Backstage Pass: Last Call (The Backstage Pass Rock Star Romance Book 6) (3 page)

While I wait
ed, I ran upstairs and grabbed my plans to make the changes on paper, then hurried back down just as the truck was arriving. On one hand, it would be so nice and simple to be rearranging furniture like Kerri was, and doing it together with Axel, while I was doing it alone. But on the other hand, this was one way—and for me, maybe the only way—I could do it and not completely fuck it up, that I could really show Jesse how much I loved him, how much I wanted us to be together, for all the days.

It had only been a few days, and I was already missing Sasha. Scout was about to fucking get on my last nerve and if he said one more mother fucking word about my next trip home, or when I’m leaving again, I swear I was going to punch him in the mouth and I didn’t care if we were on stage, or at an event, or if he was in the middle of fucking a groupie. I kept trying to remind myself that we only had a few more stops and then I could head home and straight into Sasha’s arms. She was so busy with the house and that made me so happy. I wanted her to be happy, that was seriously my only goal. Even if she never said yes to getting hitched, I just wanted to be with her.

Today we had another radio interview and I’d already warned Scout about being a
nutfuck. So help me, if he did one single thing that stepped him out of line, I was going to fire his ass. We didn’t need him.

Tate pushed through my hotel room door. We had a three day layover in Chicago and Ainsley had booked every single hour she could. When we hadn’t been singing, we’d been on every single morning show, a couple of judges for a local talent show, and magazines had kept us on a revolving
door of interviews. I was sure that he was here to tell me it was time to go.

But I didn’t get out of my chair. “Hey man.”

He took the leather seat across from me and spread his arms wide across the back. “What’s up?”

I shook my head. “Just taking a breather.”

“How’s Sasha?”

I
couldn’t help the beaming smile of pride. “Great. She moved into the house.”

He
leaned over and held up his palm for a high five. “Congrats.”

I hit his palm. I hadn’t told either of them that I’d bought the engagement ring, and now
I was glad because then I wouldn’t have to tell him she’d said no.

“You guys getting hitched anytime soon?”

I shrugged. “Probably eventually. I don’t want to rush her.” It wasn’t a total lie, but I wasn’t sure how else to describe it.

“That’s cool.”

There was an edge to his voice that made me think he was here for a reason. “Everything okay?”

“I’m worried about you and Scout.”

I clenched my jaw. That had better not be why he was asking about Sasha. If he was going to be like Scout about my relationship with her, we were going to have an issue. “Fuck. Yeah. Sorry, man. I’m trying to get it under control, but I really don’t know what else to say to him. I’m obviously not giving up Sasha.”

He
sat up and leaned forward. “No, man!” He stretched out a hand. “I think she’s awesome, and not just for what she’s done for our music. She’s good for you, too. I just wondered if you’ve given any thought to maybe talking to him about having him go.”

I
didn’t look away. Was he serious about this? I’d obviously be more than happy to fire him. “Have you?”

He leaned
his elbows on his knees. “I don’t want to, but he’s such a fucking drama queen all the time.”

I grunted. That’s no shit. “Kind of bad timing.”

“Yeah, but is there ever a good time?”

“No.” I ra
n a hand through my hair. “Not with the way Ainsley keeps us booked out. As long as we’re selling, we’re not going to get a break.”

He took a breath and sighed.
“Then you need to do it.”

I laughed. “Fuck you.
We
need to do it.”

He smiled. “Damn. Was hoping you weren’t going to notice that.”

“Nice try.” I stood. “What else do we have going on today?”

He shook his head.
“Nothing, we actually have a day off.”

“All day?” Fuck. I should have planned that better.
I could have flown home to see Sasha and then come back tonight. I shook it off. Maybe this was better. I certainly couldn’t take anymore of Scout’s bullshit. “Any idea where he is?”

Tate laughed. “Seriously?”

I groaned. “Yeah, sorry, should have known better to ask. Is he even up yet?”

“Do you care?”

I walked toward the door and yanked it open. “Nope.”

We marched down the hallway and a flood of giggles rolled from beneath Scout’s door. I knocked. “Scout! Open up.”

Mumbled voices and more giggling.

Tate knocked. “Hey Scout, we need to talk.”

A blonde opened the door, a towel held over her huge plastic boobs. “Scout says you have to come back in an hour.”

Fuck that. I pushed the door open and glared at the girl. “Get dressed and get out. Scout has a meeting.”

She pouted, pulling her lips together in a sexy look that probably allowed her to get her way way more often than not. I didn’t care. Tate ushered the girl into the bedroom and said something in a low voice to Scout.

“Fuck him,” Scout said.

“It’s not just Jesse. I’m here to talk to you too.”

Tate shrugged and returned to the living room of the suite.
“He says he’ll be out in a bit.”

I shook my head and paced the room. Beer and vodka bottles littered every available surface. There was coke dust on the table and random lingerie scattered around the room. Scout was the cliché
rock star if ever there was one. No wonder Sasha worried about me being on the road.

But I wasn’t like Scout. I’d dabbled in the life a bit, but only because he’d been the one pushing it, and the one
making sure I always had a drink in my hand or pills in front of me.

The girl hurried out and I felt bad for making her leave, but she was just another groupie. There were hundreds of them Scout had bedded since we’d started this gravy train. She was nothing special to him, and she’d be better off out of his sight.

Scout took his sweet fucking time coming out, and when he did, it was in a pair of boxers hanging low over his hips, a smoke in his mouth and the wildest bed head I’d seen on him in a while. His eyes were bloodshot and he hadn’t shaved in days. He looked like ass but I wasn’t sure that pointing it out would set our conversation down the right path.

Tate glanced at me and I nodded. “You start.”

He narrowed his eyes but knew that we stood a better chance of having an adult conversation if he was the one bringing it up. Anything that came out of my mouth was immediately offensive to Scout and we’d rapidly devolve into a hitting, kicking, shouting match.

“It’s time for you to move on, Scout.”

“What?” He lit his cigarette. “Are you firing me?”

“‘
Fraid so.”

He laughed and it was a raw, rough sound. Then he took a drag off the cigarette. “Good luck replacing me.”

I sat down on the couch, knees on my elbows. “We’ve already found him.”

“Fuck you.”
The intensity of his gaze increased tenfold and I was glad that he wasn’t within arm’s reach. Not that I had any problem beating the shit out of Scout, I just wasn’t in the mood today.

“That’s fine. But you’re done, Scout. I’m giving you the courtesy of telling you before we give Ainsley the news. There’s no
negotiation on this. We’re done.”

“You’ll regret this.”

I shrugged. “Maybe.” Not likely. I’d rather have someone with half Scout’s talent if it meant half the drama.

He pointed a shaking finger at me. “I’m serious.”

“Fine.” I stood. “Have a nice life.”

Tate followed me out of the room and
I wasn’t sure that Scout believed us. On the way down the hall, I turned to Tate. “Call Ainsley, tell her what happened. Make sure he has enough money to get home. Pay his tab here, whatever it ends up being.”

“You sure you don
’t want to have him kicked out now?”

I shook my head. “No. When he figures out this is for real, he’s going to go on a ben
der. I want him somewhere safe.”

I fell into bed, completely exhausted for the second day. I’d only had a few mishaps with the equipment and only because I hadn’t been paying attention as well as I should have. Luckily, I had only taken out a random tree, and nothing hugely expensive or irreplaceable. Even with the machine doing most of the work, I was completely depleted at the end of every day. I snuggled down in the covers and tapped out a text to Jesse.

He didn’t respond, but
I knew he would around three or four once he could slip out of all the after concert festivities and escape to his room. Most mornings I woke up to a text from him and they were the best part of my day.

Kerri was coming over in the morning and we were going to map out the house so I could get furniture and cabinets ordered. My teeny tiny fridge was working out, even though I barely felt like I had any time to eat.
At the rate I was cracking out the renovation, I’d be done before Jesse finished up the tour.

I closed my eyes and rubbed my thumb deep into my forearm. It still hurt like a mother and
I was probably way overdoing it but it felt good to be so active. And especially considering who all this was for. There was something special about getting to design the yard for my very own place. I still had a long long way to go, but this was definitely a labor of love.

My phone chirped
:
hey baby.

I grinned and texted Jesse back
.
How was tonight’s concert?

My phone rang and I answered.

“I wanted to hear your voice. I’m glad you’re still awake.”

I smiled and rolled onto my back, the phone cradled against my ear.
“Mmm, not by much.”

“Busy day?”

I didn’t want to tell him everything I’d done so it could be a surprise when he got here. He probably figured I was supposed to be taking it easy, and who in their right mind orders a backhoe to be delivered on the first day? “Just some weeding. Kerri’s helping me figure out the inside tomorrow.”

“Well, be careful. I can always hire more guys if you need.”

“I know. But I want to do a lot of it myself.”

He chuckled. “I thought you might. How’s Kerri?”

I filled him in on what was going on between Kerri and Axel and the conversation flowed like we’d never missed any time together. I felt like he was next to me in the bed. “I wish you were here.”

“
Me too, baby. Me too.” Muffled noises came from the other end and I tried to picture what he was doing, then he flipped me on to speakerphone.

I laughed. “What is going on over there?”

He yawned. “Just crawling into bed.”

“
Mmm. Me too.”

“It’s been a while since we’ve had phone sex, what are you wearing?”

I laughed, completely caught off guard, then lowered my voice. “Depends, can I be your biggest groupie?”

“Baby,
you’re my only groupie.”

I smiled and felt my hands start to wander across my body, crisscrossing his favorite spots to explore. “I bought some new black lace panties.” It was a lie, but I didn’t think telling him that I had my blue striped cotton pair on would have the desired effect.

“Black lace, hmm? You turning over a new leaf while your guy’s away?”

“No.” I laughed, he knew me too well. “But I wanted to be sexy.”

His voice dropped. “Sasha, I just want you to be you, baby. Don’t try to be something you think I want you to be. That’s what I’ve always loved about you. You’ve never cared what I thought, and from the second I met you it was painfully obvious that if I didn’t like who you were, I could take a hike.”

Tears welled in my eyes. Was that bad that I was such an unbendable
bitch? Should I ease up on being so committed to who I was and what I believed in? I didn’t want him to think that was how I felt, even if it was true. All my life I’d tried to make my own place, one that could stand without my dad’s fame, but it hadn’t occurred to me that maybe what I created instead was worse.

“I
s that really someone you want to spend the rest of your life with?”

“Y
ou know it baby. It takes a strong sexy woman to give the rest of the world the finger, and only a strong sexy woman is going to be able to handle my life. Look what we’ve already been through together. I guarantee there are going to be all kinds of rumors and struggles in our future, and there’s no way that a little girl would be able to handle it. I want you by my side for all of it, Sasha.”

A tear
slipped down my cheek.

“Just the way you are.”

“I love you.” There was nothing quite as awesome as hearing him tell me that I was perfect. Even with all my imperfections.

“I love you too
, baby. Now tell me what you’re really wearing.”

My fingertips found the edge of my panties. “My favorite pair of blue cotton boy shorts.”

“The blue striped ones?”

“Yes.”

“Will you take them off?”

I set the phone on the pillow beside me and giggled. Even though we’d done all kinds of things, this was still so foreign to me.

“I love that sound. Tell me what you’re doing.”

I gave him a running commentary as I slipped my thumbs beneath the soft fabric and pushed them over my hips, lifting my butt off the mattress to ease them lower. I
made my voice sultry and sexy in my best imitation of a phone sex operator—just because he wanted me to be myself didn’t mean I couldn’t dial it up a notch. I pointed my toes and ran them up the inside of my calf, describing in detail the way it felt to touch my own skin.

“You are beyond sexy.” His voice had dropped to a deep smoke and I wasn’t even sure if he could sing if he wanted to. The thought almost made me laugh, but I stayed in role and ran my fingers
along my thighs, squirming beneath my own touch.

“I feel so good, I wish you were here.”

“Me too baby.”

“What would you do to me?” I giggled again.

“Mmm. Sasha this is going to kill me.”

“Is that what you’d do to me?”

“No. No.”

I dropped my voice to match his. “Tell me.”

He groaned and I heard him shift on the other end of the line. I had an image of him naked in bed and lying on his back. “First I’d touch you everywhere.”

“Oh?”

“I’d run my fingers down the back of your neck, along that cord that makes you squirm.” I let my fingers follow his instruction and I did squirm, and now my thighs were slick with wanting him here so very badly.

“Then what?” I was quivering with the excitement and need for him to keep my hands moving. “I’d nibble that spot just above your collarbone while my hands traced the edge of your nipples.”

I could only do one of those, but I traced the edges, wanting to slide inward and tease my nipples until they puckered, but I didn’t. I waited for his next instruction. My back arched high off the mattress, making it wave and bounce beneath me and smacking my thighs together when I balanced myself. I moaned.

“Do you like that?”

I was breathless. “You know I do.” I swallowed and tried to focus without diving my fingers straight south to give myself some release. “What else, Jesse, what else would you do to me?” I could barely get the words out, so overcome with lust and needing to ebb the pressure.

“Then I’d pinch those tight nipples, and tug on them until you—”

I moaned.

“That’s right baby. Until you moaned. I
don’t think I’ll ever get enough of that.”

I needed more. Right now. This was sweet torture. When we were together, it was easy for his fingers to keep moving without the play by play, but like this I was slave to his
instructions and it was slowly driving me out of my mind. None of the playing we’d done to this point had been quite this exciting or excruciating. And I loved it.

“Pinch them, baby. Roll them around like it’s my tongue.”

I moaned again, dropping the phone from my ear and nudging it with my shoulder so it stayed upright on the pillow and he could still talk to me. “Now lower, baby. Move those hands lower, across your ribs, but not too low. Tell me where they are.”

I slid them slowly across my stomach, crisscrossing them along each indentation and fissure in my body. I told him where my fingers where and he licked his lips. “That’s right, across that perfect body. That’s where I’d touch you
Sasha. Then I’d take a side trip to kiss your belly button, I’d dip my tongue in and make love to it, slowly. Teasing, tasting. I’d make you squirm, Sasha.”

And I did.

“Are you squirming?”

My breath was gone. I was panting and struggling to breathe. I wanted him so bad. Wanted him here, wanted him on me, in me. I arched off the bed again and fought the urge to move my hands all over, up to my breast, in my mouth, through my hair. “Please, Jesse. Please.”

“Please what baby? Are you wet?”

“Oh my god yes. So wet.” And I was. My
thighs were slick with need and I could feel my heartbeat pulsing through my entire body, but it felt like my heart was literally between my legs because that was the only place I could feel right now.

“Spread your legs,
Sasha.”

I let my knees drop to the bed and a cool rush of air skipped across the dampness, making me moan and press my ass into the bed.
The extra rocking of the air mattress did nothing to quench my desire. It was just more friction that set me aflame and if he didn’t let me release it all soon I was going to go up in one giant explosion of need.

“How wet?”

“Do you want me to touch myself?”

“Do you want to?”

I shook my head against the pillow. No. I wanted him here, I wanted it to be his fingers inside me, stroking me to my orgasm. But for now, mine would have to do. I slipped over the top of my belly button and down the rest of my pelvis. My fingers twitched as they brushed the top of my curls, then I slid them further, stroking the top of my wet pussy.

“Tell me
Sasha, don’t quit on me now.” There was a rhythm to his words that hadn’t been there before and I wondered if he was touching himself too.

“Where’s your hand, Jesse?”

“Around my cock, baby. Wishing it was you stroking me.”

“Oh god.” My fingers slid lower. “I’m so wet for you. My fingers are sliding
across my skin and I don’t think you’ve ever made me this wet.”

He laughed. “I didn’t. Y
ou did this to yourself.”

My fingers slid inside. “True. Oh, mmm.”

His breathing sped up. “Are you inside, Sasha?”

“
Mmm, hmm.” I gasped at the feel of my insides as they clenched around my finger. It wouldn’t take me long and I was going to orgasm all over. I’d never been this aroused, even when we’d had our sexiest sex. I loved that we could push the envelope so hard like this even when we weren’t together.

“I’m
so hard, baby.”

“And what would you do with that hard cock of yours?” I couldn’t believe what was coming out of my mouth, I’d never talked dirty to him and this should have been so outside my comfort zone, but I loved every minute of it. We were beyond naughty and this was so much fun.

“I’d rub it against that wet pussy of yours.”

I gasped and stroked myself with my thumb, wishing it was the head of his cock.

“Then I’d push inside you.” He must have been stroking faster, because there was a breath between each word.

I did what he said and suddenly neither of us could talk. I felt him with every breath that came across the line, as if it were his mouth against my ear as he drove us both beyond
the physical boundaries and limitations of this world. I orgasmed and called out his name, feeling his body sliding against mine as he came with me a thousand miles away.

My body bucked and shook with each wave of pleasure as it swept me out to sea and back again. I lost track of up and down and the bed kept rocking long after I stopped.

“Baby?” His voice was low and tender. “Are you still with me?”

I rolled over on my side. “Yeah.” I smiled that completely satiated one that I always got after sex. “You’re so good at that, you don’t even have to be in the room.”

“Yeah.” His voice was still low and sexy. “Back at ya.”

“That was fun.
”

“Next time, I’m going to be in the room watching you do that.”

I smiled. “Deal.” I’d do anything if it meant having him in the same room.

Tate got Scout taken care of without me having to be involved, which left me plenty of time to write three more songs and get us ready for the seven interviews Ainsley’d booked us for next week. Since I didn’t have any engagements this week, I was so tempted to go home to Sasha, but I knew I wouldn’t get a damn thing written so I decided to tough it out.