Come Together

by Madelynne Ellis

  ‘We’ve an interview with Bang! magazine lined up. You need to get spruced up and fast. I want you both perfect.’

  ‘Can’t one of the others do it?’ Xane sighed. The last thing he needed right now, while still hard enough to hammer nails, was to be talking to some rock journalist. He hated journalists.

  ‘No! You’re lead guitar and vocals. You two are up.’ She pushed Ash in the direction of the tour bus and Xane towards a nearby portacabin. ‘Shower. Dress. Make-up. You’ve forty minutes. Then we’ll do the interview and you’ll have ten minutes to grab a drink before your first set.’

  ‘Where’s Dani?’ Xane asked. He wanted to reassure himself that she was still around and hadn’t seen him demonstrating what an utter prick he could be.

  ‘You don’t have enough time to screw your girlfriend.’ Sally cast a disdainful look at his crotch, then gave him another shove towards the shower block. ‘Work first, play later.’

  ‘But where is she?’

  ‘Setting up the merchandise table for me. Now move. You’re down to thirty-five minutes.’

  Xane mounted the cabin steps minus a towel or a change of clothes, his mind on other things. He wasn’t in the mood for a stupid interview. They’d only ask annoying questions about Dani, and want to delve into the details of Steve’s death. That or it’d be all about Iain Willows and how their new drummer was likely to influence their future direction. He didn’t think ‘by costing them sales’ would be the answer they were looking for.

  Inside the portable shower block, the air was already full of steam and the patter of falling water drummed on the floor inside one of the two stalls. Xane stripped off, left his sodden clothes in a heap on the floor and locked himself inside the free booth. He turned on the spray and stood with his head pressed against the back of the door as he waited for the water to warm up. He was still hard, stupidly so. His bastard cock didn’t seem to want to go down; instead it was demanding attention.

  What the hell was wrong with him? He was usually more in control than this. Things should never have got this far with Luthor. He didn’t understand why they had.

  Yes, he found the other man attractive, but he found lots of people attractive without giving in to the urge to hump them. He was long past the days when a hot glance and the presence of a condom were enough to get him into bed.

  In an attempt to wipe Luthor from his mind, he tried to picture Dani and recall the fun times they’d had together in various showers. There was the time backstage in Paris when she’d taken charge and made him come so hard his knees had almost buckled. He never had discovered what had got her so fired up that night. He’d loved it, though. Then there was the occasion in Monte Carlo after he’d finally got her naked, when he’d used his magic wand on her to give them both an awesome buzz.

  Hmm … he kind of wished he had something buzzy on hand right now to help him with his far too hard cock.

  Further back still, there were memories of the night they’d met. He hadn’t showered with her then; he’d taken himself off for a shower to stop himself jumping her bones. Ultimately, all he’d done was delay things a bit, probably because standing masturbating while thinking about what he wanted to do with her hadn’t exactly quelled his ardour. Instead, he’d got really excited about the idea of her sucking him off.

  Luthor wanted to go down on him.

  He knocked that thought away by banging his head against the wall.

  Tense, horny and irritable, Xane stepped under the spray.

  Dani – that’s who he loved, and who he was thinking about, not that blond fiend with the dirty smile.

  Eyes tightly closed, Xane washed his long hair and soaped his body, a process that left him even more aroused, particularly when he imagined other hands on his body doing the washing.

  You’re such a fool, he told himself. You’re going to screw up your relationship with Dani, and it’s going to hurt you every bit as much as it will her. There wasn’t any sense to his actions. He and Dani were good together, even if their minds weren’t totally in synch. She chased most of his demons away, and he kept her self-esteem issues under control. Why would he risk that in order to screw Luthor?

  Fear? he wondered. Maybe he was scared of how important she was to him, and he to her. He’d always longed to be wanted, but he’d no experience of it. He shook his head. No, they were close, but his relationship with her wasn’t claustrophobic.

  Maybe he just had to face the fact that he was an idiot … a sex-addicted idiot, and he was looking for a fix, while trying desperately not to use his girlfriend like a masturbation aid.

  Yeah, that was more like it.

  She’d suggested he needed counselling and yes, he probably did, except he had no desire to talk to anyone, and right now he just needed to get himself straightened out enough to walk out of here and give an interview followed by a knock-’em-dead show.

  Xane narrowed his thoughts. He zoomed in on the image of Dani on her knees, her beautiful and gentle mouth open wide to receive his cock. Sometimes, when she looked up at him from that position, she seemed so damned innocent it made his heart bleed. He had to admit he loved corrupting her.

  ‘Suck me,’ he hissed.

  He simulated her taking him into her mouth by slowly wrapping a soapy hand around his erection and working it from base to tip, base to tip … with a little curl at the end so he could give the sensitive head an extra something. Yeah, that was it. She was so good to him.

  ‘Xane …’ The moan tightened all the muscles in his body.

  Yes, sweetheart …

  ‘Xane …’

  Shit! The moan came not from Dani’s lips but from the other side of the wall, and was accompanied by the soft, subtle swish of a soapy hand gliding against wet skin. Luthor, he realised. Luthor was next door, stroking himself while thinking of him.

  Xane turned to face the wall. He stretched his fingers wide against the cool surface as though he could touch the other man through the barrier.

  No, this wasn’t good. It really wasn’t good.

  He tried to think only of Dani, but he was hyperaware of the other man’s presence and his needy groans. Suddenly, the Dani of his dreams started behaving in a distinctly un-Dani-like fashion. Her touch strayed away from his cock. She started exploring the lines of his butt, unprompted. Her tongue rimmed his hole. That notion almost set him off, but he clasped the base of his cock tightly until he got himself under control again.

  Xane imagined the creak of the cubicle door as it opened. He glimpsed Luthor before him: long and lean and gloriously naked. The guy had a body truly worthy of worship, ripped with muscle without being too bulky and with a clipped thatch of blond hairs around his loins.

  If this were reality, Dani would be up in arms or sobbing in a corner, but in his vision she wasn’t freaked out. She was excited by the prospect of Luthor touching him.

  Luthor’s kisses sent waves of dark pleasure racing through Xane’s body. The muscles of his stomach tightened. His balls grew heavy and he trembled as Luthor explored the contours and planes of his torso. He tugged on Xane’s nipple rings, rubbed the whole of himself against Xane’s back while he nudged his cock against Xane’s buttocks.

  ‘Yeah,’ Xane sighed. That’s what he wanted. It was a long time since anyone had properly done him that way, and it suddenly became an unbearable craving.

  ‘Can I fuck him, Dani?’ Luthor asked.

  ‘I think you should.’

  Xane waited hopelessly, impossibly relieved and excited by her permission. Yes, he wanted that. He desperately wanted it.

  His cock hugged his stomach as Luthor pushed into him one delicious inch at a time. It felt fucking marvellous, especially combined with the sensation of Dani continuing to fellate him.

  Xane worked his fist faster. Reality would never be this good. He knew that. There was no way any of this would ever come to pass.

  He ground his body against the cubicle wall, imagining Luthor grinding into him, one arm hooked acro
ss Xane’s chest, the other splayed possessively across the front of his throat, while Dani held onto him, ready to swallow his come.

  ‘Oh, God, yeah! Fuck!’

  The cries weren’t his. They were Luthor’s as he hit a very obvious climax. His words dissolved into his first language, little of which Xane understood, but he got the gist. That in turn pushed him closer to his own release.

  A sudden blast of cool air chilled his skin. Xane had just enough presence of mind to still his fist and clamped his mouth closed to contain his moans of anguish. His senses crawled the line between pain and release.

  ‘I’ve brought you some clothes and a towel,’ Dani called to him cheerfully. ‘Xane, are you in here? Sally said to tell you that you have five minutes and then she’s going to drag you out of here herself. Not that I’m going to let her touch you, but I thought you should know.’

  He didn’t deserve her. He really didn’t.

  ‘Xane? Are you OK?’

  ‘I’m fine,’ he said, sliding back the bolt so he could open the cubicle door.

  ‘Oh, hey,’ she said, laughing, when he reached out and tugged her against his wet body. ‘I guess something is definitely up.’ She wriggled against him, not seeming to mind that he was wet or standing to attention – until the lock of the second cubicle clicked and Luthor emerged, nude.

  Dani’s jaw dropped. Hell, his did too. The guy was every bit as gorgeous as Xane’s imagination had painted him, which in turn caused his cock to twitch appreciatively.

  Luthor stared back at them, his longing evident.

  ‘For fuck’s sake put on some clothes,’ Xane snapped, substituting anger for his actual emotions. Taking affront was easier and less dangerous than risking revealing what he was thinking. The temptation to grab hold of Luthor and make him part of the cuddle he was sharing with Dani was ludicrously strong.

  ‘Hey,’ he said, noticing Dani was still staring at Luthor with her mouth open. She’d looked at him like that once or twice. OK, more than once or twice. Her cheeks were scarlet, like she was embarrassed that she was thinking traitorous thoughts too. Well, he could hardly complain, could he? She glanced at him, then back at Luthor as if she needed to say something but couldn’t fathom out what it was.

  ‘Xane. Interview, now.’ Sally called from outside.

  He grabbed the towels Dani had brought him, wrapped one around his waist and threw the second at Luthor along with a bark to cover up. Then, ignoring the fact he was still damp all over and painfully aroused, Xane pulled on his clothes. He’d just about managed to do up his fly when Sally burst in, her patience at the point of detonation. ‘Now, Xane! Really fucking right this minute.’

  Sometimes he wondered exactly when he’d become so masochistic. There was no other explanation for why he paid Sally’s wage. He left Luthor and Dani still staring at one another. Lord knows what he’d return to.

  * * *

  It took Dani several minutes to shake herself out of the stupor Luthor’s appearance had caused. Her mind filled with horror at what might have happened before she arrived, while she simultaneously reeled at the sight of him naked. She knew he was a looker, but God, was he hot. She’d not really expected to have such a strong physical reaction to him. Of course, so had Xane. She’d felt his cock buck.

  ‘You didn’t, did you?’ Dani blurted into the silence that followed Xane’s exit.

  The way Luthor bowed his head to hide, because his hair was wet and slicked back, didn’t relieve her fears any. She scanned his skin, expecting to find traces of Xane, maybe a black hair or a bite mark.

  There were no marks on him at all. Except one tattoo, a date inked low down across his abs. Which she realised, heating further, made it look as if she was staring at his cock.

  Actually, she was staring …

  Just because she’d found them in the same location wasn’t a reason to suspect something had happened. She wouldn’t have jumped to that conclusion if she’d found Xane with one of the other guys. Actually, maybe she would, because she was paranoid like that, but it wasn’t as if she’d found them both in the same cubicle.

  ‘I didn’t know he was in here,’ Luthor murmured. He seemed subdued and unusually thoughtful. ‘I had the water running. Until you said his name …’ He fell silent a moment as his hands fisted tight around the towel Xane had thrown him. He didn’t cover up.

  ‘I think you ought to get dressed,’ she said. It was too distracting seeing him naked.

  Vacantly, he moved forward to the bench and his pile of clean clothing.

  ‘Dani. I’m sorry.’ He sat to pull on his ripped jeans. ‘I’m not going to lie – if I had known, I would have done something.’

  ‘Don’t … don’t say that, please.’

  ‘It’s the truth. I think you ought to know that –’

  ‘Shh!’ She silenced him by covering his mouth with her fingers. ‘Don’t tell me.’ She didn’t want to hear his fantasies about what he would have done. They left her feeling too uncomfortable.

  Luthor regarded her solemnly, his eyes swimming with too many emotions for her to tell how he was feeling.

  ‘I want us to stay friends,’ she said. ‘Please, can we do that?’

  ‘I want that too, but I can’t pretend –’

  ‘I know.’ She hushed him again, then realised how close they were to each other, and him still undressed. Fire suddenly heated her skin. She drew an unsteady breath and tried to avert her gaze, but there was something about that much male flesh being on display next to her that grabbed her attention and refused to let go. ‘I didn’t realise you had a tattoo,’ she observed, as he finally began to pull on his clothes.

  ‘I didn’t realise you were looking.’ Luthor cast her a sharp glance, as his fingers feathered over the date inked into his skin. ‘A man might get ideas about a woman staring at his groin. You wouldn’t be interested in my assets, now, would you, Dani?’

  ‘Don’t be silly. I wasn’t looking at them, and I have a perfectly great boyfriend already.’

  ‘I don’t mind sharing.’

  ‘Luthor.’ She smacked his leg in protest, though she wasn’t certain what she was objecting to – him sharing her with Xane or sharing Xane with her. Maybe both. ‘Find someone else to lust over, will you? What about Spook? You said you liked him too, right? He’s not seeing anyone.’

  ‘He’s cute.’ Luthor buttoned his fly and tugged on a T-shirt. ‘There’s just one teeny problem. Spook wouldn’t shag me in the arse. I’m not sure he even has a sex drive.’

  ‘Nor would Xane,’ Dani blurted and then bit her tongue, because maybe he damn well would and he’d probably enjoy it too. Not that she wanted to think about what Xane did with guys he took to bed, or rather had taken to bed in the past.

  ‘What if I told you he already had?’

  ‘Then I’d know you were lying.’ She was not going to let Luthor feed her paranoia.

  ‘And what if I wasn’t lying?’

  Her heart seemed to clench with anxiety. The honest truth was that she didn’t know what she’d do. She loved Xane, but could she really stay with him if she knew he was cheating on her? ‘Don’t joke about it, Luthor. It’s really not funny.’

  ‘Dani, I …’

  He didn’t get to finish the sentence because the shower-block door was thrown wide all of a sudden and three faces peeped around the frame.

  ‘Ginny!’ She stared at her best friend in astonishment. ‘Um. Hi.’

  ‘Lykke? August? What the hell?’ Luthor addressed the other two figures.

  Ginny bounded into the building and gave Dani a quick hug. ‘Is Xane in here with you?’ she asked.

  ‘No,’ Dani and Luthor replied simultaneously.

  ‘Oh, OK.’ Ginny stuck her head into both cubicles regardless. ‘Should I ask why you’re showering together?’

  ‘We’re not. We’re talking.’ Dani frowned at her friend in confusion. She knew she was attending the festival, but this entrance was a little unexpected. ‘Why are you here,
and who are they?’

  ‘Two of my former bandmates,’ Luthor informed her. ‘I’m guessing Hanne’s around somewhere too.’

  ‘Right here,’ said another voice from outside the building. ‘Are you going to come out and say hello? Is he dressed?’ she asked one of her bandmates standing in the doorway.

  ‘Yeah, I am. What are you all here for?’ Luthor combed his fingers through his wet hair.

  ‘Because we miss you. Come out and talk.’

  He rolled his eyes, but Dani noticed that he was smiling too. It was hard not to be pleased about being wanted. ‘Later,’ he said to her, and left.

  The moment the door closed behind him, Ginny stopped poking into the corners and threw her arms around Dani again. ‘You’re looking good. Travelling with the hottest band on the planet obviously suits you. Everything still good between you and Xane?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Where is he, then?’

  ‘In an interview. Why?’

  Ginny lifted her narrow shoulders. ‘No reason. So, I’m free to kidnap you for a few moments?’

  ‘Don’t you want to see the tour bus?’

  ‘Soon,’ Ginny replied, which was decidedly un-Ginny-like. ‘First I’ve something to show you.’ She grabbed Dani’s hand and led her to the door.

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘Something from your mum, kind of … A couple of the weird sisters or whatever they’re called dropped it off along with the rest of your stuff that remained at the commune. I guess your mum’s properly washed her hands of you. You bad girl.’ Ginny laughed, but there remained a seriousness in her voice. ‘I know it’s tough, but it’s a good thing really. You’re better off in the real world, enjoying life, than living cooped up with those bitter old hags.’ She squeezed Dani’s hand. ‘Anyway, most of what they dropped off was crap that you probably don’t want, but there was this one box, quite big …’ She trailed off a moment and wetted her lips. ‘Anyway, I brought it with me, so you could see for yourself.’

  ‘Why, what is it?’

  Ginny tugged her hand again. ‘Come and see.’

  Chapter 30