"Thank you so much for coming. It was wonderful to meet you. Congratulations on the award. Hope to see you at the next event."

I smiled and shook hands with each guest as they left the venue. They were happy, stuffed with food and tipsy from all the alcohol they'd consumed.

"Another successful night?" My sister appeared at my side with an armful of tablecloths.

Now that the event was over, we had to clean up. Tablecloths had to be sent to a laundering service, the tables and chairs had to be put away, and all the signage had to be removed.

My sister had helped out long enough. She'd been working since eight in the morning, just like I had.

"Thanks again for helping out, Hope. You can head home with Ian now. I'll take care of the rest."

"You sure?" Her eyes shined with worry.

"I'll be fine. Go and finish your date. Thank you for helping me today."

She threw her arms around me and squeezed, before dashing off to be with her doting boyfriend.

It was going to be a long night. My boss was out schmoozing with the guest speakers, having arranged to take them to a fancy dinner. My fourth and only intern had disappeared somewhere. Probably with Damon, I reasoned with a scowl.

I headed back into the dining room to pull the tablecloths off each table and put them into bags. The laundry service would pick them up at the back entrance tomorrow.

I still had half the room to go when a hand shoved itself in front of my face. I started and jumped back. I ran into a firm chest.

"Don't you think it's time to take a rest?" Damon asked.

I turned to find him holding out a shot glass of clear liquid, with one in each hand. My belly immediately tightened, remembering his request to take off my panties. I steeled myself.

"The bar is supposed to be closed," I said.

"I'm persuasive."

"I can see that," I said. "Didn't have enough to drink during the event? You need to continue getting hammered after it's over?"

"This one is for you." He gestured to the shot glass in his right hand. His large, strong, callused hand.

"I'm working," I said.

"You said it yourself. The event's over."

"I still have to clean up. By myself, may I add. Did you and my intern go off to screw in a closet somewhere? Is that why she disappeared?"

He tilted his head, confused. "I have no idea where your intern is." He looked around the room. "How about this. You do a shot and I'll stay to help you clean up."

"Right. You'll help me clean. Have you ever done an honest day's work in your life?"

"Honest work? No." He grinned. "But I'm a strapping young lad. I can stack those tables and chairs away easier than you can."

I scrutinized him. "You really want to stay and help me clean up?"

"If you do a shot."

"Why are you so hell bent on getting me drunk?" I raised an eyebrow. "Planning on taking advantage of me?"

"I would never." He looked offended. "You're just so tense it's giving me a headache. You need to let your hair down a little. "

"I've been on my feet for sixteen hours, Damon. My hair is a metaphorical frazzled mess."

"You won't be drinking alone." He lifted the second shot glass. "I brought one for me, too."

"You're not going to leave me alone until I drink this, are you?"

"Do I need to dare you?" His eyes narrowed, devilishly amused. "I know how much you hate backing down."

With an exasperated sigh, I took the shot from him and knocked it back. It burned the whole way down, but I kept a straight face.

Damon drank his down quick. He didn't grimace either.

I pointed to the tables that already had the tablecloths removed. "Go fold those and put them in the corner. Then go stack up all the chairs."

"Sir, yes sir." He gave me a salute.

I was a bit of a lightweight, so even one shot gave me a small buzz. I had to admit, the tension in my shoulders lessened. My feet stopped aching in my pumps, the Diana Six brand shoes I bought because they were supposed to be like walking on clouds.

I expected Damon to make a nuisance of himself, but he worked steadily. When everything was put away, we stood in the middle of the empty conference hallway, doing last checks.

"That did go by a lot faster with two people," I acknowledged. "Thank you. You were a great help."

"You sound surprised." He learned against a wall casually. "You know, before we hit it big with Darkest Days, we had to lug our own equipment around. We didn't have roadies and assistants."

"I didn't know that," I said. "I guess I always assumed—"

"You thought I was always a spoiled, rich asshole?"

"Well. Yeah."

He shook his head and laughed. "You don't pull the punches, do you?" He pulled his keys from his pocket and twirled them around his finger. "You need a ride home?"

"I'm going to call a cab."

"Don't waste money on that. I can drive you home."

"No, thank you."

"It wouldn't be right to leave a lady to wait all by herself this late at night."

I looked him in the eye. His green eyes were alight with good humor. He was flirting but it wasn't over the top like it usually was. Maybe a ride wouldn't be so bad.

"Are you okay to drive?" I asked.

He appeared startled, before chuckling. "You'd need to ply with me a lot more than one shot to get me drunk, sweetness." He gave me a sly smile. "Why? You want to know if I'm wasted so you can take advantage of me?"

"I would never," I said, repeating his words.

He smirked. "Let me lead the way."

Damon tried to put an arm around my waist. I sidestepped to avoid him and slapped his hand away. He chuckled, but didn't say anything.

There was only one car left in the parking lot.

My jaw dropped. "Are you kidding me?"

Damon flicked his eyes to me. "What?"

"Is that… a Ford Mustang Mach 1? The Cobra Jet?"

Damon whistled. "You know your cars."

"I grew up learning all kinds of stuff about cars. My sister never cared, but me and my dad always…" I trailed off, a pang of hurt gnawing in my chest. "Anyway," I said quickly. "This is a seriously awesome car." I gave him a side-eyed glance. "What was that about you not being spoiled and rich?"

"I said I didn't used to be. Now that I've got more money than god, I'm going to have some fun with it."

"And you just drive it around? It's your every day car?"

"Of course. Besides, this is tame compared to my brother's. His cost at least ten times mine." Damon opened the passenger door for me. "Ladies first."

I slid into the seat, mumbling under my breath about rock stars and rich people and show offs.

I couldn't keep from running my hands all over the interior. It had that vintage car smell. I took in a deep breath and caught the scent of something rich and raw, like tough leather. But it wasn't part of the car smell.

When Damon slid into the seat beside me, the scent intensified. I breathed in deep again, unconsciously wanting more of that masculine scent. It was him. The car smelled like Damon.

It was intoxicating.

My heart began pumping just that much faster, the flush on my cheeks returning. He wasn't even looking at me, wasn't pressed up against me, and I still responded to him.

I closed my eyes, talking myself down.

Yes, Damon appealed to me in many ways. No, I was going to do anything about it. I reminded myself of all the times he got on my nerves and pushed my buttons. He expected me to fall all over him. That wasn't going to happen.

"You asleep?" he asked.

I snapped my eyes open as we peeled out of the parking lot. "I'm tired. Long day."

"Have you really been working for sixteen hours?"

"More like eighteen now."

"Damn. I thought touring was rough."

"Rough?" I laughed. "I thought you guys spent all your time rocking out, partying and banging groupies."

That sly grin returned. "That's part of it. But the days can be long. Stuck in a tour bus, doing sound check, rehearsals, dealing with the media afterwards." He snuck me a quick glance. "It can get exhausting."

"You just got back from touring, right? Hope was moping about missing Ian for months."

He nodded. "After being on the road for so long, it's always great to get back home."

"I bet your family missed you."

Damon went quiet. He adjusted the mirror.

"Ian is my family," he said eventually.

That made me pause, wondering what happened with his mother and father. Hope hadn't told me much about the rest of Ian and Damon's family.

I opened my mouth to ask, but thought better of it. He probably wouldn't tell me.

Besides, I already knew more than I should have about Damon and his brother. Before my sister and her boyfriend got together, Ian had been struggling with some personal problems, going through some things he wasn't dealing with very well. Hope had been scared for him for a while. I didn't know the exact details, but from what my sister told me, he'd found some peace, and his brother had been the one helping him through it the whole time.

That was some heavy stuff, and I knew Damon wouldn't want to get into it with me.

"Do you travel for events?" he asked, confirming my thoughts as he changed the subject.

"Sometimes," I said. "Mostly my company keeps me local. I'm sort of a homebody. Staying in a hotel for more than a few days would drive me nuts."

"You wouldn't make a good rock star." He threw me a grin.

"And you'd make a terrible event planner," I retorted. "You're impulsive. You do whatever you want. You say whatever pops into your head. You have no filter. You'd insult clients without even realizing it."

"I have a filter. I just ignore it."

A quick snort of a laugh escaped me before I could rein it in.

"You're cute when you smile," he teased.

I raised an eyebrow, incredulous. "Are you telling me to smile? You know how sexist that is, right?"

"I would never tell you to do anything," he said reasonably. "I'm just saying it's cute. I don't see it that much."

"I smile."

"I think I've seen you smile once."

"That's because whenever I'm around you, I get the sudden urge to beat you with a stick."

"Kinky. I didn't know you were into that stuff."

"I'm not!"

"Hey, you'll get no judgment from me. I've gotten up to all kinds of weird shit. Once I even—"

"Stop talking." I clamped my hands over my ears so I couldn't hear what he was saying. His mouth continued moving. "I don't want to know."

Damon pulled up to the entrance of my apartment building.

"—with my tongue," he finished saying just as I lowered my hands from my ears.

I faked a shudder. "I think I just got scarred for life, and I didn't even hear the whole thing."

"Want to me repeat it?"

"No." I opened the car door and swung my legs out first. "Good night Damon." Just before I closed the door behind me, I turned back. "Thanks for the ride home."

He leaned over the seats to wave me off. "Anytime, sweetness." His eyes were dark in the shadowed interior of the car, but the teasing glint still made my heart thump madly in my chest.

I closed the door and watched him pull away.

Just what exactly had he done with his tongue?

Cheeks flushing, I hurried inside my building and took a long, cold shower.