Page 9 of Revelry

Me: You know I’m really more of a hands-on kind of girl.

Oh crap. Did I really just send that? I stare at our messages, praying there was a way I could take that back. I don’t even like this guy. Why the hell would I write that?

Cat growls from the backseat and I promptly tell her to shut up, and then I drive back to the nearest bottle shop and fill up a trolley full of liquor, half of which will probably go unused. I decide to spend a little money on a packet of Smith’s potato chips—tonight’s dinner—and then I drive back to the studio on the fumes left in my tank. I’ll likely be staying here the entire week since I can’t afford the petrol to drive back to …oh wait. I have nowhere to drive back to.

I grab the fluro pink cat harness and a faded old denim jacket that I’ve worn for far too many years, and decide to brave the angry kitty box. It takes me a few minutes to work up the courage to open it, and another few minutes of the cat hissing at me from the back seat before I launch myself at it and smuggle the harness over its fat fluffy body.

Why couldn’t my Grams leave me a dog? Or a bird? I’d even settle for a damn hamster, but a fucking cat that makes Satan look like a fluffy bunny?Thanks, Grams.

Once the harness is secure enough and the hissing has calmed a little, I tuck the cat in my jacket. It growls, and I’m sure if I wasn’t wearing a scarf I’d be sporting a ruptured artery because kitty’s claws are out, and she is PMSing like a bitch. I open the door and stalk over to the leafy garden in front of the car. She squirms and backflips out of my arms, sniffing the ground. She slinks down low and looks around, as if she’s terrified. I don’t know what she has to be afraid of—she’s scarier than Satan. In fact, if I were attacked, I wouldn’t need a knife. I’d just throw the cat at my assailant and laugh as she gouged his eyes out.

While I’m trying to get Cat to do her business, Levi comes gliding out of the studio, followed closely by Cooper. I don’t know why, but I duck down behind the car so they won’t see me, yanking a little too hard on Cat’s harness. She gives me a filthy kitty look that says she may yet claw me to death in my sleep. Both men lean against the wall. Levi pulls a crumpled pack of cigarettes from his pocket. He hands one to Cooper and then they both light up, completely oblivious to the fact that I’m here.

“So?” Levi prompts. I don’t know if this is a conversation they’re continuing from inside or if Levi’s just starting up, but the mischievous smile on his face and the irritated look on Cooper’s probably means he’s not going to enjoy whatever Levi has to say.

“So what?” Cooper asks.

“Red. You fuck her yet?”

“Don’t be a dick. I just met her.”

“I just met Miss Platinum inside,” Levi says, blowing rings of smoke at Cooper. “For the record, her carpet don’t match the drapes.”

“You’re a sick bastard.”

“Hey, it was nice carpet. Soft. Plushy.” He laughs and Cooper shakes his head. “The kind you could sink into and just stay there for days.”

“Well, lucky for you we’ll be recording here for days.” Cooper leans his head back against the brick wall, exhaling a cloud of cigarette smoke and staring up at the fading daylight and blue sky.

“Nah, bitches get too needy if you fuck ’em more than once.”

“Jesus, you’re an arsehole, Levi.”

“Well we can’t all be willing to give up fucking everything for a piece of pussy.”

“She wasn’t just some random pussy you, dumb fuck.” He glares at Levi. “She was myeverything.”

“Yeah, your everything that was sticking it to her ex.”

“Don’t fucking go there.”

“You need to screw that girl outta your system. You’re Cooper fucking Ryan. You’re a fucking rock star, man. Start acting like it. Do you know how many girls would be willing to offer up their pussies to the lead singer of … Taint? Fuck me, are we really changing our name?”

“Yep.” Cooper takes a long drag of his cigarette and exhales just as slowly. His head falls back against the brick once more. Smoke curls out of his mouth and nostrils. I damn well hate smokers, but he manages to make sucking back a stick of tar and nicotine look hot.Too hot.

“Well shit, between you and Ash being completely off his game, we should change our name to the God Squad. Priests see more fucking action than you two do.” Levi shakes his head. “Meanwhile, I’ve got more pussy than I know what to do with. But I’m more than happy to take one for the team.”

“I’m not fucking Red, and you aren’t either. We need her.”

“Yeah, Ineeda warm place to stick my cock when I’m on a tour bus with you fuckers. Zed already called dibs on your sister.”

Cooper straightens, glaring at his band mate. “What do you mean ‘he called dibs on my sister’?”

“Relax man, I’m just fucking with ya.”

“No one touches my sister—”

“But we can touch, Red?” Levi grins, looking as hopeful as a kid who’s promised an ice-cream on a sweltering summer day.

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