Chapter 42: Heroes & Arm Porn
Nico
Recovery from a stab wound on your side really fucking sucked. Every time I moved my arm, my back, or my hip too much, the stitches pulled taut, which meant my intimate activities with Allie had been limited for the past two weeks. It pissed me the hell off.
I had finally convinced her that I wouldn't hurt myself if I laid on my uninjured side and gently slid into her from behind. Gently being the key word. She felt incredible wrapped around me, as always, but I was dying from the need to fuck her into the mattress. That kind of hip action was a no-go at the moment. I couldn't wait for these goddamned stitches to be removed tomorrow.
The press and our fans had gone wild over the story of the attack. If I had to hear one more fucking person call me a "hero", I was going to hurl. I wasn't a hero. I was simply a man who couldn't stand the thought of any harm coming to the love of his life, and would do anything in his power to keep her safe.
Sharing that thought in the first interview the band did for the new album press junket did not help matters. People lost their damned minds over it, as if I was the only man to ever tryto protect his woman. #NicoIsAHero can suck it. I'm not a hero. I'm a man who can't live without the woman he loves. What is so fucking hard to understand about that?
Of course, I didn't mind if Allie thought of me that way. She gave me a blow job that damned near made me pass out after we got home from that interview, so I wasn't about to complain to her.
I wasn't the only one in the spotlight after that night, though. Pictures and video taken outside the hospital showed Matt consoling my sister, who had been clinging to him and crying. His arms were wrapped protectively around her as he talked softly to her and rubbed a hand up and down her back. It was sweet, I guess, but I still wanted to kick his ass a little for pursuing my sister. Still, it was pretty obvious that they were in love. The fucker had even told me they had talked about marriage, although neither of them were in a hurry to take that step just yet. Becca had officially moved in with him three days ago, a fact that did not go unnoticed by the tabloids.
Josh and Min were also photographed together, after having kept their relationship under-wraps for weeks now. They'd been spotted by the paparazzi leaving the hospital together, then again two days later at her son's pee-wee soccer game. One of the other mothers had asked to take a selfie with Josh before the game. The woman hadn't wasted any time posting it to social media, which wouldn't have been that big of a fucking deal except she had also tagged the location of the soccer field in her post. By the time the game was over, some of Storm Front's more zealous local fans had converged in the parking lot along with a couple of paps who had nothing better to do. They did get a cute picture of Josh and Min walking toward his car hand-in-hand, with her son perched on his shoulders, grinning from ear to ear.
Tony and James had also been photographed leaving the hospital that night, with James having a protective arm around Tony's shoulder, and helping him into the car so that he didn't have to move his injured arm. Over the last week, they've made a couple of low-key appearances together in public, going to dinner together once and taking James's dog for a walk. The paparazzi was quick to notice, and pictures of them holding hands and sharing a quick kiss made headlines. I had to give it to James. The guy was dealing with his sudden brush with fame - and his first relationship with another man - with the same laid-back attitude and sense of humor that I'd come to expect from him over the years.
Aside from the online hate they were catching from some of the bottom-feeders in this world, he'd gotten some shit from a couple of guys he worked with, as well as one of his and Alex's old friends from college. Allie was pissed about that one in particular, since the guy been her friend, too. She'd called the asshole a few days ago to give him hell about being such a small-minded, ignorant prick, then cut ties with him by blocking him from her cell phone and all of her social media accounts.
Alex's Aunt Ellen, who was close to James, hadn't batted an eye at the news. She'd apparently called and told him that she expected him and Tony to come to dinner at her house soon, so she could get to know his boyfriend better. Tony had introduced James to his mother, who was fucking thrilled that her son was in a serious relationship for once. I'd laughed my ass off when I'd heard that she'd asked James how he felt about adoption. The woman wanted grandkids, and she wasn't at all fucking subtle about it. Tony had been mortified. James thought it was funny as hell when he caught Tony blushing over it.
The press was having a field day with the idea that the men of Storm Front were all settling down now, since none of us had ever seriously dated anyone since the band had gotten together. My Nonna just told us all "it was damned time you boys grew up", before asking when she was going to get some more great-grandkids. "Gracie needs some cousins," she'd added. Since she had pretty much claimed Matt, Tony and Josh as her grandsons years ago, she didn't much care which one of us reproduced first, as long as we didn't make her wait too long. Nonna had a lot in common with Tony's mom.
I turned my thoughts away from the fact that the men of Storm Front were off the market, and turned my attention to Allie. She was sitting at the end of the sofa with her laptop balanced on her knees, engrossed in the wedding plans that she'd been making. I'd tried to help as much as possible, but I didn't much care about the where or how, I was just focused on the when.
I had been pushing to get married as soon as possible. I couldn't fucking wait until I could call her my wife.Yesterday, Allie had received a call from the owner of a vineyard up in wine country, just north of San Franscisco. They'd had a wedding booked at their vineyard resort two months from now which had just cancelled. Allie had just called them the day before, on the off-chance that they had an opening sometime soon, and luckily, the guy had taken her contact information down even though they were booked. When the cancellation came in, he'd called her immediately.
She'd showed me the pictures, and the place looked fantastic. Even better, the owner's brother-in-law, Jude Marian, was a famous country singer, so the guy wasn't even remotely fazed about dealing with us. He also understood exactly howimportant it was to us to keep the details off of the tabloid radar until after the wedding.
Neither of us wanted anything overly formal, just a small gathering of our closest family and friends. Allie had found her dress, which I wasn't allowed to know anything about, other than the fact that it was a "champagne-colored cocktail length dress", whatever the fuck that meant. I didn't have to wear a tux, since Allie wanted a more casual look, so she was currently looking for ideas online.
"What about something like this?" she asked me, turning her laptop so I could see the photo on the screen.It was a guy wearing pants and a shirt, with a vest, so I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be giving my opinion on.
"Well, I did kind of assume I would be wearing clothes, so yeah, Sunshine, that's fine." I told her with a smirk, reaching over to grab my bottle of beer from the coffee table.
She rolled her eyes at me and turned the laptop back to face her."I'm talking about the colors. I'm thinking tan dress slacks a shade or two darker than my dress, a white dress shirt, and a vest that's a darker tan. Oh, and the sleeves need to be rolled up, so I can get some arm porn."
She said that last part absently, as she scrolled through more pictures. I choked on the swig of beer I'd just taken.
"So you can get some what?" I said, coughing to get the beer out of my windpipe.
She looked at me in that distracted way she had, and I could see her mentally flipping through her last words to me.
"Some arm porn. You know, when a hot guy has his sleeves rolled up on his forearms, and he's all sexy and everything."
"Arm porn," I repeated, shaking my head because I didn't know that was even a thing.
"Yep, arm porn. How do you not know these things? I didn't realize you led such a sheltered life, rockstar," she said with a teasing smile.
"Guess I don't spend much time looking at other's men's arms, Sunshine, and you shouldn't be either. You want to ogle men's arms, then they damn well better be mine." I declared, not entirely teasing.
An eye roll was her only reply as she continued typing on the laptop. Arm porn, huh? Who knew?
"Hey, speaking of porn...do you think Gracie's going to be napping for a while?" I asked, sliding closer to Allie's end of the sofa.
She stopped tapping on the keyboard and turned her head toward me, pinning me with a look that would make a lesser man rethink his words.
