by Rachel Lacey
“Whatever.” She waved them off as they walked into the backstage lounge. The guys were already there, milling around with drinks in hand.
“I’ve never been backstage before,” Farrah whispered, eyes wide.
“They’re just people like you and me,” Jenn said, tugging her forward.
“I know, but…ohmigod,” Lucy whisper-squealed when Naveen began walking her way.
Jenn laughed as Naveen and Lucy walked off together, talking. Farrah headed toward the bar for a drink and was soon chatting with Jorja, apparently having decided she fit in backstage just fine.
“I need a moment with you,” Cole murmured in Jenn’s ear.
“Okay,” she agreed, a hot thrill racing through her at the feel of his body pressed against hers.
He led her down the hall to his dressing room, small and sparse compared to what a larger venue could offer, but not bad for a small club like this one. As soon as they were inside, he closed and locked the door, then pressed her up against the wall. “Just needed this,” he said as his mouth crashed into hers.
“Me too,” she gasped, arching her back to press her breasts more firmly against his chest.
He pressed his rock-hard cock between her legs with a groan. “The combination of the energy from the crowd and seeing you up front, dancing and singing our lyrics…”
His words sizzled through her, settling into a throbbing ache between her thighs. She went up on her tiptoes to bring their bodies into alignment, kissing him frantically.
“Fuck, baby, sometimes the adrenaline of the show makes me hard during the encore, but never like this. I need you so bad, I might explode.” He ground himself against her.
She reached between them, unbuttoning his jeans and pushing down the zipper. “Better hurry, then.”
“God, I was hoping you’d say that.” There was a hint of desperation in his voice, his eyes dark and hot.
She reached beneath her skirt and stepped out of her panties, tossing them onto the couch along the wall.
Cole shoved his jeans down, and she caught just a glimpse of his cock, impossibly hard and thick, jutting toward her, before he was rolling on a condom and then he’d pinned her against the wall again. He pushed inside her, filling her with one hard, fast stroke.
“Fuck,” he swore, anchoring one hand in her hair, the other beneath her ass to hold her in place. “I can’t hold back.”
“Then don’t,” she whispered because just seeing how intensely turned on he was had her right there with him. She was already so aroused, she felt like she might come as soon as he started moving inside her.
His hips started pumping, each stroke harder and faster than the last as he pounded into her. She kept her eyes open, watching the raw need build on his face, letting it fuel her own desire. The dressing room filled with the rhythmic bump and slap of skin, their combined moans and gasps of pleasure. Before she knew it, her orgasm ripped through her, and her internal muscles clenched around his cock.
Cole mumbled a semi-intelligible string of profanity as he moved almost frantically inside her and then with a harsh groan, he tensed as he found his own release. They clung to each other, moving and clutching as they fumbled their way back down to earth. Cole lowered them onto the couch, his cock still buried inside her.
“Now that,” he said finally, lifting his head to meet her eyes, “is the best way to end a show.”
“Our own private encore,” she whispered, her body still languid with pleasure. But her heart felt the strangest of all, so warm and full, and it was all thanks to the one man who wasn’t supposed to mean anything to her. But who was she kidding? At that moment, Colton Nix felt like the most perfect husband in the world.
* * *
By the time they left his dressing room, the crowd in the backstage lounge had thinned. Cole walked over to where Naveen stood talking with the manager of the club, a man named Lionel Parnowski.
Lionel extended his hand. “Colton, really fantastic job tonight. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you we haven’t seen a crowd like this in years, and the feedback so far has been incredible. I hope you’ll consider playing here again.”
“We sure will.” Colton gave him a firm shake. “It’s a great place. We really enjoyed ourselves.”
They made small talk for a few more minutes before Lionel headed back into the club. Cole texted Steven, eager to take Jenn home and continue their private celebration. Her friends had already left, so as far as he was concerned, she was his for the rest of the night.
“You up for drinks?” Naveen asked. “The guys and I were thinking about going out. You know how it is after a show, so much adrenaline. I’m wired.”
“Actually,” He glanced over at Jenn, who stood near the bar, texting furiously on her phone. “I’m going to call it a night. We married men have other ways of working off the adrenaline.”
“Thought you already took care of that,” Naveen said with a knowing look.
“Yeah, well, there’s still more adrenaline to work off.”
“You guys are disgusting,” Naveen said, shaking his head with a smile. “I guess I’ll catch up with you tomorrow, then.”
“Will do. Great show tonight. You were on fire.” He fist-bumped Naveen and pulled him in for a clap on the back before making his way over to Jenn. “You ready to blow this joint?”
She nodded, and together they walked out back to the waiting Town Car. Unsurprisingly, there were a dozen or so fans waiting outside, clamoring for his attention and waving their cell phones in his face. He slapped hands, posed for a few selfies, and started to decline autograph requests when Jenn slipped a black Sharpie into his right hand with a sly wink. So he signed a handful of cell phone covers, a shoulder, and a breast before making a break for the car with Jenn at his side.
“Do you always have a Sharpie in your purse?” he asked as she pulled the door shut behind them.
“At least one,” she answered.
“Yeah, well, there’s a reason I don’t carry them.”
“You don’t have a purse?” she responded with a smart-ass smile.
He laughed in spite of himself. “There’s that too. But I get to the car faster when I don’t have to sign stuff.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t always try to get to the car so fast,” she said quietly. “Build a rapport with your fans. Were you watching their faces tonight? You have the power to make their day, their week, their year…more. It’s an amazing gift, and you shouldn’t take it lightly.”
“I don’t.” He sank into his seat. “But it’s never enough. They always want more.”
She looked over at him, a streetlamp illuminating her face as they drove past. “Don’t be the guy who’s only in it for the admiration and the sex. You have the opportunity to be so much more.”
He opened his mouth to refute her claim, but she’d hit the nail pretty much on the head. He loved basking in the admiration of his fans, letting them fawn all over him, grope him, beg for the chance to fuck him. And maybe that was the reason so many of them tried to play their way into his bed.
“Interact with them,” Jenn said. “Answer a few fan letters. Sign stuff for them. Talk to them, more than complimenting their looks and inviting them back to your room.”
“You know I don’t do that anymore.” He reached over and squeezed her hand.
“And after we’re divorced?” Something changed in her tone. It grew colder and more distant.
“I don’t know. I think maybe I’ve evolved past the groupie phase, but I guess I’d still be looking to keep things casual.” It felt strange, wrong to talk about future women he might date, and not just because he was afraid of somehow offending Jenn. He didn’t want to think about other women, not even in the abstract.
“I hope you do evolve,” she said quietly, “both in the bedroom and with your fans. Get to know them. They’ll love you even more for it. Change your core fan base from groupies trying to get into your pants to real fans who value your music, people inspi
red by you.”
“I don’t know… No one actually reads their fan mail, do they?”
“Kate reads and responds to every letter,” Jenn told him, still in that quiet, almost distant tone.
“She couldn’t possibly. She must get even more than I do.” He looked out the window at the buildings rolling by.
“We have a form response that she uses for most of them, but she signs every card, and if someone touches her heart with their message, she writes them a personal note in return.”
“Well, maybe I’ll ask Jorja to look into it.”
Jenn was quiet, hands folded neatly in her lap, her face averted from his. A world apart from the woman who’d danced and sung along with wild abandon during the show tonight, who’d made him so hard, he’d had trouble finishing his set just watching her, who he’d fucked so thoroughly in his dressing room afterward, he was still high on it.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
“That’s woman code for ‘I’m super pissed at you,’ right?” he asked, half joking but half not because he had a bad feeling he’d misstepped with her somewhere.
“I’m not pissed.” A smile tugged at her lips. “I’m just, I don’t know what I am. Sometimes it’s hard to remember what’s pretend and what’s not, I guess.”
“Baby, none of this is pretend.” He took her hand and brought it to her lips. “I am being one hundred percent genuine with you all the fucking time.”
“Pretend isn’t the right word, then.” She shrugged, but the movement was stiff. “This thing between us just feels so real sometimes, but we have a contract, and in a few more months…”
Well, hell. “Jenn, I—”
“Don’t.” She pressed a finger against his lips. “Don’t say anything. There’s nothing to say.”
But there was. There were a million things he ought to say, starting with the fact that he felt it too. She meant more to him than any woman ever had, and he wasn’t exactly looking forward to saying goodbye either. If he said any of that, though, he’d be opening a whole can of worms that was better left sealed. So, in the end, he took her advice and said nothing.
20
Jenn lifted her hand and knocked on the door to Kate and Josh’s condo. Knocking felt weird when she was accustomed to letting herself in. Being invited to dinner—Jenn and her husband to dine with Kate and her husband—felt hella weird. But Kate and Josh were leaving tomorrow to spend the rest of the summer in California, and Kate had insisted on having Jenn and Cole over for dinner before they left.
She suspected Kate might also be nosing around to see just how real Jenn’s relationship with Cole had become, which only made her even more uncomfortable, because lately, it felt awfully damn real, and it was confusing the hell out of her. Kate was the only one who knew the truth. And that made Jenn feel incredibly vulnerable right now.
The door opened, and Kate stood there in skinny jeans and a pale blue maternity top, beaming at them. “Come in. I’m so glad you guys could make it.”
“Me too,” Cole answered, leaning in to give her a light kiss on the cheek. “Thanks for inviting us.”
They followed her into the living room, where Josh sat looking at something on his phone. “Hey guys,” he said with a friendly wave. “Just checking the score on the game.”
“Oh yeah?” Cole’s interest sharpened, and he headed toward Josh. “Who’s up?”
“Let’s catch up while they talk sports,” Kate said, motioning for Jenn to follow her into the kitchen.
“You didn’t cook, did you?” Jenn gaped at the oven, which was on. The smell of something savory filled the air. It was weird enough that Kate hadn’t let Jenn handle the dinner arrangements for tonight, but she’d never known her boss to cook a full meal in all the years she’d known her.
Kate laughed. “Of course I didn’t. We ordered from Antonelli’s. I’m just keeping it warm.”
“Oh,” Jenn said, relieved but still somewhat off-balance by the dynamic tonight. Ben and Jerry pattered into the kitchen, tails wagging, and she bent to rub them both behind the ears.
“So how are things? How was the show?” Kate asked as she opened the oven and began pulling out foil-covered trays.
“It was good. Really good.” She could feel her cheeks heating at the memory of how much she’d enjoyed watching him up there onstage and the things they’d done afterward in his dressing room.
“I heard positive things about the new music he played.” Kate gave her a loaded look as she slipped the oven mitts off her hands.
“He only played one that we wrote together, if that’s what you’re getting at. I’ll help you carry this stuff to the table.”
“In a minute,” Kate said, still looking amused. “So how did it feel hearing one of your songs live for the first time?”
Jenn blew out a breath, but she couldn’t hide the giddy smile she knew was all over her face. “Pretty friggin’ amazing.”
“Which song?” Kate asked.
“‘Coast to Coast,’” she answered without thinking. “Wait, why? Are you going to look it up on YouTube?”
“Of course I am,” Kate said, looking smug. But then her expression softened. “I’m just so happy for you, Jenn. You’re on the way to living your dream, and I understand as well as anyone what that feels like, especially in this business.”
“Thanks.”
“And if I’m not mistaken, you and Cole are looking pretty smitten with each other these days.”
Her gaze cut automatically to Cole where he stood in the living room, talking to Josh, and she felt that zing deep in her belly that happened every time she looked at him. “Smitten is probably a good word for it.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because smitten suggests an infatuation that’s only temporary.”
Kate rolled her eyes. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it. You guys look like you’re falling for each other for real.”
“Well, we’re not. We’re just two people who’re having fun and a lot of sex together. We’ve had chemistry since we met. It’s part of the reason we wound up in this predicament in the first place. So now we just ride the wave until we implode, or we part ways amicably at the end of our six-month contract, whichever comes first.”
Kate looked like she had something to say about that, but before she got the chance, the guys invaded the kitchen. “What’s taking so long?” Josh asked, elbowing his way past them to the covered dishes still resting on top of the stove. “We’re starving.”
“If you’re so hungry, then you can take the food to the table,” Kate told him, giving him a playful swat on the ass. They spent the next few minutes moving all the food to the table and dishing it out. There was lasagna, garlic bread, chicken cacciatore, and steamed vegetables. “Jenn was just telling me about your show the other night,” Kate said to Cole as they dug in.
“Good things, I hope?” he asked, squeezing Jenn’s leg below the table.
“Naturally,” Kate answered, her eyes sparkling. “I heard you played one of her songs too.”
“Sure did.” Cole smiled at Jenn before returning his attention to Kate. “And she’s joining me up onstage at the next show.”
“What?” Kate’s cocky smile vanished, and Jenn’s stomach lurched. She’d never told Kate that she and Cole played together. It felt too intimate to share, which was stupid, because soon the whole world would know.
“That’s right,” Cole said with a nod. “She’s been rehearsing with us for a song we wrote together called ‘Right Away.’ I can’t get a baby grand onstage at The Lion’s Main, but we’ve got a keyboard for her. She sounds amazing.”
“I had no idea you guys were playing together,” Kate said, raising her eyebrows at Jenn.
“Well, I’m not sure I ever fully agreed to it,” Jenn murmured, turning her attention to her food.
Conversation stayed light through most of dinner. Kate and Josh both seemed preoccupied with their upcoming trip to Ca
lifornia. Kate looked more relaxed than Jenn could remember seeing her probably since they’d left the Bahamas. She was excited about starting work on the nursery in her Malibu house. The baby would have a nursery here in New York as well, but as that one was already mostly finished, Kate was ready to work on his secondary room. Naturally, she’d focused on a beachy theme for her oceanfront house in California. Here in New York, she’d gone for more of an urban look with royal blue walls, soft gray bedding, and sleek white furniture.
After dinner, they had drinks in the living room, and Jenn couldn’t quite shake the feeling that she ought to be overseeing Kate with her guests, making sure everything was running smoothly. Instead, she was the guest.
“So, you’re going up onstage, hmm?” Kate asked, coming to stand beside Jenn at the window. Behind them, Josh and Cole were watching sports on Josh’s phone again.
“I’m going to play the keyboard on one song.” She looked out over the darkened expanse of Central Park, dotted with the glow of streetlamps along its many paths.
“Still, you’re stepping out from behind the cameras for him,” Kate said. “He brings out a side of you I’ve never seen before.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Jenn said, even though she knew exactly what Kate meant. She just didn’t know how to react to having it pointed out so directly.
“Play dumb if you want, but I think Cole was exactly what you needed this year. In fact—” Kate cut herself off, looking over Jenn’s shoulder.
“What’re you two ladies gossiping about over here?” Cole asked, sliding in behind Jenn and leaning in to kiss her cheek.
“You, of course,” Kate answered with a playful wink.
“Thought so,” Cole responded, equally playfully. “My ears were ringing.”
“Better you than me,” Josh said from behind them, and then everyone was laughing.
They headed home shortly afterward so that Josh and Kate could finish packing for their flight tomorrow morning. Jenn had already had the Malibu house cleaned and stocked for their arrival. As they rode back to Cole’s town house, Jenn’s phone buzzed with an incoming text message, and then another, and another. They were from Kate.
