Chapter 26: Holidays, Grammys, After Party

Christmas and New Years came and went. Crystal, Ellen, and I took Claire and Nadia to Crystal’s parent’s home for the holidays. Nadia’s family was scattered across Russia and the Ukraine, and she felt more at home with us now. Claire’s family had disowned her, and the Lee’s only got more liberal in their views every time we showed up, so my presence with four women I had some kind of romantic relationship with, didn’t seem to faze them, although Crystal’s father, Don, pulled me aside and asked me to what I attributed my success with women. The Lees loved having a ‘third and fourth daughter’ at home with them – Claire and Nadia. I think they already thought of me as some sort of son-in-law with super-masculine powers.

I hadn’t seen the older couple for a year, and during that time Crystal and I had a platinum album released - The Naked Truth, we’d each done a movie – Crystal a movie with the same name as the album, and me with Pressure Limit. Both movies were still drawing in large crowds, even after the holiday period, and their release in Europe was scheduled to start after New Years when we went on tour again.

One other event occurred with our music at the start of December that rocked Crystal and me: unexpectedly and without warning, we’d received a series of Grammy nominees – best album and best song (The Naked Truth), best duo, best country song, and best country album. We were blown away with the honors of even being nominated. Terry and the execs at Sony were ecstatic. Tina Devoe had called me several times, and between lewd suggestions about what she wanted to do to me and Crystal the next time we were together, she congratulated the two of us on our accomplishments. We blocked out the second weekend in February to attend the awards.

While at the Lees home over the holidays, Crystal’s mother, Kim, got all touchy-feely with me as she had the prior year just before we headed off to the Caribbean for a winter holiday – only this time more so. Crystal, Ellen, Nadia, and Claire teased me about it when she wasn’t around.

Crystal’s dad could have cared less; he was more interested in Nadia who made it a point to wear skimpy and revealing clothing when she sat and had long discussions with him about life in Russia. I know she flashed her naked pussy at him more than once. One morning I watched him watching her leaning over and pouring him a second cup of coffee. I knew that he had an unobstructed view of her pert full breasts and nipples from the way her scoop neck shirt dipped away from her body. Don caught me looking at him, and gave me a huge smile of delight. Nadia just leaned in and kissed the older man, even adding a little tongue.

The girls finally put me up to cornering Kim some day after she’d copped a feel of my tight buns or done some other overt act revealing her lust for my body. Ellen told me, “Lay one of your ‘knock your socks off’ kisses on her complete with tongue and roving hands. You’ll be the highlight of the decade for her, just the way Nadia is becoming for Dad.” They all chuckled.

The occasion to arouse Kim arose the day after Christmas, and naturally it was in the kitchen as I got a piece of leftover apple pie as an afternoon snack. Pretending that the space behind me left little room to maneuver, Kim pressed behind me not just with her hands on my ass, but also as she dragged her pelvis and mons along my butt. Crystal had just started to come into the kitchen behind me; she saw the maneuver; thus, out of the corner of my eye I saw her gesturing for me to ‘do’ her mother as the girls had put it.

I swung around, grabbed Kim, and pulled her to me. I spoke in my macho tone with a line from my movie, “You want a piece of me, then don’t be afraid to ask.” I leaned in and planted a lip searing kiss on her lips, and after struggling for one second she kissed back. Kim’s arms came up and around my neck, and her body moulded into mine. I took that as an invitation to go further, so I drove my tongue into her mouth as I brought my right hand up and started to fondle Kim’s left breast through the thin material of her dress and bra. I could feel her nipple harden to my touch. Kim moaned into our kiss.

I’ve watched cold butter melt and turn to liquid in a microwave oven. I thought of this analogy as Kim melted into my arms and pushed her chest into my hand. She initiated the next few kisses as she ground her pelvis into mine. Kim had as much passion and instantaneous sexual readiness as her daughters. If I’d wanted, I could have hoisted her up on the counter, stripped her clothing away, and taken right there in the kitchen with her husband only a few feet away.

Eventually, we broke apart; we were both panting. Kim looked longingly at me. She said, “If it wouldn’t complicate so many things, I’d ... well, you know what I’d do.” She ran her hand down my cheek, fanned her face with her left hand, turned away, and went back to work. I watched the blush rise on the back of her neck as I walked past her and pinched her tush; she jumped and gave a nervous and uncharacteristic giggle.

Over Kim’s shoulder, Crystal and now Ellen stood in the shadows of the small hallway leading into the rest of the house. Both had big grins on their face and were suppressing giggles. They each flashed me ‘OK’ signs.

After that, Kim behaved more normally with me. The not-to-subtle touches didn’t stop, and every now and then I’d catch her staring at me with a glassy look on her face as some fantasy rolled around in her head. At Crystal’s suggestion, when we left to return to Nashville, I gave Kim an extra and very attentive kiss goodbye. I watched Nadia doing the same with Don – even grinding her pussy against one of his legs much to his delight. We speculated on our drive across the state how many minutes after we left before the two of them were in bed making love to one another with wild fantasies in their heads.

In mid-January, Crystal and I did a ‘Save the Earth’ concert and weekend telethon for a bunch of environmental organizations that had banded together for the fund raiser, including the Sierra Club, The Conservation Fund, EcoTrust, The Nature Conservancy, Audobon Society, and the National Wildlife Federation. With the help of two-dozen other ‘big names,’ we raised over $300 million over one weekend to support these causes. We wanted to see whether we could do something to slow the destruction of the earth’s ecosystems. Crystal and I each contributed two million dollars.

Crystal and I spent the rest of January learning and recording some new songs, about twenty-seven or so would go into a double-CD album special set that Sony wanted to release after the Grammys. I told Terry that the Sony execs were overly optimistic about our chances for a Grammy win.

I finished humbled and astounded by the Grammys.

Crystal and I flew to the west coast with Terry for the Grammy weekend in early February. Crystal spent all day Sunday getting dressed and putting on makeup, part of it with people who came in to assist her in our hotel suite. Terry made us each rehearse short ‘thank you’ acceptance speeches (plural) in case we won an award; he was certain we’d get at least one because we’d been nominated in five categories. He also suggested we think about what we’d say if we got to the podium twice.

Terry and I donned our tuxedos. I wore my fancy black western boots with the formal attire. My tuxedo jacket had a western cut to it in keeping with my overall style. Crystal wore a new Vera Wang dress that probably cost $10,000, plus consignment jewelry worth over $50,000 in diamonds and platinum. A hairdresser came to our suite and did Crystal’s hair for a couple of hours. She looked spectacular when she appeared to allow us to escort her to our limousine.

We had a scheduled arrival time at the end of the Grammy Red Carpet. Our limo checked in at a holding area, and we were briefly held and staged in line with other equally impressive limousines so we arrived in the correct order.

We exited the limousine to the cheers of several bleachers of fans, TV cameras, and the flashes of hundreds of paparazzi cameras. The Red Carpet led us from interview team to interview team for the various entertainment reporting shows including Access Hollywood, Entertainment Today (ET), and a special CBS Team covering the Grammys. We paused and fielded mundane questions from each of the reporters, smiled really pretty, and then were ushered into our assigned seats. In anticipation of our winning an award, we had aisle seats.

The show started, and an array of stars performed, announced the nominees, and then read off the lucky recipient of each Grammy award. There were seventy-eight of them; however, for this big show only the more entertaining and ‘important’ twenty-four awards would be handed out and televised that night.

Carrie Underwood read the nominees for Best Album. I heard our names and The Naked Truth named along with four others, and then she ripped the envelope open and read: “And, the winner is ... Crystal Lee and Jim Mellon for The Naked Truth.” The audience rose in thunderous applause as three television cameras converged on us. Later, when I watched the video I realized my jaw had dropped open upon hearing our names as the winners – I looked like the school dunce. Crystal’s eyes got as big as saucers. We remained seated in our disbelief, until Eric Clapton and Pink who were sitting behind us, nudged us to rise and go up on stage for our award.

Crystal and I each did our brief acceptance speeches thanking Billy and the band, Terry our agent, and Tine Devoe and the other executives at Sony Entertainment for their support and help. Crystal got to thank her parents for their patience throughout her singing career. We were gloriously brief.

A few minutes later to our equal surprise, we were back on stage again to accept the award for Best Single, and then a few minutes later Tim McGraw gave us the Best Country Album award, and then Natalie Cole gave us the Best Duo award, and then we got a fifth award for Best Country Song. We swept the fields we’d been nominated in. We ran out of acceptance speeches, and started to name all the others that had helped us including Crystal’s Mom and Dad by name, Claire, Ellen, Nadia, Billy, Dan, each member of the band, and on and on. Sooner or later, we had the privilege of mentioning everyone.