A Postseason One Novella: Rock F*ck Club, #2 Read online

  "Oh no," she whispered.

  "Oh, yeah. That severe reprimand you think I avoided? Not so much. She laid into me and then some. And I’m afraid there’s more of the same on the way. Only she’s going to serve the next portion to me in person. I’m afraid things are about to get a whole lot worse."

  "RAVEN," LUCKY CALLED, and I changed my position on the leather couch, turning away from the window to look at him instead. He was a much better view than the concrete freeway divider. His handsome features and glacial blue eyes shadowed by a black avalanche of bed tumbled hair, the lead singer of the Dragons wore only a pair of his silky black boxers and nothing else. No eyeliner. No silver rings. None of his rock star accessories. Just him. The guy who held my heart. "Are you aware of the time?" Slim hips, long legs, sculpted arms, every inch of his sexy six-foot-two frame moved in mesmerizing concert as he came closer.

  “Yes. Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you. I know it’s early.”

  "Apologies aren’t necessary, Angel. Why couldn’t you sleep?” His eyes searched mine for answers. “What’s bothering you?" He reached for me, captured my hands and pulled me toward him. He placed my hands on the center of his hard chest and wrapped his strong arms around me. I tilted my head to maintain his gaze. The warmth within it and the heat of his body flowed into me. I willed my troubled thoughts away. "You've been up all night again haven’t you?" His eyes narrowed disapprovingly. "Did you sleep at all?"

  "A little,” I hedged, but that had been prior to Marsha’s call. I ducked my chin. My long hair slid forward, ribbons of ebony forming a curtain to shield me from his prying gaze.

  "A little’s not enough." He removed one of his hands from my lower back, curled his forefinger under my chin and gently brought my head up. Pools of empathetic aquamarine beckoned me to reveal all. "I thought I wore you out sufficiently enough to sleep soundly." He framed my face in both of his hands caressing my skin with soft soothing sweeps of his thumbs.

  "You did.” I shivered, recalling exactly how he had done it.

  “So why…”

  “Marsha called."

  “In the middle of the night? Is she ok?” I had shared stories with him about how Marsha and I had courted trouble over the years. It wasn’t surprising his response was similar to mine.

  “Yeah, but she misses me. I miss her. I’ve been neglectful,” I summarized.

  “More like I’ve been monopolizing you.” His thoughtful brow dipped. “And Rock Fuck Club takes up the rest of your time. But I’m sure she understands.”

  “She does.” After she had finished going off on me, I had shared, and she had listened. Then she had advised me to level with Lucky. So level with him I did. “Suzanne Smith called.” I felt his muscles stiffen beneath my hands. “A while back actually.”

  “A week ago?” he guessed, his brow dipping dangerously low.

  “How did you know?”

  “That’s when you started having trouble sleeping.”

  “Oh. You’re very observant.”

  “I am when it comes to you.” His aquamarine eyes frosted his displeasure. “You should have told me about this when it happened.”

  “I know, Lucky.” I touched my fingers to his lush lips before he could sound off on me like she had. “But that was when all the extra tour stops got added. Then you and Alec argued, and Sky had her meltdown.” Apparently Cover Girl liquid liner from CVS was not the same as MAC cosmetics. I knew better now. So did everyone else on the bus. “The last thing I wanted to do was add to the stress.”

  “You only do that when you keep things from me and bottle up what’s bothering you. I’ve been worried. How can I help you if I don’t even know what’s going on?”

  “That’s just it, though. You can’t help me. Not against WMO.” He didn’t realize that he had a hero complex, but he did. And one of the tenets of that complex was intolerance to seeing those he cared about being bullied. Rescuer. Defender. Protector. Lucky played those roles for me and just about everyone else on board the bus. “This is my mess. I thought it was over, but I should’ve known better.”

  “You’re the star of the show. The founder of a movement that’s caught fire. I’m not sure it’s realistic to believe it will ever be over.”

  “But I did my part. We filmed the last episode. The production crew disbanded. The outrage that motivated me to try to overturn the sexual double standard for women? It’s not the driving force in my life anymore.” My fingers flexed on his skin. I wanted to stamp the truth of the next words onto his heart. “You are.”

  “You’re my heart, too, Raven.” He peered at me through the thick fringe of his inky-black lashes before bringing my hands to his lips and brushing a soft kiss across my knuckles. My skin tingled with warmth. “Let’s focus on that. On each other.” He lifted his head, holding me captive with his compelling gaze. “Make that our priority. The other things in our lives will fall into line. You started out with a sincere goal for RFC to rectify something you saw as an injustice. The parts we don’t like? The consequences that result from it? We just have to deal with them as they come. We’ve already been through the flames. They refined us, made us stronger and surer of each other and what we are. We’re a team you and me. We’ll get through whatever Suzanne Smith or anyone else throws at us together.”

  "I love you," I declared, throwing the windows of my soul wide open to let him see that he had all of me. I slipped my hands from his grip, but only to lift them so I could press my palms and my fingertips into his. I was commemorating this moment, his words, and my commitment to him. Touch and sight aligned in the way of the Navajo.

  "I love you, too, Angel." Shifting closer, he lifted my hands to his neck and slid his into my hair. Tugging on the strands, he encouraged me to tip up my head as he lowered his own. Blue, blue, a vast expanse of limitless blue filled my vision as his mouth hovered a breath away from mine. I closed my eyes as he closed his. We were so finely in sync, yet I was never fully prepared for the devastating onslaught that even just a light touch from his lush lips wrought.

  His kiss was gentle at first, his mouth brushing my own. But that gentleness was enough to generate a whole lot of heat when my soul was dry kindling, and he was the crackling spark. Less of the lesser me, more of the better, I reveled in the woman who emerged from those flames. His love made me powerful, and I belonged to him.

  He deepened the kiss and passion transcended thought as his tongue probed the seam between our lips. He demanded access, and I gave it to him, moaning into his mouth and melting more each time his masterful tongue lashed my own.

  "Lucky." I broke the connection between our mouths. My body was molten fire and wet heat. “Each time, every time,” I panted, my fingers tangling in the thick strands of hair at his nape to keep him close. “I don’t think it can get any better, but it does. You make me so hot.”

  “I want you. Now.” His response was guttural, and I clung to him as he trailed warm, lingering body and soul melting kisses over the round of my cheek and then down my neck while his hands glided lower and lower along the length of my spine.

  "Uh-um." A masculine throat cleared. “Do you two mind?”

  "Yes, we do. Bugger off," Lucky mumbled into my neck, his breath humid against my skin, his fingers digging deeper into the rounded cheeks of my ass. “Can’t you see we’re busy?”

  “You’ve been ‘busy’ half the night already.” Rolling his jade green eyes, Alec Harris, the Dragons’ obsessive compulsive bassist came further into the lounge with his usual careful, precise stride. “Don’t you think you should give it a rest?” He stopped a foot away from us.

  “You might need a breather to recharge, old man.” Lucky often teased his best friend about the fact that he was a month older. “But I don’t.” He stroked the back of his hand down my cheek. “Not with Raven for inspiration.”

  “Fine, mate. But take your inspiration to your bunk or the back lounge. Some of us have important shit to do.” Alec was the practical one in the group.
A good foil to Lucky’s more fluid artistic mind most of the time, but sometimes they butted heads.

  “Raven is important.” Lucky bristled.

  “Granted. Apologies.” He tipped his chin. Not a single wisp of hair framing his angelically handsome face moved out of it proper place. “But we can’t put off Charles Morris much longer. He wants us to select the song order for the live album.”

  “He’ll get it when I’m good and ready.”

  “Timing’s important, Lucky. He’s just trying to capitalize on the success of ‘She’s the One’. He sent me three emails yesterday. You do remember that he’s the bloke who signs our paychecks.”

  “I know exactly who he is. He’s the sod who’s all fine and accommodating when he wants something, but he disappears when things go balls up like what happened with JGB and Raven.”

  “John Got Busted is a rapper on his label. He gave you a heads up and a list of lawyers for her. What more did you expect? Raven’s your girlfriend. We all love her, but she’s not an official member of this band. Morris isn’t all that bad. You forgetting he leant you his penthouse in LA?”

  “Now there’s the point. That concession didn’t cost him a pence, and he got a brand new album from us ahead of schedule. I’m not forgiving and forgetting that he didn’t have my girl’s back when that blighter talked shit about her in the media. Charles Morris can wait to get what he wants for a change.” Lucky gave his best friend a hard look. “What’s got you all miffed this morning?”

  “Not a what. Who.” Cody Charles, the rhythm guitarist, Alec’s partner, stepped into the lounge. His sandy curls were disheveled and his gunmetal grey eyes were bleary. He looked like he had just rolled out of his bunk.

  “Let’s not revisit this.” Alec narrowed his jade hued gaze on the man he loved. “We said all there is to say last night. I didn’t appreciate what you insinuated. I would never…”

  “It’s hardly insinuation,” Cody interrupted. “You kissed someone else.”

  “It was a club. She was simply a waitress selling shots. It’s part of the experience for her to put the test tube in her mouth and tip the contents into mine. My lips never touched hers.”

  “Nevertheless, you hurt my feelings.” The usually carefree rhythm guitarist’s grey eyes glassed up. The two men were opposites in a lot of ways. Alec was reserved in sharing emotions. Cody wore his out in the open.

  “I got that.”

  “My sleeping in another bunk sent the message, did it?”

  Alec nodded. “Come here.” He crooked his finger. Cody crossed to him. “Forgive me?” Alec’s voice was rumbly soft.

  “Perhaps.” Cody firmed his lips. Alec framed his partner’s face in his hands.

  “You must know it meant nothing except that it bothered you. I never meant to hurt you.” Alec lowered his face and kissed Cody, deeply. Cody remained stiff for less than two seconds before he melted into Alec’s strong arms. I flushed with heat just watching their hands wandering all over each other. Both were well-built, extremely sexy guys wearing tight matching boxer briefs that outlined their attributes. Hotties with hard-ons. They were always a demonstrative couple. This morning was no exception. They rarely bothered to shut curtains or close doors whenever the mood struck them. It added an interesting dimension to life on the bus.

  “Bullocks!” Rocky Walsh, the Dragons’ powerhouse Welsh drummer stopped short inside the threshold to the lounge. He shook his head at the bassist and the rhythm guitarist who were still going at it. “I thought we had a rule in place about this early morning PDA.” Rocky looked like he had just woken up, too. His normally circa 1960’s Keith Richards styled hair looked more like mahogany porcupine quills, a fact that in no way detracted from his hotness. All the guys in the band were good looking men. The fishbowl we lived inside of might be overcrowded, but the fish that swam in it with me were handsome specimens, even more so in close proximity.

  The drummer casually sauntered closer to the couple. His expression not hinting at what he had in mind, he thunked Alec on the side of the head and then punched Cody in the shoulder before quickly stepping backward to get away. Both men broke apart and came at him.

  “What’s your problem?” Alec asked.

  “Yeah, you shit!” Cody lifted his chin. His sandy ringlet curls shivered with his irritation.

  “No problem.” Rocky threw his hands up and turned away. “I just have a titanic headache.” His half buttoned jeans riding low on his hips, he rifled through one drawer and then another. “Where’s the bloody aspirin?”

  “What’s your headache have to do with me and Cody?” Alec wouldn’t let it go.

  “Everyone on this bus knows how you two are, Rocky returned. “You argue so you can make up. I don’t want the bus rocking just now. I’m liable to chunder.”

  Ah, the explanation for why the drummer had woken sans his usual good humor.

  “Aspirin’s on the second shelf,” I informed him. “Pepto’s just behind it.”

  “Cheers, Raven.” Rocky gave me a grateful look before he opened the fridge and took out a bottled water to swallow the pills.

  “Morning all.” Sky Spencer emerged from the bunk area. The last one to wake, she brushed past the hungover drummer on her way to her brother. Rocky shifted to watch while Lucky shifted to receive the kiss his sister planted on his cheek. The pretty brunette did hair, makeup and stage clothing for the band. Her sweet effusive personality was a balm to the rest of us when the stress of the road got to be too much. “Morning, Raven.” She skipped to take a seat at the banquette. Her feet rarely ever dragged.

  “Morning, Sky.” Rocky was the first to return her general greeting.

  “Morning, poppet.” Alec moved closer and kissed the top of her head.

  “Morning, luv.” Cody slid into the seat across from her. Sky gave me an expectant look. She was ready for the breakfast I usually prepared for her. Everyone on board was present and accounted for. The morning routine was poised to begin. A typical hectic day for the band lay ahead with one major variation, my trip to New York.

  “Porridge with fruit, coming up.” I pasted on an efficient smile, refusing to let the stress and the thought of leaving get to me. I pressed my hands and fingertips together as I crossed to the kitchenette. Recalling Lucky’s touch and remembering his words, I regained the serenity I’d had a moment earlier within his embrace. I only hoped it would last longer than our brief moment of privacy had.

  "HOW MANY HOURS till Atlanta?" From her spot at the banquette, Sky frowned at the remaining fruit on her plate as if she hoped her displeasure could transform it into a big heaping bowl of chocolaty Maltesers, her favorite candy.

  "Three, dearest," her brother replied without taking his eyes off of me as I slid a cup of Earl Grey toward him. He lifted it to his mouth. The steam caressed the rugged planes of his handsome face the way I wished I had time to. "Thank you, Angel." He blew across the heated surface. I tried to focus beyond the pleasurable quiver that came over me as I remembered where those lips had been on my body just minutes earlier.

  “You’re welcome.” With everyone taken care of, I took the space he made for me on the bench beside him.

  "The cantaloupe was brilliant with the porridge, Raven.” Sky gave me a sheepish look. “Thanks for it, but I’m afraid I can’t manage another bite." Sky was very thoughtful, always eager to please. But she was struggling with her diabetic diet and often didn’t finish what I put in front of her.

  “It’s ok, honey,” I reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “Just eat what you can.” She had only recently been diagnosed, and while she understood the need to follow the strict guidelines what she really longed for was sugar.

  "I get the shower first today." Rocky threw that general statement to everyone. We all remained in the front lounge that served as the communal area when we were on the road.

  "Sure. Sure," Cody responded without looking away from whatever version of Mario he was playing. Flopped on one of the couches, h
e stared raptly at the overhead screen.

  "Fine by me.” Alec waved an agreeable hand in the air, his gaze glued to his iPad while he reached for the plate of carefully partitioned food I had set on the couch cushion between him and Cody. His toast was in equal fourths, and his cantaloupe wedges were all facing the same direction. It went without saying that none of the items could be touching one another on the plate. “But fold your towel afterward and put it back on the rack instead of on the floor."

  The drummer rolled his eyes at Alec before glancing at the lead singer. Zero chance Rocky would follow that directive. He didn’t take orders. He gave them. "Alright if I have a turn in the loo before you, Lucky?”

  "Yeah, though you might want to wait until we get to the hotel in a few hours. Raven and I are."

  "Right. Well, I’ll take my chances now." Rocky’s gaze drifted yet again to Sky. She was rearranging her fruit rather than eating it, but the drummer wasn’t watching her hands. He was looking down her shirt at her exposed cleavage. The plastic casing of the water bottle he held crinkled as he crushed it in his grip. I had a pretty good idea that the rush to the shower out of the usual order –Alec (because he had to have it first in the morning before everyone else messed it up), Cody, Lucky and me, Rocky then Sky- was because the drummer needed to finish off what seeing Sky’s tits had started. His morning wood had grown into a monster-sized erection. He shifted and adjusted himself quickly.

  Yeah, glad I would be taking my shower at the hotel.

  “Sit up straighter, luv.” Lucky reached across the small table and lifted his sister’s chin. She gave her brother a puzzled look but corrected her posture. Rocky jerked his gaze away from Sky. The lead singer turned his attention to Rocky, narrowing his eyes. "Have your shower, arsehole."

  The drummer nodded.

  Sometimes, I thought Lucky was oblivious to the undercurrents between Rocky and his sister. Other times like now I think he noticed everything and just chose to chime in when the drummer’s interest had crossed some unwritten line in his mind.