“Yeah.” So why did she think she’d been relegated to “stranger” role? Because Chick had glanced at first Kelsie, then her with cold eyes. He must have to deal with a lot of hangers-on, but Laura didn’t appreciate his hostility right now. Unless something else had happened to provoke him.
“Fucking sound checks,” he muttered, sotto voce. “Extra hassle, especially on the second night. But they won’t be satisfied until it’s all perfect. After this, we’re running through a couple of the numbers where the colors didn’t work. We can get here, unfold the whole fucking thing and they still don’t like it.”
“Working with perfectionists is a bitch,” she said.
Chick shot her a conspiratorial grin, then, as if remembering his attitude, turned his attention back to the stage and folded his arms, cutting them out.
Kelsie shrugged and moved back. Laura decided to join her. “This is fantastic,” she said.
“You think?” Kelsie grimaced. “I’ve been here longer than you and it gets old. By the way, where did you get the clean clothes? I know you haven’t been back to the flat, because I took Riku there.”
“I picked them up in town.” At a chain store in about ten minutes flat. “Did you? What did he think?”
She shrugged. “He didn’t say anything. I pounced.” Her smile broadened. “He’s fucking amazing in bed. How about Zazz?”
Laura didn’t want to tell her, so she said something noncommittal. “He’s fine. I like him, Kelsie.”
“Sure you do. You’ve been aching to meet him ever since I first knew you.” Kelsie and Laura had met when she moved to the department where Kelsie worked. They’d hit it off at once, deciding to flat-share when Kelsie had decided to leave home. It meant a better, bigger place, and the arrangement suited them both. At least it had up to now. Now Laura wanted to hug Zazz to herself, to keep him close. Stupid. The rock star and the social worker didn’t even make a good title for a romance novel. Too prosaic, like her. Kelsie nudged her in the ribs. “Hey, we’re fucking rock stars. How cool is that?”
With a jolt, Laura recognized her change in mood. She was fucking Zazz, who was a person. Not a thing, even if that thing was a rock star.
As far as she was concerned, she did more than fuck him last night. They’d connected, and she desperately wanted them to be friends, to continue even after he’d left Manchester. But that had to be up to Zazz. He had all the power in that side of their relationship.
Zazz sauntered across to them and she couldn’t prevent her smile of greeting, sappy, but he made her smile. He grinned back, so at least that part of their relationship was working well. He dropped a quick kiss on her lips. “Nearly done. I’m happy, so if the others are, we can get going.”
“Where?”
He nodded at Kelsie. “Wherever you like.”
“I need to go home for some clean stuff.”
“Why? I like you naked.” He gave a mock growl and pulled her close. “We can get you some stuff at the hotel. They have a shop.”
They lost a minute. Laura should really be embarrassed, but she couldn’t. When Zazz kissed her again, she sank into his embrace. It felt to her that only the two of them existed for the short duration of the kiss, when he tasted her and she responded in full measure.
When their lips parted, she took a moment to enjoy his face, so close to her, glowing with desire and a kind of triumph. So superbly confident, as he should be, having played the song so beautifully. Even in a sound check. “We’ll drop by your place. You think we should leave Dad alone for the rest of the day?”
“He was tired. The nurse will bathe him and try to get him to rest. She’ll give him his medication.” She spoke low enough for nobody to hear.
He rested his forehead against hers. “I hate him on that stuff.”
“He’s too weak to cope with withdrawal, you know that.”
He closed his eyes and nodded and when he opened them again, the joy had gone. Bleakness remained. She knew better than to try to offer superficial comfort. His grief went much deeper than that.
Regret filled her, that she’d helped to remind him of what had sent him away in the first place. “I’m sorry, Zazz.”
He pulled away. “Yeah, right. No worries. Okay, so your place, then food, then mine.”
“We were going back there,” Kelsie said. “Maybe we could go together. We were planning to visit Jimmy again. He said it was all right.” Although Kelsie wasn’t Jimmy’s case officer, she could visit him. They weren’t bound by medical ethics.
Laura frowned. She didn’t like Kelsie using the name too loudly. “He was tired, you saw it.”
“But he loved telling us the stories, and I loved to listen. Riku wants more, and he’s planning to go to London tomorrow. He doesn’t have much time left.”
Zazz glanced at Laura, as if asking for confirmation. She considered the situation and relented. “You know not to overtire him, Kelsie. Don’t stay too long.”
Kelsie wet her finger and crossed her heart. “Swear. I’ll get him in bed by ten.”
“I hope that includes me.” Riku walked over to them, chuckling. “C’mon, let’s go. Everybody’s happy. They want to run through the light show, but as long as they don’t change the sets, I’m fine with that.”
“The running order’s set?” Zazz asked.
“As much as it will ever be.”
“Great.” He nodded to the rest of the band, and after receiving nods in return, or thumbs-up, they made their way out of the building.
Not into the limos that stood silently by the exit. “That’s for tonight,” Zazz said. “We’ll leave that way afterward. You can come with us if you like.”
The crush, the screams—hell yes, she’d take the limos. When else would she ever have a chance to experience that? “I want to stay with you,” she said.
“Sounds good to me.” He took her hand and squeezed it. “Let’s go.”
Chapter Five
She took little time at her flat. Riku and Kelsie sat on the only sofa, and Zazz leaned against the wall, watching her from under hooded lids. She left the bedroom door open while she threw a couple of changes of clothing into a bag, including her work clothes for Monday. She meant to make the most of her time with this devastating man.
He took the bag from her and waved to the other two. “Have a good time,” he said before the door closed behind them.
Kelsie and Laura lived in a converted house in Withington. They had the whole of the second floor but shared the stairs and hallways with the other residents. The house must have been gracious once, a grand Victorian residence for one of the industrialists who thronged the city a hundred years and more before and made it great. Zazz had a cab waiting outside, one of the big shiny black taxis with room to stretch out inside. If they wanted to.
He closed the screen separating them from the driver, but this cab had no privacy glass, so they contented themselves with hand holding. She’d felt Zazz’s mood change from lazy acceptance to need as they’d shared a taxi with the other two to the flat. Then he’d waited while she got her stuff.
“I was as quick as I could be,” she said.
“Not quick enough.” His voice had lowered to a growl. “I want you. It’s been too long since I’ve seen you naked.”
His words forced her arousal up and her panties dampened rapidly. She was lost, far too much to think of anything but getting him where she wanted him. It seemed the feeling was mutual, because instead of going to Rusholme for the meal he’d suggested, he made the guy stop at the hotel.
Zazz dragged her around the back of the place to the service entrances. He found their lift in no time and tugged her inside. As soon as he’d slid his card through the slot, he turned and slammed her against the metal side of the lift, pressing against her so she could feel every ridge of his cock. “Feel that? I’m dying for you, Laura. Can’t wait. You know what? I’m not going to London after the concert tonight. Not unless you come too.” She swallowed, her attention on his eye
s, burning with need. “I want you to come. Say yes.”
He worked his body against her so she wasn’t sure anymore what he meant. Coming seemed to be her only imperative right now. “Save it. Let’s just fuck, hmmm?”
The lift doors opened.
The rest of the band was back, or it seemed so, as they strode to his room. She saw activity in the great room, heard the sound of chatter as they walked up the corridor, but Zazz didn’t stop until he’d reached his room. He tossed her bag to the floor and glanced around. “Bed.”
“Not shower, not up against the wall?” She couldn’t resist the tease, although she reached for his clothes at the same time, not wanting anything between his body and hers. He seemed to feel the same, from the speed with which he dragged off her T-shirt and unclipped her bra. The garments went almost as fast as his, and then they took off their own jeans and underwear. Quicker that way.
“Maybe later,” he said. “I take it by the clothes you packed that you plan to stay the night. Good, because it’ll take the whole night to do even a few of the things I want to do with you.”
Laura’s chest untensed when she saw him naked, his cock fat and hard for her. For her! She sat on the bed and reached for him, unable to wait any longer. Avidly, she sucked his cock head straight into her mouth. His back went rigid, she felt it through her palms when his muscles tensed, and he groaned. “Shit, Laura. Oh baby, don’t fucking stop.”
She didn’t intend to stop. Sucking the tip as deeply as she could manage, then grasping the base to squeeze and massage, working him as if he were in her body, she tasted him. She’d never forget that flavor, spicy, musky and so male. She worked him as she sucked, timing her caresses so he would feel them as one.
“Look at me.” His voice came out as a harsh rasp, so unlike his usual melodic baritone that she almost didn’t recognize him. But this was another mood of Zazz, another manifestation of the wonderfully complex man she was only beginning to know.
She lifted her gaze and met those clear eyes, currently dark with arousal and heat. “I will never ever forget this,” he murmured. “Want me to write about it? Do you?” He shuddered. “Oh fuck, yeah.” She opened her mouth wide to take as much of him in as she could. While she had his cock head at the back of her throat, she hummed, made it the song she’d heard that afternoon. The vibration would tip him over.
She was right. He dug his hands in her hair, held her to him as he spilled his essence into her mouth. Long spurts jetted into her and she drank them, savoring him, knowing, but unable to say, that she wouldn’t forget him either.
Wild with need still, she shoved her fingers between her legs, into her pussy, trying to work herself up, but he saw it and wouldn’t let her. He pulled her up enough to be able to toss her onto the bed behind them. Still panting, his eyes still dark, he opened her legs by putting his hands on her knees and separating them, and surged between her thighs. “My turn,” was all he said before he drew her clit into his mouth.
She screamed, not caring who was by. The band could have come into the room and started playing for all she cared. All her attention was on Zazz and what he was doing to her. She had never come so fast from oral sex. She hadn’t realized she’d jerked to a sitting position. Her body throbbed in the aftermath before he caught her, his arms around her waist. She rested her head on his shoulder until he murmured, “You might not have noticed, but I’m ready to go again.”
She hadn’t, but when she glanced down, she saw that delicious cock, hard as he’d promised. Reaching out, she smoothed the bead of liquid over the head, almost reflectively. “You’re so beautiful,” she murmured.
“Thank you. You’re beautiful too. Everywhere.”
Glancing up, she met his gaze. Intent, clear, as frank as any exchange she’d ever had in her life, she knew her fate. She loved him. Even though she hadn’t known who he was when she exchanged emails with James Asaro, they’d talked about a lot of things other than his father. Once she met him and made love with him, it was like completing a circuit.
Impossible of course, and if she was careful, she could minimize the damage. Like not telling him, and like starving her addiction once they’d parted. No clinging, and she’d keep her correspondence to business in the future. Their lives were different, separate, and they couldn’t ever hope for more than the occasional hookup once in a while.
Besides, this man had charisma. He could enchant all his bed partners like this. But only she knew him this well. Two years of constant emails would do that to a person. If they were both honest.
She accepted her doom, and a difficult time ahead, but right now she deliberately set that aside. Here were her memories, and she’d keep them untainted by sorrow as much as she possibly could. So she didn’t tell him, didn’t respond to what she thought she saw in his eyes, but only smiled. “Let’s fuck,” she said.
Did his expression dim? But then it returned, with an added lasciviousness that fired her desire back to full throttle, every nerve in her body tingling. She yearned for him to fill her again.
“As the lady wishes,” he drawled in a pseudo-posh accent that forced a laugh from her. He took a moment to snag a condom from the pile in the nightstand drawer. Then without taking his gaze from her face, he tore it open and slid it on. “Come here, you.” Lifting her, he brought her down—right onto his cock.
He drilled through to the center of her, found her G-spot with his first stroke. Shuddering, she forced her eyes open so she could watch his bright-blue eyes darken with need. For her. He lifted her until she got her knees on the bed so she could bear down on him, and then they moved, working in unison. As she lifted, he held himself steady, as she drove down, he thrust up, grazing her most sensitive places. He made a guttural sound in his throat when she descended for the first time. Then again, a response that only encouraged her to do more, force him into her, deeper and deeper until she couldn’t imagine him not being there.
He’d always be there. His cock had imprinted its image into her. Nobody else would be as good, would work the same way. So fucking amazingly fantastically good.
“It’s both of us,” he said, as if he knew what she was thinking. “We’re creating something. Christ, I need you to not stop. Ever.” He gasped. “I’ll take you onstage so I can remind myself how this feels, fuck you between songs, let everybody see how fucking wonderful you are. But they can’t have you.”
She loved the way he talked them through sex, told her what was going through his head. She could do the same, except for that one thing. “I’ve never known anyone to bring me so high, so fast. Oh Zazz, keep doing that, just that!”
“Or this?” His voice turned sultry as he moved just a little bit. He leaned back on his hands so he could impale his body into hers at a different angle as she rode him.
Her response was a scream and then his low chuckle. “Now we’ve taken the edge off, I can keep going all night. Three orgasms, you’re getting. At least. So come for the first time, Laura.”
The sound of her name, the way his cock hit her exactly right every time ensured she’d go off like a rocket, hard and sharp, spasms racking her body. But he gave her no respite, thrusting through her orgasm, relentless in his driving strokes, touching her again and again. She didn’t know if the second climax was part of the first, a double come or separate, but she heard his satisfied voice. “Two.”
Then he pulled out of her, lifting her off him to lay her on the bed. He wedged her knees against his shoulders, opened her, glanced down to see her wet and waiting for him before he drove back into her.
The different angle gave her more time, but not much, as she recognized the signs that her hungry body was readying for another go-round. Her fingers tingled, her mind blossomed with possibilities, heat and warmth, instinct driving out intellect. So basic, so animalistic. She adored this. Zazz had no inhibitions in the bedroom. As she thought that, she felt his fingers stroke her, first pinching her clit, drawing it back into awareness, then sliding down to touch wher
e they joined. “Fucking A,” he growled before passing that area and going farther.
Laura had heard that the perineum’s sensitivity increased during sex, but she’d never experienced it. Until now. He stroked the soft skin, sending showers of new sensations around her body, centering on his cock in her pussy, thrusting in a series of audible strokes. She moaned, caught her bottom lip between her teeth, released it. He was so fucking deep inside her.
Then her backside. She’d never allowed anyone to play there before, but now she was in no condition to protest. And then was glad she didn’t push him away, as her initial instincts led her to do. Because when he gently inserted the tip of one finger into her arse, she couldn’t believe the way it made her feel. Different, that was for sure. It added to what they were doing. She opened her eyes and met his gaze. He quirked a brow. Quirked a fucking brow. How the fuck did he have the control to do that? “Wh-what are you doing?”
“Making you feel good. Is it working?” He rotated his finger. “You’re a virgin there, aren’t you?”
“Y-yes.”
“Maybe, another time, we’ll go a bit further, but sweetheart, this is for you. Feel nice?”
“Oh yes!” She’d be stupid to deny that. She’d never felt this—wonderful—in her life before. And he was watching her as if she was more important than him, that her happiness actually mattered.
That was stupid too, but if it was a fantasy, she’d take it and gladly.
He rotated again, and at the same time thrust deep inside her and held.
She screamed and lost her mind.
*
“That’s never happened before.” Soft and sweet, Laura nestled in Zazz’s arms.
“What’s that?” he asked. He loved reducing her to this state. He’d like to do it more often. His arm ached from stretching it to a nearly unnatural pose, but every ache was worth it to see her like this.
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