Joy Ride (26 page)

“Yeah.”

“Sure.”

“You’re right, big man.”

Marc started toward the door when Rick touched his shoulder.

“You doing okay?”

“Fine. Peachy.” Marc rotated his head, trying to work out an annoying kink.

“You just seem a little more tense than usual is all.”

“I’m doing my job, right?” he snapped.

“Even better than usual.” Rick chuckled. “Maybe sexual deprivation works for you.”

“Yeah, right.”

He was definitely feeling deprived and it wasn’t all sexual. He’d had plenty of chances this week to heat the sheets with women who’d come on to him, especially that damn Lacey. But instead he watched the door every night, hoping to see ML walk through it.

He was in bad, bad shape.

“I’m good, Rick. You don’t need to worry about me. I think I’ll get some air before we go on again.”

He started toward the side door, edging around the crowd. Aftershock was even more packed than usual, everyone determined to see the band’s final performances. Even people he hadn’t seen since week one crowded into every available inch of space—and some not so available—for a last look at Lightnin’. The deafening screams and applause at the end of each number they’d played created a field of energy crackling in the air.

Like Lightnin’.

“You might want to put it off a little while.” Rick spoke directly into his ear to be heard over the noise.

“Oh, yeah? Why’s that?”

“Turn around and you’ll see.”

When he did he nearly stopped breathing. Music Lady was standing right at the edge of the stage, fighting to hold onto her tiny bit of space among the crush of bodies. She’d obviously just arrived because she hadn’t even taken time to fight her way to the bar and get a drink.

For some reason she appeared tentative, as if expecting him to blow her off. Then he saw Lacey standing right next to her, jawing in her ear. Well shit. He took the fastest route to her, up on the stage, across the platform, and then jumping off onto the floor. Right between her and Lacey.

“I was just giving your friend the lowdown on the band,” Lacey smirked.

“I’ll bet.” Marc ground his teeth. Lacey had been the biggest pain in the ass for as long as he could remember. He didn’t much like used goods and she definitely fell in that category. The Queen of the Groupies didn’t take no for an answer. He grabbed ML’s arm before Lacey could cause trouble. “Go have fun someplace else, Lacey. I told you. I’m not interested.” He tugged ML into the little hallway behind the stage, elbowing his way through the packed crowd. “Don’t believe a thing she says, ML.”

She lifted her hands in a helpless gesture. “She told me you and she….”

Marc bit back the anger flaring inside him. “She wishes. Lacey’s used goods. I’m not interested.” He cupped her chin and tilted her face up to his. “In anyone but you.”

The moment his gaze locked with hers, heat flamed between them and the uncertainty on her face was replaced with a hunger he was sure matched the one clawing its way through his body. Glancing at his watch, he saw he still had a few minutes before the next set. He took her hand and led her out of the club to their usual spot at the corner of the parking lot. Before she could say a word, he cradled her head and captured her lips in a predatory kiss.

Jesus, she tasted like a hundred kinds of wonderful

She opened to him at once, surprising him with a need as strong as his own. Her small tongue danced with his, coaxing him to explore every inner surface of her mouth. Her hand slid up his arms to his neck; her fingers threaded into his hair as if she’d never let him go. He closed his eyes and let the intensity of their passion consume him. Everything around them faded away until there was nothing and no one except for him and his Music Lady.

When he finally broke the kiss, his heart was racing, and he was breathing like a long distance runner. Her body was pressed so tightly to his he could feel her heart pounding wildly, and the erratic touch of her breath on his face.

He studied her face, taking in the slumberous look of her eyes and her swollen lips. “I missed you all week. I was afraid you wouldn’t come back.”

“I said I would,” she reminded him.

“I know. But…I mean, I don’t even know how to get a hold of you if you just disappear.”

“I’m not going to disappear,” she assured him.

“But you’re also not going to tell me your name, either.”

“Not…yet.”

He wanted to find the right words to say. He had a bad feeling that whatever poison Lacey had been spewing only underscored the self-doubts she constantly battled. “You know you’re special to me, right?”

“I…I hope so.”

“Well, you are. You can take it to the bank.”

Did she believe him? Believe in
them
? Despite the new hairstyle, the hot new clothes, the slow releasing of inhibitions, she was still like a little bird poised to take flight at the first sign of danger. And he worried each time something would frighten her away. He wanted to tell her just how he felt about her. Was it too soon to say “love”? Was that what it was? Could he at least tell her she’d carved a place for herself in his heart, that he saw things in the future for them if they could get past the last of her reservations? He didn’t know if she was ready to hear the words yet, not when she still guarded her identity the way she did. Besides, he wanted a silent but unqualified commitment from her first. He wasn’t about to expose himself to a woman who could disappear like smoke and never return.

And how am I going to get around that?

He touched his lips to hers again before sliding his hands down from her face and wrapping his arms around her.

“I have something for you.”

She wet her lips. “You do? A present?”

“Sort of. It’s your pass for Sunday night.”

A grin lit up her face. “Really? You actually got me a pass?”

He frowned. “Did you think I wouldn’t? I gave you my word.” There was the old trust issue again. He wondered if it had more to do with past experiences or her hesitation in a new environment. No question, he was miles away from any other men she’d been with.

“Do you have it here?” Her eagerness was hard to miss.

An encouraging sign
.

“No. It’s at home. You’ll come home with me tonight, right?”

“Of course.” She hugged him. “Did you doubt it?”

Yes
.

“Just making sure. Come on. I’ll get you a drink before we start the next set.”

As he walked her into the bar, all he could think of was his impatience for the last set to be finished so he could be alone. With his Music Lady.

***

Emma couldn’t believe how eager she was for both of them to get naked. She remembered how nervous she’d been that very first night, but each time she was with Marc the panicky feeling faded more and more. She’d tested herself by staying away from the club all week, examining her feelings, trying to make sure it wasn’t just the novelty of spectacular sex and the attention of someone in a glamorous industry. A babe magnet who had somehow, someway chosen to be with her.

Part of the old Emma still lingered, feeding her insecurities. In the back of her mind she feared this would all blow up in her face any minute. But she had learned one very important fact during her week of denial—there was no way she could stay away from Marc Malone. Her Guitar Man.

This time the moment the door closed she was the aggressor, the one who grabbed him and kissed him until her senses reeled. Kissed him until neither of them could breathe. She plunged her tongue into his mouth and drank him in.

“Whew! Wow!” Marc pulled away and tilted his head. “Holy shit, ML. Maybe I should insist you stay away more often if this is what happens.”

“No, no, no.” She shook her head, hardly able to believe she was actually behaving this way. But her entire body hummed with need for this man, and she wanted him
now
. Her fingers trembled as she went to work on his shirt, pushing the buttons through the buttonholes.

“Let’s at least get to the bedroom,” he insisted, lifting her in his arms.

He carried her down the dark hallway. In the bedroom, he flipped the wall switch, turning on the bedside lamp before setting her on the floor. It was almost a race to see who could undress the other one first. Clothing flew everywhere and then she was flat on her back with Marc hovering over her, the passion in his eyes so strong it was almost singed her with its heat.

“Hurry,” she urged.

“Not too fast,” he murmured. “I want to touch every part of you. See all of you. I dreamed of you every night this week.” He chuffed a laugh. “The boner I wake up with every morning gets bigger and harder every day.”

“Me, too.” She swallowed a nervous giggle. “Not the boner. I mean about the dreaming.”

“Good. I’m glad.”

He kissed her again, his hands sliding through her hair, the act one of possession as much as passion, then he moved his lips to the hollow of her throat. “Did you dream of me doing this?” He pinched first one nipple then the other. “And this?” He bit lightly on one pebbled tip.

The pulse in her womb ratcheted up, and she knew her sex was wet and ready for him. “Yes.” Her breath came out in a rush. ”Yes, I could almost feel your mouth on me.”

“Like this?” he asked again, his lips cruising over her breasts, his tongue teasing the pebbled tips. The touch of his mouth sent sparks clear to her toes.

“Yes, like that.” She arched into him.

“How about this?” One hand skimmed over her tummy, then his fingers threaded through the curls covering her mound to find her clit. The moment he touched it, fire speared through her.

“More,” she begged. “Touch me more.”

“Is this what you want?” He rasped his thumb over her sensitive nub again and again.

Every pulse in her body throbbed with delicious need. She widened her legs and lifted her hips to him, trying to tell him silently what she wanted next.

“Oh, yes. Yes, yes.”

He kissed her tummy then lower, his tongue twisting through her soft curls until he found her clit again. She trembled beneath his touch as he tugged the swollen bud between his teeth and licked the hot tip. He pulled her into his mouth, sucking gently. She shook under the assault of multiple sensations. Her nipples ached and every part of her sex pulsed with hunger and need.

His skin was hot against hers, the fiery length of his cock burning against her thigh as he moved his fingers in and out of her.

“Feel how hard I am for you?” His words were edged with the roughness of lust. “I’ve missed you so damn much, Music Lady. Missed this.”

“Me, too,” she whispered. “Touch inside me.”

“With pleasure,” he growled, sliding two fingers into her vagina.

She clamped down on them, hitching her hips to create friction. “Mmmh,” she whimpered.

“Good, baby? I like to make it good for you.”

He worked a third finger in with the other two, taking her clit into his mouth again until she didn’t think she could stand it one more minute.

“Inside me.” She could barely form words by now. “All of you. Please. Right now.”

He slipped his hand from her wet grasp and rubbed her hot button as he reached for a condom and rolled it onto his pulsing erection.

Emma ran her hands over the hard muscles of his arms and back, relearning his touch, inhaling his familiar scent as she opened her thighs wider for him. She bent her knees to give him better access, digging her heels into the bed and arching up to him. With one hard thrust, he was inside her.

She was complete now. Totally connected to him. Emotions whirled through her like a hurricane, plucking at her heart as the feel of him invaded her body.

His mouth was on hers again, and she sighed into it as he filled every inch of her, the walls of her sex gripping him, clenching him, How had she lasted these past days without this? Without
him
? Her heart squeezed with the intensity of her feelings.

Then he lifted his head and fixed her with his hot gaze, and her thoughts disappeared like smoke.

“I don’t know how long I can hold on to this, babe. I think we’re both hanging on the edge.”

“Yes,” she urged. “Hurry. Now.”

Balancing his weight on his hands, he pumped into her with a ferocity—a joining that shook her entire body, but she didn’t care. It was exactly what she needed. Wrapping her legs around his waist, she hitched herself even closer, riding the wave with him as the orgasm uncoiled inside her like a length of rope caught in the wind. As if they’d received some silent signal, they exploded at the same time, bodies shaking and shuddering with the spasms, breathing raw in the otherwise silent room.

“Good God!”

Marc collapsed forward, catching himself on his forearms before rolling to the side and taking her with him. He was still deep inside her and, at the moment, it was a linking she desperately didn’t want to lose.

His soft breath dusted her cheek, the dampness of his body fused with her. She wasn’t sure whose heartbeat was banging at her ribs, hers or his, amazed at how in sync they were. She kissed his forehead and brushed the damp hair from his skin. Touching him always sent a surge of warmth through her. How would she survive if he walked away from her? Somehow she had to dig deep enough to conquer this unreasoning fear of hers. Or else face it head on and deal with whatever happened.

He smiled at her with lips swollen from their kisses, the look he gave her melting her like chocolate. “That was some way to start the weekend, ML. If we do it too often I might not survive.”

She grinned at him. “Wimp.”

“I’ll show you wimp,” he growled, pushing her onto her back again. Then he moaned, a rueful sound. “But maybe not right this minute. I need one to revive here.”

Emma laughed. “I’ll give you five.”

“We’ll see.” He kissed her cheeks, her eyelids, her forehead. “You know tomorrow’s our last night at Aftershock. Then Sunday, it’s the big concert.”

“Excited?” she asked. Would she see him next week? See him at all after the big concert?

Will Lacey be there? The little bitch. I should turn Annie loose on her
.