ONLY ANEMIC APPLAUSE punctuated the conclusion of my brief skit. A couple of women made eye contact lifting their chins in solidarity, but no one came to speak to us. The usual after-party activities, the drinking and whoring, continued unabated as if we weren’t even there.
It had been that kind of day since the phone call from my father.
Why was I even doing this?
Already miserable, I skimmed the room again, and my spirit got kicked further to the curb when my perusal confirmed that the Dragon's lead singer was nowhere in attendance. I hadn’t seen him or any of his bandmates since the meet and greet.
“Hey pretty dream."
"JGB," I gasped. "Hi." I smoothed my hair and pasted on a smile.
"It's just John to the ladies."
I nodded. So far I liked his words. "I'm Raven. This is my best friend Marsha."
He brought a cigarette casually to his mouth. Watching me intently, his cheeks drew in as he inhaled. His grey green eyes dipped and performed a greedy scan before they rose again. I got it. His power play. Apex predator, he wanted me to feel like cowering prey. I didn't like that. But I didn’t like being ignored, either. So I determined to be a force to be reckoned with instead.
“Good show tonight," I said airily, lifting my chin. "But I've seen you do better on YouTube."
His eyes flared. "Pretty salty talk coming from a rock star fucker."
"I'm only that when I choose to be." I deliberately ran my gaze over him like he had done. Red ball cap. Unbuttoned short sleeve camo shirt. Beige tank underneath. Tatted sleeves on both arms. Black jeans with holes. A marijuana leaf tat peeked out from one.
"You decided on me yet?" His thin lips slowly curled up on one side. "’Cause you've met my standard and you should be flattered." He stretched out his hand. Two all access lanyards dangled from his fingers. Unthreading my grip from Marsha's, I started to take them but remembered Sky.
"We need one more." I motioned to where our new friend stood, sipping a soda from a straw and trying to ignore the Steps From Hell drummer who was circling her.
JGB slid another pass from his pocket, but when I reached for it he withdrew it. "Uh-huh.” He held the lanyard over his head. “The extra one will cost you.” I considered that price for a moment. The rapper made me nervous. He ran with a rough crowd. There were rumors of criminal connections. And the darkness in his eyes disturbed me.
He was anything but tame.
But I was in a reckless mood.
"I'll play." I placed my hands on his chest and slid them a couple of inches south, stopping above his belt buckle.
"Babe." He grinned, his eyes glittering with challenge, and the arm that held my prize lowered just enough for me to snag it.
"Thanks." I snatched the pass, smiled victoriously and backed away from him. "Here." I handed the lanyard to Marsha, and she called Sky over. When I turned back to JGB, he was watching me, the red glow of his cigarette reflected in the slick surface of his eyes.
"I like your moves." His smile faded, but I chose to interpret the lingering interest in his eyes as weakness I could exploit.
"So where's this exclusive party of yours?"
"My tour bus." His gaze on mine, he flicked his cigarette down and ground the butt out with his heel. "I like those feathers, too." He traced a path between the slope of my breasts, sliding aside my chain and my mother's turquoise ring to slither underneath. His fingertips were rough, his skin reptilian. I shivered, and not from desire as he smiled coldly. Withdrawing his hand, he snapped his fingers. Silver bracelets like Lucky’s rattled against his tatted wrist. "Reg," he hissed to his drummer. "Gather the boys and come to the bus."
"Sure thing." The wanna be Rastafarian with brassy dreadlocks that hung down to mid back grasped the lanyard around Sky's neck and tugged. The brunette's sapphire eyes grew large as he led her along. She glanced back at me, uncertainty in her gaze.
"Raven." Marsha touched my arm, and I flinched, turning to face her as tense as I had been when Lucky had cornered me against the bunks. "I'm really tired." She switched off her video camera and tucked it into her slouch bag. I hadn’t even realized she had been filming. She gave me a pointed look. "I think we should turn in. Let's call it a night.” I knew what she meant. We'd had an agreement since we starting dating that if one or the other bowed out for whatever reason we did the same. But the I-don’t-give-a-shit-what-happens part of me reared its ugly head. The clock rewound. My rebellious side resurfaced. But my big brother wasn’t around to bail me out anymore. And even my bestie’s attempt to throw on the brakes wasn’t enough to stop my headlong rush into trouble.
"I’m going with him,” I told her, noticing the slow smile that spread across the rap rocker's face at my declaration. “I got you up way too early this morning.” I touched her arm in apology. "I’ll be fine." She thought I didn't see all the clues. The concerned looks. The worry filled glances.
"Honey..." she began.
"Go on,” I stated firmly. “Get Sky and take her back to the Dragon's bus." The tour buses were all lined up directly behind the back entrance to the venue. "Then come back for me. I won’t be long."
After all how much time did it take to fuck someone? To make you feel like you were the one in charge? To make them feel insignificant? Not very long judging by what had happened to me with Ivan.
I moved beneath the arm JGB stretched out. A new cigarette dangled from his fingers. He dug in his pocket for a lighter as he led us from the official label sponsored after-party to the unofficial one out in the parking lot. Outside in the exhaust filled air he stopped me, turned me to face him and walked me backward. I smelled the rotting trash before my rear hit the metal can. He slid a small vial from his front pocket, sprinkled it on the back of his hand, dropped his head and snorted the line of coke. His eyes glowed when he lifted his head, and I felt a stab of nervousness when he snagged my hand. His grip was too tight.
"You're showing," I informed him, touching the side of my finger to my own nose as we approached his bus. A large guy in a black shirt with white letters that spelled ‘security’ stood with folded arms in front of the door. I wasn’t sure how public JGB wanted his cocaine habit to be.
"Thanks." The rock rapper used his sleeve to rub the evidence away. He slapped the guard on his muscled shoulder and inserted his key. Marijuana assailed me like from Lucky's bus, but also I noted the sweet fragrance of something else, a much more demanding mistress than weed or snow.
JAW SLACK, I watched JGB untie and release the rubber tourniquet from his left arm. He smiled as the heroin entered his bloodstream and the warm wave of detachment washed over him. He had offered to set up a rig for me. I had surprised myself by refusing. But I knew from experience that the bliss it promised was a lie. A temporary surcease. A potentially deadly one. The pain it had cost me would still be there on the other side. I doused my misgivings about JGB with generous amounts of tequila instead.
"You're a pretty thing." JGB's cold fingers glided along my shoulders and underneath my hair. Goosebumps erupted as he encountered the chain around my neck. It seemed to offend him somehow. He readjusted it, swinging it around so the ring hung down along the line of my spine. "You have too many things on. Take them off. All of them." He leaned back into the seat of the banquette, spreading his arms wide, staring at me expectantly while bringing his lit cigarette to his mouth for a drag. "You owe me a favor," he added when I didn’t immediately rush to obey. He was right. In my intoxicated state, it seemed only fair. My fingers fumbled as he watched me undress. I stood too quickly and his face blurred a bit. When I finally managed to untangle myself from my boa top, he mashed out his cigarette in an overfilled ashtray and yanked me toward him. My heart thrummed as he fondled my breasts.
"Ow," I complained when he squeezed too hard. He lifted his gaze from what he was doing and arched a brow. "You chose me, bitch. We're gonna fuck, yeah?"
“Yeah. I guess,” I nodded slowly, but I was rapidly losing my enthusiasm. The chain hung heavy between my shoulder blades. I heard a distant voice calling my name like a warning. As I strained my ears to identify the source sudden weariness weighted my frame.
“Well I'm not feeling like sticking my cock in you. I've got something different in mind." He pulled me out of the banquette and dragged me toward the front of the bus. "B5. Our first stop of the evening.”
I remembered the designations Lucky had given to the coach’s sections. I got the idea they were meant for mostly one purpose, marking places to be fucked. I followed where JGB led me settling into the driver’s seat as the rock rapper straddled me.
"Oh, my." I trailed my fingers to his crotch. "It seems like your cock likes me." I wiggled my chest. "Maybe since you’re an artist you can make a pretty pattern on my tits."
"Fuck, yeah." He unzipped his jeans, and I pretended it was what I wanted as he plumped and pinched me. His cock, really quite small for a guy his size, plunged between my breasts over and over again, abrading my pale and easy to bruise skin. The cocaine and heroin combo surging through his veins had him horny as hell, but made it difficult to ejaculate.
"Fuck," he exclaimed. Finally. His sticky semen coated my skin making me feel cheap. "You’re so beautiful, baby. It would be a shame for me to be selfish. It’s a good thing that I’m not keeping you to myself." He stood, shrugged out of his camo over-shirt and wiped his jizz off of me as if he was doing me a favor when I knew deep down he was only easing his conscience. He'd gotten off but the whole thing had done absolutely nothing for me. "The boys are here.” My eyes widened as JGB’s drummer and guitarist got on the bus. They both gave me a long look that made my flesh crawl, but the rapper grasped my chin redirecting me to him. “We've got something special planned."
What? I wondered. My heart started to pound as I followed JGB back to the lounge. I pulled my chain around to the front and covered my breasts with my hands. I avoided their stares. I was pretty sure that whatever they had planned wasn’t something I was going to be interested in. This felt all wrong. RFC was supposed to be about me being in control. Right now I felt like a groupie. Fuck number two had been a major disappointment. My bestie had been right. I should have taken the out she had tried to provide me. Locating my boa, I reached for it, but stumbled as JGB suddenly shoved me to the side. My knees hit the couch behind me. I tumbled onto it, squeaking and sitting up immediately when something leathery writhed beneath me.
Someone laughed unkindly, and I tore my glance away from the live uncaged python to discover that all three men were staring at me in a way that made my blood run as cold as the serpent’s.
"We're going to have some fun now,” JGB smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes. “You like fun don’t you?"
“No, I…” I gasped as the drummer grabbed me and pressed me backward. He sat on me, his heavy thighs on either side of my waist. The snake thick as a tire moved restlessly behind my neck. Before I could attempt to get up, my wrists were shackled in JGB’s grip and my arms were yanked backward over my head.
"Hold her still,” the drummer demanded from astride me. “Those tits need more cum on them."
“Let go of me!” I yelled, trying to dislodge him but the guitarist grabbed my ankles and bracketed them in a vise grip. The ball cap he wore shadowed his features. Fear spiked. "Don't do this." A hot tear trickled from my eye as JGB let go of one of my wrists to unfasten my necklace. "No!" I squirmed again. “Please, don’t.” I heard my brother’s voice in my mind warning me, but it was too late now. They had me pinned and defenseless. I tried to use my freed arm to fend off the drummer, but JGB recaptured it.
"I so like it when they beg,” he said. “Don’t you, Reg?"
"This is rape.” I tried to firm my jaw to keep it from quivering. “You’ll go to jail.”
"You consented,” the rock rapper reminded me. “I recorded you earlier on my cell. Good luck trying to make that accusation stick. No one’s going to pay any attention to a bitch who brags about fucking rock stars.”
He was probably right. I closed my eyes, but couldn’t block out the metal sound of a belt buckle unfastening. Pretending it wasn’t happening wouldn’t change things. They were going to do what they were going to do, but I certainly wasn’t going to make it pleasant for them. I popped open my eyes. I had given them the one tear and the one plea when they had taken my necklace. I wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of any more. I’d make them regret what they were about to do. I glanced at Reg's cock as it sprang free from his boxers. I lifted my gaze, narrowing my eyes. I clucked my tongue. "What are you planning to do with that tiny little worm?"
The other guys laughed. His stiff member softened a bit. I gave him some more shit. “I wonder how much cum you have in that eyedropper of yours anyway.” His frown, his sagging balls and his now floppy dick told me he didn’t much appreciate my quips. Even the guitarist’s laughter trailed off. I could tell even with his features shaded that he was having second thoughts about having a go at me.
Suddenly something large slammed into the bus rocking it so hard the glass window above me rattled. The guitarist’s hold around my ankles loosened. The sound of shattering glass followed and then came heavy footfalls. A lot of them. I managed to yank my legs free just as Lucky, his bandmates and Marsha appeared inside the cabin.