Deeper (23 page)

I
normally would have freaked out that Kris had exposed me like that, especially
since we were both fairly private about our sex life, but everyone at the party
was already half lit and the lights were low. I hated to admit it, but it was
kind of a rush knowing we were out in the open and he just couldn’t wait to
ravage me.

However,
I didn’t want any of the groupies or anyone with a camera to witness us going
at it in the hallway, so I gently pushed against him and said, “Kris, not
here.”

He
raised his head and nodded before he covered my chest. In an instant he scooped
me up into his arms and carried me to the closest room, opening the door and
slamming it shut with his foot. He carried me to the bed and before he laid me
down, he whispered, “Jess you are so fucking beautiful.”

“You’re
not bad yourself, handsome,” I answered, combing my fingers through his hair
the way he liked. He closed his eyes and sighed contentedly before he laid me
on the bed and covered my body with his. I pulled his lips back to mine and we
spent the next hour making love in that room as if we were the only two people
there.

“So,
what made you decide to dress so sexy tonight?” Kris asked me as he buckled his
belt.

After
I stepped into my heels, I smoothed out my dress and answered, “I just felt
like dressing up, that’s all. Did you not like it?”

Kris
moved to me and wrapped his arms around my waist. “Um, I hoped that the hot sex
we just had might have given you a hint that I liked it. I liked it
a lot
,”
he said, kissing my forehead. “I was just curious, I guess. You’re usually a
pretty laid back girl and you just surprised me, that’s all.”

“Well
tonight was the last show and we’re finally going to get a break for a while so
I wanted to celebrate. I just wanted to look beautiful for you.”

“Oh
Jessie,” he said softly. He moved his hands from my waist and gently ran his
long fingers through my hair before resting them at the nape of my neck,
caressing me. “You are beautiful in every single way. Whether you are in sweat
pants or a ball gown, you are breathtaking.”

“I
love you so much,” I whispered before lightly kissing his lips. “I can’t wait
to finally marry you.”

“Me
too, baby. You’re going to look so beautiful in a wedding dress.”

“You’re
going to look so hot in that tux, too. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve
ever seen you in a tux before.”

“You’re
the only one in the world that can get me into a monkey suit,” he laughed.

“Well
you don’t have to wear one, you know,” I stated.

“What
do you mean? Should I wear a suit and tie instead?”

“What
if we just eloped instead?” I blurted out, surprising even myself.

Kris
leaned back and looked at me, a confused expression on his face. “Jess, are you
serious right now?”

“Yeah,
why not? We both love each other, neither of us want to wait, and everyone we
care about being there is under this roof. I’m serious, Kris. We could just
spread the word to the guys, find an all night wedding chapel somewhere, and
just do it.”

“Just
do it?” he repeated, frowning.

“What’s
wrong with that? I’ve waited forever to marry you and I don’t need to throw
some big expensive party just to do that. Our love is what’s important, nothing
else.”

“Jessie,
come here, I want to talk to you,” he said, taking my hand and leading me back
to the bed. I sat down next to him and waited to hear what he had to say.

“You
know I love you and would do anything for you, but before we run off and elope
I want to say something, okay?”

“Okay,
I’m listening,” I replied. He cleared his throat and tucked my hair behind my
ear before he began.

“Ever
since I was a little kid, I would wake up in the morning and instantly realize
that I had nothing to look forward in the day. Like literally the moment I
opened my eyes I would instantly feel sad.” My heart constricted as I
remembered the pain of our childhoods. “Every day was like that until my first
day of second grade when I met this beautiful, scared little girl with the
biggest blue eyes I’d ever seen. Defending that little girl was the best
decision I ever made because suddenly my life had a purpose.”

“Kris,”
I whispered, squeezing his hand as I felt my eyes starting to sting from unshed
tears.

“I
loved you then, Jess, but it took me a really long to finally realize that I
was in love with you. All it took was you brushing that sexy body against me
after the show at The Metal Cage and my whole world changed. I knew I wanted
something with you but the night of your birthday changed everything in a huge
way. Making love to you that night was literally the moment I fell so deeply in
love with you and I knew right then that I’d do whatever I could to make you
happy.

“It’s
been such a hard road for us to be where we are now and even though there are
things I’d definitely change, one thing I will never ever regret is loving you
and wanting to give you everything this world can offer. You’ve lived such a
hard life and it’s my job as your fiancée to make the rest of your life
beautiful.” At this point I could no longer hold back my tears and they were
freely falling down my face.

“Listen,
if you really want to run off and get married tonight, tomorrow, or whenever
you want then that’s what we’ll do because I want you to have the wedding you
want. I just…”

“Just
what, Kris? What do you want?” I asked him, swiping at a few tears that were
rolling down my cheeks.

“I
know this is going to lose me some guy points here but when I thought of
marrying you, I always imagined it would be the traditional way, you know. Me
in a ridiculous tuxedo with Ryder, Beau, and Jude standing next to me while you
walk toward me wearing this incredible white dress and looking like an angel.
When I see you for the first time I cry like a pussy because you look so
beautiful and I would wonder how in the hell someone like me was marrying an
incredible woman like you. Then we’d have one hell of a reception and party the
night away with our friends before I whisked you off on a romantic honeymoon
anywhere in the world you wanted to go. Then we’d-”

I
pressed my fingers to his lips to silence him and said, “Kris, I want that. I
want everything you just said.”

“You
do?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow and smiling.

Sighing,
I replied, “I was so busy thinking of how I want to be your wife so badly that
I didn’t stop to think of what you wanted out of all of this. Let’s plan a
wedding.”

He
smiled at me and asked, “Are you sure? If this isn’t what you want-”

“You’re
what I want, Kris, and I want to make you happy too. Let’s do the whole
thing…the cake, the limo, the dress, the honeymoon…let’s do it all.”

“I
love you so much, Jessie,” he stated before pulling my face to his and kissing
me. “Are you sure this is what you want? I don’t want to push you into doing
something you don’t want to do, but I just think that you deserve to be treated
like a princess on your wedding day,” Kris declared.

“You
treat me like a princess every day and I’m sure about this. Sorry I wasn’t
looking at the big picture.”

“You’re
amazing, Jessie Monroe,” Kris stated as he stood up off the bed and pulled me
to my feet before wrapping his arms around me in a warm hug.

“So,
you ready to go join the madness downstairs?” I asked him.

“As
long as I don’t walk into a room and see Jude’s bare ass, I’ll be fine.”

I
giggled and replied, “Tell me about it. He’s got a nice ass and all, but I
think I’ve seen it more than yours.”

“Okay
let’s not talk about Jude’s ass any more, I still want to have a good time
tonight,” Kris said as we left the bedroom and walked downstairs to the party.

After
Kris and I had begrudgingly decided to rejoin the party (which was now almost
wall-to-wall with rock groupies of every kind and, thankfully, a heavy security
presence), we found the guys hanging out around Beau’s pool table in the game
room. Each of them had at least two women hanging on their every word and I
rolled my eyes at them. One girl in particular was trying her hardest to get
Ryder’s attention but he wasn’t having any of it. I smiled to myself because I
knew his inattention must have been about this girl he’d met tonight. After I
kissed Kris on the cheek, he joined the pool game and I walked over to Ryder and
took a seat next to him.

I
nudged his arm playfully and asked, “All right. Spill.”

“Spill
what?” he asked before taking a swig of his beer.

“What’s
her name?”

“Who?”
he asked me, trying his best to look dumbfounded.

“Cut
the shit, Matthews. I heard all about the girl you went all stupid over
backstage tonight. Tell me. What’s her name?”

Ryder
broke into a face-splitting smile and answered, “Everleigh.”

“Ooh,
that’s a pretty name.”

“It
is, isn’t it?”

“What
does she look like?”

“She’s
got this long black hair that I just want to run my fingers through, these
insane whiskey colored eyes, and her lips…fuck, they were just begging for me
to bite them,” he replied with a love-drunk look on his face.

“Wow,
sounds like love already,” I teased before taking a bite of my food.

“Whoa,
I wouldn’t go that far. She just got into my head, that’s all.”

“Ryder,
give me a break! I’ve known you for more than twenty years and I have never
ever seen you look, talk, or act like this over a girl. Don’t insult my
intelligence, man.”

He
sighed and took another long drink from his bottle of beer.

“What
the fuck am I going to do, Jess? It’s only been a few hours but I can’t stop
thinking about her. I tried to fuck a groupie in the bathroom after she left
but I couldn’t get it hard. This is killing me.”

“Why
don’t you look her up? Kris told me that she was from a town in Indiana that’s
not too far from here.”

“Yeah,
her friend said they lived in Muncie.”

“So
find her,” I insisted.

“I
don’t know. She was pretty standoffish and would probably shit bricks if I
showed up there.”

“Well
you will never know if you don’t take a chance.”

Ryder
shook his head and said, “I don’t know, Jess. I really think if I show up now
it will do more harm than good. I’m going to give her time to maybe thaw that
frosty exterior of hers before I try to find her.”

“But
you are going to go after her?”

Sighing,
he leaned his head back on the wall and replied, “I don’t know Jess.”

“Yes
you do,” I answered, When he looked back to me, he was smiling so wide that his
face probably hurt. I clapped him on the back and replied, “Atta boy.”

Ryder
nudged me and we finished off our beers and continued talking while the rest of
the guys were all playing pool. I was so happy that Ryder had seemed to have
met his match with this Everleigh girl and that life had finally seemed to slow
down for everyone. Of course I should have known that just when things began to
look up for everyone that’s when things came crashing back down.

Over
the next three months, Ryder had talked about Everleigh every single day (even
if he didn’t realize it) and I was so happy when he finally went to Muncie to
find her. Despite a rocky start for the two of them, they pretty much fell into
a relationship as soon as he showed up. However, sadly a few days after they’d
reconnected, Everleigh’s father Max passed away from pancreatic cancer.

We
were all so worried that Ryder would slide backward after literally being there
and watching Max die, but he didn’t. In fact, he showed so much strength and
really took care of Everleigh in every way she needed him to. He was absolutely
amazing to her and it warmed my heart during that sad time to see how much he’d
grown and matured in the short time he knew her.

The
first time I met Everleigh and her friend Danni was at Max’s wake at
Everleigh’s house. I really had hoped to have met her before she lost her
father but by the time Ryder had finally decided to make a move everything
happened too quickly. When I finally met her, I wasn’t only shocked by how
beautiful she was on the outside, but on the inside as well. It was no wonder
that Ryder had been so drawn to her; she was just so easy to love with her
sweet and genuine personality. The one thing I loved most about her instantly was
that she was the most down to earth person I’d ever met and she fell for my
friend for the man he was. That alone made me love her.

Her
friend Danni was also just as beautiful and fun and it wasn’t a huge shock that
Beau fell under her spell. They became friends and emailed and texted a lot
after the show. When the guys followed Ryder to Muncie, they immediately fell
into a “no strings sex” relationship. Unlike Ryder, Beau was a bit more
stubborn when it came to admitting his feelings for Danni and their
relationship was brief and came to blows when we went to New York.