While I was busy measuring up the woman who had been trying to seduce my husband, Kurtis’s song ended and Axton’s voice forced my attention away from Bethany. I waited five more minutes while Drake and Cole gave their two cents before stepping out of the shadows and approaching the table where the three rockers sat.
“I thought you were here.” Drake stood and pulled me in for a kiss that never failed to steal my breath. I smiled against his lips as his hand went immediately to my stomach, caressing the flesh through my top as if he were touching our child. “My dick got hard as soon as you walked in,” he whispered against my ear.
My nipples instantly hardened and I snuggled against him. “I wish you didn’t have a meeting tonight. I was really looking forward to our date night.”
“I’ll make it up to you,” he promised, kissing me again. Damn, now my panties were wet and my knees were starting to tremble. I wanted nothing more than to pull him into the closest bathroom and spread my legs for him. “You look beautiful. What have you been doing?”
“Dallas and I had lunch.” I lifted my hand to push his hair back from his face. I loved his hair. Long hair on most men didn’t look right at all, but on Drake it only enhanced his sex appeal. Blue-gray eyes darkened. He loved it when I ran my fingers through his hair. “I couldn’t go home until I saw you, though.”
“Hey there, darlin’.” I reluctantly forced my gaze from Drake to find Cole walking toward us. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at the sight of him: skinny jeans with holes everywhere and a Steel Entrapment T-shirt tight across his chest. His hair was longer than normal for a man his age but it looked good on him. Years of drug use and too much booze had kept him lean, but had taken its toll on his face, causing wrinkles at his eyes and mouth, but he still looked good. “How’s that baby treating you?” His hands went to my stomach as soon as he was within touching range.
Normally I tore the head off of anyone who touched my stomach other than Drake. Touching a woman’s pregnant belly was something extremely intimate to me. With Cole, it was different. It melted my heart more than a little to have my father so lovingly touch his grandchild growing inside of me. “She’s been kicking up a storm today. I hoped some Greek would calm her down, but it just got her dancing even more.”
“She just wanted to see her grandpa, that’s all.” Cole hugged me then stepped back, grinning like the proud grandfather he was. “It’s good to see you. How’re your sisters? Lucy okay?”
“They’re dealing. Lucy is still having nightmares, though. Jesse and Layla are talking about getting her a counselor, but Lucy has refused to go so far.” Drake stepped closer behind me and even though I was standing there talking to my father, my entire body seemed to catch fire. It wasn’t pregnancy hormones that were doing it to me, either. I was always in this condition whenever Drake was that close to me.
“Poor kid. Stupid bastard needs to be shot for doing that to her. Have the cops caught him? Or are they even trying?”
Now that was a hard question to answer. Emmie had only given us the bare details on what had happened to Grady after Jesse and Nik had gotten Lucy back the night of the kidnapping. Jesse had left the man bloody and barely breathing but Seller, the head of the security team that Emmie worked with was supposed to pick Grady up and turn him over to the police later that night. That hadn’t happened because Seller was sure that Jesse and Nik would have gotten into some serious trouble with the condition that Grady had been left in. Seller had taken the bastard to Canada and gotten him patched up before turning him over to his parole officer two days later for violating the conditions of his parole. As far as I knew, Grady was back in prison serving out the rest of his original sentence. And the two million that Grady had asked for the ransom? Back in Jesse’s bank account. Seller had handed the money over to Emmie—minus his fee.
“He’s in San Quintin,” Drake told Cole. “He violated parole and has to finish out his original sentence. He’s got at least ten more years.”
“Did I hear you say you had lunch with Dallas?”
I turned my head to find Axton had joined us. Anger on my friend’s behalf filled me and I had to take a deep breath to calm down before I punched him in the throat. “What’s it to you?”
He didn’t even blink at my bitchy tone. “I need to talk to her. She hasn’t been answering my texts or phone calls. And every time I stop by the apartment Natalie and Linc say she’s at work.”
“She works a lot.”
Axton sighed. “Lana, I don’t know what she’s told you, but I didn’t leave the wedding to go chasing after Gabriella. At least not in the way she thinks.”
I raised a brow at him. “The fact that you left her there and went to Gabriella’s is all she needed to know.” Drake’s hand tightened on my waist, reminding me that this wasn’t any of my business. I grimaced, because I couldn’t get in the middle without picking sides, which would leave Drake in a tricky position. He loved me too much to not show Dallas the loyalty I would demand, but Axton was as much a part of his family as his band brothers were.
Axton’s shoulders seemed to slump for a second, but then he straightened and that cocky ‘I’m a rock god, nothing else matters’ smile crossed his face. I had realized long ago that this was his mask to keep his real feelings locked inside. “Maybe she knows where Liam is, then. Dev said she left the reception with him and no one has seen him since. Marissa said he’s in rehab somewhere, but she won’t tell anyone where he is. We need to find him, Lana.”
The band didn’t know where Liam was? That was odd, but that wasn’t my business either. “I’m sure Emmie knows where he is. Have you asked her?”
“She won’t tell me shit. Look, just ask your friend to call me the next time you talk to her. It’s important.” He thrust his hands into his jean pockets. “And tell her… I miss her.”
My mouth opened to blast him but Drake turned me around before a word could escape and kissed me until I couldn’t even remember my name. All I could hear, taste, feel was Drake. Damn, he knew how to shut me up. Not that I was going to complain.
Chapter 25
Drake
Angel’s taste was still lingering on my lips even as I walked into the producer’s office that evening for the meeting his assistant said we had to attend. That was the only thought on my mind as I closed the door behind me. I wasn’t happy that I had to cancel plans with Angel to stay over tonight, and I had let the woman know as soon as she had relayed the message from her boss.
For the next thirty minutes I sat with my father-in-law and friend listening to the monotone voice of the man who was supposedly our boss. Our contracts were all up at the end of this season and I was still undecided if I was going to sign another one. In the beginning this gig had been just an excuse to be in New York and closer to my angel. Then I had started to kind of like finding talented rockers and giving them a chance to make it in the rock world. I still enjoyed that part of the job, but I knew Angel was having trouble with some aspects of the whole thing.
Like the woman sitting in a chair beside me, her hands typing away on her iPad but her gaze was drilling into the side of my face. I still couldn’t remember her name most of the time, but knew it started with a B. Since Angel had convinced me that the chick was after me, I had started feeling more than a little creeped out by the way she looked at me. I felt like a pussy thinking that. A woman scaring me? Shane would have a field day with that joke.
“I’m going to need your answer by next week.” The producer—damn, what was his name again? Greg… George? Angel usually helped me with that shit. “I’ll have our lawyers meet with your people to negotiate your contract terms and any pay increases you suggest. This season’s ratings have been just as high if not higher than the first season and we want all three of you back for next season.”
Cole shook his head. “I won’t be back next year.” His answer didn’t surprise me. Cole was not happy with the producer. They had been arguing most of the season over everything from the
taste of the coffee to how much camera time he was getting during the shows. Cole was fed up with the show and how the higher-ups kept dramatizing every little thing that went on during judge panels and behind the scenes to get the higher ratings. The show was starting to become a fucking soap opera.
“If this is about more money…”
“Money?” Cole grunted. “I got plenty of that. This is about you and your so called creative minds making the entire rock world look ridiculous. You have maybe one truly talented contestant competing this go round up there with a bunch of ignorant wanna-be rockers. You dress them in Goth and punk and play it off like they are the world’s next rock gods, while down-playing the real talent all because he’s not what you would call ‘ratings friendly’.”
“Kurtis Quinn is not the only talent we have this season,” the producer argued and Axton and I both grunted because there wasn’t any truth to that statement. The fat man narrowed his eyes. “He wouldn’t last five minutes in the rock world.”
“What the fuck would you know about the rock world?” Axton snapped. “Cole’s right, this thing has turned into a soap opera. I’m not sure I’m coming back next year either unless you make some changes around here. And if Quinn doesn’t win, I’m going to ask him to open for OtherWorld on tour in a few months.”
“What about you, Stevenson?”
I shrugged. “I don’t have an answer for you about next year, but I’m with these two about the way the show is going. I’m fed up with seeing all the drama on the cover of trash magazines. My wife isn’t happy with the way things are turning out here either and if she isn’t happy, I’m not happy.” I stood, more than ready to go home and not caring in the least if the meeting was over or not. “I’m out. See you fuckers tomorrow.”
“Night man,” Axton called after me.
“Later, boy.” I chuckled at Cole calling me boy and kept walking.
By the time I got home the house was quiet. There was a pizza box on the island in the kitchen when I walked in. Opening the lid I saw that Angel was having a crazy craving day. The smell was enough to turn my stomach: anchovies with pineapple, and ranch instead of tomato sauce? It wasn’t the nastiest craving she’d had so far but it was up there.
Upstairs I found the bathroom light still on with the door slightly ajar. It cast a soft glow over our king size bed, giving my angel a surreal quality that took my breath away. Her hair was spread over my pillow and looked as if it was still damp from her shower. She was wrapped around her body pillow that she had sprayed with my cologne the day she got it because it helped her sleep better smelling me all around her. The sheet had slipped down to her hips showing me that she must have been waiting up for me because she was gloriously naked.
My dick had gone hard as soon as I had opened the door. Grinning, I rushed through my shower and hurried back to the sleeping angel in my bed. As I climbed in behind her she sighed my name and pressed her back against me, her hips wiggling against my rock-hard cock in her sleep. I kissed her neck, licking at the sensitive spot just under her ear. She made a mewling sound and arched her neck to give me better access.
Reaching around her I rubbed my palm over her stomach and felt our daughter kick at me before traveling higher to find Angel’s nipples hard as diamonds. Fuck, I loved her tits. They had gotten super sensitive during the pregnancy and all I had to do was barely touch them to get her begging for more. My lips traveled down her shoulder and then down her back while I pinched the tips making her whimper with need.
Goose bumps popped up along her back as I trailed kisses lower, licking and nipping at her spine. When I got to her ass—fuck, that perfect ass!—I sucked on her hip until she was squirming, wanting me to suck on something completely different. Licking away the sting from the love bite I had just given her, I moved so that I could turn Angel on her back.
She jerked and cried out my name as soon as I latched onto her already pulsing clit. Long, graceful fingers thrust into my hair, holding me right where she wanted me as she thrust her hips against my tongue. “Drake… Fuck, babe… Oh. Oh. Ahhh!” she screamed, her back bowing as she came apart against my tongue.
I kept flicking my tongue over her clit even after she lay limp from her orgasm. I couldn’t get enough of her sweet nectar and lapped it all up as I slipped two fingers inside of her. Her inner walls quivered at my invasion, welcoming me and the pleasure I brought with me. My balls tightened, wanting to slip my cock deep inside of her and feel that soft contracting around my shaft as I drove us both into pleasure-filled delirium.
“Please,” Angel whimpered when I kept tormenting us both with my teasing fingers while I continued to tongue her clit. “I want you so much.”
“Tell me you love me,” I commanded, rising to my knees and grasping my cock, stroking it twice while she watched me with her lashes lowered. The sight made her whimper again and suck her bottom lip between her teeth. “Tell me.”
“I love you. Always.” I skimmed the tip of my dick over her opening and her hands twisted in the sheets underneath her. “Drake…”
“Do I make you happy? Do I give you everything you want?”
“Yes. I’d be a mess without you.” Her thighs were trembling and I knew she was close to the edge of coming again. “All I want is you, you give me the world every day.”
“Ask me to fuck you,” I growled, sliding between her folds until only the tip was inside of her. Her walls clasped my cock, trapping me yet trying to suck me deeper all at once. . “Ask me to fuck you slowly.”
Her head thrashed back and forth on the pillow. “Not slow,” she begged. “Fast. Hard.”
“No. Ask me to fuck you slowly.” My hips pushed forward until she took another inch. “Do it, Angel.”
“Drake…” She licked her lips, making me ache to kiss her. “Drake, please fuck me…” another inch and she was biting into that lip she had just licked, “…slowly.”
I thrust deep and caught her mouth with my own, swallowing her cries as she shattered. I didn’t move until her pussy stopped convulsing around my dick. Her nails bit into my back, scratching down my spine as I finally moved inside of her.
I made love to her for hours and when she finally fell against my chest, her pregnant stomach carefully tucked to the side I just laid there, rubbing her back. This was heaven.
--
“Garvin Davis wants to know what he has to do to secure your contract for the next season of America’s Rocker.”
My brow furrowed at the statement Emmie had just made and I finished chewing the bite of steak sandwich before looking down at the phone. Emmie’s face stared back at me on the FaceTime app. “Who the hell is Garvin Davis?”
She rolled her eyes at me. “He’s the producer with the big belly from the show, dummy. He said he talked to you two weeks ago and you still haven’t given him an answer yet. What should I tell him? Or have you still not made up your mind yet?”
So that was what that fucker’s name was. I crunched down on an onion ring, part of the quick lunch I was having while Angel was out with Linc doing gods knew what. I had driven her into the city an hour ago and had just been doing jack shit ever since. It was nice to have a free few hours to myself with nothing to do but worry about anything except for my wife finding out I was eating too much saturated fat.
I had completely forgotten about the producer wanting to know if I was coming back for another season. Everything had flown out the window in my mind the moment I had gotten home that night and slid between my angel’s legs. “I don’t know, Em.” I wiped oil from the onion ring off my fingers before reaching for my soft drink. Another guilty pleasure I was getting to have today because it wasn’t the diet shit that I was forced to stock in our fridge. “What does Ax say about it? Is he coming back?”
“Only if the show gets a new creative team that focuses on the talent and not the drama and a few other changes are made. Cole has already gone public with his decision. It’s all over the tabloids’ Facebook sites. Garvin says he
’s already incorporating the changes that Ax wants but wonders what will convince you to sign.”
What changes did I want? Were there any changes that could convince me to go back for another season? The last three hadn’t been horrible and if Ax got his changes then I wouldn’t be against doing this again. But Angel wasn’t happy with my job. For the last two weeks she had been a cranky lioness every time I had to go out to the studio. Thursdays and Fridays seriously sucked in my house right now.
“I have one stipulation for the moment…” As soon as I told Emmie what it was her eyes rounded but she nodded and assured me that she would let Garvin know.
“I have to go,” she said ten minutes later. “The contractor is here to redo the guesthouse and I want to make sure that everything is exactly as we discussed before he starts tearing things up.”
“Have you found any candidates for your assistant yet?” Nik had told me she had interviewed ten just in the last week alone, but none of them had met her standards.
“I got two yesterday that I’m going to give a try starting tomorrow.” She made a face and I had a feeling they wouldn’t last the day, if the first hour. I knew exactly how demanding Emmie was of her assistants. Natalie had made sure I knew how hard she had to work her ass off.
“I’ll let you go. Love you, Em.”
Her face softened for a moment. “Love you, Drake.”
Chapter 26
Harper
I looked in the mirror and cringed.
Really? Another one? Carefully I touched the tip of my index finger to yet another pimple that had popped up on my forehead. It was sore and irritated. This was not happening! I hadn’t had acne since I was a preteen and now my face looked like that of a greasy-faced freshman. It seemed like my stress level was just as bad as in high school, at the moment. With everything that was going on within our family—the twins still being in the hospital and Lucy’s obvious anxiety since the kidnapping—on top of the demands of my job, my nervous system was a wreck at the moment.
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