Chapter 12
Paul “Rock Giant” Reed
After Paul realised that Ginny had assisted Jodi in making a getaway, he was all ready to go on the hunt for her to make sure she was safe and to retrieve a dozen things that had no doubt ended up in her pockets.
That plan was promptly thwarted by Xane, Ash, Spook, and Luthor all sitting on him, which in turn netted everyone some bruises until Alle got in on the act.
He wasn’t going to risk hurting her, for all that she was hurting him by planting herself on his lap.
Jodi, his Jodi had just walked off to face a battle alone, and he ought to have been there to protect her. He’d promised he’d do that, and he kept his promises.
“You can love her without hounding her like a deranged stalker.” Alle turned sideways so she could look at him as she spoke.
She was wearing a dress today, knee-length, and bare legs.
“Just shaved,” she said, observing his line of sight.
She rubbed a hand along one shin. “All silky smooth. Unlike you, you’re practically beardy. ”
“Am not.” He tried his palm against his cheek and… And maybe he was. Leastways, his stubble had grown long enough that it was soft to the touch rather than spiky.
“I kinda like it.”
“I should shave.” He lifted his hips prompting her to move, except she didn’t.
“Do you really think I’m that dumb, Paul Reed? Any personal grooming you want to do will be happening right here.”
“I’ll fetch his electric,” muttered Ash, who alongside one of the newer roadies, was standing guard at the front entrance in case he tried to make an exit, which, by the way, was complete bollocks.
Black Halo were supposed to be doing interviews right now.
Xane, Spook, and Luthor had gone. Ronnie had tried to sneak off with them, but Xane had magicked his manager, Lyra, out of thin air and she’d whisked him off to keep him busy meeting his army of adoring teenaged fans.
The last thing anyone needed was Captain Blabbermouth blabbing about blowjobs or bride thefts.
Even Paul agreed with that, although, curiously, no one, and that included Ronnie, had mentioned the whole bro-job thing in the face of his impromptu wedding—small mercies.
“How about you tell me what the hell happened?” Alle said, stroking his furry chin. “How’d you get from the prospect of a Bushie blowjob to tying the knot with a lass you’ve just met?”
“He hasn’t just met her.” Ginny squeezed her petite derriere onto the vinyl-covered bench alongside them. “They shared a night of unbridled passion in the past, ain’t that right, Paul?”
That wasn’t quite how he’d have described it.
The passion part had only taken up a fraction of the evening he and Jodi had shared.
Not that he was downplaying that part. He had some very fond memories of her tits jiggling above him.
He did always love a woman on top. Especially one with cushiony thighs who didn’t freak out over the fact he was ribbed for pleasure.
It was too bad they’d both passed out last night before things got as far as consummation.
Then again, considering how freaked Jodi had been about everything first thing, maybe that was a good thing.
He hoped her fiancé wasn’t giving her a hard time.
Actually, he hoped she was ditching the lousy sod.
He fucking deserved it. Only a complete monster agreed to marry someone and then stood them up.
Unless he’d been in a freak accident and was now in a hospital bed incapable of speech or motion, he had no fucking excuse for failing to honour his intentions. None. Seriously, none.
Not that Paul had minded stepping in.
His gain. The fool’s loss.
Jodi had been all kinds of gorgeous in her flower crown.
“When was this?” Ash asked, returning from upstairs with Paul’s electric razor. He skidded it across the table, misjudged the slipperiness, so that it wound up in Alle’s lap. She picked it up and turned it on.
“Ages ago,” he muttered, and left it at that.
The details of that night were his and Jodi’s and would stay that way.
No one else needed to know that it’d been her who’d drowned Bertha I.
He smiled recalling the panic in her eyes when she’d first clapped eyes on him and realised her joyride had come with a passenger.
She’d tried to get away from him then and hadn’t stood a chance.
He certainly wasn’t planning on letting her run for the hills now they were oath-bound.
“Want me to do the honours?” Alle waved his vibrating razor under his nose.
“Are you trustworthy with that thing?”
“I am if she’s not,” Ginny insisted. “I’m gentle, aren’t I, Ash?”
“Mostly.”
That earned him a pout.
In the end, he let Alle shave him out of sheer boredom, both his chin and his armpits, plus some annoying tufty bits that had a habit of sprouting on the tops of his shoulder blades.
After that, and multiple switcheroos that saw him playing chair to both Ginny and Dani in addition to Alle, the ladies realised it wasn’t actually necessary for them to sit on his lap at all, because there were handy dandy handcuffs attached to the table, courtesy of Spook and his sadistic ways.
“Honestly, ladies, this is highly unnecessary.”
“The guys say otherwise,” they replied, all smiles. “Just think of us as your own set of angels. We’ll be right here keeping you company until you have to be on stage.”
“I need a slash,” he said.
Ginny promptly planted a pint glass in the centre of the table. “We’ll look the other way if you need us to.”
“This is bollocks.” He tested the cuffs, but there was no give in them, or the chains by which they were attached.
Seemed unlikely he’d manage to wrench the bolts out of the wall either.
He’d just have to hope that Jodi was fairing okay alone.
She’d better be okay, or he was going to cave-in some heads the moment he was free.
If they didn’t think he’d do it right on stage in front of the thousands-strong crowd, they were being blind to reality.
“So, did Ronnie blow you?” Ginny asked, facing him across the table with her chin in her hands.
“Fuck off.”
“Now, now, no need to be grizzly. I just wanted to know if he was better at it than me?”
Paul clamped his mouth closed, then settled back against the chair back and closed his eyes. If he was going to be stuck here, he might as well take a fucking nap.