Lost Lyric (Found in Oblivion Book 4)

by Cari Quinn

“What did you do, piss yourself?” West quipped.

  She tightened her fingers until they squeaked around the wide wheel. “I’m making a quick stop for food. I’m getting jittery.”

  “Aren’t we close to Vegas?” Lauren popped her head through her partition.

  “Still have an hour to get near Vegas, then the traffic inside…eh. Easier to eat out here.”

  Lauren shrugged. “I’m up for Mexican.”

  “Good thing.” Ryan came up beside Denver and tugged on her ponytail. “And this one probably drank a gallon of tea.”

  Denver bent her lips in a smile because that was what she should do. “Maybe.”

  She pulled into the wide, sloping parking lot of the restaurant. It was dusk and the lights of the sign above the wind-battered building buzzed with a flickering pink neon. The O in Carolina’s was out and the L was on its way, but man, it smelled heavenly.

  Denver popped open the door and took the stairs at more of a run than she cared to admit.

  “Have to go that bad, Colorado?” Ryan jogged up next to her.

  “Kinda.”

  “Well, I’ve been sucking down Gatorades myself.” He frowned at her. “All good?”

  “Yeah. Of course.” She tugged on the hem of his shirt. “Just been a bear of a drive.

  He nodded. “All right. If you’re sure.”

  “I’m sure.”

  “Meet you outside after?”

  She nodded. “Don’t forget to wash your hands.”

  He grinned and ran backwards. “Always.”

  Her smile slid away the moment he was gone. She crossed her arms along her middle and headed for the bathroom. She really did have to go. And for a restroom in a restaurant off the highway, it wasn’t terrible.

  She finished up and washed her hands, then splashed water on her face. No wonder Ryan asked her if she was feeling okay. Her eyes were huge and had circles under them. Ugh.

  And since she didn’t wear makeup unless it was absolutely necessary, she knew it wasn’t raccoon eyes.

  She blotted a wet paper towel along her neck and inside the neckline of her shirt. Five minutes out of the bus and she was dry and dusty as hell. The arid climate made her want to dive into a vat of lotion, but she settled for the tiny tube she kept in her jacket pocket.

  The honey scent centered her, as did the natural routine. When she opened the door, she found Ryan lounging against the wall flicking through his phone. His long legs were crossed at the ankles and his jeans were just tight enough to remind her of all the glorious muscles—all of them—that were underneath the denim.

  The way he made her feel. The way he emptied her mind of all the chaos she’d lived with so damn long. There was no denying Ryan had been good for her in ways she’d never dreamed possible.

  Right now, she needed that quiet.

  She glanced through the doorway to the huge round booth holding all of her friends. No, not even just friends. They were her family. More so than her flesh-and-blood family had ever been.

  Even Mal, as horrifying as that was.

  She swung her attention back to Ryan and her stomach flipped as he peered up from his phone. His curls were a little smashed and frizzed from being in his bunk. And she was pretty sure there was a faint seam across his cheek from his pillowcase.

  She crossed the hall and dragged him down to her mouth. He made a startled grunting sound, then hissed out a breath as she palmed his cock.

  “Colorado,” he said against her mouth.

  “I—you. I need you. Now.”

  “Here?” His eyebrows shot up.

  She jerked down his zipper far enough to get her hand into the hole and fisted him. “I can’t…” She blew out a shaky breath. “I need it. You filling me up. The way you did that first night. In the Hummingbird. I’m so tired of thinking.” She covered his mouth when she felt the questions bubbling up inside him.

  He liked to take his time. He loved to wind her up and hold her down until there was nothing but a blackness where pleasure ruled her head. Such a blessed quiet in that bliss.

  She craved that right now.

  She dragged him toward the bathrooms, but a woman rushed down the hall. Denver didn’t think too hard about what she was doing. That they could be caught or even worse, get tossed out of the damn restaurant.

  Nothing mattered but that momentary peak.

  She shuffled him farther down the hallway. A door was labeled storage and the knob gave when she tried it. Good enough. She dragged him inside, pushing his jeans down enough for her to get a full hold on him.

  “Den. Holy fuck.”

  As she went down into a crouch, a huge bag of rice bumped her shin. There were ventilation slats in the door letting in the dim yellowed light from the hall. “Hold the door,” she said, and then he was in her mouth.

  Fuck, yes.

  Filling her mouth and down as she took him deeper. Her vision blurred as the darkness took over. Shards of light seared across his lips and the scruff of his jawline. Enough that she saw what she needed. His gritted teeth and the bounce of his Adam’s apple as he swallowed.

  She dragged her tongue along the underside of his cock and swirled around the head just as she knew he liked. She took him again and again, until veins and ridges bloomed under her lips. Until he was so tight, she knew she had him where she needed him.

  Blind hunger thrummed between them and it activated his rough touch. The one she craved in the dark recesses of her mind. Places she didn’t understand, but instinctively trusted him to handle.

  He wrapped her ponytail around his palm and dragged her head back until she had no choice but to look up at him. She couldn’t see his eyes. Not really. Just a glittering within the darkness.

  Pieces that matched her own.

  Pieces she’d never believed she would ever want.

  She pushed thoughts of the past away. Ryan could dispel those ghosts. He was exactly what she needed.

  Always would be.

  She moaned around his length. He tipped her head back to feed his shaft deeper into her throat, until there was nothing but him and the surge of panic that came just before the quiet.

  He pulled her off his cock and up until she was on her toes as he slanted his mouth across hers. Wetness and the salt of his pre-cum swirled into their kiss.

  Instead of pulling back, he went and chased the taste. His other hand dug into her stretchy jeans, pushing into the low-rise denim that hugged her hips.

  Her zipper popped and his fingers were there. Fuck, yes. Inside her, pushing. Invading. Stretching.

  She tried to groan out a scream, but he swallowed it. His kiss just as desperate as his touch.

  Her shoulder slammed into the rack along the side wall before he spun her around and drew her hands up over her head.

  “Hold on.” His voice was little more than a hoarse rumble of sound.

  She shivered and pushed back on him as he dragged her jeans down over her ass. He crouched behind her and his tongue delved deep into her pussy.

  With one hand, she reached back for his hair.

  “Did I say you could move your hands?”

  Her fingers slid through his curls for a moment longer before she replaced her grip on the metal. She tightened her grip with each pass from his tongue, each flick across her swollen lips, each sandpapery-rough swipe across her pucker.

  She panted out a harsh groan as she went onto her toes, trying to give him more access, but her jeans were barely down past her thighs. “Please.”

  He dragged his teeth over one cheek of her ass before the bloom of a slap warmed her skin. “Please what?”

  “Please.” He tucked two fingers inside her and she let her head fall forward. “More. I need you. More.” Her voice was little more than a helpless sigh.

  He stood and thrust his fingers even deeper. His thumb brushed over her asshole and pushed past the ring of muscle. “I’m going to take this ass one day. I’m going to be inside every part of you until you don’t remember anythin
g but me. When you sit in the driver’s seat on our bus, you’ll remember how I stretched you until there weren’t any words. Just your screams.”

  She couldn’t even throw out her usual quips about him shutting up. Because she wanted that. The burn frayed the edges of her crazy and settled everything until her world balanced. “Yes.”

  The snick of latex was her only warning. Then it was him.

  Just him.

  He arrowed his cock inside her without mercy before he stretched up over her and covered her hands. His much larger hands dwarfed hers, his grip tight until their fingers were laced around the metal frame of the shelving unit. Cans rattled and a box tipped over as he slammed into her again and again.

  As his cock rammed into her with enough force to drive her onto her toes.

  And she loved it.

  Craved it.

  He angled his chin against her neck to rest against her shoulder as his long, lean body covered every part of her. She was surrounded inside and out until she broke into so many colors and pieces, she could do nothing but rest her head against his chest as his breath labored in her ear.

  As his deep groans reverberated through her back and synced up to hers.

  Her body was strung tight and her breath lodged in her chest as the dark room went to utter black and her knees buckled.

  He released one of her hands and his arm went around her waist. He was so damn tall that his forearm went completely across her belly and his hand cupped her hip.

  She couldn’t stop shaking. Thighs, arms, even her breath. She tried to drag in oxygen, but there was only Ryan’s spice and the combined scents of them. It left her dizzy and at peace at the same time.

  “Den?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Is everything all right?”

  Some of the peace seeped out of her. “Yes. Why?”

  “You just don’t…” His words drifted into a strangled laugh. “Well, you don’t drag me into strange places for sex. That’s usually my move.”

  “Can’t a girl take the initiative?” She swallowed hard as he slid out of her, the echo of his stretching cock leaving her lost again. “You didn’t like it?”

  “I just came my damn brains out. I’m fairly sure I lost about twenty IQ points with that orgasm.”

  Keep it light. Don’t let him know you’re cracking. “You don’t have enough to lose, buddy.”

  “Cute.” He turned her in his arms, his mouth gentle now that their storm had blown out like an Atlantic nor’easter. “I didn’t mean to be so rough. Though somehow I get the feeling you went right for every button I have to push me there.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “No?” He brushed his nose along hers. “It’s okay to want this. What happens between us.” He brushed his lower lip lightly over hers. “I know what you need, Colorado. I love it just as much. And I’ve never found this with anyone else.”

  Her heart raced and she pushed at him. “Ry. Not here. Not with the scent of refried beans coming in through the vents.”

  He laughed. “All right. I’ll give you that. Shitty timing. But I want you to know I’ll be whatever you need. Even if it’s this, and even if it’s just a quiet night binging on Friends episodes. But I don’t want it to be just this. We aren’t just scratching an itch.”

  He stepped back and his phone torchlight flooded the space.

  She held up her hand and slammed her eyes shut. “Don’t ruin it, for God’s sake.”

  He laughed, and the sound of paper rustling then the coarse brush of cheap napkins crinkled between them before she heard his zipper.

  She squinted, prepared to be blinded, but his light was trained much lower and his groan made her heart thump and twist in her chest.

  “You’re drenched.”

  She swallowed and dragged her jeans back up.

  “No. No, wait.” He slipped his hand between her legs before she could get the denim in place. “Fuck, Colorado. I knew you needed it, but baby, are you sure everything’s okay?”

  She pushed his hand away. “Just because I wanted to get fucked?”

  He lifted the same hand to her face, gripping her chin. Not hard, but definitely with no room for her to move. “Don’t do that.”

  She dragged in a sharp breath at their combined scents on his hand. Hot, carnal, and so unique to them.

  “Yeah, you caught that, right? You, still slick on my hand, my fingers, my cock. And yes, I know you needed me. Needed this.” He leaned in and when she tried to jerk her head away, he simply held her there. The kiss was soft and sweet, as opposed to the flash of anger in his eyes.

  He didn’t close them. His gaze was steady in the dim light as he gently rubbed his lips over hers until her shoulders relaxed and her heart stopped screaming inside her chest to run—to push the emotions away once more.

  His fingers slid down to her neck, then down the front of her. He cupped her breast lightly. Not to make her burn, but just to touch her. To soothe.

  To freaking handle her.

  And she let him because, God, it felt good to lean on someone. Just for a second. Just until she felt more like herself instead of the scared girl who ran away from Vegas five years ago.

  Until she was just Denver.

  His Colorado.

  “I’m okay now,” she said against his chest. She didn’t even realize she’d melted into him until his spicy scent bled into her senses and she could hear his heart under her ear.

  He tucked his chin on top of her head and wrapped his arms around her shoulders in that caveman way of his. The way she loved more than she ever wanted to admit.

  She turned her face into the center of his chest and took one last breath before wiggling for freedom.

  A banging fist rattled the door and they both jumped apart.

  “If you’re done boning in there, we’d like to get back on the road.”

  “Oh, God.” Had to be Mal. Out of all of them, it had to be him.

  Ryan laughed and palmed her ass with a disappointed groan. “Got your jeans back on? Dammit.”

  She laughed and pushed him away. “You are a jerk.” She zipped her jeans the rest of the way and opened the door enough to peek out.

  Lauren was standing toe to toe with Mal at the end of the hall, her hands on her hips. “Didn’t your mother teach you manners?”

  His eyes were hidden by mirrored aviator sunglasses. “My mother was more worried about spa appointments.”

  Lauren’s lips softened and she dropped her hands to her sides. “Oh. Mine preferred a lecture hall.”

  Mal’s eyebrow spiked, but he didn’t say another word.

  Lauren’s attention went from the overbearing Mal to Denver. She waved. “Sorry about that.”

  Denver pressed her forehead into the edge of the door. Discretion was a fifty-cent word she couldn’t buy today.

  “What? We all need a quickie now and then. I can get it whenever I want. You have to drive.”

  Ryan pushed Denver through the door and into the hallway. “Thanks, Lo. You’re all heart.”

  West hurried to Lauren’s side. “Don’t mind her.” He glanced down at her with a tight smile. “She didn’t mean to shout that across a family restaurant.”

  Lauren’s eyes went really wide and she slapped her hands over her mouth.

  Denver laughed as Ryan shoved her down the tiled hallway into the group of friends who had become her family. She bore the brunt of their teasing as everyone loaded back onto the bus because she couldn’t deny what they’d been doing.

  That, and she loved seeing the easy smile on Ryan’s face.

  Eating should have sated the beasts who lived on her bus, but the closer they got to Vegas, the more gregarious they got. Mal and West were barking orders at Alexa to play ridiculous songs from the seventies, then the nineties. Lauren and Jules started chiming in with Bell Biv DeVoe songs. Everyone was having fun.

  Except her.

  By the time the final signs for Vegas came into vie
w, Denver’s gut was a hot mess again. Every time she thought she’d gotten a handle on her fear and her memories, they came rearing back.

  There might as well have been a switch in her brain screaming turn back. But she couldn’t do that, because this was her job.

  She took a swig of her iced tea. Normally her watermelon mint—yes, she was mildly obsessed—did the trick. Ryan fed her addiction, finding crazy teas for her to make.

  And there it was, more Ryan in her brain. More Ryan infiltrating every piece of her life. Okay, so tea wasn’t that big of a deal. Except for the fact her entire life fit in a battered backpack and hardback suitcase, so tea was one of the few things she allowed herself to indulge in.

  He’d even moved in on that.

  Oh, and she couldn’t forget the heart part. Because she was terrified that walking away from him was going to be nearly impossible.

  She pushed her hair out of her face and fisted her shaking fingers before curling them around the steering wheel. Traffic took all of her concentration as she fought her way through the main drag. Tourists crawling down the street because they were oohing and ahhing over the lights of this palace of neon in the desert. Busses full of people hoping to win big. And of course the pedestrian traffic, which was a mix of frenetic regulars bustling into the next shop or casino, and the tourists with their cameras, out snapping memories.

  By the time she pulled into the parking structure for the hotel, her shoulders were tight and her head was throbbing.

  The band filed out and were in full play mode. She tried to put on a smile, but Ryan came up behind her and rubbed her shoulders. “Okay?”

  Shocker, he’d figured out she was wound up again. There was something to be said for men who were clueless. She had to get involved with an attentive one.

  She patted his hand. “Just shitty drivers and pedestrians. Give me the open road any day.”

  He kissed the top of her head. “Well, let’s go upstairs to my hotel room and I’ll give you a nice long massage.”

  She felt the first real smile tug at her lips in hours. “Yeah?”

  They were alone now, and he turned her seat to face him, crouching in front of her. “I know something’s eating you. Not just a long day of travel.”

  She leaned forward and touched her forehead to his. “Maybe we can talk about it upstairs.”