I watched as what I was talking about registered on his face. The corner of Jack’s mouth twitched and turned slightly up. I saw a hint of his cocky smile before he tried to cover it with indifference. “Put on the dress.”

“Why?” I asked, with a mouth full of sass.

“Because I want to see what the most beautiful girl will be wearing when I show her off on my arm.”

Right. Damn. Answer. I turned my back to him so that he couldn’t see me smile, taking the dress bag with me as I went into the bathroom to change.

I quickly fixed my makeup and ran my fingers through my hair after slipping on the dress and shoes. Even without proper preparation, I knew I looked good when I saw my reflection in the mirror. It was the dress. Sexy as hell and fit like a glove.

I opened the bathroom door and stood in the doorway, posing as Jack’s eyes took in the dress. He didn’t say anything, so I waited, then slowly turned, giving him the full effect of the dress.

I looked up at Jack as I completed my slow circle and our eyes met. His eyes were filled with desire. He made no attempt to hide his slow gaze up and down my body one more time before he spoke. “You’re definitely getting f**king security.”

For some reason, when he looked at me that way and told me what I was doing, I didn’t mind it so much. I let out an exaggerated sigh. “Okay.”

Jack smiled and I rolled my eyes.

He took two long steps and was quickly in my personal space. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Then he helped me take off the dress.

Chapter 14

I don’t know why, but Jack leaving me at an airport was much easier than me leaving him outside the tour bus. Maybe it was because I was the one making the choice to go and I could have jumped off the bus before it pulled away and made the decision to go back home with him and live my happily ever after.

It had been hours since our bus had pulled out of Rome and I’d watched Jack standing outside alone until he was completely out of view. But there was still a lump in my throat and a feeling of emptiness inside my chest that made me feel hollow. I knew Jack was going straight to the airport for his flight, but it hadn’t made it any easier to walk onto the bus and take those first few steps away from him.

My phone buzzed and I smiled, seeing Jack’s face on the screen indicating a text had arrived.

Your new security will meet you at the next stop. Boarding now, call me when you get up tomorrow. Can’t stop thinking about you in that red dress. We may need security at the awards too with the way you look in it. Fuck, now I have to board for an eight hour flight with a hard on bc of the picture in my head.

I grinned and rolled my eyes at the screen. The man had no shame. Sienna caught me smiling and broke into my thoughts.

“Finally, a smile. I thought you were going to walk around looking like someone had just shot your puppy for the next two weeks. Was it a dirty text from loverboy that made you smile? If you want, I can walk around being all alpha male kickass demanding if it makes you feel better.”

I shook my head at my best friend, a smirk telling her that I thought she was crazy.

Sienna stood and puffed out her chest and did her best husky low monotone deep-voice impression of Jack. “Syd, you don’t need any clothes for our trip. Me Tarzan, you Jane.” She pounded her fists against her chest. “You will be naked and ready for me whenever my twelve inch dick rises to attention.”

I threw the closest thing to my reach at her that wouldn’t leave a permanent scar, Jack’s sweatshirt that had been sitting next to me. I’d taken it when we were packing because it smelled like Jack.

Sienna lifted the sweatshirt to her nose and took an exaggerated deep inhale, sniffing the sweatshirt. “Yum, loverboy’s sweatshirt even smells good. I’m still a little pissed that you saw him first.” Sienna joked.

I laughed at her playfulness, thinking it would probably be a good time to tell her about our new security, which I was pretty sure she was not going to be happy about.

“Um, Loverboy has hired us security. He went a little crazy after the incident at Trevi Fountain and decided it wasn’t safe for us to be traveling without a professional now that we are starting to be recognized.”

Sienna seemed to think about it for a minute and then shrugged her shoulders. “He’s probably right. There are some crazies out there.”

Really? Did Sienna just agree with my overprotective boyfriend’s assessment of our safety? “You aren’t annoyed that we are going to have some goon following us around?”

Sienna shrugged again. She seemed to be fine with it. “Is the goon hot?” She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

***

The next few shows went by quickly and we were heading for our fourth city in as many days when our bus stopped unexpectedly in the middle of the night, jarring me from my sleep. I tried to ignore the stop and go back to sleep, but I heard talking outside and decided to find out what was going on.

Sienna was already outside of the bus talking to Kyle when I made my way down the stairs.

“What’s up? Is everything okay?” My voice was groggy and raspy.

“We’ve been having bus trouble all night. It wasn’t letting us go over forty the last hour, but now the damn thing is shaking and maxing out at twenty. Vince doesn’t want us to drive any further. He thinks we might make whatever is wrong worse and he’s worried about seizing the engine.”

“Where are we?” I looked around and it looked like the middle of nowhere.

Kyle shrugged as he spoke. “Halfway between bumfuck and nowheresville.”

Justin walked over to where we were standing. “Vince will stay here with the bus and get it towed to the nearest shop in the morning. Kyle and I and the rest of the band will bunk with you guys. They’re going to load the extra equipment we need to haul now. If the bus isn’t fixed by first thing in the morning, we won’t make it to the show. We’ll take what we need just in case.”

The solution sounded logical to me and Sienna didn’t seem to mind. We all pitched in and moved what had to be moved and loaded back onto our bus. It took almost two hours of maneuvering the extra equipment under the bus to get it all to fit, but we were back on our way as the sun began to rise.

Justin sat back on the couch, reaching his long legs across to the chair on the other side of the aisle. “Why does your bus smell so good?”

Sienna shook her head at Justin’s comment. “Because we smell good, haven’t you noticed?”