2. Meadow
Chapter 2
Meadow
“ H ow do you have a key to the tour bus?”
Hendrix grinned. “I’m a man of many secrets.”
The door swung open and I stepped inside, nerves churning in my belly. His presence behind me was electric and heavy, tuning every nerve to him. The whole bus honestly smelled way better than I had expected for carting around a bunch of rock stars. Hints of apple cider, black tea and vanilla, and something earthy and fresh hung in the air, along with Hendrix’s smoky citrus.
“We’re not gonna get in trouble for being in here?”
“Nah, like I said, we’ve got at least an hour.” He sidled up against my back, and I had to fight the urge to lean into him, totally surrendering. Pretty sure the cloud of perfume I let off gave me away, though. “Want a drink?”
“Maybe one.”
Hendrix whipped open the mini fridge and pulled out a couple of cola cans, setting them on top before fishing out two mini bottles of rum from some hidden stash. “You can open your own,” he said, tossing me the miniature rum.
The gesture surprised me. I hadn’t expected him to think of that safety measure at all for me, but it gave me a bit more security as I cracked the seal and poured it into the bottom of the plastic cup, which he then topped up with a cola I watched him open.
“Let me make sure the bed isn’t nasty.”
“That’s quite presumptuous, sir.”
He popped his head out of the room at the back of the bus, giving me a wink. “Figured my odds were pretty good since you came to the bus to begin with.”
I barked a laugh. “You’re so bad.”
“Baby doll, you have no idea.”
I gulped down half my drink to ease my nerves, the alcohol sharp on my tongue but cut by the sweetness. If I were Clover, I probably wouldn’t be worried about this at all, but unfortunately, I was me, and I didn’t have that much experience with this kind of thing. At least, not without a few dates in front of it.
First time for everything.
“All good back there?” I asked, taking another sip.
“Better if you were back here with me.”
I set my drink aside and took a few daring steps toward the bedroom. Hendrix was missing his shirt but still wearing those ridiculous pants. “You took off the wrong half to cool down.”
Hendrix let out a low, delicious growl that had need spiraling through me, my perfume exploding around me. “Figured I would get your help with that part.”
After a quick mental pep talk, including a What Would Clover Do?, I crossed the remaining distance to him and tried not to embarrass myself with the moan I wanted to make when he put his hands on my waist. Hendrix pulled me close enough to lay a kiss beneath my collarbone, his tongue sweeping up and his hands tugging me down until he got his mouth on my throat, my knees going out from under me so I landed on his lap. My fingers curled into his hair as I lost my battle with that moan trapped in my throat. I was going to slick right through my panties if he kept that up.
Drowning on woodsmoke citrus, I let him manhandle me until I was stretched out on the bed with Hendrix staring down at me like some wicked god. With the recessed lights above him illuminating his golden hair, he looked like Apollo himself.
The desperate whine that leapt out of me made me want to bury my face in the blankets, but Hendrix seemed absolutely delighted by it.
“Beautiful, if I didn’t already have an ego, that sound would’ve given me one.”
I hoisted myself up, hooking my fingers in the waistband of his pants and lifting my face in a clear invitation. Hendrix accepted it, kissing me until I was dizzy, and carefully working my jacket off to toss it aside. My shirt came next, and then Hendrix was nudging me back and fighting with my boots like a man possessed. One of the heels cracked like thunder when he flung it at the wall and dropped down over me, like he couldn’t stand our mouths being parted for one second more. Deft fingers unhooked my bra, and his tongue sent me into a frenzy. My perfume was thick enough to choke me as we frantically stripped each other down until we were bare.
In a fit of boldness, I got him on his back and straddled his waist, tracing my fingertips down his chest and rocking my hips to tease his cock pressed against my ass cheeks.
“A view like that could give a man a heart attack.”
A blush infused my skin, heat snaking over me and butterflies dancing in my belly. Past partners hadn’t looked at me with the level of hunger Hendrix did now, didn’t use pretty words to make me feel like a goddess. A craving for him filled me down to the bone marrow.
“Feels like I might be a little close to that myself.” I let out a nervous laugh, and Hendrix curled both hands into my long hair, using it to tug me closer so his tongue could explore the recesses of my mouth while his hips moved restlessly beneath me.
“Haven’t given a girl a heart attack yet, but I did make one black out from a few too many orgasms.”
I wiggled and closed my fingers over his mouth. “I don’t want to hear a single word about anyone else you dragged back to this bus.”
“Sorry, baby doll. I’ll make you forget all about that.” His next movement flipped me, and a second later, he was caging me in, dragging that thick cock against my slick folds until I was whimpering and squirming beneath him.
“Condom?” I asked, voice tight. Between the sparks of pleasure he elicited and his heady alpha musk, thinking was an uphill battle.
He fished around in one of the drawers and got one on with lightning speed. “Wrapped and ready to tap.”
I barked a laugh. “The worst line ever.”
Hendrix grinned down at me. “Not the worst if it made you laugh. Now, let’s see how many other sounds I can get you to make.”
I nearly leaped out of my skin when he slid down my body and snared my thighs, burying his face between them. I quaked, lacing my fingers in his hair and holding tight until pleasure crashed over me like a tsunami and I was shakily stuttering out his name. I lost track of how many times he made me come like that. It felt like a game for him, seeing how close to delirium he could get me before he finally crawled back up and gave me a searing kiss.
Being half-feral for an alpha was a new experience for me, outside of heats. I was ready to ride Hendrix into the ground by the time he sank into me, both of us panting and shaking. Holy hell, my body was not used to alpha cock. The stretch of him was the most delectable burn, and I arched up like a bow, trying to catch my breath as it stoked all of my primal instincts to life.
“Don’t stop.” I whined and pressed against his ass with my heels, demanding more, even though I was pretty sure he was about to split me in half.
Hendrix withdrew slowly and snapped his hips back in, sending me over the edge when his teeth scraped over my throat. Desperation clawed at me, and with the way his hands gripped me, I could only assume I wasn’t alone in that. What right did this man have to taste so fucking good? I didn’t even like alphas, and here I was, writhing under one…and I loved it.
Sometimes being an omega sucked ass, but right now? It fucking rocked. My brain was a soup of hormones, my instincts preening over having attracted someone this beautiful.
Hendrix moaned, licking up my throat again. “You want my knot, beautiful?”
“Give iiiit.” God, that sounded pathetic. But not as bad as the whine I let out immediately after. Apparently, Hendrix made my dignity fall off a cliff…much like my clothing.
My eyes flew open at his next sharp thrust as he buried deep, his knot swelling to trap us together and setting off a cascade of sensation that had my whole body shaking, my scream muffled by the deliciousness of his mouth. When I could finally breathe, Hendrix snuck his fingers between us to stroke my clit, my pussy giving a surprised squeeze at the first brush.
“Fuck me,” he breathed, teasing me again.
I squirmed, but there was nowhere to go. Pleasure seared through me as he played my clit like a goddamned guitar until I broke for him with a strangled cry and a rush of slick.
“Baby doll, you. Smell. Like. Heaven.” He punctuated each word with a shift of his hips that made me gasp. “Feel like it, too.”
I couldn’t quite form words, between the pressure of his knot and the alpha musk unraveling my brain. Instead, I kneaded the muscles of his back like a contented cat, my purr filling the small space, his own rumbling in kind.
I naively thought Hendrix might be done with me after that knot, but I was sorely mistaken. The man was a machine. As soon as his knot calmed down, he was right back to riding me.
“Present for your alpha, beautiful.”
God help me, I followed that instruction. I’d always thought it was a tiny bit demeaning, but when I did it for him, nothing but desire washed over me, and the angle it created for his cock to drive into me had me falling apart all over again.
Time lost meaning while I was in his arms, and I came so many times, I was little more than a pile of overcooked noodles for how limp I felt.
When I woke the next morning, my head was full of fog, my muscles ached pleasantly, and my mouth was bone dry. Normally, I only felt that well-used and exhausted after a heat, all the hormones swimming around leaving me blissed and floaty. Maybe he’d just smelled so good, it triggered a spike off schedule. I rolled over, breathing in that woodsmoke and citrus scent that remained as intoxicating as my first whiff of it. Hendrix had one arm draped over my waist, and he was just as pretty in the daylight.
A quiet movement on the other side of him snapped my attention to the naked body of a blonde beta woman. When the hell had she shown up? I didn’t remember her at all. Oh god. Ohhhh god. It didn’t matter how beautiful Hendrix was, I clearly hadn’t been enough for him. I needed to get out of here before the icked-out sensation making my stomach turn actually made me throw up.
I gathered up what bits of my clothes I could find, tugged them on, and ran for the hills.
The venue was locked up, but the bus station wasn’t too far and I could get back to the university easily enough. Once I was safely on a bus, I pulled out my phone but found the battery drained. Clover was probably freaking out.
Anxiety kept me in a choke hold the whole ride back to the dorms. The farther I got from Hendrix, the more my body demanded I beg the bus driver to turn around. That was not fucking happening. I had already debased myself enough for a hit of that citrus scent and orgasms strong enough to make my eyes roll back. I was never going to crawl back to someone who got tired of me in the middle of the night and added another person without notice.
No one had come back to the tour bus to kick us out when we’d overslept into the morning, which was suspicious as hell, and the back of my brain was insisting I had to look into it.
One of the other riders let me use their charger cord and power bank to get a bit of juice. Once the phone pinged to life, I tapped Hard Knot Life into the search bar and went to images, immediately seeing that unfairly beautiful face staring back at me.
Son of a bitch!
I’d fucked the lead singer.
Great.
Loved that for me.
Clover could never know it was him. She’d never let me live it down.
Oh god…he’d probably fucked half the continent, and now I was just another notch in his proverbial bedpost. Stupid. Bad Meadow. Bad, bad, bad Meadow.
Clover burst awake the second I opened our door, even though I’d been trying to be quiet. “Meads!” Clover threw herself at me, instantly sobbing. “You’re alive!”
“I’m so sorry. My phone died.”
Clover wiped the tears off her cheeks, sniffling as she thrust me at arm’s length to inspect me and assure herself I was okay. I was…technically, just also embarrassed as hell.
Her eyes went wide and she yanked down my jacket, tipping my head to the side. “Meadow, is that a bond mark ?!”
Oh, shit.