Page 44 of Forbidden Intent

“You think I don’t know that?”I spit out, now thoroughly pissed at one of my closest friends.“You honestly believe I’d potentially fuck over the band and risk everything we’ve worked to achieve for over a decade?”

That makes him pause, but he’s still not convinced.

“Listen, I tried to fight it, okay?I liked her the first time I met her.I tried to pick her up before I even knew who she was.This isn’t something casual for me.”He just watches me, his eyes analyzing my words but not saying anything.Running my hands through my hair in frustration, I blurt out, “For fuck’s sake, I’m falling for her, okay?”

Silence.

Then Robbie says, “You’re serious?”

“As a fucking heart attack.”

He rubs a hand over his face again, and I can already see him slipping into band manager mode trying to find ways to keep this from exploding in all our faces.

“Decker’s going to lose his shit.”

“Maybe not.We’ll figure out a way to tell him together and try to diminish any blowback on the band.But I’m not willing to give her up.”

“The sex is that good, huh?”

My face goes hard and I shove him back against the wall.“Don’t.I know we used to talk about the women I hooked up with before, but Tamsin’s different.”

Robbie puts his hands up, his eyes wide and his mouth open in shock for only a second before he stares me down.“She better be.We’ve got a lot riding on this album being a success.If Decker bails because you got together with his daughter, we’re in deep shit.”

I step back from him, trying to calm down.I know how much is riding on this album.Success isn’t a permanent guarantee—in any occupation, but especially not in music.You’re only as good as your latest album.Not to mention the fact that we’ve put a pause on pushing Kasen toward rehab because we don’t want Decker or the label to know how out of hand his drug use is getting.But I don’t like him talking about Tamsin like that—like she is just another woman, easily replaceable.If there’s one thing I’ve discovered in the past month I’ve been seeing Tamsin, it’s that she’s one of a kind.

And I’ll do anything not to lose her.

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