I opened my eyes back up. The lead singer, Ryan, was standing over me. “Mmm? No, I'm fine.”
He nodded his head, then sat down next to me. “Too much to drink?”
I looked down at my cup, half full of the cola still. He didn't know that it was non-alcoholic. “Yeah, maybe,” I said. I noticed his tattoos. They looked tribal, but I had no idea what they meant. I had been dating bad boys for a long time, and they all seemed to get tattoos that looked cool without knowing what they meant.
He nodded again. “You're James' little sister, right?”
“Yeah, is he back yet?” I asked, looking around the room.
“No, he's still packing away equipment. He's gotta have everything done just right so that it doesn't get broken. I'm sure you know how he gets, though.”
I didn't really know, but I nodded anyway. He was a perfectionist and it didn't surprise me that it flowed into everything. “You were great tonight,” I said.
He seemed to puff up a little bit. “Well, your brother messed up a couple times, but other than it was a great performance.”
I had been watching James all night and hadn't noticed him messing up. I didn't know what his angle was here, but I just wanted to change the subject. “So. Lefty and the Sharks. Interesting name.”
He shrugged. “We change it every month or so. Last month it was 'Spoon Boy and the Potentials'. But my nickname in high school was already Lefty, so this was perfect.”
“Why is your nickname Lefty?”
He smirked at me. “Two reasons. I'm left handed, for one. But that means I jerk off with my left hand, so my dick naturally curves to the left.”
It was such an outlandish comment that I couldn't help but look down at his pants. His left hand made a jerk off motion, and it made me laugh. “That's funny, I've never seen a dick curve to either side.”
“Well, maybe you'll see one tonight, if you play your cards right.”
Normally a comment like that would have made me more likely to actually sleep with him, but I was with James now, whether we were public or not. I was in his house. It made me feel really uncomfortable that he would be this upfront, even if he didn't know that. I felt my smile fade a little, then I shook my head. “Probably not, though.”
He shrugged. “We'll see what happens,” he said.
“Well, you have a great night, Lefty,” I said. I stood up from the couch and walked over to where Anne was talking to her friends. I had a feeling he wouldn't follow me here, and I was right. However, I made the mistake of looking over my shoulder at him.
His eyes were boring right into me.
James and a few other guys arrived shortly afterward. I stayed in the group with Anne, but made eye contact with him long enough to know that he had seen me. However, he made his way around the room, talking with some of the people at his house.
Now that we were here at his house, I could tell that many of the people here were obviously his employees or colleagues. He was shaking a lot of hands with some well-dressed people, obviously doing some networking and deal-making even as he was supposed to be having a good time and celebrating.
He took his time making his way over to us, but eventually he made his way over to Anne's little group. “I'm glad you found someone to hang out with over here,” he said.
Anne reached her arm around me and pulled me in, shoulder to shoulder. “Don't worry, Mr. Coleman, I'll make sure she has a good time tonight.”
“I'm sure you will, Ms. Dean,” he said. Then he just walked away to another group. My jaw dropped a little bit. I didn't even get a chance to say one word to him. No once-over, no nothing. He was really serious about not giving away any signs in public.
I stood there listen to them chat for as long as I could, maybe another twenty minutes, but eventually, I was just tired. I had just finished a long day of travel and, if James wasn't going to pay any attention to me, I didn't really want to just hang around. I said something polite about going to the bathroom, but instead I went off to my guest room to go lie down.
I didn't even bother taking off my clothes, just slipping my jacket and shoes off as I crawled into the bed. I put the blanket over my head, and closed my eyes.
I'm not even sure if I had fallen asleep yet when I heard a knock on the door. I figured it was James, or possibly Anne, so I called “Come in.”
The door opened, and the light flicked on. It was neither of them.
“I was wondering where you had wandered off to,” Ryan said, his voice dark and sensual, more so than it had ever been on stage. If he could get that bedroom voice into a recording studio, he'd make a million dollars.
I shifted uncomfortably in the bed, grateful that I still had all my clothes on. “Oh, hi there.” I didn't really want to talk to him anymore. He didn't seem to realize that, as he crossed over to the room and sat down on the bed.
“What are you doing? The party's just starting,” he said.