Play Nice

by L. P. Maxa

  Luke poured himself another. “Way ahead of ya.”

  Dash pushed Chase towards the bar. “You have the rest of the night off, have a few drinks with us.” He came over and wrapped his arms around me whispering, “Just a few shots and we’ll sneak out. All I could think about while I was out there singing was how badly I wanted to get back inside you.”

  “Hey, Lex, they have a kegorater in here. You up for some power pitcher?” Luke held up a plastic pitcher with a smile on his face.

  I laughed, “Have I ever turned down power pitcher? Ever? No, sir. Let’s play.” Luke had probably guessed at what Dash whispered in my ear; the way he was plastered against my ass wasn’t subtle. But Luke just looked so damn happy about playing that I couldn’t turn him down.

  “What’s power pitcher? Is that like power hour?” Chase took the shot of whiskey Luke had left out for him.

  “It’s like power hour for tiny little college co-eds who don’t have the stomach capacity for power hour.” Luke winked at me.

  I pointed at him. “Or underage drummers who don’t have the tolerance.”

  He laughed. “Touché. It’s a game we used to play—you fill up a pitcher full of beer, line up shot glasses and take shots until the beer is gone.”

  Dash mumbled under his breath, “At least it’s a fast game.”

  I stood on tiptoe to whisper in his ear, “If you play nice with Luke right now, I’ll play very nice with you later.” Two could play the dirty whispered words game.

  Dash smiled at Luke. “All right man, line ’em up. This sounds like fun.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Dash

  There were four of us, so we had to play four fucking rounds of that stupid game before Lexi and I could leave. I had Dags leash in one hand, Lexi’s hand in the other, and we were on our way back to the bus. Back to our bedroom…back to our bed. I was pretty damn happy.

  “Dash! Dash! Is that Alexis? Is that your girlfriend? Is that your dog? Did y’all buy it together?”

  There were reporters waiting for us outside the stadium. What the hell were reporters doing in fucking Starkville, Mississippi? There was nothing here except for the university and some stupid camo company. “Just keep your head down, Kitten. Keep walking.” I shouldn’t have given Chase the rest of the night off. I made a mental note to always have security with us from now on when we were walking to and from the venues. I didn’t want Lexi getting ambushed when she was alone. Eventually we got close enough to the bus that the road crew heard all the commotion and came out to help us inside. “Hey, are you okay?”

  “I’m fine, really, no worries.”

  “I’m gonna text the guys, let them know what to expect when they walk out the door.” I pulled out my phone and texted my band mates while I used my body to herd Lex towards the bedroom.

  “Impatient much?”

  I locked the door behind me. “Hey, I played nice, just like you asked.” I snapped and pointed to the ground. “Dagger, lay down.” He blinked at me, still as a statue. I got down eye level with him. “Dagger, you listen to me all day, except when it’s bedtime. I know what you’re up to, and it isn’t going to work. Now lie down, or you’ll have to sleep in the living room alone.” I stood and pointed to the floor. He huffed and snorted, but eventually lay down. I sat on the bed and reached for Lexi’s hand, pulling her between my legs. “I want to talk to you about something.”

  She climbed onto my lap and placed her hands on my shoulders. “So talk.”

  I was suddenly nervous to ask her. Why was I being such a pussy? It’s not like I was asking the girl to marry me. Or to do anal. “I haven’t been in a monogamous relationship since I was seventeen years-old and—”

  “You haven’t had a girlfriend in over twelve years?! Good God, I seriously don’t even want to guess at how many women you’ve slept with.”

  She visibly shivered. Great, maybe not the best opener for what I wanted to ask her. “Yeah, I’m a whore. I’m a very careful whore though. I’ve never had sex without a condom before, and I was thinking since you’ll be taking the pill tomorrow anyway…maybe tonight, we could just not use one?” I lifted her shirt above her head. “It’s actually all I’ve been thinking about since I got on stage tonight.” I kissed her chest. “I almost forgot the words to a song that I have been playing live for five years.” I placed my hands on her waist picking her up and spinning us both onto the bed. “But if you aren’t into it, then that’s okay.” I pulled her jeans off and tossed them onto the floor. “What do you think?” I quickly removed all my clothes and lay back down beside her, brushing a strand of hair off her shoulder.

  “On one hand, that sounds highly irresponsible and foolish.”

  “And on the other?” I held my breath.

  Lexi let out a long sigh. “On the other? That sounds like it would feel reallllly good.” She placed her leg over my hip, aligning our bodies.

  “Really?” I was so happy I wanted to cry. “Oh wow, it’s insane how excited I am right now. I feel like I’m about to lose my virginity all over again.” She giggled and I captured the sweet sounds in my mouth. I let my hands roam all over her tight little body. I wanted her to want me so bad that she couldn’t think straight. I grabbed her hands and threaded our fingers together. I brought our hands over her head and held her in place while I positioned myself at her core. Inch by slow tantalizing inch I entered Lexi. Being inside her bare was the most amazing feeling. It was like the best sex I’ve ever had, times one thousand. I wasn’t going to last too long, not this first time. “Lexi, baby, you feel so fucking good.” I rolled us over so that she was on top of me. I needed her to take charge, take what she needed, and fast. I used one hand to guide her hip, setting a nice rhythm. I trailed my other hand up her body, between her breasts and rested it at the base of her throat.

  She moaned and leaned into my hand, “Dash…oh my God.”

  I closed my eyes; the sight of her riding me was too much. “Come for me, Kitten.”

  She moaned and pressed her throat against my hand a little harder before shattering around me. I rolled her back over, slammed into her a few more times and then pulled out and shot my come all over her beautiful stomach.

  ***

  I woke up the next morning to complete silence, well, other than the sound of Lex breathing beside me and Dags snoring on the floor. Last night had been the best night of my life, hands down. Lexi was going to have to get on birth control ASAP, as I never wanted to have sex with a condom again. Wait. Why was it so quiet? Even if everyone was still asleep, there should be road noise. We were supposed to leave Mississippi at eight a.m. to head to Tennessee. I checked my watch. Yeah it was eleven already. We couldn’t already be there could we? I got up and pulled on a pair of jeans. When I opened the bedroom door Dagger got up; the jingle from his collar woke Lex.

  “Hey, where are you going?”

  I leaned down and kissed her bare shoulder. Lexi just slept naked now. She realized quickly there was no use in putting clothes on, because I’d just take them off at some point in the night. “I think we might have stopped for gas. I’m going to take Dags for a walk real quick.”

  She yawned and lay back against the pillows. “Okay, thanks. I took him out around five this morning but I’m sure he would love another walk.”

  “You took Dagger for a walk at five o’clock this morning? Alone?! Tell me you didn’t.”

  Lex raised her eyebrows and pursed her sexy lips. “Uh…I didn’t?”

  I shook my head. “Please don’t do that again. Wake me up and I’ll take him. It’s not safe, Lex.”

  “Dags is my responsibility—”

  I cut her off. “And you are mine. So just wake me up, okay?”

  “Okay.” She stretched her arms over her head. The sheet slipped down her body, exposing her breasts. She made no move to cover up. I loved how comfortable she was around me. She looked edible. Lexi laughed, “Don’t even think about it Dash. I need a break. I think you broke me.”
>
  I wore a very smug male smile all the way down the hall, and out the door. Then, when I realized that the bus had not fucking moved since last night and we weren’t almost to Tennessee, my smile fell. Chase was talking to our driver. Jacks was sitting on the grass with his head in his hands and Luke’s fingers were flying over the keyboard on his phone. “What the hell is going on? Why are we still here?!” I let Dagger off his leash. He trotted over to Jacks, tail wagging, and licked his face.

  Luke put his phone down. “Smith never came back to the bus last night.”

  “What? Why didn’t anyone come get me?” I had one eye on Dags, making sure I didn’t lose Lexi’s dog. He lifted his leg and peed on the wheel closest to Jacks.

  Jacks jumped up. “Not cool, bro!” Seemed he got some of Dagger’s splatter.

  Chase walked over. “When he didn’t show up at eight, we didn’t really think too much of it. It’s happened before. But then when nine turned to ten…we went looking for him. We’ve called everyone we can think of, man. No one’s seen him.”

  I pulled at my hair in frustration, “Again. Why the fuck didn’t someone come get me?” I pulled out my phone.

  Luke ground out, “We knew you were busy.”

  I took a step towards him, in that instant I wanted to hit him. He’d gone too far. “Don’t start with me Luke. You should have woken me up the second he didn’t show. And you know it.”

  Luke threw his hands in the air. “Why? Because you’re the great and powerful Dash Conner and you can just conjure him out of thin air?”

  “No, you ass wipe. Because I had a GPS tracker installed in his phone.” I held up my phone, a map was showing with a blinking red dot signaling where Smith was.

  Jacks came over and stared at my phone, then looked at me. “You put a tracker on him? That’s kind of creepy dude. Do you have one on me?”

  I handed my phone to Chase and motioned for Jacks to get back on the bus. “No, buddy, just Smith’s. You know how irresponsible he can be.”

  I looked over at Luke. His eyebrows were raised in question. I just shrugged. Of course I had a tracker on Jacks’s phone; he was just as bad as Smith. He didn’t have Smith’s penchant for uppers, but he did have other vices that got him in trouble. I heard Luke chuckle behind me. I wonder if he’d be laughing if he knew I had one installed on Lexi’s phone yesterday?

  “Hey, what’s going on? Why are we still here?” Lex was sitting curled up on the couch, her laptop balanced on her legs.

  Luke quickly sat down next to her before I could. Douche. “Smith never came back to the bus last night.” He lay down and put his legs across Lexi’s lap.

  She just lifted her laptop and then set it down on Luke’s legs. I hated how comfortable they were together, how natural it was for him to touch her, how she let him.

  “My girlfriend’s lap comfortable, Luke?” I resisted the urge to grab him and pull him off of her.

  “Just as comfortable as it’s always been, thanks for asking.”

  Without looking up from her computer Lexi reached over and pinched the inside of Luke’s thigh. Although I didn’t love seeing her hand that close to his dick, I liked the hissing sound he made. “Don’t be an ass, Lukey.”

  Chase came from the front of the bus and handed me back my phone. “We have the address plugged in. He isn’t too far from here. We’ll scoop him up on our way out.”

  I checked my watch again. Yet another delay in getting Lexi that pill. We would be cutting it pretty damn close. Was the universe trying to tell us something? I glanced at my watch again, trying to do the math in my head.

  Jacks threw an old french fry at my head. It bounced off and Dagger caught it in midair. “Why do you keep looking at your damn watch? What’s the rush? We don’t even play tonight. Calm down.”

  I looked up at Lexi. She was staring at me, lip caught in between her teeth. But not in a flirty way, in a worried way. “The big deal, jackass, is that Lexi’s pill is waiting for us in Tennessee. And the closer it gets to 72 hours out, the less effective it is.”

  No one said anything after that. The next time I looked up to check on Lex though, she was looking at Luke.

  Chase stuck his head around the corner, laughing. “We’re here.”

  All four of us got up and peeked out the window. We were parked in front of a very unassuming apartment complex. It looked so damn ordinary; it was comical. I stood and put on a ball cap and my aviators. It was the best disguise I had at the moment. “I’ll go get him.”

  Luke rose to his feet next to me. “I’ll go. I’m still less recognizable than you are, man.”

  I shook my head. “Smith gets…let’s just say ‘down.’ He might not come with you.”

  Luke glanced at Lexi before turning his eyes back towards me. “I know how to deal with bottomed out rockers, Dash.”

  “Still, it’ll go faster if I do it. Just keep the bus running. I’ll be in and out in no time.” I grabbed my phone from Chase and hopped off the bus before anyone could try and stop me. The tracker I had was state of the art. It showed me the exact apartment number where Smith was. I climbed to the third floor of building four and knocked on the last door on the right. After a few seconds of silence, the door swung wide to reveal a pissed off looking dude. He was huge. Linebacker huge. “Uh, I’m looking for my buddy’s phone. The tracker says it’s here.” Better to leave Smith’s name unsaid until I knew what was what.

  “I’m the only one here, man.”

  I looked around the brick wall of person standing in front of me. “You sure about that?” I held up my phone and showed him the blinking dot and his address.

  He took a step back. “Check for yourself.”

  I walked in and quickly searched the living room and kitchen. There were empty cups everywhere and a floated keg in the corner. The place reeked worse than our tour bus after a bender. “Mind if I check the bedrooms?” Wouldn’t put it past Smith to be in bed—with more than one girl.

  “Be my guest. There isn’t anyone here. The party got crazy after this rock star douche showed up. My neighbors called the cops around two a.m., and everyone fled.”

  The cops, no wonder this dude looked pissed off. And I could only imagine how irritating it had been when every girl in the room was throwing themselves at Smith. The bedroom was empty, but I found Smith’s phone in the bathroom between the sink and the shower. I held it up to the angry giant. “Thanks, man. At least I found his phone.”

  The guy shrugged and shut the door as soon as I stepped out onto the landing. I hightailed it back to the bus. Luckily, there wasn’t a crowd gathered around it—yet. We needed to get out of here though. I took off my ball cap as I shut and locked the door behind me. “Smith wasn’t in there, just his phone.” I tossed it to Jacks. “The guy that lives there said he had a party, but the cops were called and everyone left around two a.m. Smith was there at some point.”

  Luke leaned his head back against his seat and sighed, “Maybe he hit a bar after that?”

  Lexi shook her head. “Bars around here close at one on Saturday.”

  Luke rolled his eyes. “And how would you know when the bars close around…? Oh, that’s right…this isn’t little Lexi’s first trip to Starkville.”

  The smile Luke wore was making me want to punch him. I was already on edge. Smith was missing, Lexi needed to get to Tennessee and to her pill, and Luke was being smug about Lexi’s past. A past that I not only wasn’t part of, but didn’t know about either. More memories for them to share. “Whatever. If he isn’t at a bar then the only other place he could have gone was to another party.”

  Lexi frowned. “Hey maybe he just took a cab to a hotel and he’s sleeping it off?”

  Jacks started cracking up. “Oh Lexi, oh wow, you’re hilarious. Ah, I needed a good laugh.”

  I sat down with my head in my hands. At this point we’d spent two more precious hours chasing after Smith. “Is it time to start calling hospitals?”

  Luke ran his hands through his
hair. “Doesn’t sound like a bad idea.”

  “Hey y’all, wait. I think I found him.” Jacks got up and came around to us, showing us something on Smith’s phone. “That gossip site he follows, they just posted a picture of him that was supposedly taken around four a.m. this morning. It’s from some chick’s Twitter feed.”

  The picture was of Smith, surrounded by blonde, tanned co-eds. The group was standing in front of a fucking sorority house.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Lexi

  A fucking sorority house? The last time I saw Smith he was entering a room full of girls that wanted to nail him. He left there, drank a shit ton and then spent the night at the sorority house we were currently parked in front of. Damn, Smith had stamina. “Is it wrong that I’m a little impressed?”

  Luke and Dash both said yes at the same time. Jacks shrugged. “It is what it is. This is Smith and he’s ours for better or worse.” Wow, that was the most sentimental thing I had heard Jacks say. Granted I’d only know him for about four days, but still.

  The large white house with pretentious columns was surrounded by people. There were college kids all over the lush green lawn. News was out that The Devil’s Share was on campus. At least the paparazzi hadn’t shown up yet. They were probably having trouble getting onto campus; plus we had driven through a maze to find this place.

  Chase headed towards the door. “I’ll go get him. Y’all stay here. We don’t want to incite a riot having all of The Devil’s Share seen coming out of a sorority house. The press will be here any second I’m sure.”

  I held my hand out to stop him. “No, let me go. You’re a guy, you can’t just walk into a sorority house unnoticed.”

  “No way, Lex. Those kids will swarm you as soon as you step off the bus. Plus, we have no idea what’s going on in there, we have no idea how…we just don’t know.” I knew why Luke was protesting. He was having flashbacks of that night with Sam.