From the nearby dining area, a can clinked against the table. So that’s what had pul ed her from sleep. Who’d be awake at this hour? She crawled over Brian’s body and peeked through the curtain. Sed sat at the dining table with his back to her. He took a sip of his beer, while he gazed down at something in the palm of his hand. She wondered if he’d mind some company. He seemed lonely.
Myrna climbed from the bunk, tugging Brian’s T-shirt down over her panties. Her luggage was stil in her car, so she hadn’t had anything to wear to bed and Brian hadn’t wanted her to sleep nude this close to the guys. When her feet hit the floor, Sed turned his head to look at her. He smiled slightly and slid whatever was in his hand into his pocket. She stood next to the bench across the table from him and waited for him to acknowledge her.
“I couldn’t sleep,” he said.
“Can I join you?”
“Yeah, of course. Do you want a beer?”
She shook her head. “I don’t drink. My ex-husband was an alcoholic and I can’t stomach the taste of it.” Or the smell. Sed pushed three empty beer cans aside. “I… didn’t realize you’d been married before.”
She shrugged. “It was a long time ago.” She brushed her hair behind her ears and changed the subject. “I think Brian’s real y sorry he hit you.”
“Yeah, I know. But I deserved it. Sinclair doesn’t clobber someone unless he deserves it. Brian’s a good guy. Not like the rest of us.”
“I think you’re al good guys.”
He grinned at her, his blue eyes sparkling in the low luminosity cabin lamps. “Even Eric?”
She chuckled. “Yeah, even Eric.”
“You’re right. They are good guys. I’m the ass**le of the bunch.”
She reached across the table and took his hand. “That’s not true, Sed. I know something’s bothering you. You can talk to me, you know.”
Sed lowered his gaze. “You shouldn’t touch me, Myrna. Brian wouldn’t take it wel .”
She wanted to ask him something that she’d wondered since meeting them two nights before. “The last girl who dumped him. The one he got drunk over. Did you…?” She tilted her head to one side in question.
“Yeah, I banged her. And his previous girlfriend, too. I told you I was an ass**le. He should hit me more often.”
Myrna squeezed his hand. “I won’t let you bang me. Okay?”
He glanced up at her and smiled. “You sure?”
Her heart thudded. She blew a breath through her lips. The man was mesmeric. Enigmatic. Virile. She’d never met anyone like him before. “Yeah, I’m sure.”
“You had to think about it though.” He chuckled. “Women are al alike. Whores.”
She stiffened, even though she knew he was just trying to get a rise out of her. That word bothered her. It had been flung at her too many times in her past. “Yeah, we’re al wh-whores. Especial y around the rock stars we admire. Why do you think that is?”
“Huh?”
“Why do you think women are so promiscuous when they’re near you? Or Brian? Or Trey? Any of you?”
“Hel if I know.”
“Yeah, me neither. It would be fascinating to study it though.” Maybe she could get a research grant funded on the topic. Were groupies always loose or did their behavior change when around the band? She knew Sinners’ fame affected her. The excitement of screwing a man whom thousands of women lusted after. A strange psychology. Not that she had time to research something fun like groupie promiscuity. Her current project wasn’t going wel at al . She had to concentrate al her efforts on keeping her grant funding or she might as wel kiss her academic career good-bye.
Sed squeezed her hand, drawing Myrna’s thoughts from her worries. Funny how none of the things that usual y weighed her down had even crossed her mind since she’d met Brian.
“I don’t real y think you’re a whore, Myrna,” he said. “I don’t even want to bang you.”
She chuckled. “Wow, that hurt.”
“You misunderstand. I respect you. You’re the type of woman who I could… who maybe I could…” He shook his head.
“Tel me about Jessica.”
His eyes narrowed dangerously. “Don’t even say her name.”
Bodies shifted in the bunks.
“Weren’t you just staring at her picture?” She was guessing. Turned out she was right. He took a deep breath and bit his lip. After a moment, he said, “I should have burned it with the others. I just can’t let her go. Not entirely. It’s like the pain keeps her close to me somehow.”
She squeezed his hand. “That’s pretty twisted, Sed.”
He pul ed his hand out of hers and rubbed it over his buzzed, black hair. “Yeah, I know.” He slid out of the booth. “I’m going to bed. I think I can sleep now.”
She was sorry she’d chased him off with her prying. “Good night, Sed.”
“Good night, Professor.”
Myrna left the table and used the tiny bathroom before climbing back into bed with Brian.
“Did you have a nice talk with Sed?” he asked.
“Oh, you’re awake?”
“Did you have a nice talk with Sed?”
“Yeah. He’s feeling pretty low.”
Brian sighed. “I shouldn’t have hit him. I know why he is the way he is. That’s why I can’t hate him no matter how much heartache he causes. I know he’s hurting ten times more than those he hurts.”
She cupped his face between her hands, wishing she could see his expression in the darkness. “You’re wonderful. Do you know that?”
He kissed her gently. “I’m horny again. I do know that.”
“I’l never walk properly again.” She laughed.
“I figure if you can’t walk, you can’t leave my bed.” He kissed her jaw. The side of her neck. “Not ever.”
The sun rose entirely too early. He’d touched her, kissed her, stroked and suckled her skin, tasted her lips, embraced her, for hours, and he’d yet to take possession of her body. At least not in the way she wanted him to. He did possess her though, in a way she’d never meant to happen.
Chapter 10
Myrna stood next to her stil -in-one-piece car, which had reached Des Moines a ful hour before the buses. Brian stood before her, plucking absently at a button on her blouse. She stared over his shoulder, finding it difficult to look at him. Every time she did, her heart constricted with anguish.