I watch as she runs out the door to the truck waiting out front. I completely forgot that our tutoring lessons were starting today. After sleeping with Daniel, I feel kind of weird about him paying me for the lessons now, but I can’t back out.
After an hour of going over some basics with Mack, I wrap up the lesson and give her some homework to keep her busy until our next session. She’s packing up her guitar when she asks, “How’d you get into all of this? You’re really good.”
“I grew up here. My dad and the owner are really close and they always played music together. I started working here as a kid to pay for my first guitar.”
“Who taught you?”
“My dad and my boss. They showed me a few things and I just took off from there. I watched a lot of MTV and just tried to recreate anything I saw and liked. Then a couple of years ago, I started a band with my best friend.”
“That’s so cool. Uncle Daniel told me how good your band is. He says you’re going to be famous one day.” She smiles sweetly.
I laugh. “We can only hope, right?”
She nods as she picks up her things. “Well, there’s my dad. See you in a couple days.”
I raise my hand and wave goodbye as I watch her walk out of the store. The clock on the wall catches my eye and I see that I have 20 minutes to get across town for practice. I quickly get up and rush to gather my things.
“You’re almost late,” Van says when I walk into his garage.
I flip him off. “Almost doesn’t count. I’m here. Let’s get started.” I grab my guitar and get behind the mic. We cover the songs we usually do at all of our shows. We’ve pretty much perfected those. Then we get to work on the two new ones we want to play at the meeting with the label. We start up the first one and play to the chorus. Then we stop to make a few changes and take notes on how we sounded and what we can do to make it better. Practice is long and grueling. It’s a lot of starting and stopping and it turns a three-minute song into an hour. But by 9 p.m., we finally call it quits when we feel like we’ve perfected our first new song.
The guys decide to hang out and drink while fucking around with the instruments and talking, but I’m wiped after last night, work today, and then the lesson and practice. I say my goodbyes and hit the road, more than ready for some food and a shower.
When I get to my place, I drop everything on the table and go for a shower first. I know I already took one this morning, but I feel like the day has stuck to my skin and I want to start fresh and relax. I spend about 20 minutes washing and shaving before pulling on a pair of boyshort panties and a baggy T-shirt. I comb my hair but leave it a sopping mess around me to air dry as I go to find some food in the kitchen. I open the fridge and grab some orange juice. I take a drink from the jug as I search the freezer and cabinets. Finally, I settle on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I plop the sandwich on a paper plate and carry that in one hand, with my jug of orange juice in the other. Right then, there’s a knock at the door. I peek into the hole and find Daniel standing on the other side. I smile to myself as I pull open the door.
He’s standing in front of me looking delicious in his jogging pants and red Dri-FIT T-shirt. It’s wet with sweat under his arms and around his neck. He’s holding a plastic bag with something that smells amazing inside. He smirks and motions toward the food. “Thought we could both use a little dinner.”
I laugh. “At 10 at night?” I arch an eyebrow.
He looks down at my plate. “I bet Chinese food would be better than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.” I look at the sandwich in my hand then over at the bag that has the most delicious smell wafting from it. I step back and open the door wider, allowing him to step inside.
He walks into my apartment and I close the door behind him. I toss my sandwich into the fridge and follow him into the living room where he’s taking a seat on the couch.
“How was your day?” he asks as I sit down and watch him remove the food from the bag.
“Busy. I had work, then your niece came by for her lesson, and I followed that with band practice. I just got home and I’m beat. How was yours?”
He glances over at me. “Not as cool as yours but just as busy.” He sits down and hands me a carton of food with some chopsticks. “How was the lesson?”
I open my carton and find lo mein noodles. “Good. She was picking up on things pretty quickly. I gave her something to practice until our next lesson.”
“She didn’t tell you anything embarrassing about me, did she?” he asks with a smile.
“Only that you think I’m going to be famous one day.” I offer him a smile.
He laughs and nods. “I do. There’s no way talent like yours is going to waste. And hell, maybe you can even score me some backstage passes when you’re in town.”
I laugh. “You got it.” I turn on the TV and we both sit, watching it and eating our food. “So, do you often randomly show up with Chinese food at 10 p.m. at the homes of women you’ve just slept with?”
He laughs. “No, this is a first. And, hopefully, not a last with you.” He looks at me from the corner of his eye with a grin in place, his hand frozen in midair as he holds his chopsticks out to take a bite.
I smile but don’t know how to reply to that. Once our food is gone, he helps me clean up our mess then pauses by the door. His eyes are looking me up and down—from my wet hair to my black painted toenails and everything in between. They linger a bit longer on my braless breasts and my bare legs. His jaw tenses and he wets his lips.
“Fuck it,” he says under his breath as he rushes to pull me against him. His lips find mine and his hands land on my ass, picking me up against him as he spins me around to press me up against the fridge. Everything that was just in my head is gone. I’m no longer concerned with how tired I am or that I have to work tomorrow. The stress of band practice falls away, as does the anxiety about this upcoming meeting. Everything is just gone—it vanished without a second thought the moment his lips found mine.
My legs wrap around his hips, more than happy to be back where we seem to be drawn to each other. He kisses me hard and fast, and when our kiss ends, we’re both breathless.
“Take me to bed, Daniel,” I whisper.
“I’m more than happy to,” he says, carrying me to my room.
Afterward, we’re both just lying in my bed with me in his arms, watching the lights dance across my ceiling from the outside world. “What made you want to get into law?” I ask, wanting to know more about him.
I feel him shrug the shoulder I’m nestled against. “I don’t know, really. My dad, his father, and his grandfather had all been in the furniture-making business. They were the work with your hands type, but that never called to me. I never had the urge to take over the family business, and I knew if I was going to get away from it without anyone getting hurt, it would have to be something they would deem worthy. So I picked a profession I knew they couldn’t turn down. Plus, if I had my law degree, I’d still be able to be employed by the company one way or another.”
“Do you regret it?”
“No, it really is something I enjoy doing. I mean, who doesn’t want to get paid big bucks to just stand around and argue with someone? So what made you choose music?”
“I didn’t. It chose me,” I state, feeling more relaxed and worry-free than I ever have before.
“What do your parents think?”
“My mom passed away from breast cancer when I was 10. At the time, she was just proud to see me do something I loved. And my dad has always been proud too. He didn’t try pushing me to do anything until I was about to graduate high school. Suddenly, music wasn’t good enough. He knew that my chances of making it were slim, and he wanted me to have something to fall back on. He said he wouldn’t be around forever to make sure I was taken care of, so he wanted to ensure I’d have everything I needed to take care of myself.”
“He sounds like a smart man.”
“He is,” I agree. “But at the time, I w
as young and determined to make it big. I kept my job at the store and took some business classes on the side. My boss, his friend, convinced him to let me see where the music could take me as long as I got a degree. The store is now technically mine, but per our contract, he makes the major business decisions and leaves me in a management role. He signed it over the day I got my diploma in business. That was good enough for my dad, because he knew I’d have a stable job if the music industry chewed me up and spit me out like it did to him. But so far, I feel like I’ve been pretty lucky when it comes to my music. And even though the store is mine, I’m still just the manager until Rick retires or my music takes off. It allows me to focus on the music instead of being completely tied up in the day-to-day logistics of running and owning a business.”
“I have a feeling you’ll be taking off real soon,” he says, pressing a kiss to my shoulder and making me giggle from the softness.
“If it takes off, great. If not, it’s still something I’m going to do and love. Like I said, you don’t choose music—or any art form, for that matter. It chooses you. You’re just not fulfilled unless you’re creating. Everything else seems boring and mind-numbing.”
“I think I know the feeling,” he says, rolling on top of me.
“You do?” I ask, running my fingers through his dark hair.
He nods. “It’s like a craving you can’t get out of your system no matter how hard you try.”
“Exactly.”
“That’s how I’ve felt since I met you.” He leans forward and presses his lips to mine. They’re soft but strong and full of certainty. The butterflies in my stomach take flight and I wonder how he’s managed to wrap me around his finger so tightly in just a couple of days. I guess this is the stuff love songs are made of. No drink—no drug—is this powerful. This chemical pumping through my body overwhelms it all. It engulfs me and I’m powerless to stop it even though I know I should’ve never allowed it.
Four
Daniel
“I’m telling you, man, you need to get some space,” Calvin says as we’re eating lunch at my desk. “This is happening too fast. Someone is going to get hurt,” he warns.
I roll my neck to stretch my tense muscles. “I know, but I don’t want to stop it. I want to spend every free minute I have wrapped up in her.”
He nods. “I get it. I do. When Piper and I first started hooking up, I was preparing myself for the worst. I told you how she’s my brother’s best friend, but what I didn’t tell you was how she had always been desperately in love with him.”
I feel my eyes stretch wide. “You married your brother’s best friend who was in love with him?” I ask to make sure I heard him correctly.
He nods. “Yep, so as you can imagine, I thought she was just settling with me—that since she couldn’t have him in the way she wanted, she was taking what she could get. It fucked with my head for a while. But even though I knew all of this, I still couldn’t deny her. There was just something about her that drew me in.”
“Why are you telling me this? It obviously worked out well for you. You married the woman, had a child with her, and are about to leave the big city to open a smaller practice in your hometown. You got everything you wanted. You don’t think I could end up the same?”
“I’m not saying you wouldn’t. I’m just saying the odds are against you, just like they were against me. It worked out for me somehow. Only time will tell if it will work in your favor or not. And there is a chance it won’t. You just need to be prepared for it.”
I nod. “I know. I know how bad this could be. I mean, she could get signed and tour the world. I’d get left behind and stuck watching her amazing life from the sidelines. But what if it did work out?”
“How do you see it working out? I mean, if she gets signed, will you go on tour with her?”
I frown because I haven’t really thought about it. “I can’t do that. I have responsibilities here.”
“Exactly.” He points out. “Even if you end up together, you still won’t be together. I just want you to consider every angle of how this could play out before you get blinded by the ending. The end is a long way off. You still have the middle of the story to overcome.”
Fuck. I guess he’s right. Luna and I are more doomed to fail than I thought. And you’d think I’d keep this in the back of my head, however, when I walk into the bar and see her up on stage, it all flies out the window. The next thing I know, her set is over and she’s pulling me off to the side of the stage, where she jumps in my arms and presses her mouth to mine. She kisses me hard and fast. It’s rushed and hurried and completely raw. She knows how badly this could end just as much as I do, but when we’re together, none of that matters. Only the here and now.
“Come on. I only have 10 minutes,” she says, pulling me into a small restroom just off the stage.
I lock the door as I free myself with one hand. When I turn to face her, she’s already got her skirt pulled up, panties dropped, and she’s bending over the sink. I push inside her and everything else is gone. Her bandmates, her fans on the dance floor, our possible bad ending—all of those things couldn’t be further from my mind as I’m burying myself in her and making her scream my name.
When the band goes back out on stage, I take a seat in a booth and watch as everyone’s in awe of her. I can’t help but smile and feel proud of her and all her hard work. I don’t think she even knows how special she is.
“Hey, man. Can I sit with you?” someone asks, stealing my attention away from my girl on the stage.
I look up to find Wesley, her ex. I shrug. “Sure, I guess.”
He sits across from me and looks at her on the stage before glancing back to me. “She’s great, isn’t she?”
I nod in agreement. “She is.”
“How are the two of you holding up?”
“Good—really good,” I say around a smile as I think of the things we just did in that dirty restroom.
He laughs. “Yeah, I remember that phase too.”
For some reason I don’t quite understand, that really pisses me off. “You know things are over between you two, right? There’s no getting back together. Not while I’m in the picture anyway.”
He nods “I know. And I’m cool. She’s a great girl—she really is. But I meant what I said. We didn’t work together and I’m not trying to force myself between you or break you up. I’m simply here because it’s my job. That, and I really do like the band. I’m hoping they can pull off this meeting on Monday. They deserve to get signed.”
“There’s a meeting on Monday?” The band’s talked about getting signed someday, but I didn’t realize it was actually about to happen.
He nods. “Yeah, they have a meeting with Hot Vinyl Records. They’re going to play them some of their live stuff and hopefully seal the deal. If they get signed, their lives are going to take off. They’ll be busy making their first album, doing smaller shows to promote it, opening for big, famous bands, and then they’ll hit the road for their first tour. It’ll be amazing and fast-paced. I hope you’re in it for the long haul.”
I nod my head but am at a loss for words. Since the first time I heard the band play, I knew they were good—and I’m not talking small town good or garage cover band good. They write and play their own stuff. They’re amazing, and that’s rare to find in this day and age in which so much “music” is over-edited electronic sludge. And I know Luna is more than ready for her little band to take off. They’ve worked long and hard and deserve this, but if she gets signed, she’ll be gone long before I thought she would.
I tell myself that this just means there’s less time to get attached and get hurt. The sooner I break this thing off, the better. But things are going so well that I hate to end it before I have to. Maybe if I keep myself in check, I’ll be able to ride this thing out. I’ll start pulling away, but I won’t disengage completely. I’ll start spending more time at work, at the gym, and with my friends instead of looking for every little exc
use to be with her. There need to be rules in place—like I’ll only see her once a week, or a couple times a month until her life changes for the better and takes her away.
I sit, sipping my beer and watching her sing up on stage while playing the guitar. She looks completely at ease. The bright spotlight is shining down on her, making her sweaty skin glisten. But she doesn’t seem hot or tired. She looks energized. After putting on such a show, how can she still look like this? She’s smiling and having a hell of a time up there. That’s something about artists I don’t understand. They’re not like normal people. Maybe that’s why my body craves her. She’s a nice break from the stuffy lawyers I’m usually around. She hasn’t conformed to the expectations of society. She does her own thing, and that in itself is a nice change of pace for someone like me, a rule-follower. The two of us are so different. At first I wondered how this could even work, but now I know it’s because she’s the balance I need.
The show wraps up and the band makes their way off stage. The dance floor starts to clear—everyone going back to their table or to stand around the bar for another drink. A few people linger, now gathered into groups to talk and hang out. As expected, Luna comes out while leaving the guys to pack up. She’s smiling wide and walking quickly in my direction—that is, until she notices Wesley sitting across from me. Her smile falls and she momentarily pauses before forcing herself to finish the walk.
“Hey,” I say with a grin as I look up at her. Her skin is flushed with a light sheen of sweat. Her makeup is smeared and her hair is a mess, but she’s drop-dead sexy and has my body doing things it shouldn’t be doing in a crowded bar.
“Hey,” she replies, sliding next to me in the booth. “Wesley,” she addresses him.
“How’ve ya been, Lulu?” He gives her a smile. Now I see that the smile he gives her isn’t flirting. He knows that name gets under her skin and he enjoys doing it.
“Perfect. What are you doing here?” She leans on the table but sits back when the bartender brings a drink over to her. “Thanks,” she says quietly, looking up at the bartender as she holds the drink in her hand.
Rocking His FAKE World: A Fake Boyfriend, Opposites Attract Romance (Love You Forever Book 3) Page 4
