Finally Finn (Los Rancheros #4) Read online

  “Something Uncle Finn didn’t want him to do.”

  “Is he in trouble?” she asks as she reaches over for a piece of the pepper I’m cutting. I have to say I’ve come a long way in the month that I’ve been watching the girls. I even buy vegetables and shit. On purpose.

  “Not yet. He thought he was doing something to help, but didn’t think it through.” I hand over another piece then add the rest to the top of a salad.

  “Hmm. Oh, Monster High’s on!” she leaves me hanging, and I’m disappointed. Kids have really good advice sometimes.

  We eat dinner watching DVDs of all of the performances of the contestants. When a knock sounds at the front door, I’m immediately scared to death. People don’t just pop by unannounced in this neighborhood. Grabbing a knife from the kitchen, I look through the peephole in the door.

  It’s a man, he’s got longer brown hair and shifts from foot to foot nervously.

  “Who is it?”

  “Um, my name is Aiden, I’m—”

  “Daddy!” the girls yell together and jump off of the couch. I unlock the door and step aside as the kids rush the man as soon as he gets in the door.

  I watch Aiden’s eyes close as he hugs his daughters. When he straightens, he puts out a hand. “I’m Aiden Brennick.”

  “Sadie Dinah.”

  “I hope it’s okay that I stopped by. I haven’t seen the girls in so long, and I just got back from Arizona.”

  “How is your dad?” I ask, shutting the door.

  “Great. He’s getting transferred soon, that’s why I came back.” I nod, feeling uncomfortable.

  “Have you seen Grandpa? Does he miss us?” Bridgette asks.

  “Of course he does. He asks about you all the time. When he gets here you’ll get to see him in the hospital.”

  “Oh, we love going to the hospital. The people are so nice. Will you come with us, Daddy?” Hannah asks, pulling him into the living room.

  “Oh. No. Daddy can’t go, but I’m sure Uncle Finn will take you a bunch,” Aiden says weakly, clearing his throat.

  “Are you hungry, Aiden? I can make you a plate,” I offer, not knowing what else to do. I’m in his old house, with his kids. It’s weird.

  “Please don’t go to any trouble, Sadie. I just wanted to see the girls for a minute. I’ll get out of your hair.” I open my mouth to reply but the kids beat me to it.

  “No, please stay, Daddy!”

  “We’re watching people sing on the TV for Aunt Sadie’s show.” He looks back at me uncertainly, his eyes the same grey, but lacking the steel behind them.

  “Please stay. They miss you,” I say with a shrug.

  “Okay, then. Thank you.” He settles into the couch and listens to the kids as they try to tell him every single thing they did since he left. I watch his hands on the back of the couch as I make a plate. They shake. His face is engaged with the kids, but his hands say that he’s freaking out.

  “Aiden, would you like a glass of wine? I’m sorry I don’t have any beer.” He looks over the couch to me and clears his throat again.

  “Th— Thank you. Yes, that sounds good.”

  I bring him a plate of salad, pot roast, and mashed potatoes, the real kind because I know how to do that shit now. Then I sit in the recliner and press play again.

  The videos last well after bedtime, and Aiden puts them to bed with a few prompts from me, like to brush their teeth. I take more notes about the contestants as he reads them a story. To my surprise, Aiden doesn’t head out right away. We open another bottle and watch the rest of the DVD. Now that the kids aren’t in the room, he relaxes immensely. He has great advice and suggestions about who needs to work on what, singing wise. I have to admit he has a great ear and I can see how he built a record label from the ground up into a complete success. Of the one hundred contestants I check off fifty-four then send the list off to Danny and Fandy to compare notes, before locking up when Aiden leaves.

  There are texts from Finn, but I ignore them to fall into bed, the room spinning as I fall asleep.

  ~

  “Hey, babe.”

  “Who is it, Aunt Sadie?” one of the girls ask from the back seat.

  “Uncle Finn,” I answer over my shoulder.

  “Hi, Uncle Finn!”

  “I love you, Uncle Finn.”

  “I love them, too,” he says, hearing them yell.

  “He says he hates you and Bridgette is his favorite,” I toss to the back.

  “Hey!”

  “Yay!”

  “Was that really necessary, babe?” Finn rumbles in my ear.

  “They weren’t fighting nearly enough today. I’m just trying to help them out.” I smile, changing lanes and adjusting the Bluetooth headset in my ear.

  “I tried texting you last night.”

  “Oh, yeah. Aiden stopped by and we were watching the Triple Threat stuff. I didn’t think to check messages after that. It was pretty late.” I chomp down on a french fry and check the connection to make sure I didn’t disconnect the call. He hasn’t said anything. “Finn?”

  “Aiden was at the house?” he asks.

  “Yeah,” I answer slowly. “Is he not supposed to be?”

  “No, that’s fine. I just didn’t think he would go there right away.” He clears his throat. “Did he stay long?”

  I’m starting to get that Finn is uncomfortable with Aiden being around me. “Yeah, he had dinner. He had some good advice with the show auditions. Is there a problem?” I take my exit and make my way toward the studio.

  “No, there’s no problem. Listen, since Aiden is there, maybe he can watch the kids so that I can be at the concert when you announce the top twenty.”

  “That would be great, babe. Listen, I have to go. I’ll call you later.”

  BATTY

  “Alright, I’ll set it up.” I pull the phone away and look at the screen. My stomach drops. She already hung up. I move my neck, trying to loosen this suffocating feeling from my throat.

  I close my eyes and let my head fall back against the hard wall with a thunk. I do it again. This wouldn’t happen again. Not with Sadie. I’m being crazy.

  No matter how many times I say it, that feeling doesn’t go away.

  “You okay, son?” Dad asks. I open my eyes and give the old man what I hope passes as a grin and not a grimace.

  “Yeah, Pop. It’s time to go home.”

  Chapter 14

  MONDAY

  It’s concert day. We’ve invited the fifty contestants to be a part of the audience. They have no idea we’re about to call them onstage to perform and then narrow down their number to twenty.

  It’s been a week since Aiden showed up. To my surprise, he’s shown up every night for dinner and to tuck the kids in. We didn’t talk much, just watched TV until it was time for bed. He always leaves without a word, which is strange, but then he is a strange dude.

  Standing in my dressing room, I clear my throat nervously and take a sip of the honey tea someone left before everyone piled out. I have to admit, they did an excellent job. It’s been so long since I’ve worn heels, I feel especially sexy all dolled up. My hair is French braided starting at one temple and goes around to my ear on the other side, and then hangs in big curls all the way to my elbows.

  White skinny jeans and the black corset tuxedo jacket complete with tails in the back make the most of my skinny body, actually giving me hips and boobs. The black heeled boots go half way up my calf and are suede. The whole thing is going to be hot as fuck under the lights and when we’re performing, but I’m not complaining.

  I pull the jacket down and smooth it over my stomach. There’s a knock.

  “Come in!”

  I see Finn open the door swiftly, before his eyes roam my body, slowing his movements considerably. “Damn, baby. I’ve missed you so much.” He closes the door with a loud click that seems to echo in the room.

  “I’m glad you’re here,” I say, feeling his gaze like a touch and shiver.

&
nbsp; Finn moves his hands to my shoulders then slides his palms down to my hands and interlocks our fingers. “I wouldn’t miss this for anything. I know you’re nervous, but you’re going to be amazing.”

  “Yeah, we’ll see, wont we?” I ask rhetorically with a laugh that has nothing to do with humor.

  “Hey,” he says quietly, moving his hands to my back and bringing our bodies into contact. “Give me those eyes, Sadie.”

  I look up and swallow. I’m terrified of this performance and he can see it. Finn’s eyes move to my lips and he shakes his head slightly. “I can’t kiss you right now. Your lips are so red, it would be everywhere.” He looks up to my eyes and spears me with his grey eyes. “I want those around my dick tonight. But for right now, I need you to tilt your head back for me, sweet girl.”

  I have no idea what he’s going to do, but I’m so down with whatever it is. Closing my eyes, I lean back on the makeup counter and grip the ledge between my fingers. Finn pulls with his hands at my back and it arches my chest toward him.

  At the first touch of his lips, my breath whooshes out before I gasp in again at the wet slide of his tongue on my collarbone. When his teeth nibble lightly at the side of my neck where my pulse pounds, I moan low in my throat.

  Finn uses his nose to expose the swell of my breast covered by the fall of hair over my shoulder, and covers the expanse of revealed skin with hot kisses that have me curling my toes in my boots. He uses his tongue between my breasts where the material pushes them together and moves up my neck until his lips are hovering over mine.

  My eyes flutter open and we stare at each other with so much pent up desire I’m tempted to say fuck the show. I literally shake with need, and rock my hips into Finn’s to feel how hard he is for me.

  “Sadie—”

  The click of the door shutting brings both of our heads around. The door has been shut, or hasn’t it?

  “Finn—” I start, but he’s already moving to the door. He steps into the hall and looks both ways then steps back into the room.

  “Come on, I’ll walk you to the green room.”

  “You didn’t lock the door?” I ask as I walk down the hall. Finn bares his teeth as he clenches them.

  “I wasn’t thinking about the door, baby.” I sigh. “I’m going to check the security tapes.”

  “Okay.” I can’t worry about this right now. Finn grabs my hand and jiggles it.

  “Hey. Everything’s fine. I have this handled. You do your thing.”

  “Yes, sir,” I say, smiling. It earns me a smirk.

  “Save that for later. You’re going to need it.” Finn walks away, leaving me adrift in the hall outside the green room. Someone jostles me and I come out of my haze and walk into the room.

  Immediately someone is messing with my hair, another is touching up makeup and there are hands on my back that are attaching the ear piece’s cord to the battery pack clipped to my jeans.

  “We’re ten minutes until show time. If I can have the cast please follow me to the stage,” someone with a headset and clipboard says. The swarm moves so that I can walk, but follow, always touching. This isn’t what I’ve been used to in my old career. It was more along the lines of wake up and walk on. Sure, for magazines or photo shoots it was some semblance of this, but these people don’t stop.

  I’m gratified to see a team around Fandy and Danny too, and can’t help but smirk. “Your eye liner is smudged, Danny boy.” He smiles.

  “Bite my ass, little girl.” I laugh and can practically feel my nerves settling.

  “You forgot your hat, Ms. Dinah.” Someone plops the top hat on my head and I smile as best I can from my frozen position as more people adjust the hat, my hair and the person brushing lipstick on again.

  I move my eyes around and see Fandy. “You look sexy, big man!” I can’t help but say. He’s got his hair back with a suede jacket, white shirt and black pants with buckles everywhere. The hat is perfect. We all have versions of a top hat, mine being the tallest since I’m the shortest in height. I can see the ball cap poking out of Danny’s back pocket when he turns. I’ve never seen him go anywhere without one.

  Even though we had rehearsed this all day yesterday, my knees jump and I start bouncing on my toes. The ache it causes is so familiar, I find that I can breathe easier after a few minutes. The swarm takes another swipe at me with their brushes and combs, before someone with a headset waves us on stage as the opening music starts.

  The host of the show does her spiel as the theater goes black, some model that has a big enough posse around her we’ve never spoken directly except for the initial interviews.

  We’re playing at a historic venue in New York City with great opera balconies up the walls. There was no problem selling tickets in a week so that the place was sold out, but the way I understand it the crew had a hell of a time getting all of the contestants there so quickly.

  As the crowd screams, I take a deep breath and walk across the stage with my head down and knees high. I take my place at the microphone in the middle of the two boys with my feet shoulder length apart and let the noise take me away.

  When I start to sing “Empire State of Mind” I fight the smile that tries to form. The decibel level goes up as the audience goes insane. Danny’s acoustic guitar can be heard perfectly with this song. The song choice was a no brainer given the city we’re playing and what the show is about. It’s make it or break it time for these folks.

  We play three songs then take a break to towel off and change into identical outfits. We take our seats at the table waiting for us in the middle of the crowd. The host informs the audience that if their name is called, they’re to walk to the side of the stage.

  And so it begins. Once the first kid comes up, he has sixty seconds to decide on a song and ninety seconds to perform it. The concert started at 5 PM, and by the time we listen to the last it’s after midnight.

  Fandy, Danny and I take an intermission to confer together quickly, but we did a lot during the performances. Surprisingly, I find myself fighting for the horny Justin Bieber wanna-be. Fandy doesn’t like him, probably because he’s got little girls, but agrees with his talent. Stella shines like the star she is, but I had no doubts about her.

  The plan was that we would call the top twenty to the stage and dismiss the rest, but Danny voices his opinion of how cold it seems, so we switch it around. We get on stage again, and give the top twenty their congratulations then ask them to leave. Stools are brought in and the thirty remaining members are brought up to fill the front rows.

  I, for one, forget that the cameras are probably still rolling. We ask them to ask us questions, and give advice to the ones not comfortable enough to stand up. We know their faces by now, we’ve all watched the videos more than once and we want them to keep going.

  When we suggest they shake up a melody and not stick to the plan, people want examples, so we wind up performing more than one song off the cuff. We pose for pictures and sign whatever they want. Thankfully, no one leaves angry. They got encouragement from us and I have a feeling we’ll be doing this after a lot of shows.

  However, we’re all starving and exhausted by the time we leave. We head to a twenty-four hour diner with the crew and cause as big of a stir as possible at 3 AM. By the time we’re going our separate ways to catch planes or crash in hotel rooms, the sun is coming up.

  I wake up gasping, still in my corset. The warm slide of Batty’s tongue over my core makes me arch into him.

  “Batty,” I whisper desperately. He lifts his head briefly.

  “That’s right, baby. Batty’s here.” He adds two fingers into me quickly as he flicks his tongue onto my clit. Batty knows I can’t get off this way, but I don’t guess at his intent before he’s sliding them back out and down. My breath freezes in my lungs.

  I start breathing again when he keeps his finger on the outside of my body, rubbing nerves that haven’t been stimulated, ever. I pant when he increases the speed of his tongue, sucking gently,
then harder.

  “Batty,” I plead, holding his head to me and needing something more.

  “I’ve got you, baby. Come on my face so that I can give you your breakfast.” My face scrunches up.

  “What? Why . . . are you talking about breakfast . . . right now?” He smirks and I whimper when he lifts his head and stops moving.

  “Because you’re still wearing that red lipstick, now fucking come.” Batty seals his mouth around my clit, sucking and flicking with his tongue in the perfect combination of pressure and stimulation, he pushes that finger at my ass to the first knuckle. I throw my head back and scream as the waves of pleasure crash through me.

  Batty climbs my body as my muscles spasm and I writhe in aftershocks. My body jerks sharply when he pops the buttons down my corset, making me gasp again. Batty’s hands roll my nipples sharply, then I feel his knees on the outside of my shoulders. Holy shit.

  I open my eyes to the most perfect V I’ve ever seen in real life. I bring my hands to his back and push Batty closer to my face and open my mouth. He angles his cock down and I swirl my tongue around the head, then he flexes his hips until he’s hitting the back of my throat.

  I moan at his taste, and he groans softly above me. I watch his hands land on the wall turn into fists as he sets a rhythm. I pull him into me and open my throat, making him gasp and thrust harder.

  “You suck me so good, Sadie. So good,” he tells me, watching my cheeks hollow out as I suction him back in. He swells in my mouth and I know he’s close. I dig my nails into his ass, but he pulls out anyway.

  “Not like that, baby.” He pants. “Flip over.”

  Batty moves off of me and twists my hips himself. I try to lever up on my hands, but he pulls my jacket hard until my arms are trapped in the tight sleeves behind my back. I have to turn my head to the side in order to breathe and can just see his face and shoulders in the mirror above the dresser.

  He pushes my legs closed, and pulls my hips back. In the mirror, I see him watching my ass, imagine him positioning himself at my entrance a second before I feel it and scream when he pushes into me to the hilt on the first thrust.