Steady Beat

by Lexxie Couper

  That conversation had taken place almost two weeks ago and, just as Noah predicted, images of Heather and a man walking a large dog soon appeared in all the gossip magazines. Whatever Heather had hoped to gain by labeling Noah a cheating bastard, it was lost the moment the first mag went on sale.

  “Told you so.” Noah had chuckled, the sounds of carpentry work in the background. “Now tell me, should I have ten rows of seats in my home theatre, or twelve?”

  Two weeks later and Heather’s name hadn’t been mentioned again. Everything else though… Pepper didn’t think there was a topic they hadn’t covered. And agreed on. If she was to let herself believe in fairytales, she’d believed she was living one—she the shy princess trapped by the ghost of a wicked mother, Noah the playful, energetic, vibrant slayer of demons who sets her free.

  And makes her hornier than she’d ever been.

  Not quite as PG-friendly as the average fairytale, she had to admit.

  “So—,” Frank wriggled again on the bed, his eyes sparkling, “—if I was to ask how many times you’ve masturbated to the thought of him, you’d say…?”

  Heat flooded Pepper’s cheeks. Her belly clenched. Her nipples pinched tight. Goddamn it, even her pussy throbbed at Frank’s ludicrous question. She’d masturbated every night to the thought of Noah. Sometimes twice. Every time they ended a conversation she’d found herself so damn horny she had no other choice but relieve the tension the drummer created in her body. “None of your freaking business,” she answered, all too aware the blush in her cheeks gave her away.

  Frank laughed. “Thought so. And if I was to tell you he was waiting in the living room right now? Listening to everything you’ve been saying?”

  The bottom fell out of Pepper’s stomach. She stared at Frank, her blood roaring in her ears. “Are you serious?”

  Her roommate flashed his teeth at her in a devilish grin. “I am.”

  “He is.” A familiar voice with its delicious Australian accent sounded from the doorway. Pepper damn near gave herself whiplash turning to look at the owner of that voice.

  Noah leant against the doorframe, his long, lean legs encased in exquisitely cut dinner-suit trousers, a pale-purple shirt doing little to hide the perfection of his upper body. The top two buttons were undone, revealing a hint of the Australian star constellation tattooed above his heart. A black bow tie hung loose from his open collar. His hair fell about his forehead and ice-blue eyes in a harried mess, as if a brush or comb hadn’t touched the glossy strands for days.

  He looked, quite simply, gorgeous.

  And here. Right here. In her apartment. One step away from being in her room.

  Oh God, Noah Holden was one step away from being in her bedroom.

  Frank smacked her hip with the side of his hand. “Where are your manners, Ms. Kerrigan? Say hello to our guest.”

  Pepper opened her mouth and then closed it straight away.

  “I thought you two talked all the time?” Frank said.

  Noah laughed. “She’s saving her voice for tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow?” Pepper croaked. Damn, when had her pulse decided to behave like a maniacal frog in her throat?

  Noah nodded. “Strings touches down in New York in about an hour, Jax is flying in tomorrow morning and Levi arrived yesterday. We’re all here. Which means you get to sing with us tomorrow. Ready?”

  Pepper shook her head. Her heart hammered faster. Tomorrow? Do I really want to anymore?

  Frank laughed.

  Noah grinned. “Don’t believe you.” With a slight shift in weight, he pushed himself from the door and ambled into her room, his gaze holding hers.

  He stopped at the side of the bed, his shins brushing the duvet, his lips twitching as he looked down at her. “Now I’m afraid I’m going to have to kiss you. If that’s okay?”

  “That’s my cue.” Frank leapt up from the bed, damn near sending Pepper tumbling sideways. “I promise I won’t take photos through the crack in the door.”

  He hurried from the room, leaving Pepper alone with Noah.

  She stared up at him.

  He smiled down at her. “Can I? Kiss you, that is?”

  She swallowed down her heart, merrily trying to thump its way out of her body via her throat.

  He bent at the waist enough to bring his head closer to hers. “It’ll be a platonic one, I promise. Like the last kiss I gave you.”

  Pepper’s belly fluttered at the memory of his barely there kiss in the converted apartment building fourteen days ago. Her sex joined in the fluttering. So did her pulse.

  She licked her lips, her mouth dry. “A platonic one.”

  “A platonic one,” he agreed. “Mind you, it’s going to be hard not to kiss you like mad. Especially when you look so bloody hot sitting there in your undies.”

  Dawning horror slammed into Pepper. She slapped her hands to her mouth, the realization she was sitting on her bed in a pair of black panties and a size-too-small Guns N’ Roses tank top shattering her stupor. “Oh God,” she burst out, spinning to bury her face in the silken softness of her duvet. “Oh God.”

  Behind her, Noah laughed. “No, no, no. No hiding allowed.” He wrapped strong hands around her hip and shoulder and, despite how much she tried to stop him, he rolled her onto her back.

  She let out a squeal, the sound turning to a giggle as Noah tickled her right side with determined intent.

  “No hiding,” he chuckled the command, “I flew straight from Canada to see you. You’re not allowed to hide from me.”

  She laughed, even as she still tried to squirm away from his playful grip, her cheeks on fire. “At least let me put on some clothes,” she beseeched, the plea turning to a squeal when he tickled her once more.

  She flailed on the bed, laughing when Noah planted one knee and then the other on other side of her legs, his fingers playing over her sides in devious, delicious torment.

  And then his body covered hers, his hips pressed her back to the bed, his hands pinned her wrists to the pillows and his lips captured hers.

  There was nothing platonic about the kiss. Noah couldn’t help himself. He’d thought of no one else but Pepper the whole time he’d been dealing with other shit, shit that couldn’t wait. Like signing the drum kit endorsement deal his agent had arranged and then spending a day in a studio having his photograph taken for the advertising that would follow. Like meeting with his lawyer about the illegal use of his name on a drum kit manufactured in Korea.

  Like emptying his home of the last of Heather’s stuff and finally finishing the home theatre he’d started three years ago.

  Like watching his brother get married.

  Now here he was, in Pepper’s home, and even as he reminded himself she wanted a platonic relationship, he couldn’t stop himself making love to her mouth with his tongue. Her lips were soft, her breath sweet with the faintest hint of toothpaste. Christ, he couldn’t get enough of her.

  She moaned, the sound low and raw, her body shifting beneath his.

  He pulled away, his blood throbbing through his veins in a wild beat. What was he doing? This wasn’t what she—

  “Noah.”

  Pepper’s husky voice caressed his control. He gazed down into her face and almost groaned. There wasn’t anything platonic about the open desire smoldering in her eyes. She wanted him as much as he wanted her. She may try to fight it, but it was undeniable.

  He took possession of her lips again, thrusting his tongue into her mouth, seeking hers. She met him with equal hunger, pushing her hips upward. Her sex pressed to his balls, the taut fabric of the trouser he’d worn to his brother’s wedding offering little protection from the contact. He raked a hand down her arm and captured her breast, kneading it through the cotton of her tank.

  She whimpered, arching into his bold touch, her tongue lashing at his.

  Hot lust surged through Noah at the ferocity of her response. He yanked his hand from her breast and shoved it under the hemline of her shirt, needin
g to feel his flesh on hers. Closing his fingers over the heavy swell of her breast, he pinched her nipple. She bucked her hips into his groin again, tangling her free hand in his hair.

  Noah’s head swam. His cock pulsed. His balls ached. With a groan close to a growl, he tore his lips from hers, charting a path along her jaw up to her ear. He flicked his tongue against her lobe before capturing the fleshy pad with his teeth and giving it a nip.

  “Oh God,” she gasped, balling her fist tighter in his hair.

  Dragging his mouth back to hers, he ravished her lips again, pinching and rolling her nipple with his fingers as he did so. She writhed beneath him, scrapping her nails over his shoulders, down his back to tug his shirt from of his waistband.

  She slipped her hand under the silk, smoothing her palm up his side, over his ribcage to his chest. When her fingers found his nipple, his heart smashed faster. When she dragged her thumb over its rock-hard form, he couldn’t stop his groan.

  “Christ, Pepper.” He lifted his head from hers. “I know this…not what…you wanted…but…”

  She tweaked his nipple. “Noah,” she panted. “Just…”

  She arched her back, snaring the hem of her shirt to tug it up over her ribs, revealing her breasts to him.

  He stared at what she offered. His mouth filled with saliva, his cock filled with fresh, hot blood. Before his mind could finish telling him this was too fast, that Pepper would regret it later, he lowered his head and closed his lips around her nipple.

  “Yes!” she cried, thrusting her breasts higher.

  He moaned around the pebbled peak, laving it with his tongue.

  Pepper writhed on the bed, pushing her hips upward, scratching her nails at his shoulders.

  He feasted on her flesh, reveling in the open, honest way she responded to him. There was nothing shy or hesitant about it. When he raked his hand over her torso, she whimpered, knowing what he sought with his fingers.

  He found it, and pinched her other nipple between thumb and index finger.

  “Oh, Noah.” His name fell from her on a shaky breath. He loved the way it sounded, raw and throbbing with need. He stroked the nipple in his mouth with his tongue as his fingers echoed the rhythm on her other breast, pinching and tweaking with increasing speed.

  His cock strained against his trousers, insistent and impatient. If he were a stronger man, he’d tear one hand from Pepper’s body and release the engorged organ. But he wasn’t. He didn’t have the will power or the strength to stop worshipping her flesh with his hands. His dick could wait. All he could focus on right now was the exquisite lushness of her breasts, her body against his palms.

  He lost himself in the pleasure of her moans and hitching breaths. He grew hungrier with every second that passed, even as he grew more and more sated. The contradiction drove him wild. He swapped nipples often, drawing groans from Pepper as he dragged his mouth backward and forward between the wet points of her breasts, pinching and teasing the abandoned nipple with his fingers every time.

  Christ, he’d never get enough of her. Her whimpers fed his aching desire. Her surrender to their passion fed his potent want.

  Unable to survive another heartbeat without seeking out her heat, he raked his hand down her belly to the waistline of her undies and slipped his fingers between the elastic and her stomach.

  She arched, driving her hips to the ceiling, fisting a hand in his hair.

  Noah lifted his head from her breast, needing to witness the open pleasure on her face as he dipped his fingers to her pussy.

  Eyes closed, Pepper’s lips parted. A raw sound of willing want filled the room. Not a word, but a surrender all the same.

  It was all Noah needed to hear.

  He parted her moist folds and penetrated her.

  “Oh God, Noah!” Pepper stiffened beneath him, her thighs parting as much as his weight would allow. “That…oh yeah, that…”

  He thrust deeper into her wet heat. Her inner muscles gripped his fingers. She moaned, her head rolling side to side on the softness of her bed. He watched her, drowning in the unadulterated pleasure washing over him. Her pleasure. His pleasure.

  Their pleasure.

  He scissored his fingers within her constricting centre, a building beat he felt in his very soul.

  She whimpered, scraping at his shoulders and arms with her fingers, his name a panting song falling from her lips he wanted to hear for the rest of time.

  Two weeks of dreaming of this moment, hurting for it, and it was nothing like he imagined.

  It was infinitely more.

  Returning his mouth to her nipple, he drew on the puckered tip, rolling it between his teeth as he thrust a third finger into her wetness.

  She arched. “Oh God, Noah, I’m…I’m going…”

  The muscles sucking at his fingers contracted. A tremble took her body. It vibrated through her body, flooding Noah’s veins with need.

  He needed to make her come. He needed to hear the exquisite song of her release.

  He needed to be the reason for that song. Before the throbbing beat of his own release overwhelmed him.

  With a slight shift of his hand, he rolled his thumb over her clit, once, twice, three times. Pepper’s plea for mercy meshed with her plea for more. The tremble in her body became shudders, wild and powerful. She buried her hand in his hair and pressed his mouth to her nipple once again, begging him to make her come.

  He sank his fingers back into her sex. Drove them deep inside her. Stroked the sweetest spot on her inner walls.

  She came.

  Her throaty moans turned to hitching gasps. Her hips bucked. Her pussy sucked at his fingers. Her release flowed over his knuckles.

  “Oh, Noah,” she cried, and the song of her orgasm was everything he knew it would be.

  She came on his fingers, his hand, with her fist in his hair, her voice in his ears and the pounding rhythm of her heart thumping through her body into his.

  He’d never experienced such an intoxicating beat.

  The heady pulse in her sex grew faster, and then, as his name slipped from her lips in a sated breath, began to fade.

  He raised his head, the demanding throb of his cock barely registering in his mind as he took in the sheer bliss on her face. “I’ve always been good with my hands,” he murmured.

  Pepper laughed. The husky sound sent fresh need to Noah’s aching erection.

  “Good with your mouth and tongue as—”

  The sound of Darth Vader’s menacing mechanical breathing emanating from Noah’s hip pocket cut her off.

  He bit back a curse. “Give me a sec,” he muttered, twisting on the bed to shove his hand in his pocket. “I’m going to throw this thing against the wall.”

  He withdrew the phone—now silent—and frowned when a text flashed onto the screen.

  Roger’s a no-show. Brutal’s been arrested. I’m stuck at JFK and the paparazzi are everywhere. Get your arse here now and save me. You know I don’t do cabs.

  “Is there a problem?”

  Pepper’s soft voice lifted Noah’s attention from Samuel’s text message.

  She studied him, her glorious breasts covered once more by her tank. He wanted to shake his head. Wanted to tell her the world could fuck off and go to hell. Nothing mattered but her and him.

  Would have, if it wasn’t for the way her palms cupped her elbows.

  She’d closed herself off to him. In the time it took him to yank his phone from his pocket, Pepper had retreated behind the uncertainty of her shyness. Her earlier request from two weeks ago came back to him, along with the requests she’d made when he first asked to kiss her here in her room.

  Platonic.

  He’d taken that request and mocked it. Thoroughly. With his kiss, his hands, his conquest of her body and pleasure, and while she’d willingly surrendered to that conquest, he knew it was not what she’d beseeched of him.

  Cursing himself, he turned his stare on his phone’s screen. “Strings has touched down,”
he answered, doing his best to ignore the painful throb in his trousers. Jesus, his head may have remembered his promise to Pepper, but his dick wasn’t listening, demanding he bloody well hurry up and get on with the program. “His bodyguard’s been arrested for some reason and our manager hasn’t turned up.”

  Unable to stop himself, he looked up at her. “He wants me to go get him.”

  Pepper caught her bottom lip with her teeth. “You should do that.”

  Noah’s gut knotted. “Come with me?”

  She shook her head. “No. I don’t think I should.”

  “Why? I promise I won’t maul you again.”

  A soft chuckle escaped her. A delicate pink tinge painted her cheeks. “I might maul you though. And I’m not sure I’m ready to have a cab driver watch me go down on you in the backseat.”

  A wall of hot lust slammed into Noah at her declaration. He shifted on the bed, finding her hand with his to thread their fingers together. “You don’t have to fight what you want, Pepper. I want it to.” He grinned, hoping to make her laugh again. “Besides, I’ve got a limo driving around the block waiting for me. It’s got privacy glass and everything.”

  She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, gnawed on her lip and then shook her head again. “I need to think about all this. I could fall in love with you very easily, Noah Holden, and I’m not sure my heart would survive that. Especially when you’ve only just ended an eight-year relationship with a bikini model and you have groupies offering themselves to you all the time.” She gave him a wry smile. “Besides, we have to remember Stevie N—”

  Noah held up his hand and shook his head. “Don’t. I think you and Strings and Levi have forever ruined me for Fleetwood Mac.”

  Pepper laughed. The sorrow in it tore at Noah’s heart.

  “What if we do take a cab?” he asked, unwilling to give up. “I’ll even sit in the front. Out of your reach.”

  Pepper frowned. “Where’s your bodyguard going to sit?”