“Ha, you’ll see. Because you’re coming with me. I got it all figured out.”
“You got all of what figured out?” Darling asked, narrowing her eyes at him.
“That call I took this morning, that was a buddy of mine. The drummer for Virus broke his arm in a motorcycle accident, and they need me to fill in. So I’m playing the Jagermeister Rock Slam concert series in Hartford tomorrow night, and you, my sweet Darling, are coming with me.”
“Ross, what are you talking about? I can’t go off to some all-day music festival that you’re playing in. I’ve got more packing to do, and I need to keep an eye on Beauty Belle, remember?” Darling took a sip of her tea and pulled her shorts-clad leg up onto the chair, wrapping her arm around her knee.
“I told you I had this all figured. Hartford is only an hour from here, but since by the time the headliner plays—by the way, I’m going to be playing with the headlining band.” Ross waggled his eyebrows. “I figured we should stay in a nice hotel. I already asked your trusty friend Carrie if she could handle feeding and letting Beauty Bell outside for the evening and the following morning.” He watched, waiting for her reaction, feeling slightly insecure that she might turn him down, and then what?
“Well, then, what did Carrie say?”
“Unlike you, Carrie is a huge fan of Becket. She’d love to help out, especially if I’d be willing to throw in some autographs from the guys from Viral and Rat Core. So, are you into any of this, I mean you’re like twenty-two years old, so live a little, go wild, watch some kick-ass concert action.”
“Hey, I’ve been all about carpe diem this last week. And it does sound fun. I’ve never been to a music festival, so why not.”
Ross hopped up from his chair and pulled Darling into his arms, dropping kisses all along her eyes, cheeks, and down to her neck. This was the happiest he could ever remember being. He loved the way her breasts felt pressed up against his bare chest, just her thin tank top between them. He moved in to capture her lips in a deep kiss, her little moan encouraging him to let his tongue dip into her mouth. He wasn’t sure if he could get enough of her. He wanted to taste every part of her, learn every nook and cranny. He was practically climbing inside her skin. Her innocence was touching, but she was most intoxicating when she let herself get caught up in passion. He wasn’t sure what to call what they had going on, but he knew he didn’t want to think about it ending. He wanted her to see the concert, although he had some concerns. Some of things she might see at that kind of show could be a bit nasty, but the alternative was to leave her back at the lake house alone for the night. He couldn’t do it. He wanted her closeby as much as he wanted to get back behind the drum kit slamming out beats and hearing the roar of the crowd. Darling would just have to go with him. He’d have to make sure there was somebody keeping an eye on her while he was on stage. She nibbled on his lower lip, and he pushed his bulging hard-on against her soft belly, holding onto her ass cheeks to keep them tightly pressed together.
“Take your filthy hands off my daughter,” a man shouted, punctuating his words with the slam of the patio door.
“Daddy, what are you doing here?” squealed Darling, jumping away from Ross as if he were a leper.
“I’m here to look out for you, and I can see I’m obviously too late. Your aunt was right. You are staying here alone with a strange man and without my permission. What would your mother think if she could see you now?” Darling’s father ran his hand through his thinning brown hair and shook his head.
Ross could see Darling’s eyes welling up in tears over her father’s disapproval. He had to try and say something. “Sir, Mister…” He paused.
“Oh Lord, you’re all over my daughter, and you don’t even know her last name, do you? It’s worse than I thought. Darling, you have to come with me. You need to leave right now.” He started toward Darling, grabbing her by the upper arm and yanking.
Darling held her ground, shaking him off. “Daddy, stop it. This is ridiculous. Ross is my friend, and I invited him here.” Her father continued trying to drag her away. “Dammit, this is my house.”
“Darling, you don’t know what you’re saying. He’s obviously pressured and confused you. You just come with me. I’ll take care of everything.” He pulled on Darling’s arm again, glaring at Ross as if he was a serpent in the Garden of Eden.
“Sir, it’s not what you think. I really care for your daughter.” Ross held his gaze steady. He would have continued, but she cut him off.
“Daddy, nobody has been pressuring me or anything else. I’m here to organize the house and do some writing, figure out my next step. Ross will be joining the rest of his band on tour in a couple of days, but he’s been a good friend to me.” She straightened up, leveling her gaze. Her father looked like he was about to collapse, pale and leaning like the tower of Pisa.
“Sweetheart, this is not how you were raised. You just don’t take up with a man under your roof, not without a wedding.” He ran a shaky hand through his hair again. “I was afraid this would happen. I knew your friend Madison would take you down some dark path as soon as I found out she was marrying that musician. Tracy called me and told me the other day, and I didn’t believe her. But now that I know what’s going on, I can help you. We need to let her put the house on the market. We’ll get you settled back to teaching.”
“No, Daddy. I’m not going back to teaching, and I’m not putting the house on the market, and I’m not listening to you!” She whirled around, working herself up. “You haven’t had more than a telephone relationship with me for years, so why do you think you can suddenly show up and tell me what to do or negate my choices? Nope, I don’t think so. I love you because you’re my dad, but right now you need to get out and go home. Go back to your new wife because I don’t need you.”
“Dar-Darling, you don’t mean it,” he stammered.
“I do, just get out,” she bellowed, turning her back to him.
“Fine, you’ve made your bed, now lay in it. Don’t come begging me for help when you can’t make the tax payments or you decide living in the house where your own mother disappeared wasn’t the best idea.” Mr. Roberts sputtered his words and slammed the door shut on his way out.
“Well, that certainly went over like a town hanging with a bungee rope,” Ross drawled, not sure if he should congratulate Darling for sticking up for herself or yell at her for making him sound like nothing more than a buddy in front of her father.
“Let’s see what time Carrie can come by for the dog and pack for this festival.” Her voice was calm, but the slight tremor of her hands gave her away.
Chapter 29
The music festival was huge, much larger than Darling had anticipated. Lines snaked all over the place with people doing everything from buying food and drink to shopping for leather goods and concert T-shirts. Over 45,000 people were in attendance at the Jagermeister Rock Slam. There were two different sets of stages: a small stage over in a field that had heavy metal and punk rock bands that were more regional favorites and the main stage with the better-known groups. Throughout the day different acts would perform on the various stages. The crowd was fired up. All kinds of people from all walks of life were elbow to elbow as they made their way to the different stages.
Darling had spent a good deal of her time in an indoor backstage area, somewhat disappointed that it wasn’t nearly as glamorous as she had expected it would be. Just room after room of equipment and staff all frantically trying to get organized for the various performers going out at different times. There was food set up and drinks galore, but the large number of people and hectic pace made her feel a bit claustrophobic.
Ross had been fairly busy going over the song list and practicing a few changes, so he didn’t have time to entertain her. Fortunately his younger brother, Bobby, had flown up from Texas, so he was on hand to walk around the festival with her. Bobby was tall like Ross but much darker-haired, maybe a couple of years younger. His accent seemed heavier, so it
was a bit harder sometimes for her New England ears to decipher what he meant. He was sweet-tempered and fun, not even complaining the least bit when she wanted to look at all the different tables with things for sale. Even though Ross advised him to keep her away from the beer and shot tents where things could get rowdy, he was still game for getting a pint when she suggested it.
Dozens of concert attendees had offered to buy her laminated VIP pass, but she knew not to even let someone hold it lest they grab it from the lanyard and pull it away from her. People, both men and women, were desperate to get to the backstage areas and hang with the bands. She’d heard more than one young woman declare that it would be the most incredible moment of their life if they could just go and meet Virus or Rat Core. Frankly she thought there were enough people hanging around the back area that a few more wouldn’t hurt, but it wasn’t her call.
Bobby escorted her to go see the main stage show but started pulling her away when a nearby group began an impromptu mosh pit in front of the stage. Security was breaking up some fights. They carefully checked on crowd attendees that had drunk too much or smoked too much and were strewn across the hillside lawn. Darling didn’t know how these people could do it, party all day long in the heat and keep it going through the evening headliners—then again, some really couldn’t. By seven thirty she was kind of glad to head back indoors, have a little something to eat, and hang with Ross. She would watch Virus perform from the side of the stage later. It was all going smoothly until Bobby took a minute to step into the men’s room. That was when some guy grabbed her, pulling her into one of the dressing rooms.
“Hey, wait a minute. Let me go,” Darling demanded, trying to shake his grip on her wrist.
“Come on, baby, show me what you can do,” the man said, pulling her close to him and grinding his pelvis against her.
“Get away from me,” she shouted, pushing against his broad chest.
“Oh, I love a girl who likes it rough. I bet you love getting those big titties of yours sucked hard.” He grabbed her nipple and pinched. Ouch. She attempted to pull out of his grasp fruitlessly.
Enough was enough. She drove both her arms down, forcing his arms clear to her left side. Her right forearm lay horizontally against her stomach, palm up. She pivoted into a soft bow stance and threw a back kick to his groin. He buckled over in pain, grabbing his crotch and moaning. The kimono grab and back kick combination lived up to its reputation. Darling stepped back, colliding with Bobby. She swung around, ready to strike him. He put both arms up in mock surrender.
“Hey, girl, go easy. I don’t want to wind up like that poor SOB,” Bobby drawled.
“Sorry, I’m a bit jumpy. He grabbed me and wouldn’t let go.”
“Yeah, I saw you take him down as I stepped out of the men’s. I didn’t know I was escorting Kung Fu Jane today. Damn, that was pretty hot, though. You just took out the lead singer for Rat Core. Ross has got himself a tigress.”
“Oh crap, I just beat up Luke Wilson? Well, he’ll be okay pretty soon.” She looked down at her would-be attacker and shook her head.
Luke stopped moaning and looked up at her with clenched teeth.
Well, it was his own damn fault for not letting her go. “I don’t know you what you thought, but I’m here with Ross Daniels.” She spat the words at Luke.
Realization dawned across his face, and he pulled himself up. “Oh fuck, I’m sorry. I thought you were, you know, here as part of the entertainment for the bands. My bad.” He hobbled out of the dressing room and sidled up to another blonde with large breasts.
Darling looked pointedly at Bobby. “Guess the kimono move didn’t take him out of action for long.”
“Yeah, well, Virus is about to take the stage, so let’s get you settled before anyone else winds up pissing you off.” He led her around the corner, the audience noises building with each step she took. Darling was secretly pleased to see her escort giving her a bit more room. She hated being treated like she was helpless.
Chapter 30
Every time Ross looked over, Darling was swaying to the beat and smiling at him like he was the most incredible person in the whole world. His brother stood a few feet away in the apron of the stage out of sight of the crowd. He was so glad he’d sent Bobby a ticket. He just wouldn’t have been able to concentrate if Darling was roaming around the crowds by herself or mixed in with some of the goings-on backstage. There were a lot of young bands that had yet to really sow their wild oats, and she didn’t need to be near that.
He slammed his last few beats down and ceremoniously whipped a number of drumsticks into the eager crowd. Fans leaped across each other anxious to grab one. They had already launched concert T-shirts, guitar picks, beach balls, and the like as well as sprayed large sections of the audience with water hoses to cool down the crowd and ramp up their excitement. They’d done two encores for the hungry spectators. He fed off their energy, absorbing the noise and excitement over the last few hours, but he knew it was time to call it a night. The band would be paying a fine for going overtime and breaking the city’s noise ordinance, but it was worth it. The fans would have torn the place up if they didn’t give them more show than they expected. Damn how he missed playing and couldn’t wait to get back on the tour. Playing with Virus was fun. They’d done a few shows together before, but it wasn’t like playing with his own band, that was like family.
He made sure he saw Bobby escort Darling back to the dressing room areas and high-fived the guys in Virus. They slapped each other on the back, hyped up about what a good show it had been, the great energy the crowd had tonight. The singer grabbed a bottle of scotch off a bar cart and used his teeth to twist the cap. “Ross, you got to do the New Jersey show with us. Come on, man.” He took a big slug from the bottle before handing it to Ross.
“I don’t know. I’m hoping to be back on my own tour any day now. If it’s going to be much longer, then shit yeah, I’ll play.” Ross handed the scotch back, moving toward the dressing rooms. He dripped with sweat, his T-shirt long ago ripped off and used as a rag. He desperately wanted to take a rinse-off shower but needed to check on Darling first. Perhaps he should just grab her and head over to the hotel for the night and shower there. He rounded a corner into another hallway, peeking into various rooms looking for her. People congratulated him on the performance, but he kept moving. He grabbed a beer from one of the wait staff catering to the performers and crew and took a deep swallow.
Around one more corner he spotted Darling trying to push herself through a large crowd with little luck. She seemed to really be stuck. People’s attention was riveted on something going on in the corner. That immediately made him suspicious. He pushed and shoved to make his way toward her, finally knocking over one of the punk band’s guitarists in the process. The kid flung a slew of profanities at him, but it didn’t matter. He was tall enough to see over many of the other heads in the crowd. He realized that they had a couple of groupies putting on a floorshow for everyone. It wasn’t the kind of behavior he should be proud of, but in his day he’d been known to accept favors from overanxious fans and get a kick out of watching pretty girls playing with each other and entertaining the bands. He knew soon enough a couple of the guys would jump in and the sex would just get dirtier. “Come on, Darling, let’s get out of here. You don’t need to see this,” he said, guiding her away by shoving people aside.
Chapter 31
Once they broke through the crowd, Darling was full of questions. He sighed inwardly knowing the discussion was not going anywhere good. “Does this kind of thing happen all the time? I mean are those girls professionals?”
Maybe he could pretend he couldn’t hear her?
“Ross, are those girls prostitutes?” she insisted, slowing her pace and forcing him to do the same.
He sighed. “It happens more than it should, but there are a lot of young bands playing this festival, and they may not be acting as professional as they should be. Those girls are just groupies, probably
not hookers, but they might be.”
Darling resumed their faster pace, frowning at everyone she passed.
Wait for it. You know it’s coming.
“So do you normally watch or do stuff with groupies?” she asked, not looking him in the eye.
Yep, she went there, and he couldn’t outright lie to her. Luckily, his younger brother saved him from having to tap dance around the truth.
“Yo, Ross, wait up.” Bobby caught up to him and slapped him on the back. “That was an awesome show; you guys totally nailed it. This was almost as good as when you and Becket played the Super Bowl. So we staying for the party? Looks like it’s getting pretty hot back there. Damn, there’s a total gang b—” Ross elbowed Bobby in the gut to shut him up. “Damn, bro.” He rubbed his ribs, “Oh, yeah, not the time, right,” Bobby mumbled, nodding in understanding.
“I really need a shower. I’m taking Darling back to the hotel. There’s a room for you under your name all set for whenever you’re ready. If you need me, I’m registered under the name John Darling.”
Darling looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. “Do you always register under fake names?”
“Yep, pretty much. If it’s anyplace near where the band has played. People call hotels all through the area trying to figure out which one various members are camped out at. Most of those people aren’t really looking for me, but they figure if they find out where I’m staying, they can find out where their favorite singer-guitarist is going to be.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. There seemed to be quite a few women screaming your name tonight, Mr. Special Guest Drummer from world famous super group, Becket. And don’t think I’m so naïve as to not know what was going on back there.” She poked him in the chest.
Darling's Desire Page 14
