Chapter 29 Jesse
TWENTY-NINE
JESSE
The last chords echo through the night like a heartbeat.
My lungs burn, chest heaving. The mic feels hot in my palm as I hold it up, the voices of thirty thousand people singing the final chorus.
The energy in the stadium is palpable, a living thing that takes hold of my very soul and reminds me this is why I do this.
There’s only one other thing on earth that makes me feel this alive. And he’s leaning on a support beam offstage, watching me like I’m the only thing that matters.
I raise my arm, music swelling as the band joins in for the last lines of Wreck Me.
Every time I close my eyes,
I still see you–
The heat, the sweat, the way you move.
Baby just wreck me,
The way you always do.
With a drop of my arms, the band hits the last notes hard, and the lights go out.
Blackness engulfs the stage. There are gasps and mutters from the crowd, then the excitement sparks as flashes of light shoot into the sky above.
The screens all around the stadium light up with the New Year’s countdown, marking one minute until we ring in a new year.
“It’s been a fucking year, hasn’t it?” I shout into the crowd to cheers and applause.
It’s not as if I need to specify all that we’ve been through, especially these last few months.
Everyone in the world knows we headed out on tour when I was fresh out of rehab, and everything I struggled with.
They saw my very public meltdown and celebrated a triumphant return to the stage tonight.
There are still questions, and the press will probably never stop hounding us for answers, but tonight we’re surrounded by a different kind of energy.
“I can’t tell you all how thankful I am to get to ring in a new year, new opportunities, a new fucking me, with all of you here today.
We wouldn’t be anything without you, without this energy right fucking here! ”
My voice echoes over the raised hands, screams, and signs from our fans.
“This year is going to be the one that blows them all out of the water. New energy. New songs.” Cue the screams of excitement.
“New love?” I smirk as the words are swallowed by the rising thrum of enthusiasm matched by a steady rise of drums, the thrum of the bass, a guitar riff vibrating into the air.
“So let’s bring in this new year right! Grab the person next to you, be it friend, lover, or consenting stranger–don’t be a fucking creep, alright.”
I peel off my shirt, and the crowd roars again. It’s already saturated, barely effective as I wipe my sweaty face and throw it to the side. My wet hair lies flat back as I swipe my hand back through it.
Ten!
I run, breathless, to Naz’s drum set. He lifts one arm enough for me to climb into his lap and plant a quick, ridiculous kiss on his cheek before rolling off the other side and running towards Ari.
Nine!
Ari swings his bass to one side and pulls me against his bare chest, grin wide and toothy. He presses a kiss to my temple that gets a few laughter-fueled boos. Our fans have been shipping us from the beginning.
Eight!
I sprint around to Will, waiting with a saucy grin. He turns his back to me and I hop on, wrapping my arms around his shoulders and pressing a rough kiss to his cheek.
Seven!
“Blake, you shit, where are you!?” I shout.
Six!
Blake steps out, only a few feet from where Luc is hiding in the wings. I run up and wrap my arms around him, getting his pressed blue button-down and grey slacks wet with sweat that he wipes from his face, laughing.
Five!
“Behave,” Blake says, when he catches me side-eyeing the shadows hiding Luc from the view of the crowd.
Four!
Blake relaxes as I run back to my mic stand. “Come on!” I scream, and the crowd chants louder
Three!
Two!
I glance offstage once more and lock eyes with Luc. Gorgeous, steady, stoic, strong Luc, who has been my rock for weeks now. He’ll go back to practice next week, and I’ll have to start Super Bowl prep later this month, but I’m staying with him for the time being. I never want to leave.
As electric as being on stage is, it’s nothing compared to the way every nerve ending in my body and brain comes to life when I so much as look at him.
“Fuck it,” I mutter audibly as the crowd finishes the countdown.
One!
I beeline off the stage and tackle him, my lips on his before the crowd can scream, “Happy New Year!” Fireworks explode overhead, and maybe it’s the planned pyrotechnics, but it feels like they’re going off inside me.
Luc wraps his arms around me and holds me against his body, not caring about the sweat or the crowd on the other side of a flimsy wall and curtains.
We’re going public after the Super Bowl, and I can’t wait.
I may never get the chance to drag him on stage and lay claim to him in front of the whole world, and that’s okay.
Just knowing he’s going to be mine is enough.
“Happy New Year, baby,” I breathe against his lips.
He laughs and wishes me the same, setting me down and encouraging me back on stage. “You better get back out there,” he says, pulling me in for one more kiss before physically pushing me back on stage.
I stumble out to massive cheers and wipe the corner of my mouth with my thumb. My teeth clamp down on my bottom lip at the fire burning in his eyes, the one that promises he’ll make it up to me later.
Giving him one last wink, I run back out to the mic for one last encore.
“Are you listening to me?” Blake says through my phone screen as my eyes stray to the television again.
“Can this wait until halftime?”
“Not really, Jesse. Did you hear anything I just told you?”
Thankfully, there’s a commercial break so I can convince Blake that the divisional playoff game is more important than a bunch of conservative assholes playing games because they were butthurt by our charity concert two months ago.
“So you don’t want to do anything at all about the calculated attack on your personal information?
It doesn’t bother you at all that those photos and videos, and information about your time in rehab, were released by government officials that wanted to discredit the good work you did with that concert? ”
“I didn’t say I don’t want to do anything about it, Blake. I said that I have more important things going on right now than to have this conversation right this second.”
“It’s a football game,” he deadpans.
“It’s the divisional playoffs,” I say slowly, enunciating the words like I know what I’m talking about.
Truth be told, I still don’t know enough about football to explain anything of importance.
Sports knowledge doesn’t happen by osmosis, or through the transfer of copious bodily fluids.
All I know is that they have to win this game to qualify for the next one, and then if they win that one, they play in the Super Bowl.
And since Lest Is Moore is also going to be at the Super Bowl, we’ll be in the same place for the first time in weeks.
“Look, I’ll be back Monday afternoon. Can we put it off until then? In the meantime, we can come up with some strategies for how to handle this. I definitely don’t want them to get away with that shit, but I’m also not going to let them ruin the last two days I have here with Luc.”
Blake sighs heavily but agrees to direct his nervous energy at legal for the next two days until we can discuss it in person.
“There’s one more thing,” he says warily.
“If you’re about to tell me that the new single wasn’t approved to be debuted at the Super Bowl show, I’ll riot. I mean it, tell your boss, and your boss’s boss, and your boss’s boss’s mom that I’m singing that song whether they like it or not. They can’t fucking stop me.”
Blake sighs. “No, that isn’t it. I’m pretty sure no one would dare tell you not to do something at a live show unless it was something they specifically did want you to do.” I don’t know why, but that brings a prideful smirk to my lips.
“There’s a chance that there’s an issue with the company we use to hire additional security.” I bristle immediately. “None of our regular guys,” he assures me. “But don’t go off with anyone you don’t know personally just to be safe.”
“What about–”
“The guy we hired for Luc was personally vetted and is safe. It’s the extra hires for stadium security and events that seem to be the issue. And it’s more a matter of backstage information and photos being sold, nothing that would risk your physical safety.”
I blow out a breath. “Well, that’s shitty, but I suppose it could be worse. I’ll see you Monday,” I say pointedly.
I’m practically vibrating by the time Luc gets home. I nearly take him down in a tackle of my own the moment he walks through the door.
“You won! You won!” I squeal, kissing him all over his face and neck while I hurriedly unzip his jacket and slip it off his shoulders.
“Miss me much?” Luc laughs as I strip him out of his hat, jacket, hoodie and shirt.
He stops laughing and lets out a heavy breath when I drop to my knees to take off his shoes and socks for him.
I smirk up at him, loving what the sight of me on my knees does to him.
I wasn’t even down here for that, but now that it’s in front of me…
I rub my face over his growing bulge. “I’ve been getting hard off and on all day, watching you kick Arizona’s ass.
Every time you bend over in those light pants…
” I shudder and hook my fingers in the waistband of his athletic pants.
“I made you dinner, but I’m going to need you to feed me first,” I say, pulling his pants and underwear down to mid-thigh.
Luc cups my face in one of his big, warm hands and runs his thumb over my bottom lip. His gaze is heated, but also sweet, almost reverent.
I wasn’t kidding when I said I’d been on edge all day.
I need him to fuck me in the worst way. Blake’s call reminded me that I only have one more full day and two nights left here before we have to be apart for a few weeks.
I plan to spend every moment of that time naked and one of us stuffed inside the other until we can’t move.
I run the flat of my tongue along the bottom of his cock, tracing the thick, pulsing vein that feeds blood to his erection with my tongue ring.
Then I tip back my head and open my mouth wide, tongue out, and beg him with my eyes to fuck my face.