When she nudges her head to the only empty space left on the dark gray carpet, I contemplate what to do. The right thing would be to walk away, or better yet, carry her out of here over my shoulder like I did three nights ago, but when her tongue darts out to lick her top lip, like she’s prepping to kiss me, those thoughts turn to dust. I’m not going anywhere. If she wants to play, we’re going to play.
While taking a seat across from Kylie, I scan my opponents. The only face I can put a name to is Melanie’s. She’s sitting three spaces up from me, glaring at Kylie, shocked by her sudden decision to join the festivities.
One of the road crew—I think his name is Scott—takes his turn. I release the breath I’m holding in when his spin narrowly misses Kylie, landing on the girl next to her. After her eyes snap to mine, Kylie wipes her brow. I chuckle against the rim of my beer.Yep, she’s definitely drunk!
A blonde sitting next to Scott goes next. When the neck of the bottle lands on me, my eyes missile to Kylie. Her brows are furrowed, and she has a concerned look tainting her face. With a shrug, she adjusts the bottle so it points to the guy sitting next to me.
“Hey, that’s cheating!”
Kylie acts ignorant to the blonde’s roar by plopping back into her seat before lifting her glazed-over eyes to mine. She’s hungry. But it’s not food she wants to devour. It’s me.
“She can’t do that. I’m kissing the drummer.” The disgruntled player crosses her arms in front of her chest before locking her narrowed eyes with Melanie as if she’s the keeper of the kingdom.
“Kiss him or get out.” Melanie hooks her thumb to the guy sitting next to me before thrusting her hand to the entryway. “Those are your only choices.”
The blonde huffs before doing as instructed without further protest. It’s not all bad. The guy seated next to me isn’t hideous-looking. He just doesn’t have millions of dollars in his bank account. Well, I assume he doesn’t. We’re in San Francisco. It has more billionaires per capita than anywhere else in the world.
The next three turns pass without incident. Neither Kylie or I get picked by the spinning bottle. Now, it’s Kylie’s turn. She licks her red-painted lips before spinning the bottle. I watch it twirl with my heart in my throat, praying it lands on me. My palms slick with sweat when it slows to a snail’s pace before it narrowly misses me by stopping on the guy sitting next to me—the same guy the blonde kissed earlier.
Kylie’s bottom lip drops into a pout before she crawls toward the man the bottle landed on. Without any hesitation, I fist the scruff of his shirt, yank him across my body, then take his place. Melanie giggles loudly, but I can barely hear it over the mad thump of my heart. It’s beating so fast because Kylie didn’t flinch at my aggression. She smiled.
Once she’s close enough I can reach her, I push my index finger against her lips, stopping her from moving any closer. Rejection sparks in her eyes, but it doesn’t linger for long. After licking my thumb, I drag it across her lips, removing the thick coating of lipstick ruining her perfectly plump mouth. I want her lips bare like they were the first time we kissed.
Eager to get the show started, Kylie scrubs her lips with the back of her hand. Once all traces of her lipstick have been removed, she inches closer to me, her pace teasingly slow.
“Kiss him already!”
Melanie’s demand is closely followed by the hollering chants of the players surrounding us. My fingers thread through her silky smooth locks as Kylie sucks in hearty breaths, her shoulders rising and falling. We share the same air for several moments before the urge to taste her grows too great. As her thumb traces the throb in my jaw, I push my head forward. The instant our lips brush, I know I made the right decision in enforcing my one and only groupie rule.
I am forever ruined by her lips.
Chapter Sixteen
Kylie
“Holy shit, that party was crazy.”
Melanie’s baby pink silk chemise flutters against her milky white thighs when she saunters into the main bedroom of our hotel suite. I giggle when her dive onto the bed causes the morning newspapers to fly into the air. Part of my job is to gather any articles published about the band in print and online to present to Emily in bullet point format.
Today, things are pretty quiet on the gossip front. Noah and Emily had dinner at Michael Mina, and Marcus was spotted driving a convertible over the Golden Gate Bridge. Other than that, there are no huge new stories involving the band.
I glance at Melanie curiously when she sniffs the sheets on my bed. “What are you doing?”
She inhales a whiff of my spare pillow before dumping it next to her thigh with a roll of her eyes. “I thought your room would be reeking of hot, raunchy sex.” She purrs out the part about “hot, raunchy sex.” “I should have known better. Spin the bottle is practically a blowjob for someone as innocent as you.”
When I smack her upside the head with my pillow, she flops onto the bed, laughing. “Come on, that kiss was hot!” She throws the pillow back at me, missing my face, instead hitting my chest. “Even my panties got moist watching it.”
Bile burns the back of my throat. That’s the last image I want in my head right now. When Melanie notices the disgusted expression on my face, she rolls her eyes. “Don’t deny it. His kiss made you all wet and horny.”
I’m not denying it. My kiss with Slater last night was heart-stopping, knee-wobbling, pussy-clenching good. It was the highest-rated kiss I’ve ever had. He tasted clean and fresh with a slight hint of the beer he was consuming. I completely forgot we were in a house full of strangers until their rowdy cheers bellowed around us. Their comments were so crude, I either had to pull back or be seen as a harlot for the rest of my life. I chose to pull back. It wasn’t easy.
When I inched back, I locked my eyes with Slater’s. Not even an eclipse could compete with the lusty glint in his eyes. It was as if the last two years never happened. We were once again the up-and-coming rock god and the country girl too afraid to sing in front of an audience to show off her talents.
I’d give anything to go back and fix all the mistakes I made with him, but I can’t. Instead of letting the past haunt me, I jumped to my feet, declaring the snacks table needed to be replenished before making a beeline to the kitchen.
Usually, that's the only task I do when Melanie throws one of her infamous parties. I make sure the snack table is stacked and that we don’t run out of alcohol. Last night was the first time I participated in any of the games she organizes. I’m glad I downed a few glasses of liquid courage before Slater arrived. Otherwise, I might have missed experiencing one of his heart-stopping kisses again.
I felt Slater’s eyes on me the rest of the night, but he kept his distance. It was only when I informed Melanie at 3 AM that I was going to bed because I had to work the next day did he walk back toward the interconnecting door. When he stopped halfway through, our gazes met and held for several moments. If he had jerked up his chin, requesting for me to join him, I would have, but he didn’t. He merely offered me an uneasy grin before he darted into his room, closing the door behind him.
