Taut Strings: A Rock Star Romance (River Valley Rebels)

by Gabrielle Sands

  I wasn’t sure about going to this show, but Molly had become truly dictatorial in the weeks she’d been away. We spent the day hanging out in the backyard, chatting about her life at college and catching up on everything that had happened while she was away. Around six pm, we went inside for dinner, and when she made it clear that the only way we wouldn’t be going to the Barnyard was over her dead body, I could do nothing but start getting ready.

  “This is so exciting,” Molly gushed. “I can’t believe they’re able to get me into an eighteen-plus show just by putting my name on the guest list. And it’s a secret Bleeding Moonlight concert! Carly is going to die when I show her the pictures.”

  I smiled as I pulled on my knee-high boots. For once, I opted to wear a flowing black dress that reached about mid-thigh, anticipating how hot the venue would get by the end of the night. My leather jacket completed the look.

  A car honked outside our door, and I shot a questioning look at Molly, which she answered with a wink.

  “Go ahead, open the door.”

  Outside, Mason sat in his car, his grinning face peeking out the window.

  “Mason?” A laugh burst out of my lips. “You’re back here, too?”

  “Who do you think drove your sister here?” he said as he got out of the car to scoop me into a hug. To my embarrassment, I hadn’t even considered how Molly had gotten here.

  “Are you going to the show, too?” I asked once we had broken our embrace.

  “Sure am. I’m Molly’s plus one.”

  “He’s not,” she retorted, “but Abel was nice enough to give him a ticket after he made me beg for an extra one on his behalf.” Her voice had a bit of a bite, and I couldn’t help but wonder if something had happened between her and the drummer in the past few weeks.

  Mason snickered. “Close enough,” he said with a wink that made Molly roll her eyes. “All right, ladies. Hop in or we’re going to be late.”

  We piled into the car and set off for the Barnyard. I recalled the excitement I had felt driving there before Through Azure Skies’ last show and smiled at the memory. I could only hope that being there again tonight would help me make the right decision. After all, I still owed Abel my answer.

  Since our names were on the guest list, we were quickly hustled inside when we arrived. The barn was already about three-quarters full, and the crowd was buzzing with excitement. I turned my gaze to the stage where a couple of sound technicians were finishing setting up. The show would start in about ten minutes.

  A man I didn’t recognize came up to me and introduced himself as Barney, Bleeding Moonlight’s manager.

  “The guys have been telling me about you for weeks,” he informed me in a gruff voice. He sounded like he smoked at least a pack a day and took no bullshit from anyone. “I wish I’d been here for at least some of the recording sessions, but I had to babysit The Cult of Osiris on their world tour. Then Bleeding Moonlight called me up five days ago and demanded I put together this show at a moment’s notice. Not that I’m complaining. I was seriously fucking worried about them ever getting out of their funk.”

  Huh. That was interesting. What had prompted the guys to do this?

  “I’m glad they decided to perform,” I said. “Should be a hell of a show. Do you know if they’ll be playing some of the stuff we worked on?”

  He shrugged. “Ask them yourself. Come with me. They insisted I bring you backstage as soon as you arrive.”

  My pulse sped up. “Oh, okay.” Shit. I wasn’t sure I was ready to see them, but I didn’t want to cause issues just before they were due to go on.

  Molly nudged me. “Go, Ade. I’ll stick around here with Mason until you come back.”

  We pushed through the crowd toward the side of the stage and walked through the inconspicuous door labeled “Staff Only”.

  The small backstage area was busy with roadies running around with cords and equipment. Barney led me past the open area with red leather couches where less than two months ago I’d sat with Liam, Elly, and Mason, freaking out about Bleeding Moonlight being in the audience. Now they were the ones performing, and I was about to meet them once again.

  “They’re in here,” Barney said and opened a black door I hadn’t noticed during my previous time here.

  It was a small dressing room. The four men stopped their conversation and looked at me in unison as I entered. Internally, I screamed at Barney for not giving me a second to compose myself before coming face-to-face with them.

  They all looked good enough to eat, muscles and tattoos on display, their edgy appearance reminding me in an instant they were untouchable metal legends. I’d gotten used to their toned-down appearance over the past six weeks, but seeing them like this now took my breath away. Cole and Silas donned leather pants I hadn’t seen on them before and black T-shirts with different band logos. Ezra’s chiseled torso was bare—he was shirtless with just a pair of loose jeans held up by a leather belt. And Abel looked every bit the charismatic front man in a white tank top and fitted black jeans, his silky blond hair cascading past his shoulders.

  “Ade!” Cole broke the momentary silence that fell after Barney closed the door behind me.

  He crossed the small room to envelop me into a hug and ran his hands down my arms like he was trying to convince himself I was really here. I couldn’t help but return his hopeful smile, my heart fluttering at being close to him again.

  Ezra and Silas took turns pulling me into their own embraces, all of them looking at me like I was a precious prize. It hit me just how much I’d missed them over the course of the past week—their easy companionship, energy, and affection.

  Abel came up to me last and stopped a foot away, as if unsure of what to do. Up close, I noticed he’d lined his eyes with kohl, and the thin dark lines that took him from gorgeous to heartbreaking. I swallowed and closed the distance between us to give him a hug of my own. A heartbeat later, his arms snaked around my shoulders, and I could have sworn he let out a relieved breath into my curls.

  “I can’t believe you’re putting on a show,” I told them as I pulled away, forcing a smile on my face. My gaze darted across their faces. “Barney said it was a last-minute thing.”

  Ezra scratched the back of his neck, his blue eyes bright even in the dim lighting of the room. “Yeah. We thought we’d give the new songs a go.”

  “You’re playing the new stuff?” I asked. “That’s fantastic. The fans will love it.”

  Silas’s hand landed on the small of my back, as if to keep me steady.

  “Barney said you guys wanted to see me before going onstage. Do you need me to give you a pep talk?” I joked nervously.

  Cole was beaming at me as if he was barely holding something in. Ezra and Abel wore carefully guarded expressions, but their eyes glowed with intent. I swiped my clammy hands on the sides of my dress.

  “No, no pep talk,” Silas said. “We are looking for a guitarist to perform with us, though.”

  Understanding crashed over me so hard I thought my knees might give out. I was thankful for Silas’s grip on my back.

  “Wait. What?”

  “This is for you, Ade,” Abel said calmly, as if his words were making sense. “This concert is for you.”

  “You want me to play with you live?” I asked in a hoarse voice, my eyebrows squeezing together.

  “Don’t think we’ll find someone else in the next five minutes.” Abel had a sly smirk on his face.

  As if on signal, the crowd erupted in cheers, the sound loud enough to penetrate the walls of the room.

  “We’d love to stand and chat, but seems like we’ve got people waiting.” Ezra made a show of looking at his watch.

  “Fuck.” My head was spinning. I wasn’t sure I could move my legs, let alone play a concert at the moment.

  “C’mon, Ade. You’ve got this.” Cole came up to stand on my other side and tucked me under this arm. “You’re a pro.”

  Right. I was a performer, and although I definitel
y wasn’t a pro, I knew how to pull myself together and put on a show.

  Abel’s green eyes danced as he took in my expression. “Let’s get out there and do this. Then, afterward, you can let us know what you’ve decided on.”

  I let out a breath and shrugged off my jacket. “Let’s go.”

  This is insane.

  Those words played on repeat in my head as I stood just offstage. I didn’t know what songs we were playing, I hadn’t done sound check, and I sure as hell was not mentally prepared to perform in front of a full house. Someone handed me a guitar, which I was relieved to see was a Les Paul.

  Ezra clapped me on the shoulder, and I jumped in shock. He barely contained a laugh at my expression. “You’ve been playing these songs for weeks now, Ade. You’ve got nothing to be nervous about. Everything is set up just like it was at the studio.”

  “C-can I see the set list?” I stuttered. A bead of sweat was already running down my neck. He pushed a small piece of paper into my hand, and I scrambled to read the messy writing before the background music was turned off and we had to go on.

  Despite them not needing a pep talk, I sure as hell did.

  Abel squeezed past me just as the music started to fade. It was almost time. He turned and grabbed my face—were his hands trembling?

  For a moment, everything around us disappeared, and there were just him and I suspended in time and standing on a precipice. We’d either soar or tumble down in a spectacular crash.

  He seemed to be vibrating with pent-up energy. I was so consumed with my state of mind that I hadn’t considered what this show meant for him and the rest of the guys. A few weeks ago, they weren’t sure if they were ever going to play again, and now here they were, about to go onstage in front of an intimate crowd in their hometown.

  Of course, for them, intimate was bigger than any show I’d ever played.

  He slid his hand to the back of my neck and pulled me closer. “I hope this is the first show of many,” he whispered against my lips. I gasped as he collided with me, the kiss drawing breath out of my lungs and making me see stars. Our tongues danced together, his teeth finding my bottom lip, biting and pulling and sending heat right down to my core.

  When he pulled away, I was quivering.

  “And I hope that’s the beginning of a tradition,” he said, his forehead pressed against mine.

  The music stopped.

  He took a step back, turning toward the stage.

  I took a deep breath and followed.

  Looking down at the frothing, cheering crowd was surreal, but it focused my attention completely on the present moment, leaving no room for any lingering fears.

  Abel was saying something to the crowd, hyping them up even more as I plugged in my guitar with shaky hands.

  Then he looked at me.

  “We’ve spent the past month recording these songs here in River Valley, our hometown. This is the place where it all began for us, and also where it almost ended.”

  The audience hummed with surprise at that.

  “It wasn’t until we met a talented guitarist that we realized these songs deserved to be heard. I want to introduce Adeline—” He extended his hand in my direction. “Some of you may already know her, and those who don’t… Well, trust me, you won’t forget her.”

  Loud whoops and cheers rang in my ears as I finally tore my gaze from Abel, whose magnetism seemed to multiply onstage, and smiled shakily at the crowd.

  My mouth parted as I saw Liam and Elly beside Mason and Molly at the front of the stage waving at me with unbridled enthusiasm. Of course, Molly had her phone out and was probably recording the entire thing. Was that Frankie and Jimmy just off to the right? I waved at them while making a surprised face. Who the hell was working the bar tonight?

  “This one is called ‘Hoarse.’”

  And with that, the show began.

  Silas kicked off the song with a heavy riff, and I joined in a few seconds later. We sounded solid through my in-ear monitor, and with relief, I saw that everything was set up just like I was used to. My fingers danced across the fretboard, muscle memory leading the movement and the remnants of my nerves finally disappearing. The magic of being onstage was kicking in.

  Abel prowled across the intimate stage with magnetic energy, exuding power and confidence. I’d never seen him like this, and it was a stunning sight. He had complete mastery of his voice, his body, and the effect he was having on the audience.

  The same was true with the others, who all looked like amplified versions of themselves. Ezra was pounding the drums, his chest already glistening with sweat, his face twisted in concentration.

  My solo came, and I closed my eyes to focus all my attention on my instrument, feeling inspired to improvise a few parts while the guys cheered me on in the background.

  The first song ended, and when I opened my eyes, something intangible yet vitally important shifted within me. A switch had been flicked on, unleashing joy and energy through my entire being. I was exactly where I belonged.

  We shredded through the next six songs with only minor breaks in between. Abel said little after the initial introduction, preferring to douse the audience with the new material without editorialization, and they seemed to love it. A small pit had started during our second song, and it kept forming despite the security’s best efforts to break it up. Whenever I got a chance to look down at Molly, her expression radiated with pride.

  “This one is really special,” Abel said before our next song. “It’s the first song I wrote after our friend and bandmate Charlie passed away. I couldn’t have written it without Adeline, who was the co-writer. This one is for you, Charlie.”

  He nodded at me to begin, and tears pricked at the back of my eyes as I played the intro to our song. It wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for Charlie, a man I never met but who had managed to have an outsized influence on my life nevertheless.

  The track got an exuberant reception, and we kept playing until every single song we’d worked on over the past month had been heard.

  Playing onstage always drove me to a place of ecstasy, but this was the first time I’d done so surrounded by people who clearly felt the same way, and their emotions amplified my own.

  As we stood there at the end of our set, dripping with sweat and exhilaration, I felt like I’d left my body and was hovering above in space. This feeling, it had come to me the last time I was here, but this time, it was different. I wasn’t alone in this space between reality and whatever lay beyond. There were four other people here with me.

  My eyes burned with tears even as I grinned at the audience.

  Abel came up to wrap an arm around my shoulders.

  “Thank you! Thank you so much,” he shouted.

  I waved at the audience and let him walk me offstage, his body a fiery furnace pressed against my side. Stagehands blurred and walked past us, their congratulations fading into the air. Someone took my guitar off my hands.

  Suddenly, I was pressed into a small alcove at the back of the venue. It may have been a storage closet, but I was too dazed to tell.

  Abel slid his hands down my waist, grinding his hips with mine. I tore at his pants, my onstage ecstasy turning into a purely physical need to feel him between my legs. That need eliminated all thought. His kiss was a feverish dream, consuming and unreal.

  When I freed him, he was as hard as a rock, craving me as much as I craved him. He lifted my legs to wrap them around his waist, hiking up the skirt of my dress and pulling my panties aside with one hand. His eyes met mine for a moment before he entered me, filing me completely. I gasped and clawed at his shoulders, my hand slipping on his sweat.

  He began to thrust, transforming all the tension that had ebbed and flowed between us over the past five weeks into something infinitely more potent. We understood each other, I realized. The way we made art together, the way we performed… It was one and the same. We put everything on the line, discarded the shields that kept us safe, and risked it al
l in the name of creating something bigger than ourselves.

  The lines between us blurred, and when I looked into his eyes, I saw myself in him. Not the Adeline of six weeks ago, but the real me. The one who did the things she wanted, who chased after her dreams, and who fought for things that mattered to her. The Adeline I’d locked inside a basement for the past four years, and who was ready to come out.

  His lips silenced my groans as his fingers dug into the flesh of my ass, holding me in place. He felt unbelievable—perfect inside of me. I knew I wouldn’t last long, especially not when he increased the pace of his thrusts, driving toward his own release.

  “Fuck, Adeline,” he grunted.

  My world shattered, and I broke our kiss to bite the space between his neck and his shoulder, knowing I was bound to leave a mark. He came moments later, shuddering inside of me. I lifted my head to look at his face and saw his expression slacken. In his eyes, only a thin ring of green remained.

  Pulling out, he fixed my underwear back in place before leaning his forehead against mine.

  His mouth opened a few times as if to say something, but no words came out.

  I understood him completely.

  There were no words for this.

  When minutes later we stumbled into the dressing room, the rest of the band was already there.

  They were drinking beers, their wet shirts puddled on the ground, and I shuddered at the thought of what some of their fans would do to be in my place.

  Their heads turned toward Abel and I, and Silas gave us a slow once over before putting his bottle down and walking over to pull both of us into a hug. Moments later, the other guys piled on, and we held each other for a long minute like a bunch of saps.

  I was crying again when the huddle broke up, my emotions still running on high. Silas came up and brushed my hair out of my face. “You were brilliant.”

  “So were you,” I croaked. “All of you.”

  The guitarist led me to sit down on the couch as I tried to collect myself, his big palms warm on my skin. He nestled me under his arm and gave my temple a kiss.