by Nalini Singh
Her nipples peaked at the thought of his fingers on her scalp, his mouth trailing along her neck. “You’re looking good enough to eat yourself.” She smoothed her hands over the lapels of the black jacket he wore over a black shirt and black pants. “I want to say yum and take a bite out of you.”
Cheeks creasing, he ran his hand down to her ass, fondled lazily as they kissed. She’d deliberately not put on her lipstick, wanting his mouth.
Banging on the door.
“Hurry up, David!” Noah called from the other side. “I don’t want to be late for this.”
David narrowed his eyes. “He did that on purpose.”
Laughing, Thea stole another small kiss before quickly slicking on her lipstick. “They’ve been impossibly well behaved, you know. No one’s hassled either one of us.” In fact, the other members of the band were doing a stellar job of pretending they’d noticed nothing at all—difficult, given that she was sharing a room with David during this visit, but she had to give them credit for trying.
“They know how important this is,” David said, his expression solemn and his heart right there in his eyes for her to see. “How important you are.”
“David.” Sinking into his kiss, into him, once more, she whispered, “You wanted to see this performance.” Noah had scored them tickets to an intimate show by another musician the four band members all enjoyed.
“That was before I saw you in this dress.” Hand flat on the bare skin of her back, he let her wipe away the lipstick she’d kissed onto him, then sighed. “All right, let’s go. But I’m keeping you up all night, so don’t complain.”
“Since I plan to ravage you till dawn, that works for me.” She could hardly bear to sleep when they were together, wanting to drink in every instant with him.
“Holy hell, Thea.” Abe whistled when she stepped out.
“Hello, Abe.” Thea knew this was the first time Abe and the other band members were going out together after his binge, and while she sensed a faint hint of residual tension in the air, it appeared things were getting back on an even keel.
“Between you and Molly,” Abe said, “we’ll need to hire an entire security team to beat off the leches.” A slow, provocative smile. “Or you could just hang out with me. I’m bigger and meaner than David.”
“I’d put my money on David,” Thea said with a sideways look at her lover. “He took out an entire bar, remember?”
David’s hand moved on her skin at the arch reminder. “They called me a pussy rock star,” he protested. “I had to defend my honor.”
Molly’s laughter filled the air as she and Fox stepped out of their suite. “You’re still mad about that, aren’t you?”
“Damn straight,” David muttered.
Thea smiled at her sister, a sister she hadn’t known existed until a little over a year and a half earlier. Even though Thea had made her mom tell her the facts of her birth, she’d never felt the urge to track down the man who’d given her half her DNA. Why bother chasing after a bastard like that, she’d thought, when she had an amazing father who loved her? Simply knowing the truth had been enough.
It had been a question on a medical-insurance questionnaire that had sparked her curiosity as an adult. Considering the children she intended to have one day, she’d thought it might be a good idea to investigate the other side of her medical history. As a first step, she’d idly plugged Patrick Buchanan’s name into a search engine.
The hits had been immediate and shocking, Patrick Buchanan at the center of a stomach-churning scandal involving an underage girl before his and his wife’s deaths.
It had been a mess, and caught in that mess had been a fifteen-year-old girl named Molly. Dark eyes in a pale, drawn face, Molly’s picture had been snapped by an unscrupulous tabloid two days after the scandal broke. She’d been dressed in her school uniform, her shoulders hunched in.
Then there were the myriad photos from Patrick’s political campaigns, photos that were posted over and over again as people rubbernecked the breaking news. No one seemed to care about the teenage girl in those photos. It had made Thea angrier and angrier with every report she read.
Of course, Molly was no longer fifteen by the time Thea did the search and tracked her down, but Thea couldn’t stop seeing her that way, the protectiveness she felt toward the other woman as intense as it was for Marjorie and Ella. Especially now, with Molly attempting to navigate an unfamiliar world filled with the same intrusive media attention that had tortured her as a girl.
Thea’s pride in her sister’s courage was absolute.
Falling into step with Molly while the guys walked behind them, she said, “I love the dress.” Molly had the kind of curves for which Thea would kill—dangerous and luscious and perfect for her height. Thea had several inches on her, courtesy of Patrick’s genes. Molly, in contrast, had the rich, curling black hair and flawless cream skin that had made Patrick so photogenic.
No one would pick them as sisters at a glance, but they’d made the commitment to be sisters, the bond stronger with every day that passed.
“Thanks.” Molly’s dark eyes were lit from within as she spoke. “Fox’s convinced me that wearing body-hugging outfits is a good look on me.” She bit down on her lower lip. “I still sometimes hesitate, but the way he looks at me…” Fanning her face, she sighed.
Thea understood that sigh. It was the same way she felt when David turned those golden-brown eyes on her. “You look va-va-voom,” she reassured her sister, admiring the black dress with its nipped-in waist, skinny skirt, and wide shoulder straps that came down into a curve just deep enough to hint at spectacular cleavage, the fabric smooth and matte. “You know I wouldn’t let you walk out looking less than hot. If I had boobs like yours…”
Molly tucked her arm into Thea’s. “And all I want are your amazing legs. It’s like they go on forever.” She made a face. “Why are we women never satisfied?”
Laughing with her as they headed into the elevator, Thea turned to find David had been watching her ass. She grinned. Okay, that felt seriously good. To have Molly’s fabulous ass next to hers and for him to focus on hers.
Their eyes connected at that instant, and a hint of color brushed his cheekbones. She fought the urge to kiss him, finding that continued hint of shyness delectable given that she knew how very not-shy he was in bed. He took her hand, squeezed, but released it before the group stepped out of the elevator. While they weren’t hiding their relationship from the people who mattered, neither one of them wanted the paparazzi to figure it out—Thea, more than anyone, knew how media pressure could affect a new relationship.
She wanted her and David solid, rooted, before it was ever an issue. The fact she was the band’s head of PR meant her presence wouldn’t be questioned—as long as they made certain not to get snapped too many times together, apart from the others.
Tonight the six of them managed to avoid the paps altogether, climbing into their limo in the hotel’s underground parking garage and gliding out with several other limos belonging to what looked like a bridal party. And because the venue to which they were heading was a small club, the musician not well known, there weren’t any photographers camped out front when they arrived.
Walking into the dimly lit room, they followed the hostess to their table. Tall, with masses of hair, the brunette was obviously geeking out at having Schoolboy Choir drop by, though she managed to maintain her professionalism.
The waitress, on the other hand, giggled and tittered until Thea wanted to drive a fork through the woman’s voice box. Especially when the nitwit leaned down beside David, all but pushing her cleavage into his face. Thea gritted her teeth and handled it. She had to handle it; this wouldn’t be the first or the last time a woman came on to David.
Molly, seated across from her at the circular table, made a face. Thea rolled her eyes in return, well aware Molly had to deal with the same thing when it came to Schoolboy Choir’s rough-edged and rawly sexy lead singer. Molly stealthil
y mimed a stabbing motion just above the edge of the table. Almost snorting with laughter, Thea drew a finger across her throat.
“Hey.” David’s breath against her ear. “Why are you and Molly talking in secret female-speak?”
Stomach clenched from holding in her laughter, she raised an eyebrow at him. “Secret female-speak?”
“Incomprehensible to males, though done in plain sight.”
Wanting to haul him down to her mouth for unintentionally making it obvious he’d been paying attention to her and not the flirtatious waitress, she said, “It’s nothing you need to worry about.” Thea had never been jealous or clingy, wasn’t about to develop the bad habit now.
The lights dimmed a second later, and the concert started at almost the same time, the music intense and haunting. It was totally different from Schoolboy Choir’s hard rock, but the musicality was as impressive.
Sinking into it, David’s arm warm and strong at her back and her hand on his thigh, she only rose toward the end of the first break. Molly stood with her and they headed to the restroom. They’d timed it right and ended up being the only ones in there. Touching up their lipstick in the mirror, they chatted about the music.
“I’m so excited for you and David.” Molly’s smile was open, warm. “Seeing you together makes it obvious how right you are for each other.”
“I have to admit,” Thea confessed, “I’m having more trouble than I expected handling all the female attention he draws.” It wasn’t just the waitress tonight—she’d previously seen how certain groupies aimed for the Gentleman of Rock, determined to get under his suits.
Putting her hand on Thea’s forearm, Molly held her gaze with the rich dark of her own. “He doesn’t flirt, Thea, not with any woman.”
Thea exhaled, not realizing until then how tense she’d become during the past minute. “Thanks.” She closed her hand over her sister’s. “I know he’s a good man, but it’s difficult to watch the way women throw themselves at him, especially when I know they’re doing the same thing while I’m hundreds of miles away.”
A frown on Molly’s face. “Have you said anything to him?”
Thea shook her head. “I know the facts of life, of this world.”
“Hey.” Reaching up, Molly smoothed a strand of Thea’s hair off her face. “Remember what you told me about not keeping secrets if Fox and I are going to have a chance to make it? It was good advice.”
Thea swallowed, admitted the truth. “I told Eric personal, private things and he used them to hurt me.” She knew the two men were so unlike one another as to be totally different species, but that didn’t stop her throat from closing up at times. Thea’s heart had learned to be wary in instinctive self-defense, and it was taking time for her to unlearn that lesson.
But she was trying. So hard. It stole her breath to even imagine this might not work, that David would one day no longer be hers. No, she thought furiously, he’s mine and I will not allow the scars caused by a weaker, disloyal man to mess that up. Not today or any other day.
Chapter 11
The Schoolboy Choir party waited until after the majority of the audience had left the venue, then approached the singer. He and Noah slapped one another on the back as they embraced, the other man’s looks as dark as Noah’s were fair. Both were beautiful. Esteban would have made the perfect pop heartthrob except that his music was too profound, asked too many emotional questions.
That didn’t mean he couldn’t be a star, Thea thought. All he needed was the right break. In the meantime, he appeared to be happy playing to intimate audiences in small spaces he filled with the passion of his music and his song. Hmm…
“I know that look,” David murmured in her ear, his hand once more on the bare skin of her back as they stood near the stage where the others spoke to Esteban.
His touch was proprietary in a way that made her stomach flip.
“What are you plotting?”
Thea leaned in to whisper, “I think I have a contact who’d be very interested in Esteban, and who would do his music justice.”
David took a long moment to reply. “You know the one thing no one ever says about you?”
“What?” she asked, bemused by the change in subject.
Intense tenderness in his eyes, he shifted his hand from her back to weave his fingers with her own. “How kind you are.”
Off-balance, the remnants of the shield over her heart cracked and broken, she shook her head. “I’m a hard-ass, David, you know that.” She couldn’t bear the hurt if he didn’t see her, if he wanted to remake her into another, softer woman.
David didn’t budge. “I know you’re tough as nails, Thea. I find it arousing as hell when you rip some pansy-ass tabloid reporter to shreds, all icy and polite.”
No chill in her blood now, her entire body a smile. “You are a strange and wonderful man.” And she was so freaking lucky that he’d waited for her to get her head on straight, been stubborn enough to fight for her.
“I’m not finished.” Running his thumb over her knuckles, he said, “Along with knowing you’re a Valkyrie for your clients, I also know you tracked Molly down when you didn’t have to, just because you thought she might need family.”
“She’s my sist—”
“Stop interrupting.” A mock-stern look. “Another thing I know is that you take calls from Marjorie and Ella no matter what time of day it is or whether you’re in a high-powered meeting at the time. I’ve lost count of the musicians you’ve connected with the right people, not because they could pay you, but because you believed in their music.”
He continued to hold her gaze with the unwavering intensity of his own. “I’ve seen you buying food for the homeless man on the boulevard near your office multiple times—I figure you’d get him into an apartment if he wasn’t so adamant about staying out ‘under the stars.’ We won’t even discuss your current intern, who is a sweetheart and who no one else would hire because she doesn’t look Hollywood enough.”
Stunned, undone, she fought back the tears. “Don’t tell anyone,” she rasped, catching her trembling lower lip between her teeth. “I have a reputation to maintain.”
A gorgeous, tender smile. “Your secret’s safe with me.” With that, he tugged her back to their table—now overflowing with fresh snacks and drinks. Those drinks were all nonalcoholic as they had been throughout the night, the entire band having made the decision to help Abe in his sobriety on his first night out since his binge.
It turned out Esteban was friends with the couple who owned the club and had convinced Noah and the others to stay on and celebrate the successful concert with him.
Esteban didn’t have a band, so it ended up being a small group—Schoolboy Choir, Thea, Molly, Esteban, the owners of the club, and the brunette hostess, as well as a small, competent Hispanic woman who’d been in charge of the electronics. Abe hit on her straight away, got a frosty-eyed response.
Thea bit back a grin at the look on the keyboardist’s face. “Abe’s not used to hearing no, is he?” she said to David, his scent making her want to nuzzle into him.
“Are you kidding me?” David took a drink of his ice-cold lemonade. “Every time I turn around, Abe and Noah have new women hanging off their arms.”
“Do you miss it?” she whispered under the cover of the lively conversation. “Being able to go home with any groupie you want?”
David closed his fingers over her nape, his eyes locked with hers. “I tried it back when Schoolboy Choir first went big,” he said, the eye contact searing. “I couldn’t get over how many women suddenly wanted me.” A self-deprecating half smile. “I’m hardly a babe magnet.”
“You are hot with a capital H,” Thea said, her body more than ready to pounce on his again. “Especially,” she added with a teasing smile, “when you blush.”
He scowled. “Cut that out. I don’t blush.”
Stroking her hand over his thigh and delighting in the private intimacy, she said, “Of course not.”
<
br /> He leaned in so close that his lips brushed her ear. “As I was saying—I tried it because hell, I was young and it felt good to have women panting for me. I quickly realized it wasn’t me.”
Shrugging, he added, “I’m not saying I’ve been a saint, because I sure as fuck haven’t been, but random sex doesn’t do it for me. I like knowing the woman I’m with.” A nip of her ear that made her jump and thank God management had turned the lights back down after the audience left. “Then I saw you… Baby, when we’re alone, ask me how long I’d been a monk even before the day I asked you out. No one else would do. Only you.”
Heart pounding in her mouth and breasts swelling against her dress since she hadn’t worn a bra, Thea’s hand clenched on his thigh. David reached down to cover it as he turned to say something to Fox on his left. His touch anchored her even as it sent her body into overdrive. The logical, practical part of her said she shouldn’t believe him—he couldn’t have been celibate for long before that day in her office. A man like David, with his sex drive, no way could he abstain.
Except he’d never lied to her yet. Why start now?
“Thea, right?”
She blinked, found Esteban had grabbed the seat next to her after Abe vacated it to go chat to the hostess. “Yes,” she said, nudging her brain cells into some sort of working order. “That was a fantastic show—I can see why David and the others love your work.”
“Thanks. I’m a big Schoolboy Choir fan, so their support means a lot.” His smile was quiet and as soulful as his music. “I wanted to ask your opinion on something.”
Figuring he was about to ask for contacts and not begrudging him the help, she said, “Sure.”
As it was, he had a different kind of question. He’d been handling his publicity himself since he didn’t yet make enough money to hire someone, but things were getting to a point where he couldn’t do that and focus on his music.
“I got this rec from another guy,” he said, reaching into his pocket to pull out a bent card that he straightened out before giving it to Thea. “It’s a PR company that takes on smaller clients—I can just afford them with the ongoing gig at this club plus my bartending job. I wondered if you could tell me whether they’re kosher.”