Page 89 of Hard Rock Tease

"I know you're just saying that because you're hurt," I bit out. "You're lashing out like always."

But the fact that he automatically thought the worst of me, that he wouldn't even listen to me, made it worse.

Noah snatched the music sheets off the piano, clenching them in his fists as he stalked towards the door. "I don't need to stand here listening to this."

"You're going to regret throwing this all away," I told him as he passed me.

He looked back for only a brief moment, blank face held not a hint of emotion.

"The only thing I regret is trusting you."

Chapter Twenty-Eight

For the nextweek I sat in my apartment moping.

I'd barely spent any time here since I first started working with Noah. We were always at his place working or having sex. For a while I only came here to sleep. Then even that changed when I started spending the night.

Natalie and Ivy were technically my roommates — they still paid rent — but they'd essentially moved in with their boyfriends and were never around. I had the entire three bedroom apartment to myself. It felt cold and lonely.

I spent most of my time thinking about what had happened with Noah. Wondering if I could have done something or said something different. But what happened had nothing to do with me and everything to do with Noah's insecurities. With his inability to open up to people. His inability to trust.

I was torn between sadness and anger. I knew Noah had his issues. Maybe I should have been more understanding. But he'd turned his back on me three times already. Once he'd thrown me out and twice he'd walked away.

When Naomi called me, I was immediately worried the new job we had been talking about had fallen through. Maybe Noah had been badmouthing me. I wouldn't have put it past him, the cranky asshole.

Instead, Naomi had a completely different reason for calling.

"Noah has been a complete basket case for the last week," she told me. "Nothing we've been saying to him works."

"What do you mean by basket case?" I asked carefully.

"He's more than his usual pissy self. He won't talk to anyone. Do you know anything about why?"

"I know he's worried about Lily…" I hedged.

"It's not just that. He's supposed to be working on arranging his song, but everything he plays is awful. He storms off whenever anyone talks to him about it. You worked with him. Do you have any ideas?"

Noah and I had been able to write that song because he'd opened up to me. Maybe he was having trouble capturing those emotions with his current mood.

"Would you mind coming in and talking to him?"

"I don't think he'll listen to me."

"It can't hurt. He's certainly not listening to anyone else."

"I'll try."

I walked into the piano room the next day with dread. To my surprise, the rest of the band members were there along with Naomi. August's mouth was twisted in a frown. One of the twins fidgeted with the thick buckles on his leather wrist cuff, looking worried. Noah wasn't there.

"Is this an intervention?" I asked.

"Of a sort," August said. "Noah's been giving us some trouble. We hoped you'd be able to get through to him."

"I don't know how much help I'll be. Noah's pretty angry at me."

"He's angry at everyone these days," said the twin who'd been fidgeting. He didn't sound sarcastic or flippant. He sounded like he was genuinely concerned. For all that they messed with each other, his bandmates did honestly care about their lead singer.

When Noah walked in, he made it two steps before stopping in his tracks.