Crushing (The Southern California Wine Country Series) (5 page)

Kyle plugged his guitar into the amp next to the microphone, “Thanks for letting us use the amps and the microphone.”

Amanda said, “We keep a few things as backup.”

Kyle strummed his guitar. It sounded muted. He checked the amp, dialed the treble up, and pushed more bass. He strummed again.

Amanda said, “That’s nice.”

Kyle gripped the strings to quiet them, “We might just finish this gig. You wouldn’t believe this thing was made from discarded lumber.”

“A trash guitar?”

“The pickup doesn’t have enough turns so I have to manually push the amplifier into distortion.”

Amanda looked at Kyle, “Strum the strings again.”

Kyle rang through three chords.

Amanda said, “That’s a great tone. I can’t believe you built that.”

“Hey, Kyle. When do you think Elliot will be here? He’s late.” Sardis tapped lightly but impatiently on several of his bucket drums. They would do for loudness.
A couple hours on the salad dressing brigade or the pickle factory
. “I’d like to get paid tonight.”

Kyle said, “It’s time to start. I hope Elliot can make it.”

“Start with
Cold Why
?”

Sardis said, “Yeah.” Then he stood, “Hey, Amanda.”

She turned around and followed her steps back to them, her eyebrows raised in question.

“Don’t forget that party tonight after the show. You can ride with us.”

“I’ll meet you two there. I still have the address.”

Kyle watched Amanda saunter back into the winery.

Sardis sat down firmly on his bucket seat, “Damn, is that a hard body. She’s mine since I invited her.”

Amanda flipped her hair around and glanced over her shoulder at them as if she heard Sardis.

Kyle dropped his sunglasses over his eyes, “I think she already decided.
Cold Why
in three … two … one …”

A light lit the side of a hill around the curve of the gravel road. The trees obscured everything except for the reflection that bounced among the treetops.

“Thanks for coming with me, Julie.”

“Sure.” Julie used the visor vanity mirror to dash on more mascara. “It’s nice Zack and Claire let you use their spare car – a real perk. Put your window down.”

“Yeah. They are great. They give me a room and I watch their kids when they work or go out on a date. I hope I can be as happy as they are someday.” Amanda pressed the button that slid the window down.

Music loud enough to drive over the sound of the car tires on the gravel came through the breeze. “The sound of adventure!” Julie smiled. She shortened her skirt and wrapped her hair up like a cross between an Anime character and an old Princess Leia. “I can smell the bonfire.”

Amanda’s thighs stuck to the seat vinyl below her denim skirt when she scooted back tighter in her seat. “I have no idea what this party is like.”

“We can use a safe word if it’s time to go.”

“Just
Time to go
is clear enough.”

“No fun in that.” Julie giggled. “But I can remember that code even if I’m drunk.”

Amanda’s phone rang. A picture of her mother appeared on the face of it as it lay in the center console.

“Are you going to answer that?”

“No. She will say something and make me mad. I’ll talk with her tomorrow or the next day.”

“Girls!” Sardis' voice met them at the edge of the people mingling around the fire and all of them in shadow, lit from behind by the huge bonfire. A pair of tubby bearded guys wearing droopy black rock-concert t-shirts dragged branches from the nearby woods like demons and threw them onto the flaring inferno. A burst of sparks shot into the sky as the new wood crushed older cinders. The breeze swirled smoke around every direction. Amanda saw the little bones twined in the beards of those two wood carriers. She whispered to Julie, “This looks like Hell. I think it’s time to go –”

“Go? You just got here.” Sardis snatched at Amanda’s wrist. “Cover charge is a body shot.”

The pair of demons materialized at Amanda’s side and grabbed her. She shrieked but they held her firm as they half carried and half dragged her into a crowd of people. They rolled her on the top of a picnic table in the center of the crowd. The wood was rough, weather worn, wet, and smelled of beer, liquor, and possibly a tendril of recent vomit. Her shoes slipped on the slick table. The crowd curled tighter around the table’s perimeter, chanting. Others flopped Julie on her back beside Amanda. Amanda could only remember the ritual sacrifices of the Aztecs or the Mayans, some history crap taught in a class a long time ago. She remembered the pewter Aztec-styled beads that Kyle wore on his wrist. Fear replaced any other emotion in her body – a moment of sudden claustrophobia made her worry maybe this
was
a real sacrifice?

Sardis stood next to her. His tattoos demon wild in how they shimmered and shifted in the firelight. He shoved a wedge of lemon between her teeth, “Bite that.” Her lips puckered around the fragrance that blurred all the other smells. Rough hands spread her legs and propped one knee up high. She felt Sardis splash tequila on her inner thigh and then toss a pinch of salt to stick in the liquid crawling down her thigh. Salt danced against her panties and her leg tickled as if brushed by cat whiskers. Sardis pushed up her top exposing her stomach to pour her belly button full of tequila. He topped a double tequila shot glass and wedged it carefully between her breasts. Tequila spilled over its rim from his partly drunk movements and whetted the sides of the shot so it slipped smoothly between her mounds of flesh. The shot pressed cold and firm. Sardis whispered to Amanda, “Don’t wiggle or you’ll spill that tequila and be wet all night. But I know how you’ll be wet soon anyway.” He grinned. Amanda hoped the sacrifice was quick. Julie stared at Amanda, held down to watch Amanda before she received the same treatment.

Amanda tipped her head and watched Sardis bend his body toward her thigh and the salt. She pinched her eyes to slits and a shudder tore through her body. The tequila on her chest splashed over the rim and the puddle of liquor on her stomach leaked in a rivulet that rolled across and down both sides above her hips. The other partier bodies pressed close, their heads craned around each other to watch the sacrificial blade plunge through her heart. The chanting roared around the table.

Then Kyle muscled through the crowd and pushed Sardis away. Sardis shoved back but Kyle’s relentless stare forced his brother to retreat. Kyle put his face near Amanda’s ear, “Do you want to do this?” Amanda’s eyes cracked open. She did not know what to think. Her back and bottom had soaked up the dregs on the table. The tequila and salt remained gritty and stung her freshly razor-shaved thighs. The shot glass squeezed tall and heavy over her heart. She took a long breath of air, now realizing how she must have been holding it since being flopped on the table. More tequila spilled from her belly and the shot wet her breasts, tickling the skin where the liquor puddled. She looked in Kyle’s eyes, beautiful and tugging at her soul. She nodded slowly.
Oh god!
She wanted to cover her face with her hands but the two demons still clamped her elbows in dangerous vices.

Kyle lifted her salted leg by gripping her ankle like she had watched him grip his guitar neck. His other fingers sent warmth and a light touch strumming up her leg. He climbed on the tabletop kneeling between her legs and kissed the skin behind her knee. Sensations shot between her knee and her pelvis with such force that a reflexive moan seeped around the lemon wedge blocking her mouth. Her eyes nearly closed but Kyle put her foot back down to the damp table, her heel this time digging into the wood. She watched Kyle strip his shirt from his back. Her eyes widened as she took in the shape of his shoulders and chest and the ripping six-pack that channeled her eyes down to the rim of his jeans. A chorus of cheers rose from the women watching the spectacle. Amanda clamped her knees together. Her razor nicks burned deeper as the salt ground in the tequila. Kyle gently split her knees with his fingers. His head dipped between them, his day of facial stubble scraped along her until she felt the softness of his ears. Then she forgot all of that when Kyle’s tongue skittered along her inner thigh. The tequila and salt pushed and lapped up with his tongue. As his lips closed in on the base of her thigh, she sucked in a quick breath. The puddle in her belly splashed over her sides. Reflexes took control of her legs and they spread on their own. At the last moment, his lips left her skin and skipped through the air, splashing down in the remaining tequila drops in her belly button. He licked the spot dry before she could giggle. He moved forward, his intense eyes locked with hers as his body stalked up hers like a panther, rippling muscle and subdued strength poised to launch into violence at any moment.
Oh god!
His head dipped down to the shot that he picked up with his teeth and kicked back. He tossed the empty glass aside and lunged for her lips.

Amanda could only taste the salty mix of tequila and the abused lemon crushed between their lips. His tongue found her tongue and she wrapped along his, squeezing out the lemon between them where it slapped down against the warm, wet wood.

The demons released her arms. She raised them up and twined them around Kyle, drawing him closer. His hands moved around to support her neck and his other hand lifted her from the small of her back while her hip cradled against his forearm. She forgot the whole mass of spectators as he swung her up and away from the table and the people.

Kyle broke from her kiss, “I thought I better rescue you. And then I couldn’t stop.”

She pushed her breasts against him, “I … I don’t want you to stop.” Her hands touched along the chorded muscles of his back. She saw he had a tribal tattoo that marked one shoulder and along his ribs.

“I should check on your friend.”

Amanda demanded, “Rescue her but … don’t
Rescue
her
.”

Kyle looked in Amanda’s eyes, “Not to worry. You had my attention when we first met at my sound check.”

The black shirted demons pushed another limb into the flames. Sparks popped out of the fire and burned like red eyes in the dirt at Amanda’s feet. She moved further from the flames and watched Kyle stride toward the crowd of people cheering on what must be happening to Julie. When the crowd parted to let Kyle through, Amanda saw a dark haired young woman licking Julie’s thigh and attacking the puddle on Julie’s stomach. The crowd filled in behind Kyle and Amanda saw no more until Kyle returned with Julie slung over his shoulder. He set her down on her feet next to Amanda. “Be careful of Haley.”

Julie said, “Thanks. That was uncomfortable. I’ve never kissed a girl before and not sure I wanted to.” Julie ineffectively brushed off the tequila that spilled across her shirt that clung tight to the contours of her bra.

Kyle said, “Haley likes guys, but even more she likes fucking with people. I think she suggested Sardis frighten you with the shots. You were easy targets.”

“Pinned down and all.”

Amanda’s eyes looked at Kyle’s shirtless body and said, “I could use a drink.”

“This way, ladies,” Sardis said, appearing around a corner of the flames. He was shirtless too but so many tattoos covered him that it looked like he wore a perpetual shirt already pledged to the dark underworld.

Kyle said, “Sardis, leave these two alone.” He turned to Amanda. “The drinks are in the house. Do you want me to escort you? Do you want to get them on your own? Do you want to wait here with my brother while I go get them?” Kyle bent his stare at Sardis.

Sardis put his hands up, “I’ll behave if they stay, honest.”

Julie said, “You two don’t seem like brothers.”

Sardis said, “We are, but different fathers. Also, different tattoo parlors. You’ve met Haley. She did all this,” his hands swept down from shoulder to below his waist hidden behind his jeans. “She’s bat-shit crazy but a talented witch with a tattoo gun.”

“Julie and I can get our own drinks.” Amanda did not like the idea of waiting with Sardis and she did not want Kyle escorting them and increasing the tension. She wanted to avoid whatever was going on between the two brothers, “Come on, Julie.”

Julie asked as they approached the house, “Why didn’t you have Kyle escort us? He more than obviously likes you. And I see you like him, too.” Julie looked over her shoulder and saw Kyle watched them to make sure they got to the house unimpeded.

“I didn’t want to add fuel to whatever is going on between those two.”

“I see what’s going on.” Julie nudged Amanda. “And you do too. Don’t be coy about it. They both want you and you only want Kyle.” They walked across the porch and entered the open door.

Amanda said, “I thought I’d be polite …”

The front of the cabin’s roof line and the small porch made the house appear average, but the interior opened up and went back deep in a never ending great room. A wall of glass on the far side exposed a massive stone patio that reached into the hillside. The hillside was filled with a lighted circular hot tub wrapped by the inside curve of a large kidney shaped pool lit by lights that made it glow the color of a Caribbean shoreline.

Julie’s breath halted, “This isn’t a polite party.”

Topless girls ranged around the room, making out with shirtless boys or dancing on the wood floor where living room furniture might go. They held drinks high over their heads with enough drunkenness that their beer slopped over their cups and splashed down their hair, arms, and chests.

Amanda remembered parties like this when she was younger, when her mother entertained new boyfriends and told her to stay in her room. Amanda was immediately thankful they never had a pool.

Young men wearing wet swim trunks that stuck damply to their bodies that left no doubt about their arousal wandered between the pool and the kitchen transformed into a massive drinks bar. Half a dozen blenders in different states of misuse languished along the black granite coated in drink mixes and scattered melting ice cubes.

Rows of chairs from the dining area were pushed against the dining table flipped on its side and crushed against the wall. The dining room chairs lined the edge of the room where partiers exchanged oral sex and shrieks of drunken pleasure. Julie hooked Amanda’s arm and pulled her toward the kitchen. They found fresh cups and filled them with beer. “They got classy beer, at least.”

A barrel chested guy with bleached surfing hair that hung from his head like weeds said, “I don’t think you want all that foam. You have to commit to the tap if you want anything out of it. Give me your cup.” He hitched up his immense red trunks.

Amanda gave him her cup. He dumped it out in the sink full of dirty dishes and utensils.

“Here, hold your cup.” He gripped the little tap end in a hand that seemed to make the flimsy black plastic nozzle disappear. “Squeeze it like this. See, it fills and no foam.” He released the pressure as the last shot flicked into her cup. “Now you, put your cup here.” He filled Julie’s the same as Amanda’s. My name is Bert and I tend bar in Old Town Temecula. When you need more beer you know the secret, or look me up. He winked and walked off, his heels squeaking in his wet flip-flops.

Amanda sipped her IPA beer. Cold, clear, and good with crisp hops flavor.