Peace. I’m getting close on this one, y’all. It will be out this month. This blog snippet picks up where last weeks left off. Billy’s inspecting Kae’s injuries and making the opening move in his bid for her hand – getting rid of an old entanglement. Let me know what you think.
She pushed down the sheet, and he whistled.
“Bloody fans,” he muttered, ghosting fingers over the dark, ugly bruise that covered nearly the entire side of her left thigh. “And here!” He touched the bruises on her left shoulder and arm.
“Cute, huh?” She joked. “You should see under my shirt.”
He turned her gently and cursed when he lifted her loose neckline away and saw the bruising on her back.
“It looks like they were trying to kill you.”
She laughed. “Okay? I’ll be the only pop star in history whose fans actually loved her to death.”
“That’s not funny.”
“Enough,” she begged. “Tell me something good. How are you?”
“Fine.”
They stared at each other. Her head tilted. It was one of her signature moves. It meant, start talking.
“What? Why do you suddenly look startled? Is something hurting?”
“No, I just remembered the house is wired. I’m doing a special with HBO. They want to film my recovery. You gotta watch what you say. If it’s a secret, whisper it in my ear.”
“HBO? That sounds like G.”
She laughed. “How’d you know? I told him I didn’t want to do it, and the next thing I knew strangers were drilling camera holes in my brand new house.”
“Are you sure he’s your brother?”
Kae laughed. “I know, right? Spill! Whisper!”
“Paul’s gone,” he said into her ear.
“Home to London?”
“Flying visit, he says, but yeah. Rob and Con went too.”
“You sad?”
“No,” he said, laughing humorlessly. “I’m relieved. I need a bloody break from him. New York was all him whoring and me pretending I didn’t see. In between fights, we raged.”
“I’ve always loved that your band’s name is a verb.”
He snorted. It seemed the glitz and glam of The Rage had temporarily faded. She patted the large hand on her thigh. “I’m sorry, B. That sucks.”
He helped her pull up the sheet, then spooned her until she sighed.
“I don’t love him anymore.”
Whoah. Kae shivered, as much from his dark whisper at her ear as the enormity of what he said. That sounded really definite.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes! I love him. I always will, but I’m not in love with him, and if he’s not careful, I’m going to start to hate him. I want him to let me go, Kae.”
Yup, definitely definite. “What did he say to that?”
“Never.”
Damn. That sounded definite too.
“Who the fuck says that when someone tells you a relationship is over? It’s psychotic.”
A bit. Unfortunately, she had an inkling how Paul felt. That cheating stuff put a different spin on things though. The jerk.
“It’s unfair for sure. I didn’t know about the cheating. That’s total crap.”
He scoffed, a wordless, you have no idea. “I suppose to be fair, I cheat too.”
“But you’re doing it in response to his cheating,” she guessed.
He grunted and squeezed her carefully to his front. “You always were too smart, Bits.”
Sherrod Story - Here lies your book boyfriend...naked. 