“Well, you want to hide from your brother and the crew. Since all of the above mentioned people are at your hotel I think it’s better if we head to mine.”
“What about the paparazzi and fans?”
He shrugged. “What about them? Most of them won’t know where to look just yet, and even if they do know, they’ll never notice me.”
I scoffed at the idea of not knowing who the hell Evan was, but then he tugged out a little travel case from the backpack he had slung over his shoulder and applied a mustache, a pair of glasses, a ball cap, and even a fake earring since he didn’t normally wear any. Then he put on a silly as hell Hawaiian shirt and threw his arms out wide. “Well?”
“Well, that’s something,” I stated as I took him in. “I wonder how this would feel,” I started to say about the mustache when we kissed, but he interrupted my thought process.
“You be a good girl and when we get back to the hotel I’ll let you find out just how it feels from here,” he traced his pointer finger down my cheeks to my lips. All the way to here,” he moved further down, tracing my neck and down to my collarbone and then he added. “I’ll even let you find out what it feels like in places I can’t point out in public, baby.”
“Can we get an Uber to the hotel?” I asked as Evan laughed and grabbed my hand, leading the way to our destination on foot. In all fairness, it was only two blocks away and we probably would have waited longer to get the Uber than it would take to walk it, but whatever.
Surprisingly not a single person noticed Evan in his over-the-top disguise and we were able to make it back to the hotel in one piece. We were also able to make it all the way up to his room without having any issues with running into someone we knew. I wasn’t sure if it was the sneaking around and trying to avoid being caught together or if the intense cravings I’d been feeling for him since our make out session, but I was about to jump right out of my skin I was so excited.
By the time we got to the hotel room I was hot, wet, and wanting. There absolutely was no polite way to put that. Evan had me fired up just by being at my side with his gorgeous self and that manly-musk smell he wore so well. I didn’t even know if it was a combination of his body wash, after shave, or just him. Whatever it was, it had my belly fluttering every time I inhaled. Our lips met with fervor as we explored each other’s mouths the minute the door to the room shut behind us. Clothes went flying and before I even knew what was happening Evan had me flipped up on all fours on top of the bed and was entering me from behind. He was balls deep before I could even process what had just happened.
“Holy fuck!” I screamed out as he slapped my ass, pulled out all the way until just the head of his cock was teasing my entrance and then he slammed into me again with such force that it literally knocked me off my hands and caused me to fall face first into the mattress.
“Shit, Chelle, sorry,” he called out as I started laughing. My laughter apparently did things down there that caused him to groan and grip my ass hard.
“Shit, love, remind me to make you laugh more often when I’m inside of you. Thought you were going to actually squeeze my cock to death for a minute there.”
I clamped my muscles down on him then and pushed back against him hard. He groaned again, but took the hint and held on tightly to my hips as he started thrusting in deep and fast. To his credit he waited until I came down from my first orgasm before he flipped me over and climbed between my legs entering me again in one smooth motion as he explored my breasts with first his hands and then his mouth. I wrapped my legs around his waist and managed to pull his ass against me tighter, grinding his cock into me as well as his pubic bone into my clit. That set me off once again before he started pumping like crazy and followed me over the edge.
We ordered room service afterward and started watching Pirates of the Caribbean, as it was the only thing worthwhile to watch on the television in that moment. “Maybe one day we can play naughty pirates,” he teased when I mentioned that pirates were hot. The Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp version were hot at any rate.
“Naughty pirates sounds fun,” I agreed right before I dozed off in his arms.
Chapter 9
~ Evan ~
We would all be going out together again tonight, as a group, and I couldn’t wait. My plan was to convince Chelle that tonight was the night to make us official and tell her brother about us. It was time to come out in the open with our relationship. I enjoyed our night curled up in the hotel together. I wanted that playful fun we had out at the cafe before we remembered that someone might see us. I needed to be hers and to have her be mine without having to feel anxious about the time I spend with her.
Granted, it hadn’t been that long since we decided to give it a shot, but I didn’t want to wait around for David’s happiness to wear off so that I could try my own on for size. I was pretty sure he wouldn’t want his sister putting herself in last place either, no matter what she thought he deserved. Not that I was one hundred percent sure he would want her with someone like me. I didn’t have as bad of a reputation with the women as Micah did, or Jeremiah even when he was hard-core into the groupie scene. Still, I hadn’t exactly been a model rock star citizen. Chelle had been right the other night when she lectured me about signing women’s bodies and how that would come back to haunt me one day. Wouldn’t you know it that particular kick to the teeth happened a whole lot quicker than I liked to think about.
Still, it was also the gut-punch I needed to know that I did not want to carry on a secret relationship. I was a grown ass man, and I didn’t want to hide from anyone. At least I didn’t want to hide the one person who made me fucking wake up smiling and go to sleep dreaming of her soft lips, sweet smile, and her quirky personality.
Unfortunately, I didn’t see Chelle before the show and had to settle for a text. She said she would probably be heading over with her brother after she got everything put away, and that meant I most likely wouldn’t be seeing her before we all got to the bar. I felt my stomach lurch inside when I thought about having to sit through everyone’s drunken antics at the bar while they all thought I was single. No doubt some women would end up getting bounced my way, either of their own accord or because Micah thinks I will always be his wingman now that his brother has tamed down a bit.
I waited and sat through the ensuing drama of the Jay-Everly-Sky Show. Not that the scenario was remotely Jay or Everly’s fault. Sky was in the band Dusty Rose and had worked with us before on tour. She’d fixated on Jay and didn’t care one iota that he had a woman. Hell, she befriended the last girlfriend he had. Frenemies is what they call that sort of arrangement. At any rate, Sky showed up - again - thinking now was her chance to land finally land Jay, only to be thwarted by his apparent growing affection for our new PA. Daytime TV had nothing on a night in the life of a rock star apparently. What it did have was a missing member of the audience.
David sat down beside me to tune into the Sky Show and as he chuckled I leaned in and asked the question that had burning on my mind all night. “I thought Chelle was coming out with you tonight?”
I immediately got the side-eye from him as he put the beer down, resting it on his knees instead of taking the swig he had been about to take. Then he sighed before turning to me. “I see the way she looks at you when she thinks no one is watching,” he started while fidgeting with his bottle before glancing back up at me and catching my eye. “I don’t know if anything is already going on between you two, or if it’s something you even both want, but listen to me.” I nodded my head and he continued. “She’s not that experienced, not in this world or any other, despite what she thinks. Somehow, some way that girl still sees the bright and shiny side of everyone until they demolish her vision. If you even think of starting something with her, don’t ever do anything to turn her full color world black and white. That is a place you will never recover from.” David stood and started to move away.
“Where is she?” I asked once more.
Dave shrugge
d his shoulders. “She just told me she got sick and couldn’t come out.” He tossed a wicked grin my way. “Maybe she was hiding from someone,” he suggested before sauntering away and wrapping his arm around a blond who had been eyeing him most of the night. It didn’t escape my notice that the woman who usually had his attention was playing tonsil hockey in the dark corner near the bathroom with our tour photographer. I wasn’t sure what was going on between the three of them, but it didn’t look like it would lead to a good place. I loved sweet little guitarist to death, but I was pretty darn certain she was barking up the wrong tree. Our photographer didn’t play well with me - at all. It was one of the reasons we chose her, so that none of the guys in the band would fuck it up. I rolled my eyes at the fact that we hadn’t actually factored Mags into the equation since she openly swung both ways.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to dip out when I wanted to either, because I got dragged into everyone else’s drama when Sky started showing her ass again. As a result I never noticed the text that came in on my phone from Chelle. I never responded, and then I didn’t end up back at the busses until it was time for us to roll out in the morning. I was cursing my bandmates all night since they required a babysitter. Jay had actually managed to slide out with Everly at some point, which left me to babysit the Stone brothers and a very uncharacteristically inebriated Mags. It also meant I had to fend off Micah and Jer’s leftovers all night, which made me even less happy, because my plan for the night had been to make it clear to everyone that I was taken and not down for that stupid shit any longer.
~ Chelle ~
I couldn’t wait to go out with everyone. I even thought things through a little more and I was ready to tell my brother about Evan and me. I hated hiding an entire person that made me so happy. I hated having to see his stupid friends trying to set him up with a new nameless girl every night, and I especially hated that I just couldn’t tell those bitches to back the fuck off of my man. He was my man, and I wanted everyone to know it. Most importantly though, I wanted to be able to touch him, watch him, and interact with him without holding anything back and I wanted the same from him in return.
That’s why the pain in my guts was nothing compared to the fact that it became pretty clear just before I was due to leave with my brother that I wasn’t going anywhere. I should have known too. Most of the guys on the crew were moaning and groaning about not feeling well. Then one after the other they started fighting over the bathroom, the kitchen sink, and the nearest trashcans. The venue actually had to open back up so that the guys could use the facilities. It seemed that the assholes that catered for the crew that day fed us something that wasn’t quite fit for human consumption. I thought I had escaped the melee since I hadn’t partaken of the chicken the guys all seemed to have in common, but no…
Instead, it just took a little bit longer for everything to hit me and when it did it hit explosively and without mercy. I barely made it to the bathroom, and let’s just say that I didn’t even bat an eye at the condition the other guys had left it in, because there was no time to care. When I was finally well enough to come out of the bathroom again after the first three rounds of purging myself I was able to send a text out to Evan. I never got a response though so I just climbed in my bunk and figured Dave would let everyone know I was sick. I had hoped that once Evan heard I wasn’t feeling well he would come back. I wasn’t worried about him catching anything, because it was definitely food poisoning, and the bands each had a different caterer during the day today. They all get along on tour, but God forbid they agree on what they want to eat. A couple hours later I still hadn’t heard from him so I attempted to call, but he never answered so I left one more text before I decided that my miserable ass needed sleep more than I needed to sit up waiting for a man to call me or come make sure I was okay. It had become pretty obvious that he had more important things to do.
When I woke in the morning, I was immediately exposed to the harsh light streaming in from the window and the steady rolling of the bus underneath me. We’d taken off again, and I was thankful I’d stuck out my illness on the bus. Who knew how many roadies would wind up unaccounted for considering they had gone in the venue to be closer to accessible bathrooms. My throat was dry and achy, not to mention the morning-after puke fest breath I had going on. Come to think of it, the light probably hadn’t woken me. I just couldn’t stand myself any longer. Slowly, painfully, I maneuvered my way out of my bunk and down the hall to the bathroom, which looked far worse for the wear in the bright light of day. It was so bad that I started dry heaving again, though that could have just been the memories of the previous night that triggered the reaction. I groaned and someone reached in and handed me a bottle of Pepto.
“Oh, thank God,” I cried out in relief as I snagged the bottle, unscrewed the cap and chugged some of it.
“If I had known sooner I would have brought it by last night,” Smithy called out. “You should have let one of us know how bad this was.”
“I did,” I told him without thinking.
“It wasn’t me or your brother because he said you just told him you weren’t feeling well not that you had food poisoning with the rest of the crew.”
I sighed.
“Something you want to tell old Smithy about? Maybe someone?”
“Shit,” I muttered. Then I remembered just whom I had texted last night. He was the one person who I had confided in about how sick I was and he hadn’t bothered to respond. I pulled my phone from my hoodie pocket and checked it. Nope, still nothing. But Smithy pulled his phone from his pocket at the same moment. I heard the multiple pings it made and then noticed the frown on his face. I leaned in to see that there were several notifications popping up about the bands.
“Smithy, what’s this all about?”
“I have those Google thingies set up to see news about the bands so I know what kind of shit storm is brewing for us from town to town. These notifications weren’t necessarily about the bands though; instead they were about Everly being a home wrecking whore. I knew for a fact that she was nothing of the sort since I had been around to see the fallout after Jay found his ex-girlfriend fucking the lead singer of my brother’s old band. It was only after those two broke up in the aftermath that Jay and Everly even thought about getting together. That wasn’t the story being painted by Jay’s stalker, Sky, and his ex-girlfriend though.
There were also a couple pictures from where everyone was out at the bar the night before, and one of those pictures caught my eye. It was Evan hugging a scantily clad woman extremely close. My stomach turned again for entirely differently reason. I realized, as I read the article that she was part of the band Dusty Rose, and I knew the guys had worked with them in the past. Still, it hurt knowing he was too busy hugging up on another woman at any point in the night to respond to my texts. Meanwhile, I was busy blowing chunks in a filthy bus bathroom.
Smithy made a noise in the back of his throat. “Those bunch of vultures wouldn’t know a home wrecker if it was stealing their husbands. Everly’s the sweetest kid of the lot. Hell, if I had my say I’d have put those two together from the start. Jay needs a woman like her, and she needs someone with his caliber of loyalty - especially since she’s determined to mix in with this business.”
I smiled at the old man. “I’m sure she’d appreciate knowing that first hand, Smithy.”
“Yeah, well, maybe I’ll tell her when we stop.” He eyed me funny then. “Don’t think I failed to notice that you never explained who you reached out to when you were sick.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I told him. “I’m getting better and no one needs to know how bad it was.” The pointed glare I gave him was hopefully emphasis enough that I didn’t need him tattling about anything to my brother.
“Message received, darlin’. You go lie back down for a bit. I’ll bring you some crackers if I can find any. I think the guys who got hit with it first already ransacked the supplies. My stomach rolled slightly at the mention of fo
od.
“I think sleep will do just fine.”
“Here,” Smithy traded the bottle of Pepto out for a bottle of water. “Drink that,” he stated while tipping his head to indicate the bottle. “You need to rehydrate.”
“Yes, mom!”
“Smartass!”
There was no denying I was that. “How much longer do we have before we stop?”
Smithy checked his watch. “Probably another three hours.”
“Definitely back to bed then,” I told him as I moved to do just that.
“What are you doing here?” I heard Smithy growl out.
“I’m here to check on Chelle,” a familiar voice called out.
“Look, son, she ain’t feeling too hot. She’s resting after a long night of being sick with most of the crew. It’d be best if you just went back to your own bus now. You can check on her when we get to the venue tonight.”
“She left me…” Evan’s voice cut off in a frustrated sounding groan. “I didn’t realize she was so sick until this morning just before we stopped.” There was another pause and then he spoke again. “Just let her know I came by to check on her, please.”
“I can do that,” Smithy agreed. The world went dark again after that and I thought maybe I had dreamt it all when I woke again that evening and we were parked at the venue. Tonight we would all be able to recuperate, thankfully. The show wasn’t until tomorrow.
I peeked at my texts on my phone once I was awake, showered, and managed to get some soup on my stomach. I had 12 waiting for me. That was probably the most I’d ever had considering I never really used my phone for anything besides getting in touch with my brother when necessary. It wasn’t even one of those phones where I had data. It was just an ordinary flip phone that cost $20 and I paid a monthly fee in advance to use it.
The Infinite Beat (T.I.E. Book 2) Page 9