Chapter Twenty-Three
Owen
Light flickering through the window woke me the next morning, and I could see we were just getting into Seattle. I rubbed my eyes and looked down at the comforting weight lying against me and smiled. Nalia and I had fallen asleep talking and cuddling.
I never thought falling asleep on the bus could feel so refreshing, but I felt like I’d had a full night’s sleep lying there with her in my arms. Usually, I didn't sleep well on buses, even luxury tour buses like this one, but with her there, I'd somehow managed to get a great night's sleep in. I think I may have even had a few good dreams.
Gently, trying not to wake her, I brushed her hair back out of her face, studying her features as she slept. She was as stunning asleep as she was awake, her soft, even breaths reassuring and peaceful. And for a few quiet, sacred moments, I simply lay there next to her, admiring her, feeling at peace in her presence and basking in the warmth that flowed between us.
I found myself wondering how things would be if the situation were different and realized that I definitely wouldn’t mind waking up to this every day. Hell, I probably wouldn’t even get out of bed if I woke up with her in my arms every day.
For now, though, I settled for letting her sleep in my arms. I watched the sights of Seattle rolling by as the city awoke, silently enjoying the peaceful moment and feeling quietly content with Nalia in my arms until we finally pulled up in front of our hotel.
“Nalia, wake up,” I coaxed gently, stroking her cheek. Her eyes fluttered open, and she put a hand on my chest, sitting herself up. She looked around, her eyes slightly worried, as if she was expecting the others to catch us. I smiled, not particularly caring about that myself. I was pretty sure that by now they had a good idea something was going on, anyway.
“We’re at the hotel,” I told her. “So I guess that means it's time to rise and shine, then go wake up and rally the troops. I sure hope the rest of them got as good a night's rest as I did. How about you, did you sleep well?”
“Like a baby,” she said. “I didn't think I'd be able to sleep this well on a bus, but it was as good as any hotel bed.” She smiled and smoothed her hair and clothing as she pulled herself to stand. I got up as well, helping her wake up the others. I woke up Jay and then Talon, and he gave me a sour look after he yawned and stretched. I jumped straight into an apology, though, not wanting any bitterness or resentment to simmer.
“Sorry about snapping last night, Tal. I’m just a bit stressed. I really didn’t mean to throw your shit out there like that. It was a dick move, and it was totally uncalled for.”
“Yeah. It was, dude. But whatever, I'm over it,” he said, shrugging it off as he wiped the sleep from his eyes. “We at the hotel?”
“Yeah. And, we'll have a few hours to chill if you want to rest up more before we start our long-ass day,” I told him, patting his shoulder.
He nodded, looking exhausted. “Might take you up on that offer.”
“What time did you two get to sleep, anyway?”
“Late enough to see you and Nalia curled up together,” he replied as he flashed me a sleepy grin. “That’s the real reason why you were pissy with me last night, wasn’t it? Come on, dude. I know you better than that. Don't try pull the wool over my eyes with this 'I'm feeling so stressed out' crap. Just admit it, man!”
This time it was me who had to shrug. What could I say? He had caught me red-handed with my hand in the figurative cookie jar.
“You two have had sex already, too, haven't you? And don't lie about it, man! You get this look in your eyes and this little twitch on the left side of your face when you lie—I've known that since we were little! So, tell me, what happened to the whole ‘nobody bangs the assistant’ pact, hmm?” He laughed, his signature shit-eating grin glowing on his face now, despite his exhaustion.
My neck grew a little hot. “All right, all right, yeah. I like her. A lot. Probably more than I should. Maybe if we weren’t doing all the touring and everything, there would be something more there, but, yeah. Now just keep your mouth shut about it, please? Got it?” I shot him a look.
He made a zipper-like motion over his lips. “I can’t promise Jay won’t say anything or that the others aren’t already noticing something there, but I won’t say anything else about it. I’ll tone down the flirting, though, even if I was just having fun with her. You know I wouldn’t step on your toes like that.”
I smiled warmly at him. “I appreciate that, lil bro.”
“Besides, she seems to be the only one who is able to shake that damn stick up your ass loose,” he said as the grin returned. “Hell, maybe she'll even be able to pull the whole damn thing out of there!”
I gave him a playful smack on the back of the head.
“Come on. Let’s get settled into the suite,” I suggested. He hopped down from his bunk with a loud thump and followed me out with the others to grab our bags. Nalia already had a couple of luggage carts waiting for us and had the bellman loading our bags. Little things like that made me especially thankful for an assistant—and waking up with her curled up next to me made me especially thankful that I had chosen her.
“Come on, boys, let's get moving. We’ve got a couple hours to rest up, then a busy, but fun-filled, day ahead of us,” she said in a chipper, but somewhat sarcastic manner, causing groans of dissent from the others.
I couldn’t help but laugh, as I’d actually slept great and wasn’t tired at all. Nalia had already gotten us checked in, so we headed straight for the elevator and upstairs to our suite. As soon as the doors opened, Talon and Jay headed for the bedrooms, and I heard the distinct flop of Talon throwing himself on a mattress. The others did the same, just tossing their luggage on the floor and not bothering to unpack anything. It seemed that nobody else, besides Nalia and I, had actually gotten much rest on the bus. I hung back and tipped the bellman, then turned to Nalia.
“You going to get some rest, too?” I asked her.
“Nah. I feel pretty well rested,” she shrugged. “Anyway, there are a bunch of things I want to check on for our next stop and a number of other small details about things that I just want to double check. And, I was definitely thinking of taking a nice, long, relaxing bubble bath before the guys dirty up all the bathrooms, too. I bet the tub here in the penthouse is amazing, you know.”
“Mmm, a bubble bath with you sounds amazing right about now.” A wicked grin crossed my lips, but she put a hand up.
“I said a relaxing bubble bath, and that means alone. The only company I'd want for that would be a book,” she said with a wink. I gave her a playful pout.
She added a teasing, “Maybe later,” before disappearing up the stairs. I watched her go up, wishing I could join her, but in truth, I had some more emails and other business matters to take care of myself. Despite that, a “maybe later” sounded great and was enough to keep my spirits up.
I headed to one of the rooms myself and pulled out my laptop, getting lost in emails and looking over our set list for the night. It wasn’t until Nalia knocked on the door that I realized over two hours had passed.
“You might want to get in one of the showers before the other guys get in. You know, freshen up and wash the road off of you.” She leaned against the open doorway.
I pulled my shirt off, smelling it, and my eyes certainly did not miss the once-over she gave my bare chest.
“Do I smell?” I asked. She leaned toward me and took a sniff, in the process letting me get a nice whiff of how sweet she smelled.
“Not really, just figured you’d want to get a shower in after being on the road for so long. Get yourself all refreshed feeling,” she said as she pulled her hair out of her towel. I grinned, just imagining her enjoying her bath. Sadly, she was already dressed. Otherwise, I might have offered to drag her into the shower with me.
“Yeah, probably a good idea,” I nodded, shutting my laptop and getting up off the bed. She tossed a clean towel at me.
“Let me know if you need anything.” She winked, then disappeared to finish getting ready.
Once everyone was showered, clean, and mostly awake, we headed downstairs to the lobby. Nalia had already arranged for our gear to be taken to the venue we were playing at and had a fully-stocked limo waiting for us. I climbed in last and sat next to her, feeling a lot more excited about the show that night and formally kicking off the tour. It was easier to be excited since Nalia had taken care of all the details.
Granted, the tour was just beginning, but things had never run so smoothly before. There had always been hiccups when I had tried to take care of everything myself. Sure, they made for good tour stories, but it was much better and so much less stressful having her by my side to catch anything that threatened to fall through the cracks.
Talon gave me a look when I settled in next to Nalia, but true to his word, he said nothing. We headed out to the venue, everyone buzzing with excitement and energy. We were so ready to kick off this tour. Nalia just sat silently, soaking in everyone’s excitement, but having a glass of wine to celebrate with everyone else.
When we arrived, we all piled out of the limo and headed in backstage to meet with the lighting and sound crew. There wasn’t too much to go over with the lighting crew since Nalia had sent the plans over ahead of time and had made sure the road team already had all our gear set up on stage for us. I could only imagine how amazing she’d been on the other tours she’d organized. If she kept this up, I’d definitely find a place for her with Young Records. We were only on day one of the tour, and she was already proving herself invaluable.
She disappeared backstage to follow up on a few last minute things with the crew while we headed to the dressing room to hang out and have lunch before sound check and rehearsal.
“Okay, I know you might hate me for saying it, but I think I’m in love with Nalia,” Talon announced as he set his eyes on the delectable spread of food the caterer had laid out in our dressing room.
I laughed, understanding why he’d said it. Somehow, she’d managed to find out all of our favorite foods to have before a show and had them laid out before us with all our favorite fixings, right down to Talon’s favorite brand of gummy bears.
“If she doesn’t watch out, she’s going to need to make up a workout regimen for us while we’re on tour, too, bringing out all our favorite foods like this.”
“Dude, she’s probably already penciled that into our schedules and packed our workout clothes,” Talon said as he patted me on the shoulder. Come to think of it, he was probably right, I thought with a laugh. Still, I wouldn’t mind working out with her. I could definitely get used to seeing her in those yoga pants she’d been wearing last night.
“Owen, you all right, dude?” Talon waved a hand in front of my face, pulling me from my thoughts.
“Hmm?” I looked over at him.
“I was asking you if you planned on eating anything?” I noticed then he was holding a paper plate out to me.
“Oh, yeah. Thanks.” I took the plate from him and moved over to the buffet laid out, piling some fried chicken and mac and cheese onto my plate.
“Might want to get your mind off of Nalia’s ass and into performance mode there, big bro.”
I looked at him a little dumbfounded, and he only laughed. “Dude, I know you. You’re an ass man, and, I'm not saying that I’ve been checking it out, but I won't lie—Nalia’s got a nice one. A real nice one.”
I gave him a punch in the shoulder, and he only laughed.
“Hey, come on, dude. She was wearing yoga pants this morning. It was hard not to notice that booty on her. I'm only human, after all!”
I sighed. “My mind isn’t on Nalia’s ass. Just glad everything is going so smoothly thanks to her,” I said, which wasn’t a total lie.
“Right, sure,” Talon nodded, going for seconds.
A little later, Nalia popped her head into the room. “How’s everyone doing? Need anything?” she asked, looking around the room.
“We’re good. Why don’t you grab something to eat and take a load off? You’ve been running around since this morning,” I said as I nodded at the spread of food. It wasn’t like we were going to eat all of it ourselves, even if Talon was making a decent effort. She tried to object, but we all insisted she take a break.
“Everything is going good and working out ahead of schedule,” I told her, pushing a plate into her hands. “You need to relax a bit and not worry so much. You've done an awesome job as it is.” Finally, she agreed and grabbed some food before our sound check.
Once we headed to the stage, though, she was back at it again, running around to cover any last minute situations. We got through sound check with minimal issues before heading backstage to hang out until practice was scheduled to begin in another hour. The doors opened at seven, and the opening band, a local group, took the stage at eight. We were letting them rehearse on stage first, taking a break before we ran through our set list.
A few of us ventured out to hear them. They were a great opening act and a band I was looking at signing. I caught a glimpse of Nalia running around backstage, taking charge and directing people while they played. She looked sexy as hell when she was being bossy, and I couldn’t help but smile. Yeah, I’d definitely found the right girl for the job.
After the opening band had finished on stage, we invited them to chow down on the buffet in our dressing room and chatted for a bit before heading out to the stage to run through our set list. Things went perfectly, as they had been the whole day, and everyone was completely pumped.
“So, about the after party?” Talon twirled one of his drumsticks as we finished off our encore song. I grinned. Hell yeah, we were having an after-party tonight.
“We can have it back at the penthouse. I can get Nalia to set up catering and drinks—but I swear to God, guys, no girls that even remotely look like they could be underage or like they’ve been walking the streets their whole life.”
“Aye, aye, captain,” Jeremiah nodded as he placed his guitar on its stand. The others nodded their agreement, and we headed backstage to hang out and change before it was show time.
I looked around for Nalia, but couldn’t find her anywhere. Did this woman ever take a break? I was so pumped and ready to go that I wanted to pull her into an empty closet and release some of this pent up excitement.
Finally, she came into our dressing room, looking smoking hot in a mini skirt and a Bleeding Heart tank top that showed off her cleavage rather nicely. She had dark, winged eyeliner around her eyes and red lipstick on with her hair down and wild, like a real rocker chick. She looked so sexy that the other guys paused and took notice of her walking in.
“Helloooo, nurse!” Talon broke up the silence and whistled at her, making her blush as her brown eyes connected with mine. I smiled at her and nodded for her to join me on the black leather couch.
“Opening band is almost done. I already found a bartender for the after party at the penthouse and took care of food for tonight. Need anything else before you guys go on stage?”
I shook my head, smiling at her. “Relax a little. You’ve been working your tail off all day. It’s time to sit back and get ready to enjoy the show, then later the after party,” I told her.
“Seriously, Nalia. You’re a Godsend. Everything has gone off without a hitch,” Jeremiah added, giving her a fist bump. Her cheeks flushed again, but she thanked him for the compliment, then checked her watch as cheers erupted.
“It’s time, guys! Get out there and break a leg!” She nodded to the door as she popped back up out of her seat. All of the guys headed out toward the stage to get ready, but I hung back so I could walk with Nalia. She smiled at me. “What’s wrong? Nervous?”
“Nah,” I shook my head, then tugged her back into a little alcove behind the stage. I pressed my mouth to hers as I rubbed her hips. She giggled but kissed me back, parting her lips for me invitingly. “I did just think of something I need, though,” I told her as I let her go.
“Anything, boss.” she teased looking up at me, about to pull out her smartphone and make whatever call she needed. I leaned in close, letting my lips brush her neck, sending goosebumps racing down her arm.
“I need you, naked and trembling later tonight.”
She bit her lip, her eyes intent on me as the stage lights went down.
“All yours, handsome,” she flashed me a downright devious smile then popped me right on the ass. “Now, get out there and do your thing.”
I smiled and ran out on stage, ready to rock.