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  She glanced at him and asked, “So, do you have family?”

  Well that topic definitely pulled the brakes on his libido. “Yeah. Doesn’t everyone?”

  “I suppose most do. Are they huge fans of your music?”

  He laughed. “Not especially. Hate isn’t a strong enough word to describe how they feel about my music. I had a strict, religious upbringing. My family is very conservative.”

  “You don’t talk to your family then?”

  “I didn’t say that. They don’t necessarily approve of how I live or the career I chose, but they love me. As long as I grow my hair out to cover the ink on my head before Thanksgiving, we get along just fine.” And while he mostly did whatever he wanted to do, he respected his parents enough not to flaunt his liberal attitudes in their home. As far as he was concerned, it was a fair compromise. His family’s comfort meant more to him than showing off his tattoos. He hadn’t discovered his wild side until he’d gone off to college. He didn’t have ink out of rebellion against his upbringing but because he’d legitimately liked all the designs enough to have them permanently etched on his skin. To him tattoos were art, not a statement.

  Melanie pulled into the hotel drive and stopped the car near a waiting valet. Gabe tensed with anticipation.

  “The ink looks good on you though,” she said, her eyes fixed on his scalp. “I’m not sure why.”

  He knew exactly why. “Forbidden fruit.”

  “So you think the reason I want you so bad is because my father would shoot you on sight?”

  “That sounds about right,” he said. And he had no issue with exploiting her daddy issues.

  “Well, seeing as he’d shoot any man I hooked up with before a wedding band strangled my finger, don’t think you’re so special.”

  The door opened, and the valet offered Melanie a hand out of the car. She exchanged her keys for a valet ticket while Gabe mentally cursed himself for abandoning his manners and not being the one to open her door. When had he started sucking at impressing women? Around the time a sexy accountant had careened into his chest and didn’t even have the decency to be hot and bothered the instant he’d touched her.

  “Charge that to my room,” Gabe said to the valet as he hurried around the car to claim Melanie’s elbow.

  “Yes, Mr. Banner.”

  Melanie managed to look impressed. “He knows you by name?”

  “I’m a VIP,” he said, “it’s his job to kiss my ass.”

  Unable to keep his hands to himself for another minute, Gabe draped an arm across Melanie’s lower back and drew her warmth against his side. She allowed him to lead her toward the grand entrance of the hotel, but apparently she was still in get-to-know-you mode.

  “So if your parents were against you becoming a musician—”

  “I didn’t say that. They were never against me becoming a musician. It’s the type of music I chose that they don’t appreciate. They wouldn’t have minded if I’d become a gospel singer.” He winked at her.

  “So how’d you become a drummer? It’s not exactly a church choir instrument.”

  “I was the percussion geek in marching band; I’m not talented enough to play a real instrument.”

  “Are you making that up?” she asked as they entered the lobby through a revolving door. She didn’t even gawk at the opulence. She was too busy sticking her cute nose into his business. And he was batting zero with dazzling her.

  “Why would I make up embarrassing shit? If I was going to lie, I’d make myself out to be cool and irresistible, don’t you think?”

  She tilted her head, appraising him as if he were some column of numbers that didn’t add up. He wondered if her limited view of the world served her well in Kansas. She seemed to like putting everything in a neat little box. And he was pretty sure she was still desperately searching for the right box to store him in.

  As it was well after midnight, the lobby was empty except for the desk clerk smiling to himself indulgently as he pretended not to watch them. The elevator stood waiting.

  “Tell me something else that makes you less cool,” Melanie said.

  “Gee, Mel, do you have all night? Don’t you know that most rock stars began life as outcasts who didn’t want to be weird but found a bunch of kindred outcasts to make music with? A few of us somehow manage to make a living off it. Most of us have to supplement our music habit by delivering pizzas.”

  “But being an outcast makes you normal.”

  He shook his head in confusion. “If you say so.”

  “What were you like in high school?”

  He groaned inwardly and considered making shit up. He’d been a walking disaster. “Braces.”

  “That explains your perfect smile.”

  She thought his smile was perfect? Maybe all those painful visits to the orthodontist had been worth it.

  “What else?” she pressed.

  “Tall and skinny.” Was she trying to talk herself out of sleeping with him or what?

  She lifted the hem of his shirt to flash his belly. “Not an ounce of fat on those abs, but not skinny. Fit. And you are tall. I suppose that’s a benefit for a drummer.”

  “I was so not attractive, Mel, I didn’t touch my first boob until I was twenty.”

  “And how many boobs have you touched since?”

  He grinned. “I don’t grope and tell.”

  Inside the elevator, Gabe retrieved his room card from his wallet, glad that they’d checked in early and his belongings were already up in his room. He swiped the card over a panel to access the penthouse. The band had rented out the entire upper floor for the night. He had hoped something like that would turn Melanie’s head, yet she insisted on asking him to share secrets about his less than head-turning past.

  As soon as the elevator door slid shut, she turned to face him. She rested both palms on his chest and gazed up at him with sultry, hazel eyes. He hadn’t noticed the blue and green flecks in them earlier. He opened his mouth to compliment her, and she interrupted him by saying, “Just tell me one more personal thing about yourself. I’m much more comfortable with Gabe than I am with Force.”

  “Force equals mass times acceleration,” he said.

  “Huh?”

  “The reason they call me Force is not because I bang things hard—though I do. It’s because I planned to major in physics before I dropped out of college my sophomore year. I was going to become an engineer and invent things.” Actually, he invented things despite his lack of degree. That was something he was definitely keeping to himself, however. No one knew about his inventions. It was bad enough he’d shared the secret behind his nickname with her; only the band knew how he’d picked it up. So why was he telling Melanie? She had the strangest effect on him. He felt vulnerable. Exposed. She’d stripped away all of his cool. It wasn’t a feeling he was accustomed to, and he wasn’t sure he liked it.

  She slapped him in the chest. “So that’s why I’m so attracted to you,” she said. “I knew it couldn’t be the famous musician thing.”

  She raised up on tiptoe to kiss his neck. Every muscle in Gabe’s body went taut.

  “Melanie?” he whispered.

  Her warm breath tickled his neck. “I do love a man with brains.”

  Brains that ceased to work when a certain sexy accountant suckled the pulse point in his throat. He didn’t put the geek in “band geek” anymore. He’d hated being that awkward, meek guy. He no longer entertained dreams of building mechanical hearts and artificial limbs. He was a rock star. Success hadn’t been handed to him on a bronze cymbal. He’d earned it. Melanie had better get used to the idea that the thing she was trying so hard to reject was a huge part of who he was.

  Gabe reached over and pressed every button from the first to the tenth floor. The elevator jolted as it stopped on the next floor and then the door slid open.

  Melanie jerked away, her gaze nervously darting to the empty corridor. No one was there. She stared up at him with wide eyes. “Do you think there�
��s something wrong with the elevator?”

  “I pressed all the buttons.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I don’t march anymore.”

  The elevator doors slid shut and they started upward again.

  Her eyebrows drew together and nose crinkled in confusion. Gabe moved his hands to her shoulders and slipped the spaghetti straps of her tank and her bra straps down her slender arms. He used the lightest of touches on her silky skin, watching for her reaction.

  “What do you like?” he asked.

  “Huh?”

  “Do you like a gentle, easy touch?” He stroked her skin with a feather-light caress and then curled his fingers to apply more pressure as he moved his hands along the back of her shoulders. “Or something rougher?”

  Eyes wide, she shook her head. “I don’t know.”

  The elevator stopped, and the doors slid open again.

  He slid his hands to her breasts and freed them from her bra.

  “Wait,” she gasped. “Someone might . . . ”

  He cupped one perfect mound of flesh and gently stroked her hardened nipple with his thumb. “Gentle.”

  When no one joined them on the elevator, Melanie released a soft sigh, and her eyelids fluttered closed.

  Gabe squeezed her other breast and pinched her nipple between his thumb and forefinger, rubbing the straining tip with an increasing pressure. “Rough.”

  “Oh!”

  As soon as the elevator doors closed again, he leaned forward and drew his tongue over her pretty pink nipple. “Gentle,” he said, blowing a slow breath over her puckered flesh before drawing it into his mouth and sucking with tender care.

  Her fingers clung to his scalp. He still couldn’t tell what she preferred; she seemed to enjoy both. He released her breast with a soft sucking sound and turned his attention to the other one. “Rough.” He nipped her reddened nipple and then sucked it into his mouth, flicking his tongue over the hard tip. He scraped her flesh with the edge of his teeth.

  “Gabe!”

  The elevator doors opened again. This time she didn’t notice. Gabe smiled to himself. That’s better.

  He drew away and waited for her to open her eyes before he cupped her pussy through her jeans. When the heat coming off it registered in his addled thoughts, his cock began to throb in anticipation. He stared into her beautiful eyes as he slid his fingers between her legs and pressed the heel of his hand against her mound. He rubbed his palm against her, stimulating her clit with just enough pressure to remind her that it was there.

  “Gentle?”

  The doors shut again, and the elevator carried them closer to their destination.

  “Can I have both?” she asked breathlessly.

  He grinned and backed her into the wall. He grabbed her ass and pressed his cock against her mound, grinding with hard, rigorous thrusts of his hips. “Or rough?”

  She clung to him, rubbing her heat against his throbbing cock. If she’d been wearing a skirt, he would have surged into her body right then. He could almost feel her slick heat engulfing him, imagine her gripping him as she clenched with release. Almost.

  “Oh God, Gabe, fuck me,” she groaned.

  His balls tightened with excitement. Drunk with desire, he rubbed his open mouth over her throat. “Did you decide what you want, Melanie?”

  “Yes. You. I want you.”

  He gave the black lens of the surveillance camera a long hard stare and then bit his lower lip considering what it would mean for her if he went with his instincts and gave her what she wanted right there. Tempting as she was, she deserved better. He could wait. A couple minutes. Max. His gaze shifted to her eyes. “I like a woman who knows what she wants.”

  He stepped away and noted they still had five floor stops before they reached the very top, which promised him heaven. Melanie gawked at him for a moment and then struggled to cover her exquisite breasts before the elevator doors opened again. He nonchalantly pressed the button labeled “close doors” trying to hide his eagerness, trying to pretend he was in control and had maintained his cool.

  Yes, he liked a woman who knew what she wanted. He also liked to leave a woman flustered and disoriented, craving his body the way an addict craves her next hit. He stole a glance at Melanie noting she was flushed, disheveled, and glowing with a delicate sheen of perspiration. Gabe ducked his head to hide a self-satisfied grin and focused his attention on his fingernails to curtail his urge to gloat. Yeah, mission accomplished.

  Chapter 6

  Melanie stole a glance at Gabe, who was leaning against the wall of the elevator car, inspecting his fingernails. She’d been ready to yank off her pants right there in the elevator so he could pound her with that big, hard cock he’d rubbed so vigorously against her mound. She hadn’t even cared that the elevator doors kept opening. Thinking they might get caught had excited her even more. She’d known a few cock teases in her life, but she’d never met a pussy tease before. Maybe it was his way of teaching her a lesson for prying into his personal life. Why else would he suddenly start ignoring her? Had she been too needy? Too desperate? Had she done something to turn him off? Shit!

  Melanie crossed her arms over her chest and turned her back to him to face the front of the elevator car. If he thought she was going to beg him to fuck her again, he would be sorely disappointed. She hoped he got a raging case of blue balls. She was going to take him up on that room service, take a look at his tattoos to prove to herself that she was brave, and then leave him with nothing but his hand for company. Maybe next time he’d think twice about getting a woman all hot and bothered and then pretending she didn’t exist.

  By the time the elevator doors slid open on the top floor, Melanie had almost convinced herself that she really was going leave. What was she thinking anyway? Yes, Gabe was the sexiest thing on three legs and yes, her entire body was still throbbing with lust after encountering leg number three, but dammit, she wasn’t going to beg him to put her out of her misery no matter how attractive she found him. She took a step forward and then stopped, blinking repeatedly as she took in what was going on in the hallway next to one of the guest room doors. A couple was going at it right there in front of God and everyone. Well, she and Gabe were the only mortal witnesses, but really . . . And then it dawned on her that the bare ass with a pair of leather pants lowered just beneath the rhythmically clenching and relaxing flanks belonged to Shade and the shameless slut with her legs wrapped around his waist, her jeans dangling from one slender ankle and her back pressed against the wall, was none other than Nikki.

  “Nikki,” Melanie sputtered. “What the hell are you doing?”

  Shade turned his head. He was still wearing his sunglasses, for fuck’s sake. He didn’t even pause his deep, rigorous thrusts as he grinned at her. “Decide to join us after all?”

  “Screw you,” she said. A hand settled against her lower back, and her nipples tightened as if her body couldn’t help but respond to a certain drummer. Dammit, anyway. She couldn’t deny that she wanted him, even though his inexplicable inattention in the elevator had pissed her off. She wasn’t going to leave him alone with his hand, because she didn’t want to be alone with hers.

  “Don’t you think you should take this elsewhere, dude?” Gabe said. “There are security cameras in the halls, you know. And those surveillance videos tend to end up on the Internet when they catch a celebrity fucking a hot, anonymous chick in public.”

  “I couldn’t get my key to work,” Shade said.

  “We couldn’t wait,” Nikki added. “I needed his tasty cock inside me.” She licked her lips and then trailed sucking kisses all along his jaw, as if it were completely natural to fuck a rock star in the hallway before a pair of witnesses. “He has the biggest, most beautiful cock I’ve ever sucked.”

  “That’s not your room,” Gabe said. He pointed across the hall. “That’s your room.”

  Shade glanced from the door labeled 1012 to the one across the hall, 1021. He actually flus
hed. “Oh. My bad.”

  He grabbed Nikki’s ass and held her impaled on his cock as he shuffled across the hallway. She banged against the wall but made no protest as he searched the pocket of his leather jacket and eventually produced a white plastic card. He managed to insert it into the slot upside down. When the little light on the door flashed red, he groaned in protest and, as if unable to resist, began to thrust deep and hard into Nikki’s body. Gabe took pity on the pair of lust-crazed maniacs and opened the door for them.

  “Thanks,” Shade said breathlessly as he hoisted Nikki off the wall.

  “See you tomorrow,” Nikki said and waved at Melanie. “Force is gonna rock your world.”

  Melanie caught her wink just before Shade kicked the door shut. A loud thud pounded on the inside of the door.

  Gabe turned to offer her an apologetic grin. He rubbed a hand over the back of his head and stared at the carpet. “Sorry you had to see that. He’s a horny bastard, but he has a good heart.”