Seductive Chaos

by A. Meredith Walters

  Just how I wanted her.

  I stopped several feet away and waited for her to see me. And when she did, her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open.

  I grinned. “Nobody puts Viv in a corner,” I said.

  “Did you just quote Dirty Dancing at me?” she asked incredulously.

  “Sure did, baby. It is your favorite movie.” The music’s slow and sexy tempo begged for me to move.

  I held my hand out. “Dance with me.”

  She raised her eyebrows at me defiantly. “I can’t. I’m here with someone else,” she sniffed, turning her back to me.

  I grabbed her hand and put a finger beneath her chin and raised her face so that she had no choice but for her to look at me.

  “I don’t care who you came with. I only care that you’re here with me now. And at the end of the night, I’m going to take you home. With me. Because that’s where you belong.” I dared her to dispute me. I challenged her with my eyes.

  She bit her bottom lip. “What is this, Cole?” she asked, her green eyes peering up at me.

  I cupped her face in my hand and kissed her softly on the lips. “This is my grand romantic gesture,” I answered.

  I pulled her out onto the dance floor.

  She sighed, though I couldn’t tell if it was from irritation or surrender. But she let me put my arms around her and I wanted to shout in victory when she laid her head on my shoulder.

  “You look ridiculous,” she muttered.

  “I’m not going to disagree with you. Theses pants may destroy my ability to have children. Just sayin’.”

  She peered down. “Is that a green cummerbund?” she asked.

  “You like green. So, I wore green.”

  I was making a point. That I was paying attention to all of those tiny details. I hope she knew what I was trying to say.

  We swayed together and I let myself relax and enjoy holding her.

  “How did you get in here?” she asked.

  “Maysie gave me her ticket,” I explained, pressing her close and leaning down to smell her hair. She felt just right in my arms. I would never get tired of how perfectly she fit against me.

  “That sneak. She didn’t say a word,” Vivian chuckled.

  “I told her not to. Don’t get mad at her.”

  “Since when does Maysie do anything for you?” Vivian asked.

  “Since she found out that I love you.” I swung her around, her body moving effortlessly with mine.

  “Cole. . .” Vivian began but I put my finger over her mouth.

  She shook her head and I dropped my hand.

  “Why haven’t I heard from you? I’ve been going crazy wondering what happened! And when I asked Maysie she said to ask you. What happened?”

  “After I fired Jose, we had a great talk with the label. They’re still going to put out the album. We’re going back on tour but with another group on the label. They still want to promote us. But all of us. As a band.”

  Vivian grinned. “That’s awesome! You really fired Jose?”

  I nodded. “Hell yeah I did! That dude was a jerk!”

  Vivian smacked my arm. “Why didn’t you call me?”

  “We stayed in the city for a few days. We got back to a really good place. Things aren’t perfect, but I think we’re headed in the right direction. I had a lot to sort through with the guys,” I explained.

  Vivian smacked me again. “You could have sent a text! After what happened over the weekend, after everything you said, and you left me hanging again!” Her voice rose and several people dancing beside us gave us questioning looks.

  “I thought coming here would have more of an impact,” I tried to tell her.

  But she wasn’t hearing me. “This is what I’m talking about, Cole! You throw my life into a tailspin and then take off for a few days with no word! That shit has got to stop!”

  I pulled back and away from her, feeling my own anger spike to meet hers. “Well if you would stop yelling at me for a second, you’d hear me say you were right! That things are going to change! Not just with the band but with you!” I yelled. Everyone was looking at us.

  And when I say everyone, I meant everyone.

  Vivian covered her face.

  “Why are you here, Cole? Just to ruin my night? To make me crazy all over again? Well congratulations, mission accomplished!” she seethed, squirming out of my arms and trying to push past me.

  “No way, Viv. You can’t leave me like this. You will hear what I have to say and stop stomping off like a spoiled brat,” I hissed in her ear, pulling her back towards me.

  She turned around, her face an inch from mine.

  “You better make it good, Cole,” she warned, her eyes flashing in rage. Just how I liked ‘em.

  “You and me, we ain't easy. We will never be simple. We will never be the type to sit on the same side of the booth without talking. We will never fall into the complacent boredom life becomes when you stop looking for the exciting and start to accept the mediocre. Because baby, we're anything but mediocre. We're fire. We're the explosion after the pain. You'll destroy me, Viv. And I don't care. Because I want you to. I'd rather be a pile of ashes in your aftermath then whole and complete without you.”

  I kissed the tip of her adorable nose.

  “I’ve learned that your favorite color is green. That you live off coffee. That your favorite piece of clothing is your Juicy sweatpants held up with safety pins, even though I know you’re embarrassed to be seen in them.”

  I placed my lips beside her ear. “But you still look hot in them,” I whispered before pulling back slightly.

  Vivian’s eyes shimmered and she sniffed loudly. I kissed the wetness that fell down her cheek.

  “I know that you sing in the shower and have an old Backstreet Boys CD in your car that you play over and over again. You eat pizza all the time and you also keep a bag of Skittles in your jacket pocket because your sweet tooth is seriously out of control. I also know that you’re intelligent, and thoughtful, and entirely too nice to a bonehead like me. I know that you’re capable of putting together something like this gala and you do it while looking drop dead gorgeous.”

  She was starting to ugly cry now. And that was okay. Because she was still beautiful.

  “I know that there’s no one in this world that I’d rather be with. No one who will put up with my shit the way you do. You put me in my place and you are most definitely not a doormat. You’re the strongest person I know.”

  Vivian closed her eyes, the fight draining out of her.

  “I just don’t know if I can ever trust you, Cole. And what sort of relationship can we have if we don’t have that?”

  I held her tight against me, hating myself for ever giving her a single moment of doubt about my feelings for her. I had put this woman through hell and back and she deserved so much better than me.

  But I was a selfish fucking bastard and I’d hold onto her with everything I had.

  “I’ll spend every second of every day building your trust in me, Viv. There’s no one I want but you. No one will ever matter to me the way you do. This world could fall apart around me and as long as I had you, I’d be all right.”

  “Everything between us is drama! It’s exhausting!” she argued, even as her mouth began to curl upwards into a grin.

  “And you love every second of it,” I murmured, leaning down to press my lips against hers.

  Vivian shook her head, her eyes were sparking but not in anger. They were heated with something else entirely.

  “I’m not sure we’ll survive this,” she laughed and I couldn’t resist kissing her smiling mouth.

  “You and me are a roller coaster. So buckle up and get ready for one hell of a ride, sweetheart.”

  Six Months Later

  “Don’t forget to stand out front. I want to see you when we play,” Cole murmured against my mouth.

  “I’ll be there. Though I don’t know how you think you’ll see me with that crowd,” I said, my
ears already ringing from the noise just beyond the door.

  We were standing backstage at The National in Richmond, Virginia. Generation Rejects had gotten on another tour. This one opening for a band called Cuban Cadillac. They were pretty cool and they seemed to get on well with the guys.

  “I’d be able to find you anywhere, baby,” Cole smiled before sucking my bottom lip between his teeth and biting down just hard enough to make me squirm.

  “Mmm,” I moaned, knowing it would drive him wild. And it did. His eyes gleamed and I had just enough time to brace myself against the wall before he pounced. His arms went around me. One hand slithered up into my hair and gripped tightly while his other grabbed ahold of my ass cheek and gave a vicious squeeze.

  His tongue had just pushed its way into my mouth when we were interrupted.

  “Five minutes, Cole!” Mitch yelled and I had to laugh as my boyfriend groaned in frustration.

  “That fucker sure knows how to kill the mood,” he complained, resting his forehead against mine.

  “You can’t keep your audience waiting.” I told him.

  Cole gave my butt a healthy smack and I let out a squeak of alarm.

  “We’ll finish this later,” he promised, giving me one more kiss before walking off toward the stage.

  “I love you!” I called out. Cole grabbed the material of his shirt over his heart and closed his eyes, tilting his head back.

  “Get’s me right here, each and every time you say that, babe,” he said, patting his chest. I grinned like the love-sick fool that I was.

  Maysie and Jordan were making out in the corner and I laughed as Cole went up behind the drummer and started thrusting his groin against him.

  Jordan elbowed Cole in the gut.

  At one time that would have led to a knockdown drag-out fight.

  But those two had come a long way.

  Instead, Cole grabbed his stomach and punched Jordan in the arm. Then the two were smiling at each other.

  Garrett and Mitch yelled for both of them and the four members of Generation Rejects ran up to the side of the stage, laughing and talking. It was hard to believe that just six months ago they almost called it quits.

  It gave me a renewed sense of faith to know that their friendship had been stronger than their egos.

  And sometimes good comes from the bad.

  Their decision to stay on with Pirate Records had been the best thing they could have ever done.

  Their debut album, Current Static, debuted in the Top 40 and it had been climbing steadily ever since. They were definitely on the rise. Their former manager, Jose, had been dead wrong. Generation Rejects weren’t a mid-level band. They were set to go all the way.

  “You ready to go out there and watch them?” Gracie asked, looping her arm through mine.

  “Shouldn’t we wait for Maysie to come with us?” I asked, looking over at our other friend who was chatting with a petite brunette with pretty eyes and a shy smile.

  “She looks busy. She’ll find us,” Gracie said quickly, tugging on my hand. I rolled my eyes.

  “You just don’t want to want to talk to Sophie,” I surmised. Sophie was Mitch’s girlfriend and had been since two weeks after Gracie and Mitch slept together.

  Sophie was a sweet girl. Cute in an unassuming way. But that didn’t matter. Because she was dating the guy Gracie was secretly in love with. And for that reason alone, Gracie would never be comfortable around her.

  In fact, she avoided the couple like the plague. Which was difficult when her entire social circle revolved around the band Mitch played in.

  I thought it was sad. Mitch and Gracie, in my opinion, were destined to be together. But they were two people who just couldn’t get it right.

  And even though Mitch seemed crazy about Sophie, I still saw the way his eyes followed Gracie whenever she walked into a room. The dark, smoldering hunger obvious to anyone who chanced a look in his direction.

  And I knew my roommate well enough to read the longing on her face as she watched Mitch on stage or the despair when she saw him with his girlfriend.

  It was damn depressing.

  “It has nothing to do with Sophie,” Gracie spat out. Ouch. Touchy subject.

  We handed our tickets to the ushers and pushed our way through the crowd. The place was packed, but we had prime seats right at the front. It was my favorite spot to watch a Rejects show. I loved to be part of the crowd, soaking them in as I had done the very first time.

  The lights went down and the spotlight came on. Gracie and I started screaming with the rest of the audience. Soon Garrett, Jordan, Mitch, and finally Cole jogged onto the stage. The roar was deafening.

  Jordan did a run on his kit and Garrett played a few chords.

  And then Cole took the mic and looked down. His eyes met mine.

  I love you, he mouthed to me.

  The girls behind me started yelling their heads off.

  “Oh my god, did you see what he just said? He told me he loved me!” a girl screeched to her friend.

  At one time I would have turned around and smacked her in the face. Or I would have “accidentally” elbowed her in the tit.

  But I had grown up a lot in the last six months.

  I had matured. I was secure in my relationship.

  Cole loved me. He proved it time and time again.

  I didn’t have to doubt him.

  Sure, I still felt the simmering rage of jealousy when I saw him talk to another girl.

  Yeah, I had some trust issues I was continuing to work on.

  But I knew he was mine. His eyes, his body, his heart was only for me.

  I had become a bigger person. And I could stand in a group of women who were fawning all over my boyfriend, screaming their heads off, and saying they loved him, and not lose my mind. Because I knew at the end of the night, when the crowd was gone and the music was over, he would be with me. And only me.

  Forever.

  I looked over my shoulder and could only shake my head at their ridiculousness. I didn’t feel the need to let them know he was mine. I had grown past such silly gestures of ownership.

  “I know what’ll get his attention,” the skank in the barely there skirt yelled to her friend.

  She lifted her shirt and showed the world, including my boyfriend, her boobs.

  I said I had grown up but that didn’t make me a saint. And there were some things that still pushed my buttons.

  Skanks flashing Cole their body parts were definitely one of them.

  I took Gracie’s soda from her hands. “I need to borrow this,” I told her. She looked at me confused.

  Then I turned around and dumped the contents all over Miss Slutface, drenching her in cola.

  “AHH!” she screamed, lowering her shirt back over her now sticky breasts.

  “You bitch!” she snarled, trying to lunge at me. Her friends held her back.

  I got in her face. “Keep your shirt on you stupid whore! That man up there,” I turned and pointed to Cole, who was singing his ass off, his eyes on me, a smile on his face.

  “That man is mine. So keep your cheap, inflatable boobs to yourself, or I’ll make you choke on them,” I threatened.

  The girl didn’t say anything. She backed down instantly, fixing her shirt so that it covered her more modestly.

  I turned back around and Gracie snickered.

  “You’re insane,” she laughed.

  I shrugged and looked back to the stage. Cole’s eyes were laughing. He had seen the whole thing.

  You’re mine, I mouthed to him.

  The song ended and before the band launched into the next one, Cole leaned down, the mic in his hand and cupped the back of my head from where he stood. I had to go up on my tiptoes to reach him. He kissed me quick and hard. Just how I liked it.

  When he stood back up he pointed at me. “That woman right there is my girlfriend. I’m one lucky bastard, right?” he yelled. The audience roared their agreement and I loved it. I ate it up.
>
  I looked over my shoulder and smirked at the still dripping girl behind me. She glared back.

  Yep, Cole Brandt was mine.

  And even though we were nothing but drama, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

  There was no alternative.

  We were extreme.

  We were insatiable.

  We were madness.

  But we loved each other.

  In the end, that was the only thing that mattered.

  And if I had to smack a bitch for looking at him, then so be it.

  Because that’s how we rolled.

  One piece of crazy at a time.

  The End

  Read other books by A. Meredith Walters

  This goes out to the usual suspects.

  For Ian and Gwyn. You are my rock stars.

  To my family and friends. I love each and every one of you. You are my biggest fans! And I couldn’t do this without you.

  Kristy Louise, you know I adore you, I’m running out of ways to tell you!

  To my Bad Ass CP ladies, Amy, Stacey, Kelsie, Claire, Brittainy, Tonya. I love you guys hard! I’m so thankful to have such a group of strong, talented and amazing women that I can call my friends! You make this wacky writing world easier to handle!

  To my Maniacs, thank you for your enthusiasm and endless support!

  To all of the bloggers who have loved and supported me through this insane journey! You are why I’m here! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

  To the readers who read what I write. You guys rock my socks! Thank you for making this dream possible!

  And for Matt. Every book from here on out is for you. You were my first champion. The first person to tell me I could do this crazy writing thing. You were my cheerleader, my platonic soul mate, and most importantly my very best friend. And not a day goes by that I don’t think about you. You said the A. was for awesome…I’ll try to prove you right.

  A.Meredith Walters is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling Author of Bad Rep, Perfect Regret, Seductive Chaos, the Find You in the Dark series, Reclaiming the Sand, and the upcoming New Adult book, Lead Me Not, to be released by Gallery Books in August, 2014.