Page 30 of Revive
He still hadn’t stirred.
“Hey, sleepyhead.” She crawled back over the eiderdown to peer down at him, intending to drop a kiss on his nose, or maybe enjoy a wake-up smooch before she hustled, but the moment her weight jogged the mattress, he rolled into a tight cocoon, burying his head beneath the covers.
Alle tugged it off him. “Hey, are you okay?”
Nothing.
Not a word. Not a blink.
He wasn’t feigning sleep. His eyes were open.
“Spook?”
Still nothing. Alle sunk her teeth into her bottom lip, the unnatural stillness of him wakening a host of fears that churned her gut. “Did I do something?” She jogged his shoulder. It was like prodding a mannequin, absolutely no flicker of intelligent life. Gingerly, she sat back on her haunches, half-expecting him to laugh and sit up. Say, “Gotcha!”
She’d whack him if he did, but was severely disappointed when he didn’t, missing the relaxing of her nerves and the echoes of their laughter that hadn’t happened.
“If I’ve done something, I’m really sorry. Shit, please, tell me what it is, because I haven’t a fucking clue.”
All had been well last night. She’d fallen asleep after he’d given her four orgasms on the trot, and while he hadn’t enjoyed quite that many, that was down to a function of biology, not any sort of oversight. He’d certainly been smiling as they’d cuddled up ready to sleep.
Maybe she ought to crawl back into bed with him and say fuck the rest of them. Except, she was actually being paid to do a job, one that she took incredibly seriously. In such a male-dominated field, she had to. Slacking was never a real option. She always had to work twice as hard.
“Spook, I’m going to have to go now.” She really didn’t want to, but the minutes were passing all too quickly. Never mind sprinting there, she was already seriously late, and given Ash had whined like a child about getting up early—before 10AM—she doubted he’d be impressed at being kept waiting. “Unless you can give me Ash’s number and I can call and let him know, so that he isn’t standing around…”
If she was imagining his hand snaking out and grabbing his phone, unlocking it and passing it to her… well, it was a good fantasy.
Spook continued to make like he had all the sentience of a rock.
“I guess you maybe just want a bit of peace and quiet.”
That wasn’t it. It felt bigger, weightier. It had a gravitational pull to it.
“Spook?”
It was stupid, but she tucked a teddy bear in beside him. Rock Giant had made it for her a couple of days back out of a hand towel and four elastic bands. It’d been nicknamed Naughty Nip Nip as the fabric had a border of crabs. Naughty Nip Nip sat there uncuddled and unloved as she departed. Every step felt like motion in the wrong direction.
You’ve a job to do, Alle.
Yeah, but something’s obviously wrong.
Maybe, she could head to the studio, talk to Ash, and then hot foot it back here. Even if he vetoed that, three tracks probably wouldn’t take them that long. Or, they could take all day and then some. She pinched her nose as she headed downstairs. Paused in the bathroom, and again at the front door, and for a third time when she reached the clifftop path.
Was this her prioritising the wrong thing?
She backtracked halfway down the slope, before trudging up it again. If he wouldn’t talk, then what could she even do?
Better plan, get to where she was supposed to be. Call or message Spook once she arrived, and maybe ask one of the guys to call him too.
***
Ash was pacing the paved area outside the cottages that led down to the sea wall when Alle arrived.
“About bloody time,” he griped when she hurried towards him. “I’ve been waiting forever.”
“Sorry, Spook’s—” He didn’t wait to hear her explanation, but mooched off towards the studio, obviously expecting her to follow, which of course she did.
Ash bleated out the title of the first track they were recording at her, before heading through to the isolation booth, leaving her in the sound suite. She could have hit the intercom and shared her concerns, but it was difficult to open her mouth and confide when they’d shut her out for so long and her position seemed so tenuous, and of all the guys, she knew Ash the least well.
