Evanescent Ink (Copperline #4) (10 page)

“Why?”

“You’re off limits,” I replied, not entirely certain myself why it had always been so important to keep the guys away from her. It was more than just having her work for me. More than wanting a piercer in my shop. I wanted
her
there.

“Off limits?”

“You’re my employee,” I managed. “And you’re great. Like with work and shit. I don’t want to lose that.”

“All the more reason to keep this a secret.”

“I guess.” It tasted bad in my mouth, though. Like rejection.

But Raven made it better. She always made it better. The soft touch of her hand left my back to glide over my shoulder and curve along my jaw.

“Don’t ever doubt your worth, Drew. To be completely truthful, I could get attached to you way too easily.” I looked at her through the glimmers of moonlight and saw a raw honesty in her eyes that soothed my frayed ego. “But it wouldn’t be smart of me. You’re rebounding something fierce. You lost someone you thought was going to be around forever. That’s a volatile place to be. This needs to stay free and easy. Fun.”

Looking down at her in the shadows, I felt something chipping away at my conscience. A hint of a kindred spirit. Someone who had lost, even if she didn’t want to share that part of her. I studied the sincerity in her eyes. They held a glimmer of something more. Some strange energy that almost seemed to buzz around us. It held us aloft for a moment, almost floating in the air. In the blink of an eye, it vanished to be replaced with a sly smile. She kissed me just below my ear and whispered in a throaty voice.

“Now, what was that about wanting to get off again?”

I felt a sharp and gentle tug of her teeth on my earlobe. She circled her hips and pressed against me, reviving the lustful ache that she had alleviated only a short time before.

Serious time was over. Raven wanted to play some more.

She didn’t stay all night, but she stayed for most of it. She did get me off… quite a few times. I got her off a few more. We danced around the sensitivity of her words and focused on the carnal. On the pleasure.

I drifted off to sleep as the sun was just starting to appear over the mountains. When I woke up, it was noon. All that remained of Raven was the faint scent of her perfume on my dark blue flannel sheets.

I wondered how things would be different at work after our heart-to-heart. Oddly, they really weren’t different at all.

Raven was back to herself. All hints of vulnerability had vanished overnight. She wore her mask and piled her purple hair up on top of her head. She joked with the customers and Neil.

And she treated me just like she always had… with the exception of the tiniest secretive smile now and then.

So went the next day, and the day after that. A week faded into the past, then another.

And Raven and I stayed free and easy.

Every time we came together, she would leave me satiated and breathless. In my truck outside the Copperline. In my bed while a party raged downstairs. On my office couch at Ink while Neil ran to pick up lunch.

She wove in and out of my every day, keeping me from falling too low.

It was now a Friday night, and I had to cut out of work a little early to get over to the Copperline. As I arrived, Brannon was lending a hand to Cody and Denny as they set up. Even though Brannon wasn’t part of the band, he was always there. Always helping. Never far from her man, Sophie was perched on a barstool talking to Cody’s girl, Ilsa. Those two had become fast friends over the past year or so, having bonded over their own dysfunctional parents and quiet demeanors.

I’d been there for about a half-hour when Justin made his appearance. He started tuning up as he scanned the slowly building crowd for hotties. A few of the usual bar-sluts fluttered their eyelashes his way. A few fluttered theirs my way as well, which had me feeling a little uncomfortable. I still wasn’t entirely sure what defined free and easy between Raven and I, but I was pretty sure that going manwhore like Justin would put a crimp in whatever we were doing.

And I kinda liked what we were doing.

We’d just left the stage for our first break when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to see Raven standing there. Moreover, Raven standing there twisting her hands together nervously. This was so not the Raven I was accustomed to, and it freaked me the fuck out at first.

“Rave, you okay?” I asked.

She glanced over at the bar, then grabbed my hand and pulled me back into the hallway I had just emerged from.

“I need to talk to you,” she murmured.

“Okay,” I replied and followed her lead. Back to the stage steps where she stood one step up from me, raising her up to just a few inches above me. Even though I was concerned about whatever was troubling her, the horndog in me noted that the hem of her short skirt was at the perfect level for me to skim my hands under. In spite of all the fooling around we did, I’d woken up with my dick in my hand and her name on my lips every morning for days. I was primed and ready to go.

“So my cousin is here,” Raven suddenly blurted out.

“Your cousin?”

“Yeah, Lacey. She decided to come to Ophir for the night.”

“Okay,” I trailed off. I had no clue where she was going with this.

“She wanted to come listen to you guys. Your notoriety has spread, and she’s heard from friends how awesome you are. I slipped up and mentioned that I know the band, so she wants an intro. She’s a bit starry eyed.”

“And?”

“Well, she, um… she also knows I’ve slept with my boss.”

“You told her you got busy with me?”

“She’s got a way of getting me to spill shit. The thing is, though, she doesn’t know that you, Drew Massey of the Bangin’ Mofos, is my boss.”

“I take it that you don’t really want her to.”

“Right, because she’ll be all over that shit. She has this image in her head that my boss is some skeevy biker dude who I’m totally just using to get off. If she saw you and knew it was you, she’d start pushing me to make it into something serious. Something that it’s not. Something neither one of us needs. She’d make it all awkward and we couldn’t keep going like this. So please, don’t say you’re my boss.”

“She might not be quite as—”

“If you say anything, I’m never sleeping with you again.”

I immediately shut my mouth, strangely enjoying this somewhat. Raven was flustered. I’d seen Raven cool, I’d seen Raven pissed, I’d seen Raven turned on (that was my favorite), and I’d seen Raven sad.

But I’d never seen Raven flustered.

Her cheeks had flushed. She seemed a little short of breath, and her eyes flashed with a nervous energy. It actually kinda fired me up for more.

“You just can’t say anything to her,” she rambled on. “I can’t let her know it’s you I’m sleeping with.”

I shrugged.

“Drew, she already thinks you’re some kind of rockstar, so if she thinks I’m fucking you, she’s going to be all kinds of whacked about it.”

I nodded.

Raven narrowed her eyes at me.

I looked innocently back.

She frowned. “What?”

I raised a brow in question.

“Why aren’t you saying anything?”

I narrowed my eyes back at her.

“Drew,” she scowled and smacked my arm. “Say something.”

I sighed with mock frustration, although I could barely contain the chuckle in my throat. “You told me if I said anything you were never going to sleep with me again.”

“I meant I didn’t want you to say anything to
her
.”

“Okay, well you maybe should have clarified, because I kind of like sleeping with you.”

I stepped closer and finally gave into the temptation of her perched so perfectly on the step. My fingertips danced up her bare thighs.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, finding her center… probably in an effort not to start wailing on me. Finally she looked back at me with a false calm.

“Just play along, okay?” she asked, but my touch had made her the slightest bit breathless.

“Mmm, play,” I grinned wickedly. “I love to play.”

I started bringing my other hand up her other leg, but she jerked away.

“Dammit, Drew,” she groaned, “never mind. I’m just going to try to keep her away from you.”

That was easier said than done. As we came out of the hallway, Raven came to a dead stop.

“Shit,” she muttered under her breath.

I looked over to the focus of her gaze and saw the guys and their girlfriends sitting at a table, but there was one additional girl there. She sat perched happily on Justin’s lap and was in total fangirl mode. Thick waves of chestnut hair, a short skirt, and big ol’ boobs displaying a wide swath of cleavage.

She was totally Justin’s type.

“I take it that’s Lacey,” I murmured in Raven’s ear.

“Yeah,” Raven nodded. “So much for trying to keep her away from you.”

“It’s not so bad, Rave. Go have a seat. I'll go grab a beer and I’ll come over in a few minutes. It will help with the ruse if we don’t head over there together.”

“Thank you,” she said with a weak smile.

By the time I got to the table, Raven was sitting in between Denny’s wife Felicity and the chair that held Justin and Lacey.

“Ah, here’s Drew,” Justin said as I sat down. “He plays lead guitar.”

“Ooh, yeah,” Lacey cooed. “I’ve heard you’re amazing. Both on stage and… well…
off
.”

Raven had been mid-sip when this last bit came out, and she choked back a cough. Not so smooth, especially for someone who was trying to keep things on the down-low.

“One of my friends had been to a party of yours a while back,” Lacey continued. “She said that all the girls there were trying to get in good with your girlfriend—”

“
Ex
-girlfriend,” Raven quickly interrupted, garnering a few strange looks from those seated around the table.

“Okay, your ex-girlfriend. They were hoping she’d invite them to take a ride on the Drew train. Those who had were singing your praises. Are you really pierced down there?”

Well, this was awkward.
I shot a quick glance to Raven who was staring aghast at her cousin.

“Jesus, Lacey,” Raven muttered. “You need to quit drinking, you lush. You’re all over Justin and going on about fucking Drew like we’re talking sports.”

“What’s the problem?” Lacey replied. “These guys are rockstars, well except Brannon here, but he’s pretty close. They live a wild life, you know.”

“Not so much,” Raven countered. “Denny’s married. Brannon may as well be, and Cody and Ilsa are tying the knot in a few weeks.”

“Which is why I’m focusing on Justin and Drew.”

“Sadly,” Justin interrupted, “Drew’s debauchery sort of ended when his girlfriend turned lez. He could probably use some pussy by now, so what do you say, Drew?” He grinned over at me. “Interested in a little tag team tonight?”

“Oh my god,” Cody’s fiancée Ilsa gasped. “Justin, you really,
really
are such a pig.”