Pick (Recoil Rock #1)

by K E Osborn

  Nodding with a sigh, I fake a smile as Lunar tightens her hand in mine.

  “Okay, I’ll get us some flights back to Australia and book in your surgery. Let’s get this all started and I’ll work on a press release.”

  Luke and Matt get up and walk away from the living area with reassuring nods as I look to Ryan and shake my head.

  “I’m so sorry, dude.”

  “Stop it! What did I just say?” he berates.

  “I know, but we’re just making it. All the momentum will fall away.”

  “No, it won’t, I won’t let it. You know I can rock the PR. Let yourself recover. Let Lunar take care of you, and let me run Recoil for a bit.”

  “You’re the best, you know that?”

  “Yes, I do!”

  We’ve just landed back in Australia and we’re heading to the baggage claim through a private area. The security said there were a ton of fans and paps everywhere, so they brought us in another way. Once news of my injury was broken, everyone went mental with messages of support and love for me. I was quite amazed. For some reason I thought they’d turn and hate me for canceling our shows, but if anything they just want to hear I’m getting better. Lunar is walking beside me as we make our way through the terminal back area, she’s fiddling with her cell when her message alert goes off.

  I glance at her as she reads it, and her eyebrows squeeze together and she purses her lips.

  “Everything okay?” I ask.

  She exhales and puts the cell in front of me so I can read the text.

  Techie: Hey Lunar, me, Crash, Lookout, Behemoth, and Jigsaw have all changed chapters and moved from Virginia to Aldinga. I wanted you to know, but you can’t tell anyone and whatever you do, do NOT go to Virginia for any reason at all. The club has gone to shit and everything is crazy, you have to stay away.

  I nod letting her know I’ve finished reading and I take in a deep breath. “Are you okay?”

  “Yes. That’s not my life anymore. My life is with you.”

  I wrap my arm around her shoulders pulling her to me as we arrive at the baggage area before everyone else.

  Danger is home and recovering from his surgery. He’s trying not to talk as I wait on him hand and foot. He has a pen and paper to communicate and I’m setting him up in the hotel room. We wanted to have our own suite away from the boys, so they got the penthouse while we opted for a suite that has a living room, bathroom, kitchen and bedroom. It’s basically a little apartment within the hotel. It’s good because I can cook for him, and make it feel more like a homely atmosphere to relax in.

  He writes on the notepad, and I walk over so I can check out what he’s written.

  Ella used to make this chicken soup when I felt like shit. Think you could try to make something similar?

  My chest tightens that he’s thinking of Ella right now, but I nod and lean down kissing his head. “I’ll just go to the shops to get some supplies. I’ll be back. Text Luke if you need anything.”

  He nods. I grab my handbag and walk out of the apartment to the elevators with a sigh. I figure I only need a few things, and I know there’s a 7/11 just around the corner, so I will go there and gather the items I need. Hopefully, I can make a better soup than Ella.

  Walking in the early autumn day is nice. There’s a slight breeze in the air, and it wafts over my skin like a refreshing tidal wave of pleasure. Glancing up at the sky, it’s overcast with a spattering of gray clouds, but it’s still on the warmer side of cool.

  Making it to the store, I gather the ingredients then step up to the register to pay. It is all pretty effortless, and I’m glad I can sometimes go out without the guys and still have some normalcy to my life. I pay for the groceries, hoist the bags over my shoulders, and make it to the exit of the shop to see a car pull up and a guy rush out with a camera.

  Great!

  I roll my eyes, keeping my head down trying to avoid him, but soon another three of them show up and surround me taking my picture.

  “Lunar why did you go back to Danger’s side even when the press outed your past?”

  “Are you sticking with him through his surgery?”

  I grit my teeth at how they could dare think I wouldn’t, and I look up at the cameras. “I’m actually out buying food for him right now, so if you’ll let me get pass I would like to get back to him!”

  The cameras all seem to take a step away from me, and I breathe loudly as I continue to walk back to the hotel.

  “Is it love, Lunar?” one of them calls out behind me.

  I look back at them and smile but say nothing. I won’t tell them before I tell Danger. I’m too scared to tell him first because I’m worried I’ll frighten him away, and he’s so fragile right now that I don’t want to risk anything.

  I make it back to the apartment in one piece, with all the groceries, and I place the bags on the cupboard. I look over and Danger’s lying down on the couch, his eyes closed peacefully and a slight snore echoing from his mouth. I smile and turn back around leaving him to sleep while I prepare his soup in the small kitchen area. The television in the living room flicks to breaking news, and I turn to see me on the street from moments before.

  Shaking my head, I roll my eyes. “They don’t waste any time, do they?” I mumble to myself as I begin to chop the celery.

  I’m waiting to see the surgeon again, and Luke and Lunar are with me. I am able to talk now, but I’m still breathy, although I’ve been doing my voice exercises regularly.

  “Danger, you can come through now,” the doctor says popping his head out of his office.

  Standing up with the others, we walk into his room and take our seats. The office smells pristine, like antiseptic, and the white furniture and walls does nothing for his taste in art or décor.

  “Okay, so from the results that I have seen thus far everything looks great, and in a week when you see your speech therapist again you can resume singing. But only in a minor way, not belting it out like at a concert.”

  I’m relieved instantly, but I can’t put all my faith on this meeting. The speech therapist might have something else to say. “Thanks, doc.” I reach over the table and shake his hand.

  We talk a bit more about other possibilities and things that could happen, but all in all the appointment went well and I’m feeling good.

  Luke decided after the appointment we should go out for lunch, so we head to a small café that has a back section where we can hide away from the street view. It’s kind of nice to be able to eat in semi-public, without being in public if that makes sense?

  “So, this is good. Depending on what your speech therapist says, we could be back up and running in no time,” Luke says while he swirls some pasta onto his fork.

  Lunar smiles at me, and I lean in kissing her. My cock twitches tasting her fruity essence on my lips and I feel like I need to remind Lunar how much I care about her. And I will, as soon as we get out of here and back to the apartment.

  “Thank you for being there at the appointment today,” I say as we walk back inside the apartment, and she closes the door behind us.

  “No worries. I’ll always be here for you, you know that.”

  I pull her to face me and wrap my arms around her waist. I’ve been on strict rest for over three weeks, and Lunar has been adamant about not exerting myself in that time. But I need her. I need to feel her, and I want to do that now.

  Leaning forward, I press my lips to hers and she smiles against my mouth as my cock hardens pressing into her thigh. She giggles and pulls back looking down to the bulge in my jeans and smiles.

  “So someone’s awake.”

  “He has been since the café, and I know you don’t want me to exert myself, but baby I’m going crazy here. Three weeks with you next to me and not being able to touch you is another torture added onto the voice torture. Please put me out of my misery?”

  She grins and shakes her head. “Well, only ‘cause you asked so nice and all.”

  Lying in bed after
being thoroughly fucked every which way, Danger’s fingers glide up and down my arm in a soothing motion. I’m so relaxed I don’t think anything could spoil this moment.

  “I wonder if Ella would have stuck by me with all of this like you have.”

  Aaannnd just like that, the moment is spoiled. Taking in a deep breath, I don’t say anything for fear of screaming, as Danger leans in to kiss me again. I kiss him back, but this whole Ella thing is getting on my nerves.

  We’re sitting in with Danger’s speech therapist, and she’s doing a bunch of tests and stuff on Danger’s vocals that I don’t really understand. But by the look on her face she doesn’t seem overly enthused with Danger’s progress. Which has me on the edge of my seat. He’s been a little tense this past week. I think he knew that his voice wasn’t up to the standard it should be by now, but I’ll wait and see what she has to say.

  They finish their exercises and she smiles at him which makes him reluctantly smile too.

  “Okay Danger, so your vocal cord isn’t healing as fast as we would have hoped. You’re still breathy and it looks like there was some strain on the cord itself before the polyp developed so this may take a little longer to come good than we anticipated. Your progression isn’t coming as quickly as we had anticipated. Yes, your voice is back, but your range in your singing voice is lacking, and this is going to take time and effort. Unfortunately, it’s not going to be a quick fix.”

  I stiffen as Danger tenses beside me and exhales. “How long are we talking here, Sarah?”

  She winces and tilts her head. “The way the cords are still tense and with the breathlessness you have, I wouldn’t be surprised if this takes the full six months… I’m sorry, Danger.”

  Danger slumps his body as I chew on my bottom lip furrowing my brows. This is horrible, my heart pounds for him.

  He suddenly stands up grabbing a stapler from Sarah’s desk and hurtles it across the room, it smashes into a pot plant, cracking the pot as the dirt and plant cascade out onto the floor.

  “I know this is not the news you wanted to hear, Danger, but with hard work and determination, it will come back. You just have to work on it,” Sarah continues.

  “And fucking lose my career in the meantime?” he murmurs.

  “It won’t be that bad,” I try to ease his temper.

  He glares at me with such fierce intent it shocks me. “What would you know? You run a foundation from a hotel room, you know nothing about fame. God, Staked and Ella never had to go through any of this.”

  Opening my eyes wide that he’s brought Ella up another time, this is getting beyond a joke. He must really be missing her. My chest tightens with the thought as salt water threatens to run over my eyelids, but I shake my head and stand up turning to walk out of the room. I don’t want him to see me cry. He isn’t worth my tears right now. I step out of the therapy clinic and down to the waiting car. Kane spots me walking out and opens the door for me raising his eyebrow as I try to keep the tears in.

  “Everything okay, Lunar?”

  Nodding, I fake a smile at him. “Danger will be out soon.”

  He nods and lets me slide into the car. I wish Kane wasn’t shutting the door so I could slam it. I’m so pissed at Danger right now. I fucking love the prick, and he goes off sprouting about his mother fucking ex-fiancée all the time lately. Doesn’t he know how much that’s hurting me? Doesn’t he know that the mere mention of Ella’s name does my head in? Maybe he doesn’t care. Maybe he doesn’t feel the same for me at all. And the woman he really wants, he can’t have, so I’m the next best thing. A substitute. Folding my arms over my chest while chewing on my bottom lip trying my hardest not to cry. I know he’ll be here any second, and I don’t want to explain tears to him. Explaining why I left will be hard enough.

  As if on cue the door opens and Danger slips in. I don’t bother looking at him as he slides in next to me and exhales. “Why did you leave?”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  He scoffs grabbing my hands and turns me to face him. “It does matter. Talk to me… honestly, Lunar.”

  I pause looking into his eyes and figure I may as well tell him how I’m feeling. If he wants Ella, I may as well find out now rather than keep hoping he wants me. “It always comes back to Ella. What the fuck is it about her, Danger? Why can’t I compare to her?”

  He furrows his brows and shakes his head. “You don’t compare to her, Lunar. You don’t even come close.”

  I close my eyes as the hot salty water doesn’t evade me this time, pooling so harshly I can hardly see. “Right! Well, if that’s how you feel. I’m leaving.”

  He gasps and swallows hard. “No shit! That came out wrong. What I mean is, you don’t compare… as in you’re so much better than her, Lunar. You don’t compare, because you’re in a different league, a different galaxy. You have my heart, you’re not Ella fucking Slade.”

  I do a double take looking at his eyes, they seem sincere as the car pulls off down the street. “I have your heart?” I confirm wanting to make sure I heard right.

  “Yes… I love you, Lunar. I don’t know where this leaves us and it scares me. I don’t do long distance, and when Recoil is finished in Australia we’re going back to the USA. I don’t know what that means for us. I certainly didn’t plan on falling for you.”

  Smiling, I shake my head taking in everything he’s said. Mainly the first four words. “Well, I’m following you obviously. You go to the US, I go to the US, Danger. I’m not giving this up because… I love you, too.”

  He smiles wide as his breath catches. “You do?” His hand comes up to caress my face.

  “I do.”

  He slides next to me completely wrapping his arms around me pulling me to him. “Look, I’ve been talking a lot about Ella lately because I’m finally getting her out of my system. Every memory I have of her is being replaced by something better of you, and I love it. I’m just trying to expel everything, and I didn’t realize I was hurting you with it.”

  Cuddling into him, I look up into his eyes. “Can you not talk about her instead? It makes me uncomfortable.”

  “Sorry, I should have known. You know the song Effa and I have been working on forever?”

  I nod.

  “We finished it the night of the gala. That’s why she was in my room, we were finalizing the last of it.”

  “You did?”

  “Yeah, and once my voice is back… the first show I can, I’m gonna sing it to you.”

  Smiling so wide, my heart skips a beat. “I can’t wait.”

  “I love you, I mean it.”

  “I love you, too. And I mean it when I say I’ll follow you anywhere.”

  He smiles leaning in, his lips just about to touch mine. “Good, ‘cause I never want to let you go.”

  Danger’s voice is at his all-time best, and Luke wasted no time in getting the tour back up and on track. We’re in New Zealand at the start of a six-month world tour, which will end back in Australia in five months’ time leaving a month for the Australian leg of the tour. I’m so proud of how far Danger has come in the last six months with his recovery. It was rocky. We fought—a lot—but I never gave up on him, and now we’re stronger than ever.

  He’s on stage now rocking it out, his deep gravelly voice came back I think even better than before. It filters through the stadium sending a wave of lustrous pleasure through me.

  Suddenly a tight pair of arms wrap around me from the side and I turn to see Effa embracing me. I chuckle as she sways me from side to side.

  “It’s so good to finally be back on tour. When I got the call that Recoil wanted to start up again and have Luminous as their backup, I was so happy. And now Danger wants to release our song finally tonight. I’m so excited!”

  She lets me go and I look at her opening my eyes wide in shock. I had no knowledge of this. “You’re performing your duet tonight?”

  She nods. “Yep, right about now… I’d say.”

  Danger concludes the s
ong he’s singing and the crowd erupts into a loud rant of appreciation.

  “Now we have something special for ya’ll tonight, something Miss Effervescent and I have been working on for a long time, which is dedicated to my beautiful woman, Annalise. This one’s for you, baby,” Danger calls out. Effa runs up on stage and the crowd cheers as she grabs a microphone and waves out to the audience. My heart gallops thinking I’m finally going to hear this song he wrote for me so long ago.

  Nate kicks in with the heavy drum beat, and the guitars and bass follow soon after as a slow rock ballad fills the room. It might be slow, but it still has that hard rock edge to it that sends a vibration through your soul. Smiling wide, I wrap my arms around myself knowing Danger and Effa wrote this song for me, and it fills me with such an adrenalin rush I can’t even describe it.

  Danger looks down to the wings of the stage and gives me a smile, he winks then opens his mouth letting the lyrics flow.

  You know how the story goes,

  it’s boy meets girl.

  But tales are never easy, and there’s always two sides.

  There’s no doubt I was broken,

  completely shattered and lost.

  But then you came in, and the tables turned.

  Seems you were the knight,

  and maybe I was the one who needed saving from my own demise.

  Danger’s words about being broken and me saving him ring true as Effa steps up to the mic and starts to sing the next verse.

  I know how this story goes,

  it’s girl meets boy.

  It’s so easy to fall when you’re the one who can see,

  that you’re the broken one in this story,

  not me.

  But I’m here for you, and I want you to know,