I got plenty of their hot and cold mood swings when they were just my bandmates. I wouldn’t accept them now that they were my boyfriends.

Houston and Loren had caught up when I was settled on the Sea-Doo with my arms around Jericho’s waist as if nothing had occurred.

“What the hell happened?” Loren shouted at Houston.

Instantly irritated, I pursed my lips. I was a grown woman—their woman—yet when it came to their expectations of each other, they treated me like a child. It was me who wasn’t being careful. Houston wasn’t to blame.

However, I could tell by the rigid look on his face that he disagreed.

Since Houston was staring at me, asking without words if I was okay while ignoring Loren, I refrained from rolling my eyes and nodded. Jericho must have felt my nod because he took off without another word spoken. Houston and Loren followed, but this time, we didn’t race back.

Unfortunately for them, I was still feeling devious.

Standing on the dock now with Rich hovering next to me, I faced Houston and Loren, who were still straddling their jet skis. “I guess this means Jericho and I win.”

“What? How?” Loren challenged with a frown. “We didn’t finish the race.”

“You said the first one back chooses the dare. You didn’t say anything about finishing the race.” Houston and Loren’s response to my loophole was to stare at me with their lips parted. I smiled. “No exceptions, no excuses, right?”

They grumbled what sounded like an agreement, and after returning our Sea-Doos to the rental company, we headed back to the hotel. I wasn’t so sure the jet skis were a good idea since tonight’s show started in a few hours, and I was already bone tired. The guys removed their disguises while I moved onto the private terrace overlooking the North Shore mountains’ jagged edges and rough slopes.

I stood there a few moments, just enjoying the view, when I felt a warm exhale on my nape. The zipper on my wet suit was slowly dragged down, and then strong hands peeled it from my body. The suit pooled around my ankles on the wooden planks of the deck where we stood. I stepped out of them before turning around to face Houston, who had already removed his own wetsuit and now wore cotton shorts that hung off his hips. He wasted no time kissing me deeply once I looked up at him.

“Come with me,” he whispered when he finally let me catch my breath.

Left only in my blue bikini, I followed him through the suite and into the bathroom with an L-shaped view overlooking the harbor.

There I found Jericho dressed only in jeans and sitting on the lip of the bathtub centered in the room as he checked the temperature of the water pouring from the spout. Loren had shed only the top half of his wet suit and stood at the end of the tub, pouring a generous stream of bubble bath into the tub. I knew it had to be the source of the lavender aroma filling the room and not another new emotion I couldn’t name. Watching the tub fill, I felt my muscles ache at the promise of soaking them.

Houston made short work of my two-piece, pulling the string at my neck and the ones at my hips until they both fell from my body and decorated the marble floor.

“Bath’s ready,” Jericho announced when he was satisfied with the temperature of the water.

Houston immediately lifted me off my feet bridal style before carrying me over to the tub. After placing me in the water, I realized just how deep the tub was. I was covered almost to my chin in warm, lavender-scented water.

Houston accepted a bottle from Loren while Rich worked to wet my hair. I didn’t realize their intention until I felt Houston’s fingers in my hair, massaging my scalp with shampoo and making me moan as I tilted my head back.

I hadn’t expected this when I said yes to them.

Any of it.

But I couldn’t say I wasn’t pleased.

Loofah in hand, Loren lifted my left leg and gently began washing me. Rich disappeared from the bathroom for a minute or two, and when he returned, it was with a platter filled with fruit that he began to feed to me from his lounge beside the tub.

It was never far from my lips to ask what brought this on, but for some reason, I never did. I shut up and let them dote on me as if it was always meant to be this way—as if we hadn’t hated each other once upon a time.

Loren moved onto my other leg just as Houston began rinsing the shampoo from my hair and adding conditioner. Together, the trio worked in perfect harmony and comfortable silence. I blushed when I saw how dedicated they were to their tasks.

Or maybe they were hoping I’d forget about the dare or have mercy on them.

Not a chance.

I was yawning uncontrollably by the time my skin was pruned and rubbed raw because the three of them were having too much fun to leave me be.

Houston stood me up, Jericho wrapped me in a towel, and Loren carried me into the bedroom with the biggest bed. Once I was under the covers, I tried to pull him down with me for a quick nap, but he mumbled something about needing to shower. I pouted, causing him to smile and kiss my lips before placing my phone on the nightstand and walking away.

I didn’t even know he had it.

The door made a soft click when it closed behind him, but my eyes were already closed, so I didn’t watch him go. Everything felt good and hurt at the same time as I shuffled my feet and burrowed deeper under the cool, expensive covers with a satisfied sigh.

I’d almost made it too.

It would have been the nap of the century.

But no.

My phone played the specially assigned ringtone, “Dear God” by XTC, and the last person I expected was calling.

Canceling a show mere hours before the start without demanding a reason why was a pretty accurate measure of how far I’d fallen.

We were currently back on the private jet and headed to some town I’d never heard of called Faithful. I watched Braxton’s knee bounce rapidly before giving Loren and Rich the same quizzical look we’d been sharing since she told us she had to return to California.

We tried to get answers, but she hadn’t been willing to give them. Our only option had been to watch her grab her shit, leaving us no choice but to grab ours the moment she darted out the door without an explanation.

We could have made her stay and talk, but that anxious look in her eyes only turned mine up a few thousand notches. I’ve never been very empathetic, but how else could I explain leaving Xavier behind to manage the chaos and barking orders at Dani to arrange a last-minute flight?

I didn’t bother to think about the phone call we’d be getting when it got back to the label that we’d missed a show. I didn’t care. The refunded tickets would come out of our meager cut, though it wouldn’t be enough for slimy, fucking Carl Cole.

I sat back as we continued to make our way south and wondered how I got here. Seven, hell, three months ago, I would have never let Braxton pull the shit she did today.

I was addicted to controlling everything around me.

More so than her claim to be a sex addict.

Braxton hadn’t torn apart her own life and her friends as well just to feed it.

At this very moment, she wasn’t contemplating ruining a relationship still in its honeymoon stage, one that could eclipse all others, by ordering the plane around and heading back to Vancouver.

I was.

Feeling someone’s gaze, I looked away from the window I was staring through and found Loren watching me. The look in his raven eyes as he sat across from me was intense yet worried. Elbows braced on his strong thighs and hands clasped together at the set line of his mouth, he subtly shook his head.

He’d read my mind and was telling me it wasn’t worth it.

There would be other shows, but our chances with Braxton were limited. She was more important. Making sure she continued standing whenever life knocked her around was more important. Our mutual agreement to put her first always and never look back had been instinctual, so I knew my decision to keep moving forward well before I leaned my head back and closed my eyes.

A few hours later, we were climbing inside the rental we had Dani arrange to be waiting for us when we landed. It was a thirty-minute drive from the airport to the town where Braxton grew up, and the moment I looked around, I felt a crawling sensation on my skin.

Braxton hadn’t grown up with much.

The sign welcoming us to Faithful informed us of the nine hundred people residing here. It made me think of our first meeting and how innocent she’d looked. Eventually, I’d kicked myself for judging a book by its cover only for it to have been a clue all along. It’s not who she was now or even seven months ago, but once upon a time, it had been.

Is that why she’d fled to Los Angeles? Had she needed something more than the minuscule town could offer her? Braxton was larger than life, at least to my infatuated eyes, so I could see that being a real possibility.

The three of us stayed silent as Braxton directed Rich, who was driving, on where to go.