by Mia McAdams
He groans as I tug him toward the backstage entrance. “Don’t remind me.”
The guys follow us past security and out onto the open stage. The road crew is already setting everything up for us. I spread my arms wide and smile at the guys. “You have two hours of practice time. I’ve set it up at every venue where we can afford the time. No charge. It’s up to you if you want to use it.” Then I get a blast of insecurity. What if the last thing they want is to work before a huge show? Shit.
Hedge lets out a holler. “Fucking yes!”
Stryder picks me up and spins me around. “You’re a mind reader, Lyric. We need this.” He pats Wolf’s shoulder in passing, and the rest of the band follow him to the stage. All but Wolf.
Wolf is staring at me, a new look in his eyes.
“You’re happy?” I ask him, hopeful.
There’s a tug at his lips, and I know his response before he picks me up and wraps my legs around his waist.
“You’re incredible, you know that?”
I tilt my head, unable to keep the smile from my face. “Well, if the rock star says so, it must be true.”
He grins. “Damn straight. Give me those lips.” He plants his mouth on mine and kisses me so hard it makes my head spin. I kiss him back, running my fingers through his unruly hair. I love the way I feel in Wolf’s arms. Every single time we’re together, he makes me feel this way. He shows me he’s nothing like the rumors. Nothing like how he admits he used to be. He shows me I’m his, and proves he’s worthy to be mine. I never want him to let me go. Not this moment. Not ever.
It’s a good few minutes into our make-out session before we hear Derrick calling to Wolf from the stage. He groans as he pulls away. “I’m going to fuck you crazy-hard tonight. Get ready.” He places me down on wobbly legs and runs to the stage with his famous wolf cry.
I haven’t seen the guys have this much fun since our first nights out together. After the monotonous schedule they deal with on a daily basis, the excitement wanes unless they’re on the stage. Listening to them collaborate on the instrumentals gives me my own high. Seeing Wolf smile in general lights my world, but watching him laugh and be playful with the guys is like getting a heavy dose of endorphins shot straight into my veins.
The show is the best the guys have done in a while, and it may be due to how relaxed they were during the day. As much passion as they have for the music, there are times when it begins to feel like a job, and that’s when the stress creeps in. There’s so much energy radiating from them as they leave the stage; I know the rest of our evening consists of a club and copious amounts of alcohol.
Wolf is attached to my neck the entire way to the bar, whispering all the things he wants to do to me when we get back to the hotel. I’m quivering with desire by the time we get out of the car. His hand never leaves mine as we’re pulled from a back entrance into the VIP lounge. We order bottles for the table and rounds of shots to be delivered. We slam the first round back before Wolf pulls me to a section of the couch where I can sit on his lap.
Melanie bounces over a while later and pulls me to my feet. “Let’s dance.” She peers over my shoulder to a glaring Wolf. “Calm down, Wolfman, I’m borrowing your girl. I promise not to touch her naughty places.”
He winks at her and puckers his lips at me. “Have fun.”
Melanie leads me downstairs to the dance floor. Our bodies move to the club beats, elation coming over me as the alcohol hits. I’m definitely buzzing. When an arm wraps around me from behind, I smile, surprised that Wolf decided to brave the crowd. Surely Crawley will not be okay with this. Or Rex.
When I catch Melanie’s horrified face, fear clenches tightly in my chest. I spin around to find a familiar face grinning down at me. It’s not Wolf. The nearly black eyes staring back at me belong to the man who broke me. At least I thought he did. It’s completely clear to me that he didn't because he was never the one.
Tony Rain, lead singer of Salvation Road, which is now ranked somewhere near Wolf on the charts, is right in front of me. “Hey, sweet pea.” He’s still smiling as if I didn’t catch him fucking my best friend.
The blood begins to boil in my veins. “Get off me.” I shove him away. “What are you doing here?” I'm fuming but then decide I don’t care and make a move to leave the dance floor.
“Sweet pea, stop.” He rushes after me, yanking my arm and spinning me around.
Shit, that hurt. I rub my arm, glaring at him.
“Our show was last night, and we stayed to watch Wolf. I knew you were working his tour. I wanted to see you. Didn’t you get my messages?”
Before I know what I’m doing, I throw my palm across his cheek. I wish I could hear the crack my hand makes against his skin, but the dance music is too loud. At least I can see the pain he suffers in response. “Get your hands off me.” I walk off.
“Lyric!” he roars, coming after me again. This time he grabs my neck through my hair, and I swear to God I feel a clump of hair tear away from my scalp. What the fuck? He must be drunk or out of his mind or both. “It’s over. Between Joanna and me. It’s over.”
I wait for him to release my neck and swivel around again. “That’s too fucking bad, Tony, because you two are meant for each other. Don’t talk to me, don’t touch me, don’t message me, don’t come near me. Get the fuck away.” I shove him with both hands, but he only teeters a little.
When I turn to leave again, I run into a wall. Or Wolf’s chest. His eyes are on fire, and he's staring over my head at Tony. Shit. No. This cannot be happening. “She asked you to leave her alone.”
Tony’s laugh sends shivers racing up my spine. “If it isn’t the big, bad Wolf. Please don’t tell me you’re fucking my woman. I will certainly kick your ass.”
I look back at Tony, appalled at his audacity.
“You lost the right to talk to Lyric when you stuck your dick in some bimbo. Get the fuck out of here before I have you thrown out, you prick.”
Tony throws back his shaved head and laughs again. Then he reaches for my elbow and leans in. “C’mon, sweet pea. Let’s talk. I miss you, babe.”
I can feel the heat raging beneath Wolf’s shirt, and I look up, terrified of what’s coming. It all happens in slow motion. Wolf shifts me to the side, balls his hand into a fist, and cocks his arm back before slinging it forward into Tony’s pretty nose.
Blood sprays everywhere, but Wolf isn’t finished. He steps forward, wrapping his thick fingers around Tony’s neck and bringing his face in close. “She’s mine now, asshole. You hear that? You come near her again, I’ll rip your tiny fucking dick off.”
A wave ripples through the crowd as security pushes their way through. Rex gets to us first and pulls Wolf away. He grabs Tony by the arms and nods his head toward the exit. “Go.” His voice is deeper than I expected. Shit. I think that’s the first time I’ve heard the man speak.
“Babe, let’s go,” I call to Wolf with a tug on his hand.
He releases Tony’s neck, causing him to stumble backward into the crowd as he gasps for breath. Wolf grabs my hand, and we’re out the back entrance so fast my head spins. We find a driver smoking near the exit of the club and ask him for a ride to the hotel.
It’s silent at first. Wolf is still riled up from his encounter with Tony, but I’m more concerned about Wolf and what might be going through his head. I’ve never seen him like that before. So . . . alpha.
My face falls when I see the cut on his knuckles. “Baby, I’m so sorry.”
Wolf looks at me incredulously. “What? Why are you sorry?”
Tears start to fall and there’s a buildup of pressure in the back of my throat. “He’s an asshole. He was an ass when we dated, but I didn’t see it.”
“You loved that prick?” Wolf’s eyes narrow.
I shake my head without hesitation. “No. I mean, I thought I loved him. We were together for two years.” Wolf’s expression dims, and I crawl into his lap, straddle him, and force him to look at me. “I never lov
ed him. It’s impossible . . .”
Fuck. Should I even say it?
“How is it impossible?” he asks, emotion building in his voice.
One deep breath later, I respond, “I didn’t know a thing about love until I met you. You probably don’t want to hear me say this, but I don’t fucking care. I love you, Wolf.”
Instantly, his mouth is on mine, his arms encasing me tighter, as I fight back the sobs. “Wolf?” I ask, desperate to know if he loves me, too.
“Not until we’re in our room,” he whispers in between kisses. “When I say it back, I want to be inside you.”
Wolf makes good on all of his promises today. First, he sinks into me, bare for the first time, thanks to my newly acquired birth control, and then he tells me he loves me.
His left hand is cupping my head, while his other hand presses against the back of my thigh. The crook of my leg rests on top of his shoulder as his girth sinks deeper into me.
The moment he’s seated, we’re both moaning at the pleasure of our naked flesh together. I can feel the throb of his shaft nestled safely in its cocoon.
He lets out a sigh and then stares deeply into my eyes. “I love you, Lyric Cassidy. So fucking much it makes my heart hurt and my head spin, but if this ache in my chest comes from loving you, then I’ll take it.”
His words and the fullness of him inside me makes my entire body tingle with sensitivity. He has no idea what his words just did to me.
“I want you to be mine,” he pleads. Then he leans in and kisses my ear before dragging his nose down the side of my neck and speaking softly. “Tell me you’re mine, Lyric.”
“I’m yours,” I promise. “I’ve been yours since the day we met.”
He groans and makes me come while I tell him I’m his—over and over. And then he’s fucking me, crazy-hard, just like he promised.
His movements are slow at first, but the strength each thrust and pull carries is enough to make my head spin and my heart race and my toes curl. I’m taking all of him. Feeling his naked flesh plunge and slide against mine, and it’s the most incredible feeling in the world.
Wolf is mine.
I am his.
His eyes hold mine, only removing them to bury his nose in my neck and groan at the greatness of it all.
Somehow he manages to go deeper and I let out a surprised pant to let him know he’s there. Right fucking there. The swirl of his hips causes my head to fall back on the comforter. I’m delirious as I feel the start of the burn, but he pays me no mercy. As if recognizing I’m about to let go, he pulls out, flips me onto my chest and lifts my hips. My pussy is aches for its release. I was so close.
Wolf doesn’t waste a second before entering me again and quickening his movements. I lift up onto my elbows and turn to watch him. The look of concentration on his face is incredibly sexy. His eyes are turned down, watching his monster-sized shaft glide in and out as he slams into me. His eyes narrow. I know Wolf well enough by now to know he’s trying like hell to hold back from his orgasm. Meanwhile, I’m about to spiral out of control.
Like him, I hold on for as long as possible, enjoying this too much. His face. His strength. And then it looks like he’s losing. His face falters slightly, revealing a slacked jaw, and his eyes begin to flutter. I moan as the sensations brighten within me.
“Wolf,” I warn.
His eyes shoot to mine, like a rabid dog in the wild, finding his long awaited prey. Seeing me on the edge gives him a boost of energy. His face lights up. He leans over my back, sliding one hand around me until it’s on my clit, the other finds my breast and kneads it.
“Come, baby. All over my cock. You can do it.”
“Fuuuuck,” I tremble at his words. At his magical hands, and magical dick. The fire shoots from my core to every end of my body.
“That’s right, baby,” he coos in my ear then nips at my shoulder. “You ready for me?”
I nod aggressively, still riding out my release.
He maneuvers me so that I’m facing him again without ever pulling out. Then he leans forward, taking my mouth in his.
On his last thrust before he empties his everything into me, he looks me in the eyes. “I fucking love you, Lyric Cassidy.”
My hand goes to his heart, wanting to feel every beat as his warm fluid fills me.
“I love you too, Wolf.”
Wolf
I once was a man who feared repeat sexual encounters. And then Lyric Cassidy walked into my life. Now I’m a man all too willing to open an on-demand orgasm factory for Lyric. Like my music, she’s become my craving. My obsession. I can’t get enough. So when that douchebag, Tony, showed up at the club and put his unwelcome paws on her, I had to stake my claim. Lyric is mine and I want to be hers. There’s simply no one else that can satisfy my needs because she created them, and there’s nothing I want more than to protect her from anymore heartbreak. She deserves the world, and I want to give it to her.
Last night in the car, I was fuming. Not just because I all but punched a hole through Tony’s face, but because Lyric was once wrapped up in a relationship with him. What the fuck was she thinking? He’s a no-good punk. To be honest, for a second I wondered if she fell for me for the same reasons. Bad boy rocker with an ugly ego. I’m all those things, too, but after just one taste of Lyric, I couldn’t imagine fucking her over. Ever.
And then she told me she loved me. I could hear the words on her breath before she spoke them, and I probed her, wanting to hear her say it. I’ve never wanted to hear those words from a woman before. But the moment I thought the words might slip from Lyric’s lips, there was nothing I wanted more.
This morning, I’m drinking her in. The sunlight from the window shines on her where she lies wrapped in the sheets, looking like an angel. My angel. She stirs slightly, but I know that stir. She’s waking but too comfortable to open her eyes.
I’m about to crawl under the covers to give her something pleasant to lift the morning fog when someone pounds on the door.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
What the fuck? I’m about to rip someone’s head off. It doesn’t stop, and I hear a muffled voice on the other side. “God dammit, open the damn door.”
The unsolicited disturbance is Crawley. I grab my shorts and try not to trip putting them on as I shuffle to the door. I look back at Lyric, who seems to be getting more uncomfortable by the second. She rolls over and pulls a pillow over her head. I yank the door open, but only a few inches.
“What the hell do you want? Lyric’s still sleeping.”
Crawley’s face says it all. He’s pissed, and it only takes me two seconds to guess why. He shoves his phone in my face, and Tony’s bloodied face stares back at me. I look away. “We have a problem on our hands, Wolf. Your girlfriend over there is causing more trouble than she’s worth. She’s going to cost you this tour if you’re not careful.”
Ignoring the phone, I step in the hallway. I narrow my eyes and get right into Crawley’s face. He shares my height and my size, so he doesn’t back down, but he needs to remember who tells whom what to do around here. “Watch your mouth, Crawley. I have no problem tossing your ass if you keep up this shit. Lyric isn’t causing problems. You, on the other hand—”
Crawley shakes his head, cutting me off. His face turns beet red. “You’re not listening to me. I care about your career, Wolf, because it’s my career, too. And right now, you’ve got your dick in la-la land. You need to eject yourself, no pun intended, from whatever this is before it blows up in your face.” He shoves his phone at me again, showing me there’s more than the one photo. “We’ve got a PR nightmare on our hands. Get dressed and let’s go deal with this shit. Leave your girlfriend here.”
The picture that lights up on Crawley’s phone now is a classic photo of my Hulk face just as my fist landed on Tony’s cheek. It’s a badass picture. You can even see the trail of spit as it leaves Tony’s mouth. Crawley slides his finger across the screen so I can see the next photo. One by one, the pic
tures tell a story of how I fucked up Tony over a girl. The articles are worse. Somehow overnight, in my effort to protect Lyric from her asshole ex-boyfriend, I became a madman who tried to steal Tony’s girlfriend and then beat him to a bloody pump. Tony’s girlfriend.
“These stories are shit. None of this is true. Tony was hurting Lyric. You should have seen the way he grabbed her, Crawley. I didn't do anything wrong.”
Crawley yanks his phone back and shoves it in his back pocket. “Look, I don’t care if you revealed yourself as Batman and saved the fucking planet last night. We’ve got to get on the phone with PR and get us a story quick. And the tour company wants to speak with Lyric.”
Anger radiates from me as I stare back at Crawley. “Why?”
“She’s off the tour. We can’t afford to have her mess this up for us.”
I glare at him. “She’s not leaving. Your ass is going home before she does. I mean it. You’ve been with us for as long as we’ve been around, but I don’t fucking care what anyone says. This is my tour, and she’s staying.”
“They’ll fire her if she stays. It’s not my call. The articles aren’t just about you, Wolf. They’re about her, too.”
“I don’t give a fuck about the articles,” I scream. “None of it’s true. You can’t just fire someone because of the tabloids and paparazzi. This is my tour. When the fuck did you start thinking you could trump my decisions?”
Crawley taps his finger on my chest, and I’m seconds away from latching on and breaking it. Who the hell does he think he is? “You pay me to make these decisions. You may have forgotten that, but I’m doing what you hired me to do. I have a stake in all of this, too, and you better believe I’ll watch out for what’s mine. You wanted me to protect the girl’s secret? Those lyrics may be legally yours now, but that doesn’t mean we can’t leak who signed them over to us. That small detail was left out of the contract, and Lyric obviously has something to hide. Unless you both want that secret exposed, I suggest you start following my lead.”