well. This didn’t really faze me anymore, but when I looked down at Bell, she was wide-eyed as she gazed around the room.
I whirled her away from me. She spun and stopped at the end of my arm. Then I whirled her back to me, pressing her against my chest. The distraction worked. She looked up at me and smiled. Then I started to move against her. The song was sexy. It called for some sexy dancing. So that’s what I did.
The girl didn’t have a clue how to move on the dance floor. She was awkward. When I went one way, she went the opposite direction. I grabbed her hips in my hands.
“Just follow me, Bell,” I told her.
She swallowed hard, her deep brown eyes bigger than I’d ever seen them. I put my leg between her thighs. She sucked in a breath. I used my leg to move her hips. She let me lead completely.
And before I knew it, I had a killer erection.
I waited until the song ended, but as soon as it did I pulled her off the dance floor and out of the bar.
Her cheeks were flushed and she was smiling. “That was fun.”
“Yeah, it was. But I’m pretty beat,” I lied.
“I bet you are. Let’s head upstairs,” she said.
I escorted her to her door and said a quick goodbye before escaping to my own room.
I lay awake in bed that night staring at the ceiling. What the hell had happened? I liked Bell, like I liked Baby. She was sweet. She was also so damn innocent that she automatically triggered my protective instincts. But she was absolutely, in no way, my type. I liked tall blondes or redheads with big boobs, round asses, short skirts, and decidedly slutty attitudes. This girl was the exact opposite of all those things.
I determined that my physical reaction to her when we were dancing was merely the product of celibacy. I needed to forget it.
****
“And I also really liked the Rolling Stones. Wow, was that great!” Bell was giving me a rundown of her impressions of each and every one of the songs I’d put on the iPod.
“You ready for more?”
“More?”
“Yes, we’ve only scratched the surface,” I said, amused.
“Okay,” she handed me the iPod over the table.
I pocketed it. “You’ll have it back tomorrow,” I assured her.
“Hey, Tony, that’s perfect. Stop there,” Baby called out.
“You’re in the mood for barbeque, eh?” Sean said.
“Definitely. Does that sound good to you, Susi?”
“Works for me. Since I gave up being a vegetarian I am all about the pulled pork sandwiches.”
“I tried being a vegetarian once,” Mike said. “I was trying to impress a guy.”
“Me too,” Bell admitted.
“It was the second dumbest thing I ever did to impress a guy.”
“See, now you have to tell us the first,” Sean said.
“But, alas, we’ve arrived at the barbeque place,” Mike said.
“This isn’t over.” Sean got up and followed Mike off the bus.
Going in and out of venues was one thing. Going in and out of hotels was usually done by backdoors. And even the experience at the bar the night before had been pretty tame. But when we hit that restaurant on the outskirts of Seattle, all hell broke loose.
Sean hit the crowd first. Which was bad, because he wasn’t nearly as good at handling the crowds as I was. Sean was essentially a quiet guy, when he wasn’t singing. I was the loud one, so I usually dealt with the fans.
By the time I got to Sean, he was completely surrounded. Baby had been pushed back and was standing with Mike on the outskirts of the crowd. Susi was right behind me. I grabbed her wrist and moved her over toward Mike. He leaned forward and grabbed a hold of her.
Once she was with Baby safely on the outskirts, I looked at the crowd. There were about thirty people gathered on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. Most of them had poured out of the barbeque place and the bar next door. And the mob was growing fast.
They were loud, each one shouting at Sean and pushing each other to get closer. Sean towered above them, silent and uncomfortable. I made