“Who did you want us to meet?” Emily asked, because their progress through the crowd seemed to have no purpose other than to distance them from Vice and Victor. She stole a glass of champagne off a passing waiter and threw it back.“Take it easy, Em,” Owen protested.“No one in particular,” Aaron admitted, lightly. “I was just heading off an issue. It is what managers do. Go find a closet.” He strode off, calling out someone’s name.“I can have too much to drink, if I want to,” she told Owen scowling. “I never curtail your drinking.”Owen caught her up against him and kissed her, his mouth hard and demanding against hers. “I think a closet is a marvellous idea,” he murmured huskily into her ear before pressing his lips to the pressure point lingeringly.“What is in the drinks here?” She wondered, because she thought a closet sounded like a good idea too, and not five minutes before, she had been wondering if Victor’s erection was as impressive as it had felt beneath her – which was a
“I am not entirely sure about this outfit,” Emily tugged at the bodice of her top, though it was a losing battle. The amount of fabric involved meant that tugging in one direction, revealed more skin in the other.“Uh-ah, no touching,” Peter the stylist batted her hands away. “No yanking, no tugging, no touching.” He tossed his dead straight, long bleached and perfectly toned white-blonde locks over his shoulder. She suspected it was a lace-weave wig expertly applied, but no amount of discreet scrutiny revealed his hair secrets to her less-than-expert eyes. If it wasn’t a wig, she thought, the man had the best head of hair that she had ever seen.“No bouncing, no jumping and no breathing,” she repeated by rote his instructions as he had dressed and glued her into her clothing. She did not know the secrets of his double-sided tape, but she suspected that she would not have to wax those areas of her body anytime in the near future once the clothing was removed. “And no reaching above my
There was only two weeks until the tour for their first album began, and they wanted to be ready to hit the recording studio again at the end of the tour. The band had decided that they needed to work hard and fast, whilst they were popular, make their money whilst they could. They were all aware of how fickle the industry could be.The car left the city behind, and she opened her laptop as the skyscrapers were replaced with tall coastal pine trees and the road curved around the shoreline. She put in her ear buds and opened the email file that Owen had sent her of the songs the band were working on. She looked out the window as she listened, feeling a pang as his voice came on.“Hi Em,” he said. “We are - ”“Hi Em!” James interrupted him in the background. She heard Jeremy and Seb chime in, laughing. “Saw you on TV yesterday. Silver dress, so sexy.”“Shut up,” Owen laughed. “Sorry Em. Anyway, we will run through these when you get here, but here is a bit of a rough recording to give y
“I have missed you too, Owen,” she reached up and tucked his hair back behind his ear. “Your hair is getting so long. You all look so different after just a few weeks apart. Except for James. James is exactly the same.”“So, what was it like, hanging out with Vice and Victor?” He asked and there was a hint of jealousy in his voice. There was the core of the problem, she thought. He knew that Vice and Victor made her weak and the knees, and it made him jealous. They were still at the point where he was free to do whatever and whoever he wanted, but he wanted her frozen in time, waiting for him if and when he was done with his freedom and ready for a relationship.She met his eyes. It was not the question he had wanted to ask, she thought, but she wasn’t going to give him the answer so easily. She hadn’t, after all, after that one question about Cordelia, ever asked if he took anyone else to bed. “Great. They are just… so sweet, really. I know they seem like total partiers, but it is ju
Emily pulled open the fridge and inspected the contents. It was well stocked with lots of health foods, fresh fruit and veg, and alcohol. The contradiction, she laughed, was so typical of bands in general. Vice and Victor’s kitchen fridge looked exactly the same.The doorbell rang and James went to answer it as she pulled out a bottle of sparkling water out of the fridge and wrestled with the lid. After the day she’d had, she needed to rehydrate. She could see Jeremy still swimming laps in the pool through the windows. The pool looked lovely lit against the night, and she considered having a swim after dinner, but then decided to wait until morning, exhaustion and the comfort of her pyjamas winning.“Here, I will get that.” Owen entered and took the bottle out of her hands, the action so domestic and performed so many times between them, that she didn’t even think twice about it.“Thanks. The nails…” She held out her fingers to show the acrylics clicking them together.“It always amaz
In the morning, as she stepped out into the kitchen, Seb was at the coffee machine. “Not you too,”he shook his head in stern disapproval as he pushed a pod into the opening and waited for the machine to work.Owen met her eyes across the kitchen bench and raised his eyebrows. “Seb has a strong opinion about morning exercise,” he explained. He was dressed for a run but had apparently paused to have a flick through the daily newspaper on his way as it was open on the bench in front of him.“I have a strong opinion about all exercise,” Seb corrected, turning and resting his hips against the kitchen bench, cupping his coffee in both hands and blowing on it to cool it. “Other than the horizontal sort.”“If you do it in the morning,” she explained, stooping to adjust a shoe. “It is over and done with for the day.”“It depends entirely on what you mean by ‘it’,” Seb winked lasciviously. “I have no objections to certain physical activities in the morning, afternoon, or evening.”“You weren’t
Emily hesitated and then put her hand in his and let him draw her up the stairs to where the blanket was arranged. He sat, releasing the towel, so it only just covered him. She was going to have to do the same, she realised. Even if she tied the towel sarong like, it would work its way free quickly. They had skinny dipped together, had amazing sex, and now they were going to eat breakfast together in the bare.There was something delightfully naughty about that, she decided despite her misgivings, and she released the towel to fall around her as he opened the picnic basket. He grinned, sliding a look from the corner of his eye knowing that he had won this round, she thought.“An unanticipated advantage of this set up,” he commented cheekily.She was surprised into genuine laughter.He set a bottle of champagne onto the floorboards, and a small bottle of orange juice. “Mimosa?”“Why not?” She agreed. “Weak for me, though, please. Got to watch the calories.”He retrieved two glasses fro
The band was divided between two tour busses, these ones slick and expensive looking inside and out, a sleek, glossy modern black with Two-Way Street emblazoned in yellow script on the outside.The band stopped and gawked as they got out of the taxis.Roadies wearing black t-shirts with Two Way Street in the signature spray-paint looking script on their backs and chests moved busily between the two sleek busses and the less glamourous support vehicles that would accommodate the tour’s support staff and equipment.“Daddy, does this mean we have made it to heaven?” James wondered, saying what they were all feeling. This tour was no expense spared, the contrast to the last stark.“It sure does, Jimmy, it sure does,” Jeremy answered. “Or at least we have attracted the attention of hell. But I, for one, am happy to sign on the dotted line in blood if this is a sign of what is to come.”She was already in hell, Emily thought wryly. The sexual tension between her and Owen was so electric tha