‘Do you still jerk off even when you’re in a relationship?’ she asked Luthor.
‘What?’ He shoved his hair back off his face, and kept his hands temporarily clenched there. His curious mismatched eyes pinpointed her like two laser beams. ‘That was a bit out of the blue, and personal.’
Considering some of the things he’d said to her, she didn’t really agree. ‘But do you? And if so, why? I mean, if you’ve a partner around, why do you need to?’
Luthor eyed her warily. ‘Yes. As for why: maybe my partner isn’t around or isn’t in the mood. Or I’m horny but don’t feel like putting in the effort that making love requires. Now tell me why you’re asking.’
Dani covered her mouth with her phone. Maybe she’d have been better off asking Ginny the answer to this one. ‘I … well … Xane was …’ She shut up, because she didn’t want to encourage Luthor to think about her boyfriend stroking his cock. ‘Nothing … Forget I said anything.’
‘Forget you asked me why I jerk off, and that you just planted in my head an image of Xane wanking? I don’t think so. Keep talking, Dani. What happened?’
‘It’s just, last night … after we … actually, you know what, really, forget it.’ She stood. ‘I don’t want to discuss this with you.’
Luthor hastened to his feet too. ‘Dani, wait!’ He clasped her hand and his expression became serious, with no sign of salacious interest. ‘Tell me. It’s obviously bothering you.’
‘I think I already did. I caught him in the bathroom, OK.’
Luthor squeezed her hand a little tighter. ‘In which case I’m going to surmise that he wasn’t trying to drop hints that he wanted you to jump him.’
‘No, we’d already …’
‘You’re thinking he was thinking about someone else?’
She squeezed her eyes closed and nodded. ‘Steve Matlock. I know it’s all still so recent and raw, but … It’s not even that I caught him doing it that’s the issue … I don’t understand why he kept insisting that he wasn’t thinking about him. It’s so bloody obvious. Why does he have to like men, Luthor? Why?’
‘That’s the way he is. Why are you so sure it was Steve he was thinking about?’
‘Because … who else …?’ She stopped, not wanting to consider the possibility of someone else.
‘Sounds to me like he just wanted to get off again and he figured he owed you a break. We both know he has the sexual appetite of a jackrabbit.’
Dani nodded. ‘Yeah, I guess. It was four a.m. at that point.’
‘Sounds as if you should applaud him for being a gentleman, not give him a hard time. Actually, he probably likes the hard times you give him,’ he said with a laugh.
Dani elbowed him in the ribs. ‘Shut up. I don’t want you to comment on my sex life.’
‘I need to comment on someone’s – mine’s fucking non-existent.’
‘There’s plenty of talent around,’ she said.
Luthor gave her an apologetic smile and shook his head. ‘We both know where my interest lies. Let’s not pretend otherwise.’
‘I don’t want to hear it.’ Dani stuck her fingers into her ears. ‘Don’t say any more. I end up feeling filthy when you start planting your seedy fantasies in my head. He’s mine, Luthor. You can’t have him.’
* * *
Yet he almost had last night.
He’d meant to apologise for that and for losing the photograph when he’d sat down by her. He had, sort of, not nearly enough … but Xane had virtually asked to be felt up, following him into that bathroom. Anyone else would have pushed it a lot further.
He shivered as he imagined what that would have been like, having Xane bent over, entering him, fucking him or being fucked by him. They’d played switch-around the last time.
Had Xane been thinking about him while he’d been performing that fevered knuckle shuffle?
He struggled not to break into a lunatic grin at the possibility.
Oh, bugger, he didn’t want to hurt Dani or screw up her relationship with Xane, but he couldn’t pretend he hadn’t enjoyed touching Xane or that he didn’t want him for himself.
‘I’d share, though,’ he thought, looking at her, all curvy and cute. Having both of them in his bed would be like receiving every Christmas and birthday present for the next ten years at once. Luthor paused to surreptitiously adjust himself, as his cock grew hard thinking about the possibility of sliding into Dani or tasting her, while Xane fucked him. So many possibilities, but he still had no real idea how to make it happen. Dani, with all her hangups, wasn’t the type to offer him one night of fun to see what it was like, and there was no point even attempting to seduce her. She only had eyes for Xane.
Xane was frankly the easier option, but he needed to tread carefully there too.
Knowing Xane desired him was a definite step forward, but it also made things more precarious. He didn’t want to end up being kicked off the crew or smashing up Dani and Xane’s relationship, and if he pushed Xane too hard that’s exactly what was likely to happen. He needed to tackle this slowly, give Dani time to come round to his way of thinking and Xane time to realise that he couldn’t deny half of who he was.
Chapter 26
Xane kept his mind tightly focused on the music, concentrating on the fact that the band was working together to produce something new. He refused to think about Luthor. It served no good purpose. Last night had happened, and that was it. Fuck Elspeth, trying to stir up shit by announcing to the whole band and Dani that Luthor was into him. He wasn’t biting.
‘And, one, two, three, four …’ He counted them in again. The composition was coming together brilliantly. All it lacked was a rip-roaring drumbeat courtesy of Steve Matlock and they were set. He turned his head to say as much, but of course Steve wasn’t there and he could imagine the collective intake of breath if he mentioned his name.
Some of the joy disappeared from the composition, not that it was a particularly jolly tune anyway, being a mix of gothic mindfuck and a good dose of last night’s guilt. It hurt knowing that Steve was never going to sit behind that drum stack again and beat out a miracle rhythm, and realising too that they were never going to laugh or joke about anything ever again.
He looked at each of his remaining bandmates then, really looked at them for the first time in ages. Steve’s death had hit them all. They were all looking a little older, a little more worn. He remembered, though, what it was that made them special. They were his family: a self-absorbed, somewhat dysfunctional family, but infinitely better than his actual flesh and blood.
Good grief, it dawned on him that neither of his siblings had even sent a condolence card. There was no excuse for that. They’d known Steve, had met him dozens and dozens of times. Asswipes, the pair of them.
‘Xane.’ Ash came up behind him and looped an arm around his shoulders. ‘You all right?’
Xane realised he’d stopped singing. ‘Yeah, sure,’ he said, rubbing his eyes. His lack of sleep was definitely starting to catch up on him.
‘Dani keep you up too late?’ Rock Giant remarked. He grinned when Xane turned towards him. ‘You should know better than to stay up all night. That’s Ash’s job.’ It was well known among them that Ash managed to please so many girls because it took him all night to come.
‘Oi!’ Ash flicked his guitar pick at Rock Giant. It hit him square in the chest and pinged off in Elspeth’s direction. ‘I’m probably the only one who didn’t get laid last night.’
‘Ahem,’ Spook coughed.
‘Don’t ahem me. You were getting your kicks, regardless of whether you got your dick out.’
‘Actually I meant …’ Spook pointed across the stage to Elspeth standing behind her keyboard.
‘Just fingers and memories for me,’ she said, making every damn one of them blush.
Ash openly gawped at her. ‘I didn’t think you did –’
Xane smacked him round the head to get him to shut up. He really didn’t want to hear the details of E
lspeth’s nocturnal activities. Too late, she had the floor.
‘Course it was a little difficult to focus on Steve, what with your fan club on the bus groaning out your name,’ she said, looking directly at Xane.
‘I thought you and Dani went to a hotel,’ Ash whispered to him.
‘We did.’
‘What fan club, then? All the groupies were hanging with us in the bar.’
‘I don’t know,’ he said, suspecting she meant Luthor. Dumb fuck must have been wanking in one of the bunks right outside Elspeth’s door and muttering his name or something. Xane sobered, realising that meant that each of them had been working off his desire for the other. Right now, he wished the world was a lot less complicated and they could just have sex and be done with it.
‘Elspeth,’ he growled, determined to get them all focused on the music again.
She went quiet and turned her pale gaze upon him.
‘Drum track,’ he said. ‘Could you add something?’
She flicked several switches on her keyboard, and tried out a few speeds and notes. ‘Something like this?’
Astonishingly, she hit something that worked. ‘Yeah,’ he agreed, relieved that they weren’t going to have to track down Mr Willows. He just couldn’t bring himself to like the guy.
‘All right, from the top again.’ He counted them in. Ash played the opening, but Spook failed to come in with the rhythm part. Instead, he started towards the front of the stage.
Now what the hell was up?
Several figures had just entered by the main door: two women, followed by Graham Callahan and a security guard. One of the women had Spook’s prized purple Washburn clutched tight to her body. She seemed to have a full news crew on her tail too.
‘Ladies, you don’t have permission to be in here. Gentlemen, if you’d wait outside.’ Graham threw his very considerable bulk in the way of the advancing press and somehow managed to propel them back into the lobby. He closed the door on them and jammed a chair under the handle.
‘You found it.’ Spook stretched his arms out to reclaim his guitar, only for the woman to storm straight past him, heading for Ash, who was unfortunately still sporting nothing more than a bathrobe, a very small towel and an electric guitar.
‘I thought you didn’t get laid last night,’ Spook muttered before the banshee screeched into Ash’s face.
‘Lousy pig! She’s fourteen, and you couldn’t keep your filthy hands off her.’
Xane squinted at the girl in question, who was dressed in a school uniform, no less. If she was fourteen then he was Mickey Mouse. More like twenty-four, and all dolled up ready for a hen night.
‘You’ve got the wrong man.’ Ash pushed his accuser away. ‘I don’t do anyone that’s young enough to be my daughter. I’ve never seen her before.’
‘Well, she’s seen rather too much of you. You … you …’
They all winced, thinking of various ways she might end her accusation, but Xane didn’t catch the last word because Rock Giant drowned it out with an eruption of feedback. He was tempted to applaud. This pair were the biggest frauds he’d ever seen, and he didn’t need to hear Ash’s protests to realise that.
‘I’d remember if we’d met.’ Ash jogged down off the stage to close in on the ‘girl’. He took a close look at her. ‘And Spook would have taken a picture if I’d had you. When is it we’re supposed to have fucked?’
‘In Paris,’ the first woman insisted.
‘What, we’re supposed to believe you’ve rushed here from Paris for justice dressed as if you’ve just got out of school in Britain? I’m not thick, you know. Get them out of here, Barry.’
The security guard moved to intercept the mouthy woman. Her friend in the school uniform just looked uncomfortable to be there.
‘My guitar,’ Spook squeaked. The woman was still clinging to it. She looked somewhat surprised to find him laying claim to it, when she clearly thought it belonged to Ash.
‘It’s his.’ She pointed the neck at Ash, who shook his head.
‘Wrong again.’
‘It is yours.’
This lady didn’t know when to give in.
‘I’m going to press charges. And I’m keeping this.’ She thumped the guitar against the floor.
‘If you damage my guitar you won’t be in a fit state to press anything.’ Spook lunged at her and wrenched the Washburn from her grip. It wasn’t often Xane saw him get this riled, but that guitar was his baby. Spook immediately started examining it for dents. Unfortunately, his focus on the guitar meant he didn’t see the woman leap at him. She knocked him straight into the front of the stage. Winded, Spook dropped like a stone, leaving him open to attack from the harpy’s feet.
‘Get the fuck off him, bitch.’ Ash was about to dive into the fray, but Xane caught hold of him by the belt.
‘Stay out of this, bathrobe boy. This isn’t the time to go flashing your tackle.’ As Barry the security guard was clinging to the other woman, who’d showed no signs of aggression whatsoever, Xane ditched his mic and jumped down off the stage. If it’d been a guy, he wouldn’t have thought twice about decking the silly fool, but he didn’t hit women, even when they were kicking the shit out of one of his best mates. Instead, he wrapped his arms around her and lifted her off her feet. She went at him with her feet and elbows before sinking her teeth into his arms.
‘Don’t you fucking bite him!’ Elspeth slapped her hard across the face. ‘Listen up.’ She yanked the woman’s hair. ‘I don’t know what you’re hoping to achieve here, bitch, but drop it. No one hurts my boys and gets away with it.’
Except Elspeth herself, Xane thought, but he let it go. She was kicking ass at the moment, and he was just fine with the response it was achieving. The crazy woman in his arms had quietened enough that he felt relatively confident about releasing her. Rather unsurprisingly, the moment he did, she ran, not even waiting for her friend, whom Barry was still holding. Then again, Elspeth did seem to inspire that sort of response from people. She took a step closer to him and he felt like running.
‘Are you all right?’ She reached out to rub his ribs for him, where he’d been elbowed, but Xane sidestepped, neatly avoiding her touch.
‘I’ll get Dani to kiss them better.’
Rock Giant was helping Spook back onto his feet.
‘Is he OK?’ Xane asked. Spook’s eyes were squeezed tightly shut. ‘Spook?’
‘Just tell me she didn’t scratch the finish.’
Xane picked up the guitar and passed it to Ash to examine, while he took a look at Spook’s ribs.
‘It’s still pristine,’ Ash assured him.
‘Your ribs look OK too,’ Xane said, breathing a huge sigh of relief. Spook’s torso bore several large red marks that would make impressive bruises in a couple of days, but he otherwise seemed fine. ‘I thought I was going to have to play rhythm for a minute there.’
Rock Giant mopped the sweat from his brow. ‘Never mind that, I thought we were going to have to cancel the show. I always forget you can play.’
‘Forget again.’
‘What would you like me to do with this one?’ Barry asked.
‘You can let her go. No, hang on a minute.’ Xane strode over to them. ‘Hi,’ he said, giving her his best panty-melting smile. She virtually swooned right there in Barry’s arms. Yep, he thought so. This one was actually a fan. ‘Why?’ he demanded. ‘Why’d your friend come up with that idiot story? And why’d you join in?’
She swallowed slowly. He nodded to Barry to release her and she started fidgeting with her hair. She couldn’t quite meet his gaze, but kept peeping up at him from under her eyelashes instead.
‘How did you get hold of the guitar?’
‘A guy gave it to us. He said he’d give us a couple of grand each if we made some fuss and said stuff about the guy who owned it. I didn’t really want to, but Shelley fancies herself a bit of an actress, and she’s been at the Bacardi since breakfast.’
‘What guy? Did he
give a name? Didn’t he say who the guitar belonged to?’
She shook her head. ‘I didn’t really get a good look at him. He was wearing dark glasses and a baseball cap. Said he was part of your PR team and that all publicity was good publicity. That a bit of a drama would pull the punters in. He outlined the general gist of what he wanted us to say and told us how to get in.’
Xane turned his head and had a few quiet words with Graham, just to confirm this wasn’t one of Sally Kettering’s marketing stunts, though this seemed far-fetched even for her. Graham shook his head. Xane asked a couple more questions but it was clear the woman knew nothing. Eventually he let her go.
‘Who’ve you been offending, Spook?’ Rock Giant asked once the band were alone again.
‘No one.’
‘Someone’s trying to stitch us up,’ Ash whispered into Xane’s ear. ‘It’s got to be someone on the crew for them to have had access to that guitar. Maybe we should start delving into some backgrounds.’
‘No,’ he disagreed. The last thing he needed was anyone uncovering a connection between him and Luthor. ‘Let’s not jump to any conclusions just yet. It doesn’t make sense for it to be anyone on the crew. Why sabotage us? Why risk their jobs?’
‘That’s what digging turns up – dirt.’
Xane was about to suggest they got back to the new song, but Iain chose that moment to stroll in, merry as you please, like it was no big deal to turn up to work at four in the afternoon.
‘Is something up?’ he asked. ‘There was a whole pack of reporters in the lobby.’
As a group they all shrugged. None of them wanted to explain. Even Ash, who was normally Iain’s best pal, seemed keen to avoid a conversation.
Come Together Page 20
