Untamed

Tossing the phone onto the mattress, I reached down for my daughter. The house was oddly quiet for a change; the peace was nice. O

“Don’t let her fall off the bed¸ babe.” Appearing in the doorway, A

Walking over to me, A

Lacing her arms around my neck, A

A twinge of guilt ran through me so fast, it instantly killed my arousal. I hadn’t wanted to lie about leaving all the time to record the album, so a few days after we’d moved in with my parents, I’d told A

The song that she was curious about was the first single. I’d recorded it last week, but the guys I’d hired were still tweaking it. Seemed odd to me that they needed to. Once a D-Bags song had been laid down, it was good to go…no alterations required. But I’d heard the raw cut of the single, and I agreed with my producer. It needed…something.

Frowning, I told her, “No, not yet…it’s not good enough.”

By the look on A

Yeah, but I have so much more riding on this than I usually do. My entire world is wrapped up in that CD…you just don’t know that. Smiling, I shrugged. “Oh, don’t get me wrong, it’s spectacular, but it’s just not quite the right level of awesome yet.” I pinched her butt. “You just have to wait.”

Giggling, she squirmed on my lap, lightening my mood and making my dick harden back up. Then O

A

“You want to borrow your parents’ car and make out at a lookout point.” Closing her eyes, she shook her head. “It’s like I’m fifteen again.”

Ignoring the humor in her tone, I said, “Just an idea. You seemed like you wanted to do me, that’s all.”

She made another wistful sigh. “No…that’s not what I was thinking about.” When I gave her a fu

By the way she said it, and the way she stared at O

A

“Look, Mommy! It’s squirmy!”

Gibson laughed. A

Thanks to loans and credit cards, I was able to pay all the people I owed money to and was able to finish my album. It took two more very long months to do it, but I eventually had a full, finished record. And even though the album was the best thing I’d ever heard while I’d been recording it, I was nervous to hear the final product, scared even. It was a strange feeling for me. I was never nervous. For anything. Maybe it was the stress of living with my parents. Maybe it was the fact that I owed a shitload of money that I wouldn’t be able to repay if this album wasn’t a hit. Maybe it was because I had a ton of pressure on me now, like never before. Or maybe it was just the fact that I was doing this alone, without A

On the night the album went live for preordering, I brought a copy home for everyone to listen to. Mom invited the family over for di

While di

Grabbing the plain CD case, I showed it to my family. “This is going to blow your mind.” I hoped they bought the assurance, since I didn’t really feel it.

Liam, leaning forward, asked, “Who is Figfrin Hancock?”

Wondering what the hell Liam was talking about, I looked at the CD case. Sure as shit, written in bold Sharpie across the CD were the words “Figfrin Hancock Demo.” What the fuck? “The idiot producer spelled it wrong, is all.”

Liam snorted. “Wow, if he can’t even get your name right, I can’t wait to hear this.”

Drilling holes into him with my eyes, I opened the case and popped out the CD. My stomach felt like I’d eaten a questionable taco from an even more questionable food truck. If I had antacids, I’d be downing them like candy. It made me wish I had a drink in my hand. Or several. Please let this be good.

The CD started to play, but oddly, what was coming out of the stereo wasn’t music. It was me complaining to the producer. “Is it going? I can’t hear the music. Should I be able to hear the music? Or am I supposed to fucking guess where we’re at in the song. Oh, wait…here we go. I hear it now. Let’s do this shit!” Then a hard-driving beat started. Weird that he’d kept that in, but oh well, I guess it worked. What didn’t work was the fact that I came in late. Even I could hear that I was a beat behind the rhythm. Chelsey and Mom had their eyebrows bunched, like they knew something was off. What the hell? I thought maybe it would correct when it got to the rapping section, but it didn’t. If anything, it was even more off.