Sera steps out from behind her screen wearing a spandex-type black dress with short cap sleeves, black stockings with a seam running up the back of her legs, and a pair of black lace overlay peep toe pumps. Her brown hair is swept up into a fancy up-do with curling tendrils framing her face.
"Bitch."
She laughs. "What's your problem?"
"First, I've got a thong up my ass crack and you know how I love that."
She laughs again, louder.
"Second, I hate you. I hate that your ass is smaller than mine."
"Truthfully, Luce, I should be calling you a bitch and hating on your because I envy your curves."
"You can have them."
"Trade."
If only.
We head back to where Spenser is to chat him up a bit but he and the girls are busy.
"Hmm. We've got thirty minutes to kill. What do you want to do?"
"After I put your lipstick on," Spenser says, throwing a cape over my shoulders and chest before dabbing my lips an amazing shade of red.
"Yeah, after that."
"Let's go check out the set. Maybe we can figure it out," Sera says adjusting her dress as Simone steps up to whip a cape over her and uses a slightly darker shade of red on Sera's lips."
"You two are gorgeous and those boys are going to swallow their fucking tongues when they see you, aren't they girls?"
They all murmur their agreement.
"Do we have wardrobe change?"
Spenser rolls his eyes. "Since when don't you have wardrobe change in a video?"
"A girl can hope. Let's go peek, Sera."
We head out into the studio, over to where there's a faux stage set up. Any and all graphics that would lead to our discovery of who our mystery band is are covered with black fabric.
"Ugh, Cage," Sera says with a laugh.
"Agreed. There's really no point to going any further."
Sera walks over and reaches for a guitar.
"Sera! What are you doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing?"
"It looks like you're touching what is likely a temperamental musician's guitar! Put it back."
"Fuck that. We have thirty minutes. Let's jam."
I nearly bite my bottom lip then remember the lipstick. Glancing over to the guitars, I can't resist. I pick up the other acoustic guitar knowing full well someone's going to be pissed we're playing their instruments.
"What should we play?"
"P!nk?"
"Just Give Me A Reason. Let me get to the piano," I tell Sera. Piano. I love playing the piano and it's been entirely too long.
I take a seat and flex my fingers. "It's been a long time."
"That it has. Ready?"
I nod. "Count it out."
She does and we start playing and singing as if we haven't missed a day. When that song ends I go back for the guitar as Sera heads to the drums. I grin.
"We're going to be in so much trouble."
She grins and shrugs.
"Who Knew." Sera counts us off and we give it all we've got. We play a couple more P!nk songs, then I call for some Red.
"Last one. Never Be The Same."
"Nice," Sera says.
We lose ourselves in the music, the lyrics, the feel of the beat pulsing through our bodies. If we'd been paying attention, we'd have noticed them walk up, but we didn't and they don't stop us.
Out of nowhere an electric guitar starts up and a very recognizable male voice joins with mine. I nearly piss my pants. I'd know that voice anywhere but my eyes fly to my left to make sure my ears aren't playing tricks on me. When I'm met with a very sexy and smiling pair of whiskey-colored eyes I return their twinkle with my own.
When the song ends, my eyes are still wide and staring and I'm shaking slightly. Holy! Shit! Mother of God... I'm going to kick Cage's ass.
I hear Sera's gasp. She must notice Xander standing next to her, his arms crossed, grin on his face.
I can't speak, just stare.
"Well, say something. We know you can sing so we know your voice works."
Oh boy. Jesse Kingston. He doesn't sound all that amused even though he has a smirk on his face.
"Um…"
He tilts his head to the side then looks at Sera as she walks up.
"Yep, it's us."
He bursts out laughing. "I'd know that 'um' anywhere."
I thrust his guitar out toward him. "Here. Sorry." I stand up from the stool and smooth down my pants, flipping my loose curls over my shoulder.
He takes the guitar with one hand then throws his other arm around me, pulling me in for a hug. Holy Mother of God.
"Lucy."
Huh? He remembers me? I breathe him in. God, he smells the same. Ocean and sandalwood and yum. His muscles are larger and he has a lot more sexy tattoos. I stand there stiffly and he steps back.
He quirks up a brow. "Really?"
"Huh?" is all I could come up with.
"Again?"
Sera sighs. "She only gets like that around you."
He gives her a disbelieving look and she shrugs.
"Seriously."
"What's going on?" This comes from the sexy magnificence that is Ben Kingston.
"Holy Mother of God." I say under my breath.
All five of them, six including Sera, start laughing.
"Um, sorry we touched your precious," I say pointing to his guitar.
He chuckles. "Normally I'd want to break your fingers but since you knew what you were doing and used her for good instead of evil, I'll say it's no problem."
"What constitutes evil?"
"Taylor Swift."
I laugh.
He nods. "Why are you two not in a band? You're fucking terrific."
I shrug. "Long story."
"They always are."
"Well, I see you've already met."
"Sort of," Sera says.
Cage smiles. "I heard you both. I'm going to talk you out of that shitty acting and modeling and into music if it's the last thing I do."
"We were just goofing around. It's been forever since we've done any serious playing," Sera tells him handing me a bottle of water.
"Thanks." My throat's tender. It's been too long since I'd used my voice regularly.
"It didn't sound like it. It sounded like you've been doing this forever," Xander says.
Jesse hands me a peppermint Life Saver.
"Helps," he says motioning to my throat.
I nod. "Thanks."
"Cage, dude, Jesse's met these hotties before," Xander says with a grin.
"Is that right?"
I nod. "A lifetime ago."
Jesse frowns. "It hasn't been that long."
"It has. I was untainted by the wicked ways of Hollywood."
"Not true, Luce. You'd acted before," Sera interrupts.
"Those were shit parts and that doesn't count."
"It all counts in Hollywood, darling," Ben says.
"So you're all tainted now, huh?" Jesse asks with another lift of his brow.
I shrug as Spenser comes flitting up. "Damn you Luciana Antonia Russo."
"Oh, now you've done it. He three-named you." This comes from Ethan, the bassist.
I send him a scared look and he chuckles.
"It's not that bad, Spense."
"Woman, you don't have a mirror and I have my eyes right on you. You've chewed off your Stalker Red lipstick."
Jesse laughs and I gape. "Is it seriously called Stalker Red?"
Spenser rolls his eyes. "No, but that would have fit with her girlie crush on you, right?"
I gasp.
Spenser waves his hand. "It's really called Make Out Red."
I just blink as Jesse opens his mouth. I point. "Not a word."
He laughs as does the rest of the band.
"I'm not sure which is worse."
"Stalker, definitely stalker," Spenser says with a shudder. "Yours isn't so bad. Sera's is called Smitten Lovey Dovey."
&nbs
p; I smirk and Sera rolls her eyes.
"I don't care what it's called, let's just fix it so we can get started," Cage says with a laugh.
"Spense, I love you."
I was going to hug him but he pushes his index finger into the middle of my forehead. "No."
"I just wanted to hug you."
"No. You'll mess up what we," he says pointing to him and the girls, "just fixed after you and Serafina Rosalie Manzini decided to play rockstar."
"Hey," I say with a huff. "We could be for real if we wanted."
"Not if your mother has anything to say about it," he retorts as he clips closed his makeup case and sashays away.
I turn back to the band with a bland look. They are all smirking so I narrow my eyes. They just smirk even more. Ugh, rockstars.
"Don't render me speechless by staring at me with all your rockstar hotness."
"It'll happen," Sera says with a shrug. "Jesse's here."
I nod and they all grin and look at Jesse who's smiling. "It's a curse."
He frowns. "Hey!"
I laugh. Goodness, the butterflies have set up a pretty wicked cadence in my stomach. Jesse fucking Kingston. Are you kidding me! Holy shit! My crush, the rocker I lust after, and the one man who can, indeed, render me speechless. Keep it cool, Luce. You got this.
"Let me introduce you to everyone though likely you know who we all are, if I remember correctly."
Sera whispers, "Stalker fangirl."
I elbow her side and blush.
"My brother, Ben Kingston on lead guitar, Ethan Ashcroft on bass, Kennedy Caldwell on rhythm guitar and boards, and Xander Mackenzie on drums. Guys this is Lucy Russo and Sera Manzini. We met a few years back in the Chicago airport of all places."
"That we did," Sera says with a grin. "I still have a magnificent picture of your ass on my cell."
Jesse throws back his head and laughed. "That doesn't surprise me. Not at all."
Sera shrugs. "Since Lucy was a bit wrapped up," she gives us a pointed look, "someone had to take the pictures. Memories and all that."
"Uh-huh," Ben says with a grin. "Sounds like spank bank pics to me."
"God," Sera says with a laugh. "Women don't have 'spank banks'."
"Then what is it you have, because we all know women rub them out just as much as guys do."
I laugh and mouth "rub them out" to Sera who laughs.
She nods. "We do. There's no denying it, but unlike most, Lucy and I have photographic memories."
"Enough said," Ben says with appreciation.
"And with the right vibrator, you don't even need an image--though I'm sure Lucy still conjures up Jesse after all this time."
"This is the oddest moment of my life," I say aloud to no one in particular.
"If you're done?" Cage asks smiling.
Xander wiggles his eyebrows. "Damn, Cage. You got us our very own movie star and model."
"Dude," Ethan says and they fist bump.
I turn to face Cage and feel Jesse's hand rest on my lower back. Oh God. A shiver runs through me and I thank Gina in this moment for using those boob cup thingies so my hard nipples aren't poking through my top. Jesse begins circling his thumb and I'm ready to puddle at his feet. What is he doing?
Unh. I'm almost there to the unh stage.
I turn to look at him and he's looking at Cage, a falsely innocent look on his face.
"So, what's the plan Cage?"
Cage outlines the overall storyboard for the shoot, then runs through the sequence it will be captured to minimize wardrobe and makeup changes.
"It should take a couple days, maybe more to get it just the way we want it."
"Cool," Xander says and taps his drumsticks together. "Let's get to it."
Chapter Three
Lucy
The day was long and grueling and somehow Sera and I managed to get through it without doing the whole squealing fangirl thing. I even managed to avoid "unh". I'm pretty impressed with us if I do say so myself.
When I heard Jesse start singing, my heart dropped into my stomach. I swear it stopped for a minute before it kicked into high gear. Then when he touched me? Holy Mary Mother of God. Instant wet panties… well, thong. Thankfully I was able to change out of that shortly after we began. Cage decided to do the shortest of the takes first so what started out as a conservative outfit, turned into bootie shorts and tank tops cut low enough so our really pretty lacy bras were showing. Add to that the kick ass black boots, the heavy makeup, crazily styled hair (lightly sprayed thanks to Spenser's tricks) and we were kicking ass.
When the band began playing their new song Back To Then I almost stopped and stared instead of playing my part. Jesse noticed, smirked, and sent me a wink. The timing of that couldn't have been more perfect. As he winked, I winked back and leaned forward, touching my toes, my ass cheeks peeking out of my shorts--all part of the routine. I threw him a wicked grin over my shoulder and his nostrils flared. When we cut for a lighting adjustment, Ben walked up and smacked me on my ass with a laugh.
"That was awesome."
"Why, thank you. Thank you very much. The timing couldn't have been more perfect."
"You're not the same shy, frozen girl you were six years ago. I don't think my big brother was expecting that."
"It's different behind the camera. For me, anyway. I can be anyone they need me to be and today I'm a rockstar's girlfriend slash dancer."
He nods with a smile. "I smell trouble."
"Smells good, doesn't it?" I laugh. "Seriously, it's only a few days. How much trouble can we get into in that amount of time?"
Ben raises his eyebrows. "Watching you two? A whole fuck of a lot."
"It'll be fine."
"Girl," he says shaking his head. He never finishes the sentence as we take our places once again.
Now, after stripping off the slut-wear and unzipping and pulling off these seriously sexy but feet killing boots, I let out a moan and rub my aching feet. I change back into my comfy clothes, move to sit in this amazingly relaxing chair, just before setting my feet into a foot massage basin.
"I really, really love you Spenser."
"Oh, I know it, gorgeous."
"Not just for the foot massage or the fact that you spritzed me with each wardrobe change."
"Mhmm."
"But mostly because you didn't lacquer my hair and you never will. It's amazing that Simone can brush through this and whip my hair up into a bun like that without it being sticky. How do you do it?"
"I'll never tell."
"I want to hire you to go everywhere I go. I'll take you with me to every movie and tell them to fuck off with their makeup and hair people. I'll have my Spenser."
"I'd follow you anywhere, Luce."
"I'm not kidding, Spenser. You have no idea what damage those… those… people do to my hair when we're filming."
"Oh, I see it and I wasn't kidding either."
"Seriously?" I perk up, nearly kicking water all over the floor.
"Seriously. But I'm not cheap."
"Well, that's a given. I'll pay you double. You're entirely worth it."
"Woman, you're crazy. You'd have had me at this rate."
"You're worth more than that to me. That means you, Simone, and you, Carmen, will be with us forever and ever and ever."
They cheer happily and Sera snorts out a snore. We all burst out laughing.
"Regina's going to be calling soon to talk me off the rocker ledge."
"Jump, Lucy. Do it. Just jump. You're an amazing actress, but your heart is music. I heard it and saw it when you sang."
"It's not that easy, Spense."
"It is that easy. You're a grown-ass woman now and your mother needs to back the fuck off. It's your life. Let her glam it up with Joey. That's all she needs. He's top tier."
"I know. I know. I don't understand why it's such a big deal."
"Control. She doesn't know shit about the music industry so she can't manage you there."
"Hmm. That
's true. I don't have any movies lined up for a while. I'm taking a break. I was back to back for the last five years with only a short break in between. Except for this last one."
"What happened?"
"Aiden fucking Jensen happened."
"Don't even get her started," Sera says through a yawn.
"Well if it isn't Snorey McSnorelson."
"I was awake."
"You snort-snored."
She flits a hand in my direction. "We're going to do it, aren't we?"
"I want to but we need to see what there is out there for us first."
Sera nodded. "Irene will know. She's always got the hookup."
"That she does."
"I'm on hiatus until further notice from modeling."
I turn to her. "You didn't tell me that."
She shrugs. "It's not what I want to do. Sure, it's glamorous and makes me feel sexy but I want to eat a cream-filled donut. If I want to eat the entire pint of Ben & Jerry's Salted Caramel Core, then I'm going to eat the entire fucking thing."
"Damn right you are! You can have a fat ass like me."
"Cupcake, your ass is anything but fat."
I stare at Sera for a minute with wide eyes, then take a deep, calming breath.
"Jesse Kingston, what are you doing back here? We could have been naked," Sera says with a grin.
"A man can hope."
"How disappointing for you." I say with a grin.
"Not so much. You're still here."
I suck in a breath. Oh my. No. Yes. No. Oh my God. I wasn't prepared for Jesse Kingston today. I'm not prepared now. Truth be told, I will never be prepared for the hotness that is Jesse Kingston. What is he doing? Here. With me.
He flops into the chair next to mine and Ben strolls over to the sofa. Next comes Kennedy, Ethan, and Xander.
"Sera?"
"Yeah, Luce?"
"Why? Why is it they come back here when we've just gotten our makeup scrubbed off and our hair thrown up in messy buns while we sport our yoga pants and t-shirts? We looked fucking amazing no more than ten minutes ago."
Sera lets out a loud sigh. "It's our curse."
I nod and press my lips together. "We have a lot of curses."
"True story," Sera murmurs.
The guys just stare like we're freak shows.
"Stop staring! I know I look like shit, okay? Makeup-less Lucy isn't a great sight to behold."