“Why wouldn’t I? Lance knows exactly who I am and adores me as is. Seemed only fair to let you all know exactly what you can look forward to for the next however many years he keeps me around.”
“That would be forever if she’ll have me,” Lance said.
Thrilled by his words, Jen fought the shiver of need trying to slice through her. She wanted forever with her drummer, but she knew better than to get ahead of herself. They were taking things slowly, except in the bedroom, allowing them time to learn more about one another. The biggest test of all was to come. Staying in one spot for months on end, under each other’s feet at nearly all hours, and without the constant buffer of the other band members close at hand. Yes, they all lived on the same patch of land but not under the same roof.
On one hand, she was looking forward to the added privacy beyond the bedroom they would have. On the other, she was terrified he’d discover some neurosis of hers that had him kicking her to the curb. Squeezing his wrist gently, Jen turned her head to rest her cheek on his chest while she listened to the others gripe about her prediction for their future.
“You’re worrying again.”
How Lance knew when she did, Jen still couldn’t figure out. Especially when he couldn’t see her full-on to read her expressions. Since they’d promised never to lie to one another, she gave a small nod. He didn’t question her about it, and he wouldn’t until they were alone in the hotel bedroom. Another promise they’d made to one another. Any troubles, problems, or questions they had they would always discuss in private. If the others needed to be brought into the loop, they’d make that decision together.
A few minutes later they were at the hotel and being shuttled up an elevator that Victorious’s security guys had secured. The hotel manager was on hand and took them from the garage straight up to the penthouse suite without any stops along the way.
As she did every time she ended up in one of these fabulous rooms, Jen started to snoop around. The guys all split off to grab showers and change into their worn in, comfortable clothing before ordering food. Turning from snooping behind the bar Jen found Lance watching her from his position leaning up against the back of the sofa.
“What?” she asked. Suddenly she felt a bit self-conscious. Normally the guys left her be as she poked around checking out their latest place of the night.
“I like watching you. Is that a crime?”
“Hardly,” she assured him. “I didn’t expect you to still be out here. You’re totally throwing off the whole routine you guys have by doing this you do realize.”
His grin was quick and had the dimple in his left cheek making an appearance. She loved that dimple. “I seriously doubt the world will come to an end because I failed to follow our normal routine on the night my girlfriend finally comes home to me.”
Jen could feel her cheeks warming under his regard. “Girlfriend huh?” She was stumped for anything else to say. Instead, she focused on the one point he’d brought up.
“Silly term I know, but it fits the situation. Unless you have a better word for it of course.”
She had to shake her head because she didn’t. Not yet anyway. “While mildly juvenile, it does fit otherwise. I think we should take a bit of time to contemplate something more fitting. You know—something that suits both of us and our uniqueness.”
Lance’s smile slowly slipped into the crooked grin she adored. The one that promised many wicked things to come. “I do believe you may be correct there, Ms. Mitchell. Later, though. Why don’t you come and shower with me? Then you can give the guys their magazines and poke around some more while we wait for dinner to arrive.”
She pursed her lips. It was a tempting offer. One her body was all for if the growing wetness in her panties was anything to go by. “You’ve talked me into it.” Holding out a hand to him, she smiled. “I’ll wash your back for you.”
In a quick move, he had her up and over his shoulder. Laughing hysterically she squirmed while he smacked her bottom lightly. “I think we can do a smidge better than a mere wash, sweetheart.”
Of that she was sure. Lance always had the best ideas whenever he talked her into getting naked. Being wet and naked with him...too good to be true.
Chapter Twenty
Stretching his arms over his head, Lance caught the top of the door frame with his fingers. He bent his knees and slowly twisted his body to stretch out the kinks from the flight.
“Good to be home?”
He let his arms fall to his sides before turning to answer Jennifer’s question. “Yeah, it is. While at times it can feel a bit like a gilded cage there are times like right now where there’s nowhere I’d rather be.” Lance reached out to pull her in against him. “And no one else I’d rather have here with me.”
She smiled up at him and lifted onto her toes to wrap her arms around his neck. “You sure are pouring on the charm, Lance West. What are you not telling me?”
“Not a thing.” He pressed a kiss to her lips and gave her a squeeze. “Let’s get cleaned up before we head over to Shade’s place.”
They’d all agreed on the flight in to low key with throwing some meat on the grill, some drinks, and then vegetate as a group. He knew the guys all wanted to chat with Jennifer about the article. When she’d dug the copies out to give to them the night before each had devoured her piece. Lance knew there would be questions of course because they were all quite curious.
The article was perfect, and when it hit newsstands and retailers around the country, the copies would fly off the shelves. Her former employer had been dropping Easter eggs in previous editions about the coming story. He also knew from the copies she’d passed out one of their promotional pictures from the last tour was the front cover. The fans were going to eat it up. At least he hoped they would.
“Uh-oh, now you’re the one that’s wearing an extremely worried look. What’s up?” she asked with a slight tilt of her head.
“I was thinking about the benefits and ramifications of doing this article. I should actually tack on the word again too. Not the first time I’ve considered it.”
She moved her hands to his arms as she settled down on her feet again. “Like what?”
“The fans will love it, they deserve it, and it will only help us in the long run. On the flip side of that it’s going to be hard to come up with a reason not to do another one down the road.”
“True, but that’s down the road. No one knows where you guys will be at on the whole publicity thing a year or two from now. You also need to remember you have something on your side you didn’t before.”
Her smile had him chuckling. “That we do.” They had Jennifer Mitchell. Actually he had her, but the other guys had claimed her as one of theirs in a sisterly way. Because he could, Lance gave her another kiss. Cupping her ass, he pulled her up tight against him loving the bite of her short nails through the sleeves of his shirt. “Let’s get ready to head out.”
Her eyes were slightly glazed over when she gave him a nod of agreement. Lance loved seeing that look, knowing he’d put it there.
Letting her loose, he caught her arm when she swayed slowly. “Come on, sweetheart. Let’s do some of that walking thing. One foot in front of the other as we traverse the space. There you go.”
She shot him a dirty look. “You think you’re funny. I can’t believe how easily you knock me off kilter like that.”
“You do the same to me you know.” Every single time she looked at him, touched him, or trusted him with everything she was. Rubbing his hand to her arm he let her go ahead of him up the stairs. He put his hands on her waist to ensure she went the right way when they got to the top. He’d have set them lower, but that was a bit too much temptation for him to handle without first having her naked.
“Truly?” Her question yanked him out of the musing.
Turning her to look at him Lance squeezed her hips. “Yep. You’ve had me off-balance since the first time we met. If I’m being completely honest, it was be
fore that.” He drew her into his body and pressed a kiss to her lips.
When he drew back, she gave him a thoughtful look. Then with a smile she spun away and walked to their room with an extra sway to her hips. “Minx,” he muttered. She must have heard if the look she tossed him over her shoulder said anything.
****
Shade pulled the front door of his place open and gave them both a grin. “About time you two got here. The bets were about to start on how long we’d have to hold dinner.”
“Hardy, har, har,” Jennifer said. She stepped in for the hug their bass player offered. “No bets need to be placed.”
“Not this go around. The woman couldn’t seem the decide what to wear,” Lance told the other man. “She doesn’t have all that much here yet.”
Shade snickered. Shutting the door, he clapped Lance on the back. “Get used to it, bro. I hear it’s a never ending battle with women.” He might have added more, but Jennifer cut him a look that had him shutting up.
Amused at the turn of events, Lance moved toward the bar to get drinks. When he joined the group out on the back deck, Jennifer was already settled in next to Jeremy discussing her article. Passing her a glass of juice, Lance sat in the empty spot at her side.
“Christine’s already being deluged by calls from other magazines and newspapers. They all want something more than the usual press releases,” Chase told them.
“We figured it would happen. We’re going to have to decide what we want to do,” Lance said.
At the grill, Shade closed the lid before turning to look their way. Twirling the tongs he had in hand, he shrugged. “I think we should consider it. Not all of them of course but maybe a couple. We’ve stayed quiet on that front for ten years. When we decided to go ahead with the article, we knew there would be others chomping at the bit for a piece.”
“It’ll be choosing the right ones that’ll be hard,” Jennifer said. “The other problem is keeping them to the questions approved by Christine. Journalists don’t like being leashed. They’ll attempt to slip in questions she hasn’t signed off on.”
Jeremy frowned. “We need the fans, and this is the way to let them in a bit more. I think if we pick carefully we should be okay. My only concern I guess is what they’ll attempt to dig up our pasts.”
“You can’t avoid it,” she told him softly. Lance reached over to lace his fingers with hers, giving her hand a squeeze. Jennifer shot him a soft look. “On the other hand you guys could wait until the autobiography is announced, or out. But that could take years still. I haven’t written it and Christine’s still in the midst of shopping the idea around. She’s having to be careful because she doesn’t want word of what it will be getting leaked.”
“There’ll be no avoiding that,” Mark pointed out. Slouching in a chair with his legs dangling over the arm, he looked around the group. “Someone, somewhere, will talk. Planned or otherwise the word will get out there something is in the works. Heaven only knows what will happen once she finds someone that wants to actually put the book out.”
Lance nodded slowly. Their rhythm guitarist was right about that. Rumors could both help and hurt the group. What he didn’t want anyone doing was digging into their pasts. Not that they’d hidden anything, but he still hadn’t told Jennifer everything. It was coming to the point he’d have to. Especially since he’d volunteered to be the first interviewed for the book.
She knew he was keeping something back. His odd reaction to a mere word the morning after their first night intimately together had clued her into that. The fact she hadn’t questioned him more about it at the time still surprised him. It shouldn’t, she wasn’t the sort to push, but he knew he had to let her in fully if they were ever going to make it as a couple.
Jennifer squeezed his hand. Looking into her eyes, he saw the question there. Shaking his head, he leaned in to kiss her. “Later,” he whispered against her lips. She lifted a hand to trail her fingers lightly down his cheek. Slowly she traced his lips.
Lance closed his eyes and rested his forehead to hers while she touched him. This woman was everything to him. Later, when they were alone again, he had to let her know. Then he’d have to share his past fully. He knew she wouldn’t run from it or him. He only prayed she wouldn’t pity him. That would be much worse than anything else he could imagine.
Chapter Twenty-One
Over dinner, Lance had been unusually quiet. The other guys hadn’t seemed to notice. They’d been their usual boisterous selves while sharing more stories and telling some whoppers about one another. As with pretty much every other meal she’d shared with them she’d laughed too much.
The five men of Victorious truly had a family vibe going on. They were a brotherhood few would understand. Jen only hoped she’d be able to accurately portray it in the book. Yet another worry to add to the growing list.
First things first though, she needed to find out what had brought Lance’s mood down prior to the meal. With that in mind, she quickly finished up with her nightly routine in the bathroom and went to find him.
It took her a bit of time, but she did find him sitting in the room with his drum set. Walking in, she felt a sliver of concern to find him holding the drumsticks, but with his attention completely focused somewhere else. Jen moved slowly toward him. She didn’t want to startle him. “Lance?”
When she reached his side, he didn’t seem to notice her immediately. “Lance?” she tried again. Slowly his head turned to look up at her, his gaze clearing until she knew he was seeing her. “Hi. What’s going on?” Reaching out, she gently brushed his hair back from his forehead.
Lance set the drumsticks aside and turned toward her. He drew her into his arms, burying his nose between her breasts. Jen pushed her fingers into his hair and wound her other arm around his shoulders. She had a bad feeling.
After a few moments, he let out a heavy breath and tipped his head back. “Let’s go sit somewhere comfortable,” he told her.
All Jen could manage was a shaky breath. Her throat felt tight at the resigned look in his eyes. She let him pull her from the room to their bedroom and willingly curled into his heat on the two-seater sofa he had near the big bay window of the space. He covered them both with the large, warm throw. It took him a bit of time to settle in with his arms around her, but eventually he did.
“I don’t know what you may or may not know about my past. I’m going to give you everything, though. You have the right to know it,” he told her.
Jen wasn’t sure if she should protest or stay quiet. Going with her gut, she stayed silent. She had the feeling he needed to tell her about his past more for himself than for her. While she wanted to know everything there was to know about the man she loved, she also didn’t want him to hurt for telling her.
“I never knew who my old man was. Best mom could, or would, tell me was he was one of her Johns. Mom was a prostitute. I never did understand her choice to stay in the life prior to having me. From what I was able to figure out she’d come from a reasonably well-off family, she’d gone to college, and had a degree of some sort. She never would talk to me about her past. Only time I ever got anything from her was when she was either drunk or high.”
Jen swallowed hard at the pain in his voice. It was an old pain, settled in and accepted. But she definitely wanted to help him heal from it if she could. He was hers, and she’d do anything possible to make that happen.
“She’d get arrested for solicitation on a semi-regular basis. I became rather familiar with the system by age eight. By that point, I’d been in eight foster homes. It was in the fourth home where I first met Jeremy. His family had a house a few doors up from where I was living. He was a scrawny, smart-mouthed shit back then. He’s grown into his ears, but he’s still got the mouth, unfortunately.”
She chuckled softly. Jen couldn’t argue that point. Jeremy did have a mouth on him.
“Each time Mom got herself cleaned up, I’d go back to live with her. The cleanup never lasted all tha
t long, and she never stopped working the streets. She was always more careful when she was clean. Once she slipped back to the drugs and booze, she’d make mistakes which was when she’d end up being picked up.”
He let out a sigh and squeezed her closer. “A couple weeks after I turned ten she was stabbed by one of her Johns. He was eventually caught, but it was the last straw in the eyes of the law. I was permanently removed from her care with the stipulation she couldn’t ever have me back. I didn’t know it at the time of course. It took me a while to figure it out, but when she didn’t come for me, I knew something was horribly wrong. Not that anyone would tell me shit. I had to do some investigation on my own to find out what was happening.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. Turning her head up, she shifted enough to brush a kiss to his jaw. They system wasn’t perfect by any means, but she knew there were good people working in it trying to do their best with limited resources, and sometimes truly idiotic rules.
Lance shrugged. “It was what it was. I dealt. In the end, I was shuttled out of that place to another foster home. During all this, I’d managed to keep in touch with Jeremy off and on. Not always easy with them moving me seemingly at a whim. I was eleven when my mom passed away. She hadn’t been taking care of herself like she should have been after the stabbing and ended up with something pretty nasty. With her long-time drug use, her body couldn’t fight off the infection she ended up with. The parents of the home I was in at the time took me to her funeral. It was a rather depressing affair I have to admit. At the time, I’m not sure if I was in shock or resigned with the knowledge it had been coming, but I didn’t cry when they lowered the casket. I still don’t know who paid for the funeral, but someone did and I’m grateful for that. Several years back when the money was finally starting to flow in on a regular basis, I had her headstone upgraded. She’d always longed for the nice things in life yet had kept all her earnings to put a roof over our head and food in my belly. She was a long fucking way from perfect, but I can’t fault her for doing what was necessary to raise me.”
The Rhythm Page 11
