep, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

Tyler tossed his phone on the bed and looked at me.

“Who was that?” I asked, although from the look on his face, I thought I already knew.

“Jay’s no longer welcome over there.” Tyler put his head in his hands for a moment, shaking it.

My heart dropped to my toes. “What happened?”

“What happened?” he repeated, looking at me, incredulous. Then he was up, stalking around the room. He grabbed a pair of jeans, yanking them on. “Holy fuck. I knew taking this girl in was a bad idea. Goddamnit, Katie…”

“What?” I asked again, watching him pull on a t-shirt. “What are you talking about?”

“Sabrina says she came onto Rob.” He stopped the stalking when he got to our door, his hand on the knob.

I stared at him, aghast. “She… what?”

“You heard me.” He pulled the door open and stormed down the hall.

I sat there for a moment, paralyzed, trying to make sense of his words. Jay came onto Rob? What did that mean, exactly? I mean, I knew she had a crush on him once upon a time. Rob was the reason Jay had finagled her way onto our tour bus. She had believed he was her “true love,” and of course, thought that if she showed up, Rob would fall immediately in love with her.

But she’d been a kid then—just twelve, at the time. And her interests had grown since then. She still loved Trouble, but she wasn’t obsessed with Rob Burns anymore. At least, that’s what she’d told me, in emails, and during the conversations we had at least once a month.

Of course she told you that. If she told you she was still madly in love with him, would you have taken her in when she showed up on your doorstep?

“What in the hell were you thinking?” Tyler’s voice boomed down the hallway and I leapt off the bed, heading after him. He was standing in Jay’s doorway, the door open, light on. “Is that what you came here looking for? You wanted to fuck a rock star?”

“Tyler!” I called, horrified, as I hurried down the hall. “Tyler, don’t!”

“Don’t?” He turned to blink at me, incredulous. “Are you kidding me? This little slut shows up on our doorstep, we take her in, we buy her a whole goddamned new wardrobe, and how does she repay us?”

“Ty, stop,” I whispered, seeing Jay sitting up on her bed, face in her hands, sobbing. “Let me talk to her.”

“I’m done.” Tyler held up his hands, glaring at Jay, and then at me. “I want her out of here. I want her on a plane tomorrow back to Kansas or Missouri or whatever rock she crawled out from under.”

“Please.” I put my hand on his arm. “Don’t do this. I’ll talk to her. I’ll—”

“Whatever.” Tyler turned and stalked back down the hall, slamming the door to our bedroom behind him. I knew why he was angry—and I couldn't blame him. If Jay really had come onto Rob, the way he said, then the fact that Jay was underage, and a runaway, put an even bigger wrench into the works. That was the sort of publicity Arnie would have a heart attack about—even he didn’t have the power to spin that the right direction.

“Jay, what happened?” I asked, closing her door behind me and coming to sit by her on the bed.

“I’m so sorry, Katie,” she whispered, lifting her head to look at me. Dark tracks, wet eyeliner and mascara, streaked her face. “It wasn’t what it looked like. I didn’t mean anything. Rob tried to tell her, but—”

Whatever she was going to say got choked off in a sob and Jay buried her face in her hands again. I moved to sit by her, putting an arm around her shoulder, and she turned to me, wrapping her arms around my neck.

“I ruin everything,” she choked, her body shaking with sobs.

“No, you don’t,” I soothed. “You didn’t. I’m sure it was just a misunderstanding. We’ll fix it. In the morning, I promise, we’ll fix it.”

“But you heard him,” Jay whispered. She was curled up against me, almost fetal. I rocked her like a baby, too, kissing the top of her head. “He wants me to go home.”

“He’s just… he doesn’t know it was a mistake.”

I closed my eyes, feeling tears sting them. I didn’t know what had happened, but if Jay said it had been a misunderstanding, I believed her. I loved Sabrina dearly, but she did have a tendency to go overboard with the jealousy. She’d gone through several nannies because she thought they were coming on to Rob. Granted, some of them really had been—but she might have jumped the gun on one or two.

“I’m sorry, Katie, I’m so sorry,” she said again. She was trembling, so I pulled her covers up, wrapping them around her. “But I can’t go home… I can’t… you don’t know…”

“I know,” I assured her.

“No, you don’t!” she wailed, sobbing again. She cried so hard I thought it would tear her apart. I tried to calm her, and finally, she did settle down, her breath coming in hitches, like babies do after going on a crying jag.

“Here.” I handed her a water bottle sitting on the night stand. “Drink this.”

She did, sniffling and wiping at her face. Her nose was red and so were her eyes.