Miles of Pleasure (30 page)

Ashton decided to sit on the couch opposite the one that she was sitting on, so that they were facing each other. "Kaylee?" he asked gently. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

Kaylee was surprised by the gentleness in his voice. It almost sounded like he was afraid or nervous. That wasn't like Ashton at all. She looked up hesitantly from her book, almost afraid of what she would see. Thankfully, she didn't see a man who was broken, even though that was how he had sounded. Sure, he looked a little worse for wear, but that happened when you got stuck on a tour bus for weeks at a time. Other than that, he was still the same stunning Ashton.

"I guess, but I really don't want to fight right now."

"I know. I don't want to fight either. I actually wanted to apologize to you," he told her. He leaned a little closer so they didn't have to talk too loud. This wasn't what he wanted the rest of the guys to hear. He put his elbows on his knees and leaned into the aisle separating the two couches, and finally looked up at Kaylee's face.

"I am so sorry for overreacting to that guy the other night. I know that you think I was doing the same thing as you, and in a way I was, but all I could see was that guy attacking you a few months back, and it scared me. I didn't want it to get that far, I didn't want that guy to push you to that point, or take you somewhere unsafe. I completely flashed back to that night, and I acted without thinking. I'm sorry if I hurt you, or if I embarrassed you."

Kaylee thought for a moment. She didn't realize he still thought of that night. "So it wasn't just about some guy kissing me? You weren't just trying to stake your claim?"

"I'm not going to lie, part of it was the fact that I still see you as my girlfriend, and I didn't want to see another guy kissing you, but that was such a small part that it barely registered. I saw the look on your face before he kissed you, and it sent my adrenaline flowing. From that point, all I knew was that I had to protect you at all costs."

Kaylee was at a loss for words. More and more, she was realizing that the night she was almost raped affected more than her, it affected Ashton too, and he was still living with it, while she was trying to move past it.

"But I didn't come up here to talk about that. I came to say that I was sorry, and ask if we can at least be friends. I get that you don't want to be with me right now, but I can't live without you in my life. It's only been five days, and I feel so lost without you. If I can't have you as my girlfriend, can I at least have you as my friend?"

Kaylee was stunned. Not only had he admitted that he still thought of that night, but now he just wanted to be friends? She definitely wasn't expecting that.

"I-I guess," she stuttered.

"Great!" he smiled. He stood up and leaned over her, placing a soft kiss on her forehead. "I'll let you get back to your book now."

She watched him walk back to the rear of the bus where the rest of the guys were. He was happy now, but he was happy being her friend. She wondered how they could have gone from being happy and in love less than a week ago to being just friends? It was all too confusing for her, but if that was how he wanted it...

Ashton walked into the back of the bus, all smiles. The guys hadn't seen him this way since before the big fight between him and Kaylee, so they were curious as to what happened.

"What's your problem?" Jayden asked, voicing the thoughts in the rest of the guys heads.

"Kaylee and I are friends now. Hopefully it will get rid of the tension on the bus and put her and me one step closer to reconciling," he told them with a smile on his face, as he plopped down on one of the couches. In his head, he was going over how the rest of the plan would work out, as he tuned the guys out and set his full concentration on getting Kaylee back.

Over the next few hours, things seemed to be getting better on the bus. There were no awkward silences, no murderous glances, and no threats on Ashton's manhood. But the only one who seemed to be annoyed was Kaylee. Of course, she loved that they were all getting along, but it annoyed her that Ashton was fine with just being friends with her, when all she wanted to do was kiss him passionately.

Most of the time, Ashton was either in his bunk or in the back all alone, probably writing a new song. When he was with the rest of them, he was always in a good mood.

Kaylee was going crazy with her thoughts. The more she sat on that bus, and the happier she saw Ashton, the more insane she became. It was getting almost to the point where she dreaded the rest of the tour.

Finally, they rolled into the concert venue, and just as every other time recently, Kaylee was the first off the bus. The guys all watched her beat her retreat, then looked to Ashton for answers. "What's she so freaked about? I thought you said it was going to get better?" Colton questioned him.

Ashton smiled, knowing that he was getting to her. "It will get better, I promise. This is just phase one of my plan. Two and three will be tonight, and depending on how she reacts to that, four will be at the next concert. But I have a feeling she'll feel a little better on the bus after the show."

"Why can't you just leave her alone and quit playing these games with her?" Colton snapped. "She deserves better than this. You need to quit fucking with her head!"

Ashton lunged at Colton. "Hear me now and understand this," he snarled, grasping him by his shirt and pushing him back against the wall. "I am not fucking with her head. I love her more than anything, and I'm willing to do whatever I have to do to get her back. I would never hurt her, but I won't rest until I have her back. Got it?"

Colton looked into the fiery eyes of Ashton and pushed his hands off his shirt. "Yeah, I got it. Just don't do anything stupid."

He pushed past Ashton and left the bus, the other guys trailing behind him.

Half an hour before the show, Ashton put phase two of his plan into action. He walked through the halls until he got to the wing on the side of the stage. Just as he'd predicted, Kaylee was standing there, peering through a small slit in the curtain.

"Nervous?" he asked softly, as he walked up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"This is by far the biggest crowd I've ever played in front of," she answered, not turning around to look at him. Instead, she kept her eyes on the rapidly filling seats. To her, it looked like one of the scenes you see on TV, where they show a crowd filling into their seats in fast forward...where the stadium goes from empty to capacity in about ten seconds flat.

Ashton had both hands on her shoulders, giving her a soft massage to ease her tense muscles. "Just relax. Remember, it's just us up there, with no one else around. If you get scared or lost, just close your eyes and picture it being just the five of us. Or if that doesn't work, just look over at me, and I'll take care of it."

Kaylee rolled her head forward and concentrated on the feel of his hands kneading her muscles. Slowly, the tension left her body, and she entered a world of peace and satisfaction. She felt light and loose, thankful that Ashton was there for her.

All too soon, his ministrations stopped, but they had served their purpose. Though she was no longer floating in the land of oblivion, she was still feeling considerably better than before, and she had only Ashton to thank for it.

But as she turned around to thank him, she noticed that he was already gone. Though she was a little disappointed that he had left, she was grateful that she could avoid the awkward moment of thanking him, while not knowing what he was feeling toward her.

The concert played well, and even though Kaylee was nervous before, she got through the show just fine. Ashton noticed her close her eyes a few times during the first song, but after that, she was fine. She looked relaxed and confident, but sometimes it just took a little while to warm up on stage.

At the after party, he planned to put phase three into effect. It wasn't that any of his first three phases were anything major, but they were important. He needed them to show her that he was on her side, that he cared for her, and that even though she didn't think she could, deep down she knew she could trust him.

Since they had such a large crowd for the concert, they had a larger than normal after-party backstage. Luckily, the concert venue had a room big enough to accommodate all of the people, but it was still a little crowded. Ashton made sure to keep Kaylee in his sight, and tried to stay relatively close to her all night. He noticed that she had been watching him every so often, and on more than one occasion, he knew that she had seen him turn girls down who were hitting on him.

If Ashton was honest with himself, he'd have to admit that turning those girls down was a lot easier than he thought it would be. Sure, they looked good, and might give him a few minutes of satisfaction, but ever since he had a taste of something solid, something that would last, that was all he wanted.

And their looks...he knew that deep down, those girls weren't nearly as pretty as Kaylee. Yes, their makeup hid their flaws and made them gorgeous, but Kaylee had such raw beauty, and there was no amount of makeup that could compete with that.

Maybe this whole thing was what they both needed. He knew that she needed something to open her eyes to realize that she could trust him, and maybe he needed something to show him that having only her in the rest of his life wouldn't be too bad after all. He knew that if anything had ever held him back from being completely with Kaylee, it was the fear of having only one girl for the rest of his life. But he knew for sure, after everything that had happened between them, that he wanted only her for the rest of his life, without a doubt.

It was almost as if a thousand lights came on as he realized this. He finally knew how he would end his plan, the ultimate sacrifice of a reformed playboy to get her back. He should have done it before, but he knew that the time wouldn't have been right, and there would have still been doubts. But there were no more doubts in him, and he knew that very soon, there'd be no more doubts for Kaylee.

He looked over at her again, and noticed that she was alone, with a far off look on her face. Smiling, he went over to her. "Would you like some company?"

Startled, she looked up at him. "Sure," she told him, moving over on the couch to make room for him. "I never got to thank you for earlier."

"No big deal. Just glad I could help," he told her, with a shrug of his shoulders. He had to keep reminding himself to just act like her friend, even though her lips looked so delicious, all he wanted to do was devour them. Silence engulfed them and neither one really knew what to say, since they had never really been friends. They went from basically being enemies to being in love, all at once. They never really had the middle ground to help them communicate when love wasn't involved.

"I miss you," Ashton blurted out.

Kaylee nodded. "I miss you too." She lowered her eyes to the floor, as she didn't know what was going on between them anymore.

Before either of them could say anything, Ashton felt a pair of hands cover his eyes from behind.

"Guess who," the sultry voice said.