Authors: Jade Allen
****
“You’re sounding better,” Jack said from the
control room. “You sure you didn’t get a quickie in with Sophie when she got
here?” I rolled my eyes. I heard Sophie laughing over the intercom, and
grinned.
“No quickies yet,” I called to the intercom
receiver. “You haven’t given me enough time for a quickie.” Jules had gone home
for the night after spending maybe thirty minutes hanging out; Nick was still
in the control room, but I knew he’d head out soon. It was almost midnight, and
Mark was going to be arriving in a little over an hour.
“Let’s do one more take of this one, and then you
can have a break. I’ll give you a whole thirty minutes,” Jack said from the
control room. I smirked and nodded my agreement; I’d have just enough time to
be alone with Sophie before Mark would be arriving, and that was what I wanted
more than anything else. A little stress relief before the big fucking mess
that I was sure my meeting with Mark was going to be.
I shifted the headphones on my ears and waited for
Jack to pull up the backing track. My heart beat faster in my chest at the
thought of being alone with Sophie, and the thought of confronting Mark, all at
the same time. I took a deep breath and lit a cigarette and the backing track
came up over my headphones. I listened for a moment, found my spot, and started
playing at the cue. I closed my eyes, picturing Sophie watching me, playing the
bass line for her, thinking of the last time we’d been in bed together. The
track was a sexy one--Nick had written it, and I was pretty sure he’d written
it about Olivia--so thinking about Sophie wasn’t off-base. As the track
finished, I opened my eyes and picked up my cigarette to finish it off.
“That’s a take, mother fucker,” Jack said over the
headphones. “Sounds good. Want to come in and listen?” I laughed.
“Yeah, let’s make sure Nick approves it, then we
can take a break.”
I put down my guitar and took off the headphones
and went into the control room. Sophie sat sprawled on the couch, and I smirked
at her as soon as I saw her there; maybe it wasn’t obvious to everyone else,
but I could see the look in her eyes, the waiting, knowing expression that told
me that she was more than ready for a little alone time.
I threw myself down onto the couch next to her and
glanced at Nick and Jack, both seated at the control panel. “All right,” Jack
said. “You ready for this?”
“I’m ready to wander off to a dark room with my
girlfriend,” I told him. Nick snorted. “Don’t get all holier-than-thou on me,
you asshole. You took Olivia into how many fucking closets on tour?”
“I didn’t tell anyone about it, though,” Nick
countered, raising an eyebrow at me with a grin.
“That’s because you were hiding it. I’m not
ashamed of my lust.”
“Here we go,” Jack interjected. He hit the
playback and I settled in to listen, reaching out blindly for Sophie’s hand. I
played my fingertips over the center of her palm, pressing and stroking while
the song played back. There was something the track was missing--but that was
obvious. We only had a skeleton of it so far; drums, a couple of guitar tracks,
and now bass, with the vocal demo--not even the finished vocals. But it sounded
good already. Jack turned around in his chair to look at me. “Feel like you
nailed it?” I looked at Nick; it was his song, after all.
“Sounds good to me,” Nick said with a shrug.
“I like it,” I told them both. “Enough that I feel
like I’ve earned my goddamn break.” Jack and Nick both rolled their eyes and my
hand tightened on Sophie’s. I could feel the excitement in her, and I knew she
was just as turned on as I was at the prospect of a tryst.
“Go on,” Jack said, turning back to the control
panel. “Clean up after yourselves.”
“I’m going to head out,” Nick told me. “Let me
know whatever happens with Mark.”
“I’ll text you in the morning,” I told him. I
broke away from Sophie to give Nick a quick hug. “If the band implodes, at
least you have photojournalism as a backup.” Nick laughed and shook his head
and then he was gone.
I grabbed Sophie’s hand and led her out of the
room while Jack busied himself with something at the mixing boards. “Now I do
want to know something,” Sophie said as I turned a corner and headed for the
darkened part of the studio, where the unused rooms were.
“What’s that?” She stopped and I turned to look at
her.
“We’ve been seeing each other for a month,” Sophie
said, licking her lips. “Are we doing this because you just can’t get enough of
me and want to spend time with me, or because you want to fuck me before Mark
gets here?” I stared at her.
“I didn’t even plan on trying to talk to Mark
tonight until after I’d invited you,” I told her. “I’ve been wanting to get you
alone all day.” Sophie smiled slowly.
“As long as you’re not just using me…” I pulled
her to me and kissed her, wrapping my arms around her waist.
“I would never, ever use you,” I told her firmly.
“I’ve been trying to make that as clear as possible to you ever since you made
that little speech about local guys only wanting to date you to get something
from you.” Sophie’s eyes widened and she grinned up at me--a genuine, sweet
smile.
“You still remember that?” I laughed and kissed
her again.
“Of course I remember that,” I murmured against
her lips. “I want you. Not the bartender from Respects.” My hands slid along
the curves of her body and I dipped down to her throat, kissing and nibbling.
“I’m willing to risk setting the goddamn band on fire to date you, Sophie-baby.
You think I want something from you other than awesome sex and a little bit of
your time?” I brought my mouth up to hers again. “Because right now the only
thing on my mind is how fucking good it’s going to feel to be inside you.”
“Okay,” Sophie said, her voice breathless.
“Okay--I believe you. I just had to check.”
I pulled her in my wake down the hallway to the
studio I’d scoped out earlier in the day when I’d invited her to drop by. There
wouldn’t be anyone in there; even the security people only came through every
couple of hours at night, as long as someone was in the complex. I didn’t even
bother to turn on the light in the live room. It was pitch black, but it was
mostly cleared out, since no one was using it.
Sophie stumbled slightly behind me, and I pulled
her closer, holding her hand tightly in mine. I found the stacks by memory and
pushed Sophie against them; they were racked, so they wouldn’t move too much. I
started touching her everywhere, kissing her in the pitch black, and Sophie
responded immediately, her hands roaming over my back, down to my hips, up to
my shoulders, tangling blindly with my arms. I pulled her shirt up, and tugged
it past her head, and Sophie slipped her hand down the front of my pants to
stroke my already-hard cock. Bit by bit, we got each other naked, and I had no
idea how much time we were taking to do it; I didn’t even care. Jack had given
me a half hour, but time had absolutely no meaning to me in the dark, with
Sophie in my arms.
I felt Sophie’s body sliding down along mine, and
I realized--right in the moment--that she’d sunk down onto her knees on the
floor of the abandoned live room. I felt the heat of her mouth, the softness of
her lips, wrapping around my cock and groaned, reaching for her head, her
shoulders, in the darkness. My fingers tangled in her hair as she worked me
with her lips and tongue, taking me further and further into her mouth every
moment. “Fuck, Sophie,” I said, almost shaking at how good it felt; she was
rubbing the base of my cock with the fingers of one hand, while her other hand
gripped my thigh and her hot, wet mouth moved up and down on me. “If you’re not
careful...I’m going to be done in like--like a minute.” I felt the tremor of
Sophie’s laugh, but her mouth didn’t retreat; instead she began playing with my
balls carefully, rubbing them in her hand. My fingers tightened in her hair, on
her shoulder, and I was grateful for the soundproofing in the room as I moaned
out again and again.
I was on the edge in a matter of moments, and I
was right about to come, when Sophie pulled back. She gave the tip of my cock a
playful little lick and then I felt her stand up, pressing against every inch
of my body as she rose to her feet. “How much more time do we have?” I
chuckled, out of breath and not even caring.
“As much time as we need,” I told her. “I am not
leaving this room until we’ve both gotten off.”
“Maybe you should get to work then,” Sophie
whispered in my ear. I cupped her tits in my hands, feeling the way she
trembled. It was weird not to be able to even see her, even with my eyes
accustomed to the darkness in the room; but it made everything somehow hotter,
more intense--I could feel the heat of her better than ever before, and I
couldn’t breathe without breathing in the sweet and flowery smell of her.
I reached down between her legs and hunted for her
tits with my mouth at the same time, until I found one of her nipples. Sophie
gasped and shivered as my fingers played along her soaking wet folds, pressing
deeper, sliding up and down. The wet, slick sounds filled my ears, and it was
so hot that I almost could have come without her even touching me anymore. I
held back, stroking her, teasing her with my mouth and my fingers, while she
squirmed and moaned and panted and gasped, her hands all over me.
Finally I couldn’t take the torture anymore; I
turned her around and bent her over the stack. I’d been thinking about how hot
it would be all day since the idea had come to me, but no matter how intense my
fantasies, nothing beat the moment when I slid into her from behind. Sophie
pushed her hips back as I thrust forward, and it was all I could do not to come
right then and there. I went completely still, savoring the feeling of Sophie’s
ass pressed against my hips, the way her muscles flexed and tightened around
me. “Is it...just the way...you wanted it to be?” I clenched my teeth to keep
from teetering over the edge.
“Fuck yeah,” I told Sophie. “Even better.” I began
to move inside of her, starting slow, pushing deeper and deeper with every
thrust of my hips. She felt amazing, and even though I knew I wasn’t going to
last much longer, I wanted it to go on for hours. I reached around the curve of
her hip and found Sophie’s clit, just above where I was, and began stroking and
rubbing her in time with my thrusts, working her harder and faster; if nothing
else, I would at least manage to wait until she finished to give in.
I felt like it was only seconds later when Sophie
cried out, over and over again, reaching one hand around to her back to grab at
my arm, at my hand, as her body flexed around me in erratic little spasms. I
held back a moment longer and then I couldn’t do it any more--I came, pounding
into her from behind, hearing the sound of her moans and mine, the hoarse
breathing, the noise of our bodies colliding and sliding together.
I sagged against her when we both finished,
holding myself up against the stack, still buried deep inside of Sophie’s body
as the aftershocks worked through me. “Fuck,” I said, still panting for breath.
“We have got to have sex in a pitch black room more often.” Sophie laughed, breathless
and giddy sounding.
“I’ll get blackout curtains,” she told me. “We can
make this work.” I knew we’d probably taken longer than a half hour, but I
didn’t want to pull out; I wanted nothing more than to keep going, to turn her
on all over again and maybe the next time get her down onto the floor with me.
But even in the haze, I knew I had to get ready to meet with Mark. I slid out
of Sophie and tried to think of where my clothes could be.
****
“I’m fucking out of here,” Mark said, the minute
he walked into the control room and saw me.
“Mark, sit your ass down,” Jack said.
“You told me you needed me to work on a drum
track,” Mark almost shouted at the producer.
“Yeah, because I wanted you to get your ass down
here,” Jack told him, unapologetic.
“I asked him to,” I cut in. “Look--Mark. This shit
has gone on long enough, hasn’t it? Are you having a good fucking time working
with half the band?”
“That’s not the point,” Mark said. He glared at
me. “I told Ron I didn’t want to work with any of you, but I would on the
condition that I specifically didn’t have to work with
you
.” I shook my
head.
“How the hell are we supposed to tour this record
if you won’t even be in the same room as me?” I stood up. Sophie had gone to
the break room a few minutes before Mark had arrived; I didn’t want to risk
anything more than I was already. If he was really being this pissy about a
girl, it wouldn’t make sense to poke him right away. At least, not any more
than I was already doing, getting Jack to get him into the building to talk to
me.
“So we don’t fucking tour this record then,” Mark
said with a shrug. “Am I the only one who’s a little tired of the goddamn grind
on this shit?”
“If you’re tired of it, then why are you even
still in the band?” Jack, I noticed, was very carefully pulling back, stepping
away from me. He would have probably left the room, except for the fact that if
he did, Mark would just walk out. With Jack there, he wouldn’t--at least not
out of the blue, without giving me a chance.
“Sit your ass down,” I said. “Let’s talk about
whatever the hell it is that crawled into your rectum in the last month and a
half.”
“If I wanted to talk about it, don’t you think I
would have?” Mark turned his scowl onto Jack, who just shrugged.
“Look,” Jack said, sitting up and making the chair
squeak. “Either you talk to Dan, figure out what the hell the issue is, and
figure out a way to resolve it, or you’re going to have a shit record on your
hands, and you won’t even be able to promote it. Do you want the last album your
fans hear from you to be some monument to petty bullshit?”
For a second, it looked like Mark was going to
turn around and walk out, even with Jack sitting there. But then, instead, he
sat down, throwing himself into a desk chair without even seeming to worry
about whether he landed properly or not. “Fine,” Mark said. I stared at him for
a minute.
“Well?” I spread my hands in front of me. “What
the fuck, Mark?”
“What do you mean, what the fuck?” I closed my
eyes, asking--I didn’t know who--for patience.
“I’m grabbing beers out of the fridge,” Jack said,
rising from his chair. Mark shrugged off the implied offer and continued
looking at me.
“This is where you tell me what the hell is going
on that you can’t stand to be in the same room as me,” I told Mark. “So we can
pretend like we’re an actual band that functions like fucking adults and solves
our problems instead of just avoiding them.”
“My problem is that I’m pissed,” Mark said simply.
Jack returned from the corner of the control room with three beers. He handed
one to me and put one in Mark’s hand, and then sat down to open his own.
“Why are you pissed, exactly?” I opened my beer
and took a sip. It was obvious no more actual work was getting done anyway, at
least not that night.
“Because no one in the fucking band takes me
seriously,” Mark said. “And before you laugh at me, it’s goddamn true.”
“Where the hell did this come from?” I shook my
head in disbelief. “You pitched a fucking fit over the thing with me and
Sophie, and the next thing I know we’re working on separate shifts and you
won’t work with me and
now
you say it’s about how no one in the band
takes you seriously?”
“No one talks to me,” Mark said firmly. “They talk
at
me.” He shook his head and cracked his beer and took a long pull from
it. “Jesus, Dan--did you ever pay attention at all to me?”
“You sound like a fucking girl,” I said, resisting
the urge to roll my eyes. “I thought we were friends.”
“I thought so too,” Mark said with a shrug. “And
then we’re in the studio and I’m catching shit because you’re not doing your
job right, and you’re dating a girl you know I’m interested in, and no one
gives a fuck--Mark will just roll over and take it, right?”
“I asked her out first!” I put my beer down before
I was tempted to slam it down. “She said yes to you
after
she agreed to
a date with me. If you want to be pissed at someone, be pissed at her.” I
thought about Sophie, off in the break room, and almost regretted what I’d
said. “Hell--what difference does it even make anyway?”
“It makes a difference because I had to find out
from her, afterward, that she was already going on a date with you,” Mark said.
“It makes a difference because it was the last fucking straw, man. Taking shit
for you when I thought we were close…” he shrugged.
“We were! Until you pulled this bullshit tantrum
and refused to work and nearly cost us the best recording arrangement we’ve
ever gotten.” I thought about what Mark had said for a second. “What the hell
do you mean, taking shit for me?”
“Whenever you fuck up on the goddamn takes, it’s
always on me,” Mark said. “I’ve gone along with it because you’re my bud but
what the fuck, dude? Even you pin that shit on me sometimes when it’s you
screwing up.”
“When I screw up, I take the shit for it,” I told
him. “I do not try and pin it on you when it’s me messing up a fucking line.”
“Whatever,” Mark said. He crossed his arms over
his chest. “Anyway, the thing with Sophie was just the last straw.”
“Last straw for what?” I stared at Mark, not quite
able to understand why he was apparently so fucking put out with me dating
someone, where he even got the notion that I was somehow trying to screw him
over.
“No one in this fucking band respects me,” Mark
said, his voice bitter. “I thought you did, but obviously you don’t.”
“Of course I fucking respect you,” I almost
shouted. “When you pulled the bullshit act of not working for a week, who the
fuck do you think argued the hardest for keeping you in the band instead of
letting the label make us fire you?”
“The label was going to make you fire me?” Mark’s
eyes widened.
“You weren’t fucking working! Of course they were
going to,” I told him. “What the hell did you think would happen if you fucking
derailed a project they’re investing half a million or more in?”
“After all this time, they were just going to kick
me from the band?”
“Yeah, compadre, they fucking were,” I told him
matter-of-factly. “Ron made the rest of us meet up to talk about what to do and
that was where we came up with the brilliant fucking plan of having Ron talk to
you and suggest we work separately, since me, Nick, and Alex for sure didn’t
want you to leave the goddamn band.” I let out my breath in a sharp gust.
“Mother fucker: if any one of us isn’t in Molly Riot, the rest of us are
not--fucking--Molly--Riot.” For a minute, Mark just stared at me, and I
wondered what was going through his mind.
“Why the hell did you leave me in the fucking dark
about Sophie?” That caught me off guard. I didn’t really have much of an answer
to the question, even though I had been thinking about it for the whole month
that we’d been working separately.
“I don’t know,” I said with a shrug. “It was
probably partly that I knew you were into her, and partly that I wasn’t sure it
would even go anywhere, and a million other fucking things.” I found my pack of
cigarettes on the desk by my side and shook one loose. I fished a lighter out
of my pocket and lit the tip, taking as deep a drag as I could and wishing it
was pot instead of tobacco. “When I heard that Sophie had said yes to your
date, I was pissed too.”
“You were pissed and I had no way of even knowing
that she’d gone with you first,” Mark pointed out. “You can’t see why it would
tick me the fuck off to have the same thing--only worse, because my own friend
wasn’t upfront with me about it?”
“Fair enough,” I admitted. “I should have told you
the next day, and I didn’t.” Mark drank down more of his beer.
“You’re an asshole, you know that?” I hesitated
for a second and then laughed.
“You’re the one who was going to implode the damn
band, fuck-face,” I said.
“Whatever,” Mark said, shaking his head. He took a
deep breath and exhaled slowly. “So I take it you’re still seeing her?” I
nodded.
“She asked me earlier today if I only wanted to
have sex with her as some kind of way to get secret revenge on you for fucking
shit up,” I told him. “I hadn’t really thought about it, but I
actually--really--like her.”
“Were you fucking her all this time just to get
back at me?” Mark snickered, and I felt something inside of me relax.
“No, asshole, I’ve been fucking her all this time
because she’s a great lay and a lot of fun to be around,” I said. Mark shook
his head slowly.
“Last single guy in the band,” he said quietly.
“Word on the street is you’re going through Tinder
girls like you’re getting paid for it,” I pointed out.
“Easy lays,” Mark told me. “I have to do something
with my free time, since I don’t hang out with any of you anymore. Do you
realize how much time we spent together before all this shit came up?” I
laughed out loud.
“Dude--you could have fixed this shit the day
after you started it just by fucking talking to someone about it,” I said. “How
bored have you even been?”
“I played through BioShock Infinite and I’m
teaching myself goddamn Italian,” Mark said, cracking a smile again.
“That’ll come in handy,” I pointed out. “I mean,
after all, maybe we’ll get some festival dates in Italy this summer, and you
can try and flirt with a hot foreign chick.”
“You guys cool?” I looked over at Jack; I’d
forgotten he was even still in the room.
“Not yet,” I said, glancing at Mark to confirm
that he agreed. “But I think we can at least figure out a schedule that doesn’t
suck asshole for the rest of the record.”