Plat, page 4
I didn’t know what her game was, but if she was into casual sex with strangers, it had been one of the hottest hook-ups of my life. I’d had more than my share on the road, so it took a lot to blow my mind, and she’d managed to do it. Which left me wondering if I’d been home too long and was just bored.
I’d been dying to get back on tour, but the band wasn’t ready, and it wasn’t like I needed the money. I had more than I’d ever spend, and Bash and I still got massive royalties from Pretty Harts. It wasn’t like that for Lexi, Stu, and Ford, though. They’d all had different levels of success, but Lexi had been forced to buy out the touring part of her contract when she’d left Special Kay, Stu had lost almost everything when he’d been in prison, and while Ford was talented, he was kind of a one-hit-wonder, writing and playing on a song for a country-rock singer who’d died in a helicopter crash. The song had taken off after his death, and Ford had reaped those rewards, but it wasn’t the kind of thing that could support him forever.
So there was a lot of money on the table for them, and it didn’t feel right pulling the plug just because Bash and I could afford it. We had something special, both personally and musically, and as the unofficial leader, I felt the need to protect them. Whether they needed it or not.
On the other hand, the pull to do this project with Ariel was strong. It had been years since a woman had impacted me this way, and I had no idea what the fuck was wrong with me. It had been a few sexy gazes, some physical chemistry that shouldn’t have meant anything beyond that I thought she was hot and vice versa. That happened all the time. But not to this degree.
I could have pretty much any woman I wanted, so Ariel Fox shouldn’t have been anything special. Women threw themselves at me daily whenever I played live, and I had “girlfriends” in dozens of cities all over the world, but none of them had ever made my entire body come alive the way it had when Ariel Fox walked in the room. When she’d touched me. Kissed me. God, when she’d let me fuck her. I’d given her my whole body, not just my cock.
And I really needed to know why.
6
Ariel
Lexi was already there when I got to Casey’s house, and it was so much fun to see Casey in a casual setting, meet her family—including an adorable three-month-old—and hang out for a few hours. I didn’t have girlfriends since my father thought they would be a bad influence, but he hadn’t been able to stop Lexi and me from becoming friends. We’d been on tour together for over six months, giving us ample time to get to know each other. We hadn’t talked much since the tour ended, but she understood my father’s role in my life better than most people, so I’d felt sure she wouldn’t hold it against me.
Based on how much fun we were having tonight, she hadn’t.
“So, Tyler has a crush on Ariel,” Lexi giggled after we’d burned through the first bottle of wine.
Casey lifted her eyebrows. “And does Ariel have a crush on Tyler?”
“They already did the nasty,” Lexi said, wiggling her eyebrows.
“Really?” Casey looked even more delighted than Lexi, and I had no idea why.
“You guys, it was temporary insanity.”
“There is nothing insane about good sex,” Lexi said solemnly.
“It was good, right?” Casey asked, her eyes widening. “Because if I have to have a talk with that boy about selfishness…”
“Oh, gosh, no, it was amazing.” I blew out a breath. “I don’t know what the hell is going on, but every time we look at each other, it’s like lightning strikes. When he touched me, I lost my freakin’ mind.”
“I’m familiar with that feeling,” Casey said, a dreamy look on her face. “Even now, all these kids and years later, my husband does that to me.”
“It doesn’t fade?” I asked softly.
“I mean, it’s not all day every day like it used to be, but the spark? The passion? Never. Every time he looks at me with those green eyes of his, everything inside of me falls in love with him all over again.”
“I’ve never been in love,” I admitted softly. “I mean, teenage crushes, but not anything serious, as an adult.”
“Well, all experiences are different,” Casey said thoughtfully. “Erik and I were friends for years, but he was always gone, off to fancy schools in England and all that. Then we ran into each other one day and it was all over. We spent one night drinking and dancing, then we fell into bed together and the rest is history.”
“Zaan is the only person I’ve ever been in love with as an adult,” Lexi said. “But I’ve dated, and I can tell you there’s magic when it’s that special person.”
“So when you and Bash dated, there was no magic?” I asked thoughtfully.
“Not that kind of magic,” she said, shaking her head. “The sex was excellent, like really good—there’s no doubt about that—and we were friends, too, but the magic I feel with Zaan? Totally different thing.”
“So all the sparks and electricity and all that don’t happen when it’s just sex?”
Casey and Lexi glanced at each other, and then Casey shrugged. “I can’t say a definitive no, but I’ll go so far as to say not usually. There are sparks with physical attraction, but the connection is different.”
“I feel like I should know this stuff at my age,” I grumbled, frowning. “But I think things change a lot between sixteen and twenty-five.”
“Your father hasn’t really let you experience any of that,” Lexi said softly. “And now that you’re here with us, we’re happy to guide you.”
“So you’ll help me navigate all these weird feelings and sexual attraction and other insanity?”
They chuckled. “We’ll try,” Casey said.
“You can’t know any of that until you spend time with him,” Lexi added, “But you’ll need to think about the attraction you’re feeling.”
“I barely know him,” I said, laughing. “But I will admit to being incredibly attracted to his abs.”
“Thank you so much.” Casey’s husband Erik came in, grinning, and we all laughed. “See, honey? Women do love my abs.”
Though he was a king, he’d told me to call him Erik because he didn’t like to stand on ceremony at home, and that made me feel comfortable, too. I’d never met royalty before, and I’d been a little worried about staying here, but from my perspective, Casey hadn’t changed, and Lexi seemed at ease, so I was trying to be as well.
“It’s not polite to eavesdrop,” Casey told her husband, tilting up her face for a kiss. He kissed her soundly, grinning down at her, before continuing past us and into another room.
“I’m having a hard time picturing him as a king,” I said.
“Trust me,” Casey said. “It might not seem like it here at home, but when he gets up to speak to the people of his country, he’s very, very royal.”
“Yes, but is he royal in the bedroom?” Lexi asked, trying to keep a straight face.
“I don’t know what that means,” Erik said, coming back into the room and frowning. “How does one make royal love?”
“One doesn’t,” Casey replied. “One gets royally laid.”
“Got it.” He kissed her once more and disappeared again.
“Are you going to eavesdrop all night?” Casey yelled after him.
“Maybe?” he yelled back.
We all laughed.
“I think he’s trying to make you feel more at ease,” Casey said softly, glancing at me. “He’s not usually in and out like this when I have friends over.”
“He seems wonderful,” I told her. “You must love him very much.”
“More than anything other than my children,” she said. “He’s truly the only man in the world I would ever give up my music for.”
“Do you have to?” I asked her curiously.
“No, but there’s no time for much beyond our family and royal duties right now. Plus, the band is here in Vegas, while I’m going to be spending most of my time in Limaj. With a new baby, plus four other children who all need me, not to mention all my upcoming duties as queen, I’m already overwhelmed. I’ll always play and write songs, I think, since that’s how I relax, but to be in a band or something? It’s impossible.”
“But you’d make an appearance on our album if we need you to, right?” Lexi asked her.
“Absolutely. I’ll always make time for special projects, and anything to do with my boys—that’s what I’ve always called Bash and Tyler—is a priority after my family.”
“It’s ironic,” I said lightly. “You want to do music but can’t, and I’m being forced to play music when I don’t want to.”
“You don’t want to sing anymore?” Casey asked in surprise.
“I don’t want to perform anymore,” I admitted softly. “I want to write music, and I do love to sing, but I hate touring. Maybe it’s because of the way my father structures them, but if I had a choice, I’d stay home and write music for others to perform. That’s my dream.”
“I want to do both,” Lexi said. “I love my husband, and maybe in five or six years we’ll think about a family, but for now, all I want to do is write music, play music, and tour. I love performing.”
“Me too,” Casey said. “But I love Erik and my family more.”
“I don’t think I even know how to love anyone,” I whispered, looking away. “Or why anyone would want to love me back.”
Casey reached out and put her hand over mine. “Then it might be time to think about why.”
She was a thousand percent right.
7
Tyler
I got to the studio early the day we were supposed to start rehearsing for the demo album. Not only did I not have anything else going on at the moment, I genuinely enjoyed being in the studio, especially at the beginning of a new project. The excitement was almost tangible whenever you were starting something from the ground up, and I’d had the same feeling when we’d first put Pretty Harts together. You just knew when something was going to take off, and after fifteen years in the industry, my gut was screaming that this was going to be big.
There were so many distractions and growing pains, though. Money, the record company, and of course, Ariel Fox. Why she was so much of a distraction didn’t make sense, but though I never would have said it out loud, I was kind of lonely. Okay, a lot lonely. And for some reason, it was like I’d found a kindred spirit in Ariel. The sparks that went off when we were together were one thing, but the vulnerability I caught glimpses of behind her eyes was poignant. It had been fleeting, but I’d both seen and felt it. I didn’t know much about her, but from what Lexi had told me, she was even lonelier than I was. Which was a damn shame.
And holy shit, she’d just walked into the studio and was looking around as if she were lost. God, she took my fucking breath away every time I saw her.
“Tyler?” I almost jumped when I realized she was talking to me.
“Oh. Hey. Hi.” Damn, her eyes were like bright orbs of steel, more gray than blue, but so light it was hard to tell unless you were close to them.
“Hi.” Her smile held a touch of shyness. “Do you know where the restroom is?”
“Oh, let me show you.” I quickly got up and led her down the hallway. “Right in here.”
“Thank you.” She smiled at me and the fucking world stopped again.
I really needed to get the fuck off this ride she had me on because I didn’t know what to do with her.
She disappeared into the bathroom and I turned, walking into the lounge to give myself a minute to breathe. Every time we had one of those moments, I’d forget my resolve to stop thinking about her and was immediately swept up in fantasies about being inside of her again. She was a firecracker cooped up in an exquisitely beautiful but overly cautious outer shell, and it intrigued the hell out of me. I’d done a bunch of digging about her life since the night we’d been together, and there was so much it was hard to take it all in. In the end, I’d opted to leave it alone and wait until I saw her again. Maybe if I had time to actually have a conversation with her, these crazy feelings of raw need would go the fuck away.
After all, there were lots of attractive women in the world, and they came in all shapes and sizes, but Ariel was sheer perfection. Straight, delicate features were carved into ivory skin with long, light lashes and pink lips. She was slender, with a small waist and rounded hips, but a good-sized chest that made my mouth water. Her blond hair was light, long and silky, all one length and parted on the side. I’d noticed she often ran her fingers through it, pushing it back and out of her face. Something I hadn’t been able to do the other night.
What the fuck was wrong with me?
“I know I’m early,” she said when she joined me in the lounge. “I’m always a little nervous when I’m working with new people.”
“Nothing to be nervous about,” I said, sinking down on one of the chairs across from her. “We’re all pretty chill.”
“People tend to have a lot of preconceived notions about me, so I’ve learned to be careful.”
“No one here thinks anything about you unless it’s related to your voice and your success.”
“I’m willing to bet at least one of you thinks something about me and my life.”
“Well, if so, it’s not me.”
“So you don’t want to know all the dirty details about me driving my friend’s BMW into a pool when I was seventeen and then subsequently punching the cop who tried to arrest me?”
I swallowed, trying to keep a straight face. “You, um, punched a cop?” How had I missed that detail in my research?
A smile was threatening to emerge on her face as well, and she dipped her head. “I did.”
“I didn’t know that, but now that I do, yeah, I kinda do.” I couldn’t help but laugh, and she did, too.
“That’s fair.”
“Punching a cop takes teenage rebellion to a new level,” I teased, since she was laughing.
“For sure. I mean, it was a dark time in my life, but I’d like to think I’ve grown up since then. Lesson learned, you know?”
“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, but all teenagers do dumb shit. I never did those specific things, but I did a lot of stuff I wish I hadn’t. I took the phrase sex, drugs, and rock and roll about as literally as anyone could. I had so much of the first two, I don’t know how I’m still alive. I mean, I wasn’t into super heavy stuff like heroin, but coke was my drug of choice, and there was always a bottle of Jack Daniels in my hand. Thank god I don’t have an addictive personality, or I’d probably be dead. But I don’t know if there’s any lesson in it other than the fact that we were young and immature. You grow up and realize there’s more to life.”
“I suppose there’s that,” she said quietly. “However, I’m also bipolar, except I didn’t know it back then. Coke was my drug of choice as a teenager as well, but now that I’m properly medicated for the bipolar, I haven’t touched more than a glass or two of wine with dinner in years. I have to be careful, so I stopped partying like a teenager while I was still one.”
“How old are you?” I asked. “If you don’t mind telling me.”
“It’s public knowledge. I’ll be twenty-six on Christmas Day. You?”
“Thirty-two.” I grinned. “And I’m not partying like I’m in my twenties anymore, either.”
“It’s been so long since I partied, I wouldn’t even know how.” She seemed resigned as she said it.
“It’s fun for a while, but eventually it gets old.”
“Yes, I’m sure it would have, but I never got the chance to figure it out for myself. And now, even the slightest mistake means I might never get out from under the damn conservatorship.”
“I don’t know exactly what your conservatorship consists of,” I said slowly, “but I imagine it puts a lot of restrictions on you.”
“You have no idea,” she whispered.
“I’m sorry. That sounds hard.”
And there it was. Those steel-like eyes of hers met mine, and we connected like two people attached by an invisible cord. Something so painful and raw flashed behind hers, I wanted to reach for her. She blinked, as if working hard to keep her emotions at bay, and then looked away.
“Oh, hey, I’m sorry. That was too personal. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“You didn’t.” She took a shaky breath. “I just don’t usually talk about it.”
“It’s pretty personal, so I wouldn’t expect you to.”
She stared at me another moment, cocking her head slightly. “I thought after the other night it would be awkward to see you again, but…you’re so easy to talk to.”
“Probably because the other night was pretty…indescribable.” I smiled at her, wishing I could read her mind so I’d know what to do next. “But all of that aside, trust that you can tell me anything and it’ll stay between us.”
“I’ve never had a confidante before.”
“I don’t have many myself, so I know what it’s like.”
She paused. “How come?”
“How come what?”
“I would think a guy like you has tons of friends.”
“I do, but confidantes are different. The only one of those I have is Casey, and she’s busy starting a whole new life now. Without her, I’m on my own.”
“But you have friends, even if they’re not besties. Guys in the band, people you tour with…”
“I mean, if there’s something business-related, I have Casey or Bash, but in general? If I’m being honest? I’m alone a lot. In my house, hotel rooms, everywhere but on stage and in the studio.” I scratched my head. “Maybe not physically alone, but definitely emotionally alone. Which might be part of the reason why I crave performing and touring so much.”
“How ironic.” She gave me a rueful smile. “Because all I want in life is to be alone, or at least, away from my father.”
