All Fired Up

by Madelynne Ellis

  After a second or two of silence, the pounding began again. ‘Your phone’s making a frickin’ awful noise.’

  ‘So turn it off.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Give me two minutes.’

  ‘Right, I’ll answer it.’

  ‘No. Shit!’ Ash abruptly shut off the stream of water then, dancing on the floor attempting not to slip, he grabbed the nearest towel and shot out into the bedroom at the rear of the tour bus. Iain stood before the dressing table, peeping into the five square inches of mirror that wasn’t papered with Steve Matlock memorabilia. He was attempting to freeze individual strands of his choppy locks into submission.

  ‘It stopped before I could answer it.’ He lifted the phone from among the clutter of styling products and drumsticks to wave it in Ash’s direction. ‘Whoever it is keeps texting you though. It’s someone called Penfold. They’re pretty insistent. Hook-up of yours?’

  ‘Right. Yeah. Thanks.’ Ash rubbed his thumb across his lips in an attempt to look casual. ‘Better just check it.’ He turned, intending to step back into the bathroom. He’d learned from experience that it was the best place if you wanted to guarantee privacy.

  ‘Is she hot?’ Iain asked.

  ‘Um …’ Dammit, did they have to do this? ‘She’s a bit young for you, Iain. It’s my cousin.’

  ‘Your cousin’s that desperate to get hold of you?’

  ‘It’s her birthday,’ he lied. ‘I promised I’d send her some stuff that she could impress her mates with. I guess it hasn’t arrived, or maybe it has arrived and she needs to hyperventilate in my ear.’

  ‘Sounds fun.’ Interest deflated, Iain turned back to the dresser and inadvertently spritzed himself with Elspeth’s perfume. ‘Aw, shit flaps! Now I smell like a mortuary.’

  Ash lifted his head and gave the air a good sniff. ‘Nah, just like something from a fabric-softener commercial. It’s cool. Ladies totally go for that fresh-laundry smell.’ Seeing a canister hurtling towards him, Ash ducked into the tiny bathroom. The missile hit the outside of the door.

  Perched on the lid of the toilet seat, he reviewed the missed messages.

  ETA in twenty minutes.

  Hope you’re wearing your best undies.

  Scratch last. Don’t wear undies.

  Met some cool guys, riding with them.

  Guys? What guys?

  Keep your hair on. Only one of them is actually male. They’re friends of one of your roadies. Luthor?

  Yeah, well, that wasn’t a selling point: he’d had to physically pull Luthor off Xane only a few minutes ago. Ash still wondered if he ought to have fired the guy on the spot, since he was likely to cause fireworks in Xane’s relationship if he stuck around. Then again, it wasn’t any of his business. If Xane reckoned he had a handle on things, then he’d just have to take him at his word, and hope that when the inevitable explosion happened it didn’t spell the end of Black Halo.

  Looking forward to hanging with you and your buds tonight. Might have promised someone an introduction to Spook. You’ll square it with him, won’t you?

  Ash scratched at the stubble on his chin. Sure, he’d square it with Spook. That bit would only result in minor conniptions. It was the hanging-together bit at the start of the message he might have a small problem with. Yes, he knew he’d agreed to tell the band that he and Ginny were serious, but somehow it just hadn’t happened yet, except with Xane. Telling Xane had actually been remarkably easy: it had just sort of slipped out in the aftermath of dragging him off Luthor, or Luthor off Xane – it was hard to say who’d been holding on tighter. He guessed he was going to have to announce it to the rest of the group now, in the few minutes that remained before Ginny arrived.

  Very few minutes, since he could already hear Sally Kettering talking to Spook outside the bus, asking if he and Xane had emerged from their showers yet because Bang! Magazine weren’t going to hang around all day waiting for an interview; they had other bands to see. Yeah, right! He’d met their interviewer, Ava Leigh, before. She’d tried to get him and Rock Giant to snort coke and then tag-team her. Numbing agents, uh-uh, so not his thing.

  Either way, he didn’t think Bang! Magazine were going anywhere.

  Ash left the bathroom again in pursuit of some clean leathers and a shirt it’d be easy to strip off on stage. Stage lights on top of monsoon heat were murder. The rain might have stopped, but in the humidity he felt sweaty already and he’d barely dried from his shower. He passed Elspeth, relaxing with a cuppa in the kitchen. Paused. Mentally rehearsed his admittance speech and thought better of it. It’d be like rubbing salt in a gaping wound. So sorry you’re feeling like shit, Elspeth. It’s a real bummer about Steve. We all really miss him, but I just thought I’d like you to know that I’m deliriously happy. I’ve met a girl and she’s completely ace. And by the way, she’ll be around later. Sorry if the sounds of shagging disturb you.

  He was not that malicious. Ever. It was bad enough that Xane surrendered no quarter over that point.

  In the bunk room, he ran into Rock Giant. Telling him might not be so bad. Then again – he ran the likely course of the conversation through his head – it might not be the best conversation to have shortly before he was due in an interview and they were both set to perform on stage.

  ‘I’ve got a new girlfriend.’

  ‘Yeah. Cool. Does she have huge tracts of land?’

  ‘Does she what? Um – no, actually, she doesn’t.’

  ‘Well, that sucks. Does she weigh more than a flea?’ Rock Giant liked his women soft and curvy.

  ‘Actually, she’s Ginny. You’ve met her.’

  ‘Ginny? Ginny! You mean the one whose hotel room we crashed in and who sucked my d–’

  Ash mentally cut him off. Nope, they weren’t going there. He was not revisiting that night, or at least any of the details pertaining to Paul’s enormous cock. It was much easier on his psyche if he just imagined that he and Ginny had been alone in her hotel room for the night and that Rock Giant and Spook had stayed in the van outside.

  ‘Apple-scented Ginny?’ Rock Giant continued. When he latched on to a new train of thought, he never bloody let go. ‘Dani’s housemate, Ginny? Wearer of fishnet stockings and microscopic panties?’

  ‘Yes, her. Now will you shut the fuck up?’

  ‘Man, she’s way too skinny. You need to get her to eat more, but she gives fantastic head.’

  ‘Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!’

  At which point their conversation would devolve into outright violence when he punched Rock Giant to silence him and the big guy hit back. As it was, Ash had to slap himself just to scour from his brain the images of Ginny sucking someone else.

  ‘Do you have earache or something?’ Rock Giant asked him for real. ‘Or are you just slapping yourself for the hell of it?’

  ‘Brain’s a bit woolly. Thought it might wake me up.’

  Spook appeared in the doorway. ‘Are you ready? Sally’s threatening to make mincemeat out of you and Xane if you’re not on the interview couch within forty seconds. She’s just gone to drag Xane out of the shower.’

  Rock Giant slithered off the top bunk and dropped to the floor with a thump that made the bus suspension creak. ‘This I’ve got to see. No one in their right mind goes near Xane when he’s showering, leastways not unless they’re looking to be fucked.’

  ‘Then let’s pray that Dani’s already in there with him,’ Ash remarked.

  Rock Giant pushed his feet into his shoes and ran for the stairs. ‘Killjoy. I’ve always wanted to see what Sally Kettering would look like with her feathers well and truly ruffled.’

  ‘She’s not his type,’ Spook called after him.

  ‘Yeah, she doesn’t have a cock,’ Ash muttered. When he turned, he realised Spook was staring at him. ‘What?’

  ‘Dani doesn’t have a cock either. Something you’re not sharing, Ash?’

  ‘Plenty,’ he sighed as he finished buttoning his black shirt. ‘Xane’s going a bit
gaga over Luthor, the new roadie, and I have to go meet Ginny in a few minutes and explain to her why I haven’t done the only thing she asked of me. I’m not sure she’s going to take it well.’

  ‘You don’t need to tell anyone anything, Ash. Just turn up with her, they’ll figure it out soon enough.’

  Ash found some boots and he and Spook made their way downstairs. ‘Do you think I should let her stay on the bus?’

  ‘Honestly –’ Spook picked at a speck of something under his fingernails ‘– I can’t see why anyone would want to be on this bus given the crap that’s been happening. Someone has it in for us, or have you forgotten the incidents in Amsterdam?’

  ‘I haven’t forgotten about your guitar, nor about the shit someone is trying to scare us with.’

  ‘Do you want to potentially subject Ginny to the same thing?’

  Ash scratched his head. ‘Guess not.’

  ‘Then there’s your answer. By all means act all couple-like, but I think the fewer people on this bus the better.’ Spook jogged down the entrance steps and on to the grass outside. ‘Frankly, if Xane had any sense, which he doesn’t, he’d have made other arrangements for Dani by now. The problem is, he’s letting his libido rule, which is a shockingly bad way to live your life.’

  ‘We all do it some time.’

  Ash expected Spook to protest that he was never that stupid or shallow, but instead his friend nodded in agreement. ‘And that’s an unfortunate truth.’

  Chapter 15

  Spook wasn’t happy about being forced onto the interview couch, Xane was hiding behind his stage persona and the hard glassy stare his contact lenses gave him, and Ash just wanted to be able to go and find Ginny. Normally he enjoyed interviews, but Ava Leigh was being her normal touchy-feely self. She’d attempted to grope all three of them before the camera even started to roll, and in retaliation for three unflinching reproofs had ploughed straight ahead with the questions Sally had promised Xane wouldn’t be on the ask list. Unsurprisingly things went to hell pretty fast.

  ‘So, Xane. Are the rumours true that it was your relationship with Dani that led to your falling out with Elspeth Shriik, which in turn resulted in the band’s temporary split?’

  ‘No,’ his bandmate snarled.

  Ash sucked air through his teeth, pre-empting the coming explosion. Xane was volatile at the best of times, and, although he had a nice shiny new relationship, that didn’t balance the shit that was Steve Matlock’s death. Yeah, he was psychic, he knew that was next. He could see the tension in Spook’s body as he also braced himself.

  ‘Would you like to comment on the rumours that your girlfriend was the cause of the falling-out you and Steve had in Monte Carlo just hours prior to his death?’

  ‘No, I fucking wouldn’t!’ Xane bellowed.

  How Ava Leigh could honestly ask that and expect to get an answer, Ash didn’t know. Anyone in the business knew how close Xane and Steve had been. OK, not perhaps to the extent the band knew, but they were like brothers. But perhaps the bitch had merely been after a rise.

  Xane catapulted himself off the sofa and made for the exit. Ash was half out of his seat, intending to follow him, when Ginny appeared out of nowhere and plonked herself on his lap.

  ‘Did you miss me?’

  ‘Wh–aat? How did you get in here?’ Despite his surprise, he couldn’t help the grin that ate up the whole of his face, or the jolt that just looking at her gave him. It’d been agony not seeing her, and not just because he’d been unable to let off steam. He’d genuinely missed her company, and the way she looked at him as if she saw the bottom of his soul with those curious whisky-gold eyes. He knew from her expression, too, and the way her fingertips slid into his hair at the back of his neck, that she felt exactly the same way.

  They were meant for each other, like Dani and Xane, only more so. There’d be no third-party confusion clouding anything between them. Damn, he wanted to lay her flat and kiss her senseless. Stretch the whole length of his body over her and press their auras together. Fewer people, more space on the couch and a little less mayhem, and maybe he’d have done it.

  ‘Hello, gorgeous,’ he whispered, just before he tasted the fullness of her lower lip.

  ‘Shit! Security,’ Ava Leigh yelled beside him. She spitefully raked her nails across Ginny’s bare arm like a vengeful pussy cat. Next thing, there were two male behemoths over them, planting their hands in decidedly uncivilised places. Ginny writhed caterpillar-like in his arms, trying to shake them off. He flailed, trying to knock their arms away, but was unable to get enough of a swing to throw a punch.

  ‘Let go. She’s my girlfriend, you ignorant meatheads. Don’t you dare touch her. Don’t you frigging dare.’

  It took a moment or two for his words to sink in and for them to disengage. Once he was upright, with Ginny still in his arms, he noticed Ava pout, then smile so that her dentally enhanced smile threatened to blind everyone when she realised, along with Ash, that the camera was still rolling.

  Shitting hell! Well, now he was screwed. Any privacy he could have hoped for was blown as soon as that tape went live, and he was sure it’d somehow find its way online, regardless of what Sally Kettering managed to bully Bang! Magazine into officially agreeing.

  ‘Let’s go,’ he said to Ginny, only to find she was already four steps ahead of him.

  It was only once he was outside that Ash realised she wasn’t so much running away from the chaos as trying to catch up with Xane.

  ‘Fucking bastard. Will you hold up? I need to talk to you.’ His bandmate brought his long shanks to a halt, allowing Ginny to reach him. She grabbed hold of his arm as she bent over panting for a moment. ‘Is it really necessary to move so bloody fast?’

  ‘What do you want?’ Xane snapped. He was a haggard, wild-eyed mess, lips and nose looking pinched.

  ‘Dani asked me to come and get you. I bumped into her first.’ The mere mention of Dani’s name was enough to bring the sunshine back.

  ‘Yeah, what is it?’

  ‘I brought some stuff for her from home, from her mum. She’s finding it pretty emotional. I think she’d appreciate a hug.’

  ‘I thought we’d heard the last from that witch. Aw, bugger! Where is she, on the tour bus?’

  ‘Straight ahead, in the orange and white camper van,’ Ginny corrected him, pointing the way.

  He took a pace or two before he snapped back around. ‘Aren’t you coming?’

  ‘Very soon, hopefully. I’m going to shag Ash. Reckon you can handle Dani on your own?’

  Ash half-expected Xane to make some crass remark, or for a paparazzi toad to suddenly leap out and start taking pictures, but Xane didn’t, and no one volunteered for a punch either.

  ‘Play safe, kiddies,’ Xane said, brushing his long hair back from his face. ‘And Ginny, try not to wear him out before the show. We’ve sixty thousand people to rock.’

  ‘I’ll try,’ she smiled sweetly. ‘But no promises, because I have some new stockings I need to show him. Sixty thousand!’ she said doubtingly, turning to Ash. ‘Is that really how many people you’re playing for?’

  Ash shrugged. ‘If Xane says so it must be right.’

  Chapter 16

  ‘You just nearly started a riot,’ Ash said once they were alone. ‘That camera was still rolling. Everybody’s gonna know about us now.’

  Ginny tugged the clip from her long hair and shook it loose so that it fell about her shoulders and shaded the angles of her face. ‘Well, it’ll save you the trouble of finding your nerve,’ she told him. ‘Don’t think I don’t know you haven’t told them yet.’

  Ash blinked shiftily and lowered his gaze to her feet. ‘Xane and Spook know.’

  ‘Yeah.’ She grinned at him with her lips pressed tight together, not even pretending to be angry. He looked too damn cute, and she was too damned pleased to see him, to waste time being irate over something irrelevant. He’d admitted their relationship when it had mattered. If he’d let those bouncers
drag her out, then that’d have been different. ‘For about two minutes in Xane’s case.’

  ‘Forty or so,’ he countered. ‘I did actually tell him before I inadvertently told the whole world.’

  The way his eyes crinkled as he winced over his outburst made her want to pat him on the head and say, ‘Good work.’ Instead, she stepped in close to him, so that her feet were almost between his, and tugged him down to her level by grabbing the open edges of his shirt. ‘Ash, I don’t care. It doesn’t matter who knows and who doesn’t.’ The scent of his shower gel lingered on his skin, drawing her closer still. His hair was still damp in places too, which explained why he hadn’t picked up her earlier call. ‘It’s never been about that. All I want is for us not to have to hide. I want to be able to walk around in broad daylight with you, and kiss you whenever I fancy, maybe do the odd rude thing too.’

  ‘It’ll mean reporters on your doorstep.’

  ‘I’m not home, and there’s not a whole lot of doorstep to sit on. That, and I honestly think you’re worrying too much. I hate to be the one to prick your ego, because you know I think you’re fantastic, but the world as a whole doesn’t actually care that much about Ash Gore or the rest of Black Halo either. I dare say a few places might mention us, and print a few pictures of us looking pretty together, but I don’t think they’ll care enough to delve more deeply than that. The press like juicy gossip, Ash. Our relationship isn’t column-worthy. They write about Xane because he’s scandalous. Most of the population only dream about having threesomes. He’s the lucky bastard that did it and still is doing it according to In Flight magazine. Bet you didn’t know he snuggles up with Dani and Elspeth most nights.’

  ‘The fuck he does!’

  ‘And with you and Spook on the others.’

  ‘That’s just moronic. There’s no room in Spook’s bed for anything besides his guitar.’

  He paused and just looked at her a moment, his hand cupping the side of her jaw and his little finger ticking back and forth across her lips. She hadn’t appreciated just how much she’d missed him, until now. She’d basically been stumbling around in a haze.