by Dawn Ryder
He lowered his gaze, targeting her mouth before leaning forward and pressing a kiss against her neck. His grip on her nape was solid, his body hard as stone, but his lips closed over her skin with just enough aggression to throw more fuel on the flames licking her clit. He teased her, stroking and tasting her before licking his way to her collarbone with a delicious stroke that left her knees weak.
The lights in the suite began to flash. He pulled away, leaving her leaning on the wall.
There was a hint of violence in his expression. His eyes narrowed as he pulled away from her, reluctance flickering in his gaze.
She was gasping, so turned-on she was in a daze. She needed to run.
Because she was way out of her depth.
* * *
The Staples Center was roaring.
It sounded like a tsunami coming in, or a freight train passing three feet in front of her face. It was more than sound; there was a vibration that traveled through her body, all the way down to her bones. There was a current in the air that practically crackled with excitement.
The bodyguard-slash-security guy showed Kate up to a private box. She followed because she didn’t want to squeal like a little girl and ask to be taken home.
She’d never lost her head like this before.
It was embarrassing on an epic scale. She was pissed at herself for rolling over so easily for a man who wouldn’t recall her name by the end of the night.
The box had plush seats and an open rail overlooking the stage. The lights went down, and the drummer started up. The beat was infectious, taking over her heart until she was sure the muscle was keeping the same rhythm.
The crowd roared again, thrusting their hands up into the air as two guitars joined the drummer. Her nipples puckered again, her memory offering up an image of Syon arching back as he played those final chords. It was like he was pushing the music out of himself, almost as if he were giving birth.
Onstage, he was just as raw.
Syon took command of the space completely. The audience ate him up.
And were they screaming. Syon worked them just as skillfully as he did his guitar. He really was lord of all he surveyed. Kate discovered herself leaning forward, being drawn toward the spellbinding energy pulsing on the stage. Sitting still was impossible; her body wanted to move in time with the notes Syon was wringing out of his instrument. She became fixated on his hands; the way he worked his fingers was downright dominant.
Her teeth were clenched. By the time the last song finished, she was panting softly and felt wrung out.
But it was fucking wonderful. She was drifting on a high and collapsed back into her padded chair, her composure scattered around her like fall leaves. She felt spent but amped up at the same time.
Fangirls were definitely climbing the respect ladder in her book.
Okay, so she was drooling over a rock star like some high schooler, but at least B.O.B.—her battery-operated boyfriend—was waiting for her at home. All in all, the buzz was worth the slightly stinging blow to her pride, because in some corner of her mind, she believed she should be grown-up enough to realize fantasies weren’t mature. So disappointment wouldn’t stalk her in the wee hours of the night.
A hollow feeling in her gut warned her she was hoping in vain.
As Syon and the rest of the band left the stage, Kate indulged herself in a long moment of reflection. Syon had worked that guitar until it wailed. He had to be hell in bed if he applied even half that effort to pleasing his partner.
“So, what’d you think?”
She jumped, grabbing the armrests of the movie theater–style chair. Her eyes popped open wide, and her belly did a triple flip when she found Syon watching her.
“Ah…” Her tongue suddenly felt like a wad of cotton in her mouth as she scrambled to stand up and turn around to face him. “It was fantastic…”
He grinned at her, a huge, arrogantly pleased expression that showed off his perfect teeth.
God, she wondered if he knew how to bite…
There was a curtain in the doorway that she’d never closed. Syon reached over and tugged it off the hook that held it back. The velvet shimmered as it swung down to give them privacy, adding a dose of intimacy that was spine tingling.
“Why did you do that?” she asked.
He shrugged, drawing her attention to the tightly corded muscles of his forearms. “I don’t want to get jumped.”
“Oh.” She took a quick look down at the fans still crowded into the seating below. Now that the house lights were on, she could see people sitting in the private boxes that lined the second and third stories of the arena. Syon was hanging back, staying behind the seats where there was still some shadow.
“Shouldn’t you be backstage somewhere…with those security guys?” Kate asked.
He bared his teeth at her. “Maybe in forty years. Their job is to protect the fans from me.”
“Yeah, I can see that side of your personality.” Hell, she could have sworn she could feel it.
“I earned it,” he answered with a confidence that was admirable.
He opened his arms. “Want to take a measurement? So you can make me a pair that fit…perfectly?”
“I get a hard-on when I play…”
“Oh…” Damn it. That was the third time she’d done nothing but answer in monosyllables.
She wasn’t sure it was healthy for her to be taking a good look at him, but her costumer’s eye switched on as she scanned his groin, tracing the bulge straining the leather.
Oh…yeah…serious package.
“It’s Giles’s account. I just stepped in because of the timing issue.” There. At last. A perfect, professional deflection.
Syon’s grin widened.
“Giles is in New York. You’re here. I can’t play ‘Insatiable Craving’ without this pair pinching.”
She had to swallow the lump forming in her throat. “Insatiable Craving” was one hot song.
And she looked back down to find the leather straining.
Kate’s breath froze for an instant as a bolt of excitement tore through her. “We’re not going there. I’m not measuring you.”
He looked down at her left hand and raised one of his perfectly groomed eyebrows. “Husband?”
“No,” she admitted. He was stripping away her defenses like a kid pulling the petals off a daisy.
His attention returned to her face. There was a flash of determination in his eyes that made her quiver.
“Boyfriend?” He stepped toward her. “Girlfriend?”
She shook her head, the feeling of being overly exposed trying to drown her. “Just not going there. I’m way past the age of impulsive behavior. Got a business to run.”
He bared his teeth again and moved in closer. “But it feels like it would be so much fun if you…came…”
She lifted her hands to ward him off and felt ridiculous, because what she really wanted to do was grab a handful of his chest hair. He smelled male, and some part of her was insanely turned-on by it. She was ready to claw him. His eyes were slightly dilated, like he was on the edge, and it excited her wildly.
Well, he was hard.
And she was wet.
“I have rules,” she sputtered. “You don’t look like the type who follows rules. So, good night. Nice to meet you and all. I doubt you’ll miss me. Giles is likely working up more wardrobe for you as we speak. You’re his premier account.”
She expected him to recoil from the mention of rules. Instead he crossed his arms over his chest and cocked his head to one side. “Lay ’em on me.”
“Excuse me?” she asked.
He flashed a grin at her. “The rules. Let’s hear them.”
She was back to feeling like her personal space was being invaded. “I’m not interested in amusing you. I’m sure you won’t have to go far to find that sort of companionship though.”
“I won’t,” he confirmed, his tone deeper, serious. “And I’m standing here. You have discip
line. So do I.”
Of course he did. Beneath the makeup and the lights, there had still been some serious music. No one got that good without self-control.
“Your rules, Kate.” She was pretty sure he wasn’t asking. There was a flicker in his eyes that looked a lot more like a demand.
Well, he’d asked for it. Part of her wanted to see what he did when she laid it down. Straight out. Her fingers were closed into fists with anticipation, her head spinning just a bit at the idea of someone like him being willing to please her.
“No married men, no rock stars or celebrities, no drugs, no kissing on the first date, and no men still living with their parents.”
She finished in a rush, feeling like she was trying to hold him off with a slingshot and a marshmallow instead of the well-thought-out rules she lived by. He was going to eat her ammo and lick his lips afterward.
“I rank below drugs?” he growled. “That’s harsh. I’ve been studying guitar since I was four.”
That was impressive. But she couldn’t say so, because then she’d be right back to thinking about getting her hands on him. He smelled hot and ultra-male.
“It’s just that I’ve done my share of movie costumes, and rock stars and celebrities, well, they don’t really”—she found herself searching for some way to put it that wouldn’t offend him—“do relationships.”
“I don’t do anything in half measures,” he assured her.
“You asked,” she said, trying to swallow her disappointment. Like there had been a chance in hell of them ever connecting beyond impulsive sex. “And now you know why I’m telling you to call Giles. It’s been great meeting you.”
“You haven’t given me a chance to meet your demands.” Syon chuckled softly, menacingly, and closed the last pace between them.
“You rejected them,” she said.
“Relationships require negotiation. I can’t change what I am, so number two needs to be struck from the list,” he said.
“Maybe I don’t negotiate.”
“Maybe you need incentive,” he offered in a raspy whisper.
They were toe to toe, the scent of his skin wrapping around her. He reached up and opened the clip she had holding her hair back. She heard it drop to the floor as he threaded his fingers through the strands, sending a torrent of sensation through her. It was bold and aggressive and presumptuous. She should have protested, but her eyes closed as waves of enjoyment rushed through her. All she wanted to do was arch and purr.
“You’re ginger.” He leaned over and buried his face in her hair. She heard him draw in a deep breath before exhaling next to her ear. “Spicy and sweet… I wanted to know what you tasted like the moment I saw you.”
“Really?”
He closed his hand in her hair, pulling it tight but stopping shy of hurting her. “Yeah…really.”
The hold sent her over the edge into some alternate dimension, where instinct ruled.
He hovered over her lips, almost touching them until she stretched toward him.
“Wait for it…” he growled softly, holding her back.
“Like hell.” She smoothed her hands back until she found the opening of his vest. He’d never closed more than a few buttons, just enough to cover his navel. She slid her hands inside, needing to touch his bare skin.
But she closed her fingers, trapping a handful of his chest hair.
He stiffened, surprised. His chest rumbled with something that sounded a lot like a growl.
“Ginger all the way through…” He smothered her retort beneath his lips, kissing her with a force that left her breathless. He commanded every motion, moving her head to suit his whim. But she wasn’t going to submit. She slid her hands up, over his collarbones until she found the corded muscles running along his neck. She threaded her fingers through his hair and grabbed him.
He pressed her mouth open, demanding complete surrender, but she still didn’t give it to him. She teased the tip of his tongue with hers and then licked along his lower lip as he shuddered and pressed up against her.
His cock was rock hard.
And huge.
She shivered with need so sharp, she was half-afraid she might climax just from being against him. The need to lift her thigh and rub against him was insane.
“I thought you’d be up here, trying to beat me to the punch.”
Kate jumped and would have fallen over the back of the chair if Syon hadn’t slid his arm around her waist to hold her.
Ramsey grinned at her without a shred of shame on his face and flicked the curtain closed behind him. Syon let Kate push free of his embrace and offered his bandmate a shrug. “I waited until after the show, didn’t I?”
“Barely,” Ramsey griped. “You skipped out on that reporter and dropped her in my path like a land mine.”
“Doesn’t look like she exploded on you.”
Ramsey leaned against the wall, pinning Kate between them. “She latched on.”
“But you’re still here,” Kate observed. She probably shouldn’t have spoken. It was a weird enough conversation and an even weirder situation. Things like “making sense” just didn’t belong at all.
Kind of like herself. She was so far out of her element, she wasn’t sure she knew how to make it back to reality.
Ramsey grinned, giving off a bad-boy vibe that had her teetering between the urge to smack him or bite. “I promised her an interview later.” His eyes narrowed seductively at Kate. “Unless we’re too busy.”
“Excuse me?” Kate looked back at Syon, but all he did was frown and shrug. Rule number two. “Seriously, I’m leaving.”
Kate made it two steps toward the curtain before Syon clamped his hand on her wrist and stopped her.
“Ramsey, get the fuck out. I told you, she’s mine.”
“Yeah…yeah…” Ramsey grumbled as he pushed off the wall and headed back for the curtain. Syon pulled her against him as his bandmate passed by.
But Ramsey paused next to her, giving her a look at his dark eyes. They paired with his black hair perfectly, completing his lone-wolf persona. “Maybe next time.”
Syon extended his hand past her with his middle finger raised right beneath Ramsey’s nose. With a snort, the other guitarist was gone, the curtain shimmering again as it settled back into place.
“Do you guys actually go in for threesomes?” Kate pulled away from Syon, stunned to hear her own question. Who asked stuff like that anyway?
Duh…rock stars.
“Don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it, Ginger,” Syon said.
“Enough of the redhead references.”
“I’m talking about your nature.” He started after her, and she propped her hand onto her hip.
“Hold it right there.” She stuck her finger out at him.
“Here?” he asked innocently. “Or…” He moved forward, jabbing her finger into his chest and pushing her into the wall at the same time. “Here?”
“Just…back off,” she snapped. “I am not into group sex.”
He flattened his hands on the wall next to her head. There was a mere inch between them, and her heart started accelerating again.
“Ramsey is just pumped up from the show,” Syon offered in a low tone. “We have to put a lot of ourselves out there on the stage, and sex is the smartest way to blow off steam when we’re done.”
“What’s smart about random sexual encounters?” Kate asked.
“No hangovers, and no chance of overdosing.” He leaned down and inhaled the scent of her hair again. “Although, overdosing on your sweet body sounds like a great idea. I’m willing to take the risk.”
Oh hell…
She felt like her insides were vibrating. The level of excitement was so off the scale, she was tempted to give in just for the sake of not missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
But it would be giving in. Compromising. Something she didn’t go for.
“This is not my thing.”
“I can make it your thing.�
�� His caramel eyes were full of a promise that made her shiver.
“Yeah right.” She ducked under his arm and swept the curtain aside. “I am not falling for that line.” But it just might come back to haunt her when she was playing with B.O.B. “I’m leaving now.” With what was left of her pride.
Which wasn’t much. Her hair was floating around her shoulders, and she had a nightmarish mental image of what she must look like—wet lips, smudged lipstick, and hungry eyes.
“I’m sure you’ll find someone to deal with your…desire to overdose…”
There was a grunt behind her. Kate didn’t wait to see if it was an agreement or further argument. She took off down the hallway and headed for a door marked restricted access.
The moment she pushed through it, a dark-suited guy stepped into her path. He was a mountain of muscle and scowling.
“Call your goon off,” she snapped back at Syon, who had appeared right behind her.
“She’s with me,” Syon said right on cue.
Kate turned and pointed her finger at Syon as the door closed with a snap. “I’m not ‘with’ you.”
His eyes narrowed. “I liked our communication better before we broke off the lip-lock.”
“Yeah? Well—”
He leaned right down and smothered her retort. His mouth was just as hot as a few minutes ago, and he really did know how to use it. He teased her lips, sucking on them before biting her lower lip gently. He closed his arms around her and cupped both sides of her ass before pulling her into contact with his erection.
She gasped, the feeling making her insides twist. Her entire core yearned to toss her rules aside. She was aching for him.
Syon tightened his grip on her ass, setting fire to her senses. Her clit was throbbing painfully, and she just couldn’t take it anymore.
She reached for him, pulling the buttons on his vest open. There was a pop as a button went flying and bounced off the floor. The costumer in her would have cringed, but right now it pleased her on some base, primitive level. She wanted to eat him alive.
“Oh, God, yeah…run your claws down me.”
He arched back, offering the wide expanse of his bare chest to her. But it also allowed her to see the security guy still standing at his post near the door. He was doing a pristine job of looking straight ahead, but Kate’s jaw dropped in horror.
