More applause drowned out his final words of thanks and all the audience were able to hear was “Good night and a safe trip home.”
Darkness blanketed the beach house. Lori entered the sun room, carefully setting the open bottle of wine and the glasses down on the floor, before switching on the lamp. While Jake brought his guitars in from the car, she poured them both a glass of Chardonnay then curled up on the couch to wait for him. A few moments later, Jake wandered in, carrying his acoustic guitar, his baby. Setting it down against the couch, he sat on the floor in front of Lori and lifted his glass.
“To you, li’l lady. For tonight,” he toasted. “You made those kids very happy.”
Taking a sip of her wine first, Lori replied, “It wasn’t much. They deserve a chance.”
“How much did you bid for that studio time?”
“Enough,” she responded with a giggle. “More than I bid for the tattoo appointment with Danny.”
“Yes, Mz Hyde,” teased her fiancé. “I heard a rumour about that. Pray tell?”
“My lips are sealed,” she giggled.
“Now, where are you planning to ink this time?” asked Jake, kneeling round to face her. Slowly, he reached out and took the glass out of her hand. Placing it to one side, he reached up and lifted her down onto the floor beside him. His long, warm, slender hands raised her top up, then he delivered feathery kisses to the base of her spine.
“Here, perhaps?” he murmured, as he slipped the silky top over her head. “Or here?” as he kissed the nape of her neck.
“Not even close, rock star,” whispered Lori, running her fingers through his long, blonde, tousled hair.
With one swift move, Jake had lifted her again and laid her down on her back on the Oriental rug. The button fly of her jeans was no challenge to his nimble fingers and, within seconds, her jeans lay up on the couch. Gently, he ran his fingers over her hip bones.
“Am I getting warm yet?”
“No,” purred Lori, small electric shocks of pleasure shooting through her as he touched her bare skin. His left hand lingered a few moments on the silvery scar on her soft, pale skin.
Sitting back on his heels, Jake smiled down at her as she lay on the rug, wearing only her pale pink bra and lace panties. Her long, blonde hair was fanned out behind her, spread out like a golden halo. No matter how many times he saw her naked, her beauty took his breath away. Feeling his erection straining against his jeans, Jake bent and tenderly kissed her knees then her ankles. Beneath his caresses, Lori let out a low moan of anticipation.
“Warm yet?” he enquired, as he kissed the tips of her painted toes.
Lori nodded, purring in contentment.
“Left foot?” Jake guessed as he ran a finger over her small, slender foot.
“Yes,” whispered Lori, before adding, “But I’m not saying what just yet.”
“Now, can I collect my reward?”
“Yes, you may, rock star.”
Jake needed no second invitation. He slipped his T-shirt off over his head then stood up to remove his jeans and boxer shorts. Naked, he towered over Lori as she lay perfectly still on the rug. Kneeling down, then straddling her, Jake pulled her up into a sitting position, kissed her shoulder, then unhooked her bra, tossing it up onto the couch. Running his hands teasingly down her sides, he paused when he reached the thin waistband of her panties then slide them down, discarding them on the floor. He gently feathered her breasts with kisses, pausing to suck hard on her nipples. Feeling her body shudder with pleasure, he ran his tongue slowly across her flat stomach. Beneath him, Lori moaned softly, arching herself up to meet him. Painstakingly slowly, he fingered the nub of her clitoris before thrusting his erect manhood deep into her moist feminine depths. Lori sighed as he began to move in long, slow rhythmic strokes. In an attempt to prolong their mutual pleasure, Jake made love to her slowly, teasing her body to the point of orgasm. Eventually he couldn’t hold back any longer and thrust hard and fast inside her. Entwined together, they spiralled into previously hidden depths of sexual ecstasy.
Wrapped in a soft fleecy blanket, both still naked underneath, they sat sipping their wine and began to talk over the plans for the coming weeks. First thing on Monday, the band were due in the studio to start recording. Six long weeks out at JJL lay before them; six short weeks at home before they started the rock festival season.
“Any chance of getting Todd’s group on stage this summer?” asked Lori sleepily.
“Maybe. There’s a couple of radio station beach parties they may be able to play at. It’s very early days for them. I don’t want to push them too far, too fast plus I need Todd to be free to come out with us.”
“True,” yawned Lori, resting her head on her fiancé’s shoulder.
“Come on, li’l lady,” he whispered as she dozed off. “Time for bed.”
♫
Stepping into the newly completed JJL Studio One brought out the inner children in Silver Lake. Everything was brand new state of the art and they all wanted to touch everything. A surprise awaited them as Dr Marrs gave them the tour of the facilities. In the lounge, reclined on one of the soft, leather chairs, was a young woman with the longest dark brown hair any of them had seen.
“Let me introduce you to your sound engineer,” said Dr Marrs with a grin. “This is Kola. She’s been working with me for the past few months.”
Standing up to greet the band, Kola smiled before saying a rather shy, “Hello.”
“No need to be shy, sweetheart,” said Rich shaking her hand. “We don’t bite.”
The girl blushed scarlet, glancing across at Jim Marrs for reassurance.
“The boys will be gentle with you,” he promised warmly. “Why don’t you all get to know each other over a coffee, then we can plan out the day?”
Over coffee, the young engineer relaxed a little and, after a barrage of gentle teasing from Paul, she began to chat with the members of Silver Lake without blushing. When they finally moved from the lounge into the studio, Jake asked her how long she’d been working for Dr Marrs.
“Six months. I was in LA for two years after college,” she replied, her voice husky and warm, suggesting perhaps that she was a regular smoker.
“It’s a bit quieter round here than in LA,” laughed Jake.
“I’m based in Philly, so I can get my city fix,” she replied. “I’m sharing an apartment with my brother while I’m here.”
“That’s a fair commute,” he mused.
“It’s not so bad. I like the solitude of the road on my bike,” she answered.
“Bike?”
“I ride a Harley,” revealed Kola smiling up at him. “It’s parked out back.”
“Guess, this is going to be a day of surprises,” laughed Jake, lifting his black Gibson Les Paul out if its case. Turning to the others, he declared, “Let’s get this party started!”
Silver Lake’s week in the studio was relaxed- the calm before the storm. Teething problems blighted them for a day or two, but they worked their way patiently through them. By the end of the first week, they had played all of their new material through for Dr Marrs. He had listened to it all and recorded demos of each track before calling them back to the start. Song by song, he took each one back to its bare skeleton, then began to rebuild them, suggesting improvements to their arrangements, tweaks to the tempo, alterations to the timing. At times, it was hard for the band not to get too defensive, too protective of their new material. Past experience told them all that the producer knew his stuff and, having worked with them all before, he knew what they were capable of.
It was late on Friday night before they had the recording schedule mapped out on the board. Some of the tracks were in doubt but, for now, Dr Marrs had included them in the plans. In the corner of the studio there was a white board that had been gridded out by Kola while they had debated and now it listed all the songs and tracking to be completed. Seeing it sitting there, blank apart from the working titles of the fifteen songs, served
as a stark reminder to the band of the amount of work to be done.
“Right, guys,” declared Dr Marrs as they packed up for the night. “Let’s take a breather for the weekend. Paul, I want you and Grey here early on Monday. We start with you guys. Rich, can you re-work the solos on tracks four, eight and eleven. I’m still not convinced about those. Jake, lyrics for twelve and fifteen. Park what you have. We need something dark. Something evil. Haunted.”
“Yes, boss,” muttered Rich under his breath.
“Do you need Rich and I out here at the start of the week?” asked Jake with a yawn. “If not, we can work together back at the house.”
“Up to yourselves. Plenty space here for you to work. If I don’t see you before it, I want you here on Wednesday,” said the producer. “Jason’s dropping by for a “royal visit.” We need to look good.”
“Ok,” agreed Jake, lifting his book bag and two of his guitars. “I’m out of here.”
Bright sunlight flooded the bedroom when Lori finally roused herself from sleep on Sunday morning. Instantly she knew she had slept late, but, if a girl couldn’t have a long lie on her birthday, when could she? A single red rose lay on the night stand beside the bed with a small white card underneath it. On the card there were written a series of musical notes and the words “Happy Birthday, li’l lady. J x” The night before, both of them had worked on until after midnight, hence the lie in. One of Lori’s deadlines had been pulled forward, causing her to work flat out for three days solid, trying to cram two weeks of work into the tight timeframe
Pulling on one of Jake’s discarded T-shirts, Lori lifted the rose and wandered through to the kitchen to put it in some water. A bud vase, already filled with water, was sitting on the counter and under it was another card. This time, the card had the same musical notes drawn on it but there was also a picture of the sun. Curious, Lori placed the flower in the vase, then limped through to the sun room. Silence was filling the house and she felt confident that she was alone. In the sun room, one of the small occasional tables had been moved to the centre of the room and, in the centre of the table, was a vase with eleven red roses and another card – more musical notes and a champagne glass plus a small pile of sand drizzled on top. With a smile, Lori headed bare foot across the deck to the edge of the path then down to the beach.
She spotted Jake immediately. Without pausing to dress or to fetch her cane, Lori very carefully made her way across the hot, soft sand towards her fiancé. As she drew closer, she saw he had a champagne picnic brunch all laid out on a rug for them. He was sitting with his back to her, facing the ocean and was quietly playing his favourite acoustic guitar.
“Hi,” said Lori softly as she reached the edge of the picnic blanket.
“Good morning, li’l lady,” said Jake turning to face her. Carefully, he laid the guitar in its case and got gracefully to his feet. In two strides, he was beside her and had wrapped his arms around her waist. “Happy birthday, beautiful.”
“Thank you,” she said with a bright smile. “I never expected this.”
“That was the general idea,” replied Jake, taking her by the hand and helping her to sit down on the soft blanket. While Lori settled herself, Jake popped the cork on the bottle of champagne, firing it off towards the ocean. Bubbles flowed over the rim of the bottle as he poured them each a glass.
Passing her a half full glass, he said, “Here’s to many more birthdays, li’l lady.”
“To us,” she toasted, raising her glass to meet his.
Spread out on the rug was an array of pastries, croissants, fruit, yoghurt and cheese. Nibbling on a croissant, Lori asked, “When did you find time to organise all of this?”
“I had a little help,” confessed Jake, looking a little sheepish. “I got Todd to collect the food for me. He dropped it off on his way to work this morning. I had the roses delivered yesterday and just prayed you didn’t come down into the basement.”
“Thank you,” she whispered again with a shy smile. “This is wonderful.”
“Nice to see you dressed for the occasion,” teased Jake, noticing she was wearing only his Led Zeppelin T-shirt.
Blushing, Lori admitted, “Curiosity got the better of decency.” Sub-consciously her hand moved to cover the exposed scars on her thigh.
“Good job it wasn’t a surprise party with fifty guests.”
Laughing her wonderful musical laugh, Lori had to agree with him.
After they had both eaten their fill and drunk most of the champagne, Jake lifted his guitar out of its case, adjusted the tuning then turned to face her. “This is part of your present. I hope you like it.”
Lying reclined on her side with her head propped up on her hand, Lori listened as he began to play a delicate, almost country style, introduction. Softly, his voice barely more than a whisper at times, Jake sang to her of love and determination, of inner strength and outer beauty. Tears welled up in her eyes as the words touched her heart. The song perfectly reflected the battles she had faced over the previous eighteen months. By the time he finished the song, a large tear had escaped and was gliding down her cheek.
Reaching to brush it away with his thumb, Jake said, “I didn’t mean to make you cry, li’l lady.”
“That was beautiful,” she said with a sigh. “Perfect.”
“And it was just for you and I,” he said kissing her gently. “It’s too personal to share with the band.”
“Thank you.”
“Now I hate to break up a party, but,” began Jake, checking the time. “You might want to go and get dressed. We’re expecting company.”
“We are?” Lori asked, looking surprised.
“Yes,” said Jake. “In less than an hour. Now go and get your glad rags on, birthday girl.”
“Help me up, please,” she said, moving to get up from the rug. “Who’s coming?”
“It’s a surprise,” stated Jake, helping her to her feet. Realising she was stiff after sitting on the sand for so long, he subtly offered to come back up to the house with her. He slipped his guitar back into its velvet lined case, snapped the clasps shut, and picked it up then took her hand. “I’ll come back for the rest in a minute.”
As she fastened her necklace, Lori heard a car arrive outside. She glanced out of the side window and was surprised to see the driveway was full of cars. The latest arrivals were Maddy and Paul with the twins. Pausing to brush out her hair, Lori hurried through the house to greet them.
“Happy birthday, honey,” said Maddy as she hugged her friend at the front door. “You’re looking stunning. I love that colour on you.”
“Thanks,” replied Lori, glancing down at the pale blue sundress she had slipped on. “One of my sale bargains from the outlets.”
“It’s gorgeous.”
“Come on through,” said Lori suddenly realising they were all still on the doorstep.
As he entered the hallway carrying the sleeping twins in their car seats, Paul paused to kiss her. “Happy birthday, beautiful.”
When they stepped out onto the sun deck, Lori was stunned to find David and his wife there, plus her friend Lin from New York. Then she spotted Jake’s sister, Lucy, and her husband sitting in the corner. Amid squeals of delight at seeing each other and a chorus of “Happy Birthdays” Lori was totally overwhelmed by it all. While she was hugging Lucy, she asked where the boys were.
“Down on the beach with Jake. Grey and his little girl are down there too,” she replied. “Oh, Simon’s dropping by later on. He’s at Dover for a few days.”
“This is incredible,” sighed Lori, gazing round at all the familiar faces. “I knew nothing about this.”
“I think Jake just wanted to make it special for you,” said Lucy, giving her another hug. “He’s been planning this for a while.”
A few minutes later, Jake came running up the path from the beach, his long sun-bleached hair tousled and windswept. When he reached Lori, he lifted her up into his arms and held her tight.
“Surpri
se, birthday girl,” he said with a grin. Kissing her gently, he set her back down on her feet. “I’d better get the BBQ going.”
“Have we enough food?” whispered Lori, gazing round.
“Plenty,” assured Jake. “I have this under control, li’l lady.”
“You sure?”
“Relax and enjoy your party. Rich and Todd are assistant chefs for the day. Todd’s just gone to get more ice and to pick up Kate.”
Lifting a glass of champagne from the table, Lori wandered across the sun deck to mingle with her guests. There was a spare seat beside David and his wife, Olivia, so she went to sit with them first. It had been several months since she had seen him and he complimented her on how well she looked. Eventually he apologised to have to talk business, but confessed to having brought some urgent paperwork for her to sign. Excusing themselves, they slipped indoors to get the business matters out of the way.
When Lori returned to the party a few minutes later, she discovered the picnic table had been set with salads and rolls and dressing. At the BBQ, Jake was grilling burgers, chicken and shrimp. His protégé, Todd, was standing beside him chatting, his arm draped protectively round Kate’s shoulders. The young girl looked nervous and out of place.
“Come on, Kate,” said Lori, taking her hand. “Have you met the girls properly yet?”
“No,” replied the teenager awkwardly,
Lori led her across to where Lucy, Linsey, Lin and Maddy were all sitting chatting about the twins.
“Ladies, have you been introduced to Kate?” asked Lori, interrupting their conversation.
“Ah the girl with the best rock voice I’ve heard in a long while,” declared Maddy, moving aside to make room on the bench for the young songstress. “Come here, angel.”
Nervously, Kate sat down between Maddy and Lin.
“When are you guys going to use your studio time? I’m really keen to hear what you come up with?” asked Maddy with a smile.
“We’ve not set a date,” replied Kate shyly. “I think Silver Lake need to record their record first before there’s a slot for us.”
Impossible Depths (Silver Lake series Book 2) Page 9
