Unplugged: A Bad Boy Rockstar Romance (11 page)

~ FOURTEEN ~

Noah

I
hadn’t even had my first cup of coffee when my phone started buzzing across the
counter. Gavin was on the other end.

“I’m picking you up. Be ready in ten minutes,” he
said.

Rubbing sleep out of my eyes, I replied, “What the
fuck’s going on?”

“We have a meeting with your band downtown. It’s
urgent.”

Panic gripped my chest. The coffee cup in my hand
slopped mess over the counter as I set it down. “What happened, Gavin?”

“Get dressed. I’m almost there.” He hung up before I
could say another word.

Cursing, I rushed to my bedroom and threw on the first
clothes I could find that didn’t smell when I held them to my nose. The day
outside was remotely sunny, so I forewent the jacket and instead tried to save
what was left of my coffee, dumping it in a portable cup. Outside, a smooth
engine rumbled, and two honks sounded in quick succession.

The record label paid for big shots like Gavin to be
driven around the city. He was sitting in the back left corner of the town car,
engrossed in a phone conversation, as I ducked inside and sat down. Hidden
behind the dividing glass, the driver said nothing as he began reversing out of
my driveway.

I sipped my coffee and waited for Gavin to finish his
call. He was mostly listening, anyway. After a few moments he mumbled quietly
into the phone and hung it up, turning to me.

“How are you feeling today?” he said. His face looked
flat and gray, like a statue. Or like he’d been up all night sick to his
stomach.

“C’mon, man, save that shit for Quinn,” I said. Even
as the words came out of my mouth, I realized the coffee cup in my hand was
shaking. “What the hell is going on?”

The way Gavin couldn’t look at me straight, it only
made me more nervous. He put his fingertips to his lips as he spoke, as if he
could somehow filter the awfulness of his words that way. “I wanted to tell you
in private first. The rest of the boys are meeting us downtown. Well, minus
Duke and Jeff.”

“Wanted to tell me
what
first?” I pressed. My
heart began to pound in my ears.

“Have you smoked today yet? Do you want a joint?”

“Gavin, what the fuck is happening?” I couldn’t stop
the sound of shaking anger in my voice.

Finally he relented with a sigh, and began to loosen
the tie around his neck. “Noah, I don’t know how to say this. I got the call
from my friend down in the DA’s office, and the word is they’re going to put
out the warrant for your arrest this week. Maybe even as early as today. They
want you to face trail for manslaughter.”

Everything seemed to freeze like a scratched record,
even the sound of the tires on the wet road. I stared at the tattooed hands
wrapped around my coffee cup and found myself wondering whose hands they were,
and how did I get here? This couldn’t be my life. I had fallen asleep and
dreamed of being a rock star, and now this was the crashing end, and I was
about to wake up in bed, sixteen and skinny again.

But the moment didn’t end. It just stretched on and
on, until Gavin finally spoke.

“I’m so sorry, Noah. I tried everything I could to get
them to see reason. I pushed on every contact and called in every favor I had
in that county…” He trailed off and pinched the bridge of his nose. “The public
outcry is just so ravenous that the DA can’t ignore it and look credible
anymore. This is political, pure and simple.”

Everything in my brain and heart went numb. Kevin’s
words tumbled out of my mouth. “They like the wolves until they prod one into
biting.”

“What’s that?”

I shook my head. “Did you offer a joint because you
have one?”

Immediately Gavin was patting his suit pockets until
he came out with a shiny, silver cigarette case. He popped it open to reveal a
string of pretty, professionally-rolled joints. I fumbled one out and cracked
the window before lighting it up.

“I’ll figure out a way around this, Noah, I promise
you. I’m not going to let you spend a day in prison.”

The air from the window was cold and wet on my face,
the earth still soaked from showers during the night. Gavin’s high-grade pot
definitely helped. I felt the anxiety in my body melting into itself and
disappearing. I felt myself letting go of control, and anger. For the time
being, it was the only positive sensation I had to hold on to.

We didn’t speak another word to each other for the
rest of the drive into Seattle. I wasn’t even sure how long the drive was; part
of it felt endless. Hands in my pockets, I followed Gavin through the pristine
skyscraper lobby and could hear the whispers and feel the stares, but I
couldn’t get up the energy to care. I let them hit me and kept my eyes on the
back of Gavin’s suit as we entered the elevator and rode up to the offices of
the label.

We walked into the conference room to find Ash lounging,
bored, in one of the chairs. Quinn stood against the wall opposite him. They
weren’t talking. I caught Quinn’s eyes when we entered the room, and I saw his
face fall when he looked at mine, like he could read everything that had
happened in the car. He looked sick.

Gavin stood near Quinn and leaned on the table. I kept
walking past him, heading for the windows. I didn’t say a word to either of
them.

“Guys, we’ve got some bad news. The DA is proceeding
with charges against Noah. He’ll probably have to turn himself in by the end of
the week.” Gavin wasted no time.

After that, I blanked the whole thing out and let my
stoned mind get caught up on watching the speedy, mutating clouds forming over
the mountains and the bay. I could only hear Quinn’s raging, tearful voice, but
not the words he was saying—nor Ash’s bitter, shorter ones. It wasn’t long
until I didn’t hear Ash’s voice in the room at all.

Quinn came up behind me, his reflection in the glass
hazy. I turned to face him. His face was red, eyes already full of tears. He
looked angry, like he wanted to fight me. It actually made my shoulders tense
up.

“It wasn’t supposed to happen like this,” he said in a
shaky voice. “We can’t just let this happen to you, Noah.”

The sight of my best friend crumbling under this
pressure started to break the haze of numbness around my head. Pain began
pulsing in my chest. I felt my lip quivering when I responded. “There’s nothing
else we can do, man.”

“We have to—” Quinn couldn’t continue. He cried
freely, clenched fist pressed against his lips, until I took a couple steps toward
him with an open arm. He threw his arms around me tightly. My neck and shoulder
grew damp with his tears.

“This isn’t over,” said Gavin. As sad as his voice
was, it still had a fire to it.

I didn’t argue with him. I would never tell either of
them, but for that moment in the conference room, the feeling of giving up
filled me with a sense of sweet relief. Prison would be horrifying, but what
else was new? My life had always had horror in it. This rock star thing—this
was a lucky prize I was never supposed to have gotten in the first place, let
alone keep.

People had been trying to beat me down into the dirt
since I was a kid. Put me in my place. Make sure I didn’t get any big ideas
about who I was. And every single day I had fought them. Some days harder than
others, sure; and there was no perfect record to speak of. But I fought. I
always promised myself I would fight.

Right then, though, I didn’t want to fight anymore. I
was tired, and this fight was so big. And what was I fighting for now, anyway?
A band that didn’t want me. A career that wouldn’t exist once the dust settled.
And an empty bed, an empty home. Whatever Laurel might have felt for me, I
wasn’t so sure it was going to survive me being a felonious ex-rock star. And
why should it? She deserved much better.

I had nothing. I had no one. And now, I was probably
headed to prison.

As glad I was it had happened, I suddenly wished Laurel
had never met me.

~ FIFTEEN ~

Laurel

Once
I got my travel plans cleared through the magazine, nothing was left except to
see Noah and tell him I would be gone a few days. It was a conversation I was
not looking forward to; I couldn’t shake the dread that clung to me with every
step as I got up, showered, and prepared for the day.

My flight to LA left first thing in the morning, so I
told Noah we should have a nice dinner and go see what was jumping at the
Graveyard Club if he felt up to it. He didn’t text me back right away, but when
he did, it was with a promise he’d take care of dinner. All I needed to do was
show up.

Ringing the doorbell at his house, I could already
smell the spices inside. Noah opened the door to me, but he was the reverse
image of the man I expected to see. Something dark and pale had overcome the
skin of his face, and his eyes had that glassy look of insomnia I recognized
all too well. But he was smiling, happy to see me, and bent to pick me up in a
tender bear hug. He sighed against my body like he hadn’t held it in a while.

“This was a good idea,” he said. “Thank you.”

I tightened my grip around his neck and planted kisses
on his beard and cheek. “I hate to give away my secret, but most people
actually eat meals, like, a few times a day… I can’t take credit.”

Noah pinched and squeezed me in the spots he now knew
were ticklish as hell, and I kicked, squealing, trying to get out of his strong
grasp. But there was no chance for that unless he wanted to let me go. He
tortured me a few seconds and dragged me inside the house, closing the door
behind us.

“Smells like curry,” I said as I took off my jacket.

“It’s from the Indian place around the corner,” said
Noah with a nod of his head. “I… don’t really cook much, as you can imagine.”

“Good thing you’re rich enough to get someone to cook
for you,” I said. “And not a prisoner of Ramen Island like the rest of us.”

Noah’s eyes shifted from side to side. “Right, sure.
On a totally unrelated note, do not look in the cabinets above the stove,
okay?”

I burst out laughing at the look on his face,
half-embarrassed, like he was fifteen and I’d just found his porn stash. On my
tiptoes I leaned up and kissed him and asked him for a piggy back ride to
dinner. He laughed at me a few seconds but then shrugged and flipped me over
his shoulders for the short walk to the kitchen, claiming every grasp of my
inner thighs was ‘for balance’. The small dining room table he had near the
sliding back door was filled with different containers of Indian food, two
plate settings, and open beers. A bunch of mismatched candles flickered
throughout the room, on the counter and table and windowsills.

“This is beautiful,” I said.

“You sound surprised,” he said, nuzzling into my neck.
His beard tickled my skin, but his lips quickly undid it.

“A little, I guess. This is… no one does things like
this for me,” I said.

“Well, now someone does,” said Noah, brushing the hair
out of the side of my face. He kissed the side of my cheek and held out my
chair for me as I smiled up at him.

It wasn’t expected, but it certainly wasn’t unwelcome,
to discover that sitting at a table having dinner with Noah was every bit as
delightful as anything else we did together. For half a minute, I actually felt
normal
. When was the last time I actually sat down and had dinner—with
anyone, even a co-worker? Half the meals I ate were on the go, and the other
half were quick fixes scrounged up at two AM to keep me through another night
of edits.

But sitting across from Noah, enjoying my food,
sharing laughter with him, it was recharging my soul in ways I hadn’t realized
I was lacking. There was never a dull moment between us, or hardly even a lull
in the conversation. We both had enough experience in the industry that we could
talk to one another with lingo and insider knowledge that often kept me, at
least, alienated from a lot of people.

Lots of people saw the music industry as a thing you
dream about when you’re a young idiot, a place for children to get filthy rich
acting out their stupid fantasies. And sure, lots of the stars in every genre
were kids who had no idea what was going to happen to them when their
popularity faded. But behind the scenes, it wasn’t kids—it was people like me
and Noah, who did start out chasing fantasies, and ended up sewing ourselves
into the foundation of what we loved. It was difficult to explain that kind of
thing to someone who had spent their time following the
school-college-marriage-kids life plan handed out to us when we were young.

I didn’t have to explain anything to Noah. He just
understood.

We were on our fourth beer each, and Noah on his third
serving of Indian, when things got a little quiet. It wasn’t uncomfortable;
quite the contrary. It was more comfortable than I’d felt in years. I felt
home.

Lost in my own feelings, though, I hadn’t noticed
Noah’s mood shift. When his voice finally came from across the table, it was
with a heaviness he clearly couldn’t hide anymore. “Laurel, look, I’ve got to
tell you something.”

I’d had my feet propped up on one of the empty dining
chairs. Shifting to face him, I put my beer down. “Of course. What’s up?”

He stared at his plate, like he didn’t have the
strength to lift it and look at me. I could see him lick his lips. “I had a
meeting with Gavin today, and… he told me…” Noah bit his lip and forced himself
to continue. I could feel my heart beating faster with every second. “He told
me the DA is going ahead with charges against me for Sun Fest. I might… I might
be in jail by the end of this week.”

My heart dropped. Even though the news wasn’t totally
unexpected, it dropped like a dead weight into the water of my mind.

“Fuck, Noah… Oh my God.”

Noah looked up at me finally and his eyes were angry,
but also filled with pain and sadness. “I’m sorry, Laurel. I should never
have…” He took a deep breath. “I should never have brought you into all of
this.”

“No,” I said, jumping up from my chair to kneel down
in front of him. “You didn’t. None of this is your fault.” The guilt in my
heart started bubbling, molten. I had to comfort him somehow. “I knew who you
were when I saw you in the club that day, and I still wanted to meet you. You
didn’t bring me into anything, I’m a grown woman. I brought myself.”

He stared at me, thinking, and blinked hard a few
times. His throat shifted as he swallowed hard. “Laurel, I… I really care about
you. I know that sounds stupid coming from me, and I don’t understand it fully
myself, but it’s the fucking truth. I care about you and I feel like a complete
piece of shit getting hauled off to jail just when I’ve found you…”

My heart froze in my chest, hearing Noah’s words.
Tears welled up in my eyes in an instant, my mouth open in shock. “Noah, I care
about you too. I care a lot. I figured it was just me, being a stupid… girl… falling
for a rock star…”

“Is that how you think of me? A rock star?” It was a
painful question.

“No,” I said. “But I thought that was how you saw
yourself. I didn’t imagine you for a minute actually… actually connecting with
me.”

Noah leaned forward with his hand in my hair. “But
it’s not just me, right? You feel it too?”

I grasped his hand in mine. “Of course I feel it. But
I don’t understand it.”

“Well, at least we both suck at this,” said Noah with
a self-effacing laugh.

“We can suck at it together,” I said with a teary
smile.

Noah returned it as he leaned down and kissed me. It
was tender, sweet, and slow. I could feel my tears pressing up against his
skin.

After the kiss, guilt overcame me and I shook my head
as I stared at the floor. He’d been so honest with me, how could I continue to
hold back the truth of myself? “I have to say something unpleasant too, Noah.”

And when I looked up at him in that moment, there was
no question whether I had the courage to tell him who I was. I didn’t. Not yet,
anyway.

Instead, I started with the smallest disappointment.
After all, I had no idea what I was going to find in LA. There was no reason to
destroy this until I had to. “I have to fly out of town for a couple of days
for work. I leave tomorrow morning.”

Noah’s face dropped and my heart cracked in my chest.
I squeezed his hands tighter. “Oh, sure, that’s okay sugar. As long as you’re
not just saying that because of… because of what I just said…”

“Fuck no,” I said, leaning down to kiss him. “No, no,
no. The trip was already planned before I got here. What you said tonight was… perfect.”

Noah smiled at me, but it was sad.

“I’m really fucking sorry… the timing of this is just
awful.” I rubbed the side of his face. “I want to stay here with you during
this. But this trip is… it’s crazy important. I wouldn’t be going if it wasn’t.
It’s only for two days, tops.”

Noah stared at me, thinking silently. He ran a thumb
over my face and lips and brought me in for a sweet kiss. “As long as you fuck
me one more time before you go.”

I flushed and smiled against his lips. “I didn’t
realize that was even up for debate.”

Noah’s next kiss was instantly ravenous, pulling me up
onto his lap in the chair. Already I could feel his cock beneath me, half-hard
and getting more swollen by the second. We kissed each other with an intensity,
almost a fear, a fear that the world was going to be totally different when we
stopped. So we just didn’t stop.

Grinding me on his lap, Noah reached underneath and
pulled my shirt over my head, tossing it somewhere into the dark kitchen. He
had no trouble unclasping my bra. Likewise, I scrambled to get his shirt off his
gorgeous body, and moaned into his mouth when I finally felt the bare skin of
his chest against mine. Noah ran his hands up and down my bare back, sliding
them into my jeans to squeeze my ass and rub me against his dick.

Without taking his mouth off me, he gripped my ass and
stood up. Reflexively, I wrapped myself around him and let him carry us both to
the clean-smelling black and white tile of the kitchen floor. Noah worked
between our bodies to unfasten first his jeans, and then mine, wiggling them down
my body and kicking them into a heap at our feet. His fingers massaged my clit
as he kissed me and I writhed underneath him. He pushed two of them inside me
and found my wetness was already waiting for him. After a few teasing, deep
pumps, he withdrew them and positioned the head of his hard cock at my
entrance.

There was no condom this time, and he hesitated for
just a moment as if to give me time to object. But I wanted it this way, too. I
wanted to feel him, skin on skin. And almost as important, I trusted him, and
wanted him to know that.

When he finally pushed his length inside me, I nearly
came right there, arching my back and crying out his name against his mouth. He
bit my lip as he buried his cock in my pussy and held it there, bottoming out,
as he kissed me passionately. Keeping his body and mouth on mine, Noah slowly
began to pump his hips just enough to withdraw his huge cock a few inches
before sliding smoothly back inside to fill me completely. I hitched my legs
around his hips and felt him bump my spot with every single stroke of his cock
inside me, and it was almost more pleasure than I could take.

There was desperation in the way we clung to each
other, in the way we refused to let our bodies get more than a few millimeters
apart at any given time. Even though the pleasure building in my body needed a
release, I also never wanted Noah to stop. I wanted to lie here beneath him,
making love, forever.

I could see his face clenching and knew he was getting
close. Noah’s kisses got hungrier, his thrusts shorter and harder. His hands
held me tight against his sweating body.

“Come with me,” he whispered against my mouth. “Laurel,
come with me.”

His hot wet tongue danced on my lips and I moaned
loudly, feeling my orgasm build. “I’m almost there,” I told him breathlessly.

“I want to feel you…”

“Oh, fuck, Noah!”

Waves of ecstasy shot suddenly through my body and I
screamed out. The orgasm hit me like a lightning bolt, my inner muscles clenching
Noah’s hard cock as he pumped it inside of me. As I writhed underneath him, he
tangled one hand in my blonde hair and held me still as he came, his final
thrusts deep and hard enough to send aftershocks through my muscles.

Spent, he collapsed on top of me, still buried within
my hot core. He laid his face next to my head and entwined his fingers in mine,
panting onto the sweaty skin of my neck.

I looked over at Noah, face lit softly in the
candlelight. His eyes were closed, and his gorgeous face looked completely at
peace. Gone was the tension around his eyes.

I made myself remember every detail of that moment,
deeply afraid I would never get the chance to see it again.