Sinners On Tour 05 Double Time (16 page)

Brian was in the other captain’s chair watching his cell phone anxiously. Sed waved it around as he tried to talk himself out of the hole he’d dug himself into with his fiancée.

Jace had settled onto the sofa across from the captain’s chairs. He was on his cell phone too, texting at a hundred miles an hour and blushing again. He looked tough and so cute at the same time. Reagan wouldn’t mind sitting next to him for the entire journey to Topeka. There was a narrow space between himself and Dave, but not enough space for Reagan to sit. She didn’t think it was appropriate to sit between them and wiggle until they gave her some space. That left the booths around the dining table. The bus moved and Trey placed a steadying hand on her lower back as she stumbled.

Reagan shuffled to the dining area and sat across the table from Eric Sticks. He offered her a smile when she’d settled against the wall. Trey slid into the booth beside her.

Eric’s gaze searched Reagan’s face. “Should I know you?” he asked after several minutes.

“What do you mean?”

“New guitarist for Exodus End. Trey claims that you’re his girlfriend. Either you’re a close personal friend of Dare’s or famous.”

“Neither.”

“She entered that Guitarist for a Year with Exodus End contest,” Trey explained.

“She won?” Eric asked.

Reagan nodded.

“Are they hoping to use a hot woman to get some new fans?” Eric asked.

Trey’s arm wrapped around her waist and he drew her closer to his body. “I can see why you might think that, but they hired her before they saw her. Completely based on the merit of her guitar work.”

“Don’t think a woman can hold her own?” Reagan asked. She knew she was part of a male-dominated profession, but she didn’t tolerate double standards. At all.

Eric shook his head. “Never crossed my mind. I was much more confused by Trey claiming to have a girlfriend than by you going from unknown to a soon-to-be world famous guitarist. I figured Trey must be doing a favor for his brother.”

Reagan took Trey’s hand and looked into his eyes. “Why does everyone find it so hard to believe that you actually like me? Do I have spinach in my teeth?” She bared her teeth at him.

Trey pretended to scrape something out her teeth. “There you go. Now they’ll believe that we’re involved for sure.”

Reagan smiled at him.

The bedroom door opened and a petite blonde emerged wearing a sexy waitress uniform. The fabric was pink gingham with a lacy ruffle around the bottom of a short skirt. Petticoats made the skirt stand out and revealed her white thigh-high stockings and the pink ribbons circling the tops of her legs. The bodice of the uniform was low cut and showed off her cleavage—something Reagan had never had—to perfection. The young woman’s platinum hair was swept up into a sloppy knot. Canary yellow strands, the same shade as Eric’s long strand of hair, surrounded her face. She sashayed her way to the table and handed a drooling Eric what appeared to be a menu.

Reagan looked from Eric, who was perusing the menu with interest, to the woman who was snapping her gum and scratching behind her ear with the end of her pencil.

“What can I get you, sugar?” she asked Eric in an exaggerated Southern accent.

Reagan turned her head and found Trey grinning at the pair.

“Uh…” Reagan wasn’t sure what was going on. Eric had said his wife was kinky, not a waitress.

“What’s today’s special?” Eric asked.

“The sixty-nine is on special, sugar. Is that what you want?” The woman paused with her pencil hovering over her pad of paper.

“I have a big appetite today. I think I’d like an appetizer to start things off.”

“I have a real nice hand job available to whet your appetite for the main course,” she said.

“Does that come with special sauce?”

“It’s available with either cooling or warming lube.”

“Mmm. That sounds good. I’ll take the hand job with cooling lube, followed with the sixty-nine special, hold the orgasm. I’ll follow that with a thick sausage in a pair of buns with some extra cooling lube sauce.”

Rebekah grinned. “Excellent choice, sugar. Will you need any dessert?”

“I’ll decide on dessert later,” Eric said. “But you might want to grab the chocolate syrup and whipped cream from the fridge. I’m feeling artistic.”

Rebekah wrote down Eric’s order and then turned her attention to Reagan. “Can I get you anything, sugar?”

Reagan’s eyes widened. Trey burst out laughing. “This is Eric’s wife, Rebekah,” he said. “She’s just messing with you.”

“Tonight I’m Eric’s waitress,” Rebekah said.

“I’m Reagan.”

Rebekah winked and tucked her pencil behind her ear. “Nice to meet you.”

“Miss,” Eric said in a highly annoyed tone. “Is my appetizer ready yet? I’ve been waiting for almost a minute.”

“It’s right through that door, sugar,” Rebekah said to her husband. To Reagan, she said, “We’ll chat later. Nice to have a bit of estrogen on this testosterone cruise.”

Eric slid from the booth and slapped Rebekah on the ass. “You can expect a very large tip tonight, babe.”

Rebekah smiled seductively. “You know I aim to please.”

Eric wrapped an arm around her waist and palmed her breast. “I love you.”

They paused at the small black refrigerator long enough to collect a bottle of chocolate syrup and a can of whipped cream before shutting themselves in the bedroom.

Reagan scowled. “Does she serve him like that all the time?” Not that it was any of her business, but she was all about empowering women.

“It’s a two-way street. Tomorrow Eric will probably dress up for her and satisfy one of her kinky little fantasies.”

“Do you like that kind of thing?” Reagan asked. She picked up the menu Eric had left behind and found a list of sexual acts. She’d only tried about half of them.

“Rebekah is really creative,” Trey said. “And Eric is well aware of exactly how lucky he is. I wouldn’t mind engaging in a few of their games. Looks like fun.”

Reagan pointed to a selection on the menu. “I don’t even know what this is.”

“I could tell you,” Trey said. He leaned closer to whisper in her ear. “But I’d rather show you.”

“Give me my phone, Sed,” Brian said in the living area. “I need to call Myrna.”

“She’s sleeping,” Sed told him. “Jessica said she looked wiped.”

“Is she okay?”

“She’s fine. Just tired. Relax, Sinclair.”

Brian slapped the cell phone out of Sed’s hand. “You relax.”

Trey offered Reagan a weary smile and then slid from the bench. He picked Brian’s phone off the floor and yanked Sed’s phone out of his hand.

“Hey, I was talking—” Sed protested.

Trey handed Brian his cell phone. “Don’t call her if she’s sleeping. She needs rest,” he said to Brian. “Go show Jace and Dave your pictures. They haven’t seen them yet.”

Brian’s angry glare softened when his phone’s screen saver caught his eye. He squeezed himself in between Jace and Dave, who immediately stopped what they were doing to distract Brian before he throat-chopped Sed.

Trey lifted Sed’s phone to his ear and winced when Jessica’s healthy tirade greeted his eardrum, “… if you expect me to have eight kids, then you’d better be prepared—”

“Jess, it’s Trey.”

“Oh what, is he
hiding
now? Coward. Knock him upside the head for me, will you?”

Trey smacked Sed in the forehead and received a punch in the thigh for his efforts. “Done. Listen, can you have Myrna call Brian as soon as she wakes up? Doesn’t matter what time it is or if he’s onstage, tell her to call him.”

“How’s he doing?” Jessica asked.

“Worse than you can imagine. You know that greenish hue he gets before he goes on stage?”

“Yeah.”

“Multiply that by a thousand. I’m going to give him the phone. You be sure to tell him how great Myrna and Malcolm are doing.”

“She’s been crying on and off all day. She’s having a hard time with this separation too. Aggie finally got her to lay down for a while.” If Brian heard that, Trey knew Brian would commandeer the bus and head back to L.A. Not that Trey blamed him. Trey didn’t like to hear that Myrna was upset either. The woman was Brian’s rock.

“Didn’t you go to law school to learn how to say exactly the right thing?” Trey said to Jessica. “Work your magic.”

Trey turned and thrust the phone in Brian’s direction. Brian was having a bit too much fun making Jace look uncomfortable by describing the entire birthing process. “Jess wants to talk to you,” Trey said.

“Is something wrong?” Brian asked.

“Nope. Everything’s great.”

Jace offered Trey an accusatory glare. Aggie had probably been texting him about the entire situation. The band needed to sit down and come up with a game plan to get Brian through this. He’d already scheduled a red-eye flight back to L.A. for the next morning. When would the man sleep?

“Thanks for getting me off the hook with Jess,” Sed said. He rose from his seat and stretched his arms over his head.

“I don’t think you’re off the hook,” Trey said. “Are you ever going to learn to think before you start saying stupid shit to her?”

Sed lowered his arms and shrugged. “Probably not.” He went to the fridge and found himself a beer. He turned to Reagan sitting in the booth at the dining table and said, “Do you drink beer, Trey’s Girlfriend?”

Reagan’s frosty expression made Trey grin. Most girls went limp when Sed so much as entered a room.

“Sorry, I forgot your name,” Sed said and scratched the back of his neck as he inspected the ceiling.

“It’s Reagan, and yes, I like beer.”

Sed grabbed two beers and slid into the booth across from Reagan. He twisted off a bottle cap and extended his peace offering to her. She hesitantly accepted it and took a swig. Deciding Brian had been temporarily placated, Trey slid into the booth beside her. “I could put in my tongue piercing now, if you’d like,” he whispered in her ear.

“Why wouldn’t I like that?” she said with a grin.

“Depends on if you want to talk or make out. It makes me talk funny.”

“And he clicks it against his teeth and drives us all nuts,” Sed added.

“I can’t sing with it in either, so I only wear it for special occasions.”

“And he has enough special occasions to keep the hole from growing shut.” Sed laughed and flipped his bottle cap at Trey. It pinged off his shoulder.

Trey glanced sidelong at Reagan. In all of his “conquests,” he’d never once considered what it would be like to have to answer to them once he settled on a more permanent relationship. It had never even entered his thoughts. He kept waiting for Reagan to get upset and tell his man-whore self to get lost, but she brushed it off with no problem.

“He keeps hinting that he has some talent with the thing but hasn’t proven it yet.” Reagan stifled a yawn. “I’m currently unimpressed.”

Sed laughed. “Sounds like a challenge. Are you up for it, Mills?” He took another swig of his beer, his eyes fixed on Trey as he tilted his head back and swallowed.

Reagan slid her hand up Trey’s thigh and brushed her knuckles over his fly. “Nope. He’s not up at all.”

The sudden stirring in his groin was about to brand her a liar.

“Eric and Rebekah already claimed the bedroom,” Trey reminded her. “Not enough room in my bunk to do a good job.”

“You better put your name on the bedroom sign-up sheet for tonight. And put your tongue where your mouth is.”

He tilted his head to one side as if perplexed. “Isn’t my tongue
always
where my mouth is?”

She grinned and took a drink of her beer. “You know what I meant. Back your claims with some evidence.”

“Sed,” Brian called from the adjacent living area. “Jess says you owe her five orgasms for that comment about her getting fat. She also claims to love you for some reason and says she will talk to you later.”

Sed grinned. “She still hasn’t figured out that I sometimes say shit to piss her off so she’ll ‘punish’ me.” He finger quoted punish. “Making that woman come is a privilege, not a punishment.”

“When’s the wedding?” Reagan asked.

Sed lifted his brows and stared at the ceiling as he made a mental calculation. “Eighty-seven days.”

“Are you doing anything special?”

“Hell if I know. Our mothers are hashing that stuff out. My job is to show up in a tux and repeat some vows. My mom wants to make sure the ceremony is traditional and momentous. Jess’s mother wants it to be Hollywood’s social event of the year. So Mom’s taking care of most of the wedding stuff, and her mother’s taken over plans for the reception. I don’t have a clue what’s really going on. I’m glad I’m on tour right now and can avoid most of the bullshit.”

“I think Jessica is ready to elope,” Trey said. “She seems pretty stressed out about it all.”

Sed paused with his beer bottle halfway to his mouth. “I should probably jump on that opportunity, but then she’d get pissed that I didn’t let her have her huge wedding.”

Sed knew how to handle his fiancée without her even knowing she was being handled. Which was good, because if Jessica knew Sed made a concerted effort to keep her either placated or riled, that would have really pissed her off. The guy was smarter than he looked.

“I’m never getting married,” Reagan said. “I mean, what’s the point? I guess if you want to raise kids together…” She glanced at Trey. “What do you think?”

Trey shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Well, I guess it depends. My parents have been happily married for over thirty years.”

“Mine too,” Sed said.

“Then you have Eric’s parents. He doesn’t even know who his father is. His mother dumped him off when he was a little kid. I don’t think a marriage would have made a bit of difference in that situation. I still don’t know a thing about Jace’s family situation other than his parents are both dead. And then there’s Brian, whose parents get along okay, but their parenting skills could use a complete overhaul.” He glanced over his shoulder at Brian, who was sitting in one of the captain’s chairs now, staring off into space. “Some people should be married. Brian should be married. Other couples? I’m not so sure.”

“I think it’s important,” Sed said. “With the right woman, of course.”