Ripped: The Price of Loyalty by Tania Joyce

 

Chapter 18

Kyle woke lying naked next to Gemma. Her back faced him. The navy-blue sheet draped over her hip, and she snuggled it underneath her arm. Her brown hair fell in long, soft waves halfway down her back. The mid-morning sun streamed in through the window and glowed golden on the tip of her shoulder. He had to rub his eyes to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.

Playing dot to dot, he counted and memorized the location of the eleven tiny freckles on her exposed skin.

“You’re going to have to stop doing that,” she said in a sleepy voice.

“Stop what?” He nudged in closer, swept her hair to the side, and kissed the nape of her neck.

“Watching me.”

Kyle curled his arm around her. “Just had to make sure last night was real.”

“It does feel like a dream.” She entwined her fingers with his and kissed the back of his hand. The touch of her lips on his skin sent a shiver up his arm. “Kyle . . . about last night—”

He closed his eyes and swallowed hard. Tightness gripped his chest and he braced for the worst. “What about it?”

“Being with you is incredible, but do you think we can keep it between us for now?”

He kissed along the line of her shoulder. “That may be hard, considering we have a house full of people downstairs.”

Her body flinched. “I know. It’s just that—”

“Gem, I won’t say anything. It’s all surreal to me, too.”

He’d bottled up his feelings for her for so long, it wasn’t going to be an issue. He’d seen how hurt she was after Ben couldn’t keep his mouth shut in interviews about his relationship with Gemma. Kyle would take this to the grave if that was what Gemma wanted.

“Thank you. You’re the best.” Gemma rolled toward him and kissed him. Her hands through his hair made his dick swell. Making love to Gemma twice last night was mind-blowing and he would gladly do it again, but if she didn’t want all their friends to know that they were together, they had to move. He ran his hands down her arm, over her hip, and gave her a playful slap on the thigh. “Time to get up. You have to get back to the city to help Kara today. And I can smell bacon cooking downstairs, which is calling my name.”

After a quick shower and getting dressed, Kyle followed Gemma downstairs. His legs wobbled. Some distant memory flickered through his mind . . . something like he’d said she wouldn’t be able to walk if he ever made love to her, but in fact, it looked like it was the other way around.

Kara, their fashion designer friend, stood at the stove, flipping nearly-burned strands of bacon in a pan. She glanced up, dropped the tongs, and rushed to Gemma’s side. “What happened to you last night? You disappeared. Hunter told me you two broke up. I couldn’t find you. Then I couldn’t find Kyle and knew he’d be offering you a shoulder to cry on.”

Kyle smirked, walked past the girls standing in the middle of the kitchen, and headed toward the bacon to finish the cooking. Or save what was left of it.

“There was no crying,” Gemma glanced in his direction.

He loaded the bacon on a plate and placed it on the counter next to the dish of broken fried eggs and the basket of bread rolls. Cooking was definitely not one of Kara’s strengths. He grabbed a couple of plates and set about making Gemma and himself a breakfast sandwich.

“What do you mean there was no crying?” Kara asked, squirting barbecue sauce onto her sandwich she’d made. “You broke up with Hunter. On your birthday. He’s such an ass. Aren’t you upset?”

Gemma shrugged. Color rose in Kyle’s cheeks when Gemma nudged against him, smiled, and took the sandwich he’d made for her.

Kara’s mouth gaped open. She looked at him, then at Gemma, and then back again.

“Oh. My. God.” Kara's voice went all Nicki Minaj. “You two got together last night.”

“Shhhhh.” Gemma’s finger shot up in front of her lips. “Keep your voice down.”

Like Gemma, Kyle glanced through the archway into the living room where sleeping bodies covered every inch of the floor, the sofas, the chairs, and even outside on the deck.

“How dare you, Kyle?” Kara’s voice sounded menacing, but the brightness on her face told a different story. “How dare you take advantage of Gem when she’s upset?”

Kyle’s heart plummeted to the pit of his stomach. “It wasn’t like that, Kar.”

“He’s right.” Gemma said. “You know Hunt and I weren’t working out. But with Kyle, it’s different. It feels right.”

Kara put her sandwich down, jumped around, and clapped her hands. She leapt forward and hugged them both. “Yay. About fucking time. Hunt was so wrong for you, Gem. But this”—she waved her finger back and forth between them—“is so good.”

Warmth spread across Kyle’s chest and he hid his grin by taking a huge bite out of his bacon and egg sandwich.

Now he had Gemma, he wasn’t going to let her go. Not ever.

A creak on the staircase captured his attention. Hunter’s steps neared a skip, the glint in his eyes giving away what he had gotten up to last night. Behind him, Amie slinked down the stairs, her hair hiding her face, doing the walk of shame.

“Morning,” Hunter said, opening the fridge, and grabbed a bottle of near empty orange juice.

“Wow, Hunt. Didn’t take you long to get over me.” Gemma winked at him, cocked her head and licked bacon grease off her fingers.

But the evil glare Gemma threw Amie’s way made Kyle chuckle. Amie blushed and turned away. Hunter hooked his arm around Amie’s shoulders and drank the juice straight from the bottle. He wiped his mouth on his shirtsleeve and waved the juice in Gemma’s direction. “Looks like the same needs to be said about you, Gem.”

Kyle froze, holding a slice of bacon an inch from his lips. Heat flared up his neck as he glared at Hunter, ready to defend what had happened between him and Gemma last night.

“Guess so.” A smile beamed across Gemma’s face and she bit into a slice of bacon.

Kyle let out his breath. Thank God there was no hard feelings between the two of them.

“Well, that’s just great.” Kara dusted bread roll crumbs off her fingertips onto the kitchen counter. “You all had sex and I didn’t. Because my boyfriend is off at some fashion show. Guess which one of us is not happy this morning? Come on, Gem, eat up. We gotta get going. Or . . .” Kara nudged Gemma on the arm and tilted her head in his direction. “. . . are you going to find some other way back to the city?”

Kyle chewed his mouthful of food to hide his smile.

“Wow . . . subtle, aren’t you, Kar?” Gemma said.

Gemma didn’t miss a thing and slapped him on the wrist when he tried to steal another piece of bacon off her plate. He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek, but she was quick to pull away. The warning flashing in her eyes was like a stab to the chest. Was he going to have to stop doing the natural gestures he’d done for years? No more kisses on her forehead, the cheek or the like when they were around others? Damn, this wasn’t going to be as easy as he’d thought.

“Kar, Lexi and I promised we’d help you sort beads and buttons and stuff out at your work today. Unless . . .” Gemma turned to him, a sheepish smile played on her lips. “Kyle needs me to stay and clean up?”

The way her cheeks flushed when she looked up at him from underneath her long lashes made his heart skip a beat. If she stayed, he’d want to take her back to bed, and nothing would get done. It sounded like a grand plan, but now that Gemma’s leg was better, it would be time to get back to work and travel, and she wouldn’t get much time to see her girlfriends. “Gem, go have fun with the girls today. The cleaners are here after lunch so Hunt and I will make sure the place is back in order.”

“You sure?”

Kyle nodded and leaned his hip against the counter.

Amie walked over to the other side and made herself a sandwich. “We’ve had a change in schedule, too. I got an email late yesterday afternoon from the marketing team. We’re going to meet the production crew on Tuesday to run through the video shoot for ‘Rise Up’.We’ll be off to Hawaii at the end of the week to film.”

“Hawaii?” Kyle dragged his gaze away from Gemma. “I thought we were going to Mexico for the shoot.”

“Change of plans.” Amie didn’t look up from making her sandwich. “We’ve managed to secure an interview with Entertainment On-Show to promote the single. They’ll fly out from LA and meet us at the resort.”

“That’s sick. They’re huge.” Kyle’s eyes widened, unable to contain his excitement. EOS were one of the largest entertainment networks in the country. “How’d you score that?”

Amie flicked her hair back, looking down her surgically-modified nose “I have my ways. Kate has helped in the negotiations. They’ve agreed to give us TV, social media, and magazine coverage to promote the single. We can’t knock back opportunities like this.”

“You’re going to Hawaii again? Without me?” Kara folded her arms and huffed.

Hunter stepped in beside Amie, leaned over the counter toward Kara, and ruffled her hair. “We have someone in wardrobe already, sweetheart.”

Kara swatted his hand away. “What makes you think I’d want to work for you anyway, asshole? I’m a designer, not a stylist.”

Kyle chuckled at Kara’s bite.

“Okay, enough you two,” Gemma mumbled over the last mouthful of her sandwich. “We better get going, Kar.”

“There’s one more thing,” Amie’s voice lacked any element of emotion and it made them all stop from heading off. “Releasing this single means we’re going on a promo tour for three weeks. We’ll go to a few cities here in the US and the UK. Kate’s scheduling it now. So studio time and the recording of your next album will be delayed for another month or so.”

Muscles seized along the length of Kyle’s spine. “What? Why?” They all wanted to work on their next album more than anything.

Hunter turned to Amie, lowering his voice. “You didn’t tell me this.”

Amie gave Hunter poor-puppy eyes and patted the side of his cheek. “I think we were too occupied with other things to talk business.”

Gemma’s face paled, and she placed her hands on the counter top. “Has this got anything to do with the Grant Entertainment Group takeover of SureHaven?”

Amie shrugged. “It’s just business.”

The hairs on Kyle’s arms prickled. Something was going on with Amie. Gemma had sensed it weeks ago and it had triggered off Kyle’s own suspicions. The way she brushed off conversations, the way she never answered a question straight, the way everything was so blasé when it came to her did not sit well with him anymore.

Kara waved her hand in front of Gemma’s face. “Earth to Gemma. We have to get going. Now.”

“Yeah, sure.” Gemma blinked and put her plate in the sink. “You go find Lexi and I’ll go grab my gear.”

Kyle followed her upstairs and sat on the bed watching Gemma stuff her clothes into her overnight bag.

“Gem, what’s wrong?”

She grabbed her toiletries bag, ripped out her toothbrush and paste, and pointed them at him. “Amie’s our manager. She shouldn’t be letting SureHaven get away with this delay. She’s up to something. I don’t trust her.”

“Neither do I.”

“I don’t want to delay the recording of our new album. I want this contract with SureHaven over and done with. But . . . maybe we can make this work in our favor. If Amie won’t help us, maybe Richard can. Have you talked to him lately?” She strode into the bathroom and brushed her teeth.

Kyle leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. Not this again. Why wouldn’t Gemma let this issue go? Richard, their lawyer, was damn good at his job, but he wasn’t a miracle-worker. “We’ve had a few emails back and forth but nothing serious.”

Gemma rinsed and wiped her mouth on a towel. “Well, let’s get serious. Let’s push for an amendment to our contract? Let’s get more of our material on the album?”

“Gem, drop it. It’s not going to happen.”

“Can we at least try?”

He stared at the ground, knowing it was a lost cause. But he knew Gemma wouldn’t rest until they’d spoken with Richard. Richard was probably the only one who could ground Gemma with the reality they faced. “We’ll call him tomorrow and see what he can do.”

She hobbled over, sat down on his lap, and flung her arms around his neck. “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”

“Don’t get your hopes up.”

“I won’t. But you never know what he might come up with.”

Kyle knew nothing would happen until they’d completed their current contract. Any legal battle would only delay releasing their next album and cost them money. But if a phone call was all it took to refocus Gemma, it would be worth it.

Kyle brushed her hair back over her shoulder so he could lean in and kiss the side of her throat. Her pulse quickened beneath his lips. He shivered when her hands slipped around his shoulders.

“I have to go,” she said, tilting her head to the side, giving him clear access. “Kara’s waiting.”

Kyle trailed kisses along her jawline and touched his lips to hers. She tasted of peppermint toothpaste, all fresh and inviting. Her lips were firm, then soft. Hungry, then gentle. His innards coiled, and fiery blood headed south. Running his hands around her hips, he drew her body hard up next to his. She smiled and wriggled. A groan rumbled deep inside his throat and his want for her grew to dangerous levels. Dizziness swam inside his head and electricity charged down his spine.

He wanted more. More of her.

But he had to stop.

Kyle drew his lips away leaving Gemma gasping for air. Her eyes were dark with desire; her fingers hung onto his arms. Hot panting filled the air.

Taking her hands, he placed them on her lap. “You have to go.” His voice wavered. “If we keep this up, the whole house will know we’re together. Is that what you want?”

“No,” she pouted.

God damn it, he wanted to get naked with her again.

But no. He had to keep in control. He had to slow it down.

Slowitdownslowitdownslowitdown.

The smile that tugged at the corner of her lips suggested she could be easily convinced otherwise.

Shit.

He kissed her on the lips and helped her to stand. “Can I come over to your place tonight?”

“I’d like that.” Gemma tugged on the front of his shirt. “Come over at seven o’clock. Don’t call, just come.”

Still in freefall, he never wanted to come back to the ground. Being with Gemma was everything he’d ever wanted. Nothing and no one would ever tear them apart. Not now. Not ever.

He leaned forward. His lips hovered an inch from hers. “I’ll be there.”