Love Struck Bad Boys - 3 Novel Box Set

by Amber Burns

  Why did she say the room was storage?

  I can’t exactly go ask her while she’s sleeping. Peeling my eyes from down the hall in Astra’s direction, I take to the stairs.

  On the way out I dip into the kitchen and grab her house keys from an old sugar jar, the hiding spot she’d showed me a few days earlier and I lock up.

  Jesse and Dan would kill me if I bailed on another practice. With Lola’s party hovering closer and closer it’s a matter of time before Astra and I’d have to take a break.

  A small break, naturally. I’d be making sure of that.

  The world is bright from a combination of the snow and the sun shining on the snow. The sky is mostly clear save the careless cloud here and there, and the roads are much clearer compared to the snowstorm that had blown in with me. The same one that got Astra sick.

  I note that there’s a fresh trek of boots through Astra’s small lawn, right up to her living room window. The curtains are closed, but it unnerves me.

  Shaking off the worry I move forward.

  Lately I’ve been more mellow than usual. I don’t even care that her neighbors see me.

  Now that the news of Tense Finger has swept through St. B&J, we’ve been assured after Lola finalized her invites and sent them out.

  My hand stills over the car door, head tilted towards a familiar pea-green coat.

  She’s facing away from me, walking in the opposite direction and fast.

  “Lola,” I call out, slowing from my speedwalk. “Lola, stop.”

  She does, clinging onto the guy beside her like he can save her from my interrogation and serious annoyance.

  “You’re far from home, aren't you?” I seize up the guy, my shock redoubling. “Liam.”

  “‘Sup.” His greeting is subdued, much more considering the last time I saw him he was ready to ask for an autograph.

  “We’re just walking.” Lola is looking at me though.

  She’s staring at her color-coordinated suede ankle boots. Black tights are creeping up and disappearing under her long coat. She looks ready for the runway, not for the sunny but brisk February morning.

  As if to tone down and compensate for her colorfulness, Liam is dressed in head-to-toe black. Black coat, black, baggy jeans and black shit-kickers.

  His bottle-dyed black asymmetrical fringe falls into his eyes every so sudden and he lifts his unoccupied hand to brush it back.

  “Really? Your walk led you all the way out here.” I flick a hand between them. “You two dating?”

  “No,” they say together.

  Lola and Liam go rigid at the same time, too.

  “We’re just friends,” Lola explains, her strained voice saying otherwise. “We’re hanging out.”

  “All the way here?” I repeat; I’d be totally amused if I wasn’t irritated.

  Astra doesn’t need this. I don’t care for this. So whatever it is, it’s got to stop.

  I seize a paranoid thought. “Did your dad put you up to this?”

  “No.” Lola’s confusion is the first genuine emotion she’s shown.

  “Forget I asked,” I rush, my gaze returning from skimming the parameter for the Lopez patriarch’s hiding spot.

  Dan and Jesse aren’t the only ones waiting on me to resurface from Astra and our little blissful bubble; Custodio has been on edge about the Campos and my meeting with the eldest daughter for our planned nuptials.

  That’s not happening, and I’ve been working out a countermeasure to kill this stupid idea of his dead. Gone are the days where Custodio Lopez can push me around.

  Besides, these days I’m wrapped around someone else’s finger and she’s the kindest, sexiest woman.

  “I’ll ask you again then, what are you two doing here? Lola? Liam?” I look to both, but I’m hoping Liam breaks first. My history with Lola and her family tells me she won’t crack, definitely not in front of Holly’s kid.

  “We were walking.” Lola is resolute, sticking to her side of the story. Shit alibi if I’d have heard one, but whatever. I’m not going to throw down with my teenaged goddaughter. Or her so-called friend.

  “It’s not like that’s a crime. Right?” she looks to Liam and he nods unconvincingly.

  “You’re right, it’s not. But creeping around on someone else’s property, that’s something else.” I say. At her silence and Liam’s avoidance I nod and drop the subject.

  Turning back to the car and expecting them to follow, I drive Liam home first. It isn’t a far drive. He reminds me that he could walk, but I’m ready to see him home.

  “Thanks,” he says, and with a curiously stricken look in Lola’s direction he splits.

  Poor kid. I recognize that face. He’s crushing on Lola.

  “You’re staying?” Lola speaks to me for the first time since entering the car.

  “Yeah.” I say.

  I’m passing her, leading the way up to her door, leaving my car in the spacious one-lane driveway with just enough room for any visitors to settle beside me.

  Lola follows me to the studio. Sure enough Dan and Jesse are working away. Behind the drums, Jesse is in full rock mode. Dan is lost, too.

  I let them finish the song minus my vocals. Lola rests on one of the stools, her eyes fixated on the glass, on Tense Finger in action.

  “This is going to be the best birthday ever.” Her exclamation comes when they’re done. Lola’s shy smile reminds me she’s a brat counting to her sixteenth like it’s the whole world – albeit a spoilt brat…

  “Hopefully,” I give her shoulder a squeeze, my mood towards her thawing just slightly.

  “He finally shows,” Dan throws up his hands. “Welcome, oh Lordy singer of ours. What took you so fucking long?”

  “Language,” I point out Lola and Dan waves at her, all smiles.

  “I thought you might have brought Holly and Astrid again.”

  “Astra,” I roll my eyes at the contrast of his dejection and inability to remember my girl’s name, especially as he drooled all over her chest.

  “We’re talking about the hot redhead, right? Could have sworn her name was Astrid...you sure?”

  Dan loved to poke at me, and I’d love to jab back but that’d involve proving I’m damn sure.

  I grit my teeth instead. Yeah, I’m sure. I’ve been saying her name a lot more. Not that I’d readily admit she’s given me a whole new appreciation for sex.

  And that’s an understatement even.

  “Are we going to play or talk?” I look from Dan to Jesse and get their signal, dismissing the brief wave of their confusion at my snippiness.

  We pick up the track they’d dropped when I entered, only this time we plug in the vocals. It takes seconds but Lola and the studio and the world bleeds away...as it always does.

  Once Jesse times us in, we go and don’t fall back to Earth and real-time until the second track closes on my strumming the final chord, and a lengthy filler and guitar riff from Jesse and Dan.

  Sweeping a hand through my hair, I grin at the guys and glance at the two-way mirror to see Lola isn’t alone anymore.

  Tzatza materialized out of nowhere. I’d been swept up by the moment, I don’t even realize how sore my arms are or how parched my throat is; I’m running on pure music. My joints and blood are buzzing and fizzing with it even as we unpack for the day’s shedding.

  We wrap it up, filing out of the rec area together into the studio’s vestibule. Normally I’d be raring to go from here back to Astra’s. But I know that Tzatza is waiting for us and it’s not going to be that easy anymore.

  “Is that what you’ll be playing at the party?” she asks.

  “A couple of the tracks, yeah.” I say. It’s Jesse who adds, “Why? Don’t you like it?”

  For once Dan is quiet. He’s usually quiet around Tzatza unless directly provoked to speak: Smart guy.

  “I love it!” Lola beams at us and that thaws more of the ice after her little stunt with Liam earlier.

  Tzatza nods and moves on, bemoa
ning the party planning hang-ups. It gives me a thought and a chance to shut her up and speed this up so I’m burrowed inside Astra’s cunt, wrapped around her scent sometime soon.

  “Holly Chandler?” she echoes, lips pouching – no, wait, that’s the collagen of her resting expression.

  “She’s the guest we had a few nights ago,” I try to jog her memory. “She works in event management and was telling me how she worked out of Newark before setting up her business here.”

  “Over dinner she was telling me about some of her work with the art gallery and a hospital benefit,” Jesse pitches in.

  “I don’t know,” Tzatza shrugs, clasping her hands about her middle. “There’s so much to do and I have no time for amateurs…”

  Bitch much.

  “And Lola knows Holly’s son, Liam, very well” I add, hoping to sweeten the deal while smiling at the teen I’d put in the spotlight. Lola snaps her jaw shut and answers her mother’s inquiry with an affirmative.

  “He’s in a couple of my classes,” Lola lifts her shoulders, crossing her arms like it’s no biggie.

  My smile grows. Now we’re even.

  Tzatza is warming to the idea; well, warming as much as a icy bitch is able to.

  “I’d have to ask about her rate. With the party only five days away, I might as well hire a saint to work a miracle.”

  She hurries off to scout a phone book and Holly Chandler’s number for said miracle. Dan and Jesse are behind me, walking me to the door, unbeknownst to them.

  They’re busy planning a fun night.

  “Remind me why I agreed to this?” Jesse looks a bit queasy at Dan’s maniacal grin.

  “Because you know I’m boss when it comes to these things. And then we’re going to the city to party,” Dan grinds against an imaginary chick. “Won’t be coming home until tomorrow if I can convince Jesse. Gotta celebrate V-Day in style.”

  “We’ll see.” Jesse turns on me. “You’re coming though? To help me control this animal?”

  “No,” I distract Dan from retorting to Jesse’s ‘animal’ comment. I’ve put a damper on their plans gauging by their faces.

  “You have to come. Nothing’s more important than this.” Dan calls after my hasty retreat. “You want pussy, don’t you?”

  I try to keep my expression even in the face of the funny irony. I did have ‘pussy’ and it’s right here.

  I leave the guys staring after me at the front door.

  “I’ve got plans, but maybe next time,” I toss up my hand as farewell and duck into my car, leaving the Lopez residence behind.

  Astra is in the shower when I let myself in. Perfect timing for pussy…

  I undress in the hall and slip in to the steamy bathroom.

  “Room for one more?”

  Astra jumps and whirls at my voice. I pull the curtains after, revealing her wide eyes, coloring cheeks, open mouth and the rest of her. Her chest is raising and falling at a rapid rate and her thighs squeeze together.

  She’s checking me out too. Her gaze takes me in the buff before she asks softly, “How did practice go?”

  “Great. How did the napping go?”

  “It was nice.” She moves to make room, her back face the steady warm stream from the shower head. I wrap my hands around her waist and pull her against my front, her slippery belly yielding to my hard cock. “Happy Valentine’s, by the way.”

  “You heard that, did you?” I kiss her, bearing down and nipping her lower lip on our parting.

  Gotta celebrate V-Day in style.

  I remember Dan’s words and smile, pecking her lips and sliding my fingers around the small of her back. “Let’s celebrate the rest of the day, just you and me.”

  Her eyes are wider, but that’s interest rather than weariness in her depths of brightest brown. “Oh? What did you have planned?”

  “No plans,” I shake my head once, kissing her gently. “We go with the flow. Maybe enjoy candle-lit dinner and a movie. Or we do this,” and I lock our lips, sweeping my tongue through, and leaving us both breathless before I continue, “Whatever you want, Astra.”

  “I want you,” she kisses me this time, and I’m holding onto her like the bathtub, the second floor of her house, the Earth itself is going to open up and fall away, swallow me if I don’t keep her there against me, our bodies, hearts and minds in synch.

  She’s like the music, I realize. All at once I let go of everything, of Lola’s snooping, and Tzatza’s melodrama and the stupid marriage thing with Custodio and her secreted guest room.

  It’s all about Astra. Me and Astra and this thing that’s sort of like love but isn’t.

  I think.

  I hope.

  Shit.

  8

  I’m starting to realize my guitar in my arms isn’t any different than Astra in that I can play both really well.

  It’s the guitar I play to wake her up. Astra mumbles something from the bed; she’s stirring at my soft plucking, and sitting up and blinking rapidly when I croon a child’s lullaby.

  “I always liked that song,” she smiles sleepily. She rubs a hand over her eyes and pushed her wild red hair out of her face. “My parents used to sing it to my sister…” she trails off and sighs, the one note packing more burden than it should.

  I don’t stop singing to answer her, or to question her, but I compensate by keeping her in my sight. She fluffs her pillow, and mine, at her back and settles in for a show. I try not to disappoint.

  It feels good to wake up with the weight of the guitar…

  Almost as great as it felt waking up, my arms wrapped around Astra, her butt warming my balls, and one of her breasts filling my palm. A man could get used to this feeling. Then, before he knows it, dangerous thoughts like setting up roots and making a home with red-haired, dark-eyed babies comes to mind.

  “I think I like it better when you sing.” Even from the armchair in the corner of her room I see her eyes dancing, naturally pink lips curving up the longer I stare, speechless.

  Giving my head a shake, I mutter, “Repeat that?”

  Astra’s tinkling laugh is a whole different kind of music. I slipped back into my jeans when I woke earlier, but I wince when the head of my erection rubs the zipper.

  I stand and swinging the strap through my head, I set the guitar lounging in the chair where I sat. Losing the pants on the way to her side of the bed where Astra is shifting restlessly, her gaze fastened on my semi-flaccid prick.

  Her eyes are darker, she’s sunk her teeth into her bottom lip and the sheet lying over her breasts have fallen down to reveal her red-pink nipples.

  Bearing down on her for that look alone, I mesh our mouths, swallowing her moan and getting a fistful of her hair to lock her to my lips. My tongue does its cavity search, wrestling her slippery, hot appendage, and sliding away from me to nip and tug her lower lip.

  “I want you. Obviously.” I kiss a fast, hard trail down her neck, lowering onto my knees.

  On my wavelength, Astra sidles onto her side, facing her back to me. I lift her up and slide under her, giving her purchase on my lap. Nipping the shell of her ear, I blow hotly and whisper, “I need you, babe.”

  “Good,” Astra groans, her hand falling over mine as I bring her back against me. “I need you, too.” Her hand reaches back, cupping my face as she tilts her head and reveals an expanse of her throat.

  I kiss and suck the taut muscles under creamy flesh. Up front my hands are kneading her tits, fingers flicking over her erect nipples, I love the control I have over her.

  It’s fucking fantastic to know the attraction and blinding want, need is mutual.

  I’m starting to lose focus though. My dick is wedged under Astra’s ass cheeks, but it’s flooding with blood, the shaft rising to nestle over her secreted and very moist folds.

  At this rate I could slip up into her, we’re both ready.

  “I’m going to fuck you now,” my warning unnecessary as I reluctantly switch my hands from working her breasts to se
ttling over her hips and pushing her against me.

  Reining in the hiss, I press my lips to her shoulder blade and wait to ride out the initial welcome of her pussy around my cock.

  I plunge up and forward, splaying my hands about her middle to control her, maximize our pleasure. Astra’s moaning and whining is navigating us to that zenith of pleasure.

  “Come with me, babe,” I grunt, fingers slipping over her hips from our sweating bodies. “Now, Astra.”