Then she stiffened her backbone. “The tour starts in a few weeks. Are you excited to be going back on the road?”

His gaze narrowed, trying to figure out where she was going with this. “Yeah. I love performing. The rush is like nothing else in the world. The sound of the crowd singing along to a song you wrote.” He paused. “But it’s different now. I never had someone I didn’t want to leave behind.”

Amazing how such a simple sentence could make her breath catch in her lungs and her stomach drop to her feet.

God, he wasn’t going to make this easy, was he? And she wasn’t sure she could do hard without breaking under the pressure.

But she knew if she didn’t keep her heart disengaged, she wouldn’t be able to move on when he left and didn’t come back.

And she refused to be an overused movie cliché.

Life wasn’t like the movies. A guy like Sebastian never returned with his head sticking out of a limo to take you away from your life as a prostitute. Or the managing director of a production company.

And he didn’t show up at your door with flashcards and a boom box to profess his undying love.

She might work on films but she wasn’t foolish enough to believe in a storybook happily-every-after. Real life definitely didn’t deliver the feel-good ending. Life continued to roll on after the wedding and it took a damn lot of hard, hands-on work to make it last.

And if you were apart more than you were together, well, the temptation to stray could be overwhelming.

“I think we both know this relationship has run its course.”

“Both of us, huh? So now you know what I’m thinking?”

She’d thought he wouldn’t put up a fight. She’d almost convinced herself he’d be happy she was breaking it off, that he’d be relieved.

“No, I don’t know what you’re thinking. But we don’t have a relationship, Sebastian. We had a few great sessions of sex and now it’s time to move on. You’re going out on tour and I’m staying here.”

His gaze narrowed. “And you don’t trust me?”

“This has nothing to do with trust. This has everything to do with wanting a man who’s actually going to be here.”

The pain in her chest leaked into her voice more than she’d wanted. And she knew he heard it.

Damn it, she’d wanted to be rational. Steady. Not an emotional wreck. But now, here he was, right in front of her and she had to stifle every emotional response rioting through her body.

Tears threatened, pricking at the corners of her eyes but she willed them away. She refused to cry. He didn’t need to be subjected to that and neither did she. Especially since she was the one breaking things off.

She expected him to fight her, expected him to at least offer some resistance. His arms crossed over his chest. “I never expected you to be a coward, Tru.”

“I’m not being a coward. This makes the most sense—”

“And you’re all about making sense of things, are you, Tru?”

Yes, she was.

“That’s who I am. You knew that. Or you should have.”

Pushing away from the doorjamb, he walked over to her. She held her ground but couldn’t help the way her blood fizzed in her veins at his proximity.

“What I know is I’ve missed you. I also know I’ve been busy and yeah, I’ve been preoccupied. But damn it, Tru, I thought you were braver than this.”

He kept coming until she had to tilt her head back to look up at him, getting lost in the masculine beauty of his face. So damn handsome. She wanted to sigh.

And when he lifted his hand to cup her cheek, she wanted to lean into his palm. Instead, she froze, unable to look away.

His eyes were a sharp blue tonight and they raked over her expression, as if trying to see inside her. When his hand moved, she almost grabbed him to keep him there. But he didn’t move away. His hand drifted back to wrap around her ponytail. He didn’t tug. He stroked his thumb along the strands for several seconds before releasing her, cupping her jaw again before letting his thumb brush against her lips.

Trying to contain her shiver, she sucked her bottom lip between her teeth. His gaze dropped to watch and heat began to bloom low in her body.

“I honestly thought— Yeah, well, I guess I thought wrong, huh?”

Stiffening her back, she tried to drag her composure around her. And thought she might be failing miserably.

“We had a good time. But you’re going out on tour and I don’t want to be an anchor—”

“No. Don’t even try to sell that shit to me.” He released her, took a step back, and let his hand fall to his side. “That’s not what this is about. This is about you being afraid. And making me the bad guy. Fine. I’ll be the bad guy, Tru.”

“You’re not the bad guy.”

“No, I’m not. But you overthink everything, Tru. Do you ever just let go and enjoy what you’re doing when you’re doing it?”

“Of course I do.” But he was right. She did overthink everything. “That’s who I am.”

“No, it’s who you think you should be. But, damn it, Tru, that’s not all you are.”

He grabbed her hips, pulled her flush against him and settled his lips on hers for a kiss that made her toes curl.

He didn’t let her up for air as he licked into her mouth, forcing her to breathe through her nose if she didn’t want to pass out. His tongue slid against hers, tasting, playing with her.

A rush of overpowering emotion threatened to make tears well as her hands clutched at his waist, trying to bring him even closer. His erection pressed against her lower belly, making her hips strain forward. The sensation made her even more desperate for him than she already was.

That desperation made her moan a little and made her rejoice when he kissed her harder, his fingers biting into her shoulders as he held her tighter.

She hadn’t thought she’d get to kiss him again and frantic anxiety bubbled up through her blood, making her lungs ache and her muscles tighten.

When he made the slightest move to draw back, she went up on her toes and wrapped her hands around his neck so he couldn’t get away.

Now he groaned a little deeper and he slanted his head to deepen the kiss even more.

When he finally drew back, she was breathing so hard, she thought she might hyperventilate.

Lifting one hand, he cupped her jaw and rubbed his thumb over her bottom lip, which felt puffy and had to be red and swollen.

“See you around, Tru. It’s been fun.”

Chapter Fourteen

“Man, you’re fucking pitiful. No wonder she dumped your ass. And what the fuck did you do to her anyway? Do we need to kick your ass?”

Baz gave Zach a lethal glare. “I didn’t do anything. She’d already made up her mind. She was out. Nothing I said would’ve changed her mind.”

“So you didn’t even try?”

Yeah, he had. He’d kissed her, had tried to show her just how much he cared for her. And she’d still let him walk away.

“You don’t know Tru.” Baz shook his head, tossing his Xbox controller after his character got lit up and died. “She wasn’t gonna change her mind. Look, can we please not talk about this anymore? It’s just pissing me off.”

“You don’t look pissed off, man. You look like someone ran over your damn puppy.”

“Fuck, man, that’s sick. Who’d run over a puppy?”

Sitting in Zach’s suite at Haven, they’d been chilling, playing Halo on Xbox. They’d finished rehearsals yesterday and were taking a day off before they started the full-court press of public relations for the new album. Tomorrow, the entire band had their first interview since he’d overdosed. The reporter had interviewed them before and they trusted her, which was why they’d agreed to it.