All Fired Up
(Black Halo Unplugged #2)
Madelynne Ellis

Copyright

Mischief

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

77–85 Fulham Palace Road,

Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

www.mischiefbooks.com

An eBook Original 2014

Copyright © Madelynne Ellis 2014

Madelynne Ellis asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Ebook Edition © 2014 ISBN: 9780008123994

Version: 2014-12-13

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

More from Mischief

About Mischief

Author’s Note

About the Publisher

Prologue
Five years earlier …

‘I’ve done it, guys. That music exec has agreed to meet us. We’re playing for him tomorrow morning, nine-thirty sharp.’

The mumbled replies of ‘Yeah’ and ‘Cool’ were not the responses Iain had envisaged for all his hard work. He’d sweated his butt off to get them this break, and it was a big thing. If everything went well tomorrow, and there was no goddamned reason why it shouldn’t, then he and the rest of Love Rocket were made. The bigwig from the record label had already seen them perform live, so he knew that they could play and had star potential. Tomorrow would be about working out the details and selling them to the rest of his team. This was a small label, but it would get them out there in front of audiences, bigger audiences than they could muster playing the university scene, and in turn that would hopefully boost them into the spotlight.

Iain realised this wasn’t going to make them an overnight success, but it would give them a solid boost up the ladder of superstardom he had pinned to his wardrobe door.

‘Where’s Ash?’ he asked, noticing that his lead guitarist was absent. Ash would be totally stoked about this, and unlike the rest of the guys – who, Iain saw as he glanced around the room, were beginning to look expendable – he was essential to this deal. Iain might be the motivating force, but Ash was their primary selling point.

Ashley Ryan had been born to rock. He looked every inch the rock star he was so obviously destined to become: black hair that shrouded his face, a lean physique corded with muscles, and two baby-blue eyes that could magic the panties off chicks from a hundred paces. Their fan base had tripled overnight after the first time he joined them on stage. What made things more interesting was that Ash, beneath the grungy image, was about as clean-cut as you could get. His only stumbling block was his girlfriend, Connie, for whom he’d do anything. Correction, had been prepared to do anything, until she ceremoniously dumped him last week. Thank you, Jesus!

‘He’s not mooning over Connie’s departure again, is he?’

‘Whaa–?’ Tom remarked, his eyes never leaving the TV screen, into which his games machine was permanently wired. Guitar Hero he certainly wasn’t. ‘There’s a letter for you on the corkboard.’

Biting back an expression of despair at Tom’s ineptitude, Iain left the communal lounge and hustled into his study-bedroom. Sure enough, a folded piece of paper with his name scrawled across the front in Ash’s overly swirly handwriting sat pinned in the centre of the board, on top of next month’s rehearsal schedule. Heart suddenly in his guts, he took it down and opened it.

Sorry mate. I need to get away from here. The whole thing with Connie has knocked me for six. I’ve been talking to some other guys about joining them, and I’ve decided this is the right time to make the jump. Clean break and all. Plus, their sound’s more my scene and they’ve agreed to take it more in my direction. You know that you and I don’t quite hit it off in that regard.

Anyway, they’ve a mini tour already booked for over the half-term break, so that’s why I’m not here to tell you this in person.

I know Love Rocket don’t have anything booked, but just in case you want to get started on finding my replacement, I’ve left you some numbers.

See you when I get back.

Ash

‘Fuck!’ Iain put his fist through the mirror.

‘Hey, man, what’s up?’ Gary mooched through from the lounge, lank hair combed forward over his face. Tom appeared at his heels, still superglued to his games controller. Gary bent and picked up Ash’s note, which Iain had dropped. He read it quickly.

‘Sucks,’ he remarked, and dropped it again.

It more than sucked. They were screwed. He was screwed. As the remaining shards of the mirror tumbled from the frame, Iain’s dreams of stardom crashed.

It was not supposed to work out like this. He’d thought, with Connie gone, Ash would be all over this project as something to throw himself into instead of making prissy wedding plans, but no, he’d only gone and fucked off to make some other fucker fucking rich.

Ash, you selfish ruddy bastard!

Chapter 1
Birmingham, England, Requiem for the Damned tour, opening night.

Ash looked for her the moment he came off stage, while his body was pumped with adrenalin and he was still buzzing from the performance high. He knew she’d be there, just as she had been every moment from the night they’d met. Ginny – just a glimpse of her was enough to make him want to barrel caveman-like through the crowd to claim her and cover her precious upturned face with a thousand million kisses. She made him crazy. One simple touch and he was all fired up and eager to please.

However, the last thing any budding relationship needed was the attention of the global media. Black Halo had just kicked off their Requiem for the Damned tour and there were enough journalists present, waving cameras and microphones about, to make his hackles rise.

Ash intended to keep what he had with Ginny private. No spotlights. No photographs. And no well-meaning friends offering advice and generally screwing things up. After his first brush with love had left him a quivering wreck, he wasn’t taking any risks second time around.

Still, it was hard not to run to her and lose himself, staring into her liquid-gold eyes. Instead, he steered himself in the opposite direction.

Ash made small talk with a couple of other ladies who’d managed to find their way backstage. He signed three autographs, one on a boob, and had his picture taken with new drummer Iain Willows, and their official fan-club president, whose name he could never remember. He forced himself to do an entire circuit of the room without looking at Ginny once, before he finally headed in her direction. Even then, he held off from giving her any sort of welcome that might have been deemed extraordinary. Just a friendly peck on the cheek, when really he wanted to drink down every last drop of her and tell everyone else here to fuck off home.

Only that sort of outburst would really focus their attention.

‘You took your time working your way here.’

‘I was saving the best for last.’

‘Were you?’ Sceptically, she raised one of her arched eyebrows.

‘I needed to find out how we went down.’

‘And?’

‘Like a storm, it seems.’

‘Because there was any actual doubt that’d be the case. The audience were just stoked you’re all together making music again and playing gigs. Say, has anyone ever told you, you hold your guitar in a really weird way. You make it look as if she’s about to fly from your hands.’

Yes, actually they had. He overlooked the remark though, because Ginny knew his guitar was female. She was amazing like that. Ash clenched his fists to stop himself cupping her face and stealing a proper kiss. He really needed to find an exit route out of here soon, because he didn’t want to stand still next to this woman. He wanted to do. His body wasn’t going to be content until he’d sampled every damn part of her for the zillionth time. These past few weeks, he hadn’t seemed able to screw his head on straight unless they were sandwiched so close there were no discernible gaps between them.

‘Actually, I think you’ll find she’s like a lot of ladies, and appreciates gentle coaxing.’

Her lips pursed. It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate tenderness, but Ash could genuinely attest to her being one of the few women who, when she said she wanted it hard, meant exactly that. He had the bruises to prove it. And didn’t that just keep him running back for more.

‘It’s just unfortunate that Mr Geist keeps writing hardcore rock anthems,’ he muttered, still half talking about his guitar. They needed to get out of here now, find themselves somewhere secluded, away from the din and the crush of people. Who the hell were all these people anyway? And why were they backstage?

‘Yeah, I’ve heard he’s addicted to rocking out.’

‘Wanna rock out with me?’ they remarked simultaneously, making one another laugh. Did he ever. He was damn well hooked on her. Ginny Walters, the new drug of choice. ‘I think I’m addicted to the taste of you.’

Ginny prodded him with her elbow. ‘You say such crude if lovely things. I’m rather partial to the taste of you too.’

‘Then maybe I can persuade you to come this way.’ Ash hooked an arm around her tiny waist – Ginny was skinny everywhere apart from around the hourglass curve of her hips – and guided her in the direction of the bar. There was an exit right by it that’d take them to the dressing rooms and some blissful seclusion.

‘Hey, Mr Rock Star, I hope you’re not planning on plying me with alcohol and then having your wicked way.’

‘Course not. I wouldn’t dream of taking advantage like that. I was thinking wicked way first, then alcohol. What do you say we relive a little of our history?’

‘That does sound fun,’ she agreed, a nostalgic look in her eyes. He still couldn’t believe they’d met because she’d gatecrashed his dressing room looking for fun with whoever turned up. Ash had always supposed he’d meet his special lady somewhere civilised and unconnected to the music industry. Not that he was arguing with fate.

‘And were you thinking we’d do this with or without the accompaniment of your bandmates?’

Definitely without. While he’d once shared her with Spook and Rock Giant, he had no intention of ever doing so again. Just as he had no intention of sharing himself with anybody else. Ginny was his, and he was strictly a one-woman man from now on. Why risk perfection for something mediocre? And boy, was she perfect. He admired the wiggle of her butt as she walked ahead of him to get through the crowd.

Of course, slipping away unnoticed proved a little trickier than he’d hoped. By the time they’d reached the end of the bar, they were surrounded by the other band members and associated hangers-on.

Most nights Ash was happy to hang out with them and do some post-gig chilling, but they were about to spend six months on a tour bus together. He’d see plenty of them, and not nearly enough of Ginny. After weeks of having her around whenever he needed her, not being able to hold her in his arms was going to be absolute murder.

Also, things were still kind of tense within the band, following their temporary split a little while back. Ash wasn’t going to even pretend those wounds were fully healed.

‘Ash. Come and have a beer.’ Iain Willows clubbed him across the back before handing him a bottle. ‘I think that went well. They’re still loving us outside.’ The general hum of backstage activity was regularly punctuated by the roar of the fans waiting outside for a glimpse of the band as they left. ‘I see you haven’t lost your talents.’ Iain’s attention abruptly shifted to Ginny. ‘Let me say good evening to the prettiest girl in the room.’ He grasped Ginny’s hand and raised it in order to kiss her fingers.

Around them several female onlookers sighed, while Ash experienced an overwhelming desire to tear Iain’s head off. He did not need to be touching Ginny, or looking at Ginny, or breathing in the same space as Ginny. And he definitely didn’t need to be flashing his ‘come to bed’ eyes at her.

‘You don’t want to hang out with this waster, do you?’ Iain drawled, cosying up to her side. ‘You should really consider checking out the new talent in the band.’

‘Where’d you recommend I look?’

Iain briefly pouted, which made him look decidedly constipated. Then he pressed his hands to his heart in a theatrical fashion and claimed, ‘I’m wounded. So cruel.’

The bastard completely overcooked it and ought to have crashed and burned; instead he managed to raise a smile out of Ginny.

‘Seriously, though,’ Iain said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. ‘You do realise he’s been everywhere?’

‘Which beats having been nowhere,’ Elspeth Shriik, Black Halo’s diminutive keyboardist, remarked, interrupting Ash’s mental picture of Iain being bloodily beheaded. ‘At least Ash comes with a satisfaction guarantee. What do you come with?’

‘Minimal effort,’ someone quipped, instantly freezing Iain’s smile.

‘God, yeah. Very droll,’ he complained. ‘You’re all so funny. That’s right, pick on the new guy.’

‘Have another beer, Iain.’ Ash thrust the bottle Iain had given him back at him again, hoping to prevent an argument. He might be somewhat pissed at Iain at the minute, but if possible he wanted to avoid another feud brewing within the band. It was bad enough that Xane and Elspeth were barely speaking to one another, without a third war zone being drawn up.

He got it. He understood why Elspeth didn’t want Iain on board. For the same reason that Xane didn’t, because the vacancy only existed because of Steve Matlock’s death and neither of them was ready to move on yet.

‘At least you’re drinking something less girly now,’ Rock Giant, Black Halo’s bassist, remarked of the beer, ‘and not that pink nonsense you had earlier.’

‘Cosmo?’ the bartender enquired.

‘Dirty Shirley,’ Iain corrected him. ‘And I’ll take another now.’

Ash shook his head. ‘You’re supposed to be a badass rock star. Don’t you think cocktails are a little bit fluffy?’

‘What can I say?’ Iain raised his hands and shrugged. ‘I happen to love cherries.’

‘First-timers only,’ Elspeth mocked. ‘Is that so they don’t realise how rubbish you are?’

Ash watched Iain’s skin turn purple beneath his artfully constructed five o’clock shadow, and prayed he managed to inure himself to Elspeth’s jibes fast, else he was going to be doing a lot of mediating on this tour, and, if there was one thing he truly sucked at, it was calming situations. Creating them – now that was a different matter.

Xane came over looking for his girlfriend Dani and drifted off again when he realised she wasn’t present, which in turn prompted Ash to make a second attempt at escaping.

‘Where are you going?’ Iain asked.

Ash cuddled Ginny closer. ‘I’ve something I need to attend to.’ He saw a particular thought burst through Iain’s expression and deliberately turned away before his friend chose to express it. If the word ‘threesome’ left Iain’s mouth, or in fact anything else suggestive involving him and Ginny, then Elspeth wouldn’t be Iain’s major problem, because he’d have two broken legs and a bust nose to deal with. The only reason Ash was considering leaving his arms intact was that they needed a drummer.

‘Catch you later,’ he said pointedly. Then he led Ginny calmly to the exit, just as he’d led hundreds of women before her. ‘Nothing’s changed, nothing’s different,’ he recited mantra-like beneath his breath for the benefit of anyone watching. ‘I’m just doing the same thing I always do, going to enjoy a little post-show wind-down with a pretty lady I recently met.’

His audience seemed to buy it. Leastways, no one appeared to be taking any notice of them, not even the snoops from the Daily Sleaze.

Chapter 2

Ginny hadn’t anticipated that seeing Ash on stage would leave her feeling quite so supercharged. She’d seen Black Halo play before and never felt like this. Of course, back then she hadn’t been intimately involved with one of them. Right now, there were riotous bubbles fizzing through her insides. She just prayed she didn’t go ‘pop’ at any moment and embarrass herself.

Fact: watching Ash, being near him, made her want to scream and sing and leap about. Maybe all three together. She wanted to tear off his clothes and fuck him naked right on the stage for everyone to see, which she guessed made her just the same as any other fan girl. The difference of course was that if she put her hands all over him and said the right words, he might just make all her fantasies reality, rather than have her removed or arrested by his posse of security guards.

‘Where are we headed?’ she asked, when he led her away from the backstage area.

‘Dressing room.’

The deserted stage might have proved to be a better option, given that his dressing room and the corridor leading to it were both full of people.

Ash immediately about-turned. ‘Why the fuck is it so difficult to find a bit of solitude around here?’ he groaned, and muttered a string of curses under his breath.

‘Who are they all?’ Ginny asked, peeping backwards over her shoulder to see them. ‘Is your dressing room normally this crowded?’

‘No … Maybe … I guess.’ Rather than attempt an eviction, he crossed the corridor and barged straight into the dressing room opposite. ‘Thank you, God.’ He raised his hands in praise as the lights around the mirror flickered into life and bathed the space in a gentle orange glow. ‘Spook, you’re the best.’

‘Won’t he mind us being in here?’ Ginny wondered about the band’s rhythm guitarist.

‘Nope.’

Actually, besides a camera and a few magazines there wasn’t a whole lot in here that identified the room as Spook’s. His trademark purple Washburn guitar was obviously in the care of the roadies, and was probably being loaded onto the tour bus right now, ready for departure. She found a good-luck card from a woman wedged between two magazines, and read the message. It was kind of sweet, and not nearly as crude or suggestive as the stuff that was delivered to Ash. His fanmail was enough to make the average porn star cross their legs.

Ash pushed the door to and locked it. ‘On the other hand, he might object to you going through his stuff.’

‘What stuff?’ She replaced the card where she’d found it. ‘How did you know he wasn’t in here entertaining someone?’

‘Because –’ Ash grabbed her hands and pulled her towards him ‘– Spook doesn’t bring ladies back to his room … or men,’ he added, anticipating her next question. ‘Didn’t we have this conversation already?’

‘Yeah, you tried to convince me he’s celibate.’ Like she was genuinely going to believe that. Spook Mortensen was far too sensual a package to not be a seething mass of warring passions beneath his cool exterior. She figured he was just a lot more circumspect about things than the rest of the band.

Ash rubbed the line of piercings in his ear. ‘It’s the truth. You’re the only person I’ve known him to get even vaguely intimate with, and we’ve spent a lot of time together. He just doesn’t …’

‘Doesn’t what? Fuck? Get turned on? Everyone gets turned on by something.’ She perched on the sofa arm. ‘You said he likes taking photographs, right? So, maybe he, you know … gets off that way.’ She made an up-and-down motion with her loosely closed fist. ‘While he’s looking through them.’

Ash just shook his head. ‘Trust me. He sticks them in a scrapbook and shows about as much interest in them as you would in a stamp collection. If there’s something that does it for Spook, I dunno what it is, because he’s keeping really quiet about it.’

Given they were best mates, that statement ought to have been more convincing. Except she knew what blokes were like. ‘Ever asked him why he doesn’t?’

‘Why would I?’

Whether that was the truth or not, it was certainly the answer she expected. Ash did avoid anything that smacked of emotional depth. Or he had until he’d met her. Occasionally she managed to lever open little trapdoors in his mind, and, in all fairness, he was at least as willing to talk about his past as she was hers.

‘So, now we’ve gatecrashed Spook’s place, what happens?’

‘No idea.’ Ash faked a yawn and stretch that caused his T-shirt to rise, giving her a beautiful glimpse of his abs and the little snake tattoo that slithered across them. ‘Any thoughts?’

Plenty, given she was also eye level with the very glorious and pronounced bulge in his jeans. ‘You. Here,’ she demanded, pointing to the spot right in front of her.

‘Right here?’

As soon as Ash was standing there, she wrapped her arms around his body, then flopped backwards onto the sofa, tugging him with her.

The springs groaned in complaint as they landed on the buttery soft leather. Ash sought her mouth, possessed her with his tongue and kisses, making her a little drunk from the lack of air and the whoosh of emotions he provoked. She was sure the curl of his tongue shouldn’t make her so giddy, but it did. Every time, it did.

‘And now you’ve got me here, what do you envisage happening?’

‘Bad things,’ she murmured, still grazing his lips with hers. ‘Real bad things.’ She slid her hands down his back, to his butt and gave his cheeks a squeeze that made him jump. Something else jumped too, and made a hummock against her thigh. ‘Hm, I think someone is a teeny bit turned on.’

‘Is it you?’ he asked, his eyes all wide and innocent. ‘Because you’re awful wriggly, and you’re making a whole lot of cute little groans.’

She was not! OK, maybe she was making a few, but that’s what he did to her. He kissed her and she turned into a desperate, horny mess, and that was without taking into consideration what he did to her emotions. She’d been so sure before she met him that she was done with serious relationships. He’d changed that with one night of saucy fun. She couldn’t think about him without her heart getting squishy, and a rush of air leaving her lungs like she was about to expire.

‘I was thinking it might be you, given what you’re sporting down here.’ She slid one hand between them and ran it down his chest to the bulge in his jeans. Ash hissed sharply when she touched him, and his eyelids snapped closed.

She stroked him, watching pleasure rise through his expression, and then his jaw lock tight when it all got a little too pleasant.

For someone who’d apparently spent years fucking like crazy and failing to come, he was awful sensitive sometimes. ‘How about I give you a little breathing space?’

It only took a few seconds to unbuckle his belt and release his fly. Then he was hot and hard in her hand.

Ash made a noise in the back of his throat as her fingers lightly brushed his skin. Ginny traced the outline of his cock. He was eager all right. All worked up and ready for her. His cock lying flat against his stomach. When she’d laid down, she’d meant to have him come right inside of her, go in deep and fuck her into oblivion or until the sofa collapsed, one of the two. Now they were here and his cock was right there in front of her, she couldn’t resist touching him. Her fingers danced over his skin. She still found it hard to believe he was real. Not because she was starstruck or any of that nonsense, just because he was perfect for her. Sensitive and kind, and loyal, though she realised that only those closest to him had any inkling about that. He was supposed to be this wild man of metal, an arrogant, posturing fiend, but he was a pussycat, really. And all those women – it wasn’t about machismo or proving himself. He just wanted someone to care enough to make him feel good.

She touched his cock and felt him jerk in response, his sensitivity turned ultra-high. The shiver reached as far as his arms, which he locked tight to support himself over her.

‘Wanna come all over me?’ she asked.

He made a goldfish face in response, like he could barely comprehend what she was saying.

‘I want to see you come, and then I want to suck you until you’re hard again so you can bend me over this here sofa and do me like the world’s about to end.’

She made a fist around his shaft and pumped him slowly until he was weeping his arousal onto her fingertips.

‘Ginny,’ he sighed, as her thumb stroked over his glans. ‘Why?’

‘I like watching you. I like seeing the expressions on your face when you come. I can’t appreciate them in the same way when you’re doing things to me. I guess it’s kind of like watching you play your guitar, only better, because nobody else gets to see.’

He gave her a shy smile, one that lit up his pretty blue eyes. ‘I like doing things to you too. I like the sounds you make, all those squeaky little groans in the back of your throat.’

‘Mm, hm,’ she replied, while kissing him in a place that made him make exactly those sorts of noises. ‘And what else do you like?’ She wriggled further down the sofa, so that she was beneath him, her head level with his hips.

‘That you’re not shy and that you’re totally willing to lead.’

‘Like it when I boss you about, do you?’

‘No. I like it that you care enough to care what I’m feeling.’ He gave another gulp as she took him in her mouth. ‘You make this feel so good.’ His head drooped forward so that his brow rested on the sofa arm. ‘So, so, good. Oh, fuck!’

Making him feel good was certainly her plan. Frankly she couldn’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want to make him feel good.

‘Most girls just don’t do this like you do.’

That’s right, she thought. For some reason none of them had ever thought to make sure he was happy while they were having their vacant little minds blown by his awesome licking skills. Though she was kind of grateful for that too, because otherwise how would they have ever met and made this connection?

‘This is an innate talent of yours, right? Because I can’t stand the thought of you having practised.’

She batted his thigh. ‘Rest assured that anyone I’ve been down on in the past was just the warm-up for you. Relax, Ash. Stop thinking and just feel. You’ve nothing to worry about. I’m utterly yours.’

‘You’re not tempted by Xane, or Iain?’

‘Xane’s dating my friend. That makes him an automatic no-no, and Iain, I’m sorry to say, is just way too slimy.’

She thought she sensed him smile at her response.

‘You’re the only one, Ash … Well, OK, I might not say no to Spook if he ever renounces his abstinence vow.’

Immediately, his muscles tensed.

‘Joke,’ she said, smacking his thigh. ‘I wouldn’t, even if he came in now and danced around naked, begging me to do him. Trust me.’

‘Yeah,’ he sighed, relaxing. ‘But I bet you’d watch.’

‘So would you. You’d be too shocked to do otherwise.’

‘Yes, but I wouldn’t be admiring his dick.’

‘Nope,’ she said, giving his another lick, ‘you’d be comparing. I know you too well, Ash Gore. You’re always comparing, and you really don’t need to. Now stop talking and let me do this.’

She sucked him deep, and let him fill her mouth, allowing him to set the pace rather than attempting to spur him towards the finishing line. She knew that only made him less likely to get there. Ash was wired for stamina, not speed. He could be painfully aroused and still not come if his head wasn’t in the right place. A couple of people in his past had done a real number on him. If she ever got the chance, she was going to give them a right piece of her mind.

Only when the taste of him grew thick on her tongue, and his sweet little groans had turned into one long quivering moan, did she release him from her mouth. ‘Roll over,’ she insisted, crawling out from beneath him to give him space to lie on his back stretched out. His jeans lay scrunched around his thighs. Immediately, her hands went to his rigid cock – actually, one to his cock and the other to the line of his snake tattoo on his lower abs. She’d been serious about wanting to watch him come.

‘Know what I’d like? A picture of you sprawled out just like this for my bedroom wall. Do you think Spook would be pissed if I borrowed his camera?’

‘Don’t,’ Ash wheezed, his eyes coming open in alarm. ‘It’d get out.’

‘I wouldn’t let anyone else see it. It’d just be for me.’

‘Don’t, Ginny.’

‘Not one little tiny weeny shot? You let Spook take pictures of you all the time.’

‘Not any more, and those photos weren’t of me. They were of the women.’

‘Do you think? What if really he has a secret crush on you, like serious unrequited love, and taking pictures of you screwing is just a way of seeing you naked?’

‘He hasn’t. He really hasn’t. Now, are you trying to get me off or make my dick shrivel?’

‘Spoilsport,’ she muttered, planting a kiss near his belly button. ‘I was building that into such a wicked fantasy. I ought to make you pay for wrecking it.’

‘Sweetheart, I’m already a slave to your will. Whatever you care to dish out, I’ll willingly take.’

‘Is that right?’ She climbed on top of him so that she was straddling his thighs, and worked at swirling her thumb over the tip of his cock. Round and round, until his breathing became erratic, and he sank deep into the cushions with his mouth open wide.

‘Open your eyes, Ash. I want you to see what I’m doing to you. I want you to know it’s me.’

His eyelids fluttered. ‘Not … sure … I can.’

‘Sure you can. Come on now, look at me. Let me see those cute baby blues.’

He opened his eyes. ‘Ginny.’ He watched her hand working up and down his length, and his stomach muscles tensed along with his jaw. ‘Oh, God! Why is that so fucking hot? It never looked that hot before.’

‘Is this hot too?’ she asked, peeling off her skirt, and then shimmying up the sofa a fraction, so that her pussy kissed the base of his shaft. The sight and taste of him had already fired up her senses, so she was awash with liquid heat and oh, so ready to slide down on him.

‘I think you’re trying to kill me,’ he gasped.

‘You know, you’re the only man I’ve ever met who complains when I make him come.’

‘Ginny,’ he hissed, clenching his teeth as he fought to keep his eyes open.

‘Yeah.’

‘I’m gonna …’

‘Yeah, I know,’ she mouthed as he cried out, and his seed coated her hand and the lips of her pussy. ‘And you look so damn fucking hot.’

Chapter 3

The only downside to making Ash come – if you could even call it a downside – was that he was no longer hard enough to soothe her own nagging need. And she needed … Watching his muscles tighten and relax, and hearing the little croaks that forced their way from his throat, pushed Ginny’s libido sky-high. It gave her an intense thrill knowing this was what she did to him.

‘Come here.’ Ginny grasped the neckline of his T-shirt and tugged his shoulders off the cushions, so that he could meet her embrace. She didn’t care if his come was making a sticky mess of them both. She needed his mouth on hers, and his arms around her.

He came willingly enough, if still a tad breathless and dazzled.

Ginny covered his face in kisses. The seconds after he’d just come were the one time he truly let his guard down. It was when she could really see into his heart and see the welts left there by past lovers. It was always when he needed her to hold him the most.

‘Easy, Ginny. You know I need to breathe, right?’ He turned her about, so that she was sitting and he kneeling on the floor between her splayed legs. ‘Let me take care of you now. You know I like to keep things fair.’ As if it really mattered how many orgasms they coaxed from one another. Not that she was passing up the chance of feeling his magic tongue do its work. No chance. Never ever.

‘Now, where’s that pretty jewellery of yours?’ Ash kissed his way up her inner thigh, but stopped short of actually touching the almost bare, plump, pink swell of her pussy. Instead, he paused while she held her breath and let her anticipation build until she was trembling. Only then, when she was practically dying for it, did he flick his tongue across her sensitive lips and home in on her clit. The shiver of pleasure rolled through her tensed muscles.

Ginny fought off his grip on her wrists and pushed her hands into his hair instead.

OK. Yeah.

She knew all too well what miracles he could work with his tongue, and how intense it felt when he played with her piercing. All he had to do was suck a little, just like that, and tug a little … and she was gone, gulping for oxygen while inwardly screaming his name.

Ash gave her a moment to breathe while her thighs shook, then he buried his head again and devoted himself to making her damn well float. Ginny clung to him. It wasn’t long before she was coming against his mouth and he was coaxing aftershocks from her.

‘Please tell me you’re hard enough to fuck me,’ she said, blinking open her eyes. Once was never enough. Not with him. Not ever with him. If she never fucked another guy again, she knew she’d be content knowing Ash was there for her. He rolled away from the sofa so that he was sprawled on his back with his jeans now around his ankles, and she could see his cock jutting up from his body at an angle.

‘Always, for you.’

Ginny crawled off the sofa and over to him, shedding clothing as she went. She made sure to grab her purse and fish out some protection. No messing, she had him dressed and ready in seconds. Sometimes you just didn’t want to sit around and wait for bliss to happen. It had to be now. Immediate.

She sank down slowly, let him fill her up. Then they were bucking and rolling, fighting for who was on top. She wrapped her legs tight around him as he went deep, let him drive into her hard for a few strokes before she toppled him onto his back again and held him there while she rolled her hips in time with his upward thrusts.

‘Tell me you love me,’ he croaked, voice thick with emotion.

‘Seriously? Ash, you’re fucking amazing. What’s not to adore? I love every bit of you. The way you move, the way you hold your guitar, even the stupid grin you get on your face when Xane listens to you. I love how you kiss me, like I taste of nectar, and the way you shave every time you think you might get a chance to go down on me.’

None of which was quite what he’d asked, but it did what it needed to and salved his skinned emotions. She didn’t know why his self-esteem was so bent out of shape. He was at the top of his game, a total rock superstar, and he was one of the best, most considerate lovers she’d ever had the pleasure to get in the sack. Yet still he needed these assurances that he was valued.

Ginny cuddled him close while their bodies continued to dance together in an age-old rhythm. She wished she understood why he was so damned insecure. Something was behind it, and she didn’t think it was just because his life was so up in the clouds most days that it was impossible to see the ground.

‘Squeeze me tighter,’ he insisted, while pushing her away from his body. They were both dripping with sweat, and the front of his long hair was stuck to his skin. His hands went to her breasts and played with her nipples, while she did as he asked and hugged him with her inner muscles.

‘Feels so good, like you’re pulling me right in.’

It took concentration, which she didn’t have much of when he was doing her this good, but he was right, it did feel amazing. Ginny continued to flutter the muscles of her sheath around him as he pushed upwards so that she was sitting in his lap, and his hands were in her hair and his lips desperately savaging her open mouth. Her finger curled against his back, scratching the skin.

Her climax almost sneaked up on her. She didn’t realise how close he’d brought her until her body started to convulse, and her breathing turned into one long gasp.

‘Hold on. Hold on,’ Ash begged, his teeth gritted as he made their bodies slap together a little hard. ‘I’m almost … Oh, God. Oh, Ginny, hold on. I’m almost there.’

Her muscles trembled, protesting as she fought to hold off the inevitable. The moment she felt his cock pulse inside her, she let go, let the endorphin rush wash over her and make everything so goddamned right. Even the pulse of her orgasm seemed to coincide perfectly with his equally powerful release.

‘Yes, I love you,’ she admitted. She loved him and she loved being this close to him. She prayed the feeling would never fade or grow old.

It wasn’t unusual for Ash to have tears in his eyes after they made love. He lost it completely when he came, was flattened by his emotions, but she’d never genuinely seen him cry like this, with tears running down his cheeks and his mewls of content transformed into sobs.

‘Ash?’

He buried his face against her shoulder. ‘I don’t want to let go.’

‘Shh.’ She stroked his head. ‘You don’t have to. You don’t ever have to.’

‘But I do. I need to be on the stupid tour bus in about forty seconds.’

‘Forty seconds’ she took as a slight exaggeration. If the tour bus needed to depart that soon, someone would have come to get him. Still, even so. ‘Why’s that a problem? You’ve a bunk, haven’t you, that we can finish this in?’

To her surprise, he started shaking his head. ‘No, we can’t.’ He looked up at her. His cheeks were flushed from their recent exertion, rosy across their ridges. A little of her lipstick was smeared across his jaw, but his brows were furrowed in a way that not even the long fringe of hair that half-covered his face could hide. ‘You can’t come on the bus.’

‘What?’ she said, as the implications of that sentence sank in. ‘Why not?’ OK, Ash had never specifically told her that she could join him on the tour, but neither had he given the impression she wasn’t invited. ‘If you’re joking, or you’re going to state some poxy rule about no one but the band being allowed on the bus, then I’m not going to be impressed. And it’s bollocks anyway. I know perfectly well that Dani’s accompanying Xane.’

‘That’s different,’ he mumbled, his gaze sliding away from her face to a point someway down her body.

‘How so? Dani’s Xane’s girlfriend, and I’m yours.’

‘People know about them. They don’t know about us, and that’s how I want to keep it.’

‘S’cuse me!’ Ginny scuttled out of his lap and stood looking down at him, hurt and confused. ‘I don’t understand. Do you mean the rest of the band aren’t aware that we’re an item?’

He covered his face with one hand as he shook his head.

‘Ash, how can they not know? They’re your friends.’

‘Because I haven’t told them. He scraped one hand through his hair, so that he held the strands away from his face, and looked at her. ‘And I don’t intend to.’

All she could do was gape at him, while attempting to make her vocal cords work. ‘But … but … are you embarrassed by me?’

‘No.’

‘Am I OK to shag, but not good enough to be seen with in public?’

‘No.’

‘Then why?’

He shook his head slowly, making his black hair swish. ‘I’m sorry.’ He rose to his feet and tried to embrace her, but Ginny shifted backwards out of his reach.

‘Don’t just try to kiss me, as if it’ll make everything better. You need to give me a proper explanation. Why doesn’t anyone know about us, Ash?’

‘Because it’s none of their damn business,’ he snapped. He wrenched up his jeans and buckled the belt. ‘What we have is between us. Nobody else needs to have anything to do with it.’

‘So I can’t come on tour with you, because you don’t want to admit you’re in a relationship?’ She was flabbergasted, shocked down to her toes. She knew he’d kept things quiet, and she’d thought it odd earlier when she’d been left to hang with the band’s groupies, while Dani had been given direct access to the dressing rooms. Maybe the truth was that he wasn’t quite as attached to her as she’d let herself think.

‘Spook, does he know?’

‘Yes.’

That was something. ‘But not the rest of the band.’

He shook his head again.

‘I don’t get it, Ash. I don’t understand. You’re saying I can’t come with you because they don’t know. Can’t we just tell them?’

‘No.’

The threat of tears started to prick the corners of her eyes. Ginny blinked, refusing to cry. ‘Why not? Explain it to me, because things aren’t really adding up for me. We just …’ She glanced at the floor and the sofa. ‘And you said …’ She let the accusation peter out. She ought to know better than to trust anything anybody said in the throes of passion.

‘Ginny, I do. I do love you. And I value what we’ve got, which is why you can’t come on the tour with me. I love being with you, but I don’t want to share you with the rest of the world. I don’t want us to be a string of headlines and dodgy internet videos. That’s what’ll happen if we’re seen together. It’ll be our lives in the spotlight, every tiny detail analysed, exposed and dissected. Christ, you’ve seen what they’ve printed about Xane and Dani. Is that what you want for us? I want time for us to get to know one another on our terms.’

‘You mean your terms. Why would anyone pay attention to us? The only reason they paid attention to Dani and Xane is that he’d just walked off stage and split the band up. Otherwise, I doubt they’d even have made the side column of the Sunday edition.’

‘If you honestly think that then you’re a fool.’

Yeah, she apparently was, a really fucking enormous fool.

‘Seriously, Ginny, have you ever had the press camped out on your doorstep? Have you been mobbed in the street? They’ll splash every detail of your life across the tabloids. Call up every man you’ve ever so much as kissed and have him tell his story. There’ll be no privacy, and no opportunity to just relax together and enjoy ourselves. Why do you think I didn’t draw attention to us when I came off stage?’

His fear of all those things happening seemed real, she accepted that. And no, of course she didn’t want her past relationships to be headline news, but that didn’t take the sting out of him not wanting her around.

‘What am I supposed to do then, Ash? Sit at home while you shag your way around Europe. ’Cause that’s not going to happen.’

‘I wouldn’t expect you to. And stop making this into a fight. I’m not going to shag anyone, Ginny. The only person I want is you.’

‘You say that now, but once you get on the road –’

‘– it won’t change anything. It’s not like I can just substitute you. You know you’re the only one who makes me come.’

That wasn’t strictly true, but the statement did provoke a smile from her.

‘And I’ve told my mum about you, so it’s not as if I haven’t told anyone, just the important people.’

Ginny paused, her mouth open, as whatever it was she’d been about to say escaped her thoughts. Ash was devoted to his family. He spent hours on the phone to them. The fact that he’d spoken to them about her was more commitment than she’d ever expected from him. It was certainly a bigger deal than him opening up to his bandmates.

‘You told your mum about us?’

‘Yeah.’ He gave her an ever so slightly goofy grin. ‘Think I made her day. She’s been praying I’d find myself a nice girl to settle down with since I was old enough to date. She wants you to come for Christmas. I said yes, as long as she swore not to mention babies.’

‘Christmas is six … seven months away.’

He bit his lip. ‘I know. It’s going to be majorly awkward if things happen that mean we can’t make it.’

‘Babies?’

He grimaced.

Ginny steepled her fingers and then covered her face. ‘Could you please start making sense? How can you agree to us attending the family Christmas and have a discussion about babies, yet get weird about me coming on tour with you and the band? You do realise that people normally do things the other way round? Friends first, then the family?’

Ash scratched his chin. ‘My family aren’t going to sell us out. And I didn’t say you couldn’t come on the tour, or that we couldn’t see one another. I just said you couldn’t ride on the bus.’

‘What?’

‘Honestly, woman, how long do you think I’m going to last without seeing you, considering what you reduce me to?’ He claimed her hand and tugged her into his embrace. ‘You make me demented.’ He brushed a stray wisp of hair from her face, then kissed her brow and her lips. ‘Ginny, I’ll be lucky if I last more than a few hours without you before I’m ready to crawl up the walls. I have to share a bunk room with Xane and Dani, you know, and you can be damn sure he won’t be keeping his hands off her, or even attempting to be circumspect about it. He’s a complete shag monster. My antics are nothing next to his.’ He leaned close so that his warm breath tickled the shell of her ear. ‘I’m going to be horny as hell, and desperate for you.’

‘And where do you envisage me being?’ She was lost. Really astonishingly lost.

‘Somewhere reasonably close by. I took the liberty of making a few arrangements. We can’t be together all the time, but that doesn’t mean we have to be apart all the time either. And we’ll talk.’ He dug in his pocket and proudly showed her his new phone, with her number already set to speed dial.

‘And rendezvous.’

‘Why, when you say that, do I imagine disguises, and white carnations?’

‘Because it’ll be fun. We’ll dress up. I’ll wear glasses and a trilby, and we can leave each other coded messages. Doesn’t that sound more romantic than being holed up on a tour bus with a dozen sweaty men?’

Maybe it did. She liked the idea of him in a trilby, and maybe a pinstriped suit. Then again, she wasn’t averse to the notion of being confined with several heavy rock stars, except maybe it was possible to overdose on man candy, and she had to remember she wasn’t a free agent any more.

‘OK, maybe it’s starting to sound interesting. So, where does our first tryst take place?’

‘On the Chunnel. I’m sure we can find a quiet spot. Then in Paris, after that. I’ll send you all the details.’

Ginny nodded. She still couldn’t quite squash the disappointment over not going with him tonight, but at least she had something to look forward to. It wasn’t ideal, but it was something, and that something was better than the possibility of them not being together at all.

She entwined her arms around his middle and breathed in deeply the smell of his skin. ‘You know, if we’re going to be apart for that long, I think I need to say goodbye to you some more before you go.’

‘I’m totally with you on that.’ He lifted her up, and she wrapped her legs around his waist. ‘Phone me every night, even if we’ve already spoken a million times that day. I want your voice to be the last thing I hear before I sleep.’

She nipped at the faint trace of stubble lining his jaw. ‘What makes you think I’m going to let you sleep? If I’m calling you last thing at night it won’t be to sing you a lullaby.’

‘No?’ He wrinkled his brows as if in disappointment. ‘What will it be for?’

‘To torture the fuck out of you with my dirty thoughts, of course.’

‘You’re going to talk dirty to me?’ She heard the catch of excitement in this throat. ‘Babe,’ he purred, ‘you’re way too good to me.’

Chapter 4
Paris, France.

Dinner had seemed like such a good idea when Spook had suggested it. Seriously, what wasn’t to like about the idea of decent food, in a nice restaurant, and someone else footing the bill? However, that had been before the adrenalin rush of the Paris gig had worn off, and he’d had to talk Iain down from the rafters. Ash didn’t recall Iain being quite so big a diva when they’d played together in the past. Apparently these days he didn’t take criticism at all well. He was rather peeved himself that Iain had screwed up ‘Fatal Error’, since it was normally a major crowd-pleaser, but he’d had to bite his tongue, given that the rest of the band were already seething and they couldn’t actually afford to give him the boot, or see him walk. Without a drummer, the whole tour would collapse, and none of them could afford for that to happen. This perhaps explained why they were all tolerating his motor-mouthed yapping too. Iain had hardly paused for breath in the last forty minutes and Ash was beginning to suspect he’d taken something, but he sure as hell didn’t want to suggest that at the dinner table, because it’d be an instant tour-killer.

And, if he was being honest, he needed this tour. Touring was easy, it made life ridiculously simple: they drove about, they played gigs, he ate, slept and fucked. It wasn’t real, and it wasn’t complicated. He didn’t want to deal with real life right now. Reality was a total screw-up.

Xane leaned towards him, his long black hair falling forward to shroud his angular face. ‘If he doesn’t shut his trap soon, I swear I’m going to throw something at him.’

Ash caught Xane’s wrist as he reached for a bread roll. Although he was relieved it was only food missiles Xane was considering – there were steak knives on the table.

‘He’s nervous, is all. Iain always talks when he’s nervous.’ Not entirely true, but he needed to find some explanation for Iain’s behaviour. ‘Give him a chance to settle in. It’s only been a few days, and you did all lay into him when we came off stage tonight.’

Actually, they’d all given him hell every night since the tour began, nearly a week ago.

Xane withdrew his hand, but rolled his eyes at the notion that they’d given Iain a hard time. ‘What the fuck were you thinking, Ash? He’s so wrong for us, it’s depressing.’

‘He’s a drummer. That makes him perfect for us.’

Xane gave him the sort of look that would have made anyone else wither. Ash refused to shrivel.

‘He pisses me off – deliberately.’

‘That’s a bit of an overstatement. He messed up one song, Xane. And I hardly think he did it deliberately. Why would he? We’re his ticket into the big league.’

‘Yeah, well, maybe that’s my issue. I don’t like freeloaders hanging off my coat-tails.’

‘So work him harder.’

Xane smiled grimly. ‘Oh, I will. Don’t worry about that.’

‘Whose phone’s vibrating?’ Spook asked, his native Swedish lilt coming through, a sure indication that he was stressed. The rest of the conversation around the table had stopped.

‘Heck, mine.’ Ash fished the damn thing out of his pocket and swiped a finger across the dimmed screen to waken it. It was a little late in the evening for his mum to be calling; she’d be in bed with one of her beloved mystery novels by now. There were only two other people with his number and one of them, Spook, was sitting next to him.

You never told me what a nice guy your driver is. Ginny’s message flashed up.

Shit! Ginny. What with one thing after another post show, the fact he was meant to meet her had completely slipped his mind. Although, hang on. He checked the time. He wasn’t due at the Arc de Triomphe until midnight. Why was she texting him now?

Where are you? He typed and hit send.

On your bunk. Flicking through your porn.

Really, where are you?

Your bunk.

She couldn’t really be on the tour bus. Troels, their driver, wouldn’t let her on. OK, he might, depending on what Ginny had said, and if he believed he was doing Ash a favour. It wasn’t as if the band’s resident Cave Troll hadn’t sneaked a girl or two on board in the past for him.

Why don’t you come and check if you don’t believe me? It’s all quiet here, no one’s home. It’s just me and a lot of empty beds. Whose do you think we should try out first?

Ash shot to his feet.

Maybe Xane’s? No. Spook’s. We can rumple all his neat edges and give his mattress springs a workout. It’ll be the only action they ever see if your assertions he’s celibate are to be believed.

‘Ginny, you’d better be pissing with me,’ he mumbled. What in the name of hell was she playing at? She’d seemed fine with their arrangement the last time he’d seen her. They’d had a lot of fun playing Secret Agent and Spy on the train under the English Channel.

‘Where the hell are you going?’ Rock Giant asked, when Ash pulled on his leather jacket.

‘I’m …’ He stalled, having failed to invent an adequate answer. ‘Off,’ he concluded. He turned to Spook, hoping his friend would understand why this was important. If he didn’t make the connection now, then Ash would explain it later. ‘Sorry. I’ve really got to go. Something’s come up.’

‘Can it not wait until dessert? At least finish your meal.’

Ash’s phone buzzed again. This time the message came with an attachment. Ash opened it and gawped at the screen. She’d only gone and sent him a picture of her pert and very sexy derrière wrapped in fishnets and the skimpiest, sexiest black silk shorts he’d ever had the pleasure to behold. She was bent over, clearly on the tour bus, as the bunk room was in the background.

‘I’d love to, but no. I’m sorry. I need to run.’ He needed to get her off that tour bus before anyone saw her there.

Chapter 5

Ash arrived with a plan that would bypass questions and get them both off the bus and somewhere private fast. Unfortunately, every coherent thought in his head went bye-bye the moment he saw her poised waiting for him. God, she was …

His jaw dropped as he hurried towards her.

… she was going to be the goddamned death of him.

Ginny had gone all out to entice, dressed in his favourite fishnets that covered her slender legs and disappeared inside those teeny satin shorts. Her lovely figure was cinched into a corset. She had on elbow-length fingerless gloves and her black hair had been styled into a wild mass of curls.

She looked both nightmarish and terrific.

Make that tongue-lolling, instant-hard-on terrific.

Hottest-thing-in-universe terrific.

Fuck! His heart took up residence outside his ribcage.

Sure, her get-up was slightly sleazy, but you’d hear no complaints from him about that. Hey, he knew what he liked, and so apparently did she. That fact would probably have scared the shit out of him, if his brain had still been functioning above animal level.

‘Looking for a good time?’ she asked, smiling down at him from under her thick eyelashes. She stood with one leg provocatively bent to block his passage, and an arm outstretched. In her hand she held a riding crop.

He gulped, not sure if he was hopelessly turned on or plain shit-scared at the possibility of her using it on him. He did know that if he didn’t adjust his pants soon they were going to cut his cock in two.

‘I think I might have found it,’ he croaked as he attempted to mount the bottom step, only for her to flick out the riding crop and block his passage. Ash froze as the looped leather end ticked against his chest and descended sharply towards his groin.

Damn, damn and heck!

This was bad. Seriously bad. His cock was saying yee haw, while something in the back of his brain tried to remind him that the goal here was to get her away from the bus so that they weren’t seen by the band, or anyone else for that matter.

‘Rules first.’ Her smile lit her face like a neon light, and made him salivate like one of Pavlov’s ruddy dogs. ‘You sit, you don’t touch and you do as you’re told. Got it?’

He mindlessly nodded. Got it? Sure, he got it. Not that there was enough blood left in his head to make an informed decision, but, his cock was in full agreement. It apparently liked her bossy and fiendish.

‘Then do come in.’

This was crazy. Why was he accepting invitations onto his own tour bus? It was the fault of those shorts, and her pert little ass, or maybe the ultra-glossy scarlet lipstick he wanted to see smeared across her face, or maybe just the fact that he hadn’t got laid in over 48 hours. He was used to a certain amount of sex, and he just wasn’t getting it so far on this tour. Instead of every night, all night, he was seeing Ginny every two to three days. Was it any wonder that he turned into a slathering beast the moment he saw her?

She’d been busy inside the bus. ‘My God!’ he gasped. She’d transformed the place into a sumptuous gothic boudoir by swathing everything in black velvet and dragging Rock Giant’s favourite chair into the central aisle.

‘Take a seat.’ She gave him an intoxicating smile, then a persuasive push in the direction of the leather seat. When he stayed upright, she snapped the crop against his backside, making him jump.

He sat, shocked and tingling.

‘Ginny, we can’t do this here. We’d arranged a time and a place.’

‘So you don’t want to see me dance?’ she said, pouting and opening her eyes really wide.

‘I …’ Absolutely, he did want to see her dance. Especially since, in that outfit, he was pretty certain she wasn’t going to perform ballet, but something rather more raw and dirty. He glanced around. The bus windows were tinted, so no one could see in from outside, and the band were still dining, so he guessed they had a couple of minutes. That left the crew to consider, and he had no idea where they might be, but presumably Cave Troll or one of the others had let her on board in the first place, so they already knew she was here. That was fine, as long as they presumed she was just another fan out for some fun with him, and didn’t realise they were a whole lot more committed than that.

‘Comfortable?’ she asked him.

Ash shook his head. His trousers were too tight, and the ache in his groin was too persistent. Things only got worse when she hit the stereo remote and filled the space with a raunchy, grinding beat. One sway of her hips, a flick of her hair, and he was done for. He wanted her in his arms, across his lap, their mouths locked and sexy bits touching. Nothing else mattered.

Damn, he was weak!

Whoa! She danced like a pro. No, better than a pro. The few lap dances he’d had before hadn’t made him want to rip the lady’s clothes off. When Ginny had mentioned she used to practise rhythmic gymnastics, and that she still liked to keep herself fit, he hadn’t appreciated how much dedication she’d obviously given her art. The sway of her hips worked like a snake charm, mesmerising him while simultaneously making him rise. ‘Come closer,’ he pleaded, when she twerked her rear over his lap. She kept maybe an inch of space between them at all times, which was not what he wanted. He wanted to feel her rubbing up against his fly.

‘Ah, ah!’ she chastened him, when he put a hand on her hip to guide her down to where he wanted her. ‘No touching, remember.’

‘Babe, that’s just evil. What do you want to torture me for?’

‘Fun,’ she quipped, arching an eyebrow. ‘Aw, look at you getting all pouty and irritable.’

She tweaked his nose in an annoying manner. ‘You know we’re not allowed to fuck on the bus. Xane’s rules, remember.’

‘Fuck Xane and his fucking rules.’ He exhaled hard. Then sucked in a deep breath. He ought to be inured to this sort of stuff. He was a goddamned rock god, after all. Plenty of other women had shaken their stuff in order to tempt him. The difference was that none of them had been Ginny. She undid him. Not the hairdo, or the clothes, or the stupendously fit body she was shimmying, but the person inside. Ginny was right for him in the way every other woman who’d passed through his bed had been wrong. She saw into his heart. With her he was more than he was without her. That unfortunately meant she also knew just how to make him sweat.

‘Hold it together. Think how good it’ll be when you finally get what you’re after.’

It was a shame the rule wasn’t about fucking with him on the bus, because he really couldn’t hack this sort of torture. He didn’t like delaying gratification. He’d spent too much of his adult life seeking bliss and never finding it, to want to wait for something when he knew it could be had so easily. He clenched his fists, black-painted fingernails biting into the arms of the chair as he fought to maintain some control over his libido. It wasn’t easy with her mimicking the movements of sex right over him.

‘There’s not enough time until the guys get back.’

If she surrendered now, there might just be enough time to reach orbit before they had to make a sharp exit, but the likelihood of achieving that lessened with every passing minute.

‘Yeah, but it’s not as if they haven’t seen you fuck before. I mean, how many pictures of your cock does Spook have in his collection?’

‘He doesn’t take pictures of me.’ Why did she refuse to grasp that? Not that that was even the issue here. The important part was that he wanted to keep their relationship quiet. He didn’t want the band in on it, or their expectations colouring things. Nor did he want to listen to their shit, if something went wrong and it all fell apart. ‘Let’s leave and go somewhere quiet.’

She shook her head, making her wild curls bounce. ‘I like it here. The setting, the lights, the nice little hummock you’re sporting.’ She swayed down low, and brushed her pussy right against his cock.

The few scorching seconds of contact sent a thrill straight through Ash’s frayed nerves, shredding the last vestiges of his restraint. His hips jerked upwards so their bodies met properly, and his hands locked around her waist. Suddenly, he could feel the sweat breaking out across his body, and his heart was pounding in his throat. He needed to be inside her right now. Really, right now, before he embarrassed himself and came in his pants.

‘Bad boy, Ash.’ She smacked the riding crop against the back of the chair, startling the hell out of him with the explosive thwack. ‘No touching, remember.’ She moved his hands from her waist to the arms of the chairs. ‘Do it again and I’ll punish you.’

She was torturing him already, so that didn’t seem much of a threat. ‘What will you do?’ he asked, still rocking his hips so that her silky shorts slid against him.

She leaned close and teased his ear lobe with her teeth. ‘Leave you to reach orgasm all by yourself.’

‘You wouldn’t.’

Her smile was warm and yet sly. ‘Wouldn’t I?’

Ash’s muscles jerked all over his body. ‘I don’t want to play games anymore. Let’s just go somewhere where we can work this out without fear of interruption.’

‘You don’t want me to unzip your fly for you, then?’ she said in a low sultry voice.

Oh fuck! He did. He totally did. There was no way on God’s earth he was ever going to say no to that.

She popped the button of his fly, and carefully drew down the zip.

Ash sucked in a breath, waiting for her to touch him. His cock bucked hard when she peeled the waistband of his shorts away from his body so that the tip of him peeped out. She tugged his clothing down far enough to free him properly, and dragged his T-shirt off too, and chucked it into the kitchen sink.

‘I will never get tired of looking at you.’ She gave a dreamy sort of sigh, and then rode her silky shorts up against his shaft, while her hands slid into his hair and her mouth claimed his. It felt so right that he couldn’t help but want more of it.

Maybe they’d be safe here for a few minutes. They could come together, part and be out of here before the guys returned. It was possible, totally possible. His cock knew so.

Ash groaned as blood pumped hard through his shaft.

God, he was doomed, if he was letting his dick do all the thinking. It’d never made a decent decision in his life. Well, apart from when it’d first perked up at the sight of Ginny on the night they met.

‘We should really take this elsewhere,’ he mumbled.

‘Upstairs?’ she said brightly.

‘Hotel,’ he countered. She knew exactly why he didn’t want to climb into his bunk with her, so he saw no point in telling her again. Once there, she wouldn’t leave, and he wouldn’t want her to. Then his bandmates would know they were dating and the whole world would find out about five minutes later. ‘We’d get no privacy upstairs. There are six berths.’

‘Yeah, but I don’t think I can wait for this –’ she sat on the very tip of his shaft, so that he was pushing against the seam of her shorts ‘– until we got to a hotel. That might take a while.’

The honest truth was that he didn’t think he could wait either. If her damn shorts weren’t in the way, he’d be inside her now, driving them both towards heaven. He could already feel her arousal seeping through the silk. ‘You need to take these damn things off.’

‘I’m wearing crotchless tights.’

His heart skipped a beat. The guys would arrive back. They’d be seen, but he wasn’t sure he cared any more. In any case, they might not recognise her in her present showgirl get-up. They’d just think it was another fan eager for a piece of him. Xane would give him hell, but that was routine.

Only he was forgetting about Dani. Ginny and Dani were best friends, so there was no way Dani wasn’t going to recognise her. Although he suspected she already knew about the relationship.

‘We should really stop,’ he suggested, but there he was letting her guide his fingers between her thighs, under the edge of her shorts and into the slick heat of her pussy. She was so ready for him. ‘You know why it’s a bad idea for us to get caught …’

‘I know where I want you to get caught.’ Her hands curled over the tops of his shoulders so that her index fingers pressed against his collar bones. Her lips descended to his neck, nipping, licking, driving his senses into overload, so that his hands were shaking as he fingered her.

‘Ginny, it’s for your own protection.’ The press could be ruthless; the fans even worse.

‘The only protection I’m interested in right now comes in shiny foil squares and makes a nice crinkly noise when you open them. Where’s it hiding tonight?’

In his goddamned back pocket where he couldn’t easily reach it.

‘It’s OK, I’ve got it.’ She plucked a condom foil from her décolletage and ripped it open with her teeth. Ash waited breathless as she dressed him. Then she was holding him, guiding him, sinking onto him nice and slow.

‘Oh, fuck!’ Her pussy engulfed his shaft completely.

‘Mmm,’ she agreed. ‘That is way too nice.’

Ash inhaled sharply through his teeth, as the walls of her sheath fluttered around him. Then she was riding him hard, and his senses became tightly focused on the thrum of his pulse inside his shaft, and the bite of her kiss as she ravaged his mouth.

He couldn’t … would never get enough of this woman. He wanted to do this with her always. No other woman would ever have a look-in. They might be hot, but they’d never have that soul-binding quality that Ginny had. Even with his first love he’d never felt this, and at the time he’d been utterly convinced that she was the one.

When the car pulled up alongside the bus, it came as the worst kind of shock. ‘No,’ he gasped. ‘Oh, no … no … no!’ The bastards couldn’t be back yet. Couldn’t they have stayed away another few minutes? He held onto Ginny, driving into her, making sweat break out across his body and both of them pant.

‘Ash,’ she said calmly. ‘It’s not happening now. It’s time for me to go.’

‘No. Just another minute.’

‘You’re the one who doesn’t want to be caught.’

‘Another … minute … Please!’

She slipped out of his grasp. ‘I’ll call.’

‘Ginny, seriously?’

‘Sleep tight, baby.’ She blew him a kiss, then, as abruptly as the intrusion of the car headlights had been, she was gone; down the steps and out of the door.

‘Ginny,’ he croaked, hardly able to rouse himself from his stupor. How the devil did she move so fast? He thought about going after her. Tried to stand and came crashing to his knees as his trousers tangled around his legs. He only just managed to haul himself upright and get his leathers straight before Elspeth burst into the kitchen area with a face like thunder.

‘Why’s the chair there?’ she snarled, barging past him to reach the back bedroom.

Rock Giant followed her on board, trooping after her like her faithful pet dog. He looked around at the swathes of black velvet, his favourite evil mastermind chair, and his brows shot up into his hairline. ‘Seriously, you bailed on us so you could host a vampire orgy?’ He looked around again, obviously expecting to find scantily clad women dotted about. His confusion showed in the beetling of his brows when he didn’t find them. He pulled back his shirt cuff to look at his watch. ‘Are we waiting for the witching hour for them to arrive?’

‘No.’ Ash snatched at the nearest piece of black velvet and tore it down. ‘I didn’t do this.’ He didn’t volunteer any information about the culprit but just stripped the area and, when he was done, bundled the material into the bottom of the larder cupboard.

‘Where’s everyone else? You must have eaten quickly.’

‘You fucked the dinner up by leaving,’ Rock Giant informed him. He seemed torn between talking to Ash and pursuing Elspeth into the bedroom. ‘Xane took an extended bathroom trip the moment you left, and Iain used that as a cue to make more dickheadish remarks.’

‘He’s lucky I didn’t smash a plate over his skull,’ Elspeth hollered from the back end of the bus. ‘If he ever dares joke about Steve again in my presence I’ll string him up by his nads.’

Um, OK. It sounded as if things had gone downhill rapidly.

‘Speaking of nads, you might want to attend to your fly, since I’m not interested in seeing what you like poking people with,’ Rock Giant suggested.

‘All in all it was a pretty shitty night,’ Elspeth finished. ‘I’m going to bed, so switch the racket you’re listening to off.’ She slammed the bedroom door.

Rock Giant hit the button on the stereo’s main control panel while Ash was still trying to locate the remote. Once the throbbing bass was cut, he realised how hard his heart was still hammering. No doubt Elspeth would be out and yelling at him to quieten that down too. Hell, was it too late to go after Ginny? He’d rather spend a night with her at a hotel than here listening to his bandmates gripe about the man he’d brought in to save them. They needed a drummer. He’d found them one. What was their fucking problem?

‘I’m gonna crash too,’ the big guy muttered. ‘It’s been a fucking long day what with the gig and all the practice we’re having to put in due to the awful drummer you picked for us.’

‘He’s not awful. He got one solo a little bit wrong. We played a set of near twenty songs. You’re all just looking for reasons to despise him. Why can’t you just give him a chance instead?’

‘I was one of the ones who did vote to give him a chance. He’s just not living up to my expectations.’

‘Yeah, but the problem’s that your expectations are way too high. You’re all expecting him to be perfect overnight.’

Rock Giant dragged a hand through the spikes of his hair. They didn’t budge. ‘No, I just expect him to shut his trap once in a while and listen to criticism without acting like a prima donna. We’re all shit sometimes, Ash. The difference between him and us is that we’re prepared to own it and strive to do better. He just whimpers that it’s not his fault. Also, his image is all wrong for us.’

‘No one can see him sitting behind a drum kit.’

The only response he got to that was a snort. Rock Giant then took the stairs two at a time, leaving him standing in the kitchen, his nerves in shreds and his libido chewing itself.

Chapter 6

Ginny pitched into the dark and concealed herself in the shadows between the side of the tour bus and the wall it was parked up against. She waited until the cab the rest of the band had returned in rolled away and she was sure they were all safely on board the bus. She half hoped that Ash would come tumbling down the steps looking to catch up with her, but he didn’t show. Maybe his friends weren’t making it so easy to escape, or her speedy departure had left him a gibbering wreck. He’d been so turned on, he was probably thumping his head against a wall right now trying to relieve the tension. Mind you, she was out here still panting herself and more than a little in need of physical release. This wasn’t the place to let off steam, though.

It became clear after a little while that Ash really wasn’t going to appear. She thought about dialling his number again and getting him to meet her, but maybe calling him away twice in one evening was a bit much. Too bad, she’d have liked them to have spent the night together. They’d not done that since the tour began. It’d all been speedy hook-ups in railway carriages and dirty sex in dirty alleyways. She wanted to be able to lie in his arms for hours, make love as if time didn’t exist rather than as if a bomb were about to explode beneath them, and sleep with her arms around him before enjoying a lavish breakfast. Not that she ever ate that much first thing in the morning, but Ash did, and she liked spending time with him chatting and doing normal things, as well as fucking him blind.

She wondered how far into the tour they’d have to get before Ash relented and admitted their relationship to the rest of the band. Not too long, she prayed. She couldn’t stomach the idea of six months of this. Sneaking around, being at his beck and call, didn’t sit well with her. It’s why she’d rebelled tonight. She’d been the sort of woman who sat around waiting for a man, and when she’d finally found the strength to walk away, she’d promised herself she wasn’t going to waste any more time on guys who expected her to be available when it suited them, but weren’t prepared to be there for her in return. Not that she thought Ash was that sort of guy, but he was lying about the reason he wanted to keep things quiet.

Lying to himself as much as to her.

It wasn’t about protecting her from the press. They’d get hold of the story and print their venom sooner or later. That was just how the world worked. She didn’t like it, but she did accept that invasion of their private lives was inevitable while she was dating him.

Ash was really protecting himself in case it all went wrong.

She didn’t blame him for it. She’d had enough relationships to know how bad break-ups could be, and the more crazily these things began, the crazier they ended.

Though, touch wood, it never came to that.

Ash was right for her. She wasn’t exactly sure what it was about him that so convinced her of that, she just knew it, and she’d learned to listen to her guts. If she’d done so earlier in life, then she might have avoided a whole lot of adolescent screw-ups.

OK, she was very obviously spending the night alone.

Ginny skirted the parking lot, staying in the shadows. The way out was via the security gate, and with any luck the same guy who’d been there on the way in would still be working. All she’d had to do to get past him earlier was flash him her ID card from the last gig she’d attended. He hadn’t bothered to check the date on it or anything.

He had to be new. He’d definitely been clueless. It was miraculous really that there weren’t girls clawing at the outside of the bus, but they seemed to be contained outside the wire perimeter fence.

Another car pulled up as she neared the security barrier, and Iain Willows stepped out. Damn, it looked as if the band hadn’t all arrived back together as she’d assumed. She stayed where the gloom was thickest, by the back of the security booth, and waited for him to grow tired of trying to impress groupies and slink off towards the bus. Not that he seemed in any hurry to do so. In fact the barrier lifted for another car, while Iain remained chatting.

She recognised Spook immediately. The long blond hair and his equally long stride were complete giveaways. ‘Evening,’ she said to him, seeing no point in hiding from him. Spook knew about her and Ash anyway. She reckoned there wasn’t a whole lot about Ash that Spook Mortensen didn’t know. That fact only perturbed her because she knew so damned little, not because she thought they had a major bromance going on.

Spook’s face was quietly drawn, his lips pulled into a tersely neutral expression, but he smiled when he recognised her. ‘I might have known you’d be the reason Ash hurried off so early. You totally ruined dinner.’

‘Sorry. Yeah, I guess I might have sent him a provocative note or two.’

He gave her and her outfit a quick once-over. ‘No kidding? How much of a mess have you left him in?’

She gave a dainty shrug, while fighting to keep a smile off her lips. ‘I don’t know. I had to make a quick exit because a car pulled up, and you know how desperately he wants to keep things quiet.’

‘Yeah.’ His bright-blue eyes narrowed thoughtfully. ‘Well, I’m sure he can handle one thwarted orgasm – not.’ Spook bowed his head so that his long blond hair fell forward, and shoved his hands deep into his pockets. It took her a moment to realise he was laughing. ‘OK, well, thanks for the warning. I won’t bother trying to get to sleep just yet.’

Ginny wasn’t sure what he meant by that, unless perhaps he was suggesting Ash might need to let off steam by talking or something before they turned in. Of course, her dirty mind conjured a far lewder image of the pair of them sitting side by side wanking one another. There were no grounds for thinking anything of the kind, but she prided herself on her ability to dream. Spook had seen her in the throes of passion; it seemed only fair that at some point she should see him with his composure ruffled, even if it was only in an idle daydream.

‘Tell him goodnight from me,’ she said.

‘Will do.’

Iain finally crossed the security line and caught up with Spook. ‘What’s doing?’ he asked.

‘Just collecting bedtime messages for Ash,’ Spook replied, giving her the chance to step deeper into the shadows cast by the side of the security booth. The last thing she needed was for Iain to recognise her, but luckily his gaze landed on her upper thighs and not her face.

‘Don’t the rest of us get bedtime missives too?’

‘Didn’t the fanclub outside give you any?’ she asked.

Judging by the way he scowled, the answer was a resounding no.

‘They all want to bang Xane, or seduce this guy,’ he moaned. ‘I’m not sure why celibacy’s so intriguing. It’s not like they’re going to get any.’

Spook shrugged his shoulders, signalling, at least as Ginny interpreted it, that he didn’t care what the general population thought. He was his own person, and if he chose not to engage in hanky-panky, then people were just going to have to accept that.

Too bad for the many, many fans out there who harboured fantasies of being the one he let go with. If she hadn’t already been besotted with Ash, then Spook could well have been her guy.

‘Well, he is cute,’ she said.

Iain’s come-to-me-baby smile transformed into a scowl. He coughed, fishing for a compliment of his own.

‘Your haircut’s nice,’ she responded, floundering for something flattering to say.

‘Thanks,’ he huffed, obviously not impressed with her choice of words, but fluffing the jagged layers of red and black all the same. ‘Do you want to join us for a drink?’

Spook, who was standing where Iain couldn’t see him, made a shark’s-fin shape against his forehead.

Ginny responded with the faintest of nods. Mr Willows wasn’t just on the shark; he was looking to take a bite out of her.

‘Cool.’ Iain, misinterpreting her response to Spook as acceptance, stepped forward and attempted to put his arm around her shoulders.

‘What? I mean, no …’ She slipped away from his octopus hold. There were advantages to being small in the presence of gigantic men. ‘Got to run. Baby to feed.’ The latter part wasn’t true, but it worked a treat every time. Iain’s suddenly dead arm flopped to his side. ‘Some other time,’ she added, giving him her best truly salacious smile.

* * *

By the time Iain and then Spook turned up some twenty minutes later, Ash was deep into a bottle of gin. He’d wanted whisky, but the colour reminded him of Ginny’s eyes.

It was Iain who took the bottle off him, but only so he could pour himself a drink. Spook went straight up to bed, only nodding at Ash’s attempts to apologise for ruining the meal.

‘I don’t think Xane and Dani are coming back tonight,’ Iain said, part-way through his second glass. ‘What do you say we find ourselves some fun? There’s a whole bunch of very pretty ladies hanging by the security point.’

‘Nah, I don’t fancy it,’ Ash mumbled. Yeah, he was still horny, but he wanted Ginny, not anybody else. He wondered if he ought to phone her and get directions to her hotel. Except it was late, and the concierge would probably have to unlock the front doors to let him in, and then there was always the chance he’d be recognised. ‘You go if you like.’

Iain shook his head, making his feathery red-and-black-streaked hair bounce like he was in a shampoo commercial. The guy possessed so much product, he could stock a hair salon. ‘Probably not such a good idea. I dunno that they recognise me yet. I tried saying “Hi” on the way in and didn’t get much of a response. They all want you guys.’

‘Give it time, Iain,’ Ash said in the most conciliatory voice he could muster. ‘The tour’s barely begun, and you’ve not been on a release yet. After the next single, it’ll be all “Whoa, Iain, he’s hot!” and “Can I play with your rhythm stick, Mr Willows?”’ His remarks raised a smile.

‘I’ll look forward to it. Then we can party hard together.’

‘Yeah,’ Ash replied, trying not to let his reluctance bleed into his tone. His days of banging Black Halo fans were over. He’d already disappointed a lot of ladies who’d queued to see him. However, if Iain was happy to spread some love around once the fans accepted him, then that would help him out of a bind. One thing he’d learned was that their female fans weren’t overly picky about which member of the band they got to be with, just as long as someone was prepared to love them a little bit.

He downed the remains of his drink, wiped his mouth and slung the empty bottle into the kitchen wastebin. ‘Let’s go up now. I’m whacked.’

Chapter 7

The copious amounts of alcohol he’d downed utterly failed to numb his desire for Ginny. Ash lay on his back, staring up at the bottom of the bunk above, trying not to give in to the temptation to wank himself silly. He was still every bit as wired now as when Ginny had been astride his lap riding him to oblivion.

He wasn’t sure why he was so hesitant about relieving himself, except that it had been such a long time since he’d needed to do such a thing. He was used to having women lining up to bring him joy. No, he wasn’t counting all the times he had to finish himself off after less-than-stellar sex, because that was different. It was. Then it was almost an automatic response to being stoked but not aroused enough to come, whereas right now his whole body was begging him. His skin was alive with static charge, and the mere brush of the duvet was almost unbearable. Ginny’s scent still lingered on his skin. His lips tasted of her unique flavour, while her image filled his imagination. She was the sexiest being in creation. No one else came close, not even Mr Sex-on-a-stick Geist. Not that he routinely found guys hot or anything. And those shorts she’d combined with her fishnets, mmm … mmm … mmm. They were way too delicious to ever want to take off, so it was fantastic that she’d thought of a way he could fuck her while she was still wearing them. At the same time they were damnable, because they were largely responsible for his current state.

He ought to have run with Ginny when she’d fled. If he had, he’d have been naked in heaven right now. Instead, he was stuck here sweating like a horny teenager, and it was going to take more than a quick bit of knuckle-shuffling to calm him down. In fact, surreptitiously sliding his hand beneath the covers and wrapping his fist around his shaft didn’t ease a goddamn thing. It made him ache all the harder.

Stroking simply made him groan.

Ginny – he needed Ginny. She’d know how to soothe his pains. She always knew exactly how to make things right for him, which perhaps was why he was in such a state of shock now. There was no way on earth she hadn’t known what condition she was leaving him in when she bolted. Nor had he any clue when he might see her again. Being on tour made it more difficult to sneak off than he’d ever anticipated, and this tour was far harder work than any past series of gigs. Iain wasn’t quite turning out to be the miracle cure he’d hoped for. He refused to blend his image with that of the band, and his main agenda seemed to be to get laid. That was fine, except he wanted Ash to party with him. He, of course, only wanted to party with Ginny.

Ash closed his eyes and pushed thoughts of Iain to the back of his mind. It was just weird ruminating about him while he was frantically working his fist. Normally, thinking about his mates quickly sapped his libido. Tonight, nothing seemed to work. He tried visualising hideous crimes, followed by deadly boring meetings with music execs, but no, his body still craved release.

He wondered if this was how Xane felt when he couldn’t feed his addiction. Xane seemed to require sex in the same way other people needed air. Without it, he couldn’t function. No doubt he was having a glorious time at the moment, cosied up in some hotel room having his mind blown by his girlfriend Dani.

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