by Cari Quinn
“What the hell?” I asked Cooper. “Did I hallucinate her?”
His laughter was warm and rich. I was just glad he found me amusing at the moment, and things weren’t weird between us for a myriad of reasons. “No, she had to get back to work. This place is crazy tonight, and she said something about being short-handed.” He pressed a drink into my hand, bigger than the one I’d left almost empty on the table. “I got this for you. Blue Shark, was it?”
It was my turn to laugh. “No, Blue Lagoon. Not sure what the difference is.” I plucked one of the gummy sharks off the rim. “I like that it comes with candy though. Thank you.” Impetuously, I leaned up to kiss his cheek.
He gripped my elbows and held me against him when I would’ve eased back. “Dance with me?”
His eyes were so dark, deep and entrancing. I could’ve gotten lost in them and happily stayed there forever. Even in the crowded club with our bandmates and friends at the table just behind us, it was as if we were alone.
Guess my two drink limit had been optimistic, since I’d only had one and my blood was already buzzing. Oddly, it had started right this instant.
I didn’t trust my voice right then, so I just nodded and turned to set my new drink on the table near my spot. Everyone was talking and laughing, and Lauren was telling a story about a couple she’d married last month. Not only did she play in Warning Sign when needed, she also wrote sex books and married people as an officiant for her alternative church, because why not?
Sometimes I felt not colorful enough to be part of my circle of friends.
Then I turned back to Cooper and thanked my lucky stars that Jamie or Oz wasn’t paying attention to us. I wasn’t the best at picking up cues from the opposite sex, but even I could detect something was up. Imagining Cooper literally up in my direction was…not unpleasant, not at all. Just weird.
Everything was so weird right now. Including me, apparently, since I wasn’t running in the opposite direction.
Swallowing hard, I snagged his hand and pulled him across the club toward the packed dance floor. But he didn’t let me take control for long. He grabbed me from behind, making me laugh—and proving without a doubt that the up thing was no longer a matter for debate.
The size of his feet related to his manstrument question had also been answered.
Hot damn.
My laughter died quickly as he maneuvered us into a corner of the dance floor. He started moving with me with his palm low on my belly, grinding his cock against me.
So much for subtle.
My throat went dry as I tried not to stumble over my own feet. I didn’t recognize the hip hop song that was playing, but it had a good beat and I was a decent dancer when I wasn’t overwhelmed and dazed and kind of turned on.
So, that was a lie. I was turned on. I just didn’t know what to do about it. He was my closest friend. My rock. We spent so much time together.
Easy access to that cock would not be a bad thing.
I shut my eyes against the blinding whirl of colorful lights and the blur of bodies gyrating around us. I could not make Cooper into a sex toy, even in my mind.
Even in my oh-my-God-it’s-been-a-lifetime-since-I’ve-had-sex-with-a-dick-that-isn’t-plastic, horny as hell state.
“You’re too quiet,” he said against my ear, his warm breath pleasantly fluttering my hair. “I get worried when you’re not chattering.”
Rather than answer, I gathered my nerve and turned around to lay my hands on his chest. He scooped me up against him, so close that a breeze couldn’t have slipped between us. I laughed again at the sudden movement, especially when he dipped me in a way that didn’t match the frenetic song. But when he lifted me again and I slipped my arms around his neck, our faces neared, and I had to fight every impulse that told me to close the distance.
His lower lip was just a bit fuller than the top. Completely bitable. Why hadn’t I ever noticed before?
Oh, yeah, because yesterday he was just my best friend. Today, he was the guy who was making me jealous by kissing fans.
His eyes narrowed before he leaned close to my ear again. “Where did you go?”
To make it easier for me to answer in the noisy club, he hoisted me higher up his body—and slowly dragged me over his cock.
I was supposed to have an actual conversation with that between us?
My lips were dust dry as I attempted to speak next to his ear. Sexy. Why hadn’t I gone for gloss before this? Oh, yeah, because I had no purse.
Normalcy was not part of my life right now.
I licked my lips dangerously close to his earlobe and hoped I hadn’t made contact. That was kind of…a move, and I was still debating mine.
I was also shamelessly enjoying my current position with my cleft nestling his dick. Just a couple layers of fabric were between us, and my clit was into it.
My nipples were too.
“I just remembered you making out with some chick with jugs I’d be jealous of if I didn’t know what a bitch they were to run with.”
He didn’t laugh. “Did you just lick me?”
Uh-oh. “Um…no?”
Yes. Probably. Should I apologize? Then again, he hadn’t apologized for that hard wedge against me.
Which he should not do, ever. I really liked it. In fact, I was almost certain if he did that whole dragging-and-hoisting maneuver a few more times I would spontaneously break my non-male-assisted orgasm streak.
For that alone, I would thank him.
“Teagan.” He cupped my cheek while still holding me against him. “If you’re going to lick me, don’t be shy about it. And I didn’t notice anything she had. I’m too busy looking at you.”
I inhaled sharply. My mind was whirling faster than I could keep up with, and I wasn’t sure I was even still moving. He was moving both of us, sort of dancing, sort of swaying, almost hugging. His face was just above mine, his lips distractingly close so that I could smell the wintergreen of the gum he chewed onstage.
“She kissed you.” It wasn’t what I intended to say, because I didn’t have actual words in my brain ready to form.
My mind was a jumble of music and color and discordant sounds. My vision filled with his dark eyes fixated on mine, staring so deeply that I could see myself refracted in their depths, split by a million colors. Strobe lights flashing, bodies pressing together around us, everything so syrupy and sweet and hot.
Throughout it all, my heartbeat thudded in my ears and through the walls of my chest like his kick drum, beating strong and true.
He brushed my hair away from my cheek. “Her choice, not mine. You’re always my choice.” He shifted me in his arms, lifting me up until I could brace my hands on his shoulders.
For once, I was above him. The one in control.
He was giving me the power. Willingly putting everything in my hands.
Including him.
Us.
Was there actually an us beyond laughter and friendship and late nights watching Die Hard and eating flaming hot Cheetos? Or maybe that had been the foundation for all the rest.
I didn’t know how to trust a new man enough to let him into my very complicated life. But trusting Cooper was like breathing. His touch on my body was exciting and freeing.
It could be so much more too, if I only took the chance. I could be the one to take us to a new place. It was my choice.
I lowered my head to his, lining up our noses just right. And then he closed the distance and did the honors for me, trapping the bubble of laughter in my throat as his soft, firm lips captured mine.
And it wasn’t weird. It was just somehow kissing Cooper, instead of snuggling with him under a blanket in the winter while we watched TV or hugging him after a show. Rather than just our arms and hands being involved, it was our mouths moving together, his hand framing my face to go deeper, his tongue teasing mine, urging it to toy with his in a war that was somehow playful and sexual at once.
Until it wasn’t.
Dark, d
irty need flowed into me as I gasped into his mouth and rocked against him, his cock a delicious pressure low against my belly. He made a sound in his throat as he reached down to anchor me even tighter, grasping my ass in both hands as we worked on fucking standing up with all our clothes on.
“Teag,” he said into my mouth.
I kept kissing him. I wasn’t sure I could stop. He responded in kind for another couple of minutes then growled and pinched my ass.
That made me lift my head and look at him out of blurry eyes. My head was actually spinning, so I pressed a hand against it to make sure it stayed on my shoulders.
“That look.” He sounded breathless and every bit as dizzy as I was. “That right there. I want to see it when you’re under me.”
Fifteen minutes ago, that statement would’ve scared me. Now with my body buzzing and my blood humming and his taste in my throat, I only wanted more.
All.
“Or when I’m on top.” I slanted my lips over his one more time.
He didn’t speak for a while after that. Me either. We weren’t dancing. Definitely not responding to the music. Just making out openly without thought to who was watching him massage my ass through my jeans and our mouths tangle with increasing desperation.
“We gotta go,” he panted between kisses.
“Where?” I panted back.
“My place. A bathroom. Possibly a tree outside.”
It made me giggle hard enough to finally disconnect our mouths. I lifted shaky fingers to my lips. “They feel bruised,” I whispered, awed in the best way.
I hadn’t been that sensually attacked in…
Never. Precisely never.
“Not the only part of you I’m gonna bruise.” Almost as soon as the words were out, genuine pain tightened his features. He shut his eyes. “God, I didn’t mean—”
I kissed him gently until he lifted his eyelids. Then I slid my lips to his ear. “If you mean you intend to pound the hell out of my pussy, I’m here for it.” The shock that wound through his body made me ease back to look into his eyes. To make sure he understood I was all the way on board. “I want everything you can dish out, Dallas.”
Nine
Everything moved quickly after that. Turned out when you told a guy you wanted your pussy pounded, they tended not to dally.
And that was a good thing, since a very large bouncer named Larue soon ambled our way after a couple of reports of “lascivious behavior on the dance floor.” Then he discovered we were rockstars and wasn’t surprised.
I was very surprised. I didn’t do stuff like this. All the times I’d kissed someone had been in private.
But I had to say I kind of liked this exhibitionistic thing. It made me hot. Then again, what didn’t right now? I was sweating through my damn top, and I’d just taken a quickie shower in the dressing room after the concert.
And I wasn’t even going to think about the state of my panties.
“It’s a good night when one of you rocker types doesn’t play wet T-shirt contest on the bar,” Larue muttered.
“None of that here.” Cooper slung his arm around my shoulders. To his credit, he didn’t take the opportunity to ogle my breasts. Not to my credit though, since I wanted him ogling all of me as fast as humanly possible. “We’re on our way out.”
“Glad to hear it. Since I saw a pack of paps lingering outside, you might want to keep the tongue waggling to a minimum unless you want to be front page tabloid news tomorrow.”
As soon as he disappeared back into the crowd, I gripped Coop’s hand on my shoulder and bit my lip. “If lots of people noticed us…”
“Then the band probably did too.” He let out a long breath but he didn’t let go of me, and I didn’t let go of him. At this point, our bodies might as well have been Velcroed together.
“I don’t have a purse,” I reminded him. “I left nothing at the table but my drink.”
He smirked. “And I obviously don’t have a purse, so sneak out?”
“Sure. Delay the inevitable. Fuck til dawn. Works for me.”
“Christ, where have you been all my life?”
“Before I was a few bunks away from you on the bus?”
“Dark ages. Let’s not think about them. Damn, you have a hot ass. Can you walk in front of me forever?”
I giggled and squeezed his fingers over my shoulder as I headed toward the side exit of the club. I felt a little bad about abandoning the band without saying goodbye—and for making it obvious that Cooper and I weren’t leaving to bake cookies, if they’d seen our dance floor shenanigans.
I kept my head down and tried to be unobtrusive, although I was still clutching Cooper’s hand as if he was my lifeline.
And he was, if the previews were a good indicator of the main event. He was my ticket to bed-rocking sex, and maybe a soul-rejuvenating naked watch of The Fast and the Furious.
I couldn’t help grinning at the glowing red Exit sign just ahead. Even with all the insanity in my life and surrounding the band, it felt really good to be me right now.
Then Lila Crandall stepped into our path. It was as if a signal had gone off in her brain that two of her clients were about to make a possible mistake, so she had to swoop down and stop them.
What about the band?
What if something goes wrong?
What if you lose your best friend and then you have to play music with him and live with him on the bus to boot?
All those questions I glimpsed in Lila’s narrowed eyes at the same moment her gaze landed on our linked fingers. The same questions that were trying to drill through my brain now that the lust haze had partially receded.
But I didn’t release Cooper’s hand. He definitely didn’t release mine. If anything, he moved closer to me, a human shield against a managerial bucket of ice water.
“Lila.” His voice was as steady as could be. “We’re headed out. Have a good night.”
She lifted her gaze to Cooper’s. “I see that. You two have a good night too.” Her expression warmed as she focused on me. “We’ll call when we have news.”
“Um, thanks?”
I was still staring after her as she walked away, likely toward the band table. As she went, a number of male heads turned in her direction. She didn’t acknowledge them. They could have been flies for all the attention she offered.
“She doesn’t even see them,” I said, half under my breath.
She was in the business. So was her husband. They were both surrounded by a flesh buffet daily, and they’d been married for a while now. Maybe a couple could make it work, even in these circumstances. Mixing sex and music and feelings didn’t have to mean an immediate crash-and-burn.
Whoa there, haven’t even had the dude inside you yet, and you’re planning the wedding?
“Who?”
“The men lusting after her.”
“Just like you don’t. C’mon.” Cooper led us down the hall to the side exit. Luckily, the other side exit, on the opposite side of the club from where I’d caused my destruction last night.
I hurried to keep up with his long-legged stride. “Wait a second. What do you mean? I mean, yeah, some guys hit on me.”
He pushed open the outside door, and we exited on a sidewalk still roped off for the obviously very long line from earlier. We left the cordoned off area and rushed down the block toward the parking lot before coming to an abrupt halt.
Cooper pushed me up the brick wall, and the air left me in a whoosh as I caught the raw need on his face. I was sure he was going to flip up my skirt right here, passersby be damned.
I didn’t mind one bit.
But he didn’t whip up my skirt or undo his zipper. He braced his muscled forearms on the wall on either side of my head and spoke close to my mouth, making his words into a hot caress against my swollen lips.
“I see them all the time, looking at you. Wanting you. During the shows. Before. After. You never pay them any mind. It’s a good thing too. I’m not sure I could control
myself if one of them touched you.”
His low, urgent tone set off something primal in my blood, a drumbeat that echoed between my thighs. I shouldn’t even be listening to talk like this. Not with my past. My ex used to be jealous too.
But this seemed different. Cooper did control himself—in all ways. He wouldn’t rip someone apart for daring to dance with me. But somehow, it gave me a thrill to know he’d noticed. That he cared enough to get jealous.
Like I had, even if I hadn’t been able to put a name to it.
“I wanted to kill that fan,” I admitted. “Deflate her fake boobs with a pin.”
His jaw locked before the widest grin I’d ever seen him wear wreathed his face. “Babe, that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“You think? Should I try harder?” I leaned up on my tiptoes and thanked the heavens I’d had the foresight to wear good heels tonight. “Maybe I should mention how much I want to suck—”
I laughed as he grabbed my hand and hauled me up the block as fast as I could go. “I want to hear you complete that sentence, preferably when we’re naked. But the part of me you’re referring to desperately needs to get out of these goddamn pants.”
It felt so good to laugh as I raced to keep up with him. My hair was falling down from the quick updo I’d put it in after the show, teased out of its tie from the wind. My makeup was probably smeared and fading, and I was going to have blisters from these cute, painful shoes, but I so didn’t care.
I was running with my best friend, and we were going to make each other blissfully happy with orgasms. What could be better than that?
Once Cooper was behind the wheel of his Charger and slanting a seductive look at me across the front seat, I decided that seatbelts were too restrictive. But I didn’t take off mine at the light and put my head in his lap for two reasons.
One, I wanted to unleash that beast under full light where I could make the best use of it.
And two, I was greedy and wanted to ride before I took a taste test.
Okay, three. Cooper might’ve been fine with kissing openly in the club, but he was a generally law-abiding sort who would not approve of me taking off my belt to suck him off.
