Play Hard (The Devil's Share Book 5)

by Maxa,L. P.

  His jaw clenched, but his sweet smile stayed in place. “Yes.”

  I threw my arms around his neck and rained kisses all over his face. I couldn’t help but notice Lexi studying us from across the car. The limo came to a stop outside a small brick building. It looked pretty simple except for the hundreds of flashing lights and the red carpet. Being photographed with a rock star would go a long way in pissing my dad off. Looked like our little arrangement was going to benefit both of us after all. The driver came around and opened the door, letting Dash and Lexi out and then shutting it again. “So is there a band hierarchy?”

  Smith shrugged. “Nah. We usually just go in order of how we’re sitting. None of us really care all that much about the spotlight.”

  I nodded. “Just the chicks and booze?”

  Dylan laughed. “You nailed it.”

  Jacks put his hand to his chest. “Excuse me. But all the men in this band are now reformed and walking the straight and narrow.”

  “Even Luke.” Smith was staring at us. He was intense, that one. It was like he was always trying to figure out everyone’s next move. Luke’s smile was as tight as his grip on my thigh.

  The driver opened the door again, this time letting Jacks and Bryan out. I watched them walk the carpet. They were so playful, so happy together. I bet their house was full of laughter. Landry was a lucky kid.

  “Did you talk to Amy a lot when you were in Costa Rica?” Smith leaned forward in his seat and rested his forearms on his thighs.

  “Uh, yeah, I guess I talked to her every few days or so.” Luke bit his lip. “School started back so she’s been really busy.” I gathered his sister was a teacher. I filed that away in my Luke fact memory folder.

  Smith scooted toward the door when it opened again. “Don’t let Lexi get to you on this, bro. You had a new relationship that you wanted to keep on a beautiful beach as long as possible. There’s nothing wrong with that, right?” He climbed out and then reached in to help Dylan to her feet.

  “You think they suspect something?” I turned toward Luke once the door was shut again and the screaming fans were muffled.

  “Maybe.” Luke crossed the car and sat closer to the door, holding his hand out for me to join him. “Smith is really observant. And Lexi was obviously hinting at something when she mentioned me not telling Amy about you.” He shrugged. “Either way it’ll be fine.”

  “How so?”

  “Even if Smith knows we’re lying, he’d never say anything to anyone. Smith, all the guys, they know why I left. And they’d understand why I said I was dating someone.”

  I looked out the window; the driver was making his way back to us. “And Lexi?”

  Luke gave me a sad smile. “Lexi wants me to be happy.” The driver opened the door and he turned back to me one more time. “And she’ll do anything it takes to make sure I stay that way.” Luke said the last part more to himself than to me.

  We walked the short red carpet, and there were at least a thousand pictures taken. When we made it into the safety of the bar, they ushered the guys up toward the stage and the four of us girls to a table right in the front. There were reporters throughout the venue and then some fans sprinkled around. You could tell the difference because the people there for work had out pads of paper or their phones ready to make notes. And the fans just looked excited.

  Luke took a seat behind a small drum set and Jacks and Smith both picked up their instruments. Dash perched on a stool and addressed the small crowd. “Thank you all so much for coming out. The album we are going to be debuting tonight is unlike anything we have ever done before. All we ask is that you listen, that you keep an open mind, and that you are honest in your opinions.” Dash glanced down at Lexi and winked. “As a band, over the last year, our lives have been turned upside down. This album is our love story.”

  From the first note, I was captivated. Everyone in the audience was. The slow hypnotic sound coming out of the hard-core rockers was so amazing. They held us all in a trance for a solid hour. They went from one song almost straight into another. It was like the audience disappeared for them; they were just four boys playing music together. When they were done, they simply hopped off the stage. Like they hadn’t just changed lives with their songs. They came to our table, somewhat oblivious to the standing ovation they were getting. I only had eyes for Luke. Seeing him up there, in his element, he was so damn sexy. When he kneeled down in front of me, I couldn’t help my huge smile. “That was amazing.”

  “Yeah?”

  I nodded. “It was everything. And everyone loved it. The album is going to do great, Luke.” I knew a thing or two about the music business. It was hard to grow up with an industry mogul as your father and a hippie as your mother and not know a great thing when you heard it.

  He stood and pulled me to my feet, then dipped down and placed a kiss on my lips. I didn’t mean to moan, I really didn’t. I’d just gotten so turned on while I’d watched him perform. He raised an eyebrow. “Ready to get out of here, Pixie?”

  I hung my head in shame. I was pathetic. Just your typical girl losing her cool over a hot-as-hell rock star.

  Luke placed his finger under my chin and lifted my face. “How about a few drinks at the bar first?” I nodded, taking the out he so graciously gave me. “We’ll have to talk to a few different radio guys, but then I’ll come join you.”

  Bryan looped her arm through mine. “Come on, you can be my girl for the night.” Jacks and Luke both went stock still, staring at us. Both their heads cocked to the side at the same time. Bryan reached out and punched Jacks in the arm. “Really? Picturing me naked with a chick isn’t going to help you focus on those press interviews.”

  I shook my head sadly back and forth. “I’d never let you watch me with her anyway.”

  Their jaws dropped open and we walked away laughing.

  We posted up at the old wooden bar, and after we all had our drinks in hand I turned to Bryan. “Luke said that Jacks just found out about Landry over the summer. Were you guys together when she showed up?” I wanted to know about this adorable little family, and for the first time since I met these people it had nothing to do with Luke. I just really enjoyed Bryan.

  She shook her head. “No, not really. We were just friends at that point, but he did ask me to come down and help him with her.” She grinned. “And then one thing led to another.”

  I took a sip of gin. “If you don’t mind me asking, what happened with all that? Why did her mom not come forward sooner?”

  “The label was paying her off. She didn’t need anything else from the band other than money.” She sighed. “CPS got called when Landry’s mom abandoned her for over a week.”

  “That’s so terrible.” My heart ached for that little girl. It was a true testament to her strength that she was able to bounce back from all that so well. My dad may have been an asshole while I was growing up. But I’d always had my mom, and she was amazing. Supportive and loving.

  “Yeah it really was.” Bryan looked across the bar, seeking out Jacks. When their eyes met, he pursed his lips in a kiss. “But we’re all good now. And that’s what matters most.”

  I glanced past Bryan; Lexi and Dylan seemed deep in conversation. “Have any insight into the band that you want to share? Anything to help me survive?” Luke and I would never be more than friends. I understood that. But even as his friend, I wanted to fit in here. After all, I was going to be with them for another week.

  “The band, this family…they’re tough. They’re protective because they have to be, you know? They’ve all been dealt some crap hands at one point or another.” Bryan studied me for a moment, like she was trying to decide if she wanted to let me in or not. I didn’t blame her, but I’d never sell them out. “Smith had a really rough childhood with a horribly abusive father. The first drummer for the band, Jared, was Smith’s cousin and he had a drug problem. He was messed up one night and tried to kill Smith; he shot him in the shoulder and gave Lexi a concussion.”


  “Oh wow.” Talk about family drama. Between what Landry had gone through, and the band as a whole, suddenly my absentee father seemed like less of an issue.

  “Yeah. Lexi was pregnant at the time and she could have easily lost the baby. All that hit Smith really hard. He blamed himself, blamed his connection to his family.” Bryan took another sip of her beer. “Dylan joined the tour after that and she was good for Smith; he’s come a long way. At one point she shot Smith’s dad in the foot, but I don’t really know the details about that because they never talk about it.”

  “She shot his dad?” I whispered.

  Bryan nodded. “Yep. At the musical festival where I met Jacks for the first time. He totally tried to get with me and I punched him in the gut. We were friends from that moment on and when I came down to help him with Landry we fell in love. And now you’re here with Luke. Everything happens for a reason, right? The glass can either be half full or half empty. But either way, you can always refill it.”

  That was a lot of information to get in less than two minutes. I took a long gulp of my gin and tonic. None of that information explained Luke and Lexi. They had been friends for a long time, sure. But why was he still stuck on her? Why did she have that power over him? There had to be something between them, something that bonded them together. Friendship and unrequited love that spanned a decade? It would be tragic if it didn’t piss me off so bad.

  My gaze ventured across the room, automatically seeking out Luke. I was so drawn to him. Ever since he’d kissed me on that plane, I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him. It was like the universe kept shoving us together.

  I knew that Luke wasn’t in the right frame of mind for a relationship, but it was getting harder and harder to resist the pull of him.

  Chapter Twenty

  Lexi

  I’d observed Luke watching Lo while he played. I knew he had real feelings for this girl. It was obvious in the way that he couldn’t not see her, couldn’t seem to look away. The question remained, would he let himself fall? Or would he use me as an excuse not to?

  “What are you thinking? You’re being too quiet and you’re scaring me.” Dylan took the drink I’d been occupying myself with from my hands and sat it down on the bar.

  “Luke likes Lo.” My eyes swept the room. “He looks for her. He searches her out. And the dummy probably doesn’t even realize he’s doing it. He needs a swift kick in the ass.”

  “Why did you bring up the Amy thing in the car?”

  I turned back around, facing forward before Luke (or Dash) caught me staring. Dash wanted me to leave well enough alone and let Luke make his own choices. I knew Luke sucked at making his own choices; he always chose to be the martyr. “I wanted to see his reaction, see hers. And did you notice? It took her like sixty seconds to even realize what we were talking about.”

  Dylan held her empty drink out to the hot bartender, signaling she’d like another. “Yeah, but then she slapped him.” Dylan barely drank when she’d joined us on tour, and now she could hold her own with the rest of us like a champ.

  “It was halfhearted at best. Besides it looked like she was trying not to laugh the whole time.” I sighed. “They’re friends, they have fun together, and they’re hot for each other. There’s no mistaking any of that.”

  “So what’s the problem? It seems like they are well on their way to being more than just friends. And I know for a fact she’s on the press tour until New York because Luke added her to the flight itinerary. They have time.” Dylan drained half her drink in one long pull.

  “Are you on a mission tonight? Should we just order shots and be done with it?”

  She winced, a small smile playing on her lips. “Smith wants a baby.”

  My eyes went wide. “What?” Out of all the guys in the band, I never guessed Smith would be the one to actually plan for a kid.

  “He wants to start trying as soon as all this promo stuff is over. So I figured I might as well live it up while we’re here. Drink, sit in the hot tub, eat a crap ton of sushi.” She chuckled. “You know, all the things you bitched about not being able to do while you were pregnant with Halen.”

  I pulled her in for a hug. “That’s really amazing, Dilly. I am so excited for y’all, for all of us.”

  “Yeah, who would have thought, right? It’s Halen and Landry, they gave him baby fever.”

  I shook my head. “Nah. It’s you. It’s y’all’s love. There’s no better way to celebrate a love like that.” Smith had turned his life around for Dylan, not because she told him to. Not because she’d kicked and screamed and demanded. But because she loved him, even when he thought he was broken. A proverbial light bulb went off in my head. “That’s what Luke needs. Luke needs to know that Harlow wants him, broken pieces and all. Dilly, you’re a genius.”

  She looked at me like I’d finally lost it. “You want Luke to knock up Harlow? That seems a little extreme, Lex, even for—”

  “No. Of course I don’t want him to knock her up…” I went silent, my mind mulling that around for a minute. “No, that could end up scaring her off. I just need to get Lo to step it up, to make Lukey realize how much he actually likes her. He’ll be terrified, obviously, but she won’t be.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  I narrowed my eyes, shooting her look right back at her. “I know everything.”

  “I get that you kind of fancy yourself the great and powerful Oz, but you’ve been wrong before.”

  I scoffed. “I most certainly have not.”

  “You tried to keep me from Smith.”

  She had me there. “Okay, one time I was sort of wrong. For like three days.”

  Dylan downed the rest of her drink then started casing the joint. “You think they serve sushi here?”

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Luke

  It took me twenty minutes to get through the crowd of reporters and radio personalities so that I could make my way to the bar. I’d kept my eye on Harlow the whole time. She seemed to get along really well with Bryan, which didn’t surprise me. They talked for a while before Dylan and Lexi got up and joined them. “Hey, ladies. Having fun?” I grabbed Harlow’s glass and took a sip, wincing. “What is up with your affinity for gin?”

  “It’s classic.” She took her drink back and then leaned over the bar, her round little ass in the perfect position in front of me. “Love, will you get me a scotch on the rocks please?” I peeled my eyes from her body and followed her gaze to the tattooed and bearded bartender. Love?

  “Sure thing, gorgeous.” He winked and I had the sudden urge to climb over the bar and punch him in the face. I was the only guy in this bar who could wink at Lo.

  I raised my eyebrows. “Little friendly with the attractive bartender, don’t you think?” Was I jealous? Nah. She was supposed to be here with me. She didn’t need to flirt with bartenders. That’s all it was. I wasn’t developing feelings for her or anything. I hadn’t gotten hard watching her during my show. I hadn’t pictured her straddling my lap while I banged her instead of my drums.

  She wrapped an arm around my neck and placed a loud kiss on my lips. “Don’t worry, kid. You’re all the man I have patience for.”

  I threaded my fingers through the hair at the back of her scalp and then brought her closer so I could kiss her again. I bound my arm around her waist and dipped her backward. Her leg automatically hiked up to my hip, I loved it when she did that. I wanted to fuck her in this bar. Hell. I wanted to fuck her on the damn bar. Then that hipster lumberjack would know who she belonged to. My thoughts suddenly brought me crashing back to reality, because she didn’t actually belong to me. She wasn’t mine to keep. I righted us both and stepped away from her. Thankful when my scotch showed up in front of me.

  “You two are worse with the PDA than Dash and Lexi.” Smith chuckled.

  Jacks snorted. “No one is as bad as Dash and Lexi. Do you remember being on that bus with them? They didn’t care who was listening.” Jacks ca
ught Harlow’s eye. “I heard Halen being conceived.” She looked at me; when she saw I wasn’t laughing, she gave me a sad smile.

  Being trapped on that bus with Lexi and Dash had been a really hard three months. Their lust then love constantly shoved in my face with no escape. Harlow wrapped an arm around my middle. Sensing I needed the contact and giving it to me without hesitation. For a fleeting moment I wished that this perfect girl at my side actually did belong to me.

  Dash held up his hand. “To be fair, we were all like that on the bus. It’s just that the rest of you stopped bringing girls back after shows when Lexi joined the tour.”

  “Except for Lukey.” Lexi pointed at me with her beer. “Right? Luke never brought groupies onto the bus. He was always better than the rest of you.”

  Jacks slapped me on the back. “Yeah, Luke just preferred more room to work and a chick who knew how he liked it. Right, bud?”

  I playfully covered her ears. “Can we please not discuss my past sex life in front of Lo?” I had never been into the groupies; they always seemed so desperate to me. Willing to do whatever you asked of them, no matter who was watching. I enjoyed sex, a lot. But I always tended to enjoy it more when I wasn’t having to look over my shoulder to make sure the chick wasn’t stealing band merch or videoing us on her cell phone.

  Harlow moved my hands, laughing. “I’m going to wait until you aren’t around and then I’m going to tear all kinds of stories about you out of your friends.”

  I kissed her temple. “I’m a saint and I was a virgin until I met you.”

  Lexi winked at Lo. “If you want Luke stories, just come sit by me. I’ve got enough to last a lifetime.”

  Her words went right to my heart. “Be careful what you say, Little Lex, I’ve got plenty of dirt on you too.”

  She laughed, holding her hand out. “Truce?”