“I have something to tell you,” she said. Her voice was low, and a sexy blush stained her cheeks. She walked over to my side of the bed, and I reached to untie her robe. She let me, standing in front of me without moving.
I ran my hands up her stomach and palmed her breast, letting out a breath.
“Have I ever told you how sexy you are?”
“Every day,” she laughed. She put her hand over mine and slid it down to her stomach, holding my palm against it.
“Maddox…” She said, looking at her stomach and back at me. She caught her lip in her teeth and opened her eyes wide.
My mouth fell open. “You’re…” I took a deep breath. “You’re pregnant?” I could hardly speak. The word came out as a whisper, and Lacie’s eyes misted up as a smile spread over her lips.
She nodded, and my heart exploded.
I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her to me, kissing her passionately as she fell over me onto the bed, laughing.
“Oh, shit, sorry!” I said, laying her down beside me and running my hands over her abdomen. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Maddox,” she said, laughing.
“I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to hurt the baby.”
“You won’t,” she said, grinning. “But if you’re telling me you won’t fuck me like you usually do just because there’s a baby growing inside me, we’re going to have to have a conversation about it.”
A grin spread over my lips and I shook my head. “Don’t worry, wifey. I’ll still fuck you exactly how you want me to.”
I kissed her, tangling my fingers into her hair and bringing her up towards me. She was so delicate in my arms, so perfect and feminine and mine.
I ran my hand over her stomach and she interlaced her fingers in mine.
“Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?” I asked.
Lacie laughed. “No, not for a couple months.”
I shrugged, grinning. “Well I don’t know! I don’t know anything about babies.”
Lacie sighed, trailing her finger along my jaw. “Neither do I. I’m terrified.”
“You’re going to be a perfect mother,” I said, kissing her softly.
“And you’re going to be a great dad.”
She wrapped her arms around my neck and melted into me. My heart beat with hers, and I made love to her as if it were the first time. I worshipped her body, kissing her stomach and making her come for me over and over.
Some time later, we were laying languidly in bed, watching the sheer curtains flutter in the soft ocean breeze.
“I love you,” I breathed, watching her lips stretch into a smile.
“I love you too, Maddox.” She said, snuggling into me. “I’m the luckiest girl in the world.”
I shrugged. “You might be, yeah.”
She laughed, smacking my chest and rolling her eyes. I kissed her again, grinning.
“You know I’m the lucky one, Lacie,” I breathed. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her to me, with her head against my heart—exactly where it was supposed to be.
Thank you for reading!
Oh… and we’re not done! Garrett, Carter, Morgan and Veronica have their own stories to tell.
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Psst… Keep reading for a preview of Book 3: Carter!
Rock Hard: Book 3
Carter
A Bad Boy Rock Star Romance
Lilian Monroe
www.lilianmonroe.com
Twitter: @Lily_Author
Facebook: @MonroeRomance
Instagram: @lilianmonroe.author
Chapter 1 - Veronica
Is there anything worse than your ex jamming up your phone with calls and texts?
Probably not.
At least, that’s how I felt on that sunny Sunday morning, when I woke up to a thousand and one texts and calls from Seth, my ex-boyfriend.
It didn’t seem like he understood the term ex-boyfriend.
I knew he’d been out drinking the night before. That was the only time I ever got messages from him. Thank goodness I slept with my phone on silent, or else I wouldn’t be getting any sleep on the weekends.
My phone rang and I rolled over, throwing my pillow over my head and groaning. I let it go to voicemail and then sighed, finally glancing at it.
It wasn’t Seth, it was Morgan. My friend—well, my boss now. Morgan had managed to get me and Lacie, our other best friend, onto her new Personal Relations team. How she was able to manage that, I’m not sure. But as of tonight, she’d be managing the image for the biggest rock stars in the country: The Mondays. Lacie was going to be the band’s hair and makeup artist, I’d be the band’s official photographer.
The only problem was that they were the biggest rock stars in the country for all the wrong reasons. For the past six months or so, they’d been on a huge downward spiral of self-destruction.
If anyone could set them straight, though, it would be Morgan. She was a superstar at what she did, which is probably why she got this assignment in the first place. Her boss wanted to sabotage her career and watch her fail.
But I had faith in her.
A grin spread over my lips as I thought about it. It might be a career-ending assignment, but damn, I would get some awesome photos.
I picked up my phone and dialed Morgan.
“Vee,” she said. “Did I wake you up?”
“No,” I lied, clearing the sleep away from my throat. “I’ve just been avoiding answering my phone this weekend.”
“Seth annoying you again?”
“Mm,” I answered as I swung my legs off the edge of the bed. “What’s up?”
“I just wanted to make sure you were ready for tonight. We’re meeting the band at their rehearsal space.”
“I can’t believe we have to go to downtown Los Angeles to meet these guys. I thought big-shot bands rehearsed in their mansions in the hills?”
“They’ve been rehearsing there for years, apparently.”
“What time are we meeting?”
“Seven PM.”
“Alright, send me the address again. I’ll bring Lacie as well.”
“Thanks, Veronica.”
She hung up the phone and I sighed. She sounded Stressed with a capital ’S’. I’d known Morgan a long time, and she’d always been focused on her career. But this time, it seemed different. She seemed worried about more than just doing a good job. She really did seem worried that if she didn’t do well, she’d lose her job.
And with three big, burly wildlings like The Mondays, who could blame her? They’d been on a drug- and alcohol-fueled rampage for months now.
I texted Lacie.
Brunch? Pick you up in 30 mins.
She buzzed back right away with a simple thumbs up. I jumped in the shower and got ready, washing my long mop of brown hair and shaving my legs.
Hey, you never know.
I toweled off, thinking of the band we were going to meet. I’d seen pictures of them, and I’d always had a bit of a secret celebrity crush on the bassist, Carter. He had this bad boy look about him that made me tingle in all the right places.
I threw my hair in a braid and pulled on my favorite pair of jeans before grabbing my things and going to pick up Lacie. She lived a short drive away from me, which was good because we spent almost all our time together.
She came out of her house with her blonde hair streaming behind her in a golden mane. She always looked effortlessly. She jumped in my rusty old Chevy and slammed the door.
> “Hey,” she said, smiling.
“Hey,” I replied. “Good night last night?”
She shrugged. “Just stayed home with Mom. Thanks for picking me up, I really appreciate it.”
“Oh stop it, Lacie,” I said. “If you thank me every time I give you a lift you’re going to wear yourself out.”
Lacie chewed her lip and nodded. Her mom was sick—brain cancer—and Lacie had had to sell her car to help pay for this new experimental treatment. She was broke as f**k, and I wished I could help more than just driving her around when she needed it.
“Well, today is a big day,” I announced, pulling into the street. “We meet our future husbands. Brunch is on me, to celebrate.” And also because I knew she couldn’t afford it.
Lacie laughed. “Future husbands?”
“You never know. Shoot for the moon, and all that.”
“I never understood that expression.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“The ‘shoot for the moon’ expression. ‘Shoot for the moon. Even if you fail, you’ll land among the stars.’”
“… Yeah?” I asked, glancing at her and grinning. Sometimes I wondered how we’d become such good friends, because half the time it was like we were from different planets.
“Well,” she said slowly, as if she were explaining it to someone incredibly dense. “The moon is a lot closer than the stars. So if you’re shooting for the moon, you’ll never make it all the way to the stars.”
I tried to contain my laughter. “Well, maybe they mean if you overshoot and miss, you’ll land among the stars.”
“You’d have to seriously overshoot. Like by multiple orders of magnitude.”
“I think you’re missing the point, Lacie,” I said, finally breaking down and laughing. “The point is that we’re going to meet our future husbands tonight, in the form of three sexy-as-hell musicians with a bad boy streak.”
Lacie grinned. “Right, sorry,” she said, rolling her eyes. “That’s just always bugged me.”
“You’re a pedantic weirdo, you know that?”
She looked at me sideways and I laughed.
“But that’s why I love you.”
My phone buzzed in the console between us and Lacie looked down.
“Seth is still bothering you?”
“Ugh.”
“Was he calling you last night? Why don’t you just block him?”
“I tried,” I said. “He got a new number and kept calling me.”
“That is so weird and stalkerish.”
“I know.”
We both fell silent until we got to the brunch restaurant. When we sat down and looked at the menu, Lacie looked at me.
“Maybe we will marry The Mondays,” she said.
“Maybe,” I replied, grinning.
“It would be perfect. It would solve my money issues for my mom’s treatment, and it would solve your Seth problem. He couldn’t compete with a word-famous musician.”
“That’s true. Maybe I should just go off the pill and let one of them knock me up,” I replied, laughing.
“Good idea,” Lacie replied. “I’ll do the same.”
We giggled, shaking our heads. It was a nice fantasy, but we both knew it wouldn’t happen. I looked at Lacie and grinned.
“And plus, Morgan desperately needs to get laid.”
Lacie laughed.
“Yeah,” she said. “That too.”
Chapter 2 - Carter
Divorce is expensive, apparently.
Especially when you and your ex don’t get along. I stared at the invoice from my lawyer with my head in my hand. Between these bills and giving away half of everything I had to my ex, it was looking like I wouldn’t have much left. I put the papers down on the smooth marble kitchen island and sighed.
Maddox, the drummer in our band, appeared in the doorway. He was wearing boxers and a silky, paisley bathrobe and he had the distinctive pallor of a bad hangover.
“What’s wrong with you?” He grunted, going to the fridge and taking out a beer.
“No breakfast?”
“Can’t face food yet,” he replied. He nodded to the papers. “Lawyer?”
I grunted. We’d been living together since we were seventeen, when we left our parents’ houses to move to LA and try to make it big. I’d only moved out to live with Angela, my ex, and Maddox had taken me back in when it all fell apart. Even when we made money, we still stuck together, and Maddox knew everything that went on in my life.
Including my ongoing divorce.
“Fucking Angela,” I huffed. “She’s getting way more than she should and she just won’t let go. It’s like she doesn’t just want a divorce, she wants to ruin my life.”
“Women are cruel,” Maddox said, taking a long sip of beer. He exhaled, sitting down beside me on a bar stool. He looked at the bottle of beer and shook his head.
“What happened last night?”
I chuckled. “The usual. At least the house is in one piece. Didn’t bring the party back here, for once.”
“Did I come home with you?”
“Yeah. Passed out in the cab.”
“I still can’t believe you can go out with us and not drink.”
I grinned. “It’s an acquired skill. And plus, I still drink sometimes, I just don’t party like that anymore.”
“One beer after rehearsal doesn’t count,” Maddox grinned. He looked over at the kitchen table and grunted. “Wallet, keys, and phone are there. So at least I’ve got that going for me.”
“You should give up the booze, man,” I said gently, turning back to my papers. “That stuff’ll ruin your life.”
“What, just because you’re all reformed now, it means I have to stop partying?”
“I mean, look at what our lives have become. Drinking and fighting and paying for things that we’ve done. My marriage fell apart because I didn’t give up the booze. And now that I have stopped, I’m still paying for everything that I did.”
“You didn’t even do anything that bad. It’s not like you cheated on her or anything.”
“I left her at home to go partying day in, day out. That’s why things fell apart.”
Maddox grunted, downing the rest of his beer. He looked at me as his eyebrows drew together. “You regret getting married?”
I stared out through our large windows towards the pool. “I don’t think so,” I sighed. “I was just an idiot before. Might still be one.”
“You think Angela’ll ever let up and be more reasonable with all this?”
My heart squeezed. “Probably not.”
Maddox was quiet for a while, and I sighed again.
“I really need this tour to be successful,” I said quietly. “You’ll be kicking me out soon, if this keeps up. Bank account is getting pretty low.”
Maddox put his hand on my shoulder. “I’m not kicking you out. This place is paid for, anyways, remember? No mortgage, no problem.”
I chuckled. “Are you saying you’ll cover property taxes and maintenance on this place if I’m on my ass?”
“You’re a brother to me, Carter.” He shrugged. “Plus, if things get bad I’ll just get some crooked accountant to do some tax fraud for us or something.”
I laughed as Maddox cracked another beer and grinned.
“Nah,” he said. “It’ll work out.”
I looked at the number at the bottom of the invoice in my hands. It had way too many zeros on the end of it for me to think that everything would magically work out.
“We just really need to pull our fucking heads out of our asses and play some music again. This album launch has to be big.”
“Don’t worry, bro,” Maddox said, taking another sip of beer. He looked as hungover as ever. “It will be. We have that new PR team coming in tonight to watch us rehearse. Apparently they have it all planned out.”
I scoffed. “Yeah, because PR teams have been really good for us lately.”
Maddox just shrugged, and walked ove
r to the couch. He collapsed on it, and I knew he’d be there until we left for rehearsal.
“You do remember how to play the drums, don’t you?” Garrett said to Maddox, his dark eyes even darker than usual. Maddox was entering the shaky part of his hangover, and I could tell he was in bad shape. I leaned my hands on my bass guitar and watched the two of them face off.
Maddox was sweating buckets, sitting shirtless behind his drum set. Garrett was standing behind the microphone, looking back at Maddox with fire in his eyes.
All three of us had strong personalities. We’d grown up together, and we were all born leaders. We were always able to put aside our egos for the band, though. For the music. In the rehearsal space, in the studio, on stage—we were equals.
But right now, it didn’t seem that way. I knew our new PR team would be there any minute, and at this stage we wouldn’t have anything to play for them.
Our band was a mess. We were falling apart.
“Let’s just take it from the top,” Garrett grumbled, eyeing both of us. “Then we can go out and get a fucking beer.”
Maddox grunted, and Garrett turned back to his microphone.
We sucked. We were out of sync, out of tune, out of everything. By the end of the song, the three of us eyed each other for a long moment.
“How the fuck are we supposed to go on a world tour if we can’t even play our own fucking music?” Garrett grumbled.
I grunted. “He’s just fucking hungover, man.”
Maddox made a noise in agreement.
Garrett dragged his fingers through his hair and shook his head. I glanced at Maddox and pursed my lips. Maddox shrugged.
This was bad. It felt like the beginning of the end—like the past six months might actually be catching up to us. The drinking, the partying, the out-of-control mess of it all. The music had taken a back seat.
The thought of us breaking up choked me up more than my divorce. I couldn’t lose these guys, not after losing my wife and my dog. I just couldn’t.
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