Love on the Run (Pine Harbour Book 5)

by Zoe York

  May I?

  She parted for him, because of course he could. He groaned as he slowly slid inside her, and she could feel him holding back. Trying to be on his best behaviour even as he gave her a kiss so dirty it made her head spin.

  She curled her fingers into the soft fabric of his shirt and urged him closer. More, she wanted more—well, she wanted everything, truthfully. She wanted that shirt on the floor and the big, brawny weight of him pressing her back against the bed. She wanted to feel his mouth everywhere on her body, then hear those groans deepen as she returned the favour.

  His hands cupped her cheeks as he eased away, but he didn’t get far before his mouth crashed against hers again, this kiss hungrier than the last.

  And when he finally stepped back—fully away from her, with enough space between them that kissing again by accident would take fancy choreography—he was breathing heavily and he looked as affected as she felt.

  She touched her fingertips to her lips and smiled. “Wow.”

  “I’m still your bodyguard. I can’t get distracted from that.”

  “Of course not.” But her smile was wider now. She couldn’t wait to distract him.

  “Sleep tight.”

  “I will.”

  He walked backwards to the door, eyes on her until the last second, and when he finally let himself out, she sagged back against the bed with a groan.

  Oh. My. God.

  She wanted to do that again and again and again. “Next time I’m getting under that shirt of his,” she promised herself out loud, then laughed gently as she closed her eyes, warmth blooming through her chest.

  Chapter Seventeen

  ST. LOUIS was good to Liana, a rocking afternoon performance that put a sparkle in her eyes Dean very much liked. When they piled back on the buses for Memphis, where they’d stay for two nights, everyone was in good spirits.

  Even Mr. Cold Shower. Jesus, it had been hard to walk away from her the night before. But now they’d have two nights at the same hotel, and Dean had every intention of taking advantage of the privacy. And he didn’t need to wait that long to get her worked up.

  They were on the bus, eating a late dinner and West was telling them about his new EP album that he was getting ready to publish to iTunes himself.

  Dean listened with one ear as he scrolled through his contact list, looking for Sweet Tits.

  He got half hard just thinking about how good her breasts had felt in his hands. On his mouth, through the silk of her top. How had he kept his hands off them the night before? He deserved a medal for that.

  He found her secret identity and hit new message. Remember that time in St Louis when I should have licked you until you screamed before the show?

  Liana was sitting at the table, working on her laptop. His cock thickened further when she glanced down at her bag. She’d heard the notification.

  He flipped over to his email. A lot of messages back and forth, planning a going away party for Sean. He fired off a quick response that he expected to be back in the third week of August, but he’d try to fly home for the party.

  No sooner had he hit send, and up popped Liana’s response. A question that made his balls ache. In the... Dressing room?

  God, yes. This was way more fun than talking about publishing music direct to listeners, no offense West. No, that was Memphis.

  She smothered a laugh.

  St Louis was your bedroom on the bus. Actually it was right after your set. Right after Cravings. I followed you back to the bus and told you I wanted all of your sweet wine.

  Her eyes went really wide and she stood up. After stretching and giving a big yawn, she tucked her computer—and her burner phone—into her bag. "I'm going to take a power nap."

  “We’ll be in Memphis in forty-five minutes,” Dwayne called out.

  “I’m going to do a WhsiperSnip broadcast from the hotel,” she explained probably unnecessarily. “So…a rest would be good.”

  Dean stared at the text message he was writing on his phone. Rest, good. Yes. You’re not getting much sleep tonight. He waited until her door closed, then he hit send.

  Her response came back immediately. You’re dangerous.

  Are you complaining? And by bedroom on the bus, I meant hotel room.

  Not complaining. She added a smiley face that made him grin. Was sexting supposed to also make you laugh?

  Are you touching yourself?

  Should I?

  Yes.

  Okay. Yes.

  I’m going to kick everyone off the bus.

  I’ve stopped.

  No, don’t stop. I’ll pretend to talk to West about his music.

  It’s really interesting.

  Really interesting is what you’re doing with your fingers. Tell me.

  Can’t.

  Yes you can.

  Fingers busy.

  Killing me.

  Mmmmmmm.

  This was crazy. Reckless. Insane. It also felt completely, utterly right.

  “Did we lose you, Dean?”

  He did a slow, cool slide of a glance up to meet Jackie’s too-innocent face. “Some of the industry stuff goes over my head. I was emailing with my brother.”

  “Ah.” She turned back to West, and Dean clicked back to Liana’s latest message. You should go to your bunk.

  Too obvious. Jackie’s watching.

  That’ll kill the mood.

  Nothing kills my mood for you.

  Awww.

  You don’t sound busy.

  I want to wait for you.

  Killing me in a different way now.

  Soon. Forty-five minutes.

  * * *

  — —

  * * *

  The problem with a lie is that you inevitably get caught in it.

  While Liana had been sexting with Dean, Andrew had tweeted that she would be doing a live WhisperSnip broadcast from her hotel at nine o’clock, and there were now three hundred people expecting her to show up and be funny and sexy and sweet—the last thing she wanted to do right now for anyone other than Dean.

  She wanted to be Sweet Tits and get ravished by her bodyguard, but apparently that was the kind of fantasies she couldn’t allow herself if she didn’t come up with a better cover story.

  “Okay,” she said weakly as they climbed off the bus.

  Dwayne gave her a sympathetic smile. Little did the driver know that it wasn’t fatigue talking—she was just being selfish.

  “You want to join in the fun?” She teased him.

  He surprised her by saying yes, which is how literally everyone from the bus ended up in her room fifteen minutes later.

  In the same span of time, Dean sent her five dirty text messages, and one sweet one. You take such good care of your band. That’s hotter than almost anything else.

  Almost anything?

  You touching yourself in the back of the bus still wins.

  Mostly sweet, anyway.

  She tucked her burner phone away in her bag and set up her regular phone on the tripod after signing in to her WhisperSnip account. As soon as her face appeared in the live streaming video, hearts started dancing up the screen.

  “Awww, thanks for the love, everyone!” She blew a kiss to the screen.

  Usually she prepped for these things, because usually they were planned. Not a freaking lie so she could be alone with dirty text messages.

  “Let’s do a Q&A tonight,” she ad libbed. “I’ve got the usual crew here, plus Dwayne our driver is making a guest appearance. Those of you who regularly watch these broadcasts will remember him from our first recording on the tour, when I showed you the bus. Say hi, Dwayne!”

  She swivelled her phone around and Dwayne waved.

  Andrew started laughing from where he was watching on his own phone, volume turned off. “Oh, lots of comments now. They saw Dean.”

  “Uh oh.” She made a face as she spun the camera back to herself. “Oops. That’s the guy with the arm from the last video. Ignore him.” She l
ooked over at Dean and shrugged apologetically. Sorry, she mouthed.

  He gave her a slow wink. It’s okay.

  “Okay, what do you guys want to know…” She perused the list popping up. “New music? Yeah, we’re working on some stuff on the road. Just rough ideas right now, but I’ve got a new album in the pipeline. I’m excited.”

  “Maybe when we’re in Nashville…” Andrew trailed off when she shot him a warning look. “Never mind.”

  She stuck her tongue out at him. Nobody liked a grumpy star. Keep it light. Easier said than done when she just wanted to be done this and kick everyone out of her room. “Ignore him. Andrew’s not authorized to leak spoilers.”

  A chorus of exclamation marks and SPOILERS?? sailed up the screen in front of her. She suppressed a grin.

  Bonus pay for Andrew.

  “Okay, how about we do this. We’ll go around the room and everyone will say what song they want to hear more of the same of on the next album.” She winked at the camera. “And then we’ll ask you guys, okay?”

  Thumbs up from like a hundred viewers. Awesome.

  She started with Dwayne, who stumbled and mumbled and probably expanded his fan base by dozens for being so cute and real. He finally said he liked her first album, and “River Bed Lullaby” was his favourite.

  West said “Tailgate Girl” from her third album, the first single, which was a gimme to the fans who’d loved that party anthem. Bonus pay for West.

  Jackie wanted to say “Cravings”, Liana could tell, but she bit her tongue and agreed with Dwayne that a return to Liana’s roots with River Bed Lullaby would be awesome. Off camera, Liana winked at her guitarist, because that wasn’t far off-base from what they’d delivered to the label.

  Andrew tossed in an agreement with West, he wanted more anthems. Of course he did—they were more fun for the band to play.

  She was about to swing the camera back to herself when Dean cleared his throat. Every head in the room swivelled his way.

  Andrew looked at his phone. “Everyone wants to know what Arm Guy has to say.”

  Arm Guy, she mouthed, wiggling her eye brows. He now had an official nickname.

  Dean jerked his head, indicating he wanted the camera turned his way.

  She bit her lower lip and did as requested. What was he doing?

  “Hey,” he said, looking straight at her phone. She’d watch this later, from the recorded video feed. She’d watch it a million times because he had the most adorable look on his face, like he couldn’t quite believe he was doing this. “So first things first. Not Arm Guy. Come up with a different name for me.”

  From across the room, Andrew hooted. “Too late. They’re already calling themselves Arm Guy’s Army.”

  Dean gave his rapidly growing fan base a stern look that made Liana’s nipples whimper. “Guys. No. Not cool. I’m more than my arms.”

  “CountryGirl52 says Complete Package would also work,” West added.

  Liana agreed, but she needed to get this broadcast back under control. She laughed. “Enough! Tell us what song you want to hear more like on the next album.” Arm Guy, she added silently.

  “‘Cravings’,” he said easily. “I hadn’t heard it before the tour started, and now it’s my favourite song. I’m surprised it wasn’t a single.”

  Heat rushed up her torso, flooding her face.

  “Lots of hearts for that idea…Fan4Life just shared a link to a fan video for those that haven’t made it to a concert yet,” Andrew reported.

  She pressed her lips together and spun the camera around to face her again. All those hearts and comments racing up from the bottom of the screen… She couldn’t process, and she told them as much. “I love you guys so much for all the support, thank you! Okay, this seems like a good place to stop tonight. So…I guess go watch that video. Kisses for Fan4Life for sharing that. Wow. Tell me where you are and we’ll get you a backstage pass for the nearest concert, deal?”

  She flashed the camera a thumbs up, blew them a kiss, and ended the broadcast.

  Dean looked around the silent room, then back at her. “Did I say the wrong thing?”

  Andrew and West jumped up. Dwayne followed suit.

  Jackie was slower. She looked back and forth between Dean and Liana, frowning. “I almost said the same thing.”

  “I know you did. It’s fine,” Liana said, patting her friend’s shoulder. “I need to talk to Dean alone, though.”

  They all filed out, and as soon as the door clicked shut, Dean started to apologize.

  She held up her hand. “No. Don’t. Give me a second.”

  She needed to compose herself first. She was dangerously close to saying something she might regret.

  “Here’s the thing,” she said when she turned around after pacing across her room and making sure the drapes were fully closed. “I second-guess myself all the time. The inside of my head is like a worry bomb went off. And then someone sprinkled doubt dust all over the rubble. So I play everything safe.”

  “If I—”

  She shook her head. “Let me finish. That was…that was honest. It was the thing that Jackie wanted to say, you heard her admit as much. And it got the response I was secretly hoping for from fans. And I know you heard Jackie and me talking about that—”

  “Whoa. Slow down.” He got right in front of her and gently pulled her worrying hands apart, quieting them with a gentle press of his own. “I just answered the question. Nothing else.”

  She beamed at him, unable to hide her true reaction any longer. “But it was exactly the right thing to say. I mean, terrifying, depending on how Track reacts to it. But it was perfect.”

  He did a double-take. “Perfect?”

  “Yes. And terrifying.”

  “I didn’t miss that part. That part was more obvious from the way your band ran out of here like you were going to chew my head off.”

  “Right. That. I might have given them that impression so I could get you naked and thank you appropriately.”

  He stared at her like she was insane.

  Which she possibly was, but right now wasn’t the best time to remind her of that.

  “The only other man to know all the mess inside my head looks at me like I'm trash. So if you could maybe not say no—”

  He cut her off by pulling her into his arms. His mouth swept against hers, the first brush of a gale force wind, the edge of a storm. His grip stayed tight as he pulled back, his eyes glinting hard and bright as he searched her face. “You wonderful, sneaky woman.”

  A wave of relief crashed over her. “You like?”

  “Yeah. Let’s trick them more often.” His hands tightened on her back. “Come here.”

  This time his kiss was more brusque, barely restrained hunger as he tugged up her shirt. She did the same, wanting to feel his skin against hers. Up, up, up, she pushed the fabric, revealing those tight, defined abs she’d petted the other night. His gorgeous midsection led to a broadly planed chest with just a light dusting of blond hair in the middle. Her mouth went dry at the size of him. She’d known he was strong, and tall, but half-naked, he gave Thor a run for his money.

  “Look at you,” he whispered.

  “You stole my line.”

  He stroked her shoulders and down her arms, finding the waistband of her jeans. Her belly fluttered as he re-traced slightly familiar ground—but still new enough it filled her with nerves.

  But he’d already touched her. Already told her she was beautiful.

  And the way his face was buried between her breasts told her everything she needed to know about how he felt about her. He traced the top curve of her bra with his tongue as he grinned up at her.

  It was rough and dirty and perfect. She laughed. “Hi.”

  “Hi. Can I take this off?”

  She nodded and he buried his face in her cleavage as he worked the clasp in the back. When the bra fell away, he replaced the cups with his palms, gently lifting and caressing her swollen flesh with his fingers.
<
br />   “I want to touch you, too,” she whispered.

  “Mmmm.” He rubbed his face gently against one breast, then the other. “Okay.”

  But he didn’t move. Instead he kissed and rubbed and stroked every inch of her breasts until she was shaking, and then he circled one nipple with the tip of his tongue.

  “Dean!”

  “Want more?”

  “Yes.”

  He opened his mouth and covered her peak with wet, sucking heat that flooded her already wet panties. Those had to go, they were just getting in the way.

  She wrapped her arms around his head. Kind of a terrible way to push him back. Really sending mixed messages there. Except his mouth—oh—and his hands, still, and—oh—“Dean!”

  “Yeah, I like it when you say my name,” he said, his voice full of gravel after he let go of her with a wet pop.

  She took her opportunity and dropped to her knees in front of him.

  His eyes darkened and his lips parted as she reached for his fly.

  “I think I might like it if you said my name, too.” She licked her lips and he groaned.

  “Liana…”

  “Yes?” She blinked up at him innocently. Just like that. She wanted him growling for her.

  “Get back up here.”

  “I want to see all of you first.”

  He leaned back on his hands and watched through hooded eyes as she smoothed her hand over the heavy erection pulsing beneath the denim. “Take him out, if you insist.”

  Heart pounding in her chest, she did just that, slowing unzipping and folding back the denim, then tracing her fingers over the thick ridge that popped out, pushing his black cotton boxers up into a tent.

  She leaned in closer, lips parted.

  Dean’s hand tangled in her hair. Not stopping her, exactly. Just slowing her down. “Hey. You first.”

  She shook her head.

  “Liana.”

  She ignored him and kissed the tip of him through the fabric. He smelled clean and masculine, and she wanted to bury her face right there, but she couldn’t, because she was flying through the air.