Kris stretched his arms out and when he twisted around and his eyes landed on me, he grinned like he’d not seen me in weeks even though it had just been a few hours.
“Hey beautiful,” he said, smiling as I closed the distance between us. “There you are. Did you have a good time this afternoon?”
I carefully wrapped my arm around his waist and tried my best to hide the discomfort as my freshly inked skin pressed into his side.
“I did,” I replied as he kissed the top of my head. “I actually spent some time with a friend.”
“Oh yeah? Who was that?”
“Jake,” I answered and I felt him stiffen.
“Jake Riggins? Why did you spend time with him?”
“Calm down, Kris, it wasn’t anything like that,” I said, running my hand along his abs over his shirt to relax him. “I actually visited his shop.”
I felt him relax and a gorgeous smile spread across his lips.
“Well that’s cool. I bet it was nice seeing him in his shop instead of a bar or night club for once,” Kris said.
“Yeah, it was. Actually, there was a reason that I went to Ink Dungeon and I have something I wanted to show you. That is if you have a minute,” I stated, feeling suddenly nervous. I was going to show him my tattoo and I suddenly was worried that he’d hate it.
His green eyes were alive with desire and burned right into me.
“Sure, okay. Hey guys, we’ll be right back,” Kris said to Ryder, Beau, and Jude and they waved at us as we left the room and went up to our hotel room. Once we were inside and the door was locked, he pressed me against the door and kissed me deeply. As his tongue plunged into my mouth, his body pressed into mine and I winced back in pain. I pushed against him gently and when our lips broke apart, he gave me a puzzled look.
“Jessie, is everything all right?”
I smiled at him and answered, “Everything’s fine, Kris.”
“If it is then why did you just push me away? Call me stupid, but I thought when you said you wanted to ‘show me something’ that meant you wanted to be alone,”
“I always want to be alone with you,” I said, running my fingers through his hair the way he liked. I felt him shiver and stifle a groan. “There really is something I need to show you though and I hope you don’t freak out on me.”
His eyebrows drew together and he took a step away from me. “The fact that you are asking me not to freak out is starting to make me freak out. Just tell me what’s going on.”
I took a deep breath and raised the bottom of my shirt up high where it was just covering my breasts. I carefully peeled off the bandage that Jake had placed over my tattoo and when the cool air hit my stinging skin, I sucked in a sharp breath.
Still nervous that Kris would be pissed at me for getting inked and not telling him, I closed my eyes tightly and quietly asked, “What do you think?”
It was silent for only a few moments yet it seemed like a lifetime before he spoke. When he finally did, he commanded, “Jess, open your eyes.”
I did as he wanted and when our eyes met, his incredible green eyes were filled with emotion.
“Is it okay? Do you like it?” I asked nervously.
“This is the most beautiful ink I’ve ever seen,” he whispered. I noticed his fingers were twitching and he was probably aching to touch my tattoo.
“Really?”
“I love it Jess, truly. It’s breathtaking.”
Our eyes were both misting and I didn’t want to turn this into a sad moment. I decided to change the direction of the conversation and I asked, “So are you going to tell me how to take care of this thing?”
Kris cleared his throat.
“Jake didn’t give you any kind of aftercare instructions?” he asked as he rubbed his eyes.
“No, there was no time. I wanted to get it done and make it back before the interviews were finished.”
“Well I’m impressed. For only being gone for a few hours he did an incredible job.”
“He really did. I’m so glad you like it. I was worried that you wouldn’t.”
“You’ve always been beautiful Jess, but this tattoo just took it to a whole other level. You look perfect,” Kris said, moving closer to me and placing his fingers gently on the tattoo. It stung a little but the feel of his fingers on me was overshadowing any pain.
“So,” I said as I slid my fingers under his shirt and toyed with his belt buckle, “how hard is it to have sex with fresh ink?” Kris’ eyes were burning with desire as I lifted my shirt over my head and tossed it to the floor.
“It’s so hard,” he growled, thrusting his hips into me and I could feel his erection pressing into me. “When you’re on the bottom, that is.”
“Well, I guess I’ll just have to be on top, won’t I?” I asked as I unbuckled his belt and unzipped his pants.
“God I fucking love you,” Kris said before crashing his lips to mine and leading me to the bed.
A few weeks later we were almost finished with the current tour and were looking forward to finally getting the break we all deserved. The guys’ manager Steve had a huge argument with Stanley and Rick over how the band had been dragged around so much that they were at the point of exhaustion so they loosened the reigns and decided to give the guys some time off. The show in Cincinnati the following week was the last show of the tour and it would be the first time in God knows how long that we’d actually be off for more than a few months. Hopefully the break would give Kris the chance to ask me the question that I’d dreamed he’d ask since I was a little girl.
The guys were playing a sold out show in Cleveland and I was watching them tearing the roof off the arena with pride. It never failed to amaze me to watch them playing to crowds and see their fans going crazy for them. Tonight the guys seemed to be giving their show a little something extra and I couldn’t put my finger on it. Ryder, Beau, and Jude all kept giving me strange looks and smiling at me and Kris was unusually quiet. I knew it wasn’t my birthday or our anniversary so I wondered all day what could be so important about this particular show that would make everyone act off.
I was standing next to Steve on the side of the stage, watching them playing the next to last song and singing along. As they were finishing, Kris looked at me and gave me a nervous smile followed by a wink. I blew him a kiss as he finished the song and couldn’t shake the butterflies that were fluttering in my stomach.
The crowd was going completely crazy as Ryder placed his guitar down on a stand and wiped his face with a towel before walking back to the microphone.
“How we all fucking doing, Cleveland? Are you having a good time?” The roar of the crowd was deafening. “I’m having a fucking great time tonight because as I’m looking out at this crowd all I see is hot ass women!”
“Damn right, brother,” Beau shouted into his mic. The female screams were ear splitting and I chuckled to myself as I saw several women pulling their tops up and flashing their breasts to the band.
“Well speaking of hot ass women, I’m sure most of our fans know that all of us up here on this stage have this amazing friend who happens to be one of the hottest chicks around. This girl has been our friend for more than twenty years and most of us love her like she was our sister. There is, however, one of us that loves her just a bit more than that,” he said, turning to look at me.
I started to feel the butterflies fluttering even more in my stomach…they never talk about me on stage. What the hell was going on?
Holding his arm out to me, he said, “Jess, can you come on stage for a minute? It’s kind of important.” He was beaming at me and even though I didn’t want to go out in front of all those people and be put in the spotlight, I figured that there was a reason he was doing this so I decided to play along. I took a deep breath and walked out onto the stage and was greeted by immediate applause and screaming.
I walked to him and hugged him around his waist. “Ryder, what’s going on?” I whispered into his ear. He just winked at me
and turned back to the crowd.
“You all know Jessie Monroe, right? Everyone say hi to her because she seems nervous right now.” The crowd screamed out their hellos to me and I waved my hand. “Maybe our boy Kris can come out from behind his drum kit back there and calm her down.”
I turned to where Kris was sitting behind his drums and when he stood up the crowd went crazy. He walked over to me and I moved from Ryder to hug him. “Kris, will you please tell me what the hell is going on?” I softly said into his ear.
He pulled back and gently stroked my cheek before he took the microphone. “Sorry to interrupt the show, everyone, but there’s been something on my mind for a while and I just have to get it out.” I stared at him nervously as the crowd continued to scream.
“You know, I’ve tried a zillion ways to think of the perfect way to do this but nothing ever felt right. Then I realized why not do it here, on the stage, the one place you always knew I’d be destined to be?”
“Do what, Kris?” I asked, like an idiot, and then it suddenly hit me. My heart started pounding and my palms were sweating. As Kris dropped to one knee in front of me, taking my left hand in his, I could feel the tears already burning my eyes. The crowd went completely insane as camera lights started flashing like crazy.
“I could tell you how much I love you more and more each day until I’m blue in the face, but no words can ever express how much you truly mean to me. It’s been you and me for a long time, Jess, and I can’t go on another day without asking you a pretty important question.”
“Oh my God,” I whispered as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a black velvet ring box. When he opened it, I gasped as my eyes fell on a beautiful princess cut diamond ring.
He held it up and simply asked, “Marry me, Jess?”
He barely got the question out before I nodded quickly and said, “Yes!” The screaming and applause were thunderous in response. His green eyes sparkled in the stage lights as he slipped the ring on my finger. He stood up and wrapped his arms around me and swung me around, pulling me into a hard, deep kiss.
He took put the microphone up to his mouth once more and screamed, “She said yes!” before tossing the mic to Ryder.
“Hell fucking yeah!” Ryder yelled into the microphone. “Let’s hear it for this lucky fucker snagging the sexiest girl in the whole fucking world!”
I continued to kiss him like there was no one there…like we were the only two people in the world. I was finally engaged to Kris. I was going to marry this gorgeous, perfect, loving man…my best friend in the world.
“You said yes,” he said, grinning like he’d just struck gold. “God I’m so fucking lucky.”
“It’s not luck, Kris. I just love you enough to never let you go.”
Once the show was over, Kris and I made a quick exit and raced back to our hotel so we could celebrate our engagement our way…naked in bed and relishing in each other.
A week later, the guys were waiting to take the stage for the last stop on our tour…Cincinnati. Home. I always thought I hated this city but I couldn’t wait to be able to go home and sleep in my own bed next to my handsome fiancée for the first time in what felt like forever. It would be nice to have the time off to start planning our wedding.
I had been planning on attending their final show but I was feeling beat down and tired and Kris definitely noticed. He insisted that I go ahead and go take the day for myself to do whatever I wanted. Even though I wanted to be there for the last show, I was happy to have some alone time.
After kissing him goodbye and wishing the guys good luck, I took all of my things off the bus and drove home. As I pulled in the driveway, I was happy to be there but a little sad that I was walking inside alone without Kris. I didn’t want to be there without him so without even shutting off the engine, I put the car in reverse and pulled back out of the driveway.
I spent the day just as he wanted me to; I went shopping and bought things I didn’t need with a credit card that had barely been used. I had always been a pretty simple girl and didn’t need much and even though it made me a little uncomfortable, but I knew it would make Kris happy to see me spending a ton of money on myself. By the time I was done at the clothing stores I’d stopped in, I had bought almost an entire new wardrobe for myself, complete with some sexy new dresses, a bunch of cute matching bra and panty sets, and some expensive lingerie that was guaranteed to make Kris drool. I never wore much more than jeans and tee shirts and now that we were finally going to be home for a while and could do more things as a couple, I wanted to be able to get dressed up and look sexy for him.
After I spent the rest of the afternoon getting all prettied up at a salon, I headed home to get ready for the evening. Beau was throwing a huge post-tour party at his house that night and I planned on surprising Kris with my new look once he got there. I ran into my house and quickly changed into a body-hugging red dress that showed off my long legs and black suede heels that I would be lucky to not fall and break my neck in.
Just as soon as I finished putting on my earrings, I glanced at the clock on the wall and noticed that it was after ten o’clock and that meant the guys were already half way into their show. I wanted to make sure that everything was ready for Beau’s party when they all got there so I drove over to his house and used the spare key to get inside. I made all the calls and got everything situated for the party so by the time the concert was over all the guys had to do was just show up. Thank God these guys had me to handle things…only Beau would throw a party without planning an actual party.
I was telling a delivery guy where to put the last few cases of beer when my cell phone rang. I looked at the display and saw that Kris was calling me. Smiling, I picked up the phone on the second ring.
“Hey baby,” I answered sweetly into the phone. “How was your show?”
“It was great but I will admit I did miss having you there.”
“I missed being there too but I’ll see you soon,” I said as I signed a paper the delivery guy handed me. “So what’s going on? Are you all getting ready to head to Beau’s?”
“Yeah, just as soon as he stops making out with a cute little blonde and Ryder stops drooling all over her friend.”
“Figures they’d be tied up with girls,” I laughed.
“I don’t know, Jess. I’ve never seen Ryder act like this over a girl.”
“Really? How is he acting?”
“Well he’s being himself but it’s like he’s trying too hard, you know what I mean? He’s throwing game left and right and this girl is just not impressed at all,” he replied, humor in his tone. “It’s actually pretty entertaining to watch.”
I smiled and said, “Well, it sounds like he’s met his match. I like her already.”
“Me too. She seems nice.”
“Well if she’s got Ryder’s attention I definitely want to meet her. Will she be at the party?”
“No, I don’t think so. I just saw her and her friend walk out the door.”
“Aw, bummer. Well if he’s really into her he’ll find a way to see her again.”
“I hope you’re right, baby.”
“So, should I expect you guys to show up soon? Beau didn’t plan a damn thing for this party so I had to scramble to get food and liquor in this house.”
“Well I’m on my way and I’m sure everyone’s going to follow.”
“Good because I can’t wait to see you. I have a little surprise for you.”
“Oh yeah?” he asked. “What’s that?”
“Get here and find out, handsome,” I said seductively.
I heard him groan through the phone and he replied, “I’ll be there in five minutes.”
Giggling, I answered, “Don’t wreck your car. Love you.”
“Love you too,” Kris said and then hung up the phone. I smiled to myself as I popped the top off a beer and drank it down while I waited for my fiancée to find me all dressed up and sexified. If things went my way (and they usually did
when it came to Kris and sex) I wouldn’t be wearing this dress for very long after he showed up.
People started pouring into the house and the party was officially underway. Most of the first guests that arrived were road crew members and groupies that had been given the go ahead from Jude, Ryder, or Beau. As I watched the scantily clad women coming into the house one by one I remembered back to my time away from Kris and the fact that this had been his life for a year and a half; parties with half naked girls that were willing to do anything he wanted and him taking advantage to be able to sink himself into a warm body to forget the pain he was in.
My trip down memory lane was beginning to kill my buzz so I decided to have another drink to distract my mind. I took a long drink of my beer and turned around, resting against the counter. My eyes roamed the room and when they landed on the sexiest man I’d ever known, I grinned when I saw the look on his face.
Kris was staring at me with his jaw hanging open and I almost thought for a minute that he was actually going to drool. I set my beer down on the counter and did a little curtsy for him, silently asking him if he liked my dress. He nodded dumbly and jerked his head toward the stairs. I bit my lip and smiled as I walked to him.
“Upstairs. Now,” he growled as he took my hand and quickly led me up the stairs and into one of the spare bedrooms. As soon as we reached the top of the stairs, he gently pressed me against the wall and kissed me so hard that I thought my lips might bruise. “You look so fucking sexy,” he muttered against my lips as he pulled down the top of my dress, exposing my breasts. I gasped as he moved his lips down and sucked one of my nipples into his hot, sexy mouth.
I normally would have freaked out that Kris had exposed me like that, especially since we were both fairly private about our sex life, but everyone at the party was already half lit and the lights were low. I hated to admit it, but it was kind of a rush knowing we were out in the open and he just couldn’t wait to ravage me.
[Bad Blooded Rebel Series 06] - Deeper Page 21
