Beyond The Music (The Rock Gods Book 7) (32 page)

“Try and control yourselves.” Dagger grinned to Dante, Ashton, and Lincoln. “Don’t say anything that will get us a reprimand from management. Okay?”

“Yeah, whatever,” Lincoln grumbled. “Let’s just get this over with. Shall we?”

“For a guy that obviously had his brains fucked out earlier, you’re awfully cranky,” Dante teased and pointed to Lincoln’s throat.

Lincoln’s fingers lifted to cover the spot he knew Aaron had marked and felt his cheeks heat. Not from embarrassment, but from the memory of how pleasurable it was having Aaron’s mouth all over his body. Lincoln’s eyes drifted through the gathered crowd in the room and found Aaron. His face melted into a warm smile, just as Aaron’s did, and suddenly his mood turned a little brighter. The tall, gorgeous man with the thick head of light-brown hair grinning from ear to ear at him, was all his, and Lincoln loved the idea of that. Maybe a little too much, since he wasn’t sure what would happen in the weeks and months ahead of them as they traveled through country after country. Hopefully, at the end of this crazy ride, Aaron still wanted to be with him, because that’s what Lincoln sure as hell wanted.

A reporter from the Daily Mail started off the interview with the first question directed at Ivory Tower. Lincoln quietly sipped from his glass of water and tried to stay awake. Even after all the sleep he’d had, he was still feeling the effects of the time change and was tired. Dagger answered several questions about Black Ice and Lincoln was beginning to think he might get through this interview without having to talk at all, until a journalist from London Entertainment Weekly stood up.

“Lincoln, if I could ask you a question?” the ginger-haired woman asked.

“Depends on the question,” Lincoln answered and that earned him an elbow to the ribs from Dagger.

“My name is Lauren Kennsey from London Entertainment Weekly, and I was wondering since Dagger is here with his husband, and Dante and Ashton are finally together, I was curious to know if you had any relationship news to share with us?”

“Excuse me?” Lincoln nearly choked.

“Do you have someone special in your life?” Lauren asked again.

Lincoln’s eyes quickly darted to Aaron as if looking for permission to spill or a life raft to save him from answering. Aaron offered him a shrug and then smiled. That was all the encouragement Lincoln needed. Lincoln leaned closer to the microphone and cleared his throat.

“Yes, I am with someone,” Lincoln mumbled, a nervous smile lifted one side of his lips.

“What’s her name?” Lauren pushed.

“Aaron,” Lincoln answered.

“Is she Erin with an E?” Lauren asked as she busily wrote notes into a pad she held.

“No, it’s
Aaron
with a dick.”

That comment caused a rumble of laughter to break out in the room and Lincoln felt Dagger’s elbow in his ribs for a second time. They exchanged heated glances before another journalist stood up to ask Alex a question about his daughter. And that was that. Lincoln sat back in his seat and quietly waited for the reporters to get the wrap-up signal from the tour promoter.

A short time later, Black Ice was directed to the massive stage to do a walk-through of the set. One of the stage directors stopped Aaron with a hand on his arm and Lincoln was ready to punch the guy without even knowing why he’d touched Aaron.

“This is a secure area,” the stage director stated to Aaron as they reached the curtained side of the stage. “You can’t go out there.”

Lincoln stepped closer to the man wearing the headset. “He’s with me and he
will
be joining me, with or without your blessing.” Lincoln waved to Zac and Mason and motioned them over. Once they were standing beside Lincoln, he introduced them to the stage director. “This is Mason and Zac. They are my personal security. If it will make you feel better, they can keep an eye on Aaron while he walks the stage with me. You cool with that?”

“If they want to take responsibility for him being out there with you, then fine,” the stage director said before he walked off to talk to someone else.

Lincoln did his best to let the odd vibe roll off his back and walked out onto the stage. Cables and gear were still strewn around the flooring with the road crew busy putting the final touches to secure everything down with tape and brackets. More than once Aaron reached for Lincoln’s arm to warn him to watch his step. They zigzagged their way to stage left where Lincoln’s bass rig awaited his inspection. He adjusted his microphone stand a few inches taller then checked the location of his foot pedalboard and its set-up. Lincoln hardly used most of the effect pedals, but nevertheless, his bass tech always had the boards charged up and ready for him at every show.

“Jesus, this place is fucking huge,” Aaron stated on a sigh as he looked out over the open expanse of the stadium in front of the stage.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” Lincoln agreed. “The first time we played here I thought I’d piss my pants.”

“What’s also impressive is that tomorrow night this place is going to be packed with people,” Aaron added.

“Don’t remind me,” Lincoln replied. “I’m nervous enough as it is.”

“Seriously, you’re nervous?” Aaron asked.

“Not usually, but this tour I am,” Lincoln remarked.

Aaron shook his head. “You guys are going to rock this arena,” he said. “I have no doubt about that at all.”

Lincoln was about to comment when he saw Simmons, his bass technician approach.

“How’s the rig look?” asked Simmons.

“Perfect, as always.” Lincoln grinned at him.

“Who’s this?” Simmons asked motioning to Aaron.

“This is Aaron, my partner in crime,” Lincoln offered and stepped a little closer to Aaron’s side. “And, this is Rex Simmons, my godsend of a bass technician,” Lincoln said to Aaron.

“Nice to meet you,” Aaron said to Simmons, then his gaze bounced back to Lincoln. “I thought I was your godsend.” The smirk on Aaron’s face made Lincoln want to kiss the expression right off of him. He fought that urge and chuckled at Aaron’s joke instead.

“You are a godsend to me, but for completely different reasons.” Lincoln winked.

“Okay, on that note, I’ll leave you two alone,” Simmons said. “If you need anything added to the rig, let me know. I’m going through your guitars now for the first show.”

“Cool,” Lincoln answered. He watched Simmons walk away, then reached for Aaron and pulled him close. As the crew moved around the backstage area, someone else stood out to Lincoln. “Hey, Spumoni!” Lincoln called out to him.

Spumoni jogged over to Lincoln and Aaron and pulled them both in for a loose bro-hug. “Dude, it’s good to see you made it,” Spumoni said to Lincoln.

“Aaron played a large role in that,” Lincoln replied.

“Sorry, I didn’t see you before we left LA, but things got crazy with the equipment shipping and I ran out of time,” Spumoni explained.

“No worries, man,” Lincoln said. “You have a job to do and I respect that. Besides, I was busy working out with Aaron.”

“Working out or making out?” Spumoni teased.

“A little of both,” Lincoln answered with a shameless grin.

All three of them laughed and then one of the roadies yelled for Spumoni through the walkie-talkie attached to Spumoni’s belt. “Ooops, duty calls,” Spumoni said. “Listen, once things settle down a bit, let’s hangout, maybe get a beer or something.”

“Sounds good,” Lincoln answered.

Lincoln kissed Aaron’s temple and tried to ignore all the men rushing around all over the stage. They were obviously in the way, but Lincoln needed this moment of calm with Aaron.

“What happens next?” Aaron asked.

“Alex and his guys take a look at their stage set-up behind the wall and then we all go have dinner.”

“Behind the wall?” Aaron questioned.

“Both our bands have a lot of gear, so when we double bill like this, we use a dual stage system,” Lincoln explained. “The road crew pivots the entire stage set-up for us. We’re standing on our half now and then when Ivory Tower plays, the stage will be turned to put ours in back and their side of the stage facing out toward the audience.”

“Wow, you guys have this all down to a science,” Aaron said.

“We had no choice,” Lincoln said. “There isn’t a lot of time to switch the stage over in between acts, so the roadies created a system that works best for our bands. Spumoni played a large role in the design of this whole set-up.”

“I’m going to learn so much on this tour,” Aaron teased.

Lincoln leaned in and brushed his lips to Aaron’s. “Mmmm, and I’m more than happy to play teacher for you. Maybe after the kick-off dinner tonight we can go back to our suite and I’ll give you another lesson.”

“You’ll give
me
a lesson?” Aaron laughed.

“Hey, you said earlier that nothing was out of my reach,” Lincoln reminded Aaron. “I want to test that theory later . . . if I’m not too tired.”

“Pace yourself, porn star,” Aaron replied. “I don’t want you to burn out too soon.”

“Burn out? My dick just woke up from a very long hibernation,” Lincoln said. “Not a chance in fucking hell am I going to let him go back to sleep anytime soon.”

“Damn, you have a way of making me laugh,” Aaron said. “It feels good.”

Lincoln nipped at Aaron’s lips. “Know what else feels good?”

Aaron roared with laughter and softly shoved Lincoln on the chest. “You’re not going to give this up, are you?”

“Fuck, no.” Lincoln shamelessly grinned. “We’ve got time right now for me to show you our tour bus.” Lincoln stepped out of their embrace and held on to Aaron’s fingers. “Would you be interested in a . . . private tour?”

“Jesus, why don’t I have any willpower to say no to you?” Aaron teased.

“Lucky for me, you’re weak,” Lincoln answered.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Lincoln tugged Aaron through the long maze of equipment trailer trucks parked out behind the venue. Beyond the parked tractor trailer trucks sat three enormous, custom tour buses. Each were forty-five feet of sleek, decadence on wheels with black exteriors and tinted windows, and bump-out walls along the side to add space inside.

“Incredible,” Aaron said. “Does Black Ice and Ivory Tower own these?”

“No, these are rentals,” Lincoln answered. “We actually have our own tour buses stateside, but it cost too much to have them transported over to Europe for the tour.” Lincoln tried the doorknob before he punched in the security code and was surprised the door was already unlocked. “Come on. First time I’ve been on this bus. Let’s see what she has for amenities inside.”

Lincoln walked up the stairs in front of Aaron and pushed aside the privacy curtain that separated the driver’s seat compartment from the main cabin of the bus and stepped into an opulent living room area, decorated in dark wood and an L-shaped leather couch. A dim light in what appeared to be a bathroom toward the rear of the bus filtered out into the aisle in front of the bunks and soft lighting in the living room cast everything in a nice glow.

Lincoln stopped in front of the leather couch and grabbed Aaron’s face. He kissed Aaron hard and was about to deepen it when Aaron jerked Lincoln to the side.

“Watch out!” Aaron yelled in warning just as a bearded man rushed at them from the direction of the bathroom wielding something in his hand. The metal object struck Lincoln in the shoulder before Lincoln jumped out of the way. Aaron managed to get a fistful of the man’s hooded sweatshirt to stop him from leaving the bus. He slammed the man up against a wall and forced him to drop the flashlight he had used to hit Lincoln. Aaron was strong enough to subdue the man while Lincoln sent an urgent text message to Zac and Mason.

It only took a few minutes before half a dozen security guards stormed onto the bus with guns drawn. Two guards handcuffed the bearded man while the others made sure the security risk had been eliminated. After that, most of the guards left the bus with the man in cuffs, leaving only Lincoln, Aaron, and Zac on board. The angry glare Lincoln was getting from Zac was making him wish he had been the man handcuffed and dragged off the bus.

Zac crossed his arms across his chest. “Are you deliberately trying to get yourself hurt?” Zac asked.

“Of course not,” Lincoln scoffed. “I wanted to show Aaron the tour bus. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“There is if you don’t let any of us know you’re leaving the facility without security in tow!” Zac barked.

Lincoln shook his head. “Your job is to watch me,” Lincoln countered. “Not the other way around.”

Zac stepped closer into Lincoln’s personal space. “You listen to me,” Zac seethed. “I will not let you ruin my perfect record because you insist on being stupid. Do you hear me?”

“What the fuck is going on in here?” Dagger asked, his voice dripping with anger.

“Not a thing,” Lincoln answered. He shouldered his way past Zac with his hand around Aaron’s wrist and headed for the door to leave.

“Lincoln ditched me and Mason inside and came out here,” Zac explained. “It appears they startled someone already on the bus. Security for the venue is trying to ascertain the identity of the man now. He’s claiming to be part of their team. I have my doubts about that, but we’ll see.”