Authors: Liz Thomas
Rock Her
Rock
Her
By Liz
Thomas
Copyright
2012. All rights reserved.
Other Books by Liz Thomas
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Note from the author:
This is meant to be an enjoyable light read. To make this book
a little different I placed different songs in the story. Each song will have
the name of the song and the artist it is by. It will be italicized. This
should bring out the emotion of the story even more. You can see the list of
songs and listen to them here:
http://lizthomasauthor.blogspot.com/2012/12/rock-her-music-playlist.html
Thanks to all the beta readers who persuaded me to keep and
expand the Marine part of Kip’s life. It really did give him more depth as a
person and made the story much more exciting. Thanks!
Chapter
One
As the music faded and the drummer banged out the last beats of
the song, the lights died. And Kip Jones spread his arms before the crowd and
listened to them roar. He was loved, and he loved it. The last beat pounded and
the lights went out. Kip ducked as the pyrotechnics blasted over his head and
out over the cheering crowd. He always flinched when those blasts sounded off,
bringing back horrible memories of Afghanistan, but it was only a flinch. The
roar of the fans always protected him from any deeper emotions. He walked off
of the stage slowly, taking in the applause for another great show. His last of
this tour. He was going to miss it.
He was thrown a towel by a back stage hand and he wiped his
face. When he dropped the towel Annie Beecher was standing before him. He
stopped abruptly before walking in to her.
Well
now
, he thought to himself,
look at
those legs go all the way up to heaven
.
Kip grabbed
a
bottled water from a
stage hand that happened to be walking by and looked the green eyed beauty up
and down. He was high from the adrenaline of being on stage, and he left his manners
behind somewhere between the first and second song.
She wore a tight fitting skirt and an even tighter top. Her
cleavage was screaming to be released, but she kept it under expert control.
Kip figured she was about five foot eight, but she was wearing ridiculously
high heels, so her actual height was anyone’s guess. Her bright red lips formed
into a smile and she threw her hand out to him.
And they are worth the climb
, he finished his thought.
“Mr. Jones,” she said loudly to be heard over the still excited
crowd chanting ‘encore! encore!’, “My name is Annie Beecher. We spoke on the
phone last week.”
“Ah, Annie, yes! I have been so looking forward to meeting
you!” Kip replied as loudly and looking her up and down again, obviously sizing
her up for one of his oversized t-shirts that he hoped she’d be wearing in his
hotel room in the morning. He took her hand and shook it.
Annie noticed the eye fuck and let her smile waver just a bit.
She pulled her hand from his. “I can’t wait to get started on the biography!”
She yelled at him.
Kip smiled wider, showing his perfect teeth. “I can’t wait to
work with you, too, Annie, but as you can hear, it’s going to have to wait just
a bit longer before we can start.” He threw his thumb over his shoulder back
toward the crowd stopping in the stadium. “It seems I am not yet done tonight!”
And if all goes right
, he thought,
neither of us will be done until morning
.
Annie smiled and nodded and swung her arm wide toward the stage
as if to say, get to it then. “Hold this, will you?” Kip tossed her his wet
towel and turned back to the stage. “Be right back.” He bounded out onto the
flashing stage and grabbed his microphone. The audience went ear splittingly
wild. He looked back towards where Annie was standing but she was gone.
Afterward Kip met her in his hotel room. He was already there
and coming out of the shower. Annie was shown in by one of his posse and the
door was closed behind her. She watched Kip as he walked from the shower and
saw his tattoos all over his arms and back. On his chest he had ink that looked
like bullet holes. His back was covered with a large cross lined with barbwire
and his left arm had a Marine Corps Semper Fi tattoo. His right arm was a full
sleeve of beautiful women and serpents coiled together in a way that suggested
a very interesting act of bestiality.
When Kip saw her staring at his tattoos he quickly grabbed a
t-shirt and pulled it over his head. Then he shook his shoulder length hair and
flung warm water throughout the immaculate room.
“Great Show,” Annie said.
“Thanks,” Kip replied. “It was the last night of the tour. It
was a lot of fun. Now it’s back to work.”
“Not too soon, I hope,” Annie said.
“Don’t worry, I’ll make plenty of time for you, Annie, just as
I promised.” He said.
She gave him a sideways look.
She’s not letting
anything get by, is she
? He thought.
“For the book, of course,” he added.
Annie looked down at her way too high shoes. “I know you wanted
to meet tonight, and that is fine. But I wasn’t sure why. I figured you’d be
beat after the show.”
Kip smiled and walked over to the couch, flinging thin but
well-toned body onto it. He patted the cushion next to him. “I don’t get beat,
Annie,” He said.
Annie saw then that this visit was to be more than strictly
business. She realized that she knew all along that it would be but hoped to
persuade him otherwise. Work on the biography could have begun just as easily
tomorrow morning as it could have tonight. Now she was asking herself why she
had actually agreed to come tonight. And then she asked herself why she had
dressed the way she had. She walked closer to the couch but didn’t sit down.
“Where’s the rest of the band?” she asked.
“Oh, we scratch out enough of a living to afford our own
rooms,” he said.
Annie laughed. “I bet you do. Look, Mr. Jones…”
“Kip,” he said. “Please. I am only thirty five. I haven’t
reached ‘Mister’ status yet.”
“Kip, then. I am very eager to get started, but…”
“Then let’s do it. But what, Annie?” Kip asked, once again
patting the couch.
Annie sat down but on the farthest edge from him.
“Well, Kip, I mean, I just thought we would start during normal
hours, like tomorrow. You know, when we’re both fresh and can think straight,”
Annie said.
“Well, I am fresh, Annie. And if I might say, you look pretty
fresh yourself,” he said half laughing. He looked at his watch. “Besides, it is
tomorrow. I’ve got two thirty six am.”
Annie smiled and looked down at her smooth legs. She realized
she had turned her knees toward him, a clear come on. Why had she done that?
She moved them non-
chalantly
in a safer direction.
“Okay Kip, let’s get this out of the way now, shall we?”
Kip raised his eyebrows at her.
“I just came out of a very bad relationship, and all I can
think of now is about not getting into another one. Besides, I have a lot of
baggage. I am sure you wouldn’t want to get mixed up in any of it. And…”
“And?” Kip said, his smile never fading.
“And, anyway I have a rule,” Annie said.
“A rule? Go on…”
“I never date rockers, Kip. Never. I write about them. I don’t
date them. Even ones like you that have the face and body of Adam Levine. It’s
why I do such a great job. I don’t get personally involved. It makes the story
pure. True. You know?”
Kip looked at her, keeping his smile. He cocked his head to the
side and sized her up again. He said nothing.
Adam Levine? Damn, maybe I should cut my hair to have the full package.
“Well?” Annie asked.
“Okay, Annie. I get it. And I apologize. I was acting like a
dick anyway. I mean you look great. I am a sucker for a hot chick. I saw you
tonight. I wanted you. And I acted like a dick. It’s not the first time.
Probably won’t be the last time. Please forgive me.”
Annie looked at him for a moment and then smiled. “Forgiven,”
she said.
“Good,” Kip said. “So, where shall we begin?”
“Well, that’s really up to you,” she said. “But I like to get
some initial back story to work with starting out. Like family. Where you grew
up. What made you want to do what you do…Do you have any secrets? Stuff like
that.”
“Well, I have no living family,” Kip started. “My father passed
away while I was in the Marine Corps. I’d really rather not talk much about
that right now.” He looked down at her shoes.
“You don’t want to talk about your father or the Marines, which
one?” Annie asked.
Kip looked back up at her and looked serious for a change.
“Either one, really.”
“Well, clearly there is a story there,” Annie said. “Are we
going to talk about it at all?”
Kip looked back at her shoes. “We’ll see.” He nodded at her
feet. “Those shoes must be absolute torture.”
“You have no idea,” Annie said. She kicked them off and they
rolled on the floor. She opened her notebook and pulled a pen from the binder.
Kip woke to Jack
Treme
pounding on
the door. He stirred and then he pushed himself up on the couch. He looked
around confused for a moment until the pounding on the door happened again. He
staggered to his feet and shuffled across to the door, catching a glance of
Annie bundled up on his bed in the other room. She was buried in a sea of silk
and blankets. He spotted bare thigh between the waves of sheets, and decided
her flesh was the silk. The sheets were only a cheap frame around the true
masterpiece.
And she’s wearing my
T-shirt. I hate it when a plan comes together but doesn’t include me getting
with the girl. Maybe I’ll get her next time
, he thought.
He ran his fingers through his hair and continued on to the
door. He pulled it open and walked away, knowing it was Jack that was doing the
pounding.
“Damn Kip. Four o’clock is late in the day even for you,” Jack
said as he walked in, leaving the door open behind him.
“Stayed up all night, Jacky.”
Jack followed him to the kitchen, where Kip was pouring himself
a glass of Crown. He saw Annie stirring in the bed as he walked by the open door
of the bedroom.
“Well, that explains the late night,” Jack said as he took the
bottle from Kip and pulled a mouthful from it. “Who’s the coin purse?”
Kip took a drink from his glass. “She’s no coin purse. She’s my
biographer. And we were working not bumping
nasties
.”
“Biographer?” Jack said with incredulity.
“Yes, Jacky. I’ve actually done more in my life than play bass
and sing. I have a story to tell. She’s going to help me tell it.”
“Kip, you don’t even talk to the band about your life,” Jack
said before taking another pull from the Crown Royal bottle. “Now you’re going
to put it all out there in a book?”
“That’s right Jacky. You want to know more about me, read the
book.”
Jack studied Kip to see if he was being serious or yanking his
chain. He decided he could not tell.
“Well, you’ll have to give me a free signed copy when it’s
done.”
Kip tilted the glass back and drained the last of it, then
reached for the bottle, taking it from Jack’s hand.
“No Jacky. You’re going to have to pay.” He said and he filled
his glass again.
Jack gave Kip that look again, the one where he wasn’t sure if
Kip was joking or not. Then Kip smiled a half smile at him before taking
another drink. Jack still didn’t know what that meant. That’s what Jack loved
about Kip. He was independent to a fault. He never went out of his way to let
anyone inside his head. At least Jack had never seen it. Kip was loyal to a
fault though, and the nicest guy Jack had ever met.
Kip saw the confusion in Jack’s face. He relished in it. Just
like his dad had always said, back before he didn’t say anything at all to Kip,
‘Always leave them guessing’. Kip was good at that.
Jack motioned toward the bedroom with the bottle he had just
taken back from Kip.
“So, what’s wrong with her?” he asked.
“What do you mean?” Kip replied.
“Well, I know she got here last night, so she’s been here all
night and all day,” Jack said. “And you said you haven’t added her to your Kip
list. So, what’s wrong with her?”
Kip scratched his head and turned to walk back to the couch.
“There is not a damn thing wrong with her. She must have a force field or
something. She resisted the Kip charm.”
“Interesting,” Jack said, following him to the couch.
“Isn’t it though?” Kip replied.
Jack took a seat on the leather chair next to the couch and put
his feet up on the coffee table.
“Well, don’t worry, buddy. Happens to the best of us.” He
smiled.
“How would you know?” Kip said sarcastically.
“Easy now, Kip,” Jack said. “Keep that up and I might not have
your back tonight at the club.”
“The club?” Kip asked. “Who said I was going to a club tonight,
Jacky?”
“We did, Kip,” Jack said. “Stabs and Lock and I. We decided.
Come on. Let’s have an end of tour blow out. Bring your lady friend there
along.”
“I’m afraid I won’t be joining you at the club,” a voice
sounded from behind Jack’s head. Kip looked up and Jack turned around in his
chair. Annie stood there in Kips T-shirt with the silk sheet wrapped around her
waist. Her hair was mussed, but she was still stunning.
The perfect woman
, Kip thought.
Fresh
out of bed and still a knockout
.