Page 62 of When the Stars Rise

I can’t tell if he’s angry or turned on. Both, I think.

Good. I’m looking for something quick and dirty. Pleasure laced with pain.

How dare the men in my life treat me like I’m incapable of handling anything? Dean obviously kept it from me. Aiden, Liam, Jules…Noah.

They all seem to forget that I’m a powerhouse on the stage. I’ve been touring over a year, and I have never once canceled a show. I performed in Tokyo when I had the flu. I felt like I was on death’s door, bleary-eyed and feverish but I got up there and I gave the very best performance I could.

I performed at Glastonbury in the pouring rain. I performed when I had heat exhaustion in Argentina. I got up on the stage at Wembley after watching a man get run over in the goddamn street.

Do they have any idea how much stamina it takes to dance and sing on a stage for two hours? Do they not realize that I take full control of my own career? I oversee every single creative decision that goes into a tour and every album I release.

And yet they continue to underestimate me.

No sooner have I gotten inside the bathroom when the door flies open and my back hits the wall. “What the fuck was all that about?” he growls.

“I’m taking a page out of your book.” I flatten my palms on the wall behind me and look up at him from beneath my lashes. “YOLO, baby.”

“You’re mine and don’t you forget it.”

I lift my chin in defiance. “I belong to no man.”

“Guess we’ll see about that.” He spins me around, presses my chest to the wall and deftly unzips my jeans then shoves them down my hips.

My eyes close as I hear his zipper sliding down and then his cock, so hot and thick presses against my ass cheeks as his teeth graze the side of my neck and then sucks on it.

I want him so much it hurts.

I want everything he has to give me.

“Mine,” he rasps, branding my skin with his expert mouth.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Noah

“What’s up with Hayley lately?”Liam asks when we all pile into the Escalade.

Aiden drums his fingers on his thighs. “She’s just living her best life. And I am here for it.”

That’s one way of looking at it. The past week has been… interesting. Talk about a one-eighty.

Yesterday, she took over a hotdog stand before her show, and it was pandemonium. She handed out three hundred hotdogs to screaming fans while her security team worked overtime to control the crowd.

In Detroit, she crowd-surfed. Dean nearly had a fucking heart attack, but Hayley came out unscathed, and fans have posted videos all over social media calling it ‘The Sea of Love.’

In Philadelphia, Hayley spent her two hours of free time hanging out at a local Wawa, where she paid for everyone’s food and gas.

On her night off in Pittsburgh, Hayley dropped the puck at the start of a Penguins’ playoff game and sat with the WAGS,cheering on the Penguins as if she’d been a diehard fan her entire life.

To my knowledge, that was the first ice hockey game she’d watched or attended—ever.

Now, it’s our second and final night in Chicago, and we’re riding in the Escalade behind Hayley’s car, headed to a club.

How many cars and how much security does it take to get Hayley Saint James from a concert arena to a nightclub in River North?

An entire cavalcade.

And why have I been relegated to a different car? Because Hales ran a contest on a radio show, and three lucky superfans are getting the VIP treatment tonight.