ice cream all to ourselves.”
Caitlyn’s face fell. “Oh, I sort of told…”
She glanced out at the driveway and at the limo waiting for her. As much as she liked Owen and wanted to spend the day and evening with him, her loyalties had to lie with Jenna. The woman had put up with her during her early college years and all the crazy angst she’d suffered while having an affair with one of her professors. One of her married professors. After trying to talk her out of marrying Charles, Jenna had served as her maid of honor because she’d said she would always be loyal to her friend, even if she didn’t agree with the choices she made.
Caitlyn felt terrible that she even considered spending time with Owen over Jenna.
“I’ll just tell him to go on without me,” Caitlyn said. She couldn’t very well turn down her friend when she’d taken a day off work and made plans to spend it with her.
“Wait,” Jenna said. “He’s here?”
“He’s out waiting in the car. He wanted me to go to Houston with him. But I’d rather spend the day with you.” Caitlyn almost believed her own lie. She would love to spend the day with Jenna, but Owen was new and exciting and as much as she loved Jenna, Jenna was… comfortable.
And suddenly Caitlyn was looking for anything but comfortable.
Jenna ran to the window beside the front door and peered out. “That’s not a car, Caitlyn. It’s a fucking limousine.”
“Yeah, well…” Caitlyn shrugged.
“Who is this guy? Is he rich?”
“I don’t know. He’s some musician.”
“Like a rapper or something?”
Caitlyn snorted on a laugh. “Not quite. He’s in some metal band. They’re called Sole Regret. He had convinced me to ride the tour bus and hang out with him backstage until his concert tonight, but I’d much rather have great nails and watch a dumb romantic comedy with you.”
“I call bullshit, Caitlyn Marie. You’re going.” She smoothed her light brown hair that always looked sleek and salon-styled. “And while you’re collecting your things, I’m going to introduce myself to your rock star. Is he really cute?”
“If you weren’t madly in love with Daniel, I wouldn’t let you within ten feet of Owen.”
Jenna laughed. “It’s not like I’m going to hump his leg or something.”
“I wouldn’t blame you if you did. Do you work tomorrow?”
“Nope.”
“Can we do the girl thing then?”
“Of course.” Jenna gave her a quick squeeze. “I’m just so glad to see you smiling again.”
“Am I smiling?”
“Like you’ve been hitting the Prozac a little too hard, honey. Good for you. Why don’t you borrow something from my closet?” Jenna suggested. “You dress like my grandmother.”
“Owen likes the way I dress.”
“I highly doubt that. Now I’m going out to meet the man who put that smile on your face, while you change into something a little less you. ”
“Don’t tell him any embarrassing stories about me!” Caitlyn called after her.
Jenna closed the door securely behind herself on her way out. She was totally going to tell Owen all sorts of embarrassing stories about her, Caitlyn just knew she would. Caitlyn rushed to collect her things.
In the guest room, she upended her overnight bag in the center of her borrowed bed and looked for something to wear to a rock concert. Jenna was totally right—she couldn’t be seen someplace cool dressed in any of her clothes. She shoved a pair of twill weave slacks and a matching emerald-green sweater into the bottom of her bag and then helped herself to Jenna’s closet. Most of Jenna’s clothes would be too small for Caitlyn’s rounder backside, but one of her flirty dresses should fit. Was she daring enough to wear red? Yesterday Caitlyn would have said no, but today she was feeling particularly daring. And sexy. All thanks to Owen.
She wasn’t quite daring enough to wear the dress during the day, so she added it to her bag to change into later. Then she filched a pair of red heels from Jenna’s massive shoe collection, but she refused to borrow Jenna’s underwear. Caitlyn’s cartoon cow panties would have to do. Why had she bought those novelty panties in the first place? Owen had seemed to like the fuchsia pair with the sheep; how would he feel about turquoise with a cross-eyed cow?
Would he insist on making her saturate them with her arousal?
Oh lord, she was going to embarrass herself for sure.
Next time she saw Owen, she promised herself that she’d wear sexy underwear for him.
If there was a next time. She was starting to believe there might be a lot of next times.
After tossing her toiletries and make-up into her overnight bag, Caitlyn yanked the zipper shut and went to rescue Owen—and her own reputation—from Jenna’s clutches.
As expected, Jenna had Owen in stitches. They were standing next to the car, Owen leaning against the door so he didn’t collapse in hysterics and Jenna talking in her typical animated fashion. Caitlyn could only guess what her friend had been telling him. Probably about the time she’d forced Caitlyn to go zip-lining and she’d gotten stuck over a canyon. Caitlyn had been fascinated by the physics of the exercise and had determined the effectiveness of hand-braking via experimentation. Her experiment had been a marvelous success—she’d stopped dead in the center of the line—and it had taken her nearly an hour to pull herself, hand over hand, to the nearest station, much to the displeasure of everyone waiting a turn to zoom across the canyon.
“When she fell, she grabbed the nearest guy—by the pants, unfortunately—and we all soon discovered that he was a man who went commando.”
Owen sniggered and rubbed his forehead.
Oh, this was her rollerblading fiasco story. What was next, the “stuck upside-down between two rocks in a kayak” story? Jenna had never gotten it into her head that Caitlyn had the athletic prowess of a common sea slug. While their exploits were adventures for Jenna, those excursions had been exercises in injury and humiliation for Caitlyn. But she went because she knew how much Jenna enjoyed the not-so-great outdoors. And Jenna sometimes accompanied Caitlyn to science fiction conventions because she knew how much Caitlyn enjoyed pretending she was from space. Caitlyn pinked at her thoughts. She hoped Jenna hadn’t told Owen that she liked to dress up as Princess Leia on occasion. She kept the fake-braid earmuffs in the top drawer of her dresser at home.
Though she should be mortified, she wasn’t really. It was stranger to see Owen laughing with Jenna than knowing he was laughing because Jenna was embarrassing her. Seeing him with her best friend made it seem possible that Owen could become a part of Caitlyn’s regular life and not just be the guy who’d given her one night of thought-shattering sex.
Did she even want Owen as part of her regular life? That hadn’t been what she’d been after when she went to the sex club.
Just because something was possible didn’t mean she had to follow up. Maybe she could still blow him off and spend the day with Jenna. Jenna was… safe.
Owen smiled a greeting when he noticed Caitlyn approaching. Jenna turned and her face fell. You didn’t change? Jenna mouthed without speaking.
“I put on clean panties,” Caitlyn said defensively.
Jenna turned and said to Owen, “Can you give us just five more minutes?”
He turned to the driver, who stood next to the front fender. “When does the bus leave?”
The driver checked his watch. “We need to leave here in the next couple of minutes to make it.”
“I guess you have time to put your dirty panties back on,” Owen said.
Jenna burst out laughing and patted his chest playfully. “This one is naughty and nice,” she said, tossing her hair in an obviously flirtatious way. “You were so right about him.”
“He has his cock pierced too,” Caitlyn blurted, and then she clamped her hand over her big mouth.
“Hurry, baby.” Owen said. “We need to get going. I can’t wait to introduce you to Force.�
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“What force?” Caitlyn asked.
“Our drummer. He’s going to love you.” Owen scratched the back of his neck. “On second thought, I should probably keep you away from him.”
“We’ll be right back,” Jenna said, pulling Caitlyn back into the house. She slammed the door behind them and spun to confront Caitlyn. “Oh my God, Caitlyn, he’s gorgeous. And funny. And sweet. And apparently rich and famous. How in the hell did you luck into that?”
“I dunno. He likes older geeky women who give off men-suck vibes in sex clubs.”
“If you want to keep his attention, you’re going to have to dress better. You look like you climbed out of a thrift store Dumpster.”
“I’m telling you,” Caitlyn said, “he likes this look. I don’t get it either.”
“He can’t possibly like this look,” Jenna said. “He likes you and, unfortunately, you come with this look.”
“He likes me?” Caitlyn said breathlessly.
“Well, duh. What’s not to like?”
In a semi-trance, Caitlyn allowed Jenna to strip her down to her bra and panties. After a deserved eye roll at Caitlyn’s cow panties, Jenna stuck her in a pair of black capris that were tight in the rear and a soft pink T-shirt that stretched taut across her boobs.
“It’s not me,” Caitlyn said.
“You look cute.”
“I look like you.”
“Right,” Jenna said. “You look cute. Now do me a favor.”
“What?”
“Pretend to be cool.”
“Jenna…”
“Just for today.”
Caitlyn released an annoyed sigh. “Fine. I’ll pretend to be cool. But I need to hurry.” After being forced into sandals, she shoved her discarded clothes into her overnight bag and hurried out to the limo.
“What are you wearing?” Owen asked when she paused before him.
“Uh, Jenna thought…”
He shook his head slightly. “She thought wrong.”
For a moment, Caitlyn believed he was going to tell her to get lost, but he opened the door to the back of the limo, and she slipped inside.
He climbed in beside her, and the driver shut the door.
“I told you I like the jacket. I like the bow at your throat that begs to be untied. I like that your bra doesn’t match your panties.”
“It still doesn’t,” she said. “So you’re only attracted to me for my wardrobe, is that it?”
“No, you’d look hot in anything you wore—or nothing—but this outfit doesn’t give me a permanent boner. I have to be honest.”
“That’s probably a good thing,” she said and laughed. “My vagina needs a few hours to collect itself. It’s not used to so much attention.”
“Well, then, I’ll try to contain my blinding lust.” He grinned and took her hand, holding it gently in his. His thumb rubbed a lazy circle on her knuckles. “So,” he said. “Tell me about your camping trip. Jenna said you’d kill her if she told me about the skunk that got stuck in your tent.”
Caitlyn cringed. “She’s right. I’d kill her for that.”
“I didn’t take you for the outdoorsy type.”
“That’s because I’m not. Jenna is, though, and I am weak to her charm. She can talk me into anything.”
“It’s great to have a best friend, someone who pushes you to try things you’d never consider on your own. Makes life interesting.”
Caitlyn smiled, knowing he was thinking about Kellen again. Kellen was Owen’s Jenna. She suddenly felt a lot more comfortable about Owen’s relationship with Kellen. Caitlyn probably would never call Jenna’s name during sex, but whatever. If Owen said there was no attraction between them, she believed him.
“Interesting? I guess that’s one way to describe it.”
They both laughed and somehow ended up kissing all the way to the tour bus. Maybe it wasn’t her pathetic wardrobe that turned him on after all.
Their driver handed off their bags to some guy who stuffed them into a compartment under the bus.
“I’ll need to change later,” Caitlyn said.
“You can get your bag when we stop at the venue.”
She nodded.
“Ready to meet the rest of the band?”
Her stomach flopped. She was scared out of her mind, to be honest. Who’d have ever thought she’d be riding on a tour bus with a bunch of heavy metal musicians? Not her.
“I guess,” she said.
“You already met Kellen. He’s not so scary, is he?”
A little, yeah, but she shook her head bravely.
“And I’m the worst one of the bunch, so if you can handle me, you can surely handle the rest.”
“I highly doubt that you’re the worst,” she said. Because he was decidedly terrific. And it was hard to top perfection.
“Where have you been?” A muscle-bound hunk in aviator sunglasses spoke from the top of the bus steps. He had short dark hair and an abundance of bulges in all the right places. “If I’d have known you were going to be this late, I would have had Amanda stick around for one more quickie before I sent her home.”
“Caitlyn needed to stop by her friend’s house to pick up some clothes.”
“Who is Caitlyn?”
“That would be me,” Caitlyn said.
“Sorry, didn’t see you there.”
Which was the typical-man’s reaction to her. That’s why Owen’s attention had her completely befuddled and Jenna’s insistence that she was attractive didn’t hold much cotton. As a rule, men tended to ignore her.
“This is our vocalist, Shade,” Owen said. “He’s pretty much an egotistical asshole, but he grows on you after a while.”
Caitlyn couldn’t believe Shade let the insult slide without a rebuttal. Instead he focused on her.
“You’re not planning on her riding the bus, are you?” Shade said. “You know the rule: no chicks on the bus.”
“Fuck the rule,” Owen said. “She’s riding with us to Houston.” He took Caitlyn’s hand and tugged her up the bus past a very confused-looking Shade.
At the top of the steps, she came face-to-chest with another band member. This one was long and lean. She tilted her head back to peer into the greenest pair of eyes she’d ever encountered.
Wow. While she did have a limited gag reflex, she thought choking on her own tongue, as she was now doing, might be fatal. Especially considering the sudden overabundance of drool in her mouth.
“This is Force,” Owen said.
“May the force be with me,” Caitlyn mumbled, lost in Force’s amazing green-eyed gaze.
“It seems we have a problem,” she heard Kellen say from somewhere down the corridor. “She’s been drawn in by the power of the Force. You’d better do something and quick, Tags.”
Owen kissed her, which effectively broke Force’s spell. She smiled at Owen. She wasn’t used to being with a man who was so easy with affection in public, not that she minded.
“Who is this?” Force asked as he tugged his baseball cap lower on his forehead.
“That’s Caitlyn,” Kellen said. “Owen is breaking all his rules with her.”
“All of them?” Force asked.
“Well, hopefully not the “BYOC” rule, but the “only one poke per bush” rule and the “never sleep with the women you sleep with” rule and the “never eat breakfast with a chick” rule and apparently the “no ladies on the bus” rule. Did you break the “never meet her friends” rule too, Owen?”
He cringed and pulled a hand through his hair. “Yeah, I broke that one too.”
“Stupid rules anyway,” Force said. “My name is Gabe, by the way. You don’t have to call me Force.”
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