“Okay,” she replied. “But you have to sing tonight. What time is it?”

Shit. I’d forgotten about that again. Glancing at the clock, I had thirty minutes before I needed to be at Live Bay.

“You’re going,” she said with a determined look on her face.

I wasn’t going to argue with her. She would be upset if I missed a show again for her, and Green would be royally pissed. “Then you’re going with me. I’ll go get dressed, and you get your sexy ass ready,” I told her as I sat her down on the edge of the bed.

She nodded, then she bit her lip and glanced back at the blood.

“Keep looking at those sheets, baby, and we won’t leave this apartment,” I warned her. My need to hold her and touch her and make sure she knew just how much I cherished her was killing me.

She jerked her head back around and her eyes went big. “Sorry. Go! I will get ready.”

Chuckling, I bent down and kissed her head before heading for the door.

“Oh my god! Oh, Krit! I am so sorry!”

I stopped and turned back around. Blythe was covering her face, and it was etched with horror. I hated seeing her upset. Two strides, and I was back in her face, pulling her hands away. “Love, what’s wrong”?

“Why didn’t you tell me,” she moaned pitifully.

“Tell you what?” I asked as my gaze quickly ran over her, looking for something that could have upset her.

“Your back,” she said, looking up at me. “I scratched it up. I didn’t mean to. I really didn’t. I can wash it for you and get some salve.” She started to get up, but I grabbed her legs and pushed her back down.

The fact that I had scratches on my back that Blythe had put there made me insanely happy. “I’m marked,” I told her, and pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth that was currently frowning. “By you. I love being marked by you. It’s sexy and it’s hot, and you gave them to me while giving me a pleasure that I didn’t know existed. So, don’t apologize for my scratches. I f**king love them.”

I kissed her tenderly on the mouth and stood up before I pushed her back onto the bed and forgot I had a gig that night.

* * *

Keeping my focus on the crowd was tough. I kept looking back to see if Blythe was there. Green and I were going to end up in a real fight this time if I didn’t stop, but my need to have her near me was f**king with my head.

Trisha’s familiar blond head moved through the crowd and toward the stage door. Shit. She knew what my problem was, and she was going to take my distraction away. Turning to look back at Blythe, I debated leaving the song and going to keep Trisha from taking her, when a smile lit up her face. She liked my sister.

Trisha was talking to her, and Blythe’s pleased look kept me from going over there and demanding she stay near me. She would be fine with my sister. I would then have my attention focused on the crowd, especially the crowd where Blythe would be sitting. Blythe glanced over at me, and I nodded once to let her know it was fine.

She beamed a bright smile that squeezed my heart, then walked off with Trisha. We ended the song and Green walked over to me. “Thank f**k for small miracles,” he muttered before taking a swig of his water. “And your back looks like the possessive monster must have just hit a new level of insane. If those claw marks are what I think they are.”

I didn’t even look at him. I kept my gaze locked on Blythe walking through the crowd with Trisha. She was taking her back to the table where Rock and Dewayne were. Thursday nights were date night for Rock and Trisha. Most of the time they came here, and Preston and Amanda kept the kids. The only other times Trisha and Rock were able to come were when the kids stayed the night with friends.

Blythe took a stool beside some brunette I didn’t recognize, a girl who was leaning over to Dewayne a lot. He didn’t do dates, so she was probably another woman trying to reel in the ever-elusive Dewayne Falco. But then, not everyone knew his story. If they did, they’d not even waste their time.

Chapter Nineteen

BLYTHE

“I was kinda hoping you’d leave her back there. Watching Green lose his shit and punch Krit in the middle of a performance woulda made tonight a helluva lot more enjoyable,” the guy who Trisha had introduced as Dewayne said. He also shot me a wink before taking a drink of his beer.

Rock laughed, and Trisha shot him a warning glare. The massive muscular man she was married to immediately stopped laughing and leaned over to press a quick kiss to her lips.

“Married, kids, and he’s still pu**y-whipped,” Dewayne said

Rock tensed up, and his eyes zoned in on Dewayne. “Don’t talk about my woman’s pu**y,” he warned.

The girl who Trisha hadn’t introduced but appeared to be flirting with Dewayne giggled beside me.

“I’m sorry, but could we not say that word since it is mine y’all are talking about. Jeez, I bring Blythe out here to rescue her from Krit’s obsessive staring, and she has to listen to this crap.”

“You were backstage with Krit?” the brunette beside me asked with a touch of disbelief in her tone.

I turned to her, and the wide-eyed shock on her face was enough to remind me how out of my league I was with Krit. When I was alone with him and he was telling me all those sweet things about being addicted to me, I had hope. But when someone who looked like the kind of girl Krit normally spent time with was around, I wasn’t so sure of my future with Krit. “Yes,” I said, hoping it didn’t sound like a question.

“Krit never takes girls backstage while he sings. I mean, he did with Jess, but she was different,” the girl said.

“You’re looking at Krit’s newest addiction,” Dewayne said to the girl, then winked at me. “Got a load of those claw marks on his back. I’m impressed. You don’t look like the type.”

“Dewayne! Shut up! For tonight, please stop talking,” Trisha said, glaring at Dewayne then looking at me with an apologetic frown. “Sorry about him.”

“You thirsty, Blythe?” Rock asked me from across the table. “I’m gonna go get Trisha a refill if you want something.”

I hadn’t brought my purse because we had been running late and I’d hurried out the door. “No, thank you,” I replied, and smiled at him, not wanting to be rude. It was nice of him to offer.

Rock headed off to the bar, and Trisha grinned over at me. “He’s watching you like a hawk. I don’t know what he thinks I’m gonna do with you.”

Turning around, I looked up at Krit, and sure enough, his eyes were zeroed in on this table. He winked at me, and that giddy feeling was back. When I had first seen him performing shirtless, I had been mesmerized. Now that I knew how those muscles felt under my hands and how his arms flexed as he moved in and out of me, seeing him up there like that, I got flushed all over The sweat shining on him made me want to go up there and feel his damp skin.

“You keep eye-fucking him, and things should get interesting,” Dewayne drawled.

I spun and jerked my gaze off him, embarrassed at being caught, and turned back around.

“Stop teasing her,” Trisha scolded him, which only made me blush harder. I studied the table and wished I had stayed backstage. Spending time with Trisha had sounded fun, but being under a microscope was uncomfortable.

The girl sitting next to me starting pawing at Dewayne and whispering in his ear. Thankful for that distraction, I looked back up at Trisha. She was watching the stage. “Go ahead and watch him. Ignore Dewayne. He just likes harassing people. Krit wants you watching him. He thrives off it,” she said.

I didn’t need any other encouragement. I turned back around to watch him, and just like before, I found his eyes on me. Then a pair of panties hit his chest and fell to the ground at his feet. I tried hard to ignore the jealous fire that started burning in my chest. Krit’s eyes dropped down when someone called his name loud enough to get his attention, and a bra was slung at him. He caught it then held it up before letting it fall to his feet.

I knew this was his world, but I wasn’t doing well dealing with it tonight. Turning back around, my eyes met Trisha’s. She was watching me closely. I forced a smile because I didn’t want her to know how it all made me feel. She’d tell him, or worse, she’d tell me I couldn’t handle it and needed to back away.

“That’s his life. He’s encouraged it for years. They think that’s what he wants and will be their ticket into his bed. But he’s never acted about anyone the way he acts about you.” She leaned forward. “Please give him time to figure this out.”

I nodded. I couldn’t leave him. I wasn’t strong enough for that. He was everything I’d never had or thought I could have. Letting him go would be impossible. He would have to push me away.

“And here he comes. Didn’t take long,” Dewayne said, grinning over the head of the girl who was doing something to his neck.

Trisha’s smile grew, and I turned around to see that Krit was off the stage and headed my way with long determined strides. The rest of the band was talking to fans and just now stepping down, but he was almost to me.

He invaded my personal space, but I soaked him up. His arms caged me as he rested a hand on each side of the table behind me. “You good?” he asked simply.

“Yeah,” I replied a little too quickly. It hadn’t even sounded real to my ears.

Krit’s eyes narrowed, then he looked up at his sister. “I’m taking her,” he said, then his arm was around my shoulders and we were walking back to the stage door.

“Where are we going?” I asked, confused. He was on a break.

“Back to the greenroom. I need you alone,” he said as he shoved open the door and led me inside. He took us down a hallway and then opened another door. The lock clicked behind us, and I turned to look around. There were two leather sofas, and a bar with beers and a few bottles of liquor. A flat-screen television was on the far wall, and some signed posters of bands covered the other walls.

“It bothered you,” he said, backing me up to the closest sofa.

“What?”

“The shit they threw at me. You turned away,” he replied, and then grabbed my waist and spun me around so he was sitting on the sofa and pulling me down onto his lap. I had to straddle him in order to sit in the position he wanted me to.

“You touched it.” The words fell out of my mouth before I could stop them.

His eyes slanted, and his hands came up to cup my br**sts. “But these are the ones I wanna touch.”

I sucked in a shaky breath and sank down onto his lap. The hard ridge from his erection touched me through only my panties and his jeans as a barrier. I couldn’t stop the pleased sound that escaped me.

“Easy, love. Are you sore?”

I was, but it was a pleasant sore. “Just more sensitive,” I explained.

Krit ran his hands through my hair and wrapped strands around his finger. “I love that I did that. Makes me hard just thinking about it. Being inside you, you were so tight and hot.”

Okay, this naughty talk he seemed to be fond of did it for me. It wasn’t just sensitive—now it was throbbing.

“What I said to you earlier wasn’t because you had just shown me nirvana.” He grinned, and his dimples peeked at me. “I was f**king serious. I. Am. Obsessed. With. You.”

Obsessed. It wasn’t love, but it was more than I had hoped for. More than I had expected. He wanted me. Someone wanted me, and it was someone I wanted more than anything else in the world.

“I’ll learn to deal with the bras and panties thrown at you,” I assured him. “Could you not touch them though?”

A chuckled vibrated against his chest. “I won’t touch them,” he replied. “Didn’t mean to that time. It’s a habit. I wasn’t even thinking.”