“Daddy!” The scream leaves my mouth but a hand covers it before I can yell again.
“Don’t. No one’s gonna come save you. They’re all fucked up.”
Bile rises in my throat and I squirm to escape his hold. But he pins me to the wall regardless. He’s too big. Too strong. Older. Oh, God. I clench my eyes shut and tears squeeze out of the edges when I imagine what happens next.
I vault upright and bump my forehead against the roof of my sleeping bunk. A throbbing reverberates through my bones, sweat coats every inch of my body, and I shiver with the memories racing alongside my pulse. Tonight, ghosts haunted my sleep. A glance at my phone confirms I barely managed ten minutes of rest before being startled awake.
A dream.
It was only a dream. If I repeat this enough maybe my head will stop hurting and my body will stop aching. I’ll stop dreaming about my father and find a night of good sleep.
A rough cough leaves my chest and I attempt to stifle the sound. I cough again. Damn it, not this. My head expands with every stretching mile, and the rumble that once soothed me to sleep now causes my head to pound. The ache in my temple extends to my limbs. Everyone is sound asleep on the bus, clueless to the fact my body is, after twenty-three insanely healthy years, betraying my perfect streak.
I turn my chin inside my bunk, under my blanket to mask the next round of hacking coughs that escape.
“Lexi! Go take some drugs so we can all get some sleep!” Austin shouts from his bunk.
Scratch that. I’m not as stealthy as I hoped. My stupid cough is keeping everyone awake.
“Sorry,” I mumble. I pull the dark curtain open and climb from my bunk. The moment my feet hit the carpet and my spine straightens, all the blood rushes to my head. With a soft bump in the road I fall backward, my butt hitting the floor and my head still spinning.Fuck.
Nausea rolls through me in a wave and I blow out from my diaphragm to settle the feeling. I need to get to the bathroom, but the hallway that always seems so short suddenly feels a mile long. If only I could magically transport myself the distance. I catch the flash of light that cascades from the bathroom as Trent’s half naked form fills its doorway. My mouth salivates with my impending need to upchuck.Not desire and attraction. No. No way I’m getting turned on at a time like this. He is a fine specimen of man, though, and my stare lingers a little too long on his exposed abs.
Fuck me—
His low chuckle scrapes me out of my little daydream. “Whatcha doing here, Lex?”
“It’s Lexi.”
“Right. Did you just fall out of your bunk?” This time he laughs louder.
“Shut the fuck up. Trying to sleep,” Austin grumbles from behind his curtain.
A thread of coughing, one I can’t seem to control, spills from my mouth and shakes my body. It’s both tight and loose in my chest, and my muscles ache. I give in to the fit and collapse into a ball to protect the throbbing against my ribs.
“Hey, hey.” Trent’s over me. His hair, the long and rebellious curls, tickle my forehead. “Shit, you’re sick.”
“No. I’m not,” I growl between another flip of my stomach.I will not vomit. I will not vomit.“I don’t get sick.”
Trent leans back on his heels, crouching at my side as I finally pull up to sitting. I meet his calculating stare ... or at least I try to. My eyes burn. Or maybe that’s my skin.Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
“You’re sick,” he states plainly.
“I can’t be. I have to sing tomorrow night. I can’t be sick. I don’t get sick. I don’t miss shows. I don’t—”
“So, what you’re saying is you’re sick.”
“Fine! I’m sick. Happy?”
“Not really, but now that we’ve established your level of health, let’s get you better.”
“What?”
“Come on, Queen Bee. Let’s get you comfortable.” He stands, holds out his hand, and pulls me off the floor. Blaming my state of unrest for letting him get away with such an awful nickname, I try not to lean on him more than necessary and follow his lead toward the bathroom. Except he doesn’t stop there. He takes me to his room.
“No! Not the sex sheets!” I dig my heels into the flooring, but he tugs me forward and through his doorway.
“They’re unscathed. I swear it,” he whispers and then shuts the door behind us.
