Owen leaned across Gabe’s body and snatched the phone out of Gabe’s hand before he could find Melanie’s picture and name in his long list of contacts.
“Twenty-four hour rule,” Owen said.
“Rock stars live too fast for the twenty-four hour rule,” Adam said. “Our average life expectancy is equal to one-half normal divided by number of addictions minus the number of small craft flights per month, the number of fast cars owned, and the number of miles driven on a motorcycle without a helmet. I’d say the three-second rule better applies to Gabe here.”
Gabe chuckled. “See? I’m already late calling her.”
“Nah,” Owen said, “you have fewer addictions than Adam and don’t own a motorcycle. You have at least twenty more minutes.”
The bus driver, Tex, climbed up the steps and did a head count. “Y’all ready t’go?”
Most of the band and crew had lost their Texas drawls after traveling around the country and the world for ten years, but not Tex. Gabe figured he took refresher lessons. And when Gabe hung around with him too much, he started talking just like him.
“We’re ready,” Adam said. “Let’s go. I so need to get laid.”
Adam had a regular hook-up in Dallas. Not a girlfriend, exactly. None of them had girlfriends, exactly. Kind of depressing.
Shade headed for his bunk. “I guess I’ll get some sleep. Sure didn’t get any last night. Darling Nikki has some serious stamina.” He took off his sunglasses, revealing weary ice blue eyes. He tucked his shades into the neckband of his T-shirt. “Don’t let Force call that chick while I’m out.”
“Why are you so worried about him calling her, Shade?” Kelly asked.
“He’ll get all pussy-whipped on us if he lands himself a steady girlfriend.” Shade climbed into his bunk. “Besides who would want to be stuck with the same chick all the time when there is so much delicious variety available?”
“Me,” Kelly said.
“Yep. Me too,” Owen agreed with a nod.
“Fuck that. For once, I agree with Shade,” Adam said. “The more variety, the better.”
“Man whores,” Owen said and shook his head at them. “Both of you.”
Shade grunted and slid his bunk’s curtain closed. An instant later his boots dropped out of his bunk onto the floor.
“You don’t have room to talk,” Kelly teased and punched Owen in the shoulder.
“You either.”
“At least we’re ashamed of our whorish ways,” Kelly said, leveling his most serious look at Owen.
Gabe snorted and burst out laughing. “Yep, you’re a regular pair of cloistered nuns.”
“Nuns?” Kelly said. “I think you mean cloistered monks.”
“I wouldn’t mind being cloistered with a bunch of horny nuns for a couple days,” Owen said.
“As long as they were horny,” Adam said with a thoughtful nod.
Kelly laughed. “They’d think you were possessed by demons and try to exorcise you.”
“I’m more likely to exercise them.” Adam slipped two fingers in and out of the loose fist in his opposite hand and smirked at Kelly.
Were they seriously discussing defiling nuns? Sometimes Gabe wondered why he hung around with these guys. Oh yeah, he had no choice.
“Owen might get some nun action,” Kelly said. “He’s the one with the angel face.” Kelly grabbed Owen’s face in one hand and squeezed. “They’d think he was cute.”
“Until they saw how he’s mutilated his junk,” Adam said.
“Not mutilated,” Owen protested through his squished mouth. “The ladies like it.”
Gabe didn’t care how much the ladies liked it; he’d never get his cock pierced. He could invent less painful ways to keep his woman satisfied.
“The ones who aren’t terrified of it,” Kelly said and released Owen’s face. He gave Owen a thunk on the side of the head as an afterthought.
Owen punched Kelly in the thigh and turned his attention to Gabe’s cellphone.
“Owen?” Gabe said.
Owen’s warm, blue eyes rose to meet Gabe’s gaze. “Huh?”
“I think you should give my phone back now.”
He looked down at the screen and started scrolling through Gabe’s apps. “Why?”
“Because I have a lot of blackmail material on you and I’m not afraid to use it.”
Owen found the game he wanted to play and started flinging birds at pigs. “Not half as much blackmail material as I have on you,” he said calmly. “And you care what your mama thinks of you.”
“You don’t want me to call in a favor from Cuff, do you?” Gabe didn’t have to explain what he meant. Owen knew if Gabe called Kelly Cuff in the privacy of the bus, it meant he wanted to use Kelly’s special talents.
Kelly sat up straighter on the sofa, a devilish glint in his dark eyes. “Do you want me to tie him up or tie him down?”
Owen glanced at Kelly as if Gabe’s threat was reward rather than punishment. While he was distracted, Gabe snatched his phone out of his hand.
“I think I’ll take this to the bathroom so you guys don’t bother me,” Gabe said.
“What?” Adam called after him. “Are you going to jerk off for her with video rolling?”
Gabe sighed heavily and rather than correct Adam’s lewdness, he said, “Yep. Twice. So do not disturb.”
Chapter 12
“Are you driving?” Nikki asked Melanie as they waited for the valet to retrieve Nikki’s Bug.
“It’s your car.”
“I’m not sure if I can sit still for that long. I’m a bit tender down there.” Nikki’s eyes rolled southward. “Shade fucks like an animal.”
“And you think Force doesn’t? Why do you think they call him Force?” Melanie would never tell her the secret behind Gabe’s nickname. She liked that there were things between them that were not widely known. She was sure half the planet knew more about his life than she did so what she alone knew, she’d keep to herself. Something to treasure. She couldn’t wait to get to know him better. To learn all the nuances of his personality and history that weren’t part of the public record.
They’d exchanged numbers and said their goodbyes in the hotel suite, mostly because she didn’t want to cry in front of his band mates. She’d felt stupid enough crying in front of him.
“I’ll take the wheel at the halfway mark,” Nikki promised.
“Fine.”
Before they were even out of the hotel’s drive, Nikki had her shoes off, her seat reclined, and her feet up on the dash.
“That was fun, but I don’t think I could handle more than one night with that man. I’m exhausted,” Nikki said.
“I figured you’d be sobbing by now,” Melanie said. She almost laughed at the irony. She was the one who was almost in tears, not Nikki. And Nikki didn’t even recognize that Melanie was upset.
Nikki rubbed her crotch through her jeans. “I’m tender, but I’m not that sore.”
“I mean like you used to in college. You’d call me to come pick you up, cry on my shoulder, and then we’d eat ice cream. Remember that?”
“God, don’t remind me. I was such an idiot, thinking the way to a guy’s heart was through his dick.” She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “I think I fell into that pattern just so we could do the ice cream thing together afterwards. You’ve always been so good to me, Mel. I’d start missing you while you were spending all your time studying, so I’d get drunk and sleep with some loser because I knew you’d come rescue me. Anytime I just called and asked if you wanted to hang out, you were always too busy, but if I was upset over a guy, you’d be there for me in an instant.”
Melanie stopped at a red light and looked at Nikki. She had that needy puppy look on her face and yeah, Melanie, liked it. She wanted Nikki to need her. She had never wanted Nikki to sleep with jerks just to gain her attention though.