Page 36 of Accidental Baby For My Brother’s Best Friend

Gemma

Never again. Never again.It becomes a mantra in my head. I tell it to myself before every show. It’s not exactly as if I can avoid Locke during the tour. We’re all in close quarters on the bus and at the hotel I end up running into him at meals, no matter how much I try to stick closer to Axel or Samuel.

I’m avoiding Jackson, too, mostly because as my big brother, he can always tell when I have a secret. He always knows when I’m lying, and I’m more than grateful that he’s been scarce ever since Albuquerque. I know I should be worried, but this isn’t like before, when Jackson went off the rails a bit after his last breakup. He’s being secretive, but he’s also showing up on time for shows, barely drinking after, and he seems…happy. Happy in a way I haven’t seen him in a long time. Maybe since before our parents died.

Since I have my own secret—which willnever happen again—I can’t really judge, can I? So I let Jackson sneak around and I cover for him around Samuel and Axel. Locke doesn’t ask questions, but then again, I guess he’s distracted too.

I bend over further than I need to in order to pick up my tote bag from where I’d put it on the ground while checking us into the hotel in Oklahoma City. I smirk when I glance over my shoulder and Locke is staring.

Maybe I’ve been making a point to wear yoga shorts and tight jeans ever since Locke made a pillow-talk comment about my “perfect body,” but who could blame me? For a girl who’s as inexperienced as I am, having a man who looks like Locke appreciating my form is flattering, to say the least. If I’m honest with myself, it’s more than flattering. It’s downright intoxicating. Locke Kincaid is more intoxicating than the tequila shots I take with Axel or the filthy martinis that I order for myself.

Oklahoma City is our eighth show and our seventh week on the road, and I’m beginning to forget what my apartment looks like. More than that, I hadn’t evenusedthe hotel rooms I booked for myself in Denver or Olympia. I spent the nights after those shows in a hotel room that Locke paid for, last minute. It’s like we’re repeating that night in Vegas over and over, except not.

In Denver, Locke and I had an argument about the set list. The rest of the Spades stared at us as we yelled at each other, mostly because I never messed with the set list. I wanted the show to open with “Keyed Up” because I thought it would draw in more people from outside, but Locke was determined for it to be the last song, like at all the rest of the concerts. I was so mad about it I was turning red, and finally, Jackson decided things by siding with Locke and I stormed off with Axel to drown out my anger with a couple of tequila shots.

After the show, Locke cornered me near the bathrooms in a full circle to when I’d caught him with that blond bartender.

“You here to apologize?” I asked, crossing my arms.

Locke raised an eyebrow but I could see the ghost of a smile at the corner of his mouth, that dimple popping out just slightly.

“I was going to ask the same to you.”

I opened my mouth to curse at him but Locke glanced over his shoulder and then back at me before he grabbed the back of my head, leaning down to kiss me hard and fast before pulling away.

We snuck out the back, and before I knew it, Locke picked me up, grinding against me against the back of the tour bus. He nipped the base of my throat and I moaned, shocked when he clapped his hand over my mouth.

I should have been furious with him for the argument and the way he was trying to order me around, but my body was on fire. I ground my hips against him desperately and he squeezed my hip bone to stop me.

“Shh,” he whispered into my ear and then I heard Axel babbling to Jackson, something about IHOP vs. Waffle House, and I froze, my eyes popping open to look at Locke.

He slowly lowered me to the ground and took a step back from me, placing his finger against his lips with a slow smirk.

God, I hated him so much.

An hour later, we were back at the hotel and I was determined to go straight to my room and take a hot shower.

Locke was on the third floor and I was on the sixth, so it shouldn’t have been too hard to stay away. My brother said good night in the lobby since he was on the first floor, and I gave him a thin smile.

When Samuel and Axel got off on the second floor, Locke didn’t say a word to me, but when the elevator doors opened, he wrapped his fingers around my wrist and tugged me out into the hallway.

I could have protested, but I didn’t, and instead, I woke up at six in the morning with my head on his bare chest.

I told myself I wouldn’t do that in Olympia, but guess where I woke up?

* * *

But none of that matters becausenever again. Yes, it’s fun, hooking up with Locke, and maybe it’s even more fun because it’s forbidden, because my brother will lose his mind if he finds out, maybe it’s even more fun because Locke is older, more experienced. I might have been a virgin before this tour, but I was no blushing school girl. I’d made out with guys before, even let a couple of them get to third base, and I always assumed that going all the way would just be a step above that.

Turns out, instead of a step, it’s more like a whole damn staircase. Before Locke, I always figured I could please myself better than any man could, butnow?It’s like I never knew what I was missing and now that I’ve had it, I crave it. I cravehim. I crave his mouth and his body and the way that he looks at me, something almost predatory in his brown eyes.

I’m just going to have to make do with the sideways glances he gives me, though, because Icannotallow myself to get in any deeper with Locke Kincaid. The sex is amazing and it’s fun to sneak around, but at the end of the day, I know that it can’t go anywhere. I’ve known Locke since I was nineteen, and he’s never had a steady girlfriend.

At the beginning of the tour, I focused on Axel because I knew that it’d be casual for both of us. I like Axel well enough for us to part as friends, and he’s relatively harmless even if he’s a bit of a womanizer. Jackson is close with all the members of the Spades, but he’s notparticularlyclose with Axel, so even if he found out, it wouldn’t be catastrophic.

Locke, on the other hand, is exactly my type and we’ve never been friends. If I end up catching feelings for him, I’ll never forgive myself. There’s also the fact that Locke is Jackson’s best friend, and he’s always trusted him to keep an eye on me at venues when Jackson couldn’t be there. If he finds out that it was Locke Kincaid who was the danger all along… let’s just say catastrophic isn’t a strong enough word.

Right now, everything is fine. I don’t like Locke, and if we stop now, I can keep myself from falling into a cycle of continuing to hook up with him. My friend Susie always told me there was a science to falling in love and it was about the amount of time you spent alone with someone. According to Susie, in order to keep a fling casual, you can’t spend more than a few hours with them when you hook up, and you can’t spend a total of more than two weeks alone with them. Luckily for me, spending that much time with Locke isn’t even a possibility, even with Jackson distracted.

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