Wesley shrugs. “I was told to see if you guys were ready for the meeting on Monday.”
“And?”
He nods. “I think you are. You been practicing a lot lately? I swear, every time I hear you, you get better and better.”
She nods as she takes a sip. “Yeah, we’ve been practicing every night we don’t have a show.”
“It shows.” He drops his hand down onto the table as he pushes himself up. “Well, guess I’ll go now that the show is over. Oh, Lu . . .” he says, pausing, “if the meeting goes well on Monday, there will be a party that evening. I don’t want to jinx anything, but see you there.” He offers up a smile before finally taking off.
She lets out a long breath and relaxes in her seat. She looks over at me. “Want to go to a party?” she asks, looking up at me with a sweet smile. “So you can keep Wesley away from me? He’s impossible to dodge on my own.”
It makes me wonder if what he told me earlier was all a bunch of lies, or if Luna’s just trying to keep me by her side. Either way, I wouldn’t miss a chance to hang out with her, so I agree.
“How are you feeling about this meeting on Monday?” I ask, watching her as I take a sip of my beer.
She stirs her drink with a small red straw. “I feel okay, but I’m still nervous. It’s nerve-wracking having all that pressure on you, you know? Like if I fuck up a chord progression or miss a line in the lyrics, I could ruin it for everyone.”
“Nah, just don’t think of it like that. You’ve brought the band this far. I have no doubt you can drive it home.”
She gives me a shy smile, but I’m not sure if she believes my words. Either way, I don’t push. She can obviously handle some stress and nervousness based on the fact that she comes out here almost every night and performs in front of these crowds.
We’re in the middle of a conversation when some guy makes his way to our table. “Luna, you’re so awesome. Can I get your autograph?”
She looks at him, amazed. “You want my autograph?” She points to her chest.
He smiles and nods. “Hell yeah! Word around the bar is that you guys are about to be signed. You’re going to be famous one day and I’m going to have your autograph. I’ll be rich.” He gives her a smile as he slides over a bar napkin and a Sharpie.
She giggles and shakes her head but signs the napkin. “You know you usually don’t get rich off an autograph unless the person dies, right?”
He shrugs. “I can wait.”
She lets out a loud, unexpected laugh and pushes the napkin away. The kid takes it and walks off, staring at the napkin all the while. “Can you believe that?” she laughs out.
I chuckle and shake my head while pinching the bridge of my nose.
When I open my eyes, there’s a new guy at the table, but this one is different from the last. The last kid was scrawny and had a face full of pimples—probably wasn’t even old enough to be in here—but this guy’s tall and fit. He’s full of confidence and I’m sure he’s about to ask for more than an autograph.
“Hey, sexy. You looked damn good up there tonight.” He gives her a cocky grin.
Her hand finds my leg under the table and she squeezes it like she’s telling me to attack.
Instead, I sit back, wanting to hear the line of shit he’s going to try to sell her.
“Uh, thanks?” she says, making it sound more like a question.
“What do you say we head backstage? I’ll show you how fast I can move my fingers across your strings.”
I laugh, but she doesn’t find it the least bit funny. She drops her head down and shakes it slightly.
“I’ve got all the fast moving-fingers she needs, bud. Why don’t you go find someone else to hit on?” Instead of waiting for his reply, I lean up, cup Luna’s cheek, and pull her in for a long show of a kiss. She doesn’t hold back. In fact, it’s like our kiss is the air she needs to breathe. She comes alive with my lips on hers. It only takes a few seconds for our kiss to turn heated, and by the time we pull away, Mr. Fast Fingers is no longer standing there. He took the hint and took off. But now I’m locked in on her, finding every move and every touch a turn-on.
Van comes to have a seat at our table and it ends whatever moment we were having. I feel a little let down that my time with her is being cut short, but in the back of my mind, I know it’s for the best. Luna is the strongest drug I’ve ever been addicted to, and it’s probably prudent that I start slowly weaning myself off her.
“Did you talk to Wesley about the afterparty on Monday?” he asks her.
She nods and says something, but I can’t pay attention, because her hand is still on my leg and it’s traveling up my thigh, getting closer and closer to my aching dick. Her hand skims across it and she lightly squeezes, making me adjust myself in the booth. Van glances at me with a confused expression, but he returns his gaze to her as she’s talking.
She’s good at the showmanship thing. She’s keeping up with the conversation and he doesn’t even notice the way her arm seems to be moving slowly up and down my dick. He sits across from us and proceeds to talk with Luna for a good 20 minutes. When he leaves, I’m ready to bend her ass over this table, but she turns to me and says, “My place?”
I’m wound so tight that it would take this bar full of people to stop me from going home with her. I chastise myself as I stand up and follow her out of the bar, my eyes on her ass the whole way.
I’m at work the next day when my phone rings. I answer it quickly as I keep my attention on the paperwork in front of me. “Daniel Smith,” I answer.
“Hey, Uncle Dan. What’s up?” my niece asks over the phone.
“Hey, Mack. I’m just working. Is something wrong?” In all my life, my niece has never called me on her own. This has to be an emergency, right?
“Nothing’s wrong. I was just calling because I have my practice with Luna here in a few minutes and I was wondering if you’d like to come check it out.”
“Oh,” I say, pulling my attention away from the papers. “Watch you practice?”
“Mom suggested that since you bought me the guitar and paid for the lessons that you might want to see your money being put to good use. But you don’t have to if you’re too busy.”
“Oh, no, I’m not too busy,” I reply, checking the time on my watch.
“Okay, great. I’ll see you at the store soon.”
“Sure. Bye, Mack.”
I drop my phone onto my desk and try focusing on my paperwork, but my mind is instantly on Luna. I wasn’t planning on seeing her today—wanting to start putting a little distance between us, but how can I say no to Mack? My niece has never called me or asked me for anything before. I can’t tell her no the first time she does. Plus, I do need to pay Luna for taking time out of her busy schedule to teach Mack. I guess the only thing I can do is go and support my niece and her dreams. Imagine the story she’ll tell when Luna gets famous. She’ll be able to tell everyone that her first guitar teacher was Luna from The Wonder Kings before they hit it big.
I force myself to focus on paperwork until I have everything finished, then push away from my desk to make the drive across town. When I get there, Luna and Mack are already in the back of the store. They both have their guitars in hand and they’re hooked up to the amps. Someone else is running the register and there are a few customers walking around. I walk closer to the back, but not all the way. I don’t want to distract them from their lesson.
I watch Luna as she works with Mack. She shows her something on the guitar and watches as Mack repeats it. She stops and corrects her when she doesn’t do it exactly right and compliments her when she does well. She’s calm and patient and an all-around good teacher. Watching the two of them together makes my stomach tighten and my heart race. Seeing Luna in her element only makes this craving take hold that much stronger. I don’t know how the hell I’m ever going to get away from her.
Luna looks up and sees me watching, then smiles and tells Mack she’ll be right back before gett
ing up and walking over to me. She crosses her arms over her chest and smiles as she comes to a stop in front of me. “Hey, what are you doing here?”
I nod toward Mack. “She invited me to crash the lesson. And I realized I hadn’t paid you for the lessons yet, so . . .” I reach into my jacket pocket and pull out a check, handing it over.
She takes it, looks down at it, and folds it in half, sliding it into her back pocket. “Thank you. She’s doing really well, huh?”
I nod as I watch her play—she’s concentrating so hard on plucking the right strings. “She has a good teacher,” I reply with a grin.
Her smile widens and she rolls her eyes as her cheeks flush. “Are you doing anything later?”
I shrug, unsure of how to answer, knowing I need to stick to my guns and stay away from her before I end up with my heart broken.
“We have band practice tonight and Wesley will be there. He needs to take some pictures of us for the label meeting. I could really use a buffer.” She bats her long, dark lashes and smiles sweetly.
I want to say no. Actually, I want to say yes, but doing that would be no different than me pulling my heart out of my chest and throwing it on the floor and asking her to stomp on it.
“Please?” she asks again in her sweet voice.
I laugh and shake my head. “How could I say no to that?”
Her smile is full-blown now. “Thank you. We’ll finish up here in a few minutes, then you and I can head over.” She goes back to Mack to finish up their hour. I take a seat on a stool at a nearby amp station, watching as the lesson continues. My mind is a total mess though. I guess I should wait until Monday to find out if the band is getting signed before I overthink myself to death. If they don’t get signed, then she won’t be leaving and there will be nothing standing in our way. A few more days can’t make that big of a difference, can it? I sit and watch as they finish up practice and Luna says goodbye to Mack as she heads out of the store. Luna walks up to me slowly. Her arms come out, circling around me. “Are you ready to be my pretend boyfriend again?”
I hug her tightly and look down at her. “I can think of no better way to spend my evening.” I lean my head down, quickly pressing my lips to hers. “I think we’re getting in some good practice. Hell, I bet everyone would say we’re actually together.”
She giggles. “Well, that isn’t a bad thing, right?”
“You don’t see me arguing. Come on, let’s get out of here.”
Five
Luna
I know I’m not supposed to let myself fall for him, but he’s perfect in every possible way. He’s a great guy who treats me well, plus he has a stable job. He doesn’t try to control me or have a fit because I’m in a band with a bunch of guys. He isn’t insecure, a drug addict, or an alcoholic. For the first time in my life, I actually picked the right guy and here we are, about to have so many miles between us. I could always give up my lifelong dream to be with him, but I won’t allow myself to ruin this for the band. We’ve worked so hard to get here and they deserve it as much as I do. I’ve been telling myself since day one to pull away, but every time I see him, I get so excited and happy that he’s around that I can’t even think of pushing him away. I know one thing for sure: I’m falling for him faster than I thought possible.
I’ll admit, when I first asked Daniel to be the buffer between Wesley and me, it was because I was still a little heartbroken over Wesley and I didn’t want him to know. Wesley and I didn’t work as a couple. He worked days where I worked most nights. He’s the jealous type and we got into plenty of fights because of it—mostly due to my rowdy male fans. And after we started dating, he suddenly didn’t like the revealing things I wore on stage. But we had a connection and really good sex. When we called it off, I was relieved but still upset. Then Daniel entered the picture and I thought hey, why not? I could have fun with Daniel while pushing myself to get over Wesley—all while making him jealous. But now, Wesley is the last thing on my mind. I’m completely caught up in Daniel, and even though I know Wesley doesn’t want to get back together, it’s my little way of keeping Daniel around as long and as much as I can.
We make it to band practice, and as I thought, Wesley is here armed with his professional camera. Daniel takes a seat off to the side while I grab my guitar and pull the strap over my head. I take my place behind the mic, then the guys and I have a brief discussion about what we’ll work on tonight. We settle on one of our new ones, “27 Hates Me.” It’s a song we wrote about a person whose life starts to unravel when they turn 27. It’s also a reference to the 27 Club and the fallen rock legends before us.
We start rocking out with Lane and me on vocals. Daniel watches us—mostly me—with interest. I don’t know why, but watching him watch me on stage is a major turn-on. He looks at me with such intensity, passion, and lust that I can barely hold myself back from pulling him outside to have a quickie in the bushes. Wesley gets busy snapping pictures of everyone in the band, lingering a bit longer on me since I’m usually up front with Lane in all of our pictures.
We finish the song and move into “Death Defy.” Daniel taps his foot and nods his head to the beat, and I can’t keep the smile off my face as I watch him. Wesley finishes with the pictures and we end up taking a break so the guys can say their goodbyes. I head over to Daniel. “What did you think of the new stuff?”
“It’s amazing. There’s no way you’re not going to get signed.” He smiles a sweet, boyish grin.
I return his smile and bump my shoulder against his. “Wesley is leaving, so you can take off if you want to or need to.”
He frowns. “Are you sure?”
I nod, even though I don’t want to. “Yeah, it’s fine. I’m sure you have other things to do.”
He stands up. “Well, I do need to hit the gym. Talk to you later?” he asks, moving in for a kiss.
I nod as I press my lips against his, letting it linger partly for show, but really because I like it so much. I wrap my arms around his neck and keep him against me. Our tongues dance together and the tingles start to take over. I nip his bottom lip and press my chest against his a bit more. He pulls away with a grin.
“I better go before I end up doing something the rest of the band won’t like very much,” he whispers low enough so only I hear.
I giggle. “What’s that?”
“Bend you over one of these amps,” he says, glancing around the setup like he’s imagining it.
“That doesn’t sound too bad. We might have to do that one night,” I offer.
He makes a deep growling sound in his chest. “Don’t tempt me.” He gives me one last quick kiss and pulls away to leave. I stand back, watching him go.
Ridge walks Wesley out and Lane goes out to smoke, but Van stays behind. He walks over to me just as I’m sitting down on the old plaid couch in his garage.
“What’s up?” I ask, pulling out my phone to check my notifications.
He sits down beside me. “You two look to be getting pretty serious.”
I laugh and snort. “What? No. We’re just messing around.”
“Doesn’t look like it. He’s been to all our shows lately and now you’re bringing him to practice?”
“What’s this about, Van?”
He lets out a long sigh and runs his hands over his face. “Look, I just don’t think right now is a good time to be starting up a relationship. We have this meeting on Monday, and if we get signed, our lives as we know them are over. We’re going to be recording an album, thrown into all sorts of things for promotion, asked to grow our social media pages, and going on tour. And I’m worried that if you start something up with this guy, it could alter your decision-making ability when it comes to the band.”
“And how do you see it altering my decision-making?” I almost feel offended. No, I am offended. Van and I started this band. Does he really think I’m going to let my feelings for some guy I just started dating come before the band?
“I mean, you could decide that
fame isn’t for you or that you want to stay here with him. We can’t do this without you, Luna. Or what happens if you decide to stay together and tour at the same time? Your head will always be back here with him instead of what we’re doing out there. And how to you expect to have a normal relationship with him when we’re on the road? What about marriage and kids? What if you end up pregnant before we’re set to go out on tour? There’s just too much at stake, Luna.”
“I can’t believe you, Van. Have I ever put myself or my wants before the band? Why do you think I would start now? This is my life and my business. I appreciate your concern, but you need to know when to butt out. Daniel and I aren’t getting serious. We’re just hanging out and having a good time. Apparently, that’s okay when the rest of the band does it, so why is it so wrong when I do it?” I spring to my feet and look down at him.
He stands so I have to look up at him. “The rest of the guys are fucking random women—a different one every night. But they’re not spending every waking minute with the same one. They get their rocks off and get it out of their system. Women aren’t made to do that. You all look for meaning and relationships in everything. Put some space between the two of you or someone will get hurt, and if it’s the band, we’re going to have some serious problems.” He turns and walks out of the garage, slamming the door behind him.
Well, I guess band practice is over.
I grab my things and head for the door, walking straight to my car with the other guys yelling at me, but I don’t turn back or answer their questions. I’m too angry and don’t want to take it out on them.
I drive straight home and try to cool off by taking a long, hot shower. I comb through my hair but leave it to air dry. I pull on a pair of black panties and a white cutoff shirt that ends just above my belly button. I pour a glass of Jack and sit on the couch, wondering how to fix this mess I’ve gotten myself into. My eyes land on Journey, and like I always used to do, I reach for her to work through the problem that’s bugging me. I need to take a journey right now to get away from all my problems and worries.
Rocking His FAKE World: A Fake Boyfriend, Opposites Attract Romance (Love You Forever Book 3) Page 5
