by Zoey Derrick
The doors on the elevator open.
“Jesus, what the fuck happened to you?” Beck scolds me.
“Not a fucking thing.”
“Then what’s with the…another one?”
“Fuck off.”
“Which one was it this time?” he asks.
“Raine,” is all I tell him.
“No drugs?” he asks, a little shocked.
I shake my head. No, my glowbug deserves better than that, but I keep that part to myself.
“Are you sober?” he asks.
“As a fucking rock. I just want to sleep,” I tell him as I swipe my card key and my door beeps.
“She’s back in LA,” he tells me as I step over the threshold.
“Good,” I say and I shut the door in his face.
I pull off my shirt, then peel back the bandage, just enough to look at it one more time, then cover it back up. I shed my jeans and boots before collapsing onto my bed. Holding onto the pillow, wishing I was holding on to my girl instead.
Three o’clock Saturday, my phone rings.
“Hey bro,” I say into the phone.
“What’s going on?”
“My life sucks,” I say simply.
“Want to talk about it?”
“Not particularly. What’s up, Derek?”
“Well, I know you guys are on break next week, right?”
“Yeah…?”
“Well, I have to go to Vegas next week for work. Cotah is coming with me, I’m wondering if you and Raine would want to join us?”
Shit, uh…
“I own the penthouse on top of the Cosmo.” he interjects before I can come up with anything.
“Good god.”
Derek laughs. “I have a private playroom. You know, if you and Raine want to work on some things.”
Just hearing him say her name makes my heart hurt. “Yeah, about that…”
“I already know. The girls have been talking. Well, enough for Cotah to deduce that Raine was back in LA and your ass is stuck in Miami. What do you have…two shows down there before you can bail?”
“Yup,” I grumble into the phone.
“Are you going after her?”
“You bet your sweet ass I am.”
“Good, my plane will be ready at Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport starting at 11 p.m., on Sunday night. When you get there, it will take you to Los Angeles. I’ll have a car there waiting for you.”
“Why?” I choke out.
“Because, I ran after Cotah once and it was the best fucking decision of my life. But before I could go after her, I had to fly my ass all the way to Paris first. So, if what I saw between the two of you is true, you’re crawling out of your fucking skin right now because you can’t do a fucking thing about it.”
I run my hand through my hair. “That’s an understatement,” I admit to him.
“I also happen to know, because Cami is one of my closest friends, that she is staying at the Hyatt downtown in room nine-twenty-one. When you’re done there, and you’re done realizing what an idiot you are, drive your happy ass back to the airport and my plane will bring you guys to Vegas.”
“Fuck. You have to at least let me pay you back.”
I hear him chuckle. “We can discuss the details later.”
“I need one more favor from you,” I tell him.
“You name it, you got it.”
“I bought a ring, in Nashville.”
He chuckles. “I’m all ears,” he tells me and I launch into my plan.
“What are you waiting for?” Talon asks me.
“I have got to shower for god’s sake. I’m drenched,” Addison laughs at me as I stand there all flustered and completely uncoordinated.
“There’s a shower on the plane,” Talon points out.
I shiver. “Fuck that shit. A stationary bus is one thing, but a moving airplane, fuck that.” I smile.
Tonight’s show was fucking amazing. They closed up the VIP list for tonight so that I could bail out as soon as possible. Everyone is anxious to get out of here tomorrow morning. They’re flying back in the label’s plane. I am flying back on Derek’s jet.
I shiver with excitement and anticipation. I’m ready to see my glowbug. I miss her like crazy.
When I get into the bathroom, I look at my chest. The lines are still red and puffy, I went shirtless tonight since I tried with a shirt last night and though I soaked up the pain, it was too much with the drums and I shed it quick. I hoped and prayed Raine wasn’t stalking me on YouTube. I didn’t want her to see it before I really had a chance to show her myself.
I shower faster than is humanly possible and I’m dressed in record time. Grabbing my already packed bags, I say bye to the guys and Addie before Beck and Casey whisk me off to the airport.
As Derek promised, his plane is standing by, ready to take me back to LA.
Ryan to Dex: She’s arrived back at the hotel. She’s turned in her keys.
Dex to Ryan: Thank you for keeping an eye on her.
Ryan to Dex: Anytime.
Knock, knock, knock…
I walk to the door, turning the handle I open it, expecting to see a bellman with my laundry.
Instead, standing there, bracing himself against the door with muscled, t-shirt clad arms is Dex. My mouth waters seeing him again.
He doesn’t give me a chance to say or do anything before he’s coming at me, pushing me back until my back bumps into the wall of the entry way. His hands cup my face, holding me steady. Tears well in my eyes, his eyes too are full. Without a word, his lips land on mine. Stealing my breath instantly. The fire ignites in my veins. My hands wrap around his neck, pulling our bodies together. I can’t pull him close enough to me. I’m practically climbing his body as mine melts into his. And I sob.
His thumbs wipe away the tears that are spilling freely down my cheeks as he pulls back. “Hi glowbug,” he whispers. His voice is shaky and broken.
“Hi bubba,” I tell him back.
All anger, angst, washed away in a single kiss.
“I’m sorry,” he breathes against my lips before kissing me again. “I never wanted to hurt you.” He kisses me gently. “I never imagined my past indiscretions would haunt me like they have. First with Kate in Phoenix, now you and Sam. Jesus, Raine, you deserve so much better than me. You don’t need to deal with my past, not ever.”
“Shut up,” I tell him. He stares at me. “I knew what I was getting myself into in New York. I knew by DC that it didn’t matter, that I could and would handle anything you could throw at me. By Nashville I was head over heels. When I went after you that night, I knew. I knew that seeing Sam in that picture was the definition of fucked up for you. You felt like you betrayed me, like you owed me something more than you could possibly ever give me. Dex, I went after you because your past is your past. If we let it ruin whatever future we may have together, then we’ve learned nothing from it. You accepted my being raped.” I watch as his eyes close and tears drip down his cheeks. “You accepted the fact that I was broken inside. I accepted your addictions, I accepted your past, I accepted the fact that you have a long list of women who’ve preceded me, but I also knew then, like I know now, that I am the first and only woman who’s ever made you want to be a better man, made you realize that your addiction doesn’t have to rule your life and more importantly, I know that I’m the only woman who you’ve ever loved.”
“Only you,” he breathes out before his lips land once again on mine. “I need you. I went to your room Friday. I sat there banging on your door for hours. No one had told me you’d left. By the time I’d found out, you were gone.”
“I know,” I tell him.
“You know?” he cocks his head at me.
“I chatted with Mills after arriving back in LA. He told me that you’d run off and that you’d been gone for a long time, but that he knew you were still in Orlando, just not where.”
“Did you know I was coming?”
I shake my head. “
No. I thought you were a staff member bringing back my laundry.”
He smiles.
“How’d you get here anyway?”
He just smirks and doesn’t answer. His answer is simply to kiss me again, only to have it broken by a knock at the door. “That would be my laundry,” I say with a smirk as I step out from underneath him, opening the door. “Thanks,” I tell the gentleman on the other side of the door. I slide him a tip and close the door. Dex takes the laundry bag from my hand and replaces it with his own as he leads me into the suite.
He sets the bag on the little table in the kitchen. “That can wait.” he says as he turns back to me. “Is it really this easy?” he asks me.
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“Do you really forgive me for what I did?”
“There’s nothing to forgive, Dex. I knew you needed time. I was more than willing to give it to you, but…”
“Then why’d you leave?” he interrupts.
“Because I needed to deal with my apartment and,” I shrug, “I was starting to believe that we were really over. After being handed my own keys, I just assumed that you needed distance from me. But then you never came to talk to me, you never so much as bothered to check and see if I was okay. No texts, no phone calls, no nothing. What else was I supposed to think, Dex?”
He brushes a stray hair from my face, then he repeats the splayed hand routine, allowing his finger tips to touch my face lightly. I melt.
“It was honestly all too much to handle. Between my apartment, Andrew, then the whole Sam thing, Dex, honestly I thought I was imploding. If I didn’t try to get some order back into the chaos that had become my life, I was going to lose it completely. The only thing I knew I could take care of was my apartment. Talking to you was impossible, I didn’t know how to do it and I certainly wasn’t going to push it if you weren’t ready.”
“I’m sorry. I should have put you on a plane before the Atlanta show. Gotten you back to LA to deal with your apartment. I tried to just take care of it all myself, but I realized so much of what I was doing was without your opinion, your consent, had I asked, maybe it wouldn’t have been such a burden on you.”
I back away from him and sit down on the bed. “I know you paid for the appliances and repairs to the apartment,” I whisper.
‘How’d…?”
“I asked the leasing manager. She said that someone named Mills had paid for it. When I thanked Mills, which is how I found out about you knocking on my hotel room door, he said it wasn’t him, that you’d done it,” I tell him. “I was angry at first, but then I realized why it was that you were doing it.”
“Why was that?”
I smile at him. “You were trying to take control, trying to take the burden and worry out of my hands.”
“I felt it was my responsibility to handle it, especially after seeing that picture of Sam.”
I smile at him again. “It was in that moment that I realized that there was nothing to forgive. I figured one of two things was going to happen.” I tell him, “one - exactly what happened, you showing up here, though I’m curious how you found out where I was?” I raise an eyebrow at him.
“What’s the second?” He raises his head, a little cocky, so I know he won’t tell me his source until I finish my thought.
I scowl at him. “I’d end up on that plane to Denver next week and you’d have no choice but to see me.”
He chuckles. “There is no way in hell I’d have waited that long. I’d already booked airfare for this morning when I got a call from a good friend.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Who?”
“Derek. He said that you’d talked to Cotah.”
“That little…”
“Now now, glowbug, you do understand that in their relationship, she can hide nothing from him, correct?”
I huff, “Yes.”
He chuckles, “He’d gotten all the information he needed from Cami. They’re both incurable romantics. He chased Dacotah across the globe to bring her back, do you honestly think he’d let us fall apart like that? He waited to call me after he’d made arrangements for his jet to meet me last night after the show and fly me back here. Then he pretty much ordered me to get you and bring you to Vegas.”
I look at him with equal parts shock and confusion. “Vegas? Why Vegas?”
He gives me a knowing smirk. “He has business to attend to, he thought we needed a getaway…” He doesn’t need to say anything further and a shiver of excitement slides up my spine, causing my nipples to harden.
“What are we waiting for?”
He cocks his head at me. “So eager?”
I laugh, “Maybe a little.”
“Well, I have something else in mind first,” he says in such a way that I slide to the floor, right off the bed and onto my knees. Contrite and at his feet.
I feel his hand come to my chin, raising my eyes to meet his. “While I value your willingness to submit to me, now is not that time. I need you, not your submission.”
I stand up and he pulls me into a strong deep kiss unlike anything I’ve ever felt from him before and I shiver with anticipation as his hands slide over my now hard nipples. My hands go to his chest, ready to rake my fingernails down but he hisses first and grabs my wrists, pulling them back and releasing my lips.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, truly concerned.
He has a knowing smile on his face. He releases my wrists and goes for the hem of his shirt and he pulls it up and over his head.
I hiss through my teeth and fall back on the bed. Stunned into silence by what I’m looking at.
Tattooed on his chest, over his breastbone, onto his left peck, up to his shoulder and a little onto his neck is a massive spider web. The web has bright blue drops on it, like drops of rain. In the lines of the web there are words. I regain my composure enough to stand up and look closer at it.
It says…
It’s not about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the Raine.
“Because you’ve caught me in your web,” he says softly.
I start to cry again. I reach out with my left hand to touch my name gently. “You’re everything to me,” he breathes before capturing my hand in his and bringing it to his lips. “Before you left, I knew that I was going to do whatever it took to get you back.” He lowers himself to the floor. “I mean it this time.” He reaches into his pocket. “I never want to spend another minute without you in my life. I will spend every moment earning your love, your trust, your desire, your devotion and your love. I will spend all my time showing you that I am worthy of what’s in your heart, in your mind and in your soul. Raine Montgomery, will you marry me?”
He holds up a beautiful ring, with a heart cut diamond set on a platinum band, and my eyes go back to his, glossy with tears. “Yes.”
He quickly slides the ring on my finger and stands up. His lips capture mine quickly before he lays me out on the bed and hovers over me. His lips melt into mine and our tongues dance with each other as love, devotion, passion, desperation and adoration pour into me. I kiss him back with all that and so much more. He moans into my mouth before pulling back and kissing along my jaw, down my neck until he comes into contact with my t-shirt. His hands quickly shift to pushing up my shirt. I hiss.
He pulls back. “What’s wrong?” I can’t help the smirk and the pointing with my eyes downward.
I couldn’t wrap my head around what would cause her to hiss, then she directed me downward with a smirk.
“Jesus…” I breathe out. I rear up, quickly pulling down her pants. I look at it, then back at her, then back at the new ink she’s added to her body.
A pair of grey, looking like plated steel, drumsticks crossed slightly with a ribbon winding around them. On the drumstick, the word ‘bubba’ is written, making it looked stamped into the stick. The ribbon wrapped around the sticks is blue, giving it a glowing appearance, and in the center of the ribbon, inside of it, it says one word. “Glowbug,�
� I say out loud.
“You’re not the only person who takes comfort in pain therapy,” she tells me as I lean down and gently kiss around the sticks that are on her left hip, pointing downward toward her pelvis and nearly reaching her ribs.
While my lips are busy kissing along her new ink, my hands are busy trying to pull her pants off. My desire to be inside of her has just catapulted outside of this universe. She chuckles when I start to have trouble and have to pull away from kissing her in order to get them off. She kicks off her flip-flops just as I pull her pants off of her feet.
I quickly climb back up her body, grabbing her hand and pulling her up so that I can pull her t-shirt off and then finally undo her bra, freeing her perfectly gorgeous tits for my mouth’s consumption and I waste no time sucking one of her dark rose colored nipples into my mouth. My tongue flicks along the barbell running through it and she moans.
Her hands are not idle, as she tries desperately to free my cock from my jeans. Once the buttons are undone, I climb off of her and slide them down my legs and kick off my shoes. I stand before her, naked as she is and it’s like I’m a virgin. Staring at a naked woman for the first time as I look at her, her hair spread out on the bed above her head. Her new tattoo seems to glow off of her skin, her whole body is alive as she squirms under my penetrating gaze.
She slides up on the bed, centering herself then she rolls over, pulling open the bedside drawer and I wonder what she’s doing. That is until she pulls out the cuffs she’d bought. Seeing them sends a shiver up my spine. She stands up and comes to stand in front of me. She takes one of my hands in hers and she quickly wraps the cuff over my wrist. I cock my head at her. “Lay down,” she commands me. Her voice, her tone, her everything has me complying with her and I lay down on the bed. “Arms above your head.” Again, I raise my arms up and she quickly climbs on top of me, careful to avoid my chest as she wraps the cuff around the spindle of the headboard and then around my free wrist. Locking me to the bed.
