When I walked to the door, Nash grabbed my wrist.
He pulled my hand off the door handle and then touched my chin.
He made me look at him again.
I probably had filthy sex written across my face.
Nash grinned.
He leaned down and gently kissed me.
This wasn’t a fuck me kiss.
This was something different.
The kind of kiss that made my heart race.
He unlocked the door and left.
I stood there for a few seconds and then looked down to the trash can.
Coffee cups and a condom.
I shut my eyes.
What the fuck was this rock star doing to me?
13
NASH
Jay strummed his guitar through a clean amp, working through some choppy sounding riff that he insisted would work as the bridge to the new song. I wasn’t sold on it just yet, but this was how the band worked. The stripped down acoustic sound was great, but we needed to add in more sound. Create a song that would carry through everything. From earbuds to the person sitting in the seat furthest away from the stage.
“What the fuck does SLECK want with our story?” Reed asked.
“There’s a lot of skeletons there,” Dex said.
“Maybe Dale likes to collect bones,” I said.
“And you aren’t punching holes in the walls over it?” Sab asked. “You got a thing for his daughter or what?”
I looked at Sab. “You want to talk about having a thing with someone you’re not supposed to?”
Sab put his drumstick between his middle and ring finger making it look like he was telling me to fuck off.
“Sab's got a point,” Reed said. “What are you doing with Olivia?”
“Since when is my dick your business?” I asked.
“If it’s going to cost me seven figures,” Dex said. “Shit, at least let us get a piece of the pie.”
I stood up and looked down at Dex. “Don’t.”
“He was just joking,” Sab said.
I walked toward the door and paused for a second. Right next to the door was a glass picture of that other piece of shit band. I curled my lip. I made a fist and put it through the glass, the picture, and the wall.
When I pulled my hand back, it felt like fire.
And my hand was bleeding.
I looked back at the guys.
“There. Happy now?”
I slammed the door behind me and went into another part of the studio. I stared at the wood walls and the high track lighting. Sab’s drum kit shone brightly. The cymbals looked fucking pristine. Guitars resting against the amps with about twenty more hanging up on the walls. Then there was the corner vocal booth.
“Nash, your girl is here,” Dex’s voice sounded through the speakers.
I looked through the window to where the recording equipment was and saw Dex leaning over the soundboard, laughing.
I left the room and saw Liv standing in the hallway, gazing at all the pictures on the wall. They were of famous musicians who had recorded at this studio. Along with framed albums and songs recorded here that turned out to be massive hits.
Liv gave a head nod like some tough guy.
She made me smile.
And she always amazed me.
Which was why I kept hanging around her.
“There is no story, babe,” I said to her. “So you better be ready to spin some of that amazing fiction.”
“Your hand is bleeding, Nash,” she said.
I lifted my right hand. “Yeah. It is.”
“Why?”
“I punched a picture and a wall.”
“Why?”
“Because I felt like it.”
I walked by her down to another room where there were leather couches, a fridge, and everything else we needed to keep functioning in the studio. It was like a living room and kitchen collided. I opened the top right cabinet and found the bandages. It wasn’t the first time we were in this studio and it wasn’t the first time someone bled.
I stood there and rinsed my bloody knuckles off.
“I can help with that,” Liv said.
“I only need your help with one thing, babe,” I said.
“Is that what we’re doing then?” she asked.
I turned my head and tossed her the bandages. “Fine. Do it.”
“You don’t have to be a dick about it.”
I sat on the couch and reached for her curvy hips. “Can we pretend you’re the school nurse? And I just beat the shit out of the big bad bully?”
“Is that a fantasy for you?”
“If you saw my school nurse, you’d get it.”
“Good to know.”
“I’d fake stomachaches to go see her,” I said. “And I’d do anything to get her to touch me. Then I’d move to try and make her touch my-”
“I don’t want to hear this,” Liv said.
“I thought you were the one writing the story about us.”
“Not about you jerking off to the school nurse,” she said.
“How about me jerking off to you?”
Liv ripped open a bandage and crouched down. “Give me your hand, you idiot.”
She put the bandage around my knuckles.
I studied her face.
All her features.
Her hair. Her eyes. Her eyebrows. Her cheeks. Her lips.
Fuck.
“I don’t want to do this as much as you don’t want me to do it,” she said.
“Good. Then let’s make shit up. Piss your daddy off.”
Her eyes looked to mine. “Don’t bring him up when we’re together.”
“Issues? That’s why you’re so good at fucking, babe.”
“Nash, don’t make me kill you.”
I laughed. “You go right from sex to death, huh?”
“I never went to sex. You did.”
“You have sex burning in your eyes, babe.” I leaned forward and put my fingers under her chin. “I bet you’re wet right now. Aren’t you?”
Liv didn’t answer me.
I slid my fingers down her neck and over her shirt.
She quickly stood up and backed away. “You had six members at one time.”
“What?”
“The band. You had six members. Your first promo images of the band had six members. And the first demo-”
“Are you really playing reporter with me right now, Liv?” I asked as I stood up.
“I need something, Nash. Just let me write something so we can be done with this.”
“Be done, huh?”
“We know the ending to this, right?”
“Do we?” I asked.
“Yeah. We do. You go from the studio to the road. I go to New York. Life goes on.”
I got closer to her. I touched her hips again. “I don’t believe that for a second.”
“Why not?”
“Your eyes, babe. They’re so fucking blue… you can’t hide a thing.”
“And what am I hiding?”
I leaned down and kissed her cheek. “You’re falling for me, Liv.”
She put her hands to my chest and pushed at me. “Fuck you, Nash. I’m not falling for anything. Especially for you. Or your rock star bullshit life.”
I smiled.