I get off at nine. You guys should be at the hotel by then. Would it be okay if I came up?
Hell yeah. Would it be possible for you to bring a deep-dish pizza with you? From a local place? Not one of those chains?
I’ll find something.
We owe you, man.
You best believe I’ll collect.
Laughing, I turned the phone back toward Kit so he could read the conversation, since we’d been sharing a room for weeks now.
“You put us on the line for a deep-dish pizza?” Kit asked, cocking his head at me. “You know that’s going to cost us.”
“Yup.”
“That’s one bill I’m going to enjoy paying, isn’t it?” he asked, our eyes meeting over the phone, wicked promises in them as we thought about the night ahead.
“You know it!”
Chapter 26
(Steel)
As soon as Rebel let me in with the pizza, I plopped it on the first king-sized bed I reached and snatched him into a hug.
“Wh-what was that for?” Rebel asked as I drew back, but only enough that I could grab Kit and haul him close too.
“Was worried about you guys today,” I admitted.
“We were fine. Never in any danger,” Rebel replied, eying me like he’d never seen me before.
“Doesn’t mean I liked the idea of you guys stuck on the side of the road where anything could have happened.”
“We were only stuck for a few minutes,” Kit explained. “After that we got to put a serious dent in the convenience store’s inventory.”
“And left with your wallets smoking, I’m sure,” I replied before turning them loose.
“You were really worried?” Rebel asked as Kit leaned close to the box and inhaled the aroma that had been making my stomach growl since they’d handed it to me at the pizza parlor.
I slid an arm around him, tugged him close, and pressed a kiss to the top of his head. “Yes. I was. Why does that surprise you so much?”
I felt him shrug and squirm in my embrace, so I reluctantly let go and peered down into confused green-gold eyes that damnnear broke my heart.
“I-I guess I-I figured, you know,” he stammered.
“No, I don’t know, so I’m going to need you to spit it out,” I told him while Kit carried the pizza box to the coffee table.
“He’s so used to random hookups he doesn’t recognize when someone actually gives a shit about him,” Kit supplied. “It might take some doing to get him over that.”
“So, he’s like that with you too?” I asked, glancing over to see that Kit had broken out the stash of paper plates they kept in the room and was busy setting the table for us.
“Seems like the only ones he isn’t like that with are the other original band members, but they’ve known each other for like, twenty years, so I guess they’ve worn him down by now,” Kit replied. “Personally, I’m hoping it won’t take us that long to get through to him, but I guess we’ll just have to stick around and see what happens.”
“I can do that,” I said, pressing my fingertip beneath his chin to raise his head so he’d look at me fully. “Even when he’s being stubborn.”
“Same,” Kit declared as I brushed a kiss over Rebel’s lips and felt him relax as he deepened it. “Looking a little less stubborn now.”
“Feeling that way too,” I murmured as we broke the kiss.