by Sara Frost
“Sleep well?”
“Like an angel.” She stirred and stretched, the sheets sliding from her arms and breasts, her nipples stiffening slightly as she took in his broad shoulders, the curve of the muscle in his arm, decorated as it was with dark tattoos.
“Well, I’m glad you don’t fuck like an angel,” he murmured, leaning forward to kiss her on the lips. She felt something hot and heavy stirring against her thigh as he moved. Returning his kiss, she also blushed, a definite ache—not unpleasant, but clearly felt—between her buttocks.
“Yeah, well,” she told him. “That was... intense. I don’t think I could take that every day. You are a very big man, Mr Fraser.”
He laughed at this, his head hovering above hers, continuing to stare down at her. “We’ll save that for special occasions,” he told her with a wink. Then a more serious look came into his eyes. “And the rest of it—did you mean it?”
She frowned slightly, not sure what he was talking about. She remembered lying next to him, her body exhausted, beautifully traumatised by the evening’s drama and the passion that had followed, her head sinking into the pillow.
I love you.
This made her blush even more than the memory of anal sex with this incredibly hot and well-hung man. It was an act of intimacy even deeper in its way than that of letting him take her in a way that she had denied to nearly every man she had ever been with.
It was even more embarrassing because she suddenly realised with a slight shock that it was true. She had known Cam Fraser for barely two weeks but now she couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be without him. It wasn’t meant to have happened this way: she was taking his dare, throwing herself into an adventure that was fun and nothing more—or so she’d told herself for the past few days.
“Well?” he asked. Suddenly his face was serious. Fuck! she thought to herself. He really wants to know. Tongue tied for a moment, she nodded her head.
He smiled at this and bent his head to kiss her. As he did so, her brain screamed with a thousand thoughts. And what about you? Her heart heaved in her chest. Am I more than some pretty pick up in a nightclub? Will you even remember me after a year? A month?
When he pulled away, she couldn’t put her thoughts into a voice, but at that moment her phone rang out.
“Let it go,” Cam growled. “I’ve got plenty of ideas for how we can spend the morning.”
Her phone, however, was suddenly a welcome distraction and she pushed him back as she reached across to grab it, making him grumble. Seeing the number, she lifted it to her ear immediately.
“So, bitch,” Janey said, “you’ve decided to answer me at last.”
“I’m sorry, I was asleep.”
“Fucking your arse off, more likely. Is that any way to treat an old friend? Not that I blame you. I think I’d do exactly the same if I had a piece of totty like that. I hope you’re abusing him in every which way possible.”
Dianne glanced across to Cam, mouthing the word sorry silently. “Why were you trying to call?” she asked. “There’s not anything wrong, is there? How’s Magnus?”
“He’s fine—I’ve left him with a neighbour, not that he cares. You’re the one who abandoned him—and I hope you feel suitably sorry—so he doesn’t mind in the slightest that I’ve fucked off as well.”
“Fucked off?” Dianne asked in confusion. “What do you mean? Where are you?”
“At the moment, I’m standing at the taxi rank at Tegel airport, wondering what bloody directions to give the driver.”
“What?” Dianne yelled, causing Cam to look at her in concern.
“Jesus,” Janey mumbled on the other end of the line. “I see he’s fucked you into stupidity. I’m in Berlin, you stupid cow.”
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“Well, thank you too! Do you think you’re the only one who has to have all the fun? Come on, Dianne, tell me where your bloody hotel is and I’ll see you in less than an hour.”
Dumbstruck, Dianne gave the hotel address and eventually hung up. When she looked across at Cam, he was laughing.
“You knew, didn’t you!” she hissed in accusation, her anger tempered by the good humour he was displaying.
“I didn’t exactly know, but Tony let slip that he’d been in touch with her. Your friend made quite an impression on him and Jim, you know.”
She slapped him—hard enough to make him wince in not entirely feigned pain—before she leaped from the bed and ran to the shower. The questions she had begun to form before had not disappeared, but the prospect of seeing Janey again was a welcome respite: she didn’t have to think what this all meant, not yet.
When Janey climbed from the taxi, hauling a huge suitcase and dressed in leopard-print leggings, a blouse unbuttoned to reveal her voluptuous cleavage, and a fake-fur jacket, her sunglasses pushed back above her bleached blonde hairline, she turned to see Dianne standing in the entrance of the hotel. Letting out a shriek of pleasure, she ran across to her friend.
“Here, let me take your suitcase.” Cam came forward with a warm smile, easily lifting up the case that Janey had struggled with.
“You can take whatever you want, handsome,” she told him with a barely concealed leer. “My, he’s a real gent as well, isn’t he,” she told Dianne. “When you’ve finished with him, please let me have a go.”
Dianne hugged her friend to her chest, holding her tightly. “Oh, Janey, I’ve so missed you!”
“Well you really are a stupid moo if that’s the case. Oi!” Now Janey addressed Cam who was manfully carrying her suitcase alongside the pair of them. “I’ve got a bone to pick with you.”
Cam looked surprised and Dianne felt herself squirm slightly inside at the sight of him: in that instant, he looked so like a little boy that she wanted to jump on him. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“You’re not doing your job, mister,” Jane replied, squeezing Dianne’s arm. “I fully expected this woman not to be able to walk when I met her. The fact that she’s still able to stand on two feet indicates that you are falling woefully short of the high standards I expected of you.”
Both Dianne and Cam laughed at this. “I guess my boys should be here soon,” Janey said, lighting up a cigarette as they entered the lobby. The other two looked guiltily at this.
“What?” Janey asked, looking immediately at the lighted end of her cigarette and cursing beneath her breath. “Not here as well,” she grumbled. “Oh well—look, I’ve stubbed it out.” She ground the barely smoked fag beneath her stiletto.
“It’s not that...” Dianne began to explain slowly.
“Come on, girl. Spit it out.”
“It’s just...” Again words failed Dianne, much to Janey’s evident irritation.
“What Dianne is trying to say,” Cam said carefully, “is that Jim and Tony didn’t come back last night.”
“Oh, that,” Janey waved her hand dismissively. “I know that.”
“You know?” Dianne was astonished.
“Well, when I couldn’t wake you two love birds I spoke to Jim this morning. I think Tony had passed out and poor little James was very upset—I don’t think they handled him well at all, last night.” She gave a filthy snigger. “Oh, he’s a very shy boy unless you know how to treat him.”
Both of the others were standing there open mouthed, and Dianne was the first to come to her senses, throwing her arms around her friend once more.
“Don’t you worry about anything,” Janey said to Cam over Dianne’s shoulder. “I’m the real slag out of the two of us, and I’m really not the type to let my boys fucking around spoil anything. It’s not as if I’ve been an angel in the meantime—might be worth remembering if you get tired of this one.”
“Janey!”
“Come on, love. You wouldn’t have me any other way. Admit it.”
Their banter was disturbed at that moment by a roar from the doorway. As she turned to see Tony and James entering, Dianne noted with amusement that the
concierge was staring at Janey with evident contempt. Thus it ever was, Dianne thought to herself—and Janey was right: she wouldn’t have her friend any other way.
Tony immediately rushed up to Janey, lifting her in his arms so that her head came above his. She dipped down her face, planting her lips upon his and kissing him in a fashion that seemed more akin to eating the Irishman alive than anything else. James came to a stop, his eyes glittering and his cheeks red. When she lifted her mouth from Tony’s, Janey slapped him eagerly on the shoulders. As he put her down, she rushed to the keyboard player and held his face in her hands.
“And how is my pretty boy,” she cooed, her voice suddenly deeper.
“I’m good,” Jim replied, his cheeks almost scarlet now. “I missed you.”
“Oh, and I missed you. I missed both of you.” With a grin Janey looked back to the others. “Now this is going to be a weekend to remember!”
Dianne was confused. “How long... how long are you staying?”
“Till Monday at least. Perhaps a little longer.”
“But we’re only in Berlin till tomorrow.”
“I know, but you don’t think I was going to miss out on all the fun, do you?” Without waiting for a reply, she turned to Tony. “So, how was it last night?”
Tony shrugged. “Pretty boring to tell the truth. It’s hard to get excited about an orgy when the others are so obviously faking it—either that or so off their tits they can’t perform.” He glanced back to Cam and frowned. “Your mate, Johnny. Fucking hell. I don’t know whether to admire him or feel sorry for him.”
Cam opened his mouth to say something but a sly smile spread across the drummer’s lips. “Where’s Dan?” he asked.
“I’ve no idea. I thought he was with you.”
“Nah—he fucked off before we’d finished. Remember that blonde he was with when you left? The tall one, with the big boobs?”
“I remember,” said Dianne, suddenly recalling the woman—and also the slightly strange feeling she’d had when she’d seen her.
“Yeah, well he got a little more than he bargained for with that one. Put him in a right sour mood, but then what’s new with our dear old Daniel?” As Tony spoke, James began to snigger.
“What do you mean?” Cam asked.
“Oh, I’ll let him tell you all about it,” Tony scoffed.
Janey, in the meantime, had placed an arm around James’s shoulders and pulled him in closer to her. With her stilettos, she was nearly as tall as the keyboard player. “And how are you, my ickle-wickle boy? Didn’t they treat you properly last night?”
“Not really,” sighed James. “I missed my mommy.”
“Oh, poor baby,” breathed Janey, pulling his face into her half-exposed cleavage and letting her fingers run through his hair. Her own face was deepening in colour, her lips half open as she held the young man to her chest. “Well mommy will have to treat you better, won’t she.”
The concierge was starting to move from behind the desk, no doubt fearing what display of excess would occur next. “I think we better go,” Dianne said.
“Yeah, I guess so,” Janey replied, her eyes shining as she looked at Tony, her hand still stroking James’s hair. “I hope you two didn’t get too shagged last night, because I’m well and truly gagging for it now, I can tell you.”
With a flourish and a huge grin, Tony lifted the suitcase from Cam’s fingers and turned to grasp Janey’s free hand as the three of them returned to the lift. “Keep an eye out for Dan,” he hollered back. “And remember to ask him how he got on with Birgit!” Then the elevator doors closed and they were gone.
“Mommy?” asked Cam incredulously. “Ickle-wickle boy?”
Dianne sniggered at this and shook her head. “Probably best you don’t ask. I hate to think of all the things those three are going to be up to this afternoon. She’s a piece of work, is Janey.”
“You’re telling me.” Cam placed his arm around Dianne’s shoulders. “Want to go and try to keep up with them?” he asked with a wink.
She poked him in the ribs. “Perhaps later. You can take me for breakfast first. I’m bloody starving.”
He nodded in agreement and the pair of them left the hotel lobby into the bright sunshine that flooded the Berlin streets. As they walked along, Dianne squashed the many questions she wanted to ask, pushing them to the back of her mind: she wasn’t sure that she wanted to know the answers, not just yet.
Part IV: Prague
Chapter Seventeen
The White Ark—more and more beleaguered with every mile they travelled—was also on the wrong side of cosy with Jane as part of the entourage. Not that Tony and James minded. The drummer spent far too much time fooling around with the brassy blonde, who would shriek her furiously filthy laughter as they drove along, with James sitting beside her, his head often resting on her shoulder as she stroked his head tenderly.
Dianne, while sometimes bemused by the relationship the two members of Black Ark had formed with her friend, was genuinely glad to have Janey join them, while Cam—aside from one withering glance at her suitcase as he placed it in the back alongside their equipment—was the spirit of hospitality.
“How long did you say you were staying with us?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Three days, maybe four. Okay, five tops, then I really have to be in London. I’m not so feckless as young Dianne here that I can throw in my job. Why?”
“Well, it looks as though you’ve packed for a month here. At least.”
“Pff! You think that’s a lot of clothes! My very good friend might be a slattern, but I like to travel in a certain style.”
And so Jane was sitting in the back seat, squashed between Tony and James with Dianne perched on the end. While Dianne was wearing regulation jeans and a T-shirt, which Tony had complimented her on in very flattering terms, Janey was dressed in a voluminous, frilly blouse and a long, black skirt slit to the thigh—a thigh that frequently attracted the fingers of both her paramours much to her own amusement.
In the front of the van, Cam sat alongside Dan who seemed to be the only one not impressed in any way by the appearance of Janey. Indeed, on the first day she had joined them in Berlin he had disappeared for most of the time, only returning an hour or so before they were due to go on stage. Afterwards, he had vanished equally suddenly, not even seeking out the company of Darius or other members of Optima as he had done on most of the tour so far.
And now he sat in the front of the van, staring ahead with grim resolution and refusing to remove his eyes from the road—especially when the others made gibes against him, Tony in particular. Nobody had said anything specific, but Dianne had a suspicion that she knew what had happened that night.
“I must say,” Janey said, raising her voice so that the two men in the front of the van could hear her as well, “you’ve improved a lot since we first heard you in London.”
“Oh, thank you,” Dan sneered sarcastically. “Like we need your fucking approval, you and your friend.”
Janey shrugged at this and instead directed her attention towards Cam. “And you were pretty spectacular. I mean, you were really good in London, but I don’t know what happened after—you pulled the stops out last night.”
“Thank you,” Cam said politely, one eyebrow raised in amusement as he half turned to look at Janey. “Mind you, I think your opinion’s biased.” He nodded in the direction of Tony and James.
“Of course,” Janey replied, squeezing a thigh of each of the men sitting either side of her. “My boys can do no wrong by me.”
“Just as you can’t do anything wrong by us,” said Tony, lifting his mouth to kiss hers, one of his hands sliding along her skirt and exposing even more leg—which previously Dianne had thought impossible.
“I mean,” Janey continued after she had finished apparently biting off Tony’s tongue in a thoroughly shameless manner before turning her attention to James, squeezing the young man’s crotch as she did so, “I don’t know much about
music –“
“Fucking great,” Dan muttered. “Some fucking retard complimenting us on our music. Just what we need.”
“I don’t know much about music,” Janey said more sharply, her eyes fixed on the back of the head of the bass player, “but Di’s really into that stuff and she tells me you’re really good.”
“We hit our stride in Berlin,” Cam agreed politely.
“Hit our fucking stride?” Tony almost bellowed. “We fucking rocked! We ruled, I tell you.”
“I don’t think we’ve ever been that good before,” James agreed. “Let’s hope we can keep it up. We’ll be headlining with Optima as the support band if we get any better.”
Dianne bit her tongue at this while Cam remained silent. Black Ark had, indeed, attracted the attention of Berlin even during their short stay, more so even than Optima in some circles. Though he said nothing, Dianne knew that this worried Cam a little.
It was Dan who had no reservations about stating the obvious, however. “Too fucking right,” he snarled. “If we carry on like this, we won’t need those cocksuckers anymore.”
“Hey, Dan.” Cam’s voice was calm, reasonable. “Remember Johnny’s a good friend of mine, and those cocksuckers have given us a break.”
“Friend,” Dan sneered. “What do you know about friends? That fucking Johnny Korpus is too strung out to even know what day of the week it is, and all your friendly chit chat with him hasn’t got us paid yet, has it?”
“Watch your mouth.” Cam’s voice was ominous, the tone threatening so that, for an instant, everyone in the van sat up and took notice. Dan started to say something in return but then, having glanced across at his co-driver, thought better of it.
“Well I for one will be glad to get to Prague,” Janey said brightly at last, breaking the awkward silence that had descended for a while. “It’s a very beautiful city, apparently, and you know what they say about beautiful cities.”
“What’s that?” asked James innocently.