Page 16 of Hard Rock Deceit

My mouth gaped open, stunned and slightlyfreakedout.

"You're afraid you'll never feel anything for anyone," he continued. "Am Iright?"

I pulled away, scooting to the other side of the sofa. I shot him a look of disbelief. "What are you,psychicnow?"

"You never told anyone you felt that way. Even though you're afraid you'll never be able to make a real connection with people, you pretend everything is fine. You pretend that's the way youwantit."

Drawing my knees to my chest, I snapped at him. "Stoptalking."

"But something inside you craves intimacy. You want to experience true passion. And you use your art to channel all the feelings you can't expressoutloud."

I wentsilent.

"I see passion inside you," he said. "You just need to let it out." August stared at me, blue eyes alight with an intense heat. "I can help you with that. If you wantmeto."

My pulse spiked, warmth spreading from my chest down my stomach tomycore.

This was desire. A desire I'd been trying to ignore since the first moment I'd laid eyes onthisman.

I couldn't ignore itanymore.

"I want—" my voice faltered. I steeled myself. "I want you to teach me. Teach me how to find mypassion."

The sound of footsteps climbing up the busstartledme.

August kept his eyes locked on mine as one of the twins climbed onto the bus, saving me from having to respond. My face burned hot, all my nerve endings tingling. I pressed my knees together, heat pooling at the apex of mythighs.

Damon flopped onto the nearest sofa. He stretched his long legs out and draped his arms over the back, feigning acasualpose.

"If I didn't know better, I'd think were we going off to war, the way those losers are acting," he said. "You better go drag them in here or we're never going toleave."

"Give them a few more minutes," August replied. "It's hard for them. This is our first long tour since they gotgirlfriends."

"I don't know why they all went and did that. Don't they know how many girls are going to be crawling all over us on tour? Whatever," Damon said lazily. "Moreforme."

"One day you're going to fall for a girl and then you'll know how it feels," thedrummersaid.

I slid my eyes to August. He leaned back against the sofa, nonchalant, and looking amused at Damon's visible cringe. August pulled a paperback book off the side table and opened it, scanning thepages.

No sign of what he'd just said. It was as if nothing hadhappened.

And yet there I sat, disorientated, as if the earth had shifted and tilted beneathmyfeet.

ChapterSix

"IalreadymissHope."

Damon's brother Ian flopped on the sofa next to his twin, despondence onhisface.

Damon opened his mouth tospeak.

"I know," Ian cut him off. "I just said goodbye to her five minutes ago. You don't need toremindme."

"I wasn't going to say anything," Damon faked an innocent expression. "I just don't want to see you moping the entire tour. This is the fun part of our job. You should bepumped."

"I am. I will be. I need time to adjust,that'sall."

"You're not the only one goingthroughit."