The Wedding

by Sian Ceinwen

  Rumors have been rife of a rift forming within the band. While we’re used to seeing them together all the time, they’ve been spotted out and about with different people much more often, lately, than they have in the past.

  Is it possible that Cruise Control really is on the verge of breaking up? Tell us it isn’t true!

  Chapter 10

  THANK FUCK IT’S FRIDAY!

  IT WAS LATE ON Friday afternoon, and Heather was excited. She was making the drive to Sebastian’s place in Galena; it had been over a week since she’d seen Harrison, and it was far too long. They’d agreed that she wouldn’t visit the first weekend they were out there so that the guys could really focus on making music.

  She’d almost given in earlier in the week and driven up there, but she had some really important business meetings that she couldn’t blow off. Heather was now signed to Cooper’s management team as one of his clients, and she was going to be doing a cameo for Saturday Night Live on Halloween, which she thought was completely insane.

  April Conway was going to be the host as well as the musical guest. It was a big honor for her to be pulling double duty, and they’d been talking about it when Heather was designing her gown last month. April joked about Heather making a cameo in a sketch about Cruise Control, where she was singing at Heather’s wedding, and they’d thought it was a funny idea. Later, April had mentioned it to one of the producers, and they had jumped at the idea of having her on the show.

  Her fashion line had also really taken off in the last month, they were planning a soft launch in some high-end department stores soon and had secured some factory space in the industrial area of Chicago. Heather had kept the employees she’d had from the beginning and given them promotions, each had a team of other women working under them now, and she trusted them implicitly. She was devoted to the idea of keeping production here in Chicago, and absolutely counted herself lucky to have Harrison as her financial backer because if she’d had any other investor, they almost certainly would’ve been pressuring her to move production off-shore for larger profit margins.

  It did affect the price point of her clothing, though, which was why her PR firm had encouraged her to take the outstanding critical response to her show and use it to make her way in with the high-end stores. Targeting customers that were already willing to pay a premium meant that the extra cost of staying in the USA for production only came out of Heather’s bottom line, and that was a price she was willing to pay. As it was, she was hopeful that Serenity would be able to pay back the loan from Harrison within its first year of trading, or two at the latest.

  She tried to ensure that she was hiring people who needed jobs, as well. It was something of a passion for her. While she certainly wanted and needed talented people in her organization, if she could do some good with it by finding people who actually needed a job, that was a bonus. She’d partnered with a not-for-profit job agency that specialized in assisting people who had been out of work to get themselves gainful employment.

  It often made Heather acutely aware of exactly how lucky she and her friends were. They had so much money now that they didn’t know what to do with it all. She was literally on her way to Sebastian’s estate; she hadn’t been there before, but she had no doubt that he would’ve had it completed to an extravagant level of luxury.

  Heather knew that there were so many people in the world who were suffering and needed help, but she also wasn’t arrogant enough to think that just handing them money would be appreciated by everyone. Approaching it this way helped her to feel better when she went to sleep at night in a bed with expensive silk sheets and her rock star fiancé by her side.

  When she reached Galena, she drove through the small town, following the directions her car gave until she reached a road on the other side of it. This road wound away from the town into a secluded area, and eventually, she reached her destination. She pulled her car into Sebastian’s driveway and up to the ornate, iron gates barring access to his property with its name emblazoned across it in massive gold script.

  Maison De L'amour Et De La Musique

  Heather pressed the button on the intercom and waited patiently for a minute before pressing the button again. Still nothing. She reached over to the screen in her car, pulled up Sebastian’s name from her contacts, and called him.

  “Hey there, lover. What’s happening?”

  “I’m sitting at your gates and waiting very impatiently to come in and fuck your brains out, that’s what’s happening.” She laughed.

  “What are you waiting for, Seb?” she heard Harrison’s voice in the background. Clearly, she was on speakerphone, “You should probably let her in and get some!”

  Her entire body melted at the sound of his voice. They might be joking about her having sex with Sebastian, but she was aching to have Harrison between her thighs right now. The sooner Sebastian opened these fucking gates, the better. It had been a long week and a half without Harrison in bed beside her.

  “All right, in you come then, sexy,” Sebastian announced to her, “see you soon!”

  The call ended as the gates in front of her slowly started to swing open. This place was insane. There were rolling fields of green grass that must take somebody days to mow, the driveway was lined with neatly trimmed green hedges and had trees behind them, providing a lovely canopy for the driveway.

  When she reached the building, she was even more astounded. She had thought of it as driving toward Sebastian’s house, but it was nothing short of a mansion, maybe closer to a bloody castle.

  It was massive and imposing. She felt like royalty could easily make themselves at home here. It looked nothing like the building Sebastian had shown them on the sales listing when he’d originally bought this property. Heather parked her car under the porte-cochère at the front of the building, unsure where else she might need to park it.

  She grabbed her luggage out of the trunk and wheeled it toward the front door. It opened before she even reached it, and Harrison was standing there, smiling at her. She squealed, left her suitcase where it was, and ran to him, jumping into his arms and wrapping her legs around his waist. He laughed as he caught her, then he kissed her. She could feel the ache between her thighs that had been there from the moment she’d heard his voice on the phone.

  “I missed you,” she smiled at him.

  “I missed you, too, angel,” he told her as she dropped her legs to the ground, and he let go of her.

  “Can we go fuck now, or do we have to be social first?” she asked him, wickedly.

  “We’re literally in the middle of recording a song, I’m afraid, so being social it is.”

  “Well, damn…couldn’t we just be quick, though?” She poked her tongue out at him.

  He dropped his head to hers, pulled her to him and kissed her deeply, exploring her mouth expertly with his tongue, and she was panting when he ended the kiss.

  “I don’t want to be quick,” his voice was husky, and his eyes were hooded, “I want you long, slow, and over many, many hours. Now, let me get your suitcase.”

  Heather could feel how wet she was getting, and she groaned as he walked away from her to get her luggage from where she’d dropped it so that he could bring it inside.

  “You suck!” She pouted at him dramatically.

  “No, you suck. Me. Really, fucking well and to completion. Just not right now.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him and said slowly, “You’re doing this on purpose.”

  He set her suitcase to the side of the front door, came back over to her and put his arms around her waist, holding her tightly against him. She could feel the bulge in his pants and bit her lip. He dropped his head to kiss her neck softly before drawing his tongue over her skin from her neck up to her ear, where he nipped her ear lobe with his teeth.

  “Now, what makes you think that, angel?” he whispered into her ear, and she thought that she might just melt into a puddle right where they were.
>
  “Harrison James Fletcher, if you don’t want me to throw you down on the floor right where we are and fuck you immediately, then you should stop what you’re doing right now!”

  He gave her an evil grin but pulled back from her to allow some space between them. She still ached for him, and Heather had no idea how she would manage to last until they could get somewhere private, together. As it stood, she might have to take herself off and relieve this tension on her own if he didn’t ease up on her. He took his hand in hers and led her down a corridor off the entry hall, but she was so wound up right now, that even that small touch felt erotic to her.

  “Wait until you see the studio,” Harrison’s voice was still husky, and she could tell he was trying to get control of his own arousal, “it’s amazing.”

  “How has the process been, now that you have the freedom to do whatever you want?”

  “It’s been pretty epic,” he turned and smiled at her as he said it, she didn’t think his face had ever looked so kissable, she was so fucking horny right now, “the other night, Gabriel woke up at two and went into the studio and wrote the most amazing song. We could never have gotten it the same without that flexibility to act on it in the moment.”

  They reached the end of the hallway, and there was a door that Harrison held open for her to walk through so she could head down the set of stairs that was behind it.

  “Wait? Were you all up at two in the morning?” she asked him with a laugh.

  They reached the bottom of the stairs and continued down another corridor, lit with recessed lights in the ceiling above them and with promotional photos of Cruise Control hanging on the walls. She could see another door on their right, about halfway down the corridor.

  “Yeah, Seb wasn’t thrilled when Gabriel went to wake him, but once we started working, he was just as excited as the rest of us.”

  “You guys are crazy!”

  “Because I’ve never woken up in the middle of the night to see you sketching whatever design came to you at the time?” He raised an eyebrow at her, and she poked her tongue out at him, as he pushed open the door they’d just reached and let her walk through it in front of him.

  Hayden was in this room in front of what appeared to be a rocket ship’s control panel, but which Heather knew was almost certainly just recording equipment. Through a glass window, Heather could see Gabriel and Sebastian sitting at a piano, side on to them. They were laughing as Gabriel played the same four bars of music over and over, each time singing an alternate line for the song, but every option was more ridiculous than the last, and Sebastian was laughing at him.

  Hayden looked up as she and Harrison entered the room. He came over and gave her a hug, “Hey, Heather.”

  “Hi, darling. How have you been?”

  “Great. You found the place okay, then?” Hayden asked her.

  “It’s a bit hard to miss, isn’t it?” she asked with a wry grin at him.

  “No kidding,” he laughed before he leaned over to press a button in front of him and announced, “they’re here, guys!”

  Both the men in the booth looked up, smiled at them all, and headed out of the studio, into the control room.

  “My lover is here!” Sebastian announced with a grin, coming over to give her a hug. “So glad to see your face, sexy.”

  “Thanks, Seb.” She smiled, genuinely happy to see him. “How come nobody told me you’d built a fucking castle out here?”

  “Only the best for you, princess. Ooh, is that better than ‘lover’?” he wondered aloud.

  “You could just go with ‘Heather’,” Hayden suggested.

  “Blasphemy!” Sebastian said dramatically.

  He walked away, and Gabriel came toward Heather. She was nervous to see him; they’d texted here and there since her show, but she hadn’t seen him since her engagement party. He was smiling at her, though; this was a good sign.

  “Hi, Heather,” he directed this at Sebastian, and everyone laughed.

  “Hey, darling. It’s so good to see you.” She stepped forward and hugged him tightly.

  There was a lot that they needed to say, she still wanted to talk to Ariana, but she’d been so busy since Fashion Week that they hadn’t crossed paths yet. Heather had thought about sending her a text as well, but it didn’t feel right. They needed to talk face to face.

  She wasn’t fully ready to forgive her yet; it would really depend on what Ariana told her when they finally did talk. Heather was hoping that they’d get a chance to talk while she was out here, but it didn’t seem like Ariana was here. Now wasn’t the time to ask Gabriel about it, though. There would be plenty of time to talk later.

  “So, what are you guys working on?” she asked them as she took a seat next to Sebastian on a black leather sofa against the wall that backed on to the corridor behind them.

  “Would you believe me if I said ‘music’?” Sebastian asked her dryly.

  “No? ‘Music,’ you say?” She turned to him, a pensive look on her face, “Tell me more. Is this something you’ve just discovered?”

  “Oh, yes,” he nodded at her, seriously, “so, it turns out there are these things called ‘instruments’, and they make different sounds.”

  “Wow, how fascinating. I’m surprised no one’s ever thought of this before.”

  “Look, we were shocked, too. It’s pretty new and different, but we think it could be big.” His eyes widened at his apparent discovery and wonder at the possibilities it entailed.

  “Well, I wish you the very best of luck with that. I’m sure it’ll catch on.”

  “If you two are finished,” Hayden interrupted their ridiculous conversation, and they finally broke character to burst into laughter, “maybe if we finish this song, we could take a break.”

  “You want me to take a break, don’t you, Heather?” Harrison raised an eyebrow at her, meaningfully, and immediately a rush of lust hit her.

  “Yes, yes, I do. Go forth, my music men! Discover new worlds and let me fuck my fiancé!”

  They all laughed, and Harrison, Sebastian, and Gabriel headed back into the studio, leaving her sitting on the couch behind Hayden to watch them. She’d seen them making music in the past, but this felt different. It was obvious that they were enjoying the control they now had over the whole process.

  The guys were back on the song that Gabriel had been singing previously, with more appropriate lyrics now, though. There were moments of brilliance when one of them would hit on the perfect melody or lyrics, and she felt so honored to be allowed to witness it. It was crazy to think that, sometime next year, people worldwide would probably be listening to music that was created here, today, in this place.

  She lost track of time as she watched them; occasionally, they would ask for her thoughts to solve some difference of opinion. It was nice to get to be involved in this. In the past, Heather had been in the studio with them, but there had always been some music executive or someone else from the label hovering over them.

  They were free, now, to explore what they wanted to do with the song, and she could see that, for the most part, the guys collaborated really well and agreed on what the song needed. Hayden spent some time showing her how to use the bare minimum of the control panel so that he could stop running back and forth between the two rooms as much as he was. It was nice to actually be helpful.

  By the time Heather pressed the button that played back the song in its entirety, they were all thrilled with how it sounded. She was sitting on the chair in front of the controls, Harrison was behind her, his arms around her, and resting his head on hers as they listened to it. The song was amazing; she couldn’t believe that she got to be a part of making it, as small a part as that was.

  “First single?” she asked the room when the song ended.

  “You haven’t even heard any of the other songs we’ve recorded,” Gabriel grinned at her.

  “I know a hit when I record one.” She flipped her hair and
gave him a haughty look.

  “Just how many songs have you got under your recording belt, then, Heather?” Hayden asked her.

  “Well, just the one, but it was a good one. You should hear it sometime! Probably, when it becomes the first single off the new album for this awesome band that I know.”

  She heard Harrison’s laughter above her, and he spun the chair around so that she was facing him. He dropped his lips to hers and kissed her softly. She wound her arms around his neck and leaned back in the chair, pulling him further toward her to deepen their kiss as she did so. He stepped closer to her chair, and she crossed her legs behind him, trapping him in between them, as they continued their kiss.

  “You guys are aware that I have more rooms in this house than the one we’re currently in, right?” Sebastian drawled at them.

  Heather had completely forgotten where they were for a second, and she blushed as she registered Sebastian’s words.

  “Good point, Seb,” Harrison broke their kiss to say this, “I think I’ll just help Heather take her luggage to our room. It’s currently in the entryway, and I’d hate for someone to trip over it or something.”

  “Sounds like a real safety hazard,” Gabriel grinned at him, “you should definitely get right on that.”

  Harrison took her hand in his, and she waved goodbye to them as he led her out of the room. Safety hazard, indeed. Heather was worried that she might self-combust if she didn’t get sexual relief soon. They grabbed her suitcase, and Harrison took her up a sweeping staircase that came off the entry hall. It led to an upper level of the house, and she walked along the plush carpet to a door a short way down a corridor. He opened it to reveal a room that would’ve been suitable in any number of the ludicrously expensive hotels they’d stayed in previously.