Rock Solid (Rock Hard #3) Seduced By The Rockstar - BBW Erotic Romance (6 page)

With her stomach in knots she sat back at her
desk. She took out her cellphone, looking at it a long time before
finally punching in Gage’s number. He answered almost
immediately.

“What’s wrong? Is everything okay?”

“No, nothing’s wrong at all, Gage. Nothing a
little honesty wouldn’t cure.”

“What are you talking about? Kate, what’s
wrong?”

Kate wanted to scream at him, but she took a
deep breath. “Gage, we need to talk. Now. I’m on my way to the
hotel.”

She hung up, cutting Gage off in
mid-sentence. She stared at her laptop screen, the blank white
document mocking her. As much as she knew she needed to start, her
mind was too scattered to form any coherent thoughts. Getting to
the bottom of this with Gage was more important.

Jamming everything into her bag, including
the tabloid Ursula had left, with Gage’s face splashed across the
front page, she slipped out of her cubicle and took the elevator to
the lobby. She managed to find a cab and rode to the W Hotel in a
state of shock. Pushing through the lobby door, she found Gage
pacing, obviously waiting for her. When he saw her, he strode over,
reaching for her. She backed away. Gage stopped, looking
confused.

“What’s wrong, Kate? What’s happened?” He
moved closer, his face creased with a frown.

As she was about to answer Gage, a scream
from across the lobby made both of them jump. She turned to see a
gaggle of teenage girls scurrying across the lobby, calling Gage’s
name, waving pens and papers. Before either of them could react,
they were surrounded, the girls pushing between her and Gage.

Kate took a step back, watching as Gage
turned on the charm, asking each girl her name and signing their
assorted belongings. To her horror, one of the girls pulled her
shirt down, asked Gage to sign her breast, saying she was going to
get his name tattooed on her. Gage deflected the girl, instead
signing her forearm. The girls then produced cameras and
cellphones, asking for pictures. Gage stood briefly, arms around
the shoulders of two girls. And then he moved away from the girls,
thanking them and almost dragging Kate by the arm toward the
elevators. Kate heard snickering behind her and glanced back to see
the group whispering and pointing.

“Forget them, Kate. They’re teenage girls;
they’re going to hate you no matter who you are. You’re not ‘Kate
Preston’ to them; you’re the girl they’re not.” He pushed the
elevator call button several times, shifting restlessly as they
waited for the car.

It wasn’t until they were behind the closed
door of his suite that he finally spoke.

“Okay, Kate. What is it? You cut me off on
the phone, you’re obviously upset. What’s going on?” Gage sat on
the arm of a chair, his face etched with concern.

“Is there something you want to tell me,
Gage? About your future plans? Not ‘our’ future, but yours?”

Gage closed his eyes, running his hand
through his hair. He was silent for a long moment. Then he looked
up at Kate.

“Yeah, I heard about the European tour from
my manager today. I swear, when you were here, I had no idea this
was being set up.”

“Gage, really? You expect me to believe that
a multi-nation tour came together since the US tour ended? In just
a few days? Even I know things don’t move that fast.”

Kate was breathing hard, anger suddenly
flooding through her. “You knew this but you didn’t tell me. You’re
just playing me to get what you want, to have it both ways. You
want me but you want things to just keep going the way they have
for you.”

Gage stood. “That’s unfair, Kate. It’s not
what I want. But I told you yesterday that there were things I
could not control about my life. And this is one of them. I heard
about this after you left. I swear.”

Rooting in her bag, Kate pulled out the cheap
paper, tossing it on the coffee table. Gage leaned down, picking up
the paper. Kate saw the paper tremble in his hands as he sat down,
as he looked at the photo and read the brief article. He finally
looked up at her, anguish written across his face.

“Like I said, Kate, I didn’t know about this.
The quote…” he shook the paper “…was something my manager made up.
I’m sure at some point in the past I said I’d like to see my
European fans, but never in the context of going there next month.”
He sighed, tossing the paper back on the table. He rose, standing
in front of Kate.

“Look, I know you’re upset, but what do you
want me to do? This is beyond my control now. We’re going to have
to make the best of it, to work through this. It’s what I was
talking about, how there are things I can’t control. I can only
control how I react to them.”

“So, if you’ve known this since this morning,
when were you planning on telling me?”

“Kate, as soon as I could. I’d just hung up
from talking with my manager when you called. I hadn’t even seen
that tabloid, until you brought it here.”

Gage reached for her but Kate moved away,
walking to the floor to ceiling windows. She looked down, watching
the traffic on Lexington Avenue far below. There was something
nagging in the back of her mind, something that kept her from
believing Gage completely.

She felt Gage’s hands on her shoulders, the
warmth of his body pressing against her. As angry as she was, she
closed her eyes, leaning back against him. His lips brushed against
the soft skin of her neck, sending an involuntary shiver through
her body.

“Stop, Gage. Don’t do this now.” Her voice
was husky, breathless. She didn’t even believe her own words.

Gage’s hands moved down her arms, his breath
hot against her ear. She felt him gently pull her away from the
window and she turned to face him. The look on his face said it
all; he planned to seduce her, take her to bed and use their
chemistry together to make her forget her anger.
Well, not this
time.

She pulled against his hands, jerking her
arms away. “No, Gage. You’re not going to fuck me out of this, this
time. I’m serious.”

Gage frowned, his eyes dark. She saw rising
anger in his face, knew she’d hit a nerve.

“Is that what you think I’m doing? That’s
what I do when we make love? That I use sex to get my way?” He
shook his head angrily. Kate turned away.

“Do you think that’s all I want out of this
relationship? You in my bed, fucking me, or sucking my cock?” He
reached for her again, spinning her around to face him, his fingers
digging into her arm.

“Don’t walk away from me, Kate. Not now. You
know there’s more to this than you’re willing to admit. Something
else is bothering you besides the new tour. I know you’re upset,
but you need to talk to me.”

“Let go of my arm, Gage.” Kate’s voice was
low. Gage let go reluctantly, taking a step back. “You’re not going
to control this situation. And yes, there are a lot of things
bothering me. The tour, you’re flirting with girls in the hotel,
your façade of pretending to listen to me so that I’ll be lulled
into thinking you’ve actually changed.”

Kate’s words came out in a rush. “Nothing’s
changed, Gage. You only tolerated sitting through lunch with me at
Sarabeth’s. I was so caught up in being with you I forgot to pay
attention to who you really are. You fidgeted the whole time. You
weren’t really interested in what I had to say. You were just
biding your time until I stopped talking so you could make your
move.” She made a sound of disgust.

“But I fell right into that. I made all the
moves and you just sat back and lapped it all up.”

“Kate, you can’t really believe that, can
you?” He moved to take her in his arms but in a flash, Kate slapped
Gage’s face.

Her hand flew to her mouth. “Don’t touch me!”
Kate backed up, bumping against the arm of the couch. She could
feel heat rising in her face, her heart pounding in her chest. Her
mind was screaming she should leave; this wasn’t doing either of
them any good. But her body was screaming for Gage, and before she
could stop herself, she flung herself against him, her arms around
his neck, pulling his face to hers, her mouth pressed against his.
She felt him resist, but only briefly before he wrapped his arms
around her, his hands spread across her back.

He broke away from their fiery kiss, his
breath ragged in his throat. “Kate, what is this? You’re all over
the place. I love you. What more do you want?”

Kate was breathing hard, emotions and
sensations and arousal spiraling through her body. “Gage, I know. I
love you too, but is that enough?” She looked up at him, searching
his face. Rather than answer, he claimed her mouth again, his hands
cupping her ass.

She felt his fingers clutching at her, his
tongue probing her mouth. A brief flash of anger flared through
Kate at his silence, and she bit Gage’s lip. He jerked back, his
eyes dark, not with anger, but with pure primal lust.

In one swift motion, he pushed Kate back onto
the couch, falling on top of her. She pushed at him, pummeling his
chest with her fists, but he pinned her down easily with his
weight. But then her fists unclenched and her impatient fingers
were working the buttons of his shirt, pulling at it, finally
yanking the fabric with both hands, several buttons popping
off.

He bent his head to her mouth, hesitating
briefly. “No more biting,” he growled, before bruising her lips
against his, forcing his tongue into her mouth, greedily plundering
every soft recess.

Gage was grinding his hips hard against hers,
the tight material of her jeans rubbing between her legs, setting
her afire. She could feel the bulge of his erection, the heat of
him through his jeans. Her hands moved to the snap and zipper,
finally getting them undone. Gage pushed his jeans down his hips,
his erection brushing against Kate’s fingers.

His hands seemed to be everywhere on her,
pulling her shirt open, clutching her breasts, raising her hips so
she could slide her pants off. As soon as she was free of her
jeans, she wrapped her legs around Gage’s waist, twisting her hips
against his cock.

Instantly he was inside her, pushing hard,
his hips thrusting quickly in short strokes. Kate gasped, rocking
her hips up to meet him. He slammed into her, his head buried on
her shoulder, breathing heavily, grunting with each thrust.

The force of his thrusts was knocking the
breath out of Kate, but the intensity and pure animal lust was
doing mad things to her body. She raked her fingers across Gage’s
back, digging them in as he thrust into her, hearing him cry out in
pain. But it only seemed to fuel the fire between them.

Their bodies were slick with sweat, their
hearts pounding, as Gage drove them on with his relentless pace.
Kate lost all sense of time and place, the only thing in her focus
the intense arousal building in her body, the point of contact with
Gage, his body against hers, thrusting into her over and over.

And then she screamed, her body arching up
beneath Gage as her orgasm broke. She thrashed her head from side
to side, curling against Gage, biting down on his shoulder as wave
after wave washed over her body.

Suddenly Gage thrust himself deep inside
Kate, holding himself taut and tense above her. She looked up,
watching his face as he came, the look indescribable, pain and
pleasure mixed. He cried out, loudly, his body shuddering in
release as he pumped his hot liquid into her. She felt the
delicious wet heat of him as he filled her. It made her cry out, a
second small orgasm passing through her.

They lay in a tangled heap on the couch for a
long time, hearts pounding, breathing hard, Gage’s head buried in
her shoulder, her hands roaming idly over his back. After a time he
propped himself up on one elbow.

“What you do to me, Kate. What we do to each
other.” He kissed her softly.

Suddenly he stood up, climbing off the couch.
Kate watched him walk out of the room, reappearing with his cell
phone.

“What are you doing?” She struggled to sit up
as he sat next to her.

“What I should have done earlier, before this
all happened.” He waved his hand absently around the suite.

“I’m calling my manager. I’m cancelling the
European tour.”

***

Gage’s heart was pounding as he waited for
the call to go through. Kate was sitting next to him, a bewildered
look on her face. Finally his manager answered.

The conversation went pretty much the way
Gage expected. His manager yelled, screamed, threatened that
turning down the tour would destroy Gage’s career…the tirade Gage
had anticipated. He listened to the man explain all that was at
stake, the expenses involved, tickets would have to be refunded,
legal issues would arise.

“Yeah, I know all that. And that’s why I pay
you, to handle this stuff. Look, artists cancel tours all the time;
they get sick, they go to rehab, they flake out for some reason.”
Kate took his hand. He turned to her, a look of amazement on her
beautiful face.

“My reason? My reason is my future and what
really matters to me in the end.”

He flipped the phone shut, tossing it on the
table. Leaning back against the cushions, he ran his hands through
his hair, tugging the long strands. Kate moved closer, curling up
next to him, her head on his shoulder.

“Gage, I don’t know what to say. It’s a
really big decision and well, you’re sacrificing so much. I’m just
not sure it’s the best thing for you.”

Reaching down, he tipped Kate’s face to his.
“It is. It’s the right decision, and right now I feel better than
I’ve felt in ages.” Gage shifted on the couch.

“You do believe me, that I didn’t know about
this tour till today though, right?” Gage looked at Kate.

“Yes, I do. I’m sorry I doubted you. This
whole thing has been so overwhelming, all the way back to the first
interview. I’d never thought I’d see you again and then there you
were, the rockstar Gage Stevens. And then the tour, and everything
that happened.” She took a breath.