“I just bet you’re sorry!Get the fuck out!”
There was a heavy knock at the door.Seth winced.That would be Titan.Coming to beat the shit out of him.
“Scarlett?”Yep.Titan.
Scarlett marched to the door and flung it open.Sure enough, the massive drummer stood in the doorway.His gaze jumped from Scarlett’s furious face, tears glistening in her eyes… to Seth.
Seth winced, shaking his head before he could stop himself.Yeah, he was scared of the bigger man.He wasn’t too proud to admit it, either.
“Come on, Seth,” Titan said gravely.“I think it’s time you join the rest of us up front.”
That didn’t bode well.
What was the use in try to explain?He wasn’t even ready to admit it to himself, let alone to the other members of the band, so what could he say?He couldn’t bring himself to admit there might be more than sexual attraction involved with his need of Scarlett, so how could he could he explain it to Titan, Arsen, or even Scarlett?
He glanced at Scarlett.She looked angry, but he could see the forlorn, lost girl underneath.He’d truly broken her heart with his careless words.He could see it clearly now.So why had she acted so flippant about what they’d shared when she clearly felt more for him?
Finally, he walked out of her cabin without a word.She slammed the door behind him, and he was left to deal with Titan.The others were making their way to them, some of them looking curious, Arsen looking as angry as Titan.
“You know we’ve got to beat the shit out of you.Right?”Titan addressed him.Immediately, understanding passed between the other members of the band.The guys, to a man, looked murderous.
“This is going to hurt,” he muttered.
Chapter Seven
SnowFyer had three days to prep for their next concert.They’d used the time well, rehearsing all day, every day.They’d made some major changes to older numbers to give Scarlett a chance to showcase her talent.Arsen was there, guiding her and helping when the transitions didn’t go as smoothly as they wanted them to.They even put together a number where Arsen and Scarlett both played, giving brother and sister the spotlight.Arsen assured them all that one number wouldn’t hurt his hands and wrists too badly.
Through it all, Scarlett kept her distance from Seth.The only time she was near him was when they choreographed a particularly difficult dance during one of her riffs.He’d insisted they practice it until she looked comfortable doing it because, in truth, it put her body against his for nearly the entire sixteen bars of her solo.It was rife with sexual tension -- and had been planned that way -- but she couldn’t work her way through it.She either missed her footing and stumbled or fumbled the guitar and the riff.Which was colossally bad.She’d moved stiffly and felt too awkward for it to have looked like a natural movement.They certainly didn’t look like the same couple from the last concert.
Seth now sported several bruises on his face that hadn’t been there before they’d gotten on that plane from LA.Scarlett wasn’t naive enough to think her brother and the other guys hadn’t put them there.She thought she should probably feel bad for him, but just couldn’t muster the energy it would take.
“All right, guys,” Arsen said, scrubbing a hand over his face.“Take a break.This isn’t working.We need to regroup.”
They’d been working on this particular number the better part of their downtime between concerts, and they were rapidly running out of time to fuck with it.It was time to make a decision.Keep the number or not.Bad as she wanted them to scrap it, she knew it wouldn’t be in SnowFyer’s best interests.
Ra ambled over to her.She could tell he was concerned.“Do we need to back off on the choreography?I know Seth hurt you and you’re still feeling the sting, so if you can’t do this, we need to know now.We’ve only got one more day to put this together.”
“I’ll be fine.I was just…”
“Trying to keep yourself distanced from him?”Ra pulled her into his arms, resting his chin on the top of her head.Scarlett was close to tears.Not because of her frustration at the rehearsal.She could handle that -- and would from this moment forward.She was ashamed of herself for not being more intelligent than to think she could use Seth’s own personality against him in order to make him see they belonged together.And that was truly what she’d done.It hadn’t started out that way, but until those last few moments in her cabin on the plane, it was exactly what she’d done.Played hard to get.Made him think he was the conquest instead of him making a conquest.To say that had backfired would be a royal understatement.
“Something like that, I guess,” she murmured back.
“Look, Seth is just as confused as you are.The only difference is you’re the only one who has reason to be confused.He knows what he wants; he’s just too stubborn to admit it.”
“I guess that’s his problem, then.I’m not throwing myself at him again, Ra.It didn’t work the first -- and only -- time.So we need to find a different way to present this number.”
“That’s all any of us needed to know,” Ra said.“I’ll discuss it with Arsen.We’ll come up with something you can live with.”
Scarlett felt a little like a failure.But what could she do, really?She certainly wasn’t going to mope around like a silly fool.The fact that she couldn’t be a professional and just do it the way Arsen had put it together stung her pride.Maybe she wasn’t as ready to be out front as she’d thought.Sure, the last concert had opened her eyes to a whole new world, but that was before Seth had reduced their time together to her being some stupid groupie sleeping her way through a rock band.
Immediately on the heels of that damning thought, she recalled her own dismissal of him.Her own proclamations that she’d finally “landed the great Seth Snow” came back to ring in her ears.He’d hurt her, but she knew she’d hurt him first.
With a sigh, she called out to Ra.“Hey, look.”The keyboardist turned, looking at her expectantly.“Let’s try it one more time.I’ll go talk to Seth, and we can give it a go in half an hour.”
Ra hesitated.“You sure?I don’t want you uncomfortable.None of us do.SnowFyer will be just fine without this number.”
“I know.”She smiled.“Just give me thirty minutes.If Seth and I can’t work this out between us, we’ll scrap it and go with something different.”
