Not Quite Juliet: A Club Imperial Novel (Silver Soul Book 1) (32 page)

He jerked me to my feet and slammed his mouth on to mine. He probed viciously, mixing our two tastes together over our tongues. Finally he started to relax as I pulled his pants back to where they needed to be. The kisses went from deep to just small meetings of our mouths, careful and exhausted.

“Jesus Christ, kitten,” he gasped. “I had no idea you could do that.”

“See what happens when you let the kitten play her way?”

“I should marry you just for your blow jobs.”

~*~*~

W
e waited at stage door right for someone to clear us. Apparently, they’d had an unusual number of people trying to sneak back the past two weekends and Quentin had put in a ‘do not let anyone back unless the band says okay’ policy in place. I didn’t mind. Nick and I had our phones working again, and we even had a backup plan in place if that should happen again.

The door opened and whoever was there motioned it was okay for everyone to come back. It was ten of us total and I motioned everyone ahead of me. Just as I was about to walk in, Dave stepped directly into my path.

“Not you, fat bitch.”

“Oh, don’t fucking start this, Dave,” I said.

“Quentin’s rules. Only who the band okays can go back.”

“You’re not the band, asshole.”

Tiny reached over and shoved the door open, out of Dave’s hand. “You know damn well she’s D’s girlfriend. Let her in. Why’d you come down anyway?”

“Because I
am
the band,” he said. “And I was hoping it was something a little less whale-like.”

“Shove it, Dave,” Tiny said, motioning me past him.

I ducked under and walked over to the rest of my group. They were all standing there with their mouths open, staring at Dave. Walking past, I rolled my eyes. “Not worth it, yins. Come on. There’s a room full of hot rock star back there.”

Nadine was the first to turn and run after me. She slung her arm around me. “Was it me, or could your sex machine not keep his eyes off you on that second set?”

“He can’t keep anything off me.” I smirked.

“There are days I can’t keep anything on you.” Nick’s arm was suddenly around my waist and he pulled me into him against the wall. “Hey, kitten.” I could hear my sister making gagging noises.

“Hey, Doc,” I said.

“Doc?” Allison asked.

“Doctor. Of Love.” Nick gave her the biggest grin he could. All the girls cracked up laughing and he planted a serious kiss on me. I could still taste myself. I smirked.

“This is the illegal one, I take it?” He nodded at Allison.

Allison huffed. “I’m legal.” She pointed at Nick. “You need to do something about that swinging dick who answered the door.”

“Ally!” Emmy snapped.

“Oh, please.” Allison seemed completely immune to her sister’s domme voice. It was impressive. “He’s a swinging dick and you know it. Everyone knows it. Even he knows it.” She point at Nick. Nick shrugged. “See?”

The door behind us banged open again, and Dave hustled in with five blond, buxom bimbos who were giggling and barely dressed. One of them was dressed in leather, and clearly thought she was someone’s dominatrix. Emmy, Chantal, Nadine, and I couldn’t stop the laughs that escaped us.

Dave led them through the hall and past us. He nodded at one of them, with a bad boob job, who sidled up to Nick and wrapped her arm around him. While I was standing there. With his arm around my waist.

“Dave thinks we’d be good for each other,” she oozed.

“So help me,
God
, if you don’t take your hand off my man, I will take it off your body.” It was a growl, and if I had been a werewolf, I would’ve wolfed out on the bitch.

Nick put his hand over mine. “Relax, kitten,” he said. “Penny here was just moving along, wasn’t she?”

“You’re no fun, Nick,” she purred. “Let me show you how much fun I can be.”

“Morgan, don’t.” It was Emmy, right next to me. Full on domme voice, hissed in my ear. And it was the only thing that kept me from grabbing the woman’s arm and slamming her face first into the wall next to me.

“Penny, darling.” Nick’s tone was completely calm and totally condescending as he stepped away from me to handle this. “Every damn time you see me, you do this shit. I have my arms around a beautiful woman
that isn’t you
. Take a fucking hint, remove your arm from my person, and move on with those fake titties of yours. I got the real deal right here, and I’m just not buying what you’re selling. Maybe Dave will let you suck him off after all of your friends get done with him.”

Nadine, Cece and Emmy were biting their lips. Heather, Rachelle, Chantal, and Lisa were standing with their hands over their mouths. Allison, Nicole and I were just watching, our eyes as wide as saucers. He’d completely shut her down, in front of us, in front of Dave and in front of her friends. But it looked like only one of the friends actually got what had just happened. The others were all giggling, clueless. As if just being spoken to by Nick D was an orgasm through the ether.

Dave, on the other hand, knew exactly what had just happened. The daggers he was staring at Nick could’ve slaughtered half the population of Pittsburgh. He walked away from the Bimbettes and straight over to Nick. He took Penny’s hand and shooed her over to the others.

Nick pulled me in again. “I’m not doing this with you here and now, Dave.”

“I don’t know. Your little speech just now seemed to say differently.”

“She had her hands on me while I’m standing here with my girlfriend.” Nick leaned forward a little bit. “You know, the one I wrote a fucking
song
for?”

“You don’t seem to get it, no matter how many different ways I try to put this to you.” Dave was angry and puffed out. Right down to his hair, like he’d grown a Bump-It. Which was impressive because the dude was sporting a serious throwback 80’s mullet to begin with. “The fat bitch is bad for our publicity.”

The Bimbettes Five “ooh’ed” and then giggled while the nine of my friends gasped quietly behind me. It was like an insult showdown.

“The fat bitch,” Nick spat the words, “is, first, not fat, and second only a bitch to you. Third, she’s my girlfriend and my fucking muse. That entire fucking album we’re almost ready to record in the space of a month is all songs she inspired. So if you think for an instant this woman I’ve got tucked in my arm is bad for publicity, you’re a bigger asshole than any of us thought.”

“I’m going to make sure Quentin throws her out, and she can’t ever come back.”

Nick let me go, and stepped up to him. “I will see your ass in the street and out of my band before you can even take the first step toward Quentin if you think you’re going to do that. Quentin thinks you’re as much of an asshole as I do.” He pointed at the five girls standing there. “If a single one of those things step out of line just once tonight, I will hand you your ass on a silver platter and tell you to tongue-fuck your own asshole and like it. And then I’ll open the door and spill all of your asses out into the cold and out of the band.” Dave opened his mouth to find Nick’s finger in his face. “One step, Dave. Just one. They keep their hands off me, and they don’t talk to Morgan.”

Dave stared at him, then quietly spoke. “You wouldn’t dare kick me out of the band. You could never find someone to replace me.”

“Try me, dickmit.” Nick stared him down.

“Try me too, fartknocker.”

Vatori was standing against the wall, arms folded, pants on, watching the whole thing go down. I didn’t know he was there, and by the way half of us jumped, no one else had either. He pushed off the wall and walked over to where Nick and I were standing. I heard Lisa sigh and I knew she was watching his every muscle ripple as he walked.

“Dave, if you haven’t been able to figure it out, you’ve been skating on thin ice with all of us for the past few months.” Vatori stood very close to me and my drunken self wanted to reach out and touch his incredible chiseled hot body. Nick was gorgeous and I wanted to keep him, but Vatori was one of those male specimens that made you want to touch. “You’re not gaining any points by pulling this doorman shit.”

“
Look at her!!
” he yelled pointing to me.

Vatori turned his head and smiled at me. Even after hanging with these guys for weeks now, they were still Silver Soul, and having Vatori checking me out on purpose, his eyes wandering over me, the fangirl was giggling and modeling. Instead of shutting her up, I stepped out of Nick’s arms and struck a pose. Wow. Go home, Fangirl. You’re drunk.

But it was fun. And my friends all gave me a right proper golf clap.

“What about her?” Vatori asked. “Look at those tits. How Nick isn’t latched on right now making himself at home I don’t know. They’re scrumptious.”

Holy hannah, I just had my tits called scrumptious. In front of sixteen people. Nick grabbed me, reeled me into him and stuck his face in my cleavage and started motorboating me. I threw my head back and laughed loudly.

“You know what’s even more sexy than her tits?” Chantal offered. “The way he looks at her. The way he eats her up with his eyes. The way he’s not afraid to offer her a public Brunski.”

“She is fat!” Dave was raging. “She can’t even shop at a normal store! How is she attractive at all? None of our fans want to see this vat of lard wobbling around with our entourage! She’s probably just as stupid as she is fat. She’s going to wreck the whole band and our look. You need to lose the fat whore.”

“Don’t you dare call my sister a fat whore!” Nicole screamed at the top of her lungs.

I’d spent the majority of my adult life working on not letting other people’s opinions of my weight get to me. I knew what I ate was healthy, I knew I spent an hour in the gym four days a week. I knew how to dress. I could outlast just about most of my friends when we went hiking or biking or walking. But right there, with all of my friends, with my boyfriend, his friend, standing there supporting me, this asshole broke me.

I slumped, and swallowed my tears. I walked up to Dave and slapped him as hard as I could across his face. I turned on my heel, and headed straight for the back door. I slammed through, my ears ringing and blood running hot and cold.

“Morgan!” It was Nick running after me.

I slammed the door and walked out into the parking lot. I couldn’t drive. I was too smashed. I staggered to the front of the building thinking I could get a taxi.

“Morgan!” Nick grabbed my arm. “Stop, stop.”

I ripped free of his grip. “Just go away.”

He grabbed me again. “No! I don’t want to go away. I don’t want you to go away either. Dave is done. He’s done. This is the last time he’ll ever talk to you, never mind what he just said.”

“Just let me go,” I said, letting the tears falls. “Let me go. I love your band. I don’t want to be the reason you don’t exist anymore. I’ll just stay away and you won’t have your image ruined by me. I’ll take my fat whore self away from here.”

“No, Morgan.” He pulled me in closer to him. “I’ll give up the band before I give you up.”

I stared at him, astonished. “You...you can’t do that...”

“The band is fun, Morgan, but when it starts hurting someone I love, I know enough to walk away. I did it once and I’ll do it again. Either he’s going or I am. And we’ll decide that tomorrow.” He wrapped his arms around me. “Let’s get the others and we’ll go to my place with the other guys. We’ll hang there. Keep Dave way the fuck away from you.”

What did he say? What did he say back ten seconds? Did he say I was someone he loved?

“Come on, kitten. Let’s get the others. We’ll get out of here.”

“No, wait, hang on.” I shook my head. “Nick, I don’t want you to give up the band. I really don’t. You are amazingly talented and you enjoy being Nick D. Don’t break up the band. I don’t want to be Silver Soul’s Yoko Ono. We’ll figure something out. I’ll only see you when you’re not here or—”

“No, fuck that!” He shook his head. “You’re my girlfriend, and you have as much right to be here as Lauren, or any of the women the other guys are seeing. I’m not going to let him do this to us. To you. Oh, for fuck’s sake, Morgan. I love you.”

The world just stopped. There was no screeching halt, there was no jerk or tilt. It just stopped. Nick held my eyes, searching my face. I could almost hear him wondering if he had fucked up by saying those words. I leaned into his arms and put my head on his shoulder. He ran a gentle hand over my hair, softly, gently, ever-so-soothing.

“I love you too.” It was a whisper.

“Good.” He pulled me in tighter. “There was more to the end of the Beatles than Yoko, anyway.”

“You sure? She’s a pretty horrible singer.”

“No argument there, but John kept wanting to bring more and more people into the band, and Paul and George weren’t hearing it. They felt they were losing control as it was.”

“Holy crap, you’re a closet Beatles fan!”

“No closet here. I’m out and proud. Wait until you hear the new stuff.”

“Did you really write an entire album because of me?”

“We did.” He kissed my nose. “Let’s get your friends. We’ll go to my house, and tomorrow we’ll deal with his bullshit.”

“It’s Emmy’s bachelorette party,” I said. “We should probably let her decide what she wants to do...”

“See? You’re always thinking of others.”

“Nick!” It was Vatori. “Morgan?!” He emerged from around the corner of the building. “There you are! Good, I’m glad you didn’t get away. Dave left for the night with all the bimbos and your sister is freaking out. Come back. All the ladies are looking for you. They’re worried. There’s good food. And booze. Lots of booze. I hear Morgan is fun when plastered.”

Nick laughed. “Your idea of good food is questionable at best.”

“Come on, dude,” he said. “I had to put on pants for this shit show. Let’s go back inside.”

“Are you going to take your pants off if we go back in?” I asked.

“Of course.”

I grabbed Nick’s hand and dragged him back toward the door.

––––––––

I
heard the door open and shut, followed by the rustling of bags. I was trying not to pay attention because I had a brief due to my professor at five on Tuesday, and I didn’t want to spend my weekend writing the damn thing. Case law, Stare Decisis, was critical if I wanted to be a judge, but looking up the precedents in Lexis Nexus was a pain in the ass. But this was also what I knew I was in for after graduation. I wanted to be a law clerk, and I was hoping that MacPhearson would take me on.