Getting Real

He laughed. Stu had never mentioned the incident with the pool at Cherry, but he might’ve been getting a dig in now. Best to keep moving. “Step to your right mate, could you?” He shunted a power cable past.

He was around the back of stage, head and shoulders under an amp stack, attaching the cable to a booster when a voice said, “That’s how I like my men—at my feet.”

Thrill was a ripple of feeling up his spine and through his arms, like pins and needle pricks. He clicked the cable in place, tightened the screw and went to wriggle out when he realised Rielle was standing across his body, one leg either side of his hips. The more he wriggled, the more of her he could see: heeled ankle boots, smooth muscled legs, cut-off black denim shorts, a pierced belly button, defined abdominals, a really tiny red sleeveless t-shirt. Purple black lips suppressed a grin; eyes guarded by glittery lashes blinked at him.

He came to a stop when her feet were level with his chest. He ran his hands up her calf muscles, feeling them jump under his palms. He gripped behind her knees.

“You couldn’t take the heat last night,” she said, chin tucked in to look down at him.

“You know you can tease a man too much, Rielle.” He jerked her knees towards him, tipping her weight backwards, forcing her to sit down hard across his hips.

She gave a surprised, “Oh,” and planted her hands on his chest as her feet slid back and her knees hit the floor.

“And when you tease a man too much, you might not like what happens,” he finished, eyeballing her. Under her makeup she flushed pink. She tried to scramble to her feet but he caught her hips and held her in place. “This is how I like my women.”

Her eyes flared and she stopped struggling immediately, quick to realise the position he’d gotten her in and exactly how much he was enjoying her shifting about.

“Now who can’t take the heat?” He laughed. And as abruptly as he’d tipped her over, he let her go. That round goes to me. Three-one. Now we’re getting somewhere.

He expected her to spring to her feet; a slap or a kick wasn’t out of the question either. Instead she rocked her pelvis forward, grinding in to him, lay down over his chest, and whispered in his ear, “Say that to me when we’re alone and naked. Then let’s see what happens.” Before he could react, she sprang to her feet and was gone.

Now it was his turn to flush as heat coursed through his body. He lay on the floor with no will to get up until his heart stopped auditioning for its own drum solo. To be fair, point to Rielle. That makes it three-two.

By the time he got back to the main stage area, the band was ready for sound check. Bodge tossed him a radio mic. “You still on the job?” He nodded, so Bodge said, “Go mic Rielle.”

He found her testing the climbing rig on the Hand. She saw him coming and completed her climb, setting him up to chase her. She stood in the open cage and baited him. “You want me, Jake?” She gave him a face all innocent and fresh, but her voice was all “Come fuck me and hurry up about it”.

“Yeah.” He tried not to let the word carry extra meaning. Epic fail. It was one syllable and still he could hear the longing in it. Pretending he didn’t want to chase her down was like fish without the chips; half a meal, totally unsatisfactory.

He could’ve won a lot of money on predicting her next line. She planted her hands on her hips and said, “Then you better come get me.”

He groaned, put his hand on the first rung of the climbing rig and looked up at her. Without knowing it she had point to me written on her face. He took a deep breath, steadied his focus and hoisted himself up. The Hand was folded shut. He knew it wasn’t active so it wasn’t going anywhere, and that helped a lot. He looked up again to see her surprised grin and five seconds later was in the cage with her.

He said, “Four-two,” and let go of the railing.

“What?”

“I’m keeping score. I’m four, you’re two.”

“Score of what? Wait, I’m losing?”

“Sure are, baby.” He spun her around and clipped the battery pack to her shorts. Then he ran his hand up her back, under her shirt, threading the mic cords from the battery pack to her earpiece.

Rielle shivered as his knuckles grazed up her spine, flicking over her bra strap.

When he leant into her and said, “Done,” in her ear, she spun around to face him.

“Taken any Zanect today, Jake?”

He smiled, “Nope.” She looked puzzled, definitely a point to him. Maybe even a bonus point for difficulty. The thought made him laugh as he grabbed the railing to start his descent.

She stepped up close behind him. “My turn.” She fanned her palms over his mid back and up to his shoulders where she tucked her fingers into the neck of his t-shirt and pressed her body against his. There was no suppressing his groan of delight.

From the ground where he was micing Ceedee, Teflon watched Jake. When Ceedee moved off, he elbowed Lizard and jerked his chin up to indicate the Hand. “How long’s that been going on?”

“Fucked if I know,” said Lizard, mouth dropping open as he stared up at Rielle and Jake.

“What are we looking at? Aw, what the fuck??