Ryan took another bottle out of the bag, then opened it up. He took a huge gulp of it, then passed it to James. He also took a drink, then passed it to the drummer. They all took a drink before Ryan put it back down on the stage. “Now who came here to hear us play?”
Another cheer came up. The drummer clacked his sticks together and they immediately launched into a song. The crowd was on their feet in no time, cheering on the band. I unzipped my jacket, allowing my hands to linger on my belly for just a moment before raising them in the air to cheer as well.
I wish I could tell you about their music. There were some originals, mixed in with some covers of classic rock. I wish I could tell you that the lyrics spoke to me, that I thought they were about me, but I can't. I only listened to James' guitar, letting his music wash over me. Half the time he looked out at the crowd, mostly at me. The other half of the time, he watched his own fingers move over the frets, taking great passion and pride in making the music sound fantastic.
My eyes never left him. One song blended fantastically into the next. I didn't have a drink, but the crowd was definitely enjoying the booze and music for sure. I know that they played for over an hour, but it felt like just minutes passed. In fact, when the guitars did stop playing, and Ryan said into the mic, “Thank you all for coming, you've been great. There will be no encores,” I was actually surprised that they had been playing that long.
James set his guitar down and walked up to the mic. “The after party is at my apartment. If you have to ask where it is, just follow the line of people walking there. Entry fee will be one of my metal folding chairs, stacked neatly in my studio. See you there!”
As I watched people fold up their chairs and start to carry them out the door, I laughed. Leave it to James to find a way for people to do his work for him. I walked up to the stage. He saw me coming up to him, and put the mic back away in the stand.
“You were great,” I congratulated him.
“I really was on fire tonight,” he said, puffing up a little bit with pride. That cocky attitude was never too far away with James.
“Well, don't quit your day job anyway,” I said.
“Maybe some day,” he said, winking at me. “Anyway, you should get to my apartment. I've got to make sure all my equipment gets put away right, but I'll be there as soon as I can.”
“Are you sure? I can help if you like.”
He shook his head. “Some of it is heavy. I promise, I'll be as quick as I can. Anne is going to keep manning the register until the place is empty, but she'll be right behind you.”
I nodded, figuring I'd just wait for her. James turned away and started dismantling sound equipment, while I walked to the front of the store. The metal folding chairs were all gone by now, so I pulled a chair up to one of the tables on the other side of the shop. Anne saw me and waved. As soon as everyone was gone, she gestured for us to go. “Once more, into the breach!” she cried as she turned the OPEN sign to CLOSED and locked the door.
Chapter Six
As soon as we walked into the apartment, I noticed how different it felt with so many people in it. There were forty or so people, including a bartender that I had seen at the concert. He was now manning a table with every kind of major liquor available. People were drinking and having a great time, but all my mind could think about was how dirty this place was going to get.
I guess when you're as rich as James, you just get maids to do it.
Anne immediately introduced me to some people. She said that her band couldn't make it there tonight, but that I totally should meet them some time. From the way she lit up talking about them and her music, I really was looking forward to hearing her play.
Soon, however, I was tired of hearing people I didn't know tell stories about more people I didn't know. I went to the bartender, thinking about getting a drink but just getting a diet cola at the last moment. One drink wouldn't hurt the baby, especially when I didn't even have a positive pregnancy test yet, but zero drinks would probably be better.
I went and sat down on the couch, the same couch that I had played with myself on just a few days ago. I really just wanted to hang out with James, not go to a party where I knew literally nobody. I thought about pulling out my phone, but then I knew I'd look really bored. I unzipped my jacket, letting the cooler air hit my stomach. It had been a long day, so I just kind of leaned back and closed my eyes.
“You feeling okay?” a voice that I had just listened to for an hour asked me.
I opened my eyes back up. The lead singer, Ryan, was standing over me. “Mmm? No, I'm fine.”
He nodded his head, then sat down next to me. “Too much to drink?”
I looked down at my cup, half full of the cola still. He didn't know that it was non-alcoholic. “Yeah, maybe,” I said. I noticed his tattoos. They looked tribal, but I had no idea what they meant. I had been dating bad boys for a long time, and they all seemed to get tattoos that looked cool without knowing what they meant.
He nodded again. “You're James' little sister, right?”
“Yeah, is he back yet?” I asked, looking around the room.
“No, he's still packing away equipment. He's gotta have everything done just right so that it doesn't get broken. I'm sure you know how he gets, though.”
I didn't really know, but I nodded anyway. He was a perfectionist and it didn't surprise me that it flowed into everything. “You were great tonight,” I said.
He seemed to puff up a little bit. “Well, your brother messed up a couple times, but other than it was a great performance.”
I had been watching James all night and hadn't noticed him messing up. I didn't know what his angle was here, but I just wanted to change the subject. “So. Lefty and the Sharks. Interesting name.”
He shrugged. “We change it every month or so. Last month it was 'Spoon Boy and the Potentials'. But my nickname in high school was already Lefty, so this was perfect.”
“Why is your nickname Lefty?”
He smirked at me. “Two reasons. I'm left handed, for one. But that means I jerk off with my left hand, so my dick naturally curves to the left.”
It was such an outlandish comment that I couldn't help but look down at his pants. His left hand made a jerk off motion, and it made me laugh. “That's funny, I've never seen a dick curve to either side.”
“Well, maybe you'll see one tonight, if you play your cards right.”
Normally a comment like that would have made me more likely to actually sleep with him, but I was with James now, whether we were public or not. I was in his house. It made me feel really uncomfortable that he would be this upfront, even if he didn't know that. I felt my smile fade a little, then I shook my head. “Probably not, though.”
He shrugged. “We'll see what happens,” he said.
“Well, you have a great night, Lefty,” I said. I stood up from the couch and walked over to where Anne was talking to her friends. I had a feeling he wouldn't follow me here, and I was right. However, I made the mistake of looking over my shoulder at him.
His eyes were boring right into me.
***
James and a few other guys arrived shortly afterward. I stayed in the group with Anne, but made eye contact with him long enough to know that he had seen me. However, he made his way around the room, talking with some of the people at his house.
Now that we were here at his house, I could tell that many of the people here were obviously his employees or colleagues. He was shaking a lot of hands with some well-dressed people, obviously doing some networking and deal-making even as he was supposed to be having a good time and celebrating.
He took his time making his way over to us, but eventually he made his way over to Anne's little group. “I'm glad you found someone to hang out with over here,” he said.
Anne reached her arm around me and pulled me in, shoulder to shoulder. “Don't worry, Mr. Coleman, I'll make sure she has a good time tonight.”
“I'm sure you will, Ms. Dean
,” he said. Then he just walked away to another group. My jaw dropped a little bit. I didn't even get a chance to say one word to him. No once-over, no nothing. He was really serious about not giving away any signs in public.
I stood there listen to them chat for as long as I could, maybe another twenty minutes, but eventually, I was just tired. I had just finished a long day of travel and, if James wasn't going to pay any attention to me, I didn't really want to just hang around. I went off to my guest room to go lie down.
I didn't even bother taking off my clothes, just slipping my jacket and shoes off as I crawled into the bed. I put the blanket over my head, and closed my eyes.
I'm not even sure if I had fallen asleep yet when I heard a knock on the door. I figured it was James, or possibly Anne, so I called “Come in.”
The door opened, and the light flicked on. It was neither of them.
“I was wondering where you had wandered off to,” Ryan said, his voice dark and sensual, more so than it had ever been on stage. If he could get that bedroom voice into a recording studio, he'd make a million dollars.
I shifted uncomfortably in the bed, grateful that I still had all my clothes on. “Oh, hi there.” I didn't really want to talk to him anymore. He didn't seem to realize that, as he crossed over to the room and sat down on the bed.
“What are you doing? The party's just starting,” he said.
I pulled my hair back from my face and tucked it behind my ear. “I thought James said the party was ending at ten.”
Ryan shrugged. “Yeah, the party here. The party at my place is going to go all night.”
I couldn't tell if he was actually having a party or if he was just inviting me to a party in his pants. Either way I didn't want to go anywhere. I wanted to stay here, with James. “I'm real tired, we'll have to party another night.”
“Come on,” he said. “Do you want to see my motorcycle?”
Of course he drove a motorcycle, I thought. “I'd love to see it. Some other time, though.”
He still wasn't listening. “Do you know what I like best about a girl riding on the back of my motorcycle?” I shook my head. “When they're pressed up against me, and the vibrations of the motorcycle go right up into their clit. Because, usually, when they get off, they're ready to get off, if you know what I mean.”
I was suddenly very nervous around him, and figured I just had to leave to get rid of him. “Oh, that's cool,” I said, pulling back the covers and sitting up.
As I stood, his hand shot out and grabbed me by my elbow. I gasped. He said in a much more threatening voice, “Don't you want to take a ride on my motorcycle?”
All I wanted to do was scream. I tried to pull away, but his hand held me super tight. I felt like all I could do was squeak. He was practically ready to drag me from the bed. Suddenly, I heard another voice. “What the fuck do you think you're doing?”
I looked at the door. James was there. Fury blazed from his eyes. Ryan immediately let go of my arm. I rushed over to James, not caring that anyone could see us. I ran into his arms and buried myself into his chest. He wrapped his arms around me in a protective hug.
“I asked you a question, Ryan. What the fuck do you think you're doing?”
Ryan gave him a cocky smirk, similar to James' own, but definitely less confident. “Hey, man. I was just asking her if she wanted to go for a ride.”
“That's not what I saw,” James said. His voice was low. Dangerous.
Ryan stepped forward. “Hey, man-”
“Don't 'hey man' me, you dickhead. I thought I'd never see this again after Audrey, but somehow you've managed to surprise even me with your fuckup this time. This isn't just some groupie. This is my sister, do you hear me?”
Ryan stepped forward and gave him a mock salute. “Loud and clear, captain.”
James let go of me and was in his face in less than a second. “I don't think you're listening, asshole. I don't want to see you anywhere near Allie ever again. In fact, I don't want to even see you for the next few days. Get out of my home before I tear out your vocal cords.”
Ryan seemed genuinely scared for a moment, then nodded and quickly moved to the door. He didn't even look up to take one last look at me before making his way out of the apartment. I watched him slam the door to the now empty apartment. All of the other people had left.
I looked up at James, who was still obviously seething with anger. His whole body was tense. I came up behind him and wrapped my hands around him. That seemed to calm him down. “Thank you,” I said.
“No problem. You okay?” He barely waited for me to nod into his back. “Let's check and see if there are any stragglers here.”
Chapter Seven
James went to the door and locked it, and then pushed the deadbolt into place. He was eerily silent as he looked around his apartment. He checked in every room, behind every curtain even. Every motion was sharp and angry.
I followed him around, growing increasingly uncomfortable. As he checked the last bathroom, I spoke up. “James, I-”
He turned and crossed the distance between us before I could say anything else. He had my face in his hands, crushing his lips against mine as he did so. I melted into him. At that moment, he was my lover, my protector, my hero, my stepbrother.
His lips crushed mine. Lips weren't enough. For a moment, I thought that we'd fall to the floor right there, making love without even bothering to go to a bedroom. Then, he broke from the kiss and looked at me with that cocky grin. “I can't seem to leave you alone for one minute without you getting into some kind of trouble.”
My jaw dropped. “You are such an asshole!” I exclaimed, swatting him in the chest harder than I had intended to. He winced slightly, but then grabbed my hands and held them to my sides. I couldn't hit him again, even if I had wanted to. He came in for another kiss, which I eagerly returned.
“I'm glad you're okay,” he said softly.
I gave a little happy moan, then went back to kissing him. He started to move toward the bedroom, and for a moment I kept moving with him. Something was bothering me in the back of my head, though.
“You mentioned something about a girl named Audrey?” I asked.
He stopped dead in his tracks. “I don't want to talk about that.”
I shook my head. “It's important. Audrey Lipman?”
“You know her?”
I gave a 'no duh' kind of look at him. “Of course I do. She was the queen bee of the girls that made my life a living hell in high school.”
He stared off into the distance. “Figures. Look, I'm sorry. I didn't know that-”
I cut him off. “I don't care about that now. High school is over, and she's got a beautiful belly on her.”
“I know,” he said.
I waited for him to follow it up with something, anything at all. “You know? That's it.”
“Yeah, I know. What more do you want?”
My jaw dropped. “I want to know why you kicked her to the curb.”
He looked at me sideways. “I don't know what you think you know, but unless Audrey has been talking outside of her non-disclosure agreement, you don't know anything.”
I crossed my arms in front of me. “I deserve to know.”
He looked frustrated as he ran his fingers through his hair. “Okay. It's true, you do. Especially if she was your high school enemy. I owe you that much.”
“It's not about that,” I said. “I need to know your connection to her.”
He shrugged. “Well, whatever then. I first met Audrey when I came home in October 2013 for a conference. I took some guys out to Annie's Place and she was our waitress. She had just turned 18 and we hit it off.”
“So you are the father!” I gasped. “How could you just leave your child like that?”
Heartache rippled through me. I had guarded my heart, afraid of this, but the realization still reached into my chest and squeezed. I couldn't breathe.
Jame's jaw dropped and his eye bugged out. He turned
a little pale and it looked like I really took him by surprise, almost as much as the first time I had ever told him that I wanted him. “What? No! Let me finish.”
I crossed my arms and waited. “Talk.”
“Yes, we had sex that night. Yes, we had sex again a few more times. But I always wear a condom.” He looked at me, then rolled his eyes. “Always used to wear a condom, whatever.”
I was too upset to laugh at that.
“Last April I invited her to a concert, a lot like the one that you just watched. She had a great time, but again I had to schmooze potential clients at the after party. She got way too drunk and, by the time I realized she was talking to Ryan, he had already left with her to go back to his place.”
I thought about the motorcycle ride he had offered me and shuddered.
“I drove over there, hoping to keep them apart, but they had already fucked. Ryan says she was all about it, but she seemed kind of distant. She told me that she didn't want to see me anymore. A couple months later, she called me and asked how to get in touch with Ryan.”
The ache behind my breastbone wasn't quite as painful anymore. The child wasn't his. I spoke up. “And you've been covering for him ever since.” It came out harsher than I expected.
“It's not that simple, Allie. Ryan wants to be a rock star more than anything in the world. A kid would make that pretty much impossible, especially one with someone that he wanted nothing to do with.”
“So now she's saddled with some kid-”
He cut me off. “Allie, I know you don't believe that a baby ruins your life.” His tone was harsh.
“No, of course not,” I said softly. Babies were the best thing in the world, and I couldn't wait to have one, especially one with James. “But the baby deserves to be taken care of.”
“I agree completely. Do you think that dickwad Ryan would be able to take care of a baby anywhere near as well as I can take of one? Even if he does become a famous rock star, he'll never make as much money as me. Trust me when I say that baby is going to have a silver spoon in its mouth.”
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