Miles of Pleasure (2 page)

"Kaylee," she said. She shook his hand, gazing into his crystal-clear green eyes.

Brandon didn't miss the suggestion in her eyes. He felt a slight stirring below the belt, and it seemed as though the temperature in the room shot up about 20degreeshotter than it already was. "Um, can I get you something to drink?" he asked, his voice cracking with sudden nervousness.

Kaylee nodded. "Sure, go tell my brother to mix me up a 'Kaylee Special'," she said and pointed to Noah.

Brandon looked over to where she was pointing. There were five or six women surrounding one of the guys from the band. He didn't see any other guys in that general area. "Which one are you pointing at?"

"Noah," she answered, as if it was no big deal.

Brandon nodded, suddenly even more nervous. He weaved through the clusters of people until he finally reached his destination. "Excuse me," he interjected into the conversation, or lack thereof. Noah looked up at him from the bar stool he was sitting on. "Uh, Kaylee asked if you could make her a 'Kaylee Special'."

Noah looked the man over. Definitely his sister's type. He got up from the stool and grabbed a few liquor bottles. "So, you're trying to get with my sister?"

Brandon didn't know what to say. "Nah, man," he said nervously. Noah gave him a look that said not to bullshit a bullshitter. Brandon tried another direction.

"Your sister's a knockout," he said honestly. "She looked like she was having a lot of fun. I wouldn't mind getting to know her, and it'd be cool to hang out with her."

Noah sized him up again as he mixed together some fruity concoction. "Hurt her and die," he said, ever so friendly. He handed over the drink, and went back to the groupies who had been drooling all over him.

Brandon scratched his head at the weird exchange and stood there for a moment, contemplating, before he headed back to Kaylee. She gratefully accepted the drink from him and moved over on the couch so that he could sit next to her. They talked quietly, getting to know each other. When Kaylee's glass was empty, she pulled him off the couch and led him back to her brother.

"What is that stuff, by the way?" Brandon asked.

"Technically, it's a 'Sex on the Beach', but my brother hates it when I call it that," she laughed. She looked at her brother, held up her empty glass, and shook it at him.

Noah laughed and got up to make her another drink. As he mixed it, he made conversation with his sister and Brandon. He found out that Brandon was a new writer from The Hits magazine, and that he was doing a piece about bands on the rise. It was his first big article for the magazine, and they were giving him free reign on the topic as a trial of sorts.

"So you chose us for the article?" Noah asked.

"Well, there are two other bands that I'm including, but the main focus is on you. I can't believe your publicist didn't tell you about it," Brandon said.

"Maybe we were told," Brandon said. "Things move so fast out here..."

Brandon nodded. "I understand that. So...I guess you don't know that I'll be traveling with you to a few cities ?" He sounded sheepish, like a boy who had just got caught doing something wrong.

"Nope, definitely hadn't heard that one," Noah told him. He looked questioningly at Kaylee. She shook her head to let him know that she hadn't heard anything either.

"Don't worry; I'm riding on the other bus most of the time. I believe my bunk is between the manager and the publicist, if you ever need to find me," he joked, as he started to feel more comfortable with them. "I'll only be on your bus now and then to get some material to write about."

Noah shrugged, not really caring. Brandon seemed like a pretty cool guy. Kaylee, on the other hand, was all smiles.

"Maybe I should take you out to the bus now, and show you around before the guys get back there. They can be a little overzealous when they get on the bus after a show," Kaylee suggested, enjoying the excuse to get Brandon alone. She led Brandon out of the dressing room and headed toward the bus, not realizing that she had a spectator watching her every move. The person watching rolled his eyes and went to talk to Kaylee's brother.

"Dude, who was that douche bag your sister just left with?" Ashton growled at Noah.

"Oh, that's Brandon, he's a pretty cool guy," Noah told him, then explained what Brandon was there to do. The scowl never left Ashton's face. Noah finally stopped talking and crossed his arms, staring down his bandmate.

"You know man, if someone didn't know how much you and Kaylee hated each other, they'd think you were a little jealous that she just left with another guy," he said.

Ashton immediately went on the defensive. "What? You're crazy. What would I have to be jealous about?" he demanded. "Why would I want your virgin sister when I just screwed this city's hottest deejay in the bathroom half an hour ago, and got the best blow job from some redhead in the closet right after that?"

"I'm just saying..." Noah started, but was interrupted.

"You know what? Never mind! I'm going back to the bus. It's time to blow this place anyway." Ashton stormed out of the dressing room. Noah stared at the place Ashton had been, then shook his head and laughed.

"I'll be damned," he said, chuckling.

Ashton ran onto the bus, hoping to break up whatever moment was being shared between Kaylee and Brandon, but was surprised to find Kaylee alone. She was sitting in her robe, on the couch, flipping through a magazine.

"Hey," he said, getting her attention.

"Hey. Great show tonight," Kaylee said nervously. She didn't know how to talk to him civilly. Most of the time they were around each other they were fighting. If they weren't fighting, then they just weren't speaking. She didn't know how to have a normal conversation with him.

"Thanks. It was a blast out there tonight. It's always better when the crowd is totally into it," he sighed, sitting down next to her. The relief coursed through him. He wasn't jealous - of course he wasn't! - but at the same time, he was glad to see she was by herself. Maybe he just wanted to talk to her. Just as his mouth opened to say something else, the bathroom door opened.

The guy she had been talking to - the reporter, or writer, or whatever the fuck he was - stepped out, wearing only his boxers.

Ashton exploded. "What the fuck is going on here?" His angry eyes turned from Brandon to Kaylee as his voice rose. "You met this guy tonight and gave him your virginity already? What the fuck are you thinking?"

As soon as he saw Kaylee's face, he knew he was in big trouble.

"Her what?" the guy said, and Ashton rounded on him.

"You...shut...up!" he growled, punctuating each word with a stab of his index finger into the air, right at the guy's nose.

Kaylee blushed red hot. She stared at Ashton. Where the hell did all of that come from? But she didn't think about it too much, because her confusion was quickly giving way to fury.

"First of all, it is absolutelynoneof your business what I do with my life!" She was livid at his assumptions and his nerve. "Second, we didn't do anything. I spilled my drink all over us, and I'm washing our clothes. But thanks for airing all my business to some guy I just met," she said, her voice somehow loud and cold at the same time.

She turned on her heel and stormed to the back of the bus, where she rummaged through some drawers. She came back and threw some clothes to Brandon. "Here, they're my brother's. I'll get your clothes back to you tomorrow."

Ashton stood quietly and watched the scene unfold. He watched as the guy looked at the clothes for a moment, as if trying to process what had just happened. Kaylee's face was still a brilliant red, and her eyes were bright, as though she was trying not to cry. Ashton sank down onto the touch.

Brandon squirmed into the sweatshirt, then slid the wind pants on over his boxers. He looked at Kaylee apologetically, only to be met by her mortified eyes. He kissed her cheek softly, and brushed his thumb over the spot he kissed.

"I'll see you tomorrow," he promised, hoping she wasn't too upset to see him again.

Kaylee walked him to the door and shut it behind him. Silence immediately descended, and with it came tension so thick it could have been cut with a knife.

She turned to Ashton. He sat there with a blank look on his face. He didn't know what to say or do. He felt bad about the situation, and was confused as to why he exploded the way he did. He waited for Kaylee to blast him, to say terrible things, but her calm demeanor rattled him more than anything she could have shouted at him.

"Stay out of my life," Kaylee said, sternly and evenly, then disappeared into her bunk.

"
I
want nothing to do with you, anyway!" Ashton yelled at Kaylee as she fled to her bunk. Kaylee's angry, calm stare that had rattled him so badly a moment before now made him feel empty and not a little furious. His guilt quickly flashed over to anger, and that mixed with some alcohol made for a pretty messy cocktail.

He waited for her to come out. She didn't. She didn't make a sound.

"Screw this!" he said, and stormed out of the bus.

Ashton made his way back to the dressing room where there were still crowds of people. He needed crowds of people. There was only one thing on his mind at this point, and he was determined that nothing would stop him. He wanted sex...loud, nasty, dirty sex.

He found the deejay that he'd met that morning and already banged once. He grabbed her wrist. "Ready for the next go-round?" he asked, more a demand than a request.

"If you think you've got more in you," she challenged.

"Baby, I've got so much you better bring your friends," he drawled in his cocky manner. The deejay laughed, but turned serious when he said, "I wasn't kidding. Bring your friends. Now."

She smirked, and whispered something to the two women with her. All three women followed behind Ashton. He led them back to the bus and straight to the back room. He passed by Kaylee's bunk without a word, staring straight ahead, doing his best to ignore the fact that she was there. He pulled the couch out into a bed, and shut the door.

When he turned around, the three women were already lying on the bed making out. "Now that's what I'm talkin' about!" he smirked, and began stripping.

The girls were working on their own clothes, and as soon as Ashton joined them on the bed, they made sure he was plenty involved in their love-fest. Not long after, Ashton was drilling one of the girls as he grunted with each thrust and she begged for more.

Kaylee was pissed. It was bad enough that he had gone and made an ass out of her half an hour ago, but now he was screwing some girl in the back room, just on the other side of the wall from her bed...No wait, make that girls. Plural. Those were definitely two different voices from the one calling for more.

Not only was she pissed, but now she was disgusted. She put her pillow over her ears to try to drown out the sound, but they were getting louder and louder. She didn't know how much more she could take, but she wasprayingthat they would be done soon. Surely he didn't have that much stamina in him after a concert.

Finally, after a loud build-up, the panting, moaning, and screaming came to an end. At that same moment, the rest of the guys came back to the bus, thankfully without any women. Kaylee didn't know if she could handle hearing anyone else having sex that night. Luckily, most of the guys were pretty good about not having sex on the bus, or if they did, they were fairly quiet about it. It was usually the nights that they gothotel roomsthat they swung fromthe chandeliers and let it all hang loose.

She jumped down from her bunk, looking to seek solace in her brother after the terrible night she had just had. She sat down next to him and put her head on Noah's shoulder, and gave a long, deep sigh.

"I thought Brandon was here with you," he said as he put his arm around her shoulders.

"He was until that idiot drove him away," she replied, then explained what happened.

Noah fought to hide a smirk. Now he knew what had ruffled Ashton's feathers! Even he wasn't that over-protective of his sister. "I'm sure he meant well, even though he went about it the wrong way," Noah pointed out.

"Ugh, stop defending him. Did he mean well with his little orgy in the back room when he knew I was in my bunk?" she questioned.

"Well, obviously you liked it, or else you would have left," a deep voice said. Kaylee turned just as Ashton walked out of the back room, wearing nothing but his boxers. He stared down at her with a cruel grin on his face.

"Did you get excited?" he asked, his voice dropping even lower. "Did it get you hot listening to us, knowing exactly what was happening in the next room?"

Kaylee felt like she'd been punched in the gut. Tears welled in her eyes, but her pride wouldn't let them flow. She stood up from the couch and crossed the room to where Ashton was now standing, leaning against the wall, with his arms folded over his chest.

The crack was heard throughout the whole bus as Kaylee's hand belted his cheek. The impact sang all the way up to her shoulder, a good and satisfying ache. Ashton gasped at the sudden assault.