Page 13 of Ravaged By Lust

“I agree,” Axel says. “I made the mistake on Ravaged’s first album and… wow. Those comments. Even I was rattled.”

“I’ve already been getting lots of messages and comments from Tainted Lives fans,” I say. That band is Ravaged’s rival, as if their fans didn’t tell me enough times. “They’re ruthless, those guys. Simply because I’m your sister, Axel.”

“Tainted Lives don’t do anything to discourage their rabid fanbase,” my brother says with a sigh. “In fact, they encourage them. That’s why I hate that fucking band.”

“They’re not so bad,” Maddie remarks.

“You did get on the receiving end of one of their stupid pranks,” Axel comments.

“Well, yeah,” Maddie says, turning to me. “We met Tainted Lives at the airport and they thought it would be hilarious to squirt me down with water from a hose. It was a lot of fun. Not.”

“Wow.”

“Ugh. I don’t want to talk about them,” Axel says. “The assholes.”

“So, with your baby,” I jump in, changing the subject. “Are you going to raise them in this house? It’s a lovely home.”

Maddie smiles. “That’s the plan. We like it here. It’s easy for both of us, especially with Axel touring.”

“I think you and I are going to be good friends,” I say to her.

“I think so too.”

From the open front door comes a stranger’s voice. “Axel? Maddie? I’m here to pick up that guitar I lent you.”

We all look up towards the hallway leading to the front.

Wait.

That isn’t a stranger’s voice.

I recognize that man’s deep baritone any day, even though it’s been years.

Fuck. Fuckity fuck.

I thought I would be able to avoid him on this trip to LA, but who was I kidding? I should not have been naïve to think that I wouldn’t run into the man who broke my heart while here. The same man responsible for me being stuck behind a till on minimum wage in my hometown for seven years.

I glance around me. There’s no way out of this house. No way without looking like a total jackass in front of my brother’s girlfriend.

And, besides, it’s too late. He’s already here.

The man strolls into Axel and Maddie’s kitchen like he owns the place, and he immediately locks eyes with me.

Fuck.

Yep. It’s him. The man who took my virginity.

Bishop Hayes.

3

CHLOE

There’s complete silence as Bishop Hayes walks into Maddie and Axel’s kitchen and locks eyes with me. It feels like it lasts for an eternity before the guitarist for Ravaged speaks.

“Well, this is a surprise,” he mutters, unfazed. “Chloe Stoll. In the flesh. I didn’t expect to find you here.”

Like my brother, he has not changed. Not in seven years. It’s been hard not to see him around the place all this time, what with his face being on billboards and posters and TV and Instagram as part of Ravaged, but even then I must admit that it feels like all the years have washed away the minute I see him in person and we’re suddenly transported back to being two innocent teenagers about to make love for the first time. All those emotions I’ve kept buried away suddenly rise up in me like a burst dam…