Chapter 3

By the time I had loaded everything on the luggage cart from my car, I was exhausted. Every muscle and joint ached, nothing a hot shower would not cure. Situated in downtown Portland, the hotel was not far from the Willamette River. I knew I would not get much a chance to explore Portland, as I would most likely be sleeping for most of the day.

A young man with the skin tone of a heavy creamed coffee came out from the hotel lobby and offered to take the luggage cart for me in a polite business like manor, I nodded my head yes. I looked at his nametag and back up to his face, replying, "Thank you, Tyler." He gave a friendly smile and waited for me to lead the way back into the hotel.

Once inside, my head was on a swivel. There was a grand staircase right as you step in, with walls of a warm honey color while the floor was white marble with a black and gray marble design. A lovely woman with sandy blonde hair was standing at the check in desk waiting for me to walk over and had a kind patient smile on her face. Her name was Judy.

"Welcome to the Marriott Portland Downtown, how can I help you?" she asked nicely.

"Hi, I'm Bella Swan, Isabella to be exact. I have a room reserved in my name. I believe its room two hundred."

Judy typed in my name and quickly worked to keep her face a mask of cordial blankness. She spent several minutes typing away at the keys on the computer, while giving me tight smiles and nervous eyes shifts.

"Ms. Swan, I think there has been a terrible mistake. It looks like someone else with the last name of Swan called earlier and cancelled their room. That front desk person cancelled your room and then gave it to someone else. Do you have any one to call?"

I stood there blinking at Judy as if she had just grown three heads, quickly grabbed my Blackberry, and sent Carlisle a text message. It was not too long before I got one back saying he was going to work on it. I waited a few minutes as Judy took a phone call and I knew it must have been Carlisle, because Judy's face went sheet white. After everything worked out, I was going to bunk with Carlisle in the extra bedroom in his suite. Yippee.

As Tyler and I walked over to the elevators, there was a loud commotion going on behind me. We turned around and saw three girls walk in who looked to be three sheets to the wind, pissed up drunk. There were two blondes and one brunette. The tall blonde was tremendously beautiful and looked a bit like Elisa Cuthbert as she wore jeans that seemed to be a second skin and a black spaghetti strapped tank top with red wedge heels. Pixie girl looked just like one of Amy Brown's paintings. Her brown hair was flipped out everywhere on the sides and complemented her sage green eyes, porcelain skin and slightly pointed nose. Then there was the train wreck of the other blonde. She was worse off then the others. Her hair fell at her shoulders and had no body to it, and hung stick straight. The poor thing's skin was pasty and her eyes were blue but did not have an ounce of life in them, she almost made me want to cry for her. I noticed she was constantly chewing on her bottom lip, which was beyond chapped. They all looked at me and I quickly turned away.

Tyler said very little on the way up the way up to the room and waited patiently as I tried several times to get the key card to register in the lock. After six tries, the door finally gave me the green light and Tyler kindly deposited my luggage by the bed and walked out, leaving me in peace. The room was exquisite. In the center of the room was a bed that looked to be big enough to fit four people. I saw the door to the other bedroom just off the living room area, which was to be my room. The carpet was a rich gold with an abstract pattern that went wall to wall. The walls were a warm honey color with the sofa and lounge chair being a ruby red color. I knew the bedding had to be like laying a cloud, as they were cream with gold accents. All I wanted was a shower, and then I will worry about sleeping.

My room looked the same as the rest of the suite. The bedding was the same as the other bed. There was a small television sitting on top of the cherry wood stained dresser. I placed my bags on the bed and opened my suitcase to get my sleepwear and toiletries.

I stood in the shower until I had used up every bit of hot water that the water heater held. There was steam everywhere in the bathroom and it made me sleepier. I could have just cuddled up to one of the towels as I wrapped one around my body.

After leaving the bathroom, I walked out to the room, dried my body off and walked back to the bathroom to hang my towel up properly. Walking back out to the room, I noticed the temperature was cool and I had a light summer pajama set laid out, but I would have the covers on the bed to keep me warm.

With tiredness starting to take over my body, I slipped on my Tinker Bell light green short set pajamas and pulled back the covers as I slid under them. The mattress was heavenly. My body needed holding and comforting. From here on out, I was going to be at the mercy of rock stars and I did not know how often they would want me to be at their disposal.

I had no conscious alertness of anything once my head hit the pillow. I saw flashes of images in my dreams of orgies that would have made Bacchus proud and every illegal substance known to man. The amount of groupies that were lying around everywhere made my insides heave. Why would women want to reduce themselves like that? As I wandered down a hall, I saw there was littering of glass beer bottles and food. I stopped in front of a closed door. It seemed odd, as all the other doors were wide open. After that, I quickly learned what it means to say curiosity killed the cat.

My right hand twisted the gold doorknob and gave a little shove and it opened with out resistance. There was no creaking noise, silent as the dead. Strewn everywhere were clothes and the room smelled musty, organic almost. There was very little light coming in from the slit in the dark curtain, so my eyes had to adjust.

A lump lay in the bed that measured out to be a person who was unconscious. I walked more around the disaster of a room and heard a muffled noise in the bathroom that had a faint light seeping out from under the door. Someone was catching their breath and moaning. I did not know if it was from pain or pleasure. A thumping sound was coming from the door and then it stopped. My right brow cocked up in interest and made me walk over to the closed door.

To my surprise, the door was unlocked. I slightly opened the door and saw two long legs sprawled out on the floor with the person's torso slumped up against the side of the bathtub. There was a large rubber band tied around the upper part of his arm, my eyes trailed down and saw a needle hanging out of their arm as a look of disconnected bliss shrouded their face. There was no one home in the body. The muscles were making little spasms and causing the sides of the mouth of twitch.

Their head lulled over to my direction and tried to raise their eyes up to meet my face. Once their head rose up to meet my eyes, where there should have been eyeballs were black empty sockets with skin pulled over. I must have been screaming in my sleep as I felt myself shaking and the bed shaking, and snapped my eyes opened-still screaming. I looked up into the same pair of grass green eyes that I had viewed earlier in another face, but this person had a mane of blonde hair like spun wheat.

"Bella, are you alright? It's me Carlisle." I looked around the room and then remembered where I was. It took several deep breaths before I finally calmed down and was able to speak.

"Yes, sir, I'm fine…now. I was just having very bad dream. But its better now, thank you."

He looked at me with gentle concern, wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and pulled me into him slightly, not enough for me to be uncomfortable but to feel safe. My stomach grumbled loudly and made my face flush.

"When was the last time you ate anything, Bella?" he asked nicely.

"I think it was before I got onto the interstate. I'm going to get dressed and go find a McDonald's."

"You will do no such thing. We can have breakfast here so we can go over what you will be doing while you are traveling with us." With that, I could not argue.

Swollen, that is how I felt now. Carlisle ordered us what seemed like fifty pounds of food. I had the best French toast I have ever eaten, the fluffiest eggs and the crispiest bacon. The orange juice tasted like it had just came from the fruit itself. Carlisle had just about the same as I did. While we talked, I could not help but notice how beautiful he was, just like his older son. I had changed into jean shorts and a gray tank top with black slip on sandals. I felt like vanilla once again sitting across from the blonde Adonis who wearing loose fit Levi's, brown man sandals and a black Led Zeppelin shirt.

My duties were simple and basic. I would have allotted time for the band and crew to have massages, and there was a period between massages for me to rest. Carlisle did not want me burned out so quickly and he knew how his boys were as they could be very demanding. He said he would make it extremely clear not to abuse my services. My payment would be the entire time here would be nine thousand for the three months I would be with them. God that sounded like so much money to me, I thought.

Carlisle asked me if I had arranged for my car and I told him that my father and his friend were driving down to pick it up. He seemed pleased and that reminded me that I needed to call Charlie. I am sure he was worrying. Carlisle slipped out to take care of business with the band and told me to meet him in the lobby in an hour.

Charlie answered on the second ring. He sounded relieved but had to head to work early, someone had property damaged during a domestic dispute. My dad was the chief of police in Forks, Washington. Since he ended the call quickly, I decided to change into my khaki shorts and a simple white cotton baby doll t-shirt and my plain white Nikes. It was my first day on the job. After I was changed, loud and shrill voices outside of the door alerted me, along with loud slams into the wall.

With interested concern, I walked over to the door and opened it enough to peek around to see the tall leggy blonde girl and the Amy Brown pixie hanging on the two other members in Loxley Screws, the guitarist and the bass player. Something came to mind as I watched them; I hadn't yet seen the drummer, the boy from the reservation in La Push. Charlie was real close with his father, but Jacob moved out on his own at sixteen and moved to Seattle to hang out with Carlisle's sons.

The two girls looked more refreshed and cleaned up well, made me wonder what the other blonde girl looked like now. The taller girl with blonde hair turned her head, looked at me, narrowing her eyes, and gave a small smile. I wondered what that was about as I closed to the door. My phone beeped from across the room and I ran to get it. It was from Carlisle. "Meet me in the lobby as fast as you can. Everyone is leaving now." Instantly, I felt like my breakfast was going to come back up.

It did not dawn on me till now that my massage equipment was not in the room anymore. Carlisle must have had it taken down. All I needed to get was my massage oil and some towels. I all but sprinted down the hall to catch the elevator that was just about to close. Inside was an elderly couple that smelled like mothballs. I was trying not to gag. Once off, I gasped for air. I hid behind a column to steady myself before heading over to where everyone was. I hoped my clumsiness would not falter me now.

Everyone was standing by the grand staircase. Forget about having butterflies in my stomach, it felt as if a swarm of locust was ripping through. Carlisle saw me and motioned me over as every person turned around to look at me. It wasn't the two girls or their mates, wasn't Jacob or the homely lifeless blonde that set my nerves on fire but it was the creature with the copper super sex hair and grass green eyes. Cullen narrowed his gaze at me and swallowed, making his Adam's apple move. His jeans hugged his thighs tightly as they went down to cover up Doc Martens. A black Motley Crue shirt that seemed a size too small showed off the defined chest and arms.

I went past GO and did not collect my two hundred dollars. My feet made a beeline for Carlisle; he was safe even though he almost mirrored his son. It felt like sawdust in my mouth and I desperately needed water, but could wait until we reached the club. Carlisle introduced me to everyone, but everything was a buzzing noise and I just hoped I was coherently polite. When finally introduced to Cullen, I felt stupid, as he did not take my hand; he just nodded his head at my general direction. He seemed to be extremely pissed off about something, and I was wondering if it was I.

Carlisle pressed his hand softly in the small of my back as the others were filing out the lobby door, with no one giving me a second look. There were several taxis lined up underneath the overhang of the hotel entrance-Emmett, Rosie, Alice and Jasper got into the first taxi, while Jacob, Jane and Cullen got into the second cab. That left the last one for Carlisle and me. Before we got in, Cullen stepped out of his taxi and walked over to his father. Carlisle looked up at his son with a crooked eyebrow.

"Yes, son? Anything I can do for you?"

"Yeah, um, dad…about that girl last night, the one you said looked under age…well I did see her buying drinks at the bar. I don't know if that will make you feel better, but I will start asking for their ID's for now on."

Carlisle looked as if his son has sprouted a third eye ball and then gave Cullen a smile that only a proud father could muster up.

"Thanks son."

Cullen ducked his head down to look into the taxi and stared at me for a few seconds before heading back towards the awaiting taxi.

We sat in silence as the taxi lurched into movement. Off into the distance I could see the Willamette River and the stores and restaurants that lined its bank. Carlisle was busy typing on his laptop when he looked over at me with a side ways glance.

"Bella, I hope none of them made you feel uncomfortable. Cullen sometimes likes to intimidate people because he has this rock god like ego and that can make him appear to be a huge asshole. Well my son is an asshole but not all the time. Now I know you are twenty-one, but I do not know if you know the rest of their ages. Cullen is twenty-three and Emmett is twenty-one just like you. Jasper is in between at twenty-two and Jacob is your age, too. Therefore, everyone is pretty much the same age, even Jane, if you can believe that. She's only twenty-two, also."

"I sort of figured we were all close in age, and I kind of know Jacob, I mean his father and my father are really close. Jacob was always off doing his own thing with the other guys in La Push, so I have only ever talked to him in passing. I have only seen all of you in passing on the few occasions you all have been home, and Esme has always been great. She would give my dad the best roses she would have for my birthday. So anyways, that girl Jane, is she like his girlfriend?"

Carlisle looked at me with a guarded look and sighed heavily. He ran his left hand through his hair and looked out the window.

"Bella, my son's relationships are my business but not exactly. I do not know what she is to him, but I can say he does NOT love her. I don't think he can love anyone but himself….and golden girl." I noticed an abyss of sadness in his tone on the last three words, but I did not press.

Golden girl must have been a code word for something that Carlisle did not want to talk about. I had no idea what it was, but I had a sinking feeling I was going to find out. Our ride from the hotel was not exactly far from the venue, which was Dixie Tavern, and they only had live music on Sunday nights and this happened to be Sunday night. Everyone must have been waiting to get on the bus because once the taxis stopped; the band and their girls sprinted for the bus except for Cullen who lingered outside. Carlisle finished zipping up his laptop bag, looked over at me with raised eyebrows, and nodded towards the door, which Cullen opened.

"Thank you son."

"Sure, no problem…dad."

Carlisle went and paid for all the taxis, which left me with Cullen who was staring at me with little expression. He moved out of the way so I could get out but made no other efforts to head towards the bus. Instead, he moved closer to me and leaned down towards my hair, right above my right ear. It felt like he was inhaling my scent in my hair but then he stood straight up and stared back into my eyes, his mouth was twitching as if he wanted to smile. He leaned back down to my ear, he was so close I could feel his breath on the upper area of my neck and it smelt like peppermint. I felt something wet graze the area of skin on my jaw that was beneath my ear, oh god…he tasted me. He blew his breath on the area he had just tasted and sent shivers down to my toes, causing me to tremble.

I felt his lips on my ear lobe as he took in air and then whispered to me, "I'm going to give you an hour to get everything you need set up and then you're going to massage me for two straight hours. I can't exactly promise I'll be on my best behavior, but I'll try my best and my best isn't always accurate."

My breath was caught somewhere in my throat, unable to escape in that moment. His fingertips grazed the back of my arm before he walked away to join the others on the bus.

When Carlisle finished talking to the club manager, I walked over to him and waited again while he answered his cell phone. He was done shortly after he started the conversation and looked at me.

"I need to know where my massage items are at and I need to know where to set up at?" I asked nervously.

"Oh yes! I will get John who is Jake's drum tech to unload everything for you as I show you the room. Follow me."

John was busy getting Jacob's gear out of a trailer that hooked to the back of the bus when Carlisle asked to help get my supplies for me. John shook his head and gave me a smile. As for the room I would be using, it was half the size of my bedroom. That meant I would be in extremely close proximity to Cullen. By the end of this tour, I would need to be on blood pressure medicine or start doing yoga or some shit like that. Let us hope I do nothing clumsy.