Going Up (Up & Down Book 1), page 24
“Morning.” I replied.
“So, I was looking online this morning, and I browsed over something highly interesting.”
“DJ, come on, we are on holiday, put the computer away.” I laughed.
“Usually I would, but well, It’s something I do when I’m beginning to promote a new artist, I Google them every day.”
“Stalker.”
DJ sighed, and I held back a laugh. It was obvious he was itching to say something and I just wasn’t letting him.
“You’re on YouTube.” He finally said exasperated.
“Huh?”
“Someone was recording you, and they uploaded your set to YouTube. As of this morning your video had over 20,000 views.”
“Why?” I proclaimed.
“Because you’re very talented. Look I’ve spoken with the executives this morning; we’ve all agreed that pending your studio recordings, we’d like to work on releasing a single straight away.
“But what about seclusion?”
“I've got the confidence that you are more than capable of growing as you go.”
“Okay.” I replied, as the nerves began to bubble in my stomach.
“I’ll email you a link to the video, take a look later on okay.”
“Sure.”
“Alright well, I promise no more surprise gigs this week so you can enjoy the holiday.”
“Thanks DJ, for everything,” I exclaimed. “See ya.”
“By Sarah.”
I hung up the phone and laughed.
YouTube? Me!
My lack of confidence made it hard to understand why anyone would find me even remotely interesting. Even with numerous big wigs ‘in the business’ people telling me I was good, I just couldn’t allow myself to believe it, just in case all my hopes were suddenly ripped away from me.
I couldn’t stop thinking how it would feel to have someone tell me it was all a joke.
I knew my lack of confidence stemmed from everything my father had put me through, his words, his brainwashing had filtered me in to believing I wasn’t worth very much as a person. I’d tried to minimize the residual emotions weeping from the scars my father had left. Mostly because I was deathly afraid of tearing open those scars and exposing myself to a confrontation of my past I wasn’t ready to deal with.
But, No matter how hard I tried to lock the remnants caused by the years of torture, I was a different person because of it all.
I shook my head and sat up, bothered by the deep thought while I was still so sleepy. One day I would have to deal with my past, and it wouldn’t be pretty. I knew that, but it wasn’t going to be today, not while I was on vacation, not while I was in Hawaii.
I stood up and walked across to my suitcase that was sitting on the table. I pulled out a pair of shorts, a white singlet and my black bikini. Once I was dressed I checked the time-line of activities Nick had given me before we’d left LA. I smiled, luckily I wouldn’t need to catch a shuttle or taxi anywhere, because the plan for the day was volleyball and drinks by the beach. I grabbed a hat and towel before leaving my room. I walked along the beach front until I could see Nick and the others in the distance. I could feel my porcelain skin beginning to heat up so ran, hopeful that someone had more forethought that me and had brought sunscreen.
Finally when I arrived, Janie lay on the beach in the sun.
“Do you have sunscreen?” I pleaded.
“Why, hello Sarah. Nice to see you too.” Janie replied with a giggle. She propped herself up on her arm and searched through her big beach bag. Finally she held out a large tube.
“SPF 50+ good for us pale whities.” Janie laughed.
“You look positively sun kissed next to me.” I replied as I flipped the lid on the tube and squeezed a generous amount on to my hand. I rubbed the lotion in to the parts of my body I could reach and asked Janie to put the lotion on my back.
“Has he stopped at all this morning?” I asked referring to Nick, who was topless on the beach playing volleyball with his staff members. He didn’t look like a man who’d barely slept, and had exerted himself all night with no respite. He looked surprisingly energetic in fact.
“Nope, although he did mention stopping for lunch soon.”
“Sounds like I made my way out here at the right time then!” I giggled
I looked back over at Nick, his board shorts were slung low on his hips, and a small snail trail grew in a line up to his belly button, I’d seen Nick in all sorts, I’d seen Nick naked, but something about the way he looked on the beach, perhaps it was the shadows the sun on his skin caused, set my heart alight.
Nick noticed me watching him and sent me a smile and small wave. I returned the gesture and lay back on the sand next to Janie.
Once we’d had lunch, the group headed back to the hotel. Nick told everyone to get a restful night’s sleep as early in the morning we’d be heading out on the boat to go to Kauai.
Of course, Nick wasn’t planning on heeding his own advice and he sneaked to my room soon after 7pm.
“Room service?” Nick exclaimed holding a bottle of wine in his hands.
“You’re such a noodle.” I laughed, gesturing him to come in
“A noodle?” He laughed raising an eyebrow.
“Oh shush, just come in.”
Nick walked in and placed the wine on the table.
“I’ve missed you all day.” Nick groaned as he turned to face me, hungrily he took me in to his arms and pulled me in to him. “I was literally counting down the minutes until I could have you to myself again.”
“We’re a bit like a dirty secret though aren’t we?”
“One day, when your career is off the ground you things will be different,” Nick replied, kissing my forehead softly. “Until then, I get to keep you to myself.”
The video!
That’s right.
I escaped from Nicks arms, which caused him to sigh a little.
“DJ called this morning about something and I forgot to look.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah apparently someone was recording the gig last night and uploaded it.”
I grabbed my phone, and whilst it took me forever to figure out the Wi-Fi, I found the link DJ had sent me and opened the link. Nick and I watched the video, which had garnered another 5,000 views since DJ had called. The comments were generally all favorable, aside from the spam and trolls.
“I can’t say I am surprised, I did tell you that you had a natural ability.” Nick exclaimed, his tone was slightly cocky and he wore a smirk that made him look like he was a cat that had got the cream.
“That song, the one you wrote. You never told me who it was about?”
Nick sighed softly and the smirk dropped from his face.
“It was about a few people and situations, Mostly Amelia’s father. He’d forced me into proposing around that time you see. He’d put it in a clause somewhere. In the end everything that happened with that darned contract was my own fault. I’d been naive to trust someone who didn’t have much to lose.”
“Sometimes naive isn’t a bad thing. Besides, Amelia didn’t turn out to be all bad, she released you.” I replied with a smile.
“Yet her father still continues to rip genuine people off. It’s a hard pill to swallow when, aside from a contract that makes me look foolish, I have no proof of the depths he will stoop too.”
“I wouldn’t worry about him” I replied without thinking, I felt Nick’s eyes moved up to my face, and I could tell he was searching me, trying to understand where my reply had come from. How could I possibly know anything about Amelia’s father after all?
“I mean, I am a great believer in karma Nick, He’ll get what’s coming to him eventually.” I said, hoping I’d successfully covered my own back. I’d promised Amelia that I’d keep her visit quiet. Lying to Nick wasn’t ideal, but she’d been so insistent about it that I felt an obligation to her. A strange feeling to have considering our past.
“I hope so.”
“Do you write other songs Nick?” I said after a few moments of silence.
“Yes, not often though, usually only when I’m feeling particularly emotional.” He laughed.
“Why are you laughing?” I murmured, a little confused by his admission.
“Well, up until a few days ago I was emotionally mind fucked over this beautiful, insane, talented clever, girl. I’ve written four songs in the past month and a half alone.” Nick said as he placed his arm around my shoulder. I felt my skin redden, he’d written songs, about me.
“Can I see them?” I whispered, hopeful he’d say yes.
“They’re back home, but yes, after all you’ve shared with me Sarah, I’ll let you see how truly perverted I am when it comes to you.” Nick pulled me in to him again and this time I buried my head into his now covered chest.
“You wrote sexy songs about me Nick?” I scoffed. “Are we going 50 shades of Grey: The musical?”
Nick shook his head emphatically, he frowned and perhaps looked even a little put out that I would suggest his lyrics compared to the deeply erotic words I’d heard Janie mention about that book one time.
“I almost wish they were, no my songs are much more soppy than that Sarah, it’s tragic really.”
“I doubt it, besides even if they are cheesy we’ll get to laugh about it.” I nodded.
“I love the way you see things, you’ve got such a unique view of the world.”
Nick ran his right hand up my left arm, his fingers, gently brushed across my skin causing a ripple of goose bumps to spread. Before I could compute the pleasure of his touch, he cupped my face. The change of caress caused my breath to catch in my throat and my heart to speed up. A small moan escaped my lips before I could stop it and Nick smiled at me, his eyes were hungry and dark. He literally looked as though given the chance he’d make a complete meal of me. The thought alone caused me shudder. I smiled back at Nick, grateful for him, and everything we had.
The thoughts I’d had earlier in the day had nothing on what we had, nothing.
With little persuasion I kissed Nick, allowing that ever familiar feeling of undeniable scorching heat overcome me. Then for the second time, in less than 24 hours, Nick and fell in to bed.
When we fell asleep it was still dark, although we still stayed up until the wee hours of the morning. Our boat was scheduled for 8.30 am though, so that was a factor in not pulling another 'all-nighter'.
When we woke, it was 8am. It was nice to actually wake and find Nick next to me, his arms around my body, however the realization that we’d slept in cause use both to spring out of bed. Nick pulled on his clothes and gave me a quick peck before slipping out of the room unnoticed. I quickly packed my suitcase and dressed into some clean clothes before meeting Nick and the others out the front of the hotel. By some miracle, we were all ready and waiting by 8:25am, so we caught the shuttle to the same dock that Nick and I had set off from the first night we’d been here.
“This place does Island tours. I’ve booked out the entire boat for the trip so we’ve got this place to ourselves for the day. We expect to dock in around 3pm. There is a bar and food on the upper deck, so let’s all get relaxed for a day of sailing okay.” Nick explained as the group gathered outside of the boat.
“You, Me, bathroom in ten.” Nick murmured as I walked past him.
I shot my head around, making sure no one had heard his rather risque proposal. We’d been in each others arms a little less than an hour ago. Luckily our secret was still very much a secret of sorts. Once we were all on board, the boat set off.
I watched Nick from a distance, as he talked with a couple of people from Booked Out. Then suddenly, he stopped, looked over at me and grinned. He excused himself politely then walked away from the conversation and toward the bathroom.
I looked over at Janie and smiled; she stood with Josh and Marc and looked a little out of her depth, hoping for a little female company. I walked over and let her know I’d be back shortly. She smiled and thanked me profusely. There was only so many ‘fart jokes’ she could let herself be exposed to she exclaimed.
I excused myself and followed the path Nick had taken a minute or two prior, the bathroom was around the corner, out of the sight of anyone else, which was handy considering Nick’s hand reached out and pulled me in to the small cubicle space with him.
“I just wanted a kiss to keep me going, since I will only be able to exchange pleasantries with you all day.” Nick explained, softly he pressed his mouth to mine. His kiss had an uncontrollable effect on me, which made it absurdly difficult to stop kissing and as he pulled away from me, I instinctively flew my hand out to the back of his head bringing his lips back to mine.
“We best not get to carried away, people will come looking.” Nick said finally.
“Damn you being sensible Nikolai.” I groaned, that searing pit of hotness in my stomach was suddenly on the brink of becoming an explosion of lust.
“I think stupid might be a more apt word.” He replied regretfully.
With that Nick released me and I left the bathroom. I made my way back to Janie and the boys, while Nick continued floating about the boat chatting to his staff. The rest of the trip went without trouble, and finally around 3pm we docked. Kauai had a much more relaxed feel to it. I’d never seen something so natural. The beaches seemed more beautiful and vibrant than Kailua had, even though until I’d been to Kailua I’d never seen anything so gorgeous.
Nick had another shuttle come to pick us up and take us to our new hotel. The shuttle took us on a scenic tour, before finally pulling up outside a resort.
“Alright guys, we’ve got room buddies this time around, unfortunately they don’t have enough free rooms. So I have assigned you all a buddy.”
I smiled and looked at Janie, fully expecting to be buddied with her, only to be completely surprised and shocked by who Nick had 'buddied' me with.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Actually perhaps on reconsideration, my shock and surprise seemed rather premature. Of course he’d put us together. He had the power and no one would really think twice considering we were not the only unisex buddy couples, Janie was with Marc, and Josh was with a girl from accounting. I looked over at him with a knowing smirk on my face, he mirrored my smirk, but his had more than a hint of amusement injected in to it, in fact he look utterly mischievous.
“The next three days are yours to do with as you wish. We’ll have dinner together tonight however.”
Everyone dispersed once the Key’s had been handed out. Janie walked off with Marc, but before she walked inside the resort she turned and raised her eyebrows at me. I smirked back, but part of me was a little worried.
“You are a very cheeky man.”
“I did expect a reaction from DJ, I mean he’s warned me about causing a media storm in regards to you, and well sharing a room with you could be misconstrued in many ways.” Nick said, as he took my suitcase out of my hands.
“I forgot to tell you didn’t I Nick?” I smiled as I took a few steps toward the resort, Nick followed behind me, and I heard him clear his throat.
“What?” He replied. “Tell me what?” He sounded like a small child, that was trying to find out what they were getting for Christmas and it was endearing.
“DJ told me that as long as our recording back home goes well they’ll be releasing a single sooner than planned. He probably doesn’t care about the attention anymore.”
Nick’s footsteps stopped, and the cases dropped. I frowned, suddenly worried that he was upset, although I wasn’t completely sure what he had to be upset about. Before I could think about it too much Nick’s arms engulfed me from behind. There were other people around, but neither of us cared for once, and so I turned around, his strong arms still around my waist and looked up at him.
We didn’t speak because the words weren’t needed. Everything that we needed to say to one another moved silently between the connections between our eyes. I’d been lost in Nick’s baby blues more times than I could count, and today was no different, except that today I didn’t care if the whole world knew. Nick’s face slowly drew closer to mine, our eyes staying open and connected until finally we kissed.
The kiss was short, but as sensual and electric as ever. Making out in public was not something I was entirely comfortable with, but just being with Nick, was.
“Shall we head inside?” Nick murmured in my ear, as he pulled me in for a long embrace.
“Yes, I think that is a perfect idea.” I agreed.
Reluctantly Nick and I pulled our bodies away from each other and continued walking in to the resort. Our room was beautiful; the view of the beach was amazingly breath-taking. If ever I needed to run away again, if ever I needed to start afresh I was going to do it here, somewhere relatively untouched, natural and quiet. It wouldn’t be needed though; my new life in LA was looking relatively spectacular these days.
Later that night we met with everyone else for dinner.
“So, your boyfriend is a little cheeky huh.” Janie exclaimed, elbowing me softly in the side.
“Just a little, though mind you, I’m not complaining, when we get back home I’m going to be stuck in the studio, guess I am kind of grateful for the time.”
“I can’t believe that I’m going to be the best friend of a super star.” Janie mooned.
“I’m already the best friend of a super star Janie. You’ve been amazing to me, and we’ve only known each other such a short time.”
“Don’t start! You’ll make me cry,” she giggled. “and I’m not wearing waterproof mascara.”
“Well it’s true. I think I would have quit work in that first week if it weren’t for you, Josh and Marc.” I replied honestly, momentarily placing my hand over hers on top of the table.
“I wouldn’t have let you, you know. I’d have forced you to come back.” She replied with a hint of laughter.
I looked over at Nick who was chatting very intently with DJ; he looked up at me, and smiled before turning back to DJ. I looked down at the table and smiled. It was truly a miracle, all of this. I couldn’t help but think it almost seemed like I was asleep and everything that had happened in the past month was a dream. I resisted the urge to pinch myself, afraid that if I did so, it wouldn’t hurt.
