Mischief
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Copyright © Madelynne Ellis 2014
Madelynne Ellis asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authorâs imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Ebook Edition © 2014 ISBN: 9780007579525
Version: 2014â09â04
âI should get you one of those,â Xane remarked to his best friend Steve Matlock, pointing out the slogan on the T-shirt of the guy standing at the end of the VIP bar.
ââI love to bang,ââ Steve read, and chuckled over the stick-figure drawing of a man beating the hell out of a set of drums. âLike it. Do you reckon thereâs a whole set, so we can have one each?â The pair were two sixths of the rock band Black Halo, and theyâd just blown the frigging minds of the thousands-strong crowd around the main stage at the Sölvesborg Rock Festival with their explosive gothic freak-show. While the rest of the band members were still scrawling their signatures over various pieces of female anatomy, Xane and Steve had slipped into the VIP tent for some celebratory drinks. After all, it wasnât every day you went platinum before breakfast and got to psych the crowd up for Ozzy in the evening. Xane figured heâd be riding this particular high for weeks, if not months. Itâd been a long while coming, but their dedication was finally paying off.
âWhat would Ashâs say?â
ââI love licking,ââ Xane suggested. Their lead guitarist was widely rumoured to have a magic tongue. Chances were he was giving it a workout right now, charming the panties off their female fans in order to guarantee their future loyalty. It certainly spread the word about them more successfully than any flyer campaign.
âYeah, and âI love to touch baseâ for Paul. And maybe âI practise the rhythm methodâ for Spook.â
âExcept he doesnât.â Their rhythm guitarist Spook Mortensen didnât need to employ contraceptive methods because he never had sex, a fact Xane still struggled to get his head around. He wasnât sure how anyone managed to function without getting horizontal on a regular basis â like a minimum of three times a day and preferably more. Not that he insisted on being horizontal â he was equally happy getting his rocks off standing, sitting or swinging from the rafters. Hell, in pretty much any position imaginable. He was flexible like that. Xane was flexible about a lot of things, which was how heâd come to move on from the interesting shirt to the far more interesting body beneath it, and the very cute guy to whom it belonged. And he did mean very cute.
âWhat would yours say?â Steve asked, still focused on clothing slogans.
ââThroat job.ââ
ââThroat job,â seriously? That makes it sound like youâre up for sucking dick ⦠Oh!â Steve caught up with the direction in which Xaneâs thoughts had wandered. âI guess you are. You know that doesnât guarantee he is?â
âHe is.â The guy had been casting him not so surreptitious glances since theyâd walked in.
âI think itâs more likely heâs out to bang chicks.â
The guy had two of them hanging on his every word, but neither had his attention. That was hotly focused on Xane. The man was literally eating him up with that five-yard stare.
Xane didnât recognise him but, with 30-something groups on the roster ranging from virtual unknowns to the megastars of the genre, that was no big surprise. What he did recognise was a man dedicated to his craft. You only got arms like that, a physique like that, through drumming. He knew. Heâd admired Steveâs body often enough.