Rock Stars Don't Like Big Knickers

by Nikki Ashton

  “Oh hi,” she gasped, brushing her hair from her eyes with both hands.

  “Do you need any help?” Luke asked. “But more to the point, why are you changing it anyway, didn’t you only do it a couple of days ago?”

  “Because you have a guest staying,” she replied, looking away from Luke, and turning her attention to the fresh pillow cases. “You don’t want her sleeping in sweaty sheets do you?”

  “How do you know I sweat in bed?” he asked. “Or are you just using your imagination?”

  Martha’s hands stopped fussing with the pillow case and she rolled her eyes. She wanted to yell at him to stop with the flirting. He couldn’t ignore her all day and then suddenly give a full on Luke Mahoney Rock God attack.

  “Anyway,” Luke continued, “you didn’t need to change the sheets on Rachel’s account.”

  “It’s fine, I’ve done it now.” Martha put on the last pillow case before turning to pick up the dirty bedding. “I cleaned your room yesterday, so I’m done, sorry to disturb you.”

  As she moved to walk past him, Luke stretched out a hand and touched Martha’s elbow. “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “Fine,” she said as she pulled her arm away. “I’m busy.”

  “Okay.” Luke shrugged and walked off into his en suite, banging the door behind him.

  “Prick,” Martha muttered under her breath before leaving the bedroom and banging the door just as loudly.

  If Martha felt jealous at the thought of Rachel, then her feelings multiplied a thousand fold once she was there in the flesh. From the minute she stepped through the door, Rachel hung off Luke’s arm, touching and stroking him at every opportunity. She’d arrived before anyone else in a huge limousine with blacked out windows.

  “You’re early,” Luke said as Rachel threw herself at him, jumping up and wrapping her legs around his waist as she kissed his face.

  “I missed you, baby. How about we got upstairs and make up for not seeing each other for a whole month?”

  Martha not wanting to watch, turned towards the kitchen.

  Lucia couldn’t stifle the groan that escaped her mouth. “Excuse me,” she said. “I’ll go and help Martha with the final preparations for dinner.”

  As his Mother left the room Luke gently lowered Rachel to the ground. “Not in front of my mamma eh Rachel.”

  “Oops sorry,” she giggled.

  “Are you okay, Lucia?” Martha asked as she noticed the frown on Lucia’s face.

  “That woman,” she replied. “She’s got her hooks so far into Luke it’s a wonder she doesn’t have a rope attached to them to wind him in whenever she wants him.”

  Martha giggled. “You don’t like her then?”

  “I do not. I don’t know what Jake was thinking of,” she complained. “He knows how I feel about her. I wouldn’t be surprised if that stirring little devil didn’t do it on purpose.”

  “He wouldn’t, would he?” Martha asked. “Luke’s told me how much the boys love you, so surely not.”

  “He loves a joke a little more, I fear.” Lucia shook her head, but had a smile on her face. “It’s just the sort of thing that he would do.”

  Martha took a deep breath. “Are she and Luke serious then?”

  “Well, I think she’d like to be, but I’m not sure about Luciano. He doesn’t really talk to me about things like love and sex, Martha.” Lucia smiled. “Anthony is his confidante where that is concerned.”

  At that moment the intercom buzzed. Lucia walked over and answered it.

  “Hi Mamma Lucia, it’s us, your two favourite people. We’re at the gate, can you let us in?”

  Lucia shook her head. “You’re not exactly my favourite person at the moment Jake,” Lucia pressed the button to open the gate. “But come on up anyway.”

  “What’s wrong?” the voice on the other end asked.

  “Don’t pretend you don’t know, just come on up.”

  A few minutes later the noise level in the house increased as Jake Hughes and Tom Davies bowled in through the door.

  “Hello gorgeous,” said a tall, wiry, man wearing a woolly hat, sweeping Lucia up into his arms. “How are you?”

  “Jake, put me down this minute.”

  “Put my mother down,” Luke laughed as he came into the hall. “You should know by now she’s not interested in you.”

  “But she’s the only woman for me,” Jake grinned.

  “I doubt that,” Tom laughed. “Hi Mrs M, how are you?” He moved forward, and pushed Jake out of the way to hug Lucia.

  Tom, who was also pushing six feet plus, was the polar opposite of Jake, apart from his height. His jet black hair was shaved and he was broad and muscular. Both of them were tattooed, more than Luke but not as much as Skins, but like Luke and Skins they were sexy as hell.

  “Hey,” Jake cried. “Who is this little hottie?” he asked, his eyes scouring up and down Martha who had followed Lucia into the hall.

  “Hi,” Martha stammered, suddenly shy at meeting the band. “Pleased to meet you, I’m Martha.” She quickly wiped her clammy hand on her top before offering it to Jake.

  Jake let out a whistle. “And I’m in love,” he replied as he shook Martha’s hand.

  Luke sighed and poked Jake in the shoulder. “Cut it out Jake.”

  “Oh no, has she replaced Medusa in your affections? If not I call dibs on her.” Despite Luke’s hard stare Jake continued to stare at Martha.

  “Stop what’s going on in your dirty mind,” Luke growled. “And stop calling Rachel Medusa.”

  Martha looked at Luke, and thought that she saw a glimmer of a smile on his lips.

  “Why on earth did you invite her here,” Lucia hissed, poking Jake in his other shoulder.

  “I told you that it’d get you into trouble.” Tom hit Jake around the head, knocking his hat across the room, exposing his shaggy blond hair. He then stretched his hand out to Martha. “I’m Tom,” he said. “Great to meet you Martha, please ignore the douche in the woolly hat.”

  “What?” Jake shrugged.

  “Embarrassing Martha and inviting Rachel. No fucker wants her here you prick,” Tom hissed.

  “Can you stop slagging my girlfriend off, please?” Luke said.

  “Thomas, language,” Lucia scolded.

  “Sorry Mrs M, but he is a prick,” Tom said.

  Luke hit Tom around the head. “It wasn’t that she was complaining about.”

  “She tricked me into inviting her,” Jake protested.

  Martha couldn’t help but giggle at their antics. “Does anyone want anything to eat or drink?” she asked.

  “Wow, baby you get hotter and hotter. Sexy as sin and you cook.” Jake took hold of Martha’s hand and kissed it.

  “Jake leave Martha the fuck alone,” Luke snapped.

  “Luciano, language.”

  “I’d love something to eat.” A seductive voice drawled.

  No one had spotted that Rachel had come into the hall.

  “Medu…”

  “Jake!” Luke barked.

  “Well sweetie, are you going to make us something to eat?” Rachel aimed her question at Martha. “Sorry, I don’t know your name, Luke never mentioned you.”

  “Martha isn’t here to wait on everyone, she officially finished work ten minutes ago,” Luke said. He looked across at Martha. His face was expressionless so Martha had no idea what he was thinking, but, she guessed from that comment that he didn’t want her hanging about.

  “Well, I’ll get going then,” she said stepping backwards away from the group.

  “Stay and meet Anthony and Stacey,” Lucia said, grabbing hold of Martha’s hand. She leaned in and whispered into Martha’s ear, “And keep me company with Medusa.”

  “Well,” Martha said. “If you all don’t mind.” She couldn’t help but smile. Sod what Luke wanted.

  “No baby, you stay and come and sit with me and have a little chat.” Jake winked at Martha and took her hand from Lucia. “You’ve officially fi
nished work for the day, so now it’s time to enjoy yourself.”

  “Okay,” Martha giggled loving that Jake seemed to be annoying Luke. “That would great.”

  Luke tutted quietly and turned to Rachel. “Why don’t you take your bag upstairs Rach, my room is top of the stairs, end door on the left.”

  As she walked past everyone, with a swagger to her hips, Rachel turned with a seductive smile on her lips. “Want to help me unpack?”

  Tom groaned and pushed past her. “Where am I Mrs M?”

  “Any of the rooms at the top of the stairs to the right,” Lucia replied. “Although not the one with lemon coloured walls, I’ve kept that for Anthony and Stacey. It’s the comfiest bed for Stacey, seeing as she’s pregnant.”

  “Righto,” Tom said. He saluted Lucia and started to drag his case towards the staircase. “Jake stop ogling Martha and get your stuff upstairs.”

  “Okay, I’m coming. You my sexy little kitten,” he said dropping Martha’s hand, “stay there and wait for me. I have a feeling that you and I are going to have some fun tonight.” As he walked away Jake couldn’t help but notice the look of pure rage on Luke’s face, bringing a smile to his own.

  A little over half an hour later, Stacey and Skins arrived. After greeting everyone, except for Rachel who was apparently redoing her makeup, Stacey pulled Martha into a hug,

  “Lovely to meet you Martha, Luke has told Skins a lot about you,” she whispered into Martha’s ear.

  Martha leaned back slightly and frowned at Stacey. “Really?”

  “Oh yes.” Stacey smiled but said nothing more as Luke came over.

  “Martha, are you staying to dinner?” he asked.

  “No,” she replied. As lovely as the band and Stacey had been, it wasn’t appropriate to stay and eat with them. “Dinner is ready, there’s a salad in the fridge and a chilli that needs warming up. I’ve also made some fresh bread.”

  “Hey,” Jake cried. “You have to stay. You cooked the food.”

  “Honestly, it’s not a problem. That’s my job.” Martha chanced a look at Luke, but he was glaring at Jake. She definitely wasn’t wanted. “I have things I need to do, so thank you for the offer, but I’ll get off home.”

  “Oh no, I was looking forward to chatting to you. I could do with some cooking lessons, would you be willing?” Stacey asked. “Skins thinks I don’t know that he throws half his dinner away because it’s burned.”

  “Hey now, not all the time.” Skins moved across and pulled Stacey into a hug.

  “I’d love to give you some lessons,” Martha replied. “Lucia has my mobile number, just let me know when you’d like to start.” She immediately liked the beautiful dark haired woman smiling broadly at her. She was tall and slim, except for a tiny bump, and had sharp bobbed hair that framed her petite features. In fact she was far more beautiful than Rachel, the model.

  “Great,” Stacey replied. “I’ll give you a call.”

  As Martha said her goodbyes, Luke pulled away from Rachel’s grasp and walked to the door with Martha, leaving Rachel to listen in on everyone else’s conversation.

  “Thanks for sorting dinner out,” he said. “And I’m sorry about Jake.”

  Martha shrugged. “It’s fine, I thought he was very sweet and funny.”

  Luke laughed. “I doubt whether the great man whore, Jake Hughes has ever been called sweet before.”

  “Well I thought he was. Anyway, goodnight and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, see you tomorrow.”

  Luke sighed as he watched her walk down the drive towards her cottage. He felt strange as she disappeared from view – it felt like loneliness, but how could he be when his best friends and his girlfriend were inside waiting for him? He did know that he was angry with Jake though, what did he think he was doing coming onto her like that? That was something that he’d have to keep an eye on. Martha was his employee and there was no way Jake was going to mess around with her – definitely not.

  Chapter 13

  When Martha arrived back at the house the next morning, it was pretty much silent, except for the rather loud snoring coming from Tom’s room which bearing in mind the vastness of the house must have been very loud. She had some ironing to do and then would start to prepare breakfast, hoping that everyone would be happy with a good old Full English. Rachel would likely prefer some sort of sawdust like cereal with mountain goat milk, or something equally as ridiculously healthy, but tough she wasn’t getting it. Almost an hour later she could hear noises of people moving around upstairs, eventually followed by the soft padding on the stairs of footsteps.

  She folded the ironing board away and went into the kitchen to prepare breakfast. Martha had only been in there a few minutes when she heard a familiar voice behind her.

  “Good morning.” Jake stood in the doorway.

  “Oh morning Jake, did you sleep well?” Martha asked.

  “Yeah, apart from having to listen to the Warthog captured in the bedroom next door.” Jake shook his head. “He’s always the same when he drinks red wine. I tried to cut him off after one glass, but Luke kept plying him with it knowing that I was sleeping next door to him.”

  Martha giggled. “I’m sure he didn’t do it on purpose. I can hear him down here, so I’m guessing Luke can too.”

  “Well if he did it’s his own fault. Are him and Medusa out of bed yet?”

  Martha coughed, trying to get rid of the lump in her throat. She really didn’t want to think of Luke and Rachel in bed together.

  “No, I don’t think anyone else is.” Martha replied.

  “I think I heard Stace and Skins moving around. I’ll go and round them up for you shall I?” Jake said.

  “Could you just let them know breakfast will be in about half an hour?”

  “Will do, oh and Martha.”

  Martha looked up from the eggs that she was breaking into a bowl. “Yeah.”

  “You know Luke isn’t serious about Medusa.”

  “Sorry, I don’t understand.” Martha swallowed hoping that the quake in her voice didn’t give away her uneasiness at Jake’s statement.

  “Oh I think you do,” he replied with friendly smile before disappearing through the door.

  With Lucia gone for the day - with a friend, to a local garden centre and then out for dinner, the noise levels in the house were extremely high. Like a bunch of teenagers left at home while their parents went on holiday, the atmosphere was raucous and anarchic. Martha noticed, however, that Rachel very rarely joined in, preferring instead to bury her nose in a gossip magazine.

  Martha had gone about her daily routine, but was constantly being called into the conversation by someone, usually Stacey who seemed to like having Martha’s company in a room mostly full of men -.Rachel, on the other hand, was about as friendly as a vegetarian doing work experience at an abattoir.

  When Jake wasn’t cracking jokes at Tom’s expense, he was flirting mercilessly with Martha. She found it funny, there was no nervousness or uneasiness like there was when Luke flirted with her; it was hilarious. Jake however had noticed that the more he flirted with Martha the redder Luke’s earlobes got, which was a sure sign that he wasn’t happy.

  Finally, after they’d all eaten lunch and the band had disappeared down into the studio Luke had built in the basement, Rachel, with no one to preen in front of, decided to go and have a nap. Stacey took the chance to have a girly chat with Martha over a cup of tea.

  “So,” she said, as the two of them sat down at the kitchen table, “you and Luke?”

  “What about us?” Martha frowned. “There is no ‘me and Luke’ as far as I know.”

  “Come on Martha, you must know that he likes you.”

  “I do a good job, and we get on,” Martha replied. “There aren’t many people our age in this village, so I think he likes to have someone to talk to.”

  Stacey smiled widely. “I think I might have to call bullshit on that one,” she said.

  “What do you m
ean? Seriously, we’re just friends, well as much friends that we can be as he’s my boss.” Martha ran her fingers around the rim of her mug, avoiding Stacey’s gaze. “I remember what Luke was like at school and being with a serial player just isn’t what I want. But like I said, he’s my boss, nothing more.”

  “He’s spoken about you to Skins, you know.”

  Martha shrugged. “He did say my stew and dumplings were the best he’d ever tasted.”

  “Not just to tell him that you’re a good cook,” Stacey laughed. “He’s told him how much you make him laugh, how interesting you are, and I do believe that he used the words ‘hot and sexy’

  Martha felt her stomach do a huge tumble and her heart started to beat loudly in her ears.

  “He was probably just being nice,” Martha said. She could not fall for his charm.

  “Maybe, but the looks he’s been giving Jake all day make me think he’s feeling a little jealous at the attention you’re getting.”

  “No, Jake’s just messing around. Rachel’s here anyway, she’s gorgeous, so why would Luke be interested in me?” Martha shook her head. “No, he’s probably just annoyed at Jake playing around with the hired help.”

  “Nope,” Stacey said. “I’ve known Luke a long time and believe me I know when he’s got a thing for someone, and that someone isn’t Rachel.”

  Down in the basement studio the band had started some gentle jamming to get Luke’s vocal chords lubricated and to give him some confidence, but the first note he hit was so far off it sounded more like a yodel. Immediately his eyes shot to Skins, who nodded and smiled, encouraging him to carry on, which he did without much improvement. He struggled through ‘Life Without Us’, one of the first songs he’d ever written, but it was barely recognisable. It was flat and pitchy in places, and Luke’s trademark deep, throaty growl sounded more like a donkey with a chest infection.

  “This isn’t going to work,” he shouted before the sound of the last chord had faded.

  “Hey come on man, you sang it the whole way through, that’s a step forward,” Skins said. He got up from his drums and laid a comforting hand on Luke’s shoulder.