Page 50 of Electric Touch

Sasha looks at me. I guess she doesn’t want to talk in front of a stranger. I want to be pissed at being cock blocked, but her friend is distressed. “Are you ok? Did someone hurt you?” I ask.

“Not in the physical sense,” she mutters, wiping at her eyes.

“Come on,” Adrestia hugs Sasha to her side. She turns and looks at me apologetically. Her face says everything. As much as she is worried about her friend, she also knows what we were just interrupted from doing.

“Do you need anything?” I say, glancing from her to Sasha.

“No, thank you, Nash. We’ll be ok. Sasha, let’s get you inside.” Adrestia opens her door and Sasha slips into the apartment. After pulling the door over, she turns back to me. “Talk about bad timing.”

“Your friend needs you. Don’t worry about it.”

“Thank you.”

“I hope she’s okay. You better go inside.”

She nods, worried but conflicted. I walk over and stroke her cheek, then press a soft kiss to her lips. “We’ll talk later.”

“Okay, goodnight.”

I watch her go inside and lean my forehead against the wall once she’s gone. The situation in my pants deflated as soon as I saw a crying woman. I won’t pretend I’m not disappointed, but maybe it was for the best.

Who the fuck am I kidding? Something is starting here, and I’m not ready to walk away.

Chapter Fifteen

I sit in the makeup chair and watch Jack flirting with the girl doing his face. She seems open to it. The woman doing mine, who is a lot older, keeps looking at them with a scowl. I’m not sure if she’s the boss, or if it’s jealousy. I’m not flirting with anyone. When she tuts for the third time, I lift my eyes to her. “Something wrong?”

“No,” she says, focusing back on me.

I guess it’s jealousy then? I want this over with. Getting makeup on me doesn’t sit right. Even though I know it has to be put on for the lights and cameras. Still, it feels unnatural. She takes a few minutes to finish up, putting product in my hair. I thank her and head over to where Ciro is looking at his phone.

He hates this shit as much as me and is in and out of the chair within minutes. We’re doing a last-minute photoshoot for an online magazine that Declan sprang on us last night. He only signs us up for things that will help us with reputable companies. So this is legit. But we are the back-up plan. Another band pulled out. I see it as an opportunity.

It’s been two days since I saw Adrestia. We’ve texted twice. Me to make sure her friend was okay. Her to say she has a busy week but is looking forward to our next lesson. I don’t like to think about how much I read into that. Is she saying we need to go back to the whole teacher student thing? Does she not want to talk about what happened the other night?

“What is he doing?”

I snap out of my tangled thoughts of Adrestia and look at Ciro. “Who?”

“That idiot,” he points at Jack. “Does he not realise how unprofessional he is being?”

“It’s Jack. He will not change.”

“He will, when he gets the clap.”

“Dude,” I pull a face. Ciro looks at me. “Speaking from experience?” I grin.

He stares some more. A lesser man might wither, but I keep grinning. Ciro is private about most of what he does outside of the band. I’ve never seen him with a woman. Although I have heard a few whispers about him hooking up with one of Jenna’s friends. Jack asked once. Let’s just say he didn’t get an answer, and he didn’t ask again.

“Leave him alone, he isn’t stupid,” I say.

“That is wildly untrue.”

I shrug. He’s right, but he has to make his own mistakes and if he does something stupid, we’ll reign him in. My brother is chatting with the set director. He more or less managed us before Declan came along. He’s having a hard time letting go and wants to know everything about what is happening today.

He asked me about Adrestia when I got back to the apartment. He wouldn’t stop if I didn’t give him something, so I told the truth. He’d grinned and slapped my back, then commiserated about the friend showing up.

“Adrestia is interesting.”

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