“And when I spent that time with you, you took great care of me. But I saw the look in your eyes. You were terrified of me, like I was some monster. Don’t deny it. I know you were.” She nodded. “And that’s when I figured I’d never have another chance.
“But I decided I couldn’t give up. I decided to change my life entirely. I gave up the hard liquor, gave up every single drug out there, even the ones that I never got hooked on—stupid shit like Ecstasy, mushrooms, and pot. I stopped sleeping with every fan who threw herself at me. And I poured myself into the music. Clean and sober, I realized I wasn’t happy with where I was musically anymore, and that’s when I decided to break away from Scathing Vengeance. Not only were they trying to get me back on H, they weren’t growing artistically. But you know that whole story. Anyway, I started working out and I got a dietary coach for a while, started writing new stuff. And then I came home. I wanted to look good when I saw you again. I knew I just had to get the guts to do what I’d never been able to do before. I had to tell you how I felt.
“But I still couldn’t, Katie. I couldn’t. I just loved being around you. It felt so natural to be relaxed around you, to be myself. I can’t be myself with anyone else. I have to wear this mask, be the rock star they expect. But you know me, Katie. You know me. I don’t have to pretend. But, God. I still couldn’t just tell you. I thought about it that whole night, but I just couldn’t. And then by the time I had to go that night, I couldn’t stop myself. Maybe I couldn’t say it, but I couldn’t stop myself from showing it anymore. Holding you close, feeling your warmth up against me, smelling your hair, I couldn’t resist. And if you’d pushed me away, I would have known for sure, and I guess I would’ve been okay with it. But you didn’t. So maybe in all fairness you didn’t even have a chance to be faithful to your fiancé. Maybe you didn’t have a chance to tell me you were engaged before we got together.” He looked down at his hands that were resting on his thighs.
Katie grabbed them. “No, Johnny, don’t blame yourself. I was afraid to tell you about Grant before that.”
He held her hands in his and looked up at her. “Why?”
“For the same reason you were afraid to tell me how you felt, I guess. I think I was afraid of rejection or...I don’t know anymore. I was afraid of betraying my feelings to you and getting hurt. I’d been hurt by you so many other times before—”
“What? What did I ever do to hurt you?”
“No, you never did anything, Johnny. It was me. I let myself get hurt because I wasn’t honest with you.”
He slowly nodded his head. “So what do we do now?” Katie searched his eyes. “Do we want to give this a legitimate go?”
Katie asked herself that question. “Yeah, I think we should.”
Johnny brought his right hand up to her cheek and stroked it. “Shit. You know my tour lasts another three months, right?”
“Yeah. I’m in school for another year and a half too. But it’s not like we’ve never been apart before.”
He grinned. “That’s true. Hell, we’ve maybe spent a total of two months together the last fifteen years.”
She nodded. “We can work it out. I can’t take the whole summer off, but I do have most of May and August off.”
He tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear. “Do you even want to finish school?”
“Yeah, I do. I’m finally doing something I want to.”
“So what do you want to do when you finish school?”
“I’d planned on teaching.”
“I promise you, Katie, you won’t have to work if you don’t want to. Just be with me.” He paused. “Do you want to teach?”
Katie shrugged. “I want to write.”
“Then you can do that. You can do that with me, can’t you?”
She felt a small tear form in the corner of her eye. “Yeah, I think I could.” She reached over and hugged him. She sat back and grabbed her glass of water, sipping another drink and setting the glass back down.
“Well, I’m back on the road again tomorrow, but I’ll have some times here and there I can get away, and we can keep in touch over the phone.”
“Yeah.”
“So, what’s your roommate’s story?”
“What do you mean?”
“Holy shit. She’s got Kiefer wrapped around her finger. I had no idea he was a chubby chaser.”
Katie frowned. “I’ll have you know Heather is one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. She’s genuine and caring. And she is pretty.”
He nodded. “Yeah. Kiefer seemed pretty captivated by her from top to bottom.”
Katie smiled. “I guess I’ve paid her back then.”
“What do you mean?”
She stretched her neck. “I felt like I owed her something after today. She talked me into calling in for the tickets. Then she made me buy this silly thing,” she said, indicating the corset still hugging her frame. “She was going to pay for it if I didn’t. And she wouldn’t let me leave the house without a face full of makeup.”
“Well, you gotta admit, you look awesome.”
She smirked. “Thanks.”
He moved his face closer to hers, so close she could feel his warm breath on her cheek. His finger traced the top of the corset just over her breast. “You know what?” Katie shook her head. “We’ve had sex twice now, right? And both times were great but afterward totally sucked. I think we need to erase that shit right now. We need to make love right now just so we can have a nice morning after. What do you say? And then maybe I can figure out how this goddamn thing works too,” he said, running his finger along the top of the corset.
Katie smiled. “But don’t you have to leave tonight?”
Johnny grinned back at her. “Our next concert is in Colorado Springs tomorrow night. You can drive me there, can’t you?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Then, if it’s okay with you, I want to sleep with you in my arms tonight. And I want to wake up next to you, knowing that everything between us is finally okay.”
She brought her face up to his so that her nose was touching his. “Yeah, of course it’s okay.” She reached down and tugged at the strings tied in a bow at the top of her corset, loosening them. “Do you think you can take it from here?”
He grinned. “Shit, yeah. I’m good with playing strings.” He kissed her then, continuing to ease the strings out one eye at a time. Katie couldn’t wait until he discovered that the strings wouldn’t remove the corset. There was still a secret zipper on the side that had to be taken care of, but she knew that would make for some fun foreplay.
Bonus Story #1
Alternate POV: Johnny Falls in Love with Katie
“Katie, us guys are gonna play some ball. Wanna come?” Johnny Church didn’t know it at the time, but his whole perspective—his whole damn world—was about to change. He and Katie Logan had been friends for a couple of years and she’d wound up being his closest friend. Yeah, he had male friends too, but Katie lived nearby and they’d been hanging out together since Johnny and his mother had moved to town. It was his mom’s old hometown, and—after scraping and trying to get by as a single woman in the big city for years—she’d decided to move home to be close to parents and old friends and a lifestyle she understood.
She hadn’t wanted to raise her only son in the city either, especially after a freshman in the local high school died in a drive-by.
Johnny, a normal preteen kid with thick brown hair and blue eyes, settled in easily that summer. He’d been taking a walk around the town he’d visited in the past but had to now claim as his own, and he’d been hoping to find a friend. Not far from his home, he’d found Katie—she was a brown-haired, brown-eyed girl who looked bored but managed to find lots of fun things to do once Johnny was part of her life.
In fact, they weren’t quite ready to go back to school that fall.
Now, though, a couple of years later, he still considered Katie his best friend. Sure, he had guy friends but he wasn’t
as close with them as he was Katie. “Yeah, be right there,” his friend told him before they headed out on the playground.
It was sometime early April. They were all feeling antsy because they were going to graduate the end of May and spring was in the air. Lunch was over and the only time they got to spend outside was just afterward, and they were all ready to engage in physical activity in the fresh air and sunshine. The outdoors had been calling them anyway, ever since the grass had been turning green and the trees had started to bud.
The air was warm and felt good on Johnny’s back. They’d asked several other girls if they wanted to play (mainly because some of the boys were starting to notice the females—Johnny included) but Katie was the only one who agreed. As usual, they divided into teams, and Katie wound up on the other side. He didn’t care—he was just glad to be playing with his friend.
It wasn’t long before Katie wound up at the plate when Johnny was pitching. He grinned at his friend and remembered one or two of the ball games he’d seen as a kid where the pitcher acted so serious, signaling the catcher, winding up the ball like it was an Olympian event. Johnny couldn’t do that, but he did want to pitch as straight and true as he could. He turned his head to see if anyone was on first base…and he was. A blond kid named Matt, and Johnny saw why he was on first almost immediately. Up against the school wall, not far from where they stood, was a girl named Mary, the girl Matt had been crushing on since they’d returned from Christmas break. She was a cute enough girl—curly brown hair and an engaging giggle—but she was huddled up against the brick wall, gossiping with her clique of three or four toadies. As he turned to pitch to Katie, he felt overwhelming gratitude that his best friend was not like all the other girls. Here she was, playing with the guys, instead of gossiping and chattering and laughing inanely like most of the other females in their grade.
The first ball he threw, she missed. He didn’t know if it was his fault or hers, but the second one? She connected with the damn thing perfectly, sending it flying toward the chain link fence marking where the school’s property ended. Two outfielders chased it while Katie dropped the bat and began hauling ass toward first base. Johnny should have been watching for the guys to snatch the ball and toss it back, but Katie caught his eye, and it was as if his whole world had ground down into slow motion. He’d never paid much attention to what girls wore, but today he was focused on his friend as she strode toward the base. Her faded blue jeans highlighted how her hips were changing, the light blue shirt with a scooped neck clung to her frame, emphasizing the breasts she’d been sporting for a while now.
Why the hell had Johnny never noticed before?
Well, he had…but not like a boy. He swallowed, realizing he was transfixed with the fact that Katie was a girl, and glanced back toward the outfield. Suddenly, time sped up again. The boys didn’t have the ball yet so Johnny stole one more glance. Katie’s foot touched first base and she too saw that she had time to venture toward second. She was racing along and Johnny once more saw the gossipy girls up against the school—and he thought he caught Mary waving at him, but he only had eyes for Katie. Focus, man. He forced his vision on the outfield, and the guy on the left scooped the ball off the dirt and, after quickly evaluating the situation, threw it toward the guy on second. It was a perfect toss, but Katie beat him to the base.
She flashed a big grin at Johnny and he smiled back at his friend…
He was smitten.
* * *
By the time they were in high school, Johnny knew it wasn’t just a simple crush he had on his friend. He’d thought that at first and, after getting over feeling a little awkward, he just kept it tucked in the back of his mind. But his sophomore year in high school, he discovered another love—guitar—and he put together a band, one of many. A lot of the names and faces changed, but Johnny was always at the core, and it wasn’t long before he was writing his own music in addition to teaching himself as many covers as humanly possible. When he wasn’t in school or hanging with friends (Katie included), he was playing his guitar, long into the night. And he got good—really good.
It wasn’t long before Riley Schwartz joined during their junior year as lead vocals. The guy was good—he was a natural behind the mike and girls liked him, but he was a bit of a dick. A lot of chicks dug that, but most of them didn’t…and those girls tended to like Johnny. Word was spreading around school about their awesome band, but no one aside from band members had heard them play. They’d finally settled on the name Spawn of Satan and were waiting for the perfect time to unveil their sound.
But Johnny wasn’t ready yet. He wanted it to be perfect.
And, after a summer full of practices in the Schultz’s garage, he felt like they were ready. That fall, he asked everyone he could think of about performing at a school event—he talked to the band director, the drama teacher, the choir director—finally bending the ear of any teacher who would listen. He got one no or probably not too many and decided he needed to go to the top. He got to school early one day in early December and cornered the principal, just as the man was walking into the front office. “Look, Johnny,” he said, not realizing that school in a small town means the principal actually knows who you are even if you’re not a “bad” kid, “if I do it for your band, I have to do it for everyone.”
And that gave Johnny an idea. Instead of asking, Johnny decided to put together a petition. He decided that the principal should do it for everyone. Johnny requested a Battle of the Bands function and had seventy-five percent of the student body signed up in support of the petition by the time they left for Christmas break. Johnny wasn’t sure if the principal had been impressed by Johnny’s effort or overwhelmed by how many kids wanted to see it happen, but by the time they returned to school, Johnny found out his efforts had paid off.
Johnny wanted to show off, sure, but there was one person above all he wanted to impress, and that was Katie. For a long time now, she’d been begging him to play for her and he’d wanted to, but he wanted it to be right.
The night before the Battle of the Bands, he was drinking with Riley and couldn’t hold any of it in any longer. They were in Riley’s parents’ basement—his folks were out to some stupid charity dinner that cost a few hundred bucks a plate and were far too busy with their social life to pay attention to anything their disappointing son was up to—and about halfway through a bottle of Riley’s favorite drink, Jack Daniel’s.
“You really think anybody’ll show up, J?”
“Hell, yeah. We’ve got how many fucking bands that are gonna be there? A shitload. They won’t all be there for us. That’s cool. But they’ll leave thinking about us.”
Riley nodded and downed another shot. “I’m banking on that, son. I expect to have a list of chicks who want to suck Riley’s cock after tonight.”
“They will be, my friend. You just do what you been doing in rehearsals, and they’ll be eating out of the palm of your hands.”
“I’m counting on it.” He poured Johnny another shot before filling his glass again. “How many girls you hoping to get out of the deal?”
Johnny shrugged. He’d vowed to never tell another soul…but the alcohol had loosened his lips so that he had no control over them. He slammed the shot and had his beer in hand when he said, “There’s only one girl whose attention I’m hoping to get.”
Riley sat up, one reddish-brown eyebrow cocked. “Ah? And who’s that?”
Johnny half grinned and chugged a couple of mouthfuls of beer before he answered. “I think you know.”
His friend frowned. “You’ve never said anything. I was starting to wonder if you’re gay.” Riley started laughing. “Oh, shit. It’s Mike! You’ve got it bad for Mike…” Riley was still chuckling as he poured yet another shot. “And who can blame you really, with his full, luscious lips and—”
“It’s Katie.”
Riley looked up from the amber liquid, recognizing truth when he heard it. “Katie…as in your friend?”
&n
bsp; Johnny closed his eyes, allowing himself to wallow in the ache of love once more, but his voice was calm and steady when he answered. “Yeah.”
“What’s the attraction? She’s kinda plain.”
“Are you kidding? Maybe she’s not painted up like all the cheerleaders you date.”
“You’re serious.”
“Yeah.”
Riley picked up the shot glass and then set it down on the table again with a little too much force. “Fuck me, I think I’ve had way too much. I wonder when mom and dad are gonna be home.”
“Need me to leave?”
“Nah. Party just started, buddy.” Riley stood but didn’t move as if getting his bearing. “I think we need to play some Xbox Live. It’s more fun when you’ve been drinking.”
Johnny laughed. “Yeah, I guess so.”
All night long at various intervals, Riley would ask—as if he had misunderstood earlier, “Katie?” And his tone was incredulous. It was shocking enough when Riley decided that Katie was desirable and nabbed the girl out from Johnny’s fingers, just when he was finally starting to feel worthy of her admiration and attention…but Riley had it coming when he’d taken her virginity. He was lucky Johnny hadn’t beaten the life out of him—and the only reason why he didn’t, other than jail, their tenuous friendship, and Katie, was that beating him to death might have damaged Johnny’s hands for good…and he needed them for what he knew would be his future.
Tangled Web Series Box Set Page 13
