“Ah! That’s not fair! I’ve got my hands full!”
I could hear the smirk in Neil’s voice. “So have I.”
“Bastard! Ah! God, don’t,”—her voice went high, and I imagined his hand sliding up her thigh. “Ah! Neil, you can’t just—”
The sound of lips meeting, hungry and urgent. Yep. They were back to normal.
Just as I was about to draw back and stop eavesdropping, I heard Clarissa say, “God, what if Karen walks in?”
“She’s already seen us fucking, and from what you said she liked it enough to keep watching,” said Neil.
I flushed. She’d told him!
“Think she’d be up for watching the real thing?” Neil asked, and his dark, smoky voice sent the words straight down my spine to throb in my groin. “Or maybe joining in? Would you like that?”
I never heard Clarissa’s answer, because I was running to my bedroom to get out of earshot. Oh, great—how was I ever going to be able to look Neil in the eye now?!
I ran straight into Jasmine, who was stringing fairy lights around the lounge. And the hallway. And the bathroom. “It’s going to be like a fairy grotto,” she told me. “Only sexier. A fairy boudoir.”
I wasn’t sure what Dan—whose cast was finally off—or the rest of the quartet would make of that. Not to mention the friends I’d made in the orchestra, or the few biker friends that Clarissa had allowed Neil to bring. It was going to be an interesting party.
“All I need now is a date,” said Jasmine, without turning round from trying to string fairy lights around the shower—an electrocution waiting to happen. “It’s no fun being the sole singleton.”
That, I decided, was a challenge for another day.
Strong arms suddenly encircled me from behind and I was lifted off my feet. I knew who it was, but I gave a little scream anyway, just because.
Connor kissed my neck and I squirmed in delight, electricity arcing straight down my body to the tips of my toes and bouncing back to turn to heat in my groin. Jasmine watched patiently as I was turned around to face him and then slowly lowered to the ground. He gave just a trace of a wince as his jacket rubbed against the sore patch where the tattoo used to be.
“Hi, beautiful,” he told me. That accent still did it to me, the words caressing my brain like silver wrapped in silk.
“Hi yourself.” I tilted my face up as he kissed me. First quickly and then slow and deep, his fingers entwining with mine as his tongue explored my mouth and all sense of time slipped away, a deep warmth blossoming in my heart and radiating to every corner of me. I noticed that Jasmine had made herself scarce, leaving us alone for a moment.
“Don’t drink too much tonight,” I told him. “We have to rehearse tomorrow. It’s our last chance before the studio.”
Rachel, the record label rep, had turned out to be serious about us recording a track and we’d put something together based on our recital and the improvised piece. Cleaned up and smoothed out, it was sounding good—but there was always room for improvement.
Connor kissed me again. “That’s not very rock n’ roll.”
“You could use a little taming, Connor Locke.”
“Oh.” He leaned even closer. “You going to be the one to tame me?”
I could whisper, he was so close. “I was under the impression I already had.” And then I kissed him.