Page 94 of Dirty Rock

“Law.”

“Brains and brawn.” I nodded to his biceps straining against a T-shirt that had to be at least two sizes too small. “Got the whole package going on, ain’t ya, Josh?”

The fucker flexed, even though he made it look like he didn’t mean to. Posing prick. “Gotta try, right?”

“God loves a trier.” I sighed and slapped his shoulder before I walked past him and made my way to the mini fridge we had in the corner of the room. I caught Julia’s eyes as I went by, my arm brushing hers, and she quickly looked away from me before she tucked her hair behind her ear.

“Let’s get you comfortable, Josh,” she said, gesturing to the sofa for him to take a seat.

“Perfect. Where do you want me?”

Outside. In the car park. Preferably under a tyre of some sort.

I grabbed a beer, uncapped it with my teeth, and tossed the lid aside just as Coops leaned closer. “The fuck is going on with you and Jules today?” he whispered.

I took a swig of my beer, watching her from across the room before I brought the bottle down and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.

“She’s pissing me off.”

“Dude, she looks like she’s about two seconds away from ripping your dick off.”

“Let her try.”

“We’ve only just got her back. Don’t drive her away again.”

“Don’t worry, Coops,” I said, slapping my free hand on his shoulder. “She isn’t going anywhere, no matter what she thinks.”

Julia glanced up at me.

Her face had that expression on it again. The one I’d woken up to. The one she almost looked ashamed to show, and it made my chest tighten right on cue before she looked away and became lost in conversation with Josh.

Quiet anger surged through my veins. I had to turn away.

Only months ago, Jules could have been getting fucked in front of me by some other dude, and I wouldn’t have batted an eyelid. Now, there she was, being friendly with a geezer who looked like he could chew me up and spit me out without even breaking a sweat, and I wanted to walk over to him and rip his fucking head off. He was too good-looking to be around her. He was too smooth. Too effortlessly nice.

He was the exact opposite of me… and she seemed to like it.

The guys and I got down to walking each other through some songs we’d drafted out. I used this weird tension in my stomach as energy to get me through rehearsals. Trying to block Julia out was hard, especially when I’d turn around to find her and Joshua talking together, their knees towards each other, and neither one of them looking at the band. Sporadic bouts of giggling from her and rough laughter from him had my jaw tensing and my fists clenching into little balls.

I was knocking beers back like they were skittles, but luckily for me, so were the other guys.

“Isn’t he going soon?” I mumbled to Pres at one point.

“He’s not causing any harm, is he?”

“No,” I ground out. “Guess not.”

After a while, Jules answered a call on her phone. She pushed up to make her way outside of the studio doors, and I couldn’t stop myself; I had to follow. If I didn’t, this fire in my blood was going to set me alight. As luck would have it, Coops was getting annoyed with himself for missing his cues on a song called Filtered, so he asked for a break. The guys all agreed. Dicky grumbled.

“Heading for a piss,” I told them, not really listening to their responses as I pushed through the doors and headed down the corridor, looking for Jules.

I found her around a corner with her phone pressed to her ear, lost in conversation.

Glancing back to make sure no one was behind me, I grabbed the phone from her hand, ended the call, dropped it into her blazer pocket, and entwined my fingers with hers.

“What thehelldo you think you’re doing?” she hissed, pulling back as I dragged her along with me. Her steps faltered as I marched us forward, her little feet struggling to keep up. “Rhett!Get off me.”

“Nope.”

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