Beats of Life (Perception Book 5) (14 page)

“Not drummers baby, we are all about the beat,” he responded seductively. He strolled over towards me and used both of his hands to gently tap on the top of my breasts, mimicking the movements a person would make on a small drum while making drumming noises out of his mouth.

“Perfect rhythm,” I replied playfully, silently wishing that Dominic wasn’t outside waiting for us so I could have enjoyed even more of Slater’s sexual rhythms.

Once we were both presentable and clothed, we walked hand in hand to Dominic’s large white truck. I hopped in first and slide across the red bench seat, keeping my gaze lowered so I didn’t catch Dominic’s furious eyes. Slater moved in next to me and placed his hand on my thigh. My eyes only lifted when we were halfway home as I felt something being tapped on my leg. When I noticed that it was the red pencil I had used earlier that night, I couldn’t help the smile that formed on my face.

“You have to use this pencil every item I help you cross an item off your list,” Slater requested quietly. I eagerly nodded my head as a small gathering of tears formed in my eyes. He handed me the pencil and placed a kiss on the top of my head before pulling me in close to his chest.

I quickly make my way to my suitcase located in the corner of the room in my hotel suite. It takes pulling out every article of clothing I own before I remember that I had placed the pencil in the front pocket of my carry-on baggage. It hasn’t been sharpened or used in years, but I always carry it with me everywhere I go with a hope that one day I may be able to use my trusty red pencil again.

Slater

“Do you want me to go and get them?” questions Marcus, triggering me to instantly shake my head.

We are once again sitting in the stretch limousine waiting for the rest of our band members to show up to take us to the after party since our concert tour has just kicked off in San Francisco, but this time I don’t mind waiting. Why you ask? Because the beautiful specimen of Kylie is sitting directly across from me. I haven’t been able to get her out of my head since our kiss and if she isn’t in my thoughts, she is in my dreams every fucking night. I’ve been putting all my best moves on her and tonight I intend to collet my reward. We have been flirting pretty heavily the past few days that I constantly need to adjust my crutch. I think some of the stage crew are getting worried that I might have crabs or something. I just can’t get Kylie alone to push our flirting to the next level. If I’m not with Marcus, she is with Melanie or Emily. I couldn’t help but chuckle and my chest puffed out when she sidestepped Sonny and walked right by him like he didn’t even exist earlier tonight.

I could feel her eyes watching me the entire two hours of our performance tonight and when the lights on the stage dimmed I could also see her. She was smiling brightly and was covering her ears from the deafening chants the crowd was making while requesting an encore. Her fall to your knees smile plastered all over her adorable face. The first thing I did when I walked off stage was invite her and Melanie to the after party. Melanie squealed when I asked them to meet me in the limo in an hour, where Kylie just gently nodded her head and smiled softly.

The instant Kylie enters the limo I once again have the urgent need to adjust myself. She is wearing a dark purple strapless dress that had the middle section cut out in a crisscross design, exposing inches of her soft and smooth skin on her stomach and a cropped black suede jacket. The color of her dress matches the purple streak in her straightened hair perfectly. Her make-up is a little heavier than I like, but I do notice that her lips are only covered with a slight sheen of lip gloss.

When Jenni enters the limo, her eyes dart between Kylie and I. A shy smile forms on her face before her cheeks go a pink hue. She moves over and sits down next to me, nudging me playfully with her shoulder. I reluctantly tear my gaze away from Kylie to look into Jenni’s amused eyes.

“Did you invite them?” she questions quietly, ensuring that Kylie and Melanie won’t be able to overhear our conversation. Her smile enlarges and her eyes sparkle even more when I nod my head in confirmation.

“I like her,” she whispers.

“I know,” I reply, my eyes rolling. She has told me that exact same statement on many occasions the past few days that I am seriously considering recording her just to save her some breath.

“And so do you,” she continues softly with a small giggle.

This time it is me that playfully barges her with my shoulder while my eyes slightly beg for Nick to save me from his loved up fiancé. His eyes flick between Kylie, Jenni and I and when his gaze returns to mine, he smirks and shakes his head, triggering me to flip him the bird. Jenni giggles loudly, before she slides across the bench seat to snuggle in close to Nick’s side.

When Emily and Noah enter, Emily’s eyes also dart between Kylie and I, but she doesn’t smile like Jenni did. Her eyebrows pull together tight and eyes become filled with small tears, making me curious as to why she would react in such a way. I turn my gaze to Jenni and she has also noticed Emily’s reaction.

“I don’t know,” she mouths silently to my questioning eyes. Her shoulders slightly shrug and a confused look forms on her face.

I spend the twenty-minute trip to the club with my eyes darting between Emily and Kylie. Anytime Kylie would look at Emily, she would offer her a small smile. Emily would return her smile but it wasn’t her normal large heart-warming smile she normally gives people. By the time we make it to the club, my curiosity is peaked enough that I plan on staying in the limo to ask Emily what is going on between her and Kylie.

My plan only falters when Kylie exits the limousine first and becomes blinded by the paparazzi lights. Her hands instantly fly up to shield her eyes but the flashing lights have already affected her vision that she stumbles and nearly falls onto the concrete path. I quickly move towards her, shielding my eyes with one arm and wrapping the other one around her tiny waist. She stiffens when she is suddenly grabbed from the side.

“It’s okay, it’s me,” I declare loudly, trying to project my voice over the paparazzi that are screaming out a range of different questions.

After I take a few steps forward, the flashing of the lights lessen as the paparazzi moves behind us to ensure they capture Noah, Marcus and Nick entering the club. When I walk into the club, I move to the side of the door, before my eyes slowly roam over Kylie’s face.

“If you are looking at me I can’t see you, there is nothing but white blobs in front of me,” she informs giggling, causing me to chuckle loudly.

“Oh my god, where is Melanie?” she questions quickly, her voice sounding panicked and scared.

Oh shit, I had completely forgotten about her friend. My eyes quickly look outside to discover Melanie being ushered into the club by Marcus. She practically clings to his chest as he moves through the swarm of paparazzi. The beaming smile plastered on her face clearly showing her enjoyment.

“She is okay. She is with Marcus,” I inform with a slight chuckle.

Kylie smiles brightly before her eyes flick between mine, indicating that she can once again see. I hold up my index finger and her eyes follow the movement my finger makes as requested. When I lower my finger, her eyes lift to look into mine. We are standing so close the soft pants of her breath can be felt on my lips. Another inch closer and I would be able to taste her delicious lips again. All noise ceases to exist as I lower my mouth down towards hers. Her lust filled eyes dart between mine, her tongue quickly darting out to moisten her lips in preparation for our kiss.

“Oh my god, that was fucking crazy,” screams Melanie loudly next to us. She screamed so loud, Kylie head butted me when she jumped in surprise and my lips narrowly missed hers and landed on the side of her mouth. Melanie looks curiously between us and a small smirk morphs on her face when she notices Kylie rubbing her head.

“Did I interrupt something?” she questions playfully, her thin eyebrows raising high into the air. When neither of us answer, she smiles brightly before wrapping her arm around Kylie.

“We are not at a concert, in a limo or in the shower,” she says giggling, dragging Kylie away from me and walking towards the dance floor. I’m left standing at the side of the club looking like a freak with a raging hard on trying to work out what the fuck just happened. Melanie has been practically throwing Kylie towards me the past three days and now she is dragging her away from me.

“Don’t try and work them out, you will only end up even more confused,” Marcus says, moving to stand next to me.

He wraps his arm around my shoulders and pushes me towards the VIP section of the club. This club tonight is huge compared to the last one we visited. This club has three levels and we have either the choice of a VIP booth, a VIP room or an entire floor dedicated to only VIP clientele that has its own dance floor. We decide on the VIP booth when we discover it has the best view on the dance floor one level below. I order a double shot of whiskey from the waitress before moving to the edge of the balcony to peer down at the mass of people dancing on the dance floor. It doesn’t take long to spot Kylie and Melanie dancing in the middle of the packed floor. If Kylie’s smile on her face isn’t obvious enough, the fire red dress Melanie is wearing stands out even more.

“Thanks,” I say, accepting the glass of whiskey from the waiter’s tray.

Tonight the waitresses are wearing bright yellow fluorescent shorts with hot pink crop tops. At first glance, I thought their outfits were painted onto their bodies as they leave nothing to the imagination. Unfortunately, the male version of the outfit isn’t much better than the girls, the only difference is they have muscle shirts instead of crop tops. I’m going to have to remain standing all night just to ensure I don’t have a fluoro covered male crutch shoved into my peripheral vision against my fucking wishes. Noah’s loud chuckle is easily audible when he notices my gagging reaction to the male waiter’s outfit.

“They’re killing me,” he says, once he joins me near the balcony. “Fluoro yellow was my favorite color. I don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to look at it the same again now,” he continues, making me laugh loudly.

Noah is that obsessed with the color he even coordinated it into his wedding with Emily. Thankfully, it was only wrapped around the girl’s bouquet stems and the groomsmen weren’t subjected to wearing it. I still have fond memories of the night Emily and Noah got married. I had gotten out of rehab the week before and spent my night making sure Noah’s best friend Jacob got rip roaring drunk. I had never seen that guy drunk before and I made it my mission that night to unravel the mystery of a drunken Jacob. I didn’t discover much more about him other than what I already knew. He is a giant with the biggest fucking heart you would ever find. His heart matches his size, but it doesn’t match his career choice. Out of all the careers in the world you would never guess that Jacob is a UFC fighter. Brutal too. I’ve watched him fight a few times the last few months. He was banned for over two years for beating a guy nearly to death with his bare hands. Can’t say that I blame him though, if anyone ever touched any of the girls I dated they wouldn’t still be breathing like Callum is.

“Have you heard from Jacob lately?” I question Noah. He smiles his beaming white smile before his dark eyes turn to face me.

“Yeah, I was talking to him earlier,” he replies smiling. “He is doing good, has a few tricks up his sleeve,” he says, waggling his eyebrows excitedly.

Jacob is dating Emily’s sister Lola. I thought Kylie and I were opposites when we were dating, but we were nothing compared to Lola and Jacob. That girl is small and feisty and she has a very firm grasp on Jacob’s balls. The even funnier part is he seems to be loving every fucking moment of it.

“He and Lola will be at Maddie’s birthday next month,” Noah advises, accepting a bottle of beer from the waitress. Her fluttering eyes excitedly roaming over his face and body, but he doesn’t pay her any attention. If I have learnt anything the past three years is that Noah’s attention never diverts from Emily, whether she is in the room or not.

“You can invite Kylie if you want,” he offers, his eyes darting from the beer bottle to stare into mine.

“Yeah, maybe,” I reply, downing the entire double nip of whiskey. “Do you know what the go is between Emily and Kylie, things seem tense between them?” I question, signalling to the waitress for another whiskey.

Noah freezes with the seam of his beer bottle resting against his lips. His eyes flick from mine to the dance floor down below. He takes a swig of his beer and smiles his big beaming smile. “They seem okay to me,” he replies cheekily, motioning his head to the dance floor where I spot Emily and Kylie dancing side by side, both with large smiles planted on their faces. In sync, their heads lift to look at us. Emily blows a kiss at Noah and Kylie waves hesitantly.

“The better question would be what is going on between you and Kylie?” Noah asks, his voice sounding both concerned and happy.

“Good question,” I respond. I can’t get her out of my fucking head. Not just the past few days, but the past two years. I gave Kylie my heart two years ago, fully, willing and able. When she left, she took my heart right along with her.

Noah chuckles softly at the expression on my face, before he squeezes my shoulder in support.

“I’m fucked, aren’t I?” I question, accepting the whiskey from the waitress, noticing that the napkin attached to the glass has her name and cell phone number scribbled across it.

“I get off in ten minutes,” she purrs into my ear before prancing back to the bar.

Noah’s dark eyes dart down to the napkin before lifting to stare directly into mine.

“That depends on you,” he responds, motioning to the napkin in my hand.