Superstar (8 page)

“Jon’s got a problem and I don’t think I’m
it,” Thad said.

“I swear, for a man who’s getting laid on
the regular you’ve been grumpy as hell.”

“Well, that’s never helped your personality
any. Assuming Naysa hasn’t finally come to her senses and kicked
your ass out,that is” Thad snapped back.

“Naysa and I are getting along fine,” Twist
said.

“Now isn’t that a miracle?” The two of them
rarely went more than a few days without an explosive argument.
Thad was amazed their relationship had lasted this long. Thinking
about relationships set his mind adrift with the vision Sioux had
been on the boat. The sun burnished her bronze-toned skin making
her glow like some ancient love goddess. It still amazed him that
she'd pulled away. He was so far gone he was really going to make
love to her on an open boat! In that moment he simply hadn't given
a damn. Sticking to his resolve was getting harder and harder. It
was only a matter of time before the two of them would tangle naked
on cool crisp sheets. Reminiscing burned a sensual visual through
his brain so strong it almost brought him to his knees.

Twist snapped his fingers in Thad’s face to
get his attention. “See what I mean? One half the time you're not
here and when you are you're such a jerk everybody wants you to go
away. What the hell is your problem? Did you and Sioux have a
fight? Did she cut you off?” Twist asked.

Thad stepped away and began pacing the
stage, wondering where the hell Bryan was. Technically speaking, as
lead guitarists there was no reason for either he or Bryan to be
there yet. Typically they checked the rhythm section first. But
he'd awakened that morning wrapped around Sioux like Schroeder with
his blanket. It was either get out of that room or lose his mind.
The sound technician was in his booth adjusting dials and knobs.
Either he couldn’t hear their conversation or wasn’t interested.
“We didn’t have a fight and she didn’t cut me off because she never
cut me on. I told you there’s nothing between us.”

“Oh really? Then why have I seen her leaving
your room early in the morning more than once?”

Thad raised his eyes heavenward. He’d
forgotten what a morning person Twist was. Sioux always left his
room early. They weren’t trying to keep their friendship a secret,
but she usually tried to get in a meeting and a workout as soon as
possible each morning. “We sleep together, but we’re not having
sex.”

“What?” Twist grabbed him by the arm and he
stopped pacing. “What kind of friendship is that?”

“Well, you know she’s got issues. Touring is
hard, she’s never done it by herself before and she doesn’t like to
be alone, so she comes to my room sometimes. It’s no big deal.”

“It’s a pretty big fucking deal, dude. It’s
making you cranky as hell. Have you tried to get with her?”

“Hell no. I mean, she tried…”

“Say what?”

Thad closed his eyes briefly. He was really
going to have to have his tongue removed. “She was interested in
having sex, but I’m not.” From the expression on Twist’s face he
knew he should’ve shut up several sentences back. Or maybe not even
got out of bed at all. His mind drifted away briefly on that
thought. He’d left Sioux in his bed, all soft and silky warm
cuddled against his back, her honey aroma now seemed to permeate
everything he owned. He couldn’t get rid of it even if he wanted
to. He was brought back to reality by Twist’s exclamation of
disbelief.

“Dude, have you looked at that girl? I mean,
if Naysa didn’t have my balls on lockdown I’d be all over that.
What’s the deal?”

Thad snorted. “As if she would have you.”
Then he sighed. “I don’t know. I mean. You know what could happen
to the band."

Twist frowned. “She’s not in the band.”

Thad raised his eyes heavenward in
annoyance. “Yeah, that's what she said, too, but still it would be
a bad situation. Besides, I don’t want it to be a casual
thing.”

“Why not? You’ve done casual before,” Twist
said with a shrug.

“That was a long time ago, and you saw how
crazy that shit ended.”

“Well there is that, but that’s no reason
not to try it again.”

“Look who’s talking. Naysa’s the only woman
you’ve ever slept with. What the hell do you know about it?” Thad
asked.

Color rose in Twist’s face. Paired with his
bright hair and freckles he glowed like Vegas at Christmas. “I do
know you either need to sleep with Sioux, or somebody else. It’s
not like there aren’t plenty of women around. And you might want to
stop that sleeping together shit. That can’t be helping. You’re
horny as hell, and sleeping with a woman you're not sleeping with
is not helping.”

Thad sighed, knowing Twist was right but the
problem was he
liked
sleeping with her. Sioux was so sweet
and cuddly and he loved having her in bed with him. Crazy as it
sounded and he knew it sounded crazy, she helped him relax and
unwind after a show. Even with the daily sexual frustration he
slept better with her than without. But given the way this
conversation was going he had no desire to reveal that fact to
Twist.

“Yeah. That’s probably a good idea,” he said
as the rest of the band members began filing in. Sioux came in a
little later looking surprisingly tired. He knew she'd slept well,
so he wondered what was troubling her. He definitely planned to
ask.

Sioux felt the tension in the room almost
immediately. That wasn’t unusual; most of the band members were
strong-willed and fights weren’t uncommon, especially when Twist
was involved. But she could tell by the way Thad wouldn’t meet her
gaze that they’d been fighting about her. She wondered what the
problem was. She and Thad hadn’t talked all that much since leaving
Chicago. So if there was a problem it must have cropped up since
then. Thad wasn’t one to keep such things to himself. Wanting to
get the sound check over as quickly as possible she started toward
the sound booth only to be stopped by Bryan.

“Have you seen the stories today?” he
asked.

She shook her head, her day had begun late
as their schedule had gone wild once they left Chicago and she was
determined not to miss her meeting. She hadn’t been online or even
answered her messages that morning.

He pulled his phone out his pocket and
showed her the headline on one particularly nasty site. The photo
was an old one from the book release party they’d attended several
months before. She hadn’t realized it, but apparently a
photographer had taken what seemed to be a very incriminating photo
of her and Bryan at that event. She didn’t even remember grabbing
his arm and leaning in close to him. She had only been trying to be
heard in the noisy room, but the camera angle and the digital
removal of Thad from the photo altogether made it seem that they
were about to kiss.

Sioux Bags Her Man

Sioux Dupree, late of every drug rehab in
the Western Hemisphere has been chasing after Bryan Spencer of
Storm Crow for more than ten years. She’s opening for the band on
the North American leg of their red-hot tour. From what we can see
in the picture we’re wondering what else she’s been opening for bad
boy Bryan.

Oh my God. The dizziness welled up as she
stared into his vivid blue eyes.

“Oh no. I’m so sorry,” she whispered her
throat so tight she could barely force the words out. Her stomach
soon followed suit and she feared she was going to lose her
breakfast at any moment. This was just the sort of thing she’d
feared would happen. It would give Bryan an excuse to throw her off
the tour. Not that he really needed one.

Thad joined them. “What’s the deal?” Bryan
silently passed him the phone. “That sucks man. They were saying
for a while that she was after me.”

“You know they’ll say whatever gets them the
clicks. I guess I should’ve been expecting something like this,”
Bryan said.

Sioux shook her head. The tabloids were just
a normal part of the business, but this story was particularly
nasty. “Callie doesn’t think…”

“Of course not,” Callie said as she entered
the stage, her tiny newborn nestled in a sling against her chest.
“Bryan leave the poor girl alone. She didn’t have anything to do
with this. We know better than most how awful those sites are.”
Bryan’s wife had just joined them the previous evening. Though she
normally traveled with the band, the arduous tour was too much for
a newborn so she was popping in only on periodic stops.

“I know she didn’t have anything to do with
it, I wasn’t attacking her, just wondered if she knew. What are you
doing down here anyway? We got in so late last night I know you’re
tired,” Bryan asked, his expression immediately softening in an
intimacy so readily apparent Sioux felt compelled to look away.

Callie gestured toward the little baby. “I
had intended to sleep in, but your offspring had other ideas.”

Sioux couldn’t resist. She had an enormous
soft spot for babies. She walked over to Callie and peeked into the
sling to see tiny little Zadie Spencer looking up at her. Her
enormous round eyes stared out boldly into the world.

“Oh Callie may I hold her?” Callie happily
handed the baby over and Sioux took her gingerly into her own
hands.

“I just love babies. I’ve been waiting
forever for one of my friends to finally have one, but no dice so
far,” Sioux sighed, inhaling the unmistakable sweetness of little
Zadie’s baby smell.

“Why wait for one of your friends? What
about you?” Callie teased.

“Oh no. I don’t think I’m mommy
material.”

“Really? You look pretty maternal to me,”
Callie said, eyeing the way Sioux was holding the baby. “I’d say
you look like a pro.”

Heat rose in her face as Sioux shook her
head again then looked up to find Thad staring at her with the
oddest expression on his face. She wasn’t sure what the look meant
but she felt the warm regard of his gaze and felt the heat rise in
her face in response. She quickly lowered her eyes to the baby’s
sweet little face.

Thad couldn’t take his eyes off the sight of
Sioux with the baby. Babies were not something he’d ever given much
thought to, at least not
his
babies. Bryan and Jon both had
kids so they were always underfoot and while he enjoyed them he’d
never had a response like this. Like he wanted kids.
With
Sioux
. He almost welcomed the distraction when Bryan drew him
off to the other side of the stage while Callie and Sioux were
talking.

“So you decided not to listen to my advice,
huh?” Bryan said.

Thad finally managed to tear his gaze away
from Sioux. “What advice?”

“Sioux.”

“What about her?” Thad asked through gritted
teeth.

“You’re sleeping with her,” Bryan said.

“Why all of a sudden is everybody
interesting in my sex life? Who told you?” Thad asked, making no
effort to hide the exasperation in his tone.

“Twist.”

Thad glared at Twist who was behind his drum
kit wearing a head set apparently oblivious to how close to death
he was at the moment. “Seriously one of these days I’m going to
have to kick the shit out of that guy.”

Bryan shrugged. “I’ve done it lots of times.
It doesn’t help. He’s a dick and always will be a dick.”

Thad knew that, but still… “I am not. I
repeat, not, sleeping with Sioux.”

“She’s comes out of your room every morning.
Hell I’ve seen her, so has Callie. You two are together all the
time.”

“I’m with you guys all the time and we’re
not sleeping together,” Thad snapped.

“Obviously you haven’t read some of the fan
fiction out there about us,” Bryan said.

“There’s not enough eye bleach in the world.
I’m not sleeping with Sioux. We’re friends, and we’re working on
some songs. She’s pulling together a CD.”

“Do you plan to produce her?”

Thad shrugged. “She hasn’t asked. I’ve never
produced anyone.”

“I think you should. You’ve got the chops.
Expanding into production would be good for you. Good for your
career too. You need to do more writing. I keep telling you,
publishing is where the longevity and money is in music.”

Thad nodded. They’d had similar
conversations before. Bryan was a prolific songwriter and producer
and he encouraged Thad to do the same.

“That still doesn’t explain why she’s in
your bed,” Bryan said just when Thad thought he’d successfully
changed the subject.

“Because she wants to be. Can we drop this?
It’s none of your business, man.”

Bryan stared at him for a long moment, but
didn’t say anything, then turned to walk away, but Thad grabbed his
arm.

“By the way, what did happen at the VMAs?”
Thad asked.

“What?” Bryan turned toward him with a
distracted frown.

“You know, Sioux coming on to you. Did you
take her up on it?”

“Didn’t I already answer this question?”
Bryan said.

“Sure, but that was in front of B.T. and the
guys. I just wanted to be sure…” Thad let the sentence trail off
not sure what he wanted to know if anything.

“Why don’t you ask Sioux since you two seem
to be attached at the hip these days?”

Thad rolled his eyes, but didn’t fall for
the bait. “Because she doesn’t remember.”

“You mean she claims it didn’t happen?”
Bryan’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“No, she doesn’t claim that at all, she says
she doesn’t remember.”

Bryan stroked his chin. “Well, I guess
that’s hardly surprising. She was blazing. I was amazed she was
able to stay on her feet at all.”

“That’s what she said. So did you?”

“Did I what? Let a minor who was wasted out
of her mind blow me?”

Thad nodded. Despite Bryan’s intense glare
he was determined to know.

“Aside for the moral issues raised by such a
question, do you really think I’m an idiot? I’m no fan of
prison.”