Rock My World: MMF Bisexual Romance Two Book Collection

by Bianca Vix

  “Have you been here a lot?”

  “Enough.” It’s a great city. I like it here, although even being here’s not doing it for me today.

  “This is my first time.”

  “Then we can spend some time looking around tomorrow.”

  She slips her arm through mine as we walk outside the grounds. “What’s up with you?”

  I shrug. “Nothing.”

  “Come on. You’ve been all unhappy for days now. Are you pissed off with me for some reason?”

  Normally I like how blunt Shayla can be. Not today.

  But that’s not her fault. “No. Not at you.”

  “Jett then?”

  I don’t answer. She gets the message.

  “Why?”

  “I’m not pissed at him.” Not exactly. “It’s just that this whole thing with us…it’s starting to feel familiar. Like last time.”

  We get into the back seat of the cab I flag down. “What do you mean?”

  “Like this is how it started out with the last couple I got involved with. The way it ended up with them wanting to hide what was going on. First it was smaller things. Like, oh, it’s a family event. You can come along, but just tell everyone you’re a friend. That was fine for the occasional family get-togethers. Whatever. But then, it went on from there. Oh, it’s a work thing. Oh, it’s this or that. To the point where it became clear that they wanted to hide all the time. Wanted to appear normal and act differently behind closed doors. I can’t live that way. I’m no-one’s dirty little secret.”

  The cafe’s just opening up when we get to it so we have the patio to ourselves. They take our orders right away. Shayla gazes around, taking everything in before she speaks up. “But it’s different. Jett’s kind of out there in the world. In the public eye. He’s getting pretty famous.”

  “There’s always a reason if you want there to be. And okay, say everyone in Tailspin becomes super stars. Like they’re on their way to being.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Well, how’s it going to be any different then? If Tailspin gets famous, don’t you think there’s even more reason for Jett to want to hide being with both of us?”

  The moment the waiter brings our food over, hunger overtakes me. I dig right in.

  Shayla does the same. “Are you going to eat all of your toast?”

  “Have some if you want.” She grabs a slice from my plate and covers it in a thick layer of jam. “I never thought of that.”

  “Yeah, well I have. It’s not fun being shoved into a closet that I don’t want to be in. I had enough of that back in school. I’m not doing it again now.”

  “But don’t you think that once Tailspin’s famous, they’re set. They’ll be a lot more untouchable once they’ve made it. If there’s people out there that judge them, they’ll be a tiny minority. The band could take it then. A planned attack by Ian-types now? That could ruin their chances before they even get a real shot.”

  I swallow some of the iced coffee Shayla convinced me to get. This stuff isn’t half bad.

  And she might have a point. “Maybe.”

  “But?”

  “But does Jett actually want to ever come out about us?” That’s what’s really bugging me. As much as I want to be with him and Shayla, there’s no way I want to end up like I was in my last threesome.

  “Why wouldn’t he?”

  “Because he didn’t even tell his bandmates, Shayla. Not until it came to the point where he had to, remember? And they’re like his best friends. He even called them his family once or twice. If you don’t tell people who are that close about something that’s important to you, then why would you let it slip to a bunch of strangers that can actually damage you over it?”

  She sips at her lemonade. “If a lot of people found out about our threesome, would that affect your job, Dylan?”

  “Not really, I don’t think. I know, I know. It’s different for Jett.”

  “But what if it did? Would you choose your career, the one that you’ve worked so hard to build up your name in, over us? Or would you pick us over the job?”

  That trips me up. I down some more coffee, trying to figure it out.

  My head starts to burn. Huh? The sun’s shifted enough so it’s moved beyond the massive, brightly-colored umbrella that’s our only source of shade. I stand up to adjust it and when I sit down again, I take hold of Shayla’s hand.

  “Shayla, I love my work. It’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do and the only thing I’ve ever been good at. But if there was no choice, I’d give it all up to be with you and Jett.”

  Her pretty eyes are glued to mine. “Really?”

  “Easily. Of course I would. Why do you sound so surprised?”

  “Because that’s the first time you’ve ever said anything like that. I mean, it’s just different to hear you say it. It’s nice.”

  “I wouldn’t be in this relationship if I wasn’t sure. About both of you. Three’s better, no question. But it can be harder, too. It’s still worth it.”

  I shake my head, my grip tightening on her small, warm hand. “But that’s the thing. I’m not sure anymore about Jett. How much he’d fight to be with us. I wouldn’t really blame him if he backs out.” I pause for a moment. “Well, actually I would. I’d blame him. I’d understand why, but I’d be beyond pissed at him. And so I want to know where he stands now.”

  It’s still too bright out here. With my free hand, I grab my sunglasses from the table and put them on with one hand, not wanting to let go of Shayla. “You know, doing sound for live shows is pretty close to being the perfect job. So many people want to do it, and not very many can pull it off. Doing what I do for a living is a dream come true. The travelling, the music. It’s all great. And what I like the most is the freedom. But the day I’d have to stop being who I am, or being with the woman or man I want to be with, is the day I’ll be out finding another line of work. No career in the world is worth giving that up for.”

  I lift Shayla’s hand up and kiss it. I have to ask her the question I’m not sure I want to know the answer to. “I know you love your work too. So what would you do if our threesome affected your job?”

  The ice clinks against the sides of her glass as she picks it up. “You know, I’ve been thinking about that a lot. I still can’t imagine what any of my coworkers will think. Or how it could affect my future there. But, yeah. I’m with you, Dylan. As much as I want to do what I do for work, I couldn’t let it get in the way of who I love.”

  Love? My brow furrows and she laughs. “Yes. Love. I love you both. I think I never stopped loving you, Dylan. I didn’t know it until I saw you again. I need you and Jett both. No job is worth giving you up for. And besides, there’s about a million other things either one of us could do for work. Lots of choices out there for us.”

  “How’d you get so smart, Shayla?”

  She grins at me. “I’ve always been smart. Maybe you just never noticed before.”

  “Highly possible.”

  “But it’s different for us than Jett. There’s way more at stake for him. And it’s not just him. It’s the whole band.”

  “I know it. But our work’s important too. If we’re all in this threesome together, everyone’s decisions affect everyone else. Not everything in the world revolves around Tailspin.” I check the time. It’s later than I thought. “I have to get back for sound check.”

  The street’s quiet when we leave the cafe. Shayla shields her eyes against the sun. “I think it’ll be a great festival. I think there won’t be any trouble. We’ll all be super low-key. Nothing bad will happen.”

  “Yeah, sure.” I’m still thinking about what she said before. Love. Never thought about that. Just that there’s no-one in the world I’d rather be with.

  If that’s love, I’m in.

  Chapter 20

  Jett

  I rub at my eyes. This day didn’t start off well and it’s only getting worse. We had a great slot for our sound check, but th
ere was some technical fuck up and now everything’s delayed.

  At least they’ve got the air-conditioning working back here again, which is a very good thing.

  I’m sitting impatiently in a small corner that’s off the main backstage area. I’m not into hanging out with anyone right now. I can be found easily when our turn finally comes up. But no-one’s coming over to talk to me.

  Being at Sound Off should be the highlight of my career. And it is. But I’m not feeling it. Not at all.

  I should be ecstatic about the opportunity and where it’s going to take us as a band. I should at least be excited about going on stage to play today.

  I’m in no mood for it at all.

  I spot Dylan walking by. He’s about to pass me when he glances over in my direction.

  “Hey, I’ve been looking for you. We’re up next.” He comes over to sit down with me. At least Dylan’s gone off his not-talking to me thing. That’s something.

  “Good.” I stretch out my neck. “It’s about time. Where’s Shayla?”

  “She’s back here somewhere. Talking to Zac last time I saw her.”

  “What did you guys do this morning?”

  “Went out for breakfast. Talked.” Dylan pauses, like he’s deciding whether or not to tell me something else.

  “Huh.” I couldn’t sound less interested. I’d push him on it, but I feel like all the energy’s been drained out of me. It’s still too damn hot back here. I should be crazy happy, like everyone else is. We’re here. We made it to Sound Off. Being part of it is a massive step. And all I can feel is like I want to get it over with and go to sleep somewhere.

  “I want you know. I’m okay with keeping us a secret. For now, at least. We can figure out the future later. Do what you need to do for Tailspin now.”

  I blink at Dylan. “Yeah? That’s a 180 for you. What’s changed?” I turn my head to stare at him. Something’s different about him. He looks different.

  He shrugs. “Guess Shayla and I figured some things out. You’ve got a shot here, and you don’t need to do anything to risk it. It’s not the same for her and I. We could come out the other side if things went sideways with our jobs. You’re in a way different situation here. It wouldn’t be forever anyway. No big deal.”

  “You know if it was just me, it’d be different, right? But I’m not a solo artist.”

  “Yeah. And like Shayla said, once Tailspin gets big enough, no-one will be able to touch you. And that’ll be happening soon enough. Once you kill it over the next two days, everything will fall into place. Don’t even worry about anything other than doing that.”

  It’s like a weight’s being taken off my shoulders. I need to know both Dylan and Shayla are on my side. I know it’s grating on Dylan to hide anything about us, but he’s willing to do it for me. And for who knows how long.

  I want to tell him how much that means to me. I can’t come up with the words. Without thinking, I brush a piece of hair out of his eyes.

  “What the fuck?”

  The voice comes from across the room. I jerk back from Dylan just in time to catch Ian staring at us, mouth wide open. Eyes about to fall out of his head. He takes a step closer to us.

  “Did I just see what I thought I did?” His eyes narrow as he draws out every word. For fuck’s sakes. He’s annoying as hell just to be around. Even if he hadn’t caught Dylan and I doing exactly what I didn’t want to get caught at.

  “Got something to say, Ian? Because we gotta go.”

  “Gotta go where? Go and find a hotel room? Go and do evil, sinful things with your boyfriend?” His tone is full of venom. I’ve never heard anything like it.

  “Sound check, Ian. Something you won’t be doing for a long time. Or did you get a slot at all?”

  He doesn’t even react at me reminding him that Tailspin’s far higher up in the ranks than his band. I can’t believe they even made it onto the roster.

  “Don’t you worry about us. You should be more worried about being a cocksucker. An abomination. That’s disgusting.”

  “Fuck off, Ian.” I push past him, nearly knocking him over. He’s a few inches shorter than I am. Unsurprisingly, he doesn’t push back.

  We leave him behind, and I just barely catch what he mutters as Dylan and I walk away.

  “Watch your back, Jett.”

  Chapter 21

  Dylan

  There’s almost always something that goes wrong before a band’s set. Usually whatever it is gets fixed before the band hits the stage, and everything goes smoothly. No-one finds out about it.

  Tonight, nothing’s happened. I kept expecting something to go down. I couldn’t relax about it until Tailspin’s set got underway. I double-checked everything. Of all nights, nothing can go wrong now. Not on the first night of the festival.

  I quite can’t believe it. I do a triple-check. It’s all going off without a hitch.

  Now that I’m satisfied that everything’s all good, I can enjoy the show. They’re kicking ass up there.

  I don’t know if Ian’s tried to pull anything. If he did, he failed. Or someone stopped him, more likely. I know he’s gunning for Jett, for at least as long as we’re here. But for now, it’s all good.

  I head backstage after their last song. Jett’s nowhere to be seen. I find Shayla where I expect to, in his dressing room. Eyes glued to her phone.

  “Great show tonight, huh.” I sit down beside her.

  Shayla tilts her head up to face me. Instead of being happy, she looks like she’s going to cry. “What’s up?”

  “You need to see this.” She hands me her phone.

  What the fuck.

  My heart sinks.

  “There’s nothing we can do, is there?” She sounds defeated.

  I keep clicking through the screens, trying to find the end of it. I give up after the tenth one.

  “No.” I hand her phone back to her. I don’t want to see any more of it.

  “It’s Ian, isn’t it. He did this.”

  “I’d bet everything on that, yeah.”

  “Why would he say things like this about Jett? Why’s he spreading stuff around like this? He’s not even talking about us being in a threesome, or you guys being together.”

  “Because it’s who he is. Ian plays dirty. I think even he was smart enough to realize that most people wouldn’t care if he started a rumor that Jett’s gay. So he had to find another way to trash him. And the only way to do that is to make this kind of crap up.”

  Shayla starts scrolling again. “But it’s so bad. How can he be so bothered because of what you said he saw? Jett touching your hair? That’s nothing. Less than nothing. He must be crazy.”

  “Yeah, that’s not something a straight guy would ever do. Any guy knows that, and Ian especially would be well aware of what it means. He hates the idea of two guys together. He hates a lot of things, but that’s at the top of his list. Even something small like what Jett did is enough to get him really upset. Because he knows what it means.”

  “But why did all these rumors spread so fast?”

  “Sound Off is a big deal. Everyone’s writing about the first night of it and how it’s coming off. The timing really worked out in Ian’s favour. He’d have had a much harder time of it if Tailspin wasn’t playing here tonight.”

  “There has to be a way to stop this.”

  “There isn’t, Shayla.” I slide my arm around her. “You know there isn’t. Not once it’s out there.”

  “But these are obvious lies. Terrible ones. This one site says that he’s a drug dealer. This other one says he’s spent years in prison for it. And the other sites are picking this stuff up and repeating it too. They can’t be allowed to spread lies like this about Jett.”

  “That’s exactly why Ian did this. They’re lies, sure. But there’s no way Jett can prove he wasn’t in prison. How do you prove something that didn’t happen? Or that any of this isn’t true? It’s way easier to prove what did happen. And yet nobody’s asking Ian to show tha
t what he’s saying is true. They’re just taking everything he says at face value, because it’s something crazy and interesting to gossip about.”

  The door swings open and Jett comes in. He’s elated.

  Until he catches sight of us. “Hey. What’s wrong?”

  Shayla shuts her phone off and sets it aside. “It’s Ian.”

  “Oh yeah? What’s that little fucker up to?” Jett squeezes in beside me.

  “He’s trashing you online. It’s not good.”

  “So what? Did he out us? Call us all sinners?” Jett’s still grinning. “Tell everyone we’re going to go to hell?”

  “No. It’s nothing like that, Jett. He’s got his sites set on you. He’s not even trying for the gay thing. But he’s gone really far with his lies.”

  Jett catches Shayla toying nervously with her phone.

  “Let me see that.”

  After a quick glance at me, she hands it over. Jett’s face falls as he scrolls around.

  “Wow. I set fire to a church when I was ten? Stole from my parents? Nice to know I was such a delinquent kid.”

  “It’s crazy stuff, Jett. Most people aren’t going to believe it. It’s too over-the-top.” I rub at his tight shoulders.

  “Yeah. Most. Not all.” He tugs at his shirt. “I didn’t expect this. I thought the worst Ian would do is try to fuck up our set or something like that.”

  “Me too. He didn’t do a thing.”

  Jett gives Shayla her phone back. “He’s sure put some weird stuff out there about me. And there’s just so much of it. If I read all that about someone, I might be like WTF is with this guy. But the worst thing is that all these sites made sure to say that I’m with Tailspin. This is dragging the band down with me.”

  Shayla wraps her arms around Jett. “Is there anything we can do to help?”

  He snorts. “Only if you want to help me beat Ian into the ground.”

  “Good plan.” I like the thought of that. “But it’d get recorded, and then he’d use it as proof of you being a violent asshole.”

  “Oh, I’m violent too? Guess I didn’t read that far.”