Dangerous Kiss

by Michelle Love

  He looks at me. “Prior to meetin’ you and Lex and your delightful kids, I’d never even contemplated settlin’ down. Meeting you and your family has really made an impression on me. I know it’s only been a few days, but I feel like you’re my brother in a way. Like I look up to ya.”

  “I was an only child, just like you. When my mother put me in a children’s home I had foster brother after foster brother, but not a one of them got me like you do, Kip. It’s been a real pleasure having your company.” He touches his bottle to mine and smiles.

  “Here’s to a long and happy future as best mates, Max.”

  Best mates? Who ever thought I loved to hear that so much?

  Kip

  Crickets chirp as I fall asleep in the bedroom Max and Lexi have put me up in. It’s my last night here. Tomorrow it’s back on the tour bus and off to San Marcos. My heart has a soft ache in it, as I don’t really want to leave. They’ve been so much more fun than the blokes in my band.

  A real family they are, and I never knew I wanted something like they have. I have a mansion in L.A. and one in London and one in Sidney, but they’re all empty. Only the keepers of the grounds and buildings live their lives in all three places.

  Never have I once felt like any of them were home. I wonder why that is. I wonder if it takes more than one person to make a real home. After a long tour being cooped up with my bandmates, I’m always ready for some alone time. I thought I was happy just being alone in my homes.

  I guess I was, but now I see how much happier I could be with someone to share it all with. My life is so taken up with work, though, it seems an impossible task to find a woman I could really love. It’d be no life with just any woman.

  She’d have to have me on my toes, not easy or overcome by my wealth or celebrity. Who am I kidding? No normal chick would ever come close to what I’m seeking. Too bad Lexi doesn’t have a sister.

  Lexi has it all down. She’s elegant when she needs to be, but so down to earth, she makes everyone around her feel great. Somehow, she makes people feel special, yet really normal. I don’t know how she accomplishes that. One like her would be great.

  Max just stumbled upon that rare find. How will that happen for me?

  My fame and fortune seem to get in my way, stopping women from looking past the glitz and glamor and seeing the real me. The man who is a bit on the lonely side and now, the man who may be ready for a lot more than a one night stand.

  Too bad I have to be so rich and popular. It’d be so much easier to find a normal girl if I wasn’t.

  Alexis

  Wrapping up breakfast, Hilda comes into the breakfast nook and pats Kip on his shoulder. “Mijo, you come back anytime. I love your crazy accent.”

  “And I love yours, Hilda,” Kip says, then takes her hand off his shoulder and kisses the top of it, making her giggle like a schoolgirl.

  His charm and wit are lost on no one. “Do ya really got to go?” Zoey asks him.

  She sits next to him and her bottom lip pouts. Kip runs his hand over her head and kisses her little cheek. “I do, sweetheart. Don’t fret, though. You’ll be seeing me at Christmas, and I plan on giving you and your brother lots and lots of big surprises.”

  Her eyes light up. “I want a pony and Mom told me no.”

  “Zoey, now don’t go asking Kip for a pony,” I say, and wag my finger at her.

  She wags her little finger right back at me. “I’m not. I’m just telling him what you said.”

  Kip looks at me sideways. “So, is that an across the board no pony, or perhaps one she might keep at my place might be all right?”

  “Kip! That’s too much trouble for you,” I say.

  My little flirt bats her long eyelashes at the rock star. “Would that be too much trouble?”

  His hand runs over her chubby little cheek. “There’s not a thing in this world that would be too much trouble for you, my little sweetheart. But, we must see what Christmas holds. There are things better than ponies, after all.”

  Zoey looks incredulously at him. “There are?”

  We all laugh and Zane says, “Heck, yes, there are, Zoey! Like bouncy houses and guns that shoot water and sharks. Sharks are so much cooler than ponies.” Zane gets a grin on his little face. “Unky Kip, if you get her a pony, will you get me a shark?”

  Kip laughs and asks, “A shark? What will you do with that?”

  “Feed her pony to it,” Zane says with a shrug.

  We all laugh. Well, not all of us. Zoey wears a frown. “You know what, Hunky Kip.” Her uncle went a little off, and I’m not sure if she even knows what hunky even means, but the word isn’t lost on any of the adults. “I don’t want a pony no more. I want a bouncy house, ’cause a shark can’t eat one of them.”

  Kip smiles and tweaks her nose. “I’ll keep that in mind, sweetheart.”

  Breakfast is over way too soon and Kip is on his way out. Zoey’s new love is leaving and Max and I exchange looks, as we can see she’s going to be a drama queen and that’s going to make her teenage years so much harder.

  We all wave as Kip gets in his rental car. “Call me, Hunky Kip,” Zoey says as her father holds her.

  “I will, doll,” Kips shouts out of the window of the car. Then he pulls away and Zoey buries her face in Max’s chest.

  He pulls away and we all go back inside. He made a big impact on us all and I hope we made one on him. Such a great man and yet so alone. Hopefully love will find him.

  I hope it’s sooner than later!

  Kip

  The tour bus smells worse than usual or the blokes do, not sure which. We head out to the college town of San Marcos and I feel a bit sad and melancholy. I miss the Lanes all already.

  I run a yellow silk ribbon ’round my fingers, as little Zoey gave it to me so I wouldn’t forget about her, the li’l angel, she is. Bobby crashes into the seat across from me. “So, what hot piece of ass did you manage to find that kept you away for all four days, Kipper?”

  “No ass, mate. A family,” I say, and run the silky ribbon over my cheek, remembering the little kisses Zoey gave me before I left their home.

  “A what?” he asks.

  “A family. Ever heard of that thing?” I ask as I look at him with my eyebrows raised.

  “Sure, I’ve heard tale of the horrible things,” he says, then starts plucking at his electric guitar that’s not hooked up to anything so it makes these weird little plinking sounds I don’t really care for. “So why’d you do that then? Long lost relatives? No, couldn’t be that. You’re not from the states.”

  “Nah, I met this man and his wife at the Tour de Champagne and we hit it off.”

  “A threesome! Bad ass, man!” Bobby leans up and holds his fist out for a bump and I ignore him.

  “No! Although Lexi is the cover model on that hot little series of naughty books we all read a couple years ago while we were on tour in Europe. That was cool, I suppose.”

  “You suppose!” Bobby shouts. “Tell me you hit that!”

  Surprise fills my face. “No, I will not! She’s happily married and quite pregnant. Her husband is my new best mate, just so ya know, your ass has been replaced.”

  Bobby makes a pouty face and says, “Oh, no! Please don’t tell me that!”

  “We shot wild hogs from his helicopter and he shot at me while I drove his car that he put bulletproof glass in which he invented,” I tell him. “It was fun and easy, with no fuss about a thing. It made me think about if I had a family. I’d like it to be a lot like theirs.”

  Bobby laughs, and a snort follows. “You! A family man! Ha! That’s a joke. I mean, you’re Mr. Party, Mr. One Night is a Bit Too Long, Mr. Love and Leave ’em Guy.”

  “I didn’t realize I carried so many names, you dick,” I say, and pull out my headphones to listen to something other than his mouth.

  The windows on the bus are tinted really dark and I can look out the window I sit next to and look out at the people we pass on the highway. A lot of the drivers
are alone in their cars. There’s a few mothers with children in the car with them. I search and search for a whole family in one and realize there just aren’t that many.

  Perhaps once school’s out there will be more families on the road. I shake my head and realize I have to do a show in a bit and my head is nowhere near where it needs to be. I’m all thinking with the wrong side of my brain.

  I find some headbanging music and lean back and let the rock seep in and take over. Family life is very far in the future for me. I’m a rock star right now, and nothing more.

  My shoulder is shaken and as I open my eyes I see our manager, Silas, looking at me. I pull off the headphones so I can hear what he’s trying to tell me. “Say it again, Silas.”

  “I said you need to go ahead and get your hair and make-up done. We’re only a couple of hours away and you need to completely change. You look like the kid next door; what happened to you?” he asks as he touches my collared pullover Max gave me since I was out of clean clothes that looked normal.

  “Nothin’, man. I’ll get changed into my normal leather duds. Never fear, I’m here,” I jump up and make my way back to the part of the bus where all the make-up and hair things are.

  I sit in front of the mirror and put the make-up on and watch my real self disappear and I’m a little sad it all has to go. But it saves me the stampede of fans I’d have bothering me if I didn’t take this step. I wonder if there’s a place on this planet where a celebrity can just be themselves and no one gets all star struck and acts foolish.

  After over an hour in the make-up chair, I’m transformed into the rock star I am. Tight black leather covers my legs and a sheer T-shirt shows off my ripped abs and muscular pecs. The finishing touch is the small diamond I put in my eyebrow and now I’m him again and the real me is gone.

  Along with the change in appearance, a change happens in the way I act. I feel rowdier and wild. Perhaps that’s what has kept me from finding someone; I feel like I can’t be tamed. Odd I never realized that before.

  The brakes squeal as we pull into the parking lot and we all look out the windows at the droves of college students walking here and there as they do what they want on the last day of school for the semester. Their minds must be brimming with anticipation of what life has in store for them, now they’re done with their studies and ready to face the world.

  My reality is back in my head and the fantasy of living a normal life is fading quickly. Normal just isn’t in the cards for me, I’m afraid. The dream of finding a woman that could handle all this is farfetched, and the reality is occasional hook-ups are all I have in my foreseeable future.

  “There sure are a lot of girls out there,” Bobby says with a smile.

  “Pick one out. I’m sure any one of them would love to join you later on the bus.” I slap him on the back.

  “What about you, stud?” he asks. “You see one you might want to introduce little Kipper to?”

  “It’s Big Kipper, and who knows. It probably would help me to wrap my head around who I really am.”

  As we get off the bus I leave the last of my fantasy of a normal life with a normal woman behind me for good.

  The End.

  Evergreen

  An Alpha Billionaire Romance

  In the beautiful evergreen state of Washington, the uber-rich send their teenage and young adult children to the exclusive private Auburn College of Fine Arts. The students, teachers, and parents’ lives are torn apart one summer’s day when a horrific school massacre takes place.

  In the aftermath, a young English teacher, Emory Grace saves the life of billionaire Luca Saffran’s daughter, Bree, a heroic act that leaves her seriously injured, and which changes everyone’s lives around her. Emory and Luca’s attraction soon turns to love, but can they escape the repercussions of the school horror and live happily ever after?

  Emory Grace snuck a look at her watch. The commencement ceremony was already an hour in, and now that her husband, Dr. Raymond Grace, was about to make his speech, it would almost certainly be another two or three hours before she could escape and get back to Auburn. She sighed, her skin almost feeling like it was itching with irritation. Ray would bloviate for an hour—about himself—and then finally get around to the students who, by that time, would be muttering dark thoughts and getting antsy.

  Emory glanced over at her friend, Joan, who was Ray’s personal assistant. Joan winked back at her, knowing exactly what she was thinking. Emory didn’t think she would have made it through the last five years of her marriage without Joan. Joan was the one person of whom Ray was terrified. A striking woman in her early seventies, Joan didn’t stand for any of Ray’s arrogance or rudeness.

  But then again, Ray had never hit Joan across the room, kicked her in the stomach, or almost choked her to death.

  Emory touched her throat now, remembering the evening a few nights ago when she’d quietly told him that she didn’t want to attend this event. He’d been silent for a moment, then moved so quickly she hadn’t had time to defend herself. He’d grabbed her by the throat and slammed her against the wall, his thick fingers squeezing her neck until she saw stars at the corner of her vision.

  “Why must you always defy me?” he’d whispered before releasing her. She had dropped to the floor, gasping for air, but it hadn’t been the end of the attack. He’d grabbed her long dark hair in his fist and dragged her to their bed. Emory had closed her eyes as he grunted above her. Three short thrusts and he was done. He rolled off her and fell asleep while Emory shivered, letting her tears fall silently.

  No more, she’d decided that night, and now she repeated it to herself. No more. When she was sure he was asleep, she’d gotten up and gone to grab some water and make a plan. A plan to escape from this man she had married. God, how had she ever loved him? Nearly twice her twenty-eight years, when they met he had seemed so worldly and wise, so charming. How long had it been after their wedding that he’d changed? She hardly remembered, but now it was clear; she had to leave him. She wanted to leave him. The thought of the next thirty or forty years with this abusive, weak man … God, she couldn’t do it.

  So, she’d planned meticulously. When she was finally able to get back to Auburn, the college she loved with all her heart, she would move into one of the few cottages on the campus that were kept available for staff to stay in during times of need. She’d cleared it with the dean, a kindly Englishman called Stephen Harris, who’d gone to college with Ray and despised him of old—not that he’d ever said that to Emory … until the day she’d told him she was leaving Ray.

  “It’s become apparent that we cannot continue to live together,” she’d said, not wanting to tell him too much, but Stephen had glanced at the bruises on her neck, and they’d shared a look.

  He’d offered to lend her money, but she’d smiled gratefully and said, “Thank you, Stephen, but no, I’ll be fine. I’ve always been a saver.”

  “Well, you can stay here as long as you need,” he’d said, “and really, Em, whatever you need, don’t hesitate to ask. We’re all Team Emory here.”

  She’d had to leave his office before she burst into tears.

  But now she felt as far from crying as she could; she just felt excited. Her lawyer had prepared the papers to serve to Ray as soon as she left for Auburn; most of her clothes, books, and records had been hidden away in the trunk of her old Impala; Ray was so self-absorbed he hadn’t realized they’d been missing from the home they shared. She was leaving virtually everything else. She didn’t want any reminder of Ray. Her wedding ring, she would leave on his nightstand—a final “fuck you.”

  She had been daydreaming for so long she hadn’t realized people were clapping. She sat up and looked towards Ray at the podium. He caught her eye, saw she wasn’t applauding and glared at her. Emory gave him her cheesiest grin.

  Yeah, fuck you, Raymond Grace. You’re not going to see this coming.

  Two days later …

  Clementine would not meet his ga
ze. Luca Saffran, across from his soon-to-be ex-wife as they sat in their $700-an-hour lawyer’s office, had tried to catch her eye for the entire duration of the settlement meeting, but Clem wouldn’t look at him. He could see the spots of pink high on her patrician cheeks, her dark red hair up in a perfect chignon, her blue eyes red-rimmed and watery. She hadn’t wanted this, the divorce, the separation of their lives, but Luca had known it was over for a while. So did Clem, in her heart, but still, she was heartbroken.

  They had managed to keep it civil for the sake of their nineteen-year-old daughter Bree. Even now, the meeting was going smoothly; Clem didn’t want anything but her trust fund and the property in Snoqualmie, even though Luca wanted to give her half of his seven-billion-dollar fortune. It dwarfed her trust fund.

  “I don’t want your money,” Clem said evenly, though her voice shook. Finally, she met Luca’s dark eyes. “I’m not being difficult, Luca. I just don’t want it.’

  Luca sighed. “How about I create a trust fund for Bree?”

  Clem sighed. “In addition to all her other trust funds? Luca, stop.”

  He stared at her for a few moments, then looked at the lawyers. “Guys, can we have the room, please?” When they were alone, he got up and took the seat next to Clem, taking her hands in his. “Clem, I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you.’

  She looked at him, her blue eyes cold. “Then, why did you, Luca? Why a divorce?”

  “Because you would never have asked for one, Clemmie. Never. And I knew with my whole heart. you need more than me. More than the life we had.”

  She made a disgusted noise and pulled her hands away from him. “And you know what I need?”