Rock Wedding

by Nalini Singh

  Eyes hot, Abe kissed her wet and deep as his demanding cock pushed into her belly. "We'll come back for it," he promised. "After."

  Sarah's panties were so wet by then that she didn't argue or resist when he tugged her toward his SUV once again. They drove to his place in molten silence. In LA terms, it wasn't too far from Fox and Molly's home, but it was far enough that it felt as if her body would burn up if she didn't have Abe's naked flesh against hers, in her, then and there.

  Whimpering when he screeched to a stop in his garage, she drank in his harshly spoken, "Sarah," and got her seat belt off just in time.

  He came around to her side of the SUV as the garage door closed, hauled her out. Pressing her up against the side of the vehicle, he kissed her with such raw passion that she felt branded. Owned. She bit his lip, shoved at his suit jacket. Shrugging it off, he ripped off his tie while she frantically unbuttoned his shirt.

  He literally tore the sleeves open, his cuff links making tinkling sounds as they hit the concrete of the garage floor. And then he was pulling off his shirt, sending the remaining buttons flying, and she couldn't stop from spreading her hands on the mahogany-hued beauty of his chest, leaning in to taste him kiss by openmouthed kiss.

  He shuddered, thrust his hand into her hair.

  Sarah's hand flew up. "My fascinator!"

  Abe, his chest heaving, gave her a burning look... then smiled. "Come on." Gripping her hand again, he drew her into the house and up to what had once been their bedroom.

  Memories crashed into her, painful and beautiful and heartbreaking.

  "Wait."

  Abe didn't ask why she'd stopped in the doorway, digging her heels in. He knew. Eyes locking with hers, he said, "I've never brought any other woman here. Just you."

  God, this was so dangerous.

  But she let him pull her closer, shivered when he kissed the side of her neck; she'd barely begun to process those sensations when he spun her around to kiss her mouth.

  Sarah didn't have the time--didn't want it--to think about the past. Not tonight.

  "This first," he murmured after their lips parted in a whisper of damp heat.

  Lifting his hands to her fascinator while she stroked the warm, smooth skin of his chest, he removed the bobby pins that held it in place, then put it carefully on the nearby dresser. Spinning her around so quickly afterward that she wobbled, might've lost her balance had she not left her heels in the SUV, he unzipped her dress. "Don't want this wrinkled."

  A kiss to her shoulder.

  Shivering again, Sarah let the dress fall off her body, stepped out. Behind her, Abe picked it up and threw it over the back of a chair. "There," he murmured, his hands hot and a little rough on her hips. "Now you don't have to worry."

  A second tender kiss to the curve of her neck. She'd been hot, wet, ready for a wild session, but this was different, the night changing in front of her. Panicked, she shifted to face him, pressing her body against his in a silent invitation. His erection made it clear he was as ready as she was, but he didn't take her invitation, didn't push her down on the bed or against a wall and thrust inside her.

  "Now, Abe," she demanded, dropping her hands to his belt buckle.

  "What's the rush?" He lifted those hands back up to his chest, placed his own hands on her waist. "You are so fucking beautiful, Sarah." Kisses along her jaw, down the line of her neck. "Let me worship you."

  Panic twined with need, with memory, and it was hard to think, hard to breathe. "Kiss me." She needed an anchor, needed him.

  His kiss was deep and slow and as possessive as the hand he placed boldly over her breast. Shivering, she took and took, drinking him up. His breathing was harsh by the time they separated, his eyes glittering, but still he didn't strip her naked, finish it. Falling onto his knees in front of her instead, he leaned forward to press a kiss to the black lace of her panties.

  "Abe." Her hand on the back of his head, her knees shaky.

  "Shh, I have you." Kissing a line along the waistband of her panties, he held her up with one arm around her upper thighs. A lick of his tongue over her hipbone that made her moan. Then, at last, he was shifting his arm and tugging down her panties and she was stepping out of them because she couldn't resist Abe when he was being so tender.

  Throwing the crumpled lace aside, he clamped his arm around the back of her upper thighs once more and kissed her again. Only this time it was on her bare flesh. Sarah cried out as her knees threatened to crumple. Her hands fell forward onto Abe's shoulders, his body the only solid point in her universe.

  "I have you," he said again, his breath hot against her flesh.

  Then he did what he'd said: he worshipped her.

  Rocked by pleasure over and over again, Sarah felt boneless, liquid, when he rose to scoop her up in his arms. Laying her down gently on the bed, he first got rid of her bra. Then, keeping his eyes on her the entire time, he stripped down to the skin. Taking the thick length of his rigid cock in one fist, he stroked once, twice, his jaw clenched.

  Sarah's back arched, her lower body rising up toward him in a silent plea.

  "I can see you," he ground out. "So fucking wet for me."

  When he grabbed a condom from the bedside drawer, rolled it on, she wanted to protest. He was her husband-- But no, he wasn't. Not anymore. He was her lover for this one fantasy night and tomorrow... Tomorrow she'd think about tomorrow.

  She lifted her arms and he came over her, nudging her thighs apart to push into her in a deep thrust that made her want to cry out except that the pleasure was too much, robbed her of sound. Her sense of completion was absolute, her arms wrapping around Abe to hold him close. He didn't move hard or fast despite the fact he was viciously aroused. He took it slow, each stroke accompanied by a kiss, more than one, their bodies sliding skin to skin all over.

  She kissed his shoulders, the curve of his neck, anything she could reach. She had missed him so much. Always she'd missed this man who'd once been her husband, but even more since the emotional, passionate hours they'd shared three weeks earlier.

  Tears stung her eyes.

  Abe spoke against her ear, the rumble of his voice cascading a thousand memories over her. "I haven't been with anyone else since that day in your kitchen." He drew back, thrust impossibly deeper. "You're in my blood, Sarah."

  Nails digging into his back, she locked her mouth to his. She couldn't listen to his words, couldn't start rebuilding dreams that had splintered forever. This was a night out of time. After it ended, she had to put herself back together and figure out how to get over Abe Bellamy all over again.

  CHAPTER 14

  SARAH FELT LIKE A FALLEN woman--a deliciously used fallen woman--when they drove through the gates of Fox and Molly's home around four thirty in the morning. They'd planned to come back much earlier but had fallen asleep in each other's arms in the aftermath of a pleasure that had melted her bones and twisted up her heart, would've probably slept through to dawn if Sarah's phone hadn't suddenly beeped with a low-battery warning that nudged them awake.

  Thank goodness Abe had the code to let himself in, because aside from Sarah's car, Gabriel and Charlotte's rental was the only vehicle in the drive, the house quiet, lights all off.

  The pavilion hadn't yet been taken down, but it was closed up tight for the night.

  "We are so busted," she groaned. Someone would've noticed her car sitting out here pretty much all by its lonesome, would've looked for her, not found her. It wouldn't take a genius to put together one and one to add up to a sinfully sexy two.

  "Everyone will have been too buzzed to care," Abe reassured her before coming around to help her down from her seat, his SUV high enough that it had a step built in. "They probably figured you crashed here."

  He tapped her ass once she had both feet firmly on the ground. "Go get into your car, drive home. I'll follow."

  She knew that by "home" he meant his place, but the cold night air finally succeeded in slapping some sense into her. "I think I b
etter go to my place."

  "Sarah," Abe began, his eyebrows drawing together.

  "I have a meeting in the morning." She opened the driver's door, threw her clutch onto the seat on the other side. "I need to be up and ready for it." The meeting wasn't until eleven, but Abe didn't need to know that.

  Her ex-husband slid his hand around the back of her neck, his hold warm and proprietary. "I'm not letting you go." It was a whispered promise. "Not this time."

  Sarah shook her head, forced herself to speak. "I'm not yours to keep or let go." A piercing sense of loss tore through her as she broke away from him to get into her car. She and this talented man, they were so good together when they worked, but when they crashed and burned... "I barely survived our last round together, Abe."

  Her door still open, she looked up from the driver's seat, met his gaze. "I don't know if I have the strength to go there again."

  Abe braced one hand against the edge of the car's frame, bent down. "You're the strongest woman I know." His dark eyes held her captive, the look in them beyond passion.

  Pure raw emotion.

  "And," he said, "I'm not that asshole, the one who hurt you. I won't ever let myself become that man again."

  Sarah wanted to believe him. She'd loved Abe so desperately and the place in her heart where he'd lived remained a jagged wound, but she'd been through too much to believe in rainbows and puppies and happily-ever-afters for herself. For the girl who'd gotten off a bus all alone in this huge city, then found herself alone again less than two years after she fell into the arms of this man to whom she'd given all of herself.

  Blinking rapidly in an effort to stave off the torrent of sorrow that wanted to pour out of her, she swallowed, managed to form words. "I better go."

  Abe let her shut her door and pull away, but when she looked in the rearview mirror, he was still there, watching as she drove off: a big, strong, and deeply talented man who still meant more to her than anyone else ever had... and who she couldn't let back in, not if she was to survive.

  No matter if it felt like she was making a terrible mistake.

  CHAPTER 15

  THREE DAYS AFTER A NIGHT that haunted her dreams, Sarah watched Flossie bound into the house. She'd just picked her pet up from a dog sitter--Flossie loved socializing with other dogs and Sarah didn't like to leave her alone when she was going to be gone all day.

  She'd spent today with her accountant. They'd been working out if she could expand without it having an adverse impact on her compact but currently extremely high-performing business. It had been good to get out, to have business to focus on, think about. It kept her from going over and over what had happened at the wedding, how it had felt when Abe was so tender with her.

  Her phone beeped an incoming message.

  One glance at it and her lips curved. It was Lola, asking if Sarah wanted to go with her to a play. It's months away, but I need to get tickets before they sell out, so yea or nay now or forever hold your peace, the other woman had written. Best news: Dad's well enough that I should be home in a week--though I have organized some home help for him and Mom. Over their objections, I might add. Two more stubborn people you'll never meet.

  Sarah's smile grew deeper--Lola had inherited that trait in spades.

  Kiddo blew off college to come hang with his grandpa and grandma for a few days, her friend had added. That really perked everyone up. Can't even read him the riot act now, though I am booting his ass back to college tomorrow. Anyway, I didn't want to interrupt your work day with a call, so ring me when you get home.

  Sarah made the call then and there.

  "Hey, you!" Lola said into the receiver in her big, ebullient voice.

  "Hey back," Sarah replied with a smile. She and Lola had met at an event designed to introduce small LA businesspeople to one another; Sarah had heard Lola laugh and turned with a smile to see who was making such a joyous sound. They'd hit it off right away regardless of the twelve-year age gap between them--and despite Jeremy's attempts to disparage Lola as "loud and cheap," Sarah had never stopped nurturing their friendship.

  Never again would she focus only on a man. She'd made that mistake with Abe. Oh, he'd never once tried to get between her and any friends she wanted to make. No, it had been Sarah. She'd thought if she concentrated all her energy on Abe, if she gave him her everything, he'd love her.

  As far as awful ideas went, it had been one of her worst.

  Dropping her purse on the vanity after kicking off her shoes, she settled on the bed for a long talk with her best friend. Flossie padded in to curl up in the sunshine by the window, happy to nap while Sarah chatted with Lola. But though Sarah and Lola normally had no secrets from one another, Sarah couldn't tell her friend about Abe. Not yet. Not when she could still feel his touch on her skin, still hear the deep, rough murmur of his voice in her ear as he rocked into her body, his own body a wall of heat against her.

  She felt too raw inside to expose her emotions to the light.

  It was forty minutes later, Flossie still snoozing, that she and Lola finally hung up, having made plans to catch up once Lola was back home.

  Sarah stood, was raising a hand to lower the zipper on her sleeveless and beautifully tailored red dress, when the gate buzzer went off, making Flossie bounce up from her position in the sunshine and bolt downstairs. Sarah walked out of her bedroom in a less frantic fashion and headed down the hall to look through the tall, narrow window at the top of the staircase. She could see the gate from this spot, and what she saw today was a familiar black SUV.

  Blood rushed to heat her skin, her pulse a hard drumbeat.

  Stepping back from the window, she just stood in place for half a minute, arguing with herself. As she did so, her eyes fell on the roses Abe had sent the morning after the wedding, roses she'd deliberately placed on a hallway table rather than inside her bedroom. The blooms were startlingly healthy and joyously red. When she'd first seen them, the bouquet had turned her mushy for a little bit--until she'd reminded herself that Abe was her ex for a reason.

  The buzz came again. Flossie barked, as if wondering where she was.

  "Don't be a coward, Sarah." Smoothing her hands down the front of her dress, she walked downstairs to the control panel in the hallway and pushed the button that would open the gate. She waited to make sure the gate closed automatically behind him.

  Abe didn't appear to have a paparazzi tail, but you never knew with a rock star, especially one as successful and as loved by women as Abe. He was good for the paparazzi's bottom line even when he was sober. The only good thing about the current situation was that Sarah had never really registered on the paparazzi's radar even during their marriage--likely because Abe was so rarely photographed with her.

  Her hand curled up against her heart.

  It still hurt that he'd never been proud of her as Fox clearly was of Molly. The lead singer had been snapped hand-in-hand with his now-wife countless times while the two went about the daily business of living their lives. Picking up something at the grocery store, grabbing a burger, taking a simple walk.

  Abe knocked, sending Flossie into paroxysms of exited barking. "Hush, Flossie," she said and pulled open the door. "Hello, Abe."

  He smiled and bent down to pet Flossie as Sarah's traitorous dog sniffed at Abe's jean-clad legs and apparently decided he was okay from the way her tail began to wag. When he rose--after Flossie ran off to play in the enclosed yard--it was with a frown. "You got shorter."

  "What?" She glanced down. "Oh. I'm not wearing my heels."

  Abe's gaze lowered and Sarah couldn't keep her toes from curling into the carpet; she suddenly felt bare to the skin when she was perfectly well dressed.

  "What're you doing here?" she asked in an effort to wrench back control of a meeting that shouldn't be happening in the first place.

  "Using then discarding me, Sarah? Tut-tut."

  "Abe." This wasn't how it was supposed to go. He wasn't supposed to pursue her. Abe didn't pursue women.
Not even his wife.

  "Nice dress," he commented, hand braced on the doorjamb. "Sexy, but all business. You had a meeting about your company?"

  Sarah didn't quite know how to respond. No man ever asked about her business--Jeremy hadn't cared, and all her employees were female. It had simply worked out that way, but she was glad for it. She wanted to give women like her a chance. Women who were alone and friendless and struggling in this big city.

  "Yes," she responded when Abe just waited patiently for her answer. "With my accountant."

  "Yeah? Business good?"

  Again, Sarah hesitated. Why did he care? Abe had no interest in business, that she knew full well. "You want to go into partnership with me?" she joked in an effort to find her feet. "Doing your due diligence about the company's finances?"

  His smile was sudden and gorgeous and it still made her chest squeeze so hard. No one had a smile like the keyboardist for Schoolboy Choir.

  "I suck at business. That's why I have finance nerds to handle it."

  Sarah rolled her eyes. "You do keep an eye on what they're doing though, right?" He hadn't when they'd been together. Back then, she hadn't been confident enough to offer to take on the task, hadn't known she had the potential for that kind of skill. The night classes she continued to take regularly had shown her different, shown her that she wasn't the "stupid, brainless brat" her mother's boyfriend had so often called her.

  "Yeah, I check things now that I'm sober," Abe said, his deep voice slicing the dark memories in half.

  He leaned in a little closer at the same time, his body blocking out the outside world. It should've made her want to step back; it didn't--it made her want to place her hands on his chest, raise her lips to his and taste him as if she had every right to kiss this man when he came to her door.

  As if he were hers.

  Abe's physicality had always spoken to her own. That was the one place where they'd never had any problems.

  "You eaten?" he asked as she fought with herself to stay in place, to not give in to the tug between them.

  "No," she answered. "I haven't been home that long."