No Quarter (NOLA's Own #2) (38 page)

Bringing the mic around, he said to me, to everyone, “I wanna kiss your sweet mouth, but you’re the prettiest little sugar skull I’ve ever seen, and I don’t wanna wreck you with my ugly face.”

The crowd roared and cheered.

“She’s fuckin’ stunnin’, ain’t she?”

An epic tide of cheers washed over us.

“I’m totally gonna eat my sugar skull later though. You can bet on that.”

“Ass,” I hissed, laughing.

“Mmm…maybe that, too.”

“I’m leaving now.”

“I’m right behind you.”

I turned, and he smacked my ass—in front of twenty-thousand people! I all but ran off the stage.

“Wave good-bye, Baby Girl!” he called after me.

I waved to the crowd just as I stepped out of sight. Sheri, Alys, Lili, and Vivian all jumped around me and squealed like teenagers.

“Fuck, I think I need a drink!” I laughed. “Or three!”

“You were amazing!” Sheri laughed and hugged me. “That was so unexpected, and you went with it beautifully! I was so scared that you would pass out!”

“You and me both!” I replied.

Our Boys were bowing as one, their arms around each other.

Phil saluted his Namaste to the audience. “Thank you, Los Angeles! Have a fuckin’ awesome Halloween!”

Then, he was stalking toward me, a light burning bright in his eyes. If his face hadn’t been covered in makeup, it would have been his furious face—his seriously turned-on face. Without a word, he grabbed me, hauling me into his arms, making me yelp in surprise.

Fuck the awesome face paint.

He grabbed my head and slammed his mouth onto mine, shoving his tongue past my teeth and staking his claim once more. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and kissed him back.

Before I knew it, he was dragging me off somewhere in this maze of a place before finding an unlocked door to a utility room. Wrenching it open, he tossed me in and followed. His hands reached out, and his fingers popped open my fly and tugged my loose jeans and underwear to my knees.

“Phil!” I hissed, a little shocked.

“Shut it,” he growled in reply. He lifted me up against the door with his shoulders braced under my legs, shoving my knees into my armpits. He fumbled with his own fly for a second before I felt the swollen head of him pushing into me.

“I might come quick,” he stated.

“I don’t care,” I replied breathlessly.

He groaned deep in his chest as his full thick length sank in. “Ohhhh fuuuuck.”

Damn, he feels so good.

Rocking against me, he pumped me with hard, long strokes. “Fuck, Kenna…you were
gorgeous
up there. You were fuckin’ perfect.”

His eyes seared into mine, not letting me look away.

“I’m so proud of you,” he said, his voice sounding dangerous. “I was afraid I’d fuckin’ come in my pants in front of everyone. I was so close…” His chest heaved with his breaths, and he pounded and pounded and pounded.

He needed me to come, and I was. He was pushing into me brilliantly.

“Oh God, Phil,” I moaned.

“Come on, Kenna Baby. Come hard for me. Squeeze me till I break inside you.”

My head banged back into the door as my orgasm tore through me. Phil roared out my name, slamming his fist next to my head, while his cock pumped and jerked within me. Cruelly, his mouth bruised mine, as if he were desperate to saturate himself with me or me with him.

“Fuck,” he grunted, pulling back his head. Looking down at my face, he scowled. “Your makeup was awesome before I fucked it up.”

“You didn’t fuck anything up, babe,” I panted. “You’re just marking me as yours.”

He groaned, gentling his hold on me. “Too fuckin’ right. I’m gonna be drippin’ outta you all fuckin’ night.”

Laughing, I replied, “Yeah, you will be.”

An afterglow of sex haloed pretty much all of us as the limo driver took us to the after-party at one Mike Stacy’s house. He was the lead singer for the opening band, Slaying Stacy, and an LA resident. I didn’t mind their music. They had some catchy tunes and got a lot of radio play. But I wouldn’t consider them anything extraordinary.

After Phil and I had returned from our sexcapade in the utility room, the guys all showered off and got dressed in some comfortable clothes. I noticed not one of our sugar skulls were intact, and by the look of Sheri, I was pretty sure Jason was scrubbing paint off his cock. The guys had been careful not to get their faces wet, and Camryn did a little touch-up work, except on Phil, who didn’t want to lose the makeup that had been transferred from my face to his.

It’s the little things that make him happy. Weirdo.

A little after midnight, the limo cruised up the winding drive, pulling up in front of a grand entrance. Strobe lights flickered, fog machines poured cool clouds out of the doorway, and creepy noises pumped through a sound system throughout the haunted mansion. Mike Stacy had gone all out. Mission accomplished with the creep factor. Inside, black lights provided the only light, and any speck of white on us glowed violet.

Phil pulled me in closer to him.

“Scared?” I teasingly asked him.

“Fuckin’ terrified,” he replied.

“Deveraux! Jones! Is that you guys?” Mike Stacy came down the hallway, which wasn’t actually a part of the interior. It was just some fake walls assembled for the use of the party.

“Hey, Stacy,” drawled Jason, his arm snaking around Sheri’s waist. “Bring us to the party, man! We’re fuckin’ ready to cut loose.”

Mike was bouncing with the energy of a synthetic substance. My guess was cocaine, but methamphetamines would have done the trick, too. His eyes were a little too wide and wired to be normal.

“Come on. Everyone is everywhere! We got all types of poison lined up, and the dance floor is
rockin
!”

“That guy is so jacked up,” said Lili. She laughed as he bounced his way down the hall.

“Yeah, well…welcome to LA,” Jason replied sarcastically.

Huge cheers greeted us when we made it into the main open space. Mike waved over a couple of girls dressed in red devil leotards, tails, and horns, bearing trays of Jell-O shots and champagne.

“You got any Jäger?” asked Phil, eyeing the colorful trays with some skepticism.

“Fuck yeah.” Mike pointed at a bar in the corner of the room. “Just let the pretty little devil behind the bar know what you want. And if you need anything else, tell her, and she’ll find it for you, if you catch my drift. No needles though. If it can’t be snorted, swallowed, or smoked, I don’t want that shit in my house.”

“No worries there, man.” Phil tugged me toward the bar.

“Wait! This is her then?” Mike’s eyes fell to me, and he smiled. “You’re Phil’s Baby Girl?”

“She is,” Phil replied.

“Fuckin’ awesome, man. She’s a tall drink of fuckin’ gorgeous. Great makeup. All of you look fantastic!”

I laughed at that. “Thanks, man. It’s nice to meet you.”

He grabbed my hand and kissed it. “Pleasure is all mine.”

Phil tugged at me again, and Mike turned his attention to X and Jason. At the bar, Phil ordered ten Jäger shots and ten bottles of beer.

“Don’t drink anythin’ that ain’t out of a bottle, or you don’t see poured in front of you, okay?”

“No shit,” I scoffed.

He grinned. “I know, but it just makes me feel better to tell you anyway.”

“Sure, sure.”

“If we somehow get separated—”

“We’ll meet up back here?”

He nodded. “Sounds good. You got your phone on you, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Cool.”

Everyone else joined us, and we all threw back our liquor, grimacing at the taste, and quickly sucked down our chasers.

“Right,” grunted Phil. “Let’s fuckin’ mingle.”

For about an hour, Phil had me glued to him, introducing me to people, reintroducing me to some people I had met the night before. We smoked a few joints, hung out, had a few more beers. Then, Tara and Robin grabbed Lili and me, dragging us off for some dancing in one of the other rooms.

Phil smiled. “Go have some fun.”

“Can I dance with some dudes?”

“Sure. But break their fingers if they get too handsy.”

“Will do.”

Tara was dressed as a cute glittering fairy—much cuter than that groupie fairy. Robin, bless her, was dressed as a nun. Only, the cross around her neck was upside down.

“What you got under your habit, Nun?” I asked her as we started grooving on the dance floor.

“Who said I had anything under it?” she replied, wriggling her eyebrows.

Lili was asked to dance by a zombie, and she told him to keep his hands where she could see them. Robin was snatched up as well, so Tara and I danced with each other until we too were parted by the opposite sex.

The guy who decided a giant sugar skull was worthy of a dance had a Phantom of the Opera mask covering half of his face. His black hair was tied back, and I couldn’t make out his eye color in the dark. There was something familiar about him in my fuzzy buzzed brain. He had a great body, built like Phil, only scaled down, and a cute dimple in his chin.

“GianFranco?” I gasped.

He held his finger to his lips and smiled. “I swear, Doc, I was invited here.”

I went to move away from him, but he caught me around my waist and twirled me away from my friends. I was starting to feel scared but not for my own safety. The last thing I needed tonight was to be caught dancing with Phil’s most hated ex-friend.

“Let me go!” I hissed.

“I saw you up on stage tonight, Baby Girl—”

“You don’t get to call me that!” I went with the movement of his body, so as not to alarm anyone else. There were many people dancing, and—I hoped—I would be able to get out of this without alerting my friends.

“You really were quite breathtaking. Your makeup is a little fucked up—”

“He told you to stay away!” I snarled.

“I like you.”

“I’m taken.”

“While I will admit I find you extremely attractive, I’m not in the habit of taking what isn’t mine. Phil…” He drew in a deep breath. “Phil has loved you for a
very
long time.”

“Why are you doing this? It wouldn’t be just
you
he’d be mad at if he catches us dancing together.”

“I need to talk to him.”

“Good luck with that. He thinks you’re a monster.”

Devon stopped dancing. “He said that?”

“Yes.”

He stepped closer to me, and I could feel a menacing power emanating from him. “He called
me
a monster. Did he tell you anything about himself, Doc? Let me ask you something. Has he
punished
you for breaking his heart at all?”

“Excuse me?”

Devon nodded. “A lot of women took a sweet little beating at his hands—in
your
name. Didn’t he tell you?”

“Wh-what?” That was indeed shocking to me.

Phil was always extremely careful not to hurt me, was scared of doing so accidentally. The thought of him actually
beating
a woman…was unimaginable.

“Oh, yes.” He stepped even closer. “Whatever it is he told you about me, you should know…he was right there, by my side, enjoying every fucking minute of it.
I know
he couldn’t bear to shove it in all the way, and
I know
that each time he blew his load, it was
your
name he whispered…right after he roughed them up.”

I could see his eyes now, and they pierced into mine with the pain of a man who had lost his best friend and didn’t really know why.

“What happened between you two?” I whispered, my heart hammering wildly.
And why hasn’t Phil told me any of this?

“I think there’s a lot that I’m ashamed of, and I’m scared that when you find out what I’ve done, you’ll be ashamed of me, too. Enough to want to have nothing to do with me ever again.”
Phil’s half-tortured confession echoed through my mind.

“A horrible misunderstanding.” Devon’s voice was strained.

Shit was not adding up here.

Before I could get any more info, Devon got yanked back and thrown, and there stood Phil, shaking with his fury. His eyes pinned mine, and he
saw it
in me, that I knew something.

“
Fuck
!” he bellowed.

Spinning, he looked for Devon, who it seemed had been thrown into a wall.

Phil stormed over and hauled the smaller—though not by much—man up and pinned him by his throat to the wall. “I fuckin’
told
you, motherfucker!”

Devon wasn’t even trying to fight back. He just looked into Phil’s face, a defeated sad vibe rolling off him. Spurred into action—as much shit as Phil might be ashamed of, murder wasn’t on that list—I hurried over and pulled on Phil’s arm.

“Phil, stop it!” I cried, tugging. “Don’t do this!”

“What did you tell her?” he roared.

“He can’t speak if you’re strangling him! Put him down!”

He dropped Devon to the floor, and the poor guy just stared up at Phil. Reaching up, he pulled the mask off his face, and the look in his eyes…I thought it was heartbreak. He
loved
Phil even though he had just ended up half-strangled by him. He loved the goodness and purity that had always been inside of Phil, missed the man who had once been his best friend.