“I don’t know,” was all Josie could say to any question about the tour being actually viable. To give her credit, she still drove them on to get through the rehearsals, to practice and get the songs where they needed them. But it was hard work, seemed doubly hard work with the demotivation setting in.
Andrew, their tour manager, ducked his head in from time to time during the start of that second week—doing his best to keep them motivated by constantly insisting that ticket sales were still healthy in the run-up to the first gig on Saturday night.
Outside of rehearsals, none of them really felt like partying. Josie went to a couple of parties she was obligated to attend, but didn’t get any favorable press to distract from the continuing headlines about Billy’s brush with death and his tragic descent into addiction. Other than that, however, most of them spent time by hanging out at the pool, chilling out. There wasn’t much of a celebratory atmosphere any more, despite the fact that the tour was apparently still happening.
Kat’s evening FaceTime calls with Julian were simply affectionate updates on rehearsals, without the kind of sexual aspects they had been before Billy’s crisis. She could tell he was disappointed that things hadn’t progressed with Daryl, and that she basically wasn’t having the riotous party lifestyle they’d expected in the run-up to the tour starting. But he was never anything but supportive of her.
They almost ended up talking more about Julian’s work than of Kat’s time in LA those few days, as astounding as that might seem, since there was nothing really to say about the wonderful world of paperwork. Kat didn’t even understand what it was Julian did, although she knew it was something vaguely to do with vehicle insurance.
If things were bad for The Ponytails, then things were far worse for the remnants of Blue Tonic, who had been on the up and up before Billy had taken a dive. With their lead singer officially going into rehab for some extensive straightening out, all Blue Tonic had was a sketchy promise that once he was back to full health, the band would be re-joining the tour. Without Billy or Daryl around, the other two members, Paul and Raj, drifted around the hotel, or the rehearsal studios, like tumbleweeds in the desert breeze.
Things were looking bleak.
Then a funny kind of turning point seemed to occur, and none of them quite figured out how or why.
The Ponytails, much more than Refract, who had always kept to themselves a little more during rehearsals, no doubt since they were a little older, ended up almost adopting Paul and Raj. Alyssa had come to befriend Raj to some degree, although with her wedding ring firmly front-and-center, she always denied to gossip-hungry bandmates that there was anything other than a platonic understanding between bassists. Paul was also a really nice guy, although he didn’t gravitate to any one member of The Ponytails. Nevertheless, the two of them spent more time hanging out with the Ponytails during their rehearsals than not, and it almost seemed inevitable that they were allowed to join in when the women were not working hard on a particular sticking point in the track list.
The Ponytails and Blue Tonic kind of merged—and as well as the Blue Tonic members coming to know some of The Ponytails songs, the Ponytails started fooling around playing some of Blue Tonic’s back catalog.
It all seemed like a bit of fun until Josie had made the point that if Paul and Raj were still contracted—and paid, up to a point—to be part of the tour in its early stages, then there was no point why they couldn’t still be there during the early performances.
And by the middle of that week, it seemed that the two Blue Tonic members fitted so well with The Ponytails that it made sense that the two of them might join the established line-up for a few numbers during the performance—it might be a nice little surprise for Blue Tonic fans who still made the effort to attend the show.
Daryl returned overnight on Wednesday, and with no new drummer yet found for The Ponytails, he had simply returned to his seat behind the drum kit for them on Thursday morning, to a cheerful welcome from the others.
Andrew had come in that morning to find that The Ponytails had become a seven-person line-up.
“Since when did you guys become the Dave Matthews Band?” was his first question.
Then, “So… wait, wait, people. Are you The Ponytails… or Blue Tonic?”
But there was a crazy little smile on the man’s face as he watched the seven of them plough through some of the best-known Blue Tonic songs, and some of the better known Ponytails numbers, too.
Maybe he just sensed the new sense of brightness and energy in the room. They all noticed it, and it wasn’t just the energy between Kat and Daryl as they picked up their flirtation again. Josie seemed to gain a renewed mandate to drive the rehearsals forward, suggesting that they could stagger through the early stages of the tour until Blue Tonic was ready to return to form at some point before the tour reached the East Coast.
For those last few remaining days of rehearsals, however, Josie imposed a rigid schedule and restrictions on going out in the evening.
“Sleep, that’s what we all need more than anything now,” she said, looking particularly at Kat and Daryl. “And by that, I mean proper sleep.”
That evening, Kat had called Julian straight after rehearsals to update him on the latest goings-on, and while he’d politely asked after Daryl’s wellbeing, and whether Kat might be spending a little more time with him personally, he hadn’t pushed her on it when she’d said that Josie had all but ruled out any fooling around ahead of their all-important first gig.
Once the call was over, she’d donned her bikini and grabbed her towel to head down to the pool again, which had become something of a routine. Renee and Alyssa were already there, but so too was Raj, who seemed to be getting on well with Alyssa.
“The lovely Daryl was here looking for you,” Renee said as Kat laid her towel down on a sun-lounger beside her.
“Oh,” she said, feeling butterflies flickering in her stomach for the first time in ages. “What did you say to him?”
“That you were probably calling hubby. Was that wrong?”
“Oh, no,” Kat shook her head, although inside she felt some slight concern that Daryl might have been given the impression that she was now off-limits to him and back solely in the possession of her husband. She tried to dismiss it as paranoia, the inevitable kind of worries when dating someone gorgeous was interrupted by some unforeseen crisis.
“Does Daryl know about Julian?” Renee asked, lying on her side to face Kat, and talking under her breath so nobody else could hear—but in doing so, making her question seem so very scandalous.
“Of course he does,” Kat said, laying down on her towel, while taking a quick look at herself in her bikini to check things were as she’d want in case Daryl happened to return.
“But you didn’t tell him… everything?” Renee grinned.
Kat smiled, getting the sense that Renee enjoyed knowing everything, that she alone was aware of all aspects of her relationship with both Daryl and Julian.
But, it was nice to have someone to talk about all of this with.
“I’ve told him most of it,” she said, putting on her sunglasses as she lay back to soak up some of the evening rays. “I told him that my husband lets me do whatever I want with other guys…”
“Okay,” Renee said. “But that’s not all there is to it…”
“I’ve told him I’m still very much in love with Julian, and that we’re still… very much… you know…”
“Fucking.”
“Intimate.”
“And that didn’t put him off?”
“Nope. I told him Julian enjoys knowing I’m with other men, too.”
“Even though it hasn’t happened yet?”
“You know what I mean. And anyway, Daryl… figured it out.”
“That it’s a turn-on for Julian, your cheating on him?”
Kat smiled again, “It’s not really cheating if he lets me do it,” she said. “If he knows I’m doing it.”
Rene
e nodded, and took in a deep breath of hot Los Angeles air. The pool was wonderful, surrounded by palm trees and lush green foliage, it made you almost forget there were more than six million vehicles driving around the city.
She said, “So are you gonna go find him? I’m sure he’d be up for a little… fun. Tonight.”
Kat felt the glowing embers of her desire stirred up within her chest, and between her legs. At the same time, she liked thinking that Daryl was in the process of looking for her, that she didn’t need to dash off searching for him like some desperate maiden. Even if she was desperate.
But she said, “We’re banned, remember? Sex ban. Dating ban.”
Renee giggled. “When did Josie ever stop you from fucking whoever you wanted?”
Chapter Fifteen
Julian was just lying down ready for sleep when his phone rang once again. It was unnerving because it was entirely unexpected. He’d already talked with Kat that evening, and signed off for the night. He was also well aware of Josie’s sex ban, since Kat had moaned about it enough over the past day or two—particularly with Daryl back in town.
Unexpected phone calls could mean something bad had happened. And despite Kat’s maturation and her clean living since the old days, one member of their support band had already gone to the hospital after an over-dose. Julian’s mind leapt to the possibility that Daryl the cute drummer might have led Kat into doing similar drugs—particularly if they weren’t allowed to sleep together.
It was Kat calling, of course, according to his phone. He picked it up, though, and found an unfamiliar voice on the other end.
“Hey, Julian? You still awake?”
His heart sank at first, from jumping to the conclusion that if someone was using Kat’s phone and it wasn’t her, something bad must really have happened, she must have been incapacitated.
Then after a moment, he recognized Renee’s voice, and that the tone of her voice was not upset or somber.
“No, this is a voice recording speaking,” he said in his best imitation of a robot. “Please leave a message after the beep…”
“Oh, very droll. Touché, hubby, touché.”
“You like stealing your bandmates’ phones and dialing up their husbands?” he asked her.
“Well, beats the hell out of calling mine,” she replied with a chuckle.
“What can I do for you?”
“You could get that beautiful cock out for me… tell me how it feels…”
Julian laughed. “Kat give you permission to sexually harass me on the phone?”
“Oh, well, okay then. Hey, look, I just wondered if you’d like to know what your darling wife is currently up to in the hotel swimming pool?”
Julian’s ears pricked up. And his prick… well, it was up too.
“What?” he said, a frog in his throat. “What’s she doing?”
“Well, let’s just say a certain young drummer has entered the scene…” Renee said, winding him up mercilessly. “And right in front of everybody… well… hey, you want to see?”
“Of course.”
“You have FaceTime on this thing?”
“Sure—just use the app.”
Julian felt his heart thump-thump-thumping at an increasingly rapid pace. A FaceTime call request came through on his phone, from Kat’s account. He accepted the connection, and there he was, looking up into Renee’s face and a very blue, cloudless sky behind her.
“Hey,” he said as her pretty mouth curled into a warm smile.
“Hey, honey-bun,” she said. “Okay, now I’m not supposed to be doing this, but if you don’t say anything about it…”
The image flipped over as Renee pressed the button to switch to the camera on the back of the phone, and now he was looking at a cool blue swimming pool, as inviting as the blue sky overhead and the palm trees standing overhead. There were a few people dotted about on the sun loungers around the pool, but not too many. Behind, he could even see a hazy Los Angeles backdrop.
And there in the middle of the pool, he could see the recognizable form of Kat in her tiny blue bikini, standing several feet away from a dark-haired man, his upper body totally ripped, a Maori-style tattoo on his back, another on his right arm.
“You see?” he heard Renee’s voice, barely more than a whisper, off-screen.
“Uh-huh,” he said, not sure if she could hear him.
Julian couldn’t hear what they were saying to each other, but Daryl was wiping water off his face and Kat seemed to be laughing at him.
Now Kat splashed water at him, once, twice, three times. It might have seemed aggressive if she hadn’t been smiling broadly, flirtatiously. Daryl held a hand up to block the worst of the water, and chuckled, though Julian couldn’t hear what he said. Then Kat suddenly launched herself through the water, front crawl, and Daryl took off after her—chasing her as she let out cute little squeals of delight.
They were like teenagers flirting on spring break.
Julian felt his hardness throbbing as he watched them. The clear delight on Kat’s face as the younger man caught up with her, picked her up with strong arms around her near-naked body, and hurled her back into the water as some kind of sanction for splashing him.
She didn’t give in, however, splashing him some more, pushing him to pick her up again.
Julian felt himself shiver at the physical contact between his wife and this other man, and yet it was so thrilling. He was so hard watching the two of them frolicking in the pool together, their attraction for each other undeniable, though they were apparently forbidden from consummating it—at least until the first show was over.
“You’re really okay with all this?” Renee asked him, without moving the phone’s camera away from the pool.
“Of course,” he said.
“She’s totally into him, you know.”
“I know. I can see.”
“She’s gonna find it hard to keep him out of her bed before the first show.”
“Maybe.”
“And then after the show… well… she’s gonna be all over him.”
“Hopefully.”
The view switched back to Renee’s face—mouth open, eyes wide, eyebrows raised in half-serious surprise.
“You really don’t have any reservations about this?” she asked him.
“Nope,” he said. “Really. She can do as she likes.”
“But she’s got to tell you all about it.”
“Uh-huh. That’s the deal.”
Renee sighed. “Where can I get a husband like you?”
“You’ll have to get rid of the current one first, right?”
Another sigh from the pretty redhead. “Finding someone like you might even be worth all the hassle of ending things with the current one,” she said, then seemed to remember that she was supposed to be showing him what was going on between Kat and her prospective lover.
The two of them were now standing much closer together in the pool, and apparently talking more seriously, no longer playing the flirty splashing and chasing game. What were they talking about?
So close to each other. They were looking into each other’s eyes, totally absorbed by each other. Made Julian feel a little giddy again.
There was fire in Kat’s beautiful dark eyes. And with the impressive resolution of the top-of-the-range cameraphone, Julian could see his wife’s eyes flicking between Daryl’s eyes and his lips. The two of them were moving together, their hands clasped. Noses just inches… just an inch apart…
They kissed.
Julian felt his heart skip a beat or two.
“God…” he heard Renee sigh in awe. “They are so good together…”
Kat draped her arms over his shoulders, wedging her face against his as she sucked on his lips, then her hands were moving up to run through his short, dark hair.
It felt so strange to watch—his natural jealousy welled up, and yet it only seemed to add spice to his arousal. As the guy moved one of his hands up to hold her head, and then started
to kiss her neck, Julian felt the clear clutches of fear around his heart—and yet it was so exciting, it was such a turn-on to watch.
“How does it feel?” Renee said. “Watching them?”
Julian was almost too stunned to answer. That, and the fact that it was hard to put exactly what he was feeling into words.
“I don’t know…” he said at first.
It was almost like sitting down to watch a horror movie you know is going to be seriously good. It’s an undiscovered Stanley Kubrick movie. Or David Fincher has turned his hand to directing a Stephen King adaptation. And on your lap is a big box of the sweetest candy. There was trepidation, nerves, anxiety. And yet it was as though Christmas morning had arrived.
And while it was frightening to see the woman he loved in the arms of another man, it was so very delicious to see how excited she was, how ecstatic and nervous and fired up she was by the attentions of a new man.
“Are you… turned on?” she asked him.
He could see how his wife was pressing her breasts against the man’s hairless chest, and knew just how small that bikini was.
“Yes,” he told Renee.
“Are you… hard right now?”
He cleared his throat. “Yes.”
Kat leaned back in the water, and Daryl was kissing down her chest, over the upper reaches of her breasts.
“But aren’t you… a little jealous?”
He said, “Maybe a little.”
Then she was up and kissing him again, arms wrapped around him, sucking on him so deeply, so passionately, with such need.
“Aren’t you worried… she might fall for him?”
He felt a slight tremor sweep through him at that question.
“A little,” he admitted.
“But you let them anyway?”
“I trust her,” he said.
And then as though fearing that she was going to spoil things, Renee seemed quick to add, “She’s not going to, by the way. She’s so in love with you… and he’s… well, he’s just a toy, isn’t he? A hot new toy…”
The hot new toy had his hands all over Kat’s breasts, and then they were sliding down into the water, over her butt, and perhaps even between her legs.
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