by Grace, M. J.
We discuss the wedding, which Jen states is not going to be a media circus, but a quiet understated affair. Obviously, secrecy is paramount, with security being at the highest degree.
As we are going over the details, there is a knock on the door and Tiny enters, informing us that there are still problems at the arena, so AJ and Razor aren’t going to make it back to the hotel; therefore, he will take us to the arena. To say I am disappointed is a total understatement. It means that we won’t have much time together before he has to go on stage, but at the end of the day, it’s who he is and I accepted that, the moment I let him into my life.
*****
Arriving at the arena, we are taken straight through to the rear of the stage, hearing as we approach the strumming of guitars, and the odd beat of a drum.
Standing at the side of the stage in the shadows, I watch my man as he works with the technicians, engrossed in their conversation.
He must have sensed me. Glancing up and seeing me standing there, a smile breaks out on his face, and he makes his way towards me, shouting “My girl’s here.”
On reaching me he pulls me into his arms and gently kisses me.
“Hi.”
“Hi.” I smile.
Grabbing my hand, he starts to pull me behind him, whilst rapidly walking away from the stage area.
“Come on.” He says and then shouts over his shoulder. “Taking a break.”
Laughing, I trail along behind him at a jog. He pulls me into a dressing room, slams the door behind us and before I know it, I’m backed up and pinned against the door and he’s kissing me, and when I say kissing me, I mean kissing me.
Instantly it becomes heated, too heated, it’s hot and its heavy and it’s downright wonderful. With my one hand travelling under his T-shirt, touching his warm skin, my other moves up into his hair, both holding him as close to me as possible.
Breaking the kiss AJ lifts his head, his breath at a rapid pace, matching my own.
“Damn, I’ve missed you.” He states.
“Ditto.” I reply as I pull him closer, with the intent of showing him just how much.
The make out session continues, with us moving over to the sofa; out of control and oblivious to everything but each other. So out of control that it doesn’t take long for both of our T-shirts to be lying on the floor, and we are lying on the sofa; our arms around each other, enjoying the feel of being in each other’s arms after so long.
I can’t get enough of feeling his skin next to my own. I love his body and I watch my fingers as they trace his tattoos. They are truly a work of art, the best by far being the dragon on his back.
Whilst his fingers trace a pattern up and down my arm, he tells me how much he’s missed me, and that he’s happy that we are finally reunited.
Aware that he hasn’t much time before he has to be ready to go on stage, I’m wishing this moment could last forever, when there is a rap on the door, and Razor shouts AJs name.
Quickly grabbing our T-shirts off the floor, we pull them on as AJ walks to the door. He waits until I am decent before opening the door to Razor, who is leaning up the door frame, a cheeky knowing grin on his face.
“Hey Jorgi. Boy you’re a sight for sore eyes. Glad you’re here to help keep him in line.” He laughs whilst walking towards me and giving me a hug.
“Raze!” AJ mutters under his breath, which almost seems like a warning. However, before I can focus on it, Razor has me in his arms, swinging me around.
“Jens told you about the wedding?” At my affirmative nod, he beams a smile and continues, “She’s been dying to tell you. You will help her won’t you?”
“What are best friend/maids of honour for?” I reply. To which he squeezes me tight and turns to AJ.
“Sorry Bud, but we have to get moving.” He says and receiving an affirmative nod in reply, says he will see me later and leaves the room.
“Got to get ready babe. You going to wait with Jen?”
“Sure.”
Putting an arm around my shoulders, he guides me down the corridor to another room with the door propped open, and I observe Jen sitting inside leaning over a laptop.
Looking up as we enter, she points to the laptop with a frown.
“Good, you’re here. I can’t decide between these shoes. I need your opinion. What do you think?”
AJ tugs my hand, making me fall into him, places his lips on mine and whispers, “Go talk wedding shit. I’ll come back for you in a while.”
“Okay,” I whisper against his lips, then watch as he strolls away before turning toward Jen and helping her decide on wedding shoes.
CHAPTER 13
Jen and I catch up on the wedding plans. She tells me they are being married at a private estate in Malibu; and she has engaged a wedding planner to deal with just about everything, who of course is sworn to secrecy. Even as we are speaking, emails were arriving thick and fast with information about various aspects of the wedding.
Before we know it, Razor and AJ are at the door, looking damn fine indeed, ready to hit the stage.
We all walk to the back of the stage, to the sounds of the warm up band finishing off their set. AJ gives me a quick kiss and then Tiny leads Jen and I, to a section on the side of the stage, where we can watch the show.
As the lights go down, the crowd goes crazy. The warm up band have done their job well and the crowd are wound up, and ready to go.
As the opening strings of Skin on Skin begin, I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but the crowd becomes even louder, so by the time the lights are up, the noise is deafening.
I watch in awe as the guys do their stuff. All the magic of the concert in Birmingham coming back to me, and before long I am on my feet, and Jen and I are dancing away just as we did before.
I can’t believe that I am in a relationship with the man on stage. It’s totally surreal.
About half a dozen songs in, AJ is standing centre stage when he announces:
“And now a favourite of someone special.” And they go straight into Dangerous Love.
Jen puts her arm around my shoulder and hugs me tight, and I have to admit I’m grinning like a Cheshire cat. The crowd loves it just as much as I do, and when AJ goes down the runway at the front of the stage, they go wild for him. When next they wind up the tempo, I can’t believe how much energy the guys still have and they are jumping all over the stage. It has to be said that they really know how to put on a good show.
Many tunes later, the lights go down and I’m about to leave my seat thinking that the show is over, when the spotlight hits centre stage, and AJ is sitting there on his own, guitar in hand.
“Now it’s not often we do this, but I’m going to do a solo.” He announces, sending the crowd wild. “This is for my Humming Bird.” As he looks my way and smiles.
My heart is in my throat as I smile back. The crowd quietens; you can hear the hush of whispers, and I can see people looking in my direction, trying to see who he is talking about.
Slowly he starts strumming his guitar and I recognise the song immediately. It’s a version of Hold You In My Arms by Ray LaMontagne. I feel my eyes fill with tears. He’s singing my life, promising to hold me forever and protect me. He doesn’t know it, but it is a song that I love, and to have him sing it to me I am overwhelmed. The tears are falling down my cheeks, as I listen to his beautiful voice sing the words that go straight to my heart. If I had any doubts about my feelings for him, he just blew them away.
The lights die out, and for a few moments time stands still, the crowd silent, as if they too are spellbound by the beauty of the song, and then the roof is raised, as they go wild.
Me? I’m standing like a lemon, tears on my cheeks, hardly able to breathe. He has just publicly announced our relationship to the whole arena, which includes the press.
The rest of the guys hit the stage, and they go into a fast paced number as Tiny appears in front of us, and gestures for us to follow him. When we arrive backstage, Jen explai
ns that they’re on the last song, and we need to be ready to hit the cars, for when they come off stage. Looking at me, she smiles and hands me a paper tissue.
“You need to take care of your make-up sweetie.”
Quickly taking the tissue, I wipe my eyes and face, doing the best I can without a mirror, then turn towards her for confirmation that it was fixed. With an affirmative nod, she links my arm with hers and we head towards the stage entrance where the cars are lined up, ready to wait for Razor and AJ to join us.
We don’t have to wait long. They all come running down towards us, towels in their hands, wiping their faces as they approach us.
On reaching me, AJ grabs hold of my hand and pulls me along with him, quickly gesturing for me to proceed him into the back of the car, then climbs in behind me. Tiny climbs into the front seat next to Wade, and we pull away from the arena; as I turn to watch Jen and Razor jumping into the car behind us.
I’m instantly grateful for the blacked out windows of the car, as we carefully drive between fans leaving the concert. Observing them trying to peer into the car, attempting to see who is inside, I have no doubt if they knew it was AJ, the car would be mobbed.
I glance at AJ to find him watching me. He hasn’t said a word since we got into the car. He’s just sitting there staring at me, and I don’t know what to say to him. I don’t want to discuss his musical public declaration, until we are alone at the hotel.
“You’re pissed at me, aren’t you?” he asks.
“No!” I reply shocked. “Why would you even think that?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because you haven’t spoken to me since we got into the car, or even looked at me for that matter.”
“I’m not annoyed with you AJ, I’m lost for words. Please can we wait until we are back at the hotel? I don’t want to discuss this in the car.”
“You’re not pissed at me?”
“No, I’m not ‘pissed’ at you.” I smile. Then as I watch, he visibly relaxes and releases a long breath. He was genuinely apprehensive about my reaction.
“You were worried?” I state astonished.
“Yeah, I was worried.” He says, grabbing my hand and kissing my palm. “It was one of those spur of the moment decisions. You know what I’m like. I wanted to let you know how I feel. I’m sorry, I didn’t think about the repercussions of the press etc. This means that you are probably back in the public eye again. I’m sorry Birdie. I didn’t think it through.”
What can I say? I wanted to wait until we were at the hotel, but I realise it can’t. He needs the reassurance that only I can give him, so slowly I lean towards him, and gently place my lips to his.
At first, for a brief moment there is no response, then just as I am about to withdraw in confusion, his arms tighten around me, and he takes over the kiss.
Breaking our mouths apart, he rests his forehead to mine, his breath coming in short gasps mingling with my own, as with a look of relief on his face, he closes his eyes and hugs me close.
How did we get this deep, so quickly? We haven’t even seen each other for weeks. Maybe that’s why our emotions seem so heightened? Maybe after the separation, he was unsure of how I would react. All I can do is try to put his mind at rest, and hugging him tightly, I turn my face to his neck and gently kiss him.
“It’s all good AJ honest.” Then something comes to mind and I ask him. “Honey, why did you call me Humming Bird at the concert, but now call me Birdie?”
“Birdie is mine and only mine. I want to be the only one to call you that. It’s ours.” He replies taking my breath away.
He runs deep this man of mine. In a way that I am only just beginning to understand. However, we are still learning about each other, and this incident is evidence of that fact. It’s a bit daunting knowing that once again, I will be in the public eye. However, that would have happened eventually anyway, and how can I mind too much when he sang that beautiful song to me so openly. Leaning across, I place my lips to his, and it takes only for me to run the tip of my tongue across his lips, for us to catch fire. It’s lucky that the partition screen between us and the front seats is blacked out, or I would never be able to look Wade and Tiny in the face again.
It seems at the same time, we both become aware that the car has stopped moving, and looking out of the window, I see we are at the hotel and Tiny is patiently standing with his back to the door.
We take a few moments to catch our breath. With me running my hands through my hair, trying to resume it to something that doesn’t look like I’ve just had a heavy make out session, in the back of the car like a teenager. AJ with a smile on his face as he starts straightening out his clothes.
“Ready?” he asks, and at my nod, he opens the door and taking my hand, he exits the car pulling me behind him. It’s only then that I notice the reporters gathered around the entrance to the hotel.
At once they start bombarding us with the usual questions about our relationship, asking my name and where did we meet? How long had we known each other? The flash bulbs from their cameras almost blinding me.
AJ places his arm around my shoulders and pulls me close, as we make our way into the hotel, with Tiny guarding on one side and Wade on the other. Thankfully, as we enter, the press are made to stay outside, so we are able to carry on our way with no more interruptions.
“Well! That didn’t take long, did it?” States AJ, as we enter the lift heading for our room.
I can tell by the tightening around his mouth, and his frown that he’s not pleased; but what exactly did he expect? He knew that there were press at the concert; it’s inevitable that we were going to receive some hassle from them. AJ and Inked Chaos are one of the biggest bands around. There are always reports in the magazines and press about what they have been doing. Turning towards me, AJ opens his mouth to speak, and I know that once again he is going to apologise for outing our relationship. Reaching out I place a fingertip on his lips.
“Stop. Don’t even start. It had to come out sooner or later, and we would have had to face it then. What’s done is done. We move on, and deal with it as we need to.”
AJ gazes at me for a long moment, then smiles a very large beaming smile.
“You truly are amazing.” He says, then turns to Tiny and Wade. “Isn’t she? My girl’s amazing.”
I watch as both of them nod in agreement like a pair of nodding dogs. The doors open, and as we move out into the corridor, AJ acquires a serious expression on his face. On reaching our suite, he turns to them both, and with a knowing glance announces:
“Meeting first thing in the morning.” Seeing them both nod affirmatively, I watch them turn away and we enter our suite. Closing out the outside world and entering our own.
Walking into the lounge area, I place my bag and jacket on one of the chairs and watch as AJ places the hotel cardkey on a table.
“I’m going to order some room service and take a shower. Are you hungry?” he asks. Realising it had been several hours ago at lunchtime since I last ate, I nod.
“I could do with something. Just a sandwich.”
Moving over to the phone, I listen as he calls room service and orders some chicken salad sandwiches, some chips and some raspberry cheesecake, and to wash it all down, a bottle of wine. Replacing the phone, he pulls off his T-shirt and throws it over the chair, heading towards the bedroom; calling over his shoulder as he goes, that he will be ten minutes.
This is the first time I’ve had to myself since I reached London, and I take the time to go over what has happened in the last few hours. Jen getting married, the concert and AJ’s solo performance. My brain is working overtime, just trying to compute all this information.
I am brought into the present by a knock on the door, which of course is the room service. Tipping the waiter, I look at the table laden with food and find a veritable feast. Well! A sandwich obviously doesn’t just mean two slices of bread with a filling.
Just as I’m turning from the table, intending to wait
for AJ, he appears wearing faded jeans and nothing else.
Am I supposed to be able to concentrate on food when he’s dressed like that and looking so good, because it’s just not going to happen?
“Good, foods here I’m starving. Let’s tuck in.” he says and holds out a chair at the table for me. He takes the seat next to me, and we both tuck into the food. I hadn’t realised how hungry I was until I take the first bite, and we eat in silence, and drink the wine.
Totally replete I sit back and take a deep breath, watching AJ as he finishes his meal; which I have to say was twice the size of mine, but then he has to feed those gorgeous muscles of his. After all the jumping around the stage, I can imagine he must have built up quite an appetite. Wiping his mouth on a napkin he turns to me and smiles.
“Have you eaten enough?” at my nod, he grabs the bottle of wine and refills our glasses. “Come on, let’s get comfy.” He says as he takes my hand, waits for me to rise from my chair, and leads me over to the sofa.
Placing his glass on the coffee table in front of us, he takes my glass from my hand and does the same. Reaching out, he tucks a stray piece of hair behind my ear, and then leaves his hand cradling my neck as he leans down to kiss me.
What can I say? Where AJ is concerned, I am weak. Before I know it we are lying on the sofa, and I’m down to my underwear.
Standing up, he swiftly lifts me into his arms, and marches into the bedroom. Placing me on the bed, he quickly removes his jeans revealing that he was going commando, before following me down, lying next to me.
Slowly taking his time, he removes my underwear, and starts to run his hands down over my body. Stopping to pay my breasts close attention, he pinches my nipples between his finger and thumb, causing the area between my legs to spasm, and my body to arch off the bed, forcing my breast upwards unconsciously begging for more.