She went limp against him, trying to catch her breath and regain her senses, but both eluded her.
He rubbed his mouth against her temple. “You made me come way too fast, baby. I’ll probably to need to fuck you like that a few more times this weekend,” he said, “and then I might be able to keep it together long enough to make love to you slowly and thoroughly.”
She smiled against his shoulder. “I don’t mind the fucking,” she said. “Really, I don’t.”
There was a knock on the window, and Melanie stiffened. Had she really gotten so wrapped up in this man that she’d forgotten they were in a limo parked outside a sub shop? That would be a yes. A yes, yes, oh God, fuck me, Gabe, yes.
Melanie lifted her hips, not quite ready for Gabe to fall free of her body, but she didn’t have time to dawdle. Especially not when the locks thunked open and she heard the door handle lift upward. She tugged her skirt down her thighs and searched for her panties while Gabe shoved his cock down his pants, removed his glove of delight, and started buttoning his fly. Melanie had her panties in her hand when the back door popped open and Nikki appeared, with some guy holding four drinks for her while she held the sack of sandwiches.
She grinned knowingly at Melanie when her gaze landed on the panties in her hand.
“Oh, did I interrupt something?” she said. “I never thought you’d have her out of her panties that quickly, Gabe. You stud.”
Melanie was slightly embarrassed that Nikki had caught her just after the act, but mortified that the good-looking man behind her was biting his full lower lip in appreciation of her sluttiness. Melanie tossed her panties on the seat beside Gabe and sat on them. She found her discarded glasses and fiddled with them, her hands trembling as she tried to get her glasses back on her face.
“It smells like sex in here,” Nikki said as she leaned farther into the open door. “You guys already did it, didn’t you? Or did I interrupt you mid-coitus?”
“Nikki!”
The girl needed to install a filter on that mouth of hers.
“Can’t blame you for jumping him,” Nikki said, giving Gabe the twice over. “Will you look at the size of those feet? You know what they say about guys with big feet.”
Melanie’s pussy clenched as her thoughts immediately fixated on that which correlated with Gabe’s shoe size. And in his case, he fit the statistics.
“I have a really big, uh, foot,” her drink-toting companion said in a deep voice. His brown eyes twinkled as he smiled, and his white teeth flashed bright against his dark-skinned complexion.
“I bet you do. This is Michael,” Nikki said, tossing her head in the guy’s direction. “He saw me struggling to carry my order and offered to help. Since my friends were otherwise occupied.”
“We need to get going,” Gabe said, tapping his nonexistent wristwatch. He had a reddened ring around his wrist from his glove device. Melanie hoped he hadn’t injured himself just to get her off. She stroked his chafed skin, fighting the urge to kiss it all better. She was pretty sure he wouldn’t appreciate the gesture in front of Nikki and her latest lackey.
Nikki climbed into the back of the limo and handed Gabe the bag of sandwiches. She then took the drink cups from Michael one at a time. She passed one to Melanie, another to Gabe, and knocked on the driver’s window so that Parker would lower the glass and she could hand one to him.
“Aren’t you going to sit up here with me, Nik?” Parker asked.
“She’s staying back here with me and Mel,” Gabe said.
Gabe pulled sandwiches from the bag and determined which belonged to whom while Nikki gave her phone number to her very nice-looking drink caddy. Unfortunately, fast-food restaurants didn’t hand those out through the drive-thru window. If they had, Melanie might be tempted to always order her beverages in fours.
“I gotta get me a limo,” Michael said as his gaze flicked from Melanie to Nikki and back to Melanie. “Dude’s got two hotties all to himself.”
Nikki giggled and took her cup from Michael’s hand. “You better call me,” she said, and closed the door in his face.
“Did you give him your real number or your fake standby?” Mel asked.
“Real one.” Nikki popped a straw into her drink and took a long draw. “He was a gentleman. They’re not easy to find these days.”
It didn’t take much to impress Nikki, but she was right about the difficulty in finding a gentleman. Melanie wasn’t sure if it was because men no longer wanted to protect and care for women or if women brought it upon themselves by insisting they were strong and independent. There had to be a middle ground somewhere.
Melanie removed the wrapper from her six-inch turkey club and scarfed down her sandwich. She hadn’t realized how truly hungry she was until she started stuffing her face.
“I love a woman with an appetite,” Gabe said, winking at her.
“Screw you, Banner,” she said with her mouth full.
“Especially one with that particular appetite.”
Nikki giggled. If she started flirting with Gabe, Melanie was going to throttle her. Nikki didn’t require all the masculine attention for herself, did she? Couldn’t she just let Melanie have this one without interference?
“Thanks for letting me hang out with you and Melanie back here,” Nikki said. “I was starting to feel left out.” She sighed happily. “I can’t wait to see Shade again.”
“About that…” Gabe said before pausing to glance at Melanie.
She had no idea what his questioning look meant, so she shrugged, and he turned back to Nikki.
“He’s sort of seeing someone special right now. It’s probably best that you keep your distance.”
Oh, so that’s why he’d been asking for her silent approval. Prepared for a meltdown, Melanie swiveled her attention to Nikki.
Eyes downcast, Nikki took a delicate bite of her veggie sub and shrugged. “You win some, you lose some,” she said after a long tense moment.
Okay, who had stolen her best friend and replaced her with this docile facsimile?
“I can still hang out backstage with Melanie while you’re onstage, right?” she asked, her blue eyes large and beguiling as she gazed at Gabe.
Oh, there she is. Holding her cards close to her chest.
“I guess so,” Gabe said while Melanie tried not to cringe. It wasn’t that she didn’t want Nikki to be with her while she felt all awkward and alone watching the show from the wings, but she knew how this woman operated. She’d use every card in her hand to get what she wanted and she wanted Shade, whether Shade wanted her or not. Melanie would just have to keep Nikki away from the man if she could. It would be easy enough to keep them separate when Shade was onstage, but what about before the concert? And after?
“So what are we doing after the show?” Melanie asked as nonchalantly as possible. Gabe had already told her, but she wanted Nikki to hear.
“We’re heading directly to an airstrip and taking a private plane back to Austin. We won’t make it back to my place until really late.” He stroked Melanie’s back soothingly. “You can nap on the plane if you get tired. I won’t be offended. In fact, I’ll likely join you.”
She took a sip of her drink, trying to form the most tactful version of her next question. “And Nikki…” was the best she came up with.
“Oh,” he said, glancing at Nikki’s hopeful face. “Well, uh…”
Yeah, awkward. Melanie was sorry she had to put him on the spot like this, but Nikki would figure out a way to weasel herself into all of Melanie’s plans if she didn’t have Gabe’s backing. It wasn’t because Melanie was spineless. Nikki was just that skilled at getting what she wanted.