Powering up her laptop in the booth of the new tour bus, Keira checked through her emails, which she hadn’t looked at since leaving for the solo tour. The label always set up meetings by text, so there hadn’t been much reason to check. She’d missed a few sales at some of her favorite shops, not a bad thing, since she’d only gotten her first check a few days ago. A couple of scans of Amy’s drawings from Izzy. She almost closed the window down when an email came through.

Almost sending it to spam, she opened it. It came from a tour manager, at least they said they were a tour manager. Scanning the email and the attachment, Keira froze completely unable to process what she saw. They wanted her to go on tour. A different tour, as the photographer. The offer even more ridiculous than the one she’d gotten for Eric’s tour. How in the hell had they even found out about her? She replied that she appreciated the offer, but she’d be on tour with Eric through the rest of the year. Fingers crossed!

The possibilities flew through her head as she thought about everything that she could do to make the tour experience come to life for the fans. She’d learned so much from Eric’s tour already. Could this be something she did long term? She couldn’t leave Eric’s tour. She couldn’t leave him. But for the future, there were definitely possibilities there. She felt lighter than she had in days. The night they left the Uncharted tour and the days after were a complete disaster. And not just for them. Eric let her know the Uncharted’s tour was cut short, shortly after they left it. It seemed the ticket sales plummeted. Even though Owen was a total asshole, she felt bad. She knew how many people depended on that tour to pay their bills.

Using all her muscle power, she’d dragged some of the stuff out of the bunks and slept in there that night. The next day, they got in the plane together, no fun exploring this time, she’d worked on the layout for the photobook and tried to keep her distance from Eric. It was tricky considering it was mainly the two of them together all the time. She let out a sigh and responded to an email from the label, letting them know that it was almost finished. The heat was on and they were breathing down her neck to finish it. She slammed her laptop closed when Eric popped up at the top of the bus steps.

“Come on,” he said, motioning for her to follow him.

“What is it?”

“You’re not going to believe this. Come on!” he said, reaching for her hand and pulling her up from the table and down the steps.

He dragged her from the bus and down the small embankment they’d parked next to. He kept up the pace and she nearly tripped over her feet trying to keep up with him. The long grass slapped against her ankles as he came to a sudden stop in front of a picnic blanket and basket. He bent down to light a few candles and turned to her.

“What’s all this?”

“I figured it was the only way to get you off the bus. You’ve been avoiding me all day. You won’t talk to me.”

“Eric—” she said, trying to think of what there was to say.

“Tell me what’s wrong Keira. Please,” he said, holding her hands in his. She took a deep breath. How did you tell the guy you loved, yeah loved, that you were upset because he still had feelings for his previous girlfriend?

“I know you still care about Talia. I just don’t know where that puts us,” she said in one big rush. He scrunched up his eyebrows and looked at her like he didn’t know what she was talking about.

“I don’t still have feelings for Talia. Why would you think that?” he asked, looking genuinely confused. Now she was confused. Thinking back to the bus, she tried to figure out what had happened, if he hadn’t been pissed about Talia and then it dawned on her. She knew Owen wasn’t talking about her from the beginning because, eww, wasn’t going to happen. Not with him ever.

“So then you thought Owen slept with me? You thought I cheated on you,” she knew she hit the nail on the head when he ducked his head and glanced away. “You really thought I’d do that to you,” she said, a little dagger digging into her heart.

“Keira, it was a split-second reaction. I saw you in the dressing room with him that day and my imagination ran away from me. Once I realized it was Talia he was talking about, I didn’t give a shit, but I was pissed about the way he talked to you. I wasn’t going to let him do that to you.”

Taking another deep breath, she decided to get it all out of the way.

“I thought you were still hung up on Talia and that’s why you got so pissed off at Owen.” His eyes got really big and he was waving his hands in front of himself and shaking his head. Well that settled that. He stepped toe to toe with her and slid his hand along her face.

“There’s only one person I’m hung up on and she’s standing right in front of me,” he said, nuzzling his face against hers. She let out a contented sigh.

“I might just be a little hung up on you too,” she said, nibbling on his lips.

“Don’t tempt me to take you right here out in the open, Keira,” he said, against her lips.

“We wouldn’t want that now would we,” she said, coyly while sinking down onto the blanket. He growled and stalked toward her.

They laid out there on the blanket and talked for hours after a little under the shirt action. He told her all about his dad leaving when he was younger. How much it hurt him. That all he had left to remind him of his dad was the guitar he’d left behind. The pain he felt at his dad up and leaving was still raw. She heard it in his voice, how much it still affected him.

* * *

The gap between tours was shrunk to a couple of days, so they’d been on tour almost constantly since they started. Which meant, they’d come up with their own tour routine. Whenever he sang his finale, he always made sure that he sang at least one of the choruses, directly to her in the wings of the stage. He knew it riled her up. Their hasty retreat to the dressing room had to be noticed by the crew, but no one ever said anything. She left before the final notes, only to race back to the dressing room. He burst in and attacked her the second the door closed behind him.

She’d taken to wearing skirts on show nights if only to make these quick sessions that much easier. Hiking her skirt up her legs, she sat on the table in front of the vanity and hitched her legs up on the back of his thighs. Pushing her panties aside, he would push into her in one long solid thrust.

After two weeks, they’d both agreed to get tested, no longer needing to use protection. So much for her professionalism pledge, but in those moments, when his hot breath tickled the hair on the side of her neck and his fingers were threaded through her hair attempting to devour her mouth, she didn’t much care about being professional. All she cared about was the insatiable fire that could only be quenched in the way Eric could play her body night after night, show after show. The pounding he gave her, curled her toes and her back pressed against the mirror, shaking the entire thing. Biting his neck, still sweaty from playing on the stage, Keira’s breath hitched as he reached between them and played a rhythm on her clit that sent her over the edge.

He knew how to play her in more ways than one. Crying out against his shoulder trying to muffle her screams, she squeezed his shaft tighter as he pounded into her more erratically, reaching his own peak. He continued to kiss his way up and down her neck as he pushed in one final time and held himself there.

“I love you Keira,” he said, pulling back and staring into her eyes. Her breath that had only recently returned after another explosive orgasm stalled in her throat. The look he gave her, so raw and open, she could see the vulnerability and more importantly love he had for her in that moment. Heart soaring, it sped up after only just returning to a rate that was outside of the cardiac arrest range. She pulled him to her and kissed him, tasting all the sweat and musk he’d worked up that evening. Bringing her mouth to his ear, she smiled and her heart flipped.

“I love you too,” she chuckled, as he hardened against her. She pulled back and saw the feral look in his eyes. “Again?”

“Only with you,” he said, before biting her lip and slipping back inside, drawing a sigh from her.