One Night with Sole Regret 01 Try Me (11 page)

“I’ll never doubt your judgment again.”

He moved down her sweat-slick body and released the
suction on the cup attached to her clit. Her body jerked, and she
sucked a breath through her teeth. He lowered his head and soothed
the overstimulated flesh with soft caresses of his lips. “You’re
going to remember this for a few days,” he said. He shouldn’t have
kept it attached for so long.

She laughed and covered her eyes with both hands,
her elbows pointing toward the ceiling. “Gabe, I have no doubt that
I’ll remember this for the rest of my life. You’ve ruined me for
all other men.”

“Good. I don’t want other men touching you.” He
shifted his arm so he could stroke her red and swollen lips with
his fingertips. “Kissing you.” His pressed his lips to her heated
flesh. “Tonguing you.” He plunged his tongue inside her
opening.

“Ohhh
 . . . ”

He crawled up her body and used his hand to guide
his cock into her receptive pussy. He sank deep and his balls
throbbed with their need for release. “Fucking you.”

She wrapped her arms and legs around him. “What
about holding me?”

He drew her closer. “No. No other man can hold you
either. Just me.”

“Just you,” she whispered. Their eyes met. Locked.
He began to thrust into her gently. It felt so good, but he knew it
could feel even better.

“I want to fuck you raw, Mel.”

She smiled and clasped the sides of his head between
both hands. “I think I’ve already been fucked raw, Mr. Banner.”

He grinned at her. “I mean without a condom. I’m
clean. Are you?”

She nodded.

“Do you trust me to pull out in time?”

“You don’t have to; I’m on the pill. Come inside
me.”

“Do you trust that I’m clean? I am, but if you’re
worried, I won’t.”

“I do trust you. You haven’t lied to me yet. I
want . . . to
feel . . . closer.”

He smiled and brushed the hair from her sweat-damp
cheeks. Kissed her gently. “I’m crushing on you so hard, Melanie
Anderson.” In his adult life, he’d never asked a woman to have sex
without a condom. Melanie was already special to him, but this,
this trust, this flesh touching flesh, cemented their connection.
He wanted nothing separating them.

He eased out of her body, removed the condom, and
then slowly slipped inside again. He sucked a stuttering breath
through his teeth. Her slick, tight heat was his own piece of
heaven on earth.

He claimed her with slow, deep thrusts, delighting
in each stroke. The skin along his spine began to tingle. The soles
of his feet dampened. Every muscle in his body tightened. He never
wanted it to end, this time with her. He never wanted it to fucking
end.

There was a loud knock on the door.

“Force,” Adam yelled from the hallway. “The bus is
about to leave. Get your sorry ass downstairs!”

“Shit,” Gabe muttered under his breath.

He lifted his head to look down at Melanie, stunned
to see her lips trembling and her eyes watery. A lone tear slipped
from the corner of her eye and glided down one smooth cheek. She
hugged him and buried her face against his neck.

“Finish,” she whispered.

“What’s wrong?”

She shook her head. “I’m not ready to let you go.
I’m sorry. I knew this was coming; I just didn’t expect it to
hurt.”

He eased away so he could kiss her tears, kiss her
lips, kiss her lovely face while he slowly thrust into her
welcoming warmth. He wasn’t fucking her anymore, he realized, he
was making love to her. He not only felt the pleasure her body
provided, but the comfort her soul offered his.

“We’ll see each other again,” he promised.

She clung to his shoulders and nodded. “I want that.
You. I want you. Gabe.”

A hard spasm gripped the base of his cock, and his
mouth dropped open in wonder as he claimed his release inside her.
She stroked the skin of his back as he shuddered. Her touch was so
tender. So loving. Exactly what he needed. Even if the sweetness of
it did rip his heart in two.

His body went limp, and she wrapped both arms around
him. He turned his face into her throat and inhaled deeply.

They lay like that for several moments, entwined in
the aftermath of togetherness.

“Gabe?” she whispered.

“Hmm?”

“I think I want to get a tattoo. Will you go with me
to get one?”

He lifted his head and looked down at her, framing
her lovely face with hands tangled in her thick curls. “I thought
you didn’t like tattoos.”

She swallowed and avoided his gaze. “Actually, I was
sort of afraid of them. I . . . when I was
thirteen, these four bikers cornered me and said all sorts of
suggestive things. I used to have nightmares about their tattooed
bodies and gruff voices surrounding me. Trapping me against the
wall. I couldn’t get away.”

He kissed her cheek. “You should have told me
sooner. I would have kept my shirt on.”

Her eyes flashed. “Like hell you would. I love your
body.” She bent her head to kiss his collar bone. “Including your
tattoos.” Her small hands glided over his back and the tattoo of
the phoenix which decorated the skin there. “Why are they all
animals?”

He frowned, not sure how to answer. “I don’t know.
No one’s ever asked me that before.”

“Are you a nature geek too?” she asked with a
grin.

He laughed. “Maybe. You’d better keep that just
between you and me.”

She smiled. “I like learning all your secrets. Tell
me more.”

He kissed her. “Next time,” he promised. “I want to
keep you coming back to me.”

Her arms tightened around him. “As long as you’re
sure there will be a next time.”

“I guarantee it.”

Chapter 11

Gabe climbed the tour bus steps, walked down the
aisle, and tossed his overnight bag into his bunk. Owen and Kelly
were already sprawled on the semicircular caramel-colored sectional
in the seating area near the front of the bus, but there was no
sign of Shade or Adam. Gabe pulled his cellphone out of his pocket
and checked his messages. He had a few texts from friends in Austin
and a voicemail from his mother asking him when he’d be in town.
She said she had a nice girl she wanted to introduce him to. Gabe
was pretty sure his mom thought it was her duty to find him a woman
or she would never be a grandmother. He wondered what she would
think of Melanie. Would Melanie count as a nice girl even though
she had a deliciously naughty side?

“Don’t you dare call her yet, dude,” Shade said as
he dropped his bag on the floor next to his bunk. “She’ll know your
balls belong to her.”

“I wasn’t going to call her,” Gabe insisted. At
least not for thirty minutes or so. He’d secretly been hoping she’d
called him by now. He missed her voice already. Shit, Shade was
right. He hated when Shade was right.

Despite all of his talk about relationships, he
hadn’t really been sure if he’d ever call her. Hadn’t been sure if
the complications would be worth it for either of them, but
especially for her. When he’d seen the tears in her eyes, he’d
known he couldn’t stay away. Until that moment, he hadn’t been
positive that she’d really want him to keep in touch. Now he was
sure; she wanted him as much as he wanted her. He hoped she was
strong enough to have him in her life. Few women had what it took
to love a man married to the road and a music career.

“I don’t believe you,” Shade said as he snatched the
phone out of Gabe’s hand.

Gabe shrugged and sat next to Owen on the sofa. He
knew how Shade ticked—you didn’t spend ten years of your life
living in close quarters with someone and not know how his mind
worked. Well,
Gabe
understood Shade, but Adam was clueless
and let Shade push all his buttons. Gabe knew Shade pretended to be
cool so no one figured out how insecure he was about certain
things. Not about women. Not about his singing. Shade had absolute
confidence in those arenas. Shade had become a master of hiding
secrets about himself that he was not open to sharing, but Gabe saw
through his façade of cool. And he knew the best way to deal with
Shade was to never rise to his bait.

“Are you going to call that little hottie you hooked
up with, Shade?” Owen asked. “What was her name? Nikki?”

“Darling Nikki,” Kelly said. He reached into the
mini-fridge near his end of the sofa and hauled out two bottles of
water. He handed one to Owen and kept one for himself.

“Maybe we should do a remake of that song,” Owen
said. “It could be metal.”

“Been done,” Shade said.

“You’re not going to call her, are you?” Gabe asked.
He didn’t want his newfound relationship with Melanie sabotaged by
Shade fucking things up with her best friend.

Shade shook his head. “She didn’t want me to.” He
shrugged. “You know how it is.”

Gabe took a deep breath and nodded. Owen and Kelly
exchanged knowing glances.

“Whatever,” Shade said. “She did say next time we
come to Wichita she’d love to hook up again. Maybe she’ll get her
stick-in-the-mud friend to open herself up to a little fun next
time.”

“She’s not a stick in the mud,” Gabe said, a bit
more perturbed by Shade’s taunt than he should be. He didn’t
usually let Shade’s bullshit bother him.

Shade chuckled. “As if you would know the
difference. You’re a dud in the bedroom yourself. Probably think
doggie style is adventurous.”

Gabe forced a puzzled look on his face. “What’s
doggie style?”

Owen laughed. Kelly just rolled his eyes. Adam came
out of the bedroom at the back of the bus. “Are we going to hang
around here all day? I need to get to Dallas. Like yesterday.”

“Just waiting for the driver,” Owen said.

Adam sat in one of the captain’s chairs across from
the curved sofa.

“Can I have my phone back now?” Gabe asked.

“Are you going to call your mommy?” Shade asked. He
tossed Gabe’s phone in the air and Gabe caught it in one hand.

“Later,” Gabe said. “I need to call Melanie
first.”

Owen leaned across Gabe’s body and snatched the
phone out of Gabe’s hand before he could find Melanie’s picture and
name in his long list of contacts.

“Twenty-four hour rule,” Owen said.

“Rock stars live too fast for the twenty-four hour
rule,” Adam said. “Our average life expectancy is equal to one-half
normal divided by number of addictions minus the number of small
craft flights per month, the number of fast cars owned, and the
number of miles driven on a motorcycle without a helmet. I’d say
the three-second rule better applies to Gabe here.”

Gabe chuckled. “See? I’m already late calling
her.”

“Nah,” Owen said, “you have fewer addictions than
Adam and don’t own a motorcycle. You have at least twenty more
minutes.”

The bus driver, Tex, climbed up the steps and did a
head count. “Y’all ready t’go?”

Most of the band and crew had lost their Texas
drawls after traveling around the country and the world for ten
years, but not Tex. Gabe figured he took refresher lessons. And
when Gabe hung around with him too much, he started talking just
like him.

“We’re ready,” Adam said. “Let’s go. I so need to
get laid.”

Adam had a regular hook-up in Dallas. Not a
girlfriend, exactly. None of them had girlfriends, exactly. Kind of
depressing.

Shade headed for his bunk. “I guess I’ll get some
sleep. Sure didn’t get any last night. Darling Nikki has some
serious stamina.” He took off his sunglasses, revealing weary ice
blue eyes. He tucked his shades into the neckband of his T-shirt.
“Don’t let Force call that chick while I’m out.”

“Why are you so worried about him calling her,
Shade?” Kelly asked.

“He’ll get all pussy-whipped on us if he lands
himself a steady girlfriend.” Shade climbed into his bunk. “Besides
who would want to be stuck with the same chick all the time when
there is so much delicious variety available?”

“Me,” Kelly said.

“Yep. Me too,” Owen agreed with a nod.

“Fuck that. For once, I agree with Shade,” Adam
said. “The more variety, the better.”

“Man whores,” Owen said and shook his head at them.
“Both of you.”

Shade grunted and slid his bunk’s curtain closed. An
instant later his boots dropped out of his bunk onto the floor.

“You don’t have room to talk,” Kelly teased and
punched Owen in the shoulder.

“You either.”

“At least we’re ashamed of our whorish ways,” Kelly
said, leveling his most serious look at Owen.

Gabe snorted and burst out laughing. “Yep, you’re a
regular pair of cloistered nuns.”

“Nuns?” Kelly said. “I think you mean cloistered
monks
.”

“I wouldn’t mind being cloistered with a bunch of
horny nuns for a couple days,” Owen said.

“As long as they were horny,” Adam said with a
thoughtful nod.

Kelly laughed. “They’d think you were possessed by
demons and try to exorcise you.”

“I’m more likely to exercise them.” Adam slipped two
fingers in and out of the loose fist in his opposite hand and
smirked at Kelly.

Were they seriously discussing defiling nuns?
Sometimes Gabe wondered why he hung around with these guys. Oh
yeah, he had no choice.

“Owen might get some nun action,” Kelly said. “He’s
the one with the angel face.” Kelly grabbed Owen’s face in one hand
and squeezed. “They’d think he was cute.”

“Until they saw how he’s mutilated his junk,” Adam
said.

“Not mutilated,” Owen protested through his squished
mouth. “The ladies like it.”

Gabe didn’t care how much the ladies liked it; he’d
never get his cock pierced. He could invent less painful ways to
keep his woman satisfied.

“The ones who aren’t terrified of it,” Kelly said
and released Owen’s face. He gave Owen a
thunk
on the side
of the head as an afterthought.

Owen punched Kelly in the thigh and turned his
attention to Gabe’s cellphone.