Surrendering (36 page)

Watching the bloggers is actually really interesting. Declan and Cooper do most of the talking. The questions are pretty standard:

How did you meet and form Sayge?

How long have you been together?

Where are you from and where do you play?

Who writes and who composes?

Who’s your musical inspiration? (Each guy answers individually.)

All the guys are being cordial; I can tell they are trying their best to impress.

After twenty minutes, they finally finish the interviews. Declan laces his fingers in mine and we start towards the private area reserved for Sayge. When we get there, there are several people I don’t recognize, but I know they’re rockers.

“Hey, man, you guys were great! I’m Ryan Knight from Knight’s Dream.” He holds his hand out for Declan to shake and then does the same to Nate, Cooper, and Blake. The other members of the band come over and introduce themselves as well. The whole crew launches into a conversation about the show and how well Sayge did.

I recognize the name Knight’s Dream as the headlining band tonight. Ryan is totally hot. Not as gorgeous as Declan, but still hot. He has sandy blond hair and blue eyes. He stands about six feet. He doesn’t have any facial piercings, but I can see a tattoo sneaking out of the collar of his shirt. I catch Kendall and Harper checking him out. I think Charlie has decided she’s interested in Blake because she staring at him and not paying attention to Ryan at all.

“Oh shit, I’m so rude. Guys, this is Raven and her friends Kendall and Harper.” Declan introduces us. Ryan’s eyes land on mine and he gives me a megawatt smile that could melt ice. I smile politely back and Declan wraps his arms around me, sucking gently on my earlobe. Most likely, this is to show Ryan that I’m indeed his girlfriend and not a hook-up. I’m beginning to understand ‘rocker speak’. Ryan turns to my friends and gives them his signature smile.

“You guys gonna hang around for awhile? I’d like to talk to you after we get done.” Ryan asks.

“I think we’re going to hang back here. I’m not interested in going back out to the festival.” Declan answers.

“Great, see you in a few hours.” He walks off and the rest of his band goes with him.

Our little group gets some of the food and beer provided and watches from the back as Knight’s Dream performs. You can tell they are a local band because the crowd is about three times the size it was this morning.

We’re all very excited and the guys keep talking about their performance. Blake knows he drew the biggest response with his solo. They decide to keep it, but they’re going to try and lengthen it for their upcoming shows.

My adrenaline has started to fade and I sink into Declan’s lap. We listen to all our friends around us. Charlie has the crudest comments for every single Band Bunny that stops by. My sides are sore from laughing.

Two hours later, Knight’s Dream is has finished their set and they join us after their session with the bloggers. We cheer for them as if they’re our best-friends.
When Ryan finds out Sayge is going to be at the next festival, he starts talking about it as if it’s tomorrow. He’s going to ask Jay if they can arrange the same lineup.

After a few hours, we decide it’s time to go and pile back into the truck. Kendall, Charlie, and Harper follow us back to our rooms. We start a party in our room and the girls and I dance around and sing along with my IPod. We raid all the food in the fridge and Charlie mentions playing strip poker. Declan grabs me and hauls me upstairs to the loft. He’s super unhappy as he lowers me to the bed.

“Sweetheart, what’s wrong?” I ask him.

He goes to the bathroom and starts the shower, then drags me with him. He doesn’t say anything as he undresses me and puts me under the water. He joins me and washes us both off, concentrating extra hard on my inner thighs. He helps me wash my hair, but stays quiet.

“Raven, your days of strip poker are over.”

“I know that baby. Besides I would never play strip poker with Jimi.” I melt against his chest.

“Fuck,” he says before he turns me towards him and lifts me. He lowers me onto him in a swift motion. He slowly takes me against the shower wall. I slide my mouth to his earlobe and lick him down to his jaw. The stubble on his face rubs against my cheeks. I move my lips to his and devour him with my kiss.

“Baby, grip my shoulders and hang on,” he says against my lips. I do as he tells me while I arch my back. He takes my nipple into his mouth and bites down. The feeling of pain and pleasure starts to overtake me. He moves his mouth to my other breast and repeats the motion.

“Oh my God,” I whisper over and over. I squeeze my muscles as hard as I can to feel each and every inch of him sliding in and out of me.

“Jesus Christ, you feel so good.” He moves faster and I swivel my hips the best I can so he can go as deep as he needs to. He takes me harder, pounding into me. I pick my head up and put it on the crook of his neck. I can feel him all the way in my chest. My breathing increases and I feel the familiar waves of my orgasm start.

“Dec, I-”

“Do it, come for me.” He cuts me off. I let go and try to stifle my screams against his skin. He groans as he finds his own release.

Moments later, we both have our breathing under control and he sets me down. He cleans me up and gets a towel to dry us off. I put on one of his shirts and throw on a pair of boy shorts. Then we fall into bed wrapped in each other.

*****

I talk the boys into stopping at the outlet mall on our way back to Nashville. It turns out to be a good idea when I help them pick out Christmas gifts. We get back on the road in less than two hours. I set up my study materials again and start in on my next class. Just like the ride down here, Nate helps me with my flash cards until I’m comfortable.

When we get back to Declan’s house, I head home to work on a special project. When I get there, I hop on the computer and open my email. There are at least thirty images that my friends took last night from the show. I pick my favorite ones and download them. I notice an email from Brent about our project. He’s finished his portion of the assignment and has sent it to Anna for editing. When she’s done, Kyle will review it. He’s also the speaker for our group so he’ll present it to the class and the professor. We’ll all be there for the questions and answer session afterwards. We’re going to meet at my house on Tuesday night to review.

After reading my emails, I decide to go for a run. I dress quickly, grab my IPod, and leave a note. I have about an hour before dark so I stick close to home. I crank up my favorite playlist and hit the trails around my house. There are lots of people out this afternoon. As I turn around the last corner, I run straight into someone and fall on the ground.

“I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” I recognize the voice; it’s Brent. “Oh shit, Raven. Are you hurt?”

I roll over and stand up. I have a small cut on my leg, but otherwise I’m okay. “Hey, Brent, don’t worry about it. I’m fine; I should have been paying better attention.”

“Your leg is bleeding. Let me take a look.” He leans down, but I stop him.

“It’s nothing, I promise. Hey, I didn’t know you’re a runner.” I try to change the subject so he’ll stop asking about my leg.

He laughs, “I’m not a seasoned runner, but I like to get out once in a while to get some exercise. The weather today is great so I decided to run. I was just about to start my cool down.”

“Well, I’m almost finished too. I’m going to jog walk the rest of the way.”

“Care if I join you?”

“Not at all. Let’s go.”

We jog at a steady, slow pace so we can cool down. I compliment his work on our project and he asks me more about the details of our research. Since I will present all my notes on Tuesday night, I go ahead and tell him where I found the materials and how it relates to the work. Then our conversation turns more casual.

We get to the entrance where I started so I say good-bye and head home.

When I get back to my driveway, Declan is sitting on the front porch waiting for me. I jog up to him and give him a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Hey there, how long have you been here?”

“Just about fifteen minutes. Abbi told me you went for a run so I waited out here.” I smile at him as we head in and make our way to the kitchen.

“WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO YOUR LEG?” Declan screams. I’d forgotten all about it. I look down and my calf has a nasty bruise and dried blood.

“Calm down. I ran into someone and fell. It was my fault because I took a corner too fast and I wasn’t paying attention. Thank goodness it was someone I knew.”

“It looks like it hurt. Who’d you run into?”

“Brent from school.”

His face goes hard. I can see the muscle in his jaw ticking. He’s not happy at all. “The same Brent that wants you?”

I roll my eyes at him and sigh. “You’re ridiculous! Brent is not interested in me like that. I think he may have even hooked up with Mari recently. You need to calm down.”

He stares at me for a minute and then relaxes his body. He smiles at me. “You’re wrong about him, but I trust you and I know you have to work together. But if he makes the wrong move, I’ll beat his ass. Come here clumsy, I have a surprise for you.”

“I love surprises.”

“I want to take you three to pick out a Christmas tree tonight.”

“Really?!! That sounds great! Let me shower and change real quick. Are the girls ready?”

“Ella will be here in about thirty minutes. When I called her, she was stopping by Target to get some lights and stuff.”

“I’ll hurry. You could join me in the bathroom and talk to me if you want to?”

“I want to, but I can’t. Abbi wants me to help her move some furniture out of the way because she wants the tree by the front window.”

“K, I’ll be out shortly.” I kiss him and run to my room.

*****

Even though my plan was to get to sleep early, Declan and I didn’t crawl into bed until midnight. We bought a beautiful tree and set it up. Ella insisted we go ahead and put the lights on and then we ended up doing the decorations too. The girls had a few boxes of ornaments in the attic, but Ella bought more. Abbi didn’t want a traditional star or other topper so she bought holiday stems and garland and made them into a spray. She also created a bow with ribbons cascading down. When we were finished, we sat around the Christmas tree enjoying our work while the Christmas lights illuminated the room.

Chapter 32

The Holidays

There are only two weeks until Christmas and I only have one week of school left.

My group project is done and we sent in the final draft today. I think we’re ready to answer any questions about our report, but we plan to meet one more time tomorrow night to make sure. I let Declan know because we’re meeting at my place and he insists on being there. He’s still convinced that Brent is interested in me.

Sayge played in Atlanta again this past weekend and Jay gave them the same line up as last time. I wasn’t able to go, but Abbi was. She met up with my Atlanta girlfriends at the show. Declan was upset, but once he saw my study guide for World Economy, he relented.

We talked several times throughout the weekend and he made the guys get up early so he could be home by lunch on Sunday. Harper told me that he received a lot of female attention, but Charlie scared almost everyone away by being her badass self. I think Nate ended up hooking up with a random chick, but she wasn’t invited back to the hotel.

I finish what I need to so I can spend the rest of the day with him when he gets back. We haven’t spent this much time apart since we got back together in October and I’ve missed him this weekend. I tell the girls we need a little privacy in the living room so I can wrap their Christmas gifts, but that when I’m done, they can come in and we’ll have a wrapping party.

I text Abbi and Ella when it’s safe and they join us in the living room with all their gifts. The only thing Declan has to do is occasionally get up to get more wine, tape, or clear the area for more presents.

He and I went in together on a little boy we picked out on the Angel Tree. I picked out the clothes and shoes, but Declan went crazy on the toys. We had a monetary limit, but I think he may have gone over it. The angel tree is a tradition in my house. My parents always picked a child and Robbie and I did the same. Abbi liked the idea so much she talked her dad and Ella into selecting a child and we all have the gifts ready. Robbie is coming tomorrow to pick up all our packages and deliver to the drop off location. When we finish wrapping all the gifts, our tree looks like Santa has already visited.

We cleaned up our mess, chattering briefly about the gathering we’ve planned for this weekend. Our group of friends hasn’t gotten together since my birthday weekend, so I’ve planned a small celebratory party for Saturday night. I invited everyone to come over before we go to The Steamroom. I’m going to celebrate the successful completion of my first semester in Grad school. Kendall, Harper, Charlie, and Abbi only have one semester left before they are officially college graduates.

Declan and I turn into bed pretty early, but I make him tell me every detail about the weekend. He says they had a bigger following from the last show and people actually started asking them if they had any merchandise. He and Cooper have a meeting set up with Jay after Christmas to talk about studio time. According to Jay, if this is the route they want to go, they need to at least have a semblance of a CD to offer for sale. It doesn’t have to be a big production, but they need a few tracks out so they can see how people are going to react. It sounds like a big deal to me, but Declan is nonchalant about the whole thing.

Sayge has a short performance this Wednesday night for an arts festival here in the area. It’s a small venue with all local artists. Abbi is actually volunteering there. They won’t decide on the next festival until after the holidays. For now, he’s going back to the regular schedule around town.

“Sparkle, what are our plans for Christmas?” Declan asks as I curl into his chest.

“I don’t know; I hadn’t thought it out yet. What do you want to do?”