“Did we bring snacks?” Tate asked, buckling into her seat belt in front of Bishop and I. She was beside Cash now, with Nate at the very back of the jet—alone. Where he should be. I couldn’t be angry at him. He had been nothing but honest with Tate, but if he had been stringing her along too, I’d be having words with him when we get home. Fucker.
“You don’t need snacks. We just had breakfast. It’s not like we’re flying to Europe.”
“There’s a thought,” she muttered, so quiet I almost missed it. “Oh!” She bent around her seat to look at me. “We should do Europe for your birthday, Mads! Oh my God!”
I shook my head at her, giving her the universal glare that silently screamed ‘shut the fuck up.’
She returned my unspoken words with her own dirty stare. “Oh please. He already knows your fucking birthday is in a couple of weeks. Twat.”
“Is twat your new favorite word?” I asked politely once she had turned back in her seat.
“Apparently. But seriously, we should hit Greece.”
“I just want to get through all this bullshit first.” I looked up at Bishop, who was already watching me.
“It’s cute that you thought I wouldn’t know about your birthday.”
“I guess, but I don’t know. I’ve never made a big deal about my birthday before, so I didn’t see the point in telling you.”
“What? You’ve never had a party?”
I shook my head and squirmed. “Oh, no. Contrary to what you may think, I don’t really like the attention on me.”
His arm came around my shoulders as the seat belt light flickered on. The pilot yapped off about preparing for take-off, just as Bishop’s lips came to my ear. “Actually, Kitty, I know exactly what you’re like.” Then he bit on my earlobe and I had to squeeze the armrest to stop from straddling his lap. My eyes darted down to his destroyed denim jeans and how they hung casually off his slim waist. His other hand came to his crotch. He squeezed his junk. My eyes shut and I sucked in a breath of air.
“Like what you see, Kitty?” His voice vibrated over my flesh.
“Bishop…” I warned through a shaky breath.
He chuckled and pulled away from me, leaning back in his chair. “Because I need you focused, I won’t fuck you up against the wall in the back cabin, but on the way home…”
Needing to take my mind out of Bishop and his sexcapades, I pulled my phone out and opened Spotify. Grabbing my ear pods out of my pocket, I untangled them and put them into my ear. The plane began speeding down the runway and I watched as the asphalt slowly started to disappear, and all that was in view was the thick clouds and the sinking city. One of my ear pods getting pulled out of my ear snapped me out of my daydream and Bishop took my phone from me.
“Listen to this song...” Out of any other guy’s mouth, that would be cheesy, but this was Bishop. He wasn’t cheesy. He wasn’t a broken ass loved-up fool. He was just Bishop. Once you knew him, his name alone was like warm, rich hot chocolate sliding down your throat on a snowy winter’s day. With added whiskey…
“Sure.” I smiled at him. He started flicking through my music, and then he pushed play on a song that had an electric guitar opening it. A guy’s smooth voice filled my ears. By the time the hook came in, I had goosebumps breaking out over my skin. The lyrics, the electric sound, the fact that this song meant something to Bishop. I was about to choke on the rock of emotion that had appeared in my throat.
“What’s the song called?” I managed to choke out.
His eyes searched mine. “’Torn to Pieces’ by Pop Evil.”
“I love it.” A small smile slid over my mouth, and I took the phone from him, opening a new playlist on Spotify. I thought about it quickly and then smiled while typing out “Madship’s Playlist” I began adding all the songs that we had listened to previously into the playlist. One of them caught my attention.
“This song is one of my favorites.” I pushed play on “I’m Ready” by Nikye Heaton.
He chuckled. “Yeah, you do love this song, huh.” He took my phone back and flicked through.
“I do,” I nodded. “It resonates with me on a deep level when it comes to us, I guess.”
His finger paused for a second, his eyes flicking to me briefly before he continued to scroll through.
The song finished and then Bullet for my Valentine “Your Betrayal” started playing. I giggle-snorted—straight ugly snorted—when I heard it.
“That day at the lake?” I smirked, my eyes coming to his.
“You remembered?”
“Your face was buried between my thighs while our friends were doing backflips off rocks in the water fifty meters away from us—yes, I remember. I remember this song was playing from Nate’s sound dock.” My eyes glassed over from the memories. “God, it feels like so long ago. Put that in our playlist.” He does something on my phone, and then pulled out his. He started fiddling around with both phones and then tucked his away.
“I joined our playlist to both our accounts. Now we can both add songs to it for the other to listen to.”
The gesture may have sounded normal to most people, but again, this was Bishop, and I’m still warming up to this side of him. The caring side. Receiving love from someone who spent so much time hating you gives you a euphoric high that no drug could ever give you. It was intoxicating, deadly, and completely addictive. I took my phone since he could now use his, then pushed play on “Stupid Love” from Jason Derulo.
“Really?” he deadpanned.
I shrugged, sliding the song to our playlist. “It came on when we were on our way to the airport to fly to New Zealand. It connected with me around that time so it’s going in.”
His eyes narrowed.
I narrowed mine back.
“You wanna play? Okay, let’s play.”
“What are you, Tony Montana,” I teased, and watched as his thumb shuffled through the songs on his phone. “Killpop” from Slipknot started playing.
I tried listening to the lyrics, even though I was acquainted with the song.
“Isn’t this about a drug dealer who falls in love with his junkie?” I raised my eyebrow at him.
A beat passed, and then he slowly raised his eyebrows. Realization sunk in pretty quickly once I had just choked on my own words. “Oh, well, then, it’s perfect.”
“Hey.” He tilted my head to face him. “This shit with you and I, it’s always been messy, fucking chaotic, but that’s just us. Don’t resent that, baby.”
“I’d never.” I shook my head. Halestorm “I’m no Angel” started playing next, and I leaned my head on Bishop’s shoulder. His arm came up again, pulling me into his side so my face smashed into him. I loved his scent. I wished I could bottle it up and carry it around with me. Leather, soap, man, and mint. “I’ve been through a lot of traumatic things in my life, as you know, and up until the point I met you, I would have given anything and everything to change my past. But, if I had to go through all those things to meet you, then I wouldn’t change a thing. You’re well worth it, Bishop.”
He was silent, so I figured he may not have heard me, and before I knew it, my eyes closed and I fell into a deep sleep.