Falling Into Lust
One More Night Trilogy
Selene Chardou
Falling Into Lust
One More Night Trilogy
Copyright © 2013 Selene Chardou
All Rights Reserved.
Cover Artist: Stephanie Nelson
ISBN: 978-1-3010-0180-4
Publisher: Midnight Engel Press, LLC
Table of Contents
Dedication
Falling Into Lust Playlist
Chapter One – Anticipation
Chapter Two – Set Up
Chapter Three – Happy Birthday to Me
Chapter Four – Gotta Have Faith
Chapter Five – Reality Bites
Chapter Six – The Concert
Chapter Seven – Just a Taste
Chapter Eight – Pieces of Kaz
Chapter Nine – Dinner & a Proposal
Chapter Ten – Good Advice
Chapter Eleven – Sealing the Deal
Chapter Twelve – Change
Chapter Thirteen – With You
Chapter Fourteen - Decisions
About the Author
Contacts & Resources
Upcoming and Current Novels & Novellas
Dedication
To my fans out there. This one is for you!
Falling Into Lust Playlist
“One More Night” - Maroon 5
“Stronger” – Thirty Seconds to Mars’ version (originally performed by Kanye West)
“The Dope Show” - Marilyn Manson
“Ava Adore” - The Smashing Pumpkins
“Closer” - Nine Inch Nails
“Ready to Go” - Republica
“6 Underground” - Sneaker Pimps
“Personal Jesus” - Depeche Mode
“Free Fallin’” - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
"So Cruel" - U2
“Savin’ Me” - Nickelback
“Hurricane” - Sixty Seconds to Mars
“Trippin' On a Hole in a Paper Heart” - Stone Temple Pilots
“Complicated” - Rihanna
“Love Bites” - Def Leppard
“Scar Tissue” - Red Hot Chili Peppers
“Darling Nikki” - Foo Fighters’ version (originally by Prince and the Revolution)
“Tonight I'm Fucking You” - Enrique Iglesias feat Ludacris
“Rock Star” - Nickelback
“Little Bad Girl” - David Guetta feat. Taio Cruz & Ludacris
“Digital Bath” - Deftones
Chapter One
Anticipation
I will happily admit to being a mega-bitch.
That is all anyone needs to know about me to understand the tale I am about to tell. My background is irrelevant and so is what I look like except to the men who find me attractive. I have had two best friends my whole life: Faith, and Laurel. They are both gorgeous and beautiful women who I’ve grown up with and known since we were children. It doesn’t hurt we run in the same social circles and have pretty much done everything together.
We tell each other about every gritty detail that is going on in our lives and that is what makes our relationship so unique. We can rely on one another and that is very rare. Although we are all so very different, we compliment one another and there is absolutely no envy or jealousy between us. I suppose all women claim that with their best friends but in our case, it is completely true.
Anyway, when I walked down to my grandfather’s study on that beautiful afternoon in early spring, I had one thing on my mind and one thing only: my twenty-third birthday. It was hard to believe I was starting to get old and it seemed like yesterday I had just turned twenty. Where the hell did all the time go?
I shrugged off my thoughts of my slowly dwindling youth and knocked on the door before I opened it and smiled at my grandfather. He truly was a precious sight to behold and because I knew him better than I did my own mother or father, I wouldn’t have trusted anyone else to arrange the celebration for my birthday even if it wasn’t a milestone.
He smiled at me, his silver-blond hair as perfect as his handsome face and steel blue eyes, the same color as mine. Although he was my grandfather, he was barely in his mid-sixties and still as virile and vibrant as ever.
“Ah, my beautiful and only granddaughter, how is it going?” he greeted in a warm voice which melted my heart and made me grin in return.
“Very good, Granddad. How about you? You seem very happy this morning and please don’t tell me all of this is about a simple birthday party you are planning for little ole moi.”
He stood and walked over to me. “But it is. You’re my heart and it gives me great pleasure to keep you satisfied. All the arrangements have been made and the party will be held on my brand new Yacht, the Landvik III. That isn’t all though. Guess who I managed to get to perform for you on the most special day in your life?”
Mmm, that would definitely be a surprise. I liked a lot of different artists and although I listened to my share of pop, hip-hop and neo-soul, rock and roll was my favorite music genre. He knew this too and it wouldn’t be as much fun if he had gotten some artist like artist like Jay-Z, Eminem or Britney Spears. I loved them all but they weren’t exactly artists I could flirt with and perhaps end up sharing a night or two rolling around in my silk sheets.
“Um…Winter’s Regret?” I wondered out loud.
It was no secret most of the band was single and they were a great rock and roll band with touches of 90s alternative. Their music was deep yet addictive, kind of like Deftones meets Marilyn Manson, but they were fairly new and only had one album released. Their sophomore album would be out in a week or so but that was pretty much all I could think about them as a group off the top of my head. They also had a habit of pulling outrageous antics which had them constantly featured on TMZ or the gossip section of Society Magazine.
I knew they were going on tour that summer with Scarlet Fever and afterwards, they would be working on their third album but when that one would be released was anyone’s guess.
“Nope. I did you one better. As you know, the Gillian family wasn’t exactly jazzed when their youngest son decided to try his hand in the music business and at one time thought of disowning him. However, now that his band has four albums under their belt and they are a genuine sensation, their feelings have changed.
“I personally spoke with Kasper this morning and told him all about you and how it was your birthday. They have an upcoming break before they head back into the studio to polish their latest album and they have agreed to play at your birthday. I won’t lie—the money I offered them was just too good to turn down and I truly believe it would make you happy to see them in the flesh.”
I screamed out loud before I embraced my grandfather. “That is so awesome! Oh my God! You mean Scarlet Fever is playing at my birthday celebration? Like, wow, Granddad. I don’t know what to say. This is the best news I have gotten in forever.”
He touched my cheek lovingly as we separated. “I would do anything to see you genuinely happy, you know that, don’t you?”
His sudden seriousness took me completely off guard. “Of course, Granddad, and I am happy. You make me happier than any man I’ve ever known, even my own father.”
“That’s good to know.” He smiled at me again before he casually dismissed me.
I had so many calls to make but my first stop would be lunch at one of the hottest restaurants in Manhattan with BFF number two, Laurel.
“Oh my freakin’ God, how cool is that? Scarlet Fever makes my panties go all wet and gooey.”
I rolled my eyes before I sipped from my Cosmopolitan. “That is so gross, Laurel, especially since we just ordered lunch. I am thinking about sending the crab cakes back.”
&n
bsp; “Sorry! It’s just…this is gonna be such a bitchin’ birthday and I love it! I am excited for you to be honest. You think my cheapskate dad would have splurged on Scarlet Fever for my twenty-third birthday? My mom was like, ‘It’s not a special occasion’. I was lucky to get the celebration I did receive.”
She was right because her birthday had been totally low key with her friends and our respective boyfriends at the time in tow. That was two months ago and now that we were both single and dumped the douchebags we’d been dating, our life was definitely looking up.
Laurel and I had a different relationship from Faith and I because we were both fun loving, crazy girls. We liked hot bad boys and one night stands. We partied a lot together and because of our different looks, we made the perfect combination.
I was naturally honey blonde with flaxen highlights and blue-gray eyes. I was almost model-tall at 5’8” and weighed one hundred and thirty pounds. I know it sounds chunky but on my height, I didn’t have an extra roll or piece of cellulite to be found. I was complete muscle and gristle thanks to all the sports I’d played as a child.
Laurel, on the other hand, was exotic and beautiful with her olive skin, long silky dark brown hair which she constantly played with by adding different highlights. At the moment, she sported thick chunky auburn-brown highlights running through and the look was stunning on her. Her eyes were hazel-green and she had cheeks that could cut glass and a pouty full mouth that drove all the men crazy. She was of average height at 5’4” and about one hundred and ten pounds.
Her exotic looks came from a mother who was half-Dutch and half-Creole from Southern Louisiana while her father was Danish. We had been friends for so long, attending the same boarding schools and deciding to skip college altogether that it had been fun to have someone around who loved to shop and was as liberated with her body as I was and continued to be.
We certainly didn’t consider ourselves sluts or easy but we also knew how to have a good time and for me, that was the most important part of our relationship. Neither of us judged the other and we were free to be ourselves.
“This is going to be so cool. I can’t wait. Is it really two days before your birthday?” Laurel complained before she sipped from her mojito.
“’Fraid so but I’ll tell you what? Why don’t you stay over at my apartment for the next couple of days? We need to shop anyway and we get the perfect opportunity to really get ready for my ultra-cool birthday bash in style. How about it?”
“Well count me in because shopping and fucking are my two favorite past time activities.”
We smiled at one another before we downed the rest of our drinks and prepared to order another round.
I could feel it in my bones: my party was gonna rock big time!
Chapter Two
Set Up
Friday came much too soon for my liking but I had to admit Laurel and I had fun on Thursday. We really did burn up the Centurion—also known as the black American Express card—on Fifth Avenue. We couldn’t just have one outfit for the weekend cruise because that would be uncouth. We had to have multiple possibility outfits so we each bought three different outfits for every day we would be on the boat.
That day, Friday, we would board the Yacht and there was a meet and greet with the band just for my pleasure and Laurel’s of course. We managed to have our own very intimate dinner with Scarlet Fever and that was driving us both crazy because it was such a cool opportunity. However, my grandfather was paying a hefty price to book them so there wasn’t much that would be denied for my benefit.
I had invited quite a few acquaintances and frenemies only because it would make great gossip later although the vast majority of the people attending my birthday party were acquaintances of my grandfather and my mother. They would pretty much be shut off to themselves because while this was a full fledged vacation for me, both my grandfather and mother were shrewd business-people and they seemed to exist on pure adrenaline alone with all the deals they made on a weekly basis.
It still was pretty cool though because that meant there would only be about ten of us actually watching Scarlet Fever perform and if that wasn’t an intimate crowd then I don’t know what would be considered one.
Laurel and I were some of the first to arrive and quickly found our cabins which were side by side. The Landvik III was no ordinary Yacht. My grandfather had made his money from Landvik Cruise Line, Norwegian Cruise Line’s biggest competitor because my grandfather happened to be Norwegian too. Before he’d gone in the Cruise business, he built boats specifically for oil drilling in North Sea.
Yes, it was true, his family had money but my grandfather was a self-made billionaire and had created an empire because he sailed to places Norwegian and Caribbean Cruise Lines’ wouldn’t touch. There was the famous cruise from Israel to South Africa (I could only guess he was paying the pirates off the Somali Coast not to attack); a cruise that took you from Colombia all the way to Chile; cruises that explored the Gulf of Mexico. And of course the ultimate cruise, the “Ice Cap” cruise as it was called.
One huge crack in the polar ice caps made it possible to venture all the way to Greenland from Russia and it was one of the most popular cruises and sold out way more than cruises to Alaska ever would.
My grandfather considered himself a businessman but then again, so did my mother. There was a reason why I didn’t have a real dad other than my grandfather. My mother slept with a married man for the specific purpose of getting pregnant with a baby and that was it. She had a string of affairs but she would never marry because her father’s business would land in her lap and she wasn’t the type of businesswoman who liked to share.
It was quite ironic she ended up with someone like me for a daughter who didn’t give a damn about business, considered myself one of those “stupid girls” Pink talked about in her famous single—except I didn’t own a dog that resembled an emaciated rat because of a rare yet unfortunate allergy to domestic animals. I had no ambitions or hobbies outside of shopping, clubbing and spending money I had not worked to make.
Laurel came to my luxurious cabin suite after she’d settled in. She laid out on my bed and turned my way. “So, this is the big time. We’re about to meet rock stars. Are you excited, nervous or both?”
I laughed before I opened a bottle of Cristal champagne and poured us both fluted glasses full. “Listen, I don’t get nerves around any man, rock star or not. They’re normal just like us and besides, I always get what want so why should I worry?”
She sipped from her champagne and pondered out loud, “True. I just heard Kasper is an asshole and doesn’t give women the time of day unless you are looking for a one night stand and nothing else. Are you ready to handle that?”
“Is this from personal experience?” I wondered out loud.
Laurel was a great friend and woman but she was a bit of a rock groupie and had been with quite a few famous musicians. Unfortunately, she didn’t kiss and tell but she always made sure said incident was well documented with her Ulysse Nardin smart phone. There were always plenty of racy photos she could have sold to the tabloids for mega bucks but she would never embarrass or tarnish her family’s name or reputation in such a tawdry fashion.
“No, it isn’t because I haven’t slept with anyone from Scarlet Fever.”
“Seriously? I’m shocked.”
“Oh shut up! Let’s just meet these guys and get this whole ‘meet and greet’ over already.”
“We’ll get there soon enough but first, let’s finish this bottle of champagne.”
Both of us looked at one another before we both burst into giddy and girlish laughter.
The “Meet & Greet”, otherwise known as the first night’s dinner with all my friends—associates and frenemies included—and the band, was without a doubt one of the best occasions in my young life. Scarlet Fever, the band, was absolutely terrific, but the members were cooler than I’d ever imagined.
This wasn’t my first time meeting them. After
all, I’d had backstage passes before but it wasn’t the most intimate situation to push groupies out of the way just to say hello to someone from the band. I looked at all the fake blondes and brunettes with extensions down their back, their slutty clothing and “fuck-me” shoes, and rolled my eyes before I double timed it out of there after a quick meeting with the band.
However, since they were here specifically for my birthday, it was a different situation. Scarlet Fever consisted of Kasper Gillian, also known as Kaz, who was lead singer and sometime guitar player; Jaden Cox, known simply as “Cocky” to the fans, lead guitarist and major player thanks to his good looks which rivaled Kasper’s; Will Cullen, nicknamed “Skillz” one of the best bass guitar players in the world while looks-wise, he made the women swoon with his blond hair, sky blue eyes and a body cut like a professional tennis player—tall and lean with hidden muscles everywhere one looked; and last but not least, Grant MacMullen, also known as “Mac”, the drummer who was originally from Seattle and had a face and body of Adonis so his bed was rarely empty. In fact, some people thought he was better looking than Kasper and should have been the front man but his voice wasn’t strong enough to carry the band nor did he have the charisma.
I flitted about my own party, talking to friends and virtually ignoring the band since they were getting their fair share of attention from my friends. Not that I cared. Kasper and Co. were there for my benefit and if he had any intentions of sleeping with my female friends, he was dead wrong.
After a couple of hours of socializing and still not introducing myself to any of the band besides Grant and Will, I walked outside and found a comfortable place to sit. I lit a Camel and inhaled deeply before I exhaled. The sky was dark and stormy and I couldn’t believe rain threatened my birthday, especially since we were sailing toward the Caribbean and the weather was supposed to be perfect. Blue skies, gentle winds and whiter than white sand set against the lush backdrop of paradise on earth known for its wonderful seafood and alcoholic concoctions…what could possibly go wrong?
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