The Stronger, Safer Kind (The Boys of DownCrash #1) (new adult contemporary rockstar romance)

by Casey, London

  “I know,” Tatum said. “Almost as crazy as Tripp.”

  “Hey man, I’m still crazy,” Tripp said. He stood from the stool. “We can still party and have fun. We’re young and we have the sickest band in the fucking world right now.”

  Tripp put his arm around me and pulled me in for a kiss. I didn’t mind it one bit, so much so that I made sure to let my tongue graze his lips. Tripp smiled and I nibbled at him. I was so turned on, wanting him so bad.

  “Calm down,” Tripp whispered. “The band is watching.”

  “I don’t care,” I said and pulled him tighter.

  When Tripp broke the kiss, he licked his lips and shook his head. “Damn. I wish you guys could feel how she kisses. Fuck. It’s like taking a drug. A really good drug.”

  I smiled. I never considered myself a good kisser, but hey, if it worked…

  “Get crazy then,” Tatum said. He stood from the drum kit. He twirled a drumstick between his fingers and then put both drumsticks away.

  “Get crazy?” Tripp asked. “Like what? You want me to share?”

  “Exactly,” Tatum said.

  “Yeah right,” Tripp said.

  “What? You just said kissing Scarlett is like taking a drug. It’s all I’m going to think about now.”

  “You want to kiss my girl?” Tripp asked.

  I was frozen, unsure how to address the situation. I looked at Logan and he was smiling.

  “He has a point,” Logan said.

  Tripp looked at Logan. Then at me. “You hear this?”

  I don’t know what it was… the room… the music… the sexiness coming from Tripp, Tatum, and Logan… but something got to me in that moment.

  “Only one way to really find out,” I said. “Right?”

  “You want to kiss the band?” Tripp asked.

  “Seems like they want to kiss me,” I said.

  “He’s just jealous,” Tatum said. “He knows once you get a piece of me, you’ll forget about him.”

  Tripp laughed. “I doubt that, man. The only way you get ass is if you mention me.”

  “Oh, that’s harsh,” Logan said.

  “So… what are you going to do?” I asked.

  What the hell had gotten into me? My body felt so good. I felt alive. I felt sexy. I felt needed. I felt safe.

  “Okay,” Tripp said. “Whatever. I guess technically I never really asked Scarlett out or anything. She’s still single, right?”

  I smiled at Tripp. Single? No way. We weren’t single. Not a chance. But I let it slide, playing into it all. And how could I not? I was in a position any girl in our college would die to be in. Standing in front of the drums for DownCrash. Standing next to the lead singer and guitarist. Standing right there, in the mix of everything.

  Tatum walked around to the front of the kit and sat on the bass drum. He folded his arms and licked his lip ring.

  I kind of did want to see what it felt like to kiss someone with a lip ring.

  “Tripp, are you sure about this?” I asked.

  “Are you sure?” he asked me.

  “Yeah. I guess. Why not, right?”

  Tripp took my hand. “Scarlett, I’m not your boss. I’m not going to tell you what to do or how to live your life. Okay? I want you to have fun and not worry that some asshole is going to punch a guy for looking at you.”

  I smiled. I liked hearing that. Tripp cared and would know what to do and when to do it.

  I braced myself and said, “Fine. Tatum… come kiss me.”

  He pushed from the drums, eyeing Tripp. He licked his lip ring again and was an inch away from me. He was tall, built. He touched my cheek and Tripp cleared his throat.

  “What’s wrong?” Tatum asked.

  “Come on, hurry up,” Tripp said. “No touching.”

  Tatum moved his hand. He moved down towards me and I kept my eyes open. When his lips touched mine, my body soared with intense heat. I felt my cheeks burning red. I couldn’t believe I was kissing the drummer from DownCrash, not to mention with Tripp standing right next to us.

  I kissed back, just lips, feeling Tatum’s lip ring.

  He then parted his lips and the tip of his tongue touched my lips. I jumped for a second and did the same, wanting to feel his lip ring. I did and smiled. What a crazy, wild moment.

  And it felt good.

  And Tripp was there.

  And… I heard the sound of the garage door moving but the kiss didn’t stop.

  “Scarlett?”

  I turned my head, ending the kiss, ending the wild moment.

  I saw Maggie standing in shock.

  “Maggie. Hey.”

  “What the fuck…?”

  She turned and left the garage.

  Oh no… what the hell had I just done?

  26

  I rushed from the garage and found Maggie standing in the driveway.

  “Maggie…?”

  “Who are you?” she asked, her bottom lip quivering.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Jesus, Scarlett. A couple weeks ago you were this regular girl. You had me, Andy… now you have…”

  “I’m not sorry,” I said. “I’m falling for Tripp. I never asked to get mixed up in Andy’s feelings. And I told you all I could about myself.”

  “I wished you said something earlier,” Maggie said. “I’m not who you think I am either, Scarlett. That’s why I’ve wanted to talk to you. I can’t take it anymore.”

  “Take what?” I touched Maggie’s shoulders, wanting to hug her. I’d never seen her act like this before.

  “I’m not a slut,” Maggie said.

  “I would never think that,” I said. “Just because you have fun…”

  “Not even that,” Maggie said. “I don’t just hook up with guys. That’s not me.”

  “That’s not what you tell people.”

  “I know what I say. And I know what I do. That’s why it always happens when I’m drunk. I kiss them, that’s it. I make out and usually it’s nothing more.”

  I felt shocked. I thought of Maggie as this sex queen. A girl who used her body freely and enjoyed every second of it.

  “Are you a virgin?” I whispered.

  “No,” Maggie said. “Gosh, no. But I’m not some whore either. I like boys, a lot, but they don’t just get into my pants, okay? That’s not who I am. That’s not who I want to be anymore. I’m sick of people thinking that.”

  “Okay. Why then? Why pretend that? Why hide it from me?”

  “The same reason why you hid your secret,” Maggie said.

  “Fair enough.”

  “And there’s more,” Maggie said. “I’m not so different from you… I have my own past I have to face.”

  “What kind of past?”

  Maggie shook her head. “After seeing Tripp this week and talking to you, it all made sense in my mind. I could either keep running away and making myself into something I’m not or just face it.”

  “Can I face it with you?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. I’m… confused. And hurt.”

  “Why are you hurt?”

  “Why were you kissing Tatum?”

  There it was. The question of the hour. The thing burning in Maggie’s bitchy eyes. For a girl who claimed she was good girl, she looked anything but. I stared at my roommate like she was a stranger. I realized that in so many ways, we really were strangers.

  “We were just having fun,” I said. “That’s all.”

  “Is that how it goes?” Maggie asked. “Everyone shares?”

  “No. Not at all. Of all people, Maggie, you should understand, we were having fun.”

  “I wanted to talk to you, Scarlett, because I wanted to tell you that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Tatum since the first time I came here.”

  My mouth fell open.

  Why didn’t I realize it?

  Why didn’t I remember the way she looked at him?

  “I’m so sorry,” I said. “Maggie, if I knew…” I f
elt like I had betrayed my roommate, my best friend. “We have to stop keeping things from each other.”

  Maggie nodded. “There’s just something about Tatum… his eyes, his face. That lip ring. But I don’t know if he’ll accept me. If he knows I’m not some slut and if he finds out about my past…”

  “Nobody is perfect,” I said. “That’s one thing I’ve realized. Everyone has a past. If you meet someone who will listen to your past, accept your present, and embrace your future, then that’s someone worth while.”

  “And you think Tatum will do that?” Maggie asked.

  “Hey, is everything okay out here?”

  I turned, now standing next to Maggie, and saw Tatum holding the garage open with one hand. Logan and Tripp stepped next to Tatum. Tripp smiled at me and I melted inside. He was everything I could ever ask for. I didn’t need to worry about forever because I had Tripp right now. And right now felt like forever.

  “There’s just something…,” Maggie whispered, her voice cracking. I could tell her heart raced.

  I nodded and took her hand, squeezing it. Then I said, “I know. There’s just something about the boys of DownCrash.”

  Don’t miss book two in The Boys of DownCrash series…

  Maggie can’t keep her eyes off Tatum and the more she thinks about the sexy drummer of DownCrash, the more she wants it to be her hands she can’t keep off him. But the closer she gets to Tatum, the more secrets she has to face… his, hers, and when a promise committed from her past shows up, Maggie is left torn to pieces.

  London Casey writes and dreams of writing more. When not writing, London reads, attempts to blog, but somehow manages to end up writing again.

  www.londoncasey.wordpress.com

  @london_casey

  http://www.facebook.com/pages/LondonCasey/434500699963823

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  First electronic edition April 2013

  Copyright © 2013 by London Casey

  Published by Hundred to Home Publishing

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part of any form.