One More Night (Backstage Pass Book 1)

by Ali Parker

  Another look of surprise crossed Alicia’s features. “What do you mean, ‘that’s why you chose this restaurant’?”

  “It’s not one of the haunts that the vultures crowd around. I thought you might enjoy not having your picture on every gossip blog tomorrow.”

  “Thank you,” she said. Her voice was so low that it was barely above a whisper, and I could see from the look in her eyes that she really appreciated my consideration, as well as that she hadn’t expected it. Strangely, her lack of expectations was endearing. It wasn’t something I often came across in women.

  “That’s siblings covered, then,” she said. “I was raised by a single mom. She still lives in Wrightwood. It’s about an hour and a half from here if the weather’s good. That’s where I’m from, by the way. What else did you want to know?”

  I plucked a random question from one of the less boring ones we got asked in interviews. “Which of Hogwarts house would you have belonged to if we were in Harry Potter?”

  If she was surprised by my question, she didn’t show it. She just smiled and answered immediately. “Ravenclaw. You?”

  Before I could answer, she held up a palm to stop me. “Let me guess. Slitherin?”

  “You honestly don’t know the answer to that? We’ve been asked before.”

  “I don’t sift through all of your old interviews with a fine-toothed comb. I read and watched some to get a feel for you guys, but it’s not like I can change the way that the guy who came before me did his job, so I haven’t spent too much time on that.”

  She had a point about it being useless for her to revisit everything we’d ever done.

  “Okay, I believe you. It’s not Slitherin, though. I did one of those quizzes on the Internet once while we were drunk on tour, though I usually leave the part about being drunk out in interviews, but mine is actually also Ravenclaw.”

  Alicia tilted her head slightly, pursed her lips, and looked me over. “I wouldn’t have guessed that.”

  “Trust me, there’s a lot of stuff about me that you wouldn’t guess. Why public relations?”

  “Why not?” Then she sighed, and the left corner of her mouth twitched into a smile. “I know, I know. That’s a non-answer. The truth is that I’ve always loved music. I even used to do a little bit of singing back in school. Then I realized that while I loved it, I’m really not talented, so I decided to make a career out of helping those who were. Why rock star?”

  For some reason, I didn’t want to give her my snarky, go-to answer about fast cars and faster women. I was starting to feel pleasantly buzzed from the Scotch the server kept delivering, and I chalked up my reluctance to give her my prepared answer to that. I also noticed that she’d hardly touched her wine. “Music makes me feel alive. So does making it. All I’ve ever wanted to do was to touch people with my music. There something wrong with the wine?”

  “No,” she said, taking another small sip. “I just like being in control.”

  “Why? Being out of control can be so much more fun. Take the band for instance. We lose control and stupid shit happens, but we’ve worked so damn hard to get here that we’ve earned the right to let loose and have fun now. I’m not going to feel guilty for enjoying the ride to the fullest while it lasts.”

  Our food arrived, and we made small talk while we ate, getting to know each other a little better. My steak was soft and juicy, and Alicia let out a little whimper about her gnocchi that sent all my blood rushing south. My cock hardened when a vivid fantasy of hearing her make that sound for me played through my mind.

  Down boy. I focused on her telling me anecdotes about how she ended up getting into friendly arguments with her sister because they were on complete opposite sides of the business, instead of focusing on my cock’s desires. Surprisingly, I found myself enjoying her company and telling her things that I didn’t usually tell people.

  “Trust me. Being on opposite sides of the industry might be easier than being on the same side of it,” I told her, and she grew contemplative, clearly remembering my talk with Caleb a couple of days ago.

  We talked all through dinner, and when our food was done, Alicia fixed me with a curious gaze, the candlelight reflecting in her clear blue eyes. “Can I ask you something?”

  “I’m going to not be a douche and point out that you just did, so yes. Sure, fire away.”

  “Why are you opening up to me tonight? I feel like I’ve gotten to see more of the real you in the last few hours than I have in the last six weeks since I met you. If you’ve actually been honest with me so far, that is.”

  Why, indeed? “I don’t know why, but I have been honest.”

  I tried to play it off with a shrug and that vague answer, but even as I said it, I knew that I wasn’t being completely honest with her. The truth was that I was more attracted to her than I’d been to a woman in a long time, and I had a feeling she would take better to Jared than she would to the Emperor.

  That knowledge, combined with the fact that it seemed I was right, was a refreshing feeling, and I was surprised to find that I didn’t hate it.

  There was also another thought taking hold in the back of my mind. I hadn’t slept with a groupie for a while. Was my attraction to Alicia the reason for that? I thought that it might be, and I had no idea what to make of that.

  All I knew as our plates and glasses were cleared was that I wasn’t quite ready for the date to be over yet. “Are you tired, or would you like to come over to my place for a while?”

  Alicia looked torn, but finally nodded, and I internally fist-pumped. “Did you drive over here?”

  I nodded, and she added, “In that case, I’m driving us to your place, since you’re still tipsy.”

  “I could call for a limo driver,” I offered.

  “What? You don’t trust my driving abilities?”

  I went for my signature smirk, but broke out in a big, unfamiliar smile. “Nah, but that’s okay. I’d actually prefer it if you just drove.”

  CHAPTER 16

  ALICIA

  Jared was parked in the small lot out back, and he guided me to his SUV with a protective palm placed on my lower back. The feel of his hand there, big and warm and like I was something worth protecting to him, was amazing.

  He handed me his keys after digging them out of his pocket and clicking the lock. The SUV was pretty much standard edition for people in his position, pitch black with black leather seats and black windows.

  “I’ve always wanted to know, is there someone who gives you one of these as a ‘Welcome to the club, you made it’ gift?”

  Confusion briefly marred his features. Then his lips twitched into an amused smile as he pulled back on the handle to the driver’s side door and helped me in. “Sorry to disappoint. I bought this bad boy all by myself.”

  Shutting the door behind me, he quickly rounded the front of the car and slid in beside me. I had his address programmed in my phone, but he gave it to me anyway, and most of the words he spoke on the way to his house where his softly given directions.

  Looking pensive, his eyes were locked on a point on the horizon, and I wondered what he was thinking. Examining his profile, the sharp angles of his stubbled jaw, and the white button-up shirt that was rolled up to his elbows to expose the dark tattoos that lived on his skin, I wished that I could develop the ability to read his mind.

  Jared surprised me tonight in more ways than one. First, it surprised me that he had the definite makings of a gentleman when on a date. Then, he surprised me by being open and honest, really listening to me as if what I was saying was important to him, those dark eyes intrigued and only on me.

  There were plenty of people staring at him at the restaurant, but I didn’t think that he even noticed. Our server was clearly a fan, gaping at Jared every time he neared our table, his hands trembling as he delivered Jared’s drinks, but the man himself looked at me and only at me for the entire duration of our dinner.

  When he smiled tonight, it was exactly that. Not the
cocky smirks or the flashy grins that I’d grown used to from him, but wide or playful genuine smiles that could light up the sun if he cared to aim them at it. Instead, they were all aimed at me and had the same effect. Being the sole focus of his attention was intoxicating, and it made my nipples pebble and my body come to life.

  All thoughts of resisting him if he tried to sleep with me had dissipated under that gaze, gone with the wind as surely as his demeanor tonight hadn’t been that of the Emperor of Rock, but Jared Larsen himself. And that man? I couldn’t believe how much I wanted him.

  I wanted him so badly that it was uncomfortable, and while I kept trying to convince myself that sleeping with him was a bad idea, my body wasn’t listening. My nipples were aching for his touch, my heart throwing itself against my ribs, and my seam slick while my core felt painfully empty. And he still hadn’t touched me.

  “Eyes on the road,” Jared said, glancing to my side of the car to find me still staring at him. “I promise you can look as much as you want for as long as you want once we get to my place.”

  My cheeks heated from embarrassment, but I snapped my eyes back to the road. He was right, that was where they should be, but I couldn’t help sneaking a few sidelong glances at him along the way.

  “Sorry,” I told him once I managed to get my embarrassment over being caught under control.

  “Don’t be. I like having you look at me, but it would put a bit of a damper on the night if we wrecked the vehicle. Paperwork and all that. It takes long, and there are much better things we could be doing with that time.”

  My hammering heart skipped a few beats, and heat of a different kind than embarrassment surged through me. Sucking my lips between my teeth, I wet them with my tongue and released them, not aware that Jared was watching me until a low groan came from his side of the cab.

  “Just get us home,” he said, his eyes now unashamedly running over my body, so heated that I could practically feel them burning into me.

  When we finally reached his house a few minutes later, Jared’s demeanor shifted again, to something more like it had been in my office that one day when he’d gotten me all hot and bothered from all the way across my desk. As soon as my feet hit the ground, Jared grabbed my hand, and I struggled a bit to keep up with his long strides, but I managed.

  Producing a key from his pocket, he unlocked the door and led me inside. Before I could fully process that Jared’s house wasn’t exactly what I would have expected from him, his hands were on my hips, his eyes locked onto mine as he walked me backward until my back hit some kind of surface. I thought it might have been a staircase.

  But all I could see was Jared, and all I could feel was the heat radiating from his body to mine as his arms caged me in. He leaned his head down until our lips were so close together that if I lifted my chin even slightly, we would be kissing.

  “I want this, Alicia. I want you.” As if to emphasize or prove his point, he slammed the lower half of his body against mine so I would feel the hard length of him straining to get out of his pants. One of his hands gestured between us as his eyes stayed on mine. “But if this is going to happen, you need to understand that as badly as I want to fuck you, as much as I’m dying to slide into you and to make you come so hard you can’t see for a full minute, I don’t want a relationship. This isn’t the start of anything serious.”

  Somewhere in the recesses of my mind, I remembered having a conversation with the band where they’d all assured me that they were straight with the women that they slept with and that everyone knew what they were getting into. Jared certainly stuck to that rule. I simply had to decide if I would be okay with that. This was what getting that talk felt like.

  Who was I kidding? Only myself if I thought for one second that I was walking away from him right now.

  “I understand.”

  Jared sucked in a deep breath, then let out a low hiss as he rocked his hips against mine, causing a moan to escape from my lips at the delicate pressure on my aching clit and at the sounds he was making.

  I’d never been with a guy who was particularly vocal before, but I was already sure that that was about to change. It was slightly distressing how much that turned me on.

  He dropped his head to my ear, letting the very tip of his tongue lick its shell and gently nipping at my earlobe.

  “Thank God,” he breathed, bringing one of his large hands to rest on the side of my neck as his thumb traced my jaw. “One last thing. Are you on birth control?”

  I could barely think by that point, as completely surrounded by Jared as I was, and his question caught me somewhat by surprise, but I nodded. “I am.”

  “Good. That’s good.”

  He lowered his mouth to mine, the hand on my neck moving to cup my chin and lift it, my lips parting in the moment before he sealed his over them. Almost like that moment in a movie when time stopped, his lips were all I knew.

  His wet, delicious taste. There were faint traces of alcohol, but the rest of him was all Jared. The slide of his tongue and every wondrous second of his lips on mine made me feel like pure starlight. It was a mix of sensations so heady that I couldn’t keep track of them all.

  I sighed, savoring every second of this luxurious kiss. Our lips glided together, our tongues touching, exploring, and our breaths mingling. Jared groaned, a carnal and masculine sound that made my knees weak.

  He steadied my slight wobble with a hand on my hip, his other roping into my hair as he deepened the kiss, tasting me more insistently. He nipped at my lips, and I let out a little moan as our kiss shifted and became harder. Faster. Closer. My breaths were becoming pants by the time he stopped kissing me.

  “Come with me,” he said against my lips, gathering up my hand and leading me up the stairs to his bedroom.

  A part of me wanted to pause to take in the lived-in space—the baby grand piano that sat in the corner, the neatly-made bed, and the clothes strewn all around it—but my world zoomed out of focus and narrowed on Jared instead. He beckoned me over with the crook of his finger to where he’d come to a stop in front of his bed. Ambient light from outside shone through his windows.

  My feet were carrying me toward him while my brain was still trying to process that one entire wall of his bedroom was made of glass, his bed positioned up against the wall beside it so that if you lay on your side while in it, the view would be nothing short of spectacular.

  The view was forgotten as Jared tugged me into his arms and kissed me again. He only stopped again when I was breathless and wanting, desperate to push him back onto his bed and have my wicked way with him.

  His lips curled into a knowing smile as his hands dropped to the edge of my dress, bunching the material in them as he waited for me to answer his unasked question.

  “Yes,” I breathed. Not five seconds later, my carefully selected dress was on the floor, and I was standing in front of this world-famous rock star in nothing but my underwear and my heels.

  “Fucking hell,” Jared groaned as he took a step back and surveyed every inch of me. Emboldened by the hunger in his eyes, I put my hands on my hips and made a slow turn, remembering that he’d promised I could look my fill, too. I hadn’t yet fully completed my turn when his hands were on me, deftly unhooking my bra and rolling off my panties as he kissed me like I’d never been kissed before.

  My hands flew to his back, feeling the thick ropes of muscle flex under my fingers before I found myself on my own back. Our kiss didn’t break as Jared’s hand danced down my side, igniting the skin where he touched it and leaving a light smattering of goosebumps in its wake.

  His body was hard as steel against my soft one, his weight pressing me into his mattress as his hands continued their eager exploration. Mine wanted to do the same. I wanted to touch him more than I’d ever wanted anything. My fingers found the hard, plastic nubs of his buttons and fumbled to undo them when Jared grunted, “Let me.”

  Sitting back on his knees, he reached both hands behind his back, grabbe
d hold of his shirt, and pulled it clean off, throwing it carelessly aside. I wanted to look at him. I wanted to catalog each one of the dark lines of ink on his chest so that I could recall them for all of posterity, but I wanted his skin on mine more.

  Grabbing his face between my hands, I pulled his mouth back to mine and moaned when my nipples touched his hot skin for the first time. He kissed me deeply as his smooth hand cupped the side of my breast and stroked the skin underneath it. His touch lit me up in previously unknown ways as he shifted so that he was lying slightly to my side.

  Bracing himself on one of his forearms, his hand tunneled through my hair to grip the base of my neck while his free hand was still on my breast, now drawing circles around its peak.

  I groaned loudly into his mouth when he brushed the hardened nipple with the pad of his thumb and then tugged at it. I could feel him smiling slightly against my lips before he lifted his head and asked, “Sensitive?”

  I nodded, and his smile grew even wider. “Excellent. Good to know.”

  When he lowered his mouth again, it wasn’t to resume our kiss. His lips traveled along my jaw, the scruff of his goatee tickling slightly as he nuzzled my neck, and his hand still teased my nipples until it was replaced by his warm mouth. My back arched into him, anything to get closer.

  His hand now free, it started moving down between my breasts and down over my ribs, way too slowly for my liking. Air replaced the mattress beneath my butt for a second as my hips bucked impatiently and my legs opened farther.

  Jared hissed when my thigh made contact with his still-covered erection, and he quickly angled himself away from it.

  “Greedy, are we?”

  Was I? I didn’t know. I just knew that I wanted—no needed—him to touch me properly. And I needed it now. “Please.”

  “You don’t have to beg me for it, not tonight anyway.” He pinned me with his eyes, as wild with lust as I was feeling, and I tried to ignore the implications of not tonight, meaning that perhaps there would be more nights. “All you have to do is tell me. Tell me that you want me to make you come, and I’ll do it.”