WILDER: A Rockstar Romance (12 page)

Chapter 25

Keir

I'd be lying if I told you I didn't plan this. Luring Scarlett off to someplace where we could be alone? Fuck, that shit was practically part of my DNA at this point. Pure fucking instinct.

But once I had her? That still was a fucking surprise. I wasn't lying when I told her this was a religious experience for me. Taking off her T-shirt was like Christmas morning wrapped up in some kind of sacramental celebration. Seeing her body—smooth, strong, shapely—stretched out below me? Yeah, I planned this, but even I couldn't have imagined how good it would be.

When she came under my tongue, fucking angels started singing in my ears, and when she dove for my cock, as eager to have me as I was to have her? Well, let's just say I didn't give a shit about the hurricane that bore down on us. I could fucking die right now and have absolutely no regrets.

"I need..." Fuck, there was barely enough blood flow to my brain to be able to complete that sentence. "I need to be inside you now."

I had a condom, somewhere; yes, I planned this after all. But in my eager haste, I nearly tore the thing to shreds. The mesmerizing sight of Scarlett's breasts heaving up and down, the rosy flush that danced across them, visible even in the low light...fuck, I felt like a virgin all over again.

I also wasn't lying when I said I remembered every single part of her body. So slipping inside of her, hearing her soft, satisfied cry as I sank into her, up to the hilt… That shouldn't have been such a fucking revelation. But five years is a long time, and as I started to move, I realized that the girl—no, the woman—below me, the one who wrapped her legs around my waist and urged me higher, deeper, faster, she wasn't the same girl I had fallen in love with.

She was better.

I was better.

This was better.

Too soon, I could feel it, the white heat gathering at the base of my spine. I tried to hold it back, tried to have more, give her more, give her everything. I didn't want it to end, never wanted it to end. I wanted to hear her cries, feel her clutch against me, gripping me from the inside out, calling my name—a song, a moan, a cry that shattered and broke—and suddenly, we were both falling, falling. I felt like I'd always be falling, but when I reached out my hand, Scarlett, fucking
Scarlett,
was the one that was holding me.

I'd never been much of a crier, but this—this was enough to bring a sting to my eyes.

Chapter 26

Scarlett

For once in my life, the thoughts stopped. For one beautiful, blessed breath, I was free. Free of watching myself, of checking myself, worrying over how I was being perceived. Because I knew exactly what I was right now.

I was loved.

He didn't say it. He didn't have to. It was in the way his eyes glistened a little. The way he blinked twice and then darted a glance to the right, overwhelmed.

I was there. I felt it too. The words bubbled on my lips, waiting to be said, shouted, screamed.
I love you, holy shit, I
love
you, and now I finally get it. I fucking get it now, Keir. And I don't want to let go of you. I want to be like this forever. I want to do what we just did, over and over and over.

Emotions welled up, and I was afraid the tears would start falling, but instead, I started laughing. Laughing with sheer, irrepressible glee.

"Keir Bear."

"Huh?"

"Babe, I can't breathe."

He glowered down at me. "Are you seriously laughing right now?"

The wind buffeted the building, sending a swaying shaft of light moving from his chin to his eyes, and I could see that he was just as delighted as I was. "Sorry, I'm sorry. It's just… I'm remembering something a friend of mine said. About sex."

He pulled a face.

"No, it's relevant, I promise. She was making fun of me because I had never had sex 'just for fun' before." I grinned. "But that? That was pretty fun."

He slid back. "What do you mean you'd never had sex for fun? I feel a bit wounded here."

I sat up, closing my arms across my breasts. "Back then, it was wonderful. But...it wasn't
fun
."

"I don't understand."

"Think about it. We were teenagers, Keir. You were practically the first boy I ever saw, much less cared for, much less fell in love with. I had nothing in my head but fairytale notions of love forever and I was too damn immature to realize that wasn’t what we needed."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah." Suddenly it seemed so clear, so imperative that he understood. A revelation that hit me like a ton of bricks. We needed a do-over. Put the past where it belonged, behind us. "What we needed to do was have fun."

"Fun?"

"You know...fun? You've heard of it, right?" I teased him, bopping him lightly on the nose. He growled and nipped at my finger. "Don't you want to just have fun with me? Don't you know how to have fun?"

"You think I can't be fun, huh?" The way his eyes were so dark made my heart bang around in my chest. "I can have fun with you, Scarlett."

"Good." I grinned. "Show me. And I'll show you. Let's be teenagers again, but the right way this time. Without all the seriousness and the sadness. I want to play with you. I want to date you. I want this, us together again, but I want us to be...fun. I grinned up at him. "You're a Wilder, right? I want to be wilder too." I knelt up, pressing his hands to my breasts. He whistled sharply through his teeth, then took the taut peak of my nipple into his mouth. I groaned through my smile, arching my back to him and closing my fist around his hardening length. "Let's just be wild!"

*****

We came downstairs to find the bar overrun with drunken celebration.

"It's a miracle!" Twitch crowed, leaping up onto the table and pointing two fingers at us.

"What the hell is going on?" Keir demanded. His hair still stuck up in tufts where I’d had it in my fists as he drove into me the second time, but everyone around us seemed too drunk to notice our goofy grins and my bowlegged walk.

"Storm switched paths!" Twitch announced with so much pride it sounded like he did it himself. "Somebody somewhere wanted the show to go on."

"The power of prayer!" Balzac grunted.

Keir brought his lips to my ear. "See? Hellfire and damnation didn't rain down on us. We're free to fuck like that as much as we'd like."

I rolled my eyes. "You're terrible," I whispered.

"Funny, you weren't saying that a minute ago. Come on, walk a little straighter. Everyone will know."

I socked him in the arm, laughing louder than I think I'd ever heard myself laugh before. And it suddenly struck me once again how much I liked him.

How much I missed him.

How much I loved him. All this time.

That night, that band played the show as planned. And the reviews hailed it as one of the best they had ever done. I read through them later, taking note of all the mentions of the tightness of their set, the raucous energy of their playing. Because that was all lost on me in the moment. Because that night, I only had eyes for Keir.

Chapter 27

Keir

"Keir?"

"Hmm?"

I heard a laugh, then felt a hand brush down my shoulder, and suddenly I remembered everything.

"Keir?"

I opened my eyes, and there she was. Scarlett. In my bed. Her eyes shining, her lips still pink and bruised from my kisses.

My
kisses.

Mine.

She was too beautiful for words. I felt myself smiling, just grinning like an idiot as I flashed back to what we did last night, what we said, what we promised…

"Keir," she said softly. "We really need to get up."

"No," I protested, reaching out and pulling her close. She giggled, then gave a little sigh of surrender, fitting her naked body against mine so that every square inch of our skin was touching. I brushed my lips against her shoulder and closed my eyes, ready to never let her go again.

"We should really get up," she repeated, her voice muffled by my elbow.

"I'm not getting up," I muttered into her shoulder.

"No? What about the tour?"

"Fuck the tour," I grunted.

"You are just going to stay here in bed?" she teased.

"Long as you're here with me, there's no place I'd rather be."

She turned her head and kissed my jaw at an awkward angle. "I don't think I want to leave, either," she mused. She stretched herself out to her full length, her legs stiff, arms overhead, and yawned. "I'm kind of afraid of leaving, to be honest."

I closed my eyes. Of all the mysteries that had been revisited by falling for Scarlett again, at least this I understood. She was afraid, just like I was, that if we got up from bed, the spell would be broken. Whatever truths we had come to would fall apart and we'd lose… It. This. The magnetic connection that held us together would slip its polarity and drive us apart once again.

"Then fuck it," I told her. "We'll order room service, reschedule the show in Charleston. It's not a big deal." I slid my hand down her torso to cup that wonderfully warm place between her legs. "This," I said, brushing my fingers into the soft folds, "this is a hell of a lot more important to me."

She moaned and arched into my hand, but as she did, her stomach let loose with a low, rumbling growl.

We both froze, me startled, her embarrassed.

Then she started to laugh.

"You're going to have to leave this bed eventually," she said. "Unless you plan on starving."

I was already sliding under the covers. "Well," I grinned up at her, spreading her legs, "at least I know what I want to eat."

She was giggling and gasping, her protests already dying away when the knock sounded at the door.

She stiffened and yanked the covers up to her chin, trapping me underneath. "If that's your brother…"

"Scar, I'm suffocating."

"Shit, sorry."

I struggled up to the head of the bed and shot a look over at the alarm clock on the bedside table. "I guarantee you it's not my brother. Rane hasn't seen this hour since high school, and honestly, he wasn't really awake even then."

The knock sounded again. "Fuck off!" I encouraged them.

"Mr. Wilder?"

I heaved a sigh.

"Who's that?" Scarlett yelped.

"Caleb?" I called.

"Yes, sir," came the reply.

Swearing and cursing profusely, I yanked the sheet off the squealing Scarlett and wrapped it around my waist. She scurried towards the bathroom. Then I opened the door to see my head of security smiling broadly. "This had better be good," I growled.

His eyes went briefly to the closing bathroom door. He smiled even wider.

"Sir," he said, barely suppressing his laughter. "Rick wanted me to let you know that we are changing up the order of the rotation today. Because of the hurricane warning, we had some guys working double. They need to be relieved."

"Sure, sure, fine," I said. I paused. Waited. "Is that all?"

"That's it," Caleb said, standing straighter.

Sneaky motherfucker. I bet he had a wager going with the rest of the security detail. There would be money changing hands as soon as he reported back.

Whatever. I didn't give a fuck. "Okay, thanks then. Oh, and Caleb?"

"Yes, Mr. Wilder?"

I gave a fuck about one thing, though. "If you so much as breathe a word about this to my brother, I'm firing your ass so hard you won't know what hit you."

"Tell your brother about what, sir?" he said with the biggest shit-eating grin I'd ever seen.

I rolled my eyes.

Caleb's visit broke the spell of the hotel room. I couldn't keep pretending the outside world and all its demands didn't exist. Craft services would be setting up the table in one of the private banquet rooms now. We'd be expected.

Scarlett had the brilliant idea of going down at separate times. "I'll just grab my workout clothes, try to make it look like I was going for a run something." She swiftly kissed my cheek. "See you soon," she said, smiling, then rushing down the hall.

I took a minute to appreciate her retreating form, then yanked my mind back to reality.

Heading down to the lobby, I tried to find something, anything, that would distract me from her.

Luckily, distraction came in the form of Twitch dressed in a red hoodie and a pair of gigantic, oversized women's sunglasses. They looked like something his sister would wear.

"Hey, man," he mumbled. Then he slouched over to the table that groaned with pastries and picked up a Danish, nibbled it, winced, then set it back down again.

My brother slumped over a mug of coffee like he was trying to read his fortune in the grounds. I punched him hello. "What happened to Twitch?" I asked. "Shades aren't usually his go-to look."

Rane sat back and rubbed his jaw, looking simultaneously sheepish and delighted. "You missed a hell of a party last night, little brother."

No, I didn't,
I said to myself.

All at once, I knew Scarlett had come down, even though I couldn't see her yet. It was like all of the atoms in my body reorganized themselves to point in her direction.

She was trying to stay out of sight. She was probably afraid of the same thing I feared.

That we'd tear each other's clothes off the second we made eye contact.

How many times had we fucked last night? Fucked, had sex, made love—we did all three, over and over again.  Every time I felt spent, I would look at her naked body entwined in the hotel sheets and get hard for her all over again.

Leaving that hotel room was the hardest thing I had ever done.

Acting like I was interested in Rane's story was the second. I widened my eyes and prayed that someone would hand me coffee soon.

"We ran out of liquor sometime around three," Rane explained as he grabbed a Danish and stuffed it in his mouth.  "Twitch got the bright idea that the new bus driver, Steve, would share with us."

I shuddered. Steve had driven for all of the huge bands back in the 80s and 90s and wasn't one to suffer rock 'n' roll madness lightly. "Take it that didn't go very well?"

"Well, I wasn't there, but I sure as hell heard it. Twitch was hammering on his door, yelling like some kind of drunk-ass kindergartner for Steve to
share
." Rane's voice inched up about an octave. "Come on, man, open the door," he whined in a pretty good imitation of Twitch's drunken voice. "You gotta share, man. You gotta share!"

I caught a whiff of Scarlett's shampoo and struggled to keep focus. "I take it Steve didn't share?"

"When he finally opened the door, I don't think he said a fucking word. I didn't hear anything, anyway. Just heard the door creak and the sound of something going crunch."

I winced. "Twitch's face?"

"You got it. Hence the Marilyn-Monroe-shades indoors thing he's got going on."

I shot a look over my shoulder to Twitch, who sank lower in his chair and pulled his hoodie up over his head. Rane's laughter filled the banquet room, and I silently thanked our lanky drummer for his idiocy because Rane never once asked where I'd spent the night.