Free Believed (My Misery Muse) by Brei Betzold Page B

was the best rush I’d ever felt. 
Before I knew it, we had played our first and second encore and were exiting
the stage for real.  I handed my guitar off to my tech, shook hands with the
bigwigs, then finally headed to the dressing room where I could take a quick
shower and change out of these sweaty clothes.
    When I walked into the dressing room, my eyes
instantly went to the Jules sleeping form.  She was curled up on the couch with
her hoodie covering half her body.  She looked peaceful and I felt a tension
leave my body.  She was safe, I cocked my head taking a closer look, and
drooling.

 
     
    Chapter 12
     
    Jules
    I didn’t remember going to sleep, but from the
hazy feeling running through my body, I knew at some point I’d fallen asleep. 
I felt someone’s arms adjust as they lifted me and my eyes fluttered open.  The
first thing I saw was a very hard, defined chest beneath a soft T-shirt that
made me want to rub my cheek across.  I forced myself to look up only to find
Sam looking down at me with concern in his eyes.  I did rub my cheek against
his chest at that point and smiled sadly up at him.
    “I’m okay,” I murmured.
    “You scared me, I mean us,” he said lowly.
    “Didn’t mean to.”
    He cleared his throat. “Does that happen often?”
    “Not in the past few years,” I mumbled.
    I noticed that we were moving and I looked around
to find that we were going down a non-descript hallway.
    “Where are we going?”
    “The bus, we’re done and heading out.”
    “I can walk.”
    “I, uhm, are you sure?”
    I nodded.
    He looked down at me and sighed before stopping
and gently standing me up keeping a hand on my arm to make sure I was steady. 
I instantly missed the feel of his body against mine, which is exactly why I
needed to walk out on my own.  I wasn’t sure if I would be able to handle
anything with Sam right now or worse a rejection.
    “You need to stay close,” Seth said from behind
me.  “We’re not sure what it’s going to be like outside, Coop is going first,
then me, then you, then Sam.  You need to hold on to one of us at all times,
we’re going to be moving fast.”
    An anxious feeling started at the pit of my
stomach. “Did something happen?”
    X looked back and grinned at me. “Nah, this is
normal.”
    “Line up,” I heard someone bark and I watched as
the guys quickly arranged themselves in a single file line with me snugly
crushed between Seth and Sam.  I grabbed a hold of Seth’s shirt in front of me
and felt Sam’s hand thread his fingers through mine.
    “Don’t let go,” Sam whispered in my ear causing
the hairs on the back of my neck to rise.
    “I won’t,” I whispered back; he squeezed my hand
then the doors opened and we were moving.  It was pure insanity, women were
screaming while fans pushed on a fence that separated the parking lot from
them.  I would have been concerned about it falling if I wasn’t being pulled
into a fast walk while Sam kept his front to my back propelling me faster.  From
the corner of my eye, I saw Eli and X break off and head towards the fence to
sign autographs.  We quickly stepped up on the bus where the doors wooshed shut
behind Sam.
    “That was insane?”
    Seth chuckled. “No, that was tame.”
    I frowned. “Are Eli and X going to be okay?”
    “They’re fine,” Sam answered looking out the front
window. “They have a team of security with them.”
    “Come on, I’ll show you around,” Seth said
grabbing my hand and pulling me farther in.  “This is the front lounge,” he
said gesturing to the room.
    I looked around the lounge, there were couches
lined against one wall, the other side had two captain chairs with a table in
the middle.  All of it was decorated in creams except the dark grey table top. 
I had to laugh at the huge flat panel TV above the captain chairs.  The thing
that threw me off though was how clean it was. I thought coming in here where
four men were living it would be a