Page 6 of Rock Star

“Let’s not call Phoenix ‘babe’,” the smoldering dark-eyed dude in question interjected in a commanding tone.

Foxy held up his hands. “I apologize, Phoenix,” he smirked.

“Apology accepted,” I smirked right back at him.

There was only one other band member left for me to officially meet… Zach, the keyboard player, who also played bass when Axel was doing his own thing on the catwalk in arena and stadium concerts.

“Hey, Phoenix,” he said softly, tucking a strand of brown hair behind his ear. “I’m Zachary but you can call me Zach.” He’d sounded almost shy, which surprised me. I guessed he needed the energy of performing in order to come out of his shell…

He handed me a mic. “First song in the set, ‘Ghost in the Heart’.” He positioned his hands on the keyboard ready to strike the initial chord.

Foxy clacked his sticks together, once, twice, three times, then slammed them down on his drums.

Rhys’ fingers blurred over the frets and strings, and his guitar chimed as he leaned into the riff.

Axel added the bass and then his deep baritone.

“I will haunt you with my love,” he sang, and I supported him.

I was glad the reverb in the floor monitor mix was under control and I could hear myself when the rest of the guys came in on the chorus. Otherwise, the result would have been a sonic blood bath. I reduced my American nasality to the more British sound of Axel’s voice and made sure I didn’t sing too loud or too soft.

“Carry on,” Jake said, pulling up a chair to sit on after we’d gotten to the end of the song.

Within minutes, I found out that a rehearsal with ChiMera involved performing the full set like a gig. They were totally professional, no messing about, no chatting, no jamming. Two hours later, we had a short comfort break then ran through the entire set again. The guys played and Axel sang with ferocious energy.

I thought it was awesome, but Jake said, “Not bad.” He shook his head. “Not great, yet, though. Tonal balance needs to be improved wouldn’t you all agree?”

Axel, it seemed, spoke for everyone. “We should practice more individually before the next rehearsal.”

“Yep. Let’s call it a day,” Jake nodded. “Shall I order in some pizzas?”

Rhys rubbed his belly. “Thought you’d never ask.”

“I need to cool down my throat first.” Axel placed his guitar on its stand. He shot me a glance. “Would you like to do some humming with me, Phoenix?”

“Sure,” I said, pretending nonchalance.

For the umpteenth time, I wanted to pinch myself.

Me, Phoenix Johnson, doing cooling down exercises with rock god Axel Wainwright.

Holy Shit!We ate a late lunch in CM’s swanky boardroom. I was unable to finish my pepperoni pizza, it was so big, and was about to inquire if I could take it home with me when Foxy asked if he might have it. I was too embarrassed to reveal the sorry state of my family life and how we could never afford take out, so I handed him my plate.

“Thanks, Phoenix,” he said in his London accent. “Since getting clean I can’t stop eating.”

“Yeah, me too.” Axel took a swig from his can of soda. He flexed his bulging arm muscles. “Good thing I like working out.”

I closed my eyes momentarily, imagining his smoking hot body on a rowing machine. Then I heard Jake asking me a question and I forced myself to focus.

“I forgot to check if you have an up-to-date passport,” he was saying.

Before Mom got sick, we used to travel across the border to Baja from time to time. I’d gotten a passport when I was sixteen and I told Jake it was still valid.

“I’ve never been to Europe before,” I admitted. “I’m so excited…”

I caught Axel staring at me, his expression unfathomable. He probably thought I was such a doofus. He’d been really nice to me earlier, though. After singing for around four hours, our voices were wide open; our throat muscles had gone through a load of extreme stretching. Like any athlete (and singers are athletes of the voice), we needed to calm those muscles and allow them to relax.

Axel had taken me to a side room, and we’d sat almost knee-to-knee making soft siren sounds together. As usual, after a vocal cool down, my entire body was glowing. Could be why I was thinking inappropriate thoughts about him. It was pure fantasy, in any case. I reminded myself I’d sworn off men. If Axel tried to hit on me, I would run for the hills.

Suddenly, the door to the board room swung open, and a beautiful, curvy woman, wearing a body-hugging short red dress, came into the room. She was exotic-looking, possibly Hispanic, and her long dark brown ringlets framed a flawlessly made up face.

With my pale hair and only a touch of mascara and lip gloss, I felt colorless. At least I was wearing my best pair of jeans and a newish t-shirt.

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