Dancing in the Dark (Curves for the Rock Star 4 - A BBW Rockstar Erotic Romance) (3 page)

“Oh, this is
ridiculous!” Rick sprang from the chair and grabbed Louisa’s wrist,
pushing the gun skyward. They grappled awkwardly for a moment
before Louisa, knowing she was overpowered, sank her teeth into
Rick’s arm. “AAARRGGHHH!!!” He sprang back in shock. “Not well, my
ass! I told you she was crazy! Crazy as a fucking coconut!”

She pointed the
gun at Rick and looked at me. “If I can’t have him, Amy, then
neither can you!”

To all of our
horror, she did it. She pulled the trigger.

Rick slumped to
his knees, clutching his chest. “Fuck…you shot me.” He turned to
meet my gaze. “I love you, Amy…tell Luke I’ll miss him…”

I cocked my
head to the side. “You can tell him yourself. Look down.”

He opened his
hands. “What…there’s no blood. How come there’s no blood?”

Roger
interjected. “Because given the puny sound of that shot, I do
believe you’ve just been hit by an air pistol.”

Rick picked a
pellet up from the floor before standing up to look at Louisa in
disbelief. “You shot me…with an air pistol?”

“You got a
problem with that, you poor man’s Springsteen? Would you prefer I’d
blown your insides to smithereens?”

“Poor man’s?
Wait a minute, I’ve won a Grammy, you know…”

“Back off or
I’ll take an eye out. This is a SIG Sauer P226. Cost me over a
hundred bucks. If you’re going to get an air pistol, might as well
make it a decent one.”

“It’s quite
nice,” Roger smiled. “Handles well.”

Rick turned to
him, aghast. “And
you’re
security? Will you shoot her in the
leg or something, so we can all go home?”

“Can’t do
that,” he replied. “My gun isn’t loaded.”

I rolled my
eyes skyward. “Oh, Jesus. Don’t tell
her
that!”

“Sorry. Never,
er…been in this situation before. Wasn’t really trained for
this.”

“You don’t
say,” I replied, folding my arms. “You may as well put your gun
down, then.”

“Why?”

“Because you
just told us it isn’t loaded, Einstein. What are you going to do,
throw it at her?”

Louisa started
waving her gun around. “Well, this has turned out better than I
expected. I take one of the biggest rock stars in the world hostage
with an air pistol and yet, against all odds, I appear to hold all
the cards. Who woulda thunk it?”

“Give it here,
Louisa,” Rick growled, lunging for it. She fired another pellet at
his thigh. “Ow! Will you stop fucking shooting me! That’s going to
graze!”

“Would you
rather I shot someone else? How about fat boy over there? Or your
big-boobed slut? Look at the size on those puppies! I certainly
won’t be able to miss.”

“That’s
enough,” Rick replied, rubbing his thigh. “Don’t talk to Amy like
that. You’re way out of line.”

She stuck out
her bottom lip. “Aww, what’s the matter, Wick? Are you afwaid I’ll
upset your poor widdle girlfwiend? This baby’s full to the brim
with pellets! One more word out of you and I’ll have you leaking
like a sieve.”

“Enough!” I
shouted. “This is ridiculous. Rick, put a top on. Everybody, be
quiet. Listen. Can you hear that?”

Louisa sighed
at me. “What am I meant to be hearing?”

“Sirens.
They’re coming, Louisa. The police are on their way. This nonsense
is over.”

She scowled in
my direction. “Yeah? You know what I hear, sweetie? The sound of
bullets spraying all around this room, massacring every one of you
asshats!”

“You don’t have
any bullets,” I sighed. “Think about what you’re doing here,
Louisa. You can't win. It's over. Rick loves me and he'll never
take you back. I might sound harsh and to the point, but that’s the
way it is.”

“Wow,” she
smiled. “You don’t beat around the bush, do you? And here I was,
thinking you were all good hair and great tits. Maybe he does like
you for your brain as well, after all. You’re a stronger woman than
I gave you credit for.”

“It’s why I
love her,” Rick agreed. "I'm not the man for you, Louisa."

"Why not?
Couldn’t you be?"

"No, I can’t.
Because I'm an asshole."

She nodded.
"True."

"An arrogant,
childish asshole who needs to start growing up."

"And
overrated."

"Hey! Who are
you, Rolling Stone?"

I interjected.
"Rick! We’re making progress here, okay?"

He turned to
look at Louisa. "Most of all, I'm a coward. I'm a coward for
leaving you to look after our child alone. I'm a coward for not
giving Lucas a proper father all these years. He deserves better
and so do you. But it's not with me, Louisa. We both know that. I'm
a coward who's in love with a girl who'll put up with my cowardly
ways, probably more than anyone ever should. I love Amy and I
always will."

“So there’s no
hope for us?”

Rick shook his
head. “There never was, Louisa.”

“But we’re
Luke’s parents! We could build a new life together! Give him what
we should have all these years…”

“We’re not
Luke’s parents,” Rick interrupted. “We conceived him, but we’re not
parents to him. We never were. Julia and Michael are his parents
now. To pretend otherwise would be horribly unfair to them and
him.”

I knew how
tough that must have been for Rick to admit, feeling tears well up
in my eyes.

“He’ll always
be in my life. He can be in yours, too, Louisa. But only if you
listen to your doctors and the people trying to help you get
better. Only if you try.”

“I don’t know
if I can accept that,” she said, her voice breaking. “I love him so
much.”

“Then let him
go,” Rick smiled. “And me.”

Louisa put the
gun to her head just as two police officers appeared, guns drawn,
in the doorway. “Drop it!”

Rick waved at
them to lower their pistols. “Come on, Louisa. It’s an air pistol.
The worst you’ll do is mess up your hair.”

She scanned the
room, initially defiant. Then, slowly, her face began to change.
She looked desperate, sad even. For the first time, I felt a little
sorry for her. She slowly lowered her gun and dropped it to the
floor as the officers moved towards her, their guns back in their
holsters. Suddenly, she adopted a kung fu pose. “Hiii-yaaa! Get
back! I’ll tear you pigs limb from limb! You’ll never take me
alive, coppers!”

The room fell
silent in utter disbelief.

“I’m just
kidding,” she said, putting her wrists out to be handcuffed. “Just
having a bit of fun with you guys. I’m off my meds, remember?”

“This is
freaking crazy,” Rick muttered. “Welcome to my world,
officers.”

Roger turned to
me. “I have never seen an incident so ridiculous as this in 23
years of being a security guard. I feel like I’ve been taking
drugs.”

I shrugged my
shoulders. “Think yourself lucky. You wouldn’t believe the year
I’ve had.”

“But that’s
just it,” Rick interrupted. “I can’t go on like this.
We
can’t go on like this! I’ve been living with this sort of madness
all my adult life.”

Louisa looked
at Rick, her hands cuffed behind her back. “Hey! Who are you
calling mad? I think you’ll find the politically correct term is
‘mentally ill’. Don’t you stigmatise me!”

Rick slapped
his palm repeatedly against his forehead. “Not you. Me! My life is
mad! Crazy!
Ri-fucking-diculous!
”

“Well,” Louisa
snorted, “maybe you attract it.”

“Maybe I do.
And maybe, just maybe, I can break the chain.” He looked over to
me, smiling. “You’re the one thing, Amy, that’s totally sane in my
life. You’re the one thing that loves me for who I am and who I
could be. I have to stop living like this, Amy. I need some degree
of normality, some kind of simplicity or I’m going to just be lost
forever. I want to be a better father, Amy, but first I need to be
a better man. You make me that. You make me far more than I thought
I could ever be.”

I felt my
insides fill with so much with love for this man I thought my heart
would spill out onto the floor of the hotel room. “I love you,
Rick, you big dope.”

“Will you take
this loser and make him right?” he grinned.

“You mean
‘beautiful loser’?”

“See what she
did there?” Roger whispered to the hotel manager. “His band was
called something like that. Clever.”

Rick stepped
forward. “Marry me, Amy. Marry this beautiful loser.”

I felt my jaw
drop. “You…you’re proposing to me?” He nodded. “In your
underpants?”

Rick looked
down. “I guess so. At least I haven’t got a semi.”

Louisa barked
at me. “Well, don’t just stand there, you idiot. This bum just took
a bullet for you.”

“Air pellet,” I
replied. “Two of them.”

“Whatever. You
want to marry this clown or not?” I nodded. “Well, hurry up and say
yes then so I can get the hell out of here. There’s a hot meal
waiting for me at the police station and I’m fricking
famished.”

“Yes,” I said,
grinning from ear to ear. “I’ll marry you, you beautiful loser.” He
wrapped his arms around me and kissed me. “Mmm,” I mumbled. “Now
you have a semi. Settle down, there’s people about.”

Suddenly, we
heard sobbing and turned to see one of the officers dabbing his
eyes with a handkerchief. “Beautiful. Just beautiful. That’s made
my day, that has.”

Louisa kicked
his shin. “Knock it off, you big pussy! Not such a tough guy
without that gun, are you? Maybe I should have tried out some kung
fu moves on you morons. I would have put your asses down!”

The other
officer began dragging her away. “My God, this is like a cartoon.
Come on, I need to read you your rights.”

“Take me away,
fellas,” Louisa snarled. She paused as she passed me. “Look after
him, will you?”

I nodded. “I
promise.”

“For all his
faults…he’s something special, that one.”

As Louisa was
led away, the hotel manager nervously backed out of the room with
Roger. “Well, thank goodness that’s all over. I’m sure the police
will be up soon to take a statement. Can I get you two lovebirds
anything?”

“The biggest
bottle of champagne you have,” Rick boomed. “We’re celebrating. How
many people get shot and engaged in the same day, huh?”

Roger poked his
head back around the door. “Just out of curiosity, miss…since
you’re actually intending to marry this individual, does this sort
of thing happen often?”

“Oh this?” I
smiled. “This is just a quiet day.”

“I’m going to
have to lose some weight for the wedding.”

Rick smacked my
leg with a bridal brochure. “No you’re damn well not,” he scolded.
“Don’t you dare.”

“What song are
we going to have for our first dance?” I asked.

“Hmm. Let’s do
something different, none of that lovey-dovey stuff. How about ‘New
Sensation’?”

“By INXS?
Maybe.”

“Or ‘Run to
You’. Bit of Bryan Adams never goes down badly.”

I raised my
eyebrows. “You sure about that?”

“Okay, ‘More
Than a Feeling’. Let’s rock out to Boston, just for kicks.”

“Oh God, no.
The guitar solo goes on forever.”

“I give up,
then. ‘Dancing in the Dark’. That’s my last suggestion.”

I smiled.
“Yeah. I like that. Remember the video? You can be Bruce
Springsteen and I can be Courtney Cox, your adoring fan being
pulled up onto the stage.”

“It’s settled,
then. The Boss it is.”

I thumbed
through a magazine full of beautiful dresses, from Vera Wang to
Stella McCartney. “All the women in here are so beautiful,” I
sighed. “They’re so damn…skinny.”

“When will you
women ever learn?” he laughed. “Men don’t like skinny girls. We
like curves. Hips and lips. Tits and ass. We’re shallow creatures,
really.”

“You wouldn’t
believe it looking at this.”

“Well, that
magazine isn’t aimed at men, is it? It always staggers me how
women’s magazines are full of skinny, airbrushed models with
articles on every other page about how to lose weight. They poke
fun at female celebrities, showing pictures of their cellulite and
pregnancy bellies in order to make women feel better about
themselves. It’s ridiculous.”

He had a point.
“True. Very true.”

“What all women
should do, Amy, is pick up a men’s magazine. Doesn’t matter whether
it’s Playboy or Esquire or Maxim. Take a look at the women. Never
skinny, always curvy. Big, sexy butts and boobs. Men love boobs.
Hooray for boobies!”

“You really
should consider a career as a feminist spokesperson, Rick.”

It seemed that
after such a crazy year of ups and downs, highs and lows, things
were finally looking nothing but positive. Four months had passed
since the incident with Louisa in the hotel room. That completely
bizarre, crazy morning was now a distant memory that we simply
laughed about. Louisa herself was back to living a relatively
normal life, albeit with medication and regular medical care. We
had also been spared the prospect of having to testify in the trial
of the men – and Jake – who had abducted Luke. That tragic turn of
events, which led to Sean's death, had ended with a whimper. All
pleaded guilty, hoping for some form of more favourable sentence –
either way, that chapter in our life was over.

Rick was a
different man, too. Some things never change, like that wicked
sense of humour and childlike curiosity with the world. He had
started to create music on an iPad, marvelling at the array of
tools and mixing loops he could achieve with just a ten-inch
screen. It had reignited his creativity again and he was putting
together some of the best material he'd ever written. This was a
more mature, considered artist. We'd spend quiet evenings at home,
trying out new lyrics over glasses of wine. I always thought that
things like this didn't happen to people like me.