Wonderful, page 36
Evan started cracking up, and that made me crack up, and damn, it felt good. Griffin scowled as he looked between all of us. “Dude, I’m great at the sex. I’m incredible at the sex. I’m glorious at the sex. No worries there, cuz.”
Matt grimaced. “Please stop calling it the sex. And please don’t ever film yourself. I have enough nightmares about you as it is.”
Griffin looked over at him and smiled. “Are you saying you would watch me?”
“Not willingly,” Matt stated, suddenly looking a little green.
Griffin’s grin widened. “I can work with that.”
Evan and I were both laughing at the disgusted look on Matt’s face when my phone chimed again with another message. Griffin reached down and picked it up. “Hey, Kell, you know your phone’s on the floor?” He started scrolling through it like it was his. “Damn…people are mad at you.” He looked up at me with a raised eyebrow. “You want me to respond to some of these?”
I instantly felt weary again, and with a shrug, I told him, “Sure.” Matt and Evan immediately shot me startled looks, and I quickly amended my statement. “No! I meant no!” I hastily grabbed my phone.
“Too late,” he said with a grin.
Cringing, I looked down to see what he’d done. “Jesus Christ, Griffin. You sent Kate a winky face?”
He laughed a little as he shook his head. “No, it’s a winky face with its tongue out. You’re welcome.”
“Goddamn it,” I muttered, then I got to work fixing his callous response…and responding to all the others.
It felt like years later when the calls and texts finally stopped coming in. I’d apologized to Jenny, reassured my sister, told Gavin it was all a misunderstanding, begged forgiveness from Kiera’s parents, who’d insisted on getting my number from Kiera, and even called the bar to apologize to Pete, who I’d heard was getting bombarded by gossip magazines that wanted an inside scoop on me. It all sucked, and I was just about to flush my phone away when I got one last call.
I was at a bar with the guys and the members of Holeshot, relaxing before tonight’s show. Evan’s idea, to get my mind off things. Kiera had stayed on the bus. I’d offered to turn the guys down and stay with her, but she’d wanted to be alone. I’d left an apology petal for her, but it hadn’t felt like enough. Nothing was feeling like enough.
When I saw who was calling me, I genuinely contemplated letting it ring. But avoidance hadn’t gotten me anywhere today. Feeling like I could sleep for a thousand years, I reluctantly answered the phone. “Hey, Denny.”
“I’m kind of surprised you picked up,” he said with a laugh.
A small, tired chuckle escaped me. “Don’t think I didn’t weigh my options first.” I sighed, then told him, “It’s not true, please don’t yell at me.”
He laughed again. “Is that what your day’s been like?”
“Pretty much,” I grumbled, watching my friends talk to each other with happy, carefree expressions on their faces. Lucky bastards. “Everyone thinks it’s Sienna on the tape. Everyone thinks I cheated on Kiera.” I braced myself, then asked a question I really didn’t want to ask. “Do you think that?”
He didn’t answer right away, and I felt that ball of disappointment getting heavier in my stomach. Then finally, he said, “No, I don’t think that.”
“You don’t?” I couldn’t keep the amazement out of my voice, and Denny laughed again.
“Kiera told me about the video a while ago. It’s with Joey, right?”
I simultaneously felt both relief and shame. “Yeah, it was way back before you guys…before she and I…” I stopped explaining since he already knew our fucked-up history.
“Yeah,” he said. “The minute I heard about it, I figured that was what it was. Well, ninety-nine percent of me figured that.”
“And the other one percent?” I asked, cringing.
He sighed at me. “You know I’m trying to let things go, mate, but in the back of my mind, you’ll always be capable of hurting the people you care about. A small part of me will always think the worst about you, but I try really hard not to listen to that part.”
Well, damn. At least he was being honest with me, and I couldn’t fault him for that. And truly, only one percent of him doubting me wasn’t too shabby. “I know I deserve a lot worse from you, so…I can live with that.”
He laughed softly, then he sighed. “Hey, I told Kiera this would die down soon, but I don’t know…I think you should lay low for a while. And avoid Sienna as much as you possibly can.”
Evan’s comment about Kiera being perceived as my mistress flashed through my mind, and I wholeheartedly agreed with what Denny said. Problem was, avoiding Sienna wasn’t as easy as it sounded. Not until this damn tour was over with. “I’ll do whatever I have to do to keep her safe,” I told him, meaning every word.
I could hear the smile in his voice when he responded with, “I know you will, Kellan. That I believe one hundred percent.”
And for the first time that day, I actually felt better after getting off the phone with someone.
Chapter 22
AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR
The next couple of weeks sucked. I felt like I was in hiding; I was avoiding people so much. Only, I really wasn’t because I still had to be present for the show, for the meet-and-greets, and for the bane of my existence…interviews. I was quickly growing to hate anyone who wanted to ask me questions, especially when those questions had to do with my personal life. And they always asked about my personal life. No one cared about boundaries anymore. They just wanted me to say Yes, I’m frequently having sex with Sienna. It’s great, thanks for asking me about it. And when I didn’t say that, when I denied it, they mocked me. Sure, right, you’re just friends. I’ve heard that before.
I felt like I had explained the sex tape fifty million times already, telling everyone that the woman in the video was someone that I used to date, but it wasn’t Sienna, and it would never be Sienna. Because we just worked together. And that was it. But I might as well just record myself saying it and play that at every interview since they all still asked me about it.
It didn’t help anything that I was the only one talking. Sienna’s “plan” to help me was to act offended whenever anyone brought it up, going so far as to walk away in a huff sometimes. And all that did was make it seem true. I tried talking to her about it again, but she always gave me the same response: Of course, I’ll see what I can do. And then she never actually did anything. Eventually I stopped asking and just did my best not to be seen with her. If only the DJs could see how little we actually saw of each other, then maybe they’d believe me, although they’d probably just call our distance a lovers spat, then ask when we were getting married. Fuck my life.
It also didn’t help anything that Joey had disappeared from the face of the Earth. I had to believe she’d released the tape for attention, but she hadn’t said a word to anyone about being the woman on the tape. She was happily letting Sienna steal her thunder, and that seemed so unlike her to me. Joey wanted to be worshipped, wanted to be lusted after. She lived for it, so her silence now—when this golden opportunity had fallen in her lap—was mind-boggling.
I was beginning to wonder if Joey had been paid to be silent. That made the most sense, but at the same time, I just couldn’t believe it. The only people to benefit from her silence were Nick and Sienna. And considering everything that Sienna had been through with her ex, I just couldn’t believe that she would orchestrate something like this. And Nick doing it just seemed so…unprofessional. I mean, he was the VP of a major label. Surely, he had better things to do than manipulate public perception to create a frenzied, cultish type of obsession for a fake relationship that would probably result in boosted sales for both of us, and fuck…yeah, he probably was behind it. Sienna too, sadly. But like everything else, I didn’t know what to do about that. Again, fuck my life.
The rumors were so crazy right now, and the public was so certain of my relationship with Sienna, that Kiera had finally asked me to take off my wedding ring. She’d brought it up a couple of days after the tape released, when it was clear that the frenzy wasn’t going to die down anytime soon, and even though I understood why—and agreed with her—the conversation had still been a difficult one.
“It’s not forever, it’s just for right now. While they’re so stuck on you and Sienna being a couple.”
The sadness in her eyes was almost too much for me to bear, but I popped the ring off anyway. “Yeah, Evan mentioned something about them seeing you as my mistress, and I just can’t—” I looked up at her with a sigh. “I don’t know what I would do if someone said that about you. And if it was a fan…” I let that trail off as I shook my head. I’d probably get arrested for assault, and there’d be a massive public backlash, and my career would be over. Definitely, permanently over.
Kiera sighed and grabbed my hand. “We’ll be more careful in public. They won’t know, and you won’t have to hit anyone.”
I smiled as I peeked up at her, but it quickly fell off my face. “How do we get married like this?”
She opened her mouth, but nothing came out, and when she closed it, there were tears in her eyes. She didn’t know, and I didn’t know, and I hated it. I fucking hated all of it.
Pushing that memory aside, I played with my ring, sitting forlornly on my right hand, and contemplated what I could do to put things back on the correct course. By myself? Not much. I needed Sienna’s help and cooperation, and I just wasn’t getting it.
We were leaving a particularly annoying interview, and my mood wasn’t improving, even though it was over. I just wanted my life back. Kiera was giving me sad but reassuring glances as we drove away from the radio station. I could probably switch my ring back now, but we were staying at a hotel tonight, so I still had to be mindful of public perception. Kiera and I usually skipped out on the hotel rooms, letting the guys have the two rooms reserved for the D-Bags, giving them some much-needed space, but this particular hotel room had a jacuzzi in it, and the minute we’d heard that, we’d opted to leave our love nest behind for the evening. And since I didn’t want to risk someone photographing me wearing a wedding ring while I walked from the car to the hotel, I left it on the wrong hand. Because that was my life now.
Kiera’s phone rang while I was stewing. She dug through her bag, found it, then smiled as she answered it. “Hey, sis. What’s up?”
Griffin was in the front seat of the enormous SUV we were in, and I saw his eyes in the rearview mirror instantly lock on Kiera as she talked to her sister. Anything about Anna usually caught his attention right away, a fact that I found really interesting.
As far as I knew, Griffin hadn’t slept with anyone other than Anna since he’d found out about the pregnancy. Granted, I didn’t keep track of Griffin twenty-four-seven, so there was no way I could know that for sure, but Griffin was usually pretty vocal about his sex life, and I hadn’t heard anything recently to make me think I was wrong. He was either striking out a lot—a genuine possibility—or he was subconsciously being faithful to her. I was hoping for the latter, but considering how often he’d tried with Sienna, it was probably the former.
Curious, I watched Griffin while he watched Kiera. She was telling Anna where we were, somewhere in Atlanta, heading to the hotel. Then Kiera said, “You’re in Georgia?”
Griffin latched on to those words and instantly twisted around in his seat. “Anna’s in Georgia? Awesome. Where is she?” His eyes were damn near glowing as he said it, the eagerness and anticipation clear as day on his face.
Kiera murmured, “Airport,” to Griffin, then continued her conversation with Anna, asking her why she was in Georgia. While Anna presumably answered her, Griffin turned to the driver. “Dude, we need to turn around and go to the airport to pick somebody up.” He looked over at the speedometer and added, “I’ll give you a thousand dollars if you go double the speed limit.”
His comment made me laugh, and I heard equally amused chuckles coming from Matt and Evan. The driver didn’t respond to Griffin’s offer, or change his speed any, but he did start the process of turning the car around, and eventually we wound up at the airport.
The first thing I noticed when I spotted Anna was that her stomach had dramatically swelled in size, and for the life of me, I couldn’t remember when she was due. And that was a bit concerning when I took in the number of bags she’d brought with her. How long was she staying? Was she having this baby on the bus? Fuck, was she having this baby in my bed? Although I supposed it really wasn’t my bed anymore. There wasn’t a single part of me that could make Anna sleep in a cubby, and I had no desire to take the bed back after Anna and Griffin were done with it. Those two horndogs could have it, keep it, and take it with them when they left.
Oh well. At least Kiera would enjoy having her sister here, for however long that might be. And Griffin would be thrilled if she stayed, which meant the rest of us would be happier too since Griffin was slightly less annoying when he was getting regular sex. Slightly.
Kiera wrapped her arms around Anna, holding her as close as she could with the baby between them. Kiera’s smile was huge, lighting up her entire face. Anna’s expression was similar, and it did something to me to see that bond. In the past, whenever I’d watched people with their families, there had been a…hole inside of me. An empty part that acknowledged what I was seeing, but couldn’t quite understand it. I’d never had a bonding moment with my family, not until Hailey, Riley…Gavin. Now seeing the affection filled me with warmth, made me miss my siblings. And my father. And fuck if it wasn’t weird to feel that way. I should call them.
“Hi, Max,” Kiera said, welcoming her unborn nephew.
“It’s Maximus,” Griffin interjected, then he brushed Kiera out of the way and started getting busy with Anna. Okay, all he did was kiss her, but it wasn’t a public friendly smack. No, it was a closed-door, I’m-about-to-plunge-it-into-you, we’re-not-stopping-‘til-we’re-screaming kind of kiss.
They were both nearly panting when they broke apart, staring at each other like they were absorbing each other’s sexual energy. I shared a glance with Evan. He was grimacing, and I knew he was thinking the same thing I was: The hotel is too damn far. Maybe we should give them the car and grab a taxi?
I laughed at the look on his face, then grabbed Griffin’s shoulders. Pulling him back, I said, “Simmer down,” then I leaned in to give Anna a brief hug. “It’s good to see you,” I told her.
She smiled at me, her face changing from lust to fondness. Then she frowned. “I’m sorry for the shit you’re going through right now.” She glanced at her sister. “Both of you.”
I sighed as I looked over at Kiera. She was studying the ground, avoiding even looking in Anna and Griffin’s direction. “Thanks,” I murmured.
Anna squeezed my arm, then leaned forward and quietly said, “That video is hot, though. Turned me on.” She pulled back, and there was playfulness in her green eyes as she winked at me.
Shaking my head, I gave her an amused smile as I opened the door to help her into the car.
We were on our way soon after that, and so were Anna and Griffin. They were all over each other in the car, Griffin fisting Anna’s dark hair as he tried to suck her soul out of her mouth. At least, that was how it seemed to all of us watching them. Or, bare minimum, listening to them.
Matt had lost the car seat roulette and was turning a little green as he sat beside them. Leaning as far away from them as he could, he scowled and said, “We are going straight back to the hotel, right?”
Evan and I laughed while Kiera scrunched her face just as much as Matt. She was avoiding looking, but it was hard to block out the heavy-breathing and moaning. Maybe we should have gotten a taxi after all.
Eventually our quiet, unfazed-by-anything driver got us to the hotel. The second he stopped the car, we all fled the vehicle like it was on fire. All except for Anna and Griffin, who were apparently content to get reacquainted right there in the backseat.
Matt grabbed his stomach, making a face like he was about to vomit. Evan and I shared a laugh as we started grabbing Anna’s bags from the back. Our driver shooed us away from the luggage when a guy from the hotel stepped up with a cart. The two of them began loading it, ignoring what they could see and hear from Anna and Griffin. When they were finished, our driver returned to the front seat, and Matt and Evan followed the bellhop into the hotel with the cart. But Anna and Griffin still didn’t get out of the car. Kiera was getting red with embarrassment as she waited for Anna beside me. I could almost hear her incredulity: Are they seriously going to have sex in the car, in the drop-off area of the hotel, while the driver sits there listening to them?
Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if they did.
Finally, when it was clear Anna and Griffin wouldn’t be getting out on their own, Kiera turned to me and said, “Can you…?”
She indicated the car with her hand, but I already knew exactly what she meant, and I was more than happy to do it. Especially when I remembered the look on Griffin’s face when he’d ogled my naked wife while she’d been underneath me. Fucker was lucky he was still alive.
“I would love to,” I told Kiera, then I walked over to the door and swung it wide. That didn’t even faze Anna and Griffin. He had her laid down on the seat, his hand up her dress, her hand inside his pants, their tongues deep down each other’s throats.
Reaching in, I grabbed the back of Griffin’s shirt and tugged. “Come on,” I said, glancing at the driver. He had his hands on the wheel and was just sitting there patiently, staring straight ahead. The label had provided us with the car and the driver, and by this guy’s placid exterior, he’d been doing this a while, and he’d seen much, much worse.
Griffin grunted in annoyance when he released from Anna with an audible pop. “Fuck off, Kell,” he growled, trying to swat my hands off his clothes.
