Surrounded By Knight

by A. N. Hennessy

  “Choke on her tongue, you disgusting pig.”

  Trevelin laughed this time as I became aware Jace had vanished, leaving his slut all alone in his seat. That was what I wanted to do.

  Not be an abandoned slut, but to disappear. Desperately.

  So I turned to walk away.

  “You can be such a prissy little bitch.” Trevelin’s irritatingly, sexy voice crashed against my already flaming nerves, causing me to abruptly stop and my body to bristle.

  The whores at the table had the audacity to laugh. If I hadn’t been taught better I would be yanking their hair out right about now or smashing their obscenely beautiful faces into the table.

  But I looked past my angst, focusing my livid eyes on Trevelin, hoping they would penetrate through him. “Prissy bitch? I just love how you like calling me names when you are the smutty man-whore. But I’ll let you in on a little something.” I walked closer, my anger rising. “I might be a bitch, which is something I am growing very proud of since I have met you. But prissy—that is something I am not. Don’t think having your hand shoved up a horse’s ass is classified as being very prissy. Do you?”

  Trevelin smiled. His lips worked up the side of his face in a crooked grin, and as mad as I was at that second I couldn’t help but take notice to how freaking hot he looked with that sinful expression. Dressed like he’d just walked out of the gates of Hell with eyes that promised he was a being from Heaven...it did something to me. I flippin’ hated it with a passion.

  “I like it when you get all feisty. It looks cute on you. And as far as the name calling...I have plenty more, babe.”

  For some reason, I took his announcement sexually. He clearly knew his way in the bedroom and no doubt used his dirty mouth while he was at it.

  God, he pisses me off.

  I didn’t even bother saying anything else. It would have been pointless anyways, and frankly arguing with him kinda turned me on. I wouldn’t tell him that of course, so the best thing to do was leave like I wanted to do minutes ago.

  I found Ben and he agreed to take me home. Thank goodness. I wanted a break from Trevelin before I was on a bus with him, regretting every second of it. Should I even go?

  Upon getting home, I quickly prepared myself for bed. An empty bed. Hallelujah!!!

  My fuming from earlier had momentarily subsided since I was in an empty house and in my empty bed. This was one night I wanted to thank Addie for being such a tramp. I needed my moment of serenity, because Trevelin Knight and Reed Cox both managed to get under my skin like a bunch of blood sucking ticks. I was going to need to get my doctor to prescribe me some Valium just so I wouldn’t end up in prison before all of this was said and done.

  ‘This is an opportunity of a lifetime,’ was what Momma had kept repeating over and over earlier today. She was right. Not many chances would miraculously break down on the side of the road for you to find. I’d been trying hard to put my abhorring aside and I was doing great. I was actually beginning to like them. But all that dissipated when I saw Trevelin’s face.

  I smiled to myself for the show I gave him and the fact that I let him perform with lipstick all over his mouth looking like a clown.

  I should be ashamed for allowing him to humiliate himself in front of his fans at Buck’s, but I felt more satisfaction than anything. I couldn’t understand why people let their fame go to their heads and become so self-righteous. Morally speaking about Trevelin, he demeaned himself by sleeping with all those women—women who all too easily allowed him to do so just so they can say they had sex with a famous rock star.

  It was disgusting really because he knew that, yet he still allowed it to happen. They were someone’s daughter. Or had he never thought about that? I was sure it was a point he’d never cared to think of. I thought I’d seen a glimpse in him last night that proved he was unlike all the stereotypical rock gods, but apparently I’d been hallucinating.

  After battling restlessness and feeling weird because I felt like I had become dependent on Trevelin’s arms wrapped around me to be able to sleep, my thoughts finally became tired and I drifted off without the defining sounds of Addie snoring while grieving the loss of warm, colorful art.

  It hadn’t felt like I was asleep long at all before I was woken up by the bed dipping. Addie must have decided not to be a tramp tonight after all. That meant my peaceful slumber was over. There was no way I was going downstairs though.

  I would just have to brace myself through the night. I went on and prepared myself by placing my pillow over my head, enticing myself to fall back into slumber. I was completely fine until she moved right up against me, placing her extremely hot front against my back while laying her arm over my waist. Spooning me! Why the hell does she do that?

  “Addison Rene, this is a king size freakin’ bed. Why do you gotta be all over me?” I rose up and turned over. The room was dark to the point I couldn’t see her. She kept quiet, not bothering to reply. “Answer me.” I shoved her, touching rock hard, naked muscle. So not Addie’s scrawny body. I jerked away in a hurry and scrambled to flip on the bedside light.

  “I thought you liked it when I was all over you.” Trevelin was lying there, smiling big. His eyes sparkled as much as those damn nipple rings.

  “Get out!” I shouted, pointing toward the door as I jumped and stood by the bed. He moved a little closer and reached out for my hand, but I pulled away.

  “Come on. It’s our chance to finally snuggle in an actual bed and not some lousy couch.” He patted the spot beside him. “Just snuggle with me, Country.”

  “Are you drunk or just outta your mind? I am not snuggling with you now or ever again. Now get out of my bed and out of my room.”

  “Maybe just a little,” he chuckled, holding his fingers up to indicate the very small measurement he drank or maybe his brain size. He was absurd. “You don’t really want me to leave. You’re just mad,” he said plainly.

  “What do I have to be mad about? That you’re a nasty sex-fiend that can’t keep his penis in his pants? That you don’t care what whore’s lipstick is smeared all over your face? Why do I care? And it doesn’t make me mad...it disgusts me, Trevelin.”

  His face fell painfully at my words, looking as if I’d utterly hurt his feelings.

  Guilt punched me in the stomach as I stood there and watched his devastated expression, eyes that harbored such a faraway sadness. Drunk or not, the look made my whole body ache in pain.

  He ran a hand through his bedraggled hair, and I couldn’t help but to watch. By the grace of self-control, I bit back the empowering urge that wanted to do the same exact thing. With unruly, beyond fantastic hair, luminous blue-green eyes, a face that screamed to be kissed and a body to covet, Trevelin was hands down gorgeous.

  I sighed, shifting to my other leg, uncomfortably wanting to soothe and comfort him from the lash I just gave him.

  “You’re right—I am disgusting.” He peered up at me. “But I only do those things that make me that way because it takes my mind off other things—things that are too good to have.” His mouth pulled into a limp smile before he looked away.

  My heart stammered in my chest at the distress that was clear in his voice. I was unsure what he was referring to considering I didn’t know much of his life story, but I did know his life must have been harder than I would ever understand.

  He had no parents. I couldn’t imagine what that must be like. I caught a break once again and realized that I was right—the image he portrayed was just a front. Not just for his rock and roll image, but for other things he had been through in his life.

  Taking a seat on the edge of the bed, I turned so I almost faced him. He was laid flat across the bed on his stomach, propped up on his elbows with one hand in his hair. I’d have to say the hardcore man I was staring at broke my heart. Pitiful looking didn’t even cut it. I was consumed with sadness by the mere image lying in front of me.

  “Nothing is ever too good to have, Trevelin, and everyone deserves to
have hopes and dreams—dreams that you may even have to fight for. It seems you’ve conquered yours quite well.” I playfully nudged his shoulder, trying to bring some spirit back into this sad creature that wasn’t the Trevelin I’d grown to know.

  He looked up at me with his beautiful brows pinched together as his pale eyes studied me. “I thought so, too. But recently I’ve come to realize that your hopes and dreams can change in the blink of an eye for some unexplainable fucking reason. And that you don’t always deserve what those dreams may be.” His voice was low and scratchy. Far from the deafeningly delicious voice that had been assaulting my eardrums from day one.

  I just stared, taking in his words, contemplating what to say, and wanting to find the right thing to somehow help ease the hurt that was evident. “That’s normal, ya know. Lots of people decide they want something different in—wait, are you saying you don’t want to be a part of Knight Raiders anymore?”

  “Fuck no!” His voice pitched slightly as if my question was completely absurd. “The band is all I’ve got worth having. I love those sick bastards too much to ever leave them.” He casually chuckled, and I was glad to witness his face brighten. I could see that he spoke the dire truth. To him those boys were the only family he’d ever had.

  I am such a bitch! I have been so unfriendly to him, and for what? Because he tests me? Because I’m attracted to him? There really wasn’t a significant reason.

  “It’s something more profound,” he added softly, his laser-like eyes wandering all across my body. I ignored the sudden tingle it caused and the want to capture his face and drown out his misguided soul.

  “You can tell me. I’m a good listener.”

  “That’s alright.” He stared at me so intently I began to feel exposed. “It’s something I’m still trying to figure out myself.”

  “Well, we’re going to be together for a while, so if you need someone to listen, I’ll be around and glad to lend an ear,” I offered sincerely.

  He gave a dramatic sigh, running his hand down his face. “Yeah, thanks. I’ll let you get back to sleep. Sorry I woke you.” He pushed up off the bed and lazily stalked toward the door.

  I mentally slapped myself in the face for what I was about to say.

  “Trevelin, wait.” I jumped back off the bed as he went to shut the door. Poking his head back inside, there was a million emotions displayed on his face that I couldn’t put meaning to.

  I shouldn’t ask considering I knew what he’d done at Buck’s to get his slut stains, but I felt bad for him, and then there was the part of me that for some crazy reason liked being with him. Liked having his wondrous body holding mine while I fell asleep, liked smelling his Hollywood scent that seemed to act as an anesthetic that allured me in to a deep, tranquil sleep.

  “I thought you liked holding me while you slept?” I gave him back his words.

  His crestfallen face grew even deeper. “I don’t think that is such a good idea, Country.”

  “Why?” It came out fretfully. “You’ve done it the past few nights without a problem, and you came in here to—I thought—just get your ass in the bed before I change my mind,” I said, rolling my eyes. I was becoming somewhat frustrated with him and my wanting him in my bed.

  With the last part of my demanding remark he perked up and gave me an adorable smile. His Hollywood perfect smile.

  Walking back into the room, he shut the door behind him. I got in the bed and he followed behind after divesting himself down to his boxers—which the only thing he had to remove was his tattered up jeans; jeans that clung to his lean hips in the sexiest of ways.

  I turned out the bedside light and scooted closer to him, falling into that deep crevice where all the things that were sensible blurred into senselessness. Trevelin wrapped around me in a bed should scream trouble with warning bells blaring, and yet, all I could hear was the peaceful hum he breathed out when he rested his chin on the top of my head.

  I smiled like an idiot, knowing it was okay because he couldn’t see me. I loathed Addie being pressed up against me as I slept, but Trevelin’s body seemed to be a withstanding exception.

  “What made you want to be a rock star?” I questioned after a few minutes of stilted silence stretched between us.

  “The love of music. It was an escape from my life.” His fingers traced up and down my bare arm. “I remember getting out of school and going back to the home I was housed in at the time—well, on days I actually went to school—and I would lock myself in the storage closet under the stairs, or any other room I could find with privacy...just me, my guitar, a note pad and the calm to make my own music. It was kinda like my special form of therapy. To just be able to forget everything; to get swept up and lost in the melody and the words my brain was creating. Ya know?”

  I couldn’t tell if he was asking if I knew what he meant or if he was speaking more to himself. Because if he were asking me, then no, I didn’t know. To an extent I understood what he was saying, but I never needed music as an escape. I had a happy life, and music only made it that much better.

  “What was it like?” I hoped I wasn’t stepping over any boundary by asking about how he grew up. I was just curious and wanted more insight on what made him Trevelin Knight.

  “What was what like? Growing up without a family?” His tone wasn’t harsh nor was it pained, it was just...bare.

  “I didn’t mean it like that. I just...I...I just...”

  “You’re just curious because you’ve been blessed with a perfect life. I understand. I’m curious of yours too. But just so you know, I’ve always heard curiosity killed the pussy cat. And you, Country, are one sexy puss-in-boots.”

  How in the world could my face burn so hot without the skin melting off? I wouldn’t lie; Trevelin calling me sexy increased my heart rate by triple the speed it should be beating, as well as my blood flow. Why? I was unsure, but I kind of liked it even though I shouldn’t.

  “It was rough,” he surprisingly went on. “I lost count of the number of fosters I had. After a while they all started running together. They all wanted the same thing...a check. None of them were in the system because they cared for the kids. They only wanted the money they brought for giving them a place to stay. Eventually it gets to you, making you feel more unwanted than you already do. Apparently I was a trouble maker and that didn’t help my case at all.

  “Nobody wanted to house a kid that couldn’t play well with others or keep his fists to himself. The last house I stayed at was the Corpse house, and their lifestyle served meaning to their name. Mr. and Mrs. Corpse owned a funeral parlor, and when they weren’t running the show for the dead, they were drunk off their asses, beating the shit out of one another or anyone within their drunken distance...”

  I gasped. I knew he heard me, for his hand that had been methodically teasing the skin of my arm stilled. “Did they...did they ever hit you?” I shouldn’t have asked a question I already knew the answer to, but it popped out anyways.

  “More than they should have I guess. But I wasn’t around much. By then I’d met the guys and stayed with Reed and Jace as much as possible. I only went back to check on Meika to make sure she was alright.” His voice wandered off, and I silently wondered who Meika was, but let it go assuming she was another foster that he felt brotherly responsibility for.

  “You told me earlier that you met Reed and Jace in junior high, so where did y’all meet Bryson?”

  He chuckled against my hair, the heated air from his escaped breath warming my scalp. “You’re a nosey little thing tonight.”

  I kindly shrugged. “You are staying in my house and highly classified as a stranger. Just trying to get to know you on friendlier terms I guess.”

  “You consider us friends?” I couldn’t tell if it was hopefulness or disappointment I heard in his voice.

  “If you answer my question,” I replied as sternly as a teacher would to a student, but with a smile in place as I said it.

  “Persistent,” he gave in
with a small huff of a laugh. “Long story short, we met him at a party. He’s four years older than me and Reed, and we all hit it off to live happily ever after...the end.” I laughed at his choice of words to create a diversion. Didn’t work.

  “Is that all? Because I sense there’s more.”

  “I sense that you should go to sleep now.”

  “What kind of party?” I wanted more.

  “Country...”

  “Sorry, being friendly here.”

  “Friendly inquisitive.” I felt him smile. “It was an all-out, loud music, booze infested, drugs everywhere, more whores than a whore-house kinda party. Bryson wasn’t always the sweet, down to earth guy he is today. Back then he had...issues. Does that answer your question enough?”

  “Yes.”

  “So we friends?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Would it sound weird if I said I really like you being my friend?”

  “Not at all, Hollywood.” Because I really like being your friend too. I think I could honestly like you more.

  I was still nestled against him, his arm curled around me, with rough fingers drawing small circles on my arm that had awakened every nerve in my body. As if he knew what I was thinking, he tenderly pulled me closer into him, the warmth of his body and his mindless caress was going to cause me to puddle into the sheets as a big heaping pile of lust.

  Moments passed with us just quietly enjoying the serenity of lying beside one another when he murmured against my ear, “Can I ask you something, Country?”

  “Well, yeah.” I frowned to myself in the darkness. Only because the desperate way he mumbled my given nickname made me lose my breath, making my response sound sensual. That and the fact that I’d interrogated him, so with fairness he was entitled to a few questions of his own.

  He chuckled, I think at my breathy remark. “Will you dream about me?”