The sound of the doorbell woke me. Moaning, I pulled the covers over my head and cuddled closer to the warm body wrapped around my own. A small smile teased at my lips as I inhaled the scent I remembered all too clearly as belonging to Zander Brockman. Mixed with that slightly spicy scent was the muskiness of our lovemaking. My entire room smelled of sex, and I loved it.

Another ring of the doorbell had the smile fading before it had completely formed. Zander jerked, his arms instinctively tightening around me. A rough sigh escaped him and his lips found mine. I didn’t try to fight it or him as he deepened the kiss and our hands started seeking parts of each other’s bodies that we knew would start the kind of burn that would take hours to extinguish.

The third ring of the doorbell lasted longer; whoever was at my front door was pressing down and not releasing it for several long seconds. Zander pulled back, a murderous look on his face. “Isn’t Mieke home? Can’t she answer that damn thing?”

Glancing at the clock on my nightstand, I saw that it was after ten in the morning. Even if Mieke had come home the night before, she was probably at school by now, given that it was a Friday. Another ring of the damn bell and I was pushing the covers aside and reaching for my robe.

“Where the fuck are you going?” Zander growled as he stood and pulled on his boxers. Grabbing his shirt, he got to the bedroom door before me and blocked my exit. “I’ll handle this. You get some clothes on. No way are you answering the door with nothing on but that little silky thing.” He dropped a quick, hard kiss on my lips and stomped away, closing the door behind him as he started pulling his shirt over his head.

A stupid smile lifted at my lips and I rushed to put on clothes. Grabbing the first things I came to, I pulled on a bra, tank top, and running shorts that I was sure belonged to Mieke but had been mistakenly put in my dresser rather than her own. I won’t lie, it was a good feeling, being able to wear the same clothes as my teenaged daughter. My ass was a little curvier than hers, but it only made the shorts hug my hips better.

Dressed, I grabbed a hair tie and headed downstairs, pulling my long blond hair into a knot on top of my head as I descended the stairs. Raised male voices stopped me halfway down and I stopped, instantly recognizing them.

“You can’t just quit on us, Z,” Axton Cage’s voice snapped.

“We’ve worked through tougher shit than this, man,” Liam Bryant spoke up. “I’ve fucked-up the most in our little family here, but don’t walk away because we were dicks. Look, we’re sorry. Okay? Annabelle is a great chick and she didn’t deserve the way we talked about her.”

“Stop being a pussy, fucker,” Wroth Niall’s scary voice came next. “I’m not putting up with this shit. I’m tired and want to get home. So let’s settle this shit now. You aren’t quitting and we’re all friends again.”

I frowned, the happy fog evaporating from my brain as I listened to the rockers speak to Zander. What the hell was going on? He’d quit OtherWorld? No way. I didn’t believe that shit for a single second. Hurrying down the last of the stairs, I walked into the living room where four scary-looking rockers stood over Zander who was sitting on my couch, looking bored. His arms were crossed over his chest, his feet propped up on my stone coffee table, and his eyes were hazel.

Still hazel? Even with those four looking at him like they were? Even with Wroth Niall hulking up? Something was seriously off and I didn’t understand a single second of it.

As I entered the living room, they all turned their heads. Seeing me, Axton stepped forward. “Annabelle, I want to say I’m sorry for the things I might have said about you. You obviously had your reasons for not telling Z about his kid and I’m going to respect that. Now, will you tell him to get his head out of his ass and stop talking about quitting the band?”

My eyes moved from the rock god to the man sitting so quietly on my couch. “You quit?” I whispered, still not sure I’d heard Axton right. Still not sure I understood anything right then. After spending the entire night with Z, my emotions were raw and scattered everywhere.

“Yup.”

That was it? I asked him a question that serious and all I got was a ‘yup’? I wanted to smack his sinfully sexy face. Instead I felt tears stinging my eyes as I looked back at the four angry rockers. “I don’t understand what’s going on. Why are you here?”

Devlin took several steps forward, the slight smile on his handsome face flashing those killer dimples at me. His aquamarine eyes were considerably calmer than the other three but he still looked concerned. “Z emailed Natalie yesterday, officially quitting OtherWorld. Asked her to make a statement to the press and all that. Apparently he got distracted last night and forgot to tell Emmie. But we don’t want him to leave, Annabelle. Together we’ve always made OtherWorld. Without even one of us, OtherWorld isn’t the band it should be. Maybe we’re all a little fucked up and we don’t like each other half the time, but we’re still a family.”

I understood what Devlin was saying. Knew that, although OtherWorld’s members weren’t as close as they could have been, they did make up a bizarre kind of family. A family that had worked, even through the hard times, like when Liam had been struggling with his drug addiction. Without all of them together, OtherWorld wasn’t what it should be.

That still didn’t answer the one question that was burning through my brain. Why had Zander quit?

“Z?” His name came out quietly, almost afraid of his answer.

Sighing, Zander got to his feet and crossed the living room until he was standing in front of me. Cupping my face in his hands, he forced me to meet his gaze. Still hazel. A smile lifted at the corners of his lips. “I’m doing what I should have done seventeen years ago, Anna. I’m picking the one thing I want more than anything else in the world. The thing I love beyond all else.”

My heart stopped. Completely. I couldn’t get it to beat again as the smile turned into a grin and he lowered his head to brush a soft kiss over the tip of my nose. “I love you, Anna. I always have and I always will. I choose you. Nothing else matters. Not the band or the outside world. All I want is to be with you. To be the man you deserve, the man who will pick you over everything else that could possibly matter.”

“I…” I couldn’t think, couldn’t speak. Couldn’t. Fucking. Breathe.

“I know I’m not going to be able to prove that to you overnight, but I’m never going to stop trying. I love you, and our daughter. I want to be here with you and her. Fuck, woman, I want the life we should have had all along. Maybe you don’t want that yet, but I’ll go to my grave fighting for us this time.” A rough thumb skimmed up and down my neck, his smile dimming a little when I didn’t say a word.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to. It was that I couldn’t. The tears stinging my eyes started to fall and I gasped for a lungful of air as I shook my head at the man I had loved my entire life. “Okay,” I whispered, unable to get anything else out.

A choked laugh left him. “Okay?” I nodded and his fingers tightened at the base of my neck. “Well, thank fuck for that.” He brushed a tender kiss over my lips and lifted his head, smirking at the four men standing behind him. “See you fuckers around.”

I lifted my hands to cover his, somehow finding my voice. “But only if you stay with OtherWorld.”

Hazel eyes shot back to mine, not looking nearly as hazel all of a sudden. The gold started to fade, leaving nearly green orbs staring back at me. “What?”

“I’m willing to see where this goes, if you stay with the band. As your new manager, I can’t let you back out of your contract. Besides, when the band has to travel, don’t you want to go with me?” I grinned up at him, loving the shocked look on his face.