“Overboard?” Carly questions a little sarcastically. “There’s a freakin’ coloured ball pit over there. And is that Twister carpet?”
“Sure is. Alexis’ idea,” I say proudly before swigging my bear. “Isn’t it great? We have it in many of our family-friendly rooms over in the City Promenade building.”
Carly makes her way over to the colourful spotted carpet. “It’s awesome! I want some.”
“That can be arranged,” I inform.
“I reckon the school would benefit from some as well. Alexis, you could seriously be on to something here.”
I take another swig of my beer and gently caress Alexis’ lower back. “That’s what I told her.”
“What? No, it’s just a bit of fun.” She dismisses our praise, and takes a casual sip of her drink.
“Ah, Bryce, here it is.”
I reluctantly step away from her warmth and walk over to Derek to see what he has found. “Here’s what?”
“Backing music for ‘Birth’. Unless you want to hire a friggin’ orchestra and some Taiko drums.”
I raise my eyebrow at him.
“Well...shit, Bryce!” Derek shrugs. “I never know with you; I wouldn’t put it past you wanting to hire the bloody Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.”
“Good on ya, I’m not that bad. Backing music is fine. Although, I think Will may have a Taiko.”
“Sweet! And Luce can handle the electronics on the board. So it’s set then, we are opening with ‘Birth’.”
“What else are you gonna play?” Alexis asks.
I turn and watch her fiddling with some of the soft toys in the play area, her hand gently caressing a pale blue teddy bear’s head. She places it back in the wicker basket then finds my eyes when she realises I haven’t answered her question. We have a moment of unspoken words, something we do often, even more so lately than ever before. Right now I’m telling her that she looks so fucking beautiful pondering over our son’s pending entry into our lives. And her return stare tells me that she knows what I’m thinking and how I feel about her.
“You two make me gag sometimes,” Carly complains, breaking our silent moment.
“You’re just jealous,” Alexis retorts as she closes the gap between us.
“Am not,” Carly mumbles and turns her back to Derek, her face displaying a shade of crimson. Clearly she is.
Leaning against the pool table, I watch Alexis approach me and drape her arms over my shoulders. My hands automatically find her belly, and I rub the precious spot tenderly.
Ghosting my lips with her own, she asks the question again. “So, what else are you gonna play?”
“What do you want me to play?”
A very subtle moan sounds from the back of her throat at the same time she delicately licks her lips, obvious lustful desire rolling from her. I love the way my playing the guitar has such a positive effect on her, her reaction always such a turn-on. I must admit though, watching her play the guitar has the same lust-fuelled effect on me, too. Not to mention the reason why she learned to do so—it still blows me away.
I remember back to when she surprised me and played at one of our gigs while singing “The Only Exception”. I was completely stunned and in awe of her ability to have gained this new skill without me even knowing, together with how amazing she looked, performed, and sang. Back in that moment, no one but her existed up on that stage, her voice carrying a superb musical message which was for my ears only. It was something I would never ever forget, and her way of letting me know that no matter what we experienced together in life, we would always pull through.
Since that day, Alexis has been learning more of the basics and is a natural with a guitar, in fact, she is a natural musician. I’ve given her a few private lessons myself, but the both of us never really get far when I’m teaching, ending up on the floor in a sexually charged tangle of body and limbs. Unfortunately, I’m thinking that if she is serious in the learning the guitar properly, maybe it’s best Derek continues to teach her. After all, he has done a good job so far.
“I’d love to see you all do a Kings of Leon song,” Alexis purrs, bringing me back to now. She lowers her head and whispers into my ear, her warm breath tickling my lobe. “You know what their music does to me.”
And there it is, her ability to so easily drive me wild, my cock now wanting out of his pen and into hers. All it taking was the sound of her suggestive voice.
“Oh, yeah?” I swallow and grip her tight arse. “What did you have in mind?”
“The End,” she says with a salacious smile.
Derek interrupts our moment by singing the first line of the song while air-guitaring like a member of an eighties hair band. Not so surprisingly, the talented fucker actually nails the tone and lyrics of the song. Alexis smiles and turns her head toward him, at the same time baring her neck which is only centimetres from my mouth. The smooth soft skin before me begs to be stroked by my tongue, the fresh floral notes rolling off her, mesmerising me. I lean in and whisper into her ear. “Do you want me to play it now?”
She turns, her lips just touching mine. “You know it?”
“I do.”
“Then yes, Mr. Clark, play it for me.”
I push off from the pool table and bend down to kiss her stomach then head for my Gibson ES-137.
Slinging it over my shoulder, I hand Derek the bass and raise my eyebrow at him. “Lexi wants a quick demo.” I plug the amp in, tune it with a few strums and wait for Derek to count himself in.
As I play my first chord, I take in the sheer worship and adoration in the sparkle of Alexis’s eyes, and it’s one of the best fucking sights imaginable.
Later that night in bed, I gently caress her tired body.
“I shouldn’t have attempted to play Twister,” she groans.
“Not your brightest idea, my love,” I agree with a smile as I sit up on the bed. “Where are you sore?”
“My piglets are hurting, and my back needs to man-up,” she replies almost sulkily. Her gloomy pout is so damn cute.
“Here, let me show some love to those piggies.”
“No!” she snaps.
“Alexis, let me rub your bloody feet,” I state, my tone displaying that I’m not in the mood for her reservations of her feet being touched.
She growls then surrenders, placing them onto my lap. “Fine.”
Taking a hold of one foot, I lightly pinch her big toe with my fingers, giving it a gentle wiggle. “This little piggy went to maaarket...” I begin.
Knowing she will try to kick me, I quickly secure both her feet tightly, but not tight enough to cause any discomfort, the ankle she broke just over a year ago still gives her a little grief.
“You’re mean,” she pouts.
Chuckling, I place a soft kiss on the ankle in question and start to lightly massage the bottom of her foot. “So, I looked up some baby names—”
“Did you?” she smiles. “And...any you like?”
“Nothing that screams ‘my son’. Anyway, how can we name him without seeing him first? The name we pick may not suit him.”
“Pfft, I picked out Nate and Charli’s names when I was nine years old.”
I swap her feet, gently placing one down and picking up the other. “What?”
“Sure did. Jen and I were playing in our cubby house with our dolls. We got to talking about who we were going to marry when we grew up and how many kids we were going to have. That’s when I chose those names.”
“You didn’t change your mind at all?” I ask, both shocked and a little unconvinced.
Alexis yawns and closes her eyes. “Nope, I loved those names when I was young and I still love them to this day.”
“What if Rick hadn’t liked them?”
She shrugs her shoulders, eyes still closed. “It would’ve been stiff shit...a deal breaker,” she explains, the corners of her mouth lifting into a smug smile. “He liked them though, so it was easy, really.”