by Cassia Leo
“We feel like shit,” he mocked.
“That’s to be expected with a concussion. How’s your pain level?”
“Moderate. But I don’t want to be doped up. I don’t want to get even more fuzzy-headed.”
“No problem.”
“I’ll be outside, Danny.” I quickly said. “Be back soon.”
When I stepped out, I spotted Kate in a sitting area, but she was reading a magazine. “Kate.” I swooshed up to her. “You’re still here? I was contemplating calling or texting you for some food, but I thought you would’ve gone home. How’s your neck?”
“Killing me.” She rubbed it with a massaging stroke. “How’s Danny? Wake up yet?”
“Yep.” I sat next to her and slouched forward with my hands balled together and resting between my thighs. “He’s fine, I guess. He’s in some pain, and he was foggy on the details but remembered when I filled in the gaps. He had to get stitches and an arm cast. I think he’s gonna be okay. Thank God. I’d die if I lost him. At least he’s alive.”
“I know. Too bad about Heather though. It’s a nightmare.”
“Yeah, that is awful. I’ve been telling Danny Puck was gonna be the downfall of the band. Now, it might actually be reality. He sucks ass, drinking like he does.”
“Well, we were all a little loaded. We were only a couple minutes away from the studio. And no other cars were involved. It never should’ve happened. Some damn fluke that took a life. Despicable.”
“Yeah, tell me about it. So, are you and Matty actually a thing now?”
She shrugged. “I guess. We’re playing things by ear. It’s probably more serious and amazing on my end then his, but we’ll see.”
Matty and Jarvis were still here too, and they were walking our way, coffee cups in hand.
Even at the sight of drinks, my empty stomach growled. “Danny’s awake,” I told them, getting up. I filled them in in on the other details. I looked toward Danny’ room and then back at Matty. “Um, I hate to ask this, but would you mind staying with him? His Aunt said she’d come at some point, but I have no clue when that’ll be, and I need to get some sleep. I have work in the morning, well, in a few hours actually, and I don’t want to jeopardize my job. Being that I’m someone’s baggage, I’d rather be self-sufficient and out of Danny’s hair as soon as it’s feasible.”
“Jed can escort you back,” Jarvis said.
“Escort me back?” I snapped. “Yeah right. A lot of good that did for the bus!”
Jarvis grimaced. It wasn’t his fault, but I was just so upset that it happened at all and now some girl, Heather, was dead because of idiot Puck and his stupid vice. This whole thing just chucked Itchy Fringe into the line of fire. I have no clue if they’ll be able to recover from this. It was such an ugly disaster.
“You need security too,” Jarvis insisted.
“Fine. Call him over. Whatever.” I sat back on the chair and reached for a magazine. Any news online would only make me cry, all the trash-talk about Danny everywhere. “Forget this.” I put the magazine down with a huff because I couldn’t concentrate. “I’m gonna say goodbye to Danny now, so I can just jet when Jed gets here.”
No one cared.
Danny was watching TV and eyed me from head to toe when I walked in.
“You gotta stay awake now, huh?
“Something like that.” His lips slid into a smirk. “She said it was okay for me to fall asleep, but she’d keep waking me up all night, so I might as well just stay up. I fucking hate getting jerked out of sleep. Turns me into a bear.”
“Don’t I know it.”
“Close the door.”
I scrunched my face and looked down the hall then back at him. “Hmm? Why?”
“Close it!”
I bit my lip, looked around and did as he literally and insistently ordered. My palm flat on the wood of the closed door, I said, “Um, okay, but ... I just came to tell you I’m leaving.”
“No. You’re not leaving.”
I bit my slight smile. “Oh no? I’m not?” I snickered. “I need to get some food and sleep, Danny. You know I have to work.”
“You can’t leave. Not until you answer me one thing.”
“Yeah? And what’s that?”
“Are you wearing any underwear?”
I gasped that he asked and felt heat rise in my face. My lips trembled before I smiled slyly. I slowly punctuated, “Not a stitch,” which raised his brow.
His throat swelled for a second as he swallowed and his eyes gleamed with devilish glee. “Show me.”
My stomach dropped and my pussy twanged. Air practically howled in my sharp intake of breath. I fired a gaze behind me to the door and looked back at him with a gawk. “Danny, I … what if someone comes?”
That made him laugh. “That wasn’t my plan. But now that you brought it up.”
“Shut up. You know what I meant. Your Auntie Carol said she’d stop by. She could be by any minute.”
“Auntie Carol would sure get the shock of her life and an eyeful then, wouldn’t she? I don’t give a fuck who’s around or what anyone thinks. Come over here and show me what’s not under that dress, Alexa.”
“Okay. If you insist.”
“I do.”
My insides felt like Jell-O, my bones too, as I slowly ambled over to Danny’s bedside. I looked behind me for a glance then tugged at the ends of the ribbon at my back to untie and loosen the dress’s empire waist under my boobs. Once undone, I clutched the skirt with both hands and felt all aflutter as I gathered soft fabric into my fingers then hiked it up my thighs. I shivered as it tickled my goose-bumped skin as I passed my freshly waxed mound, then my rumbling tummy, and my perky-nippled tits. I held the bunched dress up under my chin as I revealed all my best parts to Danny’s intense gaze.
My whole body wobbled under his scrutiny as he examined me with a groan of longing and then a sigh of contentment. My heart seemed to drop, stopping at my slick entrance. My tight hole squeezed in time to its quickened beat.
“Nice, Lex. You look so damn hot. Come even closer and spread those petals open for me. I wanna see your pretty little clit that you obediently stroked for me yesterday.”
“God,” I slid out as a whisper.
“You’re right about that. I am your rock god. Worship me with compliance.”
I was on fire. Though shaking like a reed everywhere, I tugged my fleshy pink folds apart with my thumb and index finger, and the action tilted the hood up a little. Cool air nibbled the exposed, sensitive part that was now tingling and swollen with lust to get sucked.
I gasped at the zap of arousal in my walls when Danny reached out to me with his unharmed left hand and gave my sweetest spot a soft, circle stroke with his thumb. He wiggled two feather-light fingers against my dewy bits and prodded and pressed the tips up inside me.
I got juicy at the terrifying, tantalizing risk of getting caught and at his excruciating gentleness and moaned with my eyes closed as he touched me with seeming tufts of cotton.
I clamped the dress with my arms to hold it up and bent forward a bit to clutch the lowered bed rail with my other hand as he played faster with tilt-a-whirl swirls and yummy dives that were now sinking in so damn deep, I had to clamp my jaw to keep quiet about it. I rocked my hips and rode down on his carousel thrusts. I clenched my eyes tightly as my body and mind lost all control. “Mmm, Danny. Oh … uh, that feels so, so good.” I was his to manipulate and own. His to use. His to cherish … hopefully cherish.
I shook like I had an earthquake bottled up inside me and he was setting it free. I scrunched my face and tensed as I came explosively, my walls squeezing his digits like they were trying to milk them. I soaked his fingers in sticky gloss and breaths ripped out of my lungs like they were fired through a shredder. “Uuuh, my god, Danny. Uh, Danny.” I slumped onto his chest and moaned against his johnnie-covered pecs, then turned my face and huffed hot breaths into the crook of his neck. I watched him suck my juices off of his fingers with a
sexy moan.
That hot visual kept my contractions pulsing in rapid-fire succession.
Someone knuckle-knocked on the door.
“One sec,” Danny yelled.
I shot upright, letting the dress drift back down over my body, but Danny jerked me back down to his face, a clamp on my hair. I let out a small yelp. He grabbed my throat and his voice had gravel and grit as he said in my ear, “You are most definitely my kind of bad, but I didn’t say you could fix your dress.”
“But … someone’s knocking,” I whispered.
“I don’t give a damn.”
I nodded that I got his point but I wasn’t so sure I liked it. I admit, following some of his commands has made me hotter than I’ve ever been, and I don’t even know why. But that, giving him more, no, all the control, made me feel so vulnerable and ungrounded.
“Go get some sleep now, Lex. Thanks for being here. And most especially for that.” He pointed below my navel. “Come in,” he called out.
I straightened up more and smirked. “Sure, no prob,” came out of my mouth, just as his aunt opened the door. Self-conscious of my very recent, just-seconds-ago indiscretion, my smoothing palms went busy down my front and over my hair. My voice sounded cracked and somewhat guilt-laced, as I rushed out, “Hi. Danny’s awake now, um, obviously, as you can see, and he needs to stay that way. I gotta work tomorrow, well, today. Thanks for coming. He’s all yours.”
Walking in, she slid her purse strap down her arm with such a slow hesitance, it made me think she was suspicious of the goings on in here. Her volleying gaze shot lightning through my nerves, making them buzz and crackle. My stomach dropped, but Danny’s smirk said he was amused by her reaction. Well, I wasn’t amused.
She set her purse on the table in the corner with the same drowsy, slow-mo speed as she eyed me with dubiousness. “No problem, honey,” she said to me.
I curled my lips in to block a snicker when she went up to Danny Zane, the sexy rock star who just finger-fucked his step-sister at the rail she was now at and said, “How are you doing, dear?” like he was some five-year-old kid. My eyes strained when she bent over him and grabbed the talented fingers that just worked me up to a climax “I was so worried about you. You and your crazy, fast-lane lifestyle. What were you thinking, partying on a bus like that? Your mother, if she were still alive, would slap you upside the head right about now.”
He shrugged and lied, “I’m sure she would. Uh, the details are still a little hazy, Auntie.” He tapped his head. “Slight brain damage and all. Sorry.”
“Oh, oh, of course.” She sat down and pitched forward like she was gonna ask him a shit pile of more questions. Hopefully, none of them would be about me.
I waved with a finger wiggle. “Later, Dan.”
“Yeah.” With my hand on the door, before I could walk out, he said, “Hey! I got a special drink saved just for you, Lex. Be on the lookout for a big cup.”
I had to bite my lip to keep myself from busting a gut. He actually said that in front of his aunt! His aunt? I just turned my head and said, “Sure. I’ll be right on top’a that,” bringing a wicked curl to his sexy lips.
As I opened the door, snickering under my breath, she cried, “Drinking, Daniel? Seriously? How can you even think about giving some to your sister at a time like this, with everything that’s happened?”
“Giving some. Hmm. Don’t worry. There’s not even a dash of alcohol in what I got. Lex knows.”
I stormed down the hall, cracking up under my breath. “Giving some? Oh my god.” I laughed harder. “Can’t believe she said that.”
As I approached the waiting area, I saw my ‘escort’, Jed, waiting for me.
“I’ll be in the house with you tonight,” Jed said. “Just in case.”
“In case what?”
“Unwanted visitors show up. I don’t want you to be all alone.”
“Yeah, okay” I said. “Whatever. Do what you have to do. I just need to crash. Let’s jet.”
Kate and Matty were leaving as well, so we walked out together, talking about the tragic accident and the poor girl’s family.
When I got home, I ended up having a restless night’s sleep, despite my exhaustion. I was worried about Danny, worried about the band, worried about my rapidly growing affection and lust. I never would’ve dreamed I’d want anything to do with Danny, moreover, crave something real and vivid, something beyond mere sex. But it was true. I wanted him in every way.
After my morning shower, I was refreshed and ready to take on lions, which incidentally, I did kind of have to do in my meeting with disgraced billionaire, Forrest Specter. He was pissy and pretentious, and he did not like anyone’s ideas until I found the nerve to speak up. Everyone seemed impressed with my suggestion. My friend and co-worker Raquel hit a grand slam too.
After we wrapped up and the client left, Nina Bedinelli, CEO of Momentum, excitedly asked Raquel and me to follow her into her office. She set down her stack of folders and the laptop she was carrying and pointed to the two blue chairs in front of her desk. “Aahh. Those are the kind of meetings I just love. Don’t you?”
We both sat down, nodding.
“Yes, definitely,” Raquel said.
I shrugged and said, “I guess,” since that was my first. “Seems like it went really well.”
“Oh, it did, it did. Swimmingly well.” Nina freed her dark hair from its tight bun and it fell loose around her shoulders in thick waves with a head shake. She unbuttoned her top button, then kicked off her high heels, and slumped into her puffy swivel chair with a long sigh of contentment like she was about to drink tea. “Wow, those were just brilliant ideas, ladies. Just brilliant. Especially, you, Alexa. I am so just impressed.”
The poisoned darts Raquel flung to me with her eyes stung my cheek with smarting fire, even with me only having a peripheral view of her evident fury. What the heck! I thought she liked me. I thought we were friends. Wouldn’t she be happy for me, that I got a tiny little pat on the back? I’m certainly happy for my friends when they rock something.
Raquel ran both hands over her sharp-angled pixie cut, dyed a cherry-red to seem more edgy and bold, and took a deep breath, probably to cool off her steam.
Nina continued gushing with her hands now whirling in the air and talking along with her mouth. “I absolutely loved the tie-in of Forrest’s jazz passion used as a launching pad for him being a champion for the arts for children. Oh my gosh, that was simply fantastic. His eyes gleamed. Even in the public eye, his marriage has been on the rocks anyhow. Not only will this put him in a more positive light after his exposed affair, it will also have school boards reconsidering such drastic cuts. I am very passionate about inspiration in youth you know.” She balled her hands together and leaned forward on her desk and looked me dead in the eye. “And, in that vein, I think we might be able do something to help your brother’s band.” She looked at me with a big grin and I scrunched my face in confusion.
“Whaa … what do ya mean? Itchy Fringe is not even a client of ours. I mean, yours. Your client.”
“Yes.” She squinted and nodded like she had the ability to drill her explanation into me without words, but I did really need her to actually spill out what she was thinking because I was utterly clueless. I was only a freelancer and not even an actual employee here, and she was acting like I was. Weird. “Not yet, dear. Not yet. But I want you to fix that. You get me that client, and I will hire you. Part-time for now of course, but much earlier than we previously discussed.”
“But … I haven’t even graduated yet!”
She fly-swatted the air, as if I were being utterly ridiculous. “Oh, that is no concern of mine. We can work something out with you working remotely. If you can get it done, I really need your mind on this, Alexa. Since Danny Zane is your brother, you have the inside track of knowing what would be best for the band and us to work together to repair its shattered image. What do you think?”
“Um, yeah, I’m not sure he’ll b
e into that though. Or the rest of the guys. They hate corporate bull …” I snipped off the swear, leaving it there, and added, “and people telling them how to behave or what to say. They will not like this, not one bit.”
“Oh, they will, trust me. They’ll like it a whole lot better than seeing their entire career and effort go up in flames. Wouldn’t you say? Being left to its own folly is not and has not been wise. Look where’s it’s gotten them. The band was just dropped by its label, which is a gutter climb on its own. And now this? No, no, they’re really in no position to balk.”
I nodded in agreement. Yeah, that did make sense. “Okay. You’re right. I’ll definitely talk to them and see what I can do.”
“Wonderful! You close this deal for me, Alexa, and I will not only hire you early, I’ll also make you the band’s personal liaison, as well as the head of its reimaging team.”
“What! Me? Wow.” The bazooka blast from Raquel slashed my face with fire and shrapnel this time. “I don’t know even what to say. That’s so amazing, the trust you have in me. I will certainly do my best to convince them to hire Momentum to help turn the tide. I do know they need the help, whether they do or not. I can already see the band in ruins, and it crushes me. With everything within me, I want to prevent that from happening.”
“And that’s precisely why I want you in charge. That passion! I have no doubt you will do your absolute best. Just get them to hear me out. Have their lawyer come. We can hash out the details and make this happen. It will be mutually beneficial for both sides. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Yes, definitely,” I said.
“And, of course, I’d want you to lend your brains to this project as well, Raquel.”
“Yes … of course,” she said steely. “I’ll work wherever I’m needed. You know that.”
After a lengthy brainstorming session with Nina, Raquel and I walked out and down the hall. Raquel suddenly backhanded my gut with her arm, pulling a squeal out of me, then she whipped around to further block me with her tall, lanky frame. “Don’t even flatter that silly little mind of yours by assuming she loves your scent or ideas or something like that. She’s only kissing your ass to get IF as a client. It’s the hottest thing on the news right now. I know for certain that beast is only putting you in charge because of your connection to it and because of the whole Molly incident.”
