Page 136 of On The Edge
I yank my arm back. “Why did you come back with lipstick on your neck? Do I need to inspect you all?”
“Melody.” Reis steps forward, putting his hands out like he’s trying to negotiate something.
And that just pisses me off even more.
“We’re around other women all the time,” he says, shrugging like those stupid fucking words would soothe me, and all my anger turns to Reis.
“Whatdid you just say to me?” It’s my turn to snap now, my eyes narrowing as I push off the bed and crowd his space like there isn’t a significant height difference between us.
“I just meant—” Reis starts to say, but I shove him with all my might. Not surprisingly, he barely moves. “Seriously, Melody, come on. I just meant, you have to know that we’re going to be around other women. But you have totrust usthat nothing is going to happen. A fan got too close to Adam and he gently but swiftly got her out of his space and security took care of her. He didn’t go out seeking her.”
I take a deep breath and turn my gaze back to Adam, hoping the emotional bleeding I’m doing isn’t obvious through my eyes. I turn cool, dark, combative as I look at him.
“Is that true?”
“God yes,” Adam says quickly, stepping closer to me, but I back away immediately. His hands fall from where he is reaching out to hold me, but when I move away, he doesn’t push. “We were leaving and there were two fans standing by the back door to the venue. I got ambushed. She kissed my neck and grabbed at me before I knew what was happening, but security grabbed her and I jumped in the car.”
“Were you going to tell me?” I throw my hands up in frustration.
“Was I going to tell you that I was grabbed and kissed against my will when I was terrified wondering why you left? No, Echo. I wasn’t. I’m not responsible for other people’s actions, only my own and how I handle theirs. Hers? I shoved her from me so fast and then rubbed my neck raw to get the feel of her lips off of me.”
“Why were there girls waiting?” My voice drops and I look from Adam, to them all.
They all look fucking guilty.
“Why were there girls waiting?” I say again, stronger and darker this time.
“Okay,” Reis starts as he steps towards me; always the one to lead the group and take the brunt of my anger. He runs a handthrough his hair. “Okay. But I want you to remember that we were young and dumb. And remember that Louis is a fuckcunt.”
“Maybe you should sit this one out, Reis. You’re not exactly speaking to me in a way that’s reassuring tonight,” I snap, crossing my arms over my chest and narrowing my eyes. “You’re usually a smooth talker and now you’re saying every fucking wrong thing.”
“Hey now,” Markus tries to step in, but I turn my anger onto him.
“You wanna try?”
“Reverb, maybe a year after we made it big-ish, we noticed that there were a bunch of women who wanted us. We… partook in the lifestyle,” Reis admits quickly.
“Ahh,” I say sarcastically, dropping my head down. I just can’t fucking… “So you shared women?”
“We…” Reis looks around and I look up, daring him to lie to me.
Maybe he’s hoping someone will step in to answer me, maybe he’s wishing he could rewrite the past. But either way, I know the answer simply based on how they all refuse to speak. At least Kai keeps eye contact with me, looking at me with a ‘do you really want to know?’ expression and his arms crossed tightly over his body.
“It was only once,” Adam says quietly. “It was one time where we… tried to see if we evencouldshare. If that was something we…” He sighs, pulling off the bandana he had tied around his head and running his hand through his damp hair.
“If it was something we could offer you if we ever got the chance,” Markus finishes.
“It didn’t go well.” Kai grumbles. “It turns out, Melody Sullivan, that we can only work together in that kind of capacity,if the girl is you.”
My eyes widen just slightly as his words hit my brain and they start to make sense.
“You’re ours.Ours. And us being together like that? Seamlessly and without jealousy? That proves it,” Reis says softly. “We didn’t even… Trying to share that girl? I think Kai started to kiss her and the rest of us left because it felt wrong. But with you? God, Mel, with you, seeing my best friends with you only turned me on. It showed me how much you love to be loved. And it made me want to be a part of it. Of this.”
I bite my lip to keep from speaking too quickly. I have a bad habit of doing that and making shit worse.
“So you… you guys used to have Louis find a girl, or girls, to fuck that night?” I ask for clarification, knowing that the truth will hurt me, but I’d rather know.
I need to know if Louis was lying.
