You Really Got Me (Rock Star Romance #1) (27 page)

“I’m not telling you to be anything. I’m telling you that I’m not going to sign any contracts until we have a conversation about the direction of this band. Which is what we should do. This is a career. You can vote me off the island. The four of you can carry on without me, no hard feelings. I want you to make your own choices. I’ve made mine.”

Slater didn’t want this conversation to escalate, but he couldn’t allow Pete to disrespect his girl. Slater tried to keep himself under control when he put his face in front of Pete’s and said, “I know you’re high right now, but if you ever disrespect Emmie again, I will fuck you up. Brother or not, you don’t ever hurt my girl. Do you understand?”

Pete looked shaken, features stained red.

“There’s no band without you, and you know it,” Ben said to Slater. “I’m in.”

Slater shook his head.
Wrong answer
. “No decisions tonight. I want us to think about it, about what we want and what we’re willing to sacrifice to get it. It’s an important turning point for us, and I don’t want anyone resenting me or going along with anything just to make sure we sign the contracts. Let’s talk about it the morning.”

Slater climbed the steep staircase behind her, unable to take his eyes off the gentle sway of her hips. As soon as she hit the second floor, she turned and caught him in her arms. “That was so hot.”

“Yeah?” He lifted her, loved that her legs immediately wrapped around him.

“Yeah.” The whole walk to his bunk she squirmed against him.

“Em.” He breathed into her ear, awash in her scent, the erotic rush of sensation spiraling out along his limbs. “Don’t get me started. Cooper’s bunk is above mine and Ben’s is below. We can’t do anything tonight.”

“Nothing?” She licked his ear, and desire sizzled along his nerves.

“Nothing.” He set her down. “Go downstairs and get ready for bed. There’s only one bathroom, so get done what you need to before everyone starts fighting for it.”

But she didn’t go. She gazed up at him with so much pride and love he wanted to look away. But he didn’t. He couldn’t.

“You love me.” She said it like it was a revelation.

“Yeah, I do.”

“No, I mean, you really love me.
Love
me, love me.”

He cupped her cheeks, felt the jolt of electricity travel down his spine. “I’m in love with you, Em.”

His heart thudded so hard it hurt. She looked at him with awe, with surprise—but that’s not what he needed. He needed her to feel the same way about him.

After what she’d seen in the lounge, he doubted she could do it. Or maybe she wasn’t all the way in.

“Why do you seem surprised?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Because . . . it seems too soon? In three years with Alex, it was never like this.”

“Like what?”

“This . . . big. This intense. Because we’re still together, even after you’ve been on the road. We could’ve fallen apart. The feelings could’ve faded since we’re not together every day. But instead, it just keeps getting better. Stronger. I didn’t know it could be like this.”

“Me neither.” He loved hearing her talk like this—like she really was in it with him.

She swallowed, looked away. Reaching for her toiletry bag, she blinked several times.

“Hey, you okay?”

Shaking her head, she pushed past him.

“Em,” he said, reaching for her. “Talk to me.”

She curled her hand around the back of his neck, brought him down to her. Pressing her mouth to his ear, she said, “I want . . .” Her fingers curled into his skin. “I want you so much . . .”

He pulled her away.

This morning she’d walked in on him and Piper. He got it.

She wasn’t all the way there yet.

*   *   *

With his back against the wall of his coffin, Slater held Emmie close, an arm across her waist, their legs intertwined. The engine rumbled loudly, and while he couldn’t hear his eleven bunkmates, he was extremely conscious of their presence.

“Are you worried what they’ll say tomorrow?” Emmie whispered, her hand under his T-shirt, stroking his bare chest.

“Not at all.”

“I’d be freaking out.”

“Yeah, well, I can only control my own actions. If they don’t want to stop partying, it’ll suck. It’ll mean Derek and I will have to start over again. But it’s smarter than carrying on with guys who’re gonna blow themselves up. It’ll be okay.”

“Hey.” She smiled. “You’re here. Your dreams are coming true.”

Slater nodded, sinking into those warm brown eyes.

“Are you thinking about your dad?”

“A little.” He nuzzled into her neck. “Yeah.”

His dad would go nuts. What a disaster to have chased so hard after something and never gotten even a taste. If he’d lived, he would’ve finally felt the satisfaction of victory.

Yet, another part of Slater, deeper, closer to the bone, knew he might never have gotten this far with his dad in the picture. His dad fucked everything up.

As had Slater. If Emmie hadn’t come into his life, would he still be sabotaging himself?

He kissed her, overwhelmed with emotion for her.

Her hands went into his hair. “You’re a good man. You’re so much better than you let on. Tonight, you let them see you. That’s . . . that’s huge.”

“You make me a better man.” He deepened the kiss, loving how she opened up to him so completely, her mouth letting him in, her legs shifting restlessly. But he had to stop it before he got too stirred up. “I want to tell you something, but I don’t want you to get upset.”

“Okay.”

Rubbing his thumb against the furrow that appeared between her eyes, he said, “I was taking a shower not long ago, and Piper came into the bathroom.”

Her eyes flared with both anger and tension.

He smiled, stroked his thumb across her smooth cheek. “Don’t worry. It doesn’t turn me on. It just annoys me. But she looked at us in the mirror and said we made a perfect couple. She tried to pass it off like she meant us as a touring act, but I knew what she was doing.” He whispered in her ear, “She’s not as clever as you think.”

Emmie let out a huff of breath, like she didn’t believe him.

He continued. “But in that moment I thought,
this
is it, right here. This is what I want Emmie to understand. It’s why you never have to worry about us. Because you see me, and for some reason I’m not going to question, you want to be with me. Piper, the others, they see what they want me to be. And it means nothing. Everyone’s just trying to manipulate me, use me for their own purposes. You want me for me.” He kissed her again. “And that’s what I need.”

She let out a shuddery breath, lifted up to meet his mouth, and kissed him.

She kissed him and kissed him and kissed him, the incredible softness of her mouth inciting a dangerous need within him. Desire pulsed through his body as her hands scraped across his scalp and her breasts pushed against his chest.

He shifted between her legs, because he had to feel her, had to press himself against her. Her hips arched, and his dick surged with intense need. Grabbing her hips, he pushed them down.

“We can’t.” He kissed her some more, losing himself in her sweet scent, the urgent thrust of her hips, the breathy whimpers that told him how desperately she needed him, too. All his edges blurred, and he didn’t know how he was going to make it through the night without sinking into her.

As tightly as he held her, she wouldn’t stop thrusting up into him. Their mouths fused, and he couldn’t stop. He needed her, all of her. Her hands shifted down his back, pushing underneath the waistband of his gym shorts. “Fuck,” he breathed into her mouth, trying to pull away, but she caught him to her again, wrapping her legs around him and squeezing, her hips grinding, rubbing. Through her cotton shorts, he could feel the shape of her, the hot indentation that beckoned him to slide inside.

His back bowed, breaking the hold her legs had on him. “We can’t.”

“I have to.” Her hand pulled out of his shorts, came around between them, and rubbed his painfully hard erection. Grasping him and stroking him hungrily, her mouth licked and kissed her way down his chest. “God, I
have
to.” She shoved his bottoms down, her hot breath at his navel, skimming lower and lower. Her tongue took a long, sexy swirl around his tattoo before traveling lower.

“No, Em.” He shook her shoulder, but she ignored him, shucking his bottoms off his hips and taking his aching cock into her hot, hungry mouth. She sucked him in deep, making his body jerk, and then drew him out slowly, her tongue dancing and licking around him. Christ, liquid heat shot through his veins, and he didn’t know how the hell he was supposed to not move.

Her hand gripped him at his base while her mouth sucked him to the back of her throat, her tongue working him madly.

If he didn’t thrust, he’d go insane. It was too much, too intense. But if he moved, everyone would know what was happening in his bunk. He couldn’t embarrass Emmie that way, but Christ, she felt so good. Her hunger for him, the insane suction, the tightness of her fist, the slick heat of her mouth. He couldn’t take it anymore. With as much control as he could muster, he pumped his hips, careful to create as little movement as possible. His fingers curled into her silky hair, and he let himself go, let himself feel everything she did to him. He was close, so fucking close.

And then her hands cupped his ass, pushing him deeper down her throat, so deep his balls pulled in tight, his spine tingled, and then his body went rigid as he exploded into her succulent mouth. He was out of control, pumping his hips, desperate to finish without making a sound, but . . .
Christ.

She licked him clean, kissed the tip of his cock, then crawled back up to him with those needy, urgent hands running all over his chest. He enfolded her in his arms and crushed her to him.

“You’re shaking,” she whispered so quietly he barely heard. Or maybe the blood roaring through his veins drowned out her voice.

“Yeah. You do that to me.”

“You make me crazy.” She moved restlessly against him, her arms sliding over his chest, along his biceps, down his stomach, sweeping around to his back. It was like she wanted to feel his every muscle. Her body trembled, pulled taut with need.

He’d never felt this connection with anyone before. “Don’t give up on me, Emmie.”

“I’m not.”

He couldn’t bear to lose her. He loved her. He loved her so much. His hand pushed under her shirt, reveling in all that warm, smooth skin. He slowly moved up her stomach, fingers tracing her ribs, until he cupped her breast, causing her back to bow and a hiss of breath to escape from her lips. His thumb brushed over the sexy little tip, and he thrilled at the feel of it beading at his touch.

And then they were kissing again, wilder than before, as she arched into his hand. He loved her breasts, loved their softness, the weight of them, the hard bead rubbing against his palm.

“Jonny.” She whispered his name like a plea.

He slid his hand between her legs, and she spread open for him, her body trembling. He stroked into her curls, and the moment he found her slick, hot center, desire shot through him like a bolt of lightning. One slow stroke across her clit had her gasping, and he covered her mouth with his to quiet her.

But she tore away. “I can’t,” she whispered in his ear, clutching him to her, writhing against him. “Oh, God, I can’t.”

His finger made slow swirls around and over the sensitive nub, and she was bucking, grabbing for his hair, clutching fistfuls.

“Oh, my God,” she said, giving a tiny little cry that made him smile against her mouth.

“You’re so fucking beautiful.” He plunged his fingers inside of her, curling them so they rubbed against her spongy wall, and all the while his thumb continued to circle her honey-soaked clit.

She buried her face against his shoulder, biting down into his flesh. Her body jerked, stiffened, then rocked against him for long, sensuous moments as he continued to stroke her until she gasped and collapsed against him.

She blew out a slow breath, hitching her shorts back up and straightening her top. “Do you think anybody heard?” she asked, one hand on his cheek.

She was adorable.

—

Emmie stood in front of the grimy mirror in the truck stop bathroom and tried to tame her messy hair. While the just-got-laid look made her feel pretty damn hot, she didn’t think she should show up for the band meeting flaunting it. So, she pulled her hair back into a ponytail. Zipping her toiletry bag, her teeth feeling clean, her mouth tasting minty, she turned to go. Just then the door opened and in walked Piper Lee.

Jeez. Even without makeup, she was just as pretty, just as glamorous. All that long, straight, shiny hair. Her lean figure in black leggings, expensive black ballet flats, and a tight black tank that accentuated her high, perky breasts. How could any guy resist her?

Funny how Emmie worked with the biggest names in the business, but no one made her as uneasy as this one woman. In New York City, at Amoeba Records, Emmie felt powerful. Respected. But this woman? She sucked the power right out of everyone in the room, drawing it into her own core.

Well, Emmie would take it right back. “Morning.”
She’d
slept in Slater’s bed. He’d told
her
he loved her. This woman did not have any power over Emmie or her and Slater’s relationship unless Emmie gave it away.

A smile bloomed over Piper’s elegant features. “Oh, hey. So glad you got to spend some time with the guys. You must really miss them.” She gave a pitying expression that said,
Your loss.

Yeah, Emmie missed the guys. But the way Piper looked at Emmie made her question whether or not the guys missed her. With their crazy schedule, all the press and travel . . .

Emmie wanted to smack her head against the mirror. Score! Piper was so freaking good at this game, making Emmie question whether or not the guys missed her. How did Piper
do
that?

No, no, no. The guys
did
miss Emmie. She remembered how they’d gathered around her table last night, the easy banter, the warm exchange. She had an unquestionable bond with them.

“But don’t you worry about a thing. I’m taking good care of them.” Piper breezed past, her subtle perfume floating in the air around them, and reached for the handle of a stall.

“That gives me peace of mind.” Emmie’s voice rang out in the windowless bathroom. “Thank you.”

Piper cast a glance over her shoulder, her expression unreadable. Clearly trying to figure out the coded message.
Well, guess what? There is none.

Not playing.

“Hope the rest of the tour goes great.” Emmie strode out of the bathroom. “See you.”

Emmie came out of that bathroom and leaned against the rack of potato chips. She could see why Slater found managing her and Piper so exhausting.

*   *   *

When Emmie boarded the bus, she found all the guys but Pete sitting on the couches. The guys talked easily, as though last night’s tension hadn’t happened. Slater’s gaze latched onto her, watching as she sat next to her brother for a moment.

“Do you want me to wait upstairs?” she asked Derek.

“Not at all. You’re part of us, Em.”

Cooper leaned forward, touching her knee. “Hey. I don’t remember much about last night, but I know from Slater’s ugly face that we fucked up. You’re the best, and I hope I didn’t say anything to insult or . . .” He looked away, all sad and regretful. “Hurt you,” he said quietly.