Fame (27 page)

Cruz turned toward Rook and patted him on the shoulder. “Real fucked up situation you put us in, bro.”

“It won’t be so bad; you’ll have your fuck buddy, Willow,” Rook tried to point out, as Cruz shook his head.
 

“Yeah, pretty sure that’s over, but then again, you never know with her. She is a total wild card. Anyway, I have a girl in the works that, if I play my cards right, I’ll be seeing her more often. The only thing standing in my way is her damn job, which…” Cruz trailed off as he thought about what she did. He really didn’t know what she did, but whatever it was, it was at night, and he was almost positive it had to do with having sex with guys for money. It was the only conclusion he could come up with.

“What does she do?” Rook asked.

“Umm, not quite sure, but it gets in the way a lot,” Cruz confirmed vaguely. He gave Rook one last pat on the back, just as Maisy and Kaid were walking in the house. The whole crew was here now, fucking fantastic.
 

Grabbing his things, Cruz went up to his room and laid out on his bed. He needed to call Maelani to tell her about his new situation. He wanted to see her, no, he was desperate to see her. She kept putting him off, and he had no clue why. Whenever they set something up, she always had something come up; he was beginning to think maybe she really didn’t want to meet with him, but if that was the case, she wouldn’t have snap chatted some pretty amazingly hot pictures with him the other night. Yeah, he snap chatted and loved every second of it.
 

He pulled out his phone and pressed her name to call her as he turned on his back so he was looking up at his ceiling. After three rings, she picked up.
 

“Why, hello there,” her sultry voice came through the speaker, instantly relaxing him.
 

“Hey, beautiful, how are you doing?”

“Better now that I’m hearing your voice. I’m sorry I keep bailing on you. I owe you one hell of a blow job.”

Groaning into the phone, Cruz replied, “Or you can just spend the night with me so I can fuck you any way I want; that would make up for your neglectfulness,” he added a little pout to his voice.
 

“That sounds awfully tempting. When?”

“Tonight?” Cruz crossed his fingers, but knew it was a fucking long shot that she would be able to come over. Plus, he was being a little risky, bringing Maelani over to his now shared house on the first night, but if he could get her tonight, he didn’t care who he offended…as long as he could taste some of that sweet island pussy again.
 

“What time?”

Hope sparked in him as he shifted on his bed. He didn’t want to sound too eager, but fuck, he was almost as desperate as Rook at this point.
 

“Whatever time you’re available, I’m free, beautiful.”

“Nine? Is that okay?”

No, Cruz wanted to say, he wanted her in his arms now, but that would come off as needy and he was trying to avoid that.
 

“Sounds good, but I have to warn you, I’ve changed addresses.”

“Your place not big enough?” she teased.
 

“No, my place was fucking perfect, but Rook, he’s our lead singer, got us roped into some business with the label where we have to live in the label’s house with Willow’s band and be filmed.”

“Wait,” Cruz could immediately hear the trepidation in her voice. “You’re sharing a house with Willow and it’s being filmed?”

“Not for a little bit, the camera crew still needs to be set up, but yeah, Willow is here.”

“That might not be the best idea…”

Cruz could feel her starting to drift away from him, and he couldn’t have that, not one bit, not after only getting a slight taste of her.
 

“You won’t even see her,” he reasoned. “She lives on the other side of the house and is usually gone, at least from what I’ve heard from Kaid…she’s never home. I’ll sneak you in the back. Please, Maelani, I have to see you.”

Okay, maybe he resorted to a little bit of pleading, but it wasn’t beneath him, he would do just about anything to get her to come to their house.
 

“I don’t know,” she said hesitantly.

Growing antsy and frustrated, Cruz said, “Maelani, don’t deny the chemistry we have. There is something going on between us, and I want to explore it. Please, come over.”

He waited on pins and needles for her response.
 

Sighing into the phone, she responded, “Okay, text me the address and tell me where to meet you. I would rather not run into Willow. She sent me some pretty nasty text messages the other day.”

“Did she?”
 

“Yeah, something about being a back stabber. I got the impression you guys weren’t together; am I wrong?”

“No, you’re not wrong. We were never together, just having fun. I think she’s going through a rough time right now and is taking her anger out on us.”

“Maybe…”

“No, don’t fucking say it; you’re coming here tonight, and I’m going to fuck that sweet pussy of yours, you hear me?” Cruz practically growled into the phone.
 

“Yes,” she responded breathlessly.
 

Satisfied with their conversation, Cruz made plans to meet her out on the back driveway to sneak her in the house through the kitchen. It was a little sleazy, but hey, he was ready to disguise her as a man just to get her in his room. Whatever it took, he was going to be with Maelani tonight.

Chapter Twelve

**Kaid**

“Are you just going to hide out in your room for the next however many months we’ll be here?” Kaid asked Maisy, who was lying on her stomach on her bed with her feet kicked up and doodling in her notebook, not writing lyrics, no, doodling. When he leaned over to see what she was drawing, she quickly closed it, taking on a slight shade of red.
 

Before she was able to shut her notebook, he was able to catch a slight glimpse of what she was drawing, and it wasn’t a picture, more like a name.
 

“Why are you torturing yourself?” Kaid asked, as he sat down next to her, grabbed her notebook, and opened it up to see Rook’s name drawn in all different ways, one even had kitties with each letter of his name on their bellies. It was rather precious.
 

“Hey, give me that, it’s personal.”

“No, it’s not. It’s never been personal before, and by the look of this notebook, it doesn’t seem to be yours. It looks like it’s Rook’s, since his name is written all over it.”

Maisy crossed her arms over her chest like a child and almost pouted. Kaid could see that she wanted to, but she refrained from doing so.
 

“Just give it back.”

Shaking his head in disbelief, he handed it back to her and cupped her chin so she had to look him in the eyes.
 

“Listen to me baby girl, this whole situation with Rook is getting out of hand. I get the vibe that you don’t want to be near him, so I warn him off, tell him to leave you the fuck alone, and then I see you writing his name all over in your notebook. Do you have feelings for him? And don’t lie to me. Just tell me, right now, is there a chance you two would ever get back together?”

Maisy’s eyes darted back and forth, looking at his, trying to think of an answer. He could see the inner wheels of her thoughts starting to work and come to a solution. She closed her eyes for a couple of seconds, and then opened them as she nodded her head yes.”

Shocked, Kaid sat back and studied her.
 

“Wow, I’m kind of surprised, I didn’t think you were going to say yes. I was all ready to give you the fuck him speech and move on with your life, but now, well…shit, I’m kind of at a loss for words.”

Laughing softly, Maisy said, “Sorry to throw you off your game.”
 

“What changed from yesterday to today? Because, on the car ride home, it almost seemed like you were going to ask the driver to turn around so you could slash Rook’s throat or something. I was fucking quaking in my boots from the devil that was peering through your eyes.”

Maisy took a deep breath and then started pacing the room while she held onto her forehead.
 

“I mean…come on, Kaid, the guy goes and sets up this elaborate scheme with the label so we are in the same house, working on albums together, and then once again going on tour together. Who does that? And that letter, was that really true? Because, if it is, I don’t know if I want to kiss him or kick him in the balls. All this heartache because he wanted to save me? What the fuck is that? Did he, all of a sudden, think he was in medieval times with his scepter and shield or whatever the fuck they used back then, swooping in to save my life? I can take care of myself; I have been for years. I didn’t need him protecting me; I just needed him.”

It wasn’t very often that Maisy went on rants, but when she did, Kaid made sure to sit back and just listen, because that was what he did best.
 

When she was finished, he sat up and said, “Maybe he needed to protect you, Maisy. Maybe he thought he was truly doing the right thing. His entire life, he’d been looking for that one thing to live for, to fight for, and you were it, but he was faced with a difficult decision when his dad came around and it might not have seemed like it, but he fought for you one last time, but this time, he fought himself. If you think you can bury the past and move forward, then you need to talk to him, give him a chance to explain. If you don’t think there is a chance in hell you could ever forgive him, then bury it and move on. Stop torturing yourself like this.”

Tears streamed down her face as she held onto the necklace she was wearing, the one Rook got her. Kaid got off the bed and quickly pulled her into his arms.
 

“From the look on your face, I can see that you’re going to listen to him.”

“I don’t think I have a choice. I need to at least listen. If I don’t, I don’t think I will ever move on. I’m just afraid of what everyone is going to say. People judge, you know? Everyone knows what happened to me, how Rook treated me, and they’ll judge me if I decide to take him back; they’ll say I’m not a strong woman, that I shouldn’t give in to a cheater.”

“They can go fuck themselves,” Kaid said earnestly. “No one has any right to judge another person’s life, and do you know why? Because they don’t have the full story; they don’t know what that person has been through in their lifetime to make rash decisions about them. What is life without forgiveness, without second chances, without being able to sit back and listen to someone’s story, to try to understand what they’re conveying? Life isn’t perfect, baby girl, you and I both know that. I would like to meet one person who’s had a perfect life, where everything has gone exactly as they expected. No one has that life; there is always something that has gone wrong, that has kicked them in the ass, whether it’s that they were cheated on, they had a miscarriage, they were beaten by their parents, or picked on at school. Everyone has demons, no matter how intense they are, they still matter, so for someone to judge you on your decision is their problem, not yours. They’re just living in a fantasy world; this is realty. Fighting for something that is so deeply ingrained in your heart is reality, whether you like to believe it or not.”

Kaid wiped away the tears that continued to stream down Maisy’s face while he talked.
 

“The easier thing would be to give up. The hard part is to forgive. You do what’s best for you, and if others don’t like it, then they are just a bunch of judgmental assholes living in a fantasy world, and you know what? Good luck to them, because this right here is real life.”

Maisy nodded and then wrapped her arms around Kaid. He pulled her in tight and put a kiss on the top of her head.
 

“Thank you,” she said into his chest.
 

“You’re welcome. I have to go, but I will see you a little later for dinner, okay?”
 

“Okay.”

Leaving her behind and pulling out his cell phone once he reached his room, he dialed a number he’d been wanting to call since he found out about his new dwellings.
 

“Hello?” that sweet British voice rang over the phone.
 

“Hey, it’s Kaid.”

“Yes, I can see that. There’s this amazing thing nowadays called caller ID,” Harper spoke into the phone.
 

“I see that you’ve taken your sarcastic pill today.”

“Daily dose,” she joked. “So, to what do I owe the fine pleasure of this call?”

“Did you hear about our new arrangements, all of them?”

“I did,” there was slight mirth in her voice.
 

“I can tell, you find this absolutely hysterical.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Oh, just by the way you’re holding back the snort that wants to escape from your nose. Go ahead, laugh it up.”

A little squeal escaped her lips as she laughed. The noise was rather delightful for Kaid to hear, and he hated the fact that he could actually see himself liking Harper, as more than a friend. He hadn’t really thought about a woman in that way in a very long time. He wasn’t necessarily attracted to a lot of women, on a soul to soul basis. Yes, he found women attractive, but to find a woman he could speak freely with, other than Willow and Maisy, was rare for him.