The Rocker Who Wants Me (The Rocker... Series) by Terri Anne Browning
While his back was turned, Tawny had been sleeping with anyone who would touch her. And if they didn’t want to touch her—cough, cough, Devlin—then she got him loaded and seduced him. When Tawny found out she was pregnant, she had known that the baby wasn’t Liam’s but she pretended otherwise. It wasn’t until the hospital had accidently done a blood typing on Harris that it became clear that Liam couldn’t possibly be the father. Harris had a rare blood type—Devlin’s blood type.
“My mom told me all about Liam when I was six. Before she died…” He sucked in a breath and I watched his throat bob up and down as he swallowed hard. “She loved him, ya know?”
I tried not to grimace, because Tawny had only loved herself from what I could tell, having used Harris as a kind of ATM when it came to getting money from Devlin. Torturing Liam for years with things that hadn’t been his fault. “Did she?”
He wasn’t as good as me when it came to hiding his grimace. “No. I’ve just been lying to myself for the last few days. My mom didn’t love anyone. She was a crazy whore.”
“Harris…”
“Sorry, Dallas.” He shook his head. “I’m just stating the truth. My mom had me because she thought it would keep Liam anchored to her. She wanted to be the famous rock star’s wife. When he started losing interest, she tricked my dad into having sex with her. He wouldn’t marry her any more than Liam would and I got tossed back and forth between a woman that claimed to love me in public, but treated me like a dog behind closed doors; to my dad who didn’t know how to handle me at first because he was still a kid himself.” His gaze went to Liam, lying so motionless in the bed. “Before Dad got the hang of it, and despite all the bad blood I had caused between two best friends by being born, Liam still seemed to love me. He bought me presents, and talked to me like I wasn’t to blame…”
His confession about how his mother had treated him brought back some bad memories of my own childhood and I couldn’t help but feel a little closer to the kid. “Honey, you weren’t. None of what happened back then was your fault,” I said, rushing to reassure him. “And Liam, he’s a really good guy. I’ve found that out first hand recently. He would never blame you for anything that happened between him and your mom and dad. He cares about you, kiddo.”
Aquamarine eyes lifted to mine, shining with a mixture of denial and hope. “When Liam started getting into the drugs more and more, Dad wouldn’t let me near Liam. Then when things started getting worse, I thought it was because of me and my mom. She told me that he really started hitting them harder when I was born.”
Stupid bitch. She had been filling her son’s head full of all kinds of stupid things before she had died. I wondered if Devlin knew how much guilt she had heaved onto his shoulders. For the first time in my life I was glad that another human being was dead. If she hadn’t been, I might have sent her to hell personally. “Harris, I think you should talk to your dad about this, but I want to tell you something first, okay?” He nodded after a brief pause and I gave him the biggest smile I could muster because I was so exhausted. “You weren’t to blame for anything Liam does. Not then, not now, not ever. He loves you, Harris. He loved you when he thought you were his, and he couldn’t turn that off afterwards. And I can see that you love him too.”
“Yeah, I love him. He’s not my dad, but I love him.” He cleared his throat again. “But I never told him.”
“Maybe you should tell him now.” I nudged him toward the bed. “You tell him what’s on your mind.” When his face filled with embarrassment, I stepped away. “I’ll give you a few minutes so don’t worry about telling him how you really feel. Okay?”
As I stepped through the sliding glass door, I found Devlin and Marissa standing at the nurse’s station watching us. Devlin’s jaw was clenched as he watched his son over my shoulder. “He okay?”
I nodded. “He’s got a lot of guilt, Devlin. Tawny filled his mind with all kinds of crap.” When his startled eyes landed on me, I bit my lip. “Liam told me.”
Marissa gasped. “He told you? He never tells anyone. He wouldn’t even talk about it with me.”
I shrugged and glanced back at Harris through the glass wall. He was holding Liam’s hand now. His lips were moving but I couldn’t hear anything he was saying. “It was nothing against you, Marissa. Liam just needed to get everything off his chest and I was there.” I was the only one there the entire time he had been in rehab. It had pissed me off that they had all seemed to give up on him. Even Marissa. But with everything that had happened over the last six days, I couldn’t hold onto my anger at them for deserting him. It might have just been the push that everyone in Liam Bryant’s life had needed.
Axton
The breathing tube was out. That meant something good, right? Emmie and Dallas both seemed to take that as a good sign so I was going to do the same. The doctors had taken the tube out the night before, and apparently Liam was breathing on his own. Gabriella had curled up into a broken little ball in a chair and cried herself to sleep afterwards and I’d been torn between wanting to offer her some form of comfort and leaving her alone.
Every few hours the ICU would let two of us back at a time. We couldn’t stay long, because everyone wanted to see him, and we were only allotted half an hour at the most. Gabriella always found a way to get back there, even if it was only for a second or two. I didn’t go in to see Liam as often as the others did, though. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to, but that I didn’t know what to do when I did go in. I didn’t dare touch him, and every time I had opened my mouth to say something my mind would go blank and I would just stand there with my mouth gaping open for a few minutes before finally leaving.
I wanted to tell him how much I’d come to love him and my other bandmates over the last fifteen years we had been together. Or how sorry I was for turning my back on him when he was at his lowest. All of the things Dallas had thrown at me weeks ago came back to haunt me over and over again.
Emmie sat down on the hard couch next to me and wrapped her arm around my waist before pillowing her head on my chest. I glanced around for Nik and found him standing in the corner closest to the vending machines. He was talking with Drake and Wroth, but when he saw his wife cuddle up to me, he stopped. I gave him a helpless look and he shook his head, and with a grin he turned his attention back to the conversation.
I breathed a sigh of relief, because I didn’t want to get Nik pissed at me, but I sure as hell didn’t want to turn down some cuddle time with Emmie. Having gotten the green light from Nik, I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her closer. “Everything okay?” I asked quietly enough so that no one would hear.
“Just tired.”
“Baby number two giving you problems? ‘Cause I have no problem taking you to the hospital again.” I was teasing her, but that night that Emmie had passed out in my car still broke me out in a cold sweat every time I thought about it. This woman was my best friend in the world. She had been the first person to ever love me for me and I loved her more than life. That night I’d thought I was going to lose her and that just wasn’t a possibility for me or my sanity.
Emmie’s laugh was short and sweet. “No, the morning sickness is pretty much gone now. I’m moving into the sleep phase.”
“You should go back to Drake’s and take a nap.” I combed my fingers through her hair, feeling at peace for the first time in a very long time. Emmie had always had that effect on me. It was one of the reasons why I’d thought I was in love with her for so long. If Dallas hadn’t come along, I might still be thinking it and torturing myself with wanting something I had always known I couldn’t have. Nik had always been it for Em.
“I plan on heading that way after the next visit. I have to give an update to the press downstairs then I’m going to crawl into bed with my husband and not get up until lunch time tomorrow.” Emmie yawned then looked up at me with a concerned frown. “You should go home too, Ax. You have dark circles under your eyes so bad they look like bruises.”
&nbs
And it had nothing to do with wanting to be so close to Dallas.
Without realizing it, my gaze went to her. It didn’t matter where she was in the room, I always knew exactly where she was. Right now she was sitting by the window with a cup of soup in her hands. Linc had made a huge pot of her favorite soup and brought it to share with us for dinner tonight. I’d never been so happy to have a bowl of soup in my life. Freaking fast food for the last week was not my idea of fun anymore.
Her hair was up in a messy bun because she hadn’t left the hospital either and it needed washing. Face, makeup-free. Clothes, wrinkled but clean since Linc and Natalie had been bringing her fresh outfits every day. To my tired eyes, Dallas had never looked more beautiful. Not even the first night I had made her mine.
I remembered every moment I’d ever had with Dallas, but the one that stuck in my mind the most was the first night I had kissed her. It was also the first night I had possessed that tight body of hers. She had been wearing this little outfit, something I was in no way unused to, but on her it had blown my mind. I’d been chasing after her for a while by that point, determined that if I couldn’t get between her legs then I didn’t want anyone else. That night she had finally let me catch her…
“Are you sure about this place?”
I turned to glance at Shane and Harper over my shoulder as we entered the night club. “I’ve been here a few times. It might look seedy on the outside but it is above par on the inside.” That was one of the things I liked so much about Club Ventuno. Gabriella had brought me here the first time and I had been just as skeptical as Shane was.
As we finally got through the small corridor and into the actual club, we went from seedy to legendary. The club was full, but not so packed that you felt like you were gonna be swallowed by the crowd. The lighting was dim, so no one could tell exactly who you were from across the room. A DJ was mixing some kick ass dance music from a platform in the back corner while a bar as long as the room was wide took up the other side of the dance floor.
We went straight to the bar for drinks but as soon as I told the bartender what I wanted, I turned to Harper. “When is your friend gonna get here?”
Harper’s violet eyes widened. “I thought you would have given up by now. She’s not interested.”
I snorted, unable to believe that was true. I’d been chasing after Dallas for five weeks now and while she rolled her blue eyes at me and ran her sexy mouth, I could see the fire in her eyes that she tried so hard to keep banked. The girl was enjoying me chasing after her almost as much as I was the actual chase. It was a new experience for me. Refreshing, even.
I fucking loved it.
Shane pushed between me and Harper and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at how obvious he was. The fucker had it bad where this chick was concerned. He was possessive as hell and hadn’t strayed once in the last month or so. It was mind boggling to see Shane Stevenson not fucking anything with a pussy, but he seemed really happy for the first time since… Well, since I’d met him.
“Dallas should be here by now. She and Linc left ahead of us.” Picking up his bottle of Corona he pushed the wedge of lime into the beer and took a drink before tilting his bottle behind me. “She’s dancing with some tool over there.”
I turned my head slowly and the sight of the blonde bombshell made my breath actually catch. Fuck, she was beautiful. Hair curled and teased was flying around her shoulders as she moved to the beat of the music. Her skirt just inches from showcasing if she was wearing panties or not. While her possible lack of underwear was in question, the fact that she wasn’t wearing a bra was more than obvious as she lifted her arm and wrapped it around the fucker’s neck that stood behind her, grinding her ass into his junk.
Seeing the tool that Shane had pointed out touching her like that made me see red. It was another new experience for me because I never got jealous. But there I stood ready to tear some complete stranger a new one because he had his hands on my girl. Before I could stop to think about what I was doing I was across the club and pushing the guy away from Dallas.
Dallas turned around, surprise flashing over her face at my show of violence. I had been in my share of bar fights, and more than a few times Emmie had had to bail my ass out of jail right along with one of the Demons. Right then, with a new kind of rage boiling inside of me, I was ready to go back to jail.
Dallas’s dance partner stepped up into my face, breathing hard and just as pissed off as I was. But when he got a good look at my face, saw who I was, his face split into a grin. “Dude! You’re Axton Cage.”
My glare didn’t lessen. “Dude!” I snarled. “Get the fuck away from my girl!”
The grin left his face and he lifted his hands in surrender before slowly backing away. “Sorry, man. Didn’t know she was taken.”
Dallas punched me in the chest. “What the fuck was that? Huh? I was havin’ fun, dickwad.”
With the guy now out of my sight, I relaxed a little and grabbed onto her hips, pulling her hard against me. “So have fun with me instead,” I rumbled against her ear. “Dance with me.”
I knew the instant she finally gave in. Her body began to relax and then her hips started to sway to the music. When her arms hooked around my neck, she let out a sigh, as if I were inconveniencing her, but I saw the smile she was trying to hide from me.
Three songs, two margaritas and a beer later, Dallas was mine for the taking. And I took.
I took everything she had to offer me that night and came back begging for more. But she took too, and I haven’t been the same ever since.
As if sensing my eyes on her, Dallas lifted her head from her dinner. When that clear blue gaze locked on mine, I felt the usual jolt of awareness and my body woke up. My heart started racing, and lower…
Emmie scooted away a few inches and I glanced over at her, breaking eye contact with Dallas. She had a knowing smile on her lips. “Well then…” I opened my mouth to apologize but she shook her head. “It’s okay. Not the first time I felt your boner.”
I cringed, because she was right. Before I’d gotten my head straight I’d kissed Emmie. It had been one hell of a kiss and my body had reacted pretty quickly. But the thought of her like that now just made my stomach queasy. It felt almost incestuous.
“Are you two still fighting?” Emmie asked, quickly changing the subject. Her big green eyes went to Dallas.
“I hadn’t seen her since Lana had the baby until the other night. She ripped me a new one and I’ve been licking my wounds ever since.” I grimaced, remembering that night all over again. That night I knew the likelihood of ever getting Dallas back was slim.
Didn’t mean I was going to give up, though.
“I would so hit that if I ever decided to bat for the other team.”
Emmie’s out-of-the-blue statement shocked a laugh out of me that had everyone turning to look at us. It was the first laugh anyone had uttered in seven long days. It felt good, so damn good. Reaching for her, I pulled her head back down on my chest and buried my face in her hair. “Love you, Em,” I whispered.
“Ax.”
My eyes snapped open at the feel of Zander’s hand on my shoulder, shaking me awake. I blinked a few times, trying to dispel the dream I had been having. Fuck, it had been a really good dream. “What is it?” My voice was rough as I rubbed a hand over my face.
“He’s awake.” Zander grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet since I wasn’t moving fast enough for him. “He’s asking for all of us.”
My heart jumped and I wasted no more time as I hurried after Zander. Even though it was the middle of the night, the ICU ward was busy. Several of the other patients had been moved over the last seven days. Liam and two other patients were all that remained and the other two were on the other side of the ward. It was a good thing be
I heard Marissa’s sobs as soon as the doors opened. When we entered the room, she had her head on his chest. Liam was trying to comfort her, but nothing seemed to be working. I moved in behind the other six people crowded into the small room and felt my throat instantly clog with emotion at the sound of Marissa’s broken words.
“Y-you s-s-s-cared me so bad, Li.”
“Sorry, baby cakes.” Liam attempted to give her a smile that turned into a painful grimace. He looked small lying in that hospital bed. Over the last week Liam had lost a considerable amount of weight. With all the casts, wires, and tubes sticking out everywhere, he looked like some mad scientist’s crazy experiment. “I’ll do better.”
“I l-l-love you, s-s-so much.”
“Me, too.” It was what he always said when Marissa told him she loved him. Hearing it now brought a choked laugh from his sister and she stepped back from the hospital bed.
“Okay, okay.” Dallas, who had been reading something off of his monitors, clapped her hands, bringing everyone’s eyes to her. “Liam has had a lot of excitement over the last fifteen minutes.” Her face twisted with a sour expression before she shook her head. “Liam wants to talk to you all, and then you have to get out because the staff has officially kicked us all out.”
“You all look like shit,” Liam grumbled as his eyes drifted over each of us. They lingered for half a moment longer on Harris before he turned his gaze onto another member of our strange group. “Have you guys been here a while?”
“Dude!” Wroth glared at his cousin. “We’ve been here as long as you have. No way were we going to leave you here all by yourself.”