His Assurance (Assured Distraction Book 3) (13 page)

“I guess we’ll see y’all later then. We’ll text if we need something, or you can send me the list y’all made up.” I told them.

“We’ll be fine, Mom and Dad. Promise.” Journey blew a kiss as they walked away.

“Funny. Be safe,” I yelled at them without getting a response.

I looked at Gunner, who was wearing all of his hair under his baseball hat and aviator Ray Bans. We both prayed no one noticed him. Neither of us wanted any drama this evening.

“What do you want to do, Gunner?”

He looked in my direction, and I couldn’t see his eyes. I could tell so much about him when I could see the color, so I knew it was going to bother me having them covered. He stooped down and put his mouth next to my ear. “My little cherry pie, what I want to do is take you back home and fuck you good and plenty on that round couch, but I think you’ll nix that plan.”

I smiled. “You would be wrong about that because your plan sounds perfect to me. Buuut,” I drew out the word making it more than one syllable, “I don’t think leaving now is a good idea.”

“Well, shit. Somehow I knew you were going to say that.” He took my hand and led me to the nearest big stage. “Let’s go see who’s backstage already.”

“You mean we can just walk backstage, and no one will stop us?” My interest perked up quickly.

He produced two badges and handed me one. “With these, we can do whatever the hell we want.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me.

“Way to go, Mr. I-Can-Be-Sneaky.” I raised up and gave him a little kiss.

Backstage rocked like nothing I had ever witnessed. Comfortable areas provided spaces for the bands to chill while waiting to perform. The large stages were for the bigger names playing at night. Gunner knew the members of many of the bands, and the ones he didn’t know someone else would introduce us.

I was super excited when I found out that X Ambassadors were the act before Imagine Dragons. I loved the music of both of these bands. Gunner knew them pretty well since they played a few of the same festivals. He wanted to meet the drummer for Imagine Dragons, and Adam Levine made that happen for him. I think Gunner was doing some fangirling himself when he shook hands with Daniel Platzman.

The early evening bled into night quickly, and we had never left backstage. It surprised me when a text finally came through from the girls looking for us. We agreed to meet in the VIP area in front of the stage for Imagine Dragons.

The area had about fifty people standing around and was the closest you could get to the stage. The performance rocked as we knew it would. The girls loved being close enough to make eye contact with the hot musicians. The park shut down as soon as the last song was over.

When we climbed in the car, I noticed Ivy was missing from the group. “Where’s Ivy?”

“Oh, she’s bringing some dude home with her, so they are coming in their own car,” Lauren told us.

“What? Who is it?” I looked at Gunner, and he smiled and shook his head.

“Some lead singer and guitar player she met today from one of the bands. The band was freaking awesome, and he got security to take her backstage after the concert. They are playing at Stubbs tomorrow night, so she invited him back to the house,” Journey said.

“She’s bringing some random guy to our house. Is she planning for him to stay the weekend?”

“Doubt it. Probably just tonight or maybe not. I don’t know. It’s not my job to police her, Lola. She’s an adult, remember?” Journey’s attitude told me I shouldn’t be policing her either.

“Well, okay.” I got in the car and looked at Gunner. He peeled off his sunglasses finally and then took my hand and kissed it.

“It’ll be fine, Lola. This shit happens all the time.”

“I’m sure you would know.” I smiled at him, but I didn’t feel like smiling on the inside.

I knew something like this was going to come up with Lola, but I prayed it wasn’t going to bite me in the ass when it did. I stayed at random women’s places and hotel rooms all the time on tour, or I had them at mine. Discussing the possibility with her never crossed my mind until I saw some of the groupies hanging around backstage. I worried some of the women I’d been with were going to show up and want to set up a second go round with me.

I could picture some random chick walking up like she knew me and starting a conversation, or worse, coming on to me? I was sure Lola would love it. Of course, meeting her wouldn’t have happened either, so I suppose it would be no big thing if one happened to show up. The worst problem to me was I hardly ever remembered the women by the time we got back on the bus or plane because alcohol was usually involved with a random hook-up for the night. I rarely stayed the entire night with them. I wasn’t against sleeping with women, but I didn’t like getting up to catch the bus the next morning. I would hardly get any sleep that way.

The night in Paris I spent with Lola was outstanding, though, and we didn’t do much sleeping, but we did stay together the entire night. I didn’t want to leave her the next morning and would have taken her with me if she could have gone.

We all rolled into the driveway about the same time, which was good because Lola would have worried until Ivy showed with her friend. We all met the guy and then they went to her room. It seemed to me they were between fucks if I had to guess from the way they looked at each other. Damn, jealousy was an ugly thing.

I pulled Lola to me when the rest went upstairs. They changed and came down ready to forage in the kitchen. “
Mon chéri
, why don’t we go back to my house?” I kissed down her neck looking for the spot she responded to the most. “We can leave them your car, and I’ll bring you home tomorrow when I have to go to the festival, or we can all meet up there tomorrow.” I needed to convince her to come home with me. The kisses helped get her attention on where I wanted to go.

“Gunner, I don’t know. Do you think this strange man in the house is a good idea?”

“I don’t know, Lola. Did you think it was a good idea to have me in your hotel room when I was in Paris?” Probably was not the wisest of comebacks.

She whirled around and gave me a look that said it wasn’t. “This is different, and you know it.”

“No, it’s not. Think about it. You took me to your hotel room after the concert, and we spent the entire night having the best night of my life.” I hated to equate the two situations but they were exactly the same. It was the best night of my life and one that I won’t ever forget. I hoped she felt the same way.

Lola looked like she was deep in thought. I hoped it was because she remembered the fantastic night we shared because I would love a repeat performance. Mostly I hoped she understood what it meant to me.

“All right. I guess that’s a good idea; then I don’t have to be here tomorrow when he leaves.” She walked to the kitchen island where the girls were eating random things out of the packages. “Hey, I’m going to go home with Gunner in his truck, so you’ll have my car if you need it.” I laid her keys on the counter for them.

“Great. We’ll see you tomorrow then,” Journey spoke as she carried the bag of popcorn and her drink to the coffee table.

The look on Lola’s face was priceless. I knew she thought they were going to question her about us leaving. These girls were a lot more understanding than she was, but then they didn’t feel responsible for anyone but themselves, like most college kids.

I didn’t waste any time, afraid she would change her mind. I was getting her all to myself for the night and morning, finally. I threw her over my shoulder and started to my truck, but she wanted to take some things with her, so I had to put her down.

“Slow down there, Gunner,” Journey said with a laugh as Lola climbed the stairs. “Excited much? My sister must be an amazing freak in bed.” The others laughed as though that was impossible to believe.

If they only knew.

I broke the speed limit every chance I had back to my house. I needed to do something drastic like tying her to my bed for the next fifteen uninterrupted hours or so. I planned to enjoy every single inch of her body, and my desire for her was overwhelming by the time we arrived in my driveway.

I slammed the truck into park and looked at her sitting in the other seat. I wanted to calm this down a little. I needed to savor every single minute with her even if my anxiousness to have her was incomprehensible. God, she looked unbelievably stunning sitting beside me. The way she carried herself told me she had no idea which, in my book, looked even better.

She turned and looked at me. “What?”

“Nothing. I was sitting here thinking how beautiful you are.” I smiled at her.

“Don’t do that.”

“Don’t do what?” She needed to clue me in on what went on in her head.

“Give me that ‘melt my panties smile.’ It gets to me every time.”

“It’s the only smile I have, but I will remember what it does to you so I can use it when I need you to be thinking about me getting in your panties.” I reached for her hand, brought it to my lips, and kissed along her fingers where they met her hand.

“No. I never saw you look at Carter that way.” I stopped the kisses mid-hand.

“And I hope you never do. I’m not into guys. I thought you knew that already.”

“You know what I mean. I watched you talking to all of those bands today. I never saw that smile even when it was women.”

“Oh. You mean the smile I reserve for beautiful women I’m dying to have my way with?” I slowly pulled her over to me as the words escaped my mouth. I needed to kiss her now. Hell, I wanted to devour her, but I held off. Only our lips were close enough to touch, I spoke, “Like a certain beautiful woman who can set me on edge just watching her sit still beside me.” I lowered my lips to hers and barely touched them before pulling back but only to the point I could still feel her warm breath on mine. “Or the gorgeous tease with sexy hot pink little toes skimming up my calves?” I left a line of light kisses over to her ear and then sucked the lobe between my teeth for a soft bite and scrape to the edge. “Or the little minx who was tonguing my tattoos and distracting me from my game?” My tongue skimmed up the outer shell of her ear, exhaling the slightest warm breath from bottom to top. When the involuntary shiver ran through her, I returned to nibble her lips. I slid my tongue over the bottom one, and she opened them, pulling me to her, the kiss becoming all-consuming.

We came up for air, and I reached back and opened my door. “We need to go inside, and just so you know, I plan to continue exactly where we left off, the minute I turn the lock on that door.” I rounded the truck and opened her door, where she wrapped her arms and legs around my body, beginning her assault on my neck as I carried her inside the house.

“You know what would be fun?” she asked as I locked the door.

“Anything with you, sweet cherry pie.” She bit down on the artery running down my neck.

“We should continue where we left off earlier in the pool.” I liked where this was heading already. Pool sex was hot, and I had plenty of flat places with the tanning ledge to make it interesting.

“Yeah, it would. The water’s still warm, too.”

I carried her straight through the house and out the French doors grabbing towels on my way. I dropped them on the nearest lounge chair and walked off in the warm, dark water at the beach entrance before she knew what was happening. Her lips were preoccupied as I moved deeper into the water. When her sweet ass grazed the water, she let out a squeak.

“Gunner, our clothes!”

“Yeah, we’re about to lose them.” I slid my hands up the underside of her tank top and pulled it over her head. The hot pink, lacy bra she wore had a glow to it under the full moon. Near the deep end of the pool, I grabbed the side under her arms holding her out of the water.

“I do believe this is where we were before we were interrupted today.”

“Yes, but with more clothes.” I didn’t need any more incentive and snapped the clasp on her bra causing it to fall away from her beautiful tits. “You don’t have tan lines. Do you go topless in Paris?” Thinking of her lounging topless on the beach was hot, and I was jealous I wasn’t there to see it.

“Sometimes, my friends and I would go topless when we were by our pool at the house.” She pulled my shirt up and over my head.

I wrapped around her allowing the perfect tits to scrape lightly up and down my pecs. The warm water added another layer of sensation as the pink tips pebbled. Under the moonlight, they looked like heaven slightly bobbing in the water against my chest. I backed off enough to take one of the stiff peaks in my mouth tonguing and sucking it until I felt her move against my waist, trying to cause more friction where she needed it.

“We need to move this party of two so I can touch bottom. I want to be able to get to all of you.” I maneuvered our warm, wet bodies up the slope. She still had to bounce a little on her tiptoes, keeping her a little off-balance. I liked it because it gave me more control. I put her hands beside her head on the coping, so she held herself above the water.

“Hold on,
ma chéri.”

I went under water and found the low riding shorts that had been driving me crazy all day. When she moved the right way, a little strip of tanned skin peeked out to tease me. I couldn’t resist nipping around her navel ring that slightly dangled as I unbuttoned the offenders and slid those tiny panties off at the same time. Lightly sliding my index finger over her bare lips without breaking the seam, I heard her give a little gasp at the tender touch. Between the friction from before and those sexy noises she made, my dick was standing at full attention, waiting his turn.

I replaced my finger with my tongue and broke the surface of the water as I ran my tongue up her midline from pussy to chin. The scorching look she gifted me with made him harden even more. Damn, I needed this girl and her sweet pussy.

I stood and looked down at her. “Damn Lola, you are so beautiful.”

The way the moonlight glistened off the wet skin of her shoulders made my need for her even worse. “Shit.”

“What’s wrong?” She panted out.

“Condom. Don’t move. I’ll be right back.” I turned to jump out when she grabbed my arm.

“Wait, Gunner. I know this is soon, but I take the shot, and I know I’m clean. What about you?”

“I always get tested after each tour, but that’s a lot to ask of you to trust me enough to go bare, Lola. Honestly, as much as I would love to do that, I would never want you to feel like we have to.” I had only gone bare with a couple of girls when I was younger, and that was stupid on my part. When I finally got my head out of my ass and decided I better take responsibility for my life, I never did it again. Carter and I might spend a lot of time joking about it with our euphemisms, but we both knew it was the smart decision. Hell, we preached it so much to Hayden, no doubt he thought we were germophobes.

She pulled me back to her and looked me straight in the eyes. “I do trust you, Gunner, and I hope with this you will trust me, as well.”

Wow, she put this back on me. I wanted to trust her, but after all the shit Ryan, Peri, and Hayden were just now recovering from, I didn’t know. I thought about it a minute. I wanted to show her the trust I thought she deserved, but she still hadn’t addressed the things she told me in Paris. I hated having something between us that could later surface and cause problems. The look on her face made me feel bad for questioning myself about her.