Not Quite Juliet: A Club Imperial Novel (Silver Soul Book 1) (17 page)

I nodded, impressed. “I would’ve been here at eight if I’d known this was going to happen.”

“No, you wouldn’t have. Gorgeous Dream was playing and they suh-huck now that they lost Illfrig to Pool Time.” Stat made a face, and I couldn’t disagree with him. “Why Illfrig went to Pool Time, I’ll never know.”

“No one will,” I agreed.

“Thank you, Statler,” Nadine said, and gave him a kiss. They really got into the kiss and a bunch of people down in the pit caught them and started whooping and hollering. Nadine tried to pull away, but Stat grabbed her and bent her backwards and gave her a solid, but not quite uncomfortably intimate, kiss.

Lisa leaned over and whispered in my ear. “Gross.”

I laughed hard. “Okay, Ropes.” She smacked my arm.

Stat placed the thoroughly kissed and slightly swooning Nadine back in her seat with the most ridiculous smile I’d ever seen plastered on her face. I elbowed her and she turned to me, doofy grin and all. “I don’t care if his name is Genghis. He is fucking hot, and I plan to wreck that man later.”

“I think that man is in trouble when you get more than one drink into your system.”

“Don’t warn him, okay?” She leaned over and looked at Lisa. “I want to learn some of your rope tricks. I want that man fastened to my bed, naked.”

I pushed her back. “You’ve been hanging out with me too long.”

“Not long enough. I don’t know the rope trick.”

“Stop!” I laughed. 

The house lights went down the next moment and the stage lights followed a minute later. There was the usual flurry on stage; I tried to see through the dark to find the hot body the inner fangirl still couldn’t believe I had slept with. No luck. I had to wait with everyone else in the audience. But I gave him a BJ, shouldn’t I get first looks? Shut up, fangirl.

The low sound of the bass drum started beating through the auditorium. This was a new song. Silver Soul didn’t have anything that started with just the drums. I wondered for an instant if this was the song they’d been talking about. Dave’s creation. A second later I realized it couldn’t be Dave’s because he would never let Animal start the song. Dave hated Van.

Of course, from what I was learning, Dave hated everyone.

The rhythm was joined a moment later by a quiet, determined bass line from Vatori that felt like a hand at the back of my neck, massaging gently. And soon after, an opposing rhythm joined him from the guitar Ript teased and coaxed from the strings. The lights came up all the way in the back to cast them all in silhouette. Dave’s amazing instrument started to introduce a simple tune of ten bars of a repeating theme. While it reminded me of “Sweet Child o’ Mine” in the repetition, the sound was completely different. Where Guns’N’Roses played their zenith composition in D major, this sounded more like it was in G major, possibly G sharp.

The lights weren’t coming up anymore. At the back, I saw a shadow rise to project a silhouette on the screen. And I could see, from the silhouette, he was shirtless.

“Shit,” Nadine said. “I am so fucking jealous of you right now.”

“I’m jealous of me.” I leaned forward; this was a new sound for them, and I was already in love with what I was hearing.

Then, Nick D’s amazing, sweet tenor, the sound that had started my love for Silver Soul, whispered through the sound system.

“
White fog hides the face I want to know,

Dodging shadows and the sun.

Couldn’t wait to see those piercing eyes

By bright candlelight alone.

When the sun rises and I find you in my arms

There’s nothing else in the day.

That will ever compare.
”

Nadine leaned forward. “Holy shit, Morgan.” I ignored her.

“
Your bright eyes, your dark hair

I can always see you standing there

Your soft skin, your bright mind

Stealing everything I have to give

I can always see you standing there.”

This time Lisa leaned up. “He’s talking about you.” I ignored her, too.

“
I want to know what life can be

When you are standing there with me

Dodging shadows, dodging sun

Hiding in the corners of my life

Until I found you there, until you found me there

You own my soul, you are my breath.”

The stage lights started to go up, along with the screen. As soon as it was partly raised, a huge roll of stage fog escaped and flooded out into the audience below. He spent the time singing the chorus again,
I can always see you standing there
, and I felt utterly faint.

Nick jumped from the top riser to the second one and then to the third as Dave went into his solo, which was, from him, lackluster, but had all the hallmarks of an amazing guitar riff. As Dave played his disinterested instrument, Nick walked to the very front of the stage.

He was a sight to behold. He wasn’t quite shirtless; instead, he was wearing a skin tight t-shirt. His blue jeans were ripped strategically at the thigh on one leg and the knee on the other. He was wearing half-laced shitkickers, and looked just absolutely edible all decked out as Nick D.

“Fuck me,” Nadine said.

I looked at her. “I licked it, it’s mine.”

He brought the mic back up and started the bridge of the song.

“
We have a life time to figure out

What this is, what it’s all about

But with you finding me in my mind,

With you hiding in the sun, not dodging shadow

What I once feared alone, I will make into your home

Your bright eyes, your dark hair

I can always see you standing there

Your soft skin, your bright mind

Stealing everything I have to give

I can always see you stand there.

Giving everything I have to give,

I can always see you standing there.
”

The crowd exploded with cheers and screams. If the girls in the front row had been wearing bras, they would’ve ripped them off and thrown them at him. But he didn’t see any of it; he looked straight up at me.

And smiled.

Good Christ on a cracker. I melted.

~*~*~

T
he rest of the concert, Nick didn’t look at me once. I didn’t really care, because he’d written me a goddamn song. I had my own fucking love song from Silver Soul. I felt like I had just won at Life. The concert ended about an hour and a half later and I was still on cloud nine.

Once most of the floor had cleared out, Nadine, Lisa and I started to make our way to the downstairs bar. I was finally starting to come down from my high, and the stairs were more difficult than I had imagined. Probably because I had way more to drink than I’d imagined.

The three of us hopped up, relatively speaking, onto the stools at the bar. Stat put beers in front of all of us and smiled. “We have one more short set with a potential band.” He leaned on the counter. “Nick D and Van want to hear it to see if it’s something we need to bring to Oliver. Then we can all go our separate ways.

Nadine leaned forward and met Stat half way for a serious kiss and Lisa and I made gagging sounds. Nadine leaned back, punched me and then Lisa in the arm. “Screw the both of you.”

We sat at the bar with Stat pouring and us continuing to imbibe. I was still floating–from the show, from the song, from the idea that Nick D was so into
me
that he’d write a song about me and played it at the show.

It was nearly 2 a.m. by the time Stat was ready to go. The bar was going to be open for another two hours, and another bartender, named Frank, took over. He and Nadine walked Lisa out of Downbound. She opted to take the car home. As soon as they were gone, I hopped off the stool and walked to the backstage door.

I smiled at the bouncer there. “Hi. I’m Morgan. I’m here for Nick D.”

The bouncer unfolded his arms from his massive chest. He looked me over like I was a leper and pulled the clipboard of the wall. He looked at me again, as though my leprous ear had fallen off, but I knew what he was really thinking: Fat chick? Really? He flipped the page back and scanned down the list. Then did it again, then flipped back to the front, and scanned that one. Then me again when the other ear fell off. Then one more time for good luck. He hung the clipboard back up.

“Nope.”

“Nick D asked me back.”

“You ain’t on the list.”

“Check again.”

“I just did, sweetheart. You ain’t on there.” I reached for the clipboard, but the giant oaf grabbed my hand. “I said you ain’t on there. That’s the end of the story. Call a cab and haul your pudgy ass out of here. Nick D ain’t got time for the likes of you.”

I stared at him. “Go back to their dressing room and ask him.”

“Ain’t got time, sweetheart. You ain’t on the list, you ain’t going back.”

I stared at him. “Nick D told me—”

“I don’t care what you think you’re trying to pull here. If you ain’t on the list, I ain’t going back there to ask.”

I was fuming mad. I turned on my heel, and marched over to the bar. I looked at Frank. “I need you to call back to the dressing room. Let Nick know I’m here.”

He looked at me, then nodded and picked up the phone. He waited with the phone on his ear as he fixed a drink for a customer. Someone answered after about five rings. “It’s Frank. I got one for Nick who says she’s invited. Yeah. No. No. Nope. Yup. You got it.” He hung up the phone. “No can do, sweetheart.”

“What?”

“I was told they were full up back there and you’re not on the list. I saw Tiny tell you that.”

“But...I...he told me to come back...” I was stuttering, panic washing over me. “He told me.”

“I’m just telling you what I heard from the back. Not on the list, not welcome back.”

“There has to be a mistake—”

“Look, I don’t have time to argue with the fangirl, here. I got drinks to pour. If you’re that sure you’re supposed to be back there, text him and have him call me. I’ll get Tiny to let you in if he does.”

I slumped in the chair and pulled out my phone.

MorganaLeFey
:
Nick, they won’t let me back. Come get me? Call Frank at the bar?

I turned around, thinking he would come through the door within a minute of getting my text.

I was still there two hours later, staring at the door, watching Tiny the Asshole Bouncer let in pretty blonde chick after skinny blonde chick, all without checking the clipboard. I checked my phone and my ‘texts sent’ count was up to 35. Frank had called two more times for me. Tiny stared at me with a self-satisfied grin.

Frank leaned over as he wiped the bar down for the last time of night. “Hey, Morgan. I’m sorry. I called a cab for you, babe. I gotta lock up now.”

I chewed on the inside of my lip, trying not to let the tears fall. I nodded and hopped off the stool. I pulled my jacket close around me and headed for the front door. Once I was outside, I walked to the corner of the building to see if his car was still there.

It wasn’t.

The taxi honked at me. I climbed in.

Dumped. Again.

And this time, with a love song.

––––––––

L
isa burst in the door at nearly four in the afternoon on Sunday, smiling from ear to ear. She dropped her purse in the usual place and waltzed into the living room. I watched her freeze when she saw me. “Holy shit.”

The tears started up again. I’d gone just about two hours without a crying jag, and then bam! Like a wall at ninety miles an hour. Lisa rushed over and landed next to me on the couch, grabbing my hand. “Oh my God, Morgan. Tell me it’s not true.”

I shook my head. “He didn’t put me on the list. He didn’t answer my texts. He never called the bar to see if I was there.” I picked up the cell phone next to me. “He never even called me this morning or answered my texts.”

Lisa had the phone in her hands, scrolling down through the texts I’d sent. There were only a few more this morning, for a total of about fifty. Not one answer. Worse, when I tried to call him at noon, the phone just kept going to voicemail. It wouldn’t even ring.

“Oh, Morgan! I never would’ve left if I knew you weren’t...”

“I never would’ve gone,” I said. “He wrote me a fucking song, and left me.”

“Shit.” Lisa put the phone back down. “This is bad. This is really bad. I don’t know what to tell you.”

“You can tell me why you just waltzed in here singing like Maria fucking VonTrapp,” I said. “Someone had a good night.”

“You don’t mind if I talk about it?”

“Gush, bitch.” I grabbed her arm, and held it out. “I can’t miss these.” She was crisscrossed with braided rope impressions.

She smiled wickedly. “You know how you keep saying it’s not about just finding someone I want to listen to, but someone who’s worth my submission? Oh migawd, Morgan. I popped into Imperial on the way home because I wanted to grab some stuff from the locker so I could wash it. I wound up at the bar downstairs and the most delicious specimen of humanity sat next to me. I am serious when I say I could see the sex rolling off him. So, so awesomely alpha. We chatted and the next thing I know, I’m completely twisted up in silk rope under my clothes and on the way to his house.”

“Lisa!”

She held up her hand. “I know, I know. But Dallas confirmed the guy was completely vetted, and stamped approved. Yes, I took a chance, but holy ever mother living shit, Morg. I get it now. He was amazing and
that
was one of the most amazing experiences ever. There was so much rope and so much sex and so many orgasms. I want to play more, I want to be bratty with him, and I want him to earn the rest of my submission.”

“Oh, my God. You
do
get it.” I hugged her despite the fact I wanted nothing to do with someone’s happiness. “It just took the right guy.”

“And wow was he
right
.” Lisa looked me up and down and sighed. “And you need some chocolate therapy, I think. Bad movie?”

“No romances.”

“Fair deal.” She stood up. “Where’s Dee?”

“She’s been at Stat’s house all weekend.” I wiped the tears off my face. “I don’t want to bother their love fest. It’s been too long since that girl actually acted like she was in love. Every other guy has been a quickie she thought might work out.”