Twisted

by Cari Quinn

  “Yes. So fucking ready.”

  He undid the laces of his pants with one hand and used to other to grip her throat, holding her in place with such erotic dominance that she couldn’t restrain her moan. The quelling look he gave her only caused her to squirm harder. “I’m so hoping you soak through these pants,” he said. “Then I can throw them out. Fucking leather.”

  “But it makes your ass look hot.”

  At his grunt, she laughed under his hand and rocked her hips against his in a bid for him to hurry. She loved how it was between them. No matter how urgent or erotic, they never forgot to laugh. Never lost that connection that linked them together so much tighter than simple sex.

  “Screw it. You take me out.” Eyes glittering, he let her go and she immediately bent to her task, fingers blurring over the laces until she reached the rigid prize inside his pants. She shuddered at the sheer weight of him in her hand and licked her lips hungrily. “Oh, baby, that’s an invitation right there. Want me to put you on your knees?”

  She didn’t hesitate. “Yes. I want it in my mouth.” Leaning forward, she bit the muscled cords of his neck and relished his ragged exhalation. “But I need you in my pussy more. It’s aching without you.”

  “Christ. Do it now.”

  She shifted forward, taking him inside her in one slow roll. Her flesh stretched around his erection, the familiar quick sting from his size fading into a wave of pure longing. It cramped her belly and made her clumsy as she gripped his shoulders and bounced on his lap, too excited to take the time to ride him the way she should. He groaned and steadied her hips, lifting her up and easing her back down so slowly that she had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from crying out. Blood bloomed on her tongue and involuntarily, she squeezed around him.

  “Jesus. I gotta fuck you hard, baby. This isn’t going to take long.”

  “Yes. Please.” She wrapped an arm around his shoulders for balance and used the other to grab a handful of his damp hair. “I need it as hard as you can.”

  “Hang on.” He spread his legs, changing the angle slightly, and lifted off the bench, surging into her so deeply that she nearly lost her hold on him. “That’s not hanging on,” he panted.

  She dug her nails into his arm and squeezed him again, tilting into him and crashing her mouth down onto his. She fed on his lips and tongue, sucking and biting on them as he gripped her ass and set a manic rhythm. His air fueled her and she gave it right back, moaning at every powerful thrust.

  Her skirt fell over his lap, hopefully hiding most of what they were doing just in case someone poked their head back onstage. But she really didn’t care, because her world had narrowed to his long, thick cock moving in and out of her, scraping her clit and her piercing and pulling the rawest, dirtiest sounds from her throat.

  “You’ve got thirty seconds to come. Otherwise I’m going to pull out and leave this beautiful pussy empty again, because I know someone’s going to walk out here and see me fucking you. And baby, that can’t happen.” He dragged his teeth over her lower lip. “No one gets to see your face while you’re on the verge of orgasm but me.”

  If she hadn’t been on the edge—hell, dangling over it—his raspy demands probably wouldn’t have triggered her to fall. But with that little nudge, she stopped fighting her climax. It hit her like a tsunami, destroying her awareness of everything but the feeling of her walls contracting in hard pulses around his rigid shaft.

  She whimpered, her forehead bumping against his as she lost her precarious balance yet again. Her orgasm didn’t seem to have an end. The pleasure overwhelmed her, shorting out her senses until she couldn’t see anything but the naked need in his eyes. That need surrounded her, feeding her own. “God. Gray. God.”

  He groaned and buried his face in the crook between her neck and shoulder. His body quaked with his obvious struggle to restrain his own release. “Sugar, why you gotta test me?”

  “Don’t hold back,” she breathed when she could form words again. “I’m still empty. You better fill me up. Now.”

  He hauled her back down, so roughly that the thrill zipped up her spine and intensified her aftershocks. He pushed up into her, hitting that spot that caused her to tingle from head-to-toe. She tried to focus on him, to help him get there, but God, he felt so good inside her, and his hands flexing on her ass added an extra bit of sensation. Those calloused fingers caressing her skin left sparks in their wake. He was touching her everywhere, inside and out, his heat overpowering her. She surrendered to it and to him, giving into another rapid climax with a cry that he muffled with a desperate kiss.

  And then he rewarded her even more by thrusting deep one last time and spilling himself inside her. “Jazz.” Still shaking, he dropped his damp forehead to hers and mouthed her three favorite words, imprinting them on her trembling lips and branding them on her soul. “I love you.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Then

  “How did I get stuck pushing a shopping cart when I was supposed to be auditioning tonight?” Jazz asked.

  Gray tossed a bag of corn chips in the cart and hipchecked her into a row of brownie mix. Giggling, she grabbed a package with peanut butter chips and added that to their purchases. “Because the guys need to eat. Fuel, ya know? Once we start practicing, we usually keep at it half the night. Especially if Stevie’s dad’s out drinking. Then no one bothers us.”

  “But I can’t stay out half the night. Your mom will kill me.”

  He grabbed a couple of bags of pretzels and added them to the growing pile. “So you should go home like a good girl and pull the covers up to your chin.”

  It was her turn to hipcheck him. He laughed and slid his arm around her waist, lifting her off the ground so effortlessly that she couldn’t help but squeal. “Put me down, you oaf.”

  “Oaf?” He set her down with a thud. “Not exactly the kind of sweet talk I expected from the girl who is on tap to be Krystal Sword’s first ever female drummer, thanks to me.” He shook his head in mock disappointment and held his hand over his heart, approximately two inches from the beard of one of the members of ZZ Top. He’d found the relic T-shirt at a thrift shop and wore it gleefully in spite of all the shit he took from their classmates. “I’m wounded, truly.”

  She grinned and tried not to think of the reason spots were opening up in the band. Gray was heading away to college in not too long, as was another one of the guys who had a scholarship to a school back east. They wanted to get new people to fill in while the longtime members were off being scholarly. It was a fantastic opportunity for her to get some real band experience.

  But all she could do was focus on the knee-weakening reality of Gray being gone. She couldn’t imagine playing when he wasn’t at her side. They were a team. He brought the best out of her, and now she was going to have to find her best all by herself.

  “You don’t know I’m going to be the drummer. I haven’t auditioned yet. I could blow it.” She stopped and tore open the bag of corn chips, shoving a handful in her mouth. “I’m going to blow it.”

  “Don’t be stupid. You’re gonna nail it.” He took the bag back and set it in the cart. “Look, go read a magazine or something. I’m gonna grab a six-pack and pay for this stuff.”

  “Get me a—”

  “A Sprite. Yeah, yeah. I know you, Edwards. Now go read about giving the perfect BJ in Cosmo or something.” His teasing grin as he shoved her away made her laugh.

  Dang, get caught just one time reading a dirty article and a girl was branded for life.

  “Fine. Push your own damn cart.” Still grinning, she wandered to the front of the Grab ‘n Go and rifled through the rack of magazines. Nothing caught her eye, at least not of the magazine variety.

  She ventured to the line of toy vending machines and played with her bamboo initial necklace, a holdover from her old life. She’d been wanting something new to replace it. A sign of a fresh start. But cash wasn’t exactly plentiful, especially now that it was getting close
to the beginning of the new school year. She’d need to buy supplies soon, and she needed to ration the money the Duffys gave her. She didn’t want them to think she was some kind of spendthrift.

  And man, she wanted one of these stupid guitar pick necklaces. A dollar a chance with the giant claw. She sucked at this game, but that didn’t stop her from trying.

  It’s just junk. You wear junk, baby girl, people will think you’re junk.

  Forcing her mom’s voice out of her head, she dug around in her change purse and finally came up with her last four quarters. She was just about to slip them into the slot when a rickety grocery cart rolled up behind her and bumped her gently in the butt.

  “Whatcha doin’?”

  “It’s nothing.” She started to laugh it off and turn away, but Gray grabbed her arm.

  “Liar. Looks like something to me. You want one of these?” He tapped on the machine and dug out his quarters, dumping them in the change slot before she had a chance to pretend she really didn’t want that purple guitar pick necklace.

  It was cheesy. Flimsy. It’d probably turn her skin green and break in a week.

  But she wanted it with all her heart.

  “Yes.” Her voice came out in a whisper, as if she were confessing something shameful. The foster kid liked to drape herself in junk jewelry and pretend she wore diamonds.

  “Then it shall be yours.” He shot her a cocky grin and braced his hand on the lever attached to the claw. A few deft manipulations later, he zeroed in on his target and dragged it out from the sea of plastic egg-enclosed treasures with a crow of victory that any sports hero would’ve recognized.

  The sweet taste of success.

  Still grinning, he plucked it out of the tray and popped open the top. He turned to her and held it out for her inspection. “There you go, baby. All yours.”

  Every time he called her baby her heart rioted. Sometimes she didn’t think her skin and bones could hold it inside, not when his twinkling gray eyes settled on hers. She took the container and dug out her prize. She wouldn’t cry. If she kept on smiling, he would never be able to guess how a small hunk of crap could somehow crystallize the totality of her life and everything she wanted and would never have.

  “Thank you.”

  “Turn around. Let me put it on you. Hold up your hair.”

  Pivoting, she did as he asked. He slipped it around her neck and she lifted her hair higher so he could fumble with the clasp. Then she turned back to him and gripped the tiny guitar pick between her fingers. “Thank you,” she said again, voice breaking.

  His smile fell away. “Jazz? What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.” She started to move away but he grabbed her arm and cupped her cheek in his other hand.

  “Tell me.”

  She shook her head but the momentum only made the words spill out faster. “I used to save my allowance for this stuff. I’d pile it up in my jewelry box because I didn’t have anything else and I wanted to be a princess.” She smiled. “Every little girl’s dream, right?”

  “You are a princess.”

  Her smile wavered. “It didn’t matter that I had holes in my shoes, because I had this fake bling.” She stared at the grimy floor to avoid meeting his gaze. “My mom found it one day and threw it all out. Called it trash. She said I was trash for wearing it.” She dug the other necklace out from under her shirt. “This is the only one I managed to save. The rest she covered in spaghetti sauce after she burned our dinner.”

  He closed his fingers around hers. “It’s beautiful. J is the best letter.”

  She turned her face away. “Thanks for not laughing at it.” Or me.

  “Jazz.” He nudged her chin back with the tip of his finger and lowered his head to hers. “Someday I’m going to buy you that bling. I promise.”

  A harsh laugh escaped her. She didn’t know where it came from and couldn’t figure out how to shove it back down. “Why would you do that?”

  His Adam’s apple bobbled in his stubbled throat. “When I do it, you’ll know why.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Now

  Being summoned to conference room A at Ripper Records three days later didn’t surprise Jazz in the slightest.

  What did surprise her? That it had taken Lila that long to pounce.

  When Lila hadn’t snagged them the morning after the Tribute show, Jazz had been relieved. Maybe she hadn’t been paying that much attention to her and Gray’s show antics. Though Lila attended every show she could as well as making sure there was ample footage for dissection later, it was dark behind the drum kit and she might not have been eagle-eyed enough to spot Gray kissing her.

  Maybe and might weren’t offering her a whole lot of comfort at the moment.

  Lila finally sailed in, a sunny smile on her face. “Morning, children.” She held up a silver decanter and set a couple of mugs on the table. “Coffee?”

  “That shit is poison,” Nick muttered.

  Simon kicked him under the table. “Since when? You drink it constantly. And I’m pretty sure it’s less poisonous than those cancer sticks of yours.”

  “I meant this particular coffee is poison, and keep your damn feet to yourself, Kagan.”

  Lila ignored them both and took her seat at the head of the table. She shrugged off her shoulder bag and withdrew her iPad, setting it before her. “So. What’s new?”

  They all looked at each other, silently communicating about who would be the one to speak. Deak, as usual, stepped up.

  He cleared his throat. “We’ve come up with a lot of good, usable material in our time away, both in our individual groups and collectively. I’m assuming you saw the footage of our show at Tribute. It went well.”

  “Yes, of course, I saw it. That’s my job.” Lila scrolled her finger across the tablet’s screen and smiled. “Your job is a bit different. You were given certain tasks and offered certain admonitions yet with my little eye, I spy that these were not followed.”

  Jazz shot a glance at Gray in the seat beside her, and he slid his hand under the arm of his chair to link his fingers with hers. Such a small thing, but so important.

  “Lila, we—” Gray began.

  “Don’t bother explaining. I can see.” She folded her hands on top of her tablet. “What I see is amazing chemistry that I want to exploit like a motherfucker.”

  Jazz blinked. “Excuse me?”

  “You heard me. And don’t pretend to be shocked. I’m hardly the first person to be blown away by what I saw on stage.” Lila lifted her iPad and started scrolling again. “Check out YoloFan’s YouTube clip, entitled ‘Motherfucking Oblivion Hotness,’ for example.”

  “YoloFan? That sounds like a true genius.” If Nick had rolled his eyes any harder, he would’ve dislocated something.

  “Regardless, Gray and Jazz’s chemistry is exactly what this band has been needing. The magic ingredient.”

  Gray clamped his fingers tighter around Jazz’s and leaned forward. “Look, I’m not sure what you’re getting at, but we’re not going to be ‘exploiting’ anything. This isn’t a game to us.”

  “You think my paycheck is a game, Mr. Duffy? Au contraire. I take it very seriously.”

  Jazz glanced at Gray and lifted her eyebrows when he would’ve spoken again. He fell silent, giving her the floor.

  “We realize that the timing of this could be construed as…inconvenient for the band, and we certainly don’t want to be a distraction, but—”

  “You’re the best kind of distraction, Jasmine. Let me read some of the comments on YoloFan’s clip. By the way, over two-hundred-thousand hits in two days for a show at a venue like Tribute is impressive.”

  “YoloFan can kiss my ass.”

  “Nicholas, are you really that upset at not being in the spotlight? Kindly hush.” Lila slid the iPad toward Deak. “Actually, why don’t you read some of them aloud, so no one thinks I’m stacking the deck.”

  Deacon picked up the iPad and started to read silently. Then one
brow lifted. “When Gray climbed up on those drums to kiss Jazz, I swear I had an orgasm. Like…right then and there. Instant combustion.”

  Gray grinned. “Jeez, man, I never knew you cared.”

  Deak shook his head, laughing, before sliding the tablet back to Lila. “I’m not reading those out loud. Those chicks are seriously horny.”

  “Are you sure they’re all chicks?” Jazz propped an elbow on the table and wiggled her fingers, indicating for Lila to pass the iPad to her. “There has to be some guys in the crowd, right?”

  “There are. Men are excited too.”

  “Fabulous,” Gray muttered, tightening his grip on Jazz’s hand.

  “Now Jasmine has become an accessible fantasy to them. The male mind works in fascinating ways.”

  “You can say that again.” Jazz flicked Gray a sidelong glance and smiled when his broody expression never changed. “We’re happy you’re not displeased that we’re together.”

  “Yes, but we really wouldn’t have done a fucking thing different if you were.”

  “G, shush.” Jazz squeezed his hand. “He doesn’t mean that, Lila.”

  “Sure he does. He’s in love and wants the whole world to know it.”

  Gray never looked away from Jazz as he brought her hand to his mouth for a quick kiss. “That about sums it up.”

  “Aww,” Simon said, grinning. “That’s totally adorbz.”

  Jazz took a shuddery breath and would’ve responded in kind if Lila hadn’t cut her off.

  “I agree totally with your plan to demonstrate it to the world. Clearly you two have explosive chemistry, and that shouldn’t be kept behind closed doors. Neither should ‘Sugar Kiss’ be under wraps until the album comes out.” She consulted her tablet. “I spoke to Donovan yesterday and we’re of one mind. ‘Sugar Kiss’ should be the first single, and we want it out soon as possible.”

  “Say what?” Nick flashed her an incredulous look. “The album’s not due to drop until—”