“You want in on the bet, too, Tex?” Cooper asks.
Fire courses through my veins. I want to bash his face against the table. Tex isn’t that kind of girl, and she isn’t someone we can mess around with. I feel this primal protectiveness when it comes to her. We owe Mark, and she’s the most precious thing in his life.
And you think she’s amazing. And since Christmas, you’ve been constantly hard around her.
“Watch it,” Milo says, beating me to the punch.
Coop rolls his eyes, and the corner of his mouth turns into a cocky smirk. “She knows I’m kidding. You’re still a virgin, right, Tex?”
Her eyes widen, and she looks to me and Milo for help. She turns her nose up. “Awesome. We’re discussing this.”
That isn’t an admission or a denial. I want to know even though it shouldn’t matter to me.
It doesn’t matter to you.
Yes, it does. She had a boyfriend for almost a year, so she’s probably not still a virgin. Until I know otherwise, I like to think no one’s been there.
You want to be there.
“If you want to rectify that problem, we can go to my room,” Coop says, wiggling his eyebrows.
This time, Milo doesn’t beat me to it. I swing my arm and crack him around the back of his skull.
Fucking idiot.
Texas smiles at Cooper, smug to have me and Milo defending her against him. Deep down, I know Coop would never touch her. None of us would.
Except for me. I’ve already crossed that line. Actually, I jumped over it, feetfirst.
Now, I can’t forget how she tasted, how soft she felt, and the way she reacted to my every touch. I can’t stop myself from wanting to do more, to go further and bury myself deep inside her.
Fuck. I’m getting hard.
I sit forward and try to focus on something else.
Mark walks back into the room, and Coop’s expression changes instantly. Gone is the hunger to wind her up because he knows he’ll be beheaded by her dad. Mark is overprotective of Tex. I get it, and I’d be the same, but sometimes, I look at her, and I can see a strong woman fighting to get out and find her own way.
“Daddy got your tongue?” Milo teases, jabbing Coop in the ribs.
“Fuck off. Are we on for this bet or what? I understand if not. We know I’ll win.”
Coop is competitive and hates it when he loses. His parents spoiled him, growing up. His Christmas photos look like they were taken in Toys “R” Us. They let him win every game, and now, he has to face off with me and Milo, people who won’t let him win. It makes him hotheaded, which is always amusing.
“Not this again,” Mark says, laughing and shaking his head.
Mark and Jimmy never join in, but Will does, sometimes beating his nephew’s score, too. The man is an absolute legend, and I have a feeling that one or more of us will end up just like him. Cooper, for sure. Milo doesn’t have any aversions to settling down. He just knows he doesn’t want to do it while he’s young and getting laid multiple times a day by multiple women. He left his high school girlfriend of three years when we started to get big. He’s really not an arsehole. They’d both known their relationship was changing, and they had been growing apart. Sometimes, I think he believes he made a mistake, like when I catch him looking at a picture of Lexi, but he’s adamant he did the best thing for them both.
“I’m betting on Milo,” Texas says. “Dad, you have any money on you?”
We all laugh. Milo grins proudly.
Mark stares at her, dumbfounded. “No, Texas. You’re not betting on this shit!”
“And, Tex, really? Don’t you already have all the money?” I tease.
Mark is worth billions, and Jennifer is, too. As their only heir, Texas stands to be one of the wealthiest people in the UK.
She narrows those pretty hazel eyes and pouts. Her lips are full, pink, and I’m desperate to see them spread around my cock.
Don’t think of that.
“You would think so, but someone doesn’t want me to be spoiled.” She gives her dad a pointed look.
“How ridiculous,” Milo says with exaggerated surprise.
“It is. Like I’m going to be a total bitch whore from hell just because I have access to more money.”
“It’ll ruin you,” Coop says.
She laughs. “It’d ruin you.”
Cooper grins like a Cheshire Cat on coke. “Oh, I’d hope so.”
I turn away from the idiots I consider family and look out the window. The sun is starting to break the darkness, but it’s still hard to see much of anything. Here, I feel content. I love being on tour. The open road is filled with possibility and adventure.
Growing up, I never really went anywhere. After the deaths of my parents when I was a baby, I was raised by my nan and grandad. They’re incredible people, and I owe them everything. Because money was tight, we didn’t get to travel. They’re both my biggest fans, and nothing makes me happier than when they’re watching me at a concert. They will be at every one in England when we eventually get back.