Page 19 of Dirty Rock

“Awesome.” I sighed and pushed up to my feet, lifting the edge of my grey T-shirt and grappling for the belt on my jeans. I’d loosened it, making the buckle rattle, and was halfway through unzipping myself when Jules blinked, looked down at my fly, and then up at me again.

“Rhett, what the hell are you doing?”

“Getting my dick out.”

“What?”

“You said it was a good idea.”

“Don’t you d—”

“But, Jules, I just asked you if I should show the paps outside my dick to take the attention away from all these conspiracy theories going around, and you said sure, sounds good. Followed byuh-huh,” I teased, mimicking her voice.

Julia’s attention fell to my hands, which were still holding my zipper. She blinked hard, scrunching her face up before she shook her head and threw a hand to her forehead.

“Rhett, please. For one small minute, can we not bring every conversation back to you and your penis.”

“You mean my baguette.” Chuckling to myself, I quickly fastened my belt back in place and held up my hands as she shot me a death glare that should have sent me diving to the floor for cover. “Okay, okay, okay. Penis. You can call it a penis. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

“That’sexactlywhat you want.”

“Maybe a little bit.” I winked.

“You’re an asshole.”

I fell back onto the sofa with a thud and pushed my hands through my hair. “I just like the way you blush.”

Julia rolled her eyes, but sure enough, the apples of her sharp cheekbones turned a lovely shade of pink. I wondered briefly what her arse cheeks would look like after being spanked. Did they flame after a second, the bright sting of impact bringing her ivory, flawless skin to life? Was Jules the kind of woman who even liked to be spanked?

Shit, did she even have sex with anyone while on tour with us, or did she go to bed in cute little jammies every night and slip her fingers between her thighs?

“What are you doing?”

Her voice made me blink back into reality, and I glanced up sharply, realising that my head had been tilted as I’d tried to get a good look at her arse.

“Were you looking at my arse?” she asked.

“Uh… no.”

She raised a brow. “Seriously?”

“Fine. I may have been trying to take a peek.”

“Surely you can’t be running out of groupies already.”

“Maybe I just find you more fuckable than I ever realised.”

Her nose wrinkled, and she looked down at her phone again, the lines of stress looking more prominent than ever. “Don’t go there, Rhett.”

“Why not?”

She sucked in a breath, only to shake her head and release that breath a second later. That was her only comeback, and knowing Jules the way I did, it worried me. She had more banter to give than that.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Yep. I’m great.”

I stood again, my chest expanding. When I was close enough to be looking down into her big, brown eyes, I stopped myself, and I searched those eyes and looked for something—something I’d never seen before.

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