Yes to Everything

by Shayne McClendon

  “Rex Black. I’m very pleased to make your acquaintance, pretty girl. Are you seriously only eighteen?” There was rustling and it sounded like clothes coming off. She must have nodded because he said, “Father Time is a killer. Oh what I would not give to have my youth back at this moment.”

  “I think you look incredible. I don’t know how old you are but I see nothing remotely out of shape.” Jackson started to turn around and Brooke yelled, “Jack, damn it! I’m not dressed!” Logan leaned on the counter and Decklan ran his hands through his hair. “This table is cold.” Rex whistled and she said with a squeak, “Jesus, don’t ogle, it’s embarrassing. Shouldn’t you act all uninterested like a doctor or something?” They heard the smile in her voice.

  “There isn’t a straight man on the planet that could take in this view and not ogle. Bare is a nice choice. Makes it easier to pierce you. You have that skin tone all over? No way this is fake bake. You tan nude?” The deep nature of his voice spoke of arousal and intent to seduce. Brooke didn’t seem to mind.

  She laughed nervously, “Um, no, my mama was almost full Cherokee. Funny we’re all blond. Jackson! Crap! Don’t turn around! I am your sister and currently half naked and spread-eagle on a metal table. Behave or go up front.”

  Jackson stared at the brothers and mouthed, ‘this is your fucking fault’ at them.

  There was the clink of metal, more rustling, then, “Is this going to…ouch, shit. Wow, not as bad as one would think, actually. Already fading, thank god, considering the location. You’re very good. Very gentle.” Logan was actually shaking now and Decklan was barely containing the volume on the curses he was muttering.

  Rex’s reply was a growl, “Oh baby girl, not always. I’ve never been so hungry in my life. You blush! Who knew there were women who still blushed? I like that. Hmm, this definitely turned you on and you smell fantastic. Oh honey, that is spectacular. I’m going to sit you up. Just rinse it in the shower for a couple of days and turn it a couple of times a day. If you need help, please feel free to call me and I’ll run right over. It shouldn’t hurt. I put in a twenty-four carat gold bar and loop. To match that pretty p…dear god, never mind. Wrap this towel around your waist and we’ll do your tat, honey. I’ll drape it to cover your new jewelry from your friends.”

  Jackson said he was going to get them coffees and headed out the door.

  Rex led her out of the backroom with a hand on her low back. Winking at the twins, they openly growled at him. Brooke rolled her eyes and climbed up on the table, Rex blocking the view of her lower body as she situated herself with the towel, stretching out comfortably. His eyes fixed on hers and she gave him a genuine smile that slammed the air from his lungs. “Sweet Brooke, I think you may be trouble.”

  “I promise, I’m never any trouble,” her eyes stayed on his as she pulled her hair from beneath her.

  He squeezed her shoulder, “Sit tight, sugar. I’m going to get set up.” She nodded and put her hands behind her head, singing along to an Eagles song playing on the stereo. “You have the voice of an angel and you know my generation’s music. I’m thirty-eight but you’re tempting like no other, Brooke.”

  Smiling at him, she asked softly, “How is it you don’t have a lady love, Rex? You’re so charming. Brash and playful but I can tell you’d treat someone well, that you have a lot of respect for women. If I didn’t give you the impression I could handle your teasing, you wouldn’t do it. What’s the story?” Brooke focused on the ceiling to keep from staring at his muscles and dimples.

  Rex rolled his chair and tool table beside her and stared down at her for a long moment, “You read people real well, sweetheart. Divorced eight years now. She cheated on me for two years, every time I was deployed.”

  “I’m sorry. Then I wish for you to find a woman like my mom. No matter what, she stood by my father. Through his mid-life crisis when he was messing with a waitress and when he’d yell because he just felt so frustrated for being a rancher instead of a musician. She loved him unconditionally. He was a good man when she married him and she always saw that man, even when he was an ass. You deserve a woman like that. Who will love you no matter what. I bet I could find you someone perfect.”

  Rex laughed and swabbed her hip. “You’re a unique pleasure for a man like me, Brooke. Sweet and innocent.” He glanced up at the other men, “Not as young as people want to believe, I think. You want anymore ink, you come here to me. If anyone were to put bad needles in this pretty body, I would be very upset.” Looking up into her face he added, “This might hurt at first, but I’ll be careful, alright, honey?” Brooke nodded with a trusting smile.

  He went to work and the brothers came closer to watch. The sight of Brooke’s bare body from her toes to her belly button with a towel strategically placed to cover her pussy about dropped them. She was so smooth and tan. Stroking their eyes up her body, they realized she was watching them. “I told you guys not to come.”

  “How long have you wanted to get a tattoo, Brooke?” Logan asked her, trying to ignore the painful pressure behind his zipper.

  “Since I lost my parents. I knew when Jackson asked me for his tonight that I wouldn’t have any more excuses to hide behind.” She smiled at Rex, “Needles…” He nodded. “The sun is my father, the moon is my mother, and the stars are each of us kids.” Rex hit a sensitive spot and she hissed then assured him she was fine, to keep going.

  Decklan couldn’t resist reaching out to trace the top of her foot with a fingertip, “And the comets?”

  “To remind me that things you really want can be fleeting, sometimes only in your universe for a moment before they’re gone.” She stared at the ceiling and began to sing along to Hotel California. “We should cover this song as an encore. It’s one of my favorites. You’d rock the guitar solo, Decklan.”

  “Consider it done. We’ll rehearse it and do it in the next city,” he told her quietly. They pulled chairs up by her head and sat with their arms crossed on the table. “Why didn’t you say anything about Kyle?”

  Her shrug was casual as she stared down her body to watch Rex, “You didn’t ask. You assumed and I let you. It was a sin of omission at the most. Though I don’t know why you should care. You have your focus, I have mine. Kyle and I show up on time every night and do our jobs. We smile and flirt on cue, we do technically sleep together most nights, by the way, usually after watching action movies. We are action movie fanatics. I’m pretty sure I’m going to use my newfound fame to find and jump Jason Statham, Bruce Willis, then maybe Sly. He was so beautiful in Get Carter, kind of grizzled, but real, and gorgeous. Don’t get me started on Tango and Cash. Lord.”

  Rex met her eyes with a chuckle, “I’m not feeling so bad, all those guys are my age or older.”

  With a smug smile and a mischievous sparkle in her eyes, she assured him, “You’re in excellent shape, Rex. I wouldn’t lie to you. I’m noticing these things more and more lately. You are definitely a fine-looking man.”

  He glanced back up her body and smiled slowly, “Sounds like you’ve been…without for a while, sweetheart.”

  She nodded, “You have no idea.” Closing her eyes, she asked, “The…other thing, my piercing won’t, you know, hurt during something like that, right?”

  “No, ma’am, that isn’t going to hurt at all.” He was about a third done with the freehand design on her hip when he looked at the twins, “Before the boy gets back, let me ask you two a question. You play with all the little pieces of ass who come to your shows?” They sighed. “Yeah, I can see you do. This young woman is a keeper. You can’t take it honest, don’t take it at all. Looks like she’s not going to wait for you two to grow up, finding options on her own…and you want to piss on her like a tree in your yard.”

  Sitting back, he gazed at them with all the seriousness of a man who’d seen and done it all, “You’re toying with her. I’ve barely known you three for an hour and I can see what you’re doing. If you aren’t men enough to be satisfied with this,” he g
estured down her body, “keep your dicks in your pants. I’m saying that man to man because she’s too young for me and too good for you. And you damn well know it.”

  Brooke pretended she wasn’t about to cry and said softly, “You’re a good man, Rex.” She sighed, “Don’t worry, I know them, better than they think I do. If we had sex, it wouldn’t be enough. They’d go back to fucking their groupies.” Shrugging with a sad smile she added, “What else can you do?”

  “We’re fucking sitting right here, Brooke.” Logan was staring at her incredulously.

  “Why, yes you are, Logan, and that’s only because Kyle went to sit with Finn. You stayed because you saw an opening when I wasn’t with my pretend-boyfriend. You’re focusing again because you know I haven’t really fucked him and you see the chance to be with someone who’s been with one man, one time. And it sucked, by the way. I totally didn’t get the draw at all. Not a fucking fizzle. I did a better job on myself at fifteen. Fucking bullshit.”

  Logan and Decklan both groaned. Rex was frozen in shock, the needle an inch over her hip, his gaze so hot and hungry she could feel it touching her. “Brooke honey, are you telling me you’ve had sex once ever?”

  “Technically, I’m non-virgin and glad to have that part over because it sucked worse than the rest of the experience. I’m also non-orgasm so that pretty much blows.” Brooke glanced down then back up to meet his eyes with a cheeky smile, “Rex, your hand is shaking.”

  “I’m sorry, honey. I think I may be having a bit of a fit. I hope it isn’t a fucking heart attack.”

  With a tinkling laugh, she raised herself up on one elbow and said quietly, “I think I’m going home with you, Rex. Logan and Decklan always find someone to play with. I’m not worried about them one bit because it really is about sex for them and you can get sex anywhere, Rex. Little backwater towns, big cities and rest stops. They can and have gotten laid just about everywhere. They think I don’t notice which is really fucking insulting. I notice, Rex.”

  She glared at the two brothers. “Meanwhile everyone thinks I’ve been getting laid with my sweet pretend-boyfriend who’s really gay but the nicest damn person. I have not been getting laid, Rex. I get totally worked up from these two rubbing all over me and fans grabbing my ass. Then I go home with my brother and sisters. They have a different piece twice a day. I’m fucking done. When do I get to enjoy being a grown-ass woman? Huh? When do I get some action without worrying about catching a disease from one of fifty sluts or getting my dignity trampled on?”

  Decklan’s voice was pleading, “Brooke, we can change.”

  “Someday you will, Decklan. I believe that. When you’ve worked this shit out of your system and are ready to be grownups. Sure. But not now and I’ve told you time and again I didn’t expect you to. But you are not going to fuck me and hurt me because I am not that woman.”

  One fist clenched on the table, “And if you mistakenly believe I’ll be celibate while you fuck every piece of ass that catches your eye, you really don’t know who you’re dealing with. Talk about being hypocrites. You meet someone you wouldn’t know on the street the next day and fuck them until you’re exhausted. I’ve enjoyed getting to know Rex. He’s nice, good looking, reads me better than either of you, and I bet would be very careful with me.” Rex growled. “Oh my god, Turn the Page. Seger was so ahead of his time, don’t you think?”

  Logan said quietly, “You’re right, Brooke.” He sighed, “We aren’t ready to treat you well and we’d use you up because you’re emotionally invested. Yeah, we are too, but not to the extent you are. It isn’t right of us to expect you to sleep alone every night while we play with whatever new toy we happen to find.”

  “Logan, are you fucking crazy?” Decklan asked him.

  “Yeah, apparently I am, because the thought of her being with anyone but us has me seeing red. But we don’t have the right to claim her, Decklan. We’re going to stomp on her heart. Think about it. If we pushed, we could have her tonight. Then what? Are we going to abstain from the buffet tomorrow and the day after that? I want her. I look at her and I get hard, I think forever. But we try that shit now and we’ll lose her forever. Can you not see that?”

  “I was dying when I thought she was fucking Kyle, Logan. I don’t want to do this. Don’t ask me to.” Decklan was shaking. Brooke saw tears in his eyes.

  Logan didn’t care, pushing on angrily, “Did that stop either of us from fucking thirty groupies since?” Sucking air hard through his teeth, Decklan stared at his brother. “See? And it wouldn’t now. She knows that, it’s why she’s backed away from us. She wants us but won’t be used. Should we want her to let us use her, Deck? Would we want her as much if she was like the groupies we fuck daily?”

  Glaring at his brother, he practically spit, “Logan, I swear to god, if you keep talking about all the other women we’ve fucked in front of her, I’m going to bust you in the mouth. Shut the fuck up.” Standing, Decklan bent over her, his hand beside her head. “Brooke, I could be faithful to you.”

  She couldn’t stop the tear that slid into her hair as she touched his face, “No, you couldn’t, Decklan. I know you’d want to be, you’d try to be for me…but you couldn’t. Not long-term. Do I wish you were ready now? Sure. But you’re not. Watching you two do your thing is making it worse because I don’t have anyone. I keep being alone all the time and I’m going to end up hating you both, don’t you understand? I don’t want that.”

  “What if…what if you find someone you want forever…that you fall in love with? What then?” Decklan’s voice was broken and hoarse as he tried to leash his emotions.

  She shrugged sadly, “Then it happens and you’ll realize you shouldn’t have been so stupid. Isn’t that a risk you take, too? You could find someone who really does it for you, Decklan. Forget all about the warm and fuzzy feelings you think you have for me. I realize that every time you two find a new playmate.”

  Logan sighed, “Shit, for months you’ve held all this inside? How do you even talk to us? How are you so great onstage?”

  “Because she’s not stupidly one-track minded like you two losers,” Jackson said behind them. Only Rex had heard him come in. “I figured you guys needed some chat time. I walked for a while. Wow, Brooke that is so pretty. The comets are these two. Kind of also representing fame and fortune, huh?” She said nothing and he handed the twins coffee.

  “She finally have the ‘I’m tired of watching you singlehandedly fuck the planet while I sleep alone’ talk? It’s about damn time. I’m a guy and even I’m offended at how bad you two are. You put rock bands to shame. You’re not doing that shit to my sister. I’ll take you out with a hunting rifle.”

  He leaned up against the counter while Rex laughed. “I see your plain way of speaking runs in the family.”

  “We won’t, Jackson.” Logan’s voice was tired. He stood beside his brother and they stared down at Brooke. “We won’t hurt you. We won’t make moves on you again until we can guarantee we won’t hurt you, Brooke. I don’t give a shit what Decklan says, that time isn’t now. I’m ashamed of that but I won’t lie about it either.”

  “It might help if you approach it like quitting smoking. Only one woman a day, then one every two days and so forth. Step yourselves down a little at a time. You should be ready for me in about ten years. The good news is, I’m so young now, I’ll still be in my twenties. It’s very likely I’ll find a grown man before then.”

  “We don’t want you to hate us, baby,” Decklan whispered. “I see so many possibilities with you.”

  “We’ll try to be grownups sooner rather than later. You’re right about one thing in particular.” Logan swallowed hard, “It has become an addiction. I don’t think we realized how bad until now. As bad as we want you, need you, that we can’t commit is disgusting. When we’re ready for you, you’d better be ready for us, Brooke. Because once we have you, we’re not letting you go.”

  Her smile was tight, “It’s a gamble either way. You guys go.
I’ll make sure Jack gets back to the hotel.” Each of them kissed her lips gently and smoothed her hair back. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Please don’t be late to rehearsal. I hate that.” They nodded and left, ruffling Jack’s hair on the way by and telling him they’d take a cab.

  When they were gone, Jackson came to stand over her and held her hand. “I’m fine. I really am. Either they grow up or they don’t. I can’t keep stressing over it, Jack.” With a huge smile that belied the sadness in her eyes, she asked, “Have you decided what you’re going to get?”

  “A drum set with yours, Molly’s, and Becca’s names on them.”

  “Well that’s going to make me cry. You’re such a great brother.”

  Rex worked on her in silence, listening to her sing along to his music. Jack sat back and watched as Rex tattooed and wiped the extra ink and blood away. He was very careful and both the Kincaids were impressed he was doing the design freehand. When he was finished, he cleaned it and took a picture with his digital camera to show her. “Oh my god, it’s perfect. Thank you, Rex.”

  He went over everything she had to do to keep it clean then covered it. Asking Jackson to turn away, he helped her sit up, lifting her to the floor. She pulled the towel around her and he took her back to her clothes.

  He gave her privacy long enough to pull on her panties and pants, then came across the room and took her in his arms, tilting her back and dropping his mouth over hers. There was no hesitation as her arms went around his back and shoulders. Rex licked across her lips and she opened for him, sighing as his tongue coiled around hers. He gentled and sucked her lower lip as he pulled back, staring at her in shock. “Holy shit…you’re serious.”

  “You thought I wasn’t?”

  His voice was barely more than a growl as he said, “I was doing my best to help you make them jealous.”

  “I’m not stupid, just young. I know that won’t work. Not forever. I don’t want anyone who doesn’t think I’m enough. I’m not dealing with cheating and I shouldn’t be expected to. Fame and fortune don’t give them the right to ask that of me.” Shrugging her shoulder, she added, “You’re an excellent kisser, Rex. I don’t have much to compare it to but it felt outstanding.”