Rocking Perfection (Reckless Release Book 3) Read online

  “Most things are at sixteen,” he added. “You seem nervous about this kiss.”

  “I’m not!” Nearly shouting my denial wasn’t making me sound very believable. “Fine, I am a little nervous. It’s crazy since you aren’t the first guy I’ve kissed. I even fantasized about kissing you.”

  He looked surprised. “You did?”

  “Sure,” I replied. “Remember, I was a huge Reckless Release fan before we even met.”

  “But Austin was your favorite,” he muttered. “You already told me you had a crush on him.”

  “That quickly changed when I met him,” I reminded Xander. “Besides, I still had fantasies about you and Gage.”

  Xander’s eyes darkened, and he cleared his throat before continuing. “Maybe we should practice kissing, so it doesn’t look forced in public.”

  “Practice?” My voice was a little too high, so I composed myself and started again. “Like a rehearsal? Do you really think we need to practice kissing? We’ve both done it before.”

  Xander chuckled at my reaction. “Not with each other. You know as well as I do that kissing can be awkward at first. What if I go in for your mouth and you dip, leaving me with a mouth full of your nose?”

  I giggled at the image he’d painted. “That doesn’t happen.”

  “Just because it hasn’t happened to one of us yet doesn’t mean it never happens,” he argued. “There are also nose bumps, bashing tongues, and the rigid kiss to worry about.”

  “Bashing tongues?” I asked.

  “You know,” he began. “It’s when you both go in with the tongue, and they smash into each other.”

  “We could just keep our tongues to ourselves,” I pointed out.

  “That sounds boring,” he replied. “Are you going to be the rigid kissing type?”

  “I was a rigid kisser during my spin the bottle days. How should we do this? Should we just stand up and try kissing? Maybe we should have a tongue rule in advance.”

  “There’s such a thing as over-thinking a practice kiss,” he told me with a smile. “This feels a little awkward now.”

  “You may be right,” I agreed. “We’ll try this another time when we haven’t talked it to death, and I will try to refrain from coming up with rules in advance.”

  “Do you want to go see a movie?” he asked. “It’s what fake couples do.”

  “But we haven’t practiced kissing yet,” I teased. “How can we possibly go on a fake date before practicing our kissing?”

  Rather than laughing at my joke, Xander caught my hand and pulled me against his chest. When I looked up at him and gasped, he kissed me.

  Chapter 14

  Xander

  It was far from the type of kiss I wanted to give Cami, but it was still hot. My lips moved against hers slowly. If I wasn’t mistaken, I felt her shudder in my arms, but it might have been wishful thinking on my part. My tongue skimmed along her lips to get a little taste of her. I wanted to explore her mouth and pull her even closer until her nipples hardened against my chest. Cami clutched my shirt as she sighed into my mouth. Just from that kiss, my dick was throbbing behind the zipper of my jeans.

  I wanted to keep kissing her, but I was already pushing my luck, so I forced myself to release her mouth. She stared up at me with wide, shocked eyes before quickly recovering and stepping back.

  “Very convincing,” she told me, looking everywhere but at me. It was probably best that she wasn’t paying attention to me since I was having trouble hiding how pleased I was. I managed to bite back my grin before she saw it.

  “See? We’ll be fine,” I assured her. “So, how about if we pick a movie and go?”

  “All right. Let me grab my phone and check the movie times.”

  She hurried over to grab her phone before moving several more steps away from me. It was obvious she wanted to put some distance between us, but I wasn’t having it. We were always comfortable around each other, and I wasn’t about to let that change. I moved behind her to look at her phone over her shoulder.

  “That one.” I reached around and pointed to a movie title, allowing my bare arm to brush against hers.

  “I’m not sure we’ll make it in time,” she replied.

  “Let’s go,” I told her. “There are always a ton of previews before the movie starts, so we’ll be fine.”

  “All right,” she agreed. “Let me grab my purse.”

  Cami didn’t live far from the theater, so we didn’t talk much on the way there. That was fine with me since I was still playing our kiss on a loop in my head. She’d reacted better than I’d expected. I couldn’t wait to see her reaction when I gave her a proper kiss—the kind that would make her toes curl and her panties wet.

  “Why are you grinning?” She eyed me suspiciously.

  “Can’t a man smile?” I asked.

  “I don’t trust that smile,” she replied as I parked at the theater.

  I stepped out of the car and walked around to her side before asking, “Why not? Maybe I’m just excited about seeing this movie with my girlfriend.”

  Since we were in public, it was time to put on a good show. I placed a hand on her lower back as we walked toward the theater. One person snapped a picture as we passed. Our date would help fuel the XanandCam rumors.

  Cami was used to having my arm around her, so she didn’t even react to my hand on her lower back.

  “I’m glad we’re going to see this movie together, babe,” I said with a grin.

  Cami smiled at me and shook her head.

  “What’s that reaction about?” I asked.

  “You love any excuse to call me babe, don’t you?”

  “You keep shooting down all the other great pet names I’ve come up with,” I reminded her.

  “This must be a guy thing,” she remarked. “One of Delaney’s friends said her husband tried to come up with a stupid one for her when they first started dating.”

  “Did he try snuggleufagus?” I asked. I was sure few people thought of that pet name.

  “No,” she replied with a laugh. “You are the king of tacky pet names.”

  As we made our way into the theater, I figured we wouldn’t miss any of the movie. I should have saved that thought for after we were seated.

  “Excuse me. Can we get your autograph?”

  Turning, I flashed a bright smile to the three teen girls behind us.

  “Sure. Do you have anything for me to sign?” I asked, hoping I wouldn’t get requests to sign any body parts. When the person asking was an adult, it could be hot, but not so much with the jailbait crowd. I also wasn’t currently interested in having anyone other than the cute blonde by my side strip for me.

  It took me nearly fifteen minutes to sign autographs and pose for pictures.

  “Sorry about that,” I told Cami as we rushed to our movie.

  She reached out to squeeze my hand. “Don’t apologize. I think it’s great that you’re always willing to make time for your fans. That’s one of the things people love about Reckless Release. You guys are awesome.”

  It was impossible to hold back my grin at her praise. I opened the door, and we made it to our seats just as the movie started. They really did have a lot of previews.

  Chapter 15

  Cami

  Xander slipped his arm around me after we took our seats, and I leaned into his side with a sigh. Shortly after that, I dozed off. Between Mitch refusing to take the hint, my deal with Xander, and my late night out the previous day, I was exhausted.

  “Wake up, babe,” Xander murmured close to my ear.

  “Not yet,” I grumbled, swatting at him to get him to leave me alone. It took me some time to remember where we were, and when I did, I blinked twice and looked around. People were making their way out of the theater. Some stopped to look at us before moving on, either believing they were mistaken about Xander’s identity or deciding to leave us alone.

  “If you don’t wake up, I’ll have to carry you out to the car.”


  His warning earned him a sleepy laugh from me. “That would definitely get you some attention.”

  “I should do it,” he remarked thoughtfully. “It’ll be good for my image.”

  “What’s wrong with your image now?” I asked.

  “You may find this hard to believe, but a lot of people think I’m a man-whore,” he replied.

  “Wherever do you suppose they get that idea from?” I asked.

  “Not a clue,” he admitted. “It bothers my mom and my sister.”

  “I can see how that might bother them. While I know you have a sister, I know nothing about her. You’d think I’d know more from my years of stalking Reckless Release online.”

  “I try to keep her out of the spotlight,” he explained. “She prefers it that way.”

  “She’s older than you, right?” I asked.

  “Older by seven years,” he replied. “She helped raise me after my dad died. You may get to meet her soon. She’s coming up this way for a job interview.”

  “Do you have any siblings I don’t know about?” I asked.

  “Step-siblings,” he replied. “They're awesome, like my step-dad. We should get out of here before the usher comes in and kicks us out.”

  I nodded, and we headed to the exit. Once we were in the car, I returned to the subject of Xander’s family. “It sounds like you’re close to your family.”

  “I am,” he agreed. “It’s been hard living this far from them. How about you? You never talk about your family.”

  “There’s not much to talk about,” I replied. “My parents both moved out of the area after their divorce.”

  “Any siblings?” he asked.

  “No siblings,” I replied.

  “Are you close to your parents?” he asked.

  “Not really,” I replied honestly. “My parents were busy throughout my childhood. It kept them from fighting, so I always considered it a good thing. Whenever they spent any time together, they fought.”

  “I’m sorry you had to go through that,” Xander said softly as he reached over to squeeze my thigh. “No kid should have to live with that kind of stress.”

  “It wasn’t as bad as it sounds. My parents weren’t abusive. They may have yelled at each other, but they rarely yelled at me,” I assured him. “Besides, I survived, and just look at me now. I’m a successful therapist with my own condo and good friends. I even get to hang out with the members of this hot rock band.”

  “You are pretty lucky,” he replied with a grin. “Tell me all about this band.”

  “Well, the lead singer is cute,” I began.

  “Just cute?” he asked.

  “He’s a little young,” I explained.

  “Young?” he asked.

  “Yeah, Jos is barely old enough to drink,” I teased.

  “Jos? You’re talking about Jos?”

  “The lead singer from Deluded Serenity,” I confirmed. “Piper took me to see them play. She’s been a fan since she booked them at Euphoria. They’re good.”

  “They are good,” he agreed. “We wanted Deluded Serenity to open for us on our next tour, but we were only able to get them for part of the tour.”

  “Touring with Reckless Release is a great opportunity for them,” I said. “What’s holding them back from doing the entire tour?”

  “They have jobs,” he explained. “When Reckless Release first got invited to open for a bigger band, we had to turn down the offer. It honestly hasn’t been that long since I’ve had to work full-time to pay my rent. Two members of Deluded Serenity are also in college.”

  “I guess opening bands don’t make that much on tours.” I’d never given the matter much thought. It seemed like touring with a big band would be their lucky break, but that probably didn’t happen as often I thought.

  “They usually lose money,” he explained. “If the opening band sells a lot of merchandise at the shows, they might break even. In rare cases, they make a little money. It can also lead to a record deal, but that’s not guaranteed.”

  “I’m glad they can make at least part of the tour,” I replied. “Sorry about falling asleep in the movie.”

  “You were tired. Besides, you only drooled on me a little.”

  “I did not drool on you!” I reached over to tap his thigh.

  “How do you know you didn’t drool?” he asked. “I had to ask the guy sitting behind us to run out and grab me some napkins to wipe up all that drool.”

  “What happened to it being just a little?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “I didn’t want to say it was like cuddling a Saint Bernard. That would be rude.”

  “You are such a liar,” I accused. “We both know I wasn’t drooling. I’m the perfect girlfriend. Perfect girlfriends don’t drool.”

  “But you aren’t trying to be the perfect girlfriend with me, so you can drool as much as you want,” he reminded me.

  “I didn’t drool,” I insisted.

  “Fine,” he relented. “You just snored a little. It was cute.”

  “You are such a jerk,” I said with a laugh.

  Chapter 16

  Xander

  My evening with Cami had gone better than I’d expected. By agreeing to extra cooking lessons, Cami had ensured we’d have even more time alone. Our date hadn’t felt fake to me, except that I hadn’t been able to kiss her goodnight at the end of the evening. Still, I’d enjoyed having her snuggled up against me as she slept through the movie. That had been the only good thing about the film.

  “You missed your cue.” Harley interrupted my thoughts of Cami.

  We were practicing in the new studio space in Austin’s house—or trying to, at least. My mind had been on Cami all morning. After she saw her last patient of the day, we were going shopping for kitchen supplies so I’d be able to make waffles once I learned how.

  “Sorry,” I replied. “Let’s start again?”

  A buzzing phone interrupted us.

  “It’s mine,” Harley announced, frowning when she saw who was calling. “I need to take this. It’s my mom.”

  She didn’t wait for a reply before heading out of the room.

  “Is it just me, or has Harley been extra secretive lately?” Gage asked as he looked at the door Harley had exited through.

  “It’s not you,” I replied. “Something is going on with Harley.”

  “I tried asking her, but she blew me off,” Austin stated. “Piper told me to leave her alone until she’s ready to talk about it.”

  Harley slammed back into the room, looking pissed. “Fucking bastard!”

  “Who do we need to kill?” I asked.

  She looked torn, like she wasn’t sure she wanted to tell us what was going on. While we’d all known Harley for years, there were pieces of her life she kept from us—pieces involving her sister. We didn’t know much about Harley’s sister, just what the press had dug up in the last couple of years. Harley’s younger sister had died in a car crash, seven years earlier. The driver of the car had been convicted of vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence.

  “My sister’s killer is getting out of prison,” she explained. “I knew it was coming, but it didn’t feel real until I heard the actual release date.”

  “While I can see why this is upsetting, he’s served his time,” Gage told her. “I’m not trying to sound like an asshole, but it was an accident.”

  “He’ll stay away from you,” Austin added.

  “He’s been sending me letters from prison,” Harley explained.

  “Why would he send you letters from prison?” I asked. “Did you even know the guy?”

  “I’m surprised this never got out,” she began in a tired voice. “Keith was my boyfriend in high school. He cheated on me with my sister. That’s why we broke up. He was also my sister’s dealer. I didn’t know he was dealing until I found out about the cheating. Keith is a dick.”

  “That’s why you stopped talking to your sister,” I deduced.

  “No,” she repl
ied. “For that, I could have forgiven her. No more talk about what happened with my sister or with Keith. I need to cut practice short and figure out what’s going on with his release. I may need to get a restraining order.”

  “What the fuck?” Austin asked. “Has this guy been threatening you from prison?”

  “Not threatening me,” she replied. “He’s got this crazy idea that we’re going to get back together. It’s an obsession. Keith has always been like this. Even after we broke up, he’d occasionally track me down and start calling and sending me letters.”

  “We should talk to Madi about getting more security for you,” Gage told her.

  “I agree,” I added. “If I didn’t know you’d tell me to fuck off, I’d offer to let you stay with me.”

  “I wouldn’t tell you to fuck off,” she assured me. “But you are right about me telling you no. I like living alone. It’s why I plan to stay single forever.”

  “You’re determined to become a crazy cat lady,” Austin teased.

  “No,” she said with a laugh. “No pets or plants. It’s hard enough taking care of you idiots without adding something else that demands my attention.”

  “Hey!” Gage protested. “We’re not that bad.”

  “We kind of are,” I admitted. “I’ll call Madi about the security when I get home. She likes me best, so she’ll be happy to hear from me.”

  They all laughed at my claim.

  “It’s true,” I argued. “Madi loves me. All women love me.”

  “Poor Cami,” Austin said around his laughter.

  “Yeah, she is going to be the one who has to try to deflate Xan’s big head,” Gage added.

  “Fuckers,” I muttered. “You’re just jealous.”

  “Sure,” Harley said, sarcasm dripping from her voice. “We’re all jealous of your swollen head.”

  “Are you okay?” I asked her. “Do you want to grab lunch and talk more?”

  Harley walked over and hugged me. “Thanks, Xan. I really will be fine, but it means a lot to know that all of you care.”

  Chapter 17

  Cami

  I saw very few teens in my practice. For the most part, my partner worked with teens while my patients were younger children. We both preferred it that way. Amelia was one of my few exceptions. Marcia had asked me to see Amelia, hoping that my love of music would help her open up to me. Marcia was Amelia’s fifth therapist, and she’d refused to work with any of them. So far, I’d had eight sessions with Amelia, and things were going reasonably well. She also saw a psychiatrist once a month to monitor her medication.