Chapter 24
Jodi Castle
“How bloody much?” Jez spat out most of the mouthful of beer he’d just taken. “That’s insane.”
“Twelve quid,” Nash repeated.
To Jodi, the mad part wasn’t the price tag, she’d realised days ago that Norway was expensive.
No, it was the fact that despite the hour and the cost of beer, the club was thrumming.
She was nestled between the two men, and thus managing to stay on her feet, but even that wall of muscle didn’t protect her from all the jostling.
If it’d been up to her, she’d have opted for a seat outside, overlooking the marina, where they’d at least have been able to hear one another without yelling, but it was late and drizzling, and the guys, still pumped after their earlier gig, wanted to be in the thick of things.
Or rather, they were looking for company.
Balin already had his arm around the shoulders of some girl he’d met on the way through the door, and Lee was talking to a giggly trio that had followed them here from the gig.
She reckoned he’d have already pulled one if not all three of them, except for the fact that one of them was wearing a Spook Mortensen T-shirt that stretched over her bust like a second skin and was clearly hoping she wasn’t going to have to settle for the budget option.
“Are Black Halo joining us?”
“Some of them,” Jez confirmed. “Ronnie, Rock Giant, Ash, and his missus. Xane, I think. Not certain though, he seemed preoccupied.”
“We should attempt to find a table.”
“Pretty sure there’s one saved. Same as last night. Balin was going to check.”
That’s right, the guys had come here the previous night, too. She’d opted for a quiet night. Bus to herself, and the chance to shower and dry off in private. Well, after she’d completed the sixteen thousand tasks they’d left her with.
“Maybe we should just go find it, guys.”
The three of them tacked their way through the packed bodies, eventually finding their reserved table not far from the stage area a local band were performing on.
The Black Halo party arrived right as they were about to sit.
Various bodies slid into seats. Nash ended up offering to go to the bar with Ginny, since Ash had wound up trapped at the back wedged between Xane and Jez.
Ronnie and Rock Giant filled out the remaining spaces.
She’d need to find a stool to pull up to the end.
“Park your arse right here, sexy butt,” Rock Giant gave his knee a pat.
Tempting, but... “Think my fiancé might have something to say about that.”
“Alternative’s sitting on the table.”
“I can stand.”
A group of passing Vikings bumped her off her feet. Rock Giant caught her before she splatted over the table and settled her on his lap. “Think you’ll be safer here.”
Nash would freak, she knew he would. On the other hand, there was something genuinely pleasant about her current position.
“I’ll swap with you if you like,” Ronnie offered, “Though I’m thinking we’re all going to have to double up the minute they get back from the bar.”
How would that work? Ginny on Ash, okay, but whose lap was Nash supposed to perch on? Except Ginny returned without him, some hulking bearded giant carrying a tray of drinks for her in Nash’s place.
“Where’s Nash gone?” she asked, as Ginny shuffled across multiple laps to reach her hubby.
“Gents’,” she gave a vague nod toward the loos.
“Xane, vodka and coke. Ronnie…” She slid a fluorescing green cocktail in front of him.
Paul and Ash both claimed beers, leaving one for her, not that she’d finished the first, or was it for Nash?
She scanned the crowd for him but couldn’t see much beyond a few feet thanks to the wall of people, chatting and listening, and getting their sexy on, while bass and drums reverberated through the walls and floor.
Conversation slid into an analysis of the gig, before grazing over a variety of other topics. Jodi couldn’t relax enough to focus. Why hadn’t Jez sat on the end? Then she could have sat on his lap. Nash wouldn’t make a fuss over that.
Ronnie took out a packet of jelly sweets and added half of them to his drink; the rest he slid onto his middle finger. For a couple of moments, she was distracted by watching him nibble at the rings, then more or less fellating his own finger.
“Ron, you need to get laid,” Ginny said. “What about the fine chap sat next to you?”
“Gin, you don’t even know if he’s into guys. You can’t just go matching us up.” Ronnie levelled with her, all eyes, and smiles. He took a moment to check Jez out, letting his gaze rove in a spectacularly unsubtle way.
“Pfft, he’s a rockstar,” she replied, like that was an explanation everyone would understand. Evidently, most of the table did.
“I feel like I missed something,” Jez remarked.
Yeah, her too.
“Don’t encourage them,” Ash replied, giving his missus a poke and then a squeeze when she stuck her tongue out at him. “They’ve decided rock stars are willing to hump anything. No offence meant.”
“None taken.” Jez turned to Ronnie. “Sorry, you’re not really my type.”
“Too male?”
“He likes blonds,” Jodi blurted and regretted immediately as hurt lanced through Jez’s expression. “Sorry.”
“I don’t exclusively like blonds just because my ex was blond. I think I’m going to see what happened to the guys.”
Fuck, now she’d upset him.
Ronnie got up to let him out, then slid back into the space he’d vacated. It meant there was room for her on that side of the table. Except, Paul reached around her to pick up his beer.
“You okay, Castle?” His other hand settled on her bare upper arm and began stroking back and forth in an absent way that was far too delicious not to become her whole focus.
“Fine.” It was difficult not to turn her head and follow the glass back to his mouth. He flashed her a grin.
“You seem twitchy.”
Of course she was twitchy, she was sitting on his lap, and her fiancé was going to blow a fuse if he caught them, but damned if a part of her wasn’t enjoying it, too.
Being a larger lady, she rarely got to perch on a guy’s lap without moans about dead legs.
Rock Giant didn’t seem to be having a problem with that.
He took another draw of beer, and her gaze snapped to the rim of the glass, and the way his top lip caressed it as he swallowed.
It brought an unbidden memory of him looking up at her from between her thighs, triangular glass behind him, and beyond that a star-studded winter sky.
This long after that event, the memory oughtn’t to have been nearly so vivid.
“Were you here last night?”
“Nope. Took a scenic boat trip around the fjords and to see Hengjanefossen. It’s a waterfall,” he added at her squint of confusion. “You?”
She shook her head.
“Quiet night, just the two of you?”
Jodi gave another head shake. “Quiet night alone. It was pretty blissful. I got to take a shower without having to negotiate the usual gauntlet of observers.”
“If I’d known you were home alone—” He crooked a brow.
She swallowed. He’d have done what? Come calling? What mischief could the pair of them have enacted in five spare hours. “I don’t think—”
“—I’d have invited you to join Alle, Spook and me on the trip.”
Okay, so it wouldn’t have been just the two of them getting intimate on an otherwise empty bus.
Still, the whole trip around the fjords sounded far too romantic.
Far too easy to picture the panoramic, film-worthy scenery, the gentle lapping of the sea against the sides of the boat providing musical accompaniment, and the pair of them snuggled together to ward off the evening chill.
Nothing like now. The club was sweltering, or maybe that was just her.
None of that was to suggest she wouldn’t have enjoyed the experience.
She loved exploring new places, and unfortunately most of what she was seeing on this trip was the backstage areas of various concert venues, roadsides, and pit stops. “Was it impressive?”
“The water tumbles down the cliff face into the fjord. Yeah, it’s pretty spectacular.”
“I’m sorry I missed it.”
“I’m sorry you missed it. If only I’d known, I could have stolen you away and had you back before anyone was the wiser.” He grinned again, then pressed his lips to her shoulder.
It was barely pressure enough to register, but she felt it throughout her body.
Her nipples tightened, an ache started lower down, and butterflies took flight in her stomach.
They rose through her chest and finally escaped her throat in the form of a gasp.
Luckily, it was too noisy for anyone besides him to have heard it.
“Paul!”
“Yes, my love.”
“What are you doing?”
He wrinkled his nose. “Nibbling.”
“Well, maybe don’t.” Her gaze darted across the crowd. Was Nash seeing this? Was he going to arrive any moment, a thundercloud over his head and murder in his eyes? Would it stop Rock Giant even if he did? She suspected not.
“But, Castle, I nibble all my friends.”
The fuck he did. “I’m not sure that’s true. Please, behave.”
He gave her a wry smile. “Yo, Ronnie. Lend me your hand.”
Without pausing the conversation he was now deep into with his other band mates, Ronnie thrust his left hand towards Paul, who clasped it around the base and then sucked the jelly rings off his middle digit and released it, so it made a pop.
The sight made her insides dance in new and interesting ways.
He flashed her a look that seemed to say, see?
“Paul.” Ronnie fluttered his eyelashes and pressed a hand to his chest. “Did you just claim my ring?”
Paul showed him his tongue poking through the jelly ring’s central hole. “Totally mine now.” He winked.
Ronnie groaned. So did Jodi. “Why does that sound so utterly deviant?”