“I missed you so much,” I whispered.

“I missed you, too, Princess.”

And then, he kissed me.

It was like breathing again for the first time. This was what I had always been missing. That depressing ache in my chest lifted. All I could feel was a desperate longing for this moment to never end.

“Ahem,” my brother coughed into his hand.

“Sorry,” I murmured, reluctantly pulling back from Grant.

“Aaron, this is my boyfriend, Grant. Grant, my brother, Aaron.”

“Nice to meet you, man,” Grant said. He extended his hand toward Aaron, who was too polite not to shake it.

As soon as he dropped his hand, Aaron pointed his finger at Grant and narrowed his eyes. “I couldn’t figure it out before, but now, I remember how I know you.”

“Oh, yeah?” Grant asked hesitantly.

“You’re Grant McDermott?”

Grant questioningly glanced at me, but I shrugged. I didn’t know how Aaron could know Grant. This was the first I’d ever heard of it even though I’d never told Aaron who I was exactly dating.

“Yeah, this is Grant.”

Aaron shook his head in disgust. “Aribel, you have no idea what you’re getting into. You absolutely cannot date this guy.”

Who the fuck did this guy think he was?

No one could fucking tell Ari that she couldn’t date me. I didn’t care that he was her brother. He couldn’t fucking dictate who she dated. And how the fuck did he even know me? Sure, my name was somewhat known in Princeton but not outside of that. Something wasn’t adding up.

“Aaron,” Ari groaned.

“Oh, this is good,” Donovan muttered. “I’ll get the popcorn.”

I shoved Donovan out of the way and straight into Ridley and Trevor as they came out of the dressing room. “Get him out of here.”

Donovan opened his mouth to say something, but Ridley shook his head. “Not tonight, man. We still have a show.”

Ridley and Trevor half-dragged Donovan away from me, and I was thankful for that. I didn’t need a reason to unleash the pent-up fury.

“Come on, Aribel,” Aaron said, latching on to her arm. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Are you kidding me right now?” She yanked her arm out of his grasp. “I’m not leaving. I thought you’d be the reasonable one in the family.”

“Well, you clearly know nothing about this guy.”

“How do you know anything about me?” I finally asked.

He ignored my question and kept looking at Ari. “He’s scamming you. He will sleep with anyone who walks by.”

Aribel sighed heavily. “That’s just his reputation, Aaron.”

“People get reputations for a reason.”

“Sure they do,” I said. “I got it because I fucked anyone who was hot, but that was before Ari.”

“Right,” he said disbelievingly.

He grabbed on to Ari again, and she leaned back toward me.

“Seriously, Aaron. Since when did you become so judgmental? You don’t even know Grant.”

“I don’t need to. I heard enough stories at Princeton to know what happened. He even admitted it.”

Oh. The pieces were falling into place.

Aaron must have gone to Princeton, and so he’d heard about me. He was a couple of years older than Ari. Maybe he was even my age. If he knew my reputation, then he was probably worried I’d fuck up his little sister. Maybe he was right, but I did love her, so that changed things.

“Yeah. I’m not denying the kind of person I was. But I’m not that way with Ari. So, it doesn’t matter who I was.”

“It might not matter to you.”

“It shouldn’t matter to anyone,” Ari said. “Grant and I are together, and we’re happy.”

“How do you know he hasn’t slept with a million different girls on this stupid tour?”

“I don’t,” she answered. Then, she glanced up at me. “But I trust him. If he wanted to sleep with other people, then he wouldn’t be with me. He wouldn’t put up with my shit.”

I laughed. “Sounds about fucking right.”

Aaron wasn’t hearing a fucking word we were saying.

What did I have to do to get it through his head?

It had fucking surprised everyone that I wasn’t banging every girl who threw herself at me. Hell, it still surprised me.

But I loved Ari. In the end, she was worth more to me than some cheap pussy ever would be.

“Look, Ari, either he believes me or not. I’m not going to stand here and try to get him to fucking listen.”

“I know. I know,” she mumbled. “Give me a minute.”

She grabbed Aaron’s arm and yanked him away from me. She sounded as if she was bitching him out. From being on the receiving end of that, I knew it wasn’t a pleasant experience.

I ran a hand back through my messy hair in frustration. This was not how I’d wanted to start my Boston trip. I’d thought it would be more of Ari and I being alone in my hotel, fucking all night until she couldn’t walk in the morning—not dealing with her fucking moronic brother who didn’t know shit about our relationship.

I heard the stage crew calling for The Drift to get ready to go onstage, and I stepped out of the way. Trevor and I fist-bumped as he passed with Donovan, Nic, and Joey in tow.

Ridley ambled out a second later. He clapped me on the back. “Hey, man. Everything all right with your girl? Tried to save you from Donovan’s stupidity.”

“Thanks for that. Meeting her brother for the first time, and he thinks I’m fucking every chick on this tour.” I shrugged.

Ridley laughed. “Dude, let me talk to him. I’ll be the first to tell him you’re a one-woman show. I was fucking shocked that you didn’t even touch that chick in Atlanta. Tall, blonde, and throwing money at you?”

“Bad taste. That chick had crazy written all over her.”

“She also wanted to be fucked pretty desperately.”

“Someone else took care of her,” I said.

“Ridley!” Trevor shouted from the front. “Get the fuck over here, man. We’re about to go on.”

“Good luck with her brother!” he said as he jogged backward toward the stage. “I want to meet your girl though. Heard too much about her.”

“Yeah, all right. Maybe after she’s better rested.”

Ridley cracked up. “You’re going to run her into the ground.”