At the end of the Green Day song, that was it for their set. Kat was itching to get off the stage and find out why Josie was there.
“Kat! Kat!” The guy was right there as she came off stage. Towering over her. She remembered that, his huge physical presence. He’d been a Marine or something. Before his obsession had turned to the Ponytails.
“Hey, how are you?” she greeted him as though she didn’t really remember him, but was pleased he knew who she was.
“You don’t remember me?” he laughed.
She stepped around him, though in doing so one of her hands brushed up against his chest. His big, strong muscle-bound chest. Jesus. It made her shiver.
“You knew me from the band?” she asked him.
“You could say that,” he grinned. “We went out, remember? I used to…make you feel good…after you finished on stage.”
“I…I remember…” she said, not wanting to react to him, but feeling completely betrayed by her body. The memory of his body against hers made her tingle. “What are you doing here?”
He laughed again. “You’re all going on tour again, right? You’re all getting back together.”
“How did you—”
“It’s obvious,” he grinned. “The Prisoner’s Wife… the new track… the Greatest Hits album… you gotta be going on tour again.”
She stepped away from him, feeling slightly intimidated—and totally frightened by her own desire for him. How could a guy make her feel like that? After all this time?
He reached for her, handed her something. A room key.
“Four Seasons,” he called out. “Two-five-oh-one.”
She skedaddled. First time that word had ever seemed appropriate to her. She skedaddled, scurried away to the back of the room.
“Hey, you look like you’ve seen a ghost,” was the first thing Josie said to her. The two women embraced.
“I… uh… think I might have,” she grinned, accepting a large rum and coke from Julian gratefully.
“You were amazing up there,” the blonde said. “You had the audience in the palm of your hand.”
“What’re you doing here?” Kat asked Josie.
“I came to talk to Jules, here,” her old bandmate giggled. She was wearing faded blue jeans and a striped top, with a faded black jacket over it. Very dressed down, and yet she still looked gorgeous in it.
“You came all the way across country to talk to my husband?” Kat laughed.
Josie shrugged. “I can talk to you on Facebook, honey. But right now I need to get the support of the husbands… if we’re going to do what I want us to do.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The tour, baby!”
“No!”
Cue much screaming and yelping. Julian looked slightly dazed by it all. Kat couldn’t believe it was really happening, but Josie was here to tell her it really was.
“The track’s out next week for streaming,” she said. “But there’s already been a lot of advanced orders… and a lot of interest in us touring again. We’ve had offers from a ton of bands to support them, put it that way.”
Kat was squealing, she was so excited. Josie following suit, the two women seeming to forget where they were, and the fact that the blonde, at least, was trying not to stick out.
“Hey, look,” Josie said. “Let’s go back to my hotel, huh? We can raid the mini-bar, order room service. Celebrate, for God’s sake!”
There was another man with Josie. He hadn’t spoken all night, accompanied her as though he was some kind of bodyguard. He had the kind of physical presence to be a bodyguard, anyway, Kat thought.
“George not with you on this trip?” Julian asked her as they clambered into a black Lincoln Town Car for the journey to the hotel.
“Oh, George is back home,” Josie smiled. “He doesn’t much enjoy leaving California, to be honest. He sent his buddy Marco, here, to keep me company…”
Julian nodded a greeting at Marco, the bodyguard who now shared the kind of smile with Josie that made it seem like he was more than just a bodyguard.
“You guys,” Kat giggled. “Poor George.”
Josie smiled. “George loves the idea of me being out here with Marco, actually.” She patted Marco on the thigh. The big man put his hand on hers, and it was clear that something was going on between them.
“How is that?” Kat asked. “How can he just…let you go like that?”
Josie shrugged. “Ask Jules. Jules can understand it.”
Kat looked to her husband. He was blushing furiously. He said, “I just want you…to be happy, sweetie.”
“Happy? What are you talking about?”
He shrugged. “What happens on tour…stays on tour, and all that.”
“I totally don’t get what you’re saying,” Kat said.
Josie sighed. “I didn’t just come here to ask Jules to let you go on tour, hon,” she said. “I mean, he doesn’t own you, right? It’s not up to him.”
“No, it’s not. But it has a lot to do with him,” Kat pointed out. “It affects our lives together.”
Josie said, “I know you, Kat. How you get… on tour…”
“And how do I get?” she demanded to know.
Josie shrugged. “Horny?” she suggested. “I mean, to start with.”
They were pulling up at the hotel now—the Four Seasons, just down the highway from Kingston, and the closest luxury hotel.
“What are you saying?” Kat asked her bandmate while they were in the elevator up to the room.
“I’m saying… either Jules comes with us on tour… or… he has to accept some kind of leniency… if you know what I’m saying. There’s no way you’ll survive otherwise.”
Kat glanced at her husband. He did not look unhappy with the situation. He did not look in any way upset at the dilemma they were facing. “Leniency?” she asked him.
He tilted his head, “It’ll be okay,” he said. “I think it’ll make you happier, honey. In the long run.”
“But… what are you saying, leniency? Leniency in what?”
The room door closed behind them. Josie said, “We’re going on tour for quite a while, honey. On the road. Jules can’t come with us the whole time—he’s got to work, right? So he’s… going to allow you… a little freedom.”
“What kind of freedom?” Kat felt her heart beating like a hammer drill. Was she being stupid, wanting Julian to spell it out?
He said, “Look, I know how it’s going to be. You’re going to need… some attention… that I can’t always give you. I just think… maybe if we’re completely honest about it with each other, it wouldn’t be so bad. Rather than keeping things secret from each other.”
“Hey,” Kat said, “I wasn’t intending to keep anything secret from you…”
“No,” he said, “but this way… you’ll get the best of the experience from going on tour, right?”
She frowned. Josie lounged on one of the sofas set around this part of their suite, and Marco poured her a Bourbon. The blonde said, “Honey, you remember what happened in Sacramento?”
Kat looked blankly at her bandmate. “Sacramento?”
Josie laughed. “You… had to take a course of antibiotics, remember?”
Kat blanched, and looked horrified at her husband, but Julian just smiled and accepted a drink from Marco. Kat said simply, “I remember.”
Josie nodded. “You couldn’t have sex for two weeks,” she said. “You remember what that did to your confidence? And your playing?” The blonde shook her head. “We’re not going through that again,” she said. “We have one shot at this, we don’t have much room for bad nights.”
Kat took a Diet Coke from the mini-bar. “Who was that guy you were talking to before Josie turned up?” she asked her husband.
“Vincent?” he asked her.
“I’ve seen him somewhere before, haven’t I?”
Julian nodded. “One of your old fans,” he said. “Heard there was a new tour happening. Hea
rd you performed fairly regularly at The Rail, too.”
“But what did you guys talk about?”
Julian shrugged. “He told me… how hot you get on stage. How… you know… you have needs when you come off stage.”
Kat sighed, and took a seat on the couch opposite Julian. “What else did he say?”
“That he used to… help you. That you picked him out of the crowd a few times… during gigs…”
Her husband was talking as though telling her about his day at work, or about some movie she’d never seen before, or the items they needed at the grocery store. He didn’t seem in the slightest bit jealous, or angry, or horrified.
“He told me that if he stood by the stage tonight, you’d run into him and you’d want to… sleep with him.”
“And what did you say?” Kat asked him.
He shrugged. “I didn’t really say anything to him,” he said.
Marco poured himself a Scotch and soda, and now came to sit with Josie. Right next to her, in fact, as though the two were a couple. He really was a big guy, in every respect. Josie always had had a thing for big guys, from Kat’s recollection.
“So… how does it work with George?” Kat asked Josie now.
“How does what work?”
“You know… letting you… see other guys.”
Josie shrugged, and stroked Marco’s tree-like thigh. “He likes me to be happy,” she said. “He likes me to have fun… and… he wants to know all about it.”
“What does that mean?” Kat said, and now got up to snuggle in with Julian on the other couch. “What does he want to know?”
Josie said, “I talk to him every night, at least. And he gets to hear every detail about everyone I see while I’m not with him.”
“You tell him about Marco?”
“Uh-huh. All about Marco.”
“And how does Marco feel about this?”
Josie looked at her lover. Marco shrugged. “Marco gets to sleep with me,” Josie said. “I don’t think he complains about it.”
Kat stroked her husband’s thigh now. “And you really think something like that could work for us?” she asked him. “For the whole tour?”
She couldn’t help but notice the bulge in his pants.
He shrugged. “I can’t say why,” he said earnestly. “I just think it’s hot.”
“And… what… you’d get to see other women while I’m away?” Kat asked him, a sharp edge in his voice.
He shook his head. “I’m not interested in other women,” he said. “I have you, honey.”
Kat felt the room key digging into her hip. She had it stowed in her pocket—should have thrown it away, of course, but she hadn’t. Vincent. The man who had made her come like nobody had ever. And right now, she could walk down a few flights of stairs and have him there between her thighs again.
“What happens on tour stays on tour,” she said. “Except that I’d have to tell my husband everything, right?”
Josie nodded. “That’s about it.”
Kat’s hand brushed gently over her husband’s substantial erection. “You know that Vincent guy is staying in this hotel?” she said, then asked Josie, “Did you have a hand in that?”
Josie shrugged. “The guy’s been calling my production office for months wanting your phone number.”
“And now I have his room key,” Kat said, glancing at her husband with a question in her eye.
Her heart was just about beating loud enough to wake the dead.
Chapter Five
Julian watched Kat struggle. They all did. The room itself practically held its breath. He felt like he’d been dipped in the caldera of a volcano, and the lava was still dripping off him. Kat glanced at him, her dark eyes lost, confused…tempted?
“I…” She shut her eyes and released a loud breath. “God, I can’t.” Shaking her head without opening them, she said, “I’m not that girl anymore. I’m not her.” When she opened them again, she stared at Josie in defiance. “I’m not.”
Josie, for her part, just held up her hands in surrender. “Hey, girl, I’m here to support you. We all are, right, Julian?”
The spotlight back on him, he burned again. “I… yes.”
“You’re not disappointed, are you, dear?”
“Josie…” Kat said in warning.
“I know how much you like hearing about Kat, back in the day, but she’s totally right. She’s not the same woman who spent the entire bus ride between Phoenix and San Diego fucking our stage manager at the time—”
“Josie!”
“Oh, I’m sorry, you didn’t tell him about Steven?” She looked at Julian. “Should I tell him about Steven?”
“No thank you,” Kat said. Turning to her husband, she said, “Steven was our stage manager for a part of the tour, and we got… close.”
Josie went on. “Steven replaced Vincent when Vincent couldn’t follow us anymore, who was then replaced by Maurice… You know, I ran into Maurice the other day. He’s shaved his head now. Still has the goatee, though. God, I love that look—black man, shaved head, bit of facial hair. Maybe I should have told him about you out here. I’m sure he’d love to reconnect.”
Kat was bright red. “Don’t listen to her. She’s making it sound worse than it was.”
“Am I, though?” the blonde teased.
“Yes! We played, most of the time. It wasn’t like, wall-to-wall orgies or anything.”
“No, we only had a couple orgies,” the blonde winked.
Julian’s eyes grew wide, his cock so stiff he had to shift and adjust.
“You like that idea, huh, Jules?” Josie asked.
It was Marco, though, who found his voice. “Wait a minute, did you two hook up?”
Kat stared at the blonde, slowly shaking her head. Josie, for once, seemed to heed Kat’s plea. Sort of. “What happens on tour, stays on tour.”
“Fuck me,” Marco groaned.
Josie climbed into his lap. “I plan on it.” To Kat and Julian, she said, “You want to watch?” Then she smiled wickedly. “I know Kat does, and I bet you do, too. Eh, Julian?”
“We’re out of here,” Kat said, although she didn’t move immediately. She seemed enthralled by Josie, even as the blonde pulled her shirt over her head, revealing a black, lacy bra beneath. Her chest rose and fell in rapid succession.
Julian recognized that reaction, recognized her need now. As much as she wanted to claim that she wasn’t the same woman she’d been back on tour, as much as she pretended that she could get by without the kind of leniency Josie had suggested he offer her, he knew she couldn’t. Sex and rock and roll were so tightly wound in Kat’s very being that it would be impossible for her to deny herself. He didn’t think she’d be able to last a week.
But the greater question was, would they? Could he really let her have that kind of freedom? Could he really let her go back to the lifestyle where she fucked some guy on the bus for hours between cities?
And it wasn’t just the sex. In fact, the sex was the least of his worries. The sex was actually an incredible turn on. Even now, he felt a twinge of disappointment that she hadn’t gone up to Vincent’s room—or that they were about to leave this one. No, the sex was thrilling. It was the rest of it that terrified him—the fame, the lifestyle, the thought of losing his wife to a world he wasn’t part of. Would she be able to come back to him after that? Would she want to?
“You’re still here,” Josie said, looking over her shoulder at the two of them. “Does that mean you’re going to stay?”
She reached behind her, unhooking her bra. Julian caught a glimpse of the side of her breast, where her nipple sat hard and high.
“No, we’re leaving,” Kat said. Broken from her spell, she grabbed Julian’s hand and pulled him toward the door.
Julian gave one last look at the blonde rockstar’s half-naked body before he was swept away, out into the hall. Kat only shut the door before she threw herself against him, kissing him passionately.
He held her close, his hands ranging along her body. She was tight and toned, yet still had a butt he could grab, firm breasts that mashed against his chest as they made out.
“Oh, my god,” Kat groaned.
“You want to go back in there? May be a little more private than the hallway.” He looked down the row of closed doors, where anyone could emerge at any time.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Kat said, half-playful.
“Wouldn’t be the end of the world.”
Kat laughed. She pulled out the room key—Vincent’s key, presumably. He didn’t quite believe that she actually had it. “There’s another room we could go to.”
Julian’s breath caught. It was a joke, he knew, but for a second he imagined it wasn’t. And rather than feel any jealousy, he was turned on. “We can if you want to.”
Kat pulled back, looking him in the eye. “You’d really be okay with that?”
Julian licked his lips nervously. He was. Or he thought that maybe he was. Josie had broached the subject long before tonight, but he’d kept it to himself as he struggled through the implications. Would he really be fine if she fucked another man? It definitely turned him on, but how would he feel after?
“I think so,” he said, uncertainly.
“Not good enough. Come on, let’s go home so I can fuck you silly.”
*
“What’s the wildest thing you did while on tour?” Julian asked. They were in bed, having just finished a wild bout of sex. Two weeks had passed since Josie Jones left, and they had about two more before she flew off to California for the first, mini-leg of the tour.
“The wildest?” Kat hesitated.
“What’s holding you back? You know how much those stories turn me on, right? You can tell me whatever.”
Kat traced circles on his chest as she considered. “It’s not…so simple.”
“You sowed your wild oats back then. You were in a rock band. Seems pretty straightforward to me.”
She bit her lip, thought a moment, and sighed. “We all met at Julliard. All of us classically trained. Really talented. I always thought I’d end up in an orchestra. Alyssa actually did do that. For a few years, anyway.”
Rock Her World Page 5