Craving Talon (31 page)

“Addison, I’m Victoria.”
 

I try to tamp down the emotions running through me. “Hi Victoria.”
 

“You can call me Tori. I know that I’m probably not your favorite person right now, but I am here to protect you.”
 

“Well then, come on,” I say and I walk toward the backstage door. I see another one of the men standing near the entrance to the venue, and I’d noticed another one of the guys near the door of the bus.
 

“I’d just like to say that I’m sorry we were pushed on you like that earlier. We had no idea you didn’t know we were coming.”
 

“Tori, it’s not your fault. There have been a lot of things over the last few weeks and it’s all come crashing down on me.”

“If I can speak freely?”
 

I stop and turn to her. “Might as well.”
 

“They love you, don’t be too hard on them. I know that you think they’re babying you, but they honestly just want to protect you,” she says very straight faced and I’m a little shocked that she’s aware of our relationship. “You have no idea how highly Mills, Beck, Rusty and Leroy speak of you, do you?” I shake my head. “Not to mention your boyfriends. My point is this, your attack in Dallas and what happened last night are exactly the things that any decent man wants to protect a woman from and even some women like myself. So you may think they’re babying you, they’re not. They’re protecting you.”
 

“You’re awfully insightful into the personal inner workings of this group for just arriving here.”
 

“Cami cares about you too,” she says. “She’s the honest to god reason why we’re here. She doesn’t want anything to happen to you, as a friend and as an employee of Bold. She’d do this for anyone. In fact she has in the past for other employees. The men you’ve been dealing with are just as broadsided by Cami’s actions as you are. So remember that the next time you want to go off the handle. Regardless of what you think, they all care about you.”
 

I close my eyes, fighting the urge to cry again. For as much as I cried in that bedroom you’d think I’d be cried out, but apparently I’m not. I’ve already re-done my make-up once. I don’t need to do it again. “I appreciate your advice and I will consider the things that you’ve said.” I do my best to not sound like a bitch, I’m pretty sure I fail. “But you might want to get to know me a little better before you go spouting off things that you have no real clue about. When it comes to what’s inside my head and in my heart, you don’t know me. So please don’t pretend like you do until you actually do.” I turn to walk away and she grabs my arm.
 

“Despite what you think, I care about you too, it’s my job.”
 

“Then do your job,” I say, pulling my arm from her hand and walking toward the venue. As I approach the door, the other guy opens it and I can see straight toward the side of the stage. Standing guard around two doors are Beck, Rusty, Mills and Leroy.
 

I need a damn minute alone. I can hear Tender Souls on the stage and I know I don’t have much time. I walk toward the guys. “Which room can I go into, alone?”
 

Mills opens the door behind him and I slide into the opening to find a bare dressing room. I plop onto the couch. Why am I so damn emotional all of a sudden? Fuck, this is just ridiculous, and it’s getting out of hand.
 

I don’t agree with what they did, allowing new guards to show up without my knowledge, but in the same token, I don’t think they were given much of a choice. I can picture Cami telling Mills that he doesn’t have a choice. But I think Mills also realized where some of their weaknesses were and when the opportunity presented itself he took it and ran with it.

I put my head in my hands. God, I’m such a fucking idiot. I’ve treated everyone like shit and they don’t deserve to be treated that way, but the point still remains.
 

I can hear Tender Souls winding down their performance and the crowd getting excited for 69 Bottles to take the stage. If I go out there before they take the stage, I have to play the happy go lucky one and I don’t know if I’m capable of that. Then I remember Kyle and Talon and the fact that they’ve done nothing wrong. They’ve only ever loved me, proven that they love me, over and over again. I stand up, straightening my shirt. Fidgeting with my hair. “Get your ass moving, Addison,” I say to myself as I grab the handle of the door, swinging it open. I step into the hallway.
 

I turn toward the stage and see Kyle standing there. He gives me a half smile, the fear and worry is evident in the way he’s holding himself. I start walking toward him, but I can feel Victoria not far behind me. I turn around, facing her. “Back off. I’m backstage, there are only so many ways out of here and they’re all being guarded.”
 

She puts her hands up. The one thing I liked about Rusty was that he was always there, but I never noticed him. This one is another story.
 

I turn back toward Kyle who has a smirk on his face. I smile at him and he lights up. I come to stand in front of him. He takes my cheeks in his hands and kisses my forehead. Disappointment runs through me and I know all too well why he did it. I’ve made a huge mess of this and I need to figure out how best to fix it.
 

I turn around just in time to see Dex. Talon sees me and smiles a small smile but he too is broken by what I said on the bus. I don’t take it back and I won’t, but I need to find a way to right the ship.
 

Dex comes up to me and plants his wet sloppy kiss. “They really love you, you know. Stop being so hard on them.” I stare at Dex in shock. “But I’m always here if they piss you off too much.” Annnd…Dex is back.
 

“Keep dreaming, Dex.” He laughs and moves away.

Peacock and Mouse come in for their hugs and kisses. “He’s a mess. Give him some extra love,” Peacock says into my ear. Then him and Mouse step onto the stage.
 

Talon is now standing before me. I wait for Kyle to wrap his arms around me and he doesn’t. Pain and fear runs through my veins. I turn around to him. He’s terrified. I take his cheeks into my hands. “Just because I am upset does not mean that I do not love you, it does not mean that I do not care about you, and it certainly does not mean that I do not want to be with you or Talon. I love you, and if anything I love you even more.” I let it drop, releasing his cheeks and I turn around to find Talon standing close to me.
 

He takes my cheeks in his hands. “Never leave me. I can’t handle this now, I can’t deal with it. I will die without you, Addison Lynae.” He brings his lips to mine in a warm, passion filled kiss. Kyle’s hands wrap around me with his hands moving slowly, comforting and engulfing me in love unlike anything I’ve ever felt in my life. Talon’s tongue licks along my lips. The love, the pain, the joy, the desire, it all ignites within me like nothing I’ve ever felt before. Tears streak down my cheeks as Talon dips his tongue into my mouth, stroking my tongue. He uses his thumbs to wipe away my tears. “Please don’t cry, angel. You cannot push us away that easy,” he breathes and kisses me again, wiping my tears once more. He backs away toward the stage, and with each step backwards my heart grows fuller, my chest pounds harder.

My love grows stronger.
 

When Talon takes the stage, I turn to Kyle, burying my face in his chest, breathing in his scent. Holding him to me as hard as I can, like if I let him go, I won’t be able to breathe.
 

“Shh, baby girl, I got you. We got you, we will never let you fall.”

The concert is one of Talon’s best. Our duet of ‘Your Eyes’ goes amazingly well and the crowd starts cheering wildly for ‘To Be Free’. When it comes up in the set, our performance is filled with so much raw emotion that it sends tears to Talon’s eyes. When we finished, he kissed me with so much love and passion that I considered putting my plan back in motion for after the show.
 

But then I realize that we can’t screw away our problems.
 

The greenroom is met with much of what happened in Kansas City. I join the line of the band, signing autographs and taking pictures. It takes us two hours to get through the entire line. Sometimes I wonder why the guys stick around. They can leave at any time. There is nothing in the VIP ticket that guarantees autographs and pictures, but it is a tribute to 69 Bottles’ reputation and their love for their fans.
 

I leave the guys to their business and head back to the bus. Tori is on my heels but at a distance. When I reach the door of the bus one of the other bodyguards I haven’t met, unlocks the door and asks me to wait before I can board. Tori stands with me.
 

I turn to her. “Once your men are free, bring them to the bus, I want to talk to them all.”
 

“Yes ma’am.”

“I am no ma’am,” I tell her, “I am Addison, or Addie, no ma’am nonsense. I am hardly old enough, and if I’m older than you, I’ll be surprised.”
 

“Absolutely, Addison.” She smiles a little. I smile back as the guy who boarded comes back off of the bus.
 

“All clear.”
 

“Thank you.” I climb on board and go for the fridge. I can really use a drink, but we don’t keep alcohol on the bus. It is a moving vehicle after all.
 

I get to the bedroom and grab my new messenger bag and my old bag. I want to switch them over. I go back up to the galley and grab a seat on the couch. I plug in my laptop and start pulling stuff from my old messenger bag. My planner, my folio case, along with my iPad, which is dead, and a ton of loose papers. I need a binder to put all this stuff in.
 

I start setting up my new bag while my laptop loads. Once it is up and running I open my Facebook page. I need something mindless for a few minutes and there are over two thousand new friend requests, notifications up the wazoo and too many messages to count.
 

Looking along the left side of the screen I notice a new line, “Addison Beltrand”. I click the link. The scene switches and then finally a pop up. “You’ve been added as an admin to “Addison Beltrand” do you accept?”
 

I click yes. “Holy fuck!” I have a musician’s page on Facebook and it has… “Fuck me.” Over three hundred thousand followers. Notifications up a storm, messages, etcetera. Okay, this will take far more time to sort out than I have time for.
 

I open my email and flip back to Facebook. For Pete’s sake, it’s going nuts. I click on the notifications, most of them say “so and so tagged you in a post” I click on one of them from a few minutes ago.
 

It’s a picture, taken tonight. The tagline reads… “I got to meet the amazing, talented and gorgeous Addison Beltrand at #69Bottles #DesMoines Concert! Made my year.”
 

I decide to make her day a little more with a comment. “It was great meeting you tonight, thanks so much for coming.”
 

I click on a few more links of “so and so tagged you” some of them are videos, pictures and comments regarding the concert tonight. After about five minutes my email finally stops bouncing with incoming mail, I close the window and flip into my email.
 

I begin the tedious process of sorting, Trinity, Cami, Bold related emails, my news alerts, 69 Bottles news alerts and finally am left with a few random emails, which based on the preview are junk, so I delete them. I click on Cami’s folder. Scanning the subjects, I land on some from last night, after the event happened.
 

I open it. The email is explaining her plan, sending bodyguards, explaining that Bold employees are valuable and if for no other reason than to protect a valuable Bold asset. I take a deep breath. If I’d read my email, been doing my job, I wouldn’t have freaked out on everyone earlier, but again, I was in bed, having steaming hot sex with two very sexy men. I shiver remembering Talon taking Kyle.
 

I flip through a couple of other emails from Cami, most are Bold business, congratulations for the amazing Kansas City show. She even sent a couple of the videos. Then I finally come to one that says Facebook.
 

“I know you don’t use your personal Facebook much, but you have no doubt been inundated with friend requests from fans, so I went ahead and had a musician’s page set up and had you added as the admin. It is your site to control, but I, along with Trinity and Vincent retain control as well. Have fun with it.
 

“Oh and we’ve also created a Twitter account, which has already been verified and an Instagram page which have all been tied together. Facebook will post to Twitter, Twitter and Instagram to Facebook. I recommend downloading them to your phone so that you can Tweet from time to time. Share pictures etcetera. You know the PR drill, for now, we will let you run it.”
 

That’s the gist of the email. She prattles on a bit about other social media things, but I am well versed in what I should or shouldn’t do with social media. She also provides the passwords to Twitter and Instagram.