A Rock & Roll Romance (4 page)

“I’m going to kill you in your sleep.” I mumbled under my breath.

“What was that?” He started laughing.

“Nothing.”
I backpedaled.

“I
t will be easy since we’re sharing a room.”

“What!?”
I shrieked.

“
I have the entire top floor. There’s more than enough room.” He shrugged.

“You have got to be kidding me!
”

“Aubrey, I thought we were going to try and be friends. Why are you fighting the inevitable? I’m not that
awful, I promise. I don’t bite, unless you’re into that kind of thing, then I’d gladly make an exception.” He winked, and I slugged him in the stomach.

Damn
, his stomach must be made of iron because it hurt my hand.

My dad was going to get a phone call
, right after I showered. We made our way up to the room and waited in the hallway until Brett gave the go ahead. Jake told me about some of the things and people that Brett found in his hotel rooms throughout the years. They ranged from girls (and guys), young and old, to presents and death threats from angry boyfriends and husbands. I shuddered. The more he talked about celebrity life the more unpleasant it seemed.

He
told me that he always loved music and writing songs, so it made up for the negative. He said when he stepped out on stage all of the crummy stuff dissipated and he was just Jake Parker, the kid from Arizona singing in the mirror. We walked into the suite, which was enormous but only had two bedrooms. I eyed him skeptically. I was ready to walk out the door when he said that Brett always slept in the living room while they were in New York. Just in case someone tried to break in.
Just lovely.

I went into the
room that he picked out for me and unpacked my toiletries. I headed into the bathroom to shower, and get ready for bed. When I got out I brushed my teeth and tossed my hair up on the top of my head. I dressed in a pair of black and pink plaid shorts and a hot pink tank top. I walked over to the end table and picked up my phone. I dialed my dad.

“Hi
, honey.” He answered sweetly.

“Don’t you dare
‘hi honey’ me Timothy Thompson!” I chastised.

“Oh shit.
You’re really mad, aren’t you?” He was clearly trying to hide his amusement, but was doing a shitty job of it.

I slid open the
balcony door and stepped out to smoke.

“Mad.
I’m not mad. I passed being mad about three hours ago. I’m pissed.”

I lit up
and took a long drag.

“Sorry pumpkin. How’s it going other than that?”

“Mark is out with friends, so I’m all by myself in a penthouse with a rock god and his bodyguard. How does it sound like it’s going?”

“
Huh? Well, have a good time and be safe. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

I knew what he was trying to
do, and it wasn’t going to work. I hung up the phone and noticed that Jake was standing in the doorway. He was just wearing a pair of black athletic shorts that were slung low on his hips.
Damn, he’s sinewy.
He was thoroughly ripped with every muscle clearly defined. Part of me wanted to take a microscope to him so that I could check out his tattoos. The other part of me wanted to wall-bang him, which was weird because I was a virgin with an aversion to touch. The more logical part said to stay where I was. So that is exactly what I did.

“Is this a bad time to ask
you to come to our show tomorrow?” He asked amused.

“Seriously?
Don’t you know how to knock?” I rolled my eyes.

So what does the
smart ass do? He knocks on the doorframe.

I walked back inside the room
and sat on the edge of the bed. If my mother saw this scene, she would probably have a heart attack. I was actually talking to a guy, and I was wearing trashy sleepwear with no make-up and messy hair.

“Would you
please
come to my show tomorrow?” He pleaded.

“Since you asked so nicely…
No.” I goaded.

“Don’t make me
grovel.” He walked into the room and sat on the bed next to me.

I could feel his body heat radiating off of him
. He smelled so good too, like citrus and something musky. He put his hand on my shoulder, and I tried to pull away, but he had a firm grasp. I started to panic, but then I noticed that I didn’t tense up, which shocked me even further. He started rubbing circles in my shoulder blades. It actually felt nice, and I let myself start to relax a little.

“Come on
, Aubrey. Friends, remember?” I nodded still apprehensive. “So tell me about home.”

“Wh
at do you want to know?” I asked.

“I
don’t know. Where are you from? What do you like to do? Who your friends are? I’ll take whatever you’re willing to offer up.” He shrugged.

“I’m from Smithville, Ohio
, born and bred. I like it there. It’s home. Most of my friends went away for college and never came back. I don’t blame them though. Small town living isn’t for everyone. My best friend is Piper. If she knew that I was here with you right now, she’d be banging down my dad’s door begging for him to fly her here.”

He laughed.

“Maybe he should have sent Piper instead. At least she would have been happy to see me.” He teased. “But in all seriousness, I’m glad it was you. You’re refreshing. You don’t have high expectations of me, so I can just be myself. I like it. Now, what do you like to do for fun?”

“I
like to read. I listen to music. Yes, even yours. I especially love going for long drives with no destination. What about you?” I asked because I didn’t honestly know too much about him at all.

“Same. It’s been
extremely hard to do a lot of those things the last couple years since I can’t go anywhere without being hounded. I used to love road trips. You’re going to laugh, but I’m a total sucker for bed and breakfasts’.” I did laugh, but I actually felt sorry for him. I was feeling much more relaxed, thanks to his impromptu massage. “So about tomorrow… will you come?”

“I don’t think I have a choice, do I?”
I cocked an eyebrow.

“Then it’s settled
.” He smiled and stood. “Night, Aubrey.” He walked to the door and turned. “That chest piece is smokin’ by the way.”

I
looked down and realized that he may have seen quite a few of my tattoos. Surprisingly, I actually didn’t feel embarrassed which is highly unlike me. Something weird was going on… I might actually like Jake Parker.
Gasp!

Jake

I
left Aubrey’s room, which was the room that I usually picked when we stayed here. I walked across the hall and into my room. I gave it to her since it had the better view. I past the bed and headed straight to the bathroom to jerk-off. I felt like a sixteen-year old boy again. All she had to do was laugh, and I was sporting wood. The way she smelled made me want to bottle it up so that I could keep it forever. She smelled sweet like honey and vanilla, and something else that I couldn’t quite figure out yet. Whatever it was, it was delicious. I wanted it on my tongue. She was beautiful, even without make-up. I loved the fact that she had soft curves because I wasn’t fond of super skinny girls. I always felt like I was going to break them. The ones that had the ribs showing through the skin were the worse. I avoided them all together.

The fact that she didn’t seem
self-conscious turned me on big time. I liked a girl that knew what she liked and took it. Aubrey seemed like that kind of girl, especially at dinner. Then my hands had a mind of their own and started touching her skin. It felt like silk under my fingers, and the
tattoos
… I saw a glimpse of the chest one earlier, but when I got to see it up close I knew that I was toast. I could tell that she put a lot of thought into it. It was extremely intricate, all blacks and grays. It was mostly flowers with a bit of a tribal design to it. It was sexy as hell. I loved tattoos on girls, but I didn’t like when it looked like they just walked into a shop and said ‘I want that.’ I liked one-of-a-kind pieces. She had perfect tits too, a nice handful each. I cleaned up and jumped into bed. I was glad that I got her to agree to come tomorrow. It just might make it more bearable. My phone started buzzing on the end table. It was our bassist Blake Potter.

“Hey buddy, how was coach?” I teased.

“Shut up, asshole. Derek almost got pissed on by some tike and Kevin slept the whole time.” He whined. “We just landed and should be there in an hour or so.”

“About that…” I was going to get my ass kicked
big time. “I sort of gave your room away.”

Originally,
Aubrey and Mark were supposed to have adjoining rooms on the floor below. When I found out Mark was staying with friends I didn’t want her to be alone.
I wanted her close to me.
I told her that she was staying with me, and thankfully she didn’t question it. The fact that she was across the hall was going to drive me crazy.
Calm the fuck down Parker!

“You did what?” He sounded confused
, but at least he wasn’t angry.

“Listen, you’ll
understand tomorrow. Your reservations are under Harry Balls.” I laughed. That was the new code name that we made up to put our reservations under in order to avoid stalkers.

“Yeah, fine. See you in the morning.” I hung up and turned the TV on.

There on CNT (Celebrity News Tonight) was a picture of Aubrey and me plastered across the screen. I smiled. The hosts were speculating about who the mystery girl was. They thought that we looked perfect together. I agreed wholeheartedly. They wondered if she would be the one to tame bad-boy Jake Parker. Unfortunately, in the beginning of my career I made a few missteps that have stuck with me. Nothing terrible, it was mostly just stupid twenty-one year old behavior, but all of it was available to the public and that’s where my reputation comes from.

I thought that t
he two of us would make a great couple. Now, I just had to formulate a plan to convince her. That was going to be easier said than done. I never had to work so hard to get a girl before, but I knew that Aubrey was worth it. I shut the TV off and closed my eyes praying for sleep. I tossed and turned most of the night while sleep decided to evade me, yet again. I finally drifted off sometime after five in the morning. I was in the middle of a pleasant dream when I was startled awake. I felt someone jump into the bed, and hide under the covers. I was going to kill Blake!

“What the hell?” I yawned.

“There’s someone in my bathroom. Brett told me to come in here.” She said in a fierce rush.

It was Aubrey and s
omething clearly freaked her out. I put my arm around her and pulled her close laying us both back on the bed. I was surprised when she went willingly. I also couldn’t help but notice she fit perfectly in my arms. Unfortunately, our moment was short lived.

Blake and Derek burst into the room
with mischievous grins.

“What the hell
, douche bags!” I yelled at them.

I swear they acted like
animals sometimes, well most of the time. But, they were like my brothers, so I dealt with them.

“Dude
, don’t blame us. You never take this room.” Blake said with a smug look.

Aubrey looked at me
with wide eyes.

“That doesn’t mean that you just
go around bursting into people’s bathrooms like that.” I scolded.

I held Aubrey tighter showing them
that she was off limits. She leaned into me and turned so that her face was buried in my chest. I was praying that she didn’t notice my raging hard-on. It was more than that though. There was just something about her that made me want all of her. Blake and Derek were the ‘wham-bam-thank you- ma’am type.’ Kevin was our rhythm guitarist and back up vocalist. He was much more mellow than these two. He’s also had the same girlfriend for three years. Blake cocked an eyebrow at me, and I glared back.

“Now go wait in the
living room before I break your faces, or have Brett do it for me.” I chastised.

They
laughed and turned closing the door behind them.

“Sorry about those two
. They were raised by wolves.”

Au
brey was still shaking. I rubbed her back soothingly until I felt her heart rate return to normal.

“Who are they?” She
looked up at me and moved out of my arms. I almost laughed because I completely forgot that she wasn’t like the other groupie girls that knew more about us than we did.

“That would be Blake, our bassist
, and Derek, our drummer. Or as Brett refers to them, tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum.”

“They s
cared the living shit out of me! One minute I’m sleeping soundly and the next minute I hear freaky-ass noises coming from the bathroom. I ran out of there and came right in here like Brett said. I’m assuming that he knew it was them because he wasn’t actually running.”