by Zoey Derrick
As the awards ceremony gets started, I get ridiculously nervous and I am really sad to say that I will be backstage when the first award is announced, Duo/Duet of the Year, so I won’t have the privilege of hugging and kissing Talon and Kyle if we win. I will have just been on stage with Bryan singing the song. Which is another reason why I don’t think I’ll win.
Our performance goes perfectly. Though we hadn’t performed it very much together, we’ve done it a few times since recording and releasing it. We practiced a lot this week. Then comes the nerves. I could perform, have no problem doing that, but this makes me down right fucking nervous.
Bryan comes over to stand with me. “How you doing?”
“I feel like I’m going to puke.”
“Good, glad I’m not the only one,” he says with a laugh. “Great job tonight.” He smiles.
“You too.”
“And the nominees for best duet are…” I start bouncing in my shoes. I can’t stand here, argh, I want to fucking run around.
“And the winner is… ‘Never Kiss Goodbye’, Bryan Hayes and Addison Carver-Black”
At that moment my entire world fuzzes. I’m not sure I can tell you what happens next, all I know is that Bryan escorts me back to the stage. I spot Talon and Kyle standing in the third row and everything balances back out. They hand Bryan and I our trophies and Bryan takes the envelope. And steps up to the microphone. “How you doin there, Addison?”
“Oh my god,” I squeal.
“Me too.” He turns back to the microphone. “Thank you all so much for this wonderful honor. I’d like to thank Addison for joining me on this project along with…” He struts spouting off names of people at his label and those that helped us with the song before handing me the microphone.
“Oh my gosh, I didn’t, oh dear. I need to thank Bryan for coming to me for this duet, it was so much fun working on this project with you. I’d also like to thank Cami and my crew at Bold, along with Talon and Kyle for helping me through all this…” yada yada and like a dutiful professional, I thank a lot of the people I worked with at Bryan’s label and the fans for loving the song and I manage to do it without getting cut off.
When we get backstage, Bryan hugs me. “Congratulations Addison.”
“No no, thank you, and congrats, you deserve it.”
He smiles, “So do you.”
“Hardly, you wrote it, you came to me, I just sang along with you.”
“But we wouldn’t have these if you didn’t do that.” We have to give back our trophies and because of additional nominations we’re being returned to our seats. Thank god. But I will have to walk the press line eventually.
When I get back to my seat Kyle and Talon are positively bouncing with happiness for me. They can’t take their hands off of me. The song ends up winning video of the year also. I don’t claim that trophy, I’ll get one, but I had no part in the video production, which is who accepts the award. The ceremony continues through group, male and female vocalists to get to song of the year and then finally artist of the year, which Bryan is also up for. At least this time I get to hold Talon and Kyle’s hands through the process. Thank god.
I can’t stop bouncing, it sucks, I’m so damn nervous. Then it finally comes to the nominees and I magically settle down, knowing that cameras are on me and Bryan who is sitting in front of me.
“And the winner is…’Never Kiss Goodbye’, Bryan Hayes and Addison Carver-Black.”
I turn first to Kyle who stands me up in his arms. Then turn to Talon who whispers into my ear, “I am so proud of you.” I quickly hug and shake hands on my way out of my row to find Bryan ready to escort me to the stage. Bryan and I go through our rigamarole of thanks once again, and I add a couple of people I forgot the last time, then throw in kisses for Logan and Emily. One day they’ll see this.
Bryan turns around and wins the Entertainer of the Year award too. All in all he walked away with like five trophies and on my third duet, before my first album was even in my mind, I’ve won three.
I don’t get to see Talon and Kyle for some time as I walk the press gauntlet backstage. Bryan is right behind me, since we were the last winners and we pose occasionally for pictures together. At the end of the press gauntlet I am handed two bags. One contains packaged trophies, engraved, from what I’m told and the other is a rather expensive Louis Vuitton weekender bag. It’s ridiculously heavy and I didn’t expect that.
When I’m finally done backstage, I go in search of Kyle and Talon, who are both standing in front of a bank of reporters. I can’t hear what they’re talking about and my entrance isn’t a surprise because all of the reporters start shouting for me, but I don’t care. I make a beeline for both of them and they stop what they’re doing and wrap me up in a huge hug. Talon lifts me off the ground and kisses me. Then Kyle takes over, repeating the process. The flashbulbs go nuts and Kyle takes all the stuff from my hands.
We stay in the press line a little longer and I answer some questions before we finally make our dash to the limo. We have two after parties to attend tonight.
When we’re in the limo they both attack me with kisses and praise and everything short of fucking my brains out on our way.
“It so surreal,” I’m finally able to say aloud.
“I can only imagine,” Talon says.
I turn to him, “You’ll get your chance, trust me. Besides, I don’t necessarily feel like these are really mine. I mean, Bryan is huge and the reason for the nominations.”
“Don’t say that, mama. It’s not true. You worked just as hard on that song as he did.”
“I know, but still. It doesn’t mean I’m not ridiculously happy about it, it’s just, I don’t know. Ask me tomorrow when I’m at home, playing with the kids then I might have a better idea about how I really feel about it.”
They both smile and agree to do so. I call Nadia, our nanny to check on the kids, who are sound asleep already, but I figured that. She said they did great going to bed without us, which is not something we do very often. We’ve always been very good about having at least two of us there to kiss them good night, except on nights like this. I miss them terribly.
The after parties are a blast and I leave with more stuff. Talon makes some new contacts in the business and I think his prospects are looking up.
**** Another Year Later ****
Emily and Logan are turning two and let me tell you what a wild ride this last year has been.
This year was Talon’s and 69 Bottles’ year. They released two albums and toured twice. My first solo tour started this last February, though it wasn’t entirely solo. I opened for 69 Bottles. Most cities we played two nights because tickets sold so fast they had to add more. The twins came with us in a new bus designed specifically for our family with only two bedrooms. One for us and one for the twins.
Though now it is obvious to me which one belongs to whom because they each have features that are distinctively Talon and very distinctively Kyle. Ironically, Talon had wanted boys when we played that game two years ago and Emily is his and Logan belongs to Kyle. Though I know they both know whose is whose, there is no difference in the love and attention they give both kids.
After the tour was over we returned to LA. I recorded my second album and Talon and the guys recorded their fourth. Which ironically enough, Vicious released them a week apart. We traded spots on the Top 40 charts, both of us dancing with numbers one and two for over three weeks. I took number one the first week, because my album came out first and 69 Bottles took the next week. Again we danced. Now eighteen weeks after that, both albums still remain in the top 100. Who would have thought.
Our next music awards show we all went together, all as nominees. I took all but one of my awards and 69 Bottles took all of theirs. It was such a rush.
When we got home that night, we made love for hours, thank god for Nadia, oh and my mom.
Dex and Raine got married this year and they’re expecting their first child. Dex has grown up s
o much, you almost wouldn’t recognize him. Now that gay marriage is legal across all fifty states, Mouse and Peacock married also. They are searching for the right surrogate. It breaks my heart a little because I would have loved to do it for them, but I can’t.
Jess, bless her beautiful heart, and I have become extremely close friends over the last year or so. She’s constantly hanging around with Mouse and Peacock. I tease her all the time about her own little threesome relationship, but she swears it’s not like that at all. “I’m going to do it,” she tells me one day.
“Do what?” I ask her as she helps me get beers and drinks flowing for everyone.
“Be their surrogate.”
“Oh my god, Jess. That’s… are you sure?”
She laughs. “Absolutely. I’d do it for you too, if you ever wanted to you know…” She lets the thought trail off.
“I’m so happy you’re going to do it for the guys, they deserve it, they need it. But Talon, Kyle and I have decided that the twins are enough for us. Part of that is because of the fact that neither one of them can decide on who the father would be.” I laugh. Those argument were quite fun. Watching them argue about it. “What happened with Logan and Emily is a miracle, and we wouldn’t want to put a surrogate through twins.”
“I’d do it,” she says with a warm reassuring smile.
I hug her. “You’re the best, you know that? Why don’t you get through it with your guys first, then we’ll see.” I smile.
“Sounds great.”
“Oh and Jess?”
“Yeah.”
“If you need anything at all, call me, I’ll be there.”
She smiles wide and we go out to join the rest of our guys.
Tori and Rusty are together and Beck finally has a woman of his own. Mills on the other hand is meant to be the bachelor of this group, but he’s perfectly happy about that.
After releasing their fourth album, 69 Bottles broke up on mutual terms. Talon is pursuing and maintaining a very successful solo career. Eric and Calvin (Peacock and Mouse) decided that there was more to life than being in a band and Dex, well, he’s still drumming for Talon. The crazy bastard will never give up on music. Though over the years I’ve learned that Dex was never about the money or the fame, it was strictly his love of music that kept him going. Though up until Raine, you would have thought it was the women warming his bed.
Emily and Logan are two peas in a pod. One thing that can be said about twins and what they’re capable of is a lifelong bond and though their dads are not the same, those nine months growing together gave them a bond one could only wish for in a sibling.
Today is their second birthday and while I long to have another baby, I’m ridiculously happy with the miracles that I do have and more than that, I think I just miss being pregnant. Who wouldn’t when you have two loving husbands who coddle you for nine months?
Sitting at the table, looking out across the lawn, I watch my husbands, playing with the kids. As a woman you couldn’t ask for more from the men you love. They are loving devoted fathers who spend all of their free time playing with their kids. Sometimes I actually have to kick them out of the house just so I can have my time with them.
Our extended family is expanding and ever changing and growing. Cami and Tristan now have two beautiful children. Derek and Dacotah have one now and another on the way, and though I haven’t asked her to confirm it, Cami says their having twins.
Two and half years ago I started this wild journey as a loner, capable of spending all my time with a book or two, cooking and just being me. Then came a bus, a band, a twelve week tour, twenty-five cities, thirty-seven shows and one wild ride that has provided me with friends, family, two beautiful children and two husbands who worship the ground I walk on. A girl who never thought she deserved to love again, to be loved, is the most loved woman in the world.
ARE YOU READY FOR DEX?
Taming Dex
Coming Late April/Early May 2015
Be on the lookout for Pre-Order Coming Soon!
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Zoey’s Bio:
Zoey Derrick is a Best Selling Author of Contemporary, Erotic, Erotic Romance and Paranormal Romance from Glendale Arizona. She was once a mortgage underwriter and she now writes full time.
She writes stories as hot as the desert sun itself. It is this passion that drips off of her work, bringing excitement to anyone who enjoys a good and sensual love story.
Not only does she aim to take her readers on an erotic dance that lasts the night, it allows her to empty her mind of stories we all wish were true.
Her stories are hopeful yet true to life, skillfully avoiding melodrama and the unrealistic, bringing her gripping Erotica only closer to the heart of those that dare dipping into it.
The intimacy of her fantasies that she shares with her readers is thrilling and encouraging, climactic yet full of suspense. She is a loving mistress, up for anything, of which any reader is doomed to return to again and again.
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Did you enjoy Cami and Tristan in 69 Bottles?
Did you know they have their own Series?
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CAMERON ENDERS seems to have it all: a brand new condo in a city she loves, a top executive position at an international entertainment firm, an insane amount of money, and a gorgeous boyfriend. But when Cami catches the boyfriend in the act with another woman, it triggers all the anguish from years of neglect by her parents, and she realizes she never learned how to love or be loved. Cami flees to the remote tropical island of Tarah, but she can't avoid facing her problems any longer when she meets the man of her fantasies...
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Contains Hot Steamy Sex between two Tattooed, Pierced and Fierce Main Characters and is NOT Recommended for those under the age of 18 - OR - for those who don't enjoy some erotica with their romance.
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