“Cam, not now. What are you doing? Alec is less than ten feet away,” she whispered.
“Touching my girl,” he answered, brushing his thumbs across her nipples.
She sighed. “Is Anna your girl too?” Her voice cracked.
Shit. He didn’t want her to think he betrayed her when he didn’t touch Anna any longer than it took to push her body away from his. He’d done fucked up stuff like that in the past, but he didn’t want her to think it when it wasn’t true and when he wasn’t even tempted to touch anyone but her.
“No. I don’t want anything to do with her.” She tried to twist out of his hold, but he pulled her tighter against him, forcing her to stay put. “I haven’t had anything to do with her in a long time.” He laced the fingers of one hand through hers and squeezed lightly. “You believe me, don’t you?”
“I don’t know what to believe. You didn’t object when she glued herself to your body in the green room. That hurt.”
Cam sighed. “You obviously didn’t stay for more than a second because I put an end to that immediately. I told you I wanted to be with you. Seeing her didn’t change my mind. Not even close. She doesn’t compare to you.”
Her shoulders dropped and she leaned back into him for a few moments and he buried his nose in her hair. He could stay like this for hours if she’d let him. “I’ll give you a pass on this tonight because we can’t talk about this right now.” She spun and ducked under his arms.
He grabbed her hand before she reached the closed curtain. “You believe me though, right?”
“I don’t know, but I want to,” she whispered clutching her hand over her heart. “I really do.”
Without saying another word, she pushed the curtain to the side and retreated to the back of the bus.
Cam sat back down on the sofa, rubbing his hands up and down his face repeatedly out of sheer frustration. He’d give her a few hours to herself, but he refused to allow Taylor to push him away for an extended period of time. She had a hard time trusting him and the longer he let this go, the more she’d talk herself into pushing him out of her life for good. He didn’t want that. He wouldn’t accept it. She meant too much to him.
***
As she closed the curtain behind her, Taylor covered her face with her hands. She didn’t know what to believe. Maybe she walked into the green room at the worst possible time and if she’d stayed for one more moment, she would’ve seen the truth. He used the relationship word before the performance. He didn’t have to do that to keep her around, but maybe he meant it.
“Taylor.” Marcus opened the curtain shielding his bunk about six inches.
She took in his messy blonde hair and the dark circles under his eyes so uncharacteristic of the Marcus she remembered. What was going on with him lately? He seemed so disconnected from everything. “Did I wake you?”
“Not really. I haven’t been sleeping well these days.”
Taylor switched Alec’s beer to her other hand. “Do you need something?”
He chuckled, but it didn’t sound light or carefree. It was bitter and hollow. “That’s an interesting question, but no. I’m good.” He propped himself up on his elbow.
“All right,” she said. Something wasn’t right with Marcus. She made a note to talk to Alec about it. Maybe he knew something.
Marcus cleared his throat. “Nothing happened between Cam and Anna. He can’t stand her.”
“Oh…okay.”
Marcus didn’t shut his curtain or say another word.
“Why are you telling me that?” she asked, not sure she wanted to discuss her relationship with Cam with him. She liked Marcus from the moment she met him two or so years ago. He was funny, charming and not judgmental.
“Hypothetically, if something happened between you and Cam, I’d think that you’d like that information, but since nothing happened, I guess it doesn’t matter. Right?”
She worried her bottom lip. Marcus blindsided her. She realized there was a real possibility that Marcus would put the pieces of the puzzle together, but she didn’t think he’d say anything to her. Marcus and Alec had known each other for a long time. In fact, they were in two bands together before they found Jax and formed Chasing Ruin, but that didn’t mean she thought that Marcus was her friend. He always seemed somewhat shallow, but not in a bad way. Maybe shallow wasn’t the right word. She never considered him a deep thinker, but maybe she misread him. “I don’t know what to say,” she said after a few prolonged seconds.