One Night with Sole Regret 04 Touch Me (21 page)

Caitlyn assumed Amanda was his wife or
girlfriend. She didn’t want to pry, so she didn’t ask. Shade
disappeared behind a curtain that concealed his bunk near the back
of the bus.

“So if you weren’t a cheerleader, what was
your major?” Gabe asked, his brilliant green eyes alive with
interest.

“Don’t make me say it,” Caitlyn said. “I’m
supposed to pretend that I’m cool today.”

“If it makes you feel better,” Owen said,
“like you, Gabe went to college to be a career geek. But we
kidnapped him and chained him to a drum kit.”

“Were you a physics major?” Gabe asked, his
eyes wide.

“With a chemistry minor. My master’s is in
mechanical engineering.”

Gabe insisted she tell him all about her
current projects in fuel cells. She didn’t give him too many
details since they were working on a new prototype and you never
knew if your competition just happened to be a drummer in a rock
band. But Gabe was apparently ravenous for cerebral stimulation, so
she shared what she could. Owen seemed content to listen to them
talk.

She and Gabe eventually got into a highly
competitive game of backgammon. None of his band mates would play
with him. With the exception of Shade, who was evidently a heavy
sleeper, they all cheered her on to beat their drummer. Even
Kellen, who seemed sullen today, and Adam, who was slow to warm up
to Caitlyn, got in on the competition.

“Kick his ass, baby,” Owen said. “He gloats
for days every time he beats someone.”

“Which would be every time I play,” Gabe
said, rolling the dice and getting a pair of sixes. Again.

“I think his dice are loaded,” Caitlyn
complained.

“I’m just lucky.” Gabe winked at her. She
lost her train of thought for a moment. The physics majors in her
class hadn’t looked like him. If they had, she wouldn’t have been
fooling around with her English professor.

Gabe hit another of her pieces and lifted it
from the playing field to sit it on the bar in the center of the
board.

“Damn it.”

At this rate, she wasn’t going to get a
single piece into her home base. It was impossible to make it
across the board when she was spending all her time re-entering her
captured pieces.

“This is why no one ever beats him,” Owen
said. “He’s an offensive player.”

“I definitely find his playing offensive,”
Caitlyn said.

The guys laughed, and she flushed again.

By the time they reached Houston, she was
completely at ease in the presence of Owen’s band mates. And she’d
even managed to beat Gabe in one out of their three games, which
made her some sort of hero, especially in Adam’s eyes.

The bus stopped behind an empty stadium.
Caitlyn peered out a large tinted window, surprised by the
controlled madness shown by the road crew as they moved equipment
inside. The huge semi-truck was nearly empty. They’d obviously been
at it for hours before the band’s arrival.

As the other guys filtered off the bus,
chatting, Owen pulled Caitlyn aside.

“Are you glad you came?” he asked.

“So far. I haven’t been subjected to your
eardrum-damaging music yet.”

“You’ll enjoy it,” he said.

She wasn’t so sure, but she knew the guys in
the band, so like the dutiful aunt of a school kid, she’d go to
their music performance and tell them they sounded great no matter
how horrible they were.

When the last of the guys stepped off the
bus, Owen leaned in to steal a kiss. “I’ve wanted to do that for
hours,” he said.

“Then why didn’t you?”

“I have to live with these guys,” he said.
“And they can be pretty immature about teasing a guy about his
girl.”

“But you’re not like that, right?”

He grinned, and she guessed he was the
ringleader of the teasing.

“Of course not.”

He backed her into the square dining table
where she and Gabe had been playing backgammon and lifted her to
sit on its surface. His hands cupped her breasts, and he massaged
them gently.

“I’ve wanted to do this for hours too.”

She wrapped her legs around his hips and
urged him into a tight hug. He melted into her.

“I liked having you here with me today,” he
said. “The guys didn’t seem to mind either. I thought they’d give
me hell for bringing you along, but they seemed to like the
idea.”

She turned her face into his neck and
inhaled. Mmm. What was it about this man that drove her to
distraction?

“I know we haven’t known each other long,” he
said.

“That’s true,” she murmured.

“But you fit here somehow. You fit with
me.”

She went still, anticipating words she was
not ready to hear.

“So anytime you want to come hang out with
us, you’re welcome.”

Was that all? She snuggled closer to him
again.

“Because I really like you and I’d hate to
think we wouldn’t get to see each other again.”

“I’d hate that too,” she admitted.

“You could come with us tonight to Beaumont,”
he said. “And then after that we’re in New Orleans. I could take
you to another sex club, if you like. There’s an interesting one
there.”

Her lips brushed his throat. “Too soon,
Owen,” she said. She didn’t want to say no, but she did need him to
slow down. He was like a bullet train, and she was only prepared
for freight.

“Oh,” he said, the disappointment in his
voice perceptible.

“I’m not saying I don’t want to be with you,”
she whispered in his ear. “I just have a lot of responsibilities,
and I need to take things slowly.” She leaned back and cupped his
face in both hands. “I’m not rejecting you.” She knew that was what
he really feared.

“Feels like it,” he said.

Her heart gave a little pang for hurting him.
She understood why he had rules for his entanglements with women;
he got his feelings hurt much too easily to expose his heart. But
he’d exposed it to her, so she was going to have to be careful with
it.

“Why don’t you try kissing me into oblivion,
Owen?” she said huskily. “I seem to agree to your crazy plans when
I’m not thinking straight.”

He grinned and tugged her closer. “Now
there’s an idea.”

She was halfway to oblivion when someone
marched up the steps. Owen drew away and stared into her eyes for a
long moment before turning his attention to the man waiting for him
to finish his business. As far as Caitlyn was concerned, Owen’s
business wouldn’t be finished until his cock was inside her and she
was shattering in one of those fantastic orgasms he gave her, but
apparently this guy had other ideas.

“Can I help you, Jordan?” Owen asked.

“Uh, sorry to interrupt,” Jordan said, as if
he was sorry he was no longer watching Owen make out with Caitlyn.
“You’re needed for sound check.”

“I figured,” he said. “I’ll be there in a
minute.”

“Okay.”

Jordan watched him expectantly until Owen
said, “I don’t need an escort, Jordan.”

“Okay.” Jordan stared at them for one more
uncomfortable moment and then turned to leave the bus.

“Nice kid,” Owen said, “but he’s a little
slow on the uptake.”

“I think he’s overwhelmed with idol worship,”
Caitlyn said. She rubbed her breasts against Owen’s hard chest, in
no way ready to release him to his job.

“I think he was dropped on his head as an
infant.”

Her hand moved between their bodies to cup
his crotch. His cock jerked against her palm.

“Do we have time for a quickie?” she asked.
“It’s been several hours since my last orgasm, and I think I’m
developing an addiction to the feel of you inside me.”

He groaned. “That makes two of us.” He kissed
her deeply and then pulled away. “But we’re going to have to wait
until after sound check.”

“I hope it’s one of those things that only
takes a few minutes.”

“Doubtful. Do you want to come backstage and
watch or stay here on the bus?”

If he had to ask, he didn’t know how curious
she was to learn how things worked.
All
things. But he’d
learn that about her soon enough.

“I’d love to come backstage and watch you
work.”

“Okay,” he said, “but it will cost you a
blowjob.”

She knew he was just trying to get a rise out
of her, but she played along. “Great. I gave you one of those this
morning, so I’m all set.”

“Another blowjob,” he hurriedly remedied.

“You can’t change the rules after you state
your condition,” she said.

“Of course I can. I’m a rock star.”

“It’s a good thing I don’t care about that.
You’ll have to find someone else to be in awe of your fame. I’m
just in awe of your skill in bed.”

“Well, that’s something, I suppose,” he said,
and he helped her down from the table.

He took her hand and led her off the bus and
into chaos.

Caitlyn was overwhelmed by the amount of
activity going on backstage. She could never do Owen’s job; frayed
nerves would be a constant for her.

“Once sound check is over, we can find
someplace a bit calmer,” Owen said in her ear. “Get in that
quickie.”

“So you can tell I’m out of my element?”

“You look just a little freaked out,” Owen
said.

“She looks entirely spooked,” Gabe said.

Her eyes widened when she glanced at him.
He’d been wearing a baseball cap all day, but he wasn’t wearing one
now. He had a mohawk spiked at least eight inches in the air. It
was black near his scalp and scarlet at the tips, but what really
set her jaw on the floor were the dragon tattoos inked on his
scalp.

“
You’re
scaring her,” Owen said, and
covered her eyes with one hand. “Don’t look directly at it or
you’ll turn to stone.”

She laughed and elbowed Owen in the ribs. She
was grateful he’d given her a moment to collect her wits. Gawking
at Gabe’s head was a pretty crappy thing to do to him, especially
since she knew what a great guy he was. She adored his quick wit
and intelligence, even if she couldn’t stomach his ruthlessness on
the opposite side of a backgammon board. And she didn’t hold his
ink-work against him; she’d just been stunned, was all. She’d had
no idea he had dragons tattooed on both sides of his head.

“Sorry for staring,” she said, forcing her
eyes not to wander to the flames and the scaly hide inked on his
scalp. “I just didn’t realize…”

“If he didn’t want people to stare, he
wouldn’t style his hair like that,” Owen said.

“It’s not the hair, it’s the…” Caitlyn
reached up and grabbed Gabe’s head between her palms and forced him
to bend over so she could inspect the tattoos. “Damn, Gabe, didn’t
that hurt? It looks damned painful!”

“Yeah, it hurt,” he said. “I swear I saw God
that day. But the tattoo artist assured me that the unexplained
sparks and the tunneling in my vision were due to the pain, not a
higher power.”

“I bet it hurt worse than when Owen had his
cock pier—” Caitlyn slapped a hand over her mouth. She couldn’t
believe what she’d almost said to Gabe.

Gabe snorted and burst out laughing. “You
know what I like about you, Caitlyn?”

“My dashing smile?” She smiled so wide, her
cheeks hurt.

“That is
special
,” he said, “but no.
You have a naughty mind. You might try to censor it, but I know
it’s there.”

“I like that about her too.” Owen pried her
hands off Gabe’s head. “Here, hold on to this.”

Owen wrapped Caitlyn’s arms around his waist
and placed her hands on his ass.

“Oh yes,” she said, giving Owen’s firm ass
cheeks a squeeze. “This is much more fun to hold on to than Gabe’s
head.”

When it was time for Owen to work with his
instrument, Caitlyn reluctantly released her hold on his firm
backside. She noticed the bulge in his jeans before he shifted his
bass guitar in front of it. So she wasn’t the only one in need of a
quickie. A long, drawn-out lovemaking session would work too. She
was game for anything with Owen.

She did her best to stay out of the crew’s
way as she watched.

She was surprised by how well Owen played.
For a moment, she thought he was showing off his skill for her
benefit, and then it dawned on her that he was playing some of the
band’s songs.

When the low tones of his riff throbbed
through her body, she was suddenly completely astounded by his
musical skill. To her way of thinking, music was an auditory
expression of mathematics, mostly fractions—flats and sharps
changing tones by halves, the lengths of notes in quarters and
thirds. She’d always admired anyone who could play piano, and she
was starting to feel the same admiration for a certain bass player.
A man who had that much skill in music was a genius in her
book.

There was also something to be said about the
way Owen’s fingers moved on the strings, about knowing that’s what
caused those thick calluses to form on his fingertips. About
remembering what they felt like against her swollen, achy clit.

She was suddenly on fire for the man—no
touching required.

Caitlyn’s original intention had been to
watch the logistics of preparing equipment for a live show, but
somehow all the machinery and technology—which usually fascinated
her—was far less interesting than the man stroking four thick
strings. The technicians were talking to Owen and he was nodding,
but she couldn’t hear what was being said over the din of hammers
banging against steel pipes. After several minutes, Owen smiled at
her and then lifted the strap of his guitar over his head and
handed it off to one of the crew. Her heart thudded faster and
faster as he approached her. He never took his eyes off her
face.

“Are you finished?” she asked.

“I haven’t even started,” he said.

“Oh.” She couldn’t keep the disappointment
out of her voice.

“But I’m done with sound check.”