He sucks in his lips and tries not to laugh.
“It’s not funny, Memphis.”
He is suddenly serious. “I wanna do all sorts of shit to you.”
“Well, you wrote two songs, or was it three? So, I think you are all straight now, you and your”—I point to his upper body—“torn up torso.”
“Wasn’t the ass I had, Tales. It was the ass I’ve wanted since that night.”
“You’re—”
“Honest? Would you like me not to be? I could lie; would that be better?” His voice raises, and I am suddenly fearful that Madison will hear us.
“Shh,” I tell him, and his eyes narrow.
“No, sweet cheeks. You and I are gonna work this out. I couldn’t give a fuck less who hears me.”
“She doesn’t know about that night. It wasn’t even a big deal, Memphis.”
“That’s not what you said while your ass was pressed up against me in my bed the other night.”
“I was drunk.”
“Then get drunk again. Press in harder this time.”
“You are something else.”
My heart is racing. His lips never looked so good, and I am sure the air conditioner is on way too low because my nipples are straining against my padded, push-up bra.
“I am something you want, and you are something I want.”
“Well, it’ll never happen.” I attempt to step around him, but my wobbly knees betray me, and I stumble.
He grabs me and pushes me against the wall. “Tell me what your doubts are.”
“Why?”
“So I can blow them out of the water.” His hands are on my waist, and his face is inches from mine as his chiseled chest rises and falls quickly underneath his shirt. “Boyfriend?” I shake my head. “So he humped you and dumped you? Fucking idiot. Does he know he’s an idiot?”
I don’t respond. I don’t want him to know he’s right. Then he’ll figure out that I am not worth even one night.
“Madison,” I say.
“She doesn’t find out until we both figure out if this is physical or more.”
Dear God, he said or more.
I close my eyes and try to slow my breathing, but it’s not happening. I feel his thumb on my chin as he pushes my head to the side. He inhales a slow, deep breath, running his nose from my collarbone up to the spot right behind my ear, and I moan. I flippin’ moan, and he does, too, at the same time.
“You’re promiscuous.”
“Ask me not to be.” He moves my head back and pushes my chin up with his thumb. His tongue lightly slides down my throat and stops at the base. Again, I moan, and again, he does, too.
“Your tour.”
“Your school.”
“I’m not ready for a relationship,” I pant out as his lips run across my jawline.
“Give me this week.”
“To be your groupie?” I shake my head.
“To be mine.” He sucks on my earlobe. “All mine.”
“Madison,” I remind him.
“After hours.”
“Fine,” I concede.
“You are not going to regret it.” He steps back and cups my jaw.
“I already do.”
“Why?”
“I’m not a whore.”
“I promise, Tales, whatever the swimsuit or underoos cover is off limits.”
I can’t help smiling as I open my eyes. He looks happy, and I feel giddy.
He pushes his forehead against mine and runs his nose back and forth across mine. “You tell me if it gets to be too much.”
“This is a bad idea.”
“I won’t hurt you. I’ve never made a girl cry yet.” He smirks that sinful grin. “Okay, maybe a few, but they survived.”
“Why?”
“Contrary to what you believe, I think it was you who gave me my inspiration back.”
“Your floozies did.”
He shakes his head. “Nah.”
“I won’t sleep with someone who sleeps with everyone under the spotlight.”
“I’m really not like that, Tales.” I can’t help huffing. “No, you started this. I’ve been like that little, blonde girl, the one with the bears, eating all that porridge, sleeping in all those beds until I found the one I was looking for.”
I look away from his mesmerizing eyes. “Goldilocks.”
“Low and behold, she was right under my nose. I can’t wait to kiss those lips and see if they’re the ones I have been trying to find. You know, like the glass shoe that the prince makes everyone try on ’cause the girl he—”
I spare him the rambling, albeit adorable. “Cinderella.”
“Yeah, Cinderella.”
His lips are centimeters from mine, and I am ready for him to kiss me. I want to know if it’s true. At the very least, I want him to kiss me just once without throwing up on my shoes.
He moves closer, and I close my eyes and lift my chin, giving myself to him. He kisses … my cheek.
Stunned, I open my eyes.
“Sober. Come to me sober so I know I’m not pushing you into something.”
“But you said—”
“Tales, I wanna kiss you so fucking badly right now.” He leans against me with his whole body. “My tongue isn’t the only thing that wants in.” He nudges me with his erection, and I gasp. “But sober, sweet cheeks. I won’t do you like that.”
Then he walks away, leaving me buzzed, turned on, and wanting more than ever to give everything I have to Memphis Black.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
* * *
A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE
Memphis
I don’t go back outside, although it’s not like I can when I am as hard as nails and feeling guilty as fuck. Tallia Annabel Priest, the sweetest girl on the entire planet, and my dick can’t keep my mind occupied enough to leave her alone.
I flop down in bed and stare at the ceiling, willing this hard-on away. I know what will do the trick—think about her father and the day he caught me staring at his little girl when I was in church.
“Do you know what happens to sinners, young man?” he asked me.
“Not really, sir,” I answered honestly.
“They burn in hell.” He scowled at me, and what did I do? I fucking chuckled. Hell, he was my minister. The one who preached God’s love was now pegging me at ten years old as a sinner. He didn’t think that shit was funny, but here’s the shit kicker: I wasn’t thinking of banging his daughter until he went on with, “If you have sexual desires for her, you best get down on your knees and pray, young man.”
Sexual fucking desires at ten? Hell, I was too busy trying to figure out what the hell that thing was there for and hating it because the shit hurt when it got all hard. I figured out really quickly after that man’s warning what a sexual desire was, and from that moment on, I spent a lot of time in the damn shower. I mean, why the fuck would he even say that shit?
I spent the next eight years tormenting her because I wasn’t hot for her. She was the opposite of hot—well, maybe not the opposite, but she was...angelic? Sweet, kind, innocent—all the things you want to protect from the little asshole tormentors who picked on her, and she just smiled in their faces.
Well, that day I flipped a switch, and I sure as hell didn’t want to be a sinner, much less want everyone to think I had sexual desires for Tallia Annabelle Priest, the awkward preacher’s kid, so then I became a pain in hers and Madison’s asses.
Forgive me, papa Priest. Now I have some hellacious sexual desires, and there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it. Hell, I can’t do shit about it now.
I look down, erection gone. Minister Priest is the opposite of Viagra, and I will use that shit to my advantage.
***
I wake up and open my eyes. Tally is standing at the foot of my bed, staring at me. She isn’t saying shit, only staring.
I look over at my phone, and it says three in the morning.
“Tales?” I sit up, and she mumbles some
incoherent shit then sighs, yawns, and sits down.
“You still fucked up?”
She shakes her head.
“You wanna play around?” I ask, grabbing her hips and pulling her closer to me as I sit up.
“Sleep.”
“Couldn’t sleep?” I have no clue what she is doing, but when she is dead weight, I know she’s asleep. “Tales?”
Nothing.
Da fuck? I think.
I lay her down, go take a piss, wash my hands, brush my teeth—just in case she wants a little something-something—and then lie down and pull her closer.
She mumbles something more, then falls into what must be a comfortable place, and I hear soft, little purrs.
I push my nose against her hair, trying my damnedest to figure out what it is that makes her smell so damn good while she sleeps peacefully in my arms.
I wake when her body jolts as if lightning struck her.
“What? What is going on?”
She’s like a deer in the headlights, and she scared the shit out of me. Hell if I know what’s going on, I just want her back in bed. “It’s five in the morning, girl. Climb back in here and—”
“Oh, wow.” She looks around.
“Wow, what?” I pat the bed, beckoning her back.
She shakes her head and sighs.
“Care to tell me what you’re thinking?”
“Sometimes I take walks at night.” She crosses her arms. “Sorry.”
“You mean sleep walk?” I smirk because of the way she says it.
“No walks.” She yawns.
“Right, well, ‘toh-may-toh,’ ‘toh-mah-toh.’ Come on. I was comfortable.”
“I can’t.”
“Tell me you weren’t too fucked up to remember our talk last night.”
She looks down and slowly shakes her head.
“Good. Now that you’re sober, climb back in here.” She hesitates. “Tales ...”
She looks up at me. “It’s a bad idea.”
“It’s a damn good idea.”
“I don’t know.” She sighs.
“Then come back when you straighten it all out in your head.” When she hesitates again, I pull the covers back and pat the bed one more time. “Just let me spoon you.”
She sighs again, then takes the first step back. She sits on the edge of the bed, and I am quick to pull her down and into my arms.
“I’ll spork you later.”
She gives a silent chuckle. “This is a bad idea.”
“Does it feel bad right now, Tales?” I ask, rubbing her back over her shirt and not her fine, fine ass like I want to.
“No.”
“Why do you sound so sad, then?” I question, as I inhale the scent that calms and ignites me at the same time.
“I don’t want to hurt Madison.”
“Me, either.”
“She will be up at, like, nine.”
“Just stay another hour, maybe two?”
“Will you make sure I’m awake?”
“Sure will.”
She yawns, and even her breath smells sweet.
What the fuck am I doing?
Minister Priest, I repeat over and over in my head until I fall asleep.
***
“What the hell?” I hear Madison’s voice, and both Tally and I are instantly all sorts of tangled and trying to jump up. It’s a mess, a complete fucking mess, and there is nothing I can do except laugh.
“Morning, Mads.”
“I … I …”
“Did you?” Madison shrieks, charging at me.
“No,” Tally gasps in a disgusted tone that quite frankly pisses me off, but it stops my crazy-ass sister.
“Madison, get out!” I snap at her and immediately regret it. However, I’m a little pissed.
“Don’t talk to her like that,” Tally scolds, and here I am, the innocent in this.
“She walked in here and decided to take a fucking nap,” I defend. “I didn’t drag her by her hair, so you can—”
“Oh, my God, are you sleep walking again?” Madison gasps.
Tally shrugs. “I guess so.”
“Why?”
I think it’s an odd question, but I know damn well I want the equally as odd answer.
“I don’t know.”
“You’re having bad dreams again?”
Tally shakes her head, glances at me, and then quickly looks away.
“You only do this when you do.”
“Everything’s fine.”
“Not really.” I stand up and look at both of them. “What the hell would have happened if you had walked out in the street or, worse yet, into River’s room?”
“River’s room is worse than the street?” Madison laughs sarcastically.
“Depends on how fucked up he was, yeah.”
“Well, she’s managed to stay alive all these years and—”
“What if it happens at school? What if she ends up in some guy’s room, and he—” I stop when I see the look exchanged between the two of them. Fuck it has already happened! “Spill it.”
“It’s really none of your concern, brother dear.”
“Da fuck it’s not.” I am livid. “Did you get—?”
“No, Memphis, no. Okay, geesh, sorry I wandered in,” Tally says like it’s no big deal.
“Why didn’t you wake her up?” Madison asks, her brows shooting up and her hands on her hips.
“’Cause I like the way—”
“Madison,” Tally interrupts, “I’m not easy to wake up. Think about it.”
“Fine.” Madison seems to give up. “But next time, you come get me.”
“Why? Do you think you—?”
Madison narrows her eyes. “I’ll cut you.”
“You’ll fucking what?” I gasp.
“She’s joking.”
“Maybe I’m not.”
“I’m your fucking brother. Shit, Mads, what would be the big deal if I was into Tally?”
She covers her ears and starts “la-la-la-ing” like she did when she was a kid.
Tally gives me a look as if to say, please don’t, and I want to kick my sister right in the ass, just once. The little queen deserves it.
“Conference call. X-man is on,” Finn yells into my room.
“What?” I ask
“Billy sent him the songs.”
“What? When? I’m not even done.”
“Come on, man. He looks happy as hell.”
I walk past Madison and Tally, scooping up my shorts. They stop whispering, and Mads rolls her eyes and walks out. Her being pissed at me is nothing new.
“Probably got dome this morning,” River says, rubbing his hands over his messy ass hair as he walks out of his suite.
I want to laugh, but Tally is looking at me all nervously and shit.
I stop and step into my shorts, waiting for everyone to get out of earshot. I look up to see she is staring at my chest, so I pop my pecs, but she doesn’t look impressed when her eyes meet mine.
“I can’t do this,” she whispers.
“She won’t find out,” I whisper back.
“It’s not her; it’s—” She stops, and her eyes are on my chest again. I recognize the look immediately.
“They’ll be gone in a couple days.”
“Just like the many you’ve shared a bed with.”
“Tales, stop coming up with excuses. You want me or you don’t.” I’m getting really sick of this conversation. “You want me.” I walk past her, unwilling to hear whatever comes out next. Her excuses are bullshit, and my patience is wearing thin, but there is fuck-not that I can do about it now.
I stop and turn back. Apparently, walking away is a problem for me, too.
“Sleep walking. What’s got you worried?”
She huffs and rolls her eyes. “Everything.”
“Okay, let me help you figure out whatever it is that’s not about me. Talk to me, Tales.”
She looks confused, maybe even sad, and then the emoti
ons are gone. “You have a call. I’m fine. Go.”
“Tales—”
“Really, Memphis, go.”
I reluctantly walk out into the living room where X-man is on the smart TV. Technology, I have a love/hate relationship with it.
“Good, you’re all here.” X-man starts. “Finn, Memphis, I am proud as hell of you two. The lyrics are edgy but commercial enough—”
“Commercial?” I scowl as I sit on the arm of the couch.
“But edgy,” he responds. “It’s good. That being said, we need to lay down the tracks and get production rolling because …” He looks behind him.
Taelyn looks over his shoulder. “We have dates, lots of dates. Twenty cities in—”
“Twenty cities?” River grins at her.
“Starting right here, where you left off.” X beams.
“The coolest part, man. Get to it,” Nickie D urges in the background.
“Irish,” X says, looking at his wife. “Your idea, so you tell the band.”
She sits down on his lap and looks into the screen. “The opening acts.”
“No, you’ve got it wrong, Mrs. X. STD is the coolest part.” River winks.
“River, you keep that shit up and you’ll be Def Leppard-ing that drum set. I’ll rip your motherfucking arm off and beat—”
“Enough, Xavier.” Taelyn laughs. “Xavier and I or Nickie will join you all at each city where we’ll hold open auditions for local bands to try out to be opening acts.”
“What’s it pay?” Finn asks.
“Finn.” I nudge him.
“What? I’m gonna do this shit for free? Hell no,” he says, scowling at me.
“Anyone else have reservations?” Xavier asks, and I know he’s trying to keep his cool.
“Will you explain the process a little?” I ask, hoping to chill Finn out a little.
“We’re currently scouring the Internet to find talent that is untouched or—”
“To sign,” Finn interrupts.
“Well, if we all like them, and they’re committed like you four, then yes, of course that’s what we would like to do,” Xavier answers.
“So we become sink or swim. You just throw us on stage and walk the fuck—”
“What the fuck did you just say?” X-man is pissed. “Sink or swim, Finn? Really? Are we not in this together? Forever fucking Steel isn’t just something to lure you in, asshole.”
Rock Star Romance Ultimate Volume 2 Page 94