She must sense me after a few minutes because she stirs as she moans, and then she opens her eyes. They land on mine, fluttering as she registers that I’m with her.
Not even an hour has passed since the fucking best sex in the world. We’ve always been good together. Always knowing what the other needs. But this … Lyric gave me a gift tonight—all the pieces she’s willing to give. Physically, she didn’t hold back. Emotionally, we still have work to do.
“Hi,” she says softly.
“Hey,” I respond, matching her tone.
She blinks. The room is dim, lit only by the lamp on my side of the bed. Her hair is pooled in waves around her face like a sexy halo. Her expression, peaceful. I didn’t want to turn the light off because then I wouldn’t have been able to see her.
“You going to sleep?” she asks.
“I’m not sure if I can. Still worked up.”
She moans as she tries to adjust her body. “Holy shit, Wolf. I think you did some damage.”
I can’t help my smile. I absolutely know I did some damage. There’s a bruise on her neck where I sucked her raw, and I’m sure there are aches where I gave her the no-mercy sex she asked for. She didn’t leave me unscathed, either. There’s a harsh sting on my upper back where she clawed me like a fucking cat.
I reach for her small waist and pull her to me, letting my face fall into the crook of her neck. “I’d say I’m sorry, but I’m not. Not at all.”
She sighs. “Nothing to be sorry for. Except … how did you know where to find me?”
I can feel my brows pull together as I remember my panic attack when I searched for her at the mansion. “I have my methods.” She starts to pull away, but I tighten my hold. “Who do you think paid the driver you had bring you here?”
Her expression registers embarrassment, and I just sigh. “You can’t disappear like that, Lyric. I don’t think I can handle you leaving again.” I let out a breath.
There, I said it. As mad at her as I am, I don’t want her to walk away from this. Nothing in my life has been worth fighting for as much as what we have together. Nothing.
Her voice is small when she speaks. “You think we’ll have time to ourselves this week?” I can see her swallow. “To talk?”
My heart beats faster, hoping this means she’s finally going to let me in. “I’m yours whenever you want, babe.”
She brushes her finger along the length of my bottom lip. Her smile fades and her head drops as she sighs. “I don’t deserve you.”
Heat spreads in my chest. “Stop it. We’ll make time this week to talk as little or as much as you want.” My nose brushes against her soft skin, pacing the length of her neck. Lyric has always been so confident. I’m not sure what’s making her lose that confidence now, but it only makes me want to protect her even more. “Nothing’s changed. This week will be awesome. Miami for a week! The house is enormous, and we have the best room.” I wink at her. “We can sneak off anytime we want.”
The smile she gives me is big, and slightly mischievous. “Guess I can cancel the hotel room.”
I shake my head. “Yeah, Lyric. What the fuck were you thinking?”
She sighs. “I asked the company to book it when you hated me. And after what happened earlier, I just figured it was best to keep our distance from each other.”
Sometimes Lyric’s logic drives me up the wall. “I never hated you.”
“Good.”
But now that we’re on this subject, I’m reminded of the moment the night took a bizarre turn. “Why were you so upset when I found you by my bus tonight? If you didn’t know your mom was in there with Crawley until I got there…”
She looks at me, fear dancing in her eyes as she takes a deep breath. “Rex and Rory were trying to keep me out of the bus, and I just got this strange feeling. So I walked back to your room, and the door was closed. And then I heard them … having sex … and I thought it was you.” Moisture forms in her eyes, and I pull her to me tighter.
Jesus. I can feel my face crumbling. “No fucking way, Lyric. Never. It’s you and me, okay? No matter what.”
She’s got to know I’m not giving up on this. On us. Not even close. But just the possibility of it being over … the thought of me fucking around with someone else. It feels wrong to consider. If roles were reversed and I had walked into what she did, I would have lost my shit. I kiss her cheek, and then her forehead, and then her neck again.
“I know the way I left was awful,” she says. “It was like panic completely took over, and I couldn’t think straight. My childhood was fucked up, Wolf. Everything was stolen from me, and when I think about it, I just get angry. That morning, that situation, it triggered feelings I’ve suppressed for so long. I may have left that day, but I wasn’t leaving you. I get now that it felt that way, and I’m so sorry. But I don’t want to wake up another day without you. Ever.”
She wipes a tear from her face and searches my eyes. She’s looking for me to believe her. I move above her, straddling her legs and holding her face delicately in my palms in stark contrast to the hold I had on her just one hour ago. I drop my head and touch my lips to hers before kissing her, delicately but deeply.
Her lips are a little burst of heaven, and when her tongue dips into my mouth, I can feel the pending explosion of my heart. It’s like our first kiss all over again, but this time, I don’t hold back. I let her feel me, rock hard and ready for seconds. I always want her. But right now I just want to focus on kissing her. I slip my tongue in between her lips while her hands weave through my just-fucked hair.
When her mouth moves to my neck, I groan and pull away for just a second to speak. “For the record, I’m glad you came back on tour.” She sucks in a tiny breath. I swallow. “I just needed it to be your decision.”
Her eyes fall shut and then she kisses me. “There was ever only one viable option, Wolf.”
And I believe her.
“What are you going to do now that Crawley’s out of the picture?” Lyric frowns, and I can see there’s some guilt there, like she feels responsible for the band’s loss.
I stroke her hair, wanting to comfort her. “The label’s going to find us a new manager and fire Crawley’s ass. It’s going to be hard for him to find work after this, which is a good thing.”
Lyric nods, then furrows her brow. “I don’t understand how he knows Destiny. I mean, I guess everyone in the business knows each other to some extent. I suppose they’ve run into each other before.” She looks up at me with confused eyes. “Maybe she was trying to get backstage to see me and ran into him.”
I shrug. That’s the first thing I thought too, but it doesn’t add up. “Why my tour bus, though? Why my room? He obviously lied to Rory and Rex about why he needed to get on the bus… But why?”
Lyric sighs. “Your bus is the only one with a big bed and a door. It’s the best place to fuck, if that’s what you’re saying.”
All goes quiet. What she just said completely changes the direction of my thoughts. It wasn’t long ago that we were hiding out in the bedroom of my tour bus to fuck like sex-crazed teenagers. I loved our stolen moments, our borrowed ones, and eventually the ones that she let me own.
“Yeah, I remember that,” I say softly, unsure if now is the time to start that conversation again. My eyes drift over her silky skin, her taut stomach, and her luscious curves before I finally drag them to Lyric’s, holding her gaze intently.
As much as I want to hold on to my anger to show Lyric just how wrong she was for leaving the way she did, I also just want to forgive her and move on.
She inches closer to me, running two fingers lightly up my arm and over my shoulder until she’s rubbing the scruff on my cheek. Something twists in my chest, and I have the strong desire to lean in and capture her mouth with mine. If forgiving her for leaving is what I need to do to move on, then it might be easier than I thought.
Her forehead wrinkles with her frown. “You have my word, Wolf. You’ll never feel like that again.”
I kiss her wrinkles away, finding the need to believe her stronger than the fear that I shouldn’t. She’s still holding back from me. But for her, and to savor this moment, I’m going to let this go.
I run the tip of my nose along her jaw and then to her ear, nipping and sucking on her sensitive skin. “I’ll never get enough of you. You know that? And I don’t just mean the sex.”
She moans and nuzzles her chin into me as she slips her hand down to my throbbing cock. “Are you sure? Because I want you again.”
“We’re here,” I say quietly, wishing for just a few more minutes alone with Wolf.
We’re sitting in the back of the van as our driver pulls through the gate of Wolf’s vacation home—our vacation home. The moment we sat down in the car, Wolf pulled me onto his lap and we’ve been in this position ever since, talking and kissing.
I lean in, pressing my nose to his while searching his eyes. “It’s never been like this for me before, you know? No one has ever made me feel the way you do.” I kiss him again.
He swallows and nods before holding me closer. Then he nuzzles my neck with his facial scruff, making me giggle. “This is my new favorite position,” he says with a tilt of his lips. “I’ve always liked it with you on top, but this is nice. Just holding you.” He kisses me again, firm but sweet. “I don’t want to work this week. I just want you, in our bed.”
The sound of the van’s engine shutting off interrupts our moment. I have a feeling there will be a lot of interrupted moments over the next week. We ignore it and kiss again, dragging out our time together for as long as possible.
When we finally exit the van, I hear Wolf grunt. I turn. He’s shaking his right fist. “Damn, it really hurts.”
“We need to get you some more ice.” I frown.
“I’ll be fine.” He shakes his hand again and then clamps down on it with his other one. “I should probably be careful who I punch. I kind of need this hand.”
I frown. “Will you be able to play?”
“I’ve got a week of recovery time. That’s not what I’m worried about. I just can’t finger fuck you as good with my left hand.”
I tilt my head and glare through my smile. Wolf’s idea of romance always involves fucking of some kind—not that I’m complaining. “Let’s go inside, rock star. If your hand still hurts, I’ll let you watch me finger fuck myself later tonight.”
Wolf’s narrowed lids bring a smile to my face as we approach the front door of the mansion. “You can’t say shit like that to me when I can’t keep you honest right away. I’ve got a full day at the studio.”
I shrug flirtatiously. “Sorry.”
He wraps an arm around my shoulders as we approach the house. Terese and Derrick must have heard us coming, because they step out through the front door just as we make it up the stairs. “You two back together or what?” Derrick asks.
Wolf moves me so that I’m in front of him going up the stairs. “We were never apart, dickhead.”
Derrick laughs while my insides grow warm with happiness and the boulder of unease is lifted from my stomach. I should have never doubted us. I never will again.