Rise (Rock God 1)

Looking up, he snaps, “Ace, beef up security.”

“We all know ‘In Your Eyes,’ right?” Cash asks as Ammo chokes on his swig of Jäger.

“What the fuck has happened to you?” Rafe snarls, shaking his head in disgust.

I stand and hand him the bottle. “Drink up, Rafe. Looks like we’re going to jail.”

GIA

Present – Twenty-five years old

Venice Beach, California

I hear music. Loud music, like it sounds right next to my head. Groaning, I roll over and blink at the morning sun shining into my room. And consider the fact that I wasn’t dreaming about hearing music.

“Who’s playing Peter Gabriel at shock volume?” Julianna grumbles next to me.

My heart leaps to my throat as I slap her awake and bolt up. “Holy fuck.” My stomach flutters and my face heats up as I hear it.

“Gia. Gia Fontaine?” It vibrates around my small bedroom as I try to breathe.

“Oh my God, Julianna. It’s him.” My hand goes to my neck. I try to swallow.

“Wait. What’s happening?” She sits up on her elbows. Her mascara and the residual makeup we forgot to remove last night makes her look a bit like Harley Quinn.

“Gia Fontaine, please come to the front of your house.” His gravelly voice is loud and clear as Julianna grabs me.

“Oh. My. God. It’s Granger. Outside your house playing ‘In Your Eyes’!”

I blink at her because holy fuck. What do I do? I might have said that out loud because she yells, “Get out there.”

“I’m going to throw up.” I slap her hand away as she tries to fix my hair. Taking a deep breath, I open the door.

And there he stands like the Rock God he is. He can’t be real. He’s so beautiful my heart aches. Our eyes lock and I shiver at the intensity I see. Goose bumps trail down my arms and my nipples harden as his eyes dip to them.

I can’t think straight. I can’t breathe right. All I can concentrate on are his full lips that I wish were on mine. And his big, pierced cock that I need inside me.

Jesus, what’s happening to me?

“Come here, Brat.” The rumble of his voice brings me back to the now and the fact that he’s actually here.

In my front yard. Playing “In Your Eyes.”

I stare at him greedily. He looks tired, but it works for him. Nothing has changed. It can’t change. He will always be the Rock God. But somehow that doesn’t matter anymore.

Ammo stands next to him playing the guitar. Nuke is pounding on his drums in my next- door neighbor’s yard as Sebastian walks around filming all this mayhem.

“What are you doing?” I yell.

Cash is on the keyboards. I almost do a double take. Is he actually smiling? I think this might be the first time I’ve seen Cash smile in ages.

“Come over here and find out,” he demands into the microphone.

“Gia, honey? Are these men for you?” Mrs. Darcy yells at me from her porch as Nuke pounds on his drums, tossing his sticks in the air, though he doesn’t miss a beat. And I almost start to cry, and I have no idea why, except that Rhys is here. All of them are.

He came for me.

“Are they?” she yells again, forcing me to break Rhys’s hypnotizing stare. She’s wearing one of her homemade tie-dyed dresses. Mrs. Darcy, or Sunshine as she prefers to be called—but she’s in her mid-seventies so I feel uncomfortable calling her that—is the best neighbor. Peace, love, sex, and drugs is her motto. I think she used to be seriously into selling LSD, and has lived in the same house for over fifty years.

“They are.” I smile at her. Behind me, I hear Julianna talking on the phone. More than likely it’s Axel, since yesterday was a shit show. But that’s Julianna’s problem.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Go to him.” Mrs. Darcy’s hands shoo me away.

“Holy shit, it’s The Stuffed Muffins.” People start to run up to see them. Most have their dogs out for their morning walks as they start to film them.

“Granger, Ammmmo, Nuuuke,” a surfer screams as he walks by in his wetsuit, a surfboard under his arm.

“Brat, if you don’t want me going to jail, I’d get over here.”

Licking my lips, I close my eyes, and suddenly I’m free from all the self-doubt. I know where my destiny lies. Have always known but lost sight of it for a while. He is and always will be my one true love. For as long as I can remember, I’ve known that I belong to him.

One.

Two.

Three.

I breathe in and out, then run to him, throwing my arms around him. He drops the microphone with a loud screech.

“Took you long enough.” His voice is rough as his eyes caress my face, which I’m sure looks like shit. But whatever. He thinks I’m beautiful.