Love with Every Beat

by K. L. Shandwick

  I texted and called with Lily when I got back to the room and found out that Jack was staying with her. There was something going on there, and I hoped I wasn’t the one who was going to look like a fool when the whole story came out.

  Chapter 33 – Cream Cheese

  Meeting Lily the next morning for breakfast, I waited outside The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. When I saw her walking toward me, my heartbeat raced. Gorgeous as always, she was turning heads as she walked past people.

  Lily really had no idea the affect she had on others. Dressed in a white wool jacket, black skinny jeans, and a pair of sexy- as-sin laced up knee length boots with stiletto heels, she looked stunning.

  She was everything a man could want in a woman—all this man wanted anyway. Not waiting for her, I started toward her as well. When we reached each other she was smiling widely, her eyes were twinkling, and the feeling of warmth she gave me inside was nothing short of nirvana.

  Tugging on her coat lapel, I pulled her closer. My eyes were already on her lips, hers on mine. Licking them, I closed the space between us in a soft kiss. It was bliss.

  Reluctantly, when I broke the kiss, I met her gaze again. I was smiling at her reaction to our kiss as I dropped my forehead to rest on hers. “Hey,” I said softly. “I missed you.”

  Taking her hand, I laced her fingers in mine and kissed the back of it. “Okay, I’m all yours. Where are we going?” She smiled and there was hesitancy in her eyes again, which I was confused about. I had no idea what she was unsure about.

  We found a little coffee house and settled ourselves at a table near the back. I sat on the same side as Lily, because sitting opposite her led me to too many impure thoughts, so sitting alongside her was my safer option.

  When she was drinking her coffee, she left herself with a frothy milk mustache on her top lip, which made me chuckle. “What is it?” She smiled back, looking confused.

  Leaning forward, I placed my hand over hers on the table. With my tongue I licked the froth off of her lips and sucked at them. Leaning back I gestured at her mouth with my index finger, indicating to her that she had residue there.

  “Coffee tastes great on your lips. I can only think about one other place that it would definitely taste better.” I smirked seductively at her, and fuck if it didn’t turn her on. Hey eyes filled with lust, and she was fighting her feelings, thinking she would come across as unaffected.

  “You could have just passed me a napkin and told me, or wiped it off with one. Why do you have to make everything you do to me seem so sensual?” she said, pretending to be annoyed with me.

  Smirking and biting back a grin, I said, “I do? I’m just following your rules Lily, you said no hands remember?” I was relieved when she started laughing.

  “Well, if it’s something like that then of course you can use your hands.”

  I smiled back and looked like I had just understood what she meant. “Gotcha!” But using my mouth had been way more fun.

  Biting into my bagel the cream cheese oozed on my fingers. Lily’s eyes stared at the cheese on them, and I remembered the episode we’d had with ice cream. Reaching over, I drew my fingers against her lips, teasing them open and pushed my fingertips into her mouth.

  “Suck them,” I demanded, and she did it without hesitation. A guttural sound escaped my throat the instant she did. And my dick was solid and aching for her. “Fuck, Lily,” I whispered.

  We shared an intense stare gaze, before I tore my eyes away and pretended not to be as affected by our intimate little moment as I had been.

  The next few days played out pretty much the same, me minding my manners, and Lily resisting me. If she’d made a move on me we’d have been done. One night I even got to hold her all night at Jack’s place. We’d been fully clothed though, and she had cried because I wasn’t able to give her more. That was horrible, but we got past it, and she seemed happier from that point onwards.

  On New Year’s Eve I hadn’t seen Lily all day, but I was so excited to be playing at the O2 and even more for the fact that she was going to be out in the audience watching us. The band hung around the venue for most of the day. Cobham Street was so used to playing gigs of that magnitude, they just swanned in and did a quick sound check, checked the lighting, and left again to go and relax.

  Being frank about it, I was wired. Unable to sleep at all the night before between the gig and with all the pent up sexual tension there had been between Lily and me, and I felt like I was fit to burst.

  Each time I’d seen Lily was worse as far as my self- control was concerned. Craving her body was becoming a daily routine, much like brushing my teeth. Habitually lusting after her, I needed to feel her warm hands on me and desperate for the high that came with being inside of her.

  Funny how stress and nerves affect people. Drew and Des were talking incessantly in the dressing room. Andy was scowling and on a couple of occasions at Drew and Des and turned to bark at Des. “For fuck’s sake, will you shut the fuck up? I can’t think around you.”

  Des smirked, his eyes flicking over to me. Throwing him back a warning look, I narrowed my eyes and shook my head for him not to antagonize Andy any further, but he didn’t heed my warning.

  “Holy Fuck, Andy! When the fuck did you start thinking? It’s remarkable that you have caught up with that concept. We’ll need to inform the press, dude.”

  Andy stood up and made his way to the bathroom door. “Yeah, Des… actually it’s been quite a while now. And, now that I can, I keep thinking what the fuck am I doing hanging around these dickheads?”

  Andy turned to face me and gave me one sharp nod, his lips pressed into a line and his fists clenched by his sides. “Present company excluded, Alfie.” Swinging the door open fully, he left the room, leaving the door to bang shut hard behind him.

  Drew punched Des’s arm. “Way to go, Ace. The last thing we need tonight is for him to be unhinged.”

  Pushing myself out of the chair, I had some thoughts of my own. All this horse play had to stop. It was irritating the hell out of me, and how they had wound Andy up may have affected us playing. I shook my head; these were my best buddies, but some straight talking was needed.

  “Jesus guys, this is the biggest night of our lives, and you two are behaving like fifteen year olds playing at a sweet sixteen party. We are about to go out on to a world stage, dudes. Grow the fuck up! And Des get in there and calm the waters. If he freaks out on us, it won’t do much for our reputation if the bass is off.”

  Des opened and closed his mouth like a guppy, never knowing when to take the hint, but Drew nudged him and shook his head. Drew knew better and was warning Des not to come back at me. I’d have annihilated him if he had.

  Instead, he huffed and dragged his leg from underneath him and rose to stand, heading off to iron out his differences with Andy.

  Rick showed up about ten minutes before our stint and told us to raise the roof and get Cobham Street’s fans pumped for them. The guy was cool. “Hey, no sweat, you guys are gonna be great. Maybe I’ll be warm up for Crakt Soundzz one day.” We all smirked at each other at that one… I mean, Rick Fars was a legend.

  Feeling excited and full of nervous energy, we were led up to the stage. The production assistant was walking with his finger to his ear piece and speaking into a walkie-talkie.

  The emcee’s announcement was too brief for me really, because suddenly I didn’t feel that confident about this one. What if they hate us? Lily was out there, and I wanted to make her proud.

  “We are honored here tonight to have a brilliant support band all the way from the USA. These guys have been getting bigger and bigger, and this is their first visit to us across the pond here in London. Most of you won’t have heard of them before tonight, but let me tell you guys, you’re definitely going to be telling people that you saw them here first. Please give a warm London welcome to Crakt Soundzz!”

  The screaming crowd was definitely encouraging. Their cheering, willing us to ente
rtain them. We weren’t Cobham Street, but we were better than nothing as far as they were concerned.

  The auditorium fell silent, and I stood in the dark and worked a swallow. This is it. I wished my mom could have seen me and threw up a silent prayer for her to watch over us. Des’s drumsticks started the count, and I didn’t think any more about anything. We were on.

  Noise, vibration, and blaring lights—along with the roar of fans— assaulted my senses, injecting me with so much energy that I bounced on my toes. The stage came to life, and I was standing smack bang in the center of it, facing a sea of faces.

  Sounds from Drew’s rift as he played a background intro fueled me forward as Andy’s bass rumbled its vibrations through my feet and around the atrium of the auditorium. Still bouncing and feeling wired, I grabbed the microphone as Drew played one of our songs, ‘Fierce.’

  Singing to the crowd was something I was used to, because I loved sharing my music. When I finished the song and the crowd cheered loudly, I screamed, “Hello London!” The crowd roared louder back at me. Turning to my bandmates, I shrugged, and they shrugged in return.

  I turned back to the fans again, cupping my hand around my ear. “I didn’t quite hear that. Hello London!” I screamed loudly again into my mic. The cacophony of the crowd was deafening. Nodding I said, “Yeah, much better. We’re newbies in town, guys, but all we want to do is give you guys a great fucking time tonight.”

  The crowd seemed to surge and swell as they swayed in time to the beat of the music, chanting our name in unison between numbers. Arms were in the air when they mimicked my actions or played along on their air guitars. Most of them were bouncing around nearly as much as I was for most of the time.

  Indescribable—what was happening to us and how it was making me feel was so surreal. Seeing all of Cobham Street’s fans apparently liking what we did was insane. The feeling I had of seeing their reaction to our music is one that will always stick with me. Every song we sang was a hit with them, and Drew’s smug face at their reaction made me laugh out loud more than once.

  The band stopped and the crowd fell silent. So I took my tone down and spoke softly into the mic. I wanted to create the right atmosphere for the next part. “Thank you, London, for your kind hospitality and for allowing us the opportunity to come here and entertain you tonight.”

  Drew started playing the introduction to ‘Insatiable,’ and I knew that Lily would be having her own thoughts out there in the middle of everything. Going around the band, I introduced them one by one starting with Andy. Des played an impressive drum solo, and the fans roared their approval.

  Andy did his little stint on the bass, and Drew did his usual showing off, nimble fingers working the fret in a complex arrangement at lightning speed. When he was finished I said, “Oh, and by the way, I’m Alfie Black.” Swallowing hard, the reception I received from them was mind blowing. I couldn’t take in that all the noise from those people was just for me.

  Holding my hand up to silence the crowd, I was momentarily awe-struck by the fact that I could command that much attention.

  “We want to finish with a special song I wrote a few months ago. I was struggling with this one, until the most beautiful girl I’ve ever laid eyes on came to my rescue. She gave me the perfect line for the bridge.” Looking up toward the box seating we’d been allocated, where Lily and her friends were sitting I said, “And Lily, this one is for you, honey.”

  Every time I sang the song, I was reminded of Lily and how we looked at each other that first day on campus. How she made me feel, and how I ruined so much between us with my stupid proposition. When I sang I stared up at the box for the whole song. It was like there was no one else in that huge space, only us.

  Hearing the emotion in my voice, I was wondering if Lily could hear more than the words I was singing. Wondering if she could feel how she made me feel in my music.

  As the last note of the song rang out, I lifted the mic and looked up in her direction again. “Are you listening to how I feel honey?” I pointed up toward the box, and the audience erupted in a massive roar of cheering.

  Running off stage, all I wanted was to get to her. After being out there with all the adrenaline rushing through my veins, I just wanted to be with Lily. Emotions were running high between all of us in the band. Bumping chests, hugging, and loads of back slapping we’d pulled it off.

  Suddenly, there were tons of people, sixty, no maybe seventy people all milling around wanting to speak to us, and pushing us in the direction of a large conference room, full of journalists and music industry guys, who to this day, I have no idea where they were from or what they did.

  Apart from that, once we had dealt with them there were the groupies. All shapes and sizes, flaunting their wares at us, some with skirt hems that just skimmed their asses, some with tits barely covered, but all hoping to get laid by a rock star.

  Des wasn’t fussed within five minutes of coming off stage he had one in each hand and one in the wings. All I wanted was a shower and to get to Lily but being the lead singer most saw me as the prize. Sights set on me, me trying to avoid them.

  Stray hands feeling my dick and checking me out was an occupational hazard. It made me wonder about all the sexual assault stuff women go through. This shit happened to me on a daily basis, and people just expected me to accept it.

  We’d had a fair few groupies hanging around us during our time playing the local bars, and yeah, I’ll admit that in the beginning it felt like I’d fallen into a barrel of tits and pussy. There was so much on offer and as a young guy with no ties, getting my rocks off a few times in one day wasn’t uncommon.

  My attitude then was life was short, and they were more than willing, so why not? I should take what I need and fuck the consequences.

  The girls at the O2 weren’t taking no for an answer. A stunning redhead wandered in my direction, cupped her hand between my legs and told me I was awesome, and she’d like to suck my dick. Smirking, I told her my dick was reserved for my girl tonight, and gripping her wrist, I shoved her hand back in her direction and began to head to the dressing room.

  Twenty minutes I had lasted in there being polite, I’d done my time on stage. Lily had waited long enough. So I headed to the shower, I was going to spent time with my girl. Another ten minutes and I was heading out the door on the way to find her, the others running along behind me; Drew still trying to put his shoe on and following after me.

  Some minder that had been assigned to us led the way, and the concourse he took us down had a wall full of doors that looked like broom cupboards lining it. He led us to the last one and opened the door. Inside was the box we had for the evening, and Lily was right there in front of me. She had her back to me talking to Jack and my heart swelled as soon as I laid eyes on her.

  My eyes flicked up taking in the vast space and crowd we’d just played to, and from this viewpoint, it seemed even more awesome that we’d been down there on that stage not half an hour ago playing to these guys.

  Wrapping my arms around her, I pulled Lily to me, lifting her up from behind. As soon as I did, my dick sprung to life, and I was all hot and horny for her. Carrying her to the corner of the box near the balcony, I slid her slowly down the length of me and set her on the ground.

  Lily was in no doubt how I felt about seeing her from that action. Sighing heavily, I was feeling so fucking happy and contented. At peace. Needing to kiss her, I took the gum out of my mouth and threw it in a glass near one of the seats, then turned back to look at Lily. I was smiling, and I couldn’t stop.

  Leaning in to her, I crushed my mouth on to hers, goose-bumps coursed through my body, and when she shivered in my arms I knew the same had happened to her.

  Picking her up, she wrapped her legs around my waist, and at that moment, there was nothing I wanted more in my life than to spend it with her.

  “You’re so fucking sexy, you know that, right. What did you think?”

  Lily smiled and kissed me again. “My
legs are wrapped around you, Alfie. Do you seriously think they would there if I thought you were crap?” she said playfully.

  Chuckling, I nuzzled her neck, and she wriggled her pussy against my bulging dick. Damn it was the nearest we’d been since Miami, if you didn’t count the bottle incident. “This has been my best year ever, Lily.”

  Lily’s smile froze for a second, but she tried to cover it up. It was a crass thing to say since I had put her through so much shit since we’d met.

  Changing the subject quickly when I noted the attendant standing watching us, “I’m gonna get rid of the ‘suit’ at the back before the band comes on. I want some privacy so that we can let our hair down.” The last thing I needed was some bartender taking pictures of me and Lily and selling them on the internet.

  Lily seemed completely different around her friends. She was the center of attention, not because she was loud—she just had a presence and all her friends adored her. She was in her element, and it made me happy to see her genuine smiles and playful tones as she chatted so naturally with them. The difference in her confidence with them was remarkable.

  Jack still caused me issues with her, but we had been invited to his place for drinks a few nights ago, but he had brought a girl, so there didn’t seem to be a sexual thing going on between him and Lily. It was a weird relationship between them I couldn’t get my head around.

  The lights in the auditorium dimmed and Cobham Street began their set. Being in the audience after being on the stage, was an anti-climax for me. The crowd was awesome, but they were much more than that when I was in front of them.

  Taking Lily in my arms and swaying to the music I asked her,