Ever-Greene

by Annabella Michaels

  I grabbed the soap from beneath the sink and filled the dispenser inside the dishwasher then started it. As much as I wanted to race down the hallway and bury myself inside him, I’d take my time and make him wait, letting the anticipation build because there was nothing I loved more than giving my man exactly what he wanted. There would be time to talk about our future and children, but that night was just for the two of us.

  I nodded to Rocko to let him know I was ready and he raised his drumsticks in the air, tapping them together and counting out 1, 2, 3, 4, before he began a steady beat on the drums in front of him. His closest friends knew him as Rylie, but he liked keeping his personal life separate from his public persona. So, when he was on stage, he was always Rocko. I smiled at him before turning to my other bandmates as the sound of each instrument began to blend together.

  Steve was bent over his bass guitar as he played the intro and Tyler followed quickly with his rhythm guitar. His shaggy red hair hung down over one eye, but I saw the wink he gave to his new bride, Kalia, who smiled back at him from her perch over the keyboards. I loved the members of my band and couldn’t imagine a better or more talented group of people to work with than them.

  Still smiling, I grabbed onto the microphone in front of me. As soon as I sang the first few words from one of our most popular songs, the crowd went wild, and a deafening roar came from all around the sold-out arena. When I reached the chorus, I heard voices chiming in and I closed my eyes and let the sound wash over me. It was a magical thing to hear my own words being sung back to me, one that I would never get tired of.

  I opened my eyes and looked down at the swarm of people who were singing and stretching their hands out towards the stage, some of them screaming that they loved me. I appreciated my fans, but there was only one person whose opinion really mattered, only one person whose love I couldn’t live without. My husband, Ryan.

  I turned my head and saw him standing off to the side of the stage, a lone figure who knew everything there was to know about me; the good, the bad, and the ugly, and still loved me anyway. As usual, I felt something settle inside me the moment our eyes connected. He smiled at me and a tremor ran through my body.

  Ryan was easily the sexiest man I’d ever seen in my life, but it was his spirit, his soul, that had captured my heart. I wasn’t sure if it was something his grandfather had instilled in him or if it was just who he was born to be—probably the latter—but Ryan had an innate goodness inside him that was very rare. He had a knack for always finding the bright side in any situation, and he made me want to be a better man.

  I played up to the crowd, running around on stage and singing my heart out, but my mind was already back on the bus with Ryan. When he had first started going on tour with me, we had shared a bus with the rest of the band. It had been a tight fit, but we were both so happy to be together that we were willing to sacrifice our comfort.

  When it was time to head back out for a second tour, though, I insisted on having our own private bus. Lachlan had readily agreed and had even provided a private bus for Tyler and Kalia as well. Steve and Rylie preferred to share a bus, so they could pass the long hours playing video games with each other. Of course, if Steve’s girlfriend was visiting or Lachlan joined Rylie on the tour for a few days, they usually did so when we were playing the same city for several nights and would be able to stay in a hotel.

  I finished the last song and was suddenly thrown into darkness as the lights were cut off. My heart was racing, and my body was drenched in sweat as I quickly followed the rest of the band off the stage to the sound of the crowd begging for more. We’d already performed two encores though, so I was satisfied that I’d given them what they needed. What I needed was a shower and Ryan, preferably together. He spread his arms as I walked past the curtain, but I held my hands up to stop him.

  “I’m a sweaty mess,” I explained when he arched a brow at me in question. He gave me a wolfish smile and stepped even closer, disregarding my warning.

  “Some of my favorite times are when it’s just the two of us, getting all sweaty and messy.” Ryan’s breath ghosted over my skin as he leaned forward to lick a line up my neck. I shivered against him as he pulled me in and I could feel the evidence of his desire pressing against my leg. “Do you have any idea what those leather pants are doing to me right now?”

  “What would it do to you if I took them off?” I asked, lowering my voice seductively. The growl that rumbled from his chest was answer enough and a smile spread across my face. Ryan opened his mouth to respond, but he was interrupted before he got the chance.

  “You two need to get a room.” I turned to see Rylie walking our way with a broad grin on his face.

  “Like you and Lachlan are any better at keeping your hands to yourselves,” I teased.

  “I just wish he was here,” Rylie said with a sigh. “Actually, I wish I was back home with him and our boys.”

  It was still hard to believe the once extremely wild drummer was a dad. I felt a surge of pride for my friend though. Rylie had been through hell and back, but he’d managed to pull himself up, dust himself off, and make his life better than it had ever been. He’d found his soulmate in Lachlan and the two of them had built a life together which recently had expanded to include two young brothers who looked at their new dads like they hung the moon.

  “We just have to get through one more concert and then we can head home, and you can spend Christmas with your family,” I told him, giving him a sympathetic smile. I knew how hard it was to be away from the people you loved.

  “I can’t wait. This Christmas is going to be amazing,” Rylie said with an exuberant grin. The joy on his face was evident. “I talked to Lachlan last night and he said that he and Benji got the tree put up, they’re just waiting for me to get home, so we can decorate it. The boys helped hang the lights outside and Kerry’s been baking up a storm.”

  “It sounds amazing,” I told him.

  “Yeah, it does. I just want the boys to have the kind of Christmas I never had growing up. The kind I’m sure they never got to have either. They’re great kids and they deserve to feel safe and happy and loved. They deserve the chance to be kids,” Rylie said with a faraway look in his eyes.

  I could tell that his thoughts were back in Chicago and I grabbed Ryan’s hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. I was so thankful to have him with me all the time. Being apart from one another for months at a time had been very difficult for both of us and we’d promised to never go that long again without seeing each other. The look he gave me told me that he was thinking the same thing.

  “Anyway, I’m going to get a shower and call home. You guys have a good night,” Rylie said, smiling once again. I watched him walk off then turned back to my husband.

  “Where were we?” I asked, waggling my brows at him as I slid my arms up over his shoulders.

  He gazed down at me with a sexy, sultry look in his eyes and my cock twitched in response. This man could turn me inside out with just a simple look or word. Most of the time, all he had to do was walk in the room and I was ready to rip his clothes off and devour him whole. I didn’t have a clue what I’d ever done to deserve a man like him, but I was going to enjoy the hell out of every single second of our lives together.

  “I was getting ready to take you to our bus and peel you out of those clothes, so I could lick the sweat off your body,” he said, his voice coming out husky and strained. I was thankful that no one was around to hear the embarrassingly loud groan that escaped me. My cock was rock hard and pressing uncomfortably against the zipper of my pants.

  “Yeah, let’s do that.” I nodded my head enthusiastically. In my lust-driven rush to get to the bus and start the fun, it took me several moments to realize that Ryan wasn’t beside me. I turned around and found him strolling a few feet behind. I waited for him to catch up. “You okay?” I asked him.

  “I’m great. Just enjoying the view,” he said with a leer as he looked at my ass. “I like the way that
tight, black leather accentuates your perfectly curved ass.”

  I swallowed hard. I could feel my cock leaking inside my pants. We had reached a more crowded area behind the stage where the crew was working hard to dismantle the stage and pack everything up so we could move on to the next city. We needed to get out of there soon if I didn’t want to find a picture of me and my husband in a compromising position, splashed all over the front page of tomorrow’s news. Not that I thought any of the crew would do that. They’d seen us together plenty of times and had always been considerate of our privacy, but you never knew when a paparazzi might be lurking, and I’d learned long ago to take precautions.

  I grabbed Ryan’s hand and pulled him along with me as I wove through the throng of people and made my way to the exit. I smiled at the security guard that stood there and we waited as he opened the door and checked the area before leading us outside. Another guard was standing outside our bus and assured us that no one had gotten inside.

  The security measures that Micah had outlined for the men he’d sent to watch over the members of the band may have seemed a little over the top, but I knew that he had his reasons for wanting to keep us safe and they went beyond his love for my brother. Ryan and I were his family and it warmed my heart that he took such care with us.

  I climbed the steps into the bus and closed my eyes as I took a deep breath and slowly released it. After the rumbling noise of the concert, the silence of the bus was a welcome reprieve and I felt the tension ebb from my body.

  I loved the rush of performing in front of thousands of fans, but nothing compared to time alone with Ryan in our own space. The bus was our sanctuary, as close to home as we could get. It was the one place on the road where Ryan and I could shut out the rest of the world and just be ourselves.

  The sound of the lock clicking into place had me opening my eyes and I turned to face the man I loved. His eyes were dark and hooded as he looked me up and down and when his gaze locked with mine, I slowly licked my lips in invitation.

  We stepped forward at the same time, closing the distance between us. Our mouths crashed together, teeth clacking and tongues searching, as our hands began to explore; as if we’d been apart for weeks instead of hours. Shirts were ripped and tossed aside as we fumbled our way down the narrow hall to our bedroom.

  “Please, Ryan,” I begged in between kisses. I didn’t even try to hide my neediness for him. Ryan knew me better than anyone, so it would be pointless. He gently lowered me to the bed and hovered over me, his blue-gray eyes serious as he stared at me.

  “All those people, millions of fans around the world who listen to your music, they know your name and they see your face everywhere. They pay money to see you perform and they dream of meeting you, wishing they could spend even just a few minutes with you. But somehow, for some reason, you chose me.” His words were said in awe, but I felt the need to reassure him anyway. I placed my hands on either side of his face and leaned up, gently kissing his eyelids, the tip of his nose, and over both cheeks, before pulling back to look at him.

  “You are my best friend, the love of my life, and my soulmate. None of that other stuff matters if I don’t have you by my side. You are the kindest, bravest, most incredible man I’ve ever known, and I will never want anyone but you,” I told him.

  “I know you don’t want anyone else. I trust you and I trust what we have together. Sometimes it just all seems unreal when I’m watching you out on stage,” Ryan admitted quietly. I knew he didn’t doubt my love for him, but it also couldn’t be easy to have to share me with thousands of strangers night after night. I wasn’t sure I would have been able to handle it as well as he had if our roles were reversed, so if my man needed some reassurance once in a while, I was more than happy to oblige.

  “Do I need to convince you how very real this is?” I asked as I lifted my hips. Ryan sucked in a breath as our covered cocks rubbed against each other and he bent his head, sealing his lips over mine in a passionate kiss that, once again, stoked the flames within us.

  “I might need a little more convincing,” he teased, and I was glad to see the clouds gone from his eyes, replaced with a burning desire.

  I reached down and unbuttoned his jeans, letting my finger dip inside to graze over the tip of his cock. It was slick and wet, and I pulled my finger out and sucked it into my mouth, moaning at the taste of his salty, sweet fluid.

  “Fuck, that’s hot,” Ryan growled then he jumped from the bed and quickly finished undressing.

  “No, that’s fucking hot,” I said, my mouth watering at the sight of his long dick. I knew every ridge and vein of that cock, but I never got tired of seeing it, tasting it, feeling it inside me. He grabbed a bottle of lube from the drawer and then moved to the foot of the bed.

  “I seemed to remember something about licking the sweat from your body,” he said.

  “I’m all yours,” I told him. I folded my hands under my head and grinned up at him.

  “Yes, you are,” he said firmly as he knelt on the bed. I was relieved to hear the confidence back in his voice.

  Ryan climbed up my body, his legs on either side of me and unbuttoned my pants. I breathed a sigh of relief as he unzipped them and then pulled them down past my hips. My cock sprang out and landed on my stomach with a soft slap, leaving a sticky trail behind that glistened in the soft lighting of our room. He bent down and licked it before tugging my pants off the rest of the way.

  True to his word, Ryan continued lapping at my naked flesh with his tongue until I thought I would lose my mind. His teeth grazed over my nipple and he bit down, sucking it into his mouth. My fingers dove into his hair and I held his head in place as he pleasured me.

  “Ryan! I need you,” I pleaded. He lifted his head to look at me and slid up so that we were face-to-face.

  “What is it you need? Tell me,” he commanded.

  “I need your cock inside me,” I begged.

  He nodded his head once and then sat up and reached for the lube. He slicked himself quickly and then kissed me as he worked his fingers inside me, preparing my body to accept him. I lifted my knees, but was surprised when he dropped down beside me on the bed.

  “I want you to ride me. Use my body for your own pleasure and show me how much you love me,” he whispered in my ear and I gasped at the eroticism of his words.

  I sat up and threw my leg over him, so I was straddling his hips then I looked into his eyes as I reached behind me and grasped his cock in my hand. I rubbed up and down it a few times, watching as his eyes rolled back in his head and his tongue darted out to wet his lips. With his miles of flawless, golden skin and rippling abs, my man was breathtaking.

  I lifted up on my knees and lined the head of his cock up with my entrance and then I began to slide down his length. His hands went to my waist where he held me securely as I lowered myself even further. Ryan was big, but my body knew his and welcomed him inside easily.

  When I had taken him in all the way, I sat there, my fingers smoothing over his chest and reveling in the feeling of fullness and completeness that I had only ever felt when I was with him. It went beyond two bodies coming together. What Ryan and I had was almost spiritual, a merging of two souls.

  I bent down to kiss him and then I began to move. I showed him with my movements and my touch and the words that were whispered between us that he was the only man for me, the only man I would ever love. And when we lay gasping for air, each of us spent and sated, there was no doubt at all that what we had was real.

  I made a few notes in my tablet as Landon listed the last-minute things that needed to be done before our newest clients could head out on tour. Landon was one of the best entertainment managers in the business and he’d quickly secured their spot as the opening act for a very popular band. If everything went as expected, they would be headlining their own tour within the next year. I double-checked that everything had been added to my schedule and then shut my tablet, turning to Landon with a smile.

 
“Are you sure you don’t want me to help you with all of this?” Landon asked.

  “Nah, it won’t take me more than a couple of hours. Morgan’s working tomorrow anyway so I can finish this up in the morning and still have time to wrap his presents before he gets home. You’ve been working so hard lately, you deserve to spend time with your family,” I insisted.

  “Thanks, I really appreciate that. Christmas has always been my favorite holiday, but this one is going to be extra special. Our family has grown so much. We all have someone special to celebrate with and we also have my nieces and nephew,” he explained.

  I could see the excitement in my best friend’s eyes as he talked about the presents he and Micah had bought the kids and my mind drifted to Morgan’s comment from the night before about wanting children. I wasn’t opposed to the idea at all, but I’d been surprised because we hadn’t really talked about it before. After all, we’d only been married a couple of months, but Morgan brought it up again on the drive home and I could tell that he’d put a lot of thought into it already.

  I sat in the cab of his truck, warmed by both the heater and his words, as he described all the things he wanted to do with our future children. It was probably silly, given the fact that we were married and fully committed to each other, but hearing him speak about starting a family together made it seem that much more real to me. I was still amazed that a man as wonderful as Morgan wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. Now, it seemed like all I could think about was Morgan holding a baby.

  “What?” I asked when I realized Landon had asked me a question. He chuckled at me, knowing my mind had wandered.

  “I asked if you were going to get together with your friends from college over the holidays,” he repeated.

  “Oh, yeah. Jasper invited us over for a New Year’s Eve party. We’ll probably stop in for a little while,” I told him.