Broken Fairytales Series Box Set (Broken Fairytales, Buried Castles, Shattered Crowns)

by Monica Alexander

“No, princess,” I said, softening my tone, as I cupped her face with my hands. “I love you, and I don’t give a shit who knows about it and what it does to record sales. No more pretending. I fought too hard for you to go through this shit.”

  Her hands were suddenly at my waist, sliding my jeans down and cupping my bare backside.

  She looked up at me through her lashes. “Commando. I like it.”

  My eyes hooded, as I stepped toward her, and her hand moved to my erection, stroking it evenly as she guided it toward her. As I pushed inside, she gasped out. I laid her back on the desk, my hand under her head, my other arm braced on top of the desk to give me leverage.

  “I’m serious,” I said, as I started to move inside her, more roughly than I usually did, but my adrenaline had spiked. “I’m not doing it anymore, got it.”

  She nodded, biting her lip to keep from crying out, since who knew how thin those walls were.

  “You hate it, too. I know you do,” I said pointedly, my breath getting shallower as I quickened my pace.

  She nodded again. “I do hate it.”

  I paused deep within her and laced my right hand through her left one before kissing the ring I’d given her.

  “This ring, it means everything to me, because it means that I get to spend forever with you. Shit, I write about love, because I know what it feels like. Half of the new album is all sappy because of you, because of how you make me feel. I love you, princess, and you’re just going to have to deal with it.”

  I started moving again, knowing she was getting close. I could see it in her eyes. Ordinarily, I’d make the whole process last, because being connected to her was the best feeling, but I knew the guys were probably already wondering where the hell we were, so I needed to be quick.

  Below me, Emily smiled. “Fine, tell the world. Whatever,” she said breathlessly before her head fell back.

  I grinned. “I think I will,” I said, as I slid my hand that wasn’t holding hers to her lower back and slammed into her, tipping her over the edge. As she started to cry out, I let go of her hand and put mine over her mouth. She was writing beneath me, and a few seconds later, I let go and collapsed on top of her, both of us gasping for air.

  “And Leo thinks you aren’t romantic,” she joked when I slid my hand from over her mouth.

  “Only for you, princess,” I said breathlessly against her neck. “Only for you.”

  “I think I’m going to piss you off more often,” she said then, her warm breath right by my ear.

  I pressed my lips to her soft skin before pulling up a few inches to look at her. “You liked that?”

  She nodded. “You’re hot when you’re angry, and you weren’t so gentle with me. You bet your ass I liked it.”

  I panicked for a second. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

  She laughed. “Did it look like I was in pain?”

  A smirky smile crossed my lips. “Yeah, I guess not.”

  Shit, she was so tiny I was always afraid to hurt her.

  A pounding on the door had us suddenly frozen in place. “Hurry up, you fuckers – ha, ha! No pun intended.”

  It was Derrick.

  “You jackass. Do you even know what a pun is?” I called back, as I pulled away from Emily. I saw her face was scarlet as she sat up and pulled her skirt back down. She hated that we’d gotten caught.

  “You have two minutes to get across the hall, or I’m sharing what I just heard,” Derrick said, before he walked away. He’d probably share anyway. He had little to no discretion.

  I looked back at Emily who had her hands over her eyes, shaking her head. “Ohmygod, ohmygod,” she murmured. “I’m so embarrassed.”

  I pulled her into my arms and tucked her head under my chin, hoping to comfort her. “It was only Derrick. Trust me, I’ve caught him in compromising positions more times than I can count.”

  She looked up at me. “I didn’t want him to hear us, Zack.”

  “I know, but think about the fact that we’re going to be on a tour bus for a month and a half. It probably won’t be the last time someone will hear us.”

  She groaned. Over the summer, since our tour was low budget, we’d driven in vans and stayed in cheap motels at all of our stops, but on our next tour, we were going all out and getting a bus. And thankfully there was a small bedroom, but Emily and I both knew how thin the walls were. We’d toured the bus and knew privacy was going to be relatively nonexistent. Modesty was going to be something of the past.

  “That’s it, we’re just not having sex while we’re on tour,” she said adamantly, shaking her head.

  My eyes got wide. “Excuse me.”

  She put her hands on her hips. “I’m not having everyone hear me. No way.”

  Even though just the idea of me making her cry out in ecstasy got me semi-hard again, I stepped closer to her, risking the contact turning me on all the way.

  “Then we’ll just have to spend the next month learning to be really quiet,” I said, locking my eyes with hers.

  A small smile crossed her lips. “Yeah, right,” she said as she pushed past me toward the door.

  And even though she was threatening to hold out on me, I couldn’t help but grin. She’d just told me in not so many words that quiet wasn’t an option when I was involved, and hell if that didn’t swell my ego tenfold.

  * * *

  “It’s about time,” Leo grumbled when we walked into the studio space a few minutes later.

  The guys were lounging in chairs in the recording area waiting on me.

  “Hey Zack, I’m Chris, the sound technician. You ready to do this?” the guy from the station asked, as he handed me a script.

  “Sure man,” I said, looking down at it. Then I looked back up at him. “This has me doing most of the talking.”

  “Yeah, because you’re the most important guy in the band, apparently,” Andrew grumbled, and I looked at him in surprise as Leo mumbled for him to be quiet.

  “Excuse me?” I asked, taken aback by this sudden turn of events.

  Andrew hadn’t voiced any concerns all summer about me doing interviews and speaking on behalf of the band. I hated it, and I’d voiced my irritation to Leo, but I didn’t know it pissed the other guys off. Adam had been pushing me from day one to take the lead and set myself apart from the guys, but I was a firm believer that we were a unit. Of course, my say didn’t always carry weight, but I voiced my concerns enough for him to know how I felt.

  “Nothing, man,” Andrew said, having enough discretion to know that it wasn’t the time nor the place to bring up what I could imagine was stewing in his mind.

  And I shouldn’t have been surprised. In the year and a half the band had been broken up, Andrew had struck out on his own and had even put out an independent album, but it hadn’t done well. He didn’t have the vocals to be a lead singer or a solo artist, but he was a fantastic guitar player and was kick-ass with background vocals and writing lyrics. Of course, he only saw the attention I got and wanted it to be him. I wondered then if the guys were afraid I’d leave them behind to go out on my own.

  I knew it was something that had plagued other bands, but that wasn’t me. These guys were my brothers. They’d been there for me through everything in the past seven years, and I’d never leave them behind. Hell, they’d even stuck around after I’d left the band and then finally agreed to get back together. We were in this – together – for the long haul, and Andrew needed to know that. I knew we’d be having a talk later, but now wasn’t the time.

  “Where’s Molly?” I asked, looking around for my cousin.

  “She went outside to smoke,” Derrick said from where he sat flipping through Rolling Stone and swiveling from side-to-side in a desk chair, his ADD preventing him from sitting still.

  “I’ll be back,” I said, leaving the room. Emily made to follow me, but I shook my head and she stopped.

  Molly was coming down the hall as I was closing the door. “We need to talk,” I said, crossing my arm
s over my chest.

  She assumed a steely position when she reached me. “Fine, talk,” she said in her thick British accent.

  I narrowed my eyes at her. She was a tough chick from her black Doc Martens to the spike piercing through her lip to the thick kohl liner around her eyes and her short black hair that she’d cut and dyed the week before. Her look told you she wasn’t messing around, but I knew better. She was my cousin, and I’d known her my whole life – before the piercings and the punk look she wore so well. And she had a soft spot for me, so she didn’t scare me in the least.

  “This is bullshit,” I said thrusting the script at her.

  She took it and looked at the words, pacifying me, although I knew she’d already seen it. She’d signed off on it, no doubt.

  Her blue eyes met mine, and she thrust the script back into my hands. “What’s wrong with it?”

  “It’s all me,” I said, as if it wasn’t obvious.

  “Yeah, so. You’re the front man, Zack. What exactly do you think that means?”

  I shook my head. “In this band we’re all equals, Molly. We’re Liar’s Edge, not The Zack Easton Band.”

  Molly closed her eyes and shook her head. “Fine,” she said, opening her eyes as she stuck her hand out for the script. “I’ll make the necessary changes, and I’ll have to pass it through the producer. Give me five minutes to talk to him, but no guarantees.”

  She and I both knew that my fighting and defiance would have to be approved by the producer of Lindsay’s show, but if anyone could sell it, Molly could. She stalked off before I could say another word, and I went inside to talk to the guys.

  All eyes were on me when I came back into the room. “We’re doing a quick re-write,” I told them.

  “Good,” Andrew said, and then he looked away again. He was still pissed.

  “Thanks, man,” Leo said, always the most level-headed guy in the room. He knew this wasn’t my choice, and he thankfully saw that I was doing what I could to make it right.

  Ten minutes later, Molly returned looking irritated and thrust a new script into my hands. She didn’t say anything as she took a seat next to Chris. The producer of Lindsay’s show came into the room shortly after.

  “Okay guys, take a seat, and let’s get this thing recorded,” he said in an annoyed voice. “We’ve wasted enough time doing God knows what, and I need to get this sound bite ready to go.”

  The four of us took our seats around the table and did a few run-throughs. I was pleased that everyone had a voice, even though I still did most of the talking. I could only fight so hard, I figured.

  “Okay,” Chris said. “We’re ready to record. Are you guys good?”

  I looked at the other guys who nodded and turned back to Chris. “We’re good.”

  “Alright,” Chris said, his finger poised over a button. “And go.”

  “Hey, this is Zack,” I said.

  “Leo,” Leo said.

  “Andrew,” Andrew chimed in.

  “And Derrick,” Derrick added.

  “And we are Liar’s Edge,” we all said in unison.

  “Next up is our song Lost Chances, which is the number one song in the nation this week,” I said.

  “Hell yeah, it is!” Derrick interjected, and I had to press my lips together to keep from laughing since that had been totally impromptu, but it was what I loved most about Derrick’s crazy ass.

  “Grab it and hold on before it all slips away,” Leo said, closing out the promo with the last lines of the chorus of the song.

  “And cut!” the producer yelled out. “Awesome guys. Derrick, nice job, man. That wasn’t in the script, but I loved it.”

  “Thank you,” Derrick said, a shit-eating grin on his face.

  “Do it again,” the producer commanded. “We’ll do a few more takes, and then you guys are good to go.”

  I looked over to see that Andrew was scowling, and I wondered if it was because Derrick, Leo and I all had full lines in the promo, and he just said his name. I really needed to talk to him, figure out what was up.

  We did six more takes just to be sure the promo worked, and then we were out, piling into the black Escalade we’d rented for the week we’d been in L.A. We’d played a show the night before, our first one on the West Coast, to a sold out crowd. Of course we were playing mid-sized venues. It wasn’t like we were selling out the Staples Center or The Coliseum, but we were holding our own as we rapidly built a fan base across the country. Having two number one songs would do just that.

  We were all excited to see how the ticket sales would be for our headlining tour. They were going on sale the following week, the Friday after Without You was released. But for now, we were laying low, heading home and relaxing for a few days before the madness was sure to begin again when we started recording.

  Three of the songs we’d been playing all summer – Without You, Hate and Stolen, would be on the new album, but the other eleven songs would be brand new tracks that I’d been working on with Andrew since January. Whenever we had downtime, we’d find a quiet place and work through each piece, figuring out the best way to lay out the music with the lyrics until it turned into an actual song.

  We were all excited to see how our first full-length album would turn out, especially since it was coming out so fast. But Liar’s Edge was on a high, and Adam wanted to take advantage of the buzz that had been following us around, so as much as we wanted a break, it wasn’t going to come until the end of November.

  Molly drove us all back to the airport in our monstrosity of a car, deftly navigating the L.A. traffic that she’d come accustomed to. She’d been living there for almost a year, minus the time she’d spent on tour with us. We’d see her again on Tuesday when we got into the studio in Charlotte. Adam knew one of the guys who owned the place. He’d originally wanted us to stay in L.A. to record, but I’d been adamant that we wanted to go home. And even though Charlotte was two hours away from where we all lived in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, it was close enough. It was better than being across the country.

  Besides, both my dad and Emily’s parents lived in Charlotte, so we’d get to spend time with them. Em and I were going to stay at my dad’s house, and Lily was coming with us. As long as I got to see my baby, I was good.

  When Molly stopped the car outside the terminal, the guys and Emily piled out of the car and grabbed their luggage, but Molly stayed in the drivers’ seat. She looked tense.

  “You okay?” I asked, as she stared straight ahead.

  “I’m fine,” she said crisply.

  I sighed, knowing what had her in a bad mood. I’d been pushing back a lot lately, and I knew it was taking a toll on her. She’d gone to bat for us more times than I could count.

  “I’m sorry,” I told her, and she looked over at me and shook her head.

  “Zack, it’s not your fault. It’s just this business. I’m too close to you guys. I’m afraid I’m not making the right decisions, because I’m doing what you want and not what I’d do if I was an impartial manager.”

  My shoulders sunk. “Molls, we appreciate you doing the right things for us. It’s why we wanted you to be our manager in the first place. You’ve got our back.”

  “I know,” she said, her gaze shifting forward again.

  She was still stewing, and I knew she just needed time. We’d had a stressful few months. Touring wasn’t easy.

  I leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek. “Love you. I’ll call you when we land.”

  She nodded. “Safe travels, Zacky,” she said, turning to me and forcing a grin.

  I narrowed my eyes at her. “You’re such a bitch. Don’t call me that, seriously,” I said, fighting the grin that wanted to take over.

  My family teased me mercilessly about the nickname my mother had called me while I’d been growing up. And I hated it, but another part of me sort of loved it now that she was gone and wouldn’t call me that anymore. In a weird way, it brought me comfort.

  “You love it
,” Molly said, leaning forward to kiss my cheek, poking me with her lip spike.

  “Later,” I said, sliding out of the SUV.

  The guys had gone inside to check-in, but Emily was waiting for me. I reached out to take her hand, and she let me.

  Victory!

  “Everything okay?” she asked.

  I nodded. No need to bother her with what Molly and I had talked about. She’d be fine. We all needed a break from Liar’s Edge and the pressure that came with our rapidly increasing fame. I knew once we saw her on Tuesday, Molly would be her normal, defiant, no-holding-back self who would fight to the ends of the earth for us. It was why she rocked as our manager and why we loved her.

  Chapter Two

  Andrew

  Two Days Earlier

  “Hello?” I said, not recognizing the number flashing on the caller ID.

  I was lounging in my hotel room trying to push away the thoughts that had been raging through my head for the past week. I was a fucked-up mess, and nothing seemed to make sense anymore.

  This thing was slowly killing me, and I knew if I didn’t face it head-on, I was going to go insane. And it had gotten so much worse in the past week. For over a year I’d been able to squelch those feelings – the ones I so badly wanted to dismiss, that had surfaced out of nowhere, because they didn’t make any sense. I’d found ways to make myself not think about them. They never seemed to go away, but I could push them down, minimize them and pretend like they weren’t there. But that was before.

  Then, out of the freaking blue, everything I’d felt that one night over a year earlier had come racing back to me when we were on stage at that little bar we’d played in Tampa. I’d looked out into the audience in the middle of one of the guitar riffs in Lost Chances, and there was a face I’d never expected to see again. Thankfully I was able to keep it together and finish out the set, but I kept my eyes on that same person as I played, equally terrified and excited by the feelings swimming through me.

  But the worst, or the best, part was that he smiled back at me when my eyes met his. He’d recognized me too.