As soon as my name leaves his lips, my head is already answering ‘yes’ for me.
Damn body betrays me every single time.
“So are you going to talk to me or just sit in your room and be a bitter Betty all night?” Vic says from my doorway, unable to hide the enormous smirk across her face.
I set down my guitar, pluck out my headphones, pick up a throw pillow, and chuck it in her direction; all I hear is a fit of laughter.
“Jeez, Chase. I half expected a dang thank you by now! That man still has a bone for you. My god, couldn’t you tell? I felt like I was invading your privacy watching you two earlier, not like that would have stopped me but still,” she says, still giggling as she jumps onto my bed, slapping playfully at my legs.
I roll my eyes at her, even though I’d been lost on that same thought since we got home from the photo shoot.
“It doesn’t matter how he feels or how I feel. There’s another person involved now and that changes everything. Why are we even talking about this?” I whine, sighing loudly. I grab for my headphones but she snatches them first.
“We’re talking about this because it’s time to start getting ready to go out. And don’t even argue with me, because it doesn’t matter what you think or say, I obviously know what’s best for you. And if he’s moved on, Chase, then dammit, you deserve the same thing! You can get all pissy with me because I talk about how you fell head over heels in love with a rock star and have spent years pining for him, but never actually doing anything about it because you’re a big giant idiot. Now, you can get your sexy-self dressed up to go out, and shake your cute ass for him to pine over, and maybe, possibly, oh, I don’t know, move on with his equally hot ass friend that seems to have a massive hard on for you,” My friend huffs all of this out in one of her usual southern rants that end with a huge grin.
I just stare at her with my mouth hanging open, something I’ve done a lot of today.
“I thought you were crazy, but now I’m certain,” I say deadpan.
Rolling her eyes, she smacks at me again, “Seriously, come on! You know you’re going to come anyway, so stop with the sulking already. You said he wants to talk, so get the answers you want. You don’t have to stay after that but at least do that for yourself.”
Looking at her big brown eyes, I stick out my bottom lip in a pout. “Why do I put up with you?”
She smiles. “Because I’m awesome, always right, and you love me. Oh! And I’m cute as shit!”
We both laugh as I follow her out of my room and into hers to decide on what to wear for the evening.
“Don’t be so nervous, woman! For god’s sake, you were just in his lap, practically naked, not even ten hours ago!” Vic laughs at me as we pause toward the front of the club, scanning for a certain group of guys. I tug at my attire again, trying to pull down the tight, retro nautical slip dress, ignoring her completely. I remember exactly what I’d been doing with him earlier, no reminder necessary!
“Oh there he is. Hot damn, that is one gorgeous man! Kennedy!” Vic hollers across the loud bar. She grabs my hand and we start for a curtained off section toward the back of the room. Out of the corner of his eye, Kennedy must have spotted Vic. He gives a shy smile and raises a hand as we approach.
“Don’t be so crude and forward with him, Vic. He seems shy,” I whisper before we get too close. She waves me off and seems to walk even faster. Damn her and her long, Amazon legs.
Before I know it, we are behind the thick, red, curtains and standing before a big round booth holding the boys of Vengeful Honor.
I take quick note that there are no ladies at the table. None. Not a single one. I try not to smile, but I can’t help it.
Jesse jumps up and takes my hand, his other hand skims my waist and makes its way to my lower back.
“You look incredible. I’m so glad you made it. Can I order you a drink?” he asks with a lopsided smile that’s hard not to admire.
Avery stays in his seat at the back of the table next to Adam who is furiously texting someone on his phone. Jesse motions for me to scoot in and of course, I’m in the middle of a bassist and lead singer sandwich.
I can feel my sweat glands go into overdrive. Discreetly I fan myself, trying not to think about being in between these two men in any fashion. The thought alone even has my glands freaking out.
“Hey you,” I hear in my ear as I scoot into the round booth. Goose bumps, like dominos, run their course all over my body. I coyly look over my shoulder at Avery, and whisper hello back.
I feel the brush of a hand over my thigh and I jump, hitting my knees on the table. Hard. Avery laughs softly as I try to forget the last minute just happened. It’s not every day a girl like me gets to embarrass herself in front of a table of rock stars.
“Yeah, a drink would be great. Anything sweet,” I finally answer Jesse with a smile. He barely has to raise a hand before someone rushes over. Almost instantly, some kind of pretty pink drink with a flower in it is sitting in front of me.
The three guys closest to me start talking about their day in the studio while Vic and Kennedy are actually flirting like crazy on their side of the table. Well, at least one of us is having a good time tonight.
“It’s just bullshit. Plain and simple. I say we fucking drop them,” Adam says, setting his beer down on the table and licking his lips, winking in my direction.
“We are not dropping them. We just have to fix whatever the hell it is. We don’t get it either, bro,” Avery says to his drummer.
Jesse shakes his head, “Nah, I get it. Something’s wrong and we need to figure it the fuck out—and soon.”
I wrinkle my nose and ask, “What’s bullshit?”
Adam laughs and Avery smiles, but Jesse’s the one that talks.
“Our record label has rejected the new album twice now. We don’t know what they want, but apparently it’s not what we’re giving them.”
“That sucks,” I say, sipping on my drink, noticing that Avery has taken his phone out of his pocket and is frowning at it.
“Yeah, it does. You’re friend said you’re a musician, right?” he asks, pushing a piece of my hair out of my face. I blush, not sure how to answer him.
“Not like an aspiring one. I just want to find a job where I can be surrounded by it. I have no intentions of ever being in the spotlight, but I love music more than anything,” I finally say with a small smile.
“Maybe you can help me figure this out then. Like—this song,” Jesse says, pulling out his phone, but Avery stops him.
“I’m sure she doesn’t want to hear about all of this,” he asserts. He knows damn well how much I love music.
Ass!
“No, actually I’d love to hear about it,” I say, turning back to Jesse with a grin, sipping my drink again.
He chuckles softly as he plays with his phone for a minute.
“Like I was saying before we were so rudely interrupted, this song we recorded twice now—they keep telling us it’s just not good enough. I know it’s good, but I do know it’s missing something. I just can’t figure it out,” he presses play and hands me his phone. With a surprised face, I hesitantly take his phone and hold it up to my ear.
Avery’s voice soon rings out and I’m lost for the next few minutes. When it’s over, I open my eyes and realize that the three boys are staring at me, especially Avery. The look in his eyes almost turns me inside out. I laugh nervously, “Sorry, I kind of wander off in my head sometimes. Can I hear it one more time?”
I put on my game face, remembering that these are professional musicians and this is my chance to show off my skills.
I let the song play for about a minute before pausing it, “It’s good, but the vocals need to be a little bit deeper; Avery’s voice is almost too soft sounding for the track. The lyrics are heavy, and so is the bass line, so the vocals need to match. You need someone to either sing some backing vocals during the verse, or switch it up and have someone with a deeper, rougher voice sing
the whole song.”
Oh my, Sweet Baby Jesus, I can’t believe I just blurted that out. I feel about 2 inches tall as the guys stare at me with wide eyes.
“I fucking told you! You should have taken the lead vocals on that damn song, Jesse!” Avery says, reaching across me and smacking the bassist in the shoulder. Jesse smiles and shrugs.
Adam opens his mouth to say something but Jesse shushes him.
While keeping his eyes on mine he says, “Go on, what else?”
I stutter, slightly intimidated, “W-well, you could use more than just lead guitar, no offense Kennedy! If you put Avery on rhythm guitar, that would help add a little more to it. It’s a heavy song, and it needs to feel that way. And if you really want to know what I would do, I’d write in a violin melody for the intro and throughout. The mix of classical with rock always adds that extra something for me, and I think it would blend perfectly. Honestly, it would sound killer.”
I take a breath after finally spilling my thoughts about their song. Jesse just stares at me.
“Fucking genius!” he breathes, the sides of his mouth curling up slowly, “and you sing too, don’t you?”
I just blush, not wanting to answer that.
I flick my glance over to Avery, and he’s shaking his head with a smirk on his face that’s hard to read.
“What?” I ask defensively, more offended that he hasn’t said anything than at the fact that Adam is back to texting on his phone and ignoring us altogether.
“Nothing, I’m just not surprised at all.”
“Text Michael, Ave. We need a violinist ASAP and tell him we are about to rework the hell out of that song tomorrow,” Jesse says excitedly, raising his beer in the air. I turn back to the dark haired boy.
“You’re seriously taking my advice?” This time he looks shocked.
“Ugh, are you kidding me? That’s the best advice I’ve gotten lately! All I hear is ‘oh no, it’s so good already!’ or ‘record something new!’ like it’s that easy to come up with an entirely new album! So yeah, I am most definitely taking your advice, Beautiful.”
I start to grin until I feel Avery’s hand on my leg and I jump again. I glare at him as I rub my sore knee.
“Excuse yourself to the ladies room,” Avery whispers to me.
“I bet you’re one of those yodelers,” Jesse says suddenly.
I tear my gaze away from those stormy eyes and raise an eyebrow to Jesse, “Huh?”
He laughs, “The reason why you won’t answer me about singing. You yodel, don’t you?”
I can’t help but burst out laughing.
“No! I don’t yodel!”
“I think you do. I think you were a yodeling champion back in Texas,” he laughs along with me.
Ignoring the nudging from my side, I continue to argue.
“I do not yodel! I can sing normally, thank you very much!” As soon as I say this Jesse’s eyes light up.
“HA! I knew it! Sing something for me.”
Oh god, not this again.
“I don’t kno—”
“Come on, Melanie. Prove it,” Jesse says in such a low voice that it could have easily been mistaken for one of those late night 1-900 numbers. I bite at my bottom lip and shake my head. He arches his eyebrow and starts to sing along to the song humming over the bar’s speakers.
Damn! His voice is much lower than Avery’s, rougher and sexy, too. I remember it vaguely from the music Avery played for me years ago. Of course, the song playing is one of my favorites, and hearing Jesse’s raw vocals sing along to “Titanium” does me in. I feel Avery grab onto my leg, but I don’t jump this time. I also ignore him and start to sing softly to his friend.
I may have gotten a little carried away, singing my heart out on the last few lyrics, but I love that song. I stop at the end of the chorus, and open one of my closed eyes and peek at Jesse.
Very slowly licking his lips, he delivers one of his panty-combusting smiles.
Oh my…
“Marry me,” he says with a huge grin, taking my hand and holding it to his lips, and then flashing me a super sexy, yet goofy, pleading expression.
I just laugh as Avery tightens his grip on my leg. I sigh and take a long sip of my drink.
It’s probably time to get this talk over with anyway.
“If you boy’s will excuse me, I have to go to the ladies room,” I say calmly and sweetly, but on the inside, I’m a freaking mess.
After fifteen minutes of waiting in the hallway where the bathrooms are, I’m beyond furious. Why the hell did he tell me to come here if he wasn’t coming over to talk to me? I scowl and start to make my way back to the table, determined to let him know his one chance to explain himself just went down the crapper.
The first thing I notice is the busty brunette curling up in Adam’s lap, chewing on his ear. Eww.
The second thing is that Vic and Kennedy are nowhere to be seen. Double Eww.
Finally, my eyes quickly find that my seat is now occupied by a pretty little thing with perfectly curled dirty blonde hair. She starts to laugh, then leans in, and plants a huge kiss on Avery’s lips.
“SERIOUSLY?” I snarl, before I can catch myself.
Everyone’s eyes snap straight up to me.
Just great.
Letting out a low whistle as the purple-haired beauty walked off, “That is going to be the mother of my children right there,” Jesse says, taking a swig of his beer, his eyes never leaving her until she was out of his sight.
Avery shifts in his seat and rolls his eyes at his friend.
“You? Settle down? I thought you were perfectly happy with, what was it you said, your ‘care free, nag free, leech free’ lifestyle.”
Tilting his gaze down and keeping his hands busy with his ever-interesting beer bottle, Jesse shrugs.
“A guy can change his mind,” he states as he drums his fingers on the table, idling over his thoughts before a Cheshire grin strolls over his face, “Besides, have you seen her? Christ, everything about her is making it more and more uncomfortable to sit here in these tight fucking jeans,” he says, widening his eyes, raising his eyebrows, and then shakes his head with a laugh.
“Jess, I don’t want to hear that!” Avery all but cries out, motioning for him to scoot over so he can leave the booth, but Jesse doesn’t budge.
“Oh, come on, Olivia or not, for god’s sakes, you had Melanie in your lap all morning. You can’t tell me you didn’t appreciate the view. She’s like… an alternative pin-up girl,” Jesse argues.
“Dude, her rack is huge. You’re lying if you say you didn’t notice. And their real,” Adam pipes in, prying his eyes away from his phone long enough to shoot Avery a look that says ‘don’t lie to me’.
“How do you know their real?” Jesse asks, turning his amused face to his band mate.
“Do you really need to ask me how I know? I just know these things! Plus, when she had them pressed up against me—”
“Seriously, Adam?” Avery huffs out, trying again, unsuccessfully, to get out of the booth as his laughing friends pinned him in from both sides while laughing furiously.
“What’s gotten into you tonight, Ave?” Jess asks, halting his laughter long enough to ask his friend a serious question, but before he could get an answer, their attention went straight to the annoying voice approaching their table,
“Why haven’t you answered any of my calls or texts today?”
They are all staring at me and I have no clue what to say.
Maybe I’ll just vomit.
I certainly feel like I could puke right now. It might distract them from the fact that I just barged up here, screeching as if we are on an episode of Maury.
Oh my god, eyes, so many eyes on me. Yeah, I think I will just vomit.
“Seriously is right! I mean, that ladies room was ree-dic-u-lous,” my beautiful, crazy, blonde friend suddenly appears behind me, swinging an arm around my neck and raising an eyebrow. I nod, feeling like she may have just saved m
e from hurling up that pretty pink drink in front of all the rock stars in the room. I sigh and follow her lead as she pulls at my neck.
We walk up to the table, everyone’s faces now not solely focused on me, thank god. Vic softly whispers in my ear, “Breath. It’s ok. She’s not even that pretty.”
A small smile lights my face knowing that my friend must have seen the harlot and gone looking for me.
Speaking of harlot, my attention falls on the epitome of Barbie beauty sitting in my seat. Not that pretty?
Fuck her.
Ahhh, I’m just being a bitch now, but she’s just so cute, it’s sickening. Button nose, golden brown eyes, dirty blonde hair, super thin, and the jewelry and clothes she’s wearing are probably worth five times as much as the bucket of junk car I’m driving around.
“Melanie, this is Olivia. Olivia, this is Melanie, my friend that I was telling you about,” my most awesome best friend speaks up for me. I plaster on my best southern sweetheart smile, despite the growing ball of knots in my stomach, and say hello. I can feel Avery’s eyes on us, and the whole flipping moment just feels awkward as hell.
I’m ready to get the hell out of dodge.
Olivia looks away from Avery slowly. Her posture stiffens and she puts on a slightly catty smile.
“Hi, it’s nice to meet you,” she says, well, more like sneers, her eyes boring holes into me.
For having just met me, she seems rather on edge. If she only knew the half of it.
I hear Jesse snicker and my eyes fall to him, “We were just telling her about the shoot this morning.”
Bingo. Either she’s pissed about the risqué nature of the shoot or she’s pissed about them taking the models out afterwards. Or both. I’m guessing both.
Can’t say that I blame her. I nearly flew across the room at her when I saw her kiss him and he’s not even mine. I’d probably be a bloody mess if she’d been at the shoot today.
I sigh softly, quickly trying to remind myself that I’m not a thirteen-year-old girl and he’s not my boyfriend. Avery and Olivia are getting married and I need to respect that and move on… and ignore the deep feeling of rage I feel every single time I watch her touch him.
Wild Chase Page 10
