Jealous God 10

Jax

As much as I loved a rare day off when we were on tour, I knew there was always a catch. And it was no different now. Erik wanted us to be seen. Those were his words.

Seen.

Like we were new to all of this. Like we wouldn’t be recognised. But of course, that’s exactly what Erik wanted. He wanted the internet to blow up with pictures of us doing mundane everyday things. Like sight seeing and eating out in public. It wasn’t even the first time we had done it. And every time we did, we saw a huge rise in sales, and our already full concerts would have queues around the corner. 

“Why the face like a slapped ass… again?” Louis asked, his eyes darting every which way. It was like he was taking it all in, all at once. He looked like he wasn’t paying attention, but I knew that was a lie. In the years I had known him, and the months he had been playing with us, I had come to realise that Louis might look like a dumb air head but was far from it. He was stupidly intelligent. He was also a class A player. And that’s why he was looking around the lobby, instead of at me when he was talking to me. He was scouting for women. And he wasn’t particularly fussy when it came to them either. Short, tall, thin, curvy. Louis was an equal opportunity lover. 

And the guy got more tail than the rest of us combined. 

“This is my usual face.” I leant forward as the elevator opened and Erik and the others stepped out. All of them apart from the one person I wanted to see. Elodie was nowhere to be seen.

“Are you ready?” Erik paused behind my right shoulder. And I had to twist in my seat to look at him. 

“Shouldn’t we wait for Elodie?” I made a point of looking around. Scanning the lobby like Louis had done only moments before, but again, I came up blank. Where the hell was she? Ever since the almost kiss in the elevator the night before, I hadn’t been able to get her out of my damn head. She had wanted me to kiss her. I had read it on her face as clear as day, and it was that look that was haunting me. That dazed, breathless look. The look I had pictured in my mind's eye in bed last night, and again in the shower this morning. 

Elodie might be a stuck-up piece of work who I was sure was sleeping with at least one of our security guards, but the girl gave fucking amazing sex eyes. 

“Where is she, anyway?” I tried and failed to look unbothered by her absence, and Dion laughed. Even Louis and Tate chuckled. My frown deepened. Was my attraction to her common knowledge?

“She will catch us up. I gave her a few hours to do her own thing.” Nonplussed, Erik smiled, oblivious to my frustration. 

“You gave her time off to do her own thing?” I parroted back, because I knew what that meant. 

“Something wrong with that, Jax?”

I shook my head. No, there was nothing wrong with Elodie having time off. I wasn’t worried about what she was doing, more who she was doing. 

“I have asked one of the guys to bring her to us when she’s done her sightseeing thing.”

Under my tan, I felt the blood drain from my face. Fuck. Without meaning to, I stood up. “Is she still in her room, or has she gone with him?”

Erik’s eyes widened at the anger in my voice, but he didn’t get a chance to say anything. Turning on my heel, I headed towards the elevators. I had warned Chance, warned her as well, and they still thought they could disrespect me by hooking up together under my nose. 

Erik's hand on my shoulder stopped me before I could enter the lift. “What the hell is going on, Jax?”

Spluttering, I opened my mouth to speak. “Doesn’t it bother you that she’s fucking around with Chance?”

He looked at me like I was stupid. “Who, what?” For a second, he looked like a confused boy. “What are you on about, Jax?”

“Elodie and Chance. They are sleeping together.” I enunciated each word. 

I expected a lot of things, but Erik’s bark of laughter wasn’t one of them. “I can assure you they aren’t,” he said firmly. 

“Are you blind? They get all secretive around each other and...”

One look from his icy blue eyes and my words died on my lips. 

“Question is, why do you care who she’s sleeping with, Jax?”

I continued to stare at him. “It’s unprofessional, it's—”

“Who Eli chooses to sleep with is not our business. You’re being an asshole to her for no reason.”

“She should wait until her contract is up or something.” I shrugged because I knew what Erik was saying was true. I was being an asshole. I had been one to her since the moment I had first laid eyes on her.

Shaking his head, Erik let go of my arm. “Not another one. You guys are falling like flies this year.”

I didn’t know what he meant by that, and I had a feeling I didn’t want to. 

“Look, Jax, Eli is not sleeping with Chance, or any of the other guys on this tour as far as I know. It’s not really any of my business as long as she does her job.”

“Then why…?” My eyes flicked towards the elevator and then back to his face. I wanted to go up there and catch them red-handed. Maybe then Erik would stop looking at me like I had gone crazy. “Why is she so damn close to Chance?” Just saying his name was making my skin itch. As a person I liked Chance, I always had. He did his job well and was a half decent human being. But I didn’t like him as a bed partner for Elodie. 

“You will have to ask her that, Jax.”

I didn’t much like Erik’s answer, either. “I plan to.” I jabbed my finger at the button. 

“You do that, but don’t blame me if she knocks your pretty teeth out.” Erik shook his head. “Oh, and Jax, you can meet us later. I think you and Eli could do with some bonding time, don’t you?”

Bonding time? I mulled over his words as I rode the lift up to our floor. It seemed to take forever. The long corridor we were housed on was empty as I made my way down to the very end where Elodie’s room was. I was half expecting at any second for Chance to appear from her doorway. And I didn’t know what I would do if he did. 

Fight him?

Fire him?

It was the kind of scene that made the papers and for what reason? Because I had some weird ass attraction to a woman I didn’t even like? Even in my own head it made no sense. 

Chance didn’t appear. No one did.

Not until I knocked on her door.

Elodie looked surprised to see me. Her bare hand fluttered to the swell of her breasts. “Jax?” Her eyes darted to the empty hallway behind me before landing back on my face. “What are you doing here?”

“I—”

Fuck. For the first time in my life, I didn’t know what to say. I had been so caught up in my anger and eagerness to catch her with Chance that I hadn’t made a plan if I found her alone.

I should have made a plan. 

“Jax?” One slender eyebrow arched in a silent question that I was stumped to answer. Her golden eyes flicked down and lingered for a second on my lips. And there it was again. The heat. The way her eyes darkened went straight to my dick. I wanted to kiss her. And to be honest, it would be easier to kiss her and stop any further questions than to tell her the truth. God, would it be easy to push her back into the room and kick the door shut behind us. I knew she would kiss me back. Her words might say she hated my guts, but her eyes told a different story. A story that was no doubt mirrored in my own. 

“I thought we might go sightseeing,” I finally said, sounding lame but finding nothing else that would get me what I wanted. “Together.”

***

“She’s beautiful, isn’t she?”

There was wonder in Elodie’s voice, on her face as well, but I barely flicked my eyes towards where she was looking. I had to agree with her though. Not because I thought whatever silly landmark she was cooing over was beautiful, but because she was.

This was a new side to Elodie, or maybe it wasn’t new at all, and I hadn’t seen it before because I hadn’t given her a chance. Gone was the stuck up, rod rammed up her ass woman I had met, and in her place was someone softer. 

I frowned. No, soft wasn’t the word I would use to describe Elodie. The only softness in her was her mouth-watering curves. She just looked happy, like the weight of the world had slipped from her shoulders. 

“Yeah, beautiful is one word I would use,” I mumbled. There were others as well. But beautiful would work for now. 

Elodie half turned towards me, a quizzical look on her face as she caught me looking at her. Slowly, heat crept up her cheeks, tinging them pink. I shifted my weight. There was no way I wanted her to know what that blush did to me. 

“Jax?”

“Hmm?” Tearing my eyes from her, I stared across the water at what was maybe the most iconic landmark in New York. I didn’t look at her as she took her place next to me, her bare arm brushing against mine. That minor touch sent goosebumps erupting all over my flesh. My shiver had nothing to do with the breeze coming off the water and everything to do with her closeness. With the feel of her skin against mine. And I wanted more.

I wanted to be skin against skin and see the heated look in her eyes when I pressed my lips against hers.

“Thank you for today.”

Her words came as a shock. I opened my mouth to tell her she was welcome and snapped it shut again. 

“I mean that it’s good to be shown around by someone who has been here before.” 

One small hand came down to land on my forearm and, for a split second, I could do nothing but stare at it. “I’ve never done the whole sight-seeing thing before, Elodie,” I admitted. “This is the first time for me as well.”

Her eyes widened. “How many times have you been here?”

Shrugging, I grinned. “God knows. I don’t usually get the time to wander off and enjoy the sights. Especially not with a beautiful woman with me.”

Elodie sucked in a breath. She turned her head sharply to where my bodyguard was loitering, trying and failing miserably not to be part of our day. I knew I needed the back-up, even when I was sure no one would recognise me or even bother me if they did. I knew it was his job. But God, I wished he wasn’t there. Because I wanted to kiss her, or at the very least, I wanted to put my arm around her. 

Did that make this a date?

I didn’t know. It had been a long time since I had dated anyone. Or even been tempted to ask someone out. There were women, of course. Usually one-night stands whose names I didn’t bother to learn. Sometimes I casually hooked up with someone more than once, if I was in town and they were available. But there were no relationships, no commitment, and no dates.

This felt like a date to me.

“Want to get out of here and lose him?”

“Wha—?”

Sliding my hand down her arm, I entwined my fingers with hers. I didn’t know what made me do it. It just felt right, and it felt even better when she didn’t pull her hand away.

Lowering my voice, I grinned. “Fancy losing my shadow and actually doing some real sightseeing. Like average people?”

Elodie paused for a moment, rolling her bottom lip between her teeth as she mulled over her options. The corners of her mouth twitched, and then she nodded.