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hard.
    In an effort to dial back the asshole factor I felt when we were done, I stayed with her on the bed for a few minutes while we recovered. I could have drifted off to sleep, always feeling more relaxed after sex but she dragged her nails down the center of my chest. "You call me again when you need me, okay?"
    I didn't fight her this time. To tell her we had to stop would be a waste of time and breath. I knew damn well that I would be back before the end of the tour.
     

     
    The only thing worse than doing the walk of shame at eight in the morning is having to do it at four in the afternoon. Luckily, at that hour, it's not as obvious that your departure from the hotel is the tail end of a quick romp between the sheets. Just like every time I was with Tanya, I felt sick to my stomach as I walked down the block to the public ramp where I'd parked my motorcycle.
    If my mother had any clue I had stooped to such a deplorable level, she would kick my ass six ways into Sunday—not this Sunday, but some Sunday a year down the road. The one thing she worked hard to instill in me was to respect women and take care of them. I'd done neither with Tanya and let myself continue doing it even though I knew it was wrong.
    As I zipped my leather jacket before starting the bike, I caught a faint whiff of women's perfume. Fuck. I could only hope it was because that sickening scent was burned into my sinuses and not that my clothes reeked without having had any physical contact with her body.
    Rain was walking to the arena when I pulled in beside the bus. "Nice you could join us," she said over her shoulder. "We were thinking about doing a little sound check. Think you're up to that?" There was an edge to her voice I wasn't used to. I didn't like it one bit. I immediately started wondering if she somehow knew where I was, what I was doing and whom I was doing it with.
    "Yeah, be right there." I put down the kickstand and threw my half helmet into one of the saddlebags before jogging to join her.
    She curled her lip at me when I got close to her. "Feel better?" She sneered. Double fuck. Please, if there is a god, don't let her know who. It's bad enough she knows I was with a woman, she doesn't need to know it was Tanya.
    "Uh, yeah." There was no sense lying about it. The worst that could happen would be her kicking me back into the bunk stack and giving me the cold shoulder for a day or two. I tried to shy away from her but she slinked her arm around my waist.
    "Good. You were starting to get a little grabby in your sleep." She laughed, poking me in the side. "Didn't realize you had a friend all the way down here."
    Fuck again. "It's a long story. Can we not talk about it?"
    "Awww, don't want to talk about your fuck buddy with the woman you share a bed with?"
    No, as a matter of fact, that's the last thing I want to do.
    Seeing my discomfort, she doubled over laughing. "Dude, if you could see the look on your face right now. Seriously, it's okay. As long as you didn't take her into my bed, I really don't care."
    "Are you going to kick me out of your bed because I took off like that?" Idiot, you don't want to have this conversation. Shut the fuck up, go on stage, get sound check over and go on with your day.
    Rain placed her hands on my shoulders, staring at me with eyes that look like two sparkling emeralds. "Colt, as long as you aren't bringing strays into the bedroom, I'm not going to say anything and I'm not going to kick you out. We're friends who sleep in the same bed at night because it's more comfortable back there. Really, it's cool."
    Whoever wound up being with Rain was a lucky son of a bitch. If she had a truly jealous bone in her body, I don't think I'd ever seen it. Then again, there would have to be something there to be jealous of first. It didn't help my conscience one bit that she wasn't jealous. In fact, it only served to twist the knife in my heart a little bit more.
    "Oh, but do me a favor..." She looked at me as if