Page 166 of Five Summers

“You can trust me, Poppy. I won't ever do that shit again,” he says, leaning in, gently pressing his lips against mine, as if sealing his promise with a kiss. As his kiss gets hot and wild, I feel a crazy rush of electricity as his hands explore my naked body.

Chapter sixty-three

Xander

After taking a shower together and making Poppy come on my cock two more times, I hold her hand and guide her towards the door, aware that I am running late for my meeting with the guys. As much as I desire to stay in this room and make up for lost time, I know I have to go, as my brothers are expecting me.

I lead her down the hallway till we get to Ace's room, just two doors away.

I knock on the door and it swings open right away, and there greeting us is Theo instead of Ace. As he smirks, his eyes dartdown to our intertwined hands, revealing his intention to fuck with me once again. That’s just his nature.

“Took you long enough, dickwad,” he says, turning and heading back into the room.

Upon entering the room, I spot Ace and Nate seated at the table, deep in conversation. As I get closer, I see a bunch of papers neatly stacked in front of Ace, along with a big notepad and pen. He's been working hard on something. That's the reason we chose him to represent the band. Ace knows his shit. Ever since we lost our songs, he's all about reaching the ins and out of the legal details.

The moment Poppy lets go of my hand, I come to a sudden stop. I can tell she's feeling a bit awkward, thinking this is just a band meeting. But whatever we decide in this meeting is gonna affect her too, because I need to tell my brothers that I need to slow down. If the label gets too demanding and keeps me away from my family, I'll give it all up for her and Alex.

I slide my hand around her waist and stand behind her, holding her close against me. I couldn't care less what the guys watching me like creepy stalkers think. They’re probably curious since they’ve never seen me like this with anyone ever. Not even when I let my guard down at Nate and Theo's party, just a month before we signed with the label. Okay, they were there in the room when I got a groupie to suck my cock, but that was it. I never let her touch me anywhere else. Like all the other groupies after that night, I only let them blow me to get off.

“Xander,” she says, turning her head to look up at me. “I’ll just sit on the couch. It’s a band meeting.”

"Come on over, Spitfire," Theo says. “It's all good. I’ve got a spot right here if you’re interested.” He pushes his chair back and pats his lap, inviting her to sit. Then he gives me a smart-ass grin.

"Fuck off, Theo," I grumble, annoyed. “No chance she'll be anywhere near you, asshole.”

Theo bursts into laughter, and I catch Nate smiling at our playful exchange. As always, Ace maintains his grumpy demeanor.

I grab a chair and pull Poppy onto my lap, placing my hands on her hips, hoping she’ll choose to stay there.

Theo and Nate are grinning like crazy as they stare at me. Seriously, don't those fuckers have anything better to do besides creeping on me? Sick, twisted assholes.

“Alright,” Ace says, flipping through some papers on the table. “I’ve gathered a ton of information. I had Anita review the contracts we signed, and she pointed out a clause stating that if we decide to leave, the songs we’ve recorded and produced with the label will remain with them. This means we will never be able to play any of those songs in public again.”

“But those are my fucking songs,” I blurt out, feeling disappointed that some of the tracks were about the girl sitting on my lap. At the time, I didn’t know what I was writing, but now that I do, I refuse to let the label own them. Those songs are mine, a reflection of how Poppy broke through my defenses and saw the real me. “How the fuck do we not have the rights over them?”

“Because of the clause in our contract that states…” Ace grabs the notepad and reads from it. “Any songs recorded under the label are the property of Victory Records. We all signed it.” Ace looks around the table.

“So, what does that mean for us?” Nate queries.

“It means we’re pretty much at their mercy,” Theo remarks. “They practically own us.”

“Not necessarily,” Ace interjects.

The room falls silent as Ace's piercing gaze sweeps across the group, capturing everyone's attention, before finally settling back on me.

“You mentioned you’ve been writing songs and have enough for four albums.”

“Yeah, so?” I respond, still pissed by the loss of my songs.

“I was thinking, once we're back home, we can check them out, record as many as we can, and then go off on our own.”

“But we’ve lost all those songs,” Nate states.

“Yeah, but think about it. How often do we play those songs anyway? I think on our set list for this tour, there’s only one. The rest is our new stuff,” Ace points out.

“Yeah but still that’s our biggest hit to date,” Theo says.

“So, what exactly are you proposing, Ace?” Nate asks.

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