Three security guards met me outside of one of the smaller stores and told me they hadn’t found her yet. There was the small possibility that she was having lunch on the third floor, which basically consisted of the food court and nothing else, but I knew she wouldn’t be up there. Emmie wasn’t much on fast foods any more than I was these days.

Still, I was desperate so I turned to follow the men.

“Nik!”

My head snapped around at the sound of Emmie calling my name. Everything around me seemed to stand still for a moment as my eyes zeroed in on Emmie standing inside the store I had just passed. My heart lifted into my throat, and for just a second I felt like I couldn’t breathe as I looked at her.

Then I was moving fast. I ran toward her and when I was close enough to touch her I pulled her hard against me. I was trembling from head to toe. “Don’t you ever fucking do that to me again!” I practically yelled at her.

Her cheeks were slightly pink, and I could see the hurt and anger in her green eyes. But she just gave me a soft kiss on the cheek. “I figured you were having so much fun with the fan club that you wouldn’t even miss me.”

Her tone was dismissing, as if the subject bored her. But the way she was standing, with her head at a stubborn angle and her shoulders set in that way that told me she was anything but bored, suggested otherwise. “Were you jealous?” It filled me with both hope and dread at the possibility that she was that jealous.

Hope because that told me she had stronger feelings for me than just desire. Dread because I didn’t want her to hurt for any reason, ever.

Instead of answering me she turned around to face the girl standing behind the counter. “Thanks for all your help, Beth. Nik, Beth has been so much help today. I spent three grand of your money without even realizing it.”

I was surprised and delighted that Emmie had spent so much on herself, but offered the girl a grin. “Thank you, Beth.”

The girl must have been incredibly helpful because Emmie pulled out one of the shirts she had bought and scribbled her name on the back with a sharpie before handing the marker to me to do the same. After offering the girl a signed poster, Emmie was ready to leave. I handed the signed shirt over to the cute sales girl and picked up Emmie’s bags.

Dammit, I had wanted to watch her try these things on!

--

Emmie ignored me the rest of the day.

Every time I walked into a room she was in, hoping to talk to her about what had happened at the mall, she left. By bed time I was frustrated, annoyed, and a little desperate. I wanted to bend her over my knee and spank her, then make love to her until she was no longer blind to how I felt.

I knocked on her bedroom door before turning the handle. My frustration shot up to an all new level when I found the door locked. Emmie and her fucking stubbornness! “Em, please don’t do this.” Don’t shut me out. Don’t push me away.

I stood outside her bedroom door until Drake walked upstairs in search of one of his bottles of Jack Daniels. “She kick you out already?”

“Something like that.”

“I knew she was smart,” he muttered to himself as he walked on down the hall toward his bedroom.

I grimaced. Of my three band brothers, Drake was the only one that seemed to be having trouble with the thought of me with Emmie. It didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. I knew Drake’s reasons for not wanting a man like me with the girl that he had spent so many years protecting. And it was only because I knew his reasoning that kept me from feeling like he had just punched me in the gut as hard as Jesse had the day before.

Running my hand through my hair in frustration, I went into my room and slammed the door. Not bothering to shower, I flopped down on my bed and glared up at the ceiling. Time to start working on Plan B.

After finally falling asleep around two that morning, I woke ready to tackle the situation with Emmie. Jesse was camped out in front of the flat screen in the living room watching ESPN.

“Em up yet?’

“Haven’t seen her,” he answered without looking my way.

Shane was in the kitchen, getting ready for a run. “Want some company?” I asked, needing to work off some of my frustration before I saw Emmie.

Shane raised an eyebrow. “You want to go running with me? On the beach?”

I shrugged. “Seems like a good idea to me.”

It fucking wasn’t. I had barely ran a mile before my legs felt like they were going to give out. Running on the beach was ten times harder than running on a treadmill. Cursing myself, I stopped in front of a beach house and just sat down. I needed a case of water and a few energy drinks before I was going to be able to stand again.

Shane noticed I wasn’t still beside of him and ran back to me. Seeing my sweat covered face, he burst out laughing. “Dude! Not even a mile. You’re more out of shape than I gave you credit for.”

Unable to catch my breath, let alone tell him to fuck off, I gave him the finger instead and rested my head on my bent knees. It took a good five minutes before I could breathe without panting. By that time we had attracted some attention from the house we had stopped in front of.

Shane let out a whistle, and I knew that there were girls coming our way. Groaning, I reluctantly got to my feet and turned to watch the ladies approach. Tight little bodies in bikinis that just barely covered what needed covering had Shane salivating beside me. All thoughts of his run were now wiped from his mind as his own form of paradise walked toward us.

I wasn’t impressed in the least by the girls that used the house as a timeshare. If anything, I was bored as they talked with us for a while. I stuck around only because Shane grabbed my arm when I started to walk away. Not surprisingly, Shane talked all of the girls into coming back to our beach house.

Jesse and Emmie were gone by the time we got back. Drake had just woken up so he had no idea where they went or when they would be back. I didn’t even bother to go up to my room and grab my phone. I trusted Jesse now and knew that he didn’t want Emmie the way I did. The longer I waited for them to get back, the more stupid my thoughts became. I kept thinking of how jealous Emmie had been the day before and an idea that had nothing at all to do with the plan I had made just the night before started to form.

When I heard the SUV pull into the driveway, I let two of the girls cuddle up to me. For some reason I needed to know for sure if what Emmie had felt the day before came close to how jealous she could make me. Okay, I’ll admit it. Maybe I was still stinging a little over the kiss that Emmie and Axton shared and I wanted just a little payback now that I knew she had some feelings for me.