Chapter 30
Jonah
The ride to the studio today was torture.
June and Oli’s car needed work done, and the rental they got for the week was a fucking stick shift. They so did that on purpose. I’m the only one who knows how to drive stick, so I was on driving duty. Oli and June relished the opportunity to be backseat babies and sprawled themselves along the cushions while I got stuck up front with my favorite fucking human on the planet.
Just my luck.
Kai watched my hands move as I shifted gears, failing hopelessly at covering the awe on her face. It was as if she were watching me stroke my cock. Seriously. I let the steering wheel slide through my hands to straighten us back out after a left turn, and I genuinely thought she was going to come then and there. Her mouth parted, her eyes trailing lazily between my fingers and my elbows. Her desire made me rock hard, and my body betrayed my mind as it repeated to me that she only needed me temporarily.
“I can see you, Kai,” I said quietly, avoiding drawing any attention from the back.
She just shifted in her seat, leaning her body toward the window as if she were facing away, but she didn’t turn her head. She just kept staring.
I had no fucking idea what she found so intriguing about my driving skills, but I had a pretty solid hunch she was watching my fingers and replaying last night. I’d been doing the same since the moment my head hit my pillow.
She was still going to help us with the band account even though Justin was gone, and I was overjoyed I’d get to keep seeing her at work. At least I was overjoyed. Now all I could think about was how the fuck I was going to survive. How I was going to refrain from throwing our entire friendship in the trash, as if I hadn’t already, by taking her to the floor very publicly and very destructively.
Noah, Tiff, and Noah’s cousin, our new manager, were already in the studio when we arrived, huddled in a little pod.
Great. As if Noah wasn’t handsome enough, his cousin was twice that. Both of them boasted beautiful blonde hair, slightly longer than mine, with blue eyes, white smiles, and the whole fucking nine yards as far as classic good looks went. Obviously, it didn’t matter to me that Noah was good-looking. He was my friend, and so was Tiff. No funny business was going to happen there.
But his cousin…
I’d become very familiar with the look that lit up people’s faces when they beheld Kai for the first time. She was unbelievably beautiful, shockingly paralyzing, and she just got more and more breathtaking with each passing year. It was horrifying. Inhumane.
And she was in one of those enchanting states. After the gym, recently showered, glowing and clean. It was a close third to fully done up, night out, after an hour of getting ready and cozied up in my sweatshirt, messy bun, sitting criss-crossed in bed.
Actually, recently showered definitely trumped night out.
Sweatshirt, showered, night out.In that order.
Oh, who am I kidding? She’s exquisite. All the fucking time.
Noah’s cousin’s name was Lorenzo. Obviously. A cool name for a cool fucking dude whose dad moved to LA from Bologna when he was sixteen. He was clearly the type of guy who made mundane things look like miracles with only his sheer beauty. I could tell.
Oli and I introduced ourselves first. We’d already spoken with him over the phone so the introductions weren’t too extravagant. Then came June and Kai. I observed carefully, my gaze refusing to peel away.
“I’m June. Hi.” June’s gold-ringed fingers jutted in front of her. Lorenzo took them and smiled.
“Kai.” My beautiful girl followed, reaching her hand out a bit less enthusiastically. She wouldn’t open up until she got a read on him.
“Nice to meet you both. I’m Enzo.”
And that’s all it took.
“Oh, I love that name,” Kai crooned. Her entire demeanor relaxed as she dropped her hands from where they’d been twisting in front of her ribs.
“Thank you,” he answered, his bright eyes glinting as he looked down at her. “I’m pretty partial to it myself. You’ll be working with us, won’t you?”
“Yes.” She nodded, wearing a big, toothy smile that I wanted to keep for myself.
“Do you have everything you need? Is there anything you need from me?” He was very respectful, and it honestly pissed me off. The fact that he had both looks and personality seemed entirely unfair when I was deprived of both.
“No, thank you. Maybe a few opinions here and there. If you want anything in particular, you can let me know. Otherwise, I think I have it handled.”
“I think so, too,” he said kindly. Lorenzo, Enzo, Whoever the Fuck grinned and turned to Noah, Oli and me. “All right, boys. Let’s chat.”
◆◆◆
Kai
I sat on the couch with Tiff to my left and June on the other side of her. My gaze kept trailing to that beautiful hair, that delicious mouth. God, how could a person be so attractive? A scrape on my lower lip let me know that I was visibly biting it as I observed him.
“He’s hot. Isn’t he?” Tiff asked quietly, nudging my shoulder.
“Mhm.” I practically moaned my answer as my eyes moved down to those fucking hands, those damn tattoos.
“Is he single?” June whispered.
“Recently,” said Tiff. “And thank god for that. I actually really liked her until she started screwing her personal trainer.”
Visions ran through my mind as one set of manly fingers reached across to grab the opposite arm, rubbing over a patch of black ink. The way those tattoos had tightened and loosened on the drive over, the way his fingers gripped the gearshift, had me coming pathetically undone. His inked forearms tensed with each turn, and I simply wanted to wrap myself in them.
Forearms.
I wanted my own list. Neck. Shoulders. What else? I needed to know.
“Earth to Kai.” June’s hand reached across Tiff and smacked my thigh.
“I need to tell you guys something,” I said quickly, snapping my gaze to them with a look that must have piqued their interest. They both widened their eyes and sat an inch taller in their seats.
A secret. A dirty secret.
They immediately began flapping their hands around and urging more information from me, but the boys finished talking. I swatted at them in an attempt to calm them down. Jonah was approaching.
He stood directly in front of me, and I stared at the zipper of his black jeans like some kind of fucking animal, tilting my head and trying my hardest to get a glimpse of the imprint. I wanted to see what he was hiding underneath more than I’d wanted anything in a very long time.
He rasped my name.
I allowed only my gaze to trail up from my low position. Rage flared in his features and, frankly, it made me grin a little. A silly thought crossed my mind. I could open my mouth and tease those jeans exactly as he’d done my…tank top.
“Get up,” he ordered quietly.
“Or what?” I pouted up at him.
His glare filled with emotion, one hand stretching to my side before reeling itself in stiffly as if he were going to grab me but stopped himself.
Neck. Shoulders. Disobedience.
“Enzo,” he said in a tone that informed me he was intimidated by the new team member, “would like us to get some things done before we start recording anything. So, you may go. You have an hour.” My lip curled at his rude tone. Fucking asshole. “Go with the girls. And keep your mouth shut.”
Right, as if not talking about it would keep this from blowing up.
“I don’t need to tell them anything.” I finally leaned my head up fully and offered him my fakest smile. “Your shitty attitude gives you away entirely.”
I reached for him, insisting he help me off the couch. It’s what I would’ve done on a normal day, after all, and if he was so intent on me acting like nothing had happened, then I’d do it just the same. He took a step back and tugged me up by my wrists, holding them for an extra second to run his thumbs over my forearms after I stood. Whether it was intentional or not, it didn’t matter, because I felt it. My eyes dropped to his neck.
“Can I tell you a secret, Jojo?” I asked as I focused on the corner where his shoulder began.
“June. Tiff. Does that sound okay to you?” He spoke calmly but sternly, his eyes remaining on me, monitoring me. “You can get a coffee or something.”
My smart friends scattered, leaving Jonah and me alone in the back of the room.
“What?” he asked with hardly a hint of curiosity.
My face immediately fell to his neck, my restraint non-existent, my tongue unfolding from my lips to lick that delicious curve of skin. His hands wrapped around my lower back as he melted into me and released the most delectable, masculine, mind-blowing little sound directly into my ear.
Forget the list. Forget everything. That, whatever that was, was all I fucking needed to crumble on the spot. I pulled away to find his eyes.
“Jonah…you just moaned in my ear,” I whispered, suddenly having a very difficult time refraining from kissing his lips. He offered me no answer, only a furious flaring of those green eyes. “I’ve never heard that before.”
“That’s because we’ve never had sex.” He was stiff as a damn pole, and this was arguably the most angry I’d ever seen him.
“No, I’ve…” My chest filled with air as I tried to clarify. “I’ve never heard that from a man. Ever. Not like that.” Sure, I’d heard grunts and breathing, but never such a delicious moan, never a sound of pure pleasure. Jonah’s eyes softened for a moment, something like pity flashing through them. “Why, Jonah?”
He looked over me carefully as he thought of his answer. “I suppose some men aren’t confident enough to let go and enjoy themselves. Some only care about appearing to be in control. With you, I most certainly am not.”
Had anyone ever let go with me? Had anyone ever wanted me so badly? Had I ever been enjoying sex at all?
I tried to push down those bubbles in my stomach as Jonah stepped away and grabbed my bag off the hook by the door. He approached me and slid it over one of my shoulders.
“You’ll regret it if this goes any further,” he said, turning me toward the exit and seeing me out. A hand on my lower back eased me into the hallway.
Like hell I’d regret it. Who did he think he was? “Don’t tell me how I feel.”
He released a grunt of frustration. “Go with your friends. When you come back, do not provoke me. I’ll be civil if you will.”
Fucking. Asshole.I most certainly would not be civil. The door shut at my back before I could say anything else.
I found myself standing in the hall with the girls. They both stared at me with the most obnoxious grins on each of their faces. I screamed silently for a few long seconds, beating my fists down by my sides as I jumped with both feet, slamming my sneakers into the floor as hard as I could.
The door opened, and I whipped around, immediately crossing my arms casually as if I hadn’t just been having a total toddler meltdown. Jonah looked down at my feet and then back up at my face condescendingly. Whatever he had opened the door to say, he decided against it, rolling his eyes as he turned back into the room and shut me out once again.
I held both middle fingers up toward the door and sent silent obscenities at him when it opened again. It was as if he knew exactly what I was doing and re-emerged just to reprimand me.
“I will end you, Kai.” Civil, my ass. I just stuck my middle fingers up higher, putting them in his face as annoyingly as I could until he began swatting me away. “Very mature.” He smacked my wrist from in front of his chin.
“Very mature,” I mocked.
He clawed at the air in front of himself, stiffening his fingers with anger as I stuck my tongue out. Frustration poured out of him with nowhere to go, and I gained only mild satisfaction from it. In an instant, he closed his eyes and forced himself to breathe deeply. Two seconds in, two seconds out. He turned back into the room and shut the door once again.
I stomped down the hallway, my friends following suit.