by Lisa Suzanne
And then, as if out of nowhere, he’s standing in front of me. He presses a kiss to my lips. “Jesus,” he murmurs close to my ear, and despite the screams, he’s close enough to me and they’re far enough away that I can hear him. “It’s been fucking impossible to focus tonight after that kiss.” His lips fall to mine, and the kiss is firm and needy. Nerves rattle around me, and his lips trail toward my ear. “I want more, Dani. I want you.”
This is definitely not seventeen-year-old Tyler. This is all man. He isn’t afraid to tell me what he wants.
His breath is warm and sends shivers down my spine. I’m about to respond when he turns and runs back to the stage. He gets into position just in time as the bright lights flash on a second later and the music starts again. The cheers are nearly deafening even from this distance, and there’s some degree of smug self-satisfaction in the fact that all those women out there are cheering for the man who just told me he can’t focus as he plays for them because he’s thinking about me.
You can have me, Tyler. All of me.
CHAPTER 4
After their encore, they run off the other side of the stage. I thought about going over there so I could be waiting for him when he got off stage, but despite his promise, I don’t want to get in his way. I have no idea what the Capital Kingsmen do when they’re done with their show. Some bands jet out before the house lights are even back on, some hang out a while, some go to their buses, some greet fans. I know they have an after party, but I never got the details where or when it is—but apparently I’ll be Tyler’s date for that.
So I head back to my office. It feels like the safest place, and it’s somewhere Tyler will know to find me if this is all real and if he’s actually looking for me or if the heat I feel between us is all in my imagination.
I tackle a few emails that could probably wait until Monday, but I’m not sure what else to do to keep myself busy. I’m staring blankly at the screen when a low rumble of a voice in my doorway shifts me completely off balance once again.
“Hey.”
I turn my gaze that way, and there he is.
My breath gets caught in my throat as I attempt to breathe, but the feelings pressing down on me in his presence are heavy.
He’s here. He’s freshly showered and changed, and I think I can smell his clean scent all the way across my office.
It’s real. The history, the connection, the want...it’s all real.
He leans against the doorframe casually, and it’s almost like he’s here visiting his girl, not about to seduce somebody he used to know who’s now a virtual stranger.
Someone who’s been through a lot since she last saw him.
Someone who hasn’t been with a man in over a year. Someone who’s nervous as fuck for what’s about to happen but sure as hell wants it to happen anyway. He kissed me back there, and I want more. I want his mouth on mine. I want to share the swirl of breath as heavy panting pulses between us. I want his body pressed against me as we both clamor for some relief from the throbbing ache.
“Hey,” I croak back, and his lips lift up in a little smile when I attempt to clear the frog from my throat. “Come on in.”
He does, and he shuts the door behind him.
And then he locks it.
My heart beats wildly as he steps into my office. I think about standing, think about moving to meet him, think about a hundred different things...but I’m glued to my chair as I watch this man move around my office like he owns it.
He steps around the desk and moves closer to my orbit, but he stops just short of me. He leans back casually, his ass against the desk where I sit and work day after long day, and now I’ll always remember that place as the one where Tyler Caldwell leaned so casually as the anticipation curled thickly all around us.
“Did you enjoy the show?” he asks.
How the hell is he maintaining his cool like this? I just want him to pounce already.
I nod. “It was incredible. You were...incredible.” My mind is blank. I can apparently think of no other words aside from incredible.
He chuckles. “You’re still as adorable as you were when you were sixteen.”
My nose wrinkles. “Adorable? Isn’t that reserved for kittens and babies?”
He lifts a shoulder. “Puppies, maybe. I don’t know about kittens and babies.”
I laugh, appreciative of the way he has of making me feel comfortable despite the nerves tingling through me.
“Can I make a confession?” I ask.
His brows rise. “Of course.”
“I’m, um, really nervous.” I’m about to confess that I haven’t been with anybody since Nate and I broke up when he stands up straight.
He reaches toward me with both hands, so I set my hands in his. And then he pulls me to a stand. He doesn’t stop pulling, though, until he has laced my arms around his waist and wrapped his arms around me.
He gazes down at me, and the nerves seem to take flight as butterflies batter around my stomach. “Then let’s find a way to calm those nerves.”
His lips collide with mine, and while I’m not any less nervous about what’s going to happen here in my office, I do feel a whole other rush of emotions as I kiss Tyler. He tightens his grasp on me as he deepens our connection, his tongue finding mine as he kisses me. I wish we had more time, but he has an after party we need to get to, and he’s probably leaving town after that. Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow.
We’ve barely had a chance to catch up, and yet what we’re doing here seems to take precedence. There’s this intrinsic animal connection between us, and I almost feel like I can’t focus on a real conversation until we soothe the throbbing need that beats between us.
His fingers slip under my shirt, his hands firm and hot on the skin of my back. He skims them up to my bra, which he unhooks, and I reach under the hem of his shirt to feel more of him, too. His skin is soft and warm beneath my fingertips, and I feel like I could stand here in my office making out with him forever.
But we don’t have forever.
He picks up the pace. He pulls my shirt over my head, tossing my bra to the side with it. He pulls his own shirt off next, and I’m met with a lean, muscled body covered with dark ink. I want to learn every single tattoo’s meaning. I want to trace each one with my tongue and again with my finger. I want to lie in bed beside him as he tells me what it’s like to go under the needle.
I don’t expect anything beyond tonight, but it’s still nice to dream. Hell, I don’t even know if I’m ready for anything beyond tonight. I’m just dipping my toes back into this weird, wonderful world of dating after a break-up. But dipping in with Tyler feels right. He makes me feel like I could do more than dip. I could swim laps after jumping in from the high dive.
He gazes at me a beat as I stand in my office without a shirt or bra on, and I drink him in as well. And then he pulls at my jeans button, yanks them down my legs with my panties, and lifts me onto my desk so my ass is on the edge and my legs dangle off. I kick off my shoes and he pulls my clothes off the rest of the way, and then he kneels on the floor between my legs.
I’m perched right on top of my desk calendar. I won’t be able to look at May the same way again...that’s for sure.
He dives face first into me, his tongue sweeping along my entire slit as his hands find my breasts. I lean back on my palms, jutting my chest out to give him better access and keeping my legs as wide as I can to give him space. His tongue flicks against my clit before dipping into me, and holy hell, he’s hitting all the right spots. He’s definitely experienced in this area, and I don’t care how he learned because all that matters is that he knows what to do.
It’s a matter of moments before I explode into a fierce orgasm. It’s so strong that I yell out as I grasp for anything to hold onto as the quakes wash over me. I grasp my pencil cup in one hand and claw at his shoulder with the other, and somehow he manages to hold on and keep doing what he’s doing as I ride the wave of pleasure.
It’s ov
er too soon, and he rocks back on his heels once my body starts to come down. His gaze is on me when I open my eyes, and he’s smiling a little smugly as he wipes the moisture from around his lips. My moisture.
I fall back onto my desk with a thud and toss an arm over my eyes as I try to recover some of the energy he just zapped from my body. He chuckles as he stands.
“Take your pants off,” I say. My voice is a dreamy command.
He doesn’t say anything, and instead I feel his mouth as he licks a line from my navel up to the valley between my breasts. He stands between my legs as he sucks one of my nipples into his mouth, and my body is so sensitive from what he just did that it tickles. My giggles are swallowed quickly as pleasure take over.
I moan as I thread my fingers through his hair, and he sucks a little harder on one nipple while he thumbs the other one. My hips shift upward in search of him, and he slams his hips toward me. He’s still in his jeans, and the fabric is rough against my sensitive flesh. I groan, and he grunts, and then he backs away from me, pulls a condom out of his pocket, pulls his jeans down just enough to take his cock out, and rolls it on.
His eyes are on mine when he returns, and he raises a brow as if to ask whether I’m sure this is what I want. I give him a nod, and then his mouth moves down to mine. He kisses me as he lines his body up with mine, and then he shoves into me and holy shit everything goes white for a second as he hits some sort of jackpot spot no man has ever managed to hit before.
He thrusts into me, and I grip the edge of the desk as I do whatever I can to just hold on and enjoy this ride. “Holy shit, Dani,” he murmurs as he drives into me. “You feel so goddamn good.”
Hearing my name from his lips after watching him on stage just a little while ago does something to me. Something epic and crazy and beautiful. He stands up a little straighter and grabs onto my thighs and I’m so thankful for the mirror I bought because when I turn my head, I can see him fucking me right there. It’s like watching porn but with the hottest guy I’ve ever seen as I feel the same pleasure that lucky girl in the mirror must be feeling.
That scene will replay a million times in my head, I’m sure.
His eyes follow mine to the mirror, and he watches me as I watch us. There’s something so freaking hot about it that I unravel all over again, and just as he pushes my body into a second climax, he loses it, too. He growls my name as he shudders into me, both of us reveling in our shared release as he does things to my body that I didn’t even know it had the capability to do.
When it’s over and we’ve both come back down from the high, he slips out of me. He clears his throat. “I, uh, have to get to the after party...but I’m thinking we could maybe do that one more time after that?”
I laugh, my eyes twinkling. “Or maybe during it.”
His lips widen into a grin. “I knew I always liked you, Dani Watson.”
“I always liked you too, Tyler Caldwell. I just never realized how much I was missing out on.”
He grabs my hand and helps me back to a sitting position. “Well you don’t have to miss out anymore.”
I’m not exactly sure what that means, but it feels a bit like a promise that maybe we can see where this goes beyond tonight.
And that’s something I’m pretty damn excited about.
CHAPTER 5
I smooth my hair back into place as I watch him pull his shirt back on, covering up that gorgeous body of his. “I like you better without the shirt,” I murmur, and my eyes widen and my cheeks flush when he glances at me and I realize I actually said those words aloud.
He chuckles and moves toward me. He pulls me into a hug. “I like you naked on top of the desk with your legs spread open for me.”
My wide eyes widen a little more and that flush in my cheeks deepens, but he doesn’t see it because he covers my mouth with his.
He pulls back with a deep sigh. “I wish we could, you know, spend more time catching up,” he says, “but I need to get to the club. You still okay to come with?”
I nod. There’s no way in hell I’m missing my chance to spend more time with him. We stroll hand-in-hand down the hallways back to the dressing room, making light conversation on our way like he didn’t just completely ravish the hell out of me in my own office.
“So are you some sort of cheese connoisseur now that you live in Wisconsin?” he asks.
I roll my eyes. “Wisconsin is known for more than just cheese, Tyler.”
“Like what?” He glances over at me with genuine curiosity.
I think for a beat, and then I announce, “It’s America’s Dairyland.”
“So...cheese,” he says, and I can’t help my laugh.
“Fine,” I concede. “Cheese. How long are you here in Cheese-ville?”
“Bus call is six AM and we’re heading to Chicago,” he says, and I sense a hint of regret in his tone.
“So we only have tonight?” I ask.
He glances at his watch before his eyes meet mine. His are a little clouded. “We have the next six and a half hours.”
“Then we have a lot of actual catching up to do,” I say, and he laughs. “What can I expect out of this after party?”
He shrugs. “We hit the club, snap a few pictures with influencers, have a few drinks, and head out. It’s maybe an hour tops.”
“And what do you do after that on a normal night?”
We turn down the hallway with the dressing rooms, and a few women wearing tight dresses and tall heels scream as they spot Tyler. “Oh my God, it’s Tyler!”
The others shriek similar sentiments as they run toward him. He tosses an arm around my shoulders to show that he’s taken.
For the next six and a half hours, anyway.
“Ladies, so nice to meet you,” he says easily. They hug him, and they take selfies with him that surely I’m also in since he hasn’t let go of me, and then he says, “I’m so sorry I can’t hang out longer, but I have to get to an appearance.”
They seem disappointed, but he did more than he was obligated to do with them, and that’s a memory they’ll get to take with them forever. And that’s when I realize my last question about what a normal night looks like was a pretty dumb question.
Rock stars don’t really have normal nights.
We head into the band’s dressing room, and the other three guys plus their manager are taking shots. “Come get fucked up before we hit the club,” Tommy commands.
Tyler glances at me and then back at the guys. “Not tonight, man,” he says.
Tommy raises a brow. He seems like the kind of guy who always gets his way, even when it’s over something stupid like this...but, to my surprise, he doesn’t press the issue. Instead, he glances between the two of us, and my cheeks flush when I spot a little recognition there. Oh, God, he totally knows what we just did in my office. And maybe it’s because Tyler does this every night with a different woman, or maybe it’s because he can already sense something different about Tyler.
Whatever the case, I’m glad it happened. We have nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, Tyler just opened a whole new world to me. He showed me that I’ve still got it. I was convinced for a long time after Nate that I didn’t have it anymore, that I was used goods and no man would ever want me again.
And then Tyler stepped into my life by some random coincidence, and I’m suddenly a new woman after only a few hours.
I could get used to this feeling.
But first, we have the after party.
We all pack into a huge SUV, and once we pull up to the club, Tommy opens the door and slides out, and then Tyler gets out and grabs my hand to pull me along with him. There’s an aisle roped off for us to walk down to get to the door, but even with that aisle there, suddenly we’re surrounded by people wielding cameras and flash bulbs and screaming women.
“Tyler, over here!”
“Tyler, look at me!”
“Hey Tyler!”
“Tyler, who’s the chick?”
The chick is
me.
He ignores everyone yelling his name and keeps his eyes forward. A tall woman wearing a barely there dress moves down the aisle toward us, and she looks like the kind of woman who should be on Tyler’s arm...not me.
And yet...here I am. Jeans and a t-shirt and sneakers...and I’m the one he just banged. I’m the one whose hand he’s holding.
She hugs Tommy first then Tyler, and I hear her welcome the others over the screaming fans beside us. “Come on in,” she says, and we follow her in. We stop for a few pictures—none of which I am actually in even though Tyler’s clutching my hand in his. We’re taken to a VIP table, and the drinks start flowing shortly thereafter. He drinks whiskey sours, and I stick with vodka, and I have no idea what Tommy or Dustin or Brett are doing because I only have eyes for the bassist who brought me here.
And he only seems to have eyes for me despite all the people coming up to him to sign autographs and take pictures.
I’m on my second drink and he’s on his third when he leans in toward me. “Having fun?”
His breath is warm on my ear and I shiver. I nod, and he grins, and then he leans in and brushes my lips with his. “Give me another half hour and we’ll be having a hell of a lot more fun.”
Once their obligation at the party is over, most of us head back to the SUV still waiting right where we left it. Only Tommy and Brett, the drummer, stay behind. Tyler drags me all the way to the back row, and I assume it’s because he wants some privacy. My heart races as I wonder whether he’s going to seduce me right here in the car.
Should I give in?
There are other people here—Dustin, the lead guitarist, and Karl, the manager—but I don’t really think I care.
We only have five hours left.
It’s not enough, but I can’t think of an amount of time that will feel like enough.
Tyler clutches my hand as we ride back toward the arena that’s a second home to me and the place where his tour bus is currently parked. His eyes are focused out the window, and suddenly he’s a little quieter than he was before. His shoulders are hunched with tension and I have an urge to lean over and give him a hug.
