“You spent the night with him?”
Shit. I wasn’t sure he wanted anyone to know. I froze like a doe in a spotlight. Simone zeroed in on it.
Her cell rang. “Hold that thought,” she told me sternly. “We’ll finish this conversation in a minute.” She swiped a finger across her cell. “Mona’s,” she answered. “Ash, hey.” A pause. “Yeah, she just came in.” Her eyes narrowed then widened. “We were just getting to that part.” Another pause. “Oh, he did, did he? That’s very interesting. Yes, I’m sure it’s not the first time. Vassel seems to like to stir things up. I know, I know, it’s a pissing contest thing. Yes, fine.” A short pause. “No, I’m not calling you back to tell you what she says. You are such a girl sometimes.” She clicked off her cell. “So…” Her brows rose to near her hair line. “Ramon told Ash you two are sleeping together. He laid Vassel out cold in the Deck Bar parking lot just now ‘cuz he says the guy was disrespecting you. Apparently, you have a bed partner and a defender.” She put her hands on her hips. “A lot has happened in the last twenty-four hours, huh?”
Chapter Forty-Five
* * *
Karen
Simone flipped the shop sign to closed. “About damn time. This is an event worth celebrating. Let’s go get a drink. I’m buying and you’re telling me everything.” She stressed and drew out the first syllable of the word. Linking arms, we took the sidewalk toward the waterfront and turned right at the OB Hotel. While our flip flops snapped on the pavement, I tried to decide how much to revel to her. Should I pretend? Or should I tell her the truth the way I wanted to? I craved her counsel. I had that fluttery uncertain yet hopeful feeling like way back in high school when we would sit together in the cafeteria and try to figure out if a boy I liked felt the same about me. I had little recent basis of comparison. Dominic had been very straightforward and upfront about his interest in me from the beginning. With Ramon and our complicated arrangement, it was anything but certain how he truly felt about me. But if I told Simone the true nature of the relationship between us, could she keep my secret? I didn’t want just anyone to know what was going on. Besides, the thought of divulging those details seemed like a betrayal of Ramon’s trust somehow.
“Hey, isn’t that our Lakers girl?” Simone queried, bumping me out of my thoughts.
I turned my head in the direction my friend pointed. It was her for sure, sorting through the trash can in front of the Deck Bar. I took a couple of steps toward her. Everyone had told me what she had done. Who knows what would have happened if she hadn’t pushed me out of the way of that car? I had been wanting to thank her, but I hadn’t seen her since the accident.
“Hey!” Ash yelled suddenly. Our Lakers girl’s head snapped up. As he jogged toward her, she dropped the aluminum cans she had fished out. They clattered as they hit the concrete. Picking up her long skirts, she took off in the opposite direction from him. I had to jump out of the way to keep from being plowed over as she ran past me. Having never been that close to her, I found it odd that though her face seemed to be covered in a thick layer of grime yet she didn’t smell bad. I even caught a whiff of a designer fragrance of some sort. My brow scrunched as I turned to watch her retreating form. She disappeared down a side street that led away from the waterfront, the Dirt Dogs’ drummer in hot pursuit.
“What’s going on?” I asked Simone. “Why is Ash chasing her?”
“Same reason you’ve been looking for her. To thank her. Ramon wants to give her a reward but she keeps running away like that whenever anybody gets near her.”
“That’s weird. Does she think she did something wrong? That maybe we blame her?”
“Who knows? We’d have to get closer than we’ve been able to get in order to find out. We’re all intrigued by her, but Ash is obsessed. The more she runs, the more determined he is to catch her. He doesn’t have it in him to back down from a challenge. Linc says he’s been going into the studio earlier and earlier each morning because that’s where she’s been spotted most often.”
Puzzled by the mystery the Lakers girl represented, I moved my feet in sync with my friend as she steered me up the steps to the main level of the Deck Bar.
We stopped side by side at the top of the stairs. The hostess on duty grumbled but grabbed some menus and took us to one of the pub high tops that looked like it had recently been cleaned. She took our orders, and I realized she had put us at the same table Ramon and I had sat at the night he caught me, but my thoughts didn’t have a chance to linger there as my blood turned ice cold. I was a fool. A gullible one. One who believed having sex with someone meant something. One who believed one night could change everything. I wanted to crawl under the table and hide. Ramon sat at the bar. He wasn’t alone. A smoking hot blonde leaned against the bar beside him. He had his hand beside her manicured one and from their body language it was obvious they weren’t strangers. My stomach churned. Simone hadn’t seen them yet. She was too focused on me.
“So what happened?” Simone asked. “With Ramon last night?”
I barely registered the question. I couldn’t help but stare at sexy Dirt Dogs’ guitarist. He leaned closer to the blonde, whispering something in her ear that seemed to amuse her.
“We…I…” I fumbled for words to describe a night with Ramon that had no doubt meant so much more to me than it had to him. Staring down at my white knuckled grip on the table tight, I told her. “I slept with him. More than once.” I dropped my head onto my hands.
“Well, he’s sexy as sin. You guys have a history and some serious chemistry.” She knocked on my head with her knuckles. “Why are you acting like this is a bad thing?”
“Because,” I lifted my head and inclined it toward the bar. “I don’t know how to be just a hookup.” And because, I thought to myself. He means everything to me.
“Son of a bitch,” she cursed, starting to rise from her chair.
“Don’t.” I put my hand in her arm. “We have an understanding. We’re not exclusive. It’s ok.”
“Your face doesn’t say ok to me, Karen.”
“That’s my own fault, not his. He didn’t mislead me.” Seeing him with another woman only hours after I had left his bed had me reeling. The waitress arrived with our drinks. Simone peered thoughtfully at my club soda. I decided to redirect our conversation into another subject other than my pathetic obsession with Ramon. “I don’t drink anymore. It got to be a habit instead of a choice.”
“Oh honey, why didn’t you tell me before now?”
“I was ashamed.” A bright sheen glassed my eyes. My whole life was a wreck of my own making.
“It’s no crime to fall down. We all do. I did, and you helped me get back up and on my feet again. Our struggles make us stronger. They teach us things we can pass on to encourage each other. Right?
“Yeah.” I squeezed her fingers, avoiding looking at the bar again, though my heart felt like it was splitting down the middle. “So what happened with you and Linc after the party?”
“Well, my man has skills.” She grinned. “It seems like he feels the need to make up for the years we lost one night at a time. Did I tell you about what he did with the leash on his board…”
“Karen.” I looked up, a pathetic thrill shooting through me from his deep voice speaking my name like I was significant to him.
“Ramon. Hey.” My reply sounded casual, but inside I was anything but as I lifted my gaze and drowned in his decadent one. I forced a smile.
“Simone,” he acknowledged without even looking away from me. “What are you two doing here?”
“Simone closed shop early. She wanted to talk.” I pretended that I hadn’t seen him chatting up his newest indulgence within hours of being intimate with me. “What’s up with you?”
“Why you acting like this?” His brows drew together.
“Like what?” I feigned nonchalance.
“Like I didn’t just drop you off fifteen minutes ago. Like I didn’t just have my mouth on your…”
&
nbsp; “Whoa,” Simone said, rescuing me in a major way. “Look at the TMI, I mean time. I just remembered. I’m expecting a very important phone call. From Linc.” She gave me a pointed look. “Take the rest of the day off. I can handle the shop. We’ll talk later. Got it?”
“Yeah.” I nodded.
Ramon slid into the seat she vacated. I stared at him as he tipped the beer he had brought along to his mouth, pretending that I wasn’t recalling how good his lips had felt on the most secret part of me. I suppressed a shiver.
He set the bottle on the table and leveled me with a look. “I’m guessing you heard about Vassel and think I’m being a caveman.”
I shook my head. Did he not realize that I’d seen him with the blonde? “I mean, yeah, sure, I heard about it. I don’t know what he said to you, but…”
“He said you’re a cock tease who just needs to get laid.”
“Is that so? Well, in that case.” I picked up the beer bottle and glanced around. “Maybe I should take a crack at him myself.”
“I clocked him pretty hard. He’s gonna have trouble seeing clearly out of that one eye for a while.”
“Ok. Well, good, I think.” I frowned. I wasn’t big on revenge, but I didn’t much care for Vassel talking smack about me. He didn’t even really know me.
Ramon covered my hand with his own, encouraging me to set the bottle back down on the table. He squeezed my fingers after I did. “Remind me not to get on your bad side.”
“Remember that,” I warned him, looking him straight in the eye.
He grinned as if he found my sternness amusing. “So you don’t have to go back to work, right?”
“Apparently not.”
“Excellent. Let’s get something to eat and go surfing. I missed out this morning since you abandoned me. So where will it be? Your beach or mine?”
• • •
Ramon
I watched her pushing her food around on her plate, wondering what was on her mind. She had seemed a lot more settled before I had dropped her off at work.
I was just getting ready to interrogate her when my phone rang. “Hey, Pop. Donde estás?”
“Bueno,” he replied. “I’m at the mercado getting stocked up for dinner tonight, and I was thinking you and Karen should join us. Like old times.”
“That’s a great idea. She’s actually sitting across from me right now. Let me ask her.”
“I’d love to.” The storm clouds rolled away from Karen’s eyes when I relayed his invitation.
“She’s in,” I told him.
“Fabuloso! I’ll make mole. Can you do the rice? Maybe some guacamole. The avocados are always better over at Lavon’s.”
“Sí. No problem.”
“What can I bring?” Karen asked.
“Tell her to bring herself.” My dad heard her question. “That because she makes you smile, she makes me smile. I have to tell you, I’m glad to know you two are spending time together again. You’re too old to keep chasing those empty headed mamacitas. Karen is such a nice girl.”
“Pop, you don’t have to sell me on her finer points.”
I was all too aware of them. Sitting across the table from her, I remembered how good she felt around my cock, how sweet she tasted on my tongue and the sexy sounds she made when she came. Cock hard and ready for another round, I stared at her as she sipped her club soda wondering if her lips would be cold right now if I kissed them. Could I touch her like a lover whenever I wanted? I didn’t know what privileges she would allow me outside of our contract. Not that it mattered, I decided. I was pretty confident I could persuade her, in the bedroom and outside of it.
Chapter Forty-Six
* * *
Karen
I pushed the cart down the aisle of the small grocery store that my dad had once owned but sold to the Lavon’s chain. Ramon tossed the ingredients he selected for his contribution to the evening meal into the basket. I was trying to reconcile the way this domestic chore and the rest of the day with him fit in with reality.
I wasn’t having much luck.
“Stay here,” he told me, brushing my damp braid aside to press his warm lips to the back of my neck. My stomach went aerial in response. “I forgot the garlic. I’ll be right back.”
I nodded, lusting after him as he walked away. Knowing he was commando beneath that swimsuit made it difficult to think about anything else but testing to see if his ass felt as taut as it looked. His no touching rule was making me crazy, especially since he didn’t place the same restriction on himself. At lunch he had scooted over to my side of the table, pressing his leg against mine. Every time he shifted, and I think he had done it on purpose, his warm masculine thigh caressed my smooth bare one. When we had been in the water, it had been even worse. Lingering touches and frequent kisses stoked the embers leaving me feverish for him all afternoon.
“Got it.” Curls seeming synchronized to his jaunty strides, he moved right to me and brushed a kiss across my lips. Rewarding me for staying put, I guessed. He dropped the garlic in the cart and put his hands on his narrow hips. “Help me out.” He glanced at our cart. “I know I’m forgetting something else.”
“I wouldn’t know what’s missing. I’m not the chef,” I reminded him. He knew that about me. True, I could bake. I’d inherited that gift from my mother, but cooking had always been my dad’s domain. I found it interesting that Ramon had taken it up. Apparently, all he’d lacked to show off that particular ability was a remodeled kitchen to work in.
“You have other talents so I’ll let your lack of culinary abilities slide.” He stroked a finger over my skin leaving chill bumps on my arm where he had touched me. “I remember now.” He frowned at me. “You were going to get bath gel and some shampoo to keep at my place.”
“No it’s alright. You can just drop me at my house before dinner. It’s on the way. My clothes and everything I need are there.”
“Not everything you need.” He came closer, his eyes darkening with intent as he moved me steadily backward. My rear hit the shelves behind me jostling the bath products. “I don’t plan on showering alone.”
“Hey, Sunshine.”
Ramon and I both turned our heads as my parents approached. Their own cart overflowed with groceries. They glanced back and forth between me and the sexy but pushy Dirt Dogs’ guitarist. I noticed them scoping out the contents of our basket. A box of my favorite chocolate flavored breakfast cereal lay conspicuously at the top of the pile.
“Hey.” I slid away from Ramon, hugged my dad and kissed my mom’s cheek.
“You doing a little grocery shopping together?” My dad’s eyes widened subtly as he began to draw conclusions.
“Yeah,” I nodded, positioning my body in front of Ramon’s cart. “His dad invited me over for dinner. Ramon’s cooking. I’m just helping out.”
My dad’s brow scrunched. “And you’re staying over at his place again tonight?” His eyes narrowed on Ramon who had moved in behind me. I could feel the heat from his body, smell the salt of the ocean on his skin. My heart started pounding hard.
“I might be having memory problems, daughter, but my mind still works well enough, and I can see just fine. Seems to me that you two are moving things ahead pretty fast.”
I swallowed, trying to think what to say, wrestling with the same conundrum I’d had with Simone.
“Maybe I would feel that way if Karen were my daughter. But she and I have known each other for fifteen years, sir. We’ve been friends nearly all that time. It doesn’t feel fast to me at all. It feels exactly right.” Closeout. Slammed flat by words instead of a wave. Though I was sure he didn’t really mean them, those words made me feel like when I rode a big one and it unexpectedly collapsed on top of me. Ramon rested his hand on my shoulders while I swam for the surface. Apparently, this was the way we were going to play it. We hadn’t discussed what we were going to tell people, though pretending we had a relationship made the most sense. It disturbing me how badly I wanted to believe th
ose words. That today had been real. The grocery shopping. Buying sundries to keep at his house. Things people did when they were moving in together.
My dad’s expression revealed his unease. He gave me a long searching look. “That the way it feels for you, Sunshine?”
“Yeah, Daddy.” I nodded, meaning what I said. He seemed to read the sincerity in my gaze.
“Alright, then,” he decided.
My mom shifted closer to my dad. Was it approval that sparkled in her eyes? “Your dad and I are getting ready to check out. Do you want to come over for a while? Or were you planning to wear your wet swim things to dinner?”
“I’ll come home.” I felt Ramon’s fingers flex on my shoulders. I turned to look at him. Disapproval brimmed in his gaze.
“Pick up stuff to bring to my place while you’re there. A couple of outfits. Bath gel. That kind of thing. Right?” One of his brows rose. He painted me right into the corner where he wanted me…at his house. His lips curled into an insolent grin. “Since you’ll be staying there a lot.”
• • •
Ramon
She smelled so good, she was driving me crazy. Or maybe I was driving myself crazy trying to drive her crazy. I knew she liked being touched. I had watched her shiver, seen her eyes darken numerous times during the day after I had caressed or kissed her. I wanted her to be turned on so there would be no chance she would refuse me when I suggested she stay at my place tonight. Problem was I think I was more turned on than she was. Sitting beside her, my stomach was full of my dad’s Mexican food, but I still had a hunger for her that I suspected was never going to be sated. I had spoken the truth to her father. And it wasn’t only her body I craved.
It was her company.
Her smile.
Her sass.
Her strength.
Her.
I reached under the table and squeezed her thigh. She put on a decent performance. She didn’t let on when I kept my hand on her leg and stroked my thumb back and forth over her smooth as satin skin, but her lips parted as she caught her breath.
(Complete Rock Stars, Surf and Second Chances #1-5) Page 51
