Nick was angry and afraid. And she wasn’t going to give him an outlet, dammit.
She wouldn’t be giving him any of her energy. She was going to need it for Simon. He was the important one right now. And she only had enough reserves for one man.
Small fingers wrapped around her wrist and slid down to join with hers. “You can take care of him. I know it.”
Margo looked down to see Jazz beside her. Her huge blue eyes were swimming with banked tears.
Nick swore.
Jazz held onto her hand and crowded in on Nick, laying her head on his chest. “Super Slut doesn’t—”
“Simon,” Margo said. She hated that name. Hated the thought of him touching anyone else. Had hated it from the moment he’d touched her in the studio. Because she knew he wasn’t the one-woman-man she wanted him to be.
Did she honestly want him to be one for her?
Jazz laughed. “Yes. Simon. Your Simon.”
The kneejerk urge to tell her no, he wasn’t hers was there at the tip of her tongue, but she didn’t voice it. Not now.
Because for now he was.
What happened after the two weeks was a question she wasn’t going to ask herself.
Lila sighed. “All this posturing is giving me a headache. I have calls to make and the media to wrangle. Holy clusterfuck,” she muttered as she headed out the door with her phone in her hand.
Deacon stood behind Harper, his hands lightly kneading her shoulders. “Whatever you need us to do, we’ll do.”
Margo sighed. Simon needed his people. They were his family and she understood that, but she wasn’t sure they were exactly the best thing to help him rest and relax. “We’ll see what he thinks when he wakes up, but I have a few ideas.”
“Care to share with the class?” Nick asked between gritted teeth.
“I was thinking about taking him out of the city. My…” She swallowed. Was she really going to do this? Bring him into her real world? “My family has a house in St. John.”
Nick’s eyebrows shot up. “St. John? And you’re a gun for hire?”
Her hands fisted again. “I’m not my family. But I’m willing to ask them for him.”
He tilted his head. “Is Violin Girl the black sheep of the family?”
“A year ago I’d say no.” Now she wasn’t so sure.
“We have money,” Nick muttered. “We don’t need your charity.”
“No, but if the media gets a hold of the fact that Simon is at a resort or even your house in the hills it will be nothing but bedlam. You know that.” Nick’s eyes flashed. He did know it. She’d seen how the public reacted to them just at a hotel. This, when Simon’s blood was in the water? No, nothing about this would be good for awhile.
The media would forget if he stayed away.
A very real fear in its own right. People didn’t have long memories. Whatever the next biggest thing was…that would own the papers and the paparazzi. And that’s what they were right now. Even before the concert tonight.
God.
Just tonight.
Not even twelve hours since it happened and nothing was the same.
And she’d actually just offered to go and deal with her family. Maybe she needed her head examined in the ER?
A loud snap broke them all apart.
Nick peeked around her. “You didn’t just snap your fingers at us, did you?”
Simon was sitting cross-legged in the middle of his bed, the marker board on his lap facing out. He nodded with a fuck-off look on his face.
Do I have a say?
“Of course you do.” Margo rushed back to his side. “It’s just an idea.”
He used the eraser end of the marker and smudged out his words. The squeak of the marker was the only sound in the room.
Unlimited sex?
Jazz gave a watery laugh. “Perv.”
Simon waggled his eyebrows. He flipped it over and scribbled again.
Not sure I want to be indebted to your parents.
She wasn’t sure she wanted to either. Just the idea of it made her want to pull on a cardigan and her orchestra clothes. Their house in Boston was austere and traditional—all the things she’d been for so long.
So different than what she’d become because of this man, these people. She’d been comfortable in her skin for the very first time in her life. Walking back into that house, into that life again…
She shivered.
Simon frowned and braceleted his fingers around her wrist then slid down to lace their fingers.
Margo covered their joined hands with her free one. “Maybe it’s good we both get away for awhile. How long were you awake?”
He gave a slight shrug, but his eyes were lit with a little of his old fire. He dragged her down and stared into her eyes as he touched his lips to hers. He wrinkled his nose and pressed his lips together then mimed brushing his teeth.
She grinned at him. They all needed to be cleaned up and get some rest. She traced the expressive wing of his eyebrow. “I have to go to Boston. Think you can do without me for a day?”
He stretched out his legs and crossed them at the ankles as he tucked his arms behind his head and gave her a nonchalant nod.
She laughed because it’s what he needed. What they all needed.
She looked over at Jazz and Gray, Harper and Deacon—both anchored to one another. She and Simon were two buoys in the same water. Not quite together, not apart.
But Nick stood just a touch away from everyone, with a defiant tilt to his jaw and his hands jammed in his pockets.
Lila walked in, her eyes unreadable. “I have a meeting with Donovan tomorrow. I think we all need some rest. Especially Simon.”
Simon leaned back on his elbows and frowned. Whether it was at Lila’s words, or the idea that everyone was leaving, Margo wasn’t sure.
She slipped her hand into his. He tightened his hold on her, but his focus was still on Lila.
“All right, c’mon. Do the goodbyes and kisses if that’s what you’re into.” Lila made a wrap-it-up gesture.
“Simon couldn’t handle my kisses,” Nick said.
Simon flashed him the middle finger. Just like that, the tension in the room dropped by half.
Deacon came up beside Simon and clamped one of his huge hands on his shoulder.
Harper patted her huge stomach. “I can’t bend over.” Simon patted it back and Harper gave him a watery laugh. “I’ll check with the doctors about what you can eat and smuggle something in.”
Simon gave her a thumbs up.
Gray and Jazz shuffled forward, Harper and Jazz twisting fingers together as they passed one another.
Such an odd thing. She’d never had a friend she was so close to that emotions would bubble to the surface like they did between Harper and Jazz. Some of it could be the baby hormones, but from the moment Margo had been around them…they’d had a connection that Margo had never felt a part of.
They didn’t exclude her, but that kind of sharing never occurred to her either. Even with her sister. Of course when it came to her sister, keeping her distance was more of a defense mechanism.
She never knew what could happen in the future if she gave Juliet too much ammunition. Anyone in her family, really. And yet, here…this was a dysfunctional family by all accounts and somehow they made it work.
Just when she was getting a handle on things in this crazy life she’d entered into, they changed all the rules on her.
She glanced down at Simon as he got an exuberant hug from Jazz and an awkwardly endearing handclasp from Gray. This man child that heated her blood, showed her what music and passion could create, and now reality was sitting between them.
This wasn’t fantasy anymore.
She wasn’t sure what they were now. They had morphed into something more in the last few months. He’d even told her that he loved her.
She wasn’t entirely sure she understood that either.
Did he actually love her or the idea of what she was?
>
Right now her concerns didn’t matter. She might not have all the answers about how to define what she and Simon were to one another, but she wasn’t letting him face this alone.
The band finally left after well wishes and insults. Nick hovered in the doorway, the last to leave. His long, lightly scarred fingers tightened on the doorjamb. His amber soaked gaze speared her with a fierceness that made her step closer to Simon.
“I’m entrusting him to you, Violin Girl. Don’t fuck it up.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Best isn’t shit. If you’re in this, then you’re in. Otherwise you can split now.”
Simon snapped his fingers and pointed at Nick then made a cut it gesture near his neck.
“No. I’m not going to shut up. I’m the one that will have to go find your sorry ass somewhere if this goes south.”
She slid her thumb along Simon’s. “He’s just worried.” She said it more to herself than to Simon, but it was a hard truth. Now wasn’t the time for screwing with anyone’s emotions. “We’ll take care of each other, Nick. I promise.”
He gave a sharp nod and started walking. “I’ll be here tomorrow, dumbass,” he called from the hallway.
“You two have a strange relationship.”
Simon scribbled tell me about it on the board.
She leaned down, caging him with her arms. “Are you going to be okay for a few days while I set things up?”
His gaze slid down to her mouth then back up to her eyes. He mouthed, “maybe.” Instead of the kiss she’d been expecting, he slipped his fingers through her hair. It was usually tied back from the stage, but that had fallen hours ago.
The slow stroke of his fingers and light tug on her hair made her eyes flutter shut in reaction. She was used to his firmer grip and the intensity that followed them around like a third person in their relationship.
This lighter touch was almost worse. It was reminiscent of the night on the bus. God, had that really been less than two days ago? It felt like everything had changed in such a short time.
And now this? She opened her eyes again and his striking silver-blue eyes were hooded and sharp at the same time. Lust swirled between them like a fragrance, heady and consuming.
He got to the tips of her hair and went back for another slow stroke and she was fairly certain she was going to need a stretcher to get the hell out of there tonight. This time, he tugged her down, again bypassing a kiss to skim his nose over her jawline, behind her ear.
The moan she usually got out of him was gone, but the silence was worse. She could hear the change in his breathing, the light hitch there, followed by a flick of his tongue and soft trail of kisses down her neck.
This time she moaned enough for both of them. He brushed his knuckle along the curve of her breast and lightly pinched her nipple. Her elbow joint went out as the shudder pulsed through her.
He dragged her onto the bed. “Simon!” But he didn’t seem to be listening. She groaned as he pushed her skirt up enough for her to straddle his lap. Before she could tell him no—or even pretend to—he’d pulled her shirt down and flipped the cup of her bra until the cool air of the room met skin.
His busy mouth at her neck as he cupped her breasts together had her gasping.
“Someone could come in. A nurse…” She trailed off because his lightly callused thumbs circled her nipples followed by the softness of his lips and tongue.
She rolled her hips because she couldn’t do anything else. The ridge of his cock was there, swelling harder between her legs. Simon was usually so vocal, so full of praise or moans of reaction. The lack of sounds made her try harder to pull them from him, even though he couldn’t—shouldn’t—make them.
His hold tightened, his breathing hotter against her skin, but the part that tossed her over the edge was the light bump of his hips under her.
“Oh, God. Oh, God.”
His hands came up to frame her face, his fingers sliding into her hair as his thumbs traced the apples of her cheeks. He held her there, watched her. His eyes so fierce as the friction and the tiredness and the worry coalesced into a soft, rolling orgasm.
He touched his forehead to hers, his breathing just as labored as hers. She slipped her hand under his sheet to find him. Just a johnny coat kept him away from her.
But he shook his head. He pressed his cheek to hers and blew out a slow breath as he dragged her up and into his arms. She slid to the side of him and tucked her face into his neck.
He held her close and she snaked her hand under the covers, into the open sides of the hospital gown to get to his skin.
She needed that contact. But she didn’t move down. Even as alluring as his obviously still hard cock was, she wanted to feel his heartbeat more. The soft sigh he made let her know it was the right course of action.
And as his breathing slowed and the leftover drugs in his system worked their magic, she felt him relax under her. She lay with him a little longer, her own stress and worry reeled in by the reassuring thump of his heart.
By the time she slid from the bed, he was completely out. She eased an inky lock of hair away from his forehead and kissed him softly. Then she gathered her things and spotted a nurse in the doorway with her arms folded.
She couldn’t help a lopsided smile and a shrug. The nurse stepped aside and Margo threw a look over her shoulder one last time. For him, she was willing to face her parents.
The sky surely had to be falling. Or was that just her falling for Simon?
Chapter Two
Simon sat on the edge of his hospital bed, his feet swinging. He’d been waiting for his discharge papers for about four hours. And if they didn’t come soon he was going to start swinging with the IV pole in the corner.
For fuck’s sake, all he needed was a piece of paper or whatever it was they did in hospitals these days. Would it really matter if he just walked out? Not like they weren’t going to send him a fucking bill.
There was a knock on the doorjamb and he looked up, his shoulders sagging.
“Show a little excitement, Kagan.”
He gave Lila a half wave and pulled his marker board close to him. He scribbled I want to go home and held it up.
“And that’s what I’m here to do. Well, sort of. We have to meet up with the band first.”
He tipped his head back. All he wanted was a real shower, with his own soap and his own towels. He wanted his bed and his sheets.
Something of his own, for God’s sake.
He wanted his woman too and that made him even grouchier. Oh, she’d kept in contact, but she was still across the goddamn country. And for the last three hours, her one word replies were making him even pissier.
She couldn’t take a few minutes to actually converse with him?
And now he sounded like a needy teenage girl. Flipping terrific.
Simon hopped off the bed, swiped the board clean with his hand.
Can I get the hell out of here yet?
“Yes. I just spoke to the nurse.”
He mouthed, “Finally.” All the hospital did was bitch about needing beds and he’d been sitting around for the last two days. Just fucking kill him. He looked around her then back down at his board.
Where’s everyone else?
“They’re at the house.”
“Which one,” he mouthed.
“The Hollywood Hills one.”
Nurse Bust-His-Balls came in with a folder and a clipboard full of papers. “We need to go over a few things.”
Simon resisted the urge to cross his eyes as he got the same marching orders as he had from the doc. No talking, no grunting, no humming, nothing—oh and no booze. Couldn’t forget that part.
So he was supposed to be silent and fucking sober? Where was the justice?
He made an impatient, get-on-with-it gesture, and took the clipboard from her. He signed at all the red flags, handed it back to her, and scooped the yellow folder off his bed.
“Sorry about that,” Lila said.
She didn’t need to fucking apologize for him. Nurse Bust was just plain evil. There was no way he needed to be woken up at six in the morning for inedible food. Swallowing anything felt like he was chewing shards of glass with a side of battery acid.
When he got to the lobby, he finally slowed down. He’d escaped once to do a walkabout, but that had been a mistake. He was too well-known. People had come at him from every corner. Hospital staff, visitors, hell, even a doctor had cornered him and he couldn’t talk to any of them.
Couldn’t even escape.
It hadn’t been worth the drama so he’d stayed in his room.
Now he needed Lila to be his defense. As much as he hated it, he couldn’t go off on his own. And he’d left the damn marker board in the room. He was just going to need to get one and hang it around his neck.
Pathetic.
“If you think this rude shit is going to fly, you are sorely mistaken, Simon.”
He stuck out his lower lip.
“That might work on a groupie or even your…Margo, but not me.”
Ha. His Margo. He wasn’t so sure about that. He wasn’t entirely sure she was sticking around out of pity or because she cared about him. The thing that scared him was that he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to tell.
She held shit really close to the vest. He couldn’t tell what she was thinking half the time. In fact, he was pretty sure she rivaled Nick on his ability to share feelings.
And fuck him, more teenage girl talk. Emo hipster bastard. When the hell had that happened?
He followed Lila onto the elevator. She hit the button for the sub basement parking. His eyebrow rose in question.
“I have a car waiting downstairs.” She folded her arms. “The front is mobbed with reporters and fans.”
Simon mirrored her stance, holding his folder tight to his chest. He hadn’t really thought about the fan angle. Before it had simply been to get away from them from a fame point of view, but he’d collapsed on stage. Of course the public wanted a juicy bite of his ass.
Consumed Page 2