“Sal, go.”
The car starts moving, and Mark rolls up the window dividing us from his driver. He was parked a few houses down, but the black Yukon was unmistakably his.
The second the divider is in place, Mark settles back into the plush leather of the custom seat. He rests his hand on my thigh—a few inches higher than the first time we were in the back of this car together. I hug his arm against my chest just like that first time.
“What are we doing?” he asks.
I lift a shoulder. “You told me to come out, so I did.”
“I couldn’t leave without kissing you one more time.” He turns his head and brushes his lips across my temple.
His words hit their mark and affect my entire being. I tip my head back, and his lips find mine. He always takes his time with me. It’s always intense and passionate, but it’s a slow and sensual kind of passionate. His mouth doesn’t open, yet I sense his hunger.
He pulls back, and his eyes are on mine. “I don’t want to push you into something you don’t want to do.”
“I don’t want to hurt him,” I say, avoiding his name.
“I know. I don’t, either. But this is different, Reese. What happened with Kendra was a mistake. It was all part of a game. This isn’t.”
“Promise me it isn’t.” My voice holds a desperation I hadn’t expected. “Promise me it’s more.”
He nods with conviction. “I promise.”
I study him. I realize he has schooled himself to hide his emotions, and I could just be seeing what I want to see, but I believe him. I trust him.
He’s given me no reason not to.
It’s been too hard being with him all evening and not allowing myself to feel his closeness, to bask in his touch. I can’t wait a second longer.
His mouth covers mine and he kisses me the rest of the ride back to the Mandarin Oriental. We’re alone when we get back to his place. The only person we might’ve run into is Jason, but he must be working. I briefly wonder why Brian is the one who got called out to Germany and not one of the others. I wish he was here now so I could tell him it’s over.
Mark’s fingers cling loosely to mine as we walk through his condo. I stare out the windows at Planet Hollywood and beyond that at the replica of Paris. Lights twinkle and billboards loudly sing advertisements with the latest entertainment. Sin City. A place to gamble and drink and forget.
To me, though, this is home.
What happens here affects the rest of my life.
“I’ll be so fucking glad when everyone moves out,” he says quietly, and then he closes his bedroom door behind us as I wander over toward the windows.
“Where are the other guys in the band?”
“LA. We have a gig tomorrow.”
I’m looking out the windows, not at him, but I hear rustling behind me. I glance beside me at his reflection across the room in the glass. His shirt and shoes are off, and he’s going to work on his belt.
“I want you to come with me.”
I spin around. “What?”
“Come with me to LA.” He slides his belt through the loops and sets it on top of his dresser. “I’ll introduce you to the guys. You can hang with the wives backstage while we play and then we can spend the night at my house.”
“You have a house there?”
He shrugs. “Yeah.”
“Where else?”
“Where else do I have a house?”
I nod.
“Why does it matter?”
“Because I hardly know you.”
He stalks across the room toward me, but instead of taking me in his arms, he stands beside me. We both look out the window. “Chicago and New York. A place right on the beach in Brazil. I have an agent showing me places just outside London next time I’m overseas.”
“Why do you own so many places?”
“What good does money do sitting in the bank? My dad’s an investment banker. He told me real estate is a great place to invest. Besides, I like to sleep in my own bed when I travel. The more places I own, the more beds I have to sleep in.”
“Where do you spend the most time?”
“LA.”
“Why?”
“It’s the epicenter of my business.”
I chuckle. “You say business like being a rock star is a job.”
He looks surprised at my words. “It is a job. It may not be traditional, but it’s still a business.”
“When did you know Vail was going to make it big?”
“I didn’t. I still walk around in a daze at the level of success we’ve reached.”
“There was no defining moment?”
He chuckles and turns toward me. He finally pulls me into his arms, and I feel like I’m back just where I’m supposed to be. “The first time we played and someone sang the words to one of our original songs was pretty memorable, but it didn’t mean success. It just meant we had a fan. I guess the first time a label scouted us, I had a feeling we were going somewhere. And then when we signed our first deal and the advance hit the bank, I knew we’d gotten our break.”
“What don’t you like about being a rock star?”
He sighs as he looks out the window. “Besides how my publicist sells my image to the media?”
I run a fingertip over one of his eyebrows. “You’re starting to let me see beyond that image.”
“Privacy. I don’t have any. That’s why I’ve never been in a relationship.”
“Never?”
He lifts a shoulder. “Not since Vail started gaining popularity. It’s hard to tell who wants to be with me for me and who wants to be with me because of what I do.”
“What makes you think I’m any different?”
He shakes his head. “I told you the night we met. I study people, and I can tell you look deeper than what everyone else sees on the outside.”
I run my fingertips along his naked bicep. “The outside package is pretty nice.”
He chuckles and then pushes his hips toward me. “I’ve got a nice package for you.”
“You know, I always expect you to be so cool, to act like how I’d expect a rock star to act, and then you throw me a cheesy line like that and prove you’re just as human as anyone else.”
His grin is so wide that he looks boyish. “I’ll show just how superhuman I can be.”
“I don’t even know what that means.”
“Then allow me to demonstrate.”
I laugh and he strips out of his jeans. I watch with a watering mouth, and then he stalks naked toward me.
I follow pace backward as he walks us to the window until he presses my back against it. The ache that’s been present all day is unbearable, pulsing and throbbing as I wait impatiently for him to be inside me.
“I want you naked,” he whispers. He tugs my shirt over my head and I make quick work of my jeans, sliding my panties down my legs with them as he rolls on a condom.
“Wrap your legs around me,” he commands, and he hoists me up. I link my arms around his neck and cross my feet behind his back. My back is pressed against the cold glass, but instead of making me cold, it simply balances my body’s temperature since the front is heated by Mark.
His mouth is on my neck as he teases me by sliding his erection through me. He supports me with one arm under my ass, the rest of my weight pressed to the glass. Then, instead of sliding through me, he slides into me.
My body allows him in through the tight opening as I let out a low moan. He feels so good there, so right, as he enters and stills. I open my eyes to look at him, and he’s studying my face.
His breathing is ragged, uneven, a perfect match for mine. We breathe together as our eyes meet, the two of us connected in this erotic and intense way.
He fills me completely. He’s not just filling my body with his—my heart is full. My mind is full. My limbs are weightless because we’re one now, and for the first time in my life, I’m positive that no other connection could ever be this powerful. No one else has ever loved like this.
He starts to move, thrusting his hips toward me, pushing me toward an orgasm. It builds and builds, but then he slips out of me like he’s trying to make this last longer for both of us.
He takes me over to the chair and sits before he pulls me down on top of him. He spears me with his solid erection, and I rest my hands on his shoulders as I set the pace on top. He holds onto my ass as he helps us move together. He buries his face between my breasts, kisses me, worships me.
The spring coils tightly inside me, ready to burst, and he grunts out a series of low moans. He slips out from beneath me and somehow grabs me up into his arms like I weigh nothing, breaking our connection again to give us more time together. He tosses me on the bed then hovers over me, his mouth coming down to mine for an erotic kiss based in a hungry need for each other.
He slips back into me while he kisses me, and I wrap my arms and legs around him as his hips slam into mine with a tender pace but beastly force. The spring inside me releases, tension causing me to clench everywhere, and Mark growls as I find myself lost in the moment, lost in the bliss, lost in him.
“Holy fuck, Reese,” he mutters. “You’re so tight.” His words are grunts as he picks up the pace, slamming into me and forcing my orgasm to carry on and on. It’s stronger, more intense than I remember with him. He pushes harder still into me then lets out a series of sexy moans through his own release.
He stills inside me and collapses over me. The weight of his body over mine is comforting and warm as we both try to catch our breath after the strenuous workout.