Scars and Songs (55 page)

She sat whispering quietly to Lea, softly worrying her bottom lips between her teeth, her silver and lavender laced eyes pinning me against the wall.  I could still feel her body against mine, the warmth of her lips, the silky wetness of her, the smell of her desire.  I watched her eyes move up my body and she wiggled in her seat. 
She had to be thinking about what we just did in the studio, same as me
.  My heart pounded faster.  Her breathing became even faster. I could tell by the rise and fall of her chest, her mouth parting.

She leaned closer towards Lea, breaking eye contact with me for the first time since we got there and they both stood up and walked towards the bathroom.  I watched her go, the sway of her hips mesmerized me and I followed them through the crowd.  Somebody stopped me to say hello and I couldn’t even remember our conversation or whom it was with.  My eyes were plastered to the door of the bathroom as Lea and Grace came out, then the room turned; spun out of control.

The length of the hallway that was between Grace and me seemed to shift and move.  The partygoers dancing around us turned into ghostly shadows of themselves.  The music morbidly changed into harsh unharmonious sounds that sounded strange and painful.

Then Gabriel
was there, grabbing Grace around her waist.  His hands were sliding all over her skin, the soft flawless skin that was only for me to touch. He was whispering things to her I couldn’t hear. He was breathing his lies into her and I couldn’t get to her quickly enough.  His expression was hungry and the anger coiled like tight bullets that surged through my veins.  The rage coursed through my body so strongly that the shadows of people parted for me without even acknowledging my presence, until I could reach her.

“LEAVE ME ALONE, GABRIEL!” she screamed, thrusting her body from him and stumbling hard against the wall.

I was in between them, instantly fixing my eyes on hers.  I could see the pure terror cloud her eyes, her body shaking. I swear I fucking think she growled at Gabriel, like she was trying to protect
me
from
him
.

Turning my gaze on Gabriel, I smiled at the piece of shit and blew him a kiss.  “Grace,” I whispered into her hair.  “Grace, get behind me.”  I gently shifted her away from trying to maul Gabriel.  Adding to our little gang, Lea, Conner and Ethan were next to Grace before I could turn on Gabriel.

“How sweet, Grace, the
rock star
is here.”  Gabriel bumped his body against mine and leaned into her face. “There are
so many ways
to torture a person, Grace.” 
What the fuck?

“Get the fuck away from her,” I growled, shoving Gabriel from her.  Ethan lunged toward Gabriel, following my lead, but Gabriel just turned around and bolted through the crowd. In a rush of dancing people, we lost sight of him.  I found myself glaring in the direction that he ran.
He was going to pay for scaring her
.  But, as I moved forward to chase after him, Grace flung her arms around my waist and held me back.  I twisted against her and looked into her terrified eyes. 

“Don’t go after him, Shane, just forget him.  He’s all talk.”  Tears welled in her eyes.

Smiling down at her, I swung my arm over her shoulder and pulled her into my arms.  I kissed her forehead and laughed, “Oh, Grace, I’ve seen you pummel guys a hell of a lot scarier than him.  Come on, you need a drink, you’re trembling.”  I shifted her forward, towards the kitchen and over the rising volume of the music, I whispered in her ear, while my lips skated softly along her neck, “I’ll never let him take you from me. 
Never
.”

We made our way through a sea of sweaty dancing people into the kitchen.  I elbowed an angry red-faced Ethan and pointed to the cabinet with our hidden stash of our finest whiskeys, “Control your anger, bro, that piece of shit is mine.  Get the girls a safe drink to calm them down.”

Like a dumbass secret spy, Ethan tried nonchalantly to open the high cabinet. Without anyone seeing, he took down a bottle, twisted off the cap and gulped a shit load down. 

“Nice recon, dude. I don’t think anyone saw you get the hooch down, but they did hear you slurp the shit up,” I laughed, grabbing at the bottle.  I eyed everyone in our little circle and made a twirling action with my fingers, “Around in a circle, just us, everybody take three big swigs until we feel invincible.”  Grace watched me carefully and I gave her a wink, her shoulders seeming to relax a little.

After the first round, everyone coughed and wheezed.  After the second round, everyone coughed, wheezed and giggled.  After the third round, everyone giggled and grabbed onto each other. Lea snorted and yelped, “Holy germ swapping backsplash, Ethan!  No cups?”

“Sorry, Lea, but this is one of Vixen4’s parties.  There is no way any of us should drink anything unless it’s from a bottle we have opened ourselves.”

“Oh, my shit.  That is terrifying,” Lea gasped wide eyed.

Ethan eyed me and couldn’t control his shit anymore, “So, who was that back there?  And what did he say to you?”  The venom in his voice was thick. 
Damn, he even scared me a bit
.

I elbowed him hard in the side.  Yeah, the big ogre just looked at me like I was an irritating mosquito. “What the hell, dude?” he hissed under his breath.

Grace’s mouth opened and then closed, then opened and closed again, struggling to come up with something.

“That
was
her ex’s best friend.  He’s been harassing Grace into going out with him and she doesn’t want to have anything to do with him.” 
More like he was my ex best friend and he’s been coveting my shit for thousands of years and now he wants to
…I scanned Grace’s face. He had been her confidant for so long, what if she had developed some sort of feelings for him.  “You don’t want anything to do with him,
do you?
” I asked.

A brilliant blush spread across her cheeks, “Shane, I thought I made it perfectly clear in the studio today what I want.” 
Hell yeah, that’s my girl
.

Holding the bottle to my lips for the fourth round, I choked around her words and my lips burst into a huge smile. “Damn, Grace.  I completely forgot what you said in the studio.  You’ll have to repeat the conversation to me again sometime, if you want.”  I handed her the bottle and brushed my finger gently over the back of her hand, wishing it were my lips over hers.

Smiling, she slowly brought the bottle to her mouth, licked her sexy as hell lips and took a drink without taking her eyes off mine. 
Yeah, I wish I were that lucky bottle right now
.  “That’s not a problem at all.  I remember everything I said to you, and everything you said back.  I would definitely love to have another discussion on the subject, because I’ve really been thinking about it and there’s so much more I’d like to
add
.” 
Damn, in my head, she’s sitting on the counter she’s leaning against with her long legs wrapped around me and I’m so deep inside her…

I shook my head trying to clear the dirty thoughts and chuckled, “I’m going to hold you to it.” 
Nope, dirty thoughts still there.  Now, I’m a kitchen chair and she’s straddled over me, riding me real hard…then real fucking slow
.

She bit down on her lip as if she could read my mind and liked what was written.  Her cheeks darkened, “Yes, please do.  Hold me to it.” 
Oh, I’ll hold her to it, I’m tying her feet and wrists to the damn chair, ass in the air going to hold her to it
.

“Bam-chicka-waa-waa
,” Lea slurred.  “Watch out, Conner, the porn’s about to fly!”  She leaned against Grace giggling and snorting, “Does anyone think it would be a fuck of a lot safer for Grace if we all went back home?  Seriously, ex-boyfriend’s friends, Vixen4, I’ve had enough for one night.”

Hell no.  I knew Gabriel was gone.  He was probably at her apartment waiting to get her alone.  She was safe here with me
.  I laughed and slid my hands to her waist, tugging her against me. “Let’s forget about ex-boyfriend’s and their douchebag best friends. We’re not letting anything happen to her, so why don’t we dance or something?  This is a party isn’t it?”

Lea jumped up and down clapping her hands, “Karaoke?”

“Let’s go!” Ethan yelled and turned around to face the crowds of people.  “Everybody, out of my way,” he barked as the party goers parted in front of him with their eyes wide.

Making our way into the living room, I could hear the harsh tone deaf howling of some poor girl singing some sappy pop song.  Fuck that, she sucked, I was drunk and I
wanted to sing.  Fuck everybody, it was my apartment, my karaoke machine.  I grabbed the microphone out of the chick’s hands and winked at her.  Pushing her gently to the side, I handed Grace the book of songs and wrapped my arms around her waist hugging her back to me. “Pick something that means something to you, forget what happened before.  Just live and have fun.  I promise nothing will happen to you. I won’t let
anything
hurt you,” I lightly peppered her neck with kisses as she looked through the songs.

“Oooohhhhh,” Lea said, her eyes lighting up. “Conner, let’s do
You’re the One That I Want!”

Laughing, Conner smacked her ass, “No way; do they have
Paradise by the Dashboard Light
?”  They all huddled together and scanned the songs with Ethan alongside them.

Then someone tugged me, trying to pull me away from Grace.  “Hey, Shane.  Long time no…see.  Why don’t we find somewhere a little more private?  You know…to catch up.”

Hmmm.  Jenny?  Traci?  Calli?  Jessica?  Beats the crap out of me.  Whatever-the-hell-her-name-was pushed her way in between us smiling and winking.  “I have a girlfriend who would love to join us.”  Oh, yeah Rachel.  She and one of her friends took turns on the
original
Shane in the Bone Room once upon a time.

Grace gasped next to her, balled up her hands and started punching numbers into the Karaoke machine. 
Shit, she picked a song without me.

I turned the best stink eyed glare I could on the chick.  I probably looked like a freaking animal, but I was really buzzed.  I looked the girl up and down, shook my head hell no, and sneered.  “Sweetheart,” I called her
that
because I wasn’t sure if she was Rachel, or
Rockell?  Rochell?
“You’re about two six packs of beer too soon for me.  Come back in about thirty minutes after I get myself totally trashed, then maybe you’d be half as beautiful as the woman standing next to me.”  I locked my eyes on Grace’s and fuck if she was wasn’t struggling to breathe from my words.  “Better yet, don’t bother coming back in thirty.  I have everything I’ve ever needed right here.”

Grace handed me the microphone with tears in her eyes.  “Sing this with me,” she whispered.

The intro guitar rhythm to
Broken by Seether featuring Amy Lee
filled the room and slowly quieted the voices of the crowd.  Lifting my head to the ceiling, tears stung at my eyes threatening to fall like the notes of the song.  Then Grace’s hand tugged on mine, and my emptiness; my complete and utter loneliness disappeared; unshackling its fierce bindings from my soul.  Realization dawned.  As long as Grace was standing next to me, I would never be lonely again.

Intensity, live and breathing, filled the room.  As soon as I sang the first words, the room completely silenced, but when she joined me, damn if our voices together didn’t bring the crowds closer to us.  Raw and savage, we were more than singing, we were telling each other everything.  I couldn’t look anywhere but in her eyes and we started slowly dancing around each other, microphones almost touching, in a tight circle, focusing just on each other.  There was no one else in the room.  There wasn’t an obsessed angel after her, there weren’t demon’s knocking on our doors, and there wasn’t two thousand years between us.  Just us, just Grace and me, and we were broken.  Broken from the other part of us so long
ago.

Our voices melted harmoniously together as we exploded in chorus and I reached out for her, hooking my finger around one of the loops of her skirt.  I slowly pulled her against me, both of us feeling each other’s pulse race and our hearts hammering against our chest, beating in time to the music.

As the last note played, screams erupted, echoing throughout the apartment and pulling us back from each other.  I leaned forward, kissing the top of her head and I held her arms up high.  The crowd roared louder.  I waved my hands towards Grace, “The stunning Grace Taylor of Mad World!” 

The catcalls were ridiculous.  Alex, the douche, made them the loudest.  Laughing, Grace jumped up onto the coffee table and swept her arms in my direction, “The sexy Shane Maxton of Mad World!”  Jumping off the table, she flew right into my arms, and I caught her, just as I always would.

Nuzzling my face into her hair I whispered, “
She poured out the liquid music of her voice to quench the thirst of his spirit.
”

“
Nathaniel Hawthorne
, Shane?  You kind of amaze me,” she giggled.

“Yeah, well you kind of amaze me too.”

Leaning into my chest, her hands slowly ran up my chest and fisted her hands in my shirt, just over my heart.  “God, Shane…you make it all hurt less…and let me forget for a few moments…” her voice murmured softer than I’d ever heard her speak.  Tightening her grip, she clung to me closer, trembling. 
Fuuucck
.