by Zoe York
“Okay, that’s a mean trick,” she gasped as he crawled on top of her, now that she was flat on her back on the bed.
“You weren’t listening. Sometimes I just take action.” He grinned down at her and flicked open the button on her jeans. She breathed roughly as he slipped his hand inside, his gaze slipping out of focus as he groaned with her. “Yeah. I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve been right in front of you.”
“And untouchable.”
“I know.” She wasn’t sure how they were going to last the rest of the tour.
He dipped his head and kissed her chest, her sternum, her belly as he worked his way down her body.
Her jeans went flying, and with them went her worries as he peeled open her legs and kissed her where she was sticky and wet for him.
It helped that he kept telling her how much he liked her, and when he climbed back up her body he had a couple of condoms in his hand.
“For later,” he whispered as he shucked his own jeans and settled between her legs to kiss her.
“Why later?”
He grinned. “Because I want to do this for a while.”
Then he covered her mouth with his and chased her thoughts off to the same place her worries had fled.
* * *
— —
* * *
Dean was totally lying. He’d wanted to be buried balls deep in Liana since the second she’d given him the green light, but he also wanted her to be completely into it, and she had so many thoughts racing around in her head that needed to be turned off before it was truly just the two of them in the bed.
It was a strange and unfamiliar place for his head to be at, too, and that might be part of his reasoning for going slow tonight. He normally didn’t care if his partner was distracted by work or anything else. As long as everyone had a good time, got to come at least once, and left happy and cool with doing it again, he called it a win.
The stakes were higher with Liana.
Way higher.
Scary high, and he was ninety percent sure he couldn’t meet them. He wasn’t going to fuck it up on the first night together, though.
She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever had in his arms. Her confidence on stage, with her fans, her band…it was incredible. But here? He could still taste her fear.
“Tell me what you want,” he murmured against her lips.
“Everything.” She pressed against him. “And that means you need to be all the way naked.”
“Help me, then.” He kept kissing her while she shoved his boxer briefs down his hips. His dick popped into her hand, happy as a puppy to finally be given a rub on the head.
Simple bastard.
It wasn’t that easy.
Except now that they were tangled together, maybe it was. Liana’s eyes sparkled as they kissed and caressed each other.
“Grab me one of those condoms,” he said quietly, not wanting to break the moment. She arched her back, brushing those gorgeous pink nipples against his chest, and he played with them lazily, his fingertips circling the pebbled flesh as she ripped the foil open.
“Here,” she said.
“You do it.”
She grinned. “You’re really into this group effort thing.”
“I just like any excuse for you to touch me.” He hissed in a breath as she sheathed him, then lifted her top leg and draped it over his hip. “And I’ll take any chance to touch you, too. You turn me on, Liana. God. So much.”
He reached between them and slid his fingers through her wetness. She rocked her hips toward him and he met her in the middle.
His forehead pressed against hers as they found each other, her folds parting around him as he fitted himself against her and pressed inside.
Her lips parted in a wordless gasp as he stretched her out, and he groaned at how good it felt. “You’re perfect,” he growled. “So tight. Hot. Uhhhhh…”
Her breath hitched as she slid her arms around his neck. “Dean…”
“I’ve got you.”
“More.” She swallowed a gasp as he pulsed inside her. “Yes. That.”
He pumped his hips, slow and smooth, until she was moving with him, and then he planted one hand at the top of her ass, holding them together as he rolled her onto her back.
They came together as one, their hips surging in choreography that just clicked. Her thighs climbed up his body, wrapping around his waist as he braced his arms on either side of her and pushed in, again and again.
Each time he sank into her body, he wanted to curse and growl at how good it felt. But it went beyond the physical heat and pull of her. It had a lot to do with the way she was looking up at him, at the sounds she made and the way she held on to him, like this was incredible for her, too.
Like maybe she’d never known it to feel like this before. As if all the unbelievable feelings of their bodies working together was just the start of it. He laughed a little at that, but he held her gaze as the shaky chuckle worked its way through his body, and she nodded. Me too.
Her hands moved restlessly over the hotel bedspread. Her fingers were wiggling, and he reached for them with one hand, then the other. They were connected nearly everywhere they possibly could be, and it still wasn’t enough.
He drove deeper into her, needing to hear her scream as his need started to curl hard inside him, pulling his balls up tight to his body.
“Come on, Liana,” he bit out. “Come for me.”
“Kiss me,” she breathed. “Kiss me and I’ll come.”
With a desperate grunt, he fused his mouth to hers and plunged his tongue inside her. It wasn’t sweet or elegant. It was rough and dirty and so needy it would embarrass him later.
But as he filled her body and her mouth and held her down, she cried out for him, chanting his name as she spasmed around his cock and then beneath his body. Her climax started deep inside her and spiralled through her entire body, and he felt it everywhere he touched her.
The answering release burst out of him almost by surprise, and he slammed one last time into her as he came hard and fast.
His vision blacked out at the edges and his thighs seized up, and he held himself over her, telling himself there was no way in hell he could just collapse onto her.
Not cool to crush the woman who’d just blown his mind.
Not cool at all.
She didn’t get that memo. She kissed his neck and tightened her grip on him, pulling him down, then pushing him to the side. He grabbed the condom as she slipped off him, and gave himself a count of ten before he forced himself to go deal with that.
He ended up taking fifteen seconds—and only six to get rid of it.
Six seconds of not holding her he’d never get back.
Fuck.
His heart was pounding a mile a minute as she settled against his chest. “That was really, really nice,” she murmured. Her eyes were already closed.
He already wanted her again. He wanted her tomorrow and the next day.
This was a strange and uncomfortable feeling, how much he wanted her, because he’d made it his life mission not to want anything that he couldn’t afford to lose.
Somehow when he hadn’t been looking, Liana had slipped under his radar.
And he was terrified that he was going to lose her before he was ready. That he might not ever be ready for that goodbye.
Chapter Eighteen
LIANA woke up with a heavy, warm man wrapped around her.
It was still dark out. She turned her head, looking for the clock. Just a little after midnight. They hadn’t been asleep long.
“You awake?”
Maybe it was just her that had drifted off. “I am.”
“Good.” He kissed her shoulder and pressed his erection against her bottom.
“Hello there,” she whispered.
“You sore? I’ll be gentle.” His hand shifted from stroking the flat of her belly up to cup her breast possessively.
Warmth bloomed low inside her.
Not too sore. “Gentle sounds perfect.”
“Shower sex?” He kissed her neck softly. “Or I can be gentle right here, too.”
Definitely not too sore. “Maybe back here for round three?”
“God. Yes. You are…” He rolled her onto her back and kissed her hard on the mouth. When he pulled back, his eyes were glittering and bright. “You are perfect. In absolutely every way.”
She rolled her eyes and pointed to the bathroom. “Go start the shower.”
It turned out rounds two and three both happened in the bathroom, once on the counter and the other with her pressed up against the tiles as he took her from behind.
Neither was particularly gentle.
She couldn’t stop grinning.
“Are you going to send me back to my room tonight?” he asked as they crawled back into bed.
“Not if you don’t want to go,” she whispered. It had been a year since she’d slept the night with anyone. If Dean was offering, she’d grab that with both hands.
“I’ll be careful leaving in the morning. I’ll set my alarm.” His voice was extra gruff and she cupped his cheek, making him look at her.
“It’s not that I wouldn’t want people to know…in general.”
“I know.”
“I mean, you’re Arm Guy. You’re three accidental WhisperSnip sightings away from a cult following. I should be so lucky to date Arm Guy.”
He grinned. “That name is sticking, isn’t it?”
“Like glue, I’m afraid.” She squeezed his corded, thick forearm. “I don’t think you understand just how hot your arms are.”
He flexed and she groaned. He gave her a curious look. “Arm Guy does it for you?”
“Really does. So hot.” She got a shrug at that, and he lay down, stretching those magnificent arms wide across the bed. Rolling onto her stomach, she snuggled up.
“Maybe me and my arms can take you out for dinner in Nashville.”
Dinner sounded like a dream. “I’d like that.”
“Can you do that? Go out for dinner?”
“Yeah. I mean it’s possible I might get recognized, but most of the places I go are only frequented by locals, and to them, I’m just another musician.”
“Little bit of ordinary?”
She smiled. “Yep.”
“Good.” He kissed her head. “I’m glad you’ll be going back to that when this is over. I’ll worry about you.”
“Angling for a longer bodyguard job?” she teased, but he bristled. Shit. “Wait, I take that back. Delete, delete, delete.”
“It’s fine.”
“I didn’t mean it like it’s an employer-employee thing.”
“That wasn’t how I took it.”
She frowned, trying to figure out what then— “Oh. You wouldn’t be around for a longer job.”
He didn’t answer right away, and when he did, his words were slow and careful. “It’s not that I’m not, necessarily, but I wasn’t planning to be away from home that long. Do you think you’ll need security after the tour?”
Ah. “No. Just…let’s pretend that conversation didn’t happen.”
“I can’t do that.” He tightened his grip on her. “Tell me more about the album stuff. With Track. I don’t like that he has that power over you.”
God, her and her big mouth. “That’s nothing. It’s that mental game, like with running. I can do anything for an hour. Two. Three. Four. You know? As the long run training stretches out. Even when it feels impossible, I know I’ve done it before. And then I hang in there and lo and behold, I survive.”
“I wish life was more than just surviving for you.”
“Oh, of course it is. I’m blessed, Dean. You’ve just seen me at my worst. But I’m so, so lucky.”
“You love singing.” It wasn’t a question. He’d seen how it transformed her, but it also terrified her, and he’d seen that, too.
She nodded. “I really do.”
“You were young when you made your first album, right?”
“Eighteen.” She shook her head. “Hard to believe. And that’s why I’m in the position I’m in now. It pains me to think of how young I was and I was signing contracts that would dictate the next twelve years of my life.”
“And now you’re nearly at the end of that.”
“I am.”
“Is that…exciting? Scary?”
“Both. But other than choosing a different producer, a different label, reading contracts more closely… not much else will change. It’s still kind of isolating, no matter how big you get. Maybe even more isolating the bigger you get.”
“It’s a bizarre life, in a way, right? I can already see that, although you’re really grounded with the crew and your band.”
“Yeah. But it makes me really value moments like this, you know? Like, I know how special this is right now with you. It’s private and real. And I don’t mean sex, but talking. I don’t need to hedge what I’m saying at all. I get this with you, I get it with Hope…a little bit with Jackie, but even then, I’m her boss. You know? I pay her. So I have to be on and positive and I can’t show her how weak I am.”
“No. You’re the strongest person I’ve ever met.”
She laughed. “Your brother is literally going to war, right?”
“Bah. That’s standard fare for Fosters.”
“Have you ever been overseas?”
He shook his head. “Never got a chance to go on a tour. Couldn’t get the time off work. Might now that I’ve left the police force, but there aren’t that many open spots for reservist Warrant Officers. I’ve been promoted out of the ranks that usually get sent on tour.”
She traced an imaginary circle on his shoulder, then filled it with a kiss. “I think your army talk is as foreign to me as music talk is to you.”
“We’ll have to teach each other.”
When would they do that? Suddenly the end of the tour felt around the corner. She pushed that away. It didn’t matter. They had this, they had tonight. Another circle. Another kiss. “Okay.”
She curled into his side. She expected to be the one to stay awake this time, but he stroked her hair and, before she could stress about not getting enough sleep, she drifted off.
When she woke up the second time, it was dawn.
Dean was dressed, and bent over her. His lips brushed hers again. Oh.
She smiled. “A wake-up kiss?”
“A wake-up-and-go-back-to-sleep kiss. I’m sneaking out.”
“Bring me coffee in a few hours?”
“Of course.”
She poked her hand out from under the covers and wrapped her fingers around his hand, planted on the bed beside her. “Thank you for last night.”
“Our secret,” he murmured with a smile.
She touched her fingers to her lips as he quietly strode to the door, checked the peephole, and slipped into the hall.
* * *
— —
* * *
Dean hit the gym, then found a Starbucks and…
He pulled out his phone. Embarrassing fact: I don’t know what kind of coffee to get you from Starbucks.
Skinny hazelnut latte.
He made a face and ordered it along with a black drip coffee for himself.
He wanted them to have the morning alone together, but he knew that was a pipe dream, so when he saw West and Andrew in the lobby, he lifted the coffees in the air. Hiding in plain sight, as she’d said. “Morning. Going to wake up Liana.”
They were on their way out to a diner they always hit when they were in town. Two down.
But he didn’t see anyone else from the tour until he got to her room—and he was glad he’d just knocked politely instead of using the key in his pocket, because when the door swung open, Jackie was on the other side.
He handed Liana her latte and held out his drip coffee to the guitarist. “It’s black, but it’s yours if you want it.”
She shook her head. “I’m good. I’m heading down there myself sh
ortly, I was just giving Liana the heads up.”
“That’s why I told you to come up to my room,” Liana said, drawing out the words as she made deliberate eye contact with him.
Uh oh. “Okay. I’m here.”
“So it seems some industrious fans got to work and Arm Guy has now been identified.”
“They figured out my name?”
“Name, company, that I’m your first client they’re pretty sure, and the fact you have never been married.”
He burst out laughing. “Seriously?”
“There are also photos.”
“Of what?”
“You.” That’s the kind of ominous statement that usually preceded someone being shown embarrassing pictures. A nude photo shoot from way back or a grainy still of a drug deal.
Dean didn’t have anything like that in his past, so he frowned. Unless there were cameras here in the hotel room last night, he didn’t have anything to hide.
She handed him her phone. And sure enough, there he was.
The photos weren’t embarrassing.
Walking behind Liana. Walking in front of her. Carrying her bag into the arena.
Pressing his hand against the small of her back—or at least, that’s what it looked like in the photo.
He was pretty sure he hadn’t actually touched her in that moment. He could feel the brush of her t-shirt whispering against his palm, but he’d held back from actually touching the firm muscles along her spine.
No, they weren’t embarrassing, but they were damn revealing.
So much good that restraint had done him. The way he felt about her was written all over his face.
He slowly lifted his gaze to her face. “Liana…”
She lifted one delicate shoulder, her dark waves tumbling down her back. “I know, right? This changes things.”
“I…”
“Don’t worry about it. I mean, I know you don’t. But don’t think that I’m worried about it. I’m not. It might actually be fun to see people spin over this, if you can handle it.”
“Fun?” He wasn’t following the conversation. Maybe she hadn’t seen the same thing in the photos he had.