“So, we are here with Two Way Street,” the DJ, Cooper, purred confidently into the mic. “Whose opera themed song, Opening Aria, hit number nine today. How does that make you feel, Owen? I believe it is your composition?” His voice belonged to a sultry leading man with smouldering good looks, but his face was that of a middle-aged science teacher, Emily thought, and wondered how many of his listeners were disappointed when they saw the promotion pictures that went with their favorite DJ.“All our songs are written by Owen,” James said, at full charm. DJ Cooper wasn’t immune to the drummer’s appeal, his interest more than professional, Emily observed, and was certain from the blush on James’ cheeks, that the DJ had slipped him his number in the break. “Until he walked into our band practise, we were just a cover band lacking a lead guitarist.”“And Owen, of course, brought in Emily as well,” Seb added.“Opening Aria was a bit of a joke, to be honest,” Owen answered the DJ, flushing unde
“There is a party this evening,” Aaron announced looking up from his phone. Now that they had a single in the top ten, he had rescheduled his other bands to focus on them. “Good photo opportunity, as well as a chance to meet and mingle with other bands.”“Alright,” Owen said without looking up from his notebook.The van pulled up, and the band wove their way out of the door, and onto the sidewalk. It was a busy, narrow city street, and the cars behind the van honked in outrage at the illegal parking, but the van’s driver was unflustered, handing Emily out. “Call me when you are through,” he told Aaron.The building was a gleaming tower of glass, very modern, and the foyer featured neon points of colour on the floor and walls. Aaron did not need directions but led the way into the elevator and pressed the button for the eleventh floor.“Why do they always put mirrors in elevators?” James wondered looking at the many angles of himself and adjusting his posture and the set of his jaw.“S
“Oh, yes, that would explain it,” Vice murmured, his lips somewhere near her ear. His breath on her skin had her heart racing. If he began to kiss her, she suspected she would channel Megan and just drop her underwear and go with it.“Emily’s grandmother was an opera singer,” Owen said, sternly. He disapproved entirely of the situation and stood stiffly on the edge of the conversation; not quite included, but also not quite excluded. His eyes told her he wanted her to excuse herself so they could move on and that words between them would follow. “She used to babysit Emma on the afternoons her mum couldn’t be home in time after school, and taught Emma to sing.” There was a faint frown tensing his eyebrows.“How lovely,” Vice leaned against the back of the couch. Emily could smell his aftershave, and it was like a drug. Her eyes wanted to roll back into her head. She could imagine the conversation she would be having with Megan later, with their normal roles reversed.“A photo,” she man
“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
Vixen stacked her boxes against the wall in the new apartment. Office. Apartment. Whatever. She was relatively sure that Thomas did not know about this building, as his sexuality had been Gregory’s closely held secret. She knew that Gregory had made Andrew make the purchase disappear off the books. The accountant had been very helpful from his sandy, sunny, retirement.And that was all that mattered. That she and her boy toys would be safe.“Alright?” Shadow paused by her, carrying a box. He had taken off his shirt, pushing it into his waistband, and his face was sweaty, his arms and chest dirty as the dust from the boxes mixed with his sweat, leaving behind streaks.She smiled at him with false brightness. “Fine.”He was still worried about her.She had made choices that she did not regret, but they had come with a cost, and she had paid it. Broken boy toys, she thought, and a broken Domme. But she was a Fixer, and she would f-king fix herself, along with her boys.She saw the number
Raven opened his laptop on his normal Friday morning table after checking that its surface had been wiped free of spills and crumbs. He was glad of the quiet moment - it had been a chaotic week of packing up Vixen’s apartment. They had hired a moving truck and moved the furniture out themselves, a b-tch of a job, but they had not wanted any trail that someone could follow to the office building, so had decided that it was better not to hire removalists and keep the move off record.They had also hired an architect to begin putting together plans for the band’s apartments in the building, and the smaller ones that they would lease out to others. There were eighteen floors, plus the basement level in which the sex club was located, so the building would eventually be a good income for them, though, from what Gregory had left Vixen, they probably wouldn’t need it.It had been fun and interesting to explore the building and basement with Vixen and Shadow, to spend an evening drinking cham
The approach to Gregory’s house was blocked off, and the news reporters had been pushed back to a point beyond view of the house, where the trees were set back from the road, leaving a gravel edge convenient for parking. Shadow had to park far back from the blockade, behind rows of news vans, support vehicles, a couple of ambulances on standby, and the cars of curious passers-by, and they worked their way through news crews and thrill seekers alike as they made their way to the police-guarded rope.“Anything?” Raven asked Shadow who had his phone to his ear, redialling Vixen’s phone for the one hundredth time since the news story. He rose onto his tip toes, craning his neck, searching through the crowds of police and SWAT officers behind the barricade, looking for Vixen. “What colour was her hair today?”“Rings out,” Shadow shook his head. His face was pale. “I can’t remember man,” he added. “Blonde, I think. Though my mind has totally shut down, and maybe that was yesterday? Blonde,
Vixen touched her brow as she drove between the rows of police cars and black SWAT vehicles to the gates. “No need to stand to attention, fellows,” she murmured under her breath. There was a flurry of activity around her. Speed was of the essence, she knew. There was always the risk that one of Thomas’ associates would drive up the road and spot them. All it would take was one phone call at the wrong time.“All good Tempie?” Claudia said in her ear.“Just admiring the view,” Tempie replied. “Lots of beef on the side of the road today, makes a girl a bit hungry, you know?”Claudia chuckled. “Keep that spirit up, Tempie. Not long now, hey? And then this will be done.”Tempie wound down the window at the gate and pressed the intercom button, smiling for the cameras, as if a man in camouflage was not crawling along the side of her car. The gates opened, and she eased her way forward, hoping that there were no limbs or other body parts in her way and bracing for a bump and a scream.In the
“Look, Tempie,” he gripped her shoulders, pulling her until she had no choice but to look at him, using his strength against her for the first time, but trying to be gentle about it. “I’ve got police contacts, and some big shit is about to go down. I don’t want you there when it happens. I care about you and Shadow. I don’t want to see you both mixed up in this.”“Gregory’s dying,” she replied calmly. “I’m not leaving him to die alone, Raven, with just employees around him.”“Tempie,” he pleaded, lowing his head until his forehead rested against hers. “Listen to me for once. Please. Don’t go.”“Raven, I need to get dressed,” she shrugged his hold off, and her disregard enraged him. He had tried asking nicely, he thought, he would have to insist.“For f-k sakes,” he growled. “I’ll chain you to that f-king bed if I have to Tempie. You are not going.” He caught her back up. “It’s too dangerous. You. Are. Not. Going. That’s it. Final.”“Raven!” She pulled away from him sharply and pulled
Midday Friday, Raven was stalking a surveillance target when his phone rang. He glanced at the display. Vice. “Hey,” he said putting the phone onto speaker so he could take photos if the target came into sight.“Raven, sweet boy.” It was Nicola, Vice’s mum. Raven checked the read out on the phone. Definitely Vice’s number.“Nicola,” he said warmly. “Have you stolen Vice’s phone?”“No, I am looking after it for him,” she replied. “Something has happened Raven. I am guessing that you have not been listening or watching the news.”“No,” Raven felt a cold fist close around his heart. He put the camera down and picked the phone up, taking it off of speaker. “What happened, Nicola? Are Vice and Victor okay?”“They are fine,” she assured him. “But we are at the hospital. Miranda was shot this morning.”“Holy f-k.” Raven was shocked. “Is she okay?”“She lost a lot of blood, but she is a strong girl. It was a shoulder wound. Some man from her recording label who has been causing her grief. He
“Alright,” Vixen told herself as the gates to Gregory’s house opened to admit her. “It is easy.”“We will be here with you,” Detective Callahan said in her ear. Vixen adjusted her hair to cover the earpiece. It was skin coloured and barely noticeable, but if she were caught with it, it would not only give away the entire plan, but also her part in it.“That is nice, but we both know there is nothing you can do if I get busted. Not without giving away twelve months of investigation, right? So, you are not going to come riding to my rescue if I get into trouble.”“Have you changed your mind?” Claudia sounded strained.“No,” Vixen eased the Ferrari into the parking spots. “No. This will make Miranda safe, and you promised to leave Gregory alone, so no, I have to do this.” She drew in a deep breath and fixed her lipstick, before picking up her handbag, and opening the car door.She adjusted the mask on her face, and flicked her hair over her shoulders, before strolling up to the front doo
Kissing Shadow was no different to kissing a woman, at least the mouth part, Raven thought. Sure, there was a slight prickle of stubble where there was not normally, but Shadow’s lips were soft, and his mouth hot, his tongue against Raven’s was no different.But Raven was used to being the taller partner, to leaning over someone, being the one to lean back in order to kiss was new. To grip a man’s hips and tug him closer was new too. To feel Shadow’s hard on against him, different.Shadow could kiss as well as he gave head. His hands cupped Raven’s face, the big palms warm against his skin, and he sucked on Raven’s tongue in a way that made desire curl up from the soles of Raven’s feet into his groin and his heart pound faster against his ribs.It was like being bound to Vixen’s bed, the balance of power had shifted in the experience, and Raven’s responsibility diminished. Shadow might be a sub, but his experience and size made him dominant between them.Shadow eased the kiss, brushin
In the morning, Vixen left the two boys curled up in bed. Raven’s eyes opened briefly as she left the shower, before he closed them again. Shadow wrapped an arm around his waist, pulling him closer, and snuggled into Raven’s dark hair.“Aww,” she leaned over to deliver them kisses, breathing in the warm scent of their skin. “Snuggly boys.”“Don’t go,” Raven tried to pull her back into bed, but she laughed and eased away with lingering kisses.“I must, my pet.”Raven heaved a sigh. “It’s not even eight.”“Do you have to work today?” She wondered as she sat on the edge of the bed to lace up her boots.“Should do,” he muttered, lured to the edge of sleep by Shadow’s hot body against his. “Have a surveillance job that gets active around ten.”“Should I set you an alarm?” She offered.He groaned pressing his face into the pillow. She took that as a yes and programmed the smart device on the bedside to wake him at nine thirty.She paused in the doorway in order to look at them with a feelin