We walked through the living room to the kitchen before I could appreciate much more. The kitchen was cozy and warm. It hadn’t been freezing out during the day, but my exposed knees reminded me that it was winter for another month. Kage looked at me, and I was aware of his hand still holding mine. It was nice. “I bet he’s grilling the steaks.” There was a colorful salad on the table with two bottles of dressing, along with plates and silverware, a butter dish, and a tub of sour cream.
It didn’t escape my notice that there were four place settings, not five.
I didn’t say a word to Kage. Maybe one of the guys wasn’t going to make it to practice tonight.
The back of my mind, though, suspected that I had been forgotten.
Not a big deal. Kage offered and he remembered me, and that was all that mattered. I couldn’t eat a gigantic steak anyway. Kage kept walking with me in tow, and we headed outside onto a deck looking toward the Sangre de Cristo mountain range. Okay, I was finally starting to see the appeal of this area after living here for several years. The views were spectacular, and I knew, based on where Mark’s house was, that he was close to Lake Pueblo, another beautiful sight. His backyard had a little grass, unlike the front that was simply xeriscaped. He was standing by the grill located on the edge of the deck.
Mark was a tall guy by anyone’s standards. He had to be close to six and a half feet. He appeared to be much like Kage in the body department—hard and toned all over but not overdone. I wouldn’t know and probably never would, though, because I never planned to get the guy’s clothes off. His light brown hair was short, his blue eyes sharp…and cold today. He regarded me with negativity, but it wasn’t overt. In fact, he was trying to be friendly, faking half a smile for me, but I was pretty sure it was for Kage’s sake, not mine. I got the feeling that Mark didn’t care much for me, a reception I hadn’t gotten last week when I’d met him for the first time.
Well, I supposed, that was natural, but considering I didn’t homewreck on a regular basis, I wouldn’t know for certain. I was sure that Mark figured I’d been the demise of Kage’s marriage, but if Kage had been as miserable as he’d claimed, Mark should have seen it coming. Hell, he should have been happy for Kage.
Or maybe he was upset that I was, once again, horning in on guy time. Okay, so that could be uncomfortable. I’d have to pull Kage aside later and ask him. I could just hang in his room or something if I had to. I could have kicked myself for not having brought some of my reading material, though. It was no matter. For now, while it was the three of us, I had to play nice.
Mark said one thing to me but he refused to make eye contact. Instead, he poked at the slabs of beef with the tongs in his hand. “How do you like your steak?”
It took me a second to realize he was talking to me. Chances were he already knew Kage’s preference for doneness. When I understood he was waiting for a response from me, I blinked and said, “Oh, uh, medium well is fine.”
That’s when I heard voices on the other side of the fence. I recognized Jason’s voice. “Hey, douchebag, we’re here with the beer. You back here?”
“Yeah, come on back.” I heard the creak of hinges as the wooden door opened. It would be growing dark soon, so it was a good thing we wouldn’t be outside too long.
Jason and Diesel both came into the backyard. Jason held a twelve-pack and, I noticed, so did Diesel. Diesel’s eyes were as cold as Mark’s had been seconds earlier, but Jason smiled. Diesel nodded and said to Mark, “Want these in the fridge?”
“Yeah, but in the fridge in the basement. Go ahead and leave a few in the kitchen.”
Diesel glanced at me. “You want one too?”
“Um, sure.” Kage wrapped his arms around me from behind and pulled me back into him. It was comforting somehow, especially considering his friends (Jason aside, perhaps) had no love loss for me. I felt awkward and out of place, even with Kage’s body up against mine, trying to reassure me.
“You heard the lady.” Jason was already on his way into the house, but I wondered if I was the only one who’d heard the sneer in Mark’s voice. Maybe it was my imagination.
Diesel looked at Kage as though I didn’t exist. “You watching basketball this year?”
I could feel Kage shrug his shoulders. “Off and on. Not really into it, though. Well, that’s not true. I’ve been watching Flynt.”
“He plays?”
“More this year than last.”
“Cool.”
“What position?”
“Center.”
“Damn. He getting taller?” Kage nodded. “I should go watch with you next time he has a game.”
“Yeah, you should.”
Mark looked at Diesel. “Hand me that platter on the table behind you, would ya?” Diesel turned around and picked up an ivory-colored platter, handing it to Mark. Mark had already turned the knobs off and the gas sputtered underneath the sizzling steaks before disappearing altogether. I felt my stomach rumble, smelling the steaks. It made sense, considering I hadn’t eaten a full meal since morning.
I felt Kage’s breath against my ear and there was a smile in his voice. “You gonna gobble down the entire plate?”
Mark had finished throwing the steaks on the platter (and I felt better having counted five), and Diesel was already heading indoors. So I took the chance and turned around to face Kage, placing my hands on his shoulders and touching my nose to his. “It might get a little dangerous. Would you rather I take it out on you?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Is it wrong if I think that’s a complete fucking turn on?”
I laughed and bit my lip. I really wanted to kiss him but I was already feeling uncomfortable. “Come on,” I said. His eyes were ablaze but not just that. There was something else in them, something tender and sweet and gentle. And it felt like forever. I was so glad the guys had already walked inside. If they’d seen that, I was afraid they’d really hate my ass. Bad enough I was feeling like an outcast. I didn’t want to feel like the most hated person on the planet.
Oh, who was I kidding? As soon as I looked back in Kage’s eyes, all that shit was forgotten. Completely.
Chapter Sixteen
DINNER WAS QUIET at first, with exchanges being limited to “Please pass the butter” and “Can you hand me the Italian dressing when you’re done with it?” I felt like I was under a microscope. But I shouldn’t have. The men weren’t even looking at me and were only acknowledging me when they had to. However, that was the real problem.
When we came in, Mark said it had been habit when he’d set the table. Kage had another place setting before I could say a word about it. After several stiff minutes of steak knives scraping plates and beer bottles hitting the table—the only sounds in the house—the guys struggled to converse. Jason started talking about his day at work, and I was able to figure out he worked at a music/ video/ bookstore. It took a little longer for me to figure out he was the boss. Or no. Not the boss. Almost the boss. Jason was a funny guy and pretty nice, and I felt like the only reason he was shunning me was because it was expected. I got the idea that Mark worked at the mill too but that he and Kage were in entirely different departments. I’d driven past the mill lots of times, and the place was huge. They talked like they had some of the same policies and procedures…but like they didn’t see each other on a daily basis or know the same people. I’d have to ask Kage later.
I’d finished my salad when Diesel finally joined the conversation. He drove some sort of delivery van—for a furniture company? I wasn’t quite clear. But I wondered if maybe he used to drive a semi, considering what the guys called him. Or maybe it was really his name. I had no idea.
When we’d talked about it the other day, I’d been so excited to see Kage and these guys play, but now I felt like a worm. It was more than evident to me that none of them wanted me there. Well, no, not true. Kage wanted me there. When Diesel kept going on and on about a fight he’d gotten in with a coworker on Monday (a fist fight, not simply an alterc
ation), I felt Kage’s hand on my knee. At first, I thought it was his leg bumping mine, but then I realized it was his hand, and he was cupping my knee. I thought maybe he was trying to give me silent reassurance that everything would be okay if I just stuck it out.
I hoped so, because I felt more uncomfortable than I had in a long time.
I glanced to the side, because we were sitting next to each other at the table, and I looked in his eyes, smiling, letting him know that I appreciated his attention. But there was a look, something I didn’t quite catch at first, because he immediately peeled his eyes away, as though he didn’t want to get caught by his friends. I took the hint and cut a piece of steak, returning my gaze to my plate where it had been for most of the meal.
He kept his left hand on my knee. It was warm and firm, and it took a few seconds for me to register that he wasn’t pulling it back to himself. That was when he started sliding it up my thigh and under my skirt. Holy God. It was almost instantaneous how fast I grew wet and desirous, ready to be touched by him, but I suspected that having my boyfriend finger me to orgasm in front of his three best friends who already hated my ass would be a bad move. I hesitated, but I decided I would get up from the table if he moved his hand any farther.
He squeezed my thigh and inched up a little more, and I almost dropped my fork. He squeezed one more time as if to assure me he was done teasing, because then he brought his hand back above the table so he could cut another piece of steak. I glanced over at him without moving my head and he flashed me a small grin. I inhaled deeply. Well, these other guys might hate my ass, but it was only because the man beside me was as enamored of me as I was of him. I hoped they would get over it.
After we were done eating, we all scraped our plates and loaded the dishwasher. Everyone pitched in to get Mark’s kitchen clean so the guys could start playing. We all got a new beer before heading to the basement.
It was chilly down there. It was unfinished—concrete floors and walls, and a couple of shelves along one wall. It appeared to be the same size as the ground floor, but there were no walls. It was wide open. Mark wheeled out a few space heaters that had been hugging the wall, plugged them in, and turned them on. I stood next to one before deciding to go back upstairs to grab my coat. As I passed Diesel, he gave me a hateful look and that made me want to leave for good. So I grabbed my coat upstairs, but instead of heading back to the basement where the guys were tuning their instruments, I went into the bathroom and leaned against the counter, trying to decide if I wanted to find a place to sit tight or if I wanted to be brave and sit downstairs with a look of defiance on my face. Not sitting in the basement would be giving up. It would, on some level, be cowardly, and I knew that until his friends accepted me, I’d have to get used to their coldness. While it upset me on a personal level, I could understand where they were coming from when I really thought about it. Either they thought I broke up Kage’s marriage and I was here flaunting it (before the wedding corpse was even cold, so to speak) or they simply didn’t like a woman barging in on their guy time, especially practice time. If that was the case, I didn’t want to sit in there. I knew they were creating and working, and I didn’t want to interfere with it or make them feel awkward. If those had been the only vibes I thought I was getting, I could live with it and I’d even offer to stay out. Unfortunately, I was positive that wasn’t all I was feeling.
So I looked at my face in the mirror as though reasoning with myself, weighing the pros and cons that would influence my decision. I felt like Scarlett in Gone with the Wind, getting dressed before Melanie’s birthday party, only I didn’t have a Rhett demanding that I had to go. I was my own Rhett too, chiding myself for not moving, not going in there and dealing with whatever cold shoulders they wanted to give me. It was then, as I was focusing on my breathing and working up my courage, that I heard a tap on the door. I cleared my throat. “Yes?”
It was Kage. “Everything okay in there?”
I hadn’t lied to this man yet, and I wasn’t about to now. “No, not really.”
“Are you sick?”
“No.” I faced the door and turned the knob, peeking my head out.
“What’s wrong?”
I opened the door farther, inviting him in. I lowered my voice. “I feel really awkward around those guys. I know they resent me, and that’s fine, but I can’t decide if I want to hang out in the basement. I don’t know if they’re hating me because they think I’m the reason why you broke up with Fay or if they just don’t want me to watch you practice.”
He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me close after closing the door behind him. “Or maybe they’re pissed because I got the girl.”
I raised my eyebrows and smiled in spite of myself. “Oh, that’s not it.”
“Maybe it is.” I knew he was full of shit, but I didn’t mind when his lips brushed mine or when he drowned me in a kiss. It was easy to forget what I’d been feeling just moments ago. “They’re just going to have to get used to you.” He scanned my eyes until he could see my understanding, and then he kissed me once more. “Was it my imagination, or did you like my hand on your leg at the dinner table?”
If I’d blushed easily, my cheeks would have turned pink then, because I was surprised at how well he’d learned to read me in such a short time. My voice sounded hoarse and foreign to my ears when I responded. “The naughty side of me wanted you to keep going.”
He grinned then and kissed me again as he positioned his hand under my skirt. Instead of sliding up my thigh like earlier, though, he let his hand push my skirt up as he hooked his fingers in the front of my panties. I sucked in a deep breath before he kissed me again. Oh, that kiss was hot and one of the best I’d ever had, but my focus was not there. It was on his fingers. After he’d tugged the panties down mid-thigh, he slid a finger down my slit. Yeah, I was a girl who’d found she liked sex early on and it had never taken much to get me going, but this guy was the ultimate. He found, after moving down a few centimeters more, that I was primed for him. “I love that.”
Before I could ask him to clarify, he was assaulting me on the mouth again but his finger hit its target. My clit was swollen, wanting to feel his touch, and he’d granted that wish. Just one stroke and I let out a soft moan around his lips. “You like that, baby?”
My voice was just a breath. “Yeah.”
My fingers were digging into the flesh on his neck, my eyes closed but picturing his face in my head as he touched me. It was perhaps the most delicious feeling I’d ever had, and that was saying something. He’d wedged his knee between my legs, my ass backed up against the counter. He was almost teasing me, one slow, lazy stroke after the next, much like an old river meandering down its worn path. I would have thought his technique wouldn’t be enough to get me going, and yet it left me teetering on the edge in seconds. I could hear the way I was taking in breaths—sharp, ragged, desperate. I wanted to come and yet I wanted to hang there on that lovely precipice, so fucking close and yet so far away. Oh, God, it was close. I could feel my muscles quivering just below the surface, so ready, wanting to give way and yet they couldn’t. Not yet. It was a sensation I relished, and I almost wished I could feel that way forever.
Then he changed techniques. No more slow, drawn out, almost painful teasing. He sped up the motion of that one index finger, no doubt one of the fingers he’d be using to pluck his bass strings later (and if you don’t think that didn’t add to the excitement, you’re crazy), as though to put me out of my torture. I gasped and felt my brain climb that much higher until it exploded and my knees clenched around his leg and I buried my mouth in his neck, trying to muffle my moans. I tasted the skin on his neck and felt his hair against my lips, but I wasn’t fully registering those feelings. It was almost as though I wasn’t fully there.
But as I came off my high, I realized I had one fist coiled in his hair while my other hand was clenched, my nails continuing to dig into his neck. I forced myself to relax my muscles and I brought my
hands to his neck and lifted my head to look at him. He had half a grin on his face, but his eyes were dark, smoldering, and I hoped that meant he would fuck me right there. He kissed me then, deep, meaningful, full of promise, but he was no longer touching me. Instead, he wrapped his hand around my lacy black panties and, as he released my lips, he squatted, pulling the panties down my legs. He looked up at me and raised an eyebrow. I figured out that he wanted me to lift my feet so he could remove them off my body.
What the hell did he plan to do with my underwear?
I scanned his eyes. As with everything Kage, I had to trust him. So I lifted my leg, allowing him to pull the panties down over my boot and off my foot. Then I repeated with my other leg until the panties were free of my body. He grasped them in his right hand and held my thigh with his left and kissed my leg just above my knee. I sucked in a breath, curious as to his next move. But he stood then and kissed me once more. “Any minute now, they’re gonna notice we’re both gone. Let’s go.” I smiled at him as he folded my panties into a square and tucked them into his pocket. He winked. “That way you’re close to me all night.”
Close to him? Oh, hell, no. With that thought in mind, I knew I’d be close all night long…until round two.
Chapter Seventeen
OH, BUT I had forgotten about the downers in his band. They’d seemed to be chatting all right until Kage and I showed back up in the basement. I should have asked Kage where his bedroom was and just hung out there. But I was already back downstairs, so I forced a smile and popped open another beer. Maybe I could relax a little and their coldness wouldn’t bother me as much then.
Kage and the guys talked amongst themselves for a little bit and then Kage said, “We’re gonna start with something you know…a cover we’ve been working on. It’s not exactly like the original, but you’ll recognize it.” He looked over at Mark and then he turned back to me. “And then we’ll play some of our own stuff. Let’s see if you know what this is.” Holy shit. As soon as the guitars started playing, I knew exactly what it was. It was a cover of Bullet for My Valentine’s “Scream Aim Fire.” I knew my eyes lit up. Kage must have remembered that I said they were my favorite band. He was in front of the mike, playing his bass, and at first I wondered why he even had a microphone. I realized soon after, though, that I wouldn’t have been able to hear him as well over the music if not for his voice being amplified. Jason was on the drum kit with Diesel and Mark on guitars. No, they didn’t sound exactly like BFMV, but they were damn good. I was impressed by Jason’s work on the drums. Hell, I was impressed by all of them. And when Kage started singing, I thought I was going to melt. He had a sexy voice anyway, but singing? Holy shit. My blood was pumping.
Be Careful What You Wish For Page 11
