Taut Strings: A Rock Star Romance (River Valley Rebels)

by Gabrielle Sands

  Something in my face made her reel back a few inches and finally release my wrist.

  “Fuck you,” I snapped, her words slithering over my skin like maggots.

  “Charlie was an angel,” she yelled, her spit flying into the air between us. “A pure soul. I think you drove him to his overdose. Maybe you’ll do the same to the new bitch you were wrapped around.”

  I saw red. I couldn’t stay here, because I knew I’d do something I’d regret for the rest of my life if I did. Charging past the woman, I elbowed my way through the crowd until the doors to the venue flung open before me and the late summer air began to dry the tears streaking from my eyes.

  ADELINE

  I spotted Silas at the end of the other bar and rushed toward him, gripping a beer in each palm.

  His smile was silly as he wrapped an arm around my waist. “Is that one for me?”

  Was he drunk? I moved one of my beers out of his reach. He’d had enough for now.

  “It’s for Abel, but I can’t find him. I can see he hasn’t read my texts. I’m getting worried, can you help me look for him?”

  Silas’s face dropped. “Shit. He’s probably off sulking somewhere.”

  I felt guilty. Had our spontaneous flirting triggered this in him? He’d seemed totally fine when I’d made my escape. I’d needed a second to collect myself on a day that was proving to be the wildest one in my existence.

  My heart had threatened to burst out of my ribcage when Abel came up behind me, in an attempt to make sure I didn’t get pushed around. His touch on my hips had set my skin on fire. I didn’t know if it was the two beers I’d had by that point or the adrenaline I’d been riding for hours, but when I’d felt him hard against me, I didn’t want to pull away. Rather, I’d wanted to crawl inside of him, or even better, have him inside of me.

  There was something unbelievably thrilling in knowing I was able to turn him on. Our relationship had always been so complicated. I never knew exactly where we stood with each other. When Abel started kissing my neck, I’d wanted so badly to kiss him in earnest, but something had held me back. What if this wouldn’t last? What if once the magic of the day wore off, he’d revert to being cold once again? I’d needed to get some space and cool down, so I’d left him.

  Silas grabbed the beers out of my hands and put them behind him on the bar. “Did something happen between you?”

  I was too tired of keeping secrets to lie to him. “Maybe. Kind of. We had a moment but then I went to the bar and he was gone when I came back.”

  Silas gave me a pitying look. “He’s a tough nut to crack. The fact that you had any kind of a moment is an accomplishment. Just give him time. He’ll come around to see you like the rest of us already do.”

  Did he mean he expected Abel to eventually join in on our arrangement? Maybe I should be worried about how willing they all seemed to be to share me with each other, but instead, I found it…liberating. They made it seem like I didn’t have to choose between them or between our relationship and the band.

  Maybe Ezra was right. What if I could have it all?

  “Come, let’s find the rest of the guys,” Silas said and laced his fingers with mine. We moved along the wall of the venue, where it was less packed, while Silas scanned the crowd.

  I was about to tell him there was no way we’d be able to spot them when he looked down and grinned. “There they are. Hop on.”

  “What? Are you crazy?” I stumbled over my words as he squatted in front of me. “I’m not getting on your shoulders.”

  He craned his neck to look at me. “Why not?”

  “You’ll drop me!”

  “I won’t. Think of this as a trust-building exercise prior to you joining the band.”

  I laughed incredulously. “You’re insane.”

  “Hey, at least this time you didn’t deny you’d be joining,” he said with a smirk and patted his shoulders. “Get on before they move from the spot I saw them in.”

  His insanity must have rubbed off on me, because I lifted my leg and hooked it over his shoulder. His hand immediately tightened on my thigh, and the leverage allowed me to put my other leg on the opposite side.

  “Hold on!”

  I clutched his traps hard enough that I was sure there would be bruises the next day. On my fingers, not on his rock-hard muscles. From my vantage point, I was able to spot Cole and Ezra easily. When we got close to them, they both cheered and pulled me down from Silas, while I screamed at them not to drop me.

  “Oh my God, you two are drenched!” I screeched as the guys pulled me into a sweaty embrace, their laughter filling my ears.

  “I think they got one song left!” Cole screamed over the music. “Let’s go into the pit for it!”

  Despite going to my share of metal concerts, I’d never been a huge fan of bouncing around between sweaty dudes twice my size, but I couldn’t say no after seeing the excitement in Cole’s eyes.

  “We’ll make sure you don’t fall!” Ezra yelled before grabbing my hand and waiting for my consent.

  I nodded with a smile. They all seemed a little drunk and way too excited. “Let’s go.”

  Mastery announced their final song, which happened to be one of my favorites, and the pit started to swarm like a cloud of buzzing flies.

  I turned to Silas, who was hanging behind me. “I’m not sure about—”

  “Ezra will catch you on the other side!”

  Before I could protest, the guitarist pushed me directly into the pit, where all I could do was charge ahead until I landed safely into Ezra’s arms. He laughed at the expression on my face.

  “Told you we’d keep you safe!”

  Cole erupted from the mass of bodies right before me, a wild grin on his face. I let him pull me back into the pit, and we ran through, bumping into a bunch of people until we were back with Silas.

  The undeniably primal activity turned out to be perfect for helping me take the edge off the adrenaline still surging through my veins. By the time the song wrapped up, I was charging through on my own, not minding the bruises I’d have tomorrow morning.

  “Thank you! What a fucking night. We’ll see you again soon, Philadelphia!” Nick shouted into the mic, his face ecstatic as the song came to its end.

  I cheered at the top of my lungs, and the guys did the same beside me. This was the most fun I’d had in ages, and as I opened my mouth to say exactly that, Cole leaned in and gave me a deep kiss that took my breath away. When we broke away, I saw Ezra and Silas looking at us with smiles on their faces.

  Maybe this could work after all.

  We opened the windows of the SUV as we sped back to River Valley with Leo at the wheel. The cold air quickly made my flesh pucker up with goosebumps.

  “I got something that will help,” Ezra said, handing me a bottle of tequila from beneath the seat and wrapping a sweater he’d left in the car around me.

  “You’re definitely a few drinks behind us,” Cole assessed from the back. “Time to catch up.”

  I laughed, pushing the bottle away. “Night’s over. I don’t want to get drunk right before I go to bed.”

  “Night is definitely not over,” Ezra disagreed. “I say we all come back to my place and hang out in the heated pool.”

  It was tempting. I was well aware of the fact that this would be the first time we were alone after putting our relationship out in the open. Was I willing to see where this night could lead?

  I snatched the bottle and took a long sip, earning loud cheers from the three men. Ezra’s arm appeared around my shoulders and pulled me into his chest. “That’s our girl,” he said with a kiss.

  “Are you sure we shouldn’t stop by Abel’s?” I asked, still worried about the lead singer. He had texted Ezra before we left the venue that he was tired and had gone home early in an Uber.

  “Nah.” Ezra shook his head. “He’ll sleep it off and hopefully be over whatever came over him in time for our last session tomorrow.”

  “Okay.” Abel’s
quick disappearance seemed strange to me, but the guys knew him better, and I had to trust their judgement of the situation.

  By the time we arrived at Ezra’s home, we were nearly finished with the bottle, and I was tipsy.

  He turned on the lights and led us to his living room. During all my visits here, I’d never spent a lot of time in this room. My eyes immediately settled on the enormous framed photograph hanging above the fireplace.

  I giggled as I looked at it while taking off my shoes. “Wow. That’s bound to get whoever you bring back here in the right kinda mood.”

  It was a cover of Rolling Stone magazine featuring the five men of Bleeding Moonlight, shirtless and draped over a single couch. They must have trained particularly hard before this shoot, because they all looked unbelievably ripped and seductive.

  “Is it working on you?” I could hear the smirk in Cole’s voice as he wrapped his bare arms around my waist. In the time it had taken me to appreciate the photo, he had stripped down to just his jeans.

  I swallowed, anticipation and excitement building inside my body. Of course it was fucking working. It would have worked on a goddamn street pole. “Maybe.”

  He chuckled, his breath hot on my neck. “Let’s go to the pool.”

  “I don’t have a bathing suit.”

  “We won’t look,” Ezra said as he rummaged for something in the fridge. “Promise.”

  “Liars.”

  Laughing, Cole spun me around, his eyes sparkling with alcohol and lust. “Come on. I’m getting cold.”

  He tugged on my hand, and I let him lead me through the living room and out into the backyard where Silas was already taking his clothes off.

  “Ezra told me about your conversation,” Cole said in a low voice as he nudged up the hem of my shirt.

  I blinked at him before pulling it over my head. “Oh?”

  His eyes lingered on my chest before leveling back up to my face. “I just want you to know, me and him are on the same page about this. About you.”

  The tequila was making me bold. “You like the idea of all of you sharing me?”

  His eyelids fluttered as he took a ragged breath. “Yeah. I fucking love it.”

  He dropped on his knees and started to undo my pants with his teeth.

  “Jesus,” I groaned. Was it weird to be impressed with how efficient he was with his mouth?

  The zipper down, he tugged on the fabric until it fell around my ankles. I stepped out my pants, and the cold night air sent a shiver through me.

  Ezra had made it outside and was watching us with obvious interest, while Silas sat on the edge of the pool, drinking my body in with his eyes.

  Three stunning men, all of their attention hungrily fixed on me. How was I not freaking out right about now? Shouldn’t I be more anxious about what we were about to do?

  Perhaps it was the combination of alcohol, arousal, and the trust we had built, but all I felt was a need to keep going.

  I reached back to unclasp my bra. The black lace plunged into the water with a soft splash, the sound doing nothing to hide the breaths they all sucked in at the same time.

  Their reaction to me was headier than all the tequila we’d consumed in the car. I’d always been reasonably confident in my appearance, but they made me feel worshiped.

  I walked over to Silas, altogether aware of their hungry eyes tracking every single one of my movements. The guitarist gave a strained grunt as I straddled his powerful thighs and pressed my center to his length.

  “What about you?” I asked, reaching my fingers up to stroke the guitarist’s full lips. “Will you share me with them?”

  He choked out a “yes” while tightening his hands on my waist, his eyes wildly flittering across my face. There was something nervous, almost shy, hidden in his lustful expression.

  I realized I had no idea if Silas had ever done something like this before. If he hadn’t, that would explain his nervousness. I, on the other hand, was feeling more and more bold with every one of their reactions. I leaned in to give him a reassuring kiss.

  “Want to put on a show for those two?” I asked, tilting my head to the side to look at Ezra and Cole. They stood frozen as they watched me grinding against Silas, their erections straining and begging to be freed.

  Silas nodded and cupped my ass, lifting me until my breasts were level with his mouth. He sucked on one nipple, his teeth racking over the sensitive skin and making my back arch in pleasure. When he moved to the other nipple, I shuttered my eyes closed and let out a loud moan, the knowledge that Ezra and Cole were watching us only making me more turned on.

  Silas lowered me back down, keeping his left hand on my ass and kneading the firm flesh while he moved his right hand to the remaining scrap of lace between my legs. He pushed the fabric aside and plunged two fingers into me.

  I whimpered in response.

  “God, you’re so wet,” he hissed. He found my clit with this thumb and rubbed circles around it, making me gasp and shiver in his lap.

  I forced my eyes open to take in the other two men, who were by now both jerking off beneath their underwear while watching Silas and I.

  “Strip,” I told them between the throaty moans that Silas was working out of me. “I want to see all of you.”

  Cole shed his pants and come closer. His expression was darkened with lust. “You like that? Having us get off to the two of you?”

  “Oh yeah.”

  Ezra joined him, gripping my chin with his hand. “Look at what he’s doing to you.”

  I lowered my gaze to Silas’s thick fingers sliding in and out, his hand coated with my juices, and it was enough to send me over the edge. My body spasmed violently as I came undone around his fingers, clutching his shoulders, and stifling my yelps with the skin on his neck.

  He took his fingers out and licked them clean before putting them into my mouth.

  “Jesus, fuck,” Cole grunted from a few feet away.

  Sucking on Silas’s fingers, I took him out of his underwear, giving myself a moment to appreciate how my hand just barely wrapped around the girth of his cock. He pushed my underwear to the side once again, and I slid down his length, shivering at the sensation of being filled at last.

  We kissed, losing ourselves in each other for a long moment, his beard tickling the bottom of my chin and reminding me of that very first kiss. Had a part of me always known we’d end up right here anyways?

  Extending my arms over his shoulders, I reached for Ezra and Cole. “I want to make all of you come.”

  “I think there’s a hundred percent chance you’ll get what you want,” Cole snarked with a breathless grin.

  I fisted them while I rode Silas, the wet sounds of our slapping flesh filling the air in the backyard. The moment felt unreal, as if it were a figment of all of our imaginations coming to life in some kind of a dirty art-house movie.

  I was finally with all three of them at the same time, and if I’d had any doubts about their sincerity when they said they were okay with sharing me, they disappeared now. Silas watched enraptured as the other two came on my breasts one at a time, before he gave in to his own release, squeezing his eyes shut and biting at my lips. I rubbed the sticky liquid over my skin and continued riding Silas until my second orgasm snuck up and broke me apart.

  We swam in the pool to cool down before heading back into Ezra’s house to shower. Cole insisted on joining me for mine, where he proceeded to press me up against the eggshell tiles and make me come for the third time that night.

  The alcohol, the intense emotions, and the vigorous exertion of the past few hours were catching up to me. I sat down on the massive couch in the living room, and within a few seconds, I was asleep.

  At some point, I awoke to the sound of gentle whispers and the sensation of someone’s strong arms lifting me off the couch and placing me onto a considerably more comfortable surface.

  When I woke up in the morning, I was on Ezra’s enormous bed with the guys all curled around me. I sa
t up and studied their beautiful sleeping faces. They looked completely at peace.

  23

  COLE

  When we walked into the studio on Friday and I saw Abel’s face, I knew immediately something was very wrong. The dark circles under his eyes and his broken expression were incomprehensible in my rosy-colored world after our night with Adeline.

  When she’d taken off her bra by Ezra’s pool and made it clear she was going to claim all of us, I had to rub my eyes to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. I was so fucking proud of her for finally taking what she wanted and not letting self-doubt sabotage her happiness.

  At breakfast, she’d leveled all of us with a serious gaze and said, “I think I’ve made a decision about your offer. Let’s wait until we’re all together to talk about it.”

  She was going to join the band. I was fucking sure of it. Last night, we’d proved to her that this thing between us could work. It was only a matter of time before Abel got his head out of his ass and admitted to himself that he was all in as well. I’ve known the idiot for a long time, and I’d never seen him look at anyone the way he looked at Adeline.

  So as I tried to puzzle out what the hell was going on with him, I was also starting to feel nervous. I wasn’t prepared to handle this, and as I caught Silas’s and Ezra’s concerned expressions, I could tell they felt the same.

  Adeline waltzed into the control room last, a pep in her step that seemed to scream she’d just had a very good night. Pride and satisfaction swelled in my chest. Then, Abel’s gaze immediately found her and darkened in a way that made me shiver.

  “Let’s get started,” he barked, causing Kyle, who was sitting a few feet from him, to startle in his seat. “We have about eight sections we need to rerecord before we’re kicked out of here.”

  Adeline jerked as if she’d been slapped. The happiness melted right off her face and was replaced with deep worry. She opened her mouth to say something to Abel.