U-N-I Ch. 28

"Holy hell, what a view!" Rob exclaimed as we looked out of the floor-to-ceiling windows of our hotel suite -- he took the words right out of my mouth!

We were in Italy, the European leg of the tour had begun with two nights in Barcelona from where we'd gone to Nimes in the south of France to play in the Roman amphitheatre where I'd always wanted us to perform since I'd seen a concert there when I was about fifteen with my family. The building could hold twenty-four thousand people, which was a lot smaller compared to the arenas we played in on this tour and we had really enjoyed performing in such a gorgeous venue.

The other reason for going there was that I had made a promise to my French family that we'd come and play a gig in the South of France. Although Nimes was five hundred miles away, they'd arranged to go on holiday in the area. They had absolutely loved the gig and it'd been great getting the opportunity to see them again in France.

Next, we'd performed in Nice before heading down to Italy for two gigs in Rome and then Verona instead of Milan to play in another gorgeous Roman amphitheatre.

After the Verona gig we'd spent a night there in the fabulous Hotel Colomba d'Ora which was a mix of old-world artistry and modern Italian styling but this, this was something else.

Tom had come across the Alpin Panorama Hubertus Hotel after I'd told him about one of the birthday gifts I wanted to give Rob at our joint thirtieth birthday party. After playing South America in April, we'd gone back home to London for almost a month to celebrate our birthdays with our friends. Rob had, mostly, planned the party; he'd decided that seeing as I'd pulled such a giant surprise on him for our wedding it was only fair that I allow him to organise it -- although he had allowed me to put people on the guest list!

We'd got each other several presents, and one of mine was a bunch of extreme sports and thrilling activities, one of which being a paragliding flight. We'd done it once all together in South Africa and since then, Rob'd kept telling me that he wanted to do it again so I asked Tom to find the best place for him to enjoy his present while on tour. Tom surprised us with almost a week off between our gig in Verona and the first of our dates in Germany and told me that the Dolomites looked to be the perfect place for Rob to go paragliding.

So here we were, in the Alpin Panorama Hubertus Hotel, surrounded, inside and out, with ultra-modern styling of the highest order, but it wasn't that which had almost taken my breath away.

We'd booked exclusive use of an entire floor of the hotel along with something called the Sky Pool - it was this that Rob and I were now looking out over. To say that it was spectacular would be an understatement!

It was without a doubt simply incredible, yes we'd read the stats, twenty-five metres long, five metres wide and twenty metres high where it cantilevered out from the sun-terrace, it had a glass front which faced the valley between the Dolomite mountains - there was even a large area of glass floor to show the ground so far below, not something for anyone with vertigo!

One more hotel infinity pool it may be -- utterly unique it most certainly was.

Despite the number of gigs we'd played and the miles we'd travelled, we'd been writing songs and now we had a few days off at the hotel, we were going to seize the opportunity to work on the music we'd been writing. We had to weed out the weak ideas and strengthen the really good ones.

What our friends weren't aware of was that after they'd made their scheduled departure on Thursday to spend a little private time as couples in various other places -- Jordan and Grainne to Venice, a place they hadn't been to the last time they were in Italy, the others to Milan, with an artist and model in the party how could they not want to visit such a hub of fashion and design -- Rob and I were going nowhere.

Instead we would be joined byour favourite chauffeur andmy favourite guitar-tech. There was an entirely professional reason for Nick coming to the hotel, we'd recently decided to make changes to the set-list which had tuning and guitar-change consequences for both Rob and I so wewould be working on those with Nick; on a personal level, Rob and I had finally got around to contemplating having fun with him again over two months after the one short but satisfying session we'd enjoyed.

We had actually tried arranging another get-together a few times since then but something or someone always conspired to interrupt our plans. As had happened before, Nick hadn't been entirely absent from our sex life - he just hadn't been there in person! Thanks to a brief but telling conversation I'd had with Nick, Rob was still blissfully ignorant of what I knew about him. I had no idea how I'd manage to not tell Rob but I couldn't wait to see his reaction when he found out that Nick was built like a horse; I was no carpenter but if I had to guess from what I remembered, I would say that his dick had to be at least nine inches, with a slight curve upward and to the left. Some of Rob's favourite porn involved guys of similar build to Nick but as far as I knew he'd never encountered somebody built that way in reality.

For Rob and I this would be our very private birthday and early first anniversary party -- we'd both agreed that having a three-some too close to the July date would have been too weird -- and we'd been looking forward to it ever since we knew Tom had booked the hotel!

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"I found a restaurant with excellent reviews, and it's within reasonable driving distance from here." Damon announced a couple of hours after we'd arrived, we were relaxing all on the sun-terrace outside our hotel floor. "We could go tomorrow night," he said and looked straight at me, "unless we're too wrapped up in working on our new material -- which will probably happen."

I raised my brows,

"Have I ever said no to dinner in an excellent restaurant? Especially in Italy?"

He smiled,

"I guess you haven't!"

"You arenot going anywhere tomorrow night," Rachel said in her I-know-best voice taking in all of us with a sweeping look.

"Oh, yeah, says who?" Damon asked.

"Me."

"And me," Grainne added.

"Well that's those two banjaxed, you still in?" Rob laughed, looking at Dylan.

"Nope," Alicia put in before he could reply.

"What's going on Rach?" I asked her.

"Yeah, why can't we go to dinner tomorrow?" Damon put in.

"Well you can I suppose," Rachel smirked, sounding smug, "but I for one will be stopping here for the party."

"Party? What party?" Damon exclaimed.

"Rob and Mark's birthday party!" she said.

I frowned at her.

"Rach, sweetie, I'm pretty sure we've had that party already!" I said jokingly.

"Not with the whole crew, you haven't!"

"We're having a birthday party here tomorrow night?" Rob asked in surprise.

She grinned at him.

"Yes, it'll be a sort of a thank you party for the team as well!"

"Whose idea was that?"

"Tom's," she said, "mine too, and Alicia's and Grainne's," she said looking over at them.

I realised that none of us had really picked up on the fact that we'd seen no other guests but then the complex was vast and as our reservation meant that no-one else could use the Sky Pool or the terrace it was on for the duration of our stay we weren't totally surprised. Plus we'd arrived by helicopter, the landing pad was sited just below the hotel and from there, we'd been transferred by car and shown straight to the floor that was ours exclusively for the week -- well we'd thought it was just the one floor turns out the entire hotel was ours until the following Friday!

We didn't go anywhere for dinner.

Although Saturday's shindig hadn't been anywhere near as 'huge' as our thirtieth birthday party, it had still been great to spend time with our team in a more relaxed atmosphere. We had opened a few more presents, and even though we were still waiting to see if we'd get a final one from Nick, I could now say that my favourite gift had been one that Rob had got me, together with Jordan.

It'd happened right after we'd finished unwrapping our gifts at the London party, which had taken ages. Rob had covered my eyes, just like he'd done when he'd surprised me with our island home, and then led me outside, making me walk for longer than I'd expected.

After removing the blindfold, he had wrapped his right arm around my chest and covered my eyes with his left hand.

"Happy birthday baby!" he'd whispered in my ear, hugging me tightly and slowly moving his hand down to reveal a yellow supercar, a MacLaren 720S this time.

I remember being speechless for a few seconds, unable to stop staring at the gorgeous car in front of me.

"Fucking hell, are you guys serious?" I'd yelled, stunned and beaming with joy.

"We've decided you should get a car for each colour of the rainbow!" Jordan had said to me with a laugh.

"Four more to go!" Rob had exclaimed before I gave both of them a warm cheerful hug.

"Oh my god, I love it!"

"Wanna take it for a spin?" Rob had asked.

"Hell yeah!"

It was after coming back from driving the car around the city that another memorable moment from that party had happened.

Sam Smith had turned up with a gift -- well he'd needed help lugging it into the venue due to its size and weight. Since I'd made comments about him in the media, he'd made a very genuine, very private apology to me for the way he'd behaved in that L.A club, so private Rob didn't even know about it at the time. If I could forgive Rob for what had happened, it would've been churlish of me to not do the same for Sam.

His present had been an enormous, framed, film-poster sized photo of Rob from when he'd recorded'Magic'; Sam had sent me the video of that moment as soon as he knew Rob and I had got back together but the poster was awesome and now hung above our bed.

I often thought about the day Rob came home after I'd had the poster hung in our bedroom. I'd told him I had a surprise for him and taken his hand to lead him upstairs. When we got to our bedroom door - which I'd left slightly ajar - I'd put my hands over his eyes then guided him to stand at the foot of our bed. He'd looked at me with an expression of surprise written all over his face,

"Really? That's where you want to put it? I dunno," he said. "I mean, well --, maybe hanging it in the music room would be better, I mean, here -," he stopped not sure how to express what he meant.

I knew what he'd been thinking - that it would be a constant reminder of what had happened, both before he'd gone to L.A. and while he'd been there, but for me it was significant for a whole bunch of other reasons.

"I don't think of it the way you're thinking. I see it as a beautiful photo of my beautiful husband making beautiful music and more importantly as a reminder of how strong we are together, strong enough tostay together. For me it's a symbol ofall the obstacles we've overcome."

I embraced him, looking deep into his gorgeous green eyes,

"Besides, why wouldn't I want to be able to look at such a handsome guy while we're making love?" I smirked.

He looked at the poster above the bed for a short moment, taking in my argument.

"Alright then, I guess you win!"

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Our second birthday-come thank-you party guests had all left on Monday and now here we were two highly productive days later due to having no distractions, well Rob and I had one because although everyone else had left Nick hadn't. No-one had found it strange that he was sticking around because before we'd known about the party, I'd already said that I'd be bringing him in when the others left to work with Rob and I on the set-list changes we wanted to make.

He'd offered to act as driver for Rach, Grainne and Alicia while we actually got on with doing our band thing, the music we'd been writing had us all excited and we wanted to perfect it, well craft it, ready for when we'd finished touring. We were already talking about laying it down in our own, now much improved, studio at home, no outsiders, going back to basics with it.

"Nick, didn't I hear that you do studio work as well as live?" Dylan asked him as we ate an early dinner on Wednesday evening.

Rachel, Grainne and Alicia had been telling us about the paragliders they'd been watching when they'd stopped for lunch with Nick on their way back to the hotel.

Rob looked at me and grinned, he'd worked out that part of his birthday gift from me had been intended for when we were here in the mountains.

"When?" he asked.

"Tomorrow, weather permitting," I told him with a grin.

"Yes!" he exclaimed, reaching to pull me in for a kiss, "Thanks babe, I've been wanting to try it again forages."

We all spent some time talking about our one-time paragliding experience together and Rob soon had us laughing uproariously as he told us about how he remembered it, with his self-deprecating sense of humour.

"Promise me you're gonna film the take-off," Jordan laughed.

"Every nervous second," I chuckled, "and then I'll post it on Instagram!"

"I hope you've asked Tom to check that my insurance was up to date!" Rob said jokingly and I just stared at him.

"Dont't say that!" I exclaimed apprehensively.

"I'm surprised I'm even allowed to do it!" he said.

"You almost weren't!"

Indeed, Tom had gone barmy when I'd told him about all the variety of adrenaline-junkie type activities I wanted to arrange for Rob's birthday gifts.

"Don't forget to pack his pockets with sick-bags," Damon said.

"Hey, dude, I might havefelt like throwing up," Rob put in with mock hurt, "I didn't actuallydo it."

"Yeah but bro'," Jordan shot back, "that was jumping from beginner heights, these mountains are seriously high."

For a moment Rob's face showed his nervousness at that reality but he quickly regained his confidence,

"Not a problem for we experienced flyers," he retorted. "Next on my list, a parachute jump, who's with me?"

Jordan raised his hand and they high-fived.

"That's exactly what you weren't allowed to do!" I said to Rob who rolled his eyes.

"That's fine, once this tour is over, I can do whatever the fuck I want!"

Then Jordan looked at me with raised eyebrows,

"Don't forget you're bungee jumping with us from the Macau Tower next time we're there!"

I laughed and rubbed my neck,

"Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna have to make sure we never have to go back to Macau -- like ever. What time are you guys leaving?" I asked quietly.

"Tom's arranged for the chopper to be here for us about ten-thirty," Dylan answered.

"Our hire car's already here," Grainne said, "so we'll be going about the same time."

"So have you, done studio work I mean?" Dylan persisted.

"Yeah, mostly doing what I do for Mark and Rob," Nick replied.

"I doubt it," Rob whispered in my ear, making me laugh and pretend we were still talking about his gift.

"But have you ever worked as tape-op?" Dylan pressed on with Nick.

"Oh yeah, with actual tape as well as digital."

"What're you getting at?" Jordan asked Dylan.

"Well if we're serious about laying down the material without hiring a studio and bringing in a producer we'll need somebody in the recording booth. I mean Mark's going to be on overall production but wecan't playand run the desk at the same time," Dylan pointed out.

"Hadn't thought of that," Damon mused.

"Makes sense," Jord added, "Nick knows how Mark and Rob work, he's already heard some of the new stuff so I'm sure he's already getting his head round what'll be needed to play it live for tunings and such. It could work."

"Would you be up for it?" Dylan asked Nick outright.

Nick looked shocked to the core at the idea,

"Well yeah," he replied quietly, "but I'd put a proviso on it."

"Go on," Rob encouraged him.

"I'd suggest you give me a day to acclimatise to your studio set-up as I've never seen it and at least a day preferably two to work with you in it; I don't mean with what you've been putting together here, I mean some of your really early songs, ones you haven't played for a long time but without rehearsing them first so it's almost as if you are playing new compositions."

"Why?" Damon queried.

"Because you need to know I'm capable of picking up on what you want when you want it."

"Know that already," Rob hissed, I had to clamp my jaws together to stop myself laughing out loud.

"Stop it," I whispered to him.

"Like you said, you want Mark on the final production but studio and stage work are very different beasts and I've got to learn how you operate when you're recording; I mean, do you lay down everything individually? Do you put keys and lead or bass lines down together, do you ever put tracks down in their entirety with Rob putting vocals in at the same time or does he always do it after?"

"Whoah slow down dude, we get it!" Jordan laughed.

Dylan, probably the most level-headed of us smiled knowingly,

"Nick, the fact that you've just said what you've said tells me that you're probably the best man for the job. You're already working out what we all need to be happy with for you to do it. So are you in?"

"Too right I am," Nick grinned, "who on earth wouldn't jump at the chance?"

I looked at Rob and I just knew he was about to make another comment.

He grinned at me and barely breathed in my ear as the other guys high-fived at Nick's acceptance of the challenge,

"I can think of other kinds of jumping I'd like to do."

"Okay," Nick said, "so when you're all finished with working on the new stuff can I set up as if you're on stage so we can make a start on getting things sorted?"

"Absolutely, I'll give you a shout when we're done," I replied.

"Cheers, well if you'll excuse me, I think I need to call home and tell the wife about this," he said cheerfully, "and if I've time before my personal slave-driver calls me back, I want to get a few lengths of that unbelievable pool," he told us.

Once Nick was far enough away, Rob leaned closer to me.

"And I know the kind of length I want to see him get," he sniggered too quietly for anyone else but me to hear.

"Shut the fuck up," I mouthed at him as the others also got ready to leave the table, beneath the cover of the tablecloth he pressed my right hand to the bulge already forming in his shorts.

"Quickie?" I mimed, raising an eyebrow.

He nodded once and stood to go, I followed.

"Meet up in thirty minutes?" Dylan asked of us.

"Good for me," Jordan replied, the rest of us just nodded.

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By the time we got back to our suite, things were getting pretty hot and heavy. We knew we didn't have much time and we both wanted each other badly. Rob dropped the card key a couple times trying to unlock the door while I nipped at his neck and throat with my mouth. I was also mauling his ass with one hand and squeezing his cock with the other.

"If you don't stop distracting me, I'll do you right here and now," Rob said.

"I dare you!" I shot back as he opened the door.

Once inside, I quickly closed the door behind us. Then I placed my hand on the nape of his neck and brought his lips to mine. He kissed me back lustfully and I peeled his shirt off. We didn't know whether to keep kissing or start undressing so we just continued making out.

In-between kissing me, Rob started to talk.

"Can you believe it?" he asked, biting at my lower lip.

"Believe what?" I quickly said and kissed him again.

He placed his hand on my throat and pulled me off his mouth. He just looked at me with a grin.

"All that planning, the dodging and weaving, trying to get together with Nick and Tom ends up throwing it in our lap," he laughed.