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CHAPTER 80
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Dirty Little Secrets CHAPTER 81
My fingers teased the guitar strings endlessly. The music flew through my veins, a rush and comfort. An exhilaration and a soother. A total contradiction, but one that made sense nonetheless.Song after song it went, one after another, beat after chord, chord after lyric, lyric after scream, scream after blackout.We set our instruments down softly and walked back into the wings. Elena was standing in mine, clasping a bottle of water. I closed my fingers around the neck of the bottle, my pinkie barely an inch from hers, and pause.“You did good,” she said softly, swallowing before she looked up and met my eyes.I stared into her dark eyes, the color of dark chocolate, of a black coffee after a night of no sleep, and I replied, “I know.”I took the bottle from her, unscrewed the cap, and tipped it up, walking past her. I didn’t need my cute-as-fuck assistant getting into my head tonight.No, I needed some fangirling, groupie-ass bitch to bend over for me so I could relieve this stress.
Dirty Little Secrets CHAPTER 82
ELENANote to self: next time Aiden calls you to his room, make sure he has pants on before you go.I didn’t know what annoyed me more, the fact he wanted me to get rid of that girl like she was a bag of trash or that he didn’t put his pants on before he called me.Worst thing was that I didn’t exactly hate that he wasn’t wearing pants.Maybe that was why I was annoyed. Why I still freakin’ was. He pulled an asshole move, something totally disrespectful to the girl and to me, and I was still marginally attracted to him.Marginally. Just a tiny bit. Because, you know, it’s easy to find someone that looks, like, that incredibly attractive. With the selection of tattoos snaking up his arms and onto his chest, not to mention his lean, defined physique, he was like a . . . I don’t know. A walking wet dream.I covered my eyes with my hand. Boss, Elena. No men, Elena. Find yourself before an orgasm, Elena.“Okay,” I whispered to myself. Sheesh—here we go again with the talking to myself. May
Dirty Little Secrets CHAPTER 83
I inhaled slowly when he opened the trunk and placed the shopping bags in. “I’m not lying.”“Mhmm.” He pushed the cart to the security guy, who wheeled it over to the cart shelter. Then he walked to me, slowly, and reached around my body to the car door. With his fingers curled around the door handle, he leaned his face towards mine. “Then why,” he whispered, “don’t you look at me when you tell me?”I averted my eyes to the side, saying nothing. He was standing so close to me, and he smelled good. Like, really good. Like coffee and cinnamon—warm and comforting. Nothing like the harsh cologne Martin used to wear, and definitely nothing like the whiskey and cigarette smoke he occasionally smelled like.“Huh?” he prompted, his voice still a gentle breezing whisper. “That’s what I thought.”“Leave it alone,” I replied, finally bringing my eyes to meet his. They were burning into me, thrilling and scary, and it was all I could do to ignore the shiver that cascaded its way down my spine. “P
Dirty Little Secrets CHAPTER 84
AIDENI packed the guitar into the case and carried it out to the bus. Another city done. Next stop: Atlanta, Georgia. Where the girls were hot and the sexy was hotter.With any luck, I’ll find a chick to fuck Elena out of my system.For real, this girl has been our assistant for six days and I was going stir-fry motherfucking crazy.I could see her now, standing in the lobby of the hotel, a notepad and pen in her hands, laughing and smiling with everyone. Despite her initial shyness, she was fitting right in. Everyone seemed to love her.She was gorgeous, she was quiet, and she was sweet.She was a fucking walking dream, if you like that shit.She was soft and gentle—even down to her laugh. I swear to God that when she laughed, the clouds part, like something out of the Bible, and every giggle was accompanied by an angel singing.Shame about the shadows in her eyes whenever I asked her why she was here. It was the ex—of that I was damn well sure. She clammed up when I asked about him
Dirty Little Secrets CHAPTER 85
ELENAI stared in the mirror. It was faded. In fact, it was almost gone. Sure, I froze my butt off lying in an ice-cold bath for an hour last night, and I was pretty sure I had a cold coming, but the bruise was better.Aiden walking in yesterday had ruined everything I planned. I didn’t want anyone to find out about my hellish past. I just wanted to come in, do my job, find myself. It seemed so simple before—but before, I didn’t know Aiden James.I didn’t expect him to push. I didn’t expect the James brothers to be so . . . immature, at times. Of course, if I didn’t have Martin’s voice whispering in the back of my mind so often, if I weren’t a victim-turned-survivor of both mental and physical abuse, I wouldn’t have been so bothered by their words. I’d have simply laughed and maybe said something snarky back in response.Instead I clammed up, got scared, and ran.And now my past wasn’t so secret.He knew. I was not stupid. I denied it until I was lacking in oxygen, but Aiden knew. The
Dirty Little Secrets CHAPTER 86
I smiled. “Because you had to?”“That’ll be it.” She laughed again. “How are you feelin’?”I looked into my glass and ran my finger across the base, wiping up the condensed drops. “I’m all right.”“You don’t look it.”I shrugged. “I guess I just feel kind of bad that Tate’s bad mood is because of me and now it’s affecting everyone.”I did. Being honest with him really wouldn’t have hurt anyone. Why was it so hard to admit that I had a crappy relationship that I ran from? Why wouldn’t the words fall from my mouth?Even to Chloe, I had to add in “maybes” and “might haves” like they softened the blow.“It ain’t your fault, you know?” she prompted. “He’s not happy because he isn’t getting his own way. He’s a big old baby, Aiden is. He can’t get inside your pants because you work for him, and now you won’t tell him stuff he wants to know.”“You didn’t tell him?” I snapped my eyes up.Chloe shook her head. “Elena, no. It ain’t my place to tell him. I told Conor your ex was an asshole and yo
Dirty Little Secrets CHAPTER 87
AIDENFuck everything.My name.My kiss.Her tears.Her fear.I rested my elbows on the dining table and ran my fingers through my hair. I wasn’t supposed to kiss her last night. I wanted to—fuck, have I—but I wasn’t going to. I was going to pull my big-boy boxers on, unravel my cock, and get the fuck on with it. Maybe I’d jack off once or twice, then be such an asshole she’d quit and leave.Now it wouldn’t happen. That sassy, attitude-filled act she put on was just that—an act. It was fucking bullshit, a total performance so no one sees the scared-as-shit girl inside. So no one would get close enough to look into her eyes and see the pain there.She wasn’t broken, though. She was strong and resilient, despite the odd switches to shyness. She was like a knotted ball of my mom’s yarn waiting to be untied and unraveled, ready to spin into something beautiful.Except she was already. Beautiful. Her smile, her eyes, her laugh—it was all so fucking beautiful it pissed me off. She and her g
Dirty Little Secrets CHAPTER 88
“No—just messin’. What’s up?” I dropped onto the sofa and eyed her.Her dark hair was twisted into a braid that hang over her shoulder, and her dress hang loosely, stopping at mid-thigh.“I spoke to your lawyers,” she said quietly. “They’re going to try and see if they can silence her and forbid her from releasing the video, but they’re not hopeful. Now that it’s out there—and being clamored for by your fans, I might add, check Twitter—she may release it for financial gain. And if you approach her with money, it may seem as if you’re bribing or blackmailing her, which will get you in trouble.”“I thought you said it didn’t exist.”She chewed on the inside of her cheek. “There’s evidence to the contrary.”Fuck.“Sit.” I moved the guitar to the side and motioned for her to sit down.She did, slowly.“So what do I do?”“Nothing,” Elena sighed. “There’s nothing you can do, Aiden. Not until you hear from your lawyers. They’re already offering a significant amount of money to the media outl
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