Beth Wesson’s darkly spiked head pops through Lizzie’s curtain, scaring the bejesus out of me. Banging Betties’ drummer snaps her pink bubblegum and grins at Lizzie and me wrapped in each other’s arms. “You two look cozy.”

“Wanna join us?” Lizzie arches a brow and lifts the covers, exposing both of our naked bodies.

I draw my knees up to my chest. What the hell?

Beth skims her gaze over my skin, blows a bubble, and tugs her shirt over her head. Braless, her boobs bounce with the motion. “Sure.”

“Uh,” I start to protest.

“Beth’s cool,” Lizzie assures me.

No. Beth is not cool. Beth shouldn’t be here. With us. Interrupting our playtime and my near confession of adoration and … just no!

“I think I should go.” I look to Lizzie, who seems oblivious to my distress.

“Don’t be ridiculous.” She circles an arm around my waist and tugs me to her chest. We’re like a pair of silver spoons, which would be fucking amazing if we didn’t have this … uninvited tarnish threatening us.

Except she was invited.

Revelation #1521: Lizzie has no problem sharing.

Speed bump: I do.

“I’ve got stuff I should be doing for the band.” I wriggle out of Lizzie’s grip and sit up as Beth kicks off her shorts and boxes me in with her body.

“But, we’re the only band that matters,” Lizzie says, her voice smooth as aged whiskey. “Stay.” The word breaks from her tongue as sharply as a kidnapper’s demand. I feel very much like a hostage.

“Yeah, stay,” Beth adds and glances to Lizzie. She’s cute but not for me. And neither is Lizzie anymore. “What’s her name?”

“Pet,” Lizzie answers, shoving me to my back. “But you can call her Jillian.”

Beth’s cherry red lips pout. “I thought I was your pet.”

“You’re my part-time pet. The foster for when my pussy needs a jolt, lickety-split.” Lizzie leans across my legs and stabs a tongue-punching kiss into Beth’s mouth. Hands rush to faces, tits rub, nipples poke. My heart embarks on a mission to break free of my ribs.

I’m stuck between the woman I thought I might have been willing to sacrifice an entire career for two minutes ago and her lover, who I assume is not so much former but quite current on her membership to Lizzie’s exclusive Submissives Only Club.

Judging by the passion she’s throwing into the tongue lancing, Beth is beyond open for business. She’s goddamn soliciting outside the fucking police station.

When their sloppy kiss finally breaks, Lizzie wipes her mouth and pulls me against her. “Come on, baby, you can have some more too.”

“No.” I push her away. My ears heat, and my hands shake. “I can’t. I really have to go.” I climb over Beth. Lizzie snickers like a bitchy little teenager bullying the ugly girl at the lunch table.

Humiliation tints my vision anemic red. I snatch up my clothes, throw open the curtain, and step into the cold aisle, nipples puckered and angry, pussy shut down for the day. Maybe for good.

“Jillian, where are you going?” Lizzie whines. “I’m not finished with you, pet.”

“Well, I’m finished with you.”

“Testy, testy.” She laughs and looks at Beth. I turn away. “She’s a fireball. Kinda like you, love.” The smacks of kisses behind me make my shoulders hunch.

“Done. I’m done with this horseshit,” I mumble as I climb awkwardly into my clothes. My balance is way off after the intense sexual workout and the crash following.

The kissing stops abruptly, and Lizzie emerges beside me, hands on lithe pale hips, her perky tits begging for attention. I’d love to give it to them if they weren’t attached to a raving megalomaniac.

“Beth and I were just playing around. Come back to bed.” She reaches for my hand.

I slap her away. “You don’t get it, do you? I’ve tried to tell you a thousand different ways that I’m tired of the rubber-band snaps, winging me in every direction away from you. If you’re here to lead me on, use me, and throw me to the curb once you’ve gotten your rocks off, I’m not interested.”

“Stop being so sensitive,” she says. “I just want to play with you.”

“Well, I don’t want to play with you anymore. I’m taking my ball and going the fuck home. Play with Beth. She seems eager to be used like a toy.”

“I resemble that comment,” Beth pipes up behind Lizzie. Laughter follows from both of them.

At my heavy sigh, Lizzie sobers. “How about we all play together?”

I shake my head and wriggle into my blazer. “Goodbye.” I start down the aisle.

“I can kick you off this tour as fast as I got your shitty little band on it,” she says.

The icy sludge replacing my blood freezes my feet in place. It’s one thing to insult me, but quite another to trash my kids. The hotspot in my chest injects a shot of antifreeze into my veins. I turn to her. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“I love dares.”

Beth stands naked beside her, a clueless bebop queen, smacking her gum, blowing bubbles. Lizzie’s one of the meanest girls I’ve ever encountered, and yet all I can think about when she corners me with her stare is how she brings my body to life under her slaps and whips. Why? WHY did she have to be the one to awaken me from this sexual slumber?

“We’ll sue you for breach of contract,” I manage.

“Ruh-ro.” Beth pops her gum, grabs her shirt, and shimmies into it. Clearly, she’s been here, done this before.

Lizzie giggles. “You and what army of lawyers? It’s my word against yours.”

Good thing I didn’t tell her about my connections and background as a paralegal.

Lizzie walks toward me, hand out. “But I’m a benevolent ruler. I’ll stay Killer Buzz Fart’s execution if you’ll agree to come back and play with me every night.”

I grit my teeth. As much as I want her body, I can’t abide her soul. She’s poison in a pretty Murano glass bottle. Hypnotic and mesmerizing on the outside, malevolent and destructive on the inside. I only wish I’d come to this realization before we signed on for this godforsaken tour.

“I can’t—” do that. Or maybe I can. If I can prove she’s a mad bitch and hold the evidence over her head, Killer Buzz Float’s seat on the tour will be saved. My phone has a recording app and a lot of memory. I smile. “I can’t wait. See you tonight?”

A grin blazes across Lizzie’s face, and Beth slows her gum chewing. “Make it late,” Lizzie says. “We have a party after the show until one or two. And leave your attitude outside the door, or face punishment.”

Thanks to her, I live for punishment. I back down the aisle, eyes steady on hers, until I get to the door. I hop off the bus and whip out a cigarette. Lighting it as I make my way across the blacktop, I flip through the facts.

Lizzie is a stark raving bitch who probably has borderline personality disorder or something equally as destructive.

Lizzie has the power to ruin Killer Buzz Float if I piss her off.

Lizzie may be a formidable enemy, but everyone has a fatal flaw.

I just have to find it.

“Missed you for coffee this morning,” Toombs calls ahead of me.

I look up and exhale with a mixture of relief and regret as the imposing package of rolling tattoos, muscles, and wiry sinew stalks toward me. “Hey. Sorry.”

“Letty’s on a tear.” He pokes a thumb toward our bus. “Something about the Banging Betties singer.”

I smooth my rumpled suit. “They got off on the wrong foot. She’ll get over it.”

“She’s pretty pissed.”

So am I. “You ready for tonight?”

He nods. “Are you?”

“Always.” I head for the bus, but then I pause. “You got a minute?”

“Sure.” His silvery eyes narrow and run a quick scan over my body. A submissive protector. Always looking out for his people. I’d swoon if I had a thing for cocks.

I light another cigarette, suck a long drag off it, and relish the burn. Fuck quitting. The real thing is so much better than the fake shit.

Exhale.

“Things haven’t improved with the Domme.” He crosses his arms in a nonjudgmental but knowing way.

“I need to break it off, but I’m not sure how to do it. The situation is more complicated.”

Toombs glances toward our bus. “Is she hurting you? I mean, beyond what you signed up for?”

“If emotional blackmail counts as ‘hurting,’ then, yeah.” Another drag. My heart valves clap their appreciation for the stream of incoming carcinogens.

“Cut the bitch loose.”

“I tried.”

“And?”

“It’s complicated.”

“You keep saying that. Define complicated.”

I roll my shoulders. “Cutting her loose could result in the band’s expulsion from this tour. Clear enough for ya?”

Toombs flickers his gaze to the pink bus. His sharp intake of breath tells me he’s put two and two together, and come up with the same sum I did: totally fucked.

He guides me by the elbow toward the edge of the blacktop under the shade of sweating pine trees. He strokes his goatee. “What did she say?”

“If I try to get away from her, she’ll make sure you guys get away from her too. Letty made a lasting first impression.” I don’t mention how Lizzie slammed the entire band. She’s a jealous tit who lives to tear others down to make herself feel better. Not giving her the pleasure. I suck in a deep pull from the cigarette.

“You got anything on her?”

I laugh. A puff of smoke escapes my nose. “Hubris? Does that count?”

“Only if you have evidence to back it up.”

“I guess that means I have to find some.”

“You need help?” He lifts a brow. How could I ever have thought Toombs was creepy? The man is a fucking teddy bear.

“No, I think I’ll have to handle this one on my own. But thanks.”

Toombs loosens his stance and leans a couple inches closer. “Domination doesn’t mean you have to lie down and take everything,” he says. “You get to draw the boundaries, not her. She didn’t just cross lines. She shat all over them. Now it’s your turn to take control.”

Teeth clenched, I nod. The truth hurts, especially coming from someone who sees things more clearly as an outsider than I do as an insider. I look up at him. “I know. I will. I have to.”

He gently cups the back of my arm. “I’m here any time.”

“Thanks.”

He steps away and turns around, walking backward toward the bus. “My coffee cup misses you.”

I lower my gaze for a second and smile. “I promise to fill him up tomorrow.”

“Kinky bitch.”

“You know it.”

As I watch Toombs jog toward Jinx waving happily at him from the bus, I wonder if I’ll ever find something as special as what those two share.

Sex really does make people stupid. At least with love, you’re moshing in the stupid pit together.

Dropping my chin, I head for the venue’s offices to wrangle my to-do list for the day and mourn the possibility that I may never have another orgasm again.