“We should get a room tonight.” I looked him in the eye to gauge his response. His eyes fell to my lips, and I could feel the electricity pulse between us. I’d missed this feeling, the thought of him touching me. And suddenly, all I could think about were his hands on my skin. He glanced over at Eric and Donna. They were laughing as she hit the cue ball and it spun and touched nothing.

“I’ll talk to them. At least something good can come out of this night.” He pulled my face to his and kissed me softly, but there was nothing innocent about the way his lips pressed against mine. I smiled, forgetting all of the chaos that brewed around us. Things between us were right, even when the world was crumbling around us.

Donna yelled and her arms wrapped around Eric. I could tell by the way his hand slid down her back that they were actually connecting. Maybe he wouldn’t react too badly to Sarah’s news if he really felt like there could be something between him and Donna. . . .

As the night began to wind down and everyone seemed to be losing their spunk, Tucker brought up the idea of getting rooms at a hotel. Donna was apprehensive, but she was outnumbered and conceded fairly easily.

Donna went off to use the ladies’ room before we left, and I used the opportunity to talk to Eric and see how the plan was working.

“You and Donna seem pretty cozy,” I said.

“She’s all right.” He finished off the last of his warm beer, making a face at its bitter taste.

“Maybe you guys could room together,” I suggested, and he looked over at me, rolling his eyes.

“Is that what all this has been about? You’re trying to get me to hook up with her? Why? She’s been nothing but mean to you this whole trip.”

I shrugged. I had no good reason to help Donna; I’d just hoped it would give us all a chance to become friends. But really I just wanted to see Eric happy. Filth was saying their good-byes and walking out of the bar. Eric’s eyes followed them.

“It would just be good to see the both of you let go and have some fun,” I said.

His gaze went back to me, and he nodded once but didn’t say anything back.

20

THIS IS REALLY nice.” I looked around the hotel room. Everything was white, floor to ceiling. The bed was covered in a dozen fluffy pillows, and the lamp next to it was covered in white feathers. “Like stepping inside a cloud.”

Tucker walked up behind me and pressed himself against my back as his arms looped around my waist.

“I was thinking this is more like Heaven.” He placed a small kiss on my neck. A smile spread across my face, and I couldn’t have agreed more with him. We hadn’t had a night alone during the entire tour. I turned around in his arms to face him, his hands pressed against my lower back, holding me against him as I placed my hands on his chest.

“I don’t know . . .” I had no idea what I was trying to say. I had put off being intimate with Tucker for so long that now I was nervous.

“It’s just you and me tonight. We can do whatever you want. We can stay up all night and talk, we can play a game, we can write music. . . . It doesn’t matter as long as we’re together.”

He was right. Nothing else mattered: the past, the fights, and the long road we traveled to get here, literally and figuratively. All that mattered was that he and I were together.

“I love you, Tucker.”

“You have no idea how much I love to hear you say those words.” The pad of his thumb slid over my lower lip. “I love you so much, Cass.”

I pushed my lips against his, not wanting to spend another minute contemplating what would be best and just do what felt right in this moment. I wanted nothing more than to make love to the man I fell in love with. Tucker kicked off his shoes, never breaking our kiss as he held on to my waist and guided me backward toward the bed. I slipped off my shoes, nearly tripping us both, and our lips pulled apart for us to laugh, but he quickly covered my mouth with his again. I grabbed the bottom of his shirt and pulled it up, running my hands over the ridges of his stomach muscles.

He yanked his shirt over his head, not wanting to waste another second. I smiled as the back of my knees made contact with the mattress. I grabbed my shirt and pulled it over my head. His gaze dropped to look over my body before he pressed his warm chest against mine. His fingers slid around my back, finding the closure to my bra. He rolled it between his fingers until it went slack.

His fingertips ran over my shoulders and he dragged them down my arms, leaving goose bumps in their wake as he pulled the straps from my shoulders. I let my bra slide down over my hands and fall to the floor between us.

“You are so beautiful.” His fingers tangled in my hair as he pulled my mouth to his, sucking my lower lip.

My hands explored his toned chest as he worked to rid us of the rest of our clothing. He undid the closure of my jeans and shoved them over my hips. I stepped out of them as I ran my nails down his stomach, his muscles flexing beneath my fingertips as his breath caught. I loved that my touch gave him that reaction. I unbuckled his belt and undid his jeans as my tongue tangled with his, and he helped kick his jeans off. We lost our balance and fell back onto the bed. Tucker laughed, brushing my hair from my face as he placed a gentle kiss on my forehead.

“We don’t have to do this tonight. I’ll wait as long as it takes. We have forever.”

I slid my hand in his messy hair and pulled his lips back to mine. The playfulness was quickly replaced with hunger for each other. He wanted to spend forever with me, and I didn’t want to waste another second of it second-guessing myself.

He pushed his hips against mine, and I slid my nails down his back until my fingers touched the fabric of his boxers. He pulled back from me and stood at the edge of the bed as he shoved his boxers down and kicked them off. His eyes took in every inch of my body as he leaned over and looped his fingers in the sides of my pale-yellow panties. He slid them down slowly and tossed them aside as he lowered himself back on top of me. He kissed along my jaw and down the length of my neck. I wrapped my arms around him and held his body against mine. His mouth moved to my ear, and he kissed my earlobe.

“I love you,” he whispered into my ear as he rocked his hips against me and slowly made love to me.

21

AFTER OUR NIGHT in the hotel, nothing was going to rain on our parade. Not even spending a few more days in a cramped bus. Tucker and I checked out of our room and waited in the lobby for everyone else to join us. The twins arrived first, hungover and moaning like they were on the verge of death.

After a few more minutes of waiting, we had the receptionist call up to Eric’s room.

He appeared shortly after, looking like he had been hit by a train.

“Jesus, what the hell did she do to you?” Chris asked.

“Who?” Eric looked around at all of us.

“Donna.” Chris laughed.

“She went back to the bus last night. You didn’t actually think I was going to sleep with her when she was that drunk, did you? Besides, how awkward would the rest of this trip be?”

That left everyone speechless. We just glanced at each other, impressed that Eric had decided against it.

“Let’s get back to the bus so we can get on the road.” Tucker stretched as he yawned.

The afternoon sun was blinding, and I couldn’t get back to the bus fast enough. I felt like Tucker and I had hit another milestone in our relationship, and I was ready to see what else lay ahead.

We spent the next few hours sleeping as we headed west. The band needed to rehearse later, and Donna had already lined up a place for them to do so. The Video Music Awards were coming up fast, and they needed as much time as possible to make sure everything would be perfect for their biggest show to date.

When we arrived, Donna came out of her room in full bitch mode, with matching outfit. The time out with us had done little to change her demeanor in the light of day—in fact, it seemed to only worsen her mood now that she was clearly nursing a hangover—but it gave us all a little insight into who she was deep down.

I got to work on cleaning up the bus. The sink was still full of empty beer cans, and junk-food wrappers were strewn about. It took me a full hour to get the bus looking semi-decent.

I decided to give my father a call and catch up on how June was doing with the pregnancy.

I dialed my father’s number and sat down on the edge of our bunk.

“Hey,” he said as he answered the phone.

“Hey. How is the family?” I asked, making small talk.

“Great. June is hanging in there, but no baby yet.”

“I can’t wait to meet my new brother or sister.”

“Any day now.” Something was off about his tone, and it was starting to worry me.

“I’d like to fly you guys out to us once the baby is old enough.”

“I don’t think we will be able to do that, princess. It’s not a good time.”

“Well, whenever. No set date, just an idea.”

“I think you should have a chat with Tucker. We aren’t welcome out there.”

I couldn’t wrap my mind around what he was telling me. “I don’t think Tucker would mind you coming out here. What would give you that idea?”

“Just talk to him. I have to go.” With that, the phone went dead. Tucker was at practice with the guys and I was forbidden from “distracting” him, as Donna put it, but this was my family and if Tucker had interfered, I needed to know.