Strings (28 page)

I assume command of his pussy-spit covered
hand and walk him the rest of the way to the door, smearing the
sticky goo between his fingers. “Okay, for down-and-dirty love,
then.”

“
Is there any other
kind?”

I pause to think about it. “Nope.” God,
imagine all the possibilities—all the knots we can tie in these
strings of ours.

Being entangled in music, sex, and love
never felt so good.

Codas, Vows, and Data
Plans

“
Five, four, three, two,
one…Happy New Year!” Everyone in the Miami bar jumps to their feet
as the apple drops to the bottom of the television screen. I spin
to face Shades and throw my arms around his broad shoulders. He
grins and lays a searing kiss on my mouth.

Laughter and cheers bloom around us. Patrons
sing “Auld Lang Syne.” Bodies sway left and right. Arms raise. It’s
kind of like a Killer Buzz Float show.

“
Happy New Year,
pussycat.” Shades smooths my hair.

I raise my shot glass. “To music, love, and
cell phones.”

“
To new beginnings.” He
clinks his tequila shooter to mine, and we throw our liquor back at
the same time.

“
I need another photo. Our
first one of the year.” I pull out my brand-spanking-new smartphone
and wave it proudly.

Shades rolls his eyes. “Not another one.
You’ve taken at least a hundred pictures of me today.”

“
This one is of
us
.” I sling an arm
around him and point the camera at our happy faces. “Say ‘cooter
juice.’”

“
Cooter juice.”

Snap.

“
One more.”

He sighs and puts on another smile for me.
This pic is even better. “Perfect.”

I scroll through the images. My phone is so
fucking awesome. I can take pictures. I can email. I can text.
Social networking, music, even books and movies—they’re all here in
this tiny little device. God, it’s a marvel.

Shades is thoroughly unimpressed. I shake my
head. It’s gonna take a while for me to beat the rich out of him,
but I’m working on it. He took his first step on the road to
recovery by letting me buy the drinks tonight. Now that he’s as
poor as I am, we’re struggling musicians together. Do you have any
idea how much fun it is being broke with someone you love?
Tons!

Though, thanks to our new
record deal, for the first time in my adult life, I have a
little
spending money.
Hence the kickass phone. It’s my only vice.

I smile as I log in to Killer Buzz Float’s
new fan page and post the pic of Shades and me.

He watches over my
shoulder as I type:
Happy New Year from
Shades and Letty. Looking forward to rocking Miami tomorrow
night.

Three likes pop up on the status update
before I log out. It sure is nice to feel loved. By fans and by
Shades.

I nudge his shoulder and kiss his stubbly
cheek. A random memory from several weeks ago invades my brain.
“Hey, remember that bet we made at Jillian’s house about the
stripping video? After Kate left, I never bothered comparing Cherry
Buzz Float’s page with Killer Dixon’s. I wonder which band got the
most likes?”

Jinx and I have moved on from CBF and all
the shit with Kate. It’s easy to forget some songs once you hit the
coda. But pride makes me want to know who won the bet.

Shades takes out his phone. “Let’s find
out.” He taps in the web address as Rax, Toombs, Jillian, and Jinx
approach the table.

Toombs and Jinx stand close, but they don’t
touch. They never do. Yet, there’s electricity between them. They
won’t look at each other during rehearsal, and Jinx gets
territorial every time Toombs encroaches on her drum space. But
away from the music, they can’t keep their eyes off each other. Hot
and cold, those two. I can’t figure them out.

Rax, on the other hand, is the same old
wanker he’s always been except for his incessant pining for that
Lola chick from the strip club. It’s been almost two weeks since he
saw her, but he’s still yakking about how pretty she is and how he
could change for a woman like her.

Right. Guys like Rax don’t change. They just
grow up to be wrinkly old letches who perv through binoculars on
hot, young joggers as their asses bounce down the street. At least
his obsession with Lola takes some of his focus off me.

“
Where have you guys
been?” I say.

“
Scoping the crowd for
chicks to bang. No luck.” There’s no zest in Rax’s voice. I’m
starting to wonder if Lola really whipped him.

“
Well, how about we all
pose for a picture?”

A collective grunt rises from the group.

“
Come on. I need something
to fill my blank home screen.” I wave my bandmates
closer.

They grudgingly come together. I shove my
phone into Jillian’s hands. “You’re in charge.”

“
Well, duh.” She shakes
her head and points the camera at us. “Pretend like you love each
other.”

I grope Jinx’s boob, and she falls out
giggling. Shades’s hand thwacks my butt. I squeal like a pig. Rax
and Toombs make silly kissy faces at each other. Jillian snaps the
picture.

We gather around the phone to take a look.
The four people who turned my life around smile up at me from my
first real present to myself. It’s fucking perfect.

I look at each of my friends in turn.
“Thanks, dudes. For everything.”

Hand slaps and hugs ensue. Before I have a
chance to go all “I love you guys!” on everyone, Shades laughs at
something on his phone and lifts a fist in triumph.

“
I knew it,” he
says.

“
What?”

He grins at me. “Killer Dixon won the bet.
We had two hundred and thirty-nine more likes than you did.”

“
What? You’ve gotta be
shitting me. That’s so unfair.”

“
Yeah, you had almost a
thousand more than we did before we even made that bet,” Jinx says.
It’s the most I’ve heard out of her mouth in, like,
ever.

“
Still, a bet’s a bet.”
Rax licks his lips. “You’re not gonna renege, are you?”

Shades lifts his pierced brow. Toombs cuts
his eyes to Jinx.

“
As arbiter of said bet,”
Jillian interrupts, “I think it’s only fair that the remaining
members of Cherry Buzz Float uphold their end of the
deal.”

I crack our manager with a glare. “You just
want to see tits. You don’t have to publicly humiliate me for that.
I’ll show ’em to you any time.”

She half-shrugs.

I take a deep breath and face my drummer and
best girl friend. “What do you say, Jinx? We did vow to let them
video us giving them lap dances.”

She presses her lips together. “Fair’s
fair.”

I love this bold new Jinx.

I point a thumb toward the bartender.
“Somebody go ask if they have any Zeppelin. And find me a pole in
this place.”

Toombs bolts toward the bar like a dying man
in need of a shot. Rax’s smug grin crawls under my skin. And then
there’s my other best friend, Shades. All smiles.

“
Me first,” he
says.

I slide my leg across his thigh and straddle
him. I flip up his sunglasses and plant a soft kiss on his lips.
“You only. Jinx can handle Toombs and Rax,” I say loud enough for
her to hear.

“
Uh…” She shoots a
desperate, pleading look my way.

“
And what about me? As
your manager, I’m supposed to get twenty percent of everything.”
Jillian waves her electronic cigarette.

“
Twenty? I thought it was
fifteen?”

“
I upped my
fee.”

I harrumph. “You get to video with my new
phone.” I pass my baby back to her and press my tits into Shades’s
face.

I swipe his cheek. “Are your strings ready
to be plucked?”

“
By you? All day, every
day. Pour some Letty on me.” Ah, my beautiful Shades.

The music cranks loud. Bartender holds up a
thumb. Excitement steeps the atmosphere. I slide off Shades’s lap
and mount the table. All heads turn my way.

“
Good evening, Miami,” I
yell to the crowd. “My name is Letty Dillinger, and I was born to
rock your motherfucking face off.”

Cheers erupt, claps punctuate the air, and I
turn the entire place upside down with a lap dance on Shades’s
rigid cock that would make Mata Hari’s toes curl with envy.

The song ends, applause deafens, and Shades
stares into my eyes with such pure devotion, my heart misses a
beat. Amid the laughter and shouts, I lean forward and say in his
ear, “You have a massive erection.”

He grins. “I was worried you wouldn’t
notice.”

I glance down. “Hard not to notice a cock
like yours. What do you say we blow this joint and troll the
streets for a twenty-four-hour adult toy store? Hell, maybe we
could engage in a little public indecency on the beach. On a night
like this, I’ll bet no one would bat an eyelash.”

“
Hell’s bells, pussycat.
I’m all yours.”

“
Yeah, you are. Don’t you
ever fucking forget it.” I kiss the words into him so he
won’t.

Twenty-five years ago, I
entered this world kicking and screaming. If I have my way—and The
Rock willing—I’ll keep it up ’til the day I die. With an awesome
family and an amazing, supportive man like mine, hell-raising is an
afterthought, rocking crowds is easier than breathing, and loving
both Shades and
myself
is effortless.

My name is Letty Dillinger, and I’m a
fucking star.

About the Author

Kendall Grey,
word wrangler, whale warrior, wicked wench, and
lover of tongue-tripping alliteration, was born without an
off-switch between her brain and mouth. She’s been called the “Flux
Capacitor of Twitter” and “A little package of love all wrapped up
in F-word paper,” but she’s really just a maniacal writer relaying
eyewitness accounts of the rave inside her head. She writes erotica
and urban fantasy with strong romantic elements.

Kendall lives off a dirt road near Atlanta,
Georgia, but don’t hold that against her.

Kendall’s Web
site

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Just
Breathe
Trilogy Web Site