I finally landed on the far wall by the door and settled there, our gazes clashing for a moment.
There was an easiness to Johnny here with the girls that hadn’t been a part of him on stage, but there was some weird Jekyll and Hyde thing going on when our eyes locked.
Crinkles and easy smiles for Jamie, a dimple for Lindsey—because who could resist the utter excitement living in her perfect face? But when his attention focused on me, all that easiness fell away.
Intense.
Primitive.
Dangerous.
I wanted nothing more than to bolt out of the room and leave it behind. And yet, at the same time, a bit of that split personality monster lived in me too. What would it be like to touch that kind of man? Because he was all man.
He might have corners of a playful boy in his dimples, but he wasn’t like the young guys that postured all over the gym and wanted to prove themselves in the octagon. He was comfortable in his skin. His muscles had settled over his bones and become part of him.
He wouldn’t be surprised with what lived inside me.
Jamie said something and his attention reverted to them. His shoulders eased and he laughed. My belly rolled with lust and the tequila that I’d hammered that night. If I went upstairs right now, I could feed the need with more Cabo.
I could get thoroughly pissed and dump myself into a cab with the emergency fifty in my wallet.
That was the smart thing to do.
Lindsey stood and so did the other two. Hugs all around. Lindz had to stand on her tiptoes even with her stripper heels on. I’d been around bigger men. MMA wasn’t for the weaklings, even in bantamweight class. But we were out of context.
Six-feet-three and muscled didn’t fit a musician. Ropey and lean like the guys from Oblivion made sense. I’d met them because of Jamie and Lindz, and they seemed to fit. Okay, so Deacon was a freak, but he was the extreme, not the norm.
Why did it fucking matter?
In three minutes, he’d be in my rearview and this whole night would be over.
I would need the longest shower in the history of showers. I was also pretty sure that my perfectly adequate bottom-drawer-boyfriend would not get the job done for the first time in…ever. That was fine. I could take the rest of my pent-up lust out on the heavy bag in the morning.
I inched closer to the door.
“It was nice to meet you, Evie.”
My neck swiveled to his voice. “Yeah, I’m sure.”
Fuck. Really? Did everything have to sound like I wanted to start a fight?
Look at that, the same look was in Jamie’s eyes as I slammed my molars together.
“Don’t mind my friend. We don’t let her out much.” Jamie pushed me through the door.
“Your friend didn’t even want to come in the first fuckin’ place.” My accent thickened with anger and frustration.
Johnny’s fingers brushed my wrist. “So why are you so pissed about it?”
I pulled my arm tight to my thigh and looked up at him. He was too close. “You don’t want those answers, Cage.”
His lids lowered until the feline green was a mere slit of color as he looked down at me. “I don’t?”
My chin tipped up. “Definitely not.”
The faded cotton of his Bon Jovi T-shirt grazed my bare arm as he passed me. “Too bad.”
Jamie and Lindsey both bumped me. I fisted my hands at my sides and trailed behind them. I was trying to be the bigger person here, and getting nothing but flak. Yes, I sucked at keeping my mouth shut, but I was trying, dammit.
We just needed to get this night over with.
We climbed the steps to the main level and I got a look at just how fine Johnny’s ass was in his ancient jeans. Nail number forty-seven. All the world needed to do was drop me into the grave and be done with it, for fuck’s sake.
He led us through a back door to where the car was indeed waiting for us at the end of the alley. He hugged both girls again and gave me a cheeky salute. His attention was suddenly on something across from us.
I looked behind me, but there was nothing but shadow. My shoulder blades burned enough that I looked over again. “Is someone there?”
“Nah. Just one of the security guys.”
“Oh. Right.”
“Sorry you didn’t enjoy yourself, English.”
I couldn’t even articulate a reply to that. I usually used my fists and feet to do my talking. Words had always been difficult for me.
I stomped away with the girls and tried to put him out of my mind. I never said I didn’t like it. In fact, I’d liked it too damn much.
I glanced over my shoulder. Why did I care so much?
The driver got out and opened the door. Lindsey and Jamie got in, and I paused. Goddammit.
“Just go.”
Jamie craned her neck. “Get in the car.”
“Just go. I gotta walk. I’m all keyed-up.”
“Do not go back there and start shit with him.”
“I’m not.” I widened my eyes when Jamie gave me a mutinous look. “I’m not.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Just go on. It’s quicker for me to get home from here on my own anyway. Traffic is always a bitch on Friday night.”
Jamie shook her head. “I’m only leaving you because I know you can take care of yourself.”
“Get out of here, Mum.”
“Shaddup.”
I slapped the driver on the arm. “Thanks. Take care of my girls.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I tugged up my stretchy excuse for a top and headed toward the street. At least it was a balmy September night. The cold would be coming through soon, but for now, I could enjoy the touch of crisp without two layers or more.
I took one more look down the alley as the girls drove out and made a left. I couldn’t see them in the tinted backseat, but waved anyway. I huffed out a breath and headed back down the alley.
Stupid. What exactly was I going to say to him?
Did I just want to see if the snap in the air survived when Jamie and Lindsey weren’t in the vicinity? Or was I just stupid?
I decided stupid was the answer as I got closer to the door. He was nowhere in sight.
“You’re such an arse,” I said to out loud to myself.
“Not here.”
The tingle in my shoulders returned double time. That was Johnny’s deep voice. He was probably already outside with another girl. It probably had been a girl in the shadows in the first place. Groupie, girlfriend, or hookup—it didn’t much matter. He wasn’t the type that never needed to go home alone.
I started to backtrack.
The scrape of shoes on pavement, a shallow wheeze, followed by a cough made the decision for me. That wasn’t a girl, unless he was into pain. The fact that something fluttered in my lower belly at that thought was very inconveniently timed.
“Dammit,” I muttered. I so wasn’t dressed for trouble.
“Hey!” I yelled as I approached the two men in the shadows.
Johnny gripped the front grill of a green and white muscle car. “Get out of here,” he said with a grunt.
Why did it have to be on the night that I was trying to forget who I was?
I curled my fingers into fists and moved in. A large guy, built like a refrigerator including hamhock fists, loomed over Johnny. “Move along, darling. I can’t have you mugging my man here.”
“Seriously?” Johnny squinted up from his crumpled position. “I can handle this.”
“So I see.”
“This is none of your concern.” The man’s voice was brusque and deep.
I slowly moved closer, passing the door and hovering near the front panel of the car. “You made it mine when you touched him.”
“All I want is the car.”
I looked at the stupendous lines of the GTO convertible. “Let’s not do that. Half the reason I fuck him is that car.”
“Jesus.” Johnny let out a grunt that was par
t laugh.
“You think this is funny?” the giant asked. The glint of metal in his hand took all the pleasure out of the situation.
What the fuck was a car thief doing with brass knuckles?
Instinct and training, not to mention a background in self-defense, kicked in. I sprinted up the last few feet and yanked Johnny out of the way. I heard him stumble, but he wasn’t my focus.
The behemoth who had a good seven stone on me, that was my worry.
I held my hands out. “Just move along. There’s security all over this building. He’s sort of important. At least to some.”
The thug swung out and I slapped his arm away, then brought up my knee and jammed it into his side. There wasn’t any flab under the black flak jacket he was wearing, but I surprised him enough that I got in a solid shot to his forearm. I went for the disable.
Metal clattered to the pavement. He lunged for me.
Not good.
If he got his hands on me, I’d be done.
I twisted, and my judo training for the last four years paid off. I tossed him over my hip to the ground just as Johnny came up behind me.
“What the fuck,” he said, looking down at the guy from over my shoulder.
I kept my feet apart, prepared for another attack. “I said I like the car. Piss off.”
The guy met Johnny’s gaze, but before I could figure out what was going on there, the back door to Purgatory slammed open and two of the suited douches came out.
The big dude scrambled up and took off down the alleyway.
“Are you all right, Mr. Cage?”
He held up his hand. “Fine.” He huffed out a breath. “Just fine.”
“We’ll go call the police,” said douche on the left.
“No.” Johnny said quickly.
“The guy tried to steal your car,” I said incredulously.
“He didn’t. Jesus, who the hell taught you how to fight like that?”
SIX
Too many questions. None that I wanted to answer tonight, dammit.
I tugged at my stupid stretchy headband-sized shirt. All of a sudden, it felt like I was wearing next to nothing.
I put some distance between us. The heat of him and his scent made all my senses ping like the winning slot machines in Vegas.
He craned his neck. “Where are the girls?”
“Gone.”
“They left you?”
My spine stiffened at his incredulous tone. “No.”
“Do you actually speak?”
“Yes.”
“Then answer me in more than monosyllabic answers. Because I don’t even know just what happened.”
“I just saved you from a carjacking.”
He tensed and nodded to the guards. I heard the door shut behind them, but I couldn’t look away from him. His eyebrows were furrowed, lending a dangerous air to his hooded eyes and angular cheekbones. He was just pockets of shadow in this alleyway.
My heart slammed against my chest.
“Why the hell did you come over here? You could have gotten hurt.”
“Obviously not.”
He rolled his right shoulder and winced as he took in a deep breath. “I had it handled.”
“Did you now?”
His nostrils flared. “I wasn’t expecting the brass knuckles to my ribs.”
I tipped my head to the side. “Poor baby.”
“Don’t give an inch, do you?”
I shrugged.
“You’re not going to tell me how you can move like that?”
Telling a guy that I was an MMA fighter was always a trick. Either they got all defensive, turned on, or turned off. It was always a crapshoot. And tonight I didn’t want to play the odds. I wanted to see what that soft mouth felt like.
I really hadn’t intended on touching him—especially hadn’t intended on taking his surly mouth for a test drive, but now I really wanted it. I was keyed-up from the non-fight and he was a good outlet.
Whip-fast, I pushed him up against the brick wall. He let out a little hiss as I flattened my hand against his chest to hold him there. I slid my knee between his thighs, resting my hipbone against his zipper until he didn’t move.
I invaded his space.
My nose brushed along his jaw. The barest hint of scruff raised from his scraped-clean face. “I teach self-defense.” I nipped his skin enough that he blew out a slow breath. The bulge behind his zipper got tighter and more impressive.
No five-incher there.
He lifted his chin and looked down at me. The feline green of his eyes flashed. He didn’t like that I was pushing in on him. It made me want to do it all the more.
“I came back to tell you that your show was shite.”
His nostrils flared again and a muscle jumped in his jaw.
I wanted to see it again.
I liked that lick of anger.
I slid my hand down until I got to the edge of his wide pectoral muscle. My ring fingernail scraped around his distended nipple. “However, the third song—the ‘All My Scars’ song? That was magic.” I rolled my pelvis against his cock. “That’s what you were there to sing. That’s the part that made me ache.” I stretched onto my tiptoes so I could get to his cheek. That fantastic bulge made my voice deepen. “That’s why I came back. You thought I didn’t like it?”
“I don’t give a fuck.”
I smiled as he tried to angle his jaw away from me. “Oh, I think you do. I think you’re out to prove something. Not sure what. Not sure I really care. But that…” I trailed off and sighed as I breathed him in and flicked my tongue along his earlobe. “That passion that was there on the stage? That was what got to me.”
I moved over to his luscious lips. So soft and pink against the rest of his tanned skin stretched tight over bone. I stared into his eyes as I sucked his lower lip between my teeth.
Then I stepped back. “Just wanted to tell you that.”
His hands were fisted at his sides and his cock was straining against the denim. It was up and arrowing for his hip. God, to get a hold of that.
All the spit dried up in my mouth. I hadn’t been this revved up for a man…well, ever.
I’d wanted before.
Oh, the stupid things I’d done with lust baiting me.
And right here, I knew this moment could lend itself to oh so much more than a drunken hookup. Because I was pretty close to sober. Not all the way, or I’d never have been quite this bold. Even I had limits.
But oh, man how I wanted to see just what he’d do.
He stepped away from the wall and his long fingers fisted into my hair. He dragged me against him, his other arm banding around my lower spine until his fingers dug into my side. His mouth was hot, hard, and ruthless.
He swung me around so I was the one against the brick, but his forearm saved my back from a long scrape. Not that I would have felt it. Holy fuck, he was so huge and hard around me. Nothing but muscle and cock.
And his mouth.
All the bleeding angels in St. Catherine’s, his mouth.
He slanted his head, his tongue thrusting and sliding against mine. He rolled his hips until we fit like a socket in curving bone. His cock dug into my belly as he devoured my mouth. His other hand tilted my head the way he wanted it until I had no choice but to acquiesce.
Fuck if I didn’t like it.
I’d cut a bitch before I owned up to it to anyone, but Jesus, it was so goddamn hot.
He twisted my hair tighter until I was straining. The lick of pain was just a touch too far. He must have sensed my wince because he eased back just enough.
“It’s been a good long while since I’ve fucked a girl against an alleyway wall.”
“But you’ve done it.” It wasn’t a question. I knew it. I could see that part of him shimmering under the skin. The man was no angel.
“None of them were like you. More desperate, less aggressive.” He scraped his teeth over my chin and fastened those sinner lips against the column of my throa
t with a swirling tongue chaser.
My eyes were currently rolled back and staring at the back of my brain. Oh, holy fuck. Could he do that same thing on other parts of me?
Like the clit pounding out an SOS in my pants, perhaps?
I reached between us. “I like to stand out,” I said with a groan.
He grabbed my hand and pinned it above my head, his thick fingers lacing with mine. “So impatient. Don’t you know this is the best part?” He rolled his hips against me.
“What? You showing me you’re the big bad guy because I saved your ass?”
His eyebrow arched. His mouth gentled and changed its course from my collarbone, back up to my mouth. He watched me as he kissed me. I couldn’t help but keep my eyes locked on his.
Even when he teased me into opening wider. Even when he nipped hard enough for my blood to pound there too. Especially when I tasted the first lick of blood.
My nails bit into his back muscles and I didn’t let up. Not a little scoring of skin, no, I dug in until he groaned against my mouth.
He didn’t twist away, just kissed me harder. He was so thorough that the alley faded away, and my lids dropped. Until it was just us and the war between lips and tongue. My arm slid higher until my fingers reached the nape of his neck.
Peach-fuzz soft over inferno heat.
I lost the will to think. There was nothing but his mouth and mine.
He tore his lips away. “Do you want to get out of here?”
I smiled against his mouth. “You think I’m that sort of girl?”
“I hope the fuck so.”
I pushed him back a step and boosted myself onto his shoulders. He grunted and caught my ass as I wrapped my legs around him.
“Jesus.” He feasted on my mouth again. He turned to his car. The passenger seat was a bit too close to the wall, so he rounded the back—me still in his arms.
I couldn’t help but laugh against his mouth. “Strong. I like that. Means you’ll hold up when I toss you to the floor later.”
“Hell, I was waiting for you to do it now.”
“Pavement is a little too unforgiving.”
He leaned his head back a little. “You know this firsthand?”
I shrugged. “You wouldn’t be slut shaming me, would you?”
BANGED: Rock Stars, Bad Boys & Dirty Deeds Page 54
