Page 23
Author: Olivia Cunning
“What are you thinking about?” Reagan asked, her hand moving to stroke the tension from his forehead.
“The end of Sinners. ”
She glanced at Brian who was out cold and drooling all over his pillow. “Maybe the band just needs to take a year off. ”
“Maybe. ” But then Sed and Jess would probably have a kid or twelve and they’d be in the same place. “I’m never having kids,” he muttered under his breath.
“Me neither,” she said.
Trey glanced down at her. He hadn’t meant to say that aloud and was surprised that Reagan wouldn’t want kids. Didn’t all women want them?
“You don’t want kids?”
She shook her head. “Do you have any idea what they do to your vagina?” she said. “No thank you. ”
Trey laughed and squeezed her against him. “My perfect woman. ”
Chapter 11
Reagan carried two of her guitars onto Sinners’ tour bus. Behind her, Brian and Trey had divvied up her remaining luggage and followed her onboard. Her stomach fluttered when she noticed the Eric Sticks sitting at the dining table, poring over musical scores. His untamed black hair, with a streak of canary yellow that started at his left temple and continued down a finger-thick strand that fell to his collarbone, caught her attention first. Then his ruggedly handsome features. Then his long, sinewy body and masculine hands. He glanced up, barely gave Reagan a second glance with a pair of piercing blue eyes, before his gaze settled on Brian. “Pictures,” he demanded and flicked a beckoning hand at him.
Brian dropped Reagan’s luggage and brushed past her to sit next to Eric in the booth. He began flipping through pictures on his cell phone. He’d been so excited when he had been allowed to turn on his cell phone after landing and found he had six new pictures and a video of Malcolm sleeping in his bassinet for the first time. While Eric ooo-ed and aww-ed over baby pictures, Trey struggled with Reagan’s abundance of luggage.
“I brought too much, didn’t I?” she asked.
“You think?” Trey laughed and stacked her four guitar cases on the only sofa on the bus.
“Maybe we should store them underneath the bus,” she said.
“Good idea. ”
“You’re not going to introduce her?” Eric asked. He lifted his gaze from Brian’s three-minute-long, baby-sleeping video to look at Reagan.
Brian elbowed him in the ribs. “This is Malcolm’s first meal. ”
Eric looked at the picture and grinned. “Niiiice. ”
Trey stared at her as if he had no idea how to introduce her to Eric. Eventually he said, “This is Reagan. She’ll be on tour with us for the next two weeks. Dare’s idea. ”
Eric scratched behind his ear. “Dare’s idea?”
“I’m Exodus End’s new rhythm guitarist. Taking over for Max,” Reagan explained.
“Oh. Max’s carpal tunnel syndrome. Pussiest reason for giving up guitar that I’ve ever heard. So why are you touring with us instead of rehearsing with them?”
“I think they’re afraid that I’m not man enough to go on tour with a rock band. ”
Eric’s gaze traveled down Reagan’s entire length. “I’d hazard to guess you aren’t man at all. ”
“She’s also Trey’s girlfriend,” Brian said.
Eric’s head snapped around in Brian’s direction, his bright blue eyes wide with astonishment.
“I know, right?” Brian said.
Trey cringed. Reagan wondered why it made him uncomfortable.
“Let’s go put some of your stuff under the bus,” he said.
A loud mechanical sound came from near the front of the bus. Before Reagan could figure out its source, Trey took Reagan’s arm and directed her to stand with him between the captain’s chairs along one wall while a good-looking young man maneuvered his wheelchair down the aisle.
“You ready to head out, Brian?” the man asked. “We’ll be on the road for hours. The other bus and equipment trucks are already in Topeka. They’ve started setting up. ”
“Yeah, let’s go,” Brian said. “Where are the rest of the guys?”
“Jace and Sed went to get some necessities,” Eric said. “Jon left with the other bus. Jake’s napping. ”
“Rebekah?”
Eric smiled and glanced at the back bedroom’s closed door. “She’s getting dressed. ”
“We need to store some stuff under the bus,” Trey said to the man in the wheelchair.
The man started when he noticed Reagan crammed between Trey and the wall. “Sorry, I didn’t see you there. ” He extended a hand in Reagan’s direction. “I’m Dave. I run the soundboard when Rebekah lets me. ”
Reagan reached around Trey to shake Dave’s hand. She had heard about Sinners’ bus accident and that their soundboard operator had been paralyzed in the crash. She hadn’t known that he was still part of the crew.
“You better be glad Reb didn’t hear that,” Eric said.
Dave grinned and ran a hand through his sandy blond hair. “Rebekah is my younger sister. Also one of Sinners’ soundboard operators. ”
“And my wife,” Eric said. “She’s a little kinky. Just to warn you. ”
Trey laughed. He’d never heard Eric apologize for his wife’s kinkiness before. Of course, she’d been the only woman on the bus for the past seven months and the guys were used to her emerging from the bedroom dressed as a vampire or an umpire. She would then corral her husband into the back bedroom and a whole lot of happy emanated from that area of the bus for the next couple of hours.
“So Dave is your brother-in-law?” Reagan asked Eric as she worked out the dynamics of the bus occupants.
“Yep. ”
“What are you working on?” Brian asked Eric, finally taking his attention off his collection of photos to look over the scores of music. “New Sinners’ songs? We just released the last album. Don’t you ever take a break?”
Eric collected his music and stuffed it into a folder. “It’s not Sinners. It’s for Hot Dog Junkie. ”
Brian laughed. “I still can’t believe you named your new band that. Why not call it Wiener Eater? Maybe Trey—”
“Let’s go put this stuff under the bus,” Trey interrupted loudly. He reached for two guitar cases and handed them to Reagan. He grabbed the larger of her two suitcases and another guitar case and encouraged her to head toward the exit.
“Eric has a new band?” Reagan asked as she made her way back toward the exit.
“Some punk/emo/goth hybrid thing he’s working on with Jon Mallory. They’re still in the planning stages mostly. ”
“What about Sinners? Is he leaving?” Reagan asked. She couldn’t imagine Sinners without Eric Sticks in the band.
Trey shook his head. “Side project,” he said. “Sinners is still his main focus. ”
Reagan descended the steps and waited at the bottom for Trey to join her. She followed him to the side of the bus where he opened a compartment underneath.
“I should have asked you which guitar you wanted to keep out,” he said as he rearranged some luggage so he could fit three of her guitars and one of her suitcases in the cramped space.
“They’re all awesome. I’m glad you chose so I didn’t have to. ”
Once Reagan’s things were stored safely underneath the bus, Trey shut the hatch and then reached for her. He drew her against the length of his body and kissed her.
“Don’t pay attention to what the guys say,” he said, still thinking about how Brian had almost revealed Trey’s homosexual tendencies to Reagan on the bus with that wiener eater remark. He wasn’t ready for Reagan to know that about him. Wasn’t sure if he ever wanted her to know. Trey did feel uncomfortable about hiding it from her, but since men were no longer on his menu, there was no sense in complicating his new relationship with Reagan with all those skeletons in his closet. There was an entire army of skeletons in his closet. And a few sailors. “They joke around like that a lot. ”
“I should hope so. They’re guys. I’m sure Exodus End does that a lot too. ”
Trey laughed. “They’re a bit rowdier than we are. ”
“Rowdier?”
“Yeah. Dare figured if you couldn’t handle the five of us, there’s no way you could handle the four of them. ”
“Well, don’t take it easy on me. ”
“Sinners BC was an entirely different animal,” Trey said. “We’ve mellowed over the past year. ”
“Sinners BC?”
“Before chicks. ”
“Well, don’t mellow for my sake,” Reagan said. Her hands slid down his back to squeeze his ass. “I happen to like you naughty. The naughtier, the better. ”
Trey grinned and lowered his head to kiss her. He knew he liked this woman. Even though she claimed to like him naughty, if she had any idea how truly deviant he could be, he was sure she’d go running for the hills. He’d start her on naughty lite and see how she handled that first.
“Good, you guys are back,” Sed called from several yards behind the bus. He was carrying several brown paper sacks. Jace, who was walking beside him, smiled a greeting before noticing Reagan’s hands on Trey’s ass. He blushed and averted his gaze. Sed glanced at Reagan long enough to ascertain that she wasn’t Brian. “Brian’s here too, right? You didn’t leave him in Los Angeles, did you?”
“He’s on the bus torturing Eric with baby pictures,” Trey said.
Sed smiled. “I can’t wait to hold the little guy. ”
“Jess said she wanted one,” Trey said and winked.
Sed’s blue eyes widened. “Jess wants a baby?” he asked breathlessly.
“She’s totally in love with Malcolm. Her biological clock is ticking at warp speed. ”
“You’re fucking with me,” Sed said and scowled.
“She seemed to genuinely want a baby to me,” Reagan said.
Sed spared her a second glance. “We’re getting ready to leave. You need to get lost now. ”
Her face fell.
“Fuckin’ Sed,” Trey grumbled. “She’s with me. ”
“That’s obvious,” Sed said.
“And she’s staying with me,” Trey added.
“I’m Jace,” Jace said to Reagan and smiled warmly.
“Oh God. Cute!” Reagan exclaimed and released Trey to grab Jace in a face-to-bosom, double-armed embrace.
Jace’s various chains rattled as he tried to extricate himself from Reagan’s bear hug. She finally released him, took a second look at him, and hugged him again.
“Jace doesn’t like to be touched,” Trey tried to explain as he tugged on Reagan’s arm. “But I like it. ”
“Oh, sorry,” Reagan said as she released Jace for good this time. “I didn’t mean to attack you like that. I’ve never seen you smile before. ”
Jace blushed again and stared at his boots.
“So she’s staying on the bus?” Sed asked, sounding none-too-happy about the fact.
“Yeah, for the next two weeks,” Trey said.
“I’m Reagan. Exodus End just hired me to be their rhythm guitarist. ”
Sed and Jace both stared at her as if she had sprouted wings and took flight to Crazyland.
“No shit?” Sed shoved his grocery sacks in Trey’s direction. “You can tell me all about it later. I need to call Jess. ”
Trey managed to grab the sacks before Sed released them. Sed dug his phone out of his pocket as he stomped up the bus steps.
“He’s kind of a jerk,” Reagan said.