Page 87 of Rock Bottom

“Are you serious?” I sighed. “After all this, you’re still singing the same tune. Christian Danger Pope, you listen to me. I have the right to make my own choices in life. I haven’t always been very good at it, especially lately, but I do my best. And I choose you. You make me happy. You make me want to be better. Hell, you saved me, and I don’t just mean from that abandoned mine. I mean, you were there when no one else was to make me dig deep and find the scraps of myself I thought were long gone. You were the first person who made me feel whole again.”

He stared down at my hand on top of his. “But—”

“Let me put it another way for you, kitten.” I lifted his hand, doing my best to thread my bandaged fingers with his. “I love you.”

“Dante, you know how I feel. It’s just—”

“Don’t complicate this. Whatever we need to figure out, we’ll figure it out. But I need something from you right now. I need an answer. Do you feel the same way about me as I do about you? Yes or no, Christian? Right here. Right now. Everything else can wait.”

His eyes shimmered as his gaze met mine. “Yes. A hundred thousand times over, yes.”

Ignoring the throbbing pain in my hands, I pulled his lips to mine and kissed him again and again and again until we were both breathless and giddy. I smiled and held his forehead to mine. “See? That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

He closed his eyes. “Loving you is the easy part, Dante. What do we do now? How are we ever going to make this work?”

“We’ll find a way,” I promised him. “But first, we have to deal with a bunch of grumpy old men…and my band mates. I don’t want us to be a secret anymore. I’m going to tell them everything.”

He paled and pulled away. “Everything?”

“Well, maybe not everything. The pancakes can be our little secret.” I smirked and winked at him, but I meant every word of it.

I was done pretending to be someone I wasn’t, through with finding my courage at the bottom of the bottle. If I walked away from this with nothing but Church and some happy memories, I could live with that. I’d leave After Atom behind if I had to, and I wouldn’t even be doing it for him. I could do it for myself. I was worth fighting for.

My pulse raced as I turned into the junkyard driveway. Gravel crunched under the tires, the sound grating on my nerves like never before. Coming clean about me and Dante to everyone wasn’t going to be easy. I was less worried about what his bandmates and the label execs thought, and more concerned about how Boone would react.

After working together for so many years, Boone and I were more than friends. More than brothers. He was one of the few people in the world I would trust with my life. His respect meant something to me, and I could be throwing that away by telling him the truth. Once he knew I’d been messing about with Dante while on the job, he’d never trust me on another assignment again.

I ran Bowie’s words through my head over and over, reminding myself that Boone had married the man from his last job. Maybe he’d understand, but even if he did, he should fire me after everything that’d happened.

I pulled into my parking spot and put the vehicle in park.

Dante put his bandaged hand over my arm. “It’s going to be okay, kitten.”

“I know,” I said with a sigh. “But things are going to change after this. Are you sure this is what you want? That I’m what you want?”

He took my face in his hands and smiled. “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life, Christian,” he said, and pressed a kiss to my lips.

I leaned into the familiar warmth of him, wishing I could pull him against me. It’d been too long since he’d touched me like that, too long since we’d been alone. I’d nearly lost him and the weight of that felt immense. Just feeling his skin on mine was such a relief, more so than I’d expected.

I strained against the center console separating us to put my arms around him and pull him closer, only to let him go when he let out a pained squeak. “I’m sorry! Are you all right?”

He laughed and reached to unbuckle his seatbelt before leaning across to capture my lips again. “Never better,” he said, and went back to kissing me.

I didn’t think about how we might be discovered sitting there in the parking lot. Anyone could wander by and see us making out in the front seat, but I didn’t care. Nothing mattered more than having him alive and smiling in my arms. Whatever happened once we went inside, I’d survive it as long as I had him. In the short time we’d been together, we’d already been through so much. It would hurt to lose my job, but nothing could ever hurt as bad as when I thought I’d never get to see that cocky smile again, or taste his lips, or run my fingers through his hair.

A knock against the window made me flinch. I let go of Dante and twisted in the front seat to find Boone standing on the other side. My heart sank when he took a step back and crossed his arms. He did not look pleased.

I looked back at Dante, who shrugged, and we got out of the car. I was fully expecting Boone to unload on me as soon as I closed the door behind me, but he didn’t say anything. He just stood there wearing a frown. Dante came around to stand beside me. Boone’s attention snapped down to where our hands joined, but I didn’t pull away. Fuck it. Dante was right. We had to be done sneaking around. The only way this was going to work was if we were honest with everyone, including ourselves.

“The rest of your band and all their security are already up in the meeting room,” Boone said, addressing Dante. “We’re still waiting on the label execs to get here, but I’m sure they’re eager to see you.”

Subtle, I thought, but if he’d said he wanted to speak to me alone, Dante might’ve objected.

Dante turned and kissed my cheek, whispering, “You’ve got this, kitten. I’m with you a hundred and ten percent.”

“Same to you.” I squeezed his wrist so I didn’t hurt his injured hands, and he walked toward the office. I waited until Dante was out of earshot to say to Boone, “I know what you’re going to say.”

“Oh, do you now?” He scoffed and unfolded his arms, putting his hands on his hips instead. “This ought to be good. Go on then. Let’s hear it.”

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