Never Leave a Rockstar (Never Trust Book 4)

by Sarah Darlington

  “So what are you saying? Suspend reality how?”

  I took a breath. “When you kissed me—time stopped.”

  “Are you asking me to kiss you again?” Suddenly his voice changed, a cocky edge leaking into his words from that tiny admission of mine.

  “Yes.”

  “Only kiss you?”

  “No.” My voice trembled. “Not only.”

  “I see.”

  He loosened his grip around my shoulders. I’d just given Ollie an inch. I wanted to see what he’d do with it, and how fast he’d turn that inch into a mile.

  He let go. And I turned around to face him. For what felt like forever, I stood in front of him staring up into his pretty brown eyes. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. My head still screamed at me. This was such a stupid idea. The repercussions were going to break my heart later, I just knew it.

  And that was when he kissed me and the thoughts dissipated. He cupped my face in his calloused hands. His thumb swept across my jaw line from my cheek to my lower lip. Then his mouth came to mine, and I sucked in a breath.

  It wasn’t fair.

  I never stood a chance against the sex that just oozed from Ollie’s pores. I realized it now as he pressed his lips to mine, and I melted like a snow cone in the hot sun for him. He kissed me in this slow, soft, savoring way. Not at all on track with the player that I knew he was.

  Just like before, time stood still.

  Then he took a taste of my mouth, his tongue sweeping against mine, and a shiver ran over my whole body. I moaned against him.

  That fueled his fire.

  His hands moved to my waist. His fingers traced over my bare stomach, along the edge of my bikini line.

  “Fuck,” he whispered. “Fuck.”

  I needed more of him now. No more playing around. I stood on my toes, catching his lower lip between my teeth, sucking gently. I traced my hands over his chest. All his hard edges felt so good under my fingers. I felt my way all the way to his neck. “Oliver, please,” I begged. I wasn’t above begging at this point. “I want you.”

  He breathed in deeply through his nose.

  “Shit,” he cursed again.

  Wait. Was he holding back?

  “I need you,” I added. Because this was more than want.

  “I need you too. Luce, you have no idea how badly I need you.”

  Why did it feel like there was a big ‘but’ behind that statement? Why wasn’t he trying to push for more than just a kiss? Hell, I think literally everyone had experienced more of Ollie than the Ollie he was giving me right now.

  I pulled back, standing flat on my feet. I felt a little deflated. The spot between my legs needed some relief, pretty damn desperately, and I realized that relief wasn’t about to come from Ollie. Was he teasing me? Toying with me? Punishing me somehow?

  I frowned, knowing it wasn’t going to happen. I guess, silver-lining, I was kind of proud of Ollie. He’d resisted sex for possibly the first time in his life. But then it occurred to me—maybe he just didn’t want me like that. Maybe it was that simple. Maybe I wasn’t pretty enough for a guy who’d slept with his fair share of models.

  But he kissed me again. Another soft, lingering, curl-my-fucking-toes kind of kiss. Another moment that sent even more shivers across my body. No, this didn’t feel like rejection. It felt like something else. Something deeper.

  “That was surprisingly PG, Ollie Mills,” I told him when we broke apart.

  “No. It wasn’t. That was most R-rated moment of my life.”

  I laughed off his comment at first, thinking he was joking around. But his eyes met mine with seriousness in them, innocence even. If it wasn’t a joke, what did he mean? Heat hit my cheeks. “You should check on the fire,” I told him, my way of changing the subject, my way of breaking the moment.

  “Shit, the fire. You’re right.”

  Ollie took off racing up the beach. We hadn’t slept together. That was probably a good thing. But somehow whatever we just did felt a whole lot riskier. Maybe that was what he meant by ‘R-rated’.

  Dangerous.

  This whole thing was dangerous. I swept my hands through my hair, still turned on, but far more worried about what all of this meant for my future wellbeing. Because I swear, that one kiss, had me thinking about Ollie in a whole new kind of way. A way I’d always reserved only for Rhett.

  ~ CHAPTER 15 ~

  OLIVER

  Half the day was gone.

  It had been the best way to spend time, making out on the beach all morning, but I raced back to camp panicked. The fire was only coals, mostly dead, and I dropped to my knees. In a rush to regain control, I spent the next thirty minutes coaxing it back to life.

  I wanted to talk more with Luce. See where she was at. Because now that we’d crossed from friendship into something more, she was under my skin, in my veins, and all my mind wanted to think about. Not this shitty fire and all my shitty attempts at survival. But the fire had to be priority number one. Food had to take precedence. It didn’t matter what I felt inside. It didn’t matter how scary our moment on the beach had been. I’d called it R-rated because there’d been nothing PG about it. I felt more from that one kiss than any other kiss I’d shared with any other girl in my life. Sex had nothing to do with it—for the first time in my life, absolutely nothing.

  Once I had the fire under control, I noticed Luce wasn’t close by.

  I went off to collect snails. That was the easiest thing to cook—so I’d start with them. I spotted Luce in the water, playing in the waves. I know she loved the ocean, being from a beach town and all. I mean, hell, she was a surfer. But this was the first time I’d seen her enjoying herself on this island. I took it as a good sign. If she was playing in the waves, that had to mean I’d done something right earlier.

  I watched her for a moment… until I saw something very far off in the distance. It was a boat of some kind.

  Holy shit!

  “Luce!” I yelled, waving my arms over my head frantically. “Luce!”

  She noticed, wiping the water off her face, pushing her short blonde hair back. Fighting the resistance of the waves, she began swimming in my direction. She joined me on the shore, breathing hard. “What’s wrong?”

  Was she blushing? Her cheeks were red. Maybe from the sun, I decided.

  “It’s a boat,” I nodded over the ocean in the direction of the tiny dot on the horizon.

  She flipped around, shielding the sun with her hand. “It’s a boat!”

  It was extremely far off. I felt my breathing begin to change. That fight or flight feeling gripped at my lungs as Luce started jumping up a down, screaming and flapping her arms. She stopped after a minute when she noticed I wasn’t joining in.

  “What do we do?” Luce asked me. “It’s too far away to see us.”

  “We get another fire going out here on the beach. We build it as big as we can. Okay? This might be our shot off the island.” I was excited but couldn’t help but feel apprehensive at the same time. Luce was an insanely beautiful girl and who knows who was on that ship. A murderer. A rapist. A modern day pirate. Or maybe just a friendly, old fisherman. It was a gamble. I had to hope for a decent person as our rescuer.

  Luce and I began scrambling. Digging a fire pit. Filling the new hole with all the wood we could find nearby. Then I ran back to camp, grabbed the tin, and moved coals from our original fire. I strategically placed them around the small sticks at the base of our new fire. But I stopped, abandoning my effort, and glanced up once more. The boat wasn’t going to pass us by. Instead it was heading straight for us. The tiny dot wasn’t so tiny anymore.

  I touched Luce’s shoulder. She was blowing as hard as she could at the coals I’d just placed. “Stop, Luce.”

  “What?”

  I swallowed, fear flooding my senses. “Baby, go hide.”

  She stared at me like she wanted to smack me.

  “Go hide. That’s my fucking boat. Go hide. And no matter what happens, no matter what
I say, no matter what they say, do not fucking come out of the woods.” I worked my hands into her wet hair. I pressed my forehead to hers. I was only just beginning to make progress with Luce—at tapping into that beautiful interior of hers that she kept guarded so well. Dammit, I wouldn’t let anyone take that from me. Above all, I’d keep her safe. I’d protect her from whomever might be coming on my boat.

  ~ CHAPTER 16 ~

  LUCE

  Waiting in the jungle, watching Ollie’s yacht move closer and closer to the dock, I couldn’t help but think of the day we got stranded on this island and the two girls who had left us for dead. It had been only six days ago now, but it felt like months had passed. Of all the people in this world, why did these two idiots have to be our rescuers…

  * * *

  Six Days Ago

  The taxi dropped me at the end of the road. The clear blue water in view. The smell of fish in the air. “I’m supposed ta’ tell ya’ it’s da boat at da end of da dock, now. Big one, ya’ see.” My driver had a thick accent. He’d been kind to me since the moment he picked me up outside of the Nassau airport. “But ya’ see, Ollie man, he’s a good man and all. But ya’ ain’t da’ first woman I done this for.”

  “I know,” I told him. “I know Ollie.” I opened my backpack, digging out my wallet. “What do I owe you?”

  “That’s not necessary. I already been paid.” He quickly opened his door, hurrying to open mine too. After I stepped out and thanked him, I ventured down the dock with my backpack over one shoulder. There were a million boats. Lots of people out. Seemed like they were mostly tourists or retirees or people who moved down to the Bahamas to live a similar kind of life. I found Ollie’s boat with the name CHARLOTTE on the side.

  It was large. Beautiful, really. Ollie had told me earlier that it had a living room and a bedroom inside. He’d even assured me he’d take the couch, and I could have his king bed. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was getting myself into—if this was friendship or more. But he’d given me an escape from Rhett’s wedding, and the more I kept thinking about the past few months, about the friendship Ollie and I had developed, I wasn’t entirely sure it was only a friendship.

  I stepped onto the back of the boat, the only section level with the dock. “Ollie,” I called out, but there was no answer. It was an open view into his living room. It had a small kitchen area, two built-in couches, and a small table. I kind of loved it. It wasn’t over the top, like I was expecting, but comfortable. Lots of grays and beiges.

  There were stairs leading to a lower level. I assumed that would be where his bedroom was. I ventured down there, feeling the gentle sway of the water. And immediately regretted that decision. Because I found Ollie... and two other women.

  One had her shirt off, her tits on full display, as she lounged across the room from him. A second girl, a blonde, was tucked close to his side, sucking on his neck. She had a hand on Ollie’s shorts—above the clothing, lazily rubbing.

  His eyes locked straight on mine the moment I came into the room. He didn’t push the girl on him away. He didn’t act like I’d caught him doing anything wrong.

  “Oh, hey Luce.” He half smiled. “I forgot you were coming. Welcome to the Bahamas.”

  He forgot I was coming. Bullshit. He’d bought my ticket. He knew the flight times. He’d sent the driver. How could he have forgotten?

  The blonde attempting to rub on his dick stopped. She had an annoyed look on her face, clearly not happy by my intrusion. The whole mood in the room felt weird. Forced. Strange. I’d only met Ollie in person one other time. I felt like I knew him somewhat. But this whole thing told me I really didn’t know him at all.

  “This is, um...” He turned to the blonde.

  “April,” she said.

  “Yes. Her brother has a boat he keeps in the port, too.”

  “My brother,” the other girl corrected him.

  “Right. How was the flight?”

  I had a bad taste in my mouth. Should I leave? Get the fuck out of here? My heart, which had been pounding for a different reason moments prior to seeing Ollie, was now pounding with anxiety. “The flight was fine. Average.”

  “Olls, babe, could we go snorkeling like you promised. Take the boat out.”

  Ollie sat up. I tried to decide if he was high, drunk, or sober. He seemed sober. But then again, what did I know about a day in the life of a Rockstar? I’d expected him to be alone this weekend. I guess I expected wrong. I was still working on deciding if I should leave.

  Ollie walked straight to me. His eyes on mine and only mine. They held a question. A burning question in those pretty brown eyes. He had a way of looking at you, really looking at you, and making you feel like the only person in the room. The same had been true the one other time I’d met him.

  “Want to go snorkeling?” he asked. Somehow that didn’t feel like the question he really wanted to ask.

  Maybe he needed rescuing from these two. Maybe I hadn’t walked in on anything at all but a cry for help.

  “Sure,” I said. “Why not…”

  “Yay,” cheered the one who wasn’t named April, the one with no shirt on.

  “Do you have somewhere I can change into my bathing suit?”

  “My bathroom’s through there. Change and I’ll get the boat ready to leave. I’ll just be upstairs. You okay with this?”

  Did he mean the girls or the snorkeling? What was he asking? “I’m fine. I love snorkeling.”

  “Can I drive?” April asked.

  “No.”

  “Why not? I’m a great driver.”

  “I said no.”

  “Please.”

  Ollie smiled, rolling his eyes. Then he moved for the stairs. The two girls followed; the one remained topless. Maybe that was just her bathing suit. He glanced back in my direction. Our eyes connected one last time. I couldn’t read his intentions in the least.

  It was weird.

  Something felt weird.

  But I loved the ocean. It was a beautiful day. I’d come here for a distraction. I didn’t have to have sex with Ollie. But some snorkeling in the Bahamas—that sounded pretty damn nice. I could go for that. I could put up with April and the topless girl for the day, so long as no one tried to get me to join in a four-way.

  I took a breath, pulling my blue bikini from my backpack, and locked myself in the bathroom to change.

  A minute later, I felt the boat move as Ollie must have pulled out from the dock.

  ~ CHAPTER 17 ~

  OLIVER

  Luce was hiding somewhere in the woods. She was smart. I know she’d keep herself safe. I stood on the dock, watching my own boat come closer and closer. Maybe the two girls who stole it had undergone a change of heart in the last six days. Maybe they didn’t want to leave me for dead. Or, more likely, they found they couldn’t easily sell my boat for cash without proper papers.

  I thought about running to the woods too. But I knew I had to face this head on. I had to sweet-talk my way out of this. Sweet-talking was a specialty of mine. I could do this.

  I put a smile on my face, crossed my arms over my chest, ignored the pit of hunger in my stomach, and waited for the girls to dock.

  “Hi, Ollie,” April yelled from the boat deck. She wiggled her fingers at me, pushing her sunglasses higher up her tiny nose. Then she made a kissy face. “Did you miss me?”

  “Last time I saw you, your friend was pointing a gun at my face and pushing my friend overboard. So, no, sorry, I didn’t miss you.” I’d jumped in the water when April’s friend pushed Luce over the edge. Because what else was I supposed to do? Stand around and get shot? Let them abandon only Luce?

  “I know.” She shrugged. “Sorry about that. And where is your friend now?”

  “She left.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “Well, we used the telephone back at the house in the woods.” I nodded in the direction of the shed, lying my ass off. “I had someone come get her. As you can imagine, she wasn’t particular h
appy with me after you left us. But I decided to stay. I wanted to see your face when you showed and found me living comfortably. And here you are. Feeling guilty? Having trouble selling my boat? CHARLOTTE is pretty famous. I bought her from Tiger Woods. Did you know that? I bet you figured that out this week. Am I right?”

  I kept my cool. I kept my voice even. My ribs were probably showing, giving away the ten or more pounds I’d lost in our time on this island, giving away my lie about the house in the woods. But judging by the fresh construction of this dock—she might believe me.

  The other girl appeared.

  Ms. Tits.

  “April, stop flirting,” she scolded. Then Ms. Tits hopped down off the boat, the same gun as last time in her hand. April stumbled after her, much less coordinated, climbing down awkwardly.

  I held up my hands. “Whoa, I don’t want any more trouble. I just want my boat back.”

  “You’re not getting it back.”

  “Then what the fuck are you doing coming here? Besides ruining my vacation on this beautiful island?”

  “You look thin, Ollie Mills. And dirty. Don’t lie to us. Where’s your friend really?”

  “Like I said, she’s gone home.”

  She grunted. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. We didn’t come for her.” She tossed something at me. A roll of duct tape. I caught it in my hands.

  “Duct tape? What the fuck?”

  “Put a piece on your mouth. I’m done listening to your nails-on-chalkboard voice. It’s making me want to claw at my ears. I can’t believe I had to show my boobs for this whole mess.”

  “I never asked you to show me your boobs. You did that on your own, sweetheart.”

  “Get the fuck on the boat. Consider yourself kidnapped, Ollie Mills.”

  I rolled my eyes. These girls were annoying as hell. So selling my boat hadn’t worked? Now they wanted to see if they could get some money for me as a ransom instead. Was that it? Only problem, I wasn’t going anywhere without Luce.