Love with Every Beat

by K. L. Shandwick

  Turning to him I smirked, cocking an eyebrow.

  “Des, dude, it’s been ten fucking minutes since Drew woke us, does Lily look like someone I could only spend ten minutes on?”

  Glancing at Lily; who looked adoringly embarrassed, I turned my attention back to Des. “So…to answer your question numb nuts, I wasn’t getting laid, but I hope to remedy that later when we get to where we’re going, dude.”

  Walking past them I inclined my head to Lily to sit by the window and sat down beside her, chuckling quietly at the dazed face of Des.

  Placing my hand on Lily’s thigh, I squeezed it a little. “Sorry, he pisses me off complaining all the time.” Lily didn’t say anything just looked out of the window.

  “You need something to drink?” I asked gesturing the coffee toward her again. Lily shook her head and began rummaging in her oversized bag,

  “Nah, I’m good.”

  “What’re you looking for?” I asked quizzically.

  Smirking smugly, Lily pulled out a half-eaten family pack of peanut M&M’s.

  “I’m just doing a spot of research.” She winked and popped some in her mouth.

  Smirking again, I whispered, “No matter how many of them you pop into your mouth Lily, they’ll never satisfy you like my nuts can.”

  Both of us began chuckling, and Elle piped up,

  “What the hell has got you two giggling at this time in the morning?” Smiling over at her, I said, “Lily’s love of M&M’s, Elle.” I winked.

  Chapter 57 – Polite

  Flying to Athens was uneventful. Sleeping most of the way, but both Lily and I were exhausted by the time we arrived at the hotel. Both of us got naked and got under the comforter. Cuddling Lily in my arms, we both just passed out.

  Greece was one of the few places I felt I could relax in public. Although people knew who I was, I was pretty much left alone. Privacy was something that was difficult to come by, and as such it worried me to think that anything I did or anywhere I went would affect Lily.

  XrAid was getting pretty well known, and the guys in her band protected her really well, I was impressed by them and their ability to keep Lily safe without stifling her.

  Athens was a cool place I could take Lily for a walk and have coffee in an outside café without anyone muscling in on our time together. Henry was ever present in the background, just making sure we were left alone.

  People still stared I couldn’t do much about that, but as long as they kept their distance while I spent time with my girl, I didn’t mind at all. In fact, a few times when I saw the men staring I thought they were thinking, “Lucky bastard, look at the woman he’s with.”

  Fabulous venue for the gig and the acoustics of the place were amazing. Lily seemed to be settling into the tour and was much less nervous than she was yesterday. During the meet and greet afterwards I did my usual polite chats with the fans, then after an hour signaled to call a halt and have the producers and promoters give us some space.

  Heading off to where XrAid were doing some interviews, and found Lily surrounded by a group of male fans. Watching her confidence and poise was very interesting, no longer the self- conscious girl about her musical ability. Every inch the rock chick and I was over the moon about how she’s turned out Cody came along side me and folded his arms watching her,

  “She’s something else isn’t she?” Turning to face him, I saw a deep affection for Lily.

  “She is.” I stated.

  “You know you’re the luckiest son-of-a-bitch alive, right?”

  “I do.” Turning I grinned at Cody.

  “Don’t fuck with her, dude, I like you Alfie, but if you do anything, and I mean ANYTHING to upset her, I will hunt you down. Got me?”

  “Yep, and I’d expect nothing less from you, Cody.”

  “She was a fucking mess after the last time and to be honest, we’re all holding our breaths with you guys. All the guys in the band feel the same about her. We don’t think Lily will survive another round of break ups with you.”

  Giving Cody a solid stare, I put out my hand and he looked down at it.

  “Shake on it, Cody, I give you my word, trust me, the last thing I ever want in this life is for her to feel low about being with me, because as far as I’m concerned I’m never letting her go again.”

  “You know she’s gonna struggle when the tour splits right? When you guys go to work with Rick?”

  Cody nodded, “Yeah, I was surprised when Lily suggested that, but I guess none of us know what goes on in that gorgeous head of hers.”

  Giving Cody a sideward glance, “You happen to have designs on my Lily?”

  Cody snickered and nodded, “What man doesn’t Alfie? Lily has eyes for one man, I get that loud and clear, but I love her. Never met a woman like her. Sassy as fuck and as sweet as a sixteen year old. I’d never cross the line with her, but I’m not going to let some hairy ass rock star destroy her either, understand? I’m just holding out the hope of finding my own, ‘Lily’ one day.”

  Admiring Cody’s honesty, telling a guy you love his girl that took balls. Better still, the way he openly sought to protect her from me.

  “I know you and Lily got a special connection Cody, I see it every time she walks out on to the stage. Trust is everything, and you have hers, maybe even more than me. So I’m going to fire a warning shot at you as well, as far as Lily is concerned, don’t fuck with me, because I’d take care of you in a heartbeat. I’d gladly die for that girl, that’s how much she means to me.

  Cody, stared at me as if he were thinking about something, and smiled slowly.

  “Good, glad we’ve cleared the air about Lily.”

  Starting to walk away, I grabbed Cody’s forearm and pulled him back, “Take care of her and keep her strong when you’re on tour, and watch that fucker Rick. He behaves like he’s got my back, but I know he’s harbouring a little something for her deep down. It’s going to be tough for the both of us and I’m making you my number one. Protect and support Cody. That’s what I’m asking. Fuck her and your dead, we clear?”

  Cody started laughing, “Excuse me, did you say something? I never heard that last sentence.”

  Scowling, I drew breath but before I could answer back,

  “Jeez, Alfie, lighten up. I like my balls. I’d like to keep them. I’m not going to do anything to Lily, okay? Damn dude, you really have a terminal case don’t you?”

  Smiling widely, “I do. Between you and me, I’m going to marry, Lily. She needs to be Mrs. Black as soon as this tour is over.”

  “You asked her?” Cody’s eyebrows were in his hairline.

  “Nope, I’m working on it, but not a word. For your ears only. Drew doesn’t even know yet.”

  “So, keep me up to speed on this, I don’t want to be caught with my pants down.” It was my turn to raise my eyebrow and Cody and he slapped my back laughing. “Metaphorically speaking, Alfie.”

  Lily was making her way toward us and Cody walked away from me in her direction. Lily’s face lit up and her smile spread wide on her face. They hugged and he gave her a kiss on the cheek and patted her back before walking away.

  Reaching me, Lily smiled up at me and asked quizzically, “So what did you two find to talk about for so long?”

  Smirking, and biting back a grin, “Wouldn’t you like to know darlin’.”

  Arriving back at the hotel just before one in the morning, I still managed to deal with my comment to Des from this morning about taking his time with Lily.

  When we had eaten breakfast Alfie arranged for us to take an early sightseeing bus trip. The driver stopped at the Parthenon and The Acropolis, where once again, Alfie set up his camera and took pictures to replace the ones in my album.

  “God, Lily, you have no idea how happy I am right now,” I exclaimed, kissing her sloppily on the cheek.

  After breakfast the following morning, I took Lily on a tour bus to more sites for our picture album. Greece is steeped ancient monuments and was one of my favo
urite places. Lily had been there a couple of times with her family on vacation. Living in London, all of the European countries were only a short plane ride away.

  Getting back on the bus, I dipped his head to look at her and whispered, “I love you,” tucking her hair back behind her ears and kissing her slowly. An elderly English woman who was getting back on the bus cleared her throat.

  “Oh, my, you both look so in love, you could probably get a job modeling for the tourist board here,” she swooned.

  Chuckling, she had no idea who I was and that felt cool,

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence ma’am, if my regular employers get fed up with me I’ll keep it in mind.” Lily smiled and shook her head, and I pulled her into my chest, kissing the top of her head.

  We headed back to the hotel and once again, we were on the road. We flew to Italy, and had two venues to play there: Milan and Rome. We were playing two nights in Rome then we were heading to Milan by bus overnight.

  In Rome, we’d been to the Coliseum and to The Vatican for Alfie to collect memories of us during the day, and my heart was bursting with happiness having all this time together. The gigs were everything I expected them to be. The fans in Italy were very passionate and the women, whoa. Stunningly beautiful, mainly brunettes, my type of course, but as beautiful as they were, again, no one compared to Lily.

  While XrAid were on stage in Milan, a girl turned up to see me. We’d met her on the last tour in the hotel. She had become friends with Zoe, and her brother worked in the venue we were playing in. Giovanna, had been hot for me, and came looking for me when she saw Zoe and Elle leaving to go shopping. As soon as I saw her I thought she would be trouble for me.

  Pushing me back against the wall and pressing herself against me, Giovanna reached up and pulled my head toward her. Turning my head to the side, she just missed my mouth. As this happened Elle opened the dressing room door and I was shocked at the look on Elle’s face.

  “Get the fuck out, you slut,” She was wild with rage, physically removing her from the dressing room and banging the door shut.

  “It’s not what it looks like, Elle.” Gritting her teeth in anger, Elle slapped both hands on my chest and pushed me hard. “No it never fucking is with you people. Why can’t you men keep your dick in your pants when you find something special?”

  Elle flew and me and caught her nail on the side of my face. Just as she did, Drew opened the door.

  “What the fuck is going on in here?” Turning to Drew and rolling up her sleeves, “I just caught Alfie with a groupie in here, and he wasn’t signing a fucking autograph either.” Drew stared at me, and turned to Elle, taking her by her forearms and sitting her down.

  “Stop Elle. Just stop and think for a minute. Have you seen how Alfie is about Lily, Elle? Have you not watched how fucking love sick he’s been this past year or more? I don’t care what you think you thought you saw, but I’m never going to believe whatever was going on in here was instigated by Alfie.”

  Swallowing hard, I said, “Giovanna turned up, Drew, she just lunged at me and I struggling with her when Elle came in.” Elle’s head spun round. “That was Giovanna? Zoe’s Giovanna?” It was only then I realized that Elle had heard about her from Zoe, but didn’t get the chance to actually meet her. It was just as Elle came back on the scene with Drew.

  Lily’s eyes immediately honed in on the scratch on my face, and my first thought was to lie and say it was a fan. If I had done that, it wouldn’t have given us a good foundation for our relationship so I decided to be honest and tell her what happened.

  Holding my breath, I waited for the fall- out. Lily’s eyes rolled to the back of her head, before she commented. “Figure it’s an occupational hazard I’m going to have to get used to. At this point in time Alfie, I have no concerns that you’d cheat.” Just like that, my girl accepted I was telling the truth.

  Our last day in Rome was wonderful. We took in some sites using an SUV with tinted windows, and got out to have a few pictures for our album. Excited when she saw the bus, Lily whooped at Elle to come and have a look, and they immediately choose which one Drew and I were sleeping in.

  Nine days on this bus, before we swapped and Lily left to go on tour with Cobham Street. Inhaling hard when I thought about that, I was going to give her the best nine days of her life. Simple and intimate. No bows bells or whistles, just me and Lily.

  Of course there would be times when we’d share time with Drew and Elle there was a lot to talk about with their wedding happening shortly after we all got back to London.

  Within the hour of being on the bus, Lily and I had ‘christened the bed,’ by making love. It never got old that we had to get down and dirty whenever we got the chance to be alone. Traveling with a large group of people made us very aware of seizing opportunities to have private time.

  During the nine days we had before Lily left, most of it was spent in bed apart from times when we were eating or playing gigs. Staying on the bus by choice, we were just happy to be together, when all of the others went out partying.

  Making up for lost time and living on borrowed time, that’s where we were at, just lying in bed and having time to be a normal couple.

  We made love as often as our schedules allowed us to, and I loved the playful tone our sessions had once again. Our intensive love making felt spiritual but sometimes we had sex just for fun as well. My sassy girl was present even in the bedroom going from submissive to dominant in a couple of heart beats, and I loved all of the sides of Lily.

  Rolling her over, I lifted her arms above her head and pinned them to the bed. “My favorite position for you.”

  Smirking and with a playful tone she asked, “It is? Why is that?”

  Grinning I told her, “You’re completely submissive.” Shaking her head, she suddenly lifted it and scrunched forward to nip my neck. The electrical jolt it gave me made my dick twitch and I gasped out loud.

  “Jesus.” Her action made me hard and turned me on. My voice was thick with lust.

  “Yeah, I’m submissive Alfie. In your dreams, honey.” And my sassy girl had put me firmly in my place.

  Craving for cereal the next one morning, Lily got out of bed and disappeared out into the communal area of the bus, I vaguely felt her slip out of bed, but figured she was going to pee.

  She came back with a huge glass bowl containing half a box of cereal in milk, two spoons two wine glasses and a carton of orange juice. Only noticing as she placed it all down at the side of the bed, she was wearing one of my favourite t-shirts. Damn, she looked hot in it and it was the first time she’d ever put something of mine on.

  Hell, it looked far better on her than it did me. Strange, that she should have chosen that one of all the t-shirts in my drawer, because that old fender t-shirt was the one I wore the day we met.

  Lily crawled onto the bed and I noticed the cute white towelling ankle socks she was wearing as well. “Are your feet cool, honey?” I asked concerned. Lily’s nose scrunched and began peeling the socks off again

  “No, Alfie, not at all. Drew peed on the floor the other day when the bus was rolling and I stepped on it. I’m never leaving the room without socks on again.”

  So, there we were, two supposed rock stars, adored by the masses eating cereal out of a shared bowl and talking about people peeing on the floor. Lily in my washed out old T-shirt with nothing underneath, and I loved it. Life felt pretty perfect because of that window of domesticity and normalcy.

  Between gigs and fancy restaurants, we got to experience the mundane, normal things that couples did. We watched YouTube clips laughing at some crazy people she even shared her kindle with me. The erotic book she was reading gave me insight into her expanding knowledge about sexual positions and kinky ideas and I made a note to stock up on some for her next time she wasn’t looking.

  Spending time with Elle and Drew was great as well. We ate takeout food and played poker some evenings after our energetic bouts on stage. Work was work, but pla
y was awesome. Making music and getting to have time with Lily was everything to me.

  Drew had, had a few beers one night and ran his mouth to the girls about how much we’d had been through together in the past as friends. Mainly about taking Layla to high school and running her around when my mom was dying.

  Talking a bit about Gary as well, and Lily was surprised to learn exactly what the tattoo meant too Drew and me. She had no idea about Drew’s, which didn’t surprise me as his was on his hip. When Drew had said all he wanted to we all sat kinda silent for a while until Elle got up and went to wash her hands.

  Lily told Drew he was a great friend to take care of my little sister. Drew snickered and said to Lily, “Not really you’ve seen her, she boosted my reputation at school by having a hot chick in my car every day.” I growled at Drew, and then we both smirked at each other.

  Chapter 58 – Normal

  Elle and Drew made a lot of wedding plans during the tour and with Lily and me playing key roles in the wedding there were some tasks for us as well. The wedding was due to take place three weeks after both Cobham Street and Crakt Soundzz tours’ finished, so things were still to be done, and there were a lot of last minute arrangements to do when we got back to London.

  We spent long hours talking about normal things and weddings and it made me think about Lily and I felt envious of Drew and Elle being in a position whereby, they were giving their lives to each other.

  One day with Lily, I thought, but there were some things still to be ironed out before she would make that final commitment to me. So, I wouldn’t even put myself in the position of rejection by asking her yet, but I was working on it.

  Drew and Elle were getting married in London because Elle had tons of relatives. It meant a break for as in both bands in London for longer. I was looking forward to sussing her band out better during that.

  By the time we reached Paris, I was feeling pretty shitty, my time with Lily had gone way too quickly, and she was going after the Paris gig. This was the only city where we had two consecutive days off, and I was desperate to make the most of it.