Sheet Music - A Rock 'n' Roll Love Story (39 page)

Annie contemplated her decision for a few minutes with her eyes squeezed shut.  Then in a flash she was off and running.

“Oh, my God!  I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she yelled, as she jumped off the wooden deck and into the sand.  With every stride she took, she peeled off another article of clothing.  By the time she splashed into the waves, she was naked.  Michael reached her side quickly, his all-over body tan on full display.  His arms encircled her with a slippery hug and a wet kiss.  She could feel his erection rubbing up against her in the surf.

“What are you doing?” she questioned, squirming against him in protest.

He kissed her intimately.  “Same thing they’re doing.”

Annie turned her head toward Brian and Barbara.  As each new wave lifted their bodies with the incoming tide, she could clearly see Barbara’s legs wrapped tightly around Brian’s narrow waist.  The look on both their faces told the rest of the story, as they bobbed together like the cork of a wine bottle.

Annie buried her face in Michael’s wet neck.  “Oh, my God!  They’re doing it right in front of us,” she whispered.

“And that surprises you?” he chuckled.

Annie turned her head and peeked at them again.

“Would you like me to ask them to stop?”

Annie’s mouth came back toward Michael.  Seductively, she dragged the tip of her tongue over his lips.  The salt had never tasted so good.

“Maybe we could finish what we started earlier,” she suggested, hoisting herself up and straddling his hips in the water.

He pulled her tight against his body and smiled broadly.  “Great minds think alike,” he said, quickly entering her.

It didn’t take Annie long to reach the point of no return.  Having Brian and Barbara in the water with them only heightened the experience for her.

“I can’t believe I just did that,” she whispered, out of breath against his neck.

“Hmmm, and so quickly too,” he teased.

“What can I say, you bring out the worst in me,” she defended.

“The worst?  I consider that to be the best!”

A few minutes passed and Brian swam up beside them.  “I’m thirsty.  What do you have to drink around here?”

Annie ran back to the deck first and grabbed a towel to cover herself up with.  While the others dried themselves off, Annie went into the kitchen to make a fresh pitcher of lemonade.  When she returned to the deck they were seated around the table making small talk, with towels loosely draped across their laps.  Annie set the glass pitcher down on the table and handed everyone a cup.

Michael smiled up at her then pulled her into his lap.  The sudden movement caused Annie’s towel to slip below her breasts, exposing them.  Quick as she could, Annie yanked the thick terry cloth back into place.

“You know, Annie, you’ve got great tits,” Brian commented.

“Hey!  Watch your step, Lofgren,” Michael scolded in mock disgust.  But all he could do was smile because he knew Brian’s assessment was correct.

Barbara leaned closer to Brian and playfully punched him on the bicep.  “You’re about to cross that line, sweetheart.”

“Excuse me?” Annie replied, her face flushing.

“No, I’m serious.  They’re not too big and they’re not too small.”

“You know what they say,” Michael joked.

“Yeah, more than a mouthful is wasted,” Brian laughed.

Annie took a sip of her drink.  “Well, if that’s the case, then a lot goes to waste on you, babe,” she stated to Michael.

Both men broke out in laughter.

“What can I say, it’s a curse I’ve had to live with my whole life,” Michael smiled proudly.

“Yeah, yeah, we should all be so cursed,” Brian moaned, suddenly feeling inadequate.

“Oh, honey, it’s okay to be average.  I still love you,” Barbara added, her voice smacking with sarcasm.

Brian raised his middle finger toward everyone and shrugged.  His mind had already moved on to the next subject.  “What I can’t understand, Annie, is how someone that came as close to death as you, has no visible proof of it.”

“What are you talking about?  I have a huge scar on my stomach and my foot was all messed up,” Annie answered.

“That scar on your stomach is nothing.  Did you ever see this?” he asked, pushing the towel aside and exposing a jagged half moon scar on his left kneecap.  “I got this bad boy back in 1982.  I was so shit-faced, I fell off stage in Oklahoma and blew out my knee.  It put me out of commission for almost two months and the last half of the tour had to be canceled.”

“Yeah, I remember that.  You were lucky you were too trashed to feel it,” Michael added.

“And how about this one,” Brian continued, turning his right shoulder toward her.  “Motorcycle accident, 1985.”

“I have one,” Barbara said.  Then she stood and carefully opening the towel to expose the right side of her abdomen.  “Appendicitis back in 1969, I think.”

“Okay, how about this,” Michael interjected, pointing to a small, thin line beneath his otherwise perfect chin.

“Oh, be serious,” Annie laughed.  “Cutting yourself shaving doesn’t count, pretty boy!”

“Good one, Annie!  The bastard doesn’t even have a tattoo to blemish his beautiful body,” Brian replied rolling his eyes in disgust.

“Hey, it’s not my fault I hate needles,” Michael defended.

“Yeah, an ex-junkie that hates needles.  Go figure,” Brian answered with sarcasm.

Brian and Barbara stayed most of the following week at the beach house.  They barbecued on the deck, walked the beach, took the boat out fishing and spent many a night laughing and jamming with their instruments late into the night.  It was a great bonding experience for Annie and filled her with joy.

“Listen to them,” Annie whispered to Barbara in the kitchen one night, as they put away the clean dishes from dinner.  She was referring to the latest jam session in progress outside on the deck.  It was like watching famous master painters, applying paint to their latest canvas.  With Brian banging away on his keyboard and Michael burning riffs on his guitar, it was art in the making.  “I hope they’ve got the tape rolling in that recorder,” Annie added.

“This is when they’re at their best, you know, just him and Michael creating the base line hooks to their next album.  After all these years, it still gives me chills when I see and hear it happening.  When they click like this, it is pure magic.”

“I can see what you mean.”

“Well, it’s late.  I think I’ll go to bed,” Barbara yawned.

Annie glanced at the wall clock.  “You’re going to go to bed and leave them out there?”

“Yep.  I learned a long time ago, when they get on a roll like that, it’s best to leave them be and not interrupt the process.  They’ll be out there for hours, Annie.  Get some sleep while you can.”

Annie fell asleep with the muted sounds of Michael’s music drifting through her head and the occasional outburst of laughter from Brian.  Many hours later, Michael slid into bed beside her.

“Sorry babe, I didn’t mean for that to last so long,” he sighed, pulling her naked body up against his.

“Don’t apologize.  That’s your job,” she whispered, reaching back and rubbing his bare thigh.

The next afternoon Michael took them all out on the boat.  After lunch and a swim, they all hung lazily round the boat, coupled off contentedly.  Annie read while Michael serenaded her with guitar riffs from their new material.  A sudden shift in the wind direction added a subtle chill to the air which was detected only by Annie.

“Feels like rain,” she commented to no one in particular.

“What makes you say that?” Brian asked, checking the horizon for clouds and seeing none.

“I can feel it in my ankle,” she replied, rubbing the still-tender skin beneath the protective sock.

In less than an hour, the blue sky had disappeared and turned into a murky gray.  Then came the huge fat rain drops that splashed noisily on top of the boat deck.  Without discussion, Michael began picking up their belongings in preparation of heading back to the beach house.  Before they reached their destination, the intermittent rain had turned into a cool summer downpour.  The rain was just tepid enough to extinguish the heat from their sun baked skin and plentiful enough to rinse the salt water from their bodies.

Michael pulled up against the dock and secured the boat with rope, while Brian and Barbara ran off toward the house as if they might melt.  Undaunted by the rain, he finished his task, then draped a soaked towel around his neck and slowly headed off the dock.  Annie began to follow him and then dropped the book she was reading.  It was when she crouched to retrieve it that the visual of Michael’s swagger caught her eye.  She tossed the book back into the boat and stood.  Her eyes studied his tanned muscular form with great interest as she scanned the length of his bare back, then settled on his narrow hips.  The worn cut-off shorts he wore were now soaked through, clung to his ass like a latex glove.  She watched intently as each stride he took his hips loosely swayed back and forth and his long legs extended and splashed through the collecting water on the wooden planks.  Even dripping wet, his form excited her.

“Michael?”

The sound of her voice made him turn.  “Yeah, babe?  Do you need a hand with something?” he asked, walking back to her.

Her eyes never raised above his hips and remained firmly cemented on the area below his belly button.  The water cascaded down his torso in thin rivers and disappeared into the drenched fabric of his shorts.  When he was close enough for her to touch she reached for the waistband on his shorts and hooked her fingers through the belt loops.

“Have you ever had sex in the rain?” she asked suggestively, her eyes finally raising above his groin.

A sly grin quickly formed on his handsome face as he rummaged through his old memories.  Then he laughed and tipped his head backward, exposing his throat.  “I don’t believe I have,” he replied.

Annie’s eyes widened with excitement.  “Oh, my God!  Do you realize what that means?” she asked coyly, using the belt loops to pull herself up against his slick body.

He snickered knowingly and pulled at the back ties of her bikini top.  “I’m thinking it means I’m about to get lucky for the second time today,” he answered, discarding Annie’s soaked bathing suit to the floorboards of the dock.

“Ooh, Mr. Wade, I do believe you're correct in that assumption,” she teased, biting him playfully on the neck.  “I think we have finally found a sexual situation that you haven't experienced yet.  Which, loosely translated, means I will finally have
one
sexual memory with you that only involves me!”

Michael’s face grew serious, as he felt her fingers tugging at the zipper of his shorts.  The rain dripped from her eyelashes and nose in a most provocative way that caused his heart to beat loudly in his chest.  Carefully, he wiped the water from her face.

“Annie, every moment I spend with you is memorable because of the way you make me feel.  Nothing I’ve experienced before compares or matters now.”

Annie pushed the soggy material of his shorts over his hips and laughed when it splashed around his ankles.

“You do realize that Brian and Barbara can probably see what we’re doing out here, right?” he said, circling his arms around her slippery curves.

“I don't care, how's that!  Besides the house is too far away for them to
really
see anything.”

He smiled to himself and allowed her to pull him down onto the saturated wood.  She probably wouldn’t want to know about the binoculars sitting on the ledge of the windows in the living room, he thought, as he felt the warmth of her mouth engulf his organ.  The smile on his face was quickly replaced by the sweet expression of ecstasy as Annie taunted every nerve ending in his body.  When she was done, she slid her body up the length of his torso and pressed her face against his wet chest, a satisfied smile spread across her face.

“There.  Round one was for you and round two can be for me,” she giggled, the heavy thud of his heart echoing in her ear.

He flipped her over playfully and rolled between her legs.  “I love you,” he sighed, inching himself inside her.

They remained on the dock tightly entwined together until the rain stopped.  It was dusk by then and the smell of chicken barbecuing on the grill prompted them to head back to the house.  Apparently, Brian and Barbara had grown tired of waiting for their dinner and had begun the preparations without them.

When they arrived back at the house, Brian was tending the chicken wearing nothing more than a chef’s apron and a smug smile.  A pair of binoculars hung heavily on his chest.

Michael immediately took notice of his friend’s neckwear and laughed heartily.  Annie tossed him a confused glance and quickly passed by Brian, entering the house to change into something dry.  Michael stopped beside Brian at the grill with his arms crossed over his chest.

“Nice necklace,” he commented to Brian, shaking his head.

Brian roared with laughter.  “Man, you’d be shocked at what you can see with these things,” he teased.

“Yeah, well don’t tell Annie,” Michael replied, giving Brian a rough shove on the shoulder as he made his way into the house.

“Hey,” Brian called after his friend.  “If you’re interested, I gave you a ‘6’ on your performance but an ‘8’ for effort.  Frankly, I could have done a whole lot better.”

Michael shook his head again and slammed the screen door behind him, leaving Brian alone on the deck.  But Brian’s laughter could still be heard clear to the back of the house.

CHAPTER TWENTY

The phone woke them all early the next morning.  Michael pulled on a pair of shorts and staggered out to the kitchen to answer it.

“Yeah,” his irritated voice asked, as he rubbed at his eyes.

“Michael?”

“Yeah, who’s this?”

“It’s Arnold Levenstein.  Sounds like I woke you.”

Michael came to attention when he heard his lawyer’s voice.  “It’s all right.  What can I do for you?”

“I received a phone call last night from Beth’s lawyer.  Seems she’s interested in talking with you about some new custody agreement.”