Page 136 of Rock Giant

“Like I said, it wasn’t planned, Gin.I’ve been keeping it in my pants.”Which had not been fun.Usually, he managed to get laid reasonably regularly while on tour.“And it’s not about to happen again, because she’s categorically chosen him.”

There it was, the truth that had been slapping him around the head the last few days and turning him into a bugbear.

“Wait.”Ginny turned towards him, rising onto her knees.“She shagged you and then chose him?Paul, sweetie.”She crushed his nose against her shoulder pulling him into a tight hug.“Darn, that’s not fun, tiger.I’m really going off this girl.Are you sure she’s the one?”

“She’s scared,” he said.It was the most plausible reason he could come up with for why she kept rejecting him.He wasn’t buying a profound attachment to Nash.“She’s frightened of turning her life upside down again and losing everything that matters.”

“Aye, but she’d gain you, and a whole new family.”

“I’m just telling you what I think she thinks, Gin, not agreeing with her reasoning.”

“Gotcha.Okay, do you want me to hunt her down now, and if not, when?Also, whereabouts were you thinking of this covert meeting taking place?”

CHAPTER 39

Jodi Castle

Jodi hadn’t even planned to go to the gig.She’d decided staying out of sight on the bus was a wiser option, but then Balin had texted her demanding she bring him his favourite pick.

Balin: No, not the orange one.The one with the chainsaw-wielding hamster on it.

And once she’d delivered that, Jez had bemoaned the fact he was having a bad hair day and begged her for help taming it before everyone decided the Ghost Boys were shit because of his frizz.No amount of pointing out that he was sitting at the back of the stage behind a drum kit would convince him that a) no one would notice, or b) give a shit.So, she’d been forced into ringlet-taming measures and a long conversation with him and one of the Black Halo roadies about the benefits of silk sleeping hats for those of the curly-haired persuasion.Not a problem she possessed.

Thus, when Ginny planted a crate of beer in her arms and insisted she help schlep them over to the Black Halo bus, she did it.It wasn’t as if she was at risk of running into Rock Giant; the Black Halo guys were chilling in their dressing room.

The buses were parked at the back of the arena, just a short walk from the building.They left the beer stacked behind the driver’s bay in a slot they honestly looked as if they might have just come from.No matter.She was merely the hired muscle.Then, on the way back to the building, Ginny spotted the bouldering wall and insisted they needed to give it a try.

While Ginny practically ran up the surface, clinging to the fingerholds as if she had Velcro fingertips, Jodi failed to get more than ten inches off the ground.Fact was, she had minimal upper body strength when compared with her lower body mass, and she’d spent her youth nicking cars, not climbing trees.

She’d managed to get her feet into a V shape about a foot up and had her butt sticking out when the crunch of footsteps snapped her attention towards the arena’s rear exit.

Oh shit!

Her left foot slipped, her fingers failed to support her, and gravity did the rest.She landed on her arse with a thud, which prompted mister heroic to come striding over to her aid.

He was dressed to go on stage.Heavy boots with a multitude of buckles and spikes.Leather jeans that laced up the sides and encompassed his long legs like a second skin.No belt.Then, a raglan-sleeved top that was due a second life as a dishcloth.Probably going to wind up being thrown to the audience mid-set.He’d completed the ensemble by spraying a black stripe across the bridge of his nose and his eyelids and adding freakish UV reflective contact lenses.

“Castle.”He stretched a ring decked hand towards her.

Dignity already lost in the dirt; Jodi scrambled backwards away from him.“Paul, no.”

“Hey, how are you?”

“No, this is a bad idea.He can’t see us together.”

“He’s on stage.He’s not going to see us.I just want a minute.”

Right.So, this had been a setup.

“What is it?”Avoiding his help, she found her feet and stood facing him with her arms crossed.

“Are you okay?”

“I’ve a well-padded arse.”Except he clearly hadn’t meant had she hurt herself slipping off the climbing wall.She considered lying, but he’d always seen through her.Instead, she dropped her gaze.“Of course I’m not.I wasn’t before I screwed up...”She couldn’t say it.“Nash wasn’t speaking to me.He is again now.We made up.”She sighed and let her arms flop down by her sides.

“He knows about...?”

She raised her shoulders, then dug her teeth into her lower lip.“Can we not?I feel sick enough as it is.”