by J. S. Lynn
SING,
KISS,
PUNCH. 3
J.S. Lynn
Copyright 2015 by J.S. Lynn - All rights reserved.
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Chapter 1
Nadia was not so sure about the new singer that was hired for Junked. The man took the bad-boy image to an extreme and there was not really a way to calm him down. She wanted the rest of the band to get along, but it seemed that Mark really just did his own thing. He was getting on everyone’s nerves and since she was the manager of one of the greatest rock bands in the country, it was her job to take care of it. She had tried several ways to help him to understand the importance of unity but he just didn’t seem to get it. Or he just didn’t care; either way he was driving her crazy.
She tried to call him again, the third time for the day. They had a photoshoot for the new album coming out, but like always, she was getting calls that he was late and not answering his phone. Putting it down on the handle, she sat back in her chair and looked at all the awards on her wall. Nadia was the best at what she did but even she couldn’t control everyone.
Sending an Email to her partner, she got one back too quickly. She already knew what he was going to say and when she opened it and read the words, and she sighed even louder than before.
“You need to go down there and make sure he is where he needs to be, Nadia.”
Something stopped her from calling him. She didn’t want to argue with him and since he was the one that hired the new singer, Rick wanted to make sure that he didn’t fail, because she would never let him hear the end of it if it happened. Nadia had been leaning for a younger man that was more flexible and would cater to a larger market. Rick thought it would kill the vibe of the band, and yet Mark was not fitting in at all. Rick didn’t get all the three a.m. phone calls bitching because he was keeping everyone up banging some chick on the tour bus.
“Alright, but you know it should be you going down there. You owe me Rick.”
She sent the message and looked around her room again. Her day just got a whole lot worse and she was not going to be able to go out with Scott that night. They had been dating for a couple of weeks and she was ready for ‘the date.’ The date was going to have to wait though and she sent him a text before she grabbed her jacket and left the large office. It was the clincher for her, the building was not where they had wanted it, but the view and the two main offices were really all they needed. Rick was out in the field with another musical band that he was trying to pull their way. That was the only thing that saved him from having to go to the middle of Colorado.
It was going to be cold and she was used to the warm sun of California. But the band was on tour and after Justin left pretty abruptly, the tour had to be finished and if she was going to babysit, off to the cold mountains she had to go. The tour was off schedule and they had to skip a large part just to get back to the towns that they still had on the list. They would all have to backtrack to the ones they skipped later. It was all a mess and Nadia had to somehow make it all work. The fact that she was getting called away to tame a thirty year old man, was ridiculous.
She made it back to her house in time to pack a bag and catch the next flight to Denver. Nadia packed warm clothes and enough of everything for a week. She hoped that she didn’t have to be there that long, but since she still couldn’t get a hold of Mark, it was not boding well for the trip.
***
Her phone didn’t ring until she was at the Denver airport. It was Mark and she answered after she seen the name. “Hey Mark, how was the photoshoot?”
Silence. She knew that he hadn’t been because she just knew him well enough already. “I thought it was tomorrow.”
“So let me guess, you didn’t show up and I now have to pay all of those people for another day?”
More silence. Maybe berating him like a child was the only way to deal with people that acted like him. “Are you sober?”
“Yeah. It is only four. I have only been up a couple of hours.”
“Don’t you think you are a little old for that?”
“Wow, you are like a bulldog. So what were you calling for earlier?”
Nadia tried to keep her cool. This guy really was something else. “I called earlier to get your ass up so you would go and I wouldn’t have to drop 20k for the crew tomorrow, which will come out of your next royalty check by the way.”
“What? You can’t do that!”
“I just did, now come get me from the airport.”
He was speechless and she waited for several heartbeats until he asked for directions. “Look it up genius.”
Nadia hung up and chided herself for being such a bitch. She didn’t mean to be or she shouldn’t have been, but she couldn’t help it. It had been months since she had any action and now she was being forced to wait longer and it was driving her crazy. It just wasn’t right.
To his defense, she didn’t have to wait long and her temper had cooled considerably as she reminded herself that he was important. There was no way they could find another singer and practice enough to play live with the band in the amount of time until the next scheduled tour date. There was no way, so she had to keep him happy, but a little more consternation on his part was still in order
. More honey with bees, she told herself as he walked up.
It was her first time seeing him in person and he was definitely a lot to take in at once. His hair was blonde but too short to almost tell. He had piercings in his ears and lip, tattoos over his slender, wiry form. His clothes were mainly black and leather, every surface showing held hues of body ink. She wondered to herself how far they all went. His eyes were dark green and she was made to pause, her heart stopping for a second as the gaze met hers. There was an intensity that was only seen with artists. They were all tortured souls in their own way; their creativity the only way to calm themselves.
“Mark, over here.” Nadia stood up and rolled her bag over to him.
Chapter 2
Mark stopped at the opening glass door. The woman stood up and walked towards him, pushing her hand out to take his. This was the woman he had been talking to on the phone all this time? She didn’t seem like the barking woman that had talked to him like he was six. He had pictured her older and far less pretty. She had been funny in her sarcastic way, but he would have never put that face with the woman he had been talking with for months via telephone and text.
She had to be several years younger than him, but it was the pale blue eyes that had stopped him in his tracks. They were haunting eyes of someone who had seen too much and when he finally took the offered hand, he was surprised that she seemed so frail. His large palm enveloped hers and he looked down at the contact, feeling a physical spark as the touched. He heard her suck in her breath and he looked down at her when she pulled her hand away.
“Nice to meet you. Nadia, right? Rick told me you were the best. I wasn’t expecting…”
“Well here I am, no matter what you expected. Thanks for picking me up. I hate riding in cabs and I was hoping that we could get to know each other a little better, since you are the reason I am here.”
“Oh. I think I like the sound of that.”
“I am missing a very hot date to babysit you, so none of this cute shit is going to work for me. I need to make sure you are ready for tour. We have a lot of dates, so if you can’t be there, I need to know now.”
“You are always this demanding, aren’t you?”
“Yes Mark, in every way. Now can you please take this? It is getting really heavy.”
She didn’t wait for him to do so, but walked back out into the cold air. Pulling her jacket around her, she stood there until he came back out rolling her bag. “How long are you staying?”
“That depends on you, Mark. How long are you going to make me stay? It is eighty degrees in California right now, so the sooner the better for me.”
He was still trying to get used to her beauty, the sharp tongue helping him on his way. He started to walk towards his Hummer. She chuckled a little when she saw it. “Making up for something, huh?”
Mark said nothing, but her words irritated him. For such a pretty girl, she sure was pushy, he thought. She got in and put her seat belt on. There was snow all over the road and it was even grated for the common occurrence. Nadia expected him to drive unsafe, remembering the many car wrecks he had been in lately, but he actually didn’t scare her shitless. The hotel however, did.
“Don’t tell me this is where you guys are staying? Stacy booked this?”
“It’s not so bad, but it is full. Hell, the whole town is full. There is some kind of award show in town and all of the good hotels were booked. This was all we could find. There isn’t even an extra room here.”
“What? Rick told me that he had reserved one.”
Mark chuckled a bit. “Yeah, Rick is like that.”
“You know Rick?” She asked flatly.
“We went to school together. He didn’t tell you that?”
“No, but him pushing you is all making sense now.”
“Yeah he told me that you were a hard-ass that couldn’t stand guys like me. He said to be on my best behavior.”
“That sounds like him when he is being an ass. It would be him down here if he wasn’t busy with more clients.”
“Well I am glad that he didn’t make it. Then I wouldn’t have met you.”
“Business Mark, remember?”
“Right. So, you will have to stay with someone. You are more than welcome to stay in my room, it’s the biggest.”
“Well thanks, but I have heard about your nightly play and I need to actually get some sleep.”
“I would never do anything that you didn’t want to do, Nadia.”
“That is not what I meant. I meant that you are like a man whore and I don’t want to have to hear you banging some girl every night we are here. Three days of that and I will be quitting.”
“Promise?”
“Seriously, who else is here, everyone?”
“Yep the whole crew, though I am the only one with a room to myself. Almost everyone else paired up.”
Nadia bit her lip. Rick was really going to owe her when this was all said and done. She couldn’t believe that she had been sent here with little to no accommodation. She looked over at the man and he was grinning. It was clear that he understood the circumstance. “Can you please restrain from bringing women back for a few days until I leave?”
“I think I can manage to hold it in. If you promise to not be so mean.”
She was surprised by his request, though she knew she was being uncharacteristically sharp with him. It wasn’t that it was all his fault. Nadia caught the way he looked at her and she wondered if he thought that he would get some if he didn’t bring back a girl. Nadia was too professional to have a relationship with a client, but he certainly was a cute one.
“I will try not to be so mean, but I can’t make any promises. If your ass isn’t up at nine for photos tomorrow, I may just lose it.”
He chuckled, the sound rich as he got out of the high vehicle. Mark turned back and looked at her, “Sounds good.”
She wouldn’t go that far, but it would have to do for the next 3 days that they were in Denver. They had a full schedule of photo-ops, interviews, and practice to keep them busy so it couldn’t be that bad. Right?
Chapter 3
Nadia was dismayed to see only one bed when she got into his suite. It was large, but there was only one huge bed in the middle of the room. There was a sofa in the small living room, but it was nowhere near long enough for her frame. She looked down at it and sighed. Her 3 days just got a whole lot longer.
She went to the phone and called the front desk. “Yes ma’am, I was wondering if you had any cots or extra beds that could be used in the suite.”
After a few minutes of listening, she set the phone back down and looked over at Mark. “So do you want to sleep on the couch or do I have to?”
“Why do either of us have to? The bed is big enough for the both of us. You are tall, but tiny.”
Nadia looked at the large bed, but she couldn’t imagine herself in it with him. “No, I am fine here, thanks.”
“Suit yourself. We are going out for something to eat, do you want to come?”
“Who’s we?”
“The band you manage.”
“Oh, maybe tomorrow. I have to rehire twenty people. Be back by ten so that you don’t look like this is the morning.”
“You don’t think I look good?”
She shrugged. “I am sure you can look better and you know we want the young hot ladies to dream about you. You get a bunch of adoring fans with tight skirts. It is really just a win-win situation all the way around.”
“Tight skirts, huh? Well that is a nice way to say it I guess.”
“Anyways, thanks for the offer and sharing your room with me. I will try to make it so you don’t even know I am here.”
He doubted it as she turned around to grab her phone. Sticking it to her ear after she punched in a few numbers, Nadia walked away as she talked. Soon she was speaking in another language that he guessed was Spanish, but he really wasn’t sure. She certainly didn’t look Spanish with her blonde hair and blue eyes, but it
was definitely not English that she spoke. Nadia was a big mystery to him and he had never met someone quite like her before. She had made him laugh on many occasions, picked him up when he was feeling down, but never had he imagined she would look like she did.
The man watched her for a while, as she had her phone fixed to her ear and talked to several different people. He was supposed to go eat lunch with the crew, but he suddenly wanted to stay there with her. Mark couldn’t though, so he went to the restaurant that they had been to every evening for the last few days.
“Do you want me to bring you something back, Nadia?”
She looked surprised that he asked and she turned to him, covering her phone. “Yes, that would be great.”
“What do you want?”
“Anything will be fine. Thanks Mark.”
***
Mark thought about her on his way over to the restaurant. It was only a few blocks away and he needed the walk to clear his mind. It was like she had been dropped from nowhere and was already disrupting his life. Why couldn’t he stop thinking about her eyes?
He walked fast enough to keep his blood moving in his cold veins, but slow enough that he was not there too quickly. It was more of a bar than a restaurant and Lavallette’s was loud and obnoxious. It was a place that was almost impossible to think in.
Mark needed the gig and behind all his bravado, he knew that. It was a sweet job that he could have only dreamed for, but he had lost it a little with the new surroundings. To have women all around, vying for his attention and the excessive drugs at his disposal had made the transition a bit trickier than he had first anticipated. He knew he was fucking up, but a series of incidents had made it harder to walk the straight and narrow. Maybe Nadia was going to be a good influence on him.
Mark really hoped that it was her body that he would get to need as well. He had undressed her with his eyes at least fifty times in the twenty minutes that he was around her. Mark was hoping to get some information from some of the band members, but when he got there, most of them were already sloshed. Jerry and his wife were kissing wildly in one of the stools and the rest of them were a blur.