Pure Iron (33 page)

“Hey,” Mick returned. “We’re waiting for Jack.”

“What? You can’t go in there until Jack arrives?”

“No, it’s more like we can’t go in there until Jack cums and puts his clothes back on.”

“Ah.”

Mick leaned closer to his old friend and whispered, “There are some things Sonia doesn’t need to see.”

Angelo nodded, understanding Mick’s protective instincts. For him, women came in two categories. The first category was comprised of innocents and respectable females who were to be protected, cared for. The second category was populated by those women who eagerly made themselves available for exploitation—who was he to deny them their self-destruction? Perhaps it was simplistic, but he found that his two category classification system seldom steered him wrong.

Sonia he put quite firmly in the protected class, along with his mother and sisters.

“You look awfully pretty tonight,” he complimented her.

“Thanks, Angelo,” she replied with real pleasure at the compliment.

“Will Mick be calling you onstage?”

“I hope not,” she said.

Mick glanced at her with surprise. “You never said you didn’t want to be here.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to be here,” she explained carefully. “I just don’t like being on the stage in front of the crowds. I feel … exposed. Vulnerable.”

He chewed on that for a moment. He liked calling her out to join him, to proclaim to the masses that she belonged to him. He hadn’t really considered how she might view the public proclamations of ownership, because that’s what they were, he realized.

“Why do you do it?” he asked quietly. Angelo slid away to give them some privacy for the uncomfortable conversation.

“I don’t want to embarrass you in front of your fans,” Sonia replied. “I mean, it’s nice that you want to announce you’re married and off limits to the hordes of women out there, but—” she shrugged uneasily and failed to find the right words to express her feelings “—I don’t know. I don’t like the attention.”

Mick took her hand and raised her knuckles to his lips. He kissed them and said, “I’m proud of you and want the world to know.”

“I don’t know what I’ve done to make you proud of me,” she demurred. “But the fact that you want everyone to know you love me really makes me happy. It’s just that I don’t like going onstage to be displayed like a—a—prize or something.”

“What would you like me to do?”

Sonia winced at his cool tone. She set a hand on his arm in a conciliatory gesture. The muscle was rock hard beneath her fingers. She tried to ameliorate his hurt. “I like it when you tell people that you’re married, that you love me. There’s nothing better. It’s just I’d prefer not to be displayed. I’m more comfortable standing in the wings where I’m yours and I don’t belong to the audience, too.”

Angelo couldn’t stand listening in any longer and interjected, “She’s a private person, Mick. Not like those of us who thrive on public attention.” He directed a perceptive glance at her and added, “Getting on that stage makes you feel like you lose a piece of your soul, doesn’t it?”

She nodded, tears welling up in her eyes. Angelo turned to his old friend and said, “Keep her whole, man. You say she’s your muse, but you’re crumbling her into pieces.”

“I never meant to hurt you,” Mick murmured hoarsely around the lump in his throat.

“I know,” she said as tears trickled down her cheeks. “And that’s why I said nothing. I love you, Mick, and I don’t want to hurt you either.”

“What the hell’s going on here?” Kris demanded as he and Davis approached. He glared at Mick, “Damn it, man, did you make her cry?”

Mick seemed to grow larger as he bristled with affront. He warned, “Back off, Kris.”

The Viking stereotype took another step forward, jutting his chin, and said, “Or what? You’ll make me cry, too?”

Sonia inserted herself between them, setting one hand on Mick’s chest and another on Kris’. “Stop it, both of you,” she ordered. “Mick and I were just talking.”

Kris raised his hand to wipe away the wetness from her cheek. “Talking doesn’t usually involve crying, babe. Tell me what he said and I’ll make him pay for it.”

“We were just hashing out a misunderstanding,” she said as Mick reached around to grasp Kris’ wrist and push his hand away from her. He wrapped his other arm around her waist and pulled her against him.

“Don’t touch her,” he growled.

Kris’ nostrils flared and he taunted, “Maybe she likes it.”

Losing all patience, Sonia kicked Kris in the shin.

“Hey!”

“Quit it. Now.” She looked up at Mick, scowling at the underside of his chin. “Both of you. I am not some bone you two dogs can fight over.”

“They’re both idiots,” Davis’ deep baritone flowed over them. “Come away with me and I’ll build you the best kitchen ever.”

Sonia turned her head to look at him, jaw dropped. But his eyes twinkled with humor and he laughed.

“Oh, if you could see your expression now,” he chortled.

Mick took a step backward, drawing Sonia along with him.

“What the hell?” Kris demanded, glowering now at Davis. Davis just shook his head and said, “Man, get your own woman. This one’s taken and there is no chance whatsoever that Mick will give her up.”

“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” Angelo whispered loudly and waggled his eyebrows. “When those three have finished killing each other, we’ll run away together and live in gustatory bliss. Do you think you could learn to make gnocchi like my mom?”

Mick, Kris, and Davis all stared at him. As one, they recognized the absurdity of their posturing and broke out in laughter. Sonia’s shoulders relaxed in relief. Angelo, bless him, had managed to deflect a fight again.

“For you, Angelo, I will learn to make gnocchi,” Sonia promised.

Good humor restored, a feminine cry filtered through the door.

“Well, that’s one,” Kris murmured. A moment later, the lower sounds of satisfied grunting could be heard in the attentive quiet. “And there’s the other,” Mick added.

“Shall we give them a few minutes?” Angelo asked.

“May as well,” Davis answered. “I’ve no particular desire to see Jack’s dick.”

“But you might want to see the girl,” Kris teased.

“Nah. If Jack’s doing her, then she’s likely not my type.”

“Skinny?”

“Breakable.” Davis grinned. “I’m a big man. I need to know that the woman under me won’t snap in half like a twig.”

“TMI,” Sonia blurted loudly and covered her ears with her palms.

“He’s got a point,” Angelo agreed with a nonchalant shrug. “You always see Davis with one of the bigger girls.”

“Voluptuous, not big,” Davis corrected him.

“Curvy,” Kris added with his own lecherous grin. “I do like curves on a woman.”

“Women shouldn’t shaped like twelve year old boys,” Mick agreed, sliding one hand down her arm to rest on the flare of Sonia’s hip.

She wanted to assert a flippant preference for masculine body types, but couldn’t force the words out. She was enamored of Mick: his height, the solid muscularity of his body, his narrow hips and broad shoulders, even his shoulder length hair. As though he read her thoughts, Mick tilted her face upward with the light pressure of one knuckle and bent down to brush his mouth against hers. She sighed into his mouth and his fingers flexed, tightening on her hip.

“I don’t think we have time,” she whispered.

“I’ll bet I can make you climax in less than five minutes.”

“You’ve already won that bet,” she reminded him, blue eyes going smoky with lust.

He kissed her again and said with a smirk, “Yeah, I have. We’ll have to see how many times you can orgasm in a single night.”

“I think you’ve tried that, too.”

“You wear me out, woman.”

She chuffed an airy sort of chuckle and simply caressed his lean cheek with one cool hand. “I’ll look forward to it.”

“You two need the waiting room?” Angelo inquired in an arch tone as the door opened and Jack ushered out that afternoon’s floozy with a friendly slap on her perky, rounded butt. She giggled and bounced on her toes, which made her large breasts bounce, too. That drew every male eye.

“Thanks, babe,” Jack said with a satisfied smile. “That felt good, real good.”

“You want me to come back tonight, Jack?” she asked with a pout that was probably supposed to be sexy.

But Jack had already dismissed her. “Nah, but thanks. I’ll be busy tonight.”

The young woman giggled as she ran her gaze over the other men standing nearby. She cocked a hip and arched her back to thrust out her already prominent breasts and said breathily, “Any of you boys need company tonight?”

“No, thank you,” Angelo replied politely. Kris and Davis did not bother to reply, they just walked past her into the green room.

She looked at Mick, then her gaze fell on Sonia. She glanced back at the room where Jack had retreated, then again at Sonia. “These guys are real studs, honey. You think you can handle all five of ‘em?”

“I know I can,” Sonia replied coolly, confidently.

“You don’t look the type,” the woman commented with a shrug. Then she added with a philosophical air, “Oh, well, I’ll be happy with what I got.” She shivered with remembered pleasure. “And I got it
good
.”

With that, she walked away, hips swaying provocatively.

“Sonia,” Mick whispered into her ear, “don’t even let the guys hear you say something like that unless you
want
a gang bang.”

She flushed, then turned pale.

“Do you?” he asked.

“No,” she replied, her voice trembling. “
No.
”

“Good.” He gave her a quick squeeze and wondered if he would have been able to rein in his jealousy, his possessiveness, if a night with all five of them truly was what she wanted. He was glad she didn’t. “We’ll just put this sordid little episode behind us then, shall we?”

“Yes,
please
.”

They walked into the room where Kris was tuning his guitar and Angelo blew a few experimental trills on the wooden flute. Sonia sat gingerly on a chair and tried not to think of the activities that had likely taken place in that chair.

“Let’s run through the set list,” Davis said.

Kris nodded as he finished tightening that last string. Mick pulled out his guitar and cradled it in his arms.

“We doing list A, B, or C tonight?” Jack inquired.

A knock on the door interrupted them. The casino’s concierge entered with polite apologies for disrupting them and said, “Event management wanted to let you know that there’s a special crowd tonight.”

“Oh?” Jack prompted.

“I don’t know if you’ve heard about it, but Caesar’s is hosting a major UFC tournament.”

“So, does management want us to play something to soothe the savage beasties?”

“Of course not, give them the music they want. This is a mostly young, hard rockin’ crowd. Just … just … let’s not goad anyone into belligerence. These guys are professional fighters. They’ll clean your clock.”

“Meaning?” Jack prompted further.

The concierge glanced toward Mick and Sonia and cleared his throat nervously. “Perhaps she ought to remain offstage tonight.”

Perversely, Sonia now wanted to strut her stuff in front of the crowd. “What do you mean? I’m not exactly the type to incite uncontrollable lust among hordes of men.”

The concierge squirmed a little. “It’s not you, exactly, it’s that ‘she’s mine’ announcement Mr. Hendriksen likes to do. You’re a pretty lady and those fighters down there might see it as a challenge. We’d really like to avoid that.”

“That’s insane. These are civilized human beings you’re talking about, not cavemen!”

“Um, they’re not all that civilized,” Kris corrected.

“Huh? What do you know about it?”

The big blond shrugged and said, “I fought mixed martial arts for about three years, but couldn’t make a go of it. Anyway, I was involved in the lifestyle during that time and I keep tabs on the sport for old time’s sake. The guys who compete in this tournament are real pros in the ring, but they’re not that civilized, particularly when it comes to women.”

Mick gave her a little squeeze. “You don’t want to get onstage anyway,” he reminded her.

The concierge heaved a sigh of relief; the musicians were going to be reasonable. He rather thought that this group was one of less objectionable acts. They hadn’t actually destroyed the furniture in the green room, although he’d overheard snippets of conversation that hinted at rather personal activities conducted on said furniture which would have to be steam cleaned and disinfected before the next act used the room.

He looked at his tablet and said, “You’ve got about ten minutes before you’re due onstage.”

Davis nodded his acknowledgement and twirled a drumstick in his fingers. “Quick review, guys,” he commanded. “This crowd’s going to want hard rockin’ tunes.”

“Remember the Power Play album?” Angelo asked.