by Nola Marie
Maddox tells the crowd thank you while reminding them our album goes on sale tomorrow. Then tells them where they can download the song they just heard before we exit the stage.
When we’re finally to the back, a high pitch squeal nearly shatters my eardrums. “Madsy,” a cute little blonde cries out as she practically climbs her tiny body up Maddox’s much larger frame, “that new song is a – maze – ing.”
Maddox squeezes her tight with a nervous laugh. “What are you doing here, Liv?” he asks as he continues to walk to the dressing room with her still wrapped around him.
“I’m here for a work thing. Ryder told me about your show tonight. It was okay for me to come, right?” she says.
“Yeah, Livy,” he tells her. “It’s great.” He sets her to her feet with a kiss to the top of her head. She moves on to Ryder in a hurry who hugs her tightly with a ruffle to her hair.
So not a groupie.
She spots me next. “You must be Angel,” she says with an extended hand and a wide smile.
“You must be right,” I tell her as I accept her handshake.
“Oh, honey,” she clucks her tongue a few times, “I’m always right. I’m Olivia, Maddox’s favorite cousin.”
I grin down at the pint size pixie-like girl with a shake of my head. I recognize her name now. Maddox and Ryder talk about her occasionally. She looks like a twelve-year-old with her tiny body, but Maddox has said she’s a year younger than him.
Next is Dane. She gives him a tight hug that he easily returns.
The dressing room door opens and in walks Camilla. I notice there’s no Josie with her and wonder if she quit. I smile inwardly in relief, but the relief is short-lived.
“I’m sorry,” she tells Camilla when she rushes in the door. “Some guy thought it would be a good idea to get really handsy as I made my way back here.”
I contain a growl that builds in my chest but only for a moment. The thought of someone touching her without her permission makes my blood boil. “Who the fuck was it?” I grunt.
Her bright ocean eyes turn to me riddled with confusion. “It doesn’t matter. It was handled,” she says then moves her attention away from me.
But I want to know how it was handled. I want to know if the asshat that put his hands on her was tossed.
“You sure you’re good, Love?” Ryder asks her.
He gets a sweet smile for asking. “Yeah, I’m okay. Nothing I couldn’t handle. Not something I’m used to, but he was basically harmless.”
He wraps an arm around her shoulders to bring her toward the rest of us. Directly across from me. But she doesn’t look at me. Of course.
“Camilla and Josephine this,” he gestures toward Olivia, “is Livy. She’s our mascot when she’s around.”
“How many times do I have to tell you I’m not a mascot,” Olivia scowls.
“What would you have us call you, Liv? A groupie?” Maddox asks her.
She gives him a scathing look of frustration. “I am absolutely not a groupie,” she says haughtily.
As they continue their banter, my eyes drift back to Josie. I still want to know who touched her. The thought of them grabbing that perfect heart-shaped ass really is messing with my head.
And the thought of her heart-shaped ass is screwing with something a little lower too.
Just what I fucking need. I may hate her but there’s no denying that she is beautiful.
She always was but now she’s like an ad for sex.
My damn dick’s reaction to her just sets me off even more. I can feel the veins in my forehead start to pop and the tendons in my neck strain as I clench my jaw.
“What’s the deal with you?” Maddox asks quietly from beside me.
“Josie is what’s wrong with me,” I tell him honestly through gritted teeth. “How do you expect me to work with her every day?”
“I just expect you to make it work. Whatever happened between you two was a long time ago. Let it go.”
If only it were that easy. “Yeah, but apparently the wounds are still fresh.” I tried to close those wounds last night, but all I got was more salt and alcohol.
“All right boys,” Camilla says cheekily. I think she’s discovered her new favorite phrase. “Clothes off.”
“That’s my cue to step out,” Olivia says with a chuckle.
“Don’t stress girl,” Camilla says with a wave. “These boys have nothing to be embarrassed over.”
Olivia gives her a look of pure disgust. “I just prefer not to see Madsy and Ry in their birthday suits. It would be super awkward.”
When Josie hands me my clothes, I grab her arm. “Who the hell touched you?”
She yanks back with a look of anger. “Why do you care?”
“Just because I hate you doesn’t mean I want you to get hurt.”
She scoffs with a look of disbelief. “Could’ve fooled me since you’ve played a big part in the hurt in my life.”
Now it’s my turn with the disbelieving look. “Are you kidding me? I’ve never did anything.”
“You’re right,” she says loudly drawing the other’s attention. “You never did a damn thing. Did you?”
“That’s what I just said,” I growl. “You’re the one who shut me out.”
“Why the hell wouldn’t I, Angel?”
“I don’t know. That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out.”
“Both of you stop,” Maddox yells. “Whatever the problem is, I want a lid on it now. We’ve got to work together.”
“Not if we get rid of her,” I demand. “Or she quits,” I dare her.
“Not on your life, you egotistical, arrogant son of a bitch. You couldn’t make me quit when we were kids, and you can’t do it now. Although I’m sure you learned quite a few tricks from Erica over the years, haven’t you?”
At the mention of Erica, I see red. Without thinking I grab her arm with a growl, my tone low and menacing. “Don’t ever categorize me and Erica together again,” I threaten.
“If the fucking shoe fits, Angel,” she spits.
My grip gets tighter until I see her wince in pain. I let go of her arm like it is on fire. Guilt and shame course through me as I look at the impression my fingers left on her arm. I’ve never hurt a woman in my life. Never wanted to. Well, except maybe Erica. I’ve damn sure never wanted to hurt Josie.
And she just stood there. She let me hurt her without so much of a word or fight.
I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to think. Except, “I’m sorry, Josie,” I tell her sincerely. “I shouldn’t have touched you.”
She gives me a smile that is filled with malice and anger. “Don’t worry. Your girlfriend’s done a lot worse.”
She turns around with a flip of her hair. “I’ll be at the bar, Camilla,” she says as she leaves.
Camilla finishes with us in another couple of minutes and is out the door without a word. As soon as the door shuts behind her, Dane turns to me, “Bro, what the fuck was that?”
I just shake my head, still embarrassed by my actions, and floored by her words. Without another word to anyone, I walk out the door, ready for this night to be over.
Josephine
Song
Do I Wanna Know?
After I leave the dressing room, I make my way straight for the bar. Angel’s reaction in there was unnerving to say the least. And confusing as hell. It’s how he was when we were kids. It’s how I always imagined he’d be if we’d remained friends.
But friends we most definitely are not. He has openly admitted hating me, though I can’t figure out for the life of me what right he has. It doesn’t matter. Not really. I hate him too.
I get the attention of the bartender. He slides up to me with a big, crooked smile and one dimple. He’s hot. Adorably so. “What can I get for you, sexy?”
I flash him a bright smile of my own because he really is hot. “Goldschläger, and a margarita please.”
“Sure thing.”
“Are y
ou okay?” I hear from the seat next to me.
I turn to see Ryder sitting there with a look that seems totally ambivalent to the words coming from him. The bartender slides me my drinks with a wink. “I’m fine,” I lie once the bartender has moved on.
No. I am absolutely not fine. I don’t understand what the hell happened with Angel. I don’t get the protectiveness. And if I’m being honest, he seemed a little jealous too.
I don’t understand it. I don’t want it. It just made no sense to me why he’d care if he hated me so. Then his accusations again. The ones about me shutting him out. I don’t understand what the ever-loving hell he expected.
Why would I ever want to continue any sort of relationship with him? The torment of high school may not have been his doing, but I never once saw him try to stop it. Not to mention dating the leader of it all. Why is he oblivious to the part he played?
More than that, why is he so focused on me abandoning him? He set this in motion when he texted me that night. When he utterly humiliated me.
Who the hell does he think he is?
“You don’t look fine to me, Love,” he tells me in that sexy accent of his. “You look like you could set someone’s hair on fire.”
I smile at the image of seventeen-year-old me throwing a match on the bed Angel and Erica were in. I shake the morbid imagery from my mind. I would never intentionally hurt anyone or anything. Not even that she-devil that made my teen years so miserable.
“I really am fine,” I tell him. The statement is a little more truthful this time than minutes ago thanks to the two shots of Goldschläger. “I’m sorry for the outburst in there.”
He gives a little chuckle. “I don’t know what’s going on with you two. Don’t know if you’re the reason my boy seems to hate women or what, but you better get your shit together before the two of you go nuclear.”
I give him a questioning look but find myself unable to stare into his stormy eyes for too long. They almost have a hypnotic, trance like affect that I’m sure has women falling into his bed.
“It won’t happen again,” I promise. “I know how to be professional.”
“I don’t give a fuck about professionalism,” he tells with a sexy smirk. “I just don’t want anyone fucking with my mate.”
I give him a scathing look. “I never fucked with Angel.”
He puts his hands up in surrender with a laugh. “Okay, love. I believe you.”
Maddox walks to where we are sitting, giving me a once over. His eyes are glassy as hell telling me he’s definitely not sober even if he doesn’t show any indication otherwise. I’ve noticed both days around them, that Dane is the only one who doesn’t show signs of some sort of inebriation. He leans over whispering something in Ryder’s ear. Ryder’s eyes shift to the beautiful, long-legged, mocha-skinned girl standing behind Maddox. The corners of his lips pull up as he nods.
I get the feeling the girl is in for quite the night when the three of them leave together.
I shake my head with a laugh.
I ask the bartender for another shot. He sets it in front of me and leans forward. “Having a bad night?” he asks.
I lift the shot up for him to see. “Working on making it better.”
“Want to talk about it?” he continues, flashing me that dimple he has. “I’m a pretty good listener.”
He really is hot. And I really do need a distraction. It’s been too long since I’ve had sex. Way too long since I enjoyed it. “What if I’d rather do something else?” I ask with a bat of my eyes.
“I get off in a couple of hours,” he tells me. I follow his tongue as his runs across his lower lip.
“Mmm. I can wait an hour or two. Maybe I’ll just dance for a bit.”
I stand from my seat and make my way to the dance floor. I make sure to add an extra sway to my hips as I do. I feel his eyes on me. They’re practically burning into me.
I move and sway with the music. I raise my arms over my head and allow my body to move provocatively with the beat.
I don’t know how long I’m out there, but a pair of hands grip my hips and begin moving with me. I don’t turn to see who it is. I already know. I should push him away. Demand he stop, but I just allow him to lead me, grind into me from behind.
Lips begin to trail their way down my neck to my bare shoulder causing my skin to erupt in gooseflesh. Hands travel to the hem of my skirt then up a bit rubbing the bare skin of my thigh. A tightness dips low in my belly traveling farther to other places that are wet and throbbing.
Several dances later, my head is foggy with lust and alcohol and Angel. The fire he causes within me blisters across my skin. The electricity crackles and sizzles in the air around us.
His eyes filled with the flames of anger and lust and something else. Mine flame with the same. Neither of us acknowledge it. Neither of us say anything.
I can feel his heart beating in time with mine. His breath coming in heavy and shallow just as mine. The tension is thick and dense.
“You ready to go?” I hear behind us.
I try to pull away from Angel who tightens his grip for a moment with a low growl. He looks at me with a possessiveness he shouldn’t. Then he lets go taking a step back. Watching. Waiting to see what I’ll do.
“You got off early,” I say to the bartender.
“You didn’t give me much choice,” he growls. “Watching you move like you did made me a little anxious.”
I turn my back completely to Angel to give the other man my full attention. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Your place or mine?” he asks looking over my shoulder at Angel who’s watching with absolute fury pouring and vibrating off him.
“Your place. Mine is too far. I can’t wait much longer.”
“You keep talking like that we won’t make it out of this club.”
I groan then allow him to lead me out. I fight the urge to look over my shoulder at Angel. To see if he’s still watching us – me.
I really don’t need to look. I can feel him.
Fifteen minutes later, we are groping each other through the door of the bartender’s apartment. I grab at his shirt to get it off then go to work on his pants.
I drop to my knees and take his generous length as deeply as I can. I flick my tongue over the head a couple of time before making my way back down.
He thrust deeper into my mouth a couple of times before pulling me off of him. “That feels just a little too good,” he tells me with a grin. “This isn’t ending like that. Definitely not before it begins.”
He hoists me up and my legs instinctively go around his waist as he carries me down a short hallway. Half a minute later, I’m tossed onto a bed. The hem of my dress is pushed up to my waist and my thighs forced apart.
He swirls his tongue around my entrance a couple of times before diving in. I moan and writhe under his ministrations as my pleasure begins to build. It’s been so long since I came that the first flick of his tongue against my clit has me spasming and screaming out.
He comes up from me with a grin. I lean up on elbows to watch as he rolls on a condom. He pulls me to the edge of the bed and flips me so that I’m on all fours. Without warning he impales me causing me to cry out at the intrusion.
He grips my hips firmly and begins to thrust hard and fast. It’s exactly what I wanted.
“Harder,” I moan as he continues to punish my pussy.
“You like it rough, don’t ya,” he says with a laugh.
A groan is my only response when he forces my head down into the mattress. The new angle allows him even deeper as I feel him beat into my cervix. I grip the bed and bite my lip against the painful pleasure. My walls begin to spasm again. His cock swells inside me. He runs a hand around my waist to my clit. He pinches it hard, sending my pussy into convulsions around him.
I cry out. He groans.
Several seconds later, he pulls out slowly then disposes of the condom. He plops down beside me with a pant. “Damn that was hot.�
��
“It was definitely what I needed,” I tell him with a giggle.
“Can I ask who’s Angel?”
I freeze. Pretty sure my heart stops beating. “W – why would you ask that?”
“Well, you kind of screamed whoever it is name a couple of time. I don’t care. Not like I told you mine.”
I blow out a breath. What the hell? I didn’t know I did that. “Angel is no one,” I tell him, praying he won’t push. We did just meet after all.
“All right, beautiful. Angel is no one. But in a couple of hours, just scream A. J. That’s my name,” he tells me.
I turn over to face him. He really is hot. Not sure why there are so many hot guys here in New York. I feel like there are more here than L.A. Then again, maybe I was looking in the wrong places.
“I’m Josephine,” I tell him.
“Nice to meet you,” he says as he brushes a stray hair from my face. “You’re fucking beautiful by the way.”
He’s sweet on top of hot. “I don’t normally do this, you know. Proposition men or sleep with them without knowing their names.”
“I don’t either,” he tells me and for some reason I believe him. “But you’re so goddamn beautiful, when you offered, I knew I’d be a fool to turn you down.”
I feel myself flush as the compliment. He leans over and places a kiss to my lips. He tastes like sweat and me. I groan against his mouth.
He pulls back and looks down at me. His dark eyes are searing right through me. Worry flits through my mind. “Doing this kind of backwards I know but go out with me.”
Just what I worried would happen. I’m not sure what the right answer is here. I can’t use the excuse that I don’t know him. I just had sex with him.
He starts laughing, making me narrow my eyes. “What’s so funny?” I nearly hiss.
He just shakes his dark head a bit. “You’re one of those girls, aren’t you?”
“One of what girls?” I demand.
“The kind that think way too much. I just asked to take you out. I’m not asking you to declare your love or anything.”