[Found in Oblivion 01.0 - 02.0] Bedded Trouble

by Cari Quinn

  “I fucked up. I know it. I even tried to force things with some gossip. I’m not proud of it, but I hated the secrets.”

  “You what?” Tristan took a big step back.

  She crowded in on him again. “It was stupid, but I thought if everyone knew about us, then we could all be together.”

  “Even though I told you I didn’t want to jeopardize my job?” He’d worked so damn hard to get his own restaurant.

  “I know. I was desperate.” She blew out a long breath. “You guys know I come from a fucked-up background.”

  Tristan swallowed. “Yeah. You told me a little bit about your family.” It sucked that her father was a pathological adulterer, but Jesus. To go out there and start shit with the tabloids? That was crossing the line.

  But knowing she was willing to tell everyone about them cracked the hurt he’d been stuffing down for so long. It wasn’t the right way to go about it, but knowing she wasn’t ashamed of him—of them? Yeah, that was something he hadn’t seen coming.

  “While my father might not take his vows to my mother to heart, there’s more to my issues.” She swallowed and held out her other hand to Rand. “I was content to let everyone think I was a party girl because the one and only time I let someone in, it went sideways. I’ve never been good for anyone.”

  “Don’t say that.” Tris brushed his lips over her temple. Her dark plum scent urged him closer. Between the tears and missing her, he was so fucking toast.

  “You don’t know. No one really knows about Dru. I don’t talk about him ever.”

  Tris didn’t really want to know about another guy in her damn life. It was bad enough he had to see her with Rand. But the pain in her eyes was enough to keep his damn mouth shut. “Okay.”

  “I lived in Paris for a year. We were young and dumb and wild.” She dashed away tears. “So wild. Bikes are big over there. Even more than over here. There’s just no room on the roads. And they’re so dangerous.”

  Her eyes were distant and Tris saw the difficult memories crowding in on her. He had a few shitty moments in his past that he’d rather not relive, but nothing that would make him shake like she was. He hooked an arm around her waist and hauled her into his chest.

  She laid her cheek against his shoulder. “He almost died because of me. I was such an adrenaline junkie. All I wanted was speed. More and more.”

  Rand came up behind her and moved in close so she knew he was right there too. This woman who had been nothing but loving and giving with them needed them right now.

  She was more important than their issues. More important than just about anything.

  Rand smoothed a gentle hand down her hair. “It’s okay, Jules. We’re here. Say what you need to say.”

  “We were racing. There always seemed to be one going on in the streets at night. And the Ducati in front of us skidded out on a puddle of petrol. Someone’s gas line leaked. The racers were always doing illegal enhancements to go faster.” She sniffed. “Dru tried to downshift, but we were just going too fast.”

  “Wait, you were on the bike too?” Tris pulled back and looked down at her.

  She nodded. “I got thrown and Dru skidded through the puddle. There were all these sparks and flames.” She dashed away tears as fast as they came. “He got burned and I was fine. He never forgave me. I tried to be there for him. But he told me every time he looked in the mirror, he saw the ugliness I brought to him.”

  “No.” Rand hugged her from behind, tucking his chin on her shoulder. “No, it was an accident.”

  “I know.” She gripped Tristan’s arm and brushed her cheek against Rand’s. “It took me a long time to understand that. To believe I was good enough for anyone. But then you two came along.” She smoothed her hand over Rand’s arm and lifted her other arm around Tristan’s neck. “You showed me how beautiful love was. And everything I felt for Dru paled in comparison to this. To us.”

  Tristan touched his forehead to hers. “I’ve never let a woman get close enough to say the words—her to me, or vice versa.”

  “I love you, Tristan. So much. I know this…” She hugged Randy closer and crowded in on Tristan. “I know this is a lot. But we’re worth it. You’re worth it.” She leaned touched her cheek to Randy again. “Even if people give us sideways looks and sneer—it doesn’t matter. I need you both. I want you both.”

  Rand looked up at Tristan. “We clicked as friends from the start, now it’s just a little more. She makes us more. I’ve never had a home before you two. My whole life has been a nomad’s existence.” He rose to his full height and brushed his lips over the top of Juliet’s head. “As soon as I was able to get out on the road, I never looked back. It was just what my family did.” He clamped a hand on Tristan’s shoulder right next to Juliet’s. “I want a home base. I want to belong somewhere.”

  Tristan’s chest expanded and contracted. “I want that too. I didn’t realize just how much until you guys left.” He swallowed hard. “Until I pushed you away.”

  “Don’t do it again.” Jules sniffed. “None of us have to ever be alone again.” She lifted her mouth to Tristan’s. Salt and joy mixed into a flavor he’d never expected to find.

  Home.

  Theirs wouldn’t look like anyone else’s, and that was just fine too. And if anyone talked, if anyone treated his restaurant as a curiosity rather than a place for fine cuisine, well, then he’d just have to win them over.

  No one’s opinion was worth more than these two people’s. No one’s.

  “I won’t,” Tris murmured.

  She tipped her head back against Randy’s chest. The angle was a little awkward, but they made it work. None of them were ready to let go of one another.

  Jules sagged between them. “Can we go home? I feel like I haven’t slept in ages. I miss your bed, Tris. I miss being squished between my guys.”

  Rand sighed. “We have a flight out to Berkeley tomorrow. Early.”

  “You’re coming, right?” She peered up at Tris with her huge red-rimmed eyes. As if he could ever deny her a fucking thing.

  “I wouldn’t miss it.”

  “Both my guys at my show. Finally.”

  “I’ve seen a few of your shows,” Tristan reminded her.

  “But not as my guy. Not when I can tell everyone you’re my guy. Both of you are mine.”

  Tristan’s chest tightened. “You want to do that?” He met Randy’s gaze. “You’re fine with that too?”

  Rand grinned. “Why would I worry about that? We’ve got the hottest fucking chick ever. Oh, and she even loves our ugly mugs.”

  “Luckily, both of you happen to be rather beautiful. I’m the lucky girl.” She grinned up at Tristan. “No more shadows. You two are the only people who matter to me.”

  No more fucking shadows. He was just fine with that. “Then let’s go the fuck home. Our house has been too fucking quiet. I almost got a goddamn cat, for fuck’s sake.”

  “A kitty?” Juliet melted. “We can still get one.”

  “What? So I take care of it while you guys are on the road?”

  She shrugged. “This way you have a pussy at home all the time.”

  Tristan snorted. “Nice, Jules.”

  She grinned. “Win-win.”

  Twenty-Eight

  Jules jumped up and down on the sidelines. There were a lot of fucking people in the audience. Way more than she’d been prepared for. Like by miles. The freaking Greek Theatre. How on Earth was this her life?

  West vibrated next to her. “Dude. Seriously, there’s like a million people out there.”

  She elbowed him. “Not a million.” That number was enough to make her heart to blow out of her damn chest.

  “We sold out. Well, Oblivion sold out and we get to be part of it.” Elle twisted her fingers together. Her guitar hung along her back, the pink strap bisecting her Jimmy Page T-shirt. Her eyes were a little glassy.

  Jules was pretty sure her own eyes looked the same. They had to be approximately the size of saucer
s. God, just the thought of getting onto the stage and facing so many people who came to see her sister’s band was making her giddy. And by extension, to see them.

  She bent at the waist and blew out a breath. Maybe a few of them actually came to see her band too. “Okay. We can do this.”

  West slapped her on the back. “We can totally do this. In fact…” He disappeared behind the curtain on the side stage.

  “Where the hell are you going? We go on in like five seconds.”

  “Just need this.” He rolled a huge ball out. “You gotta do something for me.”

  “What the hell is that?”

  “Calm your tits. It’s gonna be fine.”

  “West Reynolds.” Lila Crandall’s clipped voice came from the stairs behind them.

  West dove into the small opening at the side of the human beach ball. It was clear and the size of a small planet. He quickly bounded to his feet. “Okay. Like now, you gotta help me.”

  Juliet twisted back to see Lila pushing past Michael to get to the top of the stairs. “Oh, Jesus.”

  “Push!”

  “What?” Shock rooted Juliet’s feet to the floor.

  “I need all you guys to push me out there. I’m crowd surfing, like right now.”

  “Oh, hell no.” Elle shook her head.

  “Do it!” West shouted.

  Juliet’s hands shook. “West, what the hell?”

  “This is going to be so sick.” He bounced up and down inside the huge inflated ball. “I saw a dude from a festival do it. It’s going be awesome. Everyone will be talking about us. This is perfectly safe.”

  “Oh, yeah? Then why is Lila having a kitten behind us?”

  “Because she’s Lila. Do it.” He pressed his hands against the inside layer. “Don’t be a pussy. I can always count on you, Jules.”

  “You’re going to be the death of me.” She plowed forward, using all her weight to propel him onward as the lights went down. The rest of the band was less than five feet away.

  Never a dull moment with this crew.

  She pushed him out onto the stage and the crowd lost their mind.

  Michael rushed by her and instead of giving her trouble, he put his shoulder into it and tossed West off the front of the stage and into the audience.

  Just like that, West became a human beach ball.

  Molly screeched out a dismayed bellow as she ran to her microphone stand. “This is our biggest show and you do this?”

  Jules laughed and crossed the stage to her station on the right. She jumped and waved to the crowd as the house lights burst across thousands of faces.

  “How you doing out there, Berkeley?” Molly twirled her microphone stand. A flurry of rainbow colors windmilled around her lush body. “Take care of my boy West out there. I need him back by the third song.”

  West laughed. “This is so rad!” He was wearing a microphone on his collar. The huge screen showed him rolling over hundreds of hands reaching up to push him along.

  “We’re Warning Sign! Are you ready to rock your face off?”

  The crowd pulsed with purple and blue lights. Jules used her hand as a visor to look out on the sea of faces. In the center of it all was the sound and light board and her guy—one of her guys—lording over his station.

  She knew he’d take care of them tonight. Jules put her arms up and a kaleidoscope of pink and purple lights flashed over her skin, then out to the crowd and back again. She couldn’t stop the huge smile. She’d make sure to say hello to Sparks later in the show for that one.

  The band immediately exploded into their new single, “Shine”. It was rising up the charts and had prompted Ripper Records to give them the go ahead on a music video in January. Finally, everything seemed to be falling into place.

  Malachi pounded away on the drums behind her as West did his best impersonation of a human ping pong ball in the middle of the crowd. She slapped her cherry red bass and let the music fill her up. There was nothing quite so amazing as the stage.

  Two men making her the happiest woman on the flippin’ planet was a very close second though.

  She ran across the stage and met Ryan in the middle as they dueled through the next song. He was wearing her backup bass. She never knew what instrument the idiot was going to pick up. The bass line grew heavier as Elle and Michael raced up the frets of their guitars and built the song until the crowd was screaming with Molly’s lyrics.

  They knew their goddamn songs.

  Fuck yeah.

  West came careening through the front three rows as they flew through the next one on the setlist. She laughed as Tristan and three other guys who looked like they could bench-lift a car passed their keyboardist onto the stage.

  Like a damn spider monkey, West leapt out of the hole on the side of the ball and did a dizzy drunk roll onto the stage. He turned to the crowd and spread his legs and arms wide. “Fuck yeah! That was awesome.”

  “Get back behind your keyboard,” Molly ordered.

  “I’m going.” West sprinted to the back of the stage and behind his keys.

  Molly gave a breathless laugh. “You guys ready for a new song?”

  Jules moved back to her spot and waved down to Tristan, who was fighting his way back up to the front row. His shirt was off and his blue faux hawk was in seriously good working order. She couldn’t miss him, that was for sure.

  She slithered along the stage to the rhythm of “Are You Satisfied?” When it came to the guitar solo, she went to her knees before Tristan and leaned over the edge of the stage. He was jumping with the crowd as he reached for her.

  Their fingertips brushed and he laughed. More fingers brushed her hair, her shoulders, and her arms. A spotlight found her and Tristan’s voice boomed out of the crowd.

  “I love you, you crazy woman.”

  She collapsed back on the stage, her head tipped back. “I love you too,” she said into the sky. Lights in purple and pink fluttered around her and over her skin. She knew Sparks was saying the same thing right then.

  A perfect night with a sky full of stars, love in her heart, and her band at her back.

  She never thought she’d get to have it all, but there it was.

  And she’d never take it for granted.

  Epilogue

  Valentine’s Day

  “You don’t think it’s a little big?”

  “Sure, it’s big. But I like big things. You should know that better than anyone.”

  Tristan turned toward Juliet and wagged a finger. “Can you please focus, Ms. Reece? I swear, all you do is think about sex. Honestly, it hurts me. What am I to you? Just an object of pleasure?”

  She grinned and launched herself into his arms. “You also are an incredible cook.”

  From where he was standing behind them, Randy fought back a grin of his own. “Seriously, don’t inflate his head any more. It’s already bloated enough.”

  “I can’t help it if I’m big all over.”

  “So, see, this bed is perfect for you. For us.” She took a running leap and landed in the center of the huge circular bed she’d had custom built for Tristan’s apartment.

  Their apartment, which would soon be expanding significantly. But the other spoke of their trio didn’t know that yet. All he knew at the moment was that his bedroom now contained such a huge bed that the rest of his furniture barely fit around it.

  “It is, but dude, I feel like it’s like made for a porno or something. There’s hardly room for my dresser. Our dresser,” Tristan corrected immediately. “Which we need a bigger one of, because holy crap, woman. So much lingerie.”

  “Like you mind that.” She arched a brow and bounced a little more on the bed. On cue, Tristan’s gaze sharpened.

  Randy figured he’d continue protesting about the bed for all of five more seconds before he gave in and rendered it impossible to be returned.

  Not that they could anyway, because custom built. But in theory.

  “No. I’m just saying.” Tristan huffed o
ut a breath and glanced over his shoulder at Randy. “Well? What do you think?”

  Randy pretended to ponder the subject. He rubbed his jaw and walked around the bed, studying it from all angles. “I think it’s Valentine’s Day, and our woman got us a present we can all make very good use of. So stop worrying about the apartment’s feng shui and get naked already so we can test it out.”

  Tristan lifted a brow. “Such a sweet talker.”

  Randy laughed. “Actually, on second thought, keep your jeans on. There’s one more part to Juliet’s present, one I helped with.”

  “Oh, really. So you two are tag-teaming me again?”

  “We haven’t tag-teamed you yet. Though that’d be pretty interesting.” She shot a saucy look over her shoulder at Sparks. “What do you think?”

  “I think your mind is full of ideas, ninety-eight-point-nine percent of which will never happen.”

  “Oh, but that one point-one percent includes so many wonderful possibilities.” She stretched out on the bed and opened her legs, giving them more than a little glimpse of her thigh high, lace-topped stockings as her hem inched higher.

  She wore spiky black heels, a little black dress, and the thigh-highs, and knowing Juliet, probably not much else.

  They were supposed to be going to dinner, but if she kept squirming on that bed, Randy wasn’t at all sure that was going to happen.

  Unless dinner included feasting on her hot little pussy.

  Tristan shifted, looking more than a bit uncomfortable, particularly below the waist. But the dude was showing epic restraint, because this was their first Valentine’s Day together and they’d agreed to show Juliet the night of her life—without sex.

  Well, for as long as they could hold out. They weren’t superheroes, and damn, she was fine.

  “Okay, so let’s hear about the next part. Because I have one too, you know.”

  Juliet squealed and leaned up on one elbow. “You actually got us a present? Really?”

  “Wow. What do you think I am, a miser?”