Ripped: The Price of Loyalty by Tania Joyce
Chapter 24
Gemma dangled her feet over the edge of the pier and stared into the black waters of the Hudson River. It was quiet. No constant hum or bustle from daytime boats and ships and ferries. The only sounds around were the murky waters lapping at the pylons below and the odd scurry of traffic filtering along the West Side Highway. At 2:33a.m, she had Pier 97 all to herself. A temporary escape from the craze of Manhattan behind her. No concerts, stages, or bright lights. No fans or cameras. No Hunter. No Kyle.
Gemma wiped her wet lashes, closed her eyes, and let the warm summer air seep into her skin. Every muscle in her ribcage ached. Kyle had turned out to be like everyone else who’d said they loved her. She’d trusted him with her whole heart. He was the first person she’d done that with in a long time, and he’d gone and broken it. Broken it with his jealousy. His cruel words. And his lack of trust.
Damn him for having the power to affect her heart this way.
Drawing her legs up, she wrapped her arms around them and rested her chin against her knees while tears slid down her cheeks. How did she let things get so bad between her, Kyle, and Hunter? In the past few months, there had been way too many fights, too many arguments, and too many broken hearts.
It was time to put an end to it all. The consequences terrified her. Why couldn’t everything go back to the way it was before? Before Hunter. Before Kyle. Before her dreams started. So she wouldn’t ruin relationships, like her mother.
The throaty rev of a car engine roared behind her. She knew that sound. Her heart raced faster than that car could go. Gravel crunched under fat tires. Headlights streamed around her. Everyone in Manhattan knew that car. She knew he’d be concerned about her, but he didn’t have to come and get her. And how had he known where she’d be?
Exhaustion seeped into the marrow of her bones, and she couldn’t even be bothered to turn around.
He killed the engine. The door swooshed open and closed. Footsteps drew closer, but stopped a short distance away.
The air prickled around her. The energy electric. Blood surged through her veins. He shouldn’t be affecting her this way. There was only one person who made her body react like this. And that person wasn’t here.
“Hunt, I’m fine,” Gemma stared straight ahead, her eyes focused on the black nothingness in the distance. “You didn’t need to come and get me.”
“Gem?”
She whipped around. “Kyle? I thought you were Hunt.”
He stood a few yards away. Wariness hooded his eyes, and he held out a splayed hand like he was trying to approach a wild cat.
“What are you doing here?” she snarled, and her lips twitched.
“I’ve been looking for you for hours. Then I remembered you liked coming here when you needed time alone.”
“Yes, and you’re interrupting. Go away.” She hugged her arms tighter around her legs.
“Please let me explain everything.” He took a small step toward her. “I didn’t kiss Amie if that’s what you’re thinking. I swear. I’m sorry for not trusting you and Hunt. Seeing you wrapped in his arms flipped me out. I was jealous, and I said some really stupid things I regret. I’m trying my best not to fuck everything up between you and I, but it’s all I seem to do. I never meant to hurt you.”
“Yeah, well. You did.” Gemma shot to her feet, dusted the dirt from her hands and stormed past him. “If you won’t leave, I will.”
Kyle caught her on the arm. “Please, Gem. Give me a chance.”
Hurt licked like fire through her veins. “Why? Why should I?”
“Because I love you.”
He tugged her forward and tried to wrap his arms around her. She pushed back hard against his chest, breaking free from his hold. “Don’t fucking touch me.” She pointed her finger at him. “Not after what you said. Not after you’ve had Amie all over you. I can even smell her foul perfume on you.” Her skin crawled with a thousand ants and bile churned in her belly.
Kyle sniffed at his shirt and turned his nose up. An animalistic growl rumbled deep in his throat, and he bared his teeth. He ripped the shirt off his back and tossed it into the river. “I fucking hate Amie so much. I want that whore out of our lives.”
Gemma gasped. Not only at him tossing his shirt into the river, but at the sight of him standing in his faded blue jeans, his ripped body glowing golden in the soft lights. The body she’d loved, had kissed every inch of, and knew better than her own. But it was also the one who knew how to break her heart.
Kyle’s chest heaved, his hands clenched by his sides. “Why is she doing this to us?”
The sadness and pain in his voice buckled Gemma’s knees. But the damage was done. Amie had won and caused a rift between the three of them. There was no way back from this. She’d infected Hunter with her poison. Sunk her teeth into Kyle. Frozen Gemma’s heart.
“She wants me out of the way so she can have you and Hunt all to herself.” Saying the words left a horrid taste in her mouth.
“That’s bullshit. That’s not going to happen.” Kyle paced back and forth, then stopped a few feet in front of her. “Forget Amie. Forget about everything for a moment.” He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then looked at her again. His dark eyes bore into her with such intensity she couldn’t draw breath. “Is going solo what you want to do?” he said with a calm voice, but his eyes flickered with fear.
“No. Going solo was never an option until I saw you with Amie.” Gemma’s chin quivered, a lone tear caught her cheek. “Do you have feelings for her? Because if you do, I’d have to leave. I’m not like you. I could never watch you be with someone else every day. My heart couldn’t bear it. The thought of leaving you and Hunt is insane to even contemplate. Traveling and being on stage without you guys would be horrible. Facing the fans without the two of you wouldn’t be possible. I hate the prospect of that being my future. But I’d take it—take it any day over seeing you and her together.”
Gemma’s jaw ached from being tensed. Tears stung her eyes, but she wouldn’t let another one fall. She didn’t want him to see her broken.
Like she did after Ben, she had to find the strength to lock her heart away and rely on the only two things that got her through everything: herself and her music.
“Gem, I’m not fucking Amie. She came to see Hunt. I wouldn’t let her in the building because he didn’t want to see her. That’s when she threw herself at me. I pushed her away. I swear that’s what happened. I love you. Only you.” Kyle stepped forward, grabbed her, and wrapped his arms around her. She tried to wriggle free but couldn’t. He held her tight. She whimpered and pounded her fist against his bare chest, his arms, his ribs. He just stood there and took every blow.
Then the tears exploded. Her body shuddered and collapsed against his. She pressed her face against his chest and sobbed, crying against his beating heart.
“Please let me go.” She wished he had chest hair so she could tear at it. She wished she didn’t have blunt fingernails so she could scratch him. Every attempt to free herself was useless. Every move she made, he held her closer. Tighter. Harder. “Kyle. Please. Let me go.”
“Not until you listen to me.”
“Why? You didn’t listen to me about Hunt.”
“I was an ass. I’m sorry. Please believe me. I wasn’t with Amie.”
He rested his head on top of hers. His heartbeat thundered in her ear. Why was he doing this? Why wouldn’t he let her go? His hold never slackened, and it only made her cry more. More tears. More heartache. More pain.
She melded against his chest and rubbed her salty tears into his flesh. “That’s the problem, Kyle. I do believe you. But it’s not just Amie . . . it’s everything. Too much has happened.” Too many other issues had driven a dagger through her heart. “I hate that this is happening between us. I hate that you don’t trust me. I hate that we fight all the time. I never wanted a relationship to affect us as a band, but it has. It’s caused nothing but problems. I should never have gone out with Hunt, and never should have fallen for you. I fucked us up. And I hate myself for that. I want to fix us, but I don’t know how. Maybe Amie’s right. We’ve achieved so much together, maybe it is time we went separate ways or went back to just being friends.”
Kyle stroked her hair and rubbed her back. “We can’t do that, Gem, because I love you too much.”
Gemma didn’t want to hear those words. Not anymore.
She sniffed loudly, and her whole body tremored in his arms. “But you said I was like my mother.”
She swallowed the bile burning up her throat and fought against the nausea flipping in her stomach.
“I wish I could take that back.” He stroked her hair, running the long strands through his fingers. “I really do. I was hurting. It was a cruel, low blow. Please forgive me.” He slackened his grip only to take her face in his hands. He wiped her tears away with his thumbs. He bent his knees so he met her eye to eye. “I know you’re scared and think you’ll end up like her. But I know you won’t because you’re a fighter. You’re stronger than you think. I know tonight is all my fault. Not yours. I’m the one not worthy of your love right now, not vice versa. I’ll do whatever it takes to make it up to you. Don’t walk away from me because it got ugly between us. I don’t want to lose you. I won’t lose you. I love you too much. So much it hurts.”
Gemma squeezed her eyes shut. “Please stop saying that.”
“I can’t, because it’s the truth.” He cupped the side of her neck. “I hate seeing you like this. I want to kiss you and make everything right. But I can’t, not out here in the open in case someone is around. I want to show you how much I care about you. Kiss away all your pain. Put the pieces of you and I back together again.”
She shook her head. “I’m not sure you can.”
Kyle was her rock, her solidarity, her titanium. But knowing how easily he could hurt her left her shaken to the core. How could she trust him with her heart ever again?
He placed his forehead against hers. “Please let me try? Answer me these three questions. Answer them honestly. Because your answers will determine everything. Can you do that for me?”
Kyle took a step back from her. He’d let her hit him, swear at him, accuse him of cheating, and yet, he was still here. Not walking away. Not turning to leave. Not running in the opposite direction.
Gemma rubbed her wet nose. She didn’t think Kyle could say anything to make things better. There was no light at the end of this tunnel. She was one more step closer to being like her mother. God help her!
But she had nothing to lose, so she inhaled deeply and nodded.
The smallest of smiles tugged at the right-hand side of his mouth, but worry still clouded his eyes. He placed his hands on her arms and gave them a gentle rub. “Question one: why did you break up with Hunt?”
Gemma rocked on her Vans and lowered her chin. She remembered the moment in Las Vegas when Kyle had helped her out of the car, her hand had slipped into his, and everything had clicked into place. Her feelings that had always simmered beneath the surface had finally burst into life. She’d noticed how protective he was of her, the way he looked at her, the way he made her skin tingle when he touched her. And more than anything, it was the way they connected through music. That moment in Vegas was the moment he brought her to life.
A lump formed in her throat. She looked up into his hopeful face. “I broke up with Hunt because of you.”
A spark of light flashed in his eyes, and he squeezed her arm. “Question two: what’s the best song you’ve ever written and why?”
She slapped the back of her hand against his chest. “You know it’s ‘Horizon.’” Gemma didn’t even have to think about that one.
Kyle bit down on his lower lip and nodded, his eyes igniting like a flame had caught the kindling.
Her heart pounded, and her mind searched for answers. Why was he asking these questions?
“Question three.” He licked his lips, swallowed, and looked at her through his long, dark lashes. “In the past six months—hell, I’m even going to go out on a limb here and say ever . . . what was your best moment? The one that stopped your heart, then it went boom. The one that changed your world forever. The one you know you can never go back on because nothing will ever be the same.”
Gemma’s breath caught in her lungs, and her hand shot to her necklace. The one Kyle gave her for her birthday. His present. Their first kiss. Their first night together. The first time he whispered, “I love you.” Waking up next to him in the morning, and nearly every morning since.
There was no Amie. There was no Hunter. If everything else disappeared, all she needed was Kyle. He was her heartbeat. Her four-four common time. The only constant element in her life.
Gemma stepped forward, weaved her hands around his neck, and kissed him, kissed him hard. His tongue danced with hers, stealing the oxygen from her lungs. Her heart raced against his. Blood surged through her veins. “I love you so much,” she whispered against his lips.
“I know, Gem. Because I feel the same way.”
He took her hands in his and stepped back. “Gem, we can’t kiss like this out here. There could be someone watching. Let’s go home.”
A shiver ran up her spine. Shit! He was right. She glanced back toward the highway and over at the neighboring pier, but she couldn’t see a single soul. Not one.
She scuffed her shoe in the gravel. “You can take me home on one condition.” She held out her hand. “I drive. Hunt has never let me drive that thing. I won’t tell if you don’t.”
Kyle pulled the keys from his pocket and tossed them to her. “Your wish is my command.”
They sank into the leather bucket seats, closed the doors, and Kyle leaned over the center console and kissed her. “I’ve told you how much I love you.” He nibbled on her earlobe. “Now . . . I’m gonna take you home and show you.” Kyle’s voice hummed with a whole new level of seduction.
“I do love your kisses.” Gemma tilted her head to give him better access to her neck. “If I went solo, and had to tour by myself, they’re what I’d miss the most.”
“Oh, I can think of a few other things I’d miss too.” His breath, hot and heavy on her neck, sent goose bumps down her arm.
“I would definitely miss these.” His hand trailed up under her T-shirt and cupped her breast. Fingers tugged at the edge of her bra, drawing it away so he could find her nipple. Smiling, he tugged up her shirt, dipped his head, and nipped at her aroused bud.
Gemma grabbed his hair and pulled him back to her lips. “That all?”
“I’d miss your thighs, too,” he whispered against her lips. “I love kissing up the inside of your leg knowing where you want me to go.” His fingertips trailed up her bare skin, across her shorts, and brushed over her sex.
“And where’s that?”
He pressed her shorts zipper against her clit.
“Kyle . . .”
“Yeah?”
She pushed him back into his seat, crawled over the console, and straddled his lap. “You can’t sit there half-naked in front of me and touch me like that. It turns me on too much.”
His eyes darkened. “So let’s go home.”
“Don’t think I can make it. I want you now.” She kissed and tugged on his bottom lip. “No one can see through the tinted windows.” She flicked her hair back but hit her head on the low roof. “Ow. Shit. This car is ridiculous.”
Kyle’s eyes glinted as he rubbed where she hit her head. “Gem, this car clocks two hundred and ten miles per hour. I can have you home and naked in two minutes. Stop.”
But she didn’t want to stop. She ground her hips against his. His erection pressed hard against her crotch through his jeans. Weaving her hands around his neck, Gemma pressed her lips to his. Touching him ignited the fire in her body. But he sat rigid, not willing to play. Gliding her hands over his shoulders and bare chest, she tickled him in the ribs. “Is that a stop, I really don’t want this? Or stop . . . please don’t stop?”
Want for him blazed through her. She slid her hand down his steel-like abs. With a wicked smile, she popped the button at the top of his jeans, lowered his fly and boxer briefs, and took him in her hand. He was hard and hot and heavy.
“Please don’t stop.” Gold shards shimmered in his eyes, and a low, sexy rumble echoed deep in his throat. His hands knotted through her hair and pulled her lips to his.
Her insides clenched. Her breath quickened.
Time to play.
Kyle’s hands shot under her shirt and unhooked her bra. She sat up, worked her hands up the sleeves of her T-shirt, and removed it in fine “Flashdance” style. Kyle’s eyes widened when she dropped it to the floor. “Gem, you never cease to amaze me.”
He lifted her shirt, dipped his head, and took her nipple in his mouth. He flicked and circled his tongue over one and then the other. She arched her back, begging for more.
Reaching down between them, she wrapped her hands around his cock and stroked him, up and down his full length, running her thumb through the seam at the top, and circling around the head.
Kyle found her lips again, his tongue entwining with hers and making the steamy air difficult to breathe. His soft hand cupped her neck; his hips pulsed against her hand. “I love the way you touch me.”
“I want you inside me,” she gasped. “Take my pants off.”
She unzipped her shorts, turned around on his lap, kicked off her Vans, and pressed her hand against the window when he helped tug her shorts free. “Looks like we’re causing it to steam up in here.” Gemma slapped her hand against the fogged-up passenger-side window.
“We make a hot couple.” Kyle ran his hands over her bare thighs, then looked down one side of the car seat, then the other. “Fuck. Hunt obviously did not have sex in mind when he bought this thing. The seat doesn’t move. My knees are killing me. Wait . . . I can lower the back down.”
The leather seat shot backwards, projecting Gemma forward on top of Kyle. They laughed over kisses and repositioned themselves in the semi-reclined position.
“You’re lucky I’m so small and flexible.” She ground against Kyle’s cock protruding from the top of his half-undone jeans and boxers.
“Yes, I am.” He lifted his hips beneath her and tugged his jeans lower. “Now come here.” He grabbed her around the hips and guided her into place. The head of his penis teased at her opening, and his fingers made their way between her legs. Stroking through her slit, he circled her clit, and slipped them inside her. “You’re so fucking wet. Do you have any idea how much that turns me on?” Kyle’s hot breath wisped across her face. “I want to be inside you.”
Seeing him hard and aroused had the same effect on her. Her body needed to be connected to his. She raised herself up and guided his shaft inside her opening. First, just an inch, then a bit more, and then she took the full length of him. She drove him into her body. Heat rushing up her spine. Tingles pooled at the base of her neck.
Kyle cupped her cheek. “God, I love you.”
Her heart thundered with as much horsepower as the car’s engine. His lips brushed hers, and his hands curled underneath her hair and rubbed the back of her neck.
She smiled against his mouth and rode him gentle and slow. Feeling the full length of him slide in and out. But when Kyle’s hips rocked, she picked up the pace.
His hands ran up her thighs, grabbed at her hips, and tugged her hard against him. Thrusting, he penetrated her deeper. The car seat squeaked in protest, but that made Gemma go faster.
“Gem, like that. Don’t stop,” Kyle panted and closed his eyes. Sweat beaded on his skin. Pleasure and pain danced across his face.
Grabbing onto the car seat near his shoulder, Gemma’s thighs quaked beneath her as she rode him, but she didn’t stop. She wanted him. All of him. Every inch.
He rubbed her clit with his thumb, circling and swirling over her aroused bud. But she needed more. “Touch me harder. Just a little bit . . . harder.”
Kyle’s kiss deepened. His thumb offered more friction. Her insides clenched, and she let out a guttural groan. Her orgasm ripped through her and shuddered every muscle in her body.
“God, I love it when you do that.” Kyle’s breaths came sharper and shorter, his lips curling into a wicked smile.
Caressing his face, Gemma’s breath rushed against his. She flexed her hips down toward him and his body jerked. And jerked again.
“Fuck. You got me.” Kyle’s head jolted back against the seat. His body tensed and convulsed beneath her. She slowed to a languid rhythm, keeping him inside her. She stroked his face, pushed his hair back out of his eyes, and kissed his cheeks, his eyes, his nose, and his mouth.
“I love you,” she whispered. “Don’t ever doubt it or forget it.”
He touched his forehead to hers. His heart raced beneath her hand. His abs were taught and tight like strips of steel. “Same goes. And although I do like make-up sex, let’s hope we never need to do it again.” He entwined his fingers with hers and kissed the back of her hand.
“That was insane.” Fire still burned in her cheeks. The blood rush to her head left her giddy. “We better get dressed and go home.” She shuffled back into the driver’s seat and pulled on her panties and shorts.
“I can’t believe we just had sex in Hunt’s car.” Kyle laughed and did up his jeans.
“Me either.” She ignited the ignition and revved the engine. “He’ll fucking kill us if he finds out. Better not mention this one to him.”
“No. Better not.”
Gemma blasted the air-conditioning to clear the fogged windows. Something shiny on the opposite pier caught her eye. While the walkway was lit with dim lights, the shed was flooded in darkness. She could make out the railing at the top of the pontoon, but other than that, she couldn’t see anyone, or anything move.
Maybe it was the car headlights reflecting on something metal. But a shiver ran up her spine, and her skin prickled. She squinted, looking harder into the blackness, but still couldn’t see anything.
She pulled her seat belt on.
Her heart hammered in her chest.
Her palms sweated, and she clutched the steering wheel.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
Had someone been watching?