Page 6 of Follow the Rhythm (Fairview City Omegaverse #2)

“Yeah, you too,” I said, trying to stop freaking out. “That was a great show. You sounded incredible.”

“Thanks! Austin told me you were a huge, like, super-crazy fan, so that means a lot.”

I glared at Austin. I already felt like a stalker just being at the show, let alone backstage. The last thing I wanted to be reminded of was my status as “super-crazy fan.”

There was a commotion on the other side of the curtain, and we all stepped away.

“Let’s go to the greenroom,” Grace said, grabbing one of each of our hands and towing us down the hall in exactly the same way Austin dragged me around. They were clearly siblings.

“We don’t need to do that,” I said, my voice even higher-pitched than normal from pure terror. “Austin and I don’t want to bother you.”

Austin looked at me like I was crazy. “Are you trying to be polite ?”

“I’m always polite,” I snapped.

“You’re not bothering me,” Grace said with a bright smile. We entered a swanky greenroom with plush maroon carpet, a wall of vanity mirrors with Edison bulbs, and two light brown leather couches. My heart was in my throat, but a quick scan showed no Ellis, and I exhaled.

The room wasn’t empty, though. The hulking form of Kieran, the bass player, occupied one couch. He looked up from his phone as we entered, not quite scowling. But he stood to greet us, which was more than I expected from a certified rock star.

I caught his scent as he came closer, his Alpha pheromones like a punch to my soft Omega guts. It was sweet, and so incongruous with his gruff demeanor that I instinctively took a deeper inhale. Strawberry and mint. Thank god my heat is over , I thought. He smelled way too good.

“Hey, look who I found,” Grace said, pushing us forward.

“You must be Austin,” he said. His voice was deep and resonant, with a strong British accent. “I’m Kieran.”

They shook hands. “You guys sounded great,” Austin said.

“Thanks, mate.” Kieran turned to me, and I stood there, stupidly silent. He was just so big .

Grace jumped in. “This is Jess, Austin’s friend. She’s a huge Velvet Howl fan, so when I said I was doing a secret show with you guys, Austin begged for a plus one so she could come.”

I blushed scarlet as Kieran studied me. I had no idea what to say, so I settled on, “I’m not a psycho or anything.”

“Good to know,” Kieran said dryly. He held out his hand, and I shook it quickly. It was massive and completely engulfed mine.

His thick, curly hair hung just past his shoulders, and he had a full beard in the same chocolate brown color. His eyes were pretty, hazel with crinkles around the corners, and they seemed capable of x-raying my soul.

“It was a great show,” I said lamely, and Kieran just nodded again.

“Come on, let’s sit,” Grace said. “I wanna know everything about you.”

I fiddled with my phone as we sat on the opposite couch from Kieran. “I’m not very interesting.”

“Austin told me you’re a ‘hot, mega-bitch artist.’ That sounds pretty interesting to me. To be fair, the ‘hot’ part is obvious.”

I punched Austin in the arm, and they yelped. “Way to use a gendered insult, you nonbinary asshole. I’m not a bitch , I just don’t do fake nice.”

Grace cackled. “And the ‘artist’ part?”

“I do illustrations as a side hustle. I’m mostly a freelancer, though. Graphic design,” I said.

“What kind of illustrations?” Grace asked, with a tell-me-more gesture.

I passed her my phone, which had one of my older illustrations printed on the case. It was a woodcut-inspired reverse mermaid with dainty human legs, wearing fishnets, and the head of a fish with a gaping mouth.

Grace shrieked in delighted surprise. “Oh my god, I need this. Do you sell prints?”

“Prints, stickers, phone cases, totes,” I rattled off. “I do commissions, too.”

Grace looked up my shop on her phone and stroked my ego for a few minutes, gushing about how much she loved my work. Austin rolled their eyes.

“Can I see?” Kieran asked. I looked up, surprised. I had assumed he wouldn’t be paying attention to us at all.

Grace passed over her phone. “She’s super talented.”

Kieran scrolled for a minute before passing the phone back. “You are talented,” he said to me, as if his saying made it an objective fact.

“Thanks.” Didn’t he have somewhere else to be? I figured he’d be finding a groupie to fuck.

The door to the greenroom slammed open and a small, older, ferrety man walked in, his arms open expansively.

“What a show! The label is pissing themselves in excitement,” he said to Kieran, then turned to Grace. “And you, love, you were brilliant! Like Tommy Ramone, back from the dead, but in the body of a lezzo.”

“Thanks?” Grace asked, frowning.

“You can’t call her a lezzo, Johnny. It’s not 1983,” Kieran said.

“Right-o. Sorry, love,” Johnny said with an insincere smile. I hated him already.

Before I could prepare myself, Ellis entered with a beautiful blonde woman at his side, who I recognized from stalking his Instagram as Bea Chamberlain, his heiress girlfriend.

She was tall and elegantly thin, the perfect match for Ellis’s rangy grace.

She surveyed the room, seemed to dismiss everyone but Ellis, and started looking at her phone.

Ellis met my eyes, and I braced myself. Would he think I was insane for showing up backstage? Think I was trying to stalk him? Somehow stop being a giant dick and apologize?

He looked away, his blue eyes colder than I remembered, dismissing me like his girlfriend had.

No alarm, or anger, or even a hint of recognition.

My stomach, which had clenched with tension, suddenly dropped in humiliation.

Of course, he didn’t recognize me; he probably didn’t even remember me.

I hadn’t intruded on his life with three amazing, Grammy-winning albums.

“Ah, Ellis, the man of the hour,” Johnny said sycophantically. “Beautiful job. The label is pleased and wants to meet with you all next week to talk logistics.”

“Fantastic,” Ellis said, sounding a little bored. “Bea says we’re already trending.”

“All good news. Now, I’ll leave you all to it. But be at the label office Monday by 10, please.” Johnny bustled out.

Ellis didn’t bother to respond, but just headed towards the far wall where a bottle of champagne was chilling. Bea followed him, her nose still in her phone.

As Ellis drew closer, his scent hit me, and I was seventeen again, crying in my room and sniffing the sweater I’d worn when he hugged me goodbye. The old hurt boiled up all over again, and I needed to get out and away .

“Sorry, I need to go,” I said to Austin and Grace, and darted from the room before they could react.

I fled down the hallway towards a door with an exit sign above it. When I burst through it, breathing in the fresh air, I tried to calm my breathing. I would not cry over that selfish, horrible, insanely talented prick.

Sure, listening to his band every day of my life hurt a little, but it was a different, self-inflicted kind of hurt, like plucking out a stubborn eyebrow hair. This felt like a knife in the stomach.

I clenched my teeth and sucked in lungfuls of air, pacing the alleyway into which I’d emerged.

The door banged open, and for a wild moment, I half-expected Ellis to come out and fall to his knees, begging for forgiveness. But it was Kieran. He searched the alleyway until he saw me and strolled over.

“Can I help you?” I asked. I didn’t need an audience for this breakdown.

“Your friend is closing the bar tab,” he said. “You shouldn’t be out here alone.”

I glared up at him. Why did he have to be so tall?

“I’m fine,” I said.

“Are you?”

“Yes,” I bit out, my arms wrapped tightly around myself. “You can go now.”

“I’m not in the habit of leaving Omegas alone in dark alleyways,” he replied.

Great. My descenter must have worn off and blown my Beta cover. “I’m not interested in helping you live out your Omega-savior complex,” I said.

Kieran just raised his eyebrows. That seemed to be his signature conversational move. I huffed, but it was hard to stay mad at someone giving the emotional output of a brick wall.

“I am fine, though,” I said.

“So you keep saying,” he replied. “I told your friend I’d bring you around the front. This alley is blocked off.”

I peered down into the darkness. “I’ll take your word for it. Lead the way.”

Kieran gestured for me to go in through the door first. His scent had thickened and hit me almost as strongly as Charlie’s had. I shivered a little as I passed him.

“Cold?” Those pretty eyes? missed nothing.

“I’m fine.” I had to take three steps for every one of his.

“Yes, of course you are,” he said. He wasn’t smiling, but I felt like there was a smirk hidden somewhere in his tone.

We went the full length of the hallway, then turned right down another, darker corridor. Kieran pushed open another door that led out onto the street, about fifty feet from the club’s front door. If anyone recognized him, they didn’t approach.

“Thanks for the escort,” I said ironically. “I think I can take it from here.”

“I’ll wait until Austin comes out,” Kieran said, unconcerned.

“You think someone is going to what, attack me in front of a crowd?” I flung my hand back at the groups of people waiting for rideshares behind me.

“I think you’re a beautiful woman, alone, surrounded by drunk idiots.

Add in the fact that you smell like…” He broke off and looked away from me for a moment.

When he looked back, his eyes were darker, and they lingered on my neck for a moment.

I instinctively reached up to hide Charlie’s marks. “You can just pretend I’m not here.”

“Yeah, right,” I muttered. “I’m not sure if you know this, but you’re kind of hard to ignore.”

One side of his mouth tipped up.

“Just because you’re so abnormally large,” I said quickly, gesturing vaguely at him.

“Maybe you’re just very small,” he said, his eyes gleaming.

“It’s rude to comment on a woman’s body.” I crossed my arms. Kieran’s eyes flicked to my chest and back up. He didn’t reply.

“Jess,” Austin’s voice called, and I turned, relieved. They jogged the distance between us. “Sorry, the line to cash out was insane.”

“No problem.” I turned back to Kieran. “Am I sufficiently protected now?”

Kieran didn’t answer. A black sedan pulled up to the curb, and he gestured towards it. “It’s a private car. It’ll take you home so you don’t have to wait for a ride.”

“Perfect. Thanks, man,” Austin said and clapped him on the shoulder.

I looked from Kieran to the car and back again. He remained impassive.

“Fine. Thank you,” I said and flung myself in the backseat before he could reply. I squished myself into the far corner of the seat and crossed my legs and arms as tightly as I could.

Austin joined me and gave the driver my address. “What the fuck was that?” they asked as we pulled away.

“What?”

“‘What?’ You ran out of there like you were about to puke or something. And then I find you flirting ? I thought there was something wrong,” Austin said.

I sighed. “It’s fine. I just got overwhelmed. And I was not flirting with him. He was being an overbearing douche.”

“It smelled like something was going on.” They sniffed at me exaggeratedly. “Ew, keep it in your pants, Moretti.”

I flipped them off and checked my phone, mostly to not have to think about Ellis forgetting I existed. I could examine that heartache on my own time.

‘I’m begging you, Jess. Have mercy, ’ Charlie had texted right before the show started.

‘Fine. Come by on Monday night,’ I sent back. I needed to make him wait a few days.

“But you had fun? Grace liked you; she’s already begging to hang out later this week,” Austin said.

“I did! Thank you again. Sorry I was a little weird. And your sister is great. Kind of a lot, but great.”

Austin smiled. “It was cool to see you so happy.”

“Oh, gross, no sappy stuff,” I groaned and looked out the window at the city flashing past. Ellis Fox didn’t matter. I absolutely should not have been thinking about his gorgeous blue eyes looking right through me.