Conquest (31 page)

Evan grabbed Tim by his shirt and hauled him to his feet. Before he could strike again, Jesse jumped for him. He threw his arms around Evan’s waist and pressed his body against his back.

“Ev, stop! You’re going to hurt yourself.”

Evan stood motionless. Reluctantly, he loosened his hold on Tim and let go, but not without a final shove that made Tim stumble to his knees. Jesse felt Evan’s tense back muscles relax a fraction, and tightened his embrace around him.

Evan laid his hands over Jesse’s and glared at Tim. “You want to come after me? Go ahead and try. I’d like to see if you can survive my attorneys.”

The mention of attorneys snapped Greg out of his panic. He spun toward Tim, his voice and expression harsh. “Going after Evan would be the worst thing you could do, Tim, whether it’s talking to tabloids or a lawsuit. You never fully understood what I meant when I would tell you that at all costs, we at Phoenix protect our artists. I hope you understand now. Unfortunately, because of your discrimination against Jesse, I’m going to have to let you go. You know Phoenix has a zerotolerance policy against discrimination based on age, race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation, and the intolerance you’ve shown is a direct breach of that policy. I ask that you have your office cleaned out by seven o’clock tonight.”

With what strength he had remaining, Tim stomped around Greg and out the door.

Silence pervaded the room, no one knowing what to say or do, except Jesse as he kept Evan in his arms. After a long moment, JJ clapped his hands together, the loud crack making everyone except Evan and Jesse jump.

“Well, it’s good times again.” He walked up to Evan and slapped his hand down on his shoulder. “I really appreciate you inviting me to join you on this album, mate, but you could’ve warned me about flying elbows. You almost clocked me a good one.”

Jesse felt something warm and wet touch his hand. He peered over Evan’s shoulder and gasped at seeing blood trickle from a gash across the index and middle knuckles of Evan’s right hand. “You’re hurt!”

Evan glanced down at his hand. “It’s just a scratch from his teeth.”

Not feeling the same indifference toward the injury as Evan, Jesse clenched Evan’s wrist and dragged him to the sink in the kitchen area. He got the water running, held Evan’s hand under the flow, and gently rinsed the cut.

Evan gazed at Jesse’s face, so concentrated on cleaning the wound. “I’m sorry, gorgeous,” he said softly.

 

Jesse jerked his head up, surprised by the sudden apology. “For what?”

“I shouldn’t have stepped in like that. You had wanted to deal with Tim yourself, but I jumped in and took over. I should’ve let you handle it.”

Jesse turned his attention back to Evan’s cut hand. “Yeah well, that may be true, but I’m not really thinking about that at the moment. What did you mean when you said you had given him the ‘courtesy of a warning’?”

A tentative smile touched Evan’s lips. “I guess I should’ve told you how on your first day in the studio, I warned him that if he ever offended you again, I’d punch his teeth down his throat.”

“Yeah, that might’ve been good to know,” Jesse grumbled. “Are you mad?”
“No. Right now the only thing I want is to get you home,

strip us both down, and have you throw me to my back on the bed so I can wrap my legs around your neck and you can screw the hell out of me.” Jesse looked at him from under his eyelashes, a mischief filled grin on his lips. “Do you have any idea how turned on I am right now?”

“I think I’m starting to figure it out.”

Jesse brought his lips to Evan’s in a tender kiss that hinted at the many more once they were alone. He drew back slowly and began carefully drying Evan’s hand with a paper towel. He inspected the wound closer. “It’s not as bad as I thought, but it still needs to be bandaged.”

“I’ll get the first aid kit,” Greg said.

“Don’t worry about it,” Jesse said, leading Evan toward the door. “We have bandages at home. Let’s call it a day, guys. I don’t think any of us can concentrate on making music now and we were having a bad day, anyway.” He paused as they came upon Greg. “I’m sorry things happened that way with Tim.”

Greg laid one hand on Jesse’s shoulder. “It’s okay, son. I’m still confused about why and how this happened. I knew there was tension between you and Tim, but I guess it went a lot deeper than what I realized. I wish you would’ve come to me about it in the beginning. We’ll have to sit down tomorrow and you’ll have to catch me up on all that’s happened between you two so I don’t get any surprises down the line.” He turned his gaze to Evan in a reprimanding look. “You too.”

Evan nodded, though by his expression it was obvious he had no intention of doing so. As Jesse led him away, Evan turned to JJ. “I’ll call you in a little bit and we’ll set up dinner plans.”

JJ flipped a thumbs up and watched them disappear out the door. He glanced at Greg. “Looks like he’s finally found something that means more to him than music.”

Greg exhaled a deep breath. “Frightening, isn’t it?”

 

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY
-
THREE

Jesse dragged himself out of the black limousine to the sidewalk outside the Phoenix Studios. He looked up at the early evening sky that threw its fiery orange glow over the gray buildings. Finally, the month of July was almost over. When he looked back on things now, everything seemed more of a congealed blur of events than any clear memory.

For the rest of June they worked twice as long and hard to get the album finished and ready for printing and packaging. There were times when he wondered if they were going to be able to get it done, times when he wanted to say screw it and walk away for a few days, but he wasn’t about to sacrifice all he had worked for, so he hid his fatigue and pushed Kenny, Julian, and Trish to keep up with him.

Evan was the only person who knew his exhaustion and always seemed to be able to sense when he was ready to crack. It was those moments when he was at his limit that he would look up from the mic and see Evan standing in the control room, watching him. A sense of serenity always came over him, then Evan would whisk him from the studio and take him to get something to eat, or for a drive so they could talk, or one time to a suite at the Ritz-Carlton for a quick stress relief session.

Jesse smiled at the last memory and felt the tension from the final day of the video shoot ease. He had decided after they shot pictures for the CD liner and promos that he would love doing photo shoots. Kenny already loathed them, Trish and Julian found them incredibly boring, but for him, being in front of the camera, trying on different outfits, having people fix his clothes and hair for him, was just too much fun. Of course, part of it could be the extra attention he got since the photographers always wanted him in the front, in the most dramatic or sexy poses, or shots of him solo. Greg told him he better get used to it. He might be part of a band, but with his charisma and looks, the media would be looking to get him one-on-one a lot.

With how much he enjoyed the photo shoots, he assumed he would have a blast making the video for “Euphoria” as well, but it turned out to be more of a pain. It started off bad right away when he got into a fight with the director because the guy wanted to do a mini-movie and actors would have more screen time than the band.

He refused to back down and won the battle by having the video done based off his concept of doing a tribute to Chicago and their local fans. It was going to feature him singing on the steps of the Field Museum solo, then with Kenny playing guitar at Soldier Field. It would move next to him singing on the mound at U.S. Cellular Field where Trish would be drumming behind him, then he would be on the Ferris wheel at Navy Pier with Julian rocking out the keyboards below, and wrap up with all of them playing at Millennium Park. Overall, he felt the finished product should be great, but he didn’t know if it had been worth three days of work. Who knew it’d take so long to make a video for a three and a half minute song? Well, besides Evan, who had warned him.

At least it was over, until they had to make the videos for “Vanish” and “Shattered.” The thought was almost enough to make him puke. On the plus side, he knew August wouldn’t be too bad. Just some light publicity, then the album’s release date at the end of the month, which they had decided to self-title
Conquest
, even though he thought it sounded generic.

The only thing that had him nervous was going to New York the first week of September. Greg called in countless favors and arranged for them to be interviewed on MTV, VH1, and by a few music mags, including
Rolling Stone
. Being interviewed for
Rolling Stone
was enough to make him swoon.

Greg told him not to worry. By the time the New York trip came around he would have plenty of experience being interviewed by smaller publications and Internet sites, not to mention the coaching Greg and Evan had done with him so he’d know how to handle himself, but it didn’t do much to lessen his nervousness.

Jesse fingered the sixteen-rayed sun pendant dangling from the choker around his neck and shook the thoughts away. There wasn’t any point in getting himself worked up over something that was a month away. Greg was probably right. By the time he got through August and the smaller interviews, getting interviewed by bigger media would be nothing. He chuckled inside. Yeah, right.

He turned to cross the street for the parking garage and stumbled forward when a body slammed against his back. As he fought to gain his balance, two thin but strong arms clamped around his neck. He could feel a pair of ample breasts squashed against his back and figured it wasn’t Kenny, Julian, or Greg who pounced him.

“Jess, let’s go out to dinner,” Trish said.
“Not tonight, Trish. I just want to go home and chill.” “Go home and chill? You talk like you’re sixty years old.”

“Fine. I just want to go home and fuck. Is the truth better?”
Julian laughed. “It’s more believable since we were all sitting there when the make-up lady was teasing you about what a kinky sex life you must have when she was trying to find the right shade of body foundation to cover that bite mark on your shoulder. We’re all still waiting to hear the story behind that fabu dental impression.”
Trish softened her voice to a seductive timbre and raked her fingernails through Jesse’s hair. “Yeah, everyone likes a good dirty story. It’s fun to imagine yourself in the place of one of the players, especially when one of them is you, pretty boy.”

Jesse looked at her. “So you like imagining yourself in Ev’s place?”

 

“Maybe,” Trish said coyly.

 

“Then you might want to imagine a strap-on in the scenario because I’ve got special needs, you know.”

Julian burst out laughing. Trish shoved Jesse on the back of the head to show her lack of appreciation. Kenny rolled his eyes and sidestepped away from the door when it opened.

Evan walked out and stopped so short at the sight of Trish hanging on Jesse that JJ ran into him from behind.
Trish narrowed her eyes the merest of fractions at Evan.

Jesse saw Evan and flashed a radiant smile. “Hey! I thought you would’ve left for home by now!”

He moved to greet Evan, half dragging Trish on his back before she managed to let go. He almost reached him when Greg slid between them and stopped him with his index finger pointed in Jesse’s face.

“What have we talked about, Jess? With ‘Euphoria’ getting ready to come out, more and more people are going to start recognizing you on the street and you can’t jump all over Evan like you’re used to doing. You shouldn’t have been acting so affectionate toward him in public in the first place, and the only reason you’ve gotten away with it for as long as you have is because the media hasn’t found out he’s back yet. But that’s going to change with us getting ready to announce he’s working on a new album, so you need to learn to control yourself.”

Jesse stared at Greg, hurt overriding his anger at having to keep his feelings for Evan hidden.

 

Evan grabbed Greg’s arm. “You don’t have to be so harsh about it.”

Greg ripped his arm from Evan’s hold. “No, Evan, I do, because neither one of you seem to understand the risk behind some snake in the grass paparazzi getting a shot of you two hugging each other or worse.”

“
Or worse
?” Evan snapped. “Having people see me give affection to the person I love is one of the worst things that could happen in your mind, isn’t it?”

Jesse interrupted the growing tension by spinning away from them both. “Just forget it, Ev. I don’t want this to ruin our evening. Let’s go home.”

Jesse marched across the street with Kenny, Julian, and Trish trailing after him. Evan gave Greg a final dirty look and jogged to catch up with him.

JJ shook his head at Greg and moved to join Evan. “You’re pushing too hard, mate.”
Evan caught up to Jesse and snagged him by the upper arm to a halt him. “Are you okay?”

Jesse summoned a smile for him. “I’m great since I got to see you earlier than I expected.”

Evan could tell Jesse was trying to hide his distress, but decided to let him keep his front up until they were alone. “I wanted to wait for you.”

Jesse’s smile became more genuine. “Are you hungry? We should get something to eat before we go home.”

“Yeah, we can do that.” Evan retrieved a set of car keys from his front pocket. “Here. You drive.”
Jesse took the keys, confusion causing him to stare at them. “What are these to?”
Evan pulled him around a corner and pointed to a new Ferrari F430 coupe, its custom midnight blue paint lightly touched with a hint of metallic. “They’re to that.”
“How freakin’ sweet!” Jesse darted toward it, slamming to a halt as he came upon it. He stood back, drinking in the masterpiece. He gazed at the engine through the window in back, radiating power though it lay silent. He examined the wheels that bore the yellow Ferrari logo with the black prancing stallion in the center. He peeked in at the black leather seats, and the dashboard and controls accented in brushed aluminum.

“That’s a kickass car,” Kenny said.
“It’s beautiful,” Julian added.
“It can really move, too,” JJ said. “I went with him to pick it