Listen To Me: A Rock Star Romance (True North) (3 page)

When I was gone from her side for even an hour, she started letting her mind churn with negative thoughts. All she needed when I came back to her side was to be soothed and relaxed.
I knew when the baby was born she’d eventually become herself again, my confident, bossy woman. For now, I didn’t mind being the man she needed to hold her together and calm her mind and body.

“You’re so beautiful, Kay.” I parted her labia with my thumbs and traced my finger down her center. “Like a soft, pink butterfly.” I nuzzled the soft, golden hair beginning to grow like peach fuzz with my nose and suckled her clit. She rocked up into me and pinned my head with her hands, letting out soft whimpers of pleasure. She was about to come for me. I knew her responses and the reactions from her body now—knew when to suck harder, rub faster, thrust and circle my cock inside her. She was mine. Mine to know this well inside and out.

All it would take was a second finger.

I slid it in with the first as I kept my relentless, pulsing sucking of her clit
. The thrust and pull of my fingers had her heels digging into the mattress, grinding her pussy into my face with her head thrown back. She started to throb around my fingers and I groaned, my cock and balls ached with a raging erection. When Kay came, my entire body reacted to her, wanted to come with her. “Fuck,” she cried. “God! Yes! Yes! Fuck yes!”

Her taste and sounds, her wetness sliding down my fingers into my palm, these were what I never got enough of.

I kissed her pussy and held myself up on my elbows to look at her. Relaxed, sedate blue eyes looked back. “That’s what I like to see,” I said, kissing her inner thigh. “Bliss.”

THREE

Karen

              For as much money as our best friends, ex-rock star, Derek Bast, and my ex-boss, entertainment magazine The Scene’s founder, Bess Halprin, made, their home and production studio, True North, was modest in size even if it was oceanfront in Santa Cruz.

“I don’t understand why you had to bring so much
stuff,” Adrian said, lugging my second suitcase out of the trunk. “We’re only staying tonight.”

“I brought…other things…to show Bess.”

“What
other
things?” he asked.

I shrugged. “You know. Just things.” I strolled ahead of him up the driveway to the sidewalk. The last thing I wanted him to know was how I’d stuffed the second suitcase with all of the onesies, bibs, and
baby t-shirts he’d had made. Like the teeny white shirt with pink sparkly letters that said, ADRIAN’S BABE on the front, and the ruffled diaper cover that said, GROUPIE POOPIE on the butt. The man was out of control in the same way people who bought little dogs and dressed them up in sweaters were. Still, it made me grin like a lunatic every time he opened a package with one inside and came rushing over to show me.

“Jesus,” Adrian said, panting behind me at the front door. “I need less time in the studio and more time in the gym lifting weights if this is how you plan on packing from now on.”

I patted his cheek and gave him a peck on the lips. “Wait until we add all the baby’s stuff—diaper bag, Pack ‘N Play, bouncy seat, bottles, diapers--”

“Why did I buy you an SUV? We’re going to need a cargo van.”

The door swung open and Bess squeal-screamed, jumping up and down with her arms around my neck. “Look at you! Look at you! Look at you!” she said, over and over, her eyes huge behind her glasses. A giant black and white dog—or pony maybe—darted out between us, knocking both of us back a step.

“You’re all baby in there!”
she said, her hands hitting my stomach the same time Derek yelled, “Goliath! Get back here!” Lately, my stomach had its own magnetic force that attracted hands of women who knew me and even ones who didn’t. “Oh my God, she kicked!” Bess said, grabbing Derek’s hand as he came up beside her and placing it on my giant belly.

“It does that,” I said, trying not to feel too awkward with Derek’s palm pressed against my gut.

“Hey, let’s move this inside before I strain something,” Adrian said, sweating and holding his suitcase under one arm and wheeling my two with my laptop bag swung over his other arm.

“
Give me that before you hurt yourself,” Derek said, taking Adrian’s suitcase out from under his arm and relieving him from one of my pull-alongs. The dog, Goliath, galloped back through the door, whapping his tail against Adrian.

Bess grabbed my arm and pulled me in behind the guys
and the dog. “I can’t believe you’re so big already! Last time I saw you, you were barely showing!”

“Gee, thanks.” I shot her a dirty look. “That was four  months ago, so you know, the thing does grow.”

“She gets a little testy when you mention the size of
the bell-eh
y,” Adrian said, rubbing the bell-ehy and kissing my cheek.

“Enough with touching it,” I said, turning away.

“You never were a touchy-feely person,” Bess said, grinning. “Come on, I want to show you what I’ve done for the shower.”

She and I walked to the patio doors and out across the cedar deck planks to a walkway that led to a gazebo. Not just a regular gazebo, more like a small house shaped like a gazebo with
three levels, fully furnished, running water and electric, the works. The best part—it was situated on the side of a cliff overlooking the ocean with stairs that led down to the beach.

“I hung pink and blue lanterns, see?” Bess said, pointing to the Chinese paper lanterns hanging from the exposed beams under the gazebo’s roof. “And the guests will each get a silver bracelet like this,” she held up her wrist and showed me the bracelet with a circular silver charm dangling from it. “The charms are engraved with: Thanks and Love, A & K.” Bess held up the silver charm for me to read.

“Wow, Bess. That’s…wow.” I couldn’t find words. It was over-the-top. It was too much. I wanted to run and hide.

“What?” she said, grabbing my shoulders. The sun shined down on her head, a couple inches below mine, and lit up the blue highlights in her black-brown hair. “You hate them?” she asked.

“No. They’re more than I could imagine. I’m just so, God, so blown away by everything. It’s all happening so fast. I didn’t plan it—I don’t—I…” Words failed me.

“Inside,” she said, ushering me through the gazebo doors to a round, red swivel chair where I collapsed. 

The whole main floor was decorated in pink, blue and yellow. There were ducks, bears and bunnies on napkins and stenciled on glass hurricane candles, a buffet was set up with china plates and a crystal punch service covered a round corner table. Then my eyes landed on the cake. It was a baby carriage made with elaborate fondant molding and shaping. A tiny foot popped out of the carriage, like the baby inside had lifted a little leg. “I’ve never seen anything so incredible,” I said. “Please tell me it’s chocolate.”

“Yes.”
Bess sank onto the sectional across from me and propped her feet up on the glass coffee table. “Talk.”

I didn’t talk, I
exploded. “I’m out of my freaking mind afraid! I don’t have enough time to prepare for this. I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing or how I’m supposed to do it or when or--”

“Okay, okay,” she said, holding her hands up. “I know who we need for this.”

“No!”

“I know. I don’t want to, but
she’ll know…well, everything.”

Bess yanked her cell phone from the pocket of her flowing skirt that looked like it had been s
ewn together from Goodwill rags—she’d call it reclaimed materials—and dialed. “Karen’s here and freaking out and needs mom advice.” She nodded. “Oh okay.” She hung up and set her phone on the table. “She’s at Lindsay’s field hockey game.”

I le
aned back and closed my eyes. “Nothing like dodging a bullet,” I said.

“Emmy knows all. At least about being a mom
.”

Emmy was Bess’s older sister, m
other of three girls and even more bossy and bitchy than me if that was possible—without the pregnancy hormones.

Bess hopped up and padded across the floor, barefoot, into the kitchen area. “Want something to drink?”

“Vodka and cranberry. Thanks.”

“Virgin cranberry cocktail coming up,” she said, pouring the juice into a glass. “How’s Adrian? Not freaking out, I’m guessing.”

“He’s an unholy robot,” I said, taking the glass she held out to me.

She laughed and smacked my arm. “He is not.”

When Derek and Adrian joined forces to make a record, they used the name Unholy Union. Derek and Bess didn’t know Adrian very well and his inability to let anything bother him. It came off as lack of emotion, so their inside joke was to call him an unholy robot.

“He’s happy. Like out of his mind happy and that freaks me out too.”

“It freaks you out that he’s happy?” Bess’s eyebrow cocked up above the rim of her glasses.

“I can’t do this!” I said, shifting—unsuccessfully—to get out of the chair. “I can’t live up to his expectations!”

“What expectations?” She sat back down and kicked her legs up underneath her, like it was nothing to be able to do that when you’re not as big as a barn.

“I don’t know. That’s the thing. He’s got this vision of how things will be in his head, but I don’t know what it looks like! He just tells me it’s going to be so great. It’s going to be perfect, while the whole time I’m wondering where the hell we’re going to set up a crib.”

She gave me her cock-eyed look again. “Aren’t you guys moving? Derek said Adrian was going to buy a bigger place.”

I couldn’t help but to look around me because I was certain I’d been zapped into a parallel universe. “What?” I said. “I know nothing about this. When did he say that?”

“Just the other day. He said Adrian asked him where he thought the best neighborhoods were for kids. Like Derek has any clue about that.” She laughed. “He said you guys were moving as soon as he found a place. Then he started talking about learning how to build a bunk bed that looks like a princess castle or something.”

Bess looked as confused as I felt, but she was smiling and her confusion was over me not having a clue what she was talking about, whereas mine was—well, over me not having a clue what she was talking about! “What? Princess bunk bed?”

“Guess he wants that to be his first stay-at-home-dad project.”

I blinked. Rapidly. “Stay-at-home-dad?”

Bess exhaled fast and smacked her palms on her knees. “Why do I have the feeling I keep letting cats out of bags here?”

“Because you are?” I shook my head.

“He told Derek he’s ready to stop recording and stay with the baby while you work. He said you love your work and he would rather be home with the chicklet.” She put her hand over her mouth, silently laughing. “I love how he calls her chicklet.”

“We don’t even know it’s a girl,” I said.
When he said chicklet it melted my heart, but I was hell-bent on being pissed at him at the moment. “He hasn’t said
any
of this to me, Bess.”

Her shoulders rose to her ears. “Maybe he wanted it to be a surprise?”

“He knows I’m in the midst of mini breakdowns every day! Why wouldn’t he tell me?!”

“I don’t know,” she said, tilting her head and giving me a sheepish, apologetic look. “You’ll have to ask him.”

Adrian

             
“I’m tellin’ you, man, life is good.” I tipped back my beer bottle and let the icy bubbles burn down the back of my throat while I patted Goliath who sat on the floor beside my chair.

“Every man should have your abilities,” Derek said, smirking. “You’re like a woman whisperer. They blow a fuse and you calm them down.”

“Yeah, I—shit.” Through the patio door, I could see Kay storming toward the house. Derek turned from his seat on the leather sofa to look out the door.

“Better get your whisper on,” he said, s
tanding and darting out of the room. “Goliath, come.” The dog trotted after him.

Kay blew
through the door and headed straight for me. “What’s wrong?” I said.

“What’s wrong?” She threw her hands in the air and they landed on her hips. “When were you going to tell me about all of your grand plans? You told Derek! Why not me? I’m the one having this baby in case you forgot!”

“How could I forget?” I asked.

“Right! Because I’m a big fucking blimp!”

“Oh my God. That’s not what I meant.” I stood up and reached for her, but she stepped away.

“You’re not going to make me shut up and calm down with
sex!”

Derek snorted a laugh out in the kitchen.

“I wasn’t going to.” I reached for her again and caught her hand. “Talk to me. What’s wrong?”

“Talk to you?
Talk to you!?”
Her eyes were on the verge of blowing a couple blood vessels. “Look who’s talking! Or not talking!” She stomped her foot.
“Ugh!”

“Kay, I know you’re pissed about something, but if you want to talk about it, we should do it soon before your shower guests start arriving.”

Her nostrils flared and she stared daggers at me. It took twenty-two years to learn, but I now knew that the most frightening sight on the planet was a pregnant woman who wanted to tear your nads off.

“I’m not the one with the talking to do,” she said between gritted teeth.

The doorbell rang. Kay’s face didn’t budge. Her eyes still projected fury and her jaw still clenched and twitched with rage.

“Bess! Someone’s here
! I’ll get it!” Derek yelled on his way into the foyer. Bess, who had been loitering right outside the patio door, tried to sneak through the great room without being noticed.

“Hello! Welcome,” Derek said. Then I heard my mom’s voice. And my sister. And my other sister. This was when I realized I hadn’t mentioned to Kay that they were coming and she’d be meeting them for the first time.

“I’m Adrian’s mom, Grace” my mom said, “and these are his sisters Lynn and Kendall.”

Karen’s eyes grew even wider and a look of utter horror overtook her face. “Your mom and sisters? How could you do this? Not even tell me they were coming?” Her chest shuddered and tears rolled.

“I didn’t think it was a—Kay, I didn’t think. I’m sorry. I guess because I don’t get bothered by meeting people, so I didn’t even consider that it would be a big deal to you.”

“I’m the old lady you knocked up and you didn’t think it was a big deal to meet your mom!?” She ran for the stairs.

“Kay, you’re not an old lady,” I called after her and heard one of the doors upstairs slam shut.

I turned to find my mom and sisters staring after her, mouths open. Derek’s hand came d
own on my shoulder. “Nice one, Boy Band. Nice one.”