Bonham (Pushing Daisies Book 3) by Heather Young-Nichols (the little red hen read aloud txt) 📗

I woke in the morning, I was still in Bonham’s arms. I’d crashed so hard when we’d gotten back but had woken up around three in the morning feeling re-energized. I’d slid my hands up and down Bonham’s abs and then into his boxer briefs.

This had been my first chance to explore a little on my own. He always liked it when I touched him, so I didn’t think he’d have an issue with me doing it. His… member got hard as I was exploring. I had no idea that could happen when a guy was asleep. Like I knew about morning wood, but this seemed like a reaction to what I was doing.

I lightly trailed my fingernails up that thick vein running alongside his… cock. Bonham took in a sharp breath. My heart dropped, my fingers stilled then I snapped my hand back and quickly looked up at him.

Damn it. He was awake. I hadn’t meant for that to happen exactly.

“You don’t have to stop.” His voice was thick with sleep and a little bit of desire.

Somehow I’d turned him on in his sleep.

“I’m sorry. I—”

“You definitely don’t need to apologize.” His left hand came up to cup my face, then his thumb caressed my bottom lip. “You can wake me up like that anytime you want.”

“I was just… curious.”

“Curious?”

I dropped my head to his chest so he couldn’t see my face. “I don’t get to look very often.” I shook my head. “I’m going to stop talking now and go back to sleep.”

“Back to sleep, huh?” Bonham pushed off his boxers then took my hand and put it back on his hardness. His much harder hardness. After all, I’d had the thing in my mouth more than once. I shouldn’t feel weird looking at it.

I shook my head at the memory of what we’d done in the middle of the night. All of this was going to make leaving Bonham even harder. But he had to go. This was his job.

“You coming to soundcheck?” he asked, sounding incredibly hopeful.

“Of course. I want to see what you do most days when we aren’t together.” Plus, I didn’t want to leave him for any reason until I had to.

We spent the rest of the morning having lazy time. Staying in bed as long as we could, even eating there, made it even more difficult to push myself out to get ready for the day. Bonham had some things to do before he had to be at the arena. One of which included dropping off his Jeep. We stopped by my house first so I didn’t have to lug my suitcase everywhere with me. He was disappointed that my parents weren’t there while I was secretly grateful.

They’d settled down from blaming him for my career change, but I didn’t want anything to mar our last hours together and my parents could certainly mar things.

Then we grabbed a quick lunch out and headed to the venue, though this time in an Uber.

Being backstage at a concert was overwhelming. There were people constantly moving around with things to do and I was just… there. At least until we found Van and Lexi. At least then I had someone else who didn’t have a purpose here.

When the guys left for soundcheck, Lexi and I took a walk outside. It was crazy to see people had already gathered for the show. They still had hours to wait.

“How do you like being on the road?” I asked her as we made our way across the parking lot.

The sun felt amazing on my skin as it shone brightly down. It was the best kind of Michigan day in the summer. Warm but not overbearingly hot yet, though that could’ve been subjective. I’d lived here my entire life, so maybe I was just used to it.

“It’s fine,” she told me and that might’ve been the most honest she could’ve been. “I love spending time with Van, though I know a lot of people would get tired of their boyfriend if they spent all day every day with him.”

“I can see that.”

“The thing is, though, we don’t spend all of that time together. He has stuff to do and I find things to keep me busy so I’m not the girlfriend just waiting around for him. It’s easier when other girlfriends are on the road too.”

“Why is that?” I wanted all of the information she could give me before joining myself. I was going to find a place in my schedule that fit with his if it killed me. Bonham and I needed to be able to see each other.

“Then you have someone to do stuff with,” she explained. We turned down the next corner. “Like right now. I could go on a walk by myself, but where’s the fun in that? With you here, we get to get away from the arena and not be clingy girlfriends, though, for the record, I’m not clingy.”

“I don’t think I am, either, but I guess we’ll see.”

Lexi stopped and looked at me. “What do you mean?”

I should’ve kept my mouth shut. “Bonham is technically my first real boyfriend.”

Once the shock wore off, she said, “Wow. Talk about trial by fire.” Then we started walking again. “This is a tough life. For them too. I’m a little more familiar because my brother has been doing this for a long time with Courting Chaos and there was another small band before that. I’d heard the stories to sort of know what to expect before I got here.”

“That’s something, then, isn’t it?”

“Sort of. Hearing the stories is nothing like experiencing it. Sometimes… and I don’t like to admit this… I get a little… insecure.”

Now she was speaking my language. “About Van?”

She nodded as we turned another corner. “We haven’t been together long and eventually, I have to go home. There’re all these horror stories about rock stars cheating and I try to block it all out, but… especially with Van, sometimes I get insecure.”

“Why