Page 27 of Like An Animal
I grab her arm and spin her around to face me. I don’t know if I want to strangle her or get to the bottom of why she’s losing her shit, but strangling her is probably the top contender.
“Let go of me,” she demands, but instead of heeding to her demands, I pull her into me and steal a kiss to satiate the bloodlust bubbling up inside me. She pushes against my chest to get me off of her, but I don’t concede. This woman will never escape me, no matter how hard she tries. She can fight me and demand to be released and it will never do anything to loosen my hold. Even if I have to drag her down with me.
My claws have been lodged deep for so long they don’t know what to do if they aren’t in her flesh.
Slowly, she gives in and kisses me back. I don’t care who sees me claim what belongs to me, not a single fucking person. She might be scared that people will judge her for wanting me, but I’m not. I never have been. Plus, no one here knows who is behind the red, white, and black face painting except for her, Massimo, Xavi, and Missy but hopefully that bitch left when she realized her presence wasn’t wanted.
I pull out of the kiss as she looks up at me, dazed and her eyes full of lust. I desperately want to fulfill the fantasies in her eyes, but responsibilities come first.
“We will talk about this later, but you’re not going anywhere. You can stand in the front with Boris.”
That’s the closest to a compromise she’s going to get. Boris is one of Xavi’s guards who I know will keep everyone else away from her if I ask him to.
A small smile cracks across her face as I grab her wrist and drag her back toward the stage.
I swear, one of these days she’s going to give me a stroke.
The show was ratheruneventful and no one has said shit to me about the show I put on with Bronwyn earlier. It’s as if neither Xavi and Massimo didn’t see it at all. I have no idea where Missy went, but I’m glad she’s gone. Good fucking riddance.
Massimo, Xavi, and I went backstage and got back in our regular clothes and cleaned off our face painting before heading out back.
We wait and wait because Bronwyn is too damn busy talking to a few of the female fans. I have no clue what she is talking to them about, but she does this after every show. She always claims she’s networking or some shit. I don’t know, but every once in a while she claims she got a new gig for us. The girl acts like she’s our manager sometimes, which is something we don’t have. We don’t really need one, but this kind of thing makes her feel important so I let her do it.
“Are you ready?” I ask as I sit on the curb, messing around with my guitar.
She stops in front of me. “Yea. I just need to grab my stuff. I left it backstage. Give me three minutes.” She smirks before she goes around the side to go back in through the front door.
Massimo and Xavi stand by silently as I play a random rift that I’ve been working on.
“Hey. I’m looking for Jeremy.”
I lift my head to see the same idiot who I caught staring at Bron throughout most of the performance. My eyes narrow at him, waiting for him to say something.
“Apologies for my friend, but he doesn’t like talking. How can we help you?” Xavi asks as he sits down next to me, pressing his elbows against his knees.
The stranger’s eyes widen as he points at Xavi. “You’re Jeremy?”
“Nah. The silent one is,” Massimo adds.
At this point, I’m used to them filling in the blanks for idiots who try to talk to me but I have no interest in holding a conversation with.
“Sorry. Pretty much everyone I asked said you were the person to talk to.” He extends his hand to me and I stare at it as if it’s diseased. It’s bad enough that this fucker was staring at my woman while I was too busy performing to do anything about it, but now he has the balls to approach me for the smallest scraps. He slowly pulls his hands away and stands there awkwardly. What the hell is he even doing at an event like this? He looks like a finance broker with his suit and slicked back hair.
“My name is Lance Barrett. I’m an associate at Byrne Records. I’ve been told that the girl that went inside is your sister, right?” he asks, pointing around the side of the building. My eyes narrow even more and my grip tightens on my guitar.
“Actually, she’s his step-sister, but what business is that of yours?” Massimo mutters.
“The few people I asked said she’s the only person with direct contact with the band. My boss is interested in signing them, but she seems to be the only way to get a hold of them.”
Xavi’s eyes widen from that and my tight grip loosens a bit.
Okay so maybe I do overreact a bit where Bronwyn is concerned.
“Seriously?” Xavi nearly screams with excitement.
He needs to stop being an idiot. Getting signed with a label is more trouble than it’s worth. Plus, we didn’t do this to get rich or make a career out of it. It’s something that we enjoy to fill the time. This won’t be the rest of our lives.
We all have our places in the grand scheme of things and it’s not being legendary rockstars. Being a musician won’t avenge my parents, punish Kathy or David, or protect Bron. All it will do is provide financial comfort.
