After the Storm (17 page)

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. Can someone let Ren know? I should be back in fifteen minutes or so.”

It was lucky they were close to the restrooms. Lexi waited outside the stall, handing Kenyon wet paper towels.

“Lexi, can you go find Ren and let him know that I’m fine. I’m just going to be here a bit longer.”

“No problem. Need anything else?”

“No, I’ll be okay. I just don’t want Ren busting in here.”

“I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Lexi left the restroom and found Ren pacing back and forth right outside the door in the hallway.

“How is she? Does she need anything? God, I hate that she has to go through this. Why are we doing this? Does she want me to go in there?”

Lexi patted his shoulder and tried to hold him back from rushing in. “Ren, she’s fine. This is normal. Thousands of women go through this.” She tried not to laugh at the look he gave her. “Really, she’ll be fine, it’s just taking a little longer than normal. She didn’t want you to worry. You can just go ahead and go back to the table. We’ll be out in a little bit.”

Ren bowed his head and shook it. “Fine. But if you notice anything that isn’t right, you come get me right away.”

“You can count on it.” Lexi turned and walked back down the hallway to the restroom. Someone grabbed her arm. She was about to scream when she recognized the man that the guys from the band had been talking to.

“Sorry to scare you, Lexi. I just was wondering if we could talk for a moment, name’s George, I’m the band’s agent.” He held out his hand to her.

She shook his hand as she looked down at him. He was shorter than her in heels, slightly pudgy, with a balding head. “I’m sorry George, how do you know my name?”

He waved a hand and the diamond on his pinky ring caught the light. “Noah talks about you all the time. You know, sweetheart, these guys have been producing hits for fifteen years now. They don’t show any signs of stopping. The rest of the band has figured out a way to have a family and still record and go on tour. If for some reason Noah keeps you around, you might want to figure something else out or let him go. I wouldn’t want you to become the next Yoko Ono.” He started to run his hand up and down her arm. When she started to pull away he increased his grip on her. “I think you need to listen to me. We have an image here with the band. You are seriously fucking it up. Noah’s got his head in the clouds and it needs to be down here with the rest of us. We took a hit when the rest of the band got married, we could lose some serious sales if Noah was off of the market.”

Lexi shook her arm and he let go. “Why aren’t you having this conversation with Noah? Maybe because all you really care about is the bottom line and how much money will end up in your pocket.”

He gave a slimy laugh. “Well, you aren’t as stupid as the others. Maybe we can come to some kind of understanding.” He moved in closer to her. Lexi’s back was against the wall. “You keep your pretty little mouth shut and get out of Noah’s life and I’ll make it worth your while. Or you can fuck me and I’ll make sure the press doesn’t find out about your history.”

She shook her head. “The press will eventually find out everything. Noah and I have already talked about it, so I won’t be fucking you, asshat. I also won’t be getting out of Noah’s life. Maybe it’s you who should get out.” She tried to shove him back.

He growled deep in his throat and pressed himself up against her. “Listen here, bitch, I will take you down.”

The next thing Lexi knew, George was flung back away from her and went crashing into the opposite wall. Noah had his hand fisted in George’s shirt as he pinned him to the wall, his feet dangling. Seeing Noah so angry shouldn’t have been a turn-on, yet somehow it was. She put her hand on his arm. “Noah, he’s not worth it.” She held her ground as his eyes flashed to hers, filled with rage.

“This fucker is the one who is going to be taken down.” He pulled his fist back and connected with his jaw. Lexi watched as George’s head snapped back and blood started flowing from his nose. “You’re fired, asshole.”

Lexi could feel Noah trembling with anger. She’d never had anyone punch someone for her. It was kind of exciting. She watched as George got up and leaned heavily against the wall.

Noah turned to her. “Go get Kenyon. We’re leaving.”

Lexi turned to see that Kenyon was out of the stall and almost finished reapplying her make up. “We’re gonna get going. Are you ready?”

“Sure, what was all the noise I heard out in the hallway?”

“I’ll tell you and everyone else at the same time. Let’s go.”

~*~

As soon as they walked in the door, Noah pinned her up against the wall, kissing her. She wrapped her legs around his waist, matching him passion for passion. With one hand cupping her ass, he slid the other along the back of her leg. He stopped and pulled his mouth from hers.

“You weren’t wearing panties all evening?” When she just batted her eyes, he fumbled with his pants. “Fuck. Hang on. I’ve got to put a condom on.”

Lexi wrapped her legs tighter around him and starting biting his neck. She smiled when he groaned and increased her efforts to drive him crazy. She pulled his t-shirt up and over his head, trying not to laugh when he had to stop trying to get the condom on to pull his arms out. She licked at his tattoos, following the pattern.

She gasped when he thrust into her and dipped his head to suck on her nipples as he freed them from the dress. She tried to hold onto him but was losing herself to the sensations. It felt like the earth was shaking. Lexi couldn’t believe the old saying was true.

Noah took a step back from the wall and almost fell over. “Fuck. Hold on.” He quickly moved them to a doorway and stood there, his body shielding hers, until the Earth really did stop moving.

Lexi laid her head on his shoulder. “Was that an actual earthquake?”

“Welcome to Los Angeles.”

“I hate this town.”

Noah just chuckled and hugged her close.

As soon as Lexi opened the door to her house, the phone was ringing. She was tempted to ignore it and just have Noah put her things in her room and crash. But since there were only a few people who ever called, it might be important.

“Hello?”

“Oh, Lexi, thank God you answered. We’ve been calling for the past hour. We don’t know what we should do.” Leigh was breathless as her words rushed out.

“Slow down, what’s going on?”

“It’s Evelyne. We can’t get ahold of her. We haven’t talked to her in the past two days! Can you believe that? We’ve gone over to her house and she doesn’t answer the door or the phone. We know that you have all of our house keys. Can you meet us at her house so that we can go in and check it out?” Leigh’s voice wavered.

“Why didn’t you call the police?”

“Bastards. They think we’re making this all up. Can you believe that?” Leigh’s voice got stronger with her anger.

“I’m grabbing my keys and I’ll be there in fifteen. Are you okay to drive?”

“Marie is with me, so she’ll drive. Hurry.”

Lexi ran to the kitchen and grabbed the set of keys out of the drawer. Noah stopped her by grabbing her shaking hand. “What is it?”

Lexi took a deep breath. “The ladies haven’t heard from Evelyne in a couple of days. Before you say anything, they talk or see each other every day. They always tell each other what their plans are. Something must be wrong. I’ve got to go.” Tears pooled in her eyes.

Noah grabbed her into a quick hug. “I’ll go with you, no arguments. I’ll drive and you can tell me where to go.” He winked. “I know you love to do that.”

She took a deep breath. “We’d better take a car.”

~*~

They were quiet on the drive over to Evelyne’s, much like they’d been on plane ride home. They were both lost in thought about what had happened in Los Angeles. Lexi gripped Noah’s hand knowing they were only minutes away, praying that everything was okay.

Leigh and Marie were already there waiting on the front porch and Lexi was out of the car and running up the steps before Noah could put it in park. Her hands shook too hard to open the door. Noah came up behind her, took the keys and opened the door.

“Leigh and Marie, you check the living room and office. Noah and I will check the dining room and kitchen. We will meet back up and go upstairs together,” Lexi barked as they all dispersed.

She could hear the ladies calling for Evelyne with tears in their voices. Lexi let out a breath when she got to the kitchen. Everything seemed normal. In fact, it looked like there were recently used dishes in the sink. She whipped back around to head for the stairs and ran into Noah.

“Lexi, I know you’re scared but you need to calm down.”

“I know, I know. I’m just so worried.”

“Hurting yourself trying to help her won’t do anyone any good.” He grabbed her hand. “Come on, let’s get the ladies before they trip up the stairs.”

When they got there, Leigh and Marie were twisting their hands together in worry.

Marie started up the stairs. “Come on, hot shot. If she’s not upstairs, she might be in the cottage out back.”

“I didn’t think about that, Marie. She doesn’t have anyone renting right now. Maybe she fell cleaning out there.” Leigh turned around to head out the back door.

Noah stopped her. “We’ll go together. Let’s go upstairs, and then we can check out back.”

“Fine, toots, but move it or lose it.” Leigh smacked him on the ass when he went by.

Noah shook his head as he went upstairs. “Which one is hers?”

Lexi was right behind him and pointed to the right. “It’s the second door.”

~*~

As they got closer they could hear moaning coming from inside. Lexi and Noah stopped and looked at each other then rushed to the door. Noah got there first and tried to hold the ladies back. “Please, just let me go in first.”

Noah opened the door just enough for him to go in. He could feel the ladies behind him pushing at him to go further into the room. Noah couldn’t believe his eyes. He shut them trying to block out the image now ingrained into his brain. They all toppled in the room, creating noise and havoc that made the two people on the bed spring apart. Noah tried to avert his eyes and not laugh.

“Evelyne Abigail Sumner! Just what in the hell do you think you’re doing with the bank president?” Leigh bellowed at her.

“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m getting my assets appraised. Now unless the hot shot rock star wants to join us, why don’t you go downstairs?” Evelyne casually got up from the bed naked and grabbed her robe. The bank president grabbed the blankets, covering himself up.

“You’ve got five minutes to get down there, missy.” Marie shook her finger at Evelyne.

Noah herded them out of the room and down the stairs, shaking his head at what he’d just witnessed. He looked over at Lexi who was biting her lip, trying hard not to laugh.

She looked up at him with twinkling eyes. “I guess you got more than you bargained for.”

He shivered. “I guess I should be happy she actually wasn’t hurt. But man, you’ve got to tell her next time she wants to have sex for days she has to let someone know.”

Leigh and Marie were doing the dishes with their heads together whispering when they walked in. “Ladies, do I want to know what you are talking about?” Lexi tried to sound stern.

“Oh, we were just talking and should have seen this coming. Evelyne got all hot and bothered after she saw his magic act at the talent show. She kept going on about his hands.”

“When does she not get hot and bothered?” Noah mumbled under his breath. Lexi gave him a look and a backhand to the stomach. “What? Is it not true?” he whispered in her ear.

Evelyne breezed into the kitchen and went to get a drink out of the refrigerator. “Make it quick. I’ve got a hot man upstairs who’s only going to wait so long before he comes down here and drags me back up. On second thought, that could be fun.”

Marie threw down the dishtowel. “Damn it, Evelyne. Don’t you know how worried we were? We thought you were dead. But no, you were just bonking your brains out like some horny teenagers.”

All three women looked at Marie with their mouths open. Noah looked from face to face trying to figure out what had them so shocked.

Leigh was the first to recover. “Oh, Evelyne you are in so much trouble. Marie hasn’t used a curse word in over ten years. I’m just glad it wasn’t me this time.”

Evelyne crossed to Marie and grabbed her in a big bear hug. “Oh honey, I am so sorry. I left a message on Lexi’s answering machine. It all happened so fast, I didn’t have time to call all of you.”

Leigh crossed over to them and joined in the hug. “Well, shitcrickets. If you were thinking with your brain instead of your hooha, you would’ve remembered Lexi was out of town.”

Evelyne gasped and pulled away with a shocked look on her face. “No. No, no, no. I am so sorry.” She backed away and started to wring her hands. “What was I thinking? I knew she was going away.” She crossed to Lexi and put her hands on her face. “I’m sorry for putting you through this, honey. I know. Let’s have a girl’s night. I’ll get rid of moneybags upstairs and we’ll stay up late eating chocolate, doing shots and watching action flicks.”

Noah shook his head. “You ladies don’t seem like the action movie type.”

Leigh laughed. “Oh honey, that’s where the ratio of hot guys is the highest. Marie and I will go out and get everything we need. Evelyne you get cleaned up. Alone.” She pointed her finger at her. “Oh, and Lexi will you be joining us?”

Lexi looked over at Noah she grinned when he nodded to her. “I’d love to. I’ll bring the wine.”

Marie wagged her finger at her. “Make sure you bring enough. We don’t want to run out. We’ve got to pace ourselves if we’re going to make it past two.”

Noah nodded. “Sounds like a good plan. So is there going to be a pillow fight?” He grinned and waggled his eyebrows. The ladies laughed and told him that if he wanted to join he could, but he’d have to wear lingerie.