“Let’s just go, Z.” I held out my hand.
Zoey reached up to squeeze it reassuringly. “No, Ty. I’ll be okay for an hour or two. It will give me time to process all of this. Go do the VIP meet-and-greet, I’ll just wait here.”
“Just don’t shut me out,” I said softly. “I’ll go and get this over with and then we can hole up at the hotel until my team can sort it out—”
“Are you decent?” Sienna’s voice rang out as she barged into my dressing room, Andrew, Katherine, and Jace followed close behind.
“Zoey, are you okay?” Katherine wove around the publicists and sat next to Zoey. “I know this is upsetting.”
“Yes.” Zoey fixed her deceptively neutral gaze on Sienna over Katherine’s shoulder. “I just wonder how they got the material to make up such a colorful story.”
“Who knows.” Andrew gestured to the air. “We can’t waste any time worrying about that when we need to do damage control.”
“Andrew’s right, we need to protect Zoey’s image.” Sienna smiled sweetly at me.
To her credit, Zoey remained deathly calm while our manager, publicists, and Jace argued about how and when to “handle” the situation. So calm that it unnerved me. After a few minutes, Katherine sent me and Jace to put in a quick appearance at the party. I didn’t want her alone with Sienna, but reluctantly left her and was back from the event in under half an hour. When I returned, she hadn’t moved. She was laser-focused on the conversation still going on between our publicists and manager.
“Guys.” I tried to get everyone’s attention when I walked back into my dressing room.
No one listened to me.
“Guys!”
Everyone turned.
Channeling my stage persona, I commanded the room. “It’s late, there’s nothing we can do about this tonight. I’m taking Zoey back to the hotel so we can get some rest. Let’s all meet there tomorrow morning, say around eight, and we will go from there.
“That’s a great idea,” Katherine squeezed Zoey’s hand. “We’ll get this all cleared up by noon.”
After they left, Sergey snuck us out of the venue and into the service entry of the hotel. By the time I finally swiped the key to our room, I was exhausted and starving. When I hung up with room service, I found my beautiful butterfly dozing in the bedroom, curled up against the pillows, her blonde hair fanning out around her.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, I brushed a lock of hair away from her face and stroked her cheek lightly with my thumb, careful not to wake her. After I undressed, I crawled behind her under the covers and spooned her tightly.
“Hey, is that a banana in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?” Zoey mumbled sleepily.
I grinned against her hair at the old joke. “I’m always happy to see you, and there is always a banana in my pocket when I do.”
Zoey turned around to face me and gripped my jaw, using her thumbs to stroke my stubbly chin. She closed her eyes and softly touched her lips to mine. My tongue darted along the seam of her full lips, tasting her and encouraging her to deepen our kiss. My heart swelled with emotion, being with her was always the only thing that mattered. We were going to be fine.
Reaching down between us, Zoey gripped my stiff cock and guided me inside her. Clasping her ass I pulled her thigh over my hip and rocked into her. She wound one arm around my neck and other around my waist and our movements became more urgent. Her pussy tightened around my cock sending me right over the edge in a haze of electric sparks down my spine. Zoey followed, gasping through her release.
As we recovered, Zoey traced my lips with her shiny, black-tipped finger. “Please tell me that being together like this is what’s real.”
“Of course, this is real.” I kissed her finger.
“Why do you think Sienna arranged that article?”
“What do you mean?”
“Ty, c’mon. I’m not stupid.”
Well, now the lead balloon in my belly was real.
Tell her. Tell her. Tell her.
I couldn’t get the words out, not when I’d literally just been inside her. I just couldn’t. So, I babbled, “I don’t think she’d do that after our meeting. Please don’t worry about Sienna, she shouldn’t have said anything. It made the night shitty for you.”
“Uh-huh.” Zoey considered me for a minute. “Can I ask you a question? Why is she still working for LTZ?”
“To take the pressure off of Jace. They’ve been really effective to get us lots of press. Their work helped propel those songs to where they are today.”
“Well, as I said yesterday, I think you all sell yourself short, but whatever.” Zoey scowled.
“Sienna and Andrew were the ones who concocted the idea of making me a bad boy, to annihilate my reclusive image. It worked.” I reached out and stroked her cheek. “Of course, then I’d drink myself into a stupor, and soon there were photos and videos of me with women I could barely remember.”
Zoey just watched me pensively. I continued to babble.
“This went on for a couple of years, you’ve heard it before but it was not nearly as bad as what was in the press. Andrew and Sienna were just doing their jobs. The coverage of my descent into hell sold records, and merchandise, and basically the band.”
“Why were you willing to endure all of this?” Zoey was clearly appalled. “I mean, they encouraged you to do things so they could write horrible shit about you.”
“Pretty much.” I shook my head. “It became who I was, but it wasn’t true to who I am as a person. It just
