Play for Keeps (The Devil's Share #6)(4)
“Did that ever happen to you? Do you have scars I haven’t seen?”
“What?” He shifted to the side so he could look at me.
“Krokodil. Did you ever get the rotting flesh thing going on?” I schooled my expression to one of honest curiosity.
“I never did Krokodil. Are you kidding me right now?” Dash shook his head and looked back to the TV.
I nodded thoughtfully. “What about Jacks or Smith? Did they? I know Lukey would never do something like that. But Krokodil sounds right up Smith’s alley.”
“Lexi. None of us ever did that drug. None of us ever did half the drugs you think we did.” He gestured to the TV where a woman was showing us the effects the drug had on her body. “I don’t even think that particular drug was around during our heyday.” He sighed. “I swear I don’t know why I sit down and watch this show with you every week.”
I snuggled into his chest. “Because you love me.” Speaking of love, I reached my foot out and scratched Dagger’s belly. My very first baby, my first love.
Dash kissed the top of my head. “That and the only time I get to see you is after Halen goes to bed. You’ve been working nonstop for the last four months.”
I wrapped my arms around his middle, squeezing him tightly. “I know, babe. And I’m sorry. It’s just been crazy trying to get the art department up and running. Things will slow down soon.” I had been working a lot. My job was important to me, and I wanted to make sure I did it well. Dash and the guys had taken their positions at the record label as part of their semi-retirement. They weren’t making music, they weren’t performing. They were coasting, and loving it.
“The wedding is in less than two weeks and then it’s just you and me in Greece.” Our honeymoon was going to be more expensive than our wedding. We splurged. We’d never taken a vacation together so we wanted to go all out. We rented the most amazing house on the cliffs overlooking the Aegean, which had a private chef and chauffeur, not to mention we rented a private jet to fly us to and from Greece.
“Yeah well, I keep thinking you’ll balk at being away from Halen for ten days and cancel the whole thing.” I could feel him smiling against the top of my head.
“I won’t. I promise.” If anything, I would just tack on a nanny and take Halen with us. That exact thought had crossed my mind more than once. I’d never really been away from her. And although she would be here at the compound with our whole family taking turns watching her, I was still freaking out.
“You better not. We’ve got to get working on baby number two.”
“Mmm-hmm.” I laid my head back on his chest and turned the TV back up. I didn’t want to talk about baby number two, not right now. Not when we were having a nice relaxing moment together.
I’d told Dash we could wait a year, but now a year was up.
And I wasn’t ready.
Chapter Three
Jacks
“Hey, Buttercup, you need to feed Crash before you get in bed please.” I moved to the side when I heard Landry dig in the dog’s large stainless steel food bin ’cause, as expected, big boy came running around the corner, full speed ahead without bothering to look where he was going. Eventually, he slammed into the wall behind his food bowl and starting eating like I hadn’t fed him this morning. We used to have a large a painting on that wall. It fell down so many times I had to move it. “That dog is a holy terror. Remind me again why I wanted a puppy so bad?”
B came down the stairs, her laptop open and in her hands. “Landry loves him more than almost anything in this world, and he feels the same about her. It’s hard not to adore him.” She sat her computer down on the kitchen counter and climbed on a barstool. “I need to finalize the menu for Dash and Lexi’s wedding then get a press release ready for Mason’s tour now that all the graphics are in. Landry is going to spend the night at her friend Daphne’s tomorrow so we don’t have to get a sitter for the gala. Did you get your tux dry-cleaned?”
I took in then let out a deep breath, and put my hands on my hips with what I was sure was a confused look on my face. “That was a lot of information. Can we break it down?”
She turned and smiled at me over her shoulder. “I’m finalizing the menu for Dash and Lex’s wedding.”
“Why? Isn’t that Dash’s job? Or heaven forbid, Lexi’s? It’s their wedding, not yours.” I crossed the room and sat down next to my woman, spinning her stool so that I could sandwich her legs with mine.
“Lex has been swamped this week trying to get everything ready for this album and tour launch. It’s the first one put together by the Austin branch of Riffraff. It’s a big deal. We all agreed to help pitch in these last couple of weeks. And this menu, which is a masterpiece I might add, is my last bridesmaid task.” She pounded the enter key on her laptop. “Next?”
“Press releases are pretty self-explanatory. And those actually are your job, so we can skip that one. Now, why is Landry spending the night at Daphne’s?” I started to rub my palms up and down B’s thighs, moving closer to her pussy every time.
“The gala.”
“What gala?” I was pretty sure I would have remembered if we had a gala to go to, especially one where I had to wear a tux. I’d have been bitching about it for the last seven days no doubt if I knew.