by MV Ellis
“Honestly? Because the last sixteen hours have been a rollercoaster of emotion—the highs and lows of which have fucked with all of our minds.” She wasn’t wrong there. I felt half out of my mind with delirium.
“And because the flip side of the brotherly love you have for each other is the inevitable sibling rivalry. You’re so used to Rome winning that you’ve resigned yourself to it always being that way. But that’s not how it is this time. Not that I’m saying that I’m a prize for either of you, but to carry on with the analogy... for once, you’ve won. I chose you because I wanted you.” I wanted to throat punch myself for even asking the question.
“Jesus Christ. I sound like a psychotic weirdo.”
“No you don’t. You sound like a sleep-deprived guy who’s still recovering from the shock of almost losing his best friend. Most people wouldn’t be at their most gracious in the same situation. Cut yourself some slack already.”
“You’re too good. Thank you for being so understanding.” I looped my arms around her shoulders and smiled down into her waiting eyes.
“Don’t get used to it. I’m feeling generous due to the extenuating circumstances, but you’ve had your one free asshole pass, now. Pull the jealous boyfriend routine on me again, and I won’t be so forgiving. That said, I’m down for it any time you want to kiss me like you just did, for whatever reason. Any. Time.”
“Am I?”
“Are you what?” Confusion clouded her features. “Allowed to kiss me like that at any time? Yeah, of course. Definitely.”
“Your boyfriend. You said I was acting like a jealous boyfriend.”
“You already know the answer to that; you’re just fishing for compliments at this point. Now shut up and kiss me like you want to make me forget your best friend.” I cringed inwardly at her recall of the jealous words that had slipped out involuntarily in the heat of the moment when we’d fucked for the first time.
She didn’t need to tell me twice. I pushed her against the wall and kissed her with everything I had. She gave me everything right back, kissing away the doubt, fear, and confusion that had plagued me moments before. She was mine, and I was hers, and that’s the way it would always be.
Chapter 35
Rome
* * *
“Nope.”
“You didn’t even hear us out, or think about it for a minute.”
“What’s to hear or think about? Any plan that involves me hanging around at your place like balls on a hen, while you two play love’s young dream, requires exactly zero consideration from me. It’s a flat out no. Now if you don’t mind, I have to get on with lying here and doing nothing. You can show yourselves out.”
“Balls on a hen. What does that even mean?” Quincy frowned, looking at me, as she often did, as though I was a puzzle she couldn’t solve. My dick throbbed, as it always did when she looked at me any way at all, and even when she didn’t.
“It means no.”
“Well I got that part, but like King said, you didn’t even hear us out. How can you know you don’t want to do it?” Because seeing the two of you together every fucking day would be like having someone open up my chest and pour acid over my heart, and I don’t think I can take it.
“What else do I need to know? I’m nobody’s charity case, and I don’t want your pity.”
“Give me a fucking break, Row, you’re the last person anyone would ever pity. Would you please get the fuck over yourself for like half a second, and just listen to what we have to say?”
We. /wiː/
Plural pronoun, possessive our or ours, objective us. Nominative plural of I, used to denote oneself and another or others.
* * *
One tiny word, composed of two tiny innocuous seeming letters. A high frequency word that ‘we’ all use and don’t even think about it. Until we do. Like I was. In fact, it was all I could focus on. When we started in this thing we used to me King and me. Then it meant the three of us. Now it meant the two of them. I hated hearing the word on either of their lips.
“Oh, I’m sorry if I don’t drop everything to hang off your every utterance. My bad, Oh Wise One. Please, the stage is yours; go ahead, and bestow me with your words of infinite wisdom.” I made an exaggerated bowing gesture with my arm, and lowered my head in faux reverence.
King looked at me as though I was being exactly as douchey as I felt, but said nothing. I hated that. I couldn’t stand the way he was treating me with kid gloves. At any other time he’d have told me to go fuck myself, and I would have deserved it. I would still have told him I’d rather fuck his mother, and we’d take it from there. But since I’d been admitted, the two of them were tiptoeing around me as though they thought I was made of fragile crystal, and would break if they didn’t. It was insanely frustrating.
“Jesus Christ. Will you quit acting like I’m some kind of invalid, and say whatever the fuck it is you have to say, or get the fuck out. I don’t have time for this.”
“Really? What the hell else do you have to do right now? And newsflash—you are a goddamned invalid. You’re in a hospital, remember?”
“As if anyone will let me forget it even for a second. Anyway, hospital or not, I can still kick your ass with one hand, and not break a sweat, so either say your piece or take a hike, or I won’t be responsible for my actions.”
“The fact is that you practically live at King’s anyway.” Quincy picked up where King left off, and my hands involuntarily curled into fists. I fucking hated when they did that, like some cutesy little double act.
I could deal with them fucking, or even being in love, and wanting to take their relationship to the next level, but I couldn’t stand the cookie-cutter Mr. and Mrs. bullshit that went with it.
“Why are you telling me shit I already know? There’s nothing wrong with my memory.”
“Well, my point was going to be that if anyone’s third-wheeling, it’s me, so you have nothing to worry about.” They’d conveniently omitted to mention that they were moving in together, but clearly that was happening, regardless of where I ended up. Fuck. This. Bullshit.
“Who said anything about worrying? Do I look worried to you?”
“No, but you do look angry, and I have the distinct impression that the situation will get worse before it gets better.”
“Why? What aren’t you telling me? I turned away from Quincy to look at my best friend. “King? Listen to me. Either you spit it out now, or walk out that door and don’t look back, both of you.”
“Well the truth is, we made it sound like an offer, but it kind of wasn’t. Scrap that—it wasn’t an offer at all.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“The label approached us a few days ago, and said that they wanted you to go to rehab—like away to a residential facility. We bargained with them and managed to get them to agree to outpatient treatment instead, which they did, but the condition is that we supervise you twenty four seven. So yeah, you don’t really have a choice.”
What? I swore I lost my vision for a moment. I was so angry. I actually couldn’t remember a time when I was so pissed off with another person, or in this case, two people. Blind rage had nothing on what I was feeling at that moment. I really needed a drink to take the edge off.
“Wait. So let me get this straight. The two of you went behind my back and made decisions about my care, without talking to me first, as though I was some kind of simpleton or child. Is that what I’m hearing?”
“You’ve got it twisted. It wasn’t like that. We were just trying—” She reached out for my hand, but I snatched it out of her grasp as though burned by acid.
“Don’t you goddamned touch me. The fuck it wasn’t like that. That’s exactly how it was. You were “just” trying to throw me a fucking bone in order to appease your pathetic consciences, so that ‘we’ could go on like nothing ever happened.”
“That’s not how it was at all Row; Q’s right. You’ve got it all wrong.”
“Sh
ut the fuck up King. I mean it. I’m this close to tearing your head clean off your shoulders right now. The only reason I’m not is that I want you to hear what I’m about to say loud and clear, so that there can be no confusion.
“Love must really have rotted your brains if you thought I was going to agree to this crazy shit. Seriously, are you out of your goddamned minds? I mean, do either of you even know me? I’m going to go ahead and say you don’t.”
I glared at them both, taking in their crest-fallen demeanors. The two of them were a sorrier sight than a kennel full of kicked puppies.
“You say I have no choice, and if you really believe that, then you’re the ones who have it twisted—the two of you, and that bunch of talentless morons at the labels. There are always choices in life. Are they always good choices? Hell no. Are they always choices we want to make? Definitely not, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t choices just the same.” I enjoyed seeing the looks of confusion on their faces.
“I mean, take this situation as a case in point. The way I see it, I have three choices. One: I can go to rehab. Two: I can do the fucked up Brady Bunch bullshit the two of you are suggesting. Three: I can tell you all to go fuck yourselves with a ten foot spear. That goes for you and the label bozos.” I paused, letting them stew in their juices for a little while before delivering my last below-belt blow.
“We did our time, the twelve months is up, and we’re free, like ex-cons being let out of jail. There’s absolutely no need to put ourselves through this hot mess one moment longer, and I don’t care what you two do, but I for one, am out.”
“Yeah, about that.” King stared at the floor as though it held the secrets to world peace, eternal youth, and who killed JFK.
“Yeah, what about it?”
“So remember we signed on for those extra gigs as an annex to the main tour? The sideshows?”
“I don’t have a fucking brain injury, so of course I remember.”
“Well, they’re not happening now, under the circumstances, so they kind of have us over a barrel here.”
“What the fuck are you talking about? You’re not making any sense.”
“They’re threatening us with court.” Quincy at least had the decency to look me in the eye as she spoke.
Again?
“They’re out of their fucking minds. On what grounds?”
“Breach of contract.” Over a few missed gigs? It was crazy. “Either we agree to the rehab thing—whichever version—or they bleed us dry in a long and drawn out court battle that they will more than likely win. Even if they don’t, we’ll all be broke before it’s settled, so either way, we lose.”
“I’m still not following. Why do they want me to go to rehab for a few sideshow gigs? Can’t we just reschedule and get it over and done with?”
“It’s not just about the side shows.”
“Well what the fuck is it about then? This makes no sense.”
“They’re basically holding a gun to our heads. They want us to do another album, and another tour.” Oh. Hell. To. The. Fucking no.
“Over my dead body.”
To be continued…
Bowed - Classical Badboys Duet 2
COMING JULY 28 2020
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* * *
Rome
We never play by the rules. In life, in music, or in bed. Rules are for those who give a f#ck what other people think. The only opinions we care about are our own.
* * *
We love each other like brothers, only closer. We’re each other’s biggest support and greatest rival, and we give each other everything. In life, in music, and in bed.
We’re the family we chose, not the one we were born with.
* * *
Our bond is stronger than blood.
No woman has ever been a source of strain on our relationship.
Until we meet Quincy.
With her, something feels different.
We’re different.
She’s the piece of the puzzle we never even realized was missing.
* * *
But the friction she causes between us is like nothing we’ve ever felt toward each other, and it’s threatening to tear us apart.
I had her first. She wants him more. Why do I need to make her mine?
* * *
Grab your discounted pre-order copy now!
Books By MV Ellis
Boys of Trinity Hall Series
Break You (1)
Fake You (2)
Shake You (3)
Take You (4)
Make You (5)
* * *
Catch up with Arlo Jones and Rome’s brother Marko in
Heartless Few Series
Catching London (1)
Cold, Hard & Heartless (2)
Pushing Arlo (3)
Finding Marnie (4)
* * *
Rough Ink Series
Zed (1)
Spider (2)
* * *
Gods Of The Fifth Floor Series
They work hard, they play hard, they f#ck harder
Beck (1)
Raine (2)
Thank You & Follow me
Thank you for reading Plucked, I hope you enjoyed it.
If you did, please consider leaving a review; they give authors valuable feedback, help other readers find new books, and of course, I’d really appreciate it.
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If you can’t be good, be kickass, and if you can’t be kickass, be badass.
xMV
Acknowledgments
I’ll be honest, Plucked is one of my favourite books I’ve written so far. It fell from my fingertips effortlessly, and it was just so easy to ‘see’ Rome, King, and Quincy’s story, then commit it to paper. I felt like I watched a really great movie in my mind, then wrote up the movie into a book (which, by the way, is actually my process!).
Being my first duet, and first story featuring three protagonists, I was naturally a little nervous. But I’m not gonna lie, I’m so glad I popped my cherry on both things, and I can assure you I’ll be doing it again, so watch this space.
Anyway, enough about me, and more about you guys—the people who read my books, and make it worth my while to continue to write up the movies I have playing in my mind.
Thank you so much for playing along, and coming with me on this journey, even when I veer off the path of things I’ve done before and venture into something new. Thank you for trusting me with your time, and reading my words—I know time is a precious resource, and I guard mine like a miser, so I especially appreciate you trusting me with yours.
Special thanks as always to my family, who are ever patient, and Mr E, who is endlessly supportive, whether it’s dealing with me being shut up in my burrow day and night, or listening to me running story ideas aloud and worrying that “this one just isn’t going to work.” Everyone needs a ride or die, and I have one in him. #grateful
* * *
Much love!
* * *
xMV
ABOUT MV ELLIS
MV ELLIS knows what it’s like to fall head over heels in love with a badass musician. She followed her heart halfway around the world to be with one. She moved from London to Sydney after a steamy holiday romance with a sexy bass player in sultry Brazil. Fourteen years, two children and a dog later, and she’s still smitten. All this with a guy she sat next to on a bus for 36 hours!
Ellis’s love of romance began when she was 11 years old, after a summer spent secretly reading her auntie’s books. She’s been a sucker for an alpha hero and strong heroine ever since.
Following a career spanning advertising, marketing, and social
media, she finally wrote her debut novel, Catching London in 2017. She has since followed that with the Rough Ink series, and
MV loves to connect with readers. She can be reached on the following platforms: