Levi: Casanova Club #9 Read online

  I swallowed. “I think I stick out like a sore thumb.”

  Levi offered me his arm. “No, you don’t. These people have their heads so far up their own asses, they’d never even notice if you did. You fit right in, Piper.” He started descending the stairs, and I was forced to follow. “You’re beautiful.”

  His words didn’t put me any more at ease.

  A tray came by with tall flute glasses full of champagne, and Levi plucked two up for us. He pushed one into my hand, and I sipped it as we toured the mansion.

  The champagne was by far the most delicious I’d ever tasted. It was sweet, but not terribly so, and the bubbles danced pleasantly along my tongue toward the back of my throat.

  The single glass I held probably cost more than I made in a month.

  Outside by the pool, the party felt a hell of a lot different than it was inside. There were cabanas set up along one side, where people lounged, puffing on joints or setting out lines of white powder like how Levi and his band had done back in the dressing room. I watched, unable to look away even if I wanted to, as a man took two lines off the flat stomach of a very beautiful girl.

  Drugs were all over the place.

  Bowls on tables placed all over the pool patio and garden held little bags of white powder, pre-rolled joints, and small blue and pink pills. Levi passed a bowl, picked up one of said pills, and popped it in his mouth.

  “What is that?” I dared to ask.

  “Molly.”

  “Oh.”

  “Want one?” he asked, pausing with his hand hovering over the bowl.

  I shook my head.

  “You’re sure?” he asked. “It’s just a party drug. Nothing serious. It helps you loosen up and have a good time. Everything feels better. More real.”

  “How can something feel more real?”

  He shrugged. “Couldn’t tell you. You’d just have to experience it for yourself.”

  “I’m good, thanks.”

  Levi left it alone. We moved through the gardens, strolling past drunk couples and half-naked women dropping those same little pills onto each other’s tongues before promptly crushing their lips together while sprawled along a lounge chair. They attracted the attention of everyone in the general vicinity, who seemed more than a little aroused by their display of affection and lust.

  And drug use, of course.

  It was hard to tell what these people were more drawn to, the half-naked beautiful bodies of the girls or the high they were so clearly riding.

  I knew within the first half-hour that this was not my scene and that I didn’t want to be there. But I indulged Levi and followed him around the house, letting him introduce me to people I’d never heard of and a couple I had. The time felt surreal, like I was dreaming rather than living it, and by the time we dropped down into an empty cabana by the pool, I was ready to call it quits and go home.

  But Levi was only getting started.

  His band found us sitting back against the plush pillows, our legs stretched out in front of us. They had more cocaine with them, and Levi sat up to do a couple lines with them. I watched and waited for the moment to pass, anxiously wringing my hands together and looking everywhere but at them as they snorted and sniffed and wiggled their noses.

  If Daddy could see you right now, I thought to myself.

  Levi looked over his shoulder at me. “You’re sure you don’t want—”

  “Stop offering me drugs, Levi,” I said.

  His bandmates snickered. Levi held up a hand. “All right. All right. Sorry.”

  I ran my hands down my thighs and surveyed the party. It was getting rowdier by the second. Three men in the far corner by the bar were having a heated argument, and a crowd was gathering. Pretty women in skimpy dresses with big hairstyles had their heads bowed together and were looking around the place, their gazes landing on one person after the next, and I knew without having to ask that they were gossiping, trading insider knowledge the tabloids didn’t know about yet.

  “I want to go home,” I said.

  Levi didn’t look back at me. He was too occupied with straightening out his next line. “Soon. Just give me another hour or so. Then we’ll go.”

  I wasn’t going to last another hour.

  I gnawed at the inside of my cheek and waited as long as possible before asking again. By this time, Levi was high as hell. He hardly had the sense of mind to indulge me in a conversation, let alone realize how uncomfortable I was, and I decided there was no point in waiting on him to get his shit together because he was only becoming more and more undone with every passing minute.

  So, I got to my feet and walked away.

  He didn’t even notice.

  I slipped inside, went up to the stairs to the front door, marched out onto the driveway, and kept on walking. I had no interest in being anywhere near this place. So, I put three blocks behind me before I fished my phone out of my purse and called a cab to get me the hell out of there.

  Luckily, I didn’t have to wait long for my ride to arrive. I told the driver Levi’s address. He was a middle-aged man with a friendly smile and a cab that smelled like licorice. He told me his name was Sven and that he’d been driving a cab for twenty-five years. He also told me I was the first sober person he’d ever picked up around these parts and that I didn’t have the usual prissy attitude that went along with paying customers who called him from this area.

  “I’m not from around here,” I told him as we approached Levi’s house.

  “It shows,” the driver said. “In a good way. These big parties? They ruin people. Good people.”

  I sighed and gazed out the window. It was cracked open half an inch, and I could smell the saltwater of the ocean hanging in the humid air. “I know.”

  CHAPTER 11

  LEVI

  “A little birdie told me you had a good time at the after-party,” Ashton said.

  I scratched my chin. “Yeah, I may have gone a little overboard.”

  Ashton chuckled and swiveled around on his stool. We were in my recording studio at my house. Ashton had dropped by just to say hello, and we ducked into my studio to close the door and speak privately.

  Piper was somewhere in the house.

  Truth be told, I had no idea where. Things had been a little strained between us since the party.

  I couldn’t blame her for wanting distance. I’d gone ahead and torpedoed any progress the two of us had made by getting high as a kite and absolutely shit faced. I’d been so fucked up I hadn’t realized she’d left until an hour after she was already gone.

  Talk about being an asshole.

  At that point, I was also too fucked up to find my own way home, and I didn’t really want to go home in case she was waiting there for me with a rehearsed lecture, like Jake would have been. So, I stayed at the party until sunrise, at which point my band and I got our asses out of there and made our way home.

  I slept until almost four in the afternoon the next day.

  When I got up, Piper wasn’t home. She’d headed out to do some shopping and exploring and had left a note to explain her absence.

  She didn’t come home until around eight o’clock, when she told me she’d already had dinner and she was tired. She’d retired to her room to take a bath, read her book, and have a nice quiet evening.

  Alone.

  “Overboard is your MO,” Ashton said dismissively.

  “I didn’t consider Piper.”

  Ashton narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean?”

  “She asked if we could leave. She wasn’t into the party, and I think she was uneasy, and I ignored her, did another bump, and didn’t even notice when she bailed.”

  Ashton grimaced. “Ouch. That’s awkward, man. A woman ain’t gonna easily forget something like that.”

  I sighed. “I know. I fucked up.”

  Ashton shrugged as he got to his feet, went to the mini-fridge, and grabbed himself a bottle of water. My stomach ached for a drink, but I shot the craving down
. Then my agent took his seat back. “You’re Levi Morgan. She’ll forgive you.”

  “She’s not one of those girls.”

  “What girls?”

  “The ones who forgive me because of my name. She’s different. She doesn’t give a shit about all this.” I gestured at my recording studio, at the piano and the guitar and all my albums mounted on the wall.

  “So what? Dude, if she doesn’t give a damn about your music, why do you give a damn about her? Your music is your life.”

  “She deserved better than that.”

  “So, make it up to her. Take her on a nice date. Shower her with gifts. Do your usual Levi shtick. She’ll come around. They always do.”

  Something told me Piper wouldn’t think too highly of me if I tried to buy her affection back with flowers and trinkets. No. She needed something deeper than that. Something real.

  I glanced at the clock above the door. “I have an idea. Sorry, Ash. I have to kick you out.”

  “Dude—”

  “You can tell me all about this new album idea of yours another time, all right? This is important, and I need to fix it now.”

  Ashton stumbled as I pushed him toward the door. Then he fixed me with a knowing smirk. “You like this girl, don’t you, Levi? Like, really like her.”

  I frowned. “Stop trying to read me, man.”

  “I’m just saying. She’s got you all twisted. Better watch yourself. A girl like that can turn your life upside down when she walks out of it.” Ashton pushed out the door and waved over his shoulder at me. “See you around, man.”

  I mulled his words over as I watched him leave.

  Did Piper have that much impact on me that she’d turn my life upside down at the end of the month? That seemed hard to believe. Sure, I liked her. And sure, there might have been a soft spot for her forming in my heart. But that didn’t mean I’d be ruined when she left.

  Then again, we still had nearly three weeks of time left together, and crazier things had happened.

  However, if things kept going how they were going now and I didn’t take the time to fix things, she might walk out of here sooner than the end of the month. I didn’t want that to happen. Things had just started rolling between us. There was a real connection there that I didn’t want to waste, and there was so much more I wanted—no, needed—to know about her.

  What was her life like growing up? What was her family like? Why did she join the Casanova Club? Where did she see herself in the future?

  What did she desire more than anything in this world?

  I needed time.

  And in order to get more time, I needed forgiveness.

  * * *

  At seven o’clock, I changed into a pair of black jeans without rips in them and a long-sleeved black button-up. I shaved, slicked my hair to the side, and put on a spray of cologne.

  Then, feeling a little uneasy and terribly unsure of how the night was going to go, I made my way downstairs to find Piper where I’d seen her last, in the living room with a glass of wine and her book.

  She looked up from her page when I walked in. Her eyes did a full sweep of me before returning to the page. “You look nice.”

  There it was. That uncanny distance that had formed between us.

  “Thank you,” I said as I smoothed the front of my shirt. “Are you hungry?”

  “I could eat. Do you have something in mind?” Her eyes were still scanning the page. I wondered how she could read and talk at the same time, and then I considered that she might be pretending to read so she didn’t have to indulge me any longer than necessary.

  Yikes. I hoped that wasn’t the case.

  “I already have a little something prepared,” I said.

  Her gaze flicked back up to me. “And what’s that?”

  “You’ll have to come with me to find out.”

  Piper studied me calmly for a minute. Then she picked up her bookmark, which rested on the armrest of the sofa, slid it into the crease of the page, and closed the book. She put it facedown on the end table and got to her feet.

  She was wearing skin-tight black leggings and a long-sleeved, loose gray shirt. Her dark brown hair was up in a high ponytail, and shorter strands hung in soft curls around her face. I didn’t think she was wearing any makeup, but then again, I’d never been very good at noticing such things.

  “I’ll go change,” she said.

  “No need. We don’t have to go anywhere. Just up.” I pointed upward.

  Her brows drew together. “Up?”

  I smiled. “Follow me.”

  Piper followed. I listened to the sounds of her steps on the stairs behind me as we climbed, and she didn’t ask any questions when we moved down the hall and I pushed open a door that opened onto another set of stairs in a narrow stairwell. I led the way up until we hit another door, and when I pushed that one open, the warm evening air filled my lungs.

  We stepped out onto my rooftop patio.

  Piper emerged behind me and cast her gaze around. “I had no idea this was here.”

  “Most people don’t,” I said. “I like to keep some things to myself. If I ever need to get away but I don’t want to leave my house, I come here.”

  Piper turned in a full circle, taking in the view of the skyline, the ocean, and the other homes scattered around Malibu Point. Then she spotted the table set for two on the back of the patio overlooking the ocean. It was simply decorated with a white tablecloth, one single candle, and a single red rose in a small glass vase.

  “What’s all this about?” she asked, going to the table.

  I opened the bottle of wine and poured us each a glass. “It’s my way of saying sorry. I behaved poorly at the afterparty. I should never have exposed you to something like that. I especially shouldn’t have ignored you when you told me you wanted to leave. I’m very sorry.”

  Piper studied me for a minute. When I pulled out her chair for her, she took it and let me tuck her into the table. Then she picked up her wine. “Thank you, Levi. I appreciate this.”

  I sat down across from her. “I’m glad. I was worried I ruined everything. I still am. Truth be told, I’m having a good time with you, Piper. Better than I expected to have, to be honest. And I don’t want to cut our time short because I’m preoccupied with parties and late nights and—”

  “Drugs?”

  I licked my lips. “Yes.”

  Piper’s deep brown eyes lingered on the wine glass in my hand for a moment. “I worry about you, Levi.”

  “Please don’t.”

  “I can’t help it. And I’m not alone in feeling this way.”

  I willed her not to say my brother’s name.

  But she did.

  “Jake worries about you too. I think he does a poor job of expressing how he feels, but deep down, he’s concerned. And scared.”

  I cleared my throat and fought against the urge to clench my jaw. All I wanted was to sit and enjoy a nice meal up here with her. I did not want to talk about Jake and his endless worrying. “My brother has no idea what this life is like.”

  “Have you tried to help him understand?”

  “Of course, I have,” I said quickly. Then I sighed and shook my head at myself for coming on too strong. “Sorry. Yes, I have. But it’s like talking to a brick wall.”

  Piper swirled her wine in her glass and watched me over the rim. “So, in these times where you’ve tried, you’ve done so without just talking at him? Or yelling at him?”

  “Of course.”

  “Or losing your temper?”

  I frowned. One of my favorite things about Piper was her cleverness and her wisdom. But I wasn’t sure I was a fan of her using it against me.

  CHAPTER 12

  PIPER

  Levi’s guard was up.

  This was uneven terrain for me to try to navigate. I wasn’t familiar with drugs or substance abuse. I’d been one of the lucky few growing up to not be exposed to that kind of thing. At least, I was pretty sure I hadn’t been exp
osed to it. For all I knew, people in my life were abusers of alcohol and drugs, but it had been hidden from me.

  So, knowing the right and wrong things to say while sitting across from a hugely famous rock star like Levi Morgan was intimidating.

  Intimidating was the understatement of the century.

  He’d leaned back to put more space between us as soon as his brother’s name left my lips, and then his mood had shifted, darkened, and he’d retreated into himself as if he could will the topic of conversation along to something else.

  I wished we could too.

  This wasn’t how I wanted to spend my night. Or any of my time for that matter. But here we were, talking about it.

  “Why do you think your brother is on your case all the time?” I set my wine glass down. It felt rather inappropriate to drink around Levi. His glass was still three-quarters full, and part of me thought he shouldn’t have any at all.

  Levi shrugged nonchalantly. “I don’t know. Because he doesn’t know how to mind his own business and leave me well enough alone to handle my own shit?”

  “Really?”

  “What?”

  I arched an eyebrow at him. “You seriously think that’s why he’s always on you about this stuff? Because he ‘doesn’t know how to mind his own business’?”

  Levi did not seem amused by my use of air quotes as I repeated his own words back to him. He shifted in his chair like he couldn’t get comfortable. “Do you have some other motivation in mind?”

  “I already told you,” I said simply. “He’s worried about your habits. And he’s scared.”

  “Of what?” Levi asked a little sharply.

  “Of something happening to you because of your addiction.”

  Levi frowned. “I don’t have an addiction.”

  “Are you sure?”

  His gaze was cool and calculating. I prickled under the heat of his stare and wished he’d say something already. I knew I was walking on eggshells, but damn him, I wasn’t going to hold my tongue and pretend all of this was just fine by me.