"Would you like anything else, sir?"

I had to slap a hand over my mouth to keep from laughing. The flight attendant was bent at the waist and leaning over the lady in the seat next to mine. Hell, I could have poked her forehead if I wanted to. But she didn't care about us; I don't even think she really saw the other passenger or me sitting there.

Her focus: Sacha.

Sacha, who had just woken up three minutes before and had a little bit of drool on the corners of his mouth while one cheek was pink and lined from the position he'd been in. His eyes were still heavy with sleep. After a four-hour nap, I'd woken up with a stiff back, neck and hips, and then shook his arm to get him up when I spotted the flight attendant coming down the aisle with a cart.

"No, thank you," he answered her with a slightly awkward smile on his face.

The woman, more than likely in her early or mid-thirties, stayed in that position a second longer than necessary before lowering her voice to sound... sultry. Yeah, she definitely sounded sultry. I didn't even think it was possible to sound so sexy. "Are you sure? Anything else at all?"

I squeaked right before Sacha pinched my leg. "No thanks."

"Okay," she replied before sauntering off to the next row with her cart.

"Holy shit!" I tried to muffle my laugh, whispering because I knew she was right behind us.

Sacha shot me a look out of the corner of his eye before picking up his cup of water to sip from. "Don't say anything," he groaned.

"Sassy, that lady totally wanted to scramble your eggs."

I heard him choke and cough before pinching the bridge of his nose with a gasp. "Jesus Christ, Gaby," he hissed as he tried to get himself under control. I made it look like I was cracking eggs in midair and then stirring them. He reached out to push my hands down with a groan.

"You think I'm joking, but I'm gonna barter your nuts for some snacks later when I get hungry. We still have two hours left on this flight." We were stopping in San Francisco to connect with our second flight to Sydney, and then one more to Perth. Thankfully, the first layover was only an hour long.

Sacha's shoulders started shaking as he laughed, his hand slapping an imaginary Band-Aid over his mouth. "I'll share my snacks with you. Just don't trade my virtue for food."

That had me throwing my head back. "Your virtue? Ha!"

"Gaby Barreto, are you trying to tell me that you think I've tarnished my reputation?" He was trying so hard not to smile, but this guy probably smiled in his sleep-it was an impossible feat.

Putting my hand on top of his wrist, I made an incredulous face. "Do you remember the Pickle Dick incident? I'm pretty sure you," I leaned closer to him because the lady on my other side was awake, "said you liked p-u-s-s-y. I'm sure your virginity's been long gone, kid."

The apples of his cheeks turned pink as he smiled. "Yeah, I did say that," he chuckled. "And I haven't been a virgin for a while, but I have four sisters and too many fans that like me but don't even know me. You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you how many people I've been with."

I didn't really want to ask when exactly he lost his virginity or what his tally was because it made me feel incredibly strange deep in my chest. Superhuman jealousy flared within my organs, which was stupid. "That's nice," I told him because it was. Most men nowadays slept with women whose names they couldn't remember the next day. My friends and loved ones included.

"You, Princess?" he asked with a raised eyebrow, something flickering in his light colored eyes.

I narrowed mine in return. "Me what?"

"Is your virtue intact?"

I laughed. I swear, it wasn't like I wanted to laugh at that specific question because I knew it made me look like a total whore-which I wasn't, for the record-but still. He laughed too, right before I forced myself to sober up my expression and get as serious as possible. "Yes."

His eyes went wide and it looked like his jaw became unhinged. "No shit?"

"No, jackass." I leaned forward to dig my elbow into the meat of his muscular thigh. Sacha was slim but he had a pretty serious build. "I haven't been around the block. I've only had one serious boyfriend-," there was no point in mentioning Brandon's name and especially not my high school boyfriend's name, "and if you can't feel it, then it didn't happen right?"

Sacha snorted with a smile; huge, bright, so magnificent it made me think of the moon. "That's right, but I don't know what kind of guys you've been hanging out with if you can't feel it..."

I scrunched my nose, lifting a shoulder.

That magnetic smile morphed into something wicked before he leaned toward me. "You should definitely feel something."

I swallowed.

A slice of a shiver shot up my spine and I fought the flare of gooey feeling in my throat. "Yeah, probably," I practically panted.

He smiled at me, and I smiled back, my organs all out of whack.

Sacha reached up, licked his thumb and then dabbed at the corner of my mouth. "There. You had a little dry saliva going on there."

Yeah, I sat there like a completely dummy. My mouth was more than likely gaping. If anyone else had done that to me, I would have whacked his or her hand away. That was a fact that didn't escape me. Neither did the fact that I considered what he'd done to be sweet. Too sweet.

But one thing was certain when I started to think him wiping my drool off was intimate...

I needed a vibrator. Pronto.

"None of you found it in your hearts to tell me it was fucking winter here?" I hissed at the three monsters standing there comfortably with hoodies on.

They stared at me with wide eyes as I bounced around the sidewalk with my arms crossed over my chest. It was fifty-ish degrees in Perth, and I'd been expecting it to be, oh, maybe eighty or eighty-five. Instead we were stuck outside baggage claim waiting for the promoter of the Australian tour to come pick us up, and I was freezing my imaginary balls off. I was from Texas. We had two seasons: fifty weeks of summer and two weeks of something between a semi-brutal winter and a crappy spring. If it were less than seventy degrees, you would never see me without a jacket on.

My lower back was bothering me after that last ridiculously long flight, and I never wanted to sit again. Well at least for a few hours. With only my cropped sweatpants and an old Ghost Orchid T-shirt on, I wasn't prepared for the wind. Apparently, everyone else had known what was in store. They were all in zip-ups or pullovers except me.

"Come here, I'll keep you warm," Mason heckled from his spot a few feet away.

I rolled my eyes and snickered. The members of The Cloud Collision were slowly trickling out of Customs and baggage claim since they'd lined up last with their work visas. I'd been fine coming in as a tourist on vacation.

"I'm sure one of us has an extra jacket you can borrow," Gordo said.

Not offering to let me borrow his.

Frowning, I walked around behind my brother and pressed myself, arms still crossed, against his back to block some of the wind. "So what's the plan?"

"What plan?" Eliza asked.

"Are we getting another bus or what?" I screeched when a particularly cold blast of wind hit us from behind.

Eliza laughed. "That's why I like you, Flabs. You're always up for whatever without worrying about the details."

"And that's probably why I always get in trouble with you," I snickered against his shoulder. It was true. Growing up, Eli would say "Let's go" and I'd go without questioning where. My trust in him had always been astronomical. Sure we'd get into trouble for being out of the house too long or doing things we shouldn't have been doing-this was namely just Eliza-but it had usually always been worth it.

He looked at me over his shoulder. "We're staying in hotels and the promoter is driving us around."

I nodded against him. It wasn't like I really cared if we were on a bus again or not, but the idea of sleeping on a real bed regularly sounded amazing. "Do I get my own room?"

"You're sharing one with me," Mason claimed.

"In that case, I'm sleeping in the hallway."

Eli snorted. "Dude, I wouldn't want to share a room with you either after that stunt you pulled-"

"I was sleeping," Mase groaned.

My brother didn't even wait for me to ask what Mason had done before he started talking. "I woke up one night when we were sharing a room a year ago, and this motherfucker was jacking off five feet away. I kept yelling, but he wouldn't wake up until I threw the phonebook at him. He's the reason why we don't share rooms anymore. I'll pay for it out of my own pocket so I don't have to see that disgusting shit ever again."

"I was asleep," Mason echoed his earlier explanation.

Eli made a disgusted sound. "Whatever you say, man. Everybody is getting their own room anyway. I'm hoping to get some Aussie puss-"

"Please stop talking, I don't want to know," I cried, pressing my forehead in the crack between his upper arm and ribs.

"What don't you want to know?" Sacha's voice asked from behind me.

Turning my head to look at him, I saw he was already wearing a bright red hoodie. I grimaced in his direction. "Eli wants to get laid, and I don't want to know about it."

He smiled. Miles and Carter were trailing behind him, pulling along their own suitcases. "I don't blame you." His eyes swept over me huddling into my brother. A frown came over his mouth. "Where's your jacket?"

"I didn't bring one," I said, wrinkling my face. "No one told me it was cold here."

Sacha didn't even hesitate, unzipping his hoodie, dropping his backpack to the floor and pulling free from the sleeves. "Here," he said, holding it out in my direction. "I don't want you getting sick." The right side of his mouth lifted in a soft smile.

Bless this wonderful, sweet, thoughtful man.

"Thank you!" I slipped that sucker on faster than I put on my bra after a shower in a cold room. The inside was already warm from his body heat and it had that distinct clean scent that I associated with him. It was two sizes too big, but I couldn't have cared any less.

He nodded at me, crossing his arms over his chest. The dark, thick tattooed bands on his arm popped against the simple white of his shirt and the gray of his sweat pants. He was way too good-looking for his own good, and I think that the fact he was so casual about it, so indifferent to his shockingly striking face, added to his appeal.

"You aren't cold?" I asked, being a perv and eyeing his nipples to see if they had perked up.

"Nah. This isn't that cold."

"Excuse me." I mocked him, rolling my eyes playfully. "But seriously, thank you. You're a real gentleman."

He just stood there, not warning me of the hard arm that wrapped around my neck a second later, squeezing down on my windpipe. "Go to sleep, Gaby," Eli's voice chuckled in my ear, reminding me of when we were younger and he would practice his wrestling moves. He used to practice the "sleeper hold" on me all the time in hopes he could make me pass out. I tried tipping my mouth down to bite his arm before he pulled away, giving my earlobe a yank in the process.

The honk of a vehicle made us all turn around. A big, white van pulled up alongside the curb with a trailer hitched to it; a young guy jumped out, immediately going toward Sacha. He introduced himself as Vince, the promoter for the Australian tour, and wrangled us into the van with all of our crap. I ended up sitting between Carter and Gordo on the ride to our hotel.

Australia reminded me of what most Americans pictured Texas to be. Texas wasn't cattle and cowboys, like Perth, Australia, wasn't kangaroos and koalas on every corner.

Vince told all of us where we could eat nearby, what places to stay away from, and other stuff I was too distracted to listen to. We pulled into a decent-looking hotel, and Julian pulled my suitcase out of the back for me. The promoter got us all our room keys, and I found that our rooms were on different floors. Half of us were on the first floor while the other half were on the second floor.

On the way to drop off our luggage, I realized I was on the same floor as Mason, Gordo, Julian and Carter.

"You sure you don't want to share a room?" Mason asked as we both stood at our respective hotel room doors, sliding our keycards through.

Propping the door open with my foot, I nodded. "Positive." Idiot.

"If you change your mind..."

"I'll go sleep with Gordo."

His mouth flattened and he blinked those beautiful blue eyes at me. "I can wait until our wedding night if you want."

I pulled my suitcase into my hotel room and blew him a kiss when only my head was hanging out of the doorway. "You are so thoughtful. Thank you for understanding."

I let the heavy door slam shut behind me. The hotel room was clean and small, and I sure as heck wasn't going to complain. Unzipping my suitcase, I pulled out clothes and took a nice, long shower to wash off the millions of germs I'd picked up on the three flights to Perth. I'd barely pulled on my favorite jack-o-lantern leggings when someone began banging on the door.

"Who is it?" I yelled, tugging a black tank top on.

"Sacha, Bloodsport."

Chapter Fifteen.

Sacha?

I eyed myself in the mirror and shrugged. "Coming!" I called out, hustling toward the door as I wrapped a towel around my wet hair.

The lock had barely been flipped when Sacha asked from the other side, "You hungry?"

Pulling the door wide, I smiled at the fresh-faced, wet-haired man leaning against the door with his hands in his pockets. "I'm always hungry."

The words had barely come out of my mouth when Carter and Julian walked by. "Come eat with us, Gaby." That was my fellow merch salesman inviting me out.

I almost asked where they were planning on going, but really? It wasn't like it mattered. "Are you guys leaving right now?"

Sacha nodded but his attention was focused lower. On my pants. And he was grinning.

"Okay, give me two minutes to change," I said already taking a step back and pulling the towel off my head.