Now, at forty-eight years old and still as gorgeous as ever, she was playing the part of elder queen, appearing as a guest on several pop records including the girl band Soundwave.

Now, I figured, I was looking at the Earth Mother stage of her career. Her typically dyed, white-blonde hair was shot through with lowlights and an honest-to-God gray hair or two. Her face was un-madeup and dangling earrings jangled at her jaw. She looked like she had put on a few pounds too, softening her beautiful face.

She looked… happy.

My dad slid an arm around her waist. Was it really because of him?

When Nails Nesbit met Annie Blue, it was truly the case of the immovable object meeting the unstoppable force. He was her roadie, her staff member, someone who should be properly deferential about the whole thing, especially since he came on right in the middle of her tour. But my father's general “fuck-you" attitude toward authority must have appealed to her somehow, because Annie soon appointed him her own personal tech. And then appointed him to her be her bedmate too.

By the time I arrived on the scene, Annie and my father had been driving each other crazy for ten whole years, but Dad assured me it was nothing important. "Just keeping each other company, that's all," he rumbled one night when I confronted him in the tour bus three weeks in. "Ladies get lonely."

They'd been on-again, off-again my whole life. What had changed?

"Your room is at the end of the hall, second to last door on the right," Annie grinned at me. "I'm glad you're here, Liliana."

"Me too." I was surprised by how much I meant it.

"Bash, why don't you help her with her bags?"

"No, I got it." I waved him away.

"Bit, that suitcase is bigger than you," Bash chuckled, reaching for the handle.

"I got it through the airport by myself," I said, bristling. It was one thing to feel the comfort of being back with the guys. It was another to have them close back around me with their suffocating love. I had a life of my own now and my hard fought independence would wither and die if I started letting them do everything again.

"Listen, I'm jetlagged as hell. I need a nap before I can deal with you all." I said it as jokingly as I could.

"I've made reservations for dinner tonight, to talk about the plan," Annie said, sweet as sugar.

I nodded and grabbed my bag, making for the big, sweeping staircase. I lugged my back up the steps, mindful of the eyes on me and tried valiantly to make it look like I wasn't struggling. I thought I succeeded, unless they were all just humoring me, which was probably more the case.

The staircase twisted around, leaving me off in the lofted hallway of the second floor. The hall curved around a balcony straight out of Evita, with full sight of the first floor below. I dragged my suitcase down the length of it, until it finally turned a corner and went out of sight of the people below. Gratefully, I dropped the pretense of carrying the case and gave it a kick that sent it sliding the rest of the way.

The second door from the end opened to a spare bedroom. I chuckled ruefully at the mishmash of broken-down Ikea furniture in the ornate room. I had more luxurious accommodations back in my shoebox in New York. The built-in bookshelves were lined with spiral notebooks and scattered guitar picks. The fireplace had an amp shoved into it. I wondered who had been crashing here up until today.

The sight of the bed inspired a Pavlovian yawn response. I rummaged in my suitcase until I found my pajamas and fell into bed.

I shifted, pulled, yanked the covers over my head. Then I uncovered myself with a sigh.

I was too keyed up. Tired and wired at the same time. And as much as I needed a nap, I needed to pee first.

I turned out of the room and went to the end of the hallway. The door way halfway opened and I could see the tile floor, so I pushed in blindly.

"Oh, shit!" I screamed. Then my mouth went dry.

He had just stepped from the shower, his body still glistening with droplets of water. Instead of covering his cock, he rubbed the towel through his hair, which was electric blue and doing disconcerting things to his eyes.

"Hey, Bit," Jax drawled with a wicked grin.

Chapter Eight

Jax

After the debacle at the studio, the only thing that kept me from running to the bottle was the fact that Bit was flying in today. I was looking forward to it way more than I would ever admit. I pictured her clearly in my mind, even had a quick jerk in the shower thinking about her tight, tiny body that was just shaped perfectly for my hands.

So I was feeling pretty good when I stepped out of the shower.

And there was Lily, standing there in the middle of the bathroom. She was dressed in purple flannel pajamas and had murder in her eyes.

"Hey, Bit." I smiled.

That only seemed to piss her off more. "Could you please cover that up?" She gestured to my cock.

And even though this was not the reunion I had pictured, I couldn't help it. I laughed. A pissed off Bit was always my biggest weakness. When she got angry, it always reminded me of a tiny, ferocious kitten ready to pounce. All fluffy fur and needle-sharp claws. You couldn't help but provoke it.

"Why? You don't look like you've had your fill yet." I smirked, stretching up to towel off my mostly dry hair. "It's been so long since you've seen it, and all."

Her big brown eyes practically bugged out of her skull. She was just so damn adorable with those wide-set eyes and little doll lips just aching to be kissed until they were bruised and swollen.

Speaking of swollen…

"Are you seriously getting hard right now?"

I looked down. "No. Not getting." If she would just stop being so damn insulted by my very presence, maybe I'd be able to calm down. Self-loathing makes for interesting fetishes. "I'm completely hard. Shouldn't be, though, because I totally took care of things in the shower." I grinned at her and waggled my eyebrows. "Thinking about seeing you again got me all fired up."

"You're disgusting."

"You ever do that, Bit?" I pressed. I couldn't seem to stop pissing her off. Damn my addiction. "Touch yourself while you remember me?"

"No!" she shot back fast. Too fast. The tips of her ears were red.

My Bit was lying to me.

"Don't lie, Bit. You can still have it. It's right here, waiting for you."

I meant it as a joke, another jab to provoke her, but her eyes went down the second I suggested she look. Like she was waiting for permission.

She made a noise of disgust, all the while staring at my cock like it had insulted her dead mother. But staring nonetheless. And with a jolt, I was taken back to how it used to be with us. Her wild noises, the way she squirmed when she got close, her wide-eyed, mute adoration that made me feel like a fucking god among men.

No, now I was hard.

"Liliana." I said her real name, not the nickname that I had given her, that everyone had immediately adopted because it just suited her so well. I wanted to touch her face, feel her soft skin warm under my fingertips again. Every girl I had been with since she left was just an exercise in trying to forget. But my body hadn't forgotten at all. I knew exactly how she would feel if I touched her now.

"Jaxson." She still sounded pissed, but this time more at herself. She shook her head, and then her whole body. "Would you please cover that thing up? And get out of the bathroom, I have to pee."