Toxic (Addiction #1) (16 page)

“Is it really that amazing?” Landon asked, with pure curiosity.

“What? Head with a tongue ring?” Rook asked. Landon nodded. “Man, you have not lived until a chick blows you with a tongue ring.”

“He’s right.” Kaid agreed, which made all the guys once again look at him in shock. He shrugged. “I’ve had my fair share of head in my day. I dated this one girl for a long time who had a tongue ring and I think the only reason I stayed with her was because of the amazing head she gave. When you find a little treasure like that, you have to keep it around as long as you can until you can’t stand the chick anymore.”

“Kinkaid. I’m shocked,” Landon said, while holding his heart with his hand. “That was very ungentlemanly of you.”

Kaid patted Landon’s face. “Get used to it, sweetheart. I’m not the little priss you like to think I am. I hold my tongue around the ladies because they are practically my sisters. I don’t want to gross them out. But you assholes are a whole other story.”

Rook laughed and thought about how he missed hanging out with his guys, or just people in general. He was so busy avoiding Maisy that he had completely cut himself off from the world. Maybe it was time for a change. He was only driving himself crazy. Yeah, he was getting some good work done, but then again, when Maisy was around, he felt like he was more inspired. She was becoming his muse, a muse he needed and wanted.
 

As Rook laughed with his guys about all the awful blow jobs they had in their life, Rook promised himself that he was going to make a better effort to be around his guys and, first thing in the morning, he was going to go after Maisy. He had denied himself too long and he would rather get some sort of pleasure out of her and possibly fall into a pit of despair than not be with her and have to watch Cruz manhandle what Rook considered his. The latter was by far the worst of the two options.
 

Chapter 8

The other tour bus finally arrived. Maisy was relieved because she was ready to have her own space and be able to spread her crap out rather than have it shoved into a little cubby or in the bus down below.
 

Their bus was not as nice or as big as Shattered Souls, but they didn’t care; it still had a nice living space that was in all soothing earth shades, a nice bathroom, bunks and a bedroom in the back. They all decided that they would leave the back bedroom for nights where they needed to stretch out or if they had a special someone come along. That idea was Willow’s, of course, but the person who did have someone come back to the tour bus had the responsibility of cleaning up and making sure all sheets and linens were thoroughly cleaned. Willow called it the Fuck Bed, but Maisy refused to refer to it as that. She wouldn’t mind spending some time in the back room with a strong man, but she didn’t want to think about Willow or Kaid doing the same thing in that room.
 

They arrived in Denver early in the morning, which was where they were greeted by their bus. They all had a photo shoot that morning before their concert. Twisted Perfection was taking pictures for their album and Shattered Souls had a photo shoot for an upcoming magazine interview. If they hadn’t done the interview already, Pete was going to try to slip Twisted Perfection in as well, but it was already too late.
 

Maisy was feeling more at ease lately with the friendship she built with Cruz; it kind of came out of nowhere, but he cared about her and it was nice. The camaraderie she received from Cruz was helping her relax more out on stage, which helped her perform better. Plus, she rarely saw Rook because he quarantined himself. It was nice because Maisy was actually able to concentrate on what the hell she was doing. The only bad thing was that…she didn’t get to see Rook. It hurt her heart to see him lock himself up in the bedroom. What was so bad that he didn’t want to interact with others?

Making sure she felt at home in her new bunk, she hung up some pictures of her and her bandmates together. She had a pillowcase with bright pink and yellow flowers on it that she took with her everywhere. It was the one thing she had from her mom, so Maisy always made sure to have it with her. Whenever she rested her head on the faded fabric, she felt at home.
 

As she was putting her pillow in the pillowcase, she felt a strong stature behind her. Maisy smiled to herself because she knew it was Cruz coming on board for a tour. The rest of the gang was at hair and makeup, but she had a little bit of time before she was scheduled to be in a chair, so she decided to stay on the bus and make it her own space.
 

“Hey stranger,” Maisy said while turning around.

“Hey Beautiful,” came the deep baritone voice of Rook Tyler.

Maisy stumbled backward at seeing Rook out of his cave of despair and fell into her bunk while banging her head at the same time. A sharp pain shook through her head as she tried to right herself so she wasn’t flailing around like a fish out of water on her bed, in front of Rook.
 

“Hey, careful. Are you ok?” Rook asked, while sitting on her bunk and checking her head, or at least trying to, since Maisy was backing far, far away from him.
 

She was extremely confused as to why Rook was in her bus, let alone trying to check on her well-being. Was he high or something? Did he realize that he was actually talking to her?

“I’m fine,” Maisy said, while getting up and pulling down on the crop top sweatshirt she had on. She wasn’t in her fine clothes yet, not when she was about to go get her make-up and hair done. So she was sporting leggings, a crop top sweatshirt, no make-up and a poofy bun on the top of her head. She was borderline hot-mess status. The only thing helping her not cross the line was the fact that she had brushed her teeth already and brushed her hair before she put it up in a bun.
 

Rook stood up as he looked at her bare stomach where neither her shirt hem nor waistband met over her skin. His hand reached up and traced her hip bone making her almost melt right in front of him.
 

“Do you have a tattoo?” he asked, fascinated with her body, as if he had never seen the female form before.
 

Totally confused and forgetting her “I hate Rook Tyler” motto, she answered him. “Yeah, I have two.”

Rook bent at the knees and took a closer look at the tattoo on her hip. It was a lifeline that went across her hip bone at an angle and in the middle were music notes. It was the definition of her life. Without music she would be dead. Music saved her life because it brought her to Willow and Kaid and, without them, she never would have survived the crap she went through.
 

He lightly dragged her waistband down just so he could take a better look at her entire tattoo. The gentle stroke of his thumb over her tattoo sent chills to her very core, causing her loveliest lady bits to start to throb. She cursed her traitorous body as Rook closely examined the tattoo that meant something to her. The other tattoo she had, not so much, but she wasn’t about to show Rook where that one was.
 

He finally stood up and looked her in the eyes. She was confused when she looked back because she couldn’t read what he was thinking. She never could. He could be extremely happy and Maisy would never know because he always had the same facial expression.
 

“When did you get that?” Rook asked, almost in a whisper.
 

“When I was eighteen, when I was finally old enough.”

Rook didn’t say anything; he just took off his shirt off and showed off the few tattoos that scattered his body. Maisy already knew what they were because she had seen many pictures of Rook with his shirt off in magazines. He had random lyrics scrolled over his body, a gun on the inside of his upper arm, a few music notes, and Chinese symbols that Maisy didn’t know what they represented, but what was making her life turn around was the tattoo that peeked up from Rook’s hipbone that she had never seen. He pulled down his waistband slightly and showed her almost the same exact tattoo as she had, but instead of the music notes being in the lifeline, they were at the beginning and the lifeline extended off of the music.
 

Maisy didn’t know what to say. It was kind of crazy that they had almost the same exact tattoo.

“When I first saw you, playing at The Tavern, I wondered if you had any tattoos. I wondered if a needle had ever inked your perfect, pure skin. I wanted to know, I wanted to strip all your clothes off and see if my edgy angel decorated her body in ink.”

Edgy angel? What the hell was that? He definitely had to be high, but when she looked into his eyes, they were clearer than ever.
 

A clear mind was nowhere in sight. Maisy couldn’t focus because Rook was crowding her in the hallway of the bunks. Her back was up against the wall as he moved toward her. He placed both his hands on her hips and looked her in the eyes.
 

“This tattoo,” Rook said, while stroking her hip tattoo with his thumb, “is so fucking sexy. When I got mine, I knew it would be my favorite tattoo. The fact that you have the same one solidifies that decision.”

Rook started to move in closer to her. She could smell the soap that caressed his body in the shower. His hair was still a little wet. His face was getting closer and closer to her, so she could feel his breath spread across her skin, causing goose bumps to ripple along her skin. He leaned in and was just about to touch his lips with hers when something clicked in her head.
 

This was Rook, asshole Rook, the same Rook who didn’t believe in her talent and her abilities. Hell no was she going to let him kiss her even though her body was screaming for him to take her to the Fuck Bed and christen the whole bus.
 

She placed her hand on his chest and pushed him away, well more like stopped him from kissing her because pushing him away was quite difficult, since her hand was enjoying the feel of his bare chest.
 

“Don’t, Rook.”

“Don’t what?” he asked with a grin.
 

Instantly annoyed with Rook’s confidence in himself and his damn smile, Maisy wiggled away somehow and put space between them. She paced the hallway for a few seconds while rubbing her head, then turned around and faced him. He had his arms crossed, making his chest muscles stand out more than they usually did. He was leaning up against the wall of the bus as he smiled at her. Damn him for looking so good and the fact that he knew he looked so good. His arrogance annoyed Maisy to the point of wanting to punch him in the jugular.
 

“You can’t just come in here, act all concerned, touch my tattoo and think you can kiss me. It doesn’t work like that. I’m not one of your groupies, contrary to what you like to think. You’re an ass Rook and honestly, I want nothing to do with you, so why don’t you go lock yourself back up in the back of the bus?”

Rook didn’t even look phased from her rant. Instead he put his shirt back on and walked toward Maisy. He grabbed her hand and led her to the couch where he sat down and forced her to sit as well.
 

He let go of her hand, causing her body to weep since it craved his warm touch.
 

“I know I’ve been a dick to you. Believe me, I hate myself for it. I want you to know that I’m sorry and that I’m not very good at handling my feelings.”

“Feelings?” Maisy asked, completely confused.
 

“I know I haven’t been that obvious, but there is something about you Maisy that my soul wants. Whenever I’m around you I want to be holding you, touching you, feeding off of you. My body craves yours and I’ve been a stupid ass to deny myself for this long. Well, I’m done. I want you, Maisy.”

Maisy sat there with her mouth wide open like a child trying to catch bubbles on a warm summer day. She had no clue what to say to that. Rook didn’t like her…did he? There was no way. He insulted her, he didn’t talk to her, he barely looked at her.
 

She shook her head, trying to wrap her head around what he was saying. “I don’t know what game you’re playing. Is this this about Cruz? Are you in some sort of competition with him?”

“No,” Rook said, as if she had slapped him. “I’m an ass, but I don’t go around playing games with people. But I will tell you this, you won’t be letting Cruz hold you anymore. That’s not his role.”

“Excuse me?” Maisy said, while backing up from him. “Where do you get off telling me who I can be with and who I can’t? You’re delusional if you think you can control me. No one can control me, not even my father. I decide who I’m with and who I’m not and right now, you can leave this bus because you, for one, are not welcome here and two, you’re a dick and I don’t want to be near you.”

Rook didn’t get up to move, he just sat there like a stubborn old coot.
 

“Ugh,” Maisy blew out as she got up, grabbed a jacket and tore off the bus. She couldn’t be around him any longer. He was beyond infuriating.
 

She stomped her way through the parking lot as she thought about what he said to her. There was no way he was in his right frame of mind. He had to be high, delusional or absolutely plastered. Although, when she thought about the look in his eyes as he talked to her, she knew he was none of those things. He was completely real with her, but she chose not to believe him. It was too dangerous to believe him because he was the only one that could control her, own her heart. She knew it. She felt it every time she was around him and, damn her, if she wouldn’t put up a fight. She could so easily get lost in the whirlwind of Rook Tyler and the worst part was, she didn’t think she was strong enough to survive.