The Rocker Who Wants Me (The Rocker... Series) (30 page)

“That’s not fair.”

“You live in my building,” she said. “I see you with your friends playing games outside all the time from my window.”

We all sat down in the chairs outside the principal’s office and the little girl sat next to me. She was still holding my hand.

“I didn’t know you lived there too. Why didn’t you come out to play?”

“I thought you wouldn’t want to play with me. Mommy says that I’m a bad girl and no one likes me. I thought you wouldn’t either and I was scared to ask,” she answered timidly.

“Well, you can come and play with us next time, okay? Can I tell you a secret?” I said, leaning into her ear.

“What?”

“My friend Jude likes to jump rope,” I said, and the little girl giggled.

“I knew that would make you smile.”

“Thanks for helping me,” she said, her face still sad.

“I’m Kris,” I said, squeezing her hand.

She blinked her big blue eyes at me and answered, “I’m Jessie.”

I opened my eyes and blinked a few times. Every time I would have dreams from my childhood it always took me a minute to remember that I was far away from that life now. I was no longer the abused little boy with a worthless drunk for a father. I was Kris Engle, drummer for the famous rock band Bad Blooded Rebel that I’d started in high school with my best friends since childhood. I was rich, famous, and didn’t have any of the worries and stress I had growing up in an abusive household.

I heard a soft, sensual moan coming from next to me and I smiled as I turned to face the most important thing I had that always came before anything else.

“Hey, baby,” I said to Jessie, sweeping a stray piece of chestnut brown hair away from her face. I felt tingles shoot all the way down to my
very
awake dick as she blinked those big blue eyes at me.

“Good morning. Did you sleep okay?” Jessie asked me.

She placed her delicate hand on my scruffy cheek and caressed it soothingly.

“I always do when I when I wake up next to you,” I said, kissing her forehead.

She smiled at me but the way she was biting her lip told me she wanted to say more.

“What is it? What’s going on in that beautiful head of yours?”

“You were mumbling in your sleep,” she said, her eyes full of concern.

“I was?” I asked.

She nodded sadly and said, “You kept saying my name, ‘
pretty eyes’
, and
‘leave her alone’
.”

I sighed and wrapped my arm around her, pulling her beautiful naked body into mine.

“I dreamt of the day I met you,” I replied.

Jessie traced my bottom lip with her finger.

“I figured. You okay?”

I smiled at her.

“Of course I am. If I hadn’t defended you that day we wouldn’t be here now. I’d take the beating I got when I got home that day over and over because it meant I’d have you in my arms now,” I said.

She closed her eyes and shook her head.

“It hurts that he hit you for doing the right thing. I hated him so much, Kris. Even now.”

“I hate him too, Jess,” I answered, my jaw locking and my hand unintentionally gripping the sheet in remembered anger.

“Hey,” she said, seeing the look on my face. “He can’t hurt you anymore, you know that right?”

I took her hand in mine and kissed her soft skin, making sure to add a few light kisses to the platinum band on her delicate left finger.

“I know, baby. I just don’t want any of our past demons to affect our future. Especially now,” I said to her.

I felt a tiny nudge at my stomach under the blankets and we both laughed.

“Well, it looks like this little one agrees with you too,” Jessie said.

I smiled and pulled the blankets back to see her gorgeous naked body. I placed my hand on her belly, which seemed to be getting bigger and rounder by the day, and gave it a rub.

“Good morning to you too, peanut,” I said. “I can’t wait to meet you next week.”

Jessie giggled and the movement made her breasts shake. She’d been filling out everywhere and I couldn’t control my dick as it quivered at the sight of her perfect chest. It was excruciatingly painful not to be able to sink myself into her and get lost, but since she was six days from her due date Dr. Mitchell told her no sex because it was painful for her.

It was torture; she was always so beautiful to me but now that her body was growing with our child it took all my strength to not ravage her every chance I had. I felt another kick against my hand and I looked at Jessie, who was practically glowing.

“This little one is growing so fast that I don’t know if we have another week,” she giggled.

I leaned down and kissed her belly.

“Well you can come out at any time, peanut. Your mommy and I can’t wait to hold you.”

I felt Jessie’s slender fingers combing through my messy bed hair.

“You’re going to be such a good dad, Kris.”

I rested my head on her belly and looked up into her pale blue eyes.

“I really hope so, baby.”

“If anyone can live through such a horrible childhood and come out whole, it’s you. You know what not to do with our baby just based on how your dad raised you.”

I reached up and touched her cheek.

“Or how your mother raised you.”

She smiled a sad smile at me and sighed.

“Guess we both lived through hell, didn’t we?”

“We did. But as much as I hate what we went through, I wouldn’t change a thing if it meant I wouldn’t be with you. This baby is going to have the life we should have had growing up.”

A tear slid down her cheek and I wiped it away with a stroke of my finger.

“I would rather die than to have our baby go through what I went through with my mother.”

“Hey,” I said, moving up from her belly to meet her eyes.

“Don’t cry, Jess. This is a happy time. We are going to meet our child soon and we fought hard for our happily ever after.”

I pulled her into my arms and began to shower her with kisses.

“I know you think I’ll be a good dad, but let me tell you something. You, love, are going to be an
amazing
mom. I love you so much.”

She smiled at me and this time it was full of love and joy.

“I love you too, Kris. I always have,” she whispered before kissing my lips.

As I held her close to me with our baby kicking between us, I closed my eyes and remembered how I ended up here, naked in bed with the most beautiful woman in the world, with the anticipation of being parents for the first time filling me a with happiness I never thought I’d feel.

C
HAPTER 1

Kris

Ten Years Earlier

As the song we were playing was nearing the end, I banged the drums perfectly in time and played like my life depended on it. Bad Blooded Rebel had been playing around town for the better part of a year and while we were popular locally, we still hadn’t hit the big time like we desperately wanted.

I had a feeling tonight would be the night that would change everything. Cory Brewer, lead singer of Sticks and Stones, a huge band in the rock world, happened to be in the club watching our show tonight. The band was playing in town playing a headlining concert in our hometown of Cincinnati the next night. Luckily he had come to The Metal Cage tonight and was watching us play with interest. This guy was no talent scout but it was definitely a foot in the door professionally for us if he liked what he heard.

As our final song of our set ended, I played my signature drum solo and movement out of the corner of my eye made me turn my head. My eyes landed on the cutest girl in the whole club and I smiled at her as she swayed her hips to the music. I watched her long, light brown hair flowing around her slender shoulders as she looked up and smiled back at me, pride beaming from her eyes.

From the day I met her when I was seven years old, Jessica Monroe had quickly become one of my best friends, next to the guys in the band. We had a lot in common; music, movies, hangouts. The one huge thing that bonded us? We both came from fucked up households.

Jessie lived with her mother (if you could call her that) in the same rundown apartment complex that I lived in with my dad and where Jude, Beau, and his sister Sadie lived. It was about as close to a slum as you could get and it seemed like that was where just about every horrible neglectful parent lived with their children they wished they never had.

I met her on my first day of second grade and she was starting kindergarten. She was being picked on and bullied and from the moment I laid eyes on her I felt a strong sense of both sympathy and protectiveness. There was something about her that pulled me to her that day and when we talked outside the principal’s office that day I knew I’d made a friend for life.

Ryder, Jude, and Beau all liked to give me shit about Jessie having a thing for me but I knew it wasn’t true. I’d spent every day with her for the past eleven years and if there was one thing I could read well was when a chick was into me. Jessie clearly wasn’t because she didn’t dress in tight clothes or act like a slut to get my attention. I wasn’t a prick that thought I was hot shit but I knew I was okay to look at. From the time I was twelve girls went out of their way to hook up with me. Most of high school was spent with me having girls following me everywhere. I even had a girlfriend or two and Jessie was right there through it all. She was always nice to my girlfriends and never had one negative thing to say about any of them. If she was into me she would’ve probably trashed the girls up and down and told me I could’ve done better.

Even if she’d shown the slightest interest in me I am not sure I would have followed through with it. There is only one female in all my life I’ve ever been able to count on and that was Jessie. Hell, I told her things I couldn’t even tell the guys in the band. How could I go and fuck that all up?

As I banged my drums for the final time in the song, the club erupted in applause and loud screaming. I loved performing live…it was such a rush. I had always wanted to be a musician and when we hit junior high and I joined the marching band, I loved every instrument and learned to play piano and guitar but drums just seemed to be a perfect fit.

Luckily, Ryder’s father Alan saw how committed to music we all were and fully supported us. He was the one that bought all of our first instruments, including my first drum kit, and he let us practice in their garage every single day. I knew my dad didn’t give two shits about me so to have a guy like Alan Matthews behind you was truly great. I really hope Ryder knew how lucky he was.

“Thank you all, this crowd fucking rocks!” Ryder screamed into the microphone.

“See you all next show!”

He took his guitar off and reached into his pocket to do his signature gesture and tossed a handful of guitar picks out to the audience. I stood up from my drum kit and walked across the stage to stand next to Jude, who was standing on Ryder’s left. Beau was on the right side of Ryder and we all joined our hands together. We raised our arms and bowed down and the crowd started to go crazy, especially the girls in the front row. Ryder and Jude were already staring at them like they were pieces of meat. I chuckled to myself…I would almost feel sorry for those unsuspecting girls if they weren’t asking for it night after night.

I noticed a cute redhead with her eye on me…she was definitely hot. I wanted to go for it. Fuck, I’d not gotten laid in almost six months and my hand was getting tired. However, I was just going to have to pass this time because Jessie was here. I vowed to myself that no matter how bad I wanted to party, I wouldn’t do it if she came to any of the shows.

Even though her birthday was coming up next week, she was still only seventeen years old. She’d witnessed and lived through more than anyone her age should have had to and I wasn’t going to let her see that side of me…the wild, slutty rocker that was out to party and get pussy like it was nothing. She wasn’t my girlfriend but she was, however, one of my best friends and I wasn’t going to expose her to any more sex and partying than she was already used to seeing from her own evil bitch mother.

After we bowed, we all started walking toward the back stage. I tossed a glance at Jessie over my shoulder and jerked my head in the direction of the back, silently telling her to meet me at the backstage entrance and I’d make sure she got back.

“Good show guys,” Ryder said, nudging my back with his elbow.

“You fucking killed it tonight, dude.”

“Thanks, man,” I said.

I stopped off to the side of the entrance and waited for Jessie to appear.

Beau smiled at me as he took a drink of bottled water.

“I saw Jess came tonight. You’ve got to be stoked about that,” he teased.

I smirked at him and wiped my forehead with the back of my hand.

“Yeah, I am. She’s not been to a show in a few weeks because she’s had to work.”

Jessie worked mostly late shifts at a fast food restaurant called The Greasy Spoon and I hated it. It was in a bad part of town and it made me nervous that she had to take the bus or a cab home on nights when we had a show or when I was working the graveyard shift doing stock for a local grocery store. I hoped that we got this record deal soon because the first thing I was doing was helping her get out of that shithole apartment she lived in with her fucking bitch of a mother.

“She’s looking pretty cute tonight, bro. Bet she dressed up for you,” Jude teased.

I rolled my eyes.

“She’s just wearing jeans and a black tank top,” I said, scanning the crowd for her but I couldn’t see her anywhere.

“The fact that you know that means you were checking her out. I never give a shit about what a girl is wearing because it’s usually in a pile on my bedroom floor or in the back seat of my car,” Ryder said.

“Just give it up and admit you have a boner for the girl.”

“I don’t have a boner for Jess, you fucker. She’s just my friend.”