Vote Then Read: Volume I

by Carly Phillips

  “Shit really?” We’d had a lot of sex over the last couple of weeks but he’d never been ready to go again this soon.

  “You do this to me. No one else. You’re going to fucking kill me.” Sliding his hands through my hair he pulled me down for a kiss, softer but no less intense. His tongue swept the inside of my mouth, drawing my tongue back into his. He teased me with his teeth. Moaning, he increased the rhythm of his thrusts, and all I could do was hold on for the ride.

  My body quivered like jelly, and with each thrust he slid his cock over my G-spot. I had no control over my own body, it was all him. Then he stopped. The bastard brought me to the very edge and stopped.

  Oh. My. God. I wanted to whine and moan and beat him all at once. But most of all I wanted to come. “Wrath…dammit, please…”

  He grinned. “Do you need something?”

  “You. Now.”

  He grabbed my ass, pushing into me, faster and faster as I rode him. I was so close it almost hurt. Every nerve ending was about to combust. I needed to distract him. Sliding my hands under his shirt I tweaked the piercings in his nipples, then ran the tip of my fingernails over his nipples.

  “Fuck, Blue,” he moaned, and holding on to me he flipped us over so I was on my back again. He thrust over and over, his balls slapping my ass. I screamed his name and as all the muscles in my body tightened with my orgasm, he pushed a finger into my ass.

  Leaning up on my elbows I licked and sucked on his nipples until he came, filling me for the second time.

  He dropped onto the bed next to me, still breathing heavy. The room smelled of sex, cigarettes and sweat. I was drained, a soak in the tub sounded great but I didn’t think I’d be able to get up. Stick a fork in me I was done.

  I turned on my side so I could look at him. He had his arm over his face, his T-shirt was still pushed up under his arms and his cock was lying against his stomach, his jeans on with the fly wide open. At some point he’d pushed my skirt up so it was like a wide leather sash around my waist and the lacing on my vest was loosened leaving my boobs half exposed. Anyone walking in right now would think we were a couple of animals. Maybe we were, if nothing else I’d have all these memories to hold on to when I was back home—hopefully, the only thing I’d be holding on to. I was on the pill so I should be safe, as long as he’d always used condoms with everyone else.

  “Sapphire?”

  Shit, he hardly ever used my name, I was always Blue. What now? “Yeah?”

  “Please tell me you’re on the pill.”

  I wanted to giggle but I knew what was going through his head, it would have been in mine too. “I am. I just hope you’re clean.”

  “Me?” He dropped his arm and looked at me. “You’re the groupie, how many people have you fucked without protection.”

  Ouch…that hurt. But I deserved it I guess. “No one.” Which was true, I’d only been with the douchebag in college and we’d always used rubbers even though I was on the pill.

  “Well then there’s nothing to worry about, right?”

  “Nope. We’re good.”

  “Thank God. I’m sure the last thing either of us wants is a baby. I know I don’t.”

  Double ouch. Would it be so bad to have a baby with me? Of course I was looking at it as Teresa not as Sapphire. As far as I could tell he didn’t even remember Teresa, and even if he did odds were unlikely he’d connect us. All of a sudden I felt the urge to cry, and I turned away fighting hard not to let the tears fall. Why’d I have to fall in love with a rock star?

  He must have caught the look on my face before I turned, because he sat up and reached for me. “Are you okay, baby? I didn’t hurt you did I? I know I was rougher than usual.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Are you sure? You don’t look fine.”

  “No I’m good.” Truthfully, I was good and fine and about to be broken hearted for the rest of my life. Coming here had been a stupid idea, I should have listened to Mom. Especially now that it looked like I’d been played by someone—God knows who. Rolling Stone didn’t put the tweet out so it was likely I wasn’t dealing with anyone there. Someone had set me up, actually they’d set up Raining Chaos, but who and why?

  I’d gone from feeling amazing to feeling like a stupid ass. Pulling from Wrath’s embrace I decided the tub was the best idea. “I’m going to go soak for a little bit. Okay?”

  “No problem. Do you want company?”

  “Actually, no, if that’s okay. I need to soak my muscles and if you come I think they’ll only get more use.” I tried to smile but I’m not sure I succeeded. He just nodded and I went to fill the tub.

  15

  Wrath…

  Fuck. What the hell was I thinking? No rubber? Thank God she’s on the pill or I’d have been well and truly fucked. I wonder if it’s what upset her? Something sure the fuck did. She looked fine, dazed even and then she was fighting back tears. Had I hurt her? The way she’d responded it didn’t seem likely.

  Tossing my T-shirt across the room, I zipped my jeans and went looking for a drink. There had to be a mini-bar in here somewhere. Finding it, I grabbed a couple of bottles of scotch and went to smoke.

  The view was fuckin’ incredible. Downtown Nashville was still all lit up even though it had to be around two a.m. The air was cool and as I blew smoke rings they hung in the air for a bit before floating away. I was sitting with my feet propped up on the table, smoking and drinking the scotch straight from the bottles when Sapphire came out wrapped in a terrycloth robe.

  “Better now?”

  “Yeah, sorry. I don’t know what happened.”

  “It’s okay baby. We were pretty intense, it probably freaked you out.”

  “Maybe. I dunno. It doesn’t matter. I love the tub I wish I could take it with me.”

  Laughing I reached for her hand to pull her into my lap, she resisted at first but then gave in. I settled her sideways so I could see her face. As soon as I touched her I wanted her again. My cock was twitching, but I figured she’d had enough for a while. I hadn’t been gentle.

  “Do you want something to drink? I’ve got scotch.” At first I thought she was going to say no, but then she grabbed one, took a big swig and started choking. I was fucking lucky she didn’t spew it all over me. “Guess you don’t drink much scotch?”

  She shook her head and grinned. “Nope mostly beer. Sometimes mixed drinks. I love a good Mai Tai.”

  “What the fuck is a my tie?”

  “Not my tie, Mai Tai, it’s Polynesian, fruit juices and rum. It’s yummy.”

  “Sounds too girly for me.”

  “Well duh.”

  I was relieved to see she was more like her usual self. Something had definitely spooked her. “Are you tired?”

  “Not really, I should be but the bath kind of woke me up.”

  “Isn’t it supposed to do the opposite?”

  “Yeah you’d think. I don’t know. It’s nice sitting here with you.”

  I agreed I liked having her close to me, touching her, tasting her, fucking her, and even talking to her. Maybe that’s what was different. When we were on our local tours I’d fucked a different groupie every night, I didn’t want conversation or anything other than a fuck to release the tension and have a little fun. But Blue was different.

  “How do you keep your hair so blue?”

  She laughed, and at first I didn’t think she’d tell me. “I got this dye at the beauty supply store and the lady there told me how to do it. I have to touch up the roots every few days then when they’re almost done I shampoo the color through all the hair to keep it fresh.”

  “Seems like a lot of work.”

  “You should have seen the look on my mother’s face when I came out of the bathroom the first time. She about shit herself.”

  I didn’t get it, how could a mother let her daughter be a groupie. I could see if Blue wasn’t living at home but from all the little hints she dropped she had to be living with her mom. “Not surprising. S
ally wasn’t happy when Rage dyed his hair green senior year of high school. She made him cover it with black, and she grounded him. It was some funny shit.”

  “I bet. Sally is your foster mom?”

  “Yeah, her and Jack took us all in. Can you believe it? Fuckin’ five boys and two girls, and we all turned out okay. They’re amazing people.”

  “It sure sounds like it. I’m glad they found you.”

  “Me too.”

  “Did you live with them a long time?”

  “They took in Chaos and me at the same time. We were around seven. Fury and Flame showed up about three months later, then Rage the following year and the girls came just before high school.” What the fuck was I doing? Yapping about my life. A big no fuckin’ way. I needed to stop running my mouth. “Maybe we should go to bed. One more show and then it’s on to Chicago.”

  “But I like hearing about your childhood.”

  “Maybe, but I don’t like talking about it.”

  She pouted, I hated when women pulled that crap, but then she kissed me. My cock jumped up and down in my pants or would have if he had the room. I was toast. Fucking pussy whipped.

  “You told me I could ask you anything, remember?”

  “Yeah after the concert, I didn’t mean any fuckin’ time you felt like it.”

  “Tell me more about the band, how’d you get discovered?”

  Damn I guess bed was going to have to wait. Sighing I thought about it. The story seemed harmless enough. “We were playing at our favorite club, The Shaggy Dog, and Rod Dixon came to see us. We didn’t have any fuckin’ clue who he was, until Big Dave told us just before we went on. It might have been better if he’d waited ‘til later. We were a wreck just thinking about it. We’d already been touring around the East Coast for almost four years.”

  “Did you guys screw up?”

  “No fucking way. We were already good, just not discovered. Rod saw us and came backstage afterwards. Told us we were great and he wanted to sign us with Symmetry Records.”

  “It was that easy?”

  “Fuck no. That’s the condensed version.”

  “I want to hear the whole story.” As she answered she squirmed around in my lap. I swear she was determined to fucking kill me.

  “Fuckin’ stop already.”

  “What?”

  “The squirming, I’m already fucking horny and I don’t think you can handle anymore tonight.”

  She looked surprised, but I don’t know how that was possible unless the robe was so padded she couldn’t feel my cock.

  “Sorry. C’mon tell me the rest of the story.”

  We were supposed to keep things quiet but I’m pretty sure Joe only meant what was going on now, not the past. What the fuck would it matter really? “It was a Friday night. I couldn’t tell you when if you paid me. The club was packed, wall to wall, you couldn’t move at all. We went on and did a short set—seven songs. There were other bands playing too.”

  “Were they the songs from the first album?”

  “Yup. We’d been touring around locally for a few years doing those songs, pretty much all the regulars fuckin’ knew all the lyrics. It was a rush back then, but nothing like it was tonight. Twenty thousand or so fans screaming out your lyrics. Holy Fuck.”

  “I don’t know why you’re surprised. I know all your lyrics from the first album. I play it all the time.”

  “Is that why you decided to tag along?”

  “Mostly. Anyway, finish the story.”

  “Like I said, we finished our set and Rod came backstage to talk to us. At first we didn’t believe him. We’d had friends fuckin’ prank us before. Eventually he told us enough shit we believed him. We set up an appointment to meet him in his office in New York the following week to sign the papers.”

  “Discovered in a bar called The Shaggy Dog, it sounds like a movie.”

  “Hell yeah, I guess it does. I’m sure shit like that happens a lot.”

  “Yeah probably. What happened with Rod, isn’t he your manager anymore? Or is Joe just your road manager?”

  I should have known it would fuckin’ get back to this. “I can’t talk about it. There’s some shit going on, sorry.” She looked disappointed, was it because I couldn’t tell her the rest or some other reason? Fuck if I kept this shit up I’d be thinking everything was a conspiracy. I needed some sleep. “Time for bed. I’m exhausted. You coming?”

  “Yeah, of course. Snuggling with Wrath is one of my favorite things.”

  “I bet.”

  Checking the bedside clock I was shocked to see it was almost five a.m. We’d talked most of the night. I was going to be freaking tired. At least we didn’t have to do a sound check this time. The day was ours until the show.

  I pulled Sapphire against me and wrapped my arms around her. Drifting off I wondered if she’d like to go sightseeing in Nashville before tomorrow night's show.

  16

  Sapphire…

  I woke up with the sun shining on my face. Checking the clock I couldn’t believe it was almost eleven a.m. already. This was turning into a bad habit. As I stretched I realized I was alone in the bed. The suite was totally silent. Where was Wrath? Did he have something to do? Maybe he went to get food.

  I was just starting to wonder if I was going to be stuck in the room all day when I heard the suite door open and close. My heart skipped a beat as I heard him curse. Thank God it was Wrath and not the maid coming to clean. I’d have been mortified for her to see my clothes all over the floor.

  He came in carrying coffee and I could have jumped him. Caffeine—oh how I worship you.

  “Glad to see you’re finally awake, sleepyhead. I was starting to think you’d be out all day.”

  “Sorry, but umm I have this guy who likes to fuck me until I can’t think straight and it wears me out.”

  Wrath snorted. “Yeah, well I think he has some help in that department.” He handed me the coffee and I took a long drink. I wish I’d gotten up five minutes earlier so I could have brushed my teeth before he came back, but the coffee in my hand was irresistible.

  “Thank you. I don’t think there’s going to be enough coffee available today.”

  He nodded. “How’re you feeling? I was kind of rough last night. I hope I didn’t hurt you.”

  I was surprised he’d brought it up. I guess in some ways I expected us to be kind of weird with each other today. We shared a lot last night and not just the desperate sex. I figured for sure he’d be pushing me away today. “I’m good. Feeling a few muscles I didn’t know I had, but I’m thinking the bath helped a lot.”

  “Good. I was wondering.” He looked over at the clock. “We have about five hours before I need to get ready for the show, did you want to do some sightseeing?”

  He’d sounded so serious when he started talking, going sightseeing was the last thing I thought he’d say. “Oh, hell yeah. I’ve never been here before. I’d love to.”

  “I’ve never been here either. I’m going to see if anyone else wants to come with us.”

  “I’ll grab a quick shower while you make your calls.”

  Nodding, he headed off probably to the balcony to grab a smoke. He’d been smoking a lot more since we’d gotten to Nashville, but it just might have been the balcony making it easier for him.

  I took off for the bathroom to get ready. Going through my duffel I wondered what to wear. I knew he didn’t like the groupie look during the day, but I didn’t have a lot of other stuff with me. Pulling out some shredded jeans and a shirt. I hoped they’d be okay.

  Somehow our relationship—if you could call it that—had moved to a new level and the last thing I wanted to do was piss him off. I wanted to tell him everything, the whole story of why I was there, and who I was, but I couldn’t do it, at least not yet. I knew it had to be soon, especially after what happened yesterday with the tweets.

  I’d rushed getting ready, not wanting to take away any time from our sightseeing. It was the closest I would
come to having an actual date with Wrath and I hoped no one wanted to come with us. Just like I thought, he was waiting on the balcony. When he saw me he smiled so I guess I passed inspection.

  “When are we leaving?”

  “Now, it’s just us so we’ll grab a cab downstairs.”

  I had a tough time not saying ‘yay’ and just smiled. He grabbed my hand and we took the elevator to the lobby. It was the same one we’d been in last night and when I looked up I saw the camera. Blushing, I knew security had gotten quite a show. I hope it didn’t end up making the papers.

  We had a great cab driver. I swear he must have been a tour guide in a prior life. He drove us all over Nashville, pointing out different sights like Music Row and the Palladium—a life sized reproduction of the one in Greece. We even stopped and took some pictures, although Wrath didn’t want to spend too much time in any one spot to try to avoid being recognized.

  Wrath asked about clothing stores and we ended up stopping by the Bettie Page Store. They had the coolest outfits but nothing in my ‘groupie’ price range. Even so I had a blast modeling different dresses and outfits for him. We stopped and got ice cream and then drove by Opryland. It was freakin’ awesome to see it in person. I wished we’d had time to go through it all but one afternoon didn’t leave much time for everything. He had a show later and I didn’t want to wear him out. When I mentioned it to him he just laughed, whispering in my ear how I already do that every night.

  I blushed, I tried not to but I could feel the heat in my cheeks. He hugged me and gave me a quick kiss. It was the most wonderful afternoon I’d ever had. He was a lot less uptight or something, whatever it was, it made for the perfect afternoon. I was sad when he told the cabbie we had to head back to the hotel.

  Whatever happened during the rest of our time together I knew I’d treasure today forever.

  Wrath…

  Spending the day away from the band and alone with Sapphire had been one of my better fuckin’ ideas. It’d been so much fun, and it seemed to transform her. She was more lighthearted, goofy almost and totally funny. From running around the Palladium taking pictures and selfies, to modeling for me in the Bettie Page store, it’d been a great afternoon. I ordered some of the things she tried on while she was changing back in to her own clothes. They were supposed to deliver the packages to the hotel later on, and I hoped she’d be surprised. At least she wouldn’t be exposing half her fuckin’ chest to everyone. Yeah I’ll admit it, it was more than just something nice for her. I’d had an ulterior motive. I wanted her body reserved for me.