TAINTED: THE COMPLETE DUET

by Jenner, Carmen

  Levi, Zed and Ash all pose for photos with fans and sign pictures and skin for the awaiting fans while the photographers go to town on the free picture opp. That is until the cab door opens and Cooper steps out, and then the vultures descend.

  Stadium security presses the crowd back, but the paps sneak through, catcalling to Cooper, “Who’s the redhead?” and “Is it true the video was a publicity stunt?”

  Cooper’s face is stoic, until one reporter asks whom I like having sex with more, and Cooper freezes. He lets go of me, and whirls, fists ready to fly, but Levi gets there first. He smacks the guy out in front of everyone, and all to a barrage of flashing cameras. I bury my face in my hands as I’m ushered into the bus by Zed, while Ash and Levi push Cooper inside after us.

  “Guess we know who top dog is in the bed room,” another pap calls, but the damage is already done.

  “Fuck!” Cooper shouts, kicking the shit out of the coffee table.

  James peels away from the edge of the curb, but the throng of bodies is so tight we’re not moving anywhere. I stand, shivering in Cooper’s coat, and Deb hops up from the couch, springing into action.

  “Ash, get Vanessa on the phone.” She points to Levi. “This idiot needs a lawyer’s council before we cross the border and leave the state. And we need someone on the phone to that hotel. Find out who uploaded the tape. That shit needs to be taken down now.”

  Ash pulls his phone from his pocket and wanders off towards the back of the bus.

  Deb continues barking directives, “Cooper, if you don’t calm the fuck down right this second, I’m gonna have Zed strap you down, and imagine what that’s going to do for publicity.”

  The windows on the tour bus are tinted, but that means nothing when you have a telescopic lens and a big-arse flash, or so we’d learned when we left San Francisco and pics were snapped of the boys chugging back a celebratory beer at the dining table as we’d pulled out of the lot there.

  “I can’t believe you hit him,” Coop sneers at Levi.

  “What, like you weren’t gonna do the same thing?”

  Cooper grinds his teeth. “Yeah, I was.”

  My teeth bang together. I know I should try to get warm, but I’m in shock. It’s kind of a stupid thing to be in shock over, because it’s not like I just got beat up, or raped, or had a car accident. I just made a colossal mistake, and the whole world now has a front row seat.

  “I think I’m gonna be sick again,” I mutter, and my knees give out a little. Zed catches me, and I stare up at him like a deer in headlights.

  “Jesus Christ, someone get her in a fucking warm shower,” Deb says.

  Both Coop and Levi make a move towards me and come to a stalemate. Deb throws up her arms and says, “Fucking hell, will you two idiots pull your goddamn heads in?”

  Then she leads me away from them and into the tiny bathroom. Once inside, she shuts the door and bends down to untie my shoes. “Eeew, gross.”

  “Oh yeah,” I say through chattering teeth. “I kinda threw up on my shoes.”

  “Ya, sure did,” she exclaims, and then mutters something about not being paid enough money for this job.

  “You know, you’d make a good manager,” I say.

  “What?”

  “You’re bossy, and you handle those boys better than anyone.”

  “Well despite what they’d have the public think, there really isn’t that much to handle. They’re a bunch of idiots.”

  “Yeah, I kinda got that.”

  “Listen, as kinky as the press are gonna make this shit out to be, I know that’s not why you’re here. But you need to be prepared, they’re gonna have a field day with this shit, and no one is going to spare the feelings of a cute redhead who is banging two of the world’s hottest band members. This very well could ruin your career and theirs. So you all need to sort out your shit.”

  “I just can’t believe we were stupid enough to do that in public, and I can’t believe someone would stoop low enough to sell that to the press.”

  “People will do anything for money, Ali. The sooner you learn that, the better off you and the boys will be.” She leans around me and runs the water. “Now do you need me to undress you or have you got it covered?”

  “I got it. I’m fine.”

  “Good, then take as long as you like, but remember none of them have showered after coming off-stage, so unless you want the bus to smell like stinky jock sweat all night, I’d save a little hot water if I were you.”

  Once she’s gone, I undress and jump beneath the weak, warm spray. Sadly, it’s not even hot enough to take the chill from my bones, but at least I don’t smell like vomit anymore. Deb or one of the boys must have gone through my stuff to find me some clothes, because there’s a pair of jammies sitting just inside the door when I get out of the shower. I dry and put them on, and then I open the door to face the music. Pity the music is just a mess of my own creation.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  WELL, IF YOU’RE GONNA MAKE A PORNO ...

  ALI

  The giant flat screen shows video footage of the elevator where we had sex. The elevator where we had sex, believing we were in the dark. Because if the elevator was down, then surely the computers and cameras were, too, because that totally makes sense.

  I sigh internally, covering my face with my hands as I watch a black and white us go at it in the lift with tiny pixelated black squares that say “too rude” covering our bits from the world. It looks as though whoever was operating the camera that day figured himself an amateur porn cameraman, because it cuts to several different angles and zooms in on the money shot, which is of course of Levi coming down my throat while Cooper comes inside me.

  “Well if you’re gonna make a porno, there are certainly worse ways to do it,” Deb says. “Levi, I never gave you enough credit. I apologise to your penis. It’s fucking huge.”

  “Can you stop watching this please?” Coop says to Deb through gritted teeth.

  The segment cuts back to an overly tanned reporter in a tight dress, and pictures of our “Wild North American Tour” flash up on the screen one at a time. Cooper hustling a soaking wet, doe-eyed version of me out of the car tonight, the vomit on my lucky red Cons clearly visible. Levi pinching my arse as I walked through the lobby of Wynn in Vegas in only a blanket. There’s another of Levi punching the pap, and a shot of the guy laid out on the ground. The camera pans back to the reporter, showing her standing with a man out the front of the Bridgestone Arena. His face is vaguely familiar, and it takes me a moment or two to place him. The driver from the hotel in Little Rock.

  He talks to the reporter about how we openly engaged in sexual intercourse in the back of his limo, and I want to die.

  “There you have it. These wild rockers and their redhead are reportedly the real thing. But with all the backlash this is sure to bring our mysterious Aussie redhead, has she bitten off more than she can chew?” the reporter asks, with a fake smile and a nasty gleam in her eye, and then they show an image of me, taken not more than two hours ago chowing down on a hotdog. My skin looks pasty, my hair is up in a messy bun, there’s mustard on my face, and my eyes are round and surprised. I look like shit. I look like a stunned mullet. It’s the most unflattering photo of me ever taken, and that little bitch sold it to E! fucking News?

  “That’s my girl. She loves her sausage,” Levi says, probably to break the silence more than anything.

  I bolt upright, away from the couch, and I glare at him.

  “This is funny, is it? It might be all elevator sex and blow jobs for you, Levi, but this is my life. I’m not a rock star; the second Vanessa sees these, I’m fucked. I’m out of a job, not to mention that the entire Internet has now branded me a whore, which I guess isn’t that far from the truth. I am banging two members of the world’s hottest rock band, just like they said.”

  I stalk off towards the bedroom, because even though the tour bus doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for privacy, and they’ll likely h
ear everything anyway, I can’t do this in front of the others.

  The boys follow me in and Levi rubs his hands on my shoulders, pressing a kiss to my neck.

  “Can you not touch me right now please?” I say, holding my hands up for him to stop and slipping out of his grasp. And then I feel like shit when he pouts like a small child.

  “Okay, you need to calm the fuck down, Red. It’s not that bad,” Levi says, as Cooper locks the door and flops down in the middle of the bed.

  “Oh, it’s that bad. It’s so bad my Grams is probably rolling in her grave right now. Thank god my parents aren’t around, because if they were, I’m sure these vultures would be banging down their doors, trying to get the scoop on the tainted band slut,” I shout.

  “What happened to your parents?” Levi asks and I just glare at him. It’s not his fault, it’s not like I’ve ever talked about my family with him, but it bothers me that he can be so physically invested in someone and not know the small details about them.

  “Her mother left and her dad was a deadbeat,” Cooper says. “Just like me.”

  “Coop,” I say, and I can’t help but reach out and touch him, “you’re not a deadbeat dad. You love your little girl, and I’m sure she won’t ever be able to question that. What happened with you and your ex has nothing to do with how good a father you are.”

  I hadn’t met Pepper, but I’d seen the videos Deb had taken of him holding her. I’d been in the room when he Skyped with Pepper. He was a great dad, or he would be if he was given half a chance to see her more, but distance, recording, and a gruelling world tour meant that spending time with his little girl was an impossibility right now. That wasn’t anyone’s fault—it just was what it was.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to make this shit about me.”

  “It’s fine, it is about you. It’s about all of us—”

  “Yeah, everything is about Coop.” Levi scrubs his hand over his chin.

  “Levi,” I chastise. I’m about to ask him what the hell he’s going on about when he brushes past and pushes out into the hallway. “Where the hell are you going?”

  “To get some sleep.”

  “Don’t be a dick, man,” Cooper says. “This isn’t about you or me. It’s about all three of us.”

  “Whatever,” he says, and slides the door shut. I shake my head as tears spring into my eyes.

  “Fuck him,” Coop says, hooking his arm around my waist and pulling me into the middle of the bed, his body wrapped tightly around me.

  I give a little humourless laugh. “I’m pretty sure that’s what got me in this mess in the first place.”

  He chuckles, and presses a kiss to my forehead as he settles me into the crook of his arm. “Yeah, you’re right. You really shouldn’t fuck him.”

  This time I do laugh. “What are we doing here, Cooper?”

  “Well right now, you’re tucked into my arm, which I’m pretty sure is right where you should be—”

  “Oh, really?”

  “Yep, exactly where you should be. And we’re going to sleep.”

  “Just sleep?” I slide my hand under his shirt, tracing circles over the flesh of his hard abdomen.

  “Just sleep.” Cooper hooks his arm behind my knee and tugs it over his leg, smoothing his palm along the outside of my thigh and down to my arse. He hits the switch on the side of the bed and turns out the lights, and the whole room is steeped in a soft blue glow. He lays a kiss to the top of my head and whispers, “Sleep, Ali.”

  Only we don’t sleep, because he slides his hands up my shirt and palms my breast, and then he shifts out from under me and flips me onto my back, erasing all of the guilt, the shame and the embarrassment with his mouth and teeth and hands. Before long, our clothing decorates the room around us. Cooper pushes into me and we move together, tasting, touching and exploring one another’s bodies. We come together, almost silently, afraid to disturb the peace we’ve found here in the darkness.

  I hadn’t intended to exclude Levi. In my own way I had grown to love him, but it was clear as day where my heart lied, and it wasn’t with the lead guitarist who had a twelve-inch cock. It was with the man softly singing “All I Want is You” by U2 in my ear as his cock softened inside me and his come slowly trickled out of me to stain the sheets. We fall asleep like that, naked and sated, and all twisted up in one another.

  SOMETIME BEFORE DAWN, I woke to Cooper’s mouth on me, and I slid my hands into short, soft hair. Only it wasn’t curly. It felt different, and so did the mouth on my pussy. It was too late to stop it, though. I didn’t know how long he’d been going down on me in my sleep but I came hard, as quietly as I could, so as not to wake Coop. Levi runs his stubble-rough jaw along the inside of my thigh, wiping my arousal off on my flesh, a reminder that he knows how to get me off just as well as Cooper, and he isn’t afraid to prove it to me.

  He carefully crawls up the bed and leans in, his lips softly brushing the shell of my ear, and he whispers, “If he’s going to fight dirty, you should know that that’s a game I invented.”

  “No one’s fighting over anything, Levi,” I whisper, smoothing my fingertips over his eyebrow, toying with the little silver spike.

  “Oh, they’re fighting. You’re just too blind to see it.”

  “Levi ...” I begin, but he presses a soft wet kiss to my neck that burns me like a brand, and then he disappears.

  I exhale and burst into tears, but I quickly cover my mouth to stifle any sound in the hope I won’t wake Coop. He rolls over and wraps a heavy arm around me, tucking me in against his side. I freeze.

  “He’s right. I am fighting dirty, and I’m not going to stop until you’re mine,” Coop whispers against my hair. “I hope he enjoyed the taste of my come in your pussy.”

  Why do we do this to one another? Why couldn’t we all just walk away? Why couldn’t I just walk away, before this thing ruined not just our careers, but our lives too? I didn’t have the answers, but I knew I couldn’t give this up. Even if it destroyed me.

  I couldn’t.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  ROCK STAR MÉNAGE À TROIS

  ALI

  I toss the controller aside and stretch out on the big bed in the back room next to Levi.

  “We’re giving up already?” Levi asks, putting his controller on the ground beside the table.

  “I’m kinda tired, and my eyes hurt.” I shrug. “Plus, you suck at video games.”

  “Know what I don’t suck at?” he asks, waggling his brows at me.

  I laugh, despite the weird mood I’m in. I’m restless and want off the bus, but what’s the point? Anywhere I go, we’re flagged down by paparazzi and dogged with questions about our little sex tape. We were chased out of a freaking McDonald’s the other day because some overzealous fangirls cornered me in the bathroom, bombarding me with questions about Coop and Levi. It’d taken everything I had within me to not punch them in their heavily made-up pubescent faces. At their age, I didn’t even know that penises came in a different size, let alone wanting to know how it felt to have a twelve-inch cock inside you. They’d thrown around sentences like, “I wish the boys from Taint would DP me.” And, “Do you have to do like a million Kegels exercises to be able to take that much cock?”

  I’d stared at them in the mirror and wondered what the hell was wrong with the girls. How was it possible that they were so sexualised from such a young age? And then it hit me—I was the problem. Women like me, who fucked two men at once in a public place and had video evidence out there for all of the wonderful World Wide Web to see. People like me made it okay.

  I had ended up telling them that the video coming out was the most humiliating thing I’d ever endured. But when they’d asked why, with these genuinely blank faces, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to talk sense into them. They were young and impressionable, and to them it was an accomplishment to get two rock stars to want to sleep with you. No doubt that seemed like an accomplishment to a lot of females. Women my age and older thr
ew themselves at Taint as if they were gods, and in many ways, in and out of the bedroom, they were. But they were also human, just like me. They made mistakes. We all had. And in the end, I’d run from that bathroom like a coward.

  I sigh and snuggle under the duvet. Levi picks up a strand of my hair and plays with it. “What’s up, Red?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Liar.”

  “I’m just restless.”

  “I can help with that,” he says, and I sigh again. “Or not.”

  He pulls me closer to him, and I expect him to kiss me or to slip his hand beneath the covers and convince me to want to mess around, but he doesn’t. He flips me onto my side and pulls me hard against his body, wrapping me up in his arms.

  We practically have the bus to ourselves. Coop and Zed had agreed to several radio interviews, and Ash had gone along with them. We all would have gone, but Deb had vetoed me and Levi being anywhere near the radio jockeys. They had a reputation for being ruthless. Cooper was smart; he could be mad as a cut snake, but his rage would simmer beneath the surface and he wasn’t prone to rash decisions. Levi? Not so much. The band had temporarily vetoed Levi from all publicity to keep him from losing his cool.

  Oddly, the second that Vanessa got word in Australia about what was going on, she hadn’t fired me. Instead, she’d tried to encourage us to be more vocal about our relationship. None of us wanted that, and we all saw it as a ploy for the record company to make money. Sales of Taint’s newest album had gone through the roof; the problem was that no one was talking about the music. Not when there was a risqué little rock star ménage à trois to talk about.

  Coop had been pissed when he’d left early this morning. I wasn’t sure what that had been about, but it had left me with this wicked ache in my chest all day.

  Deb had taken advantage of the shopping in Atlanta, and had been gone since early this morning. James was asleep on his bunk, getting in as much rest time as he could before driving through to Charlotte tomorrow, where the boys would play an intimate show to only forty exclusive ticket holders.