Wounded But Not Scarred (New Adult Rockers 2)

by Vega, W. H.

  Blake kicks off his shoes and pulls his shirt over his head, and I fumble with the buttons on his pants and push them down off his legs. He kicks them off, and I grasp at his cock through his boxers, desperate to feel him. Blake moans as I push his boxers down and take him in my hands.

  He’s solid and warm, and I can feel him throbbing in my palms. More than anything, I suddenly want to take him in my mouth.

  I gently push Blake onto his back and he surrenders happily. I climb on top of him, unhooking my bra and tossing it on the floor so he can have a full view of my breasts. I leave my panties on to tease him.

  Sliding between his legs, I move my hands over his abs and drag my tongue along the inside of his thighs. He trembles just a bit and makes a deep, guttural sound. First, I slide my hands up and down his shaft, teasing him and watching him stiffen more. Then, very slowly, I slide just the tip of my tongue from his root to head, making sure I drive him wild in the process.

  “Christ, Paige!” he bursts out, fisting the sheets.

  I give him a little smile and continue to lick him from root to tip, and then with agonizing slowness, I wrap my mouth around his head, sucking hard. He groans again, at my mercy. When I think he can take no more, I press him all the way into my mouth, pushing him deep into the back of my throat and loving the way he cries out from surprise and unbridled pleasure.

  I move up and down, sucking hard as I deep throat him again and again.

  “Fuck,” he hisses. “I’m not going to last much longer.”

  “Good.” This is what I want. I want to drive my fiancé so wild with lust that he can’t help himself so that he has to give himself completely over to his own pleasure. I feel him jerk in my mouth, and I know he’s almost there. I ready myself and then Blake cries out before I feel the gush of warm liquid in my mouth.

  “Mmm.” I swallow again and again as he throbs within me, feeling more brazen and sexual than I ever have in my life. I’ve never been this comfortable with Blake, this uninhibited.

  When he’s finished, he can barely speak, and he pulls me hard to his chest, cradling my head and murmuring my name.

  “God, Paige, you make me feel so good. You’re so good to me. I don’t deserve you.”

  “Shh. You deserve that and more.”

  We lay quietly for a few minutes, and then Blake begins to trace circles on my inner thigh.

  “Mmmm,” I sigh, twitching from the sensation.

  “Your turn,” he rasps, and then he’s between my legs, pushing my thighs apart, tearing my underwear off and licking me in every place imaginable.

  “Blake...Oh, Blake...” My fingers are tangled in his hair, and my thighs tremble. I can tell that Blake isn’t holding back this time, and I never realized how he had held back before. It’s as if all our walls have finally come down, and he’s no longer handling me with kid gloves.

  His hands are everywhere, pushing me open, probing inside of me, and sliding around to my ass. I want to protest, but I can’t because it feels so damn good.

  And then his tongue!

  As if his fingers weren’t enough, his tongue works in tandem with his hands, and I’m being touched and sucked everywhere. The pleasure is too much for my body to take, and I explode, shouting loudly as I come, falling apart around Blake. I don’t even realize that I’m crying until it’s over.

  “Shh. Shh,” Blake is saying, pulling me into his chest. “What is it? Was it too much? I just couldn’t help myself. I’m sorry.”

  “No, no.” I wipe at my face, confused by the wetness. “It just felt so amazing, Blake. I’ve never felt that way before. It was a whole different level.” I look at the ring on my finger.

  The only thing that I’m wearing.

  “I just never knew it could be like this.”

  He kisses me tenderly “Neither did I.”

  And then I open up beneath him, needing him in every way possible, needing to feel as close to him as I possibly can.

  Twenty Three

  Blake

  “Are you sure you’re alright?” I ask, as I wrap my arm tighter around Paige and pull her into me as we walk across the darkened parking lot.

  She nods. “Yes,” she says slowly. “It was just more than I expected. It was a lot to take in.”

  “I know. But your grandma is strong and she seems to be in really good hands here. And they’re saying she can be released in a week or two.”

  “I know.” But her voice is tiny. “But she won’t be going home. She has to go to a rehab facility.”

  “For now,” I point out. “No one said she won’t ever go home.”

  Paige nods but I can feel the doubt rolling off her.

  While all things considered her grandma was doing well, it wasn’t quite the visit we had anticipated. It's now after eight in the evening on Friday, and we're finally headed back to Paige’s mother’s house after spending the entire day at the hospital.

  While the doctors seemed hopeful, it had been made clear that there was a long road ahead. While Paige’s grandmother had suffered some facial paralysis, they also learned that she was going to need to relearn how to eat and to work on her speech. Her grandmother had tried talking a bit, but it had been difficult to understand her.

  The doctors also determined that some of her gross motor skills would need to be retrained with occupational therapy. She was going to stay in the hospital for another week or two, rehabilitating at their own facility, and then she would be moved to an independent rehab facility.

  While the doctors didn’t give a timetable on how long it would take her grandmother to relearn those skills, they did say she could go home once they were making good progress.

  “I guess, I was just expecting things to be better,” Paige says, climbing into the truck.

  “Paige, your grandma had a stroke. And not only that, but it was hours before your mom found her. The fact that she survived is reason enough to be happy.”

  “You’re right. I’m being terrible. I need to look at the positives here.”

  She’s quiet on the drive to her mother’s house, but I can tell that her spirits have lightened somewhat.

  Ms. Lawson on the other hand, seems downright joyful that her mother is alive, and the mood is infectious when we get back to the house.

  “Alright! No moping about!” she calls gaily when we walk in. “Let’s celebrate!” We round the corner to the kitchen and hear a cork pop and Marybeth Lawson is laughing as she pours champagne into three flutes.

  “Momma!” Paige laughs. “What are you doing?”

  “I just told you! Celebrating! It’s not every day that my only child gets engaged. Now get your behind over here and drink this champagne.”

  Paige laughs again, and she squeezes my hand as Marybeth hands us each a flute. She raises hers in the air to toast us.

  “To my beautiful and talented daughter, Paige, who amazes me every day, and to Blake, the man who has made my little girl so happy,” her voice breaks from emotion, “I wish you both all the happiness and love in the world!”

  “Cheers!” I say, clanking glasses, as I take a large sip of champagne.

  “Yum!” Paige drinks her entire flute, and Marybeth quickly fills it again.

  Paige and I get comfortable on the couch, and Marybeth orders a pizza, but not before apologizing profusely for not having a delicious meal cooked for us. Paige waves her off and pours herself a third glass of champagne. By the time she’s finished her third glass of bubbly, she’s visibly happier and more relaxed.

  “So, Momma,” Paige begins, once the pizza arrives and Marybeth has served us on nice plates to make up for the take out. “Tell me about Jackson!” Her words slur together just the tiniest bit, and I have to admit that I’m enjoying this slightly buzzed version of Paige.

  Marybeth turns bright red. “Right now?”

  “Oh yes. Right now.”

  I grin; Paige isn’t backing down.

  “For goodness’ sake, Paige. You don’t waste any time,” Ma
rybeth complains. “I told you that we were friends back in high school.”

  “Yes, and he moved away and got married, then divorced, blah, blah, blah. But now that he’s back, what are you?”

  “Well, we’re dating. Alright? After we reconnected at your release party, we realized that we had both had a crush on each other back in high school, and those feelings still seemed to be there. So whenever he’s had some free time, he’s come up to Bristol, or we’ve met halfway in Farragut.”

  “Ooohh. Meeting halfway.” Paige raises her eyebrows.

  Marybeth narrows her eyes at Paige. “I’m a grown woman, and I can date whomever I like.”

  “Oh, Momma. I didn’t mean it like that. I was just giving you a hard time. I’m happy for you, truly I am! And Jackson always seemed like a nice guy.” She turns to me. “Didn’t you think so, Blake?”

  “Sure, sure.” I’m caught off guard being pulled into this conversation. I had been a happy observer.

  “Well, there’s nothing else to tell, really. Right now we just have to settle with seeing each other when we can. I plan on going to Nashville to see him too, but obviously I can’t right now with Grandma in the hospital. I have my work here in Bristol, and he has his work at your daddy’s label, so we’re doing just fine seeing each other most weekends.”

  After that, Paige doesn’t press for more details, and I can tell that Marybeth is relieved. I know it must be strange for Paige to suddenly see her parents both start to date again around the same time. Especially, with her own love life taking off. It’s like all three of the Lawsons seemed to find love at the same time.

  We spend some more time with Marybeth and then finally go upstairs to bed.

  “I’m going to let y’all sleep in the same room since you’re engaged now,” Marybeth says sternly, though she’s smiling. “But no funny business!”

  “Oh my gosh, Momma,” Paige flushes. “Please don’t even say it!”

  We go into our room and close the door. “As if I would ever get busy with my momma right next door,” she says horrified.

  I laugh, and pull her towards me.

  “Blake Evans! Don’t you dare!” she hisses, swatting at me.

  I can’t help but laugh. “Don’t worry. We’ll keep things clean in your momma’s house.”

  She rolls her eyes and we change out of our clothes and climb into the double bed in the guest room.

  “Was this your room?” I whisper after the lights are out, and I’ve cozied up behind Paige.

  She shakes her head. “I asked momma to turn that room into an office the second I moved to Nashville.”

  “Why?”

  “No good memories in there. Didn’t want to come back over to this house and look at a room where I spent so much time alone and sad.”

  Oh.

  “I’m sorry, baby.”

  “Don’t be sorry. It’s all happy memories from here on out.”

  And she’s right.

  If Paige and I thought we were starting to become popular before, we damn well skyrocketed to popularity once news broke that we were engaged. I don’t know exactly how it spread, but I’m sure someone told someone who told someone in Nashville, and by the first week in December, it made national news.

  If you didn’t know who Blake Evans or Paige Lawson was before, you’ll know who they are now. H-O-T new country artists whose growing popularity is only getting bigger now that the two have announced they are engaged!

  There was some variation of that blurb all over the place, and we were constantly met by paparazzi wherever we went. Paige was taking it in stride, but I could see it was an adjustment for her too. Ben and Ryan didn’t seem to mind too much, but they weren’t getting the brunt of it like Paige and I were.

  As we picked up our tour, staying in the south and near our country roots, the audiences got crazier. Instead of them being jealous, they seemed to love us all more and we actually saw our album sales double.

  About two weeks back into the tour, and one week before we were wrapping up for a Christmas hiatus, Paige comes bursting out of our hotel bathroom, holding her phone. Her hair is only half blow-dried and she’s pale.

  “What is it?”

  “The story finally surfaced.”

  She doesn’t need to say more because I know what she’s talking about. We knew it would only be a matter of time before the story of Paige’s attack got out.

  “Fuck,” I say quietly. “How do you know?”

  “Becky just called me. It was on a couple gossip sites, but now it’s being picked up on bigger sites like People.com.”

  She scrolls through her phone and then thrusts it in my face. Sure enough, there’s a small photo of Paige and a paragraph beneath it stating that Paige had been raped and attacked when she was just a teenager in Nashville.

  “Do you think someone talked to the media?” I ask, putting her phone down and taking her hand.

  “I don’t know,” she sighs, her eyes welling with tears. “I knew this would happen eventually, and everything sounds like it’s coming straight from an old news article. I really don’t want to be dealing with this during the holidays.”

  “I know, baby, I know.”

  Things had been going so well. Our albums were selling great, we were engaged, and we had just put an offer in on the house in Belle Meade. Paige was set on a wedding for the first weekend in May, and she had plans to look at a couple venues once we were back in town for the holidays. And her grandma had just been moved to a rehab facility, which was a step up from being in the hospital.

  There’s a knock at our door and I pull it open to find Liam. His face is grave.

  “I guess you’ve heard the news,” he says.

  “Yes, I’m sorry Liam.” Paige says, pushing her damp hair aside.

  “You have no reason to apologize. What happened to you was awful. I’m only sorry that it’s going to be dragged through the media.”

  “I knew it would happen eventually.”

  Liam nods. “I don’t want to sound callous here, but we need to come up with a plan, and immediately, for how we’re going to handle this. We want to be proactive and we want to deal with it directly to prevent it from spinning out of control.”

  Paige nods sadly.

  I squeeze her hand. “Want me to stay with you? Or I can leave and give you and Liam some privacy?”

  She looks up at me, her eyes wide and frightened. “No, stay.” She frowns. “Unless it’s too hard for you.” She looks away and trails off.

  “I can handle it, Paige. It’s whatever you want.”

  She nods, more determined this time. “Stay.” She looks over at Liam. “Let’s deal with it. Let’s get it out there. I don’t want to hide behind what happened to me, and if I can help someone else dealing with something similar, then that’s even better.”

  “Good. I like your attitude. I’ve already had a few local TV stations in Nashville reach out to the label for an interview with you. But I think we can do better. I was thinking we could get the Today show.”

  Paige’s eyes nearly bug out of her head. “The Today show? But that’s so – so big! And is that right? I mean, are they going to want to talk about something like this?”

  “Of course they would want to talk about it. If you’re okay with it, I will reach out to them this morning. I bet they could get you on a segment by the end of this week.”

  Paige takes a deep breath. “Okay. But then what? It can’t just be an appearance on the Today show.”

  “No, you’re right. Then I think you should do a couple of interviews for magazines. Maybe a radio interview in Nashville. People magazine would probably do a story on it. Maybe even one of the more teen-oriented magazines like Seventeen.” Liam scratches his chin, looking slightly ruffled which is unusual for him. “We don’t want to turn this into a media circus so that it looks like we’re drumming up press for you. We just want it to be clear that you aren’t hiding anything and you’re not ashamed. So, I think we select a few
places where you’re going to share your story. Then in the future, if people ask you about it, you can give a short and sweet answer and be done with it. All the details will already be out there.”

  “All the details?” I feel her nails dig into my palm.

  “I mean, you'll have already shared things,” Liam says quickly, “Not that you need to rehash things. That’s the point. You put your story out there, but you don’t need to rehash details. I’ve already talked to your father, who is upset for you of course, but he also understands that his name will be dragged into this too because it’s probably going to come out that he was there but unable to help you.”

  Paige hangs her head. “I didn’t want this for Daddy.”

  “Right, well, we can’t really avoid that,” Liam says, standing up.

  I can’t help but feel a twinge of anger toward Kenny. Even though he’s clean now, I still hold him partially to blame for what happened to Paige.

  “I’ll make some calls and we’ll figure this out today.” Liam goes to leave and turns around. “By the way, great show last night for both of you. Houston loved you guys.” And then he’s gone.

  “Alright, no moping,” I say, trying to stay upbeat. “The RV leaves in an hour and you need to finish getting ready. Liam is going to handle this and it will be old news by the time Christmas rolls around.”

  “You’re right, you’re right.” Paige slowly gets off the bed to finish getting ready, and it doesn’t come up again until we’re on the bus, heading north.

  Paige and I are reviewing some documents at the table when Liam slides in next to us.

  “I talked to the Today show,” he says in a quiet voice. “They want you on in three days.”

  “Three days?” clearly Paige wasn’t expecting things to happen this quickly.

  “Yes. So after the show in Tulsa, you and I are going to catch a red-eye to New York. You’ll do the segment, and then you’re going to sit down with one of the editors at Seventeen Magazine. By lunchtime we’ll be back on a plane to Kansas City.”