Page 47 of Fractured Dreams

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Eden stood in the pit with Lexie, watching the band perform, watching Tex prowl up and down the stage, his fingers weaving magic over the strings of his guitar. The music was driving the crowd into a frenzy, and her pulse was racing too. But not because of the pounding beat of the drums, the searing power chords, or the energy from the crowd, but because her heart was beating for him. Every time he turned his head and looked for her, every time he flashed her his killer smile, her breath would catch in her throat, her blood heat in her veins.

As mesmerizing as watching him was, she wanted—needed—this concert to be over. She was too on edge, her body thrumming with the anticipation of being alone with him in her hotel room again that night.

Finally, the last chords of the last song reverberated through the air. As the feedback started to fade, the sound was drowned out by the screams of the enraptured crowd.

“Come on,” Lexie said. “Let’s get back to the green room.”

With one last look at Tex, standing onstage looking out at the crowd with a megawatt smile on his face, Eden turned and followed Lexie backstage. They’d only been waiting a few minutes when the green room door opened, and Drew walked through, phone held to his ear as he talked in rapid-fire sentences to whoever was on the other end. Eden waited impatiently for the others to file in behind him, but no one did.

Wondering where the band was, Eden went to the door and looked out. A short way down the corridor, a small crowd of mostly female fans had gathered, apparently escorted backstage by the security guards loitering to the side. All four men were signing autographs and having their photos taken. Zac and Connor were smiling at the fans holding out various bits of merchandise to be signed, Noah had a woman hanging off him taking a selfie. And Tex… Tex was talking to a gorgeous, red-haired woman, wearing a tiny skirt and skin-tight tank top, who was standing close, leaning in toward him with a seductive smile on her face. The woman twirled her hair and kept her eyes fixed on him, still smiling, still leaning close as she talked, even as he was signing his autograph for someone else. And when he turned his head back toward her, Eden saw an answering smile on his face.

A sudden tremor vibrated through her—tendrils of uncertainty unfurling in her chest. She and Tex had been completely wrapped up in each other for the last few months, but the band was coming out of hiatus and this was just a small preview of how it was going to be from now on—women, and lots of them. The memory of Mason telling her how he’d just needed to release the adrenaline from performing crept its way to the forefront of Eden’s mind.

Swallowing past her suddenly dry throat, she recalled how unsettled she’d felt when Noah was telling her about the upcoming album announcement. She must have understood then, even if only subconsciously, that things would be different after that. That she wouldn’t be able to pretend anymore that Tex belonged to her. That she’d have to face the reality of what he was and what it might mean for them—for her.

As she stood there watching him talking to the fans—some of whom almosthadto be groupies based on how little they were wearing and how hard they were flirting—as she saw him smile back at them, touch them, make them blush at his attention, everything she’d ever heard about what the members of Fractured got up to on tour forced its way through the rapidly thinning walls of her little bubble.

Although a part of her desperately wanted to, Eden couldn’t bring herself to look away from the scene in front of her. Noah laughed as the woman hanging off his bicep gave him a hug before blowing him a kiss as she left, then he and the others turned to wait for Tex, the last one still signing. The woman next to him edged even closer—almost to the point of pressing herself up against him.

Finally,finally, Tex finished his last autograph. As Eden continued to watch, anxiety crawling its way up from her stomach to her throat, the woman standing next to him took a slip of paper out of her purse, wrote something down on it then pressed it into his hand. Tex looked down at what she’d written, smiled, and said something to her that made her eyes gleam and the corners of her mouth curl up with satisfaction, then tucked the paper into the front pocket of his jeans. The woman placed her hand on his chest and went up on her tiptoes, giving him a kiss on the cheek before sauntering away with a sway in her hips and a last lingering look over her shoulder.

Nausea rolled through Eden. Her mind went blank except for the too-vivid memory of seeing Mason screwing that woman. Except, it wasn’t Mason, it was Tex—while she was in Portland for six months, while he was away on tour. She’d been so swept up in how amazing it had felt to be with him, that she’d somehow deluded herself into thinking this moment wouldn’t come. That she wouldn’t be forced to face the truth. But here it was, playing out right in front of her—the reality she’d been hiding from, the reality of being with a rock star, the reality she knew all too well.

Eden tried to back away from the door before any of the men saw her, but it was as if she was moving in slow motion. Her pulse throbbed wildly, her heartbeat seeming to echo loudly in her head, and she couldn’t quite get her limbs moving fast enough. Tex turned, grinning at something Zac was saying to him, and his gaze met hers. As wide as her eyes felt, it must have been obvious what she’d seen.

The smile dropped from his face, and he shot a glance at Noah, who’d obviously noticed her as well and was frowning in her direction.

Finally gaining control of her body, Eden backed hurriedly into the room, grabbing a bottle of water from where they were lined up on a table ready for the band, and sitting down on a chair in the corner. She took a gulp, trying to moisten her dry throat and begin to compose herself, but she couldn’t seem to stem the flood of panic. The memory of walking in on Mason and that ‘fan’ played on an endless loop in her mind, the soundtrack of the woman’s moans and her boyfriend’s grunts still seared in her memory. All she could think of was how stupid she’d felt to have trusted him; how hurt she’d been that he could do that to her when she’d thought he’d cared about her.

Eden’s chest tightened, her breath starting to rasp. She took another sip of water, trying to ease the tightness in her throat.

A logical, reasonable voice in her head tried to talk her down.Tex wouldn’t do that to you. He wouldn’t. He’s not like Mason. But her heart was still pounding when the four men entered the room. Noah came straight up to her, a questioning look on his face, but she must have managed to compose her expression enough, because when he asked if she was okay and she nodded, he seemed to dismiss his concerns, grinning and asking, “What did you think of the show?”

Eden’s face might have been composed but her emotions were anything but. She tried her best to pull herself together enough to answer him without bursting into tears. “It was great. Great. Really good.”

He cocked an eyebrow at her. “Your enthusiasm knows no bounds, short stuff.”

Eden’s eyes slid over his shoulder to see Tex loitering across the room, standing with Zac, Connor, Lexie, and Drew, but with his gaze fixed on her, his face strained, and concern clear in his eyes. Eden looked away. She couldn’t deal with whatever conversation he would want to have about what had just happened.

Noah left to grab a shower, and the others followed. Out of her peripheral vision, she saw Tex throw one last long look her way as he went with the others, and she breathed a sigh of relief when he was gone.

Lexie came and sat next to Eden, studying her. “You don’t look too good. Is everything okay?”

Still fighting back tears, Eden took another sip of her water before answering. “I guess I’ve never really been exposed to some of the seedier aspects of this life. Whenever I’ve gone to one of Noah’s concerts before it’s been with my parents and we didn’t really see what happened behind the scenes.”

Lexie watched her carefully, a crease between her brows. “What did you see?”

“Just the guys signing autographs.” She couldn’t bring herself to say any more than that. But Lexie seemed to get it anyway, since she nodded. “The attention they get definitely takes some getting used to. It can mess with your head sometimes.”

Eden chewed her lip, wondering just how much Lexie knew. “How do you deal with… um, all the women throwing themselves at Connor?”

Lexie looked down at her hands. “It’s hard, I won’t lie. Easier now, but at the start I honestly didn’t know if I’d be able to cope. I’d already seen how things worked from being on tour with the guys, so I guess I knew the reality already. I had to take a chance, believing that what Connor and I had together was worth it. So, I took what he told me at face value, took a leap of faith, and knew that if it went bad, that I’d survive, no matter how much it might hurt. Trust has to be earned, one day at a time, but then one day you realize that it’s there. You know that the person you love, loves you enough to never do anything to hurt you. And then you just let the worry go. Connor shows me every day what I mean to him, and that’s all I can ask for.”

Eden nodded slowly. She glanced at Lexie, who gave her a smile and patted her hand. “I don’t know if that helps or not.”

Before Eden could answer, Tex was back after having apparently showered in record time. Lexie stood, smoothed down her skirt and smiled gently at Eden. “Connor will be out in a minute,” she said, then wandered over to the other side of the room.

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