Hell Bent (Rock Bottom #1) (19 page)

I turn back around and push her back against the island. Pressing against her, I run my hand along her side, hitching her thigh over my hip. “I’m never going to tire of hearing that.”

Her breathing becomes labored, and when I lean in, letting our lips meet again, the kiss is slow but rough. Slipping my hands into her jeans, I slide them down her thighs until she kicks them off with her shoes. Without breaking our connection, I grip her amazing ass and lift her onto the counter. Her body tenses as she gasps when her bare skin lands on the cold marble. I push her back until her body bows and run my fingers down the center of her body and grip her thighs, pushing them apart.

Shimmying my jeans down my thighs, I line up with her entrance, and in one swift thrust I’m inside of her. The scream of pleasure that slips from her lips echoes around the empty room. Izzy’s nails dig into my wrists as she holds my hands in place on her thighs. I pound into her roughly until her body goes limp. With a few more thrusts, my knees buckle, and I have to catch myself before all my weight lands on top of her. This isn’t the slow, passionate time I had planned on showing her the first time I made love to her in our home, but just like her, it’s perfect.

“Fucking perfect.”

“What is?” she asks as she tries to catch her breath.

“You are. This is. Fuck, I can’t even explain it, Izzy.” Reaching up, I brush the stray hair out of her face. “Every day with you since the day I met you, no matter what we’re doing, is fucking perfect.” Her bottom lip begins to quiver, and she bites down on her lip to keep from crying. The smallest things have been setting her off lately, and I know she can’t wait until these crazy pregnancy hormones are done and over with.

“Fucking hell,” she mutters, swiping at her eyes. “How the hell did I survive without you?”

“I love you.”

“Good, because you’re stuck with me. I don’t think anyone else can handle all this crazy.”

“I wouldn’t want it any other way.” 

“You better make me proud tonight,” Izzy yells over the sound of the crowd. Slipping her arms around my chest, she presses her chest to my back, resting her head on my shoulder. I hold her hands in place. Something about her touching me calms my rattling nerves.

“I don’t know. I might make a fool out of myself just for the hell of it now.”

A quick squeeze of her arms makes me laugh, and for the first time tonight, I’m not worried about the crowd. The cameras, the people, the press—they all disappear. Pulling her around me, I tug Izzy back against me. My pulse races when I see her. Tuesday, her aunt, was a makeup artist before she took over doing some of the public relations for the company, and she has outdone herself tonight.

It’s not that I don’t find Izzy beautiful when she isn’t made up—in fact, I think she looks her best with no makeup on—but tonight, she’s drop-dead gorgeous. With her blonde hair spiraling down around her face and covering one of her eyes, she looks a hell of a lot older than eighteen, and it’s killing me not to sweep the hair out of the way so I can see her entire face. The dress she bought special for tonight covers everything from her neck to her thighs, but then it’s nothing but legs for days until you get to her feet. I’m scared to death that one of these days she’ll slip and fall in those fucking heels she wears, but she hasn’t seemed to have an issue yet.

“Are you nervous?”

Her eyes drop to my chest, and I know that no matter what she says, I have my answer. With this being the first time she’s going to sing in front of a crowd since her father died, I half expect her to back out at the last minute. Although, if I said anything like that to her, she would most likely do it simply to prove me wrong; I’ll have to keep that in mind just in case.

I’ve been told by most of her family that she has been coming out of her shell more since we started dating. She’s doing more of the things that she cut herself off from when she lost her father—like singing. I knew better than to push the issue about her performing tonight, but she finally decided to do it on her own. I’m not sure what brought her around, but I’m glad for whatever it was. 

I’ve been to a few of the Rock for a Cure concerts since they started, but this is by far the biggest, and longest, production they have done yet. Cameras are everywhere to record every performer—as well as the entire concert, which is why I am behaving and not hauling Izzy to a dark corner somewhere. The entire setup and production is being paid for by IronSound so that the profits can go toward the charity they do it for. 

“Are you gonna answer me?” I laugh, tugging her chin up to force her gaze back to mine.

“Izzy,” someone shouts from behind me, making her smile.

“Saved by the crisis.” She steps away for a second, nodding along as the guy tells her what he needs, and then she’s back by my side. She pulls me down and gets close enough that her hot breath hits my ear when she speaks, doing nothing to help the fact that I want to bend her over right here and now. I hate that I have to leave as soon as I’m done here to catch a plane and meet up with the tour because it means we have no alone time at all. “There’s something wrong and the engineer needs me for something. You need to get wired up and be ready to go because you’re on in fifteen.”

“They can’t fix it without you?”

Stepping away from me with the same smug look on her face as the day she met me in Chicago, she shakes her head. “I told you it’s not all about the man with the microphone.” Winking, she turns away from me and sways her ass until she’s out of my sight.

The man that has been following me all day with the camera laughs. When I look up, he’s shaking his head. “Damn woman’s gonna be the death of me,” I tell him, knowing full well it’s being recorded. “But damn, it’s gonna be a good ride to the grave.”

“So I hope you guys aren’t sick of me yet because I have a little surprise. I’ve got time for one more song and then this gorgeous, little creature is taking over the stage, but I thought for just one song, maybe if you didn’t mind…”

I don’t get to finish my thought before I’m cut off by the sound of people screaming. If either one of us had any hesitation left in us about doing this, it’s gone now.

“She may be new to recording, but her name is legendary in this town. Please welcome to the stage the most amazing woman in the world that I just happen to have the pleasure of going home to at the end of the day.”

From where I’m standing in the middle of the stage, I can see the blush creeping up her neck, heating her face. Grabbing my hand when she finally reaches me, she squeezes so hard I’m afraid something may have cracked, but I don’t complain. Her being on stage is a big step. I whisper a word of encouragement in her ear as the band starts the opening notes to “Look at Me” by Carrie Underwood. Since Izzy wasn’t ready to let the world in on the duet we’ve made one of her father’s songs into, we settled on this.

Halfway into the second verse, Izzy’s hand flies to her stomach and the widest smile graces her lips. She continues to sing through whatever is going on, but when she grabs my hand and places it in the spot her hand was just in, I forget what I’m doing. 

“Was that?” I ask, forgetting that we’re in the middle of a song and are being recorded in front of a huge crowd. She laughs, her eyes glistening with tears as she nods. “Holy shit there really is a baby in there.”

Izzy laughs harder, and the band stops playing behind us. It isn’t until that moment that I’ve realized what I have done.

Looking up, I shrug, attempting to laugh off how much I just fucked up. “Sorry guys, but feeling your kid kick for the first time is the most amazing thing in the world. I got a bit sidetracked there, mind if we start over?”

We finally make it through the rest of the song but I refuse to take my hand off her stomach. I pull her off the stage and push her into the first dark corner I can find. I figure I have about three minutes before she actually has to be on stage, and I need to kiss her. She’ll probably want to kick my ass for messing up her makeup before she goes on, but I don’t give a single fuck. I kiss her until neither one of us can breathe.

“Sorry about that,” I yell, resting both hands on her stomach. “But this is crazy.”

“Don’t be sorry, but I do have to get out there and you have a plane to catch.” 

Her face drops at the mention of me leaving, but we both know it’s only for a few weeks. I hate having to leave and being away from her, but this is what I wanted; it’s the whole reason she’s in my life in the first place.

“I’ll be right here for most of your set, but I’ll probably miss the last song or two.”

“I figured as much.”

Grabbing her hand, I pull her back to me when she tries to step away. “Make sure you set the alarm, don’t leave without Willow tonight, and call me as soon as you get home.”

“Yes, Dad,” she says sarcastically.

Pointing at her, I shake my head. “When you call me later, I’ll show you exactly why you should never call me that.”

Backing away, her smile grows. “Promises, promises.”

“You fucking rocked tonight,” Willow yells, bouncing down the hallway. “That was awesome. I can’t believe you haven’t been on a stage since you were seven.”

I yawn, but Willow seems to be a ball of energy. Dropping onto a stool by the kitchen island, I kick my shoes off. I could probably cry because my feet hurt so bad. Folding my arms, I rest my head on them and peek up at her. As promised, I called Bennett as soon as I pulled into the driveway. To be honest, his threat had me excited to call him all night. With the phone cradled in my hand on speakerphone, he listens to the craziness while getting settled in on his bus.

“How the hell do you have so much energy? You did as much, if not more, running around than I did today.”

Willow shrugs and grabs a bottle of water from the fridge. “I don’t know, but I have to work some of the energy off before I go to bed. Do you mind if I use the studio?”

“You know you don’t have to ask, right?” Bennett says, is voice booming from the speaker on my phone.

“It’s in your house.”

I laugh. “Go for it, babe. Just make sure to set the alarm again if you leave before I get up which you probably will since I think I’ll sleep for a week after tonight.”