Redeeming You(66)

He lifted his head, bracing his hands on either side of her head, his blue eyes searching hers. “Do you like it?”

“I love it. No, love isn’t strong enough, but I can’t find the right words.” She smiled. “Apparently you’re the wordsmith, not me.”

“The words have been floating around in my head for a week and they finally came together this morning. I wasn’t ready to share them with anyone, but when you mentioned it, I went with the moment. It’s only fitting that you’d be the first person to hear them.” His hands toyed with her hair, his fingertips gently caressing her scalp. It was becoming a habit of his to play with her hair. Not that she’d complain. She loved every minute of the attention.

“Well, you could give Jax a run for his money.”

“Maybe,” he answered, as bent his head to brush a kiss across her lips. “We didn’t eat anything. Are you hungry?”

“Not really.” She closed her eyes. More than anything, she felt tired. She’d spent the day in a blur of tears, anger and now total peace and happiness.

“You’re tired,” he said, kissing each of her eyelids.

“Not really,” she mumbled pulling his body toward hers. She’d prefer to curl up and snuggle next to his warmth, but that seemed a little lame considering all the work he put into the evening.

“Yes you are.” He chuckled as he rolled off of her and turned her body to the side so they faced each other. His fingers trailed up and down the delicate skin of her waist, resting on her stomach, making her tremble.

“Maybe a little, but that feels nice.” Her voice trailed off at the end of her sentence.

“Go to sleep, Tay.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head slightly without opening her eyes. “We were in the middle of something.”

“Something that can wait.”

“Are you sure?” she asked, her fingertips tracing the contours of the long, lean muscles on either side of his spine up to the strong slope of his shoulders.

“We have as much time as we need. There’s no reason to rush to the finish line. I want to take care of you.”

“You already are.”

He pulled the blankets over them and kissed her softly on the lips. “I’m glad you think so.”





CHAPTER TWENTY





The minute the bus entered the Seattle metropolitan area, her heart sped up and she felt as if she was coming out of her skin. Some of the landmarks caused an intense longing to course through her body, but at the same time, the thought of being in the same city with Miles made her a little nauseous and anxious.

Miles’ voicemails and texts hadn’t stopped over last month. In fact, in the past few days they had become more frequent. He probably realized Chasing Ruin had a performance in Seattle tonight and he knew she’d be with them. If she saw one more “I miss you” or “I love you” text from him, she would seriously have to consider changing her number at the end of the tour. It was something she should have done when she left Seattle, but she always came up with a reason to avoid severing the last connection to her time there.

She even listened to one of his more recent voicemails. His voice was properly contrite as he babbled about how much he missed her and how much he regretted what happened with Natalie. Of course, he couldn't stop himself adding a long-winded speech on the virtue of giving people a second chance. Finally, he mentioned that he had the blue topaz ring that Alec gave her for her twenty-first birthday. At least his voicemail solved the mystery of where the ring went, not that she’d ever retrieve it from him or give him her address. She didn’t want to invite him back into her life for one second, regardless of how much she loved the ring. It wasn’t worth it. She planned to keep Miles firmly planted in her past along with the rest of her mistakes.

Tonight was the final show on tour. Chasing Ruin had planned a big party after the performance to celebrate the end of a successful tour. As the bus pulled up to the hotel, Cam sat down next to her on the sofa. “So we made it to the end of the tour,” Cam said as he slipped his arm around the top of her shoulders.

“As strange as this sounds, I think I’m going to miss this.”

He laughed. “I haven’t slept in my own bed in three months. I’m kind of ready for a break.”

She rested her chin on his shoulder. “Is that your way of saying you need your space?”

“It’s my way of saying that we’re sleeping in my bed when we get back to LA.”

“Aren’t you worried what Alec will think of that?”

“Nope. You said you could handle him. I’m holding you to that.” Cam stood up holding out his hand to her. “Let’s go. I’m starving and I only have an hour before I need to be at the concert venue. Jax has some special things planned to mark the end of the tour, so I need to show up earlier than normal, but we have all night to hang out.”