From the floor, Wroth groaned and slowly climbed to his feet, holding a bandage to his forehead the nurse had given him. “He’s going to need a few stitches,” the nurse informed the doctor.
“I’ll take care of it myself as soon as I finish with his wife,” the doctor assured her, sending Wroth a smirk. “Welcome back, Wroth. Did you notice you have a daughter?”
Wroth’s gray face turned ever grayer. “A daughter?” he croaked. His gaze went to our little girl, still screaming at the world angrily and tears fell from his eyes instantly. “She’s beautiful.” He raked a hand through his hair. “Oh, shit. Shit. I gotta buy a gun.”
I turned startled eyes on my husband. His swearing was proof enough that he was upset, but his talk of buying a gun didn’t make any sense to me. “What do you mean you have to buy a gun?” I practically screamed. I didn’t like guns, and sure as hell didn’t want them in our house.
“I have a daughter. I gotta buy a gun, Mari. She’s gonna look like you and there will be all kinds of little pricks trying to get into her pants.” He stood on shaky legs, only to fall back into his chair. “My head is killing me.”
“You probably have a concussion,” my doctor informed him calmly. “Sit there and take it easy while we take care of your wife and babies. Then I’ll get you stitched up.”
“Baby one is perfect,” a doctor proclaimed and a nurse appeared by my head with my son wrapped in a blue blanket. “What are we calling this one, momma?”
“Jackson Wroth,” I told her, lifting my hand to rub it across the softness of my firstborn’s cheek. “Hi there, Jack.”
Wroth leaned forward and kissed my lips then the top of our son’s head. “Welcome to the outside, son.”
Babies two and three were proclaimed perfect as well and were the identical twins. Both were brought over at the same time and I rubbed a finger over their cheeks as well. “Bryant Anthony and Liam James,” I gave them each their names, naming them after the men who held such big places in our hearts. We’d decided to hold onto my last name by giving it to one of our sons, and Anthony was Axton’s real name. It was only fitting that the man who had become as close to me as my own brother be linked to my child. Liam, who was still doing so well with his sobriety, was a part of our everyday life too. But it had been Wroth who had suggested one of our boys be named after him, adding his own father’s name in to complete it.
“Well, this little girl is very angry but healthy,” one of the pediatricians announced as he brought over my daughter. He started to hand her over to Wroth, but saw how shaky he still was and leaned her close so that he could kiss her instead. “Do we have a name for this little princess yet?”
I glanced from Wroth to our daughter, not sure what we were going to do. We hadn’t had to think about girl’s names, and none were coming to mind except for one.
“Can we call her Dorothy?” I asked Wroth.
His eyes widened and he grinned down at me. “Yeah, sweetheart. Dorothy is perfect.”
“Dorothy Elizabeth?” I said the name as a question, but it felt right on my tongue and I grinned up at Wroth.
There had been times in my life when I would look at this man and think that this was the happiest day of my life. The first time he told me he loved me. The day we got married. When we found out we were pregnant… But it was now, right at this moment, that I knew I’d never been more happy in my life. And all because of the man sitting right beside me.
“Then. Now. Forever,” I whispered.
“I love you, too.” He kissed my lips, still holding the bandage to his bleeding head. “Then. Now. Forever.”
Acknowledgements
There are people in everyone’s lives that you couldn’t live without. I am lucky enough to have friends and loved ones that are my rock, my shoulder to cry on, or bitch to, or any number of crazy things. Mike Browning, Jennie Wurtzburger, and Felicity “Flick” Boulton I love you three more than words could ever describe.
A huge thank you to my BETA readers, who always help me make these books all the better for your enjoyment. Without them I would truly be lost. They talk me down from imaginary ledges that I want to jump off of when my characters won’t go where I want them to.
The biggest thank you is for YOU, my amazing fans. You have helped me reach a dream I never thought would be possible. I could never show you enough how much you are loved and appreciated by me.
Playlist
“What If I was Nothing” by All That Remains
“Watch Over You” by Alter Bridge
“Closure” by Angels Fall
“Goodbye To You” by Angels Fall
“Unsaid” by Angels Fall
“Yesterday is Gone” by Angels Fall
“Wrecking Ball” by Our Last Night
“Just Like You” by Aurora Sky
“Mine Would Be You” by Blake Shelton
“Without You” by Breaking Benjamin
“Dear Agony” by Breaking Benjamin
“Everything” by Buckcherry
“I Need Your Love” by Calvin Harris Ft. Ellie Goulding
“Tonight I’m Getting Over You” by Carly Rae Jepsen
“Ghost” by Cavo
“Thinking Of You” by Christian Kane
“I Never Told You” by Colbie Caillet
“Feels Like Tonight” by Daughtry
“What I Want” by Daughtry Ft. Slash
“Alone Together” by Fall Out Boys
“Save You” by Kelly Clarkson
“Peace” by O.A.R.
A sneak peek into the next The Rocker… Series Book
The Rocker Who Shatters Me
Out December 1st, 2014
(This is unedited and subjected to changes)
Prologue
Natalie
One Year Ago
The concert had been over hours ago, but the band still had another thirty minutes of meeting fans. I tried not to let my irritation at the ten women and five men still standing in line show on my face as I continued to do my job.
I just wanted everyone to leave, so that I could wrap this night up and go out with Devlin. That wasn’t asking too much was it? To get to spend a little time with my boyfriend, doing what normal couples do rather than having to share him with his fans? Well, I didn’t think it was asking very much.
For the last few days we hadn’t even had a few minutes alone, and it was about to drive me crazy. I couldn’t even kiss the man I loved without having someone pop up on us on the bus, or climb into bed with him at night without something coming up to keep me out of his arms for the night.
I was starting to think that fate didn’t want me and Dev together. But that was ridiculous. It had taken us a long time to get to the place we are now, with us loving each other rather than fighting our feelings. I was happy, and there wasn’t anything on the planet that would keep me from being with Devlin Cutter.
Without even realizing what I was doing I stopped and my eyes sought out the man in question. He was sitting down at his table while the fans made their way from Axton’s, then to Wroth’s, Zander’s, Liam’s and ending at his. He was smiling up at some guy who was talking a mile a minute. That smile was one of my favorite sights in the world, the way his aquamarine eyes crinkled at the edges and his three day old beard hid the dimples that I was such a sucker for. His even, white teeth stood out against his dark tan complexion and made me want to kiss him to see if he still tasted like the toothpaste he’d used before taking the stage earlier that night. My heart melted along with another part of my anatomy when I saw that smile.
“It’s weird that one of my best friend’s sister is dating my dad,” Harris complained as he stopped beside of me.
I turned to frown down at him, trying to figure out if he was teasing me or if he was serious. He’d always found something to tease me about over the last few years. He was good friends with my little sister, Jenna, and I’d always had a soft spot for Harris despite the fact that I’d seemed to always be in love with
his father from the moment I’d laid eyes on him. But this was a serious matter. If he really thought that it was weird that I was dating his dad, then I wanted to deal with it now.
Harris grinned up at me, reminding me so much of his father that it was hard not to love this kid as if he were my own. Yeah, now that was the weird part. I was twenty-two years old to his fifteen. That was extremely weird to me. “Relax, Nat. I’m just messing with you. I think it’s kind of cool that you are with Dad. He’s smiled a lot more in the last few weeks than I’ve seen him smile in a long time.”
Relief washed over me and I punched him in the arm. “You are such a punk, you know that?”
“Yeah. You tell me that on a daily basis. But you love me anyway.”
“Sadly enough, that’s true.” I punched him again and forced my attention back to the job at hand. I still had things to do so that I could leave when Devlin was finished. “I’ve got stuff to do, wanna help me?”
“You mean work when I could go back to the hotel, order room service and watch newly released movies?” Harris raised a brow at me like I was crazy for even asking such a question. “Yeah, sure, why not? I can help you out, earn brownie points with your sister, and make my dad think that I’m a good kid all at once.”
“Brownie points with Jenna?” I questioned as I lead him back toward the stage the band had performed on earlier that night. “Why would you need to earn…?” I broke off when I realized why he would want to. “My sister will never like you like that, Harris.” There were plenty of reasons why I didn’t think that Harris and my sister would be anything other than friends. But the major one was the only one that I needed to know that Harris was wasting his time on Jenna.
My sister had realized when she was fourteen that she wasn’t into guys. Plain and simple. Of course, I was the only one who knew that little piece of information, because Jenna thought our mother would freak out at having a lesbian for a daughter. Jenna wasn’t wrong. Stella Stevenson would probably disown her youngest daughter if she ever found out about her gender preference.
Our mother was a total bitch like that. I hadn’t always thought that way, of course. When you’re a kid you don’t notice the things adults would about someone. It had taken Jenna, however, to open my eyes to our parent’s small minded bitchiness. When Jenna had run away to find our brothers because she was tired of our mother putting Drake down when Jenna would watch America’s Rocker every week and gush that one of the judges was her brother, I’d seriously opened my eyes. It was then that I’d realized that my brothers had never been the bad guys, had their reasons for not wanting a relationship with me or my dad when their own mother had died. It had all been my mother’s doing, and I couldn’t blame Drake and Shane for turning their backs on my dad and me when my mother had forced our dad to turn his back on them when they had needed him so desperately.
With Harris helping me it still took more than forty minutes to finish up all the after show things that needed my attention so that I wouldn’t be as busy the next night. When we were finally finished I gave the fifteen year old a hug and told him to head on back to the hotel. Harris yawned and nodded. “I’m beat. Have fun with Dad.” He grinned, flashing those damn dimples of his that were identical to his fathers and with a wink left.
Laughing I watched him walk away before I shook my head and lowered my gaze back to the list I had in my hands, making sure I hadn’t forgotten anything. I was so lost in thought, my eyes critical on the long list in front of me that I didn’t hear footsteps until a pair of strong arms wrapped around my waist from behind.
Devlin nuzzled my hair aside with his nose and placed an open mouthed kiss against the sensitive flesh just under my left ear. “Miss me?”
The mere sound of his deep voice made me shiver and I rocked my hips back against him, delighted at the feel of his hard growing against my ass. “More than you will ever know,” I assured him as dropped my clipboard on the ground without caring if I’d finished everything on the list or not. Turning in his arms I wrapped my own around his neck, letting my eyes drink in the sight off his beautiful face before brushing my lips over his in a teasingly soft kiss.
Just as I knew he would, Devlin made a low grumbling sound deep in his chest, almost like he was purring and unwrapped his arms from my waist so that his hands could tangle in my long hair. His fingers locked my head into place so that he could take control of the kiss and devour my mouth in a kiss that left me aching for him in a way no one ever had before.
When he finally lifted his head, just an inch or two so that he could brush his lips over the tip of my nose, I was breathing hard and rubbing my lower body against his hard-on. “You ready to go?”
After that kiss I was more than ready, and going to some club where we would be surrounded with countless strangers for a few hours was definitely not what I wanted to be doing. “Can’t we just go back to our hotel room and make love?” I murmured, placing my hands on his chest and tracing little hearts over each male nipple through the material of his OtherWorld T-shirt.
Devlin raised a brow at my request. “What happened to the whining girl that left my bed this morning, complaining about me never taking her out?”
If he hadn’t been smiling I might have slapped his face. I hated it when he teased me like that. But I could tease him, too. “I’m a woman, Dev, not a girl. Your woman,” I murmured in a breathy whisper as I stood on tip toe so that my kiss damped lips could brush over his ear, making him tremble just like I had earlier. “And your woman has every right to change her mind a thousand times before she finally decides to settle on what she really wants. And what your woman wants right now is for you to take her back to our room and let her suck your dick.”
With a muttered curse Devlin picked me up and tossed me over his shoulder. One big hand swatted across my ass, making a loud smacking sound as he hurried for the closest exit. “You are an evil little bitch, you know that Nat?”
I propped my head up on my hand so that I didn’t get dizzy from the way he was carrying me. “So you’ve told me a hundred times before. But you like it.”
“No, babe. I fucking love it.” He was practically sprinting as he headed toward a row of taxies waiting in front of the civic center, his long legs eating up the distance in no time. I heard a door open and then he dropped me onto the bench seat before climbing in after me. But instead of the address of our hotel he gave the name of the club he’d mentioned over lunch earlier that day.
“Dev,” I whined wanting to just go back to our room and have him sink deep into me for the rest of the night.
With a deep chuckle he wrapped his arms around me again and pulled me against his side. “Nat,” he mocked me. “Relax. We’ll have more than enough time for that later. Right now I want to take my woman out and show her off at the club. Just like you begged me for this morning.” His lips captured mine and his tongue snuck out, licking my bottom lip until I opened for him.
We were still kissing when the taxi pulled to a stop in front of a club with a line of people all the way down the block. The driver cleared his throat loudly and Devlin grumbled something against my lips before finally lifting his head and tossing a hundred dollar bill at the man. “Keep the change,” he bit out as he opened the door and pulled me out behind him.
Once we were on the sidewalk Devlin stopped and kissed me again. His long, raven black hair fell forward, shielding us from the crowd that was lined up behind us. His hands wrapped around my neck, telling me that he didn’t want me going anywhere anytime soon. Didn’t he know that I would never be the first to step back? I loved him more than anything or anyone on the planet. He was the reason I woke up every morning with a smile on my face, the reason I hadn’t already lost my mind on this tour.
How long we stood there getting lost in our kiss I couldn’t honestly say. When he finally lifted his head, his aquamarine eyes were dark with passion and he was smiling. “Later,” he promised.
I licked my lips, sighing when I tasted him t
here. “Yeah, later.”
Laughing he grasped my hand and entwined our fingers, pulling me toward the front of the line where two huge bouncers stood with headsets sticking from their ears and a clipboard. The first guy frowned at Devlin but the second stepped forward and shook his hand. “Welcome back, Mr. Cutter.”
“Thanks, man.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out something before seamlessly passing it over to the other man. Another hundred or two I was sure. Would I ever get over the fact that I was now surrounded by money? Sure, I hadn’t grown up poor, but we sure as hell hadn’t been rich by any one’s standards. Devlin didn’t carry anything less than a ten dollar bill in his wallet. If he got a fives or ones back he just gave them away.
The man’s eyes drifted over to me and he smirked when he took in my kiss swollen lips. I shot him a glare and then the finger, making Devlin laugh as he stepped around the two bouncers and into the club, much to the loudly protesting of the people still in line. I knew that look well. I’d gotten more than once over the last few weeks. People knew who Devlin was, and they had never—not ever seen him with the same chick more than once. When they looked at me they assumed I was just Devlin’s piece of ass for the night and would be discarded come morning.
And that was when I got to do the smirking because I knew that I was going to be in my rocker’s bed the next night and the night after and the night after that. He had promised me that our relationship was something special to him. That what we had would last because he cared about me.
Sure it hadn’t been a declaration of loved, but it had been good enough for me. We’d only been dating for a few weeks now, and I wasn’t in a rush. We had the rest of our lives to say those three little words to each other.
Inside the club we moved straight for the bar. Devlin ordered a beer for himself and a glass of my favorite wine for me. I loved that I didn’t have to tell him what I wanted. He knew me well and always thought about what I wanted or needed, in and out of bed.