of him from morning till night. To me, that speaks devotion.”
“He thinks I’m doing it because it’s my job.”
Deciding I was just going to come out and say it, I asked, “What’s the deal with you two, Sheri? He seems pretty territorial with you, but then—”
“He lets me blow his bandmates,” she stated flatly.
“Well, I was going to say, he can be pretty mean to you, too. I get the feeling that he’s madly in love with you, but he doesn’t want to admit it.”
“Oh,” she said, blushing. She quickly sipped on her coffee and then cleared her throat. “Well, that’s probably because he told me once, and I never said anything back.”
“You don’t love him?” I found that surprising.
“I don’t know. I can’t imagine my life without him. And I don’t want to sleep with anyone else. He seriously turns me on. But…I guess I’m just waiting for the day when he wakes up and realizes he can do better.”
“Why do you say that? You’re a good person, Sheri. You love these boys like family, and I know they feel the same way about you.”
“I don’t know about that,” she said, her voice sad.
“Well, I do. When Phil told you to get out that day, Jason was ready to go to war for you. He wants you around, and I know Phil really does, too. Now…do you want to talk about the blow-job thing or…”
She cleared her throat again. “Sometimes, I need more than Jason to get off.”
Brain fart. “I’m sorry?”
“It’s a thing I have,” she admitted quietly. “Sometimes, I can’t have an orgasm unless I’m going down on a guy at the same time. So, I blow the guys while Jason fucks me. He’ll do that for me. And since he trusts the guys…”
“Is it every time?” Would Phil do that for me, if it were what I needed? Probably not. He’d fuck us both to death in an attempt to get me off first.
“It used to be in the beginning but not so much now. I guess it really depends on where my head’s at.”
I sucked in a deep breath and voiced what had been on my mind for a while now, “Did something bad happen to you, Sheri?”
“You could say that,” she replied.
“Have you spoken to anyone about it?”
“I used to see a shrink, but I stopped going when I met the guys. It’s hard to be shrunk when you’re touring. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to start seeing one again now that we’re home. I used to feel better after I had my sessions.”
“I think that might be a good idea. You need to talk to someone, and I get the feeling it’s way beyond my scope of practice.”
She smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Yeah.”
Back at the Plantation House, we headed into Phil’s half to add the seafood to the already prepped and simmering gumbo base. I had dumped everything into the slow cooker before Sheri and I’d left.
As I was chopping the catfish into chunks, Sheri set up the blender and made Jason a smoothie since he had to take some painkillers soon.
“They make him so ill when he takes them on an empty stomach,” she complained as she rinsed out the appliance. “I’m going to run this down to him.”
“He should probably take a rest before dinner.”
“Okay.” She headed through the sliding panel door.
Ten minutes later, as I scrubbed my fishy hands in the kitchen sink, I heard the door slide open. Thinking it was Sheri, I looked over my shoulder and instead found Phil staring at me, wide-eyed and slack-jawed.
“Hey, babe.” I dried off my hands.
The lock on the door turned, and my eyebrows rose in surprise.
“Fuck me runnin’,” he growled, stalking his way over to me until his huge body pressed against my back, trapping me against the countertop.
What personal space? I thought dryly.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“What the fuck are you wearin’?” He panted, sliding his hot palms up under my shirt to cup and massage my tits.
“Jeans and my new halter top,” I replied, pushing my butt into his groin.
He started dropping those tonguing kisses I adored on my shoulder and neck while his calloused fingers began plucking and rolling my nipples.
“Are we about to have kitchen sex?” I laughed, reaching up and twining my arms around his neck.
“Too. Fuckin’. Right,” he replied.
Stirring the gumbo, I looked up to see Alys and Lili traipsing through the backyard. Without me having to ask, Alys had picked up two-dozen