by Thia Finn
“We won’t inconvenience anyone. They always book extra rooms for big parties in case someone unexpected shows. They always get used, too.”
“See, someone else will need them instead of us.” I got more nervous by the minute. I knew this would end badly for me.
“Look, if you don’t want to party with the band, you can go straight to your room. I can crash anywhere when the party shuts down. I don’t expect you to stay in the same room anyway.” Hayden must have really wanted to meet up with them to be begging like this. He turned those big blue eyes on me and that’s all it took. The kid was too damn cute for his own good.
“Okay, if that’s all right with you. I’ll go on to my room, and you can party all night with them. As long as you’re ready to be onstage tomorrow night, I’m good with it.” I knew I’d give in to him. One bat of those long lashes, and he knew he sucked me into his plan. He was worse than my little brother when we were children, and he wanted his own way.
“Great. I’ll call the bus driver and tell him we’ll be ready in twenty minutes. You can do that right?”
“Sure, Hayden. I’ll be ready.” I smiled at him, and he jumped up and hugged me.
“You’re going to love the band. Just wait and see.”
Just wait and see. I could wait another lifetime before I saw Carter Sheridan again. A whole fucking lifetime.
The bus rolled into L.A., and it might as well have been twelve noon instead of twelve midnight. The city noises of people, cars, and music filled me. I’d never been to L.A. before so I couldn’t contain my excitement. Hayden toured through here with AD more than once so he knew what to expect. The enthusiasm he spoke with of the places we passed said it still amazed him, too. Unlike any big city I had visited, some of the sights were bigger than life in my eyes.
The bus turned into the front of a fancy hotel and a parking attendant met us at the door. People everywhere watched as we descended the steps assuming we were a big-named act arriving. When they didn’t recognize us, they continued down the sidewalk disappointed which suit me fine. I didn’t know if I would ever be prepared for all the fame that went along with being a superstar like Hayden already seems to be. Everything he talked about evolved around making it big like Assured Distraction.
“I texted Peri, and they’re here. She said they do have a couple of extra rooms, and all we’ve got to do is go to the front desk for our keys,” Hayden told me as he rounded the front of the bus with both of our bags.
I tried to take mine but he held on tightly, always the gentleman. “Let’s go get our keys. I’ll drop my bag in the room, and then I’ll find the party and the women.” He wiggled his eyebrows.
“You do that, man-child. I’m sure those ladies are the real reason the bus burned the road up from San Diego to L.A.” I laughed at him. No doubt he loved the ladies, and they loved him. His looks were going to get him in trouble one day. I’m sure he’s exactly like Carter and the rest of the AD band members.
We approached the counter, and the girl looked up at him dropping the papers in her hand. “May I help you?” Her smile lit up the room as she perused Hayden’s body.
“Sure can, sweetheart. Peri O’Connor left keys for us.”
“Let me check. What’s your name?” She tore her eyes away from the kid. Damn, I knew he would cause a riot when he got as well known as AD.
“Hayden Devillier, ma’am.” He turned on that charm every chance he got.
“Oh, okay, Mr. Devillier. Yes, we have two keys for a two-bedroom suite. You’ll also have to use this key in the elevator for access to that particular floor.” She gazed up at him. I’m sure she tried to decide if he was someone she should recognize.
“Thanks, ma’am.” He really poured on the southern drawl.
“You’re very welcome, Mr. Devillier. The elevators to the left will provide you access to your rooms.” She gave him her best come-hither look, and I tried hard not to laugh.
We walked away from the desk. “You’re terrible Hayden. That poor girl’s resistance to your charms flew out the window on the first ma’am. Do you do that on purpose?”
As we stepped into the elevator, he turned around and looked at me with a goofy grin that made me finally let go with the laugh I had been holding in. “Who? Me?”
“Yes, you, dumbass. You were doing that just to get the girl all worked up while she did her job.”
He leaned over to whisper a secret in my ear. “Bet her panties were wet when we left.” Then he started laughing, too.
“Yuk, TMI. I don’t need to know what you think about action in a girl’s panties, Hayden. Never.” I popped him on the back of the head.
“Oww. What was that for?”
“For saying something inappropriate to me.”
“I only stated a fact.” He couldn’t stop smiling.
“A fact I had no need knowing.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll be good…” he said and then softly added, “… for now.”
“I heard that.”
I’d forgotten about Assured Distraction possibly being on the same floor as we walked down the hall. Loud noises of laughter and talking came from one of the rooms we walked by.
“Hey, this is probably the band or some of them. Let’s stop here and let them know we made it.”
“No, I’m tired. Give me my bag, and I’ll go to my room.” I prayed the door didn’t open to their room.
“I’ll take it to your room, then. Come on.”
I waved the card past the reader on the door. The green light gave me access, and I walked right in turning to Hayden. “Okay, you can go. I’m going to take a shower and climb in bed. I’ll see you in the morning.”
The look he gave me let me know he had something on his mind. “What?”
“You’re acting weird. What’s going on?”
“Nothing. I’m tired and ready for bed. See you in the morning.” I took the room on the left and shut the door with him standing there staring at me. I leaned against the door waiting to hear the outside door close behind him. He made no sound indicating he intended to leave. I knew my actions appeared rude shutting him out that way, but I didn’t want Carter coming down the hall finding me. I wasn’t ready to spring myself on him because I had no clue how he would react to seeing me. Hayden finally shut the door, and I heard his steps as he walked back down to the fun and games with his rock-star friends.
I worried for the two-hour drive up here about what would happen if we ran into Carter tonight. I also thought about how everything needed to work out in the morning so we could be gone before the group woke up. I wanted to allude Carter until I couldn’t any longer.
I ran different scenarios through my mind about our reunion while I bathed. Would he be happy to see me? Shocked at my being there? Surprised to find me on tour with his young friend? Angry that I had kept my identity from him? Mad at Cash for not telling him? So many questions ran on a constant loop in my brain, it exhausted me. The sooner the secret came out, the better off I’d be. The consequences might come at a high price. Carter possessed the clout to get 13 Recordings to drop me.
By the time I climbed into the clean sheets, my mind resembled Swiss cheese, full of holes. I envisioned falling asleep the moment my head hit the pillow. My brain proved me wrong, though. I tossed and turned with thoughts of Carter and our last time together. We were young and dumb then.
“Holy shit, dude,” followed by loud laughter woke me out of a light sleep I finally found.
“Pretty fucking sweet, huh?” Hayden’s voice came through the sleep fog, loud and clear.
“I can’t believe Peri put y’all up in style, you little fucker,” said the unknown voice.
“Shhh. My partner’s asleep. We gotta be quiet,” Hayden drunkenly spoke.
“Oh yeah, forgot about that. So spill kid. None of us knew anything about you becoming part of a duo.”
“Cash and I talked about it some. He seemed to think we’d mesh. I gotta say, she’s awesome. She sings like an a
ngel, and we work together so well. Damn, I don’t know how I sang without her already, and we’ve only been singing together a few weeks. It’s like we were fucking made to sing together.”
Hearing how he really felt made me smile. He told me several times he was happy with our work together, but I didn’t know for sure. He might have been trying to boost my ego to make me feel better onstage. Drunken confessions sometimes came closer to the truth.
“That’s outstanding, dude. Glad to hear it’s all working out, but you didn’t give me any important deets. Is she hot? You tried to tap that already?”
“Dumbass, don’t talk about her like that, and you stay away from her.” Hayden defended my honor. The sweet kid in him made me smile again.
“Whoa, got a little crush going on boy?” The stranger harassed him.
“Hell no. Victory’s not on my radar that way. Besides, she’s older than me and unlike you, I ain’t looking for a hookup every time I walk out on that stage.”
“You little shit. I’ve taught you all I know about finding the women, and it sounds like you’re missing one right under your nose. Unless, she doesn’t swing that way.” The stranger’s comments made me angrier as he spoke. We hadn’t even met, and now I hoped we wouldn’t. He’s a first-class douche. I hoped Hayden forgets anything he’s supposedly learned from this prick.
“That’s none of my business, but she’s drop-dead gorgeous. Wait til you see these wicked eyes she’s got.”
“Wicked eyes, huh?”
“Yeah, but they might be contacts. I don’t know. Haven’t gotten around to asking her too much personal stuff yet.”
“Well, what the hell do you know about her? So far all I’m hearing is she can sing, she’s hot, and she’s got wicked eyes.”
“She can play the guitar like she learned from a pro.” We needed to spend some time talking if the only things Hayden could say about me was how I looked and that I’m talented. Wait, I don’t care what the stranger thought anyway. Forget that talk.
Someone pounded on the door, and I had half a mind to barrel out there and remind them some people in this room liked to sleep. Good thing I didn’t because the next thing I heard was an obnoxious female screech. I wondered if that was supposed to resemble a laugh.
“Hell yeah, boys! The party’s arrived.”
Oh, my, God. Please tell me this wasn’t about to happen on the other side of this door.
It got quiet for a minute, and I could only imagine what took place before I started hearing some moaning. Really? Were these guys going through with this?
“Calm down boys, there’s enough for both of you. I’m always down to be the middle of the sandwich.”
I pulled my pillow over my head and considered going into the bathroom and turning on the shower. Please don’t let her be a screamer. My prayers went unanswered, though. The longer the sexcapades went on, the louder the screeching got.
“Yeah baby, just like that.”
“Yes, yes my fucking god. Yes!” she moaned and screamed and moaned some more.
“That’s right baby. It’s Carter, but you can call me God if you want to.”
Please, what a line of shit. I wanted to scream at them to shut the fuck up. That hyena and her howls and screams were too much. Finally, after what seemed like hours, the obnoxious sex noises died down. I heard some muffled talking and then doors opened and closed. God only knew who remained in our room, glad that I thought to lock my door before I crawled in bed. The small clock on the nightstand read 4:00 a.m. Tomorrow would be a hell of a long day.
Chapter Eight
I woke up to someone banging on our door. Damn, this place held a lot of crazy people who didn’t know the meaning of quiet. I glanced at the clock again to see it was after 10:00 a.m. I heard unexpected voices. A child yelled “Daddy” followed by laughing and talking. Hayden’s son must be here to visit. I forgot the band had his son traveling with them, but I knew Hayden hadn’t seen him yet. It was one reason he wanted to catch up with AD.
What should I do? I had no clue which band members might be there, but it sounded like the time to find out approached rapidly.
“Hayden, knock on her door and see if she’s awake,” a woman said. “I want to introduce her to Chandler.”
“Yeah, I’m dying to meet her. Cash and Peri told us she’s a perfect match for your duo,” said another that I assumed must be Chandler.
I could meet the girls from the band and no male voices other than Hayden’s came through the door. I climbed out of bed and ran into the bathroom to make myself a little more presentable before meeting more beautiful people. Was everyone associated with these people gorgeous? I had yet to meet an average-looking normal person with them.
I peeked through the door to make sure who stood in the room and only found the two women with two small boys and Hayden. Okay, I could do this.
“Good morning,” I greeted them as though I’d had a good night’s sleep. If they only knew.
“Hey, sleepy head.” Hayden offered me a smile. “Glad you joined us.”
“Yeah, good morning to you, too, sunshine.” I wanted to light into him about all of the noise I endured in our room but thought better of it with the kids there. Turning to Peri, I nodded my head. “Hello, Peri. Good to see you again.”
She immediately jumped up and gave me a hug. “We are so happy you both decided to come on up and join us. She backed up and looked at the other woman. “Victory, this is Chandler Chatam.”
We both stepped forward and shook hands saying our hellos.
“It’s great to meet you, Victory. We’ve heard so many awesome things about the new music you and Hayden are doing now. I know he’s excited about it.”
“Me, too. I love working with Hayden and am grateful that Cash believed in me enough to offer the opportunity.” Wow, did that sound like a line of bullshit. I was thankful for it but saying that out loud sounded so fake.
A squeak came from behind the couch, and I leaned back to see two little boys about to peak over the top. “Hey guys. Are you hiding back there?” They both came running around the end and one latched onto Peri and the other onto Hayden.
“What’s this? Are you both being shy?” Peri asked the boys, but neither gave a response.
Hayden reached down and plucked Crew off his leg. “This is Miss Victory, Crew. Say hello to her.” He wrapped his arms around his dad’s neck but said a soft hello. “Dude, you need to look at her and shake her hand.”
Hayden put him down on the floor and the precious child looked up at me and stuck his little hand out. “Hello, Miss Vic. Vic.” He turned and faced his dad. “How do you say that again?”
“Miss Vic-tor-y,” he sounded out each syllable slowly.
The sweet face looked at me again still holding out his hand. I kneeled down so I could look into his big brown eyes. “Hello, Crew. It’s very nice to meet you.” I took his little hand in mine and shook it.
“Hello, Miss Vic-tor-y. Nice to meet you, too.”
His infectious smile pulled one from me. How adorable he was and obviously they had all taken the time to teach him manners. Before I could let go of his hand, another sweet face jumped over beside Crew almost knocking him down.
“I’m nice to meet you, too.”
“You are? So, you must be…” I let him say his own name.
“Tucker. I must be Tucker.” He put his hand out to shake mine. The whole room started laughing at this imp’s precociousness.
“What a pleasure it is to meet you, Tucker.” The obvious shy act was gone. “I heard that one of you was Spiderman and one was Superman.”
This started a tale from the two of them about superheroes that ended up with the three of us sitting on the floor. They informed me of everything I didn’t know on the subject.
After a few minutes, Peri stood. “Okay boys, I think we better get back to the room and see if breakfast has been delivered. We ordered every item on the menu so you are both welcome to join us.” Everyone turn
ed and looked at me.
“Oh, no. I couldn’t right now. I need to shower and return some emails. Y’all go ahead, though. I’ll grab some coffee and be ready to hit the road when Hayden is.”
“I swear the woman hardly eats,” Hayden told the others. “I don’t know how she does it.”
Even if I could eat an elephant, no way would I go into that suite. My brain worked overtime trying to figure out how to get to our bus without being seen.
“Suit yourself. We’re going to eat and then make our way down to the parade of buses,” Peri told me.
“Are you sure there’s nothing we can entice you with? I hate leaving you here with nothing to eat,” Chandler questioned.
“No, no. I’m great. Y’all enjoy your morning. Honestly, I had so little sleep, I might go down, get in my bunk, and go back to sleep. Some people had a party out here last night.” I cut my eyes over to Hayden before he walked out the door.
His man-child face turned into a sheepish grin. “Sorry about that. Hope we didn’t keep you awake for too long. We tried to be quiet.”
“Don’t tell me you and Carter brought groupies from the party last night to this room?” Peri gave Hayden an evil eye. “No wonder he’s still asleep.”
“Okay, I won’t tell you, but it was only one.” The door closed behind them before I heard anything else she said to him. I wondered if she figured out they had a threesome or if that’s the way they always had their women.
With lightning speed, I raced to my room, threw clothes in my bag, and dressed in record time, ready to make my escape. The last thing I wanted to see this morning after all of the sex noises they treated to me last night slept in his own room. Thank God.
I listened at the door before peeking out. The quiet allowed me to open it and look around for the stairs. I could go down a couple of flights and wait for the elevator or find another one further away from their doors.
I hoisted my bag over my shoulder and stepped out into the hallway just as the elevator opened. I took off for the stairs but before I could get to the door, two men stepped out. Not just any two men. These two were the epitome of hot rockers. Shoulder length blond hair that was pulled back into a delicious looking man-bun caught my attention. I’m usually not attracted to that look. In this case, I made an exception. The other had no hair at all. Damn, I knew I stared, but what female in their right mind wouldn’t stare at the beautiful tattoos or faces of gods? Did I step into another dimension that included all of Mount Olympus?