Brooklyn Rockstar (Kendall Family #1) (10 page)

“I bet you think you’re ‘tough’ when you’re on the road performing and then stay up all night to party before performing again the next day.”

His shoulder lifts with a shrug. “Don’t know where you’re going with this, but okay.
Maybe
.” When I squeeze his leg, he releases a small growl from inside his throat.

“Try going forty-eight hours without any sleep and still be expected to be alert enough to monitor a machine as big as this room because there’s a storm on the way and you have to finish harvest before the first snow flies.”

“That’s impressive,” he concedes, nodding. “But we’re still talking two different kinds of tough here. You ever go a round in a boxing ring?”

“No, but I bet I could throw Sharlo over my shoulder and toss her into the back end of a pickup.”

“I beg your pardon?” Sharlo asks in a higher than normal voice.

A delectable chuckle rises from Charlie. “That, I’d like to see.”

We’re staring at each other, sharing a delicious grin, when Sharlo clears her throat. “Well then, I believe I’ll step outside for a fag.”

I open my mouth to ask her when she started smoking, but she cuts me off with a sharp look. The second the door has shut behind her, my stomach drops with the feel of a finger tracing my jawline. When I turn to face him, Charlie Walker’s beautiful eyes are dilated and burning with lust.

Oh shit, I’m in serious trouble.

T
he raw electricity
crackling between us becomes too wicked to fight any longer. I touch her face, pressing my thumb over a patch of freckles. Her lips part with a quiet sigh. A dark haze of need for this gorgeous creature floods my brain and hardens my dick, disintegrating all control. I trail a hand up her back slowly, loving the way her big eyes darken with my touch. When I lean in close, eager to feel the warmth of her mouth, she arches into me with anticipation.

Part of me can’t believe I’m really about to kiss a chick—probably the part that’s sounding more and more like Danny every day—while a more insistent part says to shut the fuck up and do it already. I bend in for her mouth, intending to give this thing a test run, but her supple lips part even more and I can’t hold back. Our tongues mash together, filling me with the taste of bitter beer and sweet Evelyn. My fingers tangle in her long, soft hair to hold her tight against me as I steal her warmth. She hooks her free arm around my neck while our lips and tongues work in tango as if possessed.

It’s not a soft or tender kiss by any means. It’s an attempt to make up for years of refusing to kiss women, refusing to let anyone get that close. It’s fucking explosive and driven by a raw yearning to claim her as mine. Her end is just as eager and needy as if she wanted this just as badly.

As we continue kissing, I grab the bottle of beer from her hand and set it next to mine before returning both hands to her nest of soft curls and nudging her down to lay on her back. Arms locked around my neck, she whimpers inside my mouth when my hard-on presses against her bare thigh. Everything about this woman is soft and beautiful, making me lose my goddamn mind. Her floral scent alone nearly blinds me with desire.

Evelyn detaches her lips from mine. “What are you doing with me?” she pants against my mouth, pressing our foreheads together. “What
is
this?”

Assuming she isn’t talking about the monstrous hard-on rubbing against her leg, I coax her lips to answer mine with another deep kiss. I don’t have the faintest fucking clue what
this
is. All I know is her body and kisses are driving me to the brink of insanity and I want to bury myself deep inside her.

Her small body wriggles in sync with mine as I kiss her harder, wondering how I’ll ever stop. She doesn’t protest when I reach up to cup one of her tits over her dress. It’s a perfect handful, just like the rest of her. When she releases another small sigh inside my mouth, I sink my teeth into her bottom lip and growl. I have to taste
all
of her. I can’t wait any longer.

Trailing my fingers up her smooth arm, I release one of the straps of her dress and drag it down her toned bicep before moving my mouth down to her freckled shoulder, kissing and sucking her golden skin. She tastes like sunshine and virtue, as if she brought a bit of the farm along with her.

A brisk knock at the front door slices through the intense moment with the effectiveness of a cold shower. I pull away from Evelyn to study her soft features lax with longing and suddenly remember she’s not a random groupie I want to dominate. Lips swollen from my aggressive kisses and face flush from desire, she’s beyond gorgeous. And there’s so much innocence behind those honey-brown eyes darkened with lust that I want to take her in my arms and hide her from the rest of the world. It’s ironic, because if she becomes mine like I hope she will, there will be so much more to protect her from.

“
Shit
,” she says with a small smile, dropping one of her arms over her belly. “I can’t believe I seriously forgot about Sharlo. I’m a terrible friend.”

Licking my raw lips, I climb off her and adjust the painful hard-on trying to make a hole in my jeans. Anger burns through my gut when I realize how close I was to releasing Charlie Walker the Rockstar—the prick that enjoys using women for nothing more than a good time.
The Danny Hogril way.
Evelyn doesn’t deserve that kind of shit.

I tip my head at the loose strap on her dress. “She’s going to know what we were doing.”

“Believe me, she already knows.” Evelyn’s cheeks flush even darker as she sits up and smoothes her hair. “Why do you think she left in the first place? Knocking is her way of checking in to make sure I’m okay with what we’re doing.” She offers me one more small, innocent smile behind fluttering lashes.

Another rush of need swells through my groin when I glance down at the soft curves beneath her dress. I’ve never wanted anyone this way. But I can’t sleep with her this soon either. It would ruin everything.

“Don’t mind me,” Sharlo yells from the other side of the door. “I’ll just wait on this stoop until you’re ready.”

“I better…go,” Evelyn says quietly, glancing at the door. “This could get really awkward with her in the room when all I want to do is tear your clothes off.”

The declaration grabs my dick’s attention once again. Nothing would make me happier than to rip that dress off her tight body to have my way.
So fuckin’ do it already, ya pussy,
Danny’s voice taunts.

Lips drawn in a straight line, I stand and look away from Evelyn’s body before my eager dick changes my plans. “I want to know more about you. Say you’ll go on a date with me.”

“How would
that
work?” she asked in a surprised tone. “After what happened tonight—”

“There are ways around it,” I snap, turning to face her again. Eyes wide, she’s obviously hurt by the anger I’m trying so hard to contain. My lips tilt with an apologetic grin. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way, right?”

She gracefully rises off the couch and steps close enough that I’m once again filled with her tempting scent. Big brown eyes search mine before narrowing. “Do you see me as another notch in your bedpost? Because if that's the only thing on your mind, I’m not going to let you jerk me around.”

“You think I’d bother with a date if that were true?” I reach out to draw her in until our hips are pressed together. She’s so small and delicate inside my arms that I have to swallow down another growl of pent-up frustration. My thumb traces the curve of her lower lip, swollen and red. “Whatever
this
is, I want more.”

Her jaw tightens. There’s a fair amount of doubt in her hard gaze, so I kiss her again, hoping to erase it. Soon she gives in, biting my lip as I tug on her hair. The moment’s so sizzling hot that I have to make myself stop before my other persona makes an appearance. I dust one more kiss over the thick of her freckles between her nose and cheek before pulling back. Her gaze is drunk with lust as I grab my phone from my back pocket to add her name into my contacts.

“Last name and address too,” I demand, handing my phone over. “I need to know where I’m picking you up.”

Taking it, she gives me a sideways glance. “You always this bossy?”

“Only when it comes to the thought of losing you again.” I tighten my jaw and mentally run through my daytime schedule for the week. Now that I’ve been dropped by the label and can’t get past a creative block, there isn’t much going on in my life that can’t be rearranged aside from my afternoon boxing sessions, and I’m eager to see Evelyn again. As soon as humanly possible. “Come back here tomorrow night. I’ll cook you dinner.”

“I work at Leona’s until close.” She looks up from typing. Her freckles dance when she scrunches her nose with a sour face. “I really don’t know if I’m up for this. The way tonight went, it’s obvious we can’t be alone if you’re serious about ‘dating’.”

Damn it.
How can I prove to her this isn’t about sex? I mean yeah, I’d love to seal the deal, but for some reason the need to be with her goes beyond that. “Can I stop by Leona’s for awhile? I’ll stay out of sight this time and we’d be forced to behave.”

Her eyes flicker up to the side as she considers the question. It seems like a lifetime passes before her shoulders roll forward.
“Fine.
I have an hour break for dinner around ten. Wait for me by the double doors in the back.”

“I’ll bring food,” I say, impatiently waiting for her to finish.

A small smile tugs at her lips and her shoulders drop a little. “Fine. Hold on. It takes me a minute to remember my new address,” she admits with a giggle. Finally she hands my phone back with a weary smile. “Don’t make me regret this,
Walker
.”

When I glance down at my phone to make sure she filled everything out, I grin. Under the notes section, she wrote NON-GROUPIE.

“I won’t let you down,” I promise as my eyes lock with hers.

She takes a step back and blows out a long breath, her alluring gaze never leaving mine. The funny way she stands I can tell she’s torn between kissing me again and bolting. “Why do I get the feeling that getting involved with you is a really,
really
bad idea?”

I don’t say anything back as she heads for the door because I’m not totally convinced it’s good for either one of us. All I know is I want her any way she’ll let me have her.

Her sudden exit leaves the apartment cold and silent, my dick hard and angry.
Serves ya right for not having you way with her, pansy ass,
Danny snickers.

E
arly the next morning
, Lorenzo delivers a new MacBook. I’m still in my boxers when he comes barreling inside, box tucked under his arm. “I don’t suppose you’ve been surfin’ the web on your phone yet today.”

“Now what?” I ask, scratching my ass. It was a long, restless night as I relived the way Evelyn tasted when I kissed her, the small noises she made, and how soft her body felt beneath me.

“That hot little brunette you were seen with last night just about broke the internet,
that’s
what.” He sets the laptop on the island and fires it up. “Your fans are losing their fucking minds trying to figure out who she is. Someone even opened a Twitter account launching a search for anyone who may know her. I don’t know what it is about this chick, but her picture has gained a ton of attention. They fucking
love
her. Chicks want to know where she got her dress. Guys want to know if she has a calendar. The gossip rags are desperate to find her for an interview.”

A rush of irritation sweeps through my gut. It was bad enough someone tried to pull out her goddamned hair, but now they’re plastering her picture all over the web? The idea of thousands of perverts sitting behind their screen, jerking off to her image makes my stomach roil.

Lorenzo’s fingers peck across the keyboard and the home page for
Celebrity Insider
fills the screen. The top article features a series of pictures where Evelyn was reacting to the crowd. In the first, her mouth is open and her already large eyes are even bigger than seems possible. In the second she’s holding Sharlo’s hand, dark hair flowing behind her as they attempt to flee. In the final picture, a painful grimace lines her face as she reaches behind her head where the psychotic fan yanks her hair.

I
n the sidebar
there’s a decent shot of me posing with the group of women, but my eyes keep returning to the photograph capturing Evelyn in pain. Rage for the gossip site and everyone there last night who exposed her makes me dizzy enough that I have to sit down on one of the island stools. She wouldn’t be in this fucking mess if I hadn’t pursued her like a psycho.

“That
bitch
had no right to lay a hand on her like that,” I snarl, wishing I could locate the woman and make her apologize for hurting Evelyn.

“So you
do
know her,” Lorenzo says with a low snort. “Who is she? Another model?”

“She’s just some girl who moved out here from a farm in the Midwest,” I mutter. I suspect she’s a world away from being just “some girl,” but I’m not going to spill my guts to Lorenzo like some kind of pansy ass. The inherent drive to protect her kicks into full gear when I imagine what the paparazzi would do to her if we really
were
together.
Money hungry pricks
.

“You’re telling me this hot piece of ass is
wholesome
and not another new actress you snagged?” Lorenzo shakes his head and laughs. “Don’t bust my balls, buddy. I’m trying to look out for your best interests. It’s my
job
. These days you’re making it an incredibly tough one.”

Jesus, I should knock him on the floor for calling her a “piece of ass.” But when I remember Evelyn insisting she’s ‘tough,’ I laugh to myself. “Look at her, man. Does she look cheap-and-easy to you?”

Lorenzo’s eyes narrow onto the screen. “She looks like the type that could wrap you around her little finger, then eat you alive. Those big eyes are filled with trouble, brother. I’ve seen it a million times. How long have you been hooking up with her?”

“
Lorenzo
. We’re
not
together.”
Not yet
, I silently add to myself. “We just met last night. She’s new to the city and she’s authentic.
Real.
Not another groupie. She didn’t seem to give a shit that I’m famous. We had fun hanging out. That’s it. End of story.”