One Night with Sole Regret 06 Tell Me (6 page)

Gabe
’s arm went around Melanie’s lower back, and he held her securely against his side as they were ushered through barriers. After the third time Nikki got stopped for not having a backstage pass, Gabe wrapped his free arm around Nikki’s waist as well, and he guided them both toward the doors.

Melanie understood why
Gabe was touching Nikki in that easy, familiar way of his, but it didn’t stop her from seething. He was hers, and she was not in the mood to share him. Not even a little. And especially not with her best friend.

Gabe wasn
’t sure why Melanie was walking so stiffly beside him. Was she worried that someone would recognize her with him? Had she spotted a tattoo that freaked her out? Had he done something wrong? He was at a complete loss as to how he could have messed up between the limo and the building. He wracked his brain for things he might have said that she could have taken the wrong way. All he’d done was tell the driver what to do with her luggage. Why would that anger her? Maybe she didn’t like him speaking on her behalf.

At the back entrance, a security guard
let his small entourage enter the backstage area of the stadium. The guard offered Gabe a wink and Melanie and Nikki an appreciative grin as he checked them both out with interest and envy. Half an hour ago, Gabe would have said the dude was welcome to take Nikki off his hands, but God help him, he was starting to understand Melanie’s proclivity for keeping the woman out of trouble. His own protective instinct was starting to show. He wasn’t particularly fond of Nikki, but she seemed so, well…
helpless
. Something that Melanie was not, for which he was immensely thankful. Neediness quickly grated on his nerves. He knew some guys loved Nikki’s type—Shade for example. His ex-wife was needy, so he must like something about it. But Gabe would rather have an equal at his side than a pretty puppet at his feet.

Melanie grew stiffer with each step. As soon as they could be alone, he
’d ask her what was wrong, but this was not the place for a falling out. Strangers watched him very closely backstage. Halfway to the dressing rooms at the end of the hall, Melanie stopped abruptly, sending their trio into an angled trajectory toward a wall. Melanie jerked out of his grasp and stared up at him with sparks of anger snapping in her hazel eyes.

Okay, so he wasn
’t imagining things. She was pissed. Fuck him if he had any idea why.

“What’s the matter?” he asked, deciding they were going to have to have it out after all
, whether strangers were watching them or not.

She glared at his left hand, which was draped casually at Nikki
’s shoulder.

“Are you going to hang all over her for the rest of the evening?” Melanie asked bluntly.

“Hang all over her?” He wasn’t hanging all over her. Much.

Nikki shrank from beneath his arm to stand beside Melanie
, and he dropped the apparently offensive appendage to his side. He’d only wrapped his arm around her so that she could get through security with less of a hassle. And he told Melanie exactly that.

“I don’t see any security here in the corridor,” she said.

Nikki clutched at Melanie’s sleeve. “I would have told him to stop touching me, Mel, but—”

Melanie
slashed out a hand to stifle Nikki’s words.

“You’re jealous?” Gabe asked as
the realization dawned on him. On closer inspection, Melanie was practically green. And he had the lack of sense to laugh at her misguided emotion.

“I’m not jealous,” she sputtered, crossing her arms over her chest and turning her head to glare at the nearest wall.

“Good, because you have no reason to be. Next time, I’ll leave her to her own methods of getting backstage.” He moved a fist back and forth in front of his mouth while poking the inside of his cheek rhythmically with his tongue. Apparently, Melanie did not find his pantomimed blowjob humorous.

Her
mouth dropped open and she glared up at him. “You wouldn’t.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” He
dropped his hand and shrugged. “I’m not interested in her. I’m interested in you. I only brought her along because you want her here.”

The slight flutter
of Melanie’s eyelashes made it clear that she didn’t really want Nikki there either, but she evidently saw reason in his words, and she dropped her crossed arms to her waist and then relaxed them at her sides.

Nikki gasped, drawing Gabe
’s attention. Her eyes were wide as she stared at something or some
one
just behind Gabe. She shifted Melanie before her and did her best to hide, her forehead pressed against the back of Melanie’s shoulder as she feigned invisibility.

“Did he see me?”
Nikki whispered.

“Who?” Melanie said and then a look of recognition spread across her face. “Yeah, he looks pissed. I’d say he saw you.”

“Why is she here?” Jacob said to Gabe in greeting.

“If Amanda can come to our shows
, then so can Melanie,” Gabe said, his ire rising so quickly it surprised him.

“Not Melanie.
If you have a thing for her, of course, she’s welcome.” Jacob reached behind Melanie and yanked Nikki out by one arm. “Her! What is
she
doing here?”

Nikki straightened her spine and
started hissing. Gabe wondered where the docile please-protect-me creature had wandered off to.

“What? Did you forget my name already, asshole?”
Nikki spat, blue eyes narrowed, her fists clenched.

“No, darling Nikki, I didn’t forget your name, but you can’t be here. I don’t want you here.”

She bit her quivering lip, and Gabe was sure she was about to burst into tears.

“I invited her,” he lied to Jacob. “I invited both of them, okay? It’s none of your concern.” He was definitely starting to remember why the band had made that no
-women-on-tour pact. With women came drama. Being trapped with the same four dudes for six months was bad enough without the added roller-coaster ride of outside romantic relationships.

“So they’ll double up on you
r dick, but not mine?” Jacob asked.

“You are the biggest pig I’ve ever met in my life!” Melanie bellowed at Jacob. “I don’t know why anyone would do anything with you other than kick you in the nuts.”

Gabe snorted. Jacob’s faint smile had told Gabe that he was only teasing, but evidently Melanie hadn’t gotten the joke.

Until that moment, Gabe ha
d completely forgotten what had so quickly turned him on to Melanie in the first place—her complete disdain for Jacob “Shade” Silverton’s typically irresistible sex appeal. Now that was hot.

“Can I talk to you?” Nikki asked
Jacob. She seemed for once to be the most reasonable person in the vicinity.

“No,” he said simply. “I have nothing to say to you. If I had, I would have called you.”

Melanie gnashed her teeth and rounded on Jacob. Gabe would have probably cowered at the look on her face if she’d turned it on him, but Jacob, being Jacob, was used to women berating him. In this particular instance, he deserved it, but that wasn’t always the case.

“You have no problem fucking her in a public hallway
—”

“Or a sauna,” Nikki added helpfully.

“Or a sauna,” Melanie echoed several decibels louder than her friend, “but you don’t have the common decency to carry on a polite conversation with her?”

“That about sums it up,” Jacob said. He turned on his heel and stalked off.

Melanie screeched in fury and started after him—no doubt to have it out on his nuts—but Gabe stopped her with a firm arm around her shoulders. He drew her against his chest, stiffening slightly when her elbow gouged him in the side in her struggle to throw him off.

“Easy,” he said. “You’ll only hurt your toe.”

She jerked out of his embrace and glared up at him, redirecting some of her anger. At him.

“What are you talking about?”

“When you kick Shade in the balls,” he said. “You’ll just hurt your toe. They’re made of steel, you know.”

Her jaw dropped. She blinked at him, closing her mouth with a snap, and then sno
rted before breaking into laughter.

“She got a bit wound up there,” Nikki said as Melanie tried to calm herself with deep, gasps for air between laughs. “She always cracks up after an explosion.”

Yeah, he’d gotten that from earlier.

“Oh
, Gabe,” Melanie said, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. “You do have my best interests at heart, don’t you?”

He grinned.
“Well, of course. And Nikki’s too.” His lifted both hands in surrender. “But not because I want to get in her pants or anything.”

“Why don’t you?” Nikki asked
, her head cocked to one side as she studied him closely. “They’re great pants to get into.”

Ask anyone, he added silently.

“Because,” he said, “I have a thing for your smart, charming, and beautiful friend. The one who
isn’t
attracted to Shade Silverton.”

“I’d say it’
s because she has bad taste,” Nikki said, her gaze skimming over his body with obvious interest, “but she likes
you
, so she must not be totally lacking in that department.”

“Thanks,” Gabe said, rubbing Melanie’s smooth back, which was still jerking intermittently with
her giggles. “I think.”

Melanie finally
quieted and wrapped her arms around his waist to relax against him. Nikki’s presence seemed to take a lot out of her, and he completely understood why. The woman seemed to draw drama the way stink draws flies. Gabe shifted Melanie closer to the wall so that they were out of the flow of intermittent traffic using the hallway to prepare for the concert. She felt perfect tucked against him. He rested his cheek on her soft hair and closed his eyes, giving himself a moment to experience the feel of her in his arms. This is how he’d prefer to spend their time together. Just like this. Close. Not dealing with other people’s problems and insecurities. He was sure if Nikki hadn’t tagged along, they’d be spending the entire evening just like this. Except maybe they’d be a little more naked. Thinking of Melanie naked had his hands roaming her back, slipping under the hem of her blouse to seek bare flesh. How was he going to make it another several hours without feeling the press of her warm skin against his? Maybe he should call in sick. Would anyone notice if the drummer didn’t show up for the concert?

“I’m sorry I got jealous,” Melanie said. She drew away and stood on tiptoe to kiss his jaw. She held his gaze
, so he knew she was sincere. “But I’m not sorry I want to kick Shade in the balls.”

Gabe chuckled. He had a million things to say about why
Jacob had acted that way toward Nikki, but because the woman in question was standing right there examining her fingernails with obvious boredom, he decided to keep those thoughts to himself until he and Melanie were alone. And even then he’d have to guard what he said about women with pussies more hot and ready than a Little Caesars’ pizza. He didn’t want Melanie to get mad at him for inadvertently insulting her friend, so he’d watch what he said about her. He only hoped Melanie could get comfortable after they ditched Nikki. He’d just have to suck it up until then.

When the three of them entered the band
’s dressing room, Gabe noticed Jacob talking to their tour manager, Sally. Sally was a black-haired bombshell with big breasts that she liked to show off in skintight, low-cut shirts. Talking to her was distracting—you just had to gawk at her boobs. It couldn’t be helped. Man, woman, child, or monk, you had to stare at them, wondering if they were real and if your hand was big enough to hold one properly. Jacob was no exception. It didn’t matter that he was happily involved with Amanda or that Sally was happily married to one of their road crew—Kris, a giant, weathered biker with a huge heart—it was impossible not to stare at Sally’s endowments. Gabe had fallen into the same trap many times himself. So when Nikki saw Jacob paying undo attention to another woman’s chest and bristled, Gabe didn’t see any reason to correct her false assumption that Shade was not interested in her tonight because he was already hooking up with Sally. Nikki would probably understand that arrangement. It might even cause her to keep her distance.

Or it might make her stor
m across the room, shove Sally in the shoulder, and jerk on Jacob’s arm.
Seriously?

Fuck.

“Control your friend, Mel,” Gabe said exasperatedly.

Melanie rubbed the center of her forehead with two fingers.
“I think we’re going to have to go to the hotel after all,” she said. “This isn’t a good environment for Nikki in her present state of mind.”

Nikki had varying states of mind? Since when?

Gabe watched Melanie cross the room to interfere with the three-person shoving match going on in the corner. He wondered why watching her walk away had his heart panging unpleasantly in his chest. It was obvious who was more important to Melanie. He knew that she had known Nikki for a lot longer than she’d known him, but that didn’t make the realization that Nikki was her top priority any easier to take.

R
ealizing
he
wanted to be Melanie’s top priority wasn’t easy to take either. He wanted to be the only thing on her mind tonight. The entire weekend. As long as she’d have him.
Seriously?

“Fuck,” he said.