White Hot Page 9

  Neil looked up at her. “Why vice president? Why not just out?”

  “Vice president is a salary position, right? And Anton never chose a VP or any other officer. The club needs to have stability before it can move forward again. This gives you the freedom to tour, and also stable low-risk income.”

  Sydney stared at her. “I thought you said your brain was fogged up.”

  “It was. The pain is back,” she answered.

  “Wish I thought that clear sober,” Sydney sighed.

  Neil met her eyes. “That sounds good,” he offered. “I’ll call after dinner. Let it simmer for a while in my head.”

  “How about pizza?” Sydney asked.

  “As long as you don’t try to pay the boy nude, that would be great,” Neil said with a grin, looking her over.

  “What’s wrong with me nude?” Sydney asked while looking down and back at her butt.

  After dinner, as Shayla expected, Neil called West and laid out her idea to him. He was in his chair in the living room and they were laid out on the sofa and loveseat. She took another pain pill, because her shoulder was hurting too much by the time dinner was done.

  Neil hung up and said, “West is the new president. Apparently, as president, I don’t require a vote to put your suggestion into play. So, it’s done. I’m the new VP.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Five years later

  “Aren’t you going to get dressed for the party tonight?” Sydney asked Shayla.

  “I don’t think so. I’m pregnant,” Shayla told her as she laid on the loveseat.

  “What? You’re barely showing,” Sydney said, rubbing her belly.

  “Barely and showing should never be used in the same sentence. I hereby declare that to be house law. Showing is showing and showing is fat. There is no such thing as barely fat,” Shayla declared.

  “Whatever. You look fine. You still make me horny and Neil still can’t get enough of your ass. So, buck it up, buckwheat,” Sydney told her.

  “Is Neil coming home first?” she asked, changing the subject.

  “No. He’s going from the studio straight to the party. The whole group is. And you know you are going to go. It’s his first release with a major label, and they’re going to sign the contract for that movie soundtrack. So, get off your ass and get dressed.”

  “I have no fat clothes,” she complained.

  “Wear a t-shirt and slippers, then. Maybe a thong. You’re the wife of a rock star. You can wear anything and the newspapers will still love you.”

  “Newspapers? What newspapers?” Shayla asked. “Neil didn’t say anything about newspapers. Did he?”

  “Come on! It’s a main event for a local band making it good! You couldn’t figure out that the press would be interested?” Sydney told her.

  “No,” she said worriedly. “Fuck.”

  They were roughly twenty minutes late for the start of the party because she had to change clothes five times. Finally Sydney grabbed her arm as she was checking out the last dress—a little black thing with silver threads in the fabric—and pulled her out the door. She barely had time to grab her purse off the makeup table before she was yanked out into the hall.

  Sydney was wearing a short little red dress, which looked amazing on her, and her heels made her ass look fantastic.

  “How come you aren’t the one who is pregnant?” she grumbled as they came off the elevator and walked down the hall.

  “Because he likes doing me in the ass more than you,” Sydney replied with a mildly snide tone.

  “You’re a real bitch sometimes, you know that?”

  “Yep, but you love me, so you’re fucked,” Sydney smiled.

  Shayla’s phone chirped. She took it out of her little black purse and, after reading the text, sent a “goodnight” back to Sandy.

  Sydney read the message over her shoulder. “How is the little munchkin?” she asked.

  “Still wants to be a lawyer. I thought it was just hero worship with Margaret, but apparently she really has the law bug. She talks about it more than boys. Even cute boys,” Shayla told her.

  “So that will be two lawyers in the family. Jill starts law school this year. She’s already accepted,” Sydney pointed out.

  “It was doctors who saved my life. Why didn’t one of them want to be a doctor?” Shayla asked.

  “Not everything is about you, you know,” Sydney said with a smile.

  “It should be,” Shayla shot back.

  “Thank God it’s not. Can you imagine all of those reports being totally interested in your showing belly right now?” Sydney asked.

  “What reports?” she had time to say before she saw a whole group of them… or was it called a gaggle? Who cared. They were fucking reporters with cameras.

  They didn’t even ask. They just started taking pictures and asking questions. It was a fucking nightmare.

  Then Neil was there, pulling them away and telling the reports they would have a statement in about thirty minutes.

  “Good of you two to show up,” he said with a smile once they were clear.

  “We had wardrobe problems,” Sydney offered.

  “Too many to choose from?” he asked.

  “Blasphemy,” Sydney told him.

  “I have no fat clothes,” Shayla complained softly, looking back that the reporters and wondering if breaking their cameras would be enough, or would she have to get the film as well.

  “That’s because you aren’t fat,” Neil said.

  “I can feel my ass growing as we speak,” she told him.

  He grabbed her ass with a loving fondle. “Still a good ass,” he decided.

  “Did all the arrangements show up?” Sydney asked.

  Neil shrugged and said, “You two were handling that. How would I know what was missing?”

  “I’ll go check things out,” Sydney told them, and headed through the crowd toward the caterer.

  West and a large number of Knights were in attendance, along with nightclub owners, managers, and bartenders. A whole flock of other people were mulling around, and Shayla didn’t have a clue about who they were. The party was scheduled for two hundred, so this didn’t surprise her.

  The announcement for the press went off well, she thought. There were hundreds of flashes from camera phones going off as they signed their first movie soundtrack contract. Of course, now Neil’s days were going to be even busier. With her and Sydney running a company and Neil on the road, playing in Nightclubs, in the studio, and down at the club doing his VP thing for the Knights, they hardly got to see each other anymore. And now a baby was on the way.

  On the way home with Sydney, Shayla thought about making time. Perhaps she should be a stay-at-home mom. Sydney ran the company like a pro, anyway. She rarely needed to consult her about things anymore. They worked so well together, they just knew what to do. It was perfect. But maybe once the baby was around, perfect would have to become a little shinier.

  Shayla rubbed her belly and looked out that the Miami night. Sydney and she had a lot of history in those lights and darkness. It was time to seriously consider the future.

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