Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story


- Text Size +

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.


“I recognized that look on your face, Eva,” Kei said as I took in the odor of something wonderful.  “Isn’t it funny how we all get that look when it’s all coming together, when the ideas just flow out like a mad river?”


            “I live for moments like that,” I confessed, happy to be around someone who got it.  “I don’t pay attention to anything.  I didn’t even realize how late it was until I started getting cold.”  I shivered a little.  “I forgot about San Francisco nights.”  I sniffed the air again and my stomach growled, loud enough for Kei to laugh and for me to be majorly embarrassed.  “Guess I’m hungry.”


            “I guess you are.  Well, contrary to what’s been written about me over the years, I am actually a very good cook and I’m happy to finally have a chance to show off to other people besides the band.”


            My stomach growled again.  “And you’re single, why”, I asked as I followed his lean form into the kitchen, trying unsuccessfully not to stare at his ass and imagine a nice portion of it encased in black lace.


            His smile was mischievous.  “Why, are you interested in tying me down, Eva?”


            Unfortunately my mouth chose that moment to disobey me. “Tying you up yes,” came the wicked words before I could stop them. 


Those almond-shaped eyes with the thick feather-duster lashes focused on me and I swore the look scorched me.  “You do have a kinky streak in you, don’t you?  Must come from making all those corsets.”


“This coming from the man who was strapped to a padded sawhorse in the very-much banned Obedience video,” I shot back.  “Do you have any idea how much that import cost me?”


“And how many times did you watch it and wish it was you,” Kei asked, his voice pitched low and silky.


In spite of my misgivings, it was really a lot of fun to flirt with him.  Besides, I just knew it would annoy the hell out of his ex.  “It depends on what you mean.  Do I wish I was the woman in the mask giving you the flogging you so richly deserved, then yes.  By the way, my friend Kat wanted me to tell you that the actor playing the dominatrix had crappy technique.”


He just shook his head, not believing what I’d just said.  “You have some very interesting friends.”


“You don’t know the half of it.”  I washed my hands in the sink.  He held out a clean towel for me to dry them.  “My friend Kat, the one I was making the dress for, she’s into that sort of thing along with being a brilliant comic artist.  She and her fiancé are in San Diego, debuting her graphic novel.  She’s actually your biggest fan, you know?”


“Is she the one who talked you into coming up here,” he asked point-blank.


I nodded.  “But, I would have done it anyway, in spite of how obnoxious you were the first time you called.”


The pout he affected only emphasized how kissable those lips of his had to be.  “Me,” he said with complete wide-eyed innocence, “I’m just used to everyone agreeing with me since it’s easier.”


I threw the towel at him in mock-annoyance.  “I swear you act like a spoiled teenager rather than a man in his 40’s.”


Kei was unrepentant.  “I’m a musician.  How else should I act?”


“Like a grown-up.”


“Like you, for instance.  We’re close to the same age, and yet you make fantastical clothes that aren’t meant to be worn on some boring 9 to 5 job and you hang out with a comic book artist with a taste for S&M.  I fail to see what’s so grown-up about that.”


“Fine, so we’re both serious cases of arrested development.”


“Yeah, but guess what?  We’re also shit-happy satisfied and wouldn’t change a thing, right?”


“Right. Now will you shut up and feed me?”


“Demanding bitch,” he purred with a naughty twinkle in his eyes and it went straight between my legs.


*


            It had been a long time since I’d had so much fun with a man.  For the moment I put my fears and insecurities to rest and simply chose to enjoy the teasing banter between us.  Indeed, the man was an excellent chef and I eagerly enjoyed the fruits of his exquisite seafood alfredo.


It was thick and rich and rife with tiger prawns, juicy scallops, mussels and clams.  It was also chock full of garlic, which meant neither of us would be doing any lip-locking this night.  There was plenty and I was more than happy to partake of every luscious helping.


Kei also seemed rather proud of how I was enjoying his culinary skills.   As he poured me another glass of white wine, he said, “You’re way too good for my ego you know, the way you’re scarfing down my cooking.  I could keep you here just for that.”


I felt no shame as I held out my plate for another helping.  “I do cook for myself you know?  It’s just I often get so busy and grab the quickest thing in the fridge.  It’s nice to have someone cook for me on occasion, even if he is an egotistical rock star.”


“I’m not egotistical, Eva.  I’m just right about a good 99.9 percent of the time.”


I watched Kei with more than curiosity as he twirled a forkful of pasta around the tines and brought it to his mouth.  His skin looked so smooth.  I seriously doubted that he and a razor had ever met.  Even the way he swallowed looked sexy.  Was there anything the man did that wasn’t?


Okay, I could think of maybe one thing, but that was gross.


“And what about the other one percent that you’re wrong?”


“No one ever points it out to me.”


I knew it was bad form to lick the plate, but I seriously wanted to.  Instead, I offered my plate for a third helping.  I didn’t feel too bad since so had he.


“So, what about your family, what do they think of your being an infamous musician?”


Kei’s cheerful gaze suddenly went dark as if staring into a past he tried not to care or think about.  “My father hates what I do and I freely admit that some of my antics are designed to annoy the shit out of him even more since he’s so traditional.”  He spat out the word with contempt.  “It’s kind of funny that no one quite gets the connection between Matsuya Industries and the rebel rock guitarist who likes to kiss men in public, and that’s the way we both want it.”


I said a quick prayer of thanksgiving for my parents who’d always been supportive, even when they didn’t always get it.  I couldn’t imagine having a father like that.


  “When I was a kid he beat me for playing guitar instead of studying.”  I gasped in horror, but Kei seemed nonplussed, like he was speaking of someone else.  “All that he managed to do was make me want the music more.  He also made me want to be the best, to show him that I didn’t need to do things his way in order to be successful.  I’ve proven that several times over now, and every time he sees me doing or saying something outrageous it’s my way of telling him fuck you.”  Kei’s laugh was harsh.  “My mother is the only one I’ll talk to, but she just wants me to settle down with a proper Japanese girl.  Like that’s ever going to happen.” 


“Are you ever going to settle down with a proper Japanese girl,” I teased, hoping to bring him out of his dark reverie.


“I may settle down,” he replied with a thin smile.  “But not with someone they choose.  I know me and I know the kind of woman I want.  I want someone who understands the crazy life I lead and who’s independent enough to have their own thing going.”  He then looked at me, his chimerical eyes full of mirth.  “You’ll do just fine, Eva.  Want to marry me?”


I almost choked on the pasta.  “No, I don’t.  I have a hard and fast rule about marrying anybody famous.  That means you.”


“I’m hurt,” he said with that little boy pout that was far too kissable for my own good.  “Of all the women in the world, I find the one who doesn’t want me.”


I didn’t say all that, I said to myself.  I just don’t want to marry you, but a scorching hot tumble between the sheets wouldn’t be a bad thing.


I finished the last bite and knew there was no more room in my stomach for anything else.  That was when Kei whipped out something big, sinful and chocolate and I wanted to kill him.


“A chocolate ganoche cake,” he announced wickedly, placing the desert right there in front of me.  “I’m sure there’s room.”


“You are such a bastard.”


He winked.  “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”


 


I helped Kei wash up the dishes, and that was an adventure in itself.  Our fingers kept touching and while he seemed completely unaffected by it, I had to struggle to not drop the plates.  I took several healthy swigs of wine to steady my nerves, hoping against hope that I wouldn’t do something really stupid like get wasted.


I get extremely horny when drunk.  I didn’t want that to happen.


At least not yet. 


 


After dinner and dishes, Kei and I were back in the living room watching some old concert footage of Dominion’s End’s early days.  Back then they were all skinny, pretty and yet had a kind of street lethal rudeness that reminded me of the early Sex Pistols.  Between Miki’s snarling presence gripping the mike stand like he was choking the life out of it, Chris’s hyper-human double-bass, and of course master of the entire cacophony, Kei, brandishing his guitar like a weapon, there was little surprise that they would eventually outgrow small clubs and seek to conquer the world—which they had done—with a vengeance.


Shane was in these videos too and for the first time the tragedy of his senseless death hit home.  There was a hungry, almost feral look in his eyes as he slapped his bass for all it was worth.  I surreptitiously glanced at Kei whose body language conveyed his tortured thoughts.  I wished there was something I could say to him to ease his mind, but no words would form.


 


            It had been a long yet exhilarating day and I was looking forward to getting some sleep.  Things didn’t seem quite so bad now that I had ideas that Kei liked.  I realized that I really could do this—that maybe this was my step into a much larger world.  Moreover, I wanted to do this.  I didn’t need the entire rock n’roll fantasy, but I was certainly not adverse to some of it.


            “Mind if I turn in,” I rose and stretched, not bothering to stifle my yawn.  My mother would have been mortified.  “You rockers can party all night, but the rest of us mortals need our sleep.”


            Kei switched off the television.  “No problem.  I’ll probably be up for a bit answering fan e-mails.”


            I raised a quizzical eyebrow.  “You must get a million of those things.  You seriously answer all of them?”


            That devilish look of his came back as he replied, “I used to get a million, but everyone seems to be on a Devynn kick right now.  I’m going to have to remind him who’s boss.  And we all try to respond to as many as possible.  I know every fucking band says this, but the fans really are the lifeblood.”


            As we climbed the stairs together, I decided right then and there to just stop obsessing over the stupid stuff and to do what came natural.  Unless things somehow didn’t work out, I was going to be making stage wear for Dominion’s End and I was going to no longer be in the shadows.  Who knew, maybe other bands would hire me.  It could be the beginning of an entirely new chapter.


            Maybe I was getting used to it, or perhaps it was the wine relaxing me, but Shadowside didn’t seem quite as scary now that I’d spent some time inside.  It just felt like a big old house.  I’d been giving myself the heebie-jeebies for nothing.


            We paused outside of my room and I shyly gazed up at Kei.  Both of us stood there saying nothing, but feeling something arc and flare between us.  He placed one of those spatulate fingers on my lips.


            “Good night Eva,” he whispered huskily, that finger sliding along the seam of my tingling mouth before walking away.


*


            In spite of that hot caress, I fell asleep instantly, the pillow-top mattress as soft as a cloud.  I spared a moment wondering who else had slept in this bed, then it no longer mattered as exhaustion claimed me.


            Then the scream came.


            At first I was sure I was dreaming until the scream came again. 


            I scrambled out of bed dressed in my finest drawstring bottoms and tank-top and rushed towards the sound of the scream.  I didn’t even bother to consider that I was barging into Kei’s bedroom.  All I saw was him hunched on the floor, rocking back and forth, lips moving but I could hear no sound.


            He didn’t see me at first, and though he was obviously in the throes of some secret agony, I didn’t make any sudden moves or ask what was wrong.  Instead, I dropped down beside him and took his trembling frame into my arms.


            This wasn’t the arrogant or flirtatious Kei Matsuya from hours ago.  This was a broken man, a frightened man.  This was a man who tried and could not face his nightmares.


            I rocked him against me, letting him find his way out of his personal darkness, waiting patiently for his tremors and the dry sobs to cease.


            “Thank you,” he finally whispered brokenly against my shoulder.  “Sometimes when Shane shows up it gets to be too much.”


            Cold water raced through my veins.  Kei’s bête noire.  Even if I didn’t believe it, there was something inside of him that believed himself responsible for his friend’s death.


            I made to move away from him, but Kei held me tight.  It wasn’t uncomfortable, but I was becoming aware of the fact that what I was beginning to feel while holding a man who’d just seen a ghost was growing less and less about offering comfort and more about how good my nipples felt against his hard chest.


            It certainly did not help matters that the man was butt naked. 


            I was holding a trembling, naked Kei Matsuya in my arms and sex had nothing to do with the shaking.


            “Did he speak?”  It was the only thing I could ask.  “What did he do?”


            His face, still with the look of a man haunted, met mine.  “He doesn’t really do anything, Eva.  It’s just the look in his eyes.  I remember that look, the day I didn’t stand up for him.  He wasn’t angry, just sad.  I let him down that day, because he thought I wanted the fame more than I wanted our friendship, but that wasn’t true.  We were going rule the world.”


            What could I say to him that didn’t sound like some amateur therapist or something lame like that? What does someone say to someone being haunted by a ghost, especially because I just didn’t believe in such things?


            The way I saw it, Kei was simply internalizing guilt over his best friend’s death and instead of dealing with it and moving on, the guilt had become this ghost.  Great, that explanation did sound exactly like an amateur therapist.


            He responded to my silence by saying, “You think I’m crazy, don’t you?  That there is no ghost.”  His lips turned up in a thin smile.  “Sometimes I think the same thing. Sometimes I think it’s just my guilt for not being there.  But Eva, he does exist.  He’s not just my imagination.”


            He sounded so sincere that I was starting to wonder.  It certainly wasn’t something he hid.  There were scores of interviews in which he mentioned his friend’s ghost; fans ate it up as part of the Matsuya mystique—rock stars were always cooler if they flirted with the occult or seemed to—but Kei’s screams nor his being curled up in terror on the floor of his bedroom didn’t appear to be some stunt to increase his cred.


            I didn’t know what to believe, but I also knew that I no longer wanted to walk down the few steps back to my own room.


            “Stay with me.”


            It was a request, not from the rock star, but just a man with a huge cross to bear. 


            He saw my hesitation.  “I promise not to do anything, but I just need someone to keep me from screaming again.  I doubt he’ll come back tonight.”


            I drew in a deep breath.  “I’ll stay, but would you please put some clothes on?”


            “Oops, sorry,” though he seemed anything but.


            We stood up together and I averted my eyes as I heard him rifle through his drawer for something besides skin.  “You can turn around now.”


            He’d donned a pair of flannel pajama bottoms but remained shirtless.  My eyes widened.  In the dim light, a pair of silver hoops dangled from his nipples. 


I swallowed.


            “Where did those come from?”


            Kei pointed at them.  “I’ve had them for three years.  Tsuchiya wanted to airbrush them out in band photos because he thinks it’s a bad influence.  I threatened to get a Prince Albert and after I told him what that was, he stopped saying anything.”


            This was going to be a long night and I was sorely tempted to go back to my room, ghost or no ghost.  This wasn’t in my job description.


            Kei padded over to his bed, a four-poster monstrosity that easily fit his height and had room for at least three more people.  That was a good thing.  There was room enough so that we didn’t invade each other’s space.


            He sat on the side, looked at me with a quirky grin.  “I’ll be a good boy, but it’s going to be hard.”  He reached out and a slender finger slid seductively down my cheek.  “You’re so cute, even if you don’t believe in ghosts.”


            I was too tired and too wound up to even argue.  I climbed in on the other side, willed my imagination and my libido to be still and pulled the covers over me.  I felt him slide in beside me, not touching, but the tendrils of heat that radiated from his body were like a caress.  I had no idea how the hell I was going to sleep.


            Somehow I did.


 












Enter the security code shown below:
Note: You may submit either a rating or a review or both.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.