Rocker's Rivalry

Chapter 18

Guilt overtook Hayden as he looked down at the ragged figure of the photographer beneath him. Her screams had died upon his ears, but her weak figure still lay beneath him looking battered and bruised, and it struck Hayden with a strong sense of guilt. It was his jealousy and anger that had caused this. Her purple skin was placed there by Hayden, and her wheezing breaths were caused by him.

"Oh, gods!" Hayden breathed in shocked horror, panic swelling through him as he looked over the woman. "Are you alright? I'm so sorry, I guess I just lost control a little bit." Hayden apologised profusely, scared that he may have genuinely injured the woman lying beneath him.

But when a weak chuckle left her throat, Hayden felt his panic and fear fizzle out slowly.

"It's okay, I'm fine..." She smiled, reaching a hand up to stroke Hayden's face with a comforting touch. "It's not the first time I've had it rough. But I can tell there was something else on your mind, and that wasn't because of me, was it?" She questioned curiously, smiling gently as she watched the glint behind Hayden's eye change from fear and concern to jealous anger.

There was something on his mind that much was certain.

"It's nothing," Hayden replied stiffly, pulling himself free from the woman and covering himself back up with his clothes. "Why does everyone think I have someone on my mind?"

"I never said anything about a person." The girl mentioned, still laying on the floor trying to catch her breath. "Besides, I was thinking about my husband too." Hayden froze in place upon the photographer's words, his pants halfway on.

"Wait..." Hayden furrowed his brow in confusion, finishing the task of his boxer shorts and facing the girl with a curious gaze. "You're married?" His question filled the air awkwardly, the silence afterwards feeling heavy in the air.

"Yeah, I thought that was obvious." The girl shrugged, pointing to the ring on her finger as though it were a beacon of property. Hayden sighed frustratedly, placing a hand upon his head in exasperation and slowly shaking his head. "Wait, did you not know? Do you have a thing about sleeping with married women?"

"Well, I know it's not a good idea," Hayden muttered, his hand still on his head as he spoke. "But you promise you won't say anything if I don't?" His hand slowly retreated from his face as his eyes looked pleadingly over to the woman.

It was at this point that the woman had finally recovered and began to retrieve her clothes from the floor, covering up her chest as Hayden asked for her vow of silence. The woman smiled as she hooked up the clasp of her bra and turned back to the pleading musician, never having seen this side of Hayden before and enjoying the power it seemed to give her.

Yet, the image of her husband quickly sprung to mind, and she let out a defeated sigh.

"Trust me, if you don't say anything, neither will I." She confirmed. "I love my husband, and I'd rather pretend this didn't happen."

"If you love your husband so much, then why did you sleep with me?" Hayden asked, completely baffled by the photographer's words.

"I mean, if you were a woman, and the hottest guy in the world came up to you, practically throwing himself at you, would you say no?" The woman questioned nonchalantly, shrugging carelessly as she continued to re-dress herself. "It's not that I don't love my husband. It's just that... You're much more attractive than him, and I've always wanted to know what the fuss was about."

"That's it? That's why you wanted to sleep with me?"

"What? And you didn't want to sleep with me?" The woman scoffed, rolling her eyes as she finished throwing on the last item of clothing she had. "Hayden, I don't know what you're going through now, other than recovering from a scandal, but sleeping around with women isn't going to solve it."