Chapter 22
CONOR
“Gotcha!” I yelled at the silent buttes crouching in the distance.
Noelle raised her eyebrows and studied me over the top of her wine bottle, which she seemed to have polished off in an alarmingly short time.
She’d want to finish off the rest with the news I held in my hand.
“What are you crowing about over there? Get your total score for Fortnite, or what?”
“Better than that, baby. We got that snake right where we want her.”
“Ashley?” Noelle gripped the arms of her chair. “What is it?”
I knelt beside her chair and held out my phone for her to read the message.
“Thought you should see these.” She rubbed her eyes and squinted. “See what? Your phone just locked.”
I tapped the screen and opened the photos that would solve everything. “Here. Do you see who that is?”
Noelle’s mouth dropped open. “That’s Ashley and Tomo. Now that’s what I’d call in flagrante delicto. He’s got his hands up her blouse, and hers is...no.”
“Yes! In his pants.” I dragged my finger on the screen. “There’s more.”
“Wow. At least we do it in the privacy of the bus.” She covered her mouth. “It looks like they’re backstage. Who sent those?”
“No clue. I don’t recognize the number, and it doesn’t come up in my contacts.” I took a gulp of my Guinness, which had just reached a decent temperature thanks to the warm night. “Our guardian angel.”
She drained her wine. “Do you think they’re legit?”
“If we hadn’t heard her discussing them with Tomo on the bus, I might be suspicious, but we know there are pictures out there. She admitted it.”
“It could be a trick. Maybe Ashley herself sent them, hoping we’d expose her.” Noelle jiggled her wine bottle back and forth.
“That would be some serious 3D chess on her part. I can’t think why she’d want those to get out.”
“Why would someone send them to you? Who took them?”
Noelle massaged her temple with two fingers, clearly not as thrilled with this development as I was.
“Maybe someone felt sorry for me.” I waved an arm in the air as if grasping for possibilities.
“Maybe someone’s sick of her shit. Ashley had reason to be worried about these.
They incriminate the fuck out of her. Playing the poor victim while she’s out shagging a backup dancer. Doesn’t look too broken up there.”
Noelle nibbled on her fingernail. “You’re not going to post those.”
“I’m not going to do it, but you’re the PR person. I’m sure you can find someone to post them for us, or I will.” I held up my hands. “Then she can’t pin this on me. I didn’t even start it, but if she wants to play dirty, I can get down in the mud with her.”
“Conor Flynn, down in the mud.”
Even though Noelle made a joke, she had a crease between her eyebrows.
“What’s wrong? You don’t think we should get these out there? It would stop the hate against me. I’m not gonna make any statements, but if people think she’s hot for a dancer, they’re not gonna hate on me for snogging you.”
“Except...” Noelle twisted her fingers “...the pictures are going to expose Ashley and make her look bad—again. The point of this tour was to improve her image—Dina made that clear to me. These pictures are going to reaffirm everyone’s opinion of Ashley.”
“And if Ashley comes off bad, you’re gonna pay the price. They can’t blame you for Ashley’s behavior, Noelle. You weren’t guilty of taking or posting the Tomo pictures.” I gave her a wink. “Not that anyone is going to know.”
She stood up suddenly and gripped the balcony railing. “I don’t know if my being the responsible party is going to matter in the end, Con. I’m in charge of this tour’s publicity. Ashley’s manager had one request—redeem Ashley’s reputation, and Dina implied that my job depended on it.”
Jabbing myself in the chest with my thumb, I asked, “At the expense of my reputation? I have a manager and an image too. Why is trashing mine okay?”
“It’s not okay. Of course it’s not, but I have to find a way to spare both of you. It’s all my fault anyway. I need to fix it.”
“I won’t do anything until you give me the go ahead. We can wait—it’s a long drive to Austin.” I flicked a lock of hair from her shoulder. “How is this your fault?”
“I’m the one who suggested the stunt dating, and then I made it difficult for you to play along because...”
“Because I couldn’t keep my hands off you?” I wrapped my arms around her from behind and kissed the nape of her neck. Then I reached down and squeezed her bottom. “You’re right. That is your fault for being so fucking irresistible.”
She arched her back. “I should’ve never come up with that stupid plan.”
I spun her around to face me. “I know you wanted to start the campaign with a bang, get everyone on board, and that was the quickest way. You deserve that promotion, Noelle. I don’t blame you for that.”
“I-it was more than that.”
She dropped her lashes, and I wedged a thumb beneath her chin to tilt her head back, forcing her to meet my gaze.
“What else?”
She took a shaky breath that ran through her slight frame. “I just wanted you to think that I didn’t care about you. That I had forgotten what happened between us all those years ago. Setting you up with another woman was supposed to put closure to our...my unresolved feelings.”
My heart thudded in my chest as my gaze dropped to her pouty lips. “That didn’t work.”
“No.” She touched my face, and I shivered in the hot, still air.
She continued. “What’s worse is that I couldn’t understand why you jumped at the chance to fake date Ashley. I suggested it because I was sure you’d reject it—not because of me but because you’d already suffered enough under stunts.”
“I agreed because of you.”
“Don’t tell me you wanted me to believe you didn’t have any feelings left for me.”
“I agreed because the minute I saw you, all those feelings and memories overwhelmed me. I wanted you to succeed. That’s all I ever wanted for you, Nollaig—that and having you in my bed every night.”
She sobbed and fell against me. I kissed her deep and hard, tasting her salty tears on my lips. I unbuttoned her blouse and peeled it off her shoulders.
We’d been through hell because of Ashley, and now we had a means to put an end to the torture.
I planted a row of kisses down her throat to her cleavage. Dipping my hand into her bra and pushing aside the silky material, I cupped her tit and sucked her nipple into my mouth.
She pressed her lower body against my cock, so hard for her already.
We stripped off our clothes on the balcony, and I sat down in one of the chairs, pulling her with me.
Nobody but the buttes to see us. She straddled me, spreading her wet pussy against the hot, tight skin of my cock.
I dug my fingers into her ass, sliding that little pussy back and forth, wetting down my cock.
She sighed against my chest, her body melding with mine, releasing every fear and inhibition—just the way I liked it. I had to own her fully when I took her. I didn’t want her to think about anything but her pleasure.
As she rubbed her clit against me, I slipped two fingers inside her from behind, one in each of her tight holes. Her grinding became more frantic, and she dug her fingernails into my shoulders, scraping them down my arms. It hurt so fucking good, I didn’t care.
I eased my fingers deeper into her, and she tightened around them, sucking me in. Every muscle in her body tensed, and she bared her teeth against my flesh.
She climaxed in jagged waves, the powerful muscles in her cunt squeezing me. With the last contraction of her pussy, she flooded my hand with her sweet juices.
Her body collapsed against me, boneless, liquified in its release. Through short, panting breaths, she said, “Buses, balconies. When do we get to shag in a bed?”
I nipped her earlobe. “Complaints?”
Clasping one arm around her waist, I wedged my other hand on the arm of the chair and staggered to my feet, her body wrapped around mine, my cock still inside her.
I walked her backwards into the bedroom, peeled her from my body, and tossed her onto the bed. “There’s your bed. Where’s the gratitude?”
She bent her knees and let her legs fall open. “The gratitude’s right here, baby.”
“Then that’s where I wanna be.” I slid into her, back where I belonged.
She rubbed the tattoo on my hip with the heel of her hand, and it tingled beneath her touch. I tried to stall, but I couldn’t hold back any longer. I felt 19-years old again, full of hope and happiness and cum.
When I came, I kissed her mouth, groaning against her lips. I finished with a howl, making up for my silent moans on the bus.
I rolled off her body, tucking her against my side.
Running her fingers through the hair on my chest, she whispered, “Conor Flynn, I love you. I told you before, and sometimes I wondered if that’s why you disappeared from my life.”
“I never said it to you, and I regretted it every time I thought about you.” I drew a line from her throat to the juncture of her legs. “But I loved you then, and I love you now. I don’t think I ever stopped.”
She buried her face in the crook of my neck, her hair fanning across my chest. “I didn’t either, but now I think I’ve made a mess of everything.”
“I know I’m a magical fuck, but did you forget about those pictures of Ashley and Tomo already? We have the means to shut down her story.”
“We’ll have to be careful. I really don’t want to hurt Ashley’s reputation.
You know her strategy isn’t personal, right?
I don’t think she’s a nasty person, but she’s a public creature who lives and dies by PR.
Even though she was willing to sacrifice you...
and me, I don’t want to destroy her rep.
My job, which I still take very seriously, is to protect her image. And I’m going to do that.”
“Okay, you do that, Noelle. And once you find a way to protect yourself, because I don’t give a shit about Ashley, I’m gonna find someone to post these pictures on social media.”