Chapter 11

"What? Are you serious?" Amanda asked.

"Oh, I'm as serious as love itself! I'm a star, but we can be superstars! If you want to! I want us to be a band! Do you want to? Please say yes!"

Amanda held his gaze for a long moment, savoring it as she smiled at him. "You really want me to a lot, don't you?"

"Yes." he replied immediately.

She stretched it out for a few more seconds before she finally whispered: "Yes. I'd love to be in a band with you."

"All right!" he whooped, and kissed her soundly.

He turned expectantly to Cindy, smiling at her with his best puppy-dog eyes.

"Well, I don't know..." she said teasingly, "I mean, we're already rich, and it would be such a bother having to do all those boring interviews, on top of our regular duties... I'm afraid I'm just going to have to think about it for a while." and she crossed her legs and stared up at the ceiling in a hilarious exaggeration of deep consideration.

"Cindyyyyyyyy!" Corey wailed in happy frustration.

"Well, I thought about it." she said, turning back and kissing him. "Of course I'd like to be superstars with you, Corey! What kind of silly question is that?"

"Alright alright alright alright!" he cried, raising his fists in the air like he'd just won a championship. He reached into an inside pocket and took out his phone, speed-dialed a number.

"Yah, Dave? Corey." he said. "We got an opening act signed for Europe yet? We do now. Yup. A new project I'm producing, I'll tell you about it later. Yup. Bye." he folded the phone and leaned back, closing his eyes and smiling with satisfaction.

"Hold it!" Cindy said. "Did you just commit us to play on your European tour? How long from now is that?"

"Six weeks." Corey replied. "Don't worry! You'll be ready in three, I'm sure."

"I don't know, Corey." Amanda said worriedly. "I mean, I just started playing... a month and a half isn't very long."

"And you girls just wrote most of a damn good song in a half hour." he pointed out. "We'll finish that one, and write another three, and record them over the next two weeks. That's less than two songs a week, it'll be easy! We'll release an EP of those four, just to spark some interest, then do another eight over the next two weeks and release them all on a CD. We'll take a couple of days to record a video for the first single, release them, and have almost two weeks to rehearse for the tour. If you girls are willing to work on this six hours a day, six days a week, as hard as you worked on skating or college, this'll be a breeze! There's no way you will ever be likely to make a mistake on stage, 'cuz we'll have rehearsed the songs till you can do 'em in your sleep. And we'll throw a couple of private concerts for friends and acquaintances, just for dress rehearsal before you hit the stage in public. And besides, you girls are talented! I've heard them all, and I swear to God I wouldn't bullshit you about this! You're talented as hell, and your styles will fit perfectly with what I really want to play. I haven't felt that good playing with anyone in years. And," he turned to Cindy, "Your vocals are killer!"

"Amanda and me both sound exactly the same when we sing, actually." Cindy said. "And she came up with that vocal part, both words and melody. I only sang it because she wanted to concentrate on getting the drums down."

Corey's eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Really?" he turned to Amanda. "You can sing that song just like that?"

"Just like that." Amanda agreed. "Not that it's Shakespeare or anything. I just came up with it cuz' it went with Cindy's organ playing. It's kind of a little cliché, I think."

"Hey, it's a rip-roarin' rock and roll song about feelin' great," Corey said, "And when a song carries that much emotion, it doesn't need clever lyrics. You should write it down before you forget any of it, and record what you have so far on the drum part too. Actually, why don't we do a quick rough recording of what we have so far? In a few minutes that is."

"Sounds good." Cindy said, then shook her head. "Wow. I can't believe you're serious about this! I can't believe you think we're that good, or that you think our song is that good!"

"I'm telling you, this feels so right to me!" Corey said enthusiastically. "I feel even more confident that we'll be great as a band, than I am that we'll have a great relationship, and God damn, I'm pretty damn confident about that!"

"God damn!" Cindy laughed.

"There's only one thing I have to do first." he said thoughtfully.

"What's that?" Cindy asked playfully.

"Well, actually there's three things I've gotta do. I've gotta build a piece of floor for Amanda. Then we've gotta try that song through a few times, then I've gotta take you back to the hotel and we'll make love like superstars!"

"Oooooh, yah!" Amanda agreed, cuddling up to him close.

"And thanks, Amanda." he told her sincerely. "I know you must've really tried hard to pick up those drums so fast."

"Well, the electronic drums saved me. If you'd had regular drums I'd have still been sitting there sounding like an idiot a week from now. And Cindy really got me goin' in the right direction. She said 'Hey, you sound way better than that just tapping on the table at breakfast in the morning.' I tried it without the sticks, and everything worked out from there. I guess I was meant to be a bongo drum player, but on the digital drums it sounds the same as if I played with sticks... Except the kick drum pedal, I'm better with my heel than my toes, but I still really suck at that."

"That's why I need to build you a piece of floor." he told her, and gently lifted her up and set her standing on the floor, then did the same with Cindy. "I'll be in the back for maybe fifteen minutes, I've got a workbench set up with some tools back there. Don't play the kick pedal if you're gonna play while I'm back there." He walked over to the drum set. "And I'll need one of these." He said as he removed the pad for middle splash cymbal. "You might want to shift that row over to cover the hole. I'll get a replacement tomorrow." He turned and went through the door to the bedroom, leaving it open, then through the door to the cargo area, returned in a moment with a steel tape measure and took the dimensions of the drum stand, then went back, closing the doors behind him.

Cindy stared after him, then turned to Amanda.

"He's really going to do it. He's absolutely convinced it'll work. He's gonna make us superstars." she stated in amazement, then giggled with exhilaration. "Superstars! Just imagine!"

"I know." Amanda agreed soberly.

"Hey. You don't seem too thrilled about the prospect." Cindy said in concern.

"Part of me is." said Amanda, apprehensively. "Most of me is scared shitless. I mean, as Corey's girlfriend, I'd have to really do something stupid to mess up his life. But what if I fuck up in his band at Madison Square Garden, or the Grammy Awards or something? I could totally humiliate him bad enough to ruin his career. And I tell ya, I got high enough in the skating world to have some idea of what this is gonna do to our lives. You can forget privacy, and it'll feel like the whole world is watching you through your bedroom window. And they probably will. And everyone thinks they have the right to stop you and tell you anything they want, any time they want, just 'cuz they know who you are."

"Wow! You're really bumming on this, aren't you? Why don't you just tell him you need more time?"

"Oh God, Cindy, I can't! You saw how important this is to him! Then there's the way I feel about doing what he wants me to. And aside from all of that, there's... well, you remember how we felt when we woke up yesterday morning, and Corey asked us to marry him? That totally giddy happy hey-world-I'm-in-Love feeling? Corey's never had that for us till now. He's felt a lot of excellent things, but not that. And now he does. I don't know what it is about this band thing, but somehow it's taken away all his reservations or something."

Cindy gave her a long, slow hug. "Well, I guess we're just going to have to make sure you don't fuck up. And you let Corey and me and Markus worry about the media, and the public.

"I can tell you one thing, no-one's ever played this game the way we're going to play it! We'll be one step ahead of 'em, every time. You just concentrate on singing and playing the drums, and writing a couple of cool tunes, and hang on, 'cuz this ride is gonna be the rush of the century! Just think about it that way for a while! If we don't fuck up, you'll be the girl who went from playing the drums for the first time to being one of the most famous drummers in the world, in about two months! Rio and six hundred thousand screaming fans who worship you like a goddess! Think about the power rush when you kick that drum and the sound wave shakes them in the chest, and you wave to them and they go nuts, and you sing and it captures their souls! Think about that, sister!"

"Wow." Amanda said quietly, closing her eyes and picturing the scene. Her hand started to move between her legs, but stopped when she touched the material of the cherished dress. "You make it sound pretty good, all right."

"You bet." Cindy said as she rubbed Amanda's back. "Just stay positive, and everything will be okay. Okay?"

"Okay." Amanda nodded.

"Okay. Let's have ourselves a sip of champagne, and play some rock n' roll! We jumped on this adventure, no use jammin' out now!" Cindy said enthusiastically, and held her hand up.

"Alright!" Amanda agreed as they high-fived.

They got almost all the way through the tune the third time before Corey returned, and he sat on the arm of his chair and waited for them to finish.

"Comin' right along, ladies! Gettin' it tight!" he told them proudly as he carried the 'piece of floor' over to the drum stand. It was a five by five foot square pedestal of 3/4 inch thick plywood in a slim steel frame, with one inch thick stiff foam pieces and some electronics glued on the underside. The whole thing had been spray painted black and blow-dried with a heat gun. Corey unplugged the kick drum pedal from the drum computer, and plugged in the cord from the new piece of floor. Then he set the hi-hat pedal on it and slid it between the legs of the drum stand, and finally adjusted the height of the drum stand upward two inches to compensate for the flooring.

"Okay." he told Amanda. "This piece of floor is now a big drum pad that you can walk on. You can see it's actually two pieces of wood, acoustically isolated with this foam strip. The sensor from the middle of the drum pad I took is mounted under this left half, and the sensor from the edge of the pad is mounted under the right half. We'll make the left half 'twenty inch kick drum'," he set the controls for that, "And the right half 'thirty inch kick drum'. You can activate them by tapping your toe, tapping your heel, stomping, dancing, whatever you want. If you stomp on the centerline, you get both at once."

"Tooooooo cool!" Amanda cried, bouncing with excitement.

"You think you'll usually play barefoot, or with shoes?" Corey asked her.

"Um, with my sneakers, I think."

"Well go get 'em girl! We'll set the sensitivities!" Corey teased.

"Okay!" she tossed over her shoulder as she ran out the forward door. A moment later she was back with the shoes, and sat on the coffee table to put them on. She stood up and looked down, not liking the way the hem of her dress touched the ground when she wasn't wearing high heels. She lifted it up in front, then considered tucking some of it into the waist-string of her panties.

"Nope." she said, shaking her head. "This's gotta go. Corey, would you help me with my dress? Just lift it straight up by the shoulders." and she held her arms up expectantly.

Corey lifted her dress slowly off, delighting in the way she slithered out of it. As soon as she'd shaken her hair free of it she ran over and stood on the kick-drum board.

"Three soft then three hard, right?" she asked with happy impatience.

"Good God." Corey said softly, smiling at her. She looked down and saw how she looked, naked except for her jewelry, white Reeboks, thigh high sheer stay-up stockings, and the tiny triangle of white panty that left her bum naked except for the white string between her cheeks.

"Yah. Good God." Cindy agreed appreciatively, licking her lips.

Amanda blushed and smiled. "Are you two gonna be able to concentrate on playing, or what?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips, her breasts wiggling provocatively.

"Sure." Corey said as he laid her dress along the couch, being careful not to wrinkle it. "For at least one song. As long as I don't look at you. No problem."

Cindy snickered at that as he knelt by the drum computer.

"Okay. Three soft." he said, and Amanda tapped her toe lightly three times. "And three hard." he finished, and she stomped the sole of her right foot hard three times.

"Okay." he said as he stood up, "Go nuts."

She stomped her heel a few times experimentally, listening to the difference between the booming thumps of the two kick drum sounds. Then she stood with one foot on each half of the kick-pad and did a fast series of alternating heel stomps, like a flamenco dancer, producing a thundering kick-drum roll.

"God, don't you love the way that makes her titties jiggle?" Cindy asked Corey.

"Yes, quite a lot, actually!" he laughed.

"You guys!" Amanda said in exasperation.

"Oh right!" Cindy laughed. "You just stand there with your naked self and play the drums, and we won't notice a damn thing! Right!"

Amanda growled in flattered frustration, and launched into a series of fast rolls all over the drum set, laying her kick drum beat in with confidence. She continued into a drum solo, going at it for almost ten minutes. At first it was fairly random, but as she discovered patterns she liked she began to repeat them, and then to work into variations on them. She concentrated completely on what she was doing, oblivious to Cindy and Corey hugging and admiring both her playing and her beauty. By the time she finished with a triumphant cymbal crash, she was flushed and covered with beads of sweat.

"Fuckin' A, girl! Too bloody excellent by far!" Corey said as he approached her with a towel and started toweling her off.

"That's good?" Amanda asked, grinning and breathing hard.

"That's very good. For one hour of experience, it's unbelievable." he told her, continuing his business-like rub-down. "Okay," he said as he finished and tossed the towel on the unused drum stool. "No rest for the weary. Let's do that song!"

"Alright!" Amanda said as he strapped on his guitar.

"Hey! Just a sec!" he said, then ran behind the bar to change a couple of control settings.

"Okay. Count me in!" he said as he ran back to his spot.

"One, two, three, four!" Amanda called into the mike, and they came in. This time Corey was in with guitar parts and vocal harmonies right from the beginning, and the girls tackled the song with confidence. When the last note of the song had faded to silence he ran back behind the bar, pushed two buttons, and replayed the recording he had just made.

"Now listen, and you'll hear what I hear!" he said, and Amanda's count in came over the speakers. He adjusted a few of the tone settings during the intro, then walked back over to sip his champagne and listen to the playback.

"Wow! We sound great!" Amanda commented during the first bridge.

The song ended and Corey went to push the stop button.

"There's a few rough spots here and there, but nothing too serious." Cindy said speculatively. "When Amanda's confident enough on the drums to add another singing part, that'll help a lot too."

Corey sat on the arm of his chair and beckoned them over. He hugged them firmly and kissed Cindy, then Amanda, then both at once for a few minutes.

"Well, this is it." he told them as he pulled back a bit and grinned. "All my dreams have come true!"

"That does make it unanimous!" Cindy told him happily.

"C'mon." He said, cupping Amanda's beautifully round little breast and rubbing the nipple with his thumb. "Lets go back to the hotel, or I'm gonna at least have to have Amanda right here and now!"

"That'd be okay." Amanda said provocatively, rubbing her titties against his chest.

"Nah. There's gonna be workmen in the bedroom pretty soon." Corey pointed out as he checked his watch.

"Wow, is it that late already? We gotta get a clock in here." Amanda said. "Well, I guess I can wait till we get back to the hotel. It is only three minutes' drive." she giggled, and got up to slide her dress back on. She took off her sneakers and put on her high heels as Cindy gathered the champagne, their coats and overnight bags, and Corey shut off the gear and the lights.

Amanda closed the living room door behind them, and went to walk down the stairs, but Corey called her back.

"C'mere for a second you two." He went to one knee, and hugged and kissed them warmly.

"I really love you two." he said sincerely "I don't think it's possible to be any happier than I am right now."

"Oh yah?" Amanda teased. "I am!"

He had no response to that, merely grinning and shaking his head.

"Well, let's go."

"Corey," Amanda asked as he started the truck engine, "Why is it so important to you that we play in this band with you?"

"Hmmm. You're gonna have to give me a few minutes." he answered. "I have these feelings, but I still have to put them into words."

"Okay." Amanda replied. It was Cindy's turn to sit beside Corey, Amanda having taken her turn from the hotel to the plane, so Amanda cuddled up to Cindy and gently played with her breasts through her dress.

"Does it turn you on to do that to me, Amanda?" Cindy asked quietly. "Hmm? Does it make you wet, the way my breast feels in your hand?"

"Kinda." Amanda said after a moment. "Well, it's kind of exciting, 'cuz of the sister taboo thing. Mostly I just love cuddling with you, same as I always have, and it's cool touching you here 'cuz they feel so nice, and I think you like it, but it doesn't really make me wet. Sorry."

"That's okay." Cindy told her with a hug. "I do like it. You're really making me wet right now, but as long as you enjoy it, it doesn't matter how you enjoy it. It just blows my mind a bit that you do seem to enjoy it, without really being bi-sexual about it. I get the feeling that if I never touched you again, and we both just made love to Corey, you wouldn't miss it at all."

"Oh I'd miss it all right." Amanda said. "If you only enjoyed me touching your titty as part of cuddling, I'd still enjoy it that way. But knowing that it does turn you on, that turns me on. I know I have a bit of power over you, that I can cause you to feel something very powerful, and to me, power and sex are connected. And I really like the feeling I get, knowing I can do this for you, make you feel really good. I feel like I'm giving you something very special, and even though I don't desire it in a homosexual way, if you didn't let me give it to you anymore, I think I'd really miss that."

"I love you, Amanda. I love you so much. I love you as my sister, and I'm really getting to love you as my lover."

"Thanks Cindy. I love you too."

"Now stop playing with my titties before I overload my panty liner and ruin my dress. We're almost there." Cindy giggled.

"You should've folded it double, like I did." Amanda teased.

"Is that how you fit one into these little G-strings?" Cindy asked speculatively. "I just cut mine in half."

"Well, there's your problem!" Amanda laughed.

"Oh well, live and learn!" Cindy laughed back.

They pulled up to the hotel, and Corey turned to them and asked:

"Hey, I didn't miss you saying something to me back there, did I? I was lost in thought."

"No." Cindy assured him. "Don't worry, if we want your attention you'll know. I just hope you don't mind if we talk while you're thinking."

"No, as long as you don't mind that I'm ignoring what you're saying." he smiled.

"Great. We have an arrangement." Cindy said, giving him a quick kiss before they got out.

Once in the room, Corey kicked off his shoes and sat on the end of the nearest bed and resumed his introspection, while Cindy poured the last of the champagne, and Amanda used the bathroom. It was a fairly standard hotel room with two double beds, though a bit larger and more ornate than average.

When Amanda came out she started to take her shoes off, but Cindy asked her to leave them on.

"Alright. Any special reason?" Amanda asked with a coy little smile.

Cindy's smile matched hers.

"Yes. C'mere." Cindy said, waving her over with a slight hand motion.

Amanda grinned, and did her sauciest walk, a slow teasing saunter with her head tilted a little to the side.

She walked right up until she was lightly pressed against Cindy from her breasts down to one knee. "You wanted me, Cindy?" She asked, in a sultry, teasing voice.

"You little tease. Turn around." Cindy said, gently guiding her. "Now look at that."

Amanda caught sight of herself in the full-length mirror. Cindy stood behind her, pressed lightly against her, her hands on Amanda's hips, her chin resting on Amanda's shoulder.

"I've gone formal a few times," Cindy told her softly, "But I don't think you've really ever seen yourself like this."

Amanda could only stare in surprise for a moment. She knew she looked good, but she was unprepared for the vision of beauty she saw in the mirror, the sensuous curves of her body revealed and accentuated by the material of the slinky white dress, her delicate elvin features framed by the volume of her sandy blond curls, highlighted by the sparkle of her jewelry.

"I'm... I'm beautiful." she finally said.

"Yes." Cindy agreed. "And you knew it, but I don't think you ever felt it. I want you to feel as beautiful as you are."

"I can see why you desire me." Amanda said quietly. "Hell, if I wasn't me, I'd desire me. I mean, look at my face. My titties. What's that saying Corey used? I feel blessed, because I know I got lucky in the genetic lottery."

"You're incredibly beautiful, Amanda, but that's only a small part of why I desire you." Cindy explained. "If I met another girl who looked exactly like you, she would be nothing special to me. I desire you because I love you, and I love you because you're you. I've loved you since the day mom brought you home from the hospital. And there's so many times I've thought to myself, 'My little sister is so cool.' I love your sweetness, and your bravery, and your intelligence and creativity. And I've desired you since you were ten, long before you ever started to look like this. But lately there's been something more. Something that started the moment I ran into that dressing room and found you sitting on Corey naked. I've always loved you, but now I've fallen in love with you. The way you've fallen in love with Corey. The way I've fallen in love with Corey too, only more."

"You're in love with me more than Corey?" Amanda asked in quiet amazement.

"Yes." Cindy answered, sliding her hands around Amanda's waist to clasp them in front of her tummy.

"I... I don't know what to say, Cindy. I love you, but..."

"Shhh. It's okay, you don't have to say anything." Cindy assured her. "I know you don't feel the same way about me, and that's alright. I love how you do feel about me."

"But how can you be more in love with me than with Corey?" Amanda asked in confusion. "I mean, just look at him!"

They turned, expecting to see Corey still deep in thought, instead finding him smiling at them warmly.

"Oh." Cindy said in surprise. "Did you, ah, hear all that?" she asked.

"Everything after Amanda said: 'I'm beautiful'." he replied easily. "And yes, I heard you say you're more in love with her than with me. It makes me feel good, because that's just how I want it. It helps me to know that I'll never come between you. Besides, you should love her more, she's your sister and your lover, where I'm just your lover. When you have my baby, you'll love us equally, because then I'll be your lover and the father of your child. But as long as you both love me, that's all I'll ever want."

"And we do." Amanda said, walking over and sitting on his right thigh, while Cindy sat on his left.

"We sure do." Cindy crooned with a bit of relief, and they shared a warm kiss.

"Hmm. The way I feel about each of you is so completely different, I can't even compare the two." Amanda mused. "Whichever one of you I'm looking at and thinking about, that's the one I love more at that particular moment."

"That describes my feelings perfectly." Corey agreed. "You know why I never fell in love before?"

The girls thought about it for a while, snuggling up close on his lap and hugging him. Finally Amanda realized she didn't know the answer, and focused on Cindy to see if she did. After a moment, Cindy shrugged and smiled at her before turning to Corey.

"I don't know. No-one else knows either, or they'd have told me."

"The musician's dilemma." Corey explained. "If you want your music to succeed, you have to make it your first priority. You have to spend as much time as possible with your band, and with the public, and _raveling. But, if you want your relationship with your mate to succeed, you have to make that your top priority, and spend as much time as possible at home, being private. The two conflict, and being in a band is one of the few relationships that affects as much of your life, and your emotions, and is as full time, as being in love."

"When you start winning championships, your skating partner's like that too." Amanda pointed out.

"True." Corey agreed, "Anyway, people generally date people they get to know a bit in the course of their daily lives. I tend to meet a lot of people in the music industry, but they all travel as much as I do, so they're out cuz we'd hardly ever see each other.

"I tended to date women who were as famous and as successful as I was, because they at least felt like they were equal, like we had the same status. And it keeps you in front of the public a lot, because you attend each other's public appearances.

"If you date your fans, it's hard to find someone you can really become friends with, because you're not equal in the relationship.

"Cindy's one of about three women I've met in the last two years who is interested in me, and who isn't in the public eye, the music industry, or one of my fans.

"Generally, if you do find someone like that, and you leave your mate at home when you go on the road, your relationship suffers because you miss each other, and you have to deprive yourself of fulfillment that's readily available in order to remain faithful, so you either get frustrated or cheat.

"If you can bring your mate with you, it's hard to avoid Yoko Ono syndrome, where your band starts to resent your mate's intrusion into their lives and their time as a band, or because she makes suggestions about the music, or affects your decisions or whatever.

"I knew it would work with Amanda before I even met you, Cindy, because what she wanted, and what she offered, didn't require me to love her. Then you came, and we all found love anyway. Between the uniqueness of your two personalities, and having the plane so I can take my home and my privacy on the road, I figured I'd solved most of the problems of the musician's dilemma even before I heard you two play tonight.

"Especially because right now I don't even have a band for our relationship to conflict with, because I record everything myself, and tour with contracted studio musicians, and I make all the decisions. The problem is, when I play with them it feels like a vacation romance. No-one really invests their emotions completely, or gives their soul, because we all know it's going to be over at the end of the tour. Even if I wanted to keep them together for the next tour, most of them can't because they're already contracted for other gigs then. And I miss the total feeling of camaraderie and stability and sharing and building together that goes with being in a really good band.

"Normally, if your mate is one of your band members, you can solve a lot of the conflicts that way, but you end up with power blocs within the band, because the couple gains power in the band because of their solidarity. A pair of elite skaters can marry each other and solve the problem because the two of them are the whole group. A pair of musicians can form a duo and do the same thing, but it's hard to make good music with just two band members.

"And," he paused with a smile, "After all that rambling, here's the reason it was so important to me tonight that you play the drums, Amanda: