Dare (The Dare Trilogy) (6 page)

Cam shrugged, his eyes flickering away from hers to hide the pain that she glimpsed just for a second. “Okay, I guess it was a stupid idea. I guess we’ll just be passing ships in the night, and all that.”

He began to move and Dianne felt her heart lurch inside her chest. Grabbing hold of his arm, she stopped him getting out of the bed and he stared down at her, his eyes resting slightly to one side of her face so that he wouldn’t have to look directly at her. With her other hand, she stroked his cheek softly.

“Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I don’t... I don’t want you to be just a one night stand. It’s just... it’s just, sudden, you know?”

Now he did look at her directly, and she could see that she had wounded him in a small, unexpected way. His smile, however, was one of bravado.

“Yeah, like I said, it was a stupid idea. I dunno, I just wondered if you’d be the sort of girl who’d dare to take a chance like that.”

Bridling at this, Dianne let her hand drop from his face and pushed herself up onto her elbows so that her face was closer to his, her own dark eyes staring into his blue ones.

“Look, I appreciate the offer
—really I do. But what’s to stop you making a similar one to the next girl who takes your fancy? I come with you and then you change your mind, leaving me in some city I don’t know without any easy way of getting back.”

This made him sigh and he dropped his eyes away from hers. “Yeah, okay, you’ve made your point. Just for the record, though, you’re the only one I’ve ever asked to tag along for the ride.”

As he spoke, he moved to one side with his back to her, broad and muscled. She lifted herself completely now, resting on one arm and pushing herself gently into him, her one breast slightly squashed against his warm skin.

“I really do appreciate it. If you’re still interested when you get back, I’d like to see you again,” she whispered.

He nodded, but didn’t say anything for a while. With a huge sigh, Dianne lay back on the bed, watching him.

“Did you enjoy seeing us last night?”

She frowned slightly at his question then, realising he was referring to Black Ark on stage, she replied: “Yeah, sure. You were good.”

“Good?” Cam half turned to face her, watching her with one eyebrow raised.

“Yeah. Okay, you were really good.”

“Thank you.” His face was serious now. Once more Dianne let out a huge sigh.

“Look,” she said. “You’re great in the sack—I mean, I’ll say this without any reservation, you’re the best. But just because you’re so good looking, and that...
thing
between your legs is so enormous doesn’t mean I’m going to leave my brain at the door to make you feel better about your other performance anxieties. You’re good—you’re really good, but you can be better.”

Slightly taken aback, Cam stared at her now, giving her all his attention. “What do you mean?”

“Well, how long have you been playing?”

“As Black Ark? I don’t know. Somewhere between a year and eighteen months.”

“Yeah, I would have guessed something like that. You’ve got a good sound—but you’re not really working as a team yet. You haven’t—I don’t know—I guess you haven’t practiced enough together. You’re not quite tight enough.” Warming to her theme, Dianne raised herself onto one elbow and began to explain herself. “Your bass player—he’s a bit too aloof, he’s not pulling himself into the group.”

At this, Cam laughed. “
Dan? Yeah, well, I guess you’re right about him.”

“Your drummer’s good, and the synth player
—he’s pretty good too.”

“And lead guitar? And vocals?”

Dianne didn’t reply for a few moments, but instead looked up at Cam directly, staring into those bright blue eyes. “You want the truth?”

He shrugged. “I wouldn’t have asked.”

She bit her lip for a second. Guys never wanted the truth in her experience, but this time... this time she would take a chance.

“You’re no Johnny Korpus,” she said at last. Cam grimaced at this and looked away.

“But you could be,” she added, her gaze still on his when he looked back at her. He nodded and then, looking towards the sunlight streaming in the window, smiled wryly.

“So, you’ve known him all your life?” she asked after a while.

“Not quite all of it, but, yeah, most of it.”

“What’s he like?”

“Johnny? He’s great.” Cam stared back at her. “Really, I’m not just saying that. Sometimes I think about how different he is now—he was, you know, really intense as a child, pretty introverted to tell the truth. That doesn’t work so well in a rock band, though, which in part explains why he’s strung out so much sometimes.”

Dianne frowned at this. “Strung out?” Cam, however, waved the question to one side, clearly not willing to discuss it. Instead, he lay back down beside her, one hand gently stroking her arm.

“What about you?” he asked at last. “How come you’re not in a band?”

“Who says I want to be in a band?” She could feel a familiar old defensiveness rising up inside her.

“I say so. Come on, you know so much about music—and that didn’t just sound to me like a fan talking last night. You’re a practitioner. What do you play?”

“Some guitar,” she admitted at last. “Keyboards too. And I’ve been told I have a good voice.”

“I bet you do.” He smiled as he said this. “So, how come you’re not in a band?”

It was her turn to shrug. “I guess I’ve never found the right one. Girls never tend to be interested in the music enough to make it worthwhile and guys...” She rolled her eyes. “Guys only have one thing on their mind with me, and it’s not making music.”

This made Cam laugh and he gave her a broad grin. “So, I’m just another guy trying to get inside your pants, is that what you’re telling me?”

She lifted her fingers to his nose and pinched it. “There’s no ‘trying’ about it. But if you’re like the rest, then it won’t go any further.”

He frowned at this. “I’m not like the rest.”

“So you say.” Deep inside her, Dianne wanted him to be telling the truth, but more than this she didn’t want to be hurt, betrayed by her own desires.

“Come with me,” he said. “Find out for yourself.”

She smiled weakly at this. “Look, you’re a great guy
—really, you are. But I don’t think I’m cut out to be the kind of groupie who stands on the side and tells you how fantastic you are at everything you do. I’m just not that kind of girl, whatever opinion you may have of me after last night.”

He stared at her intently. “You barely know the opinion I have of you.”

She felt slightly uncomfortable at this. “What’s he like?” she asked, changing the subject.

“What’s who like?”

“Darius.”

“Gary?” Cam turned away from her and rested his head against his arm on the bedstead. “Pretty amazing in some ways
—weird in others, though. What you’d expect from listening to the music, but...” He stopped.

“Go on.”

“He can also be an asshole at times.” This was said with a shrug.

“Well, that was pretty obvious from last night.”

Cam looked at her strangely. “I thought you were a fan of his.”

“I am
—I mean, I love his music. It’s great, their sound. There’s nobody who plays like that, not at the moment, and I love them to bits. But as you may have gathered, I don’t take kindly to people who assume I leave my brain at the door just because I like to listen to a few tracks by a particular band.”

He laughed at this. “Duly noted.”

Dianne rolled onto her side, resting one arm on Cam’s chest and abdomen. She could feel the heat of his loins near to her elbow but for the moment she wanted to look directly into his face, to let him know that she was being sincere.

“Look,” she told him. “I can be a bit of a bitch. I don’t like to be treated as an airhead, but I’ve had guys chasing me since I was thirteen.” She shrugged. “Hell, I started chasing a few of them back when I was fifteen. I’m no virgin, but I guess I made that plain last night. I like you, Cam, really I do, but... if I do come with you, you have to put up with me warts and all.”

He smiled broadly at this. “So, you are at least considering it.”

She shrugged. “Perhaps.” Now she let her eyes fall away from his face, travelling down his chest and the ripped abdomen till she found what she was really looking for. “For the moment, though, I was just wondering if this fella was up to one more round. Who knows, this might be the last chance I get to play with him.”

About fifteen minutes after she had left the hotel where she had spent the night with Cam, Janey was on the phone.

“Oh my God!” she began to speak breathlessly. “What a night that was! I can’t believe you missed it. That was insane!”

“Missed what?” Dianne asked mischievously.

“Well, after I went backstage with the other guys from the band and that other girl—oh my God, Di! You wouldn’t believe what that Darius guy wanted us to do! I was looking out for you, but you’d disappeared -”

“Like you said, it looks as though I missed it,” Dianne replied, her tone more than slightly smug.

Finally, Janey began to cotton on. “Wait a minute. You didn’t...”

“Didn’t what?” Dianne couldn’t hide her smile as she continued walking down the street, her mobile pressed to her ear. She felt, quite literally, shagged out
—and utterly fantastic.

“Were you with him?”

“With who?”

Janey was completely exasperated now. “With
him
! Cam, or whatever his name was! The lead singer from Black Ark!”

“Maybe.”

“You are going to drive me completely nuts, you bitch! Okay, so if you did go off with him, then where...” Janey’s voice trailed away as she suddenly made all the connections. “It was
you
wasn’t it. When we got back to the hotel, we could hear a couple yelling and making a noise like there was no tomorrow! That was you, wasn’t it?”

“
We
?” Dianne asked, her mouth open in shock as she too began to realise what her friend was implying.

“Well, there might have been one or two of the guys.”

“Janey! You absolute slut!”

“Oh! Thank you little-miss-goody-two-shoes! I don’t think I was the one screaming to make me cum for the umpteenth time or whatever it was.”

Dianne giggled at this and Janey asked her: “Where are you?”

“Just coming up to the tube at Belsize Park. What about you?”

“I’ve just left the hotel. Wait for me! I’ll be with you in about ten!”

Although it was more like twenty minutes, Dianne didn’t mind waiting for her friend. She had showered in the hotel (a final farewell fling with Cam that had been a literal knee-trembler) but
was looking forwar
d to getting back to her flat and a bath and change of clothes. Nonetheless, she was intrigued to find out what Janey had been up to.

Plonking herself in the chair opposite Dianne and ordering a coffee from the waiter, Janey’s appearance made Dianne laugh. Her hair, long and blonde and slightly unruly at the best of times, looked as though it had seen a hairbrush dragged through it at random, and her attempts to remove her makeup had not been entirely successful. When Dianne laughed at her affectionately, Janey pulled out a compact and stared at herself ruefully.

“Oh well,” she said. “I was in a bit of a panic when I realised what the time was and thought I’d have to rush to work.” She shrugged. “I’ll just have to do myself up when I get back to the flat.”

“And what about work?”

“After I spoke to you on the phone, I thought fuck it and phoned in sick. And you?”

“I’d thought ahead,” Dianne smiled as she cradled her own cup of coffee in her hands and thought of the morning’s events. “I’d already phoned up work before I left.”

“Good job they don’t know us both and put two and two together, eh? But sod that! So, what was he like?”

Dianne decided to act coy. “I can’t tell you that.”

“No, just like you couldn’t blare to anyone in listening distance just how big a cock he had. Is it as big as they say?”

“I don’t know. How big do they say it is?”

Janey made a size with her fingers, eyebrows raised in a manner that made Dianne snort as she took a sip of coffee.

“That’s not a cock! That’s what, some kind of huge
barracuda that got away, isn’t it?”

Janey shrugged. “Okay, so I don’t know. Anyway, how big
is
he?”

Dianne smirked and indicated another space with her own fingers, not so much smaller than the size indicated by Janey.

“You are kidding me!” Janey gasped, grabbing her friend’s wrist.

“No I’m not
—and I had it proved several times last night.”

“I’m surprised you can walk!”

“Me too, but even that can’t wipe the smile off my face. And in any case, that’s not the best of it.”