Finding Emotion (The Last Shot Tavern Series)

Chapter 6

Skylar stared after Damon as he deplaned first. He’d been acting distant ever since she’d swallowed his jizz. He was probably embarrassed by how quickly he’d gone off. Or maybe her flirting with his manager afterward, Johnny or Jerry or something, had pissed him off. She’d only flirted because she figured a guy like him might get clingy, and either it’d worked or she hadn’t needed to worry.

“I can’t believe you,” Mandy said as she grabbed her carry-on bag.

Skylar shrugged as she slung her own black bag over her shoulder. “Not like it’s the first time you’ve seen me blow a guy.”

“That doesn’t mean I appreciate the show.” Mandy moved past her to exit the jet.

Skylar’s shoulders hunched. Under the weight of the bag, she told herself, but lying to herself wasn’t working this time.

The fact was, whatever magic he’d been doing to her head had skeeved her out. Not in a sexual way, thank God, as the nerves she’d been feeling before the flight had already sent her down the tension headache route, one that the prescription-strength aspirin hadn’t even pissed on. Then Damon’s fingers had stroked over her scalp, and with every brush through her hair, her tension had run off in skimming drops. She hadn’t even known she’d been making those little moans until she nearly slumped across his lap.

Her eyes had popped open, but it was hard for her body to be anything but relaxed with his hands working their magic, the panicked beating of her heart the only warning she had that something was wrong. She’d noticed he had an erection when his hands pulled away to cover it. As if he could hide a boner like that, poking up in his tight jeans despite him trying to block it with his thigh.

Anticipating his future ask, the crazy contentedness she didn’t know what to do with shifted into a more comfortable cynicism. She’d rested her face against his chest so he wouldn’t see the scowl on her face. She’d do it before he asked. That way, it’d be her idea. She’d have control.

Only then he’d pissed her off more by thanking her instead of saying what she’d expected. Her chest twisted as his thumbs worked more tension out of her neck, and he didn’t ask her for anything at all. The prude was acting like he didn’t have an erection, so she took matters into her own hands. Or her own mouth.

Besides a sucked-in breath, he’d remained silent the whole time. If Skylar hadn’t had the proof of his reaction in her face, she would have thought he wasn’t into it. He’d even tensed up against her, as if he’d pull away, so she’d told him to relax, even adding in a sweet jab. The rock star acted like a Boy Scout.

She’d used all her skill to try to make him moan, just like he’d made her putty in his own damn hands. It had worked in a way. He’d gone off like a rocket. Then he’d blushed after, which was so unlike any other guy she’d done it to.

His aquamarine eyes searching hers as he asked her why she’d gone down on him had added weird bubbles to her stomach, and she regretted the earlier club soda. He looked almost angry about the sexual favor, as if he hadn’t been about to ask her to do just that.

She stomped as she exited the plane, the zippers on her boots clinking against the leather. The pansy wasn’t going to make her second-guess herself. He’d been the one with the boner. She’d simply taken control of it, like she preferred.

She was thinking about the jackass too much. That her scalp tingled now irritated her further. At least Mandy had a limo waiting for them. There were fewer chances of running into Damon again once the airport was behind them.

Except her sister was dating his best friend, she remembered.

Skylar’s hand clenched around the seat belt she’d grabbed. She always buckled up, even in the luxury vehicles. Limos kept the reminders of the car accident she was in as a child down to a minimum, but didn’t keep all her anxiety at bay.

“Hey,” she said to Mandy, who looked up from her phone. “Did you book a hotel that was cool about noise levels?” If the bubbles wouldn’t go away, she’d channel them into something else.

Mandy studied her over the top of her glasses. “No, but there’s a place nearby.” When Skylar nodded, she sighed in acceptance of their schedule change, moving to rap on the partition between them and the driver.

Skylar clicked on the seat belt. Her fingers tapped on her knee as the beat of a new song hummed in her blood. She’d call it “Rocket.” The smirk that settled over her lips felt a lot more comfortable.

Twilight had fallen when Damon entered The Last Shot Tavern, but it had been falling a lot earlier lately.

“I can go get your hotel room situated,” Jimmy said. He’d been a little off ever since the jet. It made Damon think his illicit activities with Skylar hadn’t gone as unnoticed as the managers had pretended.

“We’ll head that way soon enough. Stay and have a drink at least.” When he spotted Malcolm behind the bar, some of his tension faded. “Yo, Mal!” he called out, happiness filling him when his friend looked up and smiled.

Murmurs started among the early dinner crowd, but his friend’s customers weren’t the mob type. Damon’s path to the bar remained unhindered, and he grabbed a barstool.

“I heard you were getting in today,” Malcolm said. “It’s good to see you in person. Though I’m assuming you need a drink?”

The tequila from earlier had done little to calm his mind. “Are you saying that because you caught my interview?”

Malcolm shrugged. “Erin did, and you know how she is.”

Damon’s sister had the loudest mouth around. Even louder than Skylar’s. Thinking about her made him frown.

“Is she coming by?” Jimmy asked. “Erin is always a hoot.”

“Not tonight,” Malcolm said.

“I’m surprised she had time to catch the interview, what with them just getting back.” Damon stared down at the bar. Technically, his sister had married her husband a while ago, but they’d postponed their honeymoon. Damon hadn’t met Nicholas in person yet, but the guy seemed to make her happy, now that they’d worked out their shit.

He’d been practicing a new song he’d made with his sister in mind. The chorus played inside his head, bringing a smile to his lips.

“That looks better,” Malcolm said, turning to Jimmy. “What’ll you have to drink?”

Jimmy gave his order.

Damon never could get away with a case of angst around Malcolm. He studied his friend as he turned to make the drinks. “You really did chop off all your hair, didn’t you?” he said.

Malcolm ran a hand through his shorter hair, which now curled just past his collar. “It’ll grow. I promised Jami I’d let it get long again.”

“Where is your girl?” Damon asked. He spotted the server, but her features looked nothing like Skylar’s. “Doesn’t she work here?”

“She’s taking classes in the evenings,” Malcolm said, the softest of smiles appearing on his face.

Damon had never imagined his brawler friend could look quite that way. Sure, he’d always been gentle with his cousin, but not with that particularly sappy smile. “Damn, you’ve got it bad. I’m looking forward to meeting her for real.” He and Jami had chatted a couple of times over the phone, but more in the background of his calls to Malcolm. Keeping up with his friends had been a little touch and go over the past year, especially now that none of them were single and half of them had babies in the background. Blake had even claimed his daughter was Damon’s biggest fan after Damon had sung her to sleep over the phone one time.

“Are you really dating Skylar’s sister?” Jimmy asked.

Malcolm set his drink in front of him with a thud. “Her name is Jami.”

Jimmy squirmed under Malcolm’s stare. “Right, sorry.”

“My manager has been a Skylar fanatic ever since her first single,” Damon explained.

“Long before that!” Jimmy snorted. “She absolutely made Winter Dust Storm what it was. Losing her was their biggest mistake, and the flop of their latest album proves it.”

“Was that the name of her band?” Damon frowned as he tried to remember if he’d heard one of their songs.

“Fuck, Dame, you need to learn this shit if you’re going to fake a relationship with her.” Jimmy brooded into his glass. “Among other things.”

Malcolm studied his manager. “So the stuff Erin mentioned isn’t real?”

“Let’s just say even I was surprised.” Damon reached for his drink, his stomach twisting when he realized it was Patrón again.

“She’s a complete original,” Jimmy said with a sigh.

Damon set his glass down. “I think the term is ‘reckless.’” He glanced behind him, but none of the local diners appeared to be listening. “The whole thing seems like it was a whim to her.”

“One the fans are eating up. It’s the whole opposites-attract thing.” Jimmy tapped at his phone. “Hell, the amateur videos of the airport ass grab have more views than the official interview already. This is much better for you than that wimpy stalker shit that almost blew up.”

Some of Damon’s irritation at Skylar faded at the reminder. Like it or not, she had helped him out. Was the interview just that morning? The day felt like a blur. Skylar had saved him twice and rocked his sexual world in less than twenty-four hours. Any irritation toward her was irrational, and made him more than pathetically insecure. It also made him a jackass.

“Dame!” a voice shouted.

Damon turned in time to grunt over Blake’s sudden, rib-cracking hug. His friend practically lifted him from the stool in his exuberance. Damon groaned. “Fuck, Blake. Having a baby should have made you gentler.”

“Well, sure, toward her.” Blake laughed as he released him. “Damn, I missed you. But, dude, you’re too fucking light. Don’t the groupies like a little more meat and muscle? My daughter weighs more than you.”

“Don’t exaggerate,” Trenton said, brushing Blake aside so he could add his own quick shoulder squeeze. “Welcome home, Damon.”

The term ‘home’ didn’t sit quite right, not after a year on the road, but there wasn’t anywhere else that he’d call that. “Yeah, thanks,” Damon said.

Over Trenton’s shoulder, a dark-haired man in a suit, who could only be his sister’s husband, Nicholas, nodded at him.

“Shit, even you came?” He looked around at his friends and laughed. “I guess this means we’re all going to get wasted together tonight, and for once it won’t be over the phone.”

Jimmy slid off the barstool next to him. “That’s my cue to skedaddle.”

Damon grabbed his arm. “Stay for a bit. You don’t have any family here, and the hotel will be boring.”

His manager’s lips pressed together in that way they’d been doing all day. “I’m good. But thanks.” He shrugged Damon’s grip off and headed for the door.

Damon felt a twinge as he stared after Jimmy. He’d have to talk to him about Skylar later. Hopefully by then, he’d know what to say.

Blake snagged the empty stool. “Beer me, Mal!”

Trenton winced. “We agreed you’d stop saying that.”

Damon let their laughter flow over him as he turned back to the bar. Catching up with some friends, and maybe cementing a new one in the form of his brother-in-law, sounded like the evening he needed. He asked Nicholas what Erin was up to, and found that he liked the way the man’s face eased as he talked about her.