Chapter Three
He strolled into Dermamania on Tuesday ten minutes late, head down, hoping no one noticed. Wishful thinking. Brian Ross, his best friend and boss, missed nothing. As he slipped by the office heading for the front, Brian called out to him.
“Where the fuck you been?”
Ghost rubbed at the back of his head sheepishly. “Oh, my brother, you don’t want to know.”
Brian cocked a dark eyebrow at him, but took him at his word and went back to whatever art masterpiece he was sketching out. Ghost hung out in the door and watched him for a minute, considering what his best bud since freshman year of high school would have to say about him rejoining In the Slaughter. There would probably be some good counsel there, even if it wasn’t something he wanted to hear.
“So…how are things?” Ghost asked at last.
Brian looked up at him, really seeing him for the first time. “What’s the matter with you?” His friend knew him well.
“Mark invited me back to play a gig with them. I want to do it.”
“What the hell for?”
Yeah, that was pretty much the reaction he’d counted on. “I don’t know, man. Relive my days of glory?”
“Those were your days of glory?”
Good point. “At times, they were pretty fuckin’ stellar.”
“It’s all changed up now. Those days are dead and gone. Those guys, though…they’re stuck back there. Do you think they’ve changed any? I can guarantee you, they haven’t. But you have.”
Brian had been there the night the shit hit the fan backstage at Crossbones. He’d seen the whole ugly business: Macy distraught and screaming, Ghost staggering drunk, Raina gloating about something that hadn’t happened. “It would only be for one gig. I thought I’d help out, I don’t know.”
“What does Macy think?”
“Need you ask? Especially now, when she has a baby on the brain?”
Brian’s eyes widened for a second, then he burst out laughing, the bastard. “That’s where you’ve been. Congratulations.”
Shit, Brian didn’t know. Ghost had thought for sure that Macy had discussed her desires with Candace, who told Brian everything. “It’s a little premature for congrats. I didn’t say she’s having a kid. Yet.”
“Don’t be too premature, or you’ll never get the deed done.”
“Ha. Fucking. Ha.”
Brian raised his eyebrows. “No comeback? Don’t be so dour. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.”
“I damn sure won’t mind working at it.”
“Dude? That’s something I don’t need to hear about.”
Ghost chuckled, finally walking into Brian’s office and dropping into one of the chairs that faced his desk, where the employees all sat to shoot the shit or sometimes get their asses chewed out. “But this is the part where you tell me how big a step it is and scare the shit out of me.”
“I’m here to tell you it’s a bigger step than you can even contemplate right now. But it’s a great one. I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
“Good to know.” If there was one hang-up Ghost had about that baby thing, it was that he’d actually found a beautiful, perfect woman who wanted to be afflicted with his hellspawn, so there had to be something wrong with her. What kind of glitch in the Matrix had caused this shit to happen, and how long before they fixed it so that everything went to hell again? He couldn’t think too hard about it. “So…I don’t suppose I could count on you to be in the audience next month.”
With a shrug, Brian idly picked up his cell phone when it pinged to read an incoming text. “Maybe I could be. When is it?”
“The eighteenth.”
“Yeah, Candace and I could use a getaway for a night. Mom would be more than thrilled to keep Lyric.” He glanced up from his phone with a grin. “All spontaneity goes out the window when you have a kid, you see. Everything becomes a plan.”
“Yeah, I know. But everyone else makes it work, you guys make it work, so we’ll make it work, too, I’m sure.”
“Are you hoping for one last party before you resign yourself to your fate, or what? Because I thought we took care of that at your bachelor party.”
Oh God, what a night that had been. While he’d been a good boy—pretty good, anyway—the Dermamania crew had whisked him away for a surprise whirlwind two-night Vegas trip, and some of the shenanigans had made him more grateful than ever that he would be waking up with the same woman for the rest of his life. The shark-infested waters of singledom held absolutely no appeal anymore. For a guy celebrating his last hurrah as a bachelor, he’d practically been the boring one.
“Can’t I do one thing without everyone analyzing my fuckin’ motives? You’re as bad as Macy.”
“Don’t dick me around. Let’s not forget how long I’ve known you. Hell, I know you better than she does.”
That was probably true. Still. “I liked playing live music. I liked being onstage. I miss it. I have my one shot to do it again and I want to. It’s really as simple as that.”
“Why don’t you just put out the word you want to join another band? We have connections.”
“I don’t really want to go through all that, so why don’t I just do this?”
Brian shrugged and pushed up out of his chair. He twisted his black baseball cap around backward. “Do what you gotta. I should have an appointment here in a few minutes.”
Ghost did, too, though he would rather stay and argue. Macy was heavy on his mind…he’d come directly here from lunch at her office, where she’d locked her door and let him bang her on her desk, their mouths crushed together to stifle each other’s groans. Fuck, it had been hot; he was still half hard thinking about it. She didn’t think it was her fertile time, but what the hell, might as well cover all the bases, and he damn sure couldn’t get inside her fast enough when she gave him the look . That molten, heavy-lidded stare of hers that went straight to his dick.
He loved that woman more than anything else in the world. She was his heart. But hanging on to a little bit of himself was necessary, too, hence this need to play another show. It had been a struggle from the very beginning not to give her every last piece of his fucking soul, let her consume him completely. And she was good at that, good at getting things her way, and he didn’t think she even realized when she did it. For the most part, he let her have it, but he did choose his battles carefully.
He had to admit, though, if Macy eventually put that size-seven cowgirl boot down and said “This is the way it’s gonna be, jackass,” he might roll over like a whipped dog. That scared him. He hoped it never came to that between them. She wanted a kid, he was cool with that. She needed to be cool with this. Maybe Brian had been more right than he knew when he suggested this was a last hurrah.
When his client appeared to be running late—it was in the air, it seemed—he took a minute to send his wife a text.
Pregnant yet?
LOL! Not that I’m aware of.
I’m just saying, that should’ve gotten the job done.
I think everyone knows what we were in here doing. They’ve all been grinning at me.
He chuckled when he read that. She managed her parents’ sporting goods store, and the employees had learned not to bother her when he showed up during her lunch hour. Aside from that, Macy wore great sex. It brightened her up. Put color in her cheeks, a sparkle in her eyes—it was one of his favorite things about her: watching her walk around all lit up and knowing he’d flipped that particular switch.
Awesome , he told her.
Why is that awesome?
Because you’re mine and everyone better fuckin know it.
Oooh. I like it when you get all alpha.
I’m always alpha, baby.
I miss you!
And his heart went straight to goo. Yeah, so he’d left her less than half an hour ago. He missed the hell out of her. In a perfect world, they wouldn’t need jobs and could stay in bed working on making that baby all day, every day. Miss you, too, babe , he told her, then grudgingly tucked his phone away.
Their schedules were not ideal. She worked nine to six, Monday through Friday. He worked two to ten on a good day…until eleven or twelve when they were super busy, with Sunday his only consistent day off. Usually he was off Mondays, too, though he would set appointments sometimes if his clients needed it.
He hated knowing when she left in the mornings that he wouldn’t see her again until late that night unless he went by her workplace before he headed to his own at two o’clock. Going to her job every day made him feel like a pest, so he made a point to only do it a couple times a week. Likewise, she would sometimes swing by Dermamania to see him on her way home from work, or bring him dinner, but if he had someone under the needle, he didn’t have time to talk to her.
It sucked. While he was in the middle of stewing over the injustice of it all, Candace, Brian’s wife, came in with their son on her hip. Lyric was a cute little stinker, with a mop of black hair like Brian’s and some very chubby cheeks. Ghost envied his best friend at that moment. He would love it if Macy could breeze in the doors whenever she felt like it. Kid in tow, even. A strange pang hit him in the chest at the thought. He’d always thought he wanted that for her, but mostly, right then, he wanted it for him.
“What the hell are you thinking?” he heard Candace demand, but didn’t look up from wiping down his counter because he never would have possibly assumed by her tone that she was talking to him . When laughter erupted and Brian called his name, though, he turned with an eyebrow cocked.
“Huh?”
Candace had handed Lyric over to Brian. She propped both hands on her hips and gave Ghost a death stare. “You’re making Macy go to Crossbones again? After what happened there?”
He shot Brian a withering look. “News travels fast. And she agreed, you know.”
“Agreed, or was coerced?” Candace fired back. These two were outrageously protective of each other. The older they got, the worse they were.
“We negotiated. We compromised . That’s what marriage is all about, don’t you know? Hell, y’all have been married longer than we have, and here I am giving you advice.”
Candace rolled her eyes. “Well, I can’t let her go there by herself.”
“Who the fuck said she’ll be by herself? She’s going with me.”
“You’ll be onstage most of the time, genius.”
“For thirty minutes tops. She’s a grown woman. But yeah, you guys should come. I already invited your worse half.” Not that he’d even told Mark for certain that he was doing this thing yet. It wasn’t really a conversation to look forward to. Even though it was something Ghost wanted to do, giving that asshole his way was definitely one major con.
“I said we could use the getaway,” Brian told Candace, ruffling his son’s messy hair while the boy giggled around the teething ring grasped in his chubby fists. “I could do with some live music. It’s been too long.”
“So you’re going,” Ghost said. “It’s decided. Stop bitching me out, because we’re all gonna have a good time.”
Candace didn’t look convinced. “You’d better be extra nice to her in these next few weeks to make up for this,” she said, glaring at him.
He grinned at her. That had never been a problem. “Don’t worry. I’ll be extra-special nice to your bestie.”
…
Does he seem okay to you?
Macy hit send on the message to Candace and chewed her bottom lip as she awaited the response. It seemed rather ridiculous and juvenile to be reduced to asking her best friend about her own husband, but sometimes she felt like Seth shut her out. She’d had that feeling since their argument in the back of his car.
We got into it. Other than that, he’s kind of quiet today , Candace rep lied.
Of all the adjectives in the world to describe Seth Warren, quiet was the least of them—or at least it should be.
You got into it? What do you mean?
I can’t believe he’s asking you to go back there and I told him so.
Wincing, Macy typed furiously. Please don’t, it’s okay. What’s he doing?
With a client right now.
She drew a deep breath. She was a little jealous of that person. He’d given Macy her one and only tattoo, a large ivy pattern to cover the surgery scar on her back, and it had been an experience she would never forget. Though it had taken hours and hurt like hell, she’d loved letting him create his art on her skin. It had been as intimate as everything else they did together, as everything that had happened in her office an hour ago. And while she didn’t know that she wanted any more work done, it was something she would treasure always.
What are you worried about? Candace asked, and hell, she didn’t know. Being worried about anything seemed ridiculous.
I’m not even sure. I just have a weird feeling.
You shouldn’t.
Thanks.
Stress? Anxiety? She wanted a baby so badly, and the band thing irked her, and she wasn’t even sure why. Maybe because she was settling down, thinking of quiet nights at home with family, and suddenly he’d whisked her back to the same feelings she’d had when they were first dating. The uncertainty about who he was, what he wanted, and how compatible they were. Or weren’t.
Raina was also a factor, certainly, but not because Macy felt threatened. Seth couldn’t even stand being in the same room with the woman. It was only, if he wanted to start a family with Macy, why did he feel the need to hook up with past influences? Bad influences? That wasn’t the life she wanted, sitting at home with the kids while her husband chased rock stardom. He’d insisted for as long as she’d known him that a career in music had never been his ambition—he enjoyed playing, and that was that. But what if that changed? Anything could change. She didn’t like the opportunities this presented him. They scared her.
Did he regret giving all that up to marry her? Try as she might, it was the only conclusion she could come to: there were elements of his past that he missed. If he wanted to play live music, a guy as talented as him could find other opportunities. Why go back?
Try as she might, she couldn’t focus on work; her computer screen blurred in front of her eyes, and she kept thinking about what he’d done to her just a couple of feet away from where she sat right now. The way he’d shoved her over on her desk and drove into her as if he had some hidden aggression to work out. She’d taken it all, his hands rough on her, his thrusts deep and punishing. Her fingers had gripped the desk’s edge so hard her joints still ached, and every time she shifted in her chair she felt the shape of him inside her. Jesus. It had been hot, and as silent as they could make it, and her heart still turned little flips when aftershocks rocked her. She’d come twice before he had once.
He had sent her that cute message asking if she was pregnant yet. She was worrying for nothing. He hadn’t denied her anything. She closed her eyes in bliss to think of it.
But, as she’d told him in his car, it wasn’t the right time. All her worrying was probably just a rampant case of PMS, and any day now, “Shark Week” would commence, as she called it. Well, she would be damn glad when it came and went.
Wait a minute . Glancing at her calendar, she frowned, then burst out laughing. Of course. The show was in three weeks, he’d said…right at her peak ovulation time. She hadn’t quite realized just how perfect that timing would be. Well, she hoped he was ready, because he might not be capable of going onstage when she was through with him. That was one surefire way to keep Seth Warren from getting into too much trouble at the concert.
Macy grinned and went back to her computer, feeling a little better about the whole thing. When they went to Austin, he would definitely make good on his end of the bargain. She was going to fuck him until he could barely walk.