Page 54 of Revelry

I pick at a thread on my jeans and avoid his gaze. “I doubt he’ll even remember. He was pretty tanked.”

“Fuck remembering. I’m gonna be all over his arse like a rash about this shit.”

Because that wouldn’t be humiliating at all. I don’t want to think about Coop, and I certainly don’t want to discuss his ex with Levi. “Can we stop talking about Cooper now?”

“You’re really chomping at the bit for poor, twisted up, unhappy Coop, huh Red?”

“Shut up. I barely know him.”

“Bullshit. I bunk across from you two, I know all about your little late-night chats.”

“You heard those?” I ask, getting pissy, because I can’t believe that he would pretend to be asleep and eavesdrop in on our conversations.

“We live on a fucking tour bus, Red. Nothing is sacred there.” Levi shakes his head, and for a moment I glimpse a different person beneath his lewd, overtly sexual rock-star persona. For a brief second there he was as lonely and vulnerable as I am. I know he feels my studious gaze on him, but he doesn’t say anything. He presses a button on the console beside him and a minibar pops out from his door. “Champagne, my lady?”

“Don’t suppose you have any beer in there?”

“Nope.”

“Okay, fine, give me bubbles then.”

He takes a flute from the rack and hands it to me. I hold it steady as he pops the cork. Champagne bubbles over the edge of my glass as Levi pours and he dips his head, lapping at the moisture on my hands, sliding his tongue with its little silver piercing along my flesh, before turning my wrist and taking the soft underside of my palm into his mouth, nipping at it gently.

“I really dislike you,” I say, removing my hand from his lips and downing my champagne in one long gulp.

“That’s not dislike making your panties wet, Red.”

“Fuck you. It’s been so damn long since I had sex that my vagina is confused with all of the blood rushing to it.”

“How long?”

“A long time.”

He grins and tops up my glass. “But how long?”

“I don’t know,” I say impatiently. “A couple weeks, I guess.”

“A couple of weeks? Or a couple of months?”

“Fine, it’s been a year. Okay, more like one year, three months, and … twelve days.” I do a little calculation in my head. “Give or take.”

“Christ. No wonder you’re giving me ‘come fuck me’ eyes.”

“I am not giving you ‘come fuck me’ eyes.”

Levi laughs. I pick up the twisty top from the champagne and throw it at him.

After another glass and a lot more driving through the desolate Mojave Desert, we pull up to a huge house with a sandstone privacy fence surrounding it. Bobby speaks into an intercom, telling a disembodied voice that Mr Levi Quinn and guest have arrived, and it hits me. I’m about to meet Josh Holme. I’m about to meet the man who made me fall arse-over-head in love with rock music. I’m about to pee my pants.Oh my god, I need to pee real bad. I stare at Levi and the bastard chuckles. He’s laughing at me.

“Calm down, Red. He’s just a person. Just like you and me.”

“He is not a person. Josh Holme is not a fucking person. He’s a legend, a god. He’s rock royalty, he’s … oh god, he’s in that building, there’s just a courtyard and several inches worth of wall separating his body from mine.”

“Okay, breathe, and calm the fuck down. I’m not gonna take you in there if you’re gonna behave like a fucking fangirl.”

“I told you,” I shriek, “I told you I’d freak. I told you my inner fangirl could not be stopped, but you didn’t listen, and now it’s too late. It’s too late for all of us.”

We drive through the gate and I open my door before the car has even pulled to a stop, and then I’m out and running for Josh’s front door. I hear Levi swear and I’m pretty sure that dull thud was the sound of his champagne glass flying across the interior of the car as he chases after me. I press the doorbell, only I’m so excited I can’t retract my finger, so the button sticks and it just keeps ringing, and I have no way to make it stop because I’m frozen in fangirl fear. Levi catches up to me and throws his arm around my shoulder, keeping me reined in.

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