by Alex Riordan
“I do not have a ‘look’ on my face,” Stephanie said, trying to deny what had happened, but failing miserably, since she realized she was grinning from ear to ear.
Seeing Stephanie’s face light up, Theresa turned excitedly to look at her more closely. “You did! Don’t bother denying it, I can tell. Oh my God, I’m so happy for you guys!”
Amused by the blondes’ reaction, Stephanie asked, “Is it obvious? I mean, it’s not written on my face somewhere is it? I don't have a hickey on me that I didn’t notice, do I?” She didn’t think she did, Jessie had done a good job of keeping all the bite marks and scratches in unnoticeable places. Still…
“No, of course not,” Theresa said, hugging her. “I’m just teasing you. Really,” she said, trying to put the redhead at ease. “I’ve just been around a long time. So…how was it?”
Stephanie smiled shyly, her face turning bright red. “It was…” taking a deep breath and licking her lips, she said, “It was really, really good.”
“So…go on,” Theresa urged. She only ever got to hear Jessie’s side of things. This was so much better.
“Well, Jessie’s a great kisser,” Stephanie said, still blushing.
“I know, she is good,” Theresa agreed.
“Umm, I thought you two never…?” Stephanie trailed off, confused by what Theresa had just said.
Furrowing her brow, Theresa caught on to what the redhead was asking. “Oh! Stephanie, no. Jessie and I never did…you know…I’m completely straight. It’s just that back when she used to come home high all the time, I’d help her into bed. One night, she was really trashed, high on Coke and drunk on Jack, I think. She pulled me down onto the bed and started kissing me. You know, telling me how I was her best friend in the world, and she loved me and all that. It didn’t mean anything. I don’t think she even remembered it had happened when she finally came down and sobered up. But…she is a great kisser.” Theresa smiled, remembering that night. Jessie was a great kisser and she’d never deny it. She was, when she thought about it, actually glad it had happened. Before that, she‘d never understood what everyone saw in Jessie, other than the obvious. After that night, she got it. Jessie was just hot and sexy in a way she herself would never be. It's what she always thought of as ‘star quality,’ and Jessie had it in spades. Then, turning her attention back to Stephanie, she said, “Now, tell me everything.”
Stephanie smiled, remembering the feel of Jessie’s mouth on hers (and everywhere else). “How about I give you the edited version?” she asked, not feeling right about sharing something like that with the blond.
“Oh, you’re killing me,” Theresa said, jokingly. “But, I guess I can live with that. Go on.”
An hour later, they were sitting at Wild Panda, eating dinner and drinking wine. Theresa had been slightly disappointed by Stephanie’s much edited version of what had happened with Jessie. But she knew she’d get the porn version from Jessie eventually, or at least a less edited version, so that was okay.
Lacy, who had been running late herself, finally showed up and joined them for dinner. The three of them spent the next two hours talking and laughing about Lacy’s experiences in the porn industry. All in all, it had been an enjoyable evening so far, and Stephanie was really looking forward to seeing the band play tonight. And, if she were being honest, she couldn’t wait to see Jessie and kiss her again. They’d only been separated for a few hours, and she already missed her touch.
Lacy, who was on her third glass of wine, leaned over and said, “You know, Stephanie… You’re so much better for Jessie than Bobby ever was.”
Theresa rolled her eyes, as Lacy started in on Bobby again. Every time the blond had a little too much to drink, she managed to bring it up. “Jesus Lacy, don’t you ever get tired of re-living that? Bobby’s been gone for seven years.”
Lacy looked over at Theresa and said, “No, I don’t. Besides, Bobby treated Jessie like absolute shit. My girl deserves better than that.”
“All right, fine,” Theresa huffed slightly, giving in. “Go ahead and tell Stephanie the whole horrible story. See if I care.”
Lacy smiled over at Theresa. “Thanks, Momma Hen. I promise I won’t be too mean to him. I know you liked him.”
Theresa didn’t even bother to answer, taking another drink from her bottle of beer, instead.
“So,” Stephanie asked carefully, “Bobby wasn’t the nicest guy in the world?”
“Hardly,” Lacy snorted. Settling in, she began the story. “Back when the band first got together, Bobby was the best guitar player around. They were lucky to get him and they knew it. Of course, it didn’t hurt that he’d been after Jessie for months, before that. They started writing together almost immediately. And,” she said, taking another drink of her wine and looking over at Theresa, “I’ll admit it. They were a Hell of a team.”
“Within months, he’d moved in with her and they were engaged,” Theresa added, noticing that Lacy was rolling her eyes yet again. Despite her connections to the porn industry, Lacy was surprisingly conservative when it came to certain things, and she’d always thought Jessie and Bobby had rushed things.
Stephanie was surprised that Jessie had moved that quickly. Then, thinking about what had been happening between them, she shook her head. The two of them seemed to be moving pretty quickly too, when she thought about it. And, even though they weren’t living together, they might as well be. They’d spent every night together for the last week. “That does seem pretty fast,” she said, agreeing with Lacy despite what had been happening.
“Whatever Bobby wanted, Bobby got,” Lacy said sarcastically. “See, Bobby was like a guitar god around here. All the guys wanted to be him and all the girls wanted to sleep with him. And Jessie? Well, she was the female Bobby. The only difference was that everyone, male and female, wanted her. The two of them were like the golden couple. All that would have been okay, too, but Bobby couldn’t keep his hands to himself and be happy with what he had.”
“You mean he cheated on Jessie?” Stephanie asked, surprised that Jessie would have been so torn up about the relationship falling apart if he treated her that way.
“Cheated is a nice way to describe what he did,” Theresa chimed in. She’d been there and seen everything first hand, since she lived with them back then. “He didn’t just go out with other girls. He screwed them backstage before, during, and after their shows. Jessie would be walking by and he wouldn’t even try to hide what was happening. It was awful.”
“And Jessie just put up with that?” Stephanie asked incredulously.
“He may have been screwing everything in sight, but he came home to her every night,” Theresa answered. Not wanting the redhead to get the wrong idea about who Jessie was, she added, “Stephanie that was a long time ago. All of us were drinking and doing drugs like crazy. We’ve all managed to grow up since then.”
Stephanie nodded. She did understand. After all, when she’d first moved to LA, there were plenty of parties she’d rather forget. It wasn’t like she was innocent. And, she’d been in her fair share of bad relationships over the years. “I’m not judging, Theresa,” she said, attempting to allay the blondes’ fears. “I’d just like to understand her better. Hearing this, I think I get why she's so afraid to trust anyone.”
“It did make her skittish,” Lacy agreed.
“You know,” Theresa went on, “The night that record producer showed up to see them, they had a huge fight right before they went on stage. Jessie, for whatever reason, was already in a bad mood. When she went into the dressing room and saw some girl on her knees in front of Bobby, she went off. We actually had to pull them apart.”
“Jessie beat her up?” Stephanie gasped, surprised that mild mannered, always professional, Jessie would get so angry.
“Jessie kicked her ass up one side and down the other,” Lacy added, holding her wine glass up in a salute, before taking a drink. “John said they had to get Bobby out of the room before she kicked his ass, too.�
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“There was so much energy on stage that night, you could feel it everywhere,” Theresa said, remembering that evening like it was yesterday. “That record guy offered them the deal right after they walked off stage.” She laughed sarcastically, remembering the rest of the evening. “We all went out to celebrate, after the show. By the time we made it home that night, Bobby and Jessie acted like nothing had happened. They barely made it into the bedroom before they were undressed.”
“So…after catching him with his pants down,” Stephanie said, putting it as delicately as possible. “She basically forgot all that because they got offered a record deal? That doesn’t sound like Jessie.”
“It’s not the Jessie you know,” Lacy explained. “But it was the Jessie high on cocaine and drunk. We were all pretty fucked up back then, actually,” she added, shaking her head at the things they’d all done in those days.
Even hearing the explanations, Stephanie still found it difficult to reconcile the Jessie they were telling her about, with the one who had cried in her arms last night after making love for the first time. It just didn’t sound like her Jessie at all. Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Theresa’s voice.
“Oh, crap! We’re gonna be late if we don’t leave now,” she exclaimed, looking at her watch. “It’s almost nine thirty.” She signaled for their waiter and he brought their bill over. After Theresa paid, they left, heading for the bar.
As they left, not one of them noticed the middle aged man following them. From the restaurant to the bar, he followed, blending in with the crowd. He continued to watch, as the redhead sat at a small table with a group of what were obviously friends. How had she made so many friends here so quickly?
Careful not to get too close, he watched all evening, taking note of the way the redhead stared at the singer up on stage. He sat up and took definite notice when the singer strutted over to the table and hugged the redhead tightly during one of their breaks, even giving her a quick kiss on the cheek.
At the end of the evening, he waited in the parking lot. When he saw the singer walk out with the redhead on her arm, he ground his teeth together. As they pulled out of the parking lot, he followed them. Parking across the street from The Hilton Hotel, he made his way through the lobby and took the elevator up to the floor containing the apartment suites.
Seething with anger he could barely control, he found a comfortable place to wait. It wasn’t that the redheaded bitch had turned him down that bothered him so much. It was why she turned him down. She obviously preferred to spend her time with that dyke bitch Jessie Drake instead of a real man.
Chapter 16
They’d arrived back at Stephanie’s hotel room around one. Hours later, Jessie was lying on her stomach, the bed sheets pooled around her waist. Stephanie was propped up on one elbow, tracing the outline of Jessie’s tattoo with her finger. “I can’t believe I never noticed this until tonight,” she said, following the curves and lines with her eyes. “How long have you had it?”
Jessie, feeling completely boneless at the moment, sighed in contentment. Stephanie’s fingers, touching her ever so lightly, were burning into her skin. “I got it when I was about twenty four,” she answered.
To Stephanie, the tattoo looked almost brand new. Then again, being on Jessie’s shoulder, it probably didn’t see a lot of sunlight. When she’d first met the brunette, she’d thought perhaps she spent time in a tanning bed. Her skin was perpetually tanned, almost olive colored. But after seeing the woman completely naked, she realized it was just her skin color, a product of a good gene pool. No tanning necessary. “Does it mean anything special?” she asked, leaning down and grazing her lips across the design in question.
Jessie shrugged. “Well, I’m into martial arts, so the Yin Yang symbol is a given. It symbolizes balance; you know, light and dark, male and female, peace and chaos.”
“Mmm, and the dragons?” she asked as she placed another light kiss on the tattoo.
“Dragons are a symbol of the protector. And…I’m just into dragons,” Jessie answered, rolling over to look up into the green eyes staring down at her. “You like it?” she asked, raising a hand to brush the redhead’s cheek softly.
“It’s gorgeous, Jess. Like you,” Stephanie whispered, turning her cheek into the caress.
“You make me feel so good, Steph,” Jessie said softly, the look in her eyes just a little sad. “I never thought I’d feel like this again.”
“You mean after Bobby?” Stephanie asked, wanting to wipe the sadness from the other woman’s features.
Jessie nodded. “Yeah.”
Biting her lower lip, Stephanie debated whether she really wanted to bring up Jessie’s past any further. After talking to Lacy and Theresa earlier though, she had questions. She just wasn’t sure if she should ask Jessie.
Noticing the redhead looking at her hesitantly, Jessie asked, “Steph…is everything all right?”
“Yeah,” Stephanie breathed out, smiling softly down at the brunette. “I was just remembering something that Lacy and Theresa told me earlier.”
Jessie groaned and rolled her eyes. “About me and Bobby, I’ll bet?” At the redhead’s nod, she said, “Lacy brought it up, didn’t she?” Without waiting for an answer, she went on. “You know, it’s been seven years since all that happened. You’d think she’d let it go.”
“Um, not to point out the obvious,” Stephanie said carefully, “but you haven’t really let it go yet yourself.”
“True…but it happened to me. Lacy wasn’t really involved, she was just an observer,” Jessie said, trying to justify her own lack of resolution with the situation.
“She may have been an observer, Jessie, but she loves you very much,” Stephanie said, sliding her free hand down to rest on Jessie’s hip.
“I know,” Jessie admitted. “So, I guess she told you how he screwed everything in sight and I just let him do it? And about the fight?” At Stephanie’s quiet nod, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath to steady herself. If that’s all Stephanie ever heard about her past, the poor woman would think that she was an abuser, or prone to violence or…something. She didn’t want Stephanie to be afraid of her.
After another deep breath, she jumped into her explanation. “Steph, I don’t have any real reason for why I did the things I did back then. All I can say is that I was coked out most of the time away from work and, well…I just didn’t want to be alone or lose the band. I didn’t feel like I had anything else. So, I just let him do whatever. As long as the band stayed together and he came to bed with me every night, I just didn’t care. It was a horrible relationship,” she admitted, turning her head away to stare at the wall. For some reason, she couldn’t seem to look at Stephanie right now. She just didn’t want to see the look in her eyes, knowing that she really didn’t deserve the love the redhead had for her.
Afraid that Jessie was going to close herself off, Stephanie moved her hand up to turn Jessie’s head back toward her. Forcing her to look at her, she said, “Jessie…I’m not judging you. I understand now why you have a hard time trusting people. I swear to you that I would never treat you that way. Bobby obviously didn’t respect you or care for you. I hope you know that I’m not like that?”
“I…kinda got that feeling,” Jessie admitted quietly, sniffing a little.
“What happened to the girl you got into the fight with?”
“They didn’t tell you?” Jessie asked in surprise. When Stephanie shook her head, she went on with the story. “Well, they had to pull me off of her before I hurt her.”
“She didn’t press charges or anything?”
Jessie shook her head. “No. The stupid thing was…she was so excited to be backstage with all of us that she didn’t even care. She was so high; I doubt she even remembered the next day what had happened.”
“Jessie, that’s horrible. Was she okay?” Stephanie asked, worried that Jessie may have actually hurt the girl.
“She seemed to be.
I bruised some ribs, but other than that, she was fine.” Looking away for a moment, she took another deep breath before saying, “Look Stephanie…I don’t want you to think that I routinely go around beating people up or respond with violence every time I get mad about something. I’m not…”
“Shh,” Stephanie placed a finger on Jessie’s lips. “You don’t need to tell me that. I know.” She leaned down and kissed Jessie gently on the lips. When she drew back, she said, “The Jessie that responded that way is gone. She would never have cried in my arms or make love to me the way you do. I know that, and I trust it. You need to trust it too.”
Jessie swallowed hard. Pulling Stephanie back down for another kiss, she whispered, “How did I get so lucky?”
“Fate?” Stephanie answered, leaning in and taking control of her mouth again.
* * * *
“I swear,” Stephanie huffed, stomping into the office Tuesday morning. “You’d think I was the only female in this office, the way Bob keeps asking me out.”