Sticks (Black Addiction #2)

by T Gephart

  A crowd had gathered out the front. Some of the faces I recognized from previous gigs, some obviously new, but everyone was wearing a smile. Made my chest puff out a little more as the security ushered us in, a girl or two grabbing at our arms as we bypassed the red rope and went straight inside.

  A long way from the shady bars we used to play—the kind of service we were receiving now, something I would have no problem getting used to—the security tripped over themselves to make us feel welcomed. Fucking awesome. My grin got wider as we moved further into the club.

  “You made it.” Rus smirked, his hot girlfriend wielding a clipboard not far from his side. The hand on her ass made it plainly obvious they were together in case anyone missed the fucking loved-up vibe they were blasting when they looked at each other. They kissed a lot too, the PDAs not a problem for either of them.

  Alison wasn’t just playing tonsil hockey with our guitar player, but also worked for our record label as well. Oh, and she also shared blood ties with Max, so you needed a Venn diagram to keep up with all the freaky overlaps. Trust me, my brain hurt just thinking about it.

  “Told you we would.” I tipped my chin toward Rusty before turning my attention to his girl. “Hey, Ali.” My eyebrow rose to check out her cute outfit. She might’ve been with Rusty, but I hadn’t suddenly developed blindness. Those tits of hers—fucking magical—and they looked pretty damn awesome tonight.

  “Hey, Joey. Hey, Max.” She gave the douchebag beside me a hug. Figured it was fair he got some attention first being that he was her uncle, besides you always save the best till last. “You guys are over here.” The love she’d shown my bass player finally extended to me as she gave me a quick squeeze. “Angie and Jase are already there.” Her head tipped to the direction where the two dumbasses were standing given her hands were still wrapped around me.

  Angie and Jase were pretty much a package deal these days. Our lead singer was also proud mama to a baby boy, the baby daddy not straying too far from his pack. The dude was intense too, so sure as hell no one was going to tell him he wasn’t welcome. Not that we gave a shit—Jase was good people and also part owner of the label we were now signed to. Another fucking diagram needed for that complicated relationship. In any case, he and his Power Station buddies had seen to it that we not only got a good deal but also the best producer this side of the equator. That alone got him and his in my good graces; the fact Angie was deliriously happy was just another gold star for the dude.

  “Look at you.” Angie smiled as we rounded the corner. “You’re even wearing a button-down shirt.” Her observation one hundred percent correct that I had made an extra effort tonight.

  “Had to make myself pretty for the fans.” I nodded, my wordless hello to Jase reciprocated with a wave. “And you thought I didn’t know how to dress.” The threads I was wearing a result of the recent pay injection we’d received. Not that I’d ever cop to it, but I didn’t mind getting in touch with my inner-GQ.

  “We would have been here sooner, but the buttons confused him.” Max weighed in, the asshole not adding anything helpful. “Where do you want us, ladies?” Bored with me, he turned his attention to Angie and Ali.

  Jesus, he was a smooth bastard, both the ladies rewarding him with a grin. I mentally made a note I would have to up my game tonight if Max was going the gentleman route. For some reason girls found it irresistible.

  “Press is going to want to take some photos, so if you can group around the bar to start with, it would be good.” Alison shifted into all business as she gave us the run down. “The PR team is already on the floor. They’ll give you any further direction.”

  The formal theme of the night wasn’t what we were used to, our approach being more laid back. Jase and his Power Station buddies figured this was a good way to go, promo the songs without worrying about sounding tight just yet. It was probably smart given it had been awhile since we’d played live. We’d already earned some early praise for the new album and if the dog and pony was required then I’d do it with a smile on my face.

  It wasn’t hard, a drink or two were shoved in our hands while we smiled and laughed for the cameras. The ladies were kept away for the start of the evening—something I wasn’t thrilled about—with important people getting our attention. I didn’t really know these people or why they were so important, but the “good work” and “well done” they were throwing my way was really fucking nice.

  Every set of eyes were on us as we stood together on an elevated podium. The lights around the periphery dimmed as did most of the noise out of the speaker. The hollering from the pit below didn’t stand a chance in dying down though as the DJ announced our first track to the excited crowd, their chanting getting louder as the opening bars rang out.

  It was weird standing there without a drum kit in front of me. The four of us in a place which two to three years ago we probably wouldn’t have been allowed through the door, let alone invited as special guests. Not going to lie but part of me was really digging the ass kissing we were getting these days, the yes-sir, no-sir that came with this new gig was fucking sweet. Call me conceited, but we had more than earned it, our dues finally being paid in full.

  “Joey!” I heard a chick below me calling out my name, her voice straining over our latest tune.

  That was another thing I wouldn’t get sick of—girls screaming for me. And fuck me if it didn’t make me smile that someone was trying to get my attention even though Max and Rusty were standing right beside me.

  “Joey.” My head turned as I tried to find the origin of the voice and reward her with a smile. Least I could do for now, hopefully I’d get to give her a little more later. The grin got wider as I thought of her screaming my name with a little more intensity, the lips attached to the voice still not coming into focus.

  “Joey, you asshole!”

  Wait. What?

  That wasn’t what they were supposed to be screaming.

  “Sounds like your fan club is here.” Max smirked, the bastard obviously hearing it too. “How nice for you.”

  “Whatever, loser.” I elbowed him in the ribs trying to see who in the hell was calling me. Not sure why she sounded so dissatisfied. I made it my mission to make sure when girls left, everyone got what they needed. I prided myself on it. It was like a golden guarantee. Maybe once or twice I’d forgotten to call when I’d promised to, but that couldn’t be helped. I was fucking busy. And I didn’t have the best memory. Surely they understood.

  “Joey, you dumbass. Answer your damn phone.” My eyes caught on the flash of dark-blonde hair, Kenzie giving me a look so dirty I was surprised I was still standing. “I’ve been calling you for hours.” The eye-glare of death continued.

  “Hey, is that Kenzie?” Rusty shot her a wave, his lips spreading into an appreciative grin.

  The dude had known her just as long as I had, and while the two of them had never swapped bodily fluids, they had that whole guitarist respect going for them. An unspoken appreciation of each other’s talent. And while I was happy they were friends, I was glad they hadn’t fucked.

  “Sure is. Cool of her to stop by, huh?” Max slapped me on the back like a douche. He wasn’t hiding the fact he was enjoying it—Kenzie being in a mood.

  Looking at her down in that pit, her face full of fury, reminded me exactly why she had been worth the wait. Not only did she rate radioactive on the good-looking scale, but also she was feisty as hell. She wasn’t the kind of girl who sat on her ass, and damn if that didn’t make me even more interested. Her attitude was just as sexy as the rest of her, and she was so freaking talented. Smart too, but without the ivy-league chip on her shoulder. And as soon as we worked out whatever had gotten her panties in a wad, I was definitely going to be trying for more of that.

  My eyes shifted for not more than a second but it had been enough to lose her in the crowd. The beautiful blonde disappeared as the sea of non-descript girls vied for my attention while the music played. None of them even scratching
my interest now that I’d seen her.

  Considering I hadn’t heard from Kenzie in weeks, I was more than a little curious as to why she was seeking me out. Not that I hadn’t wanted to see her, it was just the way things had worked out. There was some urgency in her voice that I hadn’t expected, which made me sort of proud. Obviously our time together left an impression. Hell, the thought alone was juicing me up; we should definitely repeat that performance.

  “Where did she go?” My head whipped around to Rusty hoping he’d have a better vantage point, Max’s non-committal shrug already answered he had no idea.

  “She’s behind us.” Angie laughed, turning around and stepping off the podium. The girl in question standing crossed armed right next to the DJ booth looking very much pissed off.

  “I told you she was going to find out you had been running your mouth.” Max was the next one to step down, Rusty following suit soon after.

  The club continued their fevered appreciation despite us moving away from the attention. The noise just as loud as it had been even though we were now facing away from the crowd. The DJ didn’t miss a beat, launching into the very next song as we took a “break,” his explanation for why there was no Black Addiction still standing on the makeshift stage.

  “Hey, Kenzie.” Rusty schmoozed, the charming asshole still quick with a smile despite his dick being under lock and key. “You here alone?” he continued, his head doing a swivel to see if any of her band had ridden shotgun.

  “You. Are. An. Asshole.” Kenzie completely ignored Rus, Max and Angie as she unleashed a tirade of rage at me. “I have been trying to call you.”

  The explosion earned some heated stares from my band, but they kept their mouths shut. Obviously there had been some kind of misunderstanding and rather than give me shit about it, the guys stepped back a bit so she could move closer to me.

  “Relax, baby. I was going to call you later.” The smile crept up on my lips. The wide-eyed what-the-fuck I was getting from my band intensified as I put my arm around her. “You need a little Joey time? All you had to do was ask, babe.”

  “You’ve done enough.” She pushed angrily against my chest. “And the only purpose I have for your dick right now is to shove it in your ear.” Every single word seethed with fury. I wasn’t sure if I should be scared or turned on, my dick going with the second option.

  “Uh-oh.” Rus laughed. “Joe, you want some privacy, brother?”

  “No.”

  “Yes.”

  Kenzie’s answer in the affirmative drowning out my no, the look on her face telling me she wasn’t kidding.

  “O-kay.” Max sidestepped away from us, his feet giving him some distance. “You two love-birds have fun. Beer sounds good.” His head nodded toward the direction of the bar. Not obvious at all.

  “Yeah, drinks all round seems like the way to go.” Rus rounded up both Alison and Angie, his take-care-of-your-business broadcasted loud and clear via the eyeball he was giving me. All of them did a quick evac of our general space, leaving with as much awkwardness as they did speed. Whatever was about to go down, I had a lot of explaining to do later.

  “Babe, did I leave the toilet seat up or something? Because last time I saw you, you were a fan of my dick.” My hand automatically found her hip as I closed the distance between us.

  Despite the venom she tossed my way, she looked even more beautiful than the last time I’d seen her. And, not sure if she was going for understated, but that loose flowing dress she was wearing wasn’t doing jack to hide those deadly fucking curves. She could be rocking a muumuu and still look hotter than most of the chicks in the club. Did I mention how nice her ass was?

  “I’m pregnant, dumbass. So consider my fondness of your dick suspended,” she said with zero segue.

  An imaginary Mack truck rolled through and collected me in its grill as I struggled to understand the words she was saying.

  “Say what?” The words spilled from my mouth as a sheen of sweat broke across my skin—the temperature around us suddenly rivaling that of Satan’s ass.

  “I have a baby inside me.” She spoke slowly, pausing between each word.

  “It’s yours.” She took a breath. “I’m pregnant.”

  “Sorry, I don’t understand?” The words still not making any sense.

  “Are you deliberately trying to piss me off, Joey? I’m already tempted to rip your balls off with my bare hands; you really want to push it?” Her face got even more infuriated, if that were even possible.

  Honestly, I wasn’t trying to be an asshole. Or piss her off. But I didn’t understand how the two of us could have possibly made a human. I mean . . . how?

  “How?” She barked back at me, obviously my question coming out of my mouth as well as rolling around in my head. “You seriously have no idea?” She glared at me, my open-mouthed silent routine doing the answering for me. “When a girl and guy get naked and have a special hug—”

  “Kenzie, I know that.” I may have barely finished high school but the birds and the bees part I had down pat. “I mean . . . I didn’t even come in you.”

  The sex wasn’t something I was going to forget anytime soon. The memory of that night and coming outside of her was still very much burned into my brain. And last time I checked, the baby batter had to actually go to the place where the magic happened in order for it to do its thing. And when I had eventually come inside her, my cock had been well and truly wrapped.

  “Well, obviously that doesn’t matter.” Her beautiful blue eyes shot me daggers. “Whatever time in there was enough to knock me up. You’re the last guy I’ve had sex with. We had sex without a condom, and now I’m pregnant.”

  “Are you sure?” I wondered if the question was going to piss her off further. It seemed like she was on a hair trigger and had already said terrible things about my balls.

  “I’ve taken about ten tests. I’d say I’m either extremely unlucky or pregnant.”

  Fuck.

  The heat I’d felt before was nothing like what was breathing down my neck now. My lungs weren’t doing great with the in-and-out they were supposed to do automatically, each breath seeming to take more effort than it should.

  It was funny how the lights had dimmed too, not at all as bright as they’d been ten minutes ago, the edges darkening like we were in some kind of a tunnel. Actually, were we in a tunnel? Why did the noise sound so far away? Where had the crowd gone and why did it feel like my heartbeat was ringing in my ears?

  “Joey?” Kenzie grabbed my arms, her eyes filled with an emotion I couldn’t quite place. Concern? Or maybe it was just an extension of pissed off. I couldn’t be sure either way as she dug her fingernails into my skin. “Are you going to pass out?” She moved her head closer, her eyes getting wider.

  Me? Pass out? Not a fucking chance.

  I wasn’t a pussy who went lights out at the drop of a hat.

  Why was it so hot in here?

  And why the hell couldn’t I fucking breathe?

  “What the fuck?” The world suddenly snapped back into focus, the slap across my face helping it along. “Did you just hit me?” My palm moved to my cheek where the sting was still spreading across my skin.

  Her hand hitting me had thawed some of the evil, a slight smile creeping up at the edges of her lips. “You looked like you were going to collapse, I had to do something.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Don’t mention it. Do you want me to hit you again?” The offer giving her more pleasure than it ought to, her smile widened as she raised her hand.

  “No, I think I’ve got it from here.”

  It was reassuring to see I wasn’t the only one who had freaked the hell out. Joey’s face had paled to the color of the DJ’s new Adidas, gravity fighting him while he tried to remain upright.

  I knew the feeling, the same terror had gripped me a few hours before—I’d just had a little more time to get used to it. And while I was mad as hell he hadn’t returned my phone calls from earlier toda
y, I wasn’t a complete heartless bitch.

  “I didn’t want to do this here.” My eyes floated around the room filled to capacity with Black Addiction fans, drinking and laughing oblivious to the occupation in my uterus. “But I tried calling you all day, and I didn’t know if you would call back.”

  We didn’t do the lets-chat on the phone. The conversations we’d had were pretty limited, either sexting or face-to-face. So given we didn’t have the kind of relationship that involved burning my AT&T minutes, there was a very real chance I was going to be getting intimate with his voicemail. Which is why I needed to take matters into my own hands, and why I was here instead of curled up in a fetal position on my bed like I had been hours earlier.

  “I thought you were calling to—” He stopped midsentence, a hand rising to rub the back of his neck. “Last time had been pretty hard to forget.” There was no sarcasm in his voice.

  “Considering the result, I’d say neither of us are going to forget in a hurry.” Yeah, I was incubating the lifelong reminder as we spoke.

  “Should we go somewhere? And talk?” The cool calm exterior he usually radiated was missing in action as he glanced around the room of bodies. “Outside?”

  “Is that what you really want to do?” My eyes darted around the club with no sign of a reprieve. The wall-to-wall people didn’t give us much opportunity for privacy. Outside wasn’t going to be any better, not unless he was packing an invisibility cloak in his pocket. What was in his pants was kind of magical, unfortunately not of the Hogwarts variety, which is what we needed.

  I hadn’t given this whole exercise much thought past my grand announcement. It wasn’t my brain that put me in the car and drove from Brooklyn to Midtown. Oh hell no. It was pure emotion. First panic when he wouldn’t answer my calls, followed by anger that he was ignoring me.