“God, am I defensive much?” Jace’s face turned red. “I’m sorry.”
“No need.”
“You will.”
I rested my chin in my hand. “Will what?”
“Meet someone.” He looked down at the table, and I could have sworn that he gulped.
“Probably.”
“So . . .” He looked back at me again and threw me an apologetic grin.
“Tonight, we’re hanging out together.” I gripped his hand from across the table. “There’s nowhere I’d rather be, so can we just chill for a few more hours until you have to go back to the rock star thing?”
“I’d like nothing more.”
We both stood and looked at each other from under our hair. For me, I just wanted to reset the evening. I strode over to him and hip-checked him. In an instant, all was right between us again.
We walked for miles all day into the wee hours of the morning exploring the streets of Barcelona and taking goofy pictures of ourselves for our respective socials. We hit the major tourist spots, including, Sagrada Familia, Arc de Triomf, Casa Batlló, La Catedral de la Santa Creu, and the Port Olímpic. Along the way we did whiskey shots at an Irish pub, danced at a nightclub, and stopped for ice cream and made out in a downpour. I was having the time of my life. I’d never laughed so hard with someone other than Zoey. We made fun of ourselves and filmed each other’s increasingly crazy antics as the night wore on. When the sun was coming up, we found ourselves walking along the marina back to my hotel.
“We raged all night!” I did a little dance when the first light hit the sky.
“Welcome to my world.” Jace threw his arms wide and swirled around.
I wrapped my arms around myself, the whiskey coat had worn off and I was chilly from being damp. “It’s not a bad world.”
“You’re cold.” Jace wrapped himself around me. “Look at the size of those goose bumps.”
“I guess I am.” I had a full-body shiver. “And my feet are killing me.”
“Mine too. Let’s go back to your hotel. We can call a cab.” He kept me close and took out his phone.
I asked, already preparing to miss him, “What time do you go back?”
“Not until late afternoon.” Jace fired up a taxi app and plugged in our location. “Plenty of time to warm up under the covers. Among other things.”
I didn’t even notice the short cab ride back to the hotel, we were wrapped around each other with our tongues down each other’s throats the entire trip. By the time we reached my room, I wanted to climb him like a tree. Spilling through the door, we tore at each other’s clothes. Jace backed up to the roller chair and plunked down. Kicking off my shorts and boots, I yanked off my tank top and got to work pulling his board shorts down to his ankles. Eagerly, I reached inside the underwear he had borrowed from me and freed his hard length.
“Grab a condom from my wallet, Poppy. I want you to sit on my cock.” Jace gripped the armrests on the chair, his dick pointing to the ceiling proudly.
“Oooh, very bossy!” I teased, retrieving a foil packet and handing it to him.
He kept his hands where they were and challenged me. “No, you put it on.”
Carefully I tore open the wrapper and when I looked perplexed, Jace did me a solid and helped me roll the latex over his steely erection. Straddling him, I sat on his thighs with my hands on his shoulders and he pulled me flush against his torso. Gripping himself, he flicked the tip of his dick back and forth against my clit before feeding it inside me while clasping the small of my back to keep me still. Using the leverage of the floor with my toes, I rocked against him, pressing my breasts against his chest and leaning my head on his shoulder.
We stayed rocking against each other in the chair, and the pressure he kept at the base of my spine created the friction I never knew I needed against my clit. We weren’t moving at a fast or furious pace, but it felt magnificent. I was nearly caught off guard when I came hard, squeezing his cock tight with my contracting muscles. The intensity of the pleasure made me push from his shoulders, arch my back, and moan.
“You’re so incredible.” Jace moved me against him through my release, watching me almost studiously while remaining lodged deep inside me.
My body felt filled to capacity, and I never wanted to be empty again. “Ohhhhh,” I panted.
“Your body is insane, my God.” His fingers caressed my sides and moved up to cup my breasts, his thumbs strumming my nipples.
“I’m so full of you.” I sighed, circling my hips around him, my arms now braced back against his knees.
“I like filling you.” Jace watched himself thrust up into me, his hands now gripping my ass to keep me stationary so he could continue his movement.
My eyes closed in euphoria. Jace bore most of my weight when he rapidly moved me up and down on his cock. All I wanted to do was live in the moment with him, but it felt like I was floating above myself as his groans and the intense pleasure lulled me into a nearly dreamlike state. Vaguely, through my cries of release, I heard him shout when he came. At some point, I slumped over his shoulder after our bodies stopped moving.
“Alex . . . Alex . . .” I heard Jace’s voice as if from a distance.
“Mmmm.” I couldn’t form words.
“Oh, Poppy, you’re exhausted. Let’s get into bed.” Jace must have had superhuman strength because even though I was only a couple inches shorter than him, he picked me up and held me like a toddler against his chest and walked the ten steps to the bed where we flopped down.
My sexy drummer rolled me under the covers and crawled in beside me to spoon. We slept for a few hours until sunlight streamed into the room. Then he made me come over and over again with his lips, fingers, and cock well past the time he was supposed to leave. Eventually, after his phone blew up from the guys and various managers, the hourglass ran out. We promised to keep in touch and to get together in New York. Jace said goodbye, took a car back to LTZ, and I slept for twelve hours straight before I flew back to Ibiza.
Chapter 9
JACE
Leaving Alex was surprisingly hard for me, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. She seemed really into me and I was really into her, but there was no real future for us. Because of her, the night exploring Barcelona ranked as the best night of my life. Unfortunately, no amount of texting would put us in the same city at the same time again. It seemed best to just let her go.
Plus, when we got to Paris the next day, the band went through the first of a series of rough events.
Agonized about how to relay the information Alex shared with me about Carter and Zoey to Ty, I called a band meeting. In the nearly four years LTZ had been together, none of us had ever requested a formal meeting, so the rest of the guys were on edge. I hadn’t wanted to ruin that night’s show, so it was late because I waited until we finished the VIP event before we congregated in our dressing room.
“Guys, I’ve learned something that has affected us, especially Ty, and I can’t keep it to myself.” I began and proceeded to provide all the details that Alex had shared about what Carter said to Zoey.
When I finished the short but shocking truth, Ty’s face remained eerily passive. Connor and Zane, however, lost their minds.
“That is a bald-faced lie, Jace,” Zane raged. “Carter would never do that.”
“It seems pretty unlikely.” Connor was calmer, but he was still pissed. “I mean, what would be the point?”
I hated being the bearer of such crazy and bad news. “Look, I’m just relaying what I was told. I don’t want to start anything, but Ty, you haven’t been yourself since your thing with Zoey. It’s affected all of us and still does. If I was in Ty’s position, I’d want to know.”
“Where did you get this information?” Zane angrily pointed a finger at me.
“I can’t say.”
“Fuck you, Jace,” Zane yelled.
Connor crossed his muscled arms and narrowed his eyes at me. “Dude, you’ve got to tell us.
”
Ty remained silent, his head down, hands clasped together. All of us sat in silence for a few minutes, and he looked up directly at me, his long, brown hair nearly covering his face. His eyes brimmed with tears, which made me feel like shit on a shoe. I wondered whether I had done the right thing. With a heavy sigh, he sniffed in deeply to compose himself.
“Alex.” Was all he said before he stood and walked out.
“Are you fucking serious?” Zane spat at me when he ran past to follow his best friend.
“Is it true?” Connor took a big-brother tone with me.
“Yes.” I sat back in my chair and sighed. “Alex was in Barcelona, Zoey confided in her, but Alex felt like we needed—Ty needed—to know.”
“He must’ve had his reasons.” Connor considered the situation pensively. “Carter loves Ty like a son.”
“Yeah, but the fallout has been a shit-show, Connor. We need to talk to both of them.” I scrubbed my hands through my hair. “I thought the right thing to do was to keep it between the four of us at first.”
“So, do you have something going on with Alex?”
“Not really. But for transparency’s sake, we’ve hooked up a couple of times. Once in Seattle. Barcelona—” I smiled. “I don’t want a relationship and she’s so young, she needs to go out and spread her wings.”
“Ah, so that’s who you were with when you kept us waiting in Barcelona.” Connor smirked. “It was so unlike you to be the fuck-up.”
“Yep.” I couldn’t feel bad, even when we partied, I was always the responsible one. I deserved a little decadence. My smile must have split my cheeks because Connor just stared at me.
“That good?”
“Yep.” I wasn’t about to give details; I didn’t work that way. Even for Connor.
He gave me a quick nod before sighing loudly. We hadn’t spent much time just the two of us in Europe, mainly because I was buried in my laptop most of the time. A myriad of expressions crossed his face from confused to thoughtful to sad. He hung his head.
“So, uh. Um. Jen’s been avoiding my calls for the past week.”
“What? I’m sorry to hear that. Should I call her?”
Connor seemed reticent. “Don’t even try, Jace. Even for me and your sister, it’s impossible to keep a relationship going on a schedule like we have. I know I’m losing her, and the funny thing is? I don’t blame her.”
“You’re not going to quit, are you?” I was alarmed.
“No.” Connor looked me in the eye. “I’m where I belong.”
And so it continued. We made it through Budapest, Serbia, Denmark, Belgium, and Portugal and were going to close out our tour with the Reading and Boomtown festivals in the UK, a week off in London, six weeks of club dates across Europe again followed by Oktoberfest in Munich. Since I had to be in New York for the Vanity Fair shoot, we added a show at Radio City Music Hall and a few dates to bring us back to Seattle for a secret Mission show.
Management took mercy on us and was letting us have a few days off at Christmas before we jetted off for five months in Australia, New Zealand, and Asia after New Year’s.
I couldn’t wait for a break. Touring for so many months had gotten old. It wasn’t fun anymore, we were bickering, exhausted, and cranky. Ty refused to do any press or VIP activities. Zane barely let him out of his sight, only engaging in a few random hookups. Nearly every other day, Connor and Jen had heated FaceTime fights in the close quarters of the tour bus.
Because I rarely let my emotions get the best of me, being surrounded by so much drama and tension made me feel annoyed. After Barcelona, I simply buried myself in social, determined to make up for the weird energy in the band with some cool posts of us in the cities we were visiting. It worked; our reach grew by hundreds of thousands of followers each week.
Still, my excitement at getting to New York was unexpected, and it hit me that it was because I had a huge crush on Alex, the likes of which I’d never experienced before. Certainly not with Cassie or any other hookup over the years. I hadn’t looked at another woman let alone hooked up with one since Barcelona. I had no interest. No one compared to Poppy, the feisty, funny adventuress.
We texted several times a week. She seemed to be loving her time in Ibiza, she sent dozens of photos of herself with the various horses she was rehabilitating. I’d never been a horse guy, but the vision of her sitting astride a shiny, black steed in a green field, her head thrown back in utter glee, honey locks caught in the wind, was breathtaking. It was like catching a glimpse of the true Alex deep down to her soul.
My communications with Alex were the highlight of my day and were also a welcome respite from our internal band drama. As we approached our final show, my heart felt so heavy and disappointed when she couldn’t make it to the UK for our week off. She texted me from some event where she’d been paid to make an appearance. I ended up on a three-day pub crawl with Connor to drown my sorrows. It took me two days to recover.
For our final gig, Limelight was on the bill at Reading, and they were going on stage right after our set. All of us in LTZ were bracing for the inevitable confrontation between Ty and Carter, which couldn’t be avoided anymore. By the time we rolled onto the grounds of the festival, I was sick from the stress of it all, and the only thing keeping me sane was the promise of seeing Alex in New York for the photo shoot.
Despite all the bullshit, we killed the live show. I mean killed. It was game-changing. Ty was the best I’d ever seen him, but so were the rest of us. Most of the Limelight guys were standing at the side of the stage cheering us on, clearly proud of how we’d evolved, but completely unaware of the storm clouds afoot. The second we finished our set, Ty stormed off the stage like thunder past Carter toward the dressing room without any acknowledgment.
Connor and I stopped for a minute to speak to other guys in the band, after all, they had supported us for years. Carter crumpled into a ball on a massive speaker while the set change went on all around us, his head buried in his hands. Zane sat next to him, talking to him softly.
None of us except Zane watched Limelight play that night, we all sat silently in the dressing room through their entire set. It sucked. When the last notes of their encore ended, the energy became super-charged because we were waiting for Zane to bring Carter to us. Ty sat slouched back on a couch, his arms crossed over his vintage Alice in Chains T-shirt, eyes closed, his mouth set in a grim line. It was almost like he was meditating.
Footsteps approached, we watched as Zane unlocked the door and Carter followed him in, drenched in sweat. Carter pulled up a folding chair and sat down in front of Ty, but Ty refused to make eye contact.
Carter looked around at the rest of us. “Guys, could you give us a minute?”
“No,” Ty said definitively, with his eyes still shut. “They stay.”
“Okay.” Carter sighed with resignation.
We all sat in another uncomfortable silence for what seemed like a million years.
Finally, Ty spoke. “I haven’t had a reason to trust many people in my life. I trusted you. That was a mistake.”
“Ty . . . I’m so sorry but . . .” Carter reached for Ty.
“Don’t touch me,” Ty said coldly, as though ice had invaded his veins.
Carter’s voice was haunted. “Can I try to explain?”
“No. You scared away the only person that I ever loved. You hurt the woman that I’d have given this all up for, and now she won’t talk to me. In fact, she will probably never talk to me again. I can never forgive you for that.”
“Ty, please. You are my son as much as Zane is.” Carter pleaded. “I was trying to—”
“Shut the fuck up. I am not your son. My mom is an abusive junkie whore. I have no idea who my dad is. That is the truth of who I am, I might as well face facts.” Ty stood and looked at us all. “I don’t talk about my life much, but you are all my family and have put up with me this past year when I didn’t deserve it. Zane, you will always be my brother. But, Carter?
From now on? Stay the fuck away from me.”
“Don’t quit the band, Ty,” Carter whispered.
Ty literally roared. “Don’t you dare, Carter. I would die for my band. They’re all I have. You made sure of that, and I will never let them down.”
Ty headed for the door. Before he thundered off, he turned back to address the room. “I’m going to pour everything I have into our music. I’m done moping around over a chick who didn’t care enough about me to—You know what, I’m just fucking done.”
Carter sat with his face in his hands after the door slammed. I got up to follow Ty, who gave me a run for my money.
“Dude, hold up.” I chased him.
“Jace, I want to be alone,” Ty bellowed.
“No fucking way.” I caught up to him and we strode with determination to our bus. We grabbed our toiletry bags and towels and made our way to the facilities to shower. Ty wouldn’t speak, and I didn’t push him. Once we were back on the bus, Ty reclined in our lounge area, shirtless in a pair of sweats. I sat next to him and put my hand on his shoulder. Ty’s sad look caused a lump to form in my throat. Despite the past couple of months of squabbling, the four of us had gotten so close, our bond felt unbreakable.
Ty sobbed silently, big tears streaming down his face. I kept my hand firmly pressed on his shoulder in support.
“How do I get over her?” He choked out sadly.
“You loved her.” A flash of Alex unexpectedly crossed my mind, and for the first time, I had a glimmer of understanding of how he felt.
“No, Jace. I love her. I fucking love her. Still. She was it.” He wiped his eyes with his thumbs. “I’ll never love anyone like that again. I’ll never let myself.”
“When we get home, maybe you could go talk to her folks. See if you can get back in touch now that you know what happened.” I offered.
“Is that what Alex said to do?” Ty looked up at me, his eyes wet with fresh tears.
“No, we made a deal not to talk about you or Zoey that way. We’re friends, that’s all.” I leaned back. “But, if it’s any consolation, the one thing she told me—”
LIMITLESS: A Less Than Zero Rockstar Romance: Book 2: Jace & Alex Page 10