Ross 02 Rock Me (21 page)
Authors: Cherrie Lynn
The three danced around in a silly merry-go-round hug and finally broke apart, laughing. Kara evaded Ghost’s groping as best she could before moving on to Brian and then Candace, surprising him by grabbing her in a hug, too. Candace returned it, beaming.
“Candace, meet Kara.” Brian laughed. “Who is not shy in the least.”
“I’ve never met you before,” Kara said to her, “but if you’re with him then you’re all right by me.”
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Cherrie Lynn
“Oh, I’m…” Candace looked at him in alarm, and he gave a little shake of his head to say it was okay. They didn’t need to explain themselves to anyone. “It’s nice to meet you. I hope you don’t mind me coming along.”
“Of course not. You guys might be crowded tonight, but we are fully equipped for this sort of thing, trust me. The more the merrier.”
“That’s if we sleep at all,” Ghost said happily.
Kara was still scrutinizing Candace. “Brian, she’s adorable! Look at that face. You take good care of him, Candace. Ever since he was a starry-eyed eighteen-year-old kid hanging around our parlor, he’s been one of my favorite people.”
“Just one of them?” he teased, and she winked at him.
“I’ll do my best,” Candace assured her, looking overwhelmed.
Kara gave her arm a squeeze and turned to the rest of them. “Marco left with Connor and Tay. Beer run. I’m watching the grill out back, so you guys had better come on in before I burn something down.”
“Sw
eet
,” Ghost said. “I’m starving.”
“Con and Tay made it here already?” Brian asked. “They made good time.” His other two workers had ridden separately.
“They said they set the cruise at ninety.” Kara rolled her eyes as she led them into the foyer of the house. Brian’s hand sought out Candace’s and he gave her fingers a squeeze. He really couldn’t imagine how she was feeling right now, thrown into the mix with a bunch of strangers the likes of which she’d probably never hung out with before. Kara had sleeves as solid and dense as his own, a nose ring and angelbites. Not to mention everything you
couldn’t
see. She was brash and opinionated and, much like him, didn’t give a damn what anyone thought. A far cry from the Andrews family, not to mention his own. Candace probably felt about as comfortable as he did when forced to hang out with his own straightlaced relatives, except she seemed to be having a lot more fun than he did in those situations. Kara grabbed all the girls and headed into the kitchen with them to make drinks. Candace tagged along, complimenting her on the house.
She was just too sweet, too polite. He’d never imagined falling for someone like her, not in a million years, but if he was honest with himself, he knew that was only because he couldn’t have imagined a girl like her falling for
him
.
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Chapter Fourteen
Kara was very pretty and even more intimidating. Not that she was unfriendly. She was too cool and too likeable. Surrounded by girls who knew one another and seemed to be best friends, Candace felt she was struggling to keep from blending into the background. She didn’t want to let Brian down by not meshing with his friends, but it wasn’t just for him. She needed this for herself. To prove to herself that she could function when she wasn’t under the protective shadow of her freakishly tyrannical family. She met Kara’s husband and Brian’s other two employees when they got back from the liquor store. Marco was tall with long black hair and, as expected, lots of tattoos. He and Brian greeted each other with guy hugs and good-natured insults, but there was no question he was someone Brian had a lot of respect for. The guys headed out into the backyard to take over grilling duties while the girls gathered around the kitchen table.
Candace accepted the beer she was offered, feeling it would’ve been rude not to do so, but she barely sipped it. Kara wasn’t drinking, because apparently she and Marco were trying to get pregnant. The conversation flew fast and furious, skipping from catching up to work to music to Kara’s endeavors to conceive.
“So how is the baby-making sex?” Janelle was inquiring. “You would think it would be kind of boring and mechanical, like, ‘I’m ovulating! Give it to me
now
!’”
Kara shook her head, laughing. “It’s actually not. To me it’s even more exciting, to wonder in the middle of it if this could be
the one
. And, girl, it’s never boring. I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of him.”
Her lips curled as she stared out the window, where the guys were gathered around the grill.
“How long have you been married?” Candace asked.
“Seven years. But we’ve been together for fifteen. Met in high school.”
“Wow.”
Kara’s attention turned back to her. “How long have you and Brian been dating? It must be a new development because he never mentioned you until he called earlier today to say you were coming.”
“Oh, um…actually, we’re not really dating. I mean, I wish I could say we were, to be honest, but…it’s complicated.”
A chorus of voices spoke up at once:
“Girl, he’s crazy about you.”
“You could totally be with him if you want to be.”
Cherrie Lynn
“Complicated sucks. Simplify things and go for it.”
They all laughed. Candace shrugged and kept her gaze trained on her beer, turning the bottle around and around with her fingers. She was heading in the wrong direction. Things weren’t getting simpler; they were only getting more complicated, thanks to her actions today. It was getting close to one o’clock. Every time she thought about it, a flock of butterflies went wild in her stomach and her heart did a sick flip-flop. What were they going to do when they couldn’t find her?
This was so against the grain for her. And there was always the possibility that Brian would be angry when he found out what she’d done. What if he hated her for only making things worse? What if it totally ruined the weekend for him? What if he would be disgusted when he learned she was a spineless little mouse who had to run and hide from her problems?
What had she
done
?
She looked around Kara’s neat, prettily decorated kitchen and wished she could have something like this. Freedom. A home that was hers. The man she loved and wanted to spend the rest of her life with.
“You’ve got it bad for him too,” Starla observed. She cleared her throat and straightened in her chair.
“He probably said something already, but I wanted to tell you myself that I’m sorry I roped him into taking me to the bar the night you were there. It was nothing. He’s been helping me through a rough spot with my man. Brian’s a great friend, and the whole time we were there, all he did was pine for you, really.”
“He did?”
“He was in a funk all night at work. I’m telling you, the man is strung out over you.” Starla gave her a look then that led Candace to believe she knew more than she was letting on. “Don’t play with his head, okay?” she finished gently.
“That’s the last thing I want to do. I… There are some things I’m having to work through right now.”
“Let him help,” Kara offered. “Don’t shut him out.”
“I feel like he deserves someone who isn’t this soul-sucking emotional burden on him.”
“Honey, all he deserves is someone who loves him for who he is. If there’s a soul-sucking emotional burden to bear, then so be it. Bear it together.”
The three pairs of eyes watching her were kind but inquisitive, as if they were trying to decipher her true intentions with their friend. She could understand. It warmed her heart that he had people who cared about him so much. She’d always considered him sort of a loner type, only to find he had a greater support network than she did.
Kara leaned across the table, her exotic, darkly lined and shadowed eyes intense. “It’s worth it in the end. I promise you. Once you wade through all the bullshit and the two of you are all that’s left, you’ll be glad you took a chance. If you love him.”
Oh, God, she was going to cry again. Panicked, she took a long pull at her beer and struggled to stomach the flavor.
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Rock Me
Kara had mercy on her and flashed her a wicked grin. “And you have me to thank for talking him into his apadravya. FYI, I accept gifts of chocolate and fine wine.”
“Girl, you’d better buy her some Cheval Blanc or something,” Janelle muttered under her breath.
“I’ve never had the experience, but I’ve heard those things are…” She trailed off to give a full-body shudder.
“It hits all the right spots,” Kara supplied.
“And hits them over and over and over…” Starla grasped the table edge and tossed her head back in mock ecstasy. Candace felt her cheeks flaring red as the other girls laughed. Kara’s smile dimmed as she noticed Candace hiding behind her beer again. “You like it, don’t you?”
Starla interrupted her pretend orgasm to stare at Candace with great interest.
“We, um… I wouldn’t know, actually. But I’m sure I will.”
“Whoa. I’ll be waiting for the phone call to thank me, then. And for the Godiva and Cheval Blanc, of course.”
“Did you actually do his piercing?”
“I did. I am a complete professional, don’t worry. Hell, ordinarily I wouldn’t have even brought it up, but I figured you two were going at it like bunny rabbits already.”
Candace startled when the door opened and Brian walked in with a platter of burgers, only to pause when the other three girls dissolved into fits of laughter. “Oh, hell,” he said. “I can only imagine what I’ve interrupted.”
Kara had no shame. “We were just discussing the joys of the apadravya. Why don’t you enlighten us with the male opinion, Bri?”
He gave a sheepish grin and walked over to the counter. “I’m a good boy and a gentleman. I don’t discuss those matters.”
“What
ever
.” Kara laughed. “Marco said you had plenty to discuss after you put it to use for the first time. You called him raving.”
“I have to know,” Candace cut in, not particularly wanting to hear about that. “How did he take it when you pierced him?”
“He screamed like a little girl,” Kara said.
“The hell I did!”
She sent Candace a wink. “Just kidding. He was one of my silent, stoic ones. Got a pretty good flinch out of him and that was about it. Now tell us how it
really
felt.”
He laughed. “Shit. I wanted to scream like a little girl. If I hadn’t already had the PA part done, I probably would have screamed, curled up in the corner and cried for my mommy.”
“You, sir, are a good man,” Janelle said, lifting her drink in his direction. “If only more of you were willing to torture yourselves in the name of getting us off.”
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“Don’t paint me as too much of an altruist,” he said, his gaze lingering on Candace. She drew a deep breath, meeting his gaze directly, unflinching. Too often its intensity had chased her own downward. No more. There was nowhere else she needed to look but at him. For a moment, he seemed to lose his train of thought, and she felt a rush of pure feminine triumph. “I get plenty of benefits myself.”
In their hometown, among their families, Brian was the offbeat. Here, in this breathtaking crush of colorful bodies, it was her. As they’d entered the main gates and she’d stopped to stare in astonishment, he had chuckled and said, “Welcome to my world.”
She’d never seen anything like it before in her life.
She was sore, she was sweating, she was exhausted, she was nearly deaf, and she was having the time of her life. She’d seen every kind of tattoo conceivable (but when she’d made that remark to Brian, he’d replied, “Uh, no. You haven’t.”). Every hair color that could possibly be imagined and some that couldn’t. She’d watched fights break out. She’d witnessed security pile on top of troublemakers, wrestle them to the ground and escort them out. She’d helped someone crowd surf over the top of her head and she thought her finger was broken from the experience. She’d seen two girls making out. Later, one of them had tried to pass her a joint, but Brian had promptly waved it away.
Always, he hovered protectively at her side, shoving moshers away from her, sending threatening looks to the guys who ogled her or—God forbid—tried to lay a hand on her. The bands were amazing. She didn’t know who half of them were, but electricity filled the air with each new stage set-up as fans anticipated the next set. Music rumbled and thundered over the speakers even between sets as the crowd thinned and loosened a bit, people leaving to get more drinks or food. But when the first bone-rattling riffs of the next band split the air, the crush was back, tightening, frenzied, feverish. There was nothing to do but go with the never-ending flow of bodies as she was pushed and pulled by the crowd.
She would’ve thought something like this would make her panic. It might have, if not for one startling revelation: she
belonged
here. In this sea of people, she felt actual acceptance. They were all here for one thing: to forget their problems for a while, to let the music become their world. No one knew her or where she’d come from or what she’d done. They were just like her. And all the while, Brian was with her, watching out for her. Every time she looked at him, he was looking back, a little grin lingering on his lips. Darkness fell. By now, the wedding was over and her family was cursing her name. Once, she’d seen Brian check his cell phone, and her heart had leapt into her throat. What if they called him? Naturally, after last night, they would check with him if she went missing, wouldn’t they? Especially Michelle; she surely still had his number.
But he’d simply shut the phone and slid it back into his pocket. 124
Rock Me
Now, rainclouds were gathering overhead and there was electricity in the air as the crowd awaited Korn’s set. Candace’s feet and calves ached like crazy and more than once she’d envied the people who had seats, or the girls who were perched on top of their boyfriend’s shoulders. She didn’t dare ask Brian if she could do that. She’d figured out if you took up that position, you were more or less expected by the crowd to flash your boobs at least once. Not happening.
