The Complete Groupie Trilogy Read online

  When I left an hour later I juggled three bags between two arms, figuring I had already checked a bag so I might as well fill it.

  I was able to change into something more appropriate to be seen in public with the band as I ushered them over to the television station for the early afternoon news. By 6:00 p.m. I had completed three costume changes and was on my way back to the box office for the next concert, this time wearing an outfit of my own design.

  I followed the example set by the other people who had gone to the concert the night before, with studded jeans, and a black top that had six silver link chains that held it together in front.

  With my new bra that plunged deep and held the girls up high, I had cleavage that turned a few heads as I stalked through the casino in strappy, high-heeled sandals. I topped the ensemble off with big silver loop earrings and a black cadet hat – the only contributions to the night from Iris.

  Graham was out of his V.I.P. seat in the balcony the minute I stepped in. “Wow,” he remarked as I took my seat beside him. “You could stop traffic in that,” he grinned as he gave me a friendly peck on the cheek.

  Before we had a chance to settle into our seats Lourdes arrived in a leopard print dress that clung to her like a second skin. I tried my level best not to feel ridiculous, which was a lot easier when I realized Graham barely noticed her even though she clearly recognized him. She gave him a smile, which he returned politely before turning back to me.

  Twenty minutes later the lights went down for the first act, and that was when I spotted Jasper enter our area and take his spot next to Lourdes. He didn’t notice Graham or me where we sat in the second row, but he greeted Lourdes with an affectionate kiss on the cheek before they both turned to face the stage.

  For as annoyed as he looked the night before, he seemed positively cheerful tonight, even though Athena was still noticeably absent. Her show started that weekend at another hotel, and odds are she was there rehearsing and putting the final touches on her project.

  This was clearly Jasper’s baby, because of all the time, energy and expense he had sunken into DIB. But oddly, he didn’t stay for their act. The minute the guys launched into “Make it Happen,” he made a very discreet exit.

  Graham sent me a look, and I simply shrugged. I had no idea where he went. Possibly he went backstage or to oversee the technical aspects of the show. I soon ceased to care as Vanni took center stage. No matter how many times I had seen him perform, he still took my breath away. I forgot everyone else in the balcony and just lost myself in the experience.

  I nearly came out of my skin when Graham touched my hand during, “Baby, Say My Name.” That was the song we danced to, and he used the opportunity to make contact with me, to express his ongoing interest.

  I quickly shot a glance over to Lourdes, so she couldn’t see me getting cozy with Jasper’s competitor, and that was when I realized she was gone too.

  Where would she go? I thought the point was to put on the show she was the devoted girlfriend?

  I walked with Graham down to the after-party, somewhat cautious that Jasper and Lourdes would already be there and he would find my choice of companion inappropriate. However they were nowhere to be found, even though the guys from the band were already set up at the bar.

  Unlike the rest of the trip, Vanni actually looked in good spirits. He laughed and drank, and had an immediate smile for me when I walked up.

  Until he saw who was behind me.

  I made somewhat awkward introductions; I was sure that Jasper would walk in any minute and assume the worst. The anxiety had me wound up so tightly I thought my skin might split in two, so much so I literally jumped when the music came on.

  Vanni grabbed my hand and led me out onto the dance floor. I didn’t even have a chance to accept or decline.

  Being thrust up against his body to the music really didn’t help me much.

  “So what’s up?” he asked as his eyes bore into mine.

  I shrugged. “You should know. You’ve been here the entire time.”

  “We’ve been busy,” he said, in his own special code referring to Lourdes.

  “And you’ve been a surly bear,” I commented. “What’s wrong?”

  He sighed. “It’s complicated. But hopefully it will be over soon.” His eyes traveled over my face. “God, I’ve missed you.”

  I looked away. I didn’t know how to respond, or even if I should. Instead I glanced over at Graham, who watched Vanni and me thoughtfully from the bar. I started to pull away, “We should probably stop…”

  He responded by pulling me tighter. “Not tonight,” he said.

  “Why tonight?” I asked.

  “You’ll see,” he said cryptically. “Don’t give up on me yet, Andy.”

  The next song was his song, playing in the same order as the night before. “Tonight’s our night, shut the door. It’s something I’ve been waiting for. Fill my arms, taste my kiss, let heaven fall from your lips. Say my name, and say it once more. Baby, say my name, I’ve got what you’ve been waiting for.”

  My eyes locked on his lips and I couldn’t help but remember lying on the bed under him, hearing him command the same thing he demanded in song. Fire raced through my veins when he leaned toward me and said breathlessly against my ear, “I wrote that in December.”

  It was then I decided that he must be trying to kill me. Why else would he tell me this? Why would he do this to me after a couple of months of innocent interaction? Why would he test my crumbling resolve, when he already knew he couldn’t give me what I needed? “I gotta go,” I muttered as I wrenched away from his arms and stalked out the door.

  Aside from Vanni, who stood helplessly where I left him, only Graham seemed to notice or care that I was leaving. But if either of them thought about chasing me, they must have reconsidered. I was halfway out to the strip before I stopped running.

  And it was there that the mystery was suddenly, and accidentally, solved.

  A limo pulled up to the doors, and the door was opened to Lourdes. As she stepped out she adjusted her dress back down around her knees and smoothed her mussed hair. Jasper followed, wiping away the dark red lipstick from his face with an expensive handkerchief.

  I blended with the crowd going back into the hotel so that the clandestine lovers wouldn’t see me. It suddenly clicked, everything that Vanni had tried to say but couldn’t, and Jacob had alluded to but stopped short of saying.

  They weren’t using Lourdes to sell Vanni’s music. They were using Vanni’s music to conceal Lourdes.

  And that was why Jasper was so angry the night before, watching Lourdes cuddle with Vanni right in front of him… like she was punishing him.

  And Athena was willing to take up roots in Vegas rather than continue reigning in New York as a pop diva. This threw a wrench in the machinery and left Jasper at the mercy of his women, who were probably ready to make him choose.

  “Don’t give up on me yet, Andy,” Vanni had said. Tonight! Would he be free tonight? Free to do the things he couldn’t do before?

  I beat Jasper and Lourdes to the club but by minutes only. Vanni was out on the dance floor with someone else, a raven-haired beauty who had no problems grinding against him to his own suggestive music. I searched the darkened room for Graham, but I didn’t see him anywhere. I felt bad for running out like I did, but it wasn’t like I owed him any explanations. And I wouldn’t know what to say to him if I did.

  Lourdes came in the club first, and she prowled right over to her man on the dance floor, staking her claim. The brunette pouted as Vanni twirled into Lourdes’s arms, who went easily from her backseat tryst with Jasper to grinding herself possessively against Vanni.

  He didn’t look especially happy about it, but he didn’t fight it either. He glanced my way and his eyes widened when he realized I was watching. There was nothing he could do to communicate what was going on under the façade, and nothing I could do to let him know it was no longer necessary to hide it.

&n
bsp; Jasper came in a few minutes later, looking unruffled and lipstick-free. He saw me standing by the bar and indicated for me to join him at a private table.

  My heart nearly beat a hole in my chest as I approached him, feeling a bit like I’d been busted, though technically I wasn’t the one screwing around on my wife.

  “Andy, sit,” he instructed and scooted his chair to the side so I could join him. I did, though I still shook in my shoes waiting for the bomb to drop. “You’ve done excellent work for the band and branding their image. I just really couldn’t be happier with the results you’ve had to your campaign. I think it is going to be especially important as we move forward and the album is released to keep all negative press to the absolute minimum.”

  “Of course,” I agreed. “But what negative press could there be? The band is getting excellent reviews.”

  He waved his hand. “That’s the music. I’m talking about the public perception of the group as a whole, and Vanni in particular.”

  I said nothing as I waited.

  “It hasn’t escaped my notice that you are fond of Vanni,” he announced as he gave me a very direct, meaningful look. “I just want you to remember that there are two different sides to stardom. The one that goes towards it and the one that goes away.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means that no matter what you hear, or want to believe, his relationship with Lourdes is as intact as ever. And must remain so to get… maximum benefit out of my services.”

  My mouth dropped open. Was he leveraging Vanni’s career against this fabricated relationship?

  He couldn’t do that, could he?

  He leaned forward. “They’re going to be making a very important announcement during the show tomorrow night. Be prepared to cover it exactly as it is presented.”

  He patted my hand and without another look out onto the dance floor where Lourdes gyrated against Vanni, he left the club.

  Vanni watched me with sad eyes as I made my own departure, but this time it wasn’t running away from him.

  It was running to someone who could help me save him from whatever it was Jasper had blackmailed him to do.

  I knocked on room #1225 sometime around midnight, and it took a moment for someone to rouse and lumber to the door. “Who is it?” Graham asked through the door.

  “Andy,” I said.

  There was a momentary pause, and then the locks unlatched and the door swung open to where Graham gathered his robe around his loose pajama bottoms and bare chest.

  “I’m sorry to come here like this, but I need to talk to you.”

  He stepped back and let me inside. “Would you like a drink?” he asked as he shut the door behind me and followed me into the suite.

  I shook my head and turned to face him. “You said that Jasper knew how to make people and break people. Does he use his company to bully young musicians to fulfill things outside their contracts?”

  Graham sighed and slumped into one of the chairs. “I don’t know specifics,” he said, choosing his words carefully. “At least nothing I could prove.”

  I sat on the sofa opposite him. “What if someone is under a contract? What could he do to sabotage their career? Legally?”

  Graham shrugged. “Things can be made a little more complicated, depending on how many loopholes someone has to work with. It would depend on what they’re promised under the original contract. Did it get looked over by a lawyer?”

  “I don’t know. I really don’t know anything except I just had a conversation with Jasper that sounded very much like a veiled threat.”

  He looked immediately concerned. “Against you?”

  I shook my head. “No, nothing like that.”

  “Against Giovanni?” he asked.

  I said nothing.

  He sighed. “My advice is to get a lawyer involved to look over the contract. Find any weak spots, then renegotiate. Giovanni has more power than he thinks right now but it’s in Jasper’s best interest to make him feel that he doesn’t. From what I understand there’s been a huge media push and I don’t see someone like Jasper Carrington walking away from that kind of investment over a grudge. More realistically it’s probably just a huge game of chicken. Sounds like he’s bullying you because he’s in a tight spot. But there’s nothing he can do that can’t be undone, not with the talent of the band.”

  I nodded. He rose and came over to sit next to me on the couch, and took one of my hands in his. “I’m actually more worried about you than Giovanni.”

  I pulled back. “I’m fine.”

  “You’re in deeper than you know,” he said. “Be careful how much of your life you invest in this stuff. It’s not worth it.” Then, softer but more emphatic, “He’s not worth it.”

  “You don’t know him,” I offered weakly.

  “How can you be sure you do?”

  My eyes dropped from his. That, my friends, was the $64,000 question.

  He brushed my hair out of my face. Softly he said, “Andy…” but my phone interrupted him.

  It was Vanni. “Where are you? We need to talk.”

  The apology I had for Graham died on my lips when I caught the look on his face. I remembered it well from the night Lourdes called Vanni when we were together, alone, in a hotel room. “I have to go,” I said as I stood. Then, impulsively, I hugged him. He had helped me, even though he really didn’t get anything out of the deal. “Thank you, Graham.”

  He held me just a beat longer than necessary. I heard him call after me as I sprinted for the door, “Anytime.” I knew he meant it and it was oddly comforting.

  Nearly fifteen minutes later I opened my own hotel door to Vanni, who carried a suitcase.

  I said nothing as I stood back and let him in. Maybe I was crazy but it felt like the only decision I could make when he pulled me into his arms and held me for a long moment.

  “She’s pregnant,” he said softly into my ear, and I immediately stiffened. “It’s not mine,” he instantly clarified. “But they want me to say that it is, or at least not say that it isn’t.” He let me go and walked over to collapse onto the bed. “I finally put my foot down. I don’t care if it costs my career. I’m not going to create some lie around a kid’s life just so a rich guy can keep away from an expensive divorce.”

  “How long has this been going on?”

  “Before I came along,” he admitted. “He saw us together at his Labor Day party and thought two birds, one stone.”

  “And Athena doesn’t know?”

  His face crumpled in disgust. “That’s the stupid thing. She’s known all along. How do you think she convinced him to let her come out here?”

  “So why can’t he have Lourdes in New York, and let Athena start over here?”

  “Because she’s not just his wife, she’s his biggest talent. If she finds out there’s a kid she can bring him down just to watch him burn. And she’s got the star power to do it. Why do you think he’s freaking out so badly that Graham is here? He’s done everything he can to keep her away from the shows.”

  He pulled me onto his lap and buried his face in my hair. “It’s all such a mess. I just wanted to make music. I didn’t want all the rest of this. It’s like I’m no longer me.” His eyes met mine. “Except when I’m with you.”

  My gaze rested on that full, sensual mouth just inches away from my own. If I kiss him now, I’m a goner and I know it. “Vanni…”

  He groaned and his hand snaked up my back and into my hair. “Say it again,” he begged in a whisper, and before I could reconsider my lips were crushed under his.

  Perhaps it was the length of time I waited for this moment without even realizing consciously that was what I was doing – or perhaps it was the fact that he was one of the best kissers I’d ever known in life or in fantasy – either way any and all resistance evaporated. I melted against him like butter as he slid me easily back against the bed.

  I could have counted to ten, thought of puppies and kittens or grandmas knit
ting goofy old sweaters, but the raw truth was I never wanted a man as much as I wanted Giovanni Carnevale. And he was on top of me, kissing me deep, exploring my mouth with his demanding tongue and the curves of my body with his strong fingers. My hormones delivered my willpower a KO punch and all my remaining inhibitions flew right out the window. My hands tore open his shirt so that he was bare chested over me, while his hair hung in sheets around his face as he looked down at me with those endless brown eyes, still lined with heavy eyeliner from his show.

  He slipped my shirt off my body while I fiddled with the fasteners on my jeans. With one finger he released the fastener on my bra and it slid easily from my shoulders, exposing me once more to his wandering fingers and inquisitive tongue. I lifted my ass so that he could slide down my underwear, until I was bold and naked underneath him.

  He groaned as he folded me into his arms for another scorching kiss, and my legs automatically wrapped around him to pull him closer to me.

  His hand disappeared between our bodies and he touched me where I ached to be touched. I called his name and he responded with the urgency of his fingers, the frenzy of his desire to bring me infinite pleasure.

  I was trembling against him, incoherent to his teasing, rocketing off into space under nothing more than his hands.

  It just made me ache for more. “Vanni,” I said softly, “Please…”

  “Say it,” he begged. “Tell me.”

  “I want you,” I whispered. “I need you… please...”

  He shuddered against me and I felt him strain against his leather pants. He lifted up to unfasten them, and then he peeled them from his muscular legs. Seeing his body reach for me was almost more than I could take, but he inched off the bed. My inquisitive look was met by his smirk as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and dramatically he powered it off.

  I giggled in spite of myself, and watched as he reached into his bag and pulled out a condom. He got back on the bed and kneeled in between my legs to tear open the package with his teeth and make a pretty sexy spectacle of sliding it on. Perhaps it was the specimen himself, as his dark skin shimmered against my paler skin, and the dark hair on his chest trailed a promise all the way down between his legs.