Flirting With Chaos (6 page)

“Not the way you’re saying it.”

A Duran Duran song played. At least, I assumed it was them. I had no freaking idea where we were. After another minute of walking, Jude undid my blindfold, took it off, and pierced me with his gaze. “What do you mean ‘not the way I’m saying it’? Dad was rubbing up against you?”

“No.” I scanned the area in pure amazement.

Jude’s body guard, T-Bone, got in front of us, wearing a white pair of sunglasses with rainbows on top of them. He donned a different pair each week. Shades were just his thing. He loved collecting them. The man was a mountain of muscle under dark black skin. His typical stare could cut through the thickest concrete block. His punch knocked many men out in seconds. I’d witnessed him take guys down several times when Jude ran his mouth or got himself into trouble. However, the best parts of T-Bone had to be his smile, when he chose to bless me with it, and his outstanding sense of humor.

“When did you get here?” I hugged his huge body.

“I’ve been here waiting for hours for you and Jude to show up. I had a doctor’s appointment, and since Jude was going to be home most of the day, I took the time to get that and some other things done.”

“Are you okay? You didn’t go to the doctor for anything important, right?”

“I’m fine. I just got a little high blood pressure. My doctor thinks I need to change my diet.” He held his hand up. “Don’t start with that tofu crap, Rain.”

“Fine. I’m just saying. You should try it.”

“Moving on.” He lifted my hand, opened my fingers, and placed a small box wrapped in violet, flowered paper on my hand. “Happy birthday, Rain. Additionally, when are you going to stop hanging around with this treacherous white boy?”

“I can hear you.” Jude smirked.

“Good.” T-Bone tapped the present he had given me. “Open that when I’m not around. I don’t want to have to wipe your tears away when you start getting all flushed with my romantic genius.”

I gave him another quick hug, knowing T-Bone liked to keep a hard persona out in public. “I’ll be sure to open it when Jude isn’t around too. You know how he envies our undying love.”

“It’s shades. You’ve been getting her a pair every birthday. You give everyone a pair for Christmas and their birthdays.” Jude pointed to the box. “I don’t even know why you wrapped it.”

“Because I’m a gentleman.” T-Bone smoothed the collar on his shirt. “And you’re a barbarian.”

“Do you think you’d like to guard something now?”

He saluted Jude and got in front of us. “Happy birthday, Rain.”

“Thanks.” I grinned.

Crowds of excited people surrounded me as we headed into the night club. I had no idea who all of these people were. “Happy Birthday, Rain” banners hung from the ceiling. The whole place was dark except for the tiny dots of blue light that sprinkled down from the ceiling as if it were a light storm. The sweet scent of chocolate lingered in the air. I sniffed and twisted in the direction it was coming from. A massive fountain lay behind me with three crystal dolphins in various leaping poses. Different colors of chocolate spouted out of the dolphins’ mouths—dark, light brown, and white. At least, I hoped it was chocolate. I planned on dipping my entire body in there and remain floating in it the whole night.

“So, what was that statement about with my dad?” Jude asked. “The whole ‘him slapping your ass’ thing.”

“This party is amazing. I can’t believe you did this for me.”

“Rain, answer me.”

People were dressed in the craziest outfits. Most of the women wore fluorescent colored tutus with socks up to their knees and holes scattered in their stockings. Pigtails dotted the sides of their heads. They tied various rock band shirts in knots on the sides of their hips. Guys had chains hanging from their belts. Most had their hair moussed up in spikes. Makeup painted almost everybody’s faces in different symbols in black, white, or any color one could imagine. Thick, gold chains linked around their necks. Iconic eighties images like Pac-Man adorned their cut-up shirts.
He must have themed the party.
Jude loved parties with themes or costume requirements. Besides his birthday, Halloween served as his top holiday. Perhaps because his birthday was the day before Halloween.

“Holy shit. You did this all for me?” I hugged him.

“Hell yeah. Now stop avoiding my question.”

I leaned away. “What question?”

“Did my dad try to mess with you?”

“Oh, God, no.” I rocked with the music. “He just hit my butt.”

The muscle in Jude’s jaw twitched. “Excuse me?”

“It sounds wrong, but it wasn’t at all what you’re thinking.”

“No?”

“It was playful.”

“How is a slap playful?”

“Like a really short butt tickle.”

He scowled at me. “So he was tickling your ass?”

“Oh, goodness. No. It was a quick smack. I was just trying to explain it that way to show you how someone can touch a person’s behind and it wouldn’t be sexual.”

“There’s no such moment. If an adult man is touching an adult woman’s ass and they’re not related, it’s not a butt tickle. It’s him trying to have sex with her.”

“He’s your dad, Jude.”

“That’s why I asked. I know him very well. I wouldn’t put it past him to try and fuck you.”

Shock splashed over my face like cold water. Somehow, him mentioning
fuck
and
his dad
in the same sentence ruined the moment for me. “I’m going to ignore that and pretend like you didn’t say it so I can return to this excellent party.”

People bumped into my side. I didn’t care. I looked off to see where everyone was in a rush to get to and spotted all of the members of Depraved Minds on the stage. Well, not all of the members. Dad wasn’t there, but his replacement, Tech T, did a few tests of the microphone as Kaden tuned his guitar.

I covered my mouth. “How the hell did you get all of them together tonight?”

After my dad died, his band had separated. They’d never played another song together again. It’d hit Kaden the hardest, Grandma had said. She’d claimed my dad and the band were the only things Kaden truly cared about. Thank goodness she hadn’t said that in front of Jude.

“I asked Dad to play for you for your birthday this year, and he got all crazy excited. The next thing I know he’s calling up his publicist and convincing the band members to do a onetime gig on South Beach in honor of you.”

“Where are we on South Beach?”

“The Circus! And your name is all over the beach, baby. Signs everywhere say ‘80s Birthday Bash for Jack Kenner’s Rainbow.’”

“Oh God.” I hid my face.
Mom is going to kill me.

“What?”

“Nothing. I was just thinking Mom might find out.”

He sighed loudly. “I thought you said you stopped doing that?”

“What?”

“Is that why you’re wearing those ridiculous blue contacts?”

“She likes them on me.”

He looked away for a minute. “Please stop that.”

I pretended to be confused. “Stop what?”

“You know what. I don’t like that shit, Rainy. You know that.”

He hated talking about Mom with me, but tough. “I’m the birthday girl. You have to do it with me.” I stuck my tongue out.

“It’s fucking bizarre. Crazy stuff like that is going to make you lose it.”

“It’s called a coping mechanism.”

He studied me for a minute. His eyes moved from side to side as if a true answer swirled around my head. When it came to my sanity, he believed he was the maintenance man. “Just one more time. I’ll do it with you tonight, but don’t do it around me anymore.”

“Fine.”

“Okay.” He muttered some curse under his breath. “How is old mom doing these days?”

“She’s in Paris filming her new show. It’s a worldwide success now.”

“Worldwide success?” He quirked his eyebrows.

“She’s bigger than Oprah.”

“Well, of course she is. How can Oprah compete against your mom?”

I scowled at him.

He raised his hands in the air. “Fine. Fine. So, you think your mom will be worried about you partying tonight? Don’t stress about it. Just let her know that you’re a woman now.”

“It’s not that easy.” My mom was holding my trust fund over my head. I wouldn’t get it until I turned twenty-five. How she’d managed that requirement, I didn’t know. She had feared I’d be as wild as my dad, but instead I’d proved her wrong. Well, kind of. I snuck a few joints every now and then. Plus, hanging with Jude caused me to get involved with things that she surely wouldn’t like.

“Yes, it is easy.” He hooked his finger in my jeans’ belt loop and tugged me to the staircase farther away. “She can’t control you all of your life.”

“I wouldn’t bet on that. Hold up.” I tapped his back. “We’re going away from the chocolate. The birthday girl does not want distance between her and the chocolate fountain.”

“You’re just going to speak in third person now?”

“Yes. The birthday girl will be doing that all night.”

“I’ll have one of the guys make you a plate.” He towed me on, darting through shocked faces as they realized he was coming their way. “We need to get to VIP before we get rushed by crazy people.”

“You mean
you
get rushed. No one’s coming after me.”

“Men would if I wasn’t around.”

And if I wasn’t loony.

“Well, then I should stop coming around you, right?” I nudged him with my elbow. “Maybe tonight will be the night when I give some hot guy my apple.”

“If you don’t vomit all over him first.”

“Low blow, Jude.” I made my lips form a fake frown. “Low blow. One day I’ll find a guy that won’t mind being vomited on while he takes my apple, and then you’ll feel stupid for all the times you picked on me.”

“Well, that guy will have to pry that lush apple from my cold, dead hands.”

I burst out laughing. “That statement really doesn’t work in this context.”

“It’s the truth though. You handed me the opportunity to take your apple. I’m not giving it back.”

He better be joking.

“I took it back,” I pointed out.

“You can’t take that back.”

“I really can.”

He’s no longer taking my V-card. He must be playing with me.

He laughed.

I took that as a good sign. There was no way he was serious about still being my first. You don’t have a girl ask you to take her virginity and then run upstairs and shower like it’s no big deal. In fact, I’d taken his action as
“Hey, Rain, we’re just friends. I’ll do it if you want to. If not, no big deal.”
Granted, I didn’t know what I’d expected him to do. Maybe I was being a bit ridiculous. Or, perhaps Vicky telling me about how she had given him a blow job earlier set my desire for him back a bit.

We approached the entrance to the VIP area. Two big guys stepped to the side as we entered and headed up the stairs. Jude crashed onto the closest couch. I continued standing as I drank in all of the excitement around me. Black leather chairs and glass tables littered VIP. I spotted a pop star here and there. Other media-noteworthy loitered about—kids of famous parents mainly, a D-list actress, a couple of comedians, and a group of old guys that I think were popular musicians around my dad’s day. Bodyguards and security drifted among the stars. Marijuana smoke lingered in the air. Our space hovered over all of the people down below as the club became packed and the music soared to a higher level.

“Hey, Rico.” Jude motioned for a waiter with a blond mohawk and polka dot suspenders to come over. “Get Rain a tray with some cups of chocolate, cakes, and anything else down there.”

“Jude meant
please
get it,” I corrected.

“Thanks.” Rico smiled and ran off to do Jude’s bidding.

“You shouldn’t boss people around, not even the staff.” I wagged my finger at him.

“Why not?” He gently pulled me down next to him. “People do what I say because of who I am.”

“And who are you?” I gave him a skeptical look.

“The god of heavy metal rock Kaden Everett’s son, and jazz legend Tommy Boy Everett’s grandson. Music runs through my blood, woman. They think I’ll be some big name in the music industry one day.”

“You will.”

“If Dad lets me.”

“Huh?”

“Dad’s trying to produce the whole damn album and thinks it’ll be a great bonding experience for us.” He laid his head back and closed his eyes. “He’s already called writers and all these people I never heard of.”

Not good. Jude wrote all of his music himself. Everything inspired him. Once, I’d witnessed him staring at the sky for an hour, humming a tune in his head. By the end of the day, he’d written a song with a sad melody. The next night, I’d sat in his studio as he produced the song himself, all with electronic instruments. Days later, we’d taken on the project of making a video for his song. It was just supposed to be something fun to pass the time. I’d painted a huge mural of a dark sky with many of his song’s elements floating between bright stars, and then videotaped him singing half-naked in front of it while I flicked various colors of paint onto his bare chest, making sure to capture his essence on film. For a good laugh, we’d uploaded it to YouTube and tweeted the link to his friends. By the end of the day, it had received over a thousand views. By the end of the week, views had reached into the hundreds of thousands. Phone calls from record labels had come at the end of the month with offers of representation and money advances to rival the monthly allowance his dad gave him.