Rock Me Senseless (Rock Star Erotic Romance) (Rock Me #1) (3 page)

We spent the next few days sorting out the details,
until finally it was all sorted. There was a ticket in my name waiting at the airport for a flight to London in five weeks. I couldn’t really believe this was actually happening, in a way. I was actually going to go to England, visiting Europe for the first time, to see someone I hadn’t seen in almost a dozen years.

The next few weeks felt
like they absolutely crept by, when they should have flown. After all, I finished all of my assignments and exams for my courses and went through the graduation ceremony, finally having finished my degree.

Then,
the next thing I knew, I was packing my bags and heading to the airport. I’d only been on a plane once before in my life, when we flew to Florida for a family vacation when I was in grade three. I was looking forward to this new adventure, after all I’d never left the States before in my life. As I settled into my seat, business class, paid for by Christian, I wondered what the UK was going to have in store for me. I wondered what Christian would have in store for me.

* * *

Six or so hours later I landed in England, having crossed the ocean for the first time in my life. Christian had told me he would have someone meet me, and sure enough, among the crowd of drivers waiting after I exited customs was a man in a suit holding a board with my name on it, just like in the movies! I introduced myself awkwardly, not really knowing how these things go, and the man introduced himself as Tim, took my bag and led me towards the exit.

Tim took me to the car that was to drive me to downtown London.
It was a sleek, expensive late-model sedan, completely black, including the tinted windows. I’d never seen anything like it before.

“Are we still going to your hotel, Miss Adler?” Tim asked, peering at me through the rear
view mirror.

“Yes, please” I replied. Christian and I had decided that when I landed I should probably take some time to get over the jet lag. Christian told me it was bad, especially after one’s first trip overseas, and I could tell now what he meant. It was just before noon, and I was completely exhausted. We organized that I would go to the hotel I was staying at first,
and then in a day or two when I was feeling up to it I could give him a call and we would meet up somewhere.

That first day really felt like a bit of a daze. Tim dropped me off at the front of the hotel and brought my bags in. I checked into the room Christian had booked for me. He wanted to get me a lavish, extravagant place, but I insisted that a regular one-bedroom suite would do me wonderfully. He eventually caved, and as I entered the room, which I had to admit felt quite roomy for a one-bedroom, with a full kitchen, living room and luxury bathroom, I had a quick shower to freshen up after the flight and collapsed in the bed.

I realized how awful jet lag was going to be when I woke up, completely refreshed at seven that evening.
Uh oh, I’m not going to get to sleep until like five tomorrow morning, and then this whole cycle is going to start all over again
I thought to myself. I also realized I was completely ravenous, not having eaten anything since arriving in London.

Thankful that I decided to grab some Great Britain Pounds before leaving, I went out into the night in search of a restaurant.
I settled on a pub with an outdoor patio, sitting at a table with “bangers and mash”, or as I call it, sausages and mashed potatoes. Along with a local beer, I watched the locals go by, enjoying my quintessentially British food and enjoying the pleasant evening.

I wondered if I should call Christian, then decided against it. After all,
we’d decided I’d take a day or two to settle in first. After my meal, I walked along the streets, making sure I had the address of my hotel with me first. It was amazing, walking through this huge city, noticing landmarks like the Big Ben and the Double Decker busses that I’d seen in newspapers and on TV all my life, seeing them in real life for the first time.

When I finally started to feel tired I went back to the hotel and watched some late night British TV for a while until I finally fell asleep once more.

The next day I went to the corner store, bought a prepaid sim card for my phone and dialed the number Christian gave me.

“Hello?”
he answered, the slightest of English accents tingeing the voice I knew so well. His voice was deeper than the last time I’d seen him, of course, but the inflection, the way he spoke was still the same as before.

“Hey, um, it’s Violet” I answered, suddenly feeling butterflies in my stomach.

“Hey, Violet, how was your flight?”

“It was good, thanks. You were right about the jet lag though, i
t completely took it out of me.”

“Yeah, jet lag’s terrible.
It’ll probably take you a few days to get over it, until then you’ll probably find that you’ll be ok until mid afternoon and then suddenly find yourself completely exhausted.”

“Great, so I still have a few days of this to look forward to?”

“Yup, but it’s never as bad as the first day. Did you want to come over and have lunch or something today?”

“That sounds
nice.”

“Awesome. I’ll have
Tim come by and pick you up, he’ll bring you over to my place.”

As Tim drove me through the streets of downtown London, I began to ask a few questions, and it quickly became an impromptu sightseeing tour. We went past all the major landmarks,
with Tim pointing them out and explaining to me their importance in history. It was funny to think of all the things that happened even before America was even a country!

Finally, we were in a suburb of London, not far from the city.
Tim pulled up in front of an apartment building, or ‘flats’ as I learned they were called in England. The building was beautiful, white and in an old-style, as though it had been built a hundred years ago.

“Go on in, take the elevator to the fifth floor, and it’s the first door on your right” Tim told me with an encouraging smile. I thanked him and went in. The interior of the building was in complete contrast to the outside. Modern and
new, with just a few hints of the building’s history here and there, I almost didn’t believe I went in through the right door.

I took the
elevator to the fifth floor, then paused for a second in front of the first door on the right. This was a big moment. In a few seconds, I was going to see the guy who had been my best friend in my childhood for the first time in years. I held my breath and closed my eyes as I held my closed fist in front of the door, then exhaled as I knocked three times, softly.

A few seconds later, I heard footsteps and the door opened.
Standing right there, right in front of me, was Christian Anderson. I stared at him for a while, not really knowing what to do. He looked like he did in the music videos I’d watched, but this was still different. Standing right here in front of him, less than two feet away from the man was way different to seeing him on a screen. He was so real, so here, and, I have to admit this was one of the first thoughts that passed through my head, still hot.

Before I had a chance to do or say anything, Christian moved forward an
d grabbed me in a big bear hug. His muscles pressed against me, pulling me to his chest, the scent of his aftershave wafting into my nostrils. There was a spark there, an undeniable spark. As soon as I laid eyes on Christian, I could feel my body reacting. It was like my heart was swelling, like it wanted to burst out and grab him. It was like my insides were melting, like there was nothing more I wanted to do than to fall into his arms and stay there.

“I’m so glad to see you” he exclaimed, pulling away after a few seconds and pulling me inside.
“Come on in, Violet. It’s so good to see you.”

“You too!”
I replied, looking around. Christian’s apartment was incredible. Completely modern, it had to be almost brand new. The entrance led into a huge open concept living room/kitchen combo, tastefully decorated with furniture that looked like it cost more than my parent’s house.

“Wow, your place looks amazing. Do you really live here?”

Christian laughed. “Yeah. I wasn’t going to buy it, but Pete, one of the other guys in the band, kind of insisted. I used most of my advance from the sales of the album to buy it, and I have to say, I don’t regret it at all.”

“So basically when you said you were in a band in the UK, you didn’t tell me you were like, the most famous person in the country.”

Christian laughed. “Well, I didn’t, because that would be a lie.”

“You were always so modest and humble” I teased. With every passing second I felt myself getting more and more comfortable in his presence.
It was amazing. I had never expected to react like this, I didn’t understand why I was doing so. I was like a lovesick puppy.

“Can I get you a drink or anything? I’ve ordered some food, it should be here soon. I hope you like Indian food, I’ve found London has some
of the best Indian I’ve ever eaten.”

“Sounds delicious!” I replied.
Christian got me a drink of water and we sat down on the couch, catching up on the years we missed. It was funny how naturally it came, how quickly it felt like the years hadn’t passed at all and we’d just seen each other the previous day. The food arrived and we dug in, like we were teenagers again on a date.

It felt nice, it felt right.
I asked Christian about his band, he told me all about it, I told him about journalism school and how I wanted to work for a newspaper as maybe a foreign correspondent or something. Travel was something I’d always enjoyed, and I didn’t want to end up writing articles about how the local elementary school did in their volleyball tournament for the rest of my life.

When the food was
gone and the conversation waned, Christian and I looked at each other. I looked deep into those beautiful blue eyes of his, realizing there was still something there, still a spark, when suddenly he leaned over and kissed me.

It was like fireworks were set off inside of me.
Every wish I’d had, every desire since I laid eyes on him was being lived out. I closed my eyes as he pulled me close to him, pressing his body against mine. I could feel the heat practically radiating from him, his desire evident.

I wanted this, more than anything, but at the same time I knew it was too soon.
I pulled away, and it was the hardest thing I’d ever done.

“What’s wrong?” Christian asked.

“Nothing... it’s just, I think it’s... too early.  I want to be with you, I do, but I don’t want to rush things, you know? After all, we’ve only seen each other for like, two hours. If we’re going to do this, I want to do it right, to give us the best shot.”

Christian nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense. That’s fine. I’
m sorry for being so forward.”

“No, don’t be. I like you Christian. It’s like not a day has passed since we last saw each other, and I wish a day hadn’t gone past, I just don’t want us to rush into anything now.”

I was so glad Christian understood. I wasn’t even sure I understood. What I did know was that my body was screaming at me, upset that I was taking away the pleasure it so desperately desired. But I still thought I made the right decision. When I lay eyes on Christian for the first time in years, I knew what we had before was still there. At least it was for me, and I suspected it was for him as well. But if we just jumped straight into things, we were never going to get anywhere, and I wanted us to be more of a long term thing. I don’t know, maybe it was silly. Maybe it was just the pining of a young woman looking for her true love. Maybe I was wrong, and there was never going to be anything serious between us. But I still wanted to give it a try.

Soon afterwards the rush of exhaustion Christian warned me about came on, and he called Tim to take me back to my hotel.

“The band and I are going to be recording tomorrow, if you want to come?” he asked before I left. “We’re getting started at 11, I can have Tim come and pick you up if you’d like. That way you can meet the rest of Deux Pamplemousses.”

“That sounds great, I’d love to” I replied, and I meant it.
I wanted to meet Christian’s new friends, I wanted to be involved in his new life.

* * *

Tim was waiting outside the hotel for me at 10:30 the next day. We drove outside the city, probably for about half an hour, through a number of neighborhoods I didn’t recognize before finally pulling up to a relatively low key brick building near an industrial park.

“Is this really it?”

Tim smiled. “Yes. It doesn’t look like much, but this is one of the largest recording studios in the country.”

The old, faded sign out the front didn’t give me much confidence, but as I entered the building I realized just how right Tim was.
The interior was completely new, the waiting hall into which I entered leading into three different studios, each filled with modern recording equipment. There must have been thousands, maybe even millions of dollars worth of recording equipment in this building, which from the outside looked like an old mechanic’s store that had been abandoned. I looked in through the windows leading into the studios and spotted Christian inside the second one. I wasn’t sure if I should go in or not. After all, I didn’t think the room where the producer moved dials to give the music the proper effect would be recording, but just in case I simply waited until I caught Christian’s eye, and he motioned me in. Better to be safe than sorry, after all; I didn’t want to accidentally screw up the band’s record, I imagine that wouldn’t be the best way to get into the other guys’ good books.