Читать книгу In For Keeps / Under His Touch - Taryn Belle, Cathryn Fox - Страница 17

KIKI WAS AFRAID she might get sick.

Bringing a hand to her stomach to steady herself, she left her tour bus and started across the underground parking lot of Milan’s San Siro Stadium. The last person in the world she wanted to see right now was Dev, but unless she was prepared to get on a plane back to Moretta she had little choice. Her job revolved around him, and she wasn’t about to sacrifice her entire reason for coming on the tour when Sydney was just around the corner. So she would face him and get her revenge by pretending his little stunt last night hadn’t even bothered her. She’d dressed for the occasion in a plunging V-necked pink sweater, a short denim skirt and knee-high boots. Her plan was to make Dev feel like the shit stain he was by being her usual friendly self with a little added sexiness, and then tonight she’d have a little fun herself. There were plenty of hot guys around—she was in Italy, for Christ’s sake, where she couldn’t cross a street without twenty men tripping over their dicks at the sight of her.

So she told herself, but Kiki had never been good at tough self-talk. Her heart hammered with each step that brought her closer to him. She tried to calm herself by listening to the sound of her heels clicking across the concrete. The bus drivers, off duty until the end of the show, leaned against a pillar smoking cigarettes. She was still recovering from her first tour bus commute, which had taken nine hours and all of her strength to refrain from strangling her twelve fellow crew members.

The buses themselves were built for comfort—hers even featured an entire second floor for the sleeping quarters—but the living space made for a forced sociability that was absent on airplane travel. Upon arrival, she’d barely ejected herself from the bus when the crew swung into high gear. The logistics that went into getting a show up and running were mind-boggling. Dev traveled with a convoy of eight tour buses to transport his team of nearly a hundred people including audio, video, stage and lighting managers, riggers, technicians, carpenters, electricians, wardrobe, security, catering and management staff. The equipment arrived separately and was met by a locally hired crew of workers at each city, who had to work at a relentless pace to get everything ready on time. Right now the crew was setting up inside, and Stuart and Scotty had chosen to hang out in their bus until showtime. But Dev was waiting for her in the building, and as Kiki headed up the stairs to the backstage maze, her stomach twisted hard enough to make her whimper aloud.

She fucking hated him.

Last night, as the first moans of passion had reached her ears, she’d thought she was literally going to vomit. Even if she had told him he needed to stay away from her, she’d also admitted how much she wanted him—and he’d slapped her right in the goddamned privates with it. As she lay in bed listening to the agonizing sound of his desire for someone else, she told herself that she’d been right all along. She’d known he’d go back to his old ways, and the only thing that had surprised her was the dizzying heights of his insensitively.

She clacked up the stairs and wove her way through the hive of backstage activity to Dev’s dressing room. Then she smoothed her hair over her shoulders, willed her heart to stop beating like a war drum and knocked on the door.

“Come in!” Dev shouted. She entered the room and forced a carefree smile.

Dev was sitting on a sofa, casually strumming an acoustic guitar as if he hadn’t busted her world apart last night. She took in his dark jeans, his studded belt and bare torso. Against her will, her eyes fell from his broad shoulders to the light hair on his pecs. To her fury, she felt a jolt shoot straight to her clit. How could she possibly still be attracted to him after what he’d done?

Kiki pulled her iPhone out of her handbag. She’d been planning to put on a bit of a show—look at him under long lashes, slide a hand suggestively up her thigh to remind him of what he’d never have again—but now that she was here it was all she could do to stay upright. Her emotions had her in complete turmoil. For the first time ever, she found herself wishing for the game-playing revenge skills she knew some women possessed. “Uh,” she began awkwardly. “We didn’t have time to do a post before last night’s show. A quick shot of you on your guitar is fine.” She lifted her phone, ready to take the picture and make a dash for the door, but Dev put his instrument aside and walked over to her.

“I can’t get my photo taken,” he said, stopping right inside her personal space. “I’m not even dressed.”

She narrowed her eyes at him, willing them not to drop to his chest, his biceps...the same body he’d shared with someone else last night. Fuck him. He’d known she was in the next room, and whatever their relationship may or may not be, what he’d done was downright cruel. Worse, he’d ruined the memory of their one beautiful night together. To Kiki’s horror, she felt tears spring to her eyes. She blinked them back furiously and held her phone up in front of Dev’s face. “Then tell your manager that—he requested it.”

Dev flicked his gaze to the text from Bix: Get Dev in his DR for snap. “Bix would have me promoting myself while I sat on the toilet if he could,” Dev responded.

“Have it your way.” She was turning toward the door when Dev caught her by the arm.

“Hey—”

Kiki ripped out of his grip. “Do not fucking touch me!” She was shaking with a fury she didn’t even know she had in her. Dev’s face registered shock as she backed away from him. “I actually thought you were a great guy. To think that—that I had feelings for you! That I actually thought our night together was something special!”

“Kiki—”

“And then you fuck someone in the room right beside me? And you don’t even have the decency to keep it quiet? You knew I was next door! Jesus Christ! I was so wrong about you!”

“But I—”

“Groupie days behind you? As if! Maybe you can fool yourself into thinking you’ve changed, but it’s pretty obvious that once you’re back on the road you haven’t! How can you even—?”

“Kiki, please! Stop! I was an asshole, okay? I went too far.” She paused her tirade long enough to see that he had real regret in his face—as if that could make a difference. “Yes, you did, and you’re despicable,” she spat as her walkie-talkie blared to life.

“Thirty minutes,” came a male voice from her back pocket. Kiki pulled the device out. “Copy that,” she said, and then she shoved it away again and went for the door handle.

“Wait. Please.” Dev’s voice was pleading. “It was stupid. I just... I don’t know, I thought it might remind you what you were missing out on.”

The fucking audacity. Her jaw dropped as she turned back to him. He was looking down at his cell phone, swiping at the screen furiously. “What I was missing out on?”

“Yeah. Here.” Dev hit a button on his phone and held it up. On the screen was a bird’s-eye view of a woman straddling a man, going for it full throttle. And the sex sounds were the exact same ones she’d heard last night. “It was a movie,” he said sheepishly. “I might have cranked the volume up a bit. It was a total jackass thing to do.”

“You...?” Kiki brought a hand up to her mouth as her mind busily reordered everything she’d believed. So he hadn’t slept with anyone, but—“You tried to trap me?”

“I just wanted to know if you care, okay? I’m so—Jesus Christ, Kiki! I’m so fucking frustrated!” He punched his phone through the air.

Kiki wasn’t sure if it was because of relief or anger, but the tears she’d been holding back started spilling over. She did care—of course she did. And it had never been more apparent than in the past ten minutes. “So am I, Dev. And I...” A tear tracked down her cheek. He reached out and traced it with a finger, and then he slipped a hand under her chin. His eyes probed her face.

“What is it?” he asked.

Kiki’s chest filled with emotion. His voice was so gentle, gentle enough to make her want to spill all her secrets. She couldn’t do that, but she also couldn’t deny her desire for him any longer.

Standing on tiptoe, she reached up and pressed her lips to his. His mouth stayed firm for a moment, like he was waiting to see if she was really sure about this. And that just made her want him more. That he hadn’t made a move on her. That he’d been totally respectful of her, even if he couldn’t help what might have gone on in his pants. And that he’d gone about trying to prove her feelings for him in such a ridiculous, juvenile way.

She broke away from him and started laughing. Dev looked at her in surprise, and then he started laughing with her. He picked her up and lifted her off the floor, burying his face in her hair. “Jesus, Strawberry, what are you doing to me?”

“I don’t know, but I seriously need to get off this emotional roller coaster.”

He brought his forehead to hers. “You don’t need to ride it anymore,” he whispered. “All you need to do is let this happen.”

Then his mouth was on hers, confident this time. And so hungry for her, as if he were wrapping all the longing and uncertainly of the past five weeks into one perfect kiss. Hard and demanding, and yet soft at the same time. She brought her legs around his hips, pressing her body into his as if she could meld them into one. The bare skin of his chest felt heavenly against her. She opened up to him, making a ravenous sound in her throat as he bit at her lips with increasing urgency.

“I thought I’d never get to do this again,” he whispered hoarsely into her mouth. “Do you have any idea how much I’ve dreamed of you?”

His words were sweet music to Kiki’s ears. All the reasons she thought they couldn’t be together fell away into the abyss of their passion. “I couldn’t stay away from you if my life depended on it,” she rasped, throwing her head back as she dissolved under his touch. Dev’s tongue trailed down her neck. Still holding her around him with one arm, he made an animal sound when his other hand found her breast. She could feel his erection pressing into her groin. She forced herself not to rub against it like a desperately horny fifteen-year-old. “I’ll make you late,” she breathed.

“We’ve got plenty of time,” Dev replied, applying just enough pressure with his hips to make her lose her mind. “If I can’t walk on that stage tonight smelling like you, I’m not going on at all.”

“Then I guess you’ll have to cancel,” she teased.

“Are you really prepared to be responsible for disappointing fifty thousand fans?” His hand was sliding up her thigh now, making its way toward her panties.

She dropped her hand from his neck to his cock, which was now straining against his jeans in all its glory. She plunged her hand into his pants and watched his face go slack with lust as her hand wrapped around him. “Okay, rock star, you win.”