MMF BISEXUAL ROMANCE: Phoenix Running Read online

  When the three of them ended together on the floor, they avoided eye contact. It wasn’t shame; it was fear. What they had done had had an effect none of them was prepared for. It hadn’t alleviated curiosity. It made it stronger, and each of them wanted more.

  Chapter 14

  Cee-Cee pulled Josey into her room and quickly shut her door behind her. Her sister stared at her with wide, worried eyes. “What is it? What’s wrong?” Josey panicked.

  Cee-Cee clamped a hand over her sister’s mouth. “Shh! I don’t want Mom to overhear this! I have a secret. I need to talk to you. Nothing’s wrong. I just need your advice…about guys.”

  Josey heaved a sigh of relief and broke into a smile. Locking the door behind her, she dropped her voice to a whisper like Cee-Cee’s. “Girl, the way you dragged me up here, you had me worried sick! Is this about hottie, Mayor Briton? Mom said you went out with him again today.” Josey wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, and Cee-Cee giggled at the comical expression.

  “You’re not going to believe this.” They moved over to her bed and huddled together like they had done as teenagers. Her heart palpitated, and she wasn’t sure she should tell her younger sister about what glorious mischief she had been up to, but Cee-Cee had no one else to turn to. What had happened while she was out was too big to be kept under wraps. She felt like she would explode if she didn’t tell someone. “It’s about Phoenix Briton and Ashley Terrence,” she whispered dramatically.

  “That singer you were telling Mom about?” Cee-Cee nodded, smiling nervously, and Josey scrunched up her face, confused. “Well, how does he come into play? Wait, hang on a second…” With a big smile on her face, Josey wagged a finger at her, but Cee-Cee headed her off at the pass before her sister could say anything more.

  “Yeah, exactly! I’m afraid I’m stuck in the middle of a love triangle. But it’s not what you think. I’m seeing them both. I mean, I’m…sleeping with them both.” She shrank into herself, waiting for the backlash.

  Scandalized, Josey hissed, “Get out!! Are you? Oh, my god! Sis, what are you doing? It’s one thing to date around, but sleeping around? That’s so not like you!” She laughed as she reprimanded her, and Cee-Cee knew her sister was more impressed than put out by the news. She giggled, too.

  “I know,” she moaned. Cee-Cee covered her face and dropped her head back, exhaling. “I know it’s not, but I did. I slept with them both today, and I don’t know what to do!”

  “How on earth did that come about?”

  “It just happened! Phoenix is charismatic and cool and Ashley is wild and fun-loving. They couldn’t be more different. The minute I met Phoenix, there was a spark of attraction. Only, when I met Ashley, the same thing happened, and they were sparking at each other, too! So we all went out on Phoenix’s yacht today, and one thing led to another…” Cee-Cee wrapped her arms around herself and shivered, eyes closed. Delicious memories flooded her.

  “My sister, the sex magnet. My goodness! When you come out of your cocoon, you really come out, don’t you! Well, you have to pick one. Sleeping with both of them could lead to a sticky situation. I’d pick the mayor. He’s such a sex god.”

  “Hmph! You haven’t seen Ashley yet. Only, Sis, it’s much worse. Or better.” She giggled nervously. “I’m not sure I have to choose. You see, I’m sleeping with them both at the same time.” Josey blinked. A beat passed. Cee-Cee waited for her to get it, but she didn’t. Josey gave her the side-eye. “As in, a ménage a trois? Hello?”

  “Oh? Oh! Wowwwww. What the hell have you gotten yourself into, working for Uncle Bryan?” She erupted with scandalized laughter again.

  Cee-Cee whined over-dramatically. “I have no idea, and I can’t choose. I want them both. They both want me, us, this! The problem is, Phoenix is the most secretive, private man I know, and Ashley is the most public, no-holds-barred man I know. Phoenix doesn’t want anyone to find out about his—shall we say—interests. However, I’m afraid Ashley’s going to slip up and let it be known.

  “I feel like even allowing what happened today to happen was a conflict of interest for me since it’s my job to keep Phoenix’s image intact ahead of this election, and Uncle Bryan put me in charge as the primary handler on this project. I shouldn’t have let it get this far, but now that it has, what next?”

  “Honey, you have come to the wrong person,” said Josey, shaking her head. “I can’t give you any advice on this because it’s nothing like anything I’ve ever experienced. I have to admit, I am jealous! You have out-scandaled me!”

  Cee-Cee chuckled. “If Mom knew, she’d freak.”

  “Ha! No, she wouldn’t. I’m convinced her and Dad used to trip acid with the Beatles. She’s a lot more open-minded than you think, but I’d wager I know what she’d say about it.”

  “What?”

  “That you should follow your heart.”

  “Never mind my heart,” Cee-Cee waved away the statement. “My heart isn’t remotely involved. It’s my career I’m worried about. I’ve spent so much time getting to where I am, and I’m not going to lose traction because of a silly sex thing. I think I’ll break it off. That’s what I’m going to do. I’ll break it off, but, damn, it was the most amazing fucking sex everrr!”

  “I can only imagine. Well, here’s my take. If you’re going to break it off, better to do it sooner than later. Good sex has a way of making a woman feel emotions she never expected to feel.”

  “I am not about to fall in love. It’s not even that type of relationship. This is strictly sex.”

  Josey smiled skeptically, shaking her head in disbelief. “Then, I guess it’ll be easy to break it off, right?”

  * * *

  After the afternoon spent lazing on the yacht, Cee-Cee had dropped him back at his hotel. Ashley entered the downstairs lobby and found a few of his crew members siphoning free Wi-Fi. When they invited him over to join them, he turned them down.

  “What’s gotten into you? You haven’t been yourself lately,” said one of his backup singers.

  “Yeah! You don’t want to hang out with us, bruv?”

  Ashley paused to answer but before he could get a word out, someone else chimed in. “Oh, shit! He’s holding out on us. I bet he’s found himself a piece of ass, and he doesn’t want to share. You know the groupies are for everybody!” The drummer pantomimed fucking, and Ashley put a hand to his lips and shushed them, smiling. The concierge at the front desk wasn’t as amused.

  “Cool it before they kick us out of here. I’m not ready to go back to sleeping on a tour bus with your fart smells,” Ashley chuckled. “By the way, the groupies are for you guys. I don’t roll like that, mate.”

  “Well, we’re gearing up to pull out of here for the show tonight, and Tegan’s been looking for you all day,” his buddy, Roger, replied.

  “I told her I had something to do today,” Ashley replied.

  “I guess she forgot, then.” Grabbing his arm, Roger walked him to the elevator, and Ashley got the sense he had something to tell him that he didn’t want the others to hear. “She’s been on a bender since some other bloke is trending on Twitter for punching a paparazzo. I heard her talking to A&R about you. Kid you not, she complained that your ‘Disney Prince Charming’ reputation is going to be the death of your career.”

  “Oh, no! She thinks I’m too innocent. How will I ever live?” Ashley said mockingly. “Oh, wait. I’m not that innocent. She must not watch my vlogs.”

  Roger chuckled and thumped him in the chest, but he stared at Ashley soberly and added, “For what it’s worth, when I heard that, I reminded her your reputation is what got us this far. Now, go get dressed. We’re going to be late.”

  “Thanks for taking up for me. I’ll be out in a bit.”

  Ashley took the elevator up and opened the door to his hotel room with a groan at having to be hemmed in again after the beautiful day spent out on the lake. He was lamenting his cabin fever when he realized the room phone was ringing faintly from wherever he had knocked
it down that morning when the alarm had gone off. Ashley dove to the side of the bed and found it, answering on the fourth ring.

  He knew exactly who it had to be. She had called his cellphone and left a text while he was out, and though he regretted ignoring her, it would have been weird shit trying to talk to Mum while in the middle of a good fuck. “Hello, Mum,” he greeted her breathlessly.

  “You didn’t call me back, lovey. I’ve been calling your cell all day and you didn’t answer. I was afraid I wouldn’t catch you before your next set. Busy?”

  “Yeah, I was out with some new friends. We went boating. Gotta have down time, you know. This tour is running me ragged. But, how are you? How’s Dad?” He scrambled to his feet and sucked in a breath, relaxing.

  “That’s who I wanted to talk to you about. I talked to him.”

  Ashley dropped into a chair and stared around his hotel room, knowing they weren’t talking about the same ‘Dad.’ He rubbed his face tiredly. “To William, Mum?” he tried.

  “No, silly. I talk to him every day. I’m talking about your real father. I told him you were in America, and he wants to see you, Ash. Look, there are some things I didn’t reveal to you when we first spoke of this.”

  He wanted to tell her he wasn’t in the mood to hear about the man who had walked out on them, but he didn’t. It would’ve been rude, and him being weary of the conversation was no reason to be that way. But he didn’t want to do this. He didn’t want more revelations, more secrets unveiled. When did the plot twists end in his life?

  “Yeah. What is it, Mum?”

  “I d-don’t know how…to tell you this, but…”

  “Just come out with it!”

  “He’s sick, Ashley, terminally ill. I didn’t bring up the subject of Reginald Harold out of the blue for no reason. He reached out and contacted me, telling me he didn’t want to leave this earth without meeting his son. Apparently he found out about your tour, and he knows you’re near. There’s no pretending you’re in the dark about it now. So there. That’s why I’ve been pressing so hard for you to make the time to see him while you’re on that side of the world.” Her tone was terse, but whatever her annoyance, it was no match for his.

  Ashley restlessly exploded out of his chair and paced the hotel room.

  “So, because some bloke is feeling like getting his soul together before meeting his maker, he figures he can disrupt my life? This is bullshit, utter bullshit, Mum! This is exactly why only cowards hide behind secrecy and lies, and I cannot believe you let him do this to us, to you! You deserved so much better.”

  “And I got better,” Nora firmly fired back. “But you deserve that, too. You deserve the healing that forgiveness can give you. I know you’re upset. I feel for you, my darling, I do! Yet, there was a time I felt I knew Reginald as well as I know William, and he’s not the bad man you believe him to be. That’s also something you deserve. You deserve to know the truth. About him. About yourself. He’s a part of you.”

  “I’ll consider going. I can’t make any promises. I’m busy.” He bit the words off, spitting them out with enough venom to make them sound like epithets. Nora sighed.

  “That’s all I’m asking for.”

  Ashley softened. “Alright, Mum. I gotta go.”

  “Hang on a second. Tam stopped by and told me to tell you he came. He’s ready for you to get home. Married now! I suspect he’ll settle down with a wife and hopefully kids soon.”

  “Married now? That’s amazing. How’s he looking?”

  “Happy…I can’t wait to say the same about you.”

  “But I am happy, Mum. I’m traveling the world, living my dream,” he said with a smile, knowing what she meant. Nora was ready for him to settle down, too, or to at least have a steady girlfriend. He was a romantic, but how did he tell his mother that he hadn’t found the one? He might possibly have found two.

  “Well, I’ll let you get back to your business now. Take care. I love you.”

  “I love you, too,” he murmured and ended the call.

  His pacing had aimlessly carried him to the sliding door mirror that closed the hotel closet, and he examined himself. He saw a gray-eyed young man who looked nothing like William and very little like Nora. He wondered how much of himself was Reginald Harold.

  And how much of himself was his mother. He was falling into the same trap she had. The thought sent a shiver of fear through him. It was harder to avoid than it seemed, and Ashley smiled ruefully, considering it. Since finding out about Nora’s secret past, he had inwardly judged his mother for her weakness, but anyone could miss the signs if they weren’t watching closely enough.

  For instance, Cee-Cee might not have convinced him to sign that privacy contract, but he was Phoenix’s little secret all the same. He had held back from posting anything to do with the mayor. He hadn’t even wanted to post. Just knowing Phoenix would see any mention of him as a betrayal was enough to make Ashley resist his normal openness.

  Anything to keep him happy. Wasn’t that what his mother had done? What the hell are you doing, Ashley? He knew men like Phoenix Briton—men like Reginald Harold—only looked out for themselves, but he didn’t know how to disengage. He didn’t want to let Phoenix go. Not yet. So, he had to play by the mayor’s rules and pray to god he didn’t get himself in too deep. Because Nora’s worst mistake wasn’t getting involved with Reginald Harold. It was falling for him.

  He pushed his hair back and held his head, staring down, lost in thought. Ashley heard fumbling at the door and realized it was Tegan, the only person who had a key. He hurried over to the door and threw it open for her. “I know. I’m getting ready now,” he answered before she could speak.

  Her cool eyes brushed over him. “You should already be ready! We’re going to be pulling out to head to the next city within the hour. Why the hell didn’t you answer my calls?”

  “I was—”

  “Never mind, I don’t want to hear it. Ashley Jared Terrence, this label has invested thousands of dollars into making this tour a success, and must I remind you, you are not at a stage in your career where diva behavior is accepted. You’re making me look bad when you pull shit like this. Now, I want you packed and ready to leave in thirty minutes.”

  “I will be. Tegan, hang on a second, how many more cities are within the radius we drew out?”

  She sighed and thrust her ever-present tablet at him to show him the tour dates and cities. “I don’t know, check the schedule. I can tell you that you only have a few weeks left here. So, if you’re wondering if your playdate is going to have to wrap up soon, the answer is yes. Prepare to kiss that sexy mayor friend of yours goodbye.”

  Ashley frowned. “I hope you haven’t mentioned him to anyone.”

  “Of course not. FYI, however, you could use a good scandal. Screwing around with a right wing Republican might be bad boy enough to get you some Bieber-like attention. That’s what I was talking to A&R about earlier this morning, and we’ve got big plans for you.”

  Ashley flashed a look of distaste. “No, thank you. I’d rather be well-known for my abilities, not my screw ups.”

  “Ugh! You don’t know shit about this business, Ashley. Whatever. Just get ready.” Tegan blew out of his room as quickly as she had breezed in, but she forgot her tablet behind.

  Ashley was still looking at the tour dates. He wasn’t trying to snoop. When he accidentally tapped the wrong app, Tegan’s picture files opened. “Whoops,” he whispered. But as the thumbnails populated the screen, Ashley hesitated instead of going back.

  He stared at the tablet in dismay. His heart pounded in trepidation as he touched one of the images that opened in slideshow format. There he was, holding Cee-Cee’s hand and helping her onto the mayor’s yacht. There was the yacht getting smaller as it receded from the shoreline. Then, the photographer had zoomed in and captured clear long-range close-ups of the three of them hanging out on main deck. He stopped scrolling when the three lovers in the photographs started shedding
clothes.

  The count of files in the folder numbered over a hundred. Tegan had someone spying on him. His face darkened with rage as he methodically went through them, deleting every single picture he could find. He marched down the hall to Tegan’s hotel room and pounded on the door.

  She threw it open with a smile that turned down at the corners when she saw his face. “I thought I told you to get dressed.”

  “What the hell is this?!” He held up the tablet. “You’ve been spying on me? Taking pictures of me? Why would you do that, Tegan? You’re my manager, for fuck’s sake!”

  She waved her hands frantically to make him lower his voice but Ashley wasn’t having it. He pushed into the room and slammed the door behind him. “Explain this,” he ordered.

  She took a deep breath and twiddled her fingers nervously. “It’s like I said, your reputation could use some misbehaving. Aligning yourself with that mayor is perfect. Five Parker sent me an email asking about doing an interview with you for Q-G TV after he saw the two of you out at the Yellow Lounge. I figured, why not get us some insurance in case the good mayor wants to go on the record saying he’s not involved with you? Clearly he is, but a man like him would never admit it.”

  “That’s your crusade,” Ashley growled. “And I’m not about ruining a man’s life when he hasn’t done anything wrong. He has a right to be a private person. Using my friends for your agenda isn’t cool, Tegan. I deleted your fucking pictures, and don’t ever let that shit happen again or your arse is fired. Understand?”

  He stormed out of the room. This was serious. He’d have to let Phoenix know. He’d have to talk to Cee-Cee since she worked for his PR team. “Shit, shit, shit,” Ashley muttered. He pushed his hands through his hair and dragged his fingers down the sides of his face. Phoenix would want to cut things off. He’d want to put as much distance between them as possible. Ashley didn’t know much about American politics on the local level, but it was the same everywhere. People took normal human desire and twisted it into something ugly. He could hardly blame Phoenix for not wanting to be treated like that. If only he wasn’t a politician….