Rocked in the Light (8 page)

About halfway through the shoot the film team showed up. They shot a quick bit with me explaining what I was doing, and then scampered off to the side to get footage of the shoot without getting in the way. I was too happy to even be annoyed by their presence.

But, all too soon it was time to go. We ran late and I didn’t get to finish my interview, but my mom told me Robert had called and we’d figure it out later. I didn’t have enough time to go back to the hotel, so a car took me directly to the arena so I could shower, wash my hair and scrape off some of the makeup before applying more for the show.

Hours later I was in a car again, this time heading to a party. Someone at the label decided it was a great idea to throw us yet another tour launch bash, this one right after a show. I really just wanted to go back to my room and sleep, but I couldn’t.

Becca managed to snag a seat in my car and we chatted on the way over. She told me about the party – being hosted by some big shot and apparently it would be full of famous people. She looked about as excited as I felt. But at least she wasn’t going to spend the next two hours pretending to smile for pictures and shaking hands with rich jerks who didn’t know anything about music.

But, for once, I lucked out. We only spent half an hour “working” the party and the rest we actually got to spend having fun. I was exhausted, but the combination of a couple hundred people, loud music and a stunning location gave me enough energy to enjoy myself. I danced with my band, teasing the twins about their terrible moves. After a few drinks everything became a wonderful blur for a while.

Eventually I made my way outside and found Rick and Dex sitting on the cement patio, passing a bottle of tequila back and forth. I perched on the edge of an ottoman and held out my hand for a turn.

“Darling, Julia. Where’ve you been, love?” Dex asked.

“Dancing. What are you guys doing out here?”

Rick grunted. “Being antisocial, as usual.”

“Quite the rock and roll lifestyle you lead, Rick.”

He grinned and winked at me. I was shocked to see such an open display of affection in front of Dex, but pleased.

“Nice place, this,” the bass player added, seemingly oblivious.

“Yeah.” I looked around. The sprawling home was shaped like an L, and the entire back side was floor-to-ceiling windows, so we could see everything happening inside. Behind the pool there was sloping yard that disappeared into dense trees. I knew from driving in that there was another, even bigger house next door, but from the back yard it felt like there weren’t any other buildings or people for miles. “You guys’ll be buying places like this soon, I bet.”

“Don’t count on it,” Rick said, taking a long pull on the bottle. “At this rate we’ll be broke and sharing one room apartments before we know it.”

Dex glared at him. “Cheerful, mate. Way to bring down the party.”

Rick shrugged. “It’s true. Julia doesn’t need us to blow sunshine up her ass.”

“That’s true.” I rolled my eyes and snatched the bottle from him.

“Speaking of your ass, Jules…”

“We’re not,” I told Rick. “We are not talking about my ass.”

Dex giggled and stood up. “I need a piss.”

I smiled. “Thanks for sharing.”

“Anytime.” He stumbled off and went back inside the house.

After a while I looked at Rick. “How’s he doing?”

“Okay, considering.”

“Did something else happen? I’ve been running around all day.”

“Someone on the crew left out a magazine article that said Joe is shopping a solo album.”

“That can’t be true.”

“It isn’t. I don’t think. But Dex isn’t really seeing logic in that department. The two of them are like a fighting married couple lately. Everything pisses them off. No benefit of the doubt being given, you know?”

“Yeah.” I took a drink and flicked off my shoes, dumping my bare feet in his lap. “I remember some of the grown-ups on King of Hearts went through a phase like that. Always sniping. Blowing everything out of proportion. Like, if someone blew a take, they’d usually laugh it off. But when things got tense, there’d be an argument about the same dumb thing.”

Rick rubbed my ankles and calves absently, staring at the shifting colored lights under the surface of the pool. “That’s exactly what they’re doing. So, what happened? Did they stop?”

“Eventually. I wasn’t there for everything, but I think they just hashed it out, decided to stop being babies. Whatever it was, worked. Everything went back to normal.”

“So this could pass?”

“I think so.” I hoped so. For all of our sakes.

“Good. Oh hey, speaking of that show, some chick was looking for you before. Said you worked together years ago. She looked kinda familiar. Short blonde, lots of piercings.”

“Really? Huh. I wonder who it was. I haven’t really kept in touch with anyone.”

“Go inside and find out.”

“Nah, I’ll stay out here with you.”

He rubbed his head and shrugged. “You don’t have to.”

“I want to.”

Rick squeezed my foot and removed it from his lap. “Nope. Go find your friends. I’m gonna get a new bottle and try to socialize. I’ll see you in there.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.” I stood up and put my shoes back on before heading inside, silently pleased. We’d had a real conversation. Supportive and honest, and it felt like a real accomplishment. That, and I needed something a little easier than tequila to drink if I was going to avoid passing out anytime soon.

But before I made it to a bar I found the person I was looking for. Bethany, who’d played my older sister on King of Hearts. She squealed and screamed when she saw me and wrapped me in a tight hug.

“Hey, little sister!”

I laughed and squirmed out of her embrace. “Hi. What are you doing here?”

“Are you kidding? I wouldn’t miss your party. It’s a huge deal. We’re all so proud of you.”

“We?”

“A whole bunch of people from the show are here.” She pointed to a group seated by a massive fireplace and began rattling off names. I recognized some, but not all of them.

“Oh, wow. That’s very sweet of you all. Did you catch the show tonight?”

“No.” She frowned dramatically. “Sadly, we missed it. So busy, you know how it is. Anyway, come over. Everyone wants to know what you’ve been up to. And we’ve been chatting about a reunion show. We’d love to hear your ideas.”

The smile on my face began to fade. I hadn’t seen Bethany since the last day on set. I never thought we were very close. She’d hugged me like we were real sisters. But now I saw the truth. I was a rising star again. I could help her career. All of their careers. And now we were family again.

I spotted Rick heading upstairs and realized what I needed to do. “Sure, of course,” I told my former coworker. “I need to pee, but I’ll be right back and I’d love to catch up with everyone.”

“Great!”

“Great.” I flashed a fake smile and followed Rick up the glass spiral stairs.

I’d spent most of my life around fake people. Who’d smile to your face while stabbing you in the back. Or use you up until there was nothing left and then forget you existed. But now I had experienced a real group of friends and coworkers. People who really cared, and weren’t just out to see what you could do for them, how you looked next to them. I wasn’t the little girl on television spouting bullshit platitudes. I was a grown women who had made her own dreams come true. I chose my goals and went after what I wanted. And right now, what I wanted was Rick.

I found him in a hallway, looking bored.

“You lost?”

He looked up and smiled. And man, did that do it for me. As sexy as I found broody, gruff Rick, the smile was killer.

“Not really. Just not sure where to go.”

I glanced behind me and then went over to take his hand. “In that case, follow me.”

We walked around for a while and honestly, I had no idea where I wanted to go either. Until we made it through a set of opaque glass doors and found ourselves on a small, private balcony off one of the guest bedrooms. There was a padded chaise on one end and a telescope on the other. I dragged Rick over to the chaise and we sat down.

“This is nice, right?”

“Sure, but what are we doing here?” He gestured at the telescope. “Stargazing?”

I laughed. “Shit, no.”

“Then what? If you don’t have some booze hidden out here I’m going back downstairs.”

Feeling giddy, I slid my hand over his hip and into his lap. “I’ve got something better than booze for you.”

Rick arched an eyebrow and licked his lips. “Oh yeah?”

“Yup.”

“What’s that?”

“A surprise.”

“Oh, I don’t really like surprises.”

“Trust me, you’ll like this one.”

He chuckled and pulled me closer, leaning down to kiss my neck. “I bet.”

I climbed over into Rick’s lap and laced my fingers together behind his head before planting a long, deep kiss on his lips. His tongue snaked out and parted my lips, questing into my mouth. When we came up for air I leaned back so I could look at him. “This is probably a very bad place to do this.”

“I disagree. It’s perfect.”

“How’s that?”

He grinned evilly. “Well, you’re here and I’m here. So it’s a great place.”

I laughed. “Can’t argue with that logic.”

“Good.” He ran a hand down my back and over my ass. “Damn, Julia. You get sexier every single time I see you.”

“That’s the tequila talking.”

“No it isn’t. I swear, you make me crazy. Even just watching you walk past me in a room is…fuck, I don’t even know how to describe it.”

“You watch me?”

“All the time.”

“I didn’t know that.”

He nuzzled at my neck. “Does it bother you?”

I swallowed hard, trying to control the desire that was building inside me. “No. I like it. I like that you watch me. That you want me.”

“Want? Fuck. That is the understatement of the year. Even when I kind of hate you I crave you. Need you. The way your skin smells. The way your lips taste. The way your hands feel.”

I moaned and twisted closer, wrapping my legs around his waist. That put our bodies in perfect position. The hem of my dress was up around my hips and only the thin silk of my panties covered me where passion throbbed.

“You are so beautiful,” he muttered, running a finger down inside the low neck of my dress and over my bra, his touch soft and insistent at the same time.

I arched my back into his touch, wanting more. Wanting everything.

Rick splayed his fingers, sliding over the pebbled tip of one breast. “Do you like that?”

“Yes,” I whispered. “I love it. Love how you touch me.”

“Good. What else do you like?”

“I like how you kiss me.”

“What kind of kisses?”

“Deep ones. Hard ones. The kind that leave my lips swollen and bruised after.”

“Hmm.” He leaned in and gave me a kiss just like that, sucking and nipping, tongue and teeth devouring my mouth until it left me panting as I dragged my face away.

“Yeah, like that,” I said breathlessly.

“What else?”

“Hmm.” I reached down and grabbed his hand, and then placed it on my thigh. “Why don’t we go back to touching again. There’s a lot of touching to go through.”

Rick smirked and slid his hand up and between my legs. He kissed me again and swirled his fingers over the soft fabric covering my core until I gasped and tilted my hips up. He slid my panties aside and ran a finger over the bare, tender skin underneath.

I sighed against his mouth as he found my sex and traced each line and fold gently for an eternity before sliding one thick digit inside me.

“Yes,” I murmured.

“More?”

“Please.”

He obliged me, driving deeper inside and using his thumb to tease my engorged clit. My walls contracted around his finger, hot and hungry.

I thought about watching him play on stage. How he commanded the drums with passion and strength just this side of frenzy and realized it had nothing on what he could do to my body. Pleasure washed over me and I cried out, hips rolling.

Rick groaned loudly and pulled back.

“What? Why?” I panted.

He grinned and moved quickly, turning us so I ended up seated with him kneeling in front of me.

“Oh,” was all I managed to get out before he slid my panties off and came back between my legs. His mouth descended on my sex and I let out strange mewing sound.

Rick’s hand spread me open and his breath tickled the soft curls right before his tongue swept across my core, leaving exquisite heat in its wake. The fat pad of his thumb covered my nub and he began to lap at me, slowly at first, then faster and faster, drawing shapes I couldn’t identify but suddenly loved. Bolts of pleasure shot through my whole body and I moaned, loud and long as he coaxed a climax from me like he had a map of every nerve-ending in me.

The orgasm sent me flying to the clouds and I floated there for a long moment before returning to earth and the man in front of me.

“I wonder what people would say if they saw you like this,” I said playfully. “On your knees in front of me.”

“They’d say I was the luckiest bastard in the world.”