He jerked and grabbed her hips, holding her in place as he hammered off another round of thrusts.
“Is that all you’ve got?” She had no idea why she was saying what she was, only that it fed the tension coiling inside her gut. All of the frustration and uncertainty was combining to make her bitchy, and the bitch inside her craved satisfaction. “More!”
His lips split and curled back. It was savage and hard, just like the rest of him.
She purred with approval.
The table was rocking, groaning, but she didn’t give a shit if it collapsed. Syon ground into her, working his body. They were both gasping, straining toward each other, demanding satisfaction.
When it came, it burst inside her like a grenade, blowing everything to bits in an instant of white-hot insanity. She never knew what hit her, could only ride the shock wave as it rolled her into oblivion.
Syon cussed as he came. “Shit! Goddamnit…fuck. Fuck, fuck.”
He ended up catching his weight on his hands, his head resting on her chest. They were both panting, the silence in the room deafening as they let their heart rates slow down.
“Fuck,” he said again, this time with a touch of guilt. He lifted his head and slid his hand along her cheek. “Did I hurt you?”
She shook her head, suddenly shy. Had she really just done that? Had dirty, hard sex? She tried to look away, but he kept her head in place, his gaze boring into hers.
“I’m not sure I’m comfortable with the way you get under my skin either, Kate.”
It was the same thing she’d been thinking. He pulled free with another groan and arched to stretch his back.
“I need a shower after that,” Kate said.
He grinned at her and wiped his hand through the sweat on his forehead, pushing it up into his hair. “You’re a demanding one.”
She hopped off the table. “Well, if you can’t keep up…”
He swatted her on her butt. Her dress had fallen back down, but she jumped and ran toward the bathroom.
The best part was Syon was hot on her tail.
* * *
Ramsey caught her arm when she made it back into the hallway. All traces of his hangover were gone. She stared at him for a moment, impressed.
“I was drunk,” he offered, “and being stupid last night.”
“Could only wingman one of you,” Taz said as he passed by. “Couldn’t risk Syon’s cords. You can play with a cold.”
“Wingman?” Kate asked.
Taz stopped and offered her a shrug. “Yeah. One of us always stays sober. In case we need to keep one of us from doing something stupid.”
“Taz was covering my butt last night,” Syon explained. “Rams slipped the leash.”
“Like I said, I was being stupid,” Ramsey said. “I wasn’t that drunk.”
Drake spoke up. “I didn’t think you were, or I would have stuck on your tail.”
“Won’t happen again,” Ramsey finished. “The messing with your studio part, anyway.” He sent her a wink and a satisfied smirk that had his band buddies rolling their eyes.
“Thanks.”
Kate caught herself looking at the members of Toxsin in a completely new light. They were serious musicians and devoted to one another. But they’d made it a priority to talk to her together.
That rocked.
Cid whistled from the end of the hallway. “Let’s load and roll!”
She bristled at the sound of the road manager’s voice. Syon hooked an arm around her back and massaged the tight muscles of her nape. He leaned in and kissed her temple. “Someone has to be the detail stickler, ’cause I don’t want the job. It might take up all my free time.”
She cut him a side glance. “Well, I suppose I could see benefits to you having free time.”
* * *
Her phone rang somewhere between Oregon and Washington. Kate sat up and missed the ceiling of the bunk by about an inch. The bus was rolling smoothly along, the sun setting outside the window.
“Hello?”
“Sweetie!” Percy drawled on the other end of the line.
Kate crawled out of the bunk, grinning. “Hey, sorry I haven’t called.” She had to brace herself against the vibration of the bus.
Percy brushed her apology aside. “Don’t worry about it. I know I would have kept my mind on my clients, if I were there. And my eyes and hands if they’d let me.”
She blushed beet red. “I bet you would.”
Percy laughed. “I’m terribly jealous. That Korean drummer looks positively decadent. Steve drooled over the pictures of you two.”
“Huh?”
Percy scoffed. “You’re all over the tabloids, my dear, and all over him, I might add. Being carried off in style.” His voice became a purr. “Caveman style.”
“What?” Horror cut through the fog sleep deprivation had left her in. “What pictures?”
Percy laughed at her.
“Percy.”
“Just google Toxsin, sweetie.”
She sat down at the desk and turned on the computer.
“I hear you tapping away, so I’ll go. You’ve got a package waiting for you in Seattle. Steve helped me pick out some luscious skins for those man animals.”
“Yeah…thanks.”
She ended the call as the mobile hotspot engaged on the computer. She clicked on one of the links, and a picture of her slung over Taz’s shoulder filled the screen.
“Oh, shit.”
Cussing didn’t change the full-color image of her, butt up, on the guy’s shoulder. But there wasn’t any mention of the fight. She trolled through the other links, but came up dry when it came to the fight Syon had had with Conan.
Shit.
And double shit.
She was in over her head. Cid had done his job alright. Bought off the right people and left the juicy bits out to fan the flames of Toxsin’s reputation. She felt nauseated but not because of the motion of the bus. It was the sheer size of the road manager’s reach. His cronies suddenly seemed a lot more threatening than they’d been before. Not a single one of them was a fool; that was for sure.
She’d better watch her back, because her reputation wouldn’t survive if they turned on her.
* * *
“This is frustrating,” Kate groused.
Syon kept her head where he wanted it with one large hand threaded into her hair.
“Yeah. Glad we fucked first.”
Perched on his bike, with the Space Needle behind them and the light from a half-moon, he was kissing her senseless. Long, deep, hungry kisses that were melting her insides.
“Smooching is fun…until I realize how much I want to get inside you.”
He angled his head and kissed her throat. A wet, full-contact kiss that ended with a soft bite. She shivered, her toes curling as her clit throbbed. Cars buzzed past them on the road, and a soft giggle came from another couple who were a dozen yards away in the roadside pull out.
“But you wore the skirt,” Syon cooed appreciatively as he slid his hand along her thigh.
“Kinda stupid on a bike.”
He raised his head. “I’ll keep you off the pavement.”
The picture of her over Taz’s shoulder came to mind and she froze. Syon’s hand stilled against her.
“What’s on your mind?” he asked.
She shook her head, not wanting to kill the moment. She tried to kiss him, but he held her back.
“Spill it, Kate. Something’s bugging you.”
She shrugged and rolled her neck, but he didn’t release her. “Cid managed to keep all the pictures of your fight with Conan out of the media; couldn’t he have stopped that shot of me on Taz too?”
The road manager could have. She knew it. The real issue was why he hadn’t and what Syon thought about it.
“Cid is an asshole,” Syon said, pulling back a few inches.
It felt like ten feet.
“But a useful one. He knows how to pack the seats.”
“You know how to pack the seats,” she said. “I get the whole argument, but honestly, it’s starting to piss me off a little bit to hear your music sold short. Those fans don’t scream because of some pictures in the tabloids. It’s something your music touches inside them. Sets loose, really.”