“You want me to fuck you in the business office?” I challenged. “Kinky.”
“No! Gross. Public isn’t my style, but I’d be really happy with a little necking time.”
I chuckled. “Just how old are you?”
“Ninety-four next month. I look good, huh?”
“So good.” I leaned down and kissed her gently. “You do okay on the bus?”
She nodded. “Bam was missing Lucy though.”
“Yeah, she was missin’ him too.”
“I told him I’d be willing to switch with her… you know, take one for the team.”
I stroked her neck. “Take one for the team, huh?”
She smiled and nodded. “I figured she and I are doing the same job, so we can support both bands. Is that okay?”
“It poses a little problem for me.”
“Crap,” she whispered, dropping her gaze to the floor. “I should have talked to you about it. I’m really sorry, Jack.”
I lifted her chin and kissed her again. “Not mad about it, Hadley… just gonna make it harder for me not to drag you into the tiny bathroom and fuck you senseless.”
“I didn’t really think about that.” She licked her lips and smiled. “Can you control yourself?”
“Considering you’ll be in my hotel bed whenever possible.”
“I can’t be in your bed every night. Someone will see.”
I kissed her again, sliding my hand under her shirt and tugging her bra down in order to roll her nipple between my fingers.
She arched into my touch. “Jack.”
“Yeah, baby?” I whispered, leaning down to kiss her again.
“God, that feels so good.”
I removed my hand and she whimpered.
“You gonna sleep with me every night you can?” I challenged.
She wrinkled her nose. “Maybe.”
I fixed her bra and shirt and stepped back. “Yeah?”
“Come back,” she said with a groan.
“You gonna sleep with me every night?” I repeated.
She rolled her eyes. “Fine. Yes, evil one, I will.”
I grinned and closed the distance between us again. “Good answer.”
She stroked my beard. “FYI, I don’t really like blackmail.”
I chuckled. “Noted.”
“But I like what you were just doing.”
“I’ll make it up to you tonight and do that again.”
She grinned, kissing me gently. “FYI, I like that kind of apology.”
“Noted.” I kissed her quickly one last time. “Alright, sweet face, we really do have to go before someone notices we’re both missing. I’m sure my band is anxiously awaiting an update on the health status of my dear aunt Tabeetha.”
Hadley burst into laughter and as I held her, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been so happy and at peace.
* * *
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been so panicked and full of fear. My ears were ringing from the near-deafening screeching that had shot through my in-ear monitors moments earlier. “What the fuck, Teddy?”
“They’re trying to figure out what’s going on, boss!” Teddy yelled back.
Back in the day, musicians only had giant speakers on the floor and to sides of the stage to hear ourselves. It was a primitive solution that did damage to the hearing of many great players and singers. Over ten years ago, in-ear monitoring had become the industry standard, allowing musicians to have custom molded, super high-quality ear buds made in order to hear themselves much better, at significantly lower volume. Apparently, our monitoring system had some bugs to be worked out, and just three minutes before we were to start playing, I found myself unable to hear anything but eardrum-crushing noise.
“Tell them to figure it out fast!”
I looked over at Rex and his death ray was locked on several members of the band’s sound crew, who were currently in a state of mild panic.
I heard one of them call out, “We’re rebooting the monitoring desk now.”
Our show opened with a three-minute video piece that served as a snap shot of the band’s history. It was filled with old photos, video clips, soundbites and reminders of our past. We were about one minute from when I was to count off the first song, and the digital mixing board that controlled the band’s entire monitor feed was being powered back up after a full shut down.
“This’d better fuckin’ work or we’re in for a long night,” Robbie said.
I looked to my left and awaited the all clear sign from the monitor station. There was nothing like last minute technical chaos to get the adrenaline pumping. I needed to slow down my breathing and mentally clear myself or I’d go blazing into the first song way too fast.
I glanced to my right and saw Hadley standing with Lucy, a look of concern on her face. She must have seen me pull my in-ears out and could clearly see we were having major technical issues.
I smiled and mouthed, “I’m okay,” just in time to get the thumbs up from our monitoring engineer. This was it. After years of absolute silence, RatHound was about to make a very big noise.
I heard the crescendo of the opening video’s music and quickly popped my in-ears back in just before the massive curtain that had been hiding us from the audience dropped. I took a deep breath, steadied myself. Much like Dorothy, I clicked my sticks together a few times and found myself going back home.
Hadley
AS JACK STARTED to play, my heartbeat returned to normal. I don’t fully know why I was so worried. Roses for Anna’s set had gone perfectly and they’d played better than they ever had, so I shouldn’t be concerned about RatHound. But the reality was, Jack had weaseled his way into my heart, and now I felt his irritation and wanted to fix whatever ailed him.
Lucy rushed up to me and stared toward her father. Rex caught her eye and smiled as he gave her a quick nod, and Lucy let out a breath of relief. “Holy crap on a stick, I thought someone was going to lose their head.”
I nodded. “Yeah. I don’t understand what happened between Roses set.”
“I have no idea, but Teddy’s gonna have to give me some answers… before they finish their last song.”
“I hope this isn’t an omen.”
Lucy gasped. “Don’t say that.”
I grimaced. “Sorry.” I glanced at Jack just as he looked at me and let me know he was okay.
God, the man was sexy. His long hair hung passed his shoulders, and the mere sight of him sitting behind his drums made my body ache for him.
“I’m going to check on the guys,” I said, and attempting to force myself away from Jack. “Do you need anything?”
“You’re leaving now? Don’t you want to see their set?” Lucy asked.
Of course I did, but I felt like all eyes were on me. I was trying to keep this thing between me and Jack a secret, but imagined cartoon hearts swirling over my head, and was pretty sure everyone could see them as well.
“I just want to make sure my guys don’t need anything.”
“They’ll be fine. Besides, you know as well as I do, they’ll be right here to watch the show any minute.”
As if on cue, Bam, Zeke, Jimmy, and Edward appeared. They had changed out of their sweat soaked stage clothes and shared the same wide-eyed look as everyone else in the sold-out crowd that night—slightly stunned and ready to see their heroes take the stage.
The venue lights darkened and the now filled to capacity venue went crazy. Jack counted the band off and they went tearing into a song from their very first album.
My emotions were warring with my mind and I couldn’t stop myself from glancing to my left, nervous that everyone could read my body language. I shouldn’t have been concerned, the rest of the group, including Lucy (who’d seen her dad play a million times), was engrossed in the music, so I let myself feel everything Jack was emitting.
Bad idea.
I suddenly needed the man naked and between my legs. I glanced at him and h
e caught my eye. The adoration I saw in his expression was too much for me to process, so I shut down, dropping my eyes to my iPad for a moment to gather my thoughts.
Shit! Shit! Shit! I was falling for this man. I needed to cut it off at the knees, but I didn’t know how I’d do that, considering he was expecting me in his bed tonight.
Why did I agree to this? I was an idiot.
Taking a deep breath, I focused back on Jack again, who was back to being engulfed in his music and tried to separate my heart from my vagina.
* * *
Jack
There are only two things in life I can compare to playing live music; sex and riding a horse. In all three activities, there is a balancing act between being in complete control, and surrendering to the random chaos around you. Moments of fear being overtaken by feelings of rapture. Potential glories and failures battling it out in the pit of your stomach. I’d long since replaced, or at least attempted to replace, drumming with other adrenaline raising activities, but now that I’d found myself here again, I knew I was right where I was supposed to be.
“We’ve got a few more songs for you, if that’s alright.” Rex’s voice echoed throughout the venue. The crowd roared back in approval and I readied myself for Robbie to start the next song.
“Before we do that, I’d like to thank my brothers for being up here with me tonight. I can’t tell you how much it means to me to be playing with these two guys again.”
In all the countless shows we’d played over the years, I’d never recalled Rex introducing us on stage, or anything like that. We’d come up during a time when such things felt like “rock star” moves. However, this felt different, and I fought my nature to withdraw when I felt too much attention on me.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please show your love to Mr. Robbie Roberts on the guitar!” Rex shouted, and the place responded in kind. Rex continued. “I know a lot of you have travelled a long way to be here with us, but I assure you, nobody has come further in order to be here tonight than the man behind the drums. Please let him know how much you’ve missed him… Jack Henry.”
The applause that followed was like nothing I’d ever experienced. The cheers were nearly deafening, and seemed to increase over the following minutes. I knew our music had been really important to a lot of young people in the 90’s, but I had no idea how much I figured into that. I don’t tend to dwell on the past, but rather draw my energy from the possible future.
“From me, Jack and Robbie, I just want to say thank you and we love you!” Rex yelled and Robbie ripped into the opening riff of “Box of Matches.”
As we played through our final song of the set, I found myself looking to the side of the stage more and more often. I’d tried my best to shut Hadley out of my mind while we were playing, and had been pretty successful for most of the night. However, this was opening night and my brain was plenty occupied. As of now, the countdown clock to when I’d have Hadley in my bed started ticking and it was getting harder to think of much else.
We finished the tune and exited the stage the second it went dark. The video screens came to life again, which meant we had three minutes before our encore. I searched for Hadley in the low light, but couldn’t see her anywhere.
“You were amazing.” I felt her breath as she whispered into my ear. She had snuck up behind me in the darkness and I could feel her hand slip into mine.
“You just wait until later,” I whispered back, still unable to see her. She squeezed my hand, and before I could turn around, had slipped back into the darkness.
Every drummer will tell you that a sudden surge of adrenaline will cause you to rush the tempo while playing. If anyone should wonder why I played our final song that night way too fast, they could blame Hadley Simon.
* * *
Hadley
After Jack’s performance, my body was locked and loaded for some of his magic. I should probably be more specific… my vagina was locked and loaded for some of his magic. Actually, my vagina was always locked and loaded when it came to Jack Henry and his level fifty-seven wizardry of the cock.
Lucy and I were currently at the hotel, gathering everyone’s keys, and making sure rooms were on the right floors. I was lingering, hoping Lucy would walk away for just a few minutes, so I could…
“Oh, crap, Mom’s calling,” Lucy said. “You good?”
“I’m great,” I said, and she walked away.
I faced the front desk person and said, “I need two rooms with adjoining doors, please.”
“We have two on the executive level, but you have only reserved one.”
“It’s all good, can we add that, please?”
“Sure thing. Your total will be increased by four-hundred-sixty-seven dollars and seventy-two cents.”
I tried not to choke. That would put a big hit in my bank account. “No problem. Can you put that one on my personal credit card, please?”
“Sure thing.”
I handed it over with a grimace and the woman ran it through. I slid the card into my pocket and then gathered the rest, jotting down the card key numbers with the assigned band member, roadie, or other.
Lucy returned just as the rest of the folks filed in. She and I took care of everyone, giving them all their pertinent details and handing out an updated schedule.
We had a break day before heading out on Sunday morning for California, so we’d hired a boat to take anyone who wanted to go out on the Columbia, but tonight, I had Jack all to myself and I needed it… needed him.
Once everyone had dispersed and I was left with Lucy in the lobby, I told her I was going to grab a few things from the little gift shop before heading to my room. I didn’t want her to know I wasn’t sleeping on her floor tonight, but couldn’t think of another way to “lose” her.
As I headed back through the lobby, I felt a bit like I was in a James Bond movie, circumventing open spaces, opting to walk behind large pieces of furniture and potted plants (cartoon piano sounds under my footsteps included in my imaginary soundtrack). I stepped into the elevator and headed to my floor, peeking into the hallway and checking it was clear before making a run for my room.
I let myself in and then leaned against the door to catch my breath. Pulling out my cell phone, I texted Jack and then walked into my very expensive, tap into my savings account, there goes the extra night in Paris fund, room.
I heard a quiet knock at the adjoining door, so I pulled it open and found myself lifted off the ground and kissed for everything I was worth.
“Fuck me, I’ve missed you,” Jack said, dropping me on the bed.
I giggled. “You just saw me an hour ago.”
“Too long,” he growled and hovered over me.
I stroked his beard and smiled. “You were amazing tonight. Amazing. One day, I’d like you to teach me that fill you do coming out of the chorus on Stephen’s Song.”
“One day, I wanna hear you play.”
“Deal.”
He kissed me again, then stretched out beside me, waving his hand around the room. “This gonna be a regular thing?”
“Adjoining rooms?”
I nodded. “If they have them and they don’t cost what they cost tonight, sure.”
“What do you mean? We’re payin’ for it.”
“Um, no, you’re not, Jack. I’m not charging RatHound for me to upgrade to an executive level room because I don’t want anyone to know I have a fuck-buddy on this trip.”
He chuckled. “Fuck-buddy, huh?”
I grinned. “You wanna get to that, buddy?”
He climbed off the bed and removed his clothing and I followed suit. I sat on the edge of the mattress and pulled him closer to me where I wrapped my fingers around his hardening length and slid my hand down, cupping him before taking his cock into my mouth.
Jack hissed, fisting his hands in my hair, but before I could get to anything fun, I lost purchase on his dick and I was dragged up his body. “Hey!” I snapped.
“On your knees.�
�
I wanted to complain about not getting the chance to finish what I started, but on my knees was my one of my favorite positions, so I kept my mouth shut and did as I was told. Jack guided himself inside of me and I dropped my head back at the sensation.
“You like this, Hadley?” he asked as his palm connected with my ass.
I whimpered and pushed my body back against him.
“Mmm, you like that, huh?” He slammed into me again, his palm slapping me a little harder this time and the sensation overtook everything. God, it felt amazing, but when he slid one hand between my legs and fingered my clit, I came the second the palm of his other hand slapped against my bottom again, and I cried out his name as I buried my face in the mattress while he continued to thrust into me. His body locked and he wrapped his arms around me, gently rolling us to the side so we were spooning, staying connected as he kissed the back of my neck. “I think we need to get out of the fuck-buddy zone.”
I grinned as I tried to catch my breath. “You want to level up?”
He kissed my shoulder. “Yeah, baby, whatever the fuck that means.”
“It’s a gaming term.”
“Gaming term?”
“Video games, you know?”
“Holy shit, you’re a geek!” he exclaimed.
I laughed. “Guilty.”
“Well, don’t tell anyone… you were one of the kids who got shoved into lockers at my high school.”
I shifted so I was straddling him and leaned down to kiss him. “No one ever shoved me in a locker.”
He gripped my hips, lifting me slightly, then lowering me onto his already hard cock. I let out a quiet moan and he grinned as he sat up and kissed me. “No, can’t imagine they would.”
I lifted myself and then lowered slowly. “Of course, if you’d been the one shoving...”
He buried his face in my neck. “Yeah, baby, gonna do some shovin’.”
For the next blissful hour or two, Jack and I explored each other until I could no longer keep my eyes open. I hadn’t realized just how tired I was until I was snuggled up against his glorious body.
The Road Back (Limelight Series Book 2) Page 9