Chapter 24
Everything tightened in Noah’s body and he struggled to stay upright as the incredible sound of her voice boomed through the auditorium. Her sultry come-pour-yourself-all-over-me voice was sinfully sexy, evoking images he had no doubt every man on stage was thinking.
His stomach clenched and he forced himself to sit still. She’d taken her place beside the other two backup singers after wowing everyone with her initial test.
Now he watched her sing another track, one about a fast and loose heart in New Orleans. He tried to look away, take a beat. And failed.
What this woman was doing to him. How fast she was consuming him.
Three days. Just three fucking days, and he couldn’t imagine his nights without her.
Couldn’t imagine fucking anyone else but her.
And he still knew only less than a handful of facts about her.
Granted, a couple were facts he was sure she’d told no one else but…
Things were escalating too fast, spiraling out of control.
She wrapped both hands around the mic, meshed her long fingers and slid them up and down.
Gold and blue spotlights danced over her face and upper body, bathing her beauty in soft lights.
She tilted her head and that swathe of shaved scalp made his breath catch.
Made him yearn to know what had triggered that and her tattoo.
The song ended. Fliss said something to her. A smile split her face, and she blushed and responded, happiness radiating off her.
He swallowed as she came toward him, his heart banging harder against his rips. He wanted to haul her off the stage, find the nearest private room and pound all the feelings he didn’t want to name into her. The moment she was within touching distance, he curled his arm around her tiny waist.
Mine , he barely stopped himself from growling.
“Hey, King, you play an instrument?” Spikes shouted from the center of the stage.
Noah shrugged. “I dabbled a little with bass guitars years ago.”
“No shit. Hey, Steve, we have a spare guitar lying about?” he shouted at the drummer.
Steve nodded and murmured to the stagehand. The requested instrument materialized within a minute.
Kendal waved him over. “Join us for a quick turn. Don’t let your little lady here have all the fun. We’ll go for a pure fusion—you know Hancock’s ‘Chameleon’?”
“Sure.”
“Great.”
Noah wasn’t sure whether the offer was genuine or a ploy to keep them there for longer so the asshole could keep ogling Leia. He started to shake his head and paused when a huge smile split her face.
“Omigod, I’d love to see you play!”
That stomach-hollowing feeling rushed back, overpowering every other emotion. Her beauty flattened him, her smile a ray of pure sunshine on his desolate soul.
Add that to what she did to him in the bedroom and he knew he would have a very, very hard time walking away from Leia Michaels.
“Please, Noah?” she whispered in that voice that sparked every primitive atom in his body.
Jesus .
He took his hand off her waist and nodded. “Sure, let’s do it.” He shrugged off his leather jacket and draped it over her shoulders. He placed her on the stool and took a hard, fast kiss. “Remember you’re my groupie. Keep your panties on, your knees together and your eyes on me.”
“Yes, Noah.”
Two words. Two fucking words that tore his insides to shreds, caused the world to tilt beneath his feet.
When he’d told her to vocalize her responses, he’d done it because he didn’t want any misunderstanding between them. He hadn’t anticipated this, hadn’t imagined that each time she said those two words, he’d feel like a king even as he fell to his knees to worship her.
Yes, Noah.
Those two words could be his undoing.
Grabbing the five-string bass, he pulled the strap over his head. He plucked the strings, adjusted the back pick-up a touch and stepped onto the stage.
The drums followed the piano intro. He blended in at the same time as the electric guitar and couldn’t stop his grin as the melody flowed through his fingers.
Halfway through the track, he glanced over at Leia. She was doing exactly as he’d told her, staring straight at him with the fixation of the perfect groupie. He rocked back and forth on his feet, his fingers sliding up and down the strings as an old love rekindled inside.
He’d sacrificed so much to Ashley’s toxic mind games.
Some things he’d never bothered to reclaim once he left New York, mostly because he’d been furious with himself for losing sight of them in the first place.
Furious with himself for turning his life inside out to hold on to something that hadn’t been there in the first place.
Thank God that was all behind him…
“Take it away, King!” Spikes nodded at him to take the penultimate solo. Noah’s fingers flew over the strings.
Leia cupped her hands around her mouth and whooped. He winked at her and smiled when she blushed.
Hell. Perfect was slowly creeping into his mind. There was no other word to describe her. Everything else seemed lame . Yes, she was broken. But then so was he.
Whatever had broken her had made her ideal for him. Ideal… Perfect .
The session ended in a crescendo of drums, piano and guitar strains. Leia broke into applause, and a smile split his face.
Even when Spikes glanced her way with another of those furtive lusty-heavy looks, he didn’t feel as homicidal.
Leia was his. Only his. And he aimed to keep it that way.
He handed the guitar to the stagehand and walked over to her. Grabbing the lapels of his leather jacket, he pulled her close and kissed her, reveling in her touch when her hands curled around his waist.
“Was I a good groupie? Will you let me into your trailer or do I still have to chain myself to it?” she murmured for his ears alone when he raised his head.
“Sweetheart, if I had a trailer I’d fuck you on every surface inside it, then I’d fuck you on top of it, under the stars so your beauty can touch the very heavens.”
Her pulse fluttered wildly and she grinned. “You say the hottest things, Noah King.”
“Enjoy the concert, you two.” Spikes walked over. “Leia, I’ll see you back here in ninety minutes.”
Noah shook his hand and hustled her back to their private balcony before his mood turned sour at the thought of letting her anywhere near Spikes.
The next ninety minutes passed in an excruciating medley of enjoyment and frustration. He basked in Leia’s delight at the talent on show but each time she leaned over the balcony and wriggled her ass against him, his knees threatened to buckle.
Many times he bit his tongue against ordering them to leave. She’d never forgive him if he thwarted her dream. But hell, he had to fuck her soon or he’d go blind.
She wriggled again. He grabbed her waist. “Stop it.” His voice was rough, lacking the force he wanted to project.
She glanced over her shoulder at him. Then wriggled again.
On the balcony, the other three Indigo Lounge couples who’d joined them were absorbed in the band and crowds below.
Blocking their view with his body, he spanked her ass hard and heard her yelp.
“Stop. Wriggling. You’ve been torturing me for the last hour, determined to drive me over the fucking edge.” He soothed the burn, then spanked her four more times in quick succession. She bit her lip and her nipples hardened to rigid nubs beneath the silk.
He petted her ass as Fused Realms ended a third song to roaring applause and launched into the fourth. “After this one you’re on. You’ll be down there, making your dream come true with my handprint on your ass. Does that turn you on?” He kissed his way down her jaw and licked at her skipping pulse.
She gave a delicate shudder. “Yes.”
“Good. Have fun and be prepared to leave straight after.”
He took her hand and led her the way they’d gone earlier. Backstage was a frenzy of excited post-gig high, flowing booze and roadies trying to haul equipment amid the chaos.
Noah scrubbed his intention to return upstairs and stayed put at the curtained-off entrance of the stage. Fliss spotted them and indicated a small darkened section near the back of the stage without breaking the rhythm of the high note she was singing.
He nodded and led Leia there. From where they stood, they could see the fifteen rows of the auditorium and the two giant big screens strung high on the walls.
A smile broke over her face, another wriggle working its way through her body. She stopped halfway and glanced at him.
“You know I could pull you back against me, lift your skirt, and fuck you right here and no one would notice?”
She turned her head and rubbed her cheek against his stubble. “But you won’t.”
“No. Because I’m addicted to seeing you reach a new high each time we fuck. Those highs only come with time and patience. And I’m finding that I’m getting invested in your pleasure, Leia Michaels.”
She opened her mouth to answer just as the song ended. Gary looked their way and nodded. This time Noah let her excited wriggle go and basked in her sheer excitement as she hopped up onto the stage and took her place.
The first song—“Toxic Yin and Yang”—dealt with the edgy underbelly of jealousy, an emotion Ashley had excelled in evoking from him?—
Hell, why the hell couldn’t he stop thinking about her? And why now when before last week in his office he hadn’t given her a thought in months and only during therapy?
He leaned against the stage wall and let his gaze wander over Leia.
She was hot, incredibly responsive and a borderline submissive, not that he was into that whole Dom/sub scene.
But hell, he could see the attraction in that, could feel the power in that push/pull control.
He craved control in bed, but he loved pain more.
Pain reminded him he was alive. It did the same for Leia. He could tell.
They’d barely scratched the surface of their possibilities.
So what the fuck was he doing dwelling on his ex-fiancé, the woman he’d cut out of his life like a cancer two years ago?
Closure.
He shook his head. Fuck, he was screwed if he was hearing his shrink’s voice in his head in the middle of a jazz funk concert in Vienna.
The song ended. The crowd roared. Leia glanced back at him, her face flushed with happiness. He smiled back, and she gave him a little wave.
Fuck Ashley.
Fuck his shrink.
He was living in the now, with the sexiest, most intelligent, most fuckable woman he’d ever met. A woman who had the serious potential to be everything he’d ever wanted, who didn’t flinch from his dark side.
The next song started, an up-tempo one Leia began dancing to. He pulled his phone from his pocket, intending to capture her enthralling movements on his video camera.
He activated his phone and froze. Premonition slid an icy hand around his nape.
You have 4 missed calls and 6 text messages.
The calls were from Gabe.
The texts all said the same thing:
Call Me. Ashley.