Page 19 of Loyalty (The Salvation Society)

She shakes her head slightly and looks over her shoulder to make sure he isn’t coming back. “It is sad because he could be missing out on something amazing, but he’s settling. I’ve done it, been in a relationship that was so incredibly boring and meaningless, but felt like I should stick it out because he had the same goals I did,” she says, shrugging.

“Your goals to be given the opportunity you have now?” I ask, genuinely curious.

She nods and finishes off her water. I can tell she doesn’t want to talk about it, but damn, it makes me want to push her that much more. Not to be an asshole, just to know the story.

“So, being with someone who bores you in bed and evokes no emotions from you meant less than your job?” I ask.

She laughs and the blush creeps up her neck. “I didn’t say anything about boring in bed.”

“You didn’t need to,” I say with a wink. “It was obvious.”

“How?” she yells, before biting her lip.

The three of us laugh and Lane gets up and grabs a beer out of the fridge. “Please can we all just have one?”

She rolls her eyes playfully and nods. Lane hands us all a beer, including Lorelei. I shouldn’t care about her sex life, but I’m suddenly very interested in hearing about it, after I explain how I could tell.

I take a sip of the cold beer and smile as I look at her. “Well, when sex is good you don’t ever explain a relationship as boring or meaningless. Not to mention you didn’t get the look.”

“What look?” she asks.

“The look of remembering that one hot night you had with him,” Lane explains.

She laughs, adjusting her position. The shirt she has on keeps revealing more of her skin each time she moves. Her hair being up, showing off her neck and bare shoulder, is sexy as hell. Her blue eyes are captivating to me, seeming to want to pull me in. She makes it difficult to look away.

“There is no such look,” she says.

“Then you haven’t been with anyone good enough to make you give it,” I say, searching her eyes. “Am I right?”

She searches my eyes before something snaps and she breaks the stare. She clears her throat and looks over toward the bunk room.

“Since we’re being nice to each other now, how about you tell me exactly what you guys like or want tomorrow night. It saves me the time of getting all the information from other people,” she says, changing the subject.

You said it all without a single word, angel.

“No business tonight. We like to chill out and have fun the night before,” Lane says.

“Alright fine, sorry,” she says, sipping her beer. “Do you guys get nervous being on stage in front of all those people? I could never do it.”

“Hell no, it’s the best high there is,” Everett says.

“Agreed. Nothing could ever be better than being on stage. It’s an adrenaline rush like nothing else,” Lane explains.

I tip my beer to them and smile. “They are both right, but for me, it’s more than just that.”

“What is it?” she asks.

I get up and sit across from her at the table. I don’t know exactly why. The sudden urge to be close to her as I tell her something so private, I guess. “When I’m on stage, that’s me. There’s no hiding, no secrets, no thinking. I’m exposed, vulnerable, liable. Being center stage is where I belong, where I long to be. It’s my oasis.”

Her eyes soften as I talk and when I’m finished, she can’t look away and neither can I. I’m being pulled into her gaze and it’s terrifying, but I can’t break the trance. I just revealed more of myself to her than I have to anyone outside of the guys. She knows it, I can tell.

She reaches her hand across the table and places it on top of mine. The warmth of it has my pulse racing, but I don’t pull away. I place my other hand on top of hers.

“Thank you,” she whispers.

I nod as she gives me a soft smile of acceptance.

“Well, Olivia approves of Lorelei,” Remi says.

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