One More Time Page 6

  “You sure you’re okay with that?” Caleb asked quietly, his lips tugging at my earlobe while his roaming hands started massaging my thigh and ribcage, his thumbs brushing against the underside of my breast so softly that it might’ve been an accident. But it still sent shivers shooting straight through me.

  “I’m more than okay with that,” I managed between heavy breaths. It was getting harder and harder to concentrate on words, yet it looked like he was intent on getting the talking done before he went any further.

  I wiggled my butt against his front to try to encourage him to hurry it up, and I could feel his obvious erection pressing into it. Caleb made a low moaning sound and nipped at the skin on the back of my neck.

  In response, he also moved his hand completely under my dress and started tracing the outline of the skimpy lace panties I’d worn for the occasion, though I’d never imagined that they might actually see some game time. Within milliseconds of his ministrations, my poor attention-starved pussy was practically dripping for him. It had been way too long.

  “I don’t like using condoms.” He groaned when I pushed my ass up against him some more. Admittedly, I was trying to affect him as much as he was affecting me, and it seemed to be working.

  My mind was a lust-fueled wasteland, but I managed to find the words I was looking for, only because I knew that I needed him to touch me and that he wouldn’t if I didn’t succeed. “I’m on the pill. After what happened with Jared and that groupie, I understand if you don’t believe me. I think I have the script somewhere on my phone as proof.”

  Caleb skipped a beat, his fingers moving slowly closer to the pulsing beacon where I needed them most, his voice a hoarse whisper. “I trust you.”

  Leaning my head back against his shoulder, I relaxed into his body, returning the trust he said he was giving to me. I lifted my eyes to his, and my heart skipped a few beats while my sex swelled even more at seeing them heavy and wanting.

  Keeping me pressed flush to his body with one hand and plunging the other into my panties, Caleb brought his mouth down on mine. There was nothing gentle or loving about the kiss. It was hard. Possessive. Demanding. And I gave it all back to him in spades.

  His fingers traveled through my slick folds while his lips stayed on mine, our tongues stroking and sparring. Caleb swallowed my moans and worked me into a needy, desperate puddle of desire before dragging a fingertip across my clit.

  Crying out, I broke our kiss and tried to both arch my aching sex into his hand and press my butt up closer against him at the same time. He steadied me by anchoring my hips to the railing with his, giving me what I wanted without my having to ask for it.

  He let me feel his need, but I was barely aware of him grinding into me as his fingers returned to my clit. Circling it and pressing down with delicious pressure that made me moan unintelligibly, until the only actual word that sprang to mind was, “Please!”

  “You want to come, Kelly?” he growled into my ear, licking the shell and nipping at me.

  I was hanging on to that one word with everything that I had, even as my body felt like it might disintegrate into nothing but atoms if the knot he was winding tighter and tighter in my belly finally came loose. “Please!”

  “You never have to beg, sweetheart. Come for me. I want to hear you come.” Caleb’s fingers increased their speed and pressure until I was soaring high above the city of Los Angeles, twinkling far below, my entire existence becoming nothing but the pleasure that was welling up inside me.

  A few expert brushes of his fingertips later, and I went hurtling over the edge, shouting his name so loudly I was sure the people standing underneath the faraway lights of downtown could hear me.

  I was vaguely aware of Caleb groaning. “Oh, fuck yes.”

  But then he kept going when I’d been expecting him to stop. As if my body were his precious guitar, he coaxed sounds out of me I’d never made before and played me expertly until I came apart once more. It was only once my second orgasm had subsided that he took me back inside, laid me down on the couch, and went to work removing both our clothes.

  My bones felt like they were made of jelly, so I wasn’t much help other than gaping at his incredible body as it became revealed just for me. Earlier, when I’d felt him up against my back, I’d thought I’d felt some pretty awesome abs, and I’d tried to imagine those shirtless pictures I’d seen of him come to life.

  But the pictures didn’t do him justice, and neither had my imagination. The man was exquisite, made from marble or stone and chiseled like a damn statue. His muscles weren’t bulky or bulging, yet they were perfectly defined.

  My heart nearly stopped when he kicked his jeans and boxers off and moved to where he’d positioned me on the couch. He’d been watching me as intently as I’d been watching him, and for a second, I felt self-conscious, like I should have covered up.

  A man with a body like his surely couldn’t be turned on by a woman as curvy as I was, but his body language said differently. His muscles were tight, his cock huge and fully erect, its tip glistening with his moisture.

  As if he sensed my sudden attack of self-doubt, Caleb spread my legs gently and kneeled between them on the couch, taking my wrists in his hands and pinning them above my head. “You’re fucking gorgeous. You know that?”

  He didn’t wait for my answer before leaning down to kiss my neck, punctuating his next words with kisses all the way down the length of my body, pressing his hard cock to my hot center. “So fucking hot.” Kiss. “I would’ve taken you in the parking lot of that restaurant if I’d thought you’d let me.” Kiss.

  He kept going until all my fears were dispelled and he’d made me feel more wanted, needed even, than I ever had before. When he finally thrust into me, we both cried out in relief.

  He gave me barely a second to adjust, but it was all that I needed, as slick and worked up as I was, as relaxed from the two orgasms he’d already given to prepare me for him. Still, he checked in with me before he started moving. “You doing okay?”

  “Only if you get moving,” I gritted out, my body already growing desperate for him.

  Caleb complied without another word, his hips moving like they were on a mission and mine were answering their call. He didn’t murmur any bullshit about how tight or wet I was. We could both feel and hear those things.

  I didn’t have to tell him how hard he was or how good he felt. I was pretty sure he knew exactly how hard he was, and my uncontained moans doubtlessly were more than enough to let him know it felt damn fucking great.

  The muscles in Caleb’s back quivered under my palms, his thighs shaking along with mine, and I knew that he was getting close. That knowledge, combined with the way he kept playing my body like the instrument he’d so long ago mastered, pushed me right to the edge.

  “Caleb! Caleb, I’m gonna...”

  “Come,” he commanded, or begged. I didn’t know, but I complied. At the same time that he shouted my name and erupted inside me, I surrendered to waves of bliss so intense that I saw spots for who knew how long afterward.

  Keeping most of his weight propped on his elbows at our sides, Caleb collapsed on top of me, breathing as heavily as I was and looking as sated. I shouldn’t have been surprised that he was that good in bed, but damn, I thought sex like that only happened in pornos and those steamy romance novels I hid in a separate folder on my kindle.

  “That was...” I started, but I couldn’t come up with the right word to describe it.

  Caleb chuckled, a low, beautiful sound I’d never heard from him before that rumbled from his chest into mine. Then he reached up to smooth some of my hair away from my face. “I know. It was.”

  Our eyes locked, and while I could still hear his words from earlier about how this was just fun in the back of my mind, in that moment I would have been lying if I said I didn’t want it to have been more than that.

  Lying there, the moment suspended in time as I drank in his soft brown eyes, I decided, fuck it all. If all
I could get from him was a little fun, I was sure as hell taking it.

  Chapter 9

  Caleb

  “Jareeeed, Caleeeeb. How’s it hanging boys?”

  Jared slapped his palm into Alberto’s outstretched one. Alberto was the oversized club promoter for Club Niki, where Jared had booked us a private room for the night.

  “A little to the left, bro,” Jared joked, always the fucking entertainer. “Our room all set?”

  “All set,” Alberto said, leading us through the throngs of people in the VIP section of the club to a small, glass door set in one of the hallways off the main dance and bar area.

  We had to stop to greet what felt like a thousand people on the way in, as it always was when going out with Jared. The rest of us could keep a relatively low profile when out, or people could read the “fuck off” vibes we put out, but not Jared.

  The man was a magnet for attention. I grudgingly played my part and was almost relieved when the door to the private room closed behind us. I usually wasn’t a fan of these private areas, but Jared had insisted, and for the first time, I was glad that he had.

  Apparently, he didn’t want groupies hanging on him too much. It was still hard to wrap my head around it sometimes. Until just a couple of months ago, the man reveled in having as many groupies as possible, in every way possible.

  Now he was booking private rooms even when it was just the two of us so he could avoid the hordes of horny women who would kill for the chance to try to steal his fidelity from his fiancée. Unfortunately for them, there was zero chance of that happening.

  When the small glass door sealed us off from the thrumming club outside, Jared shrugged out of his leather jacket and went to help himself to a drink at the bar in the corner of the room, holding the bottle up to me. “Scotch?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Comin’ right up.” He produced two tumblers from a rack behind him, filled them to the brim with amber liquid, and pulled another bottle out from the stash on the counter.

  The bar was dark wood, matching the tables, chairs, and the variety of clocks in the room. Club Niki was an older club that somehow managed to maintain its status as a favorite playground of the Hollywood types. Like us, I guess.

  Their secret was simple: they were discreet. They could get you in and out without getting noticed, could get you anything you wanted, and no one would ever be any the wiser. Still, the main areas of the club had been modernized and spruced up, but the private rooms on this hallway retained their gentlemen-club feel.

  A two-way glass mirror provided us with a stellar view of the main dancefloor of the club, but neither Jared nor I were interested in what was going on down there. I joined Jared at the bar instead and took a seat opposite him.

  He slid my scotch and shot of tequila over and held his shot up to me. “Here’s to a long overdue Larsen boys’ night out.”

  “Nostrovia.” I clinked his glass with mine and slammed the top-shelf tequila like it was the dime-store stuff that was all we used to be able to afford.

  Jared followed suit and then raked the glasses back in to pour another. “So, I saw there’s a new profile on you out in GNM. Came out yesterday. You seen it?”

  “Nope. You know I don’t read that shit. Just don’t care what they say.” Even if the author of the profile in question was a woman that I’d fucked several times over the course of the last week. Kelly was as much of a firecracker in bed as she was out of it, and I enjoyed making her explode, all puns intended.

  I’d been keeping the fact that I’d seen her and been sleeping with her secret, though I didn’t even know why. Maybe just because Jared would probably be smug as hell about it. I didn’t feel like finding out.

  “There’s an interesting metaphor in there that Kelly attributed to you. Something about lobsters and how they used to be a common food?” Jared lifted his eyes from the almost overflowing tequila shots to mine. “Something on your mind, Caleb?”

  “Overexposure is a real threat, and we’re at risk of walking right into it. You shouldn’t just keep blowing it off.”

  Jared looked me over for a second, all traces of humor dropping from his face. He got all serious, taking a deep sip of his scotch and closing his eyes thoughtfully before focusing on me again.

  “All I ever wanted to do was to have fun and be happy. That’s all I want for you too, and I just don’t get it. We’re a successful rock band, we’ve made it all the way to the top, and you’re still miserable.”

  “I’m not miserable,” I scoffed. “You’ve just turned into a chick. You’re overthinking this whole happiness, zen thing man.”

  “I’ve turned into a chick, huh?” Jared raised an eyebrow, his seriousness fast fading from his expression. Instead, there was a familiar gleam entering his eyes. One that told me we were about to do something that was probably going to get us in trouble, along with a healthy dose of challenge.

  “That’s what I said.” I’d never been one to back away from my brother’s challenges.

  Jared smirked and tipped his shot glass at me before draining it. “I’ve still got edge, brother of mine. How about a little friendly shot for shot contest to prove it to you?”

  Trust Jared to suggest a drinking competition to prove he still had it. “You’re on.”

  “Excellent. Shot a minute?” It was a game that’d handed our asses to us many times before, but we’d always gone back for more, and it looked like we’d be doing it again.

  “Line ‘em up. Let’s see what you’ve got left, loverboy.” I taunted him laughingly. Jared took the bait, winking and flipping me off before starting to line the entire counter with a variety of shots. He was definitely out to get slaughtered here.

  “It’s loverman, I’ll have you know. No boy here.”

  “You keep telling yourself that.” I knew he would anyway. Glancing at the clock again, I chose a shot at random and raised it. “Time to start. May the best man still be able to call for a ride later.”

  Jared chuckled and downed his shot as I did mine. Already, I was getting a nice buzz going, and since it’d been a while since it’d been just me and Jared, I was enjoying the time with my brother. As the hours passed, we pounded back enough alcohol to take down a horse, but neither of us were backing down.

  We were drinking to oblivion if it came to that, and I was perfectly okay with it. Jared had passed into the reminiscing stage of drunkenness, talking about a show we’d had back when we were first becoming known.

  The crowd had been terrible that night, wondering who the up-and-comers were and booing each song they didn’t know, which at the time had been most of ours, if not all of them.

  “Those fuckers took some working,” Jared said. “God, I thought I was going to have to fuck someone on stage to get them interested.”

  “But you didn’t have to,” I reminded him. “You always know just what to do to get them eating out of the palm of your fuckin’ hand.”

  “Nah, I just flash ‘em some skin and moan into the mic.” He laughed, miming his signature move of teasing the audience that he was about to take off his shirt.

  “Well yeah, mostly that. But you’ve also just got it, man. You know how to read ‘em and give them what they want. I’ve always been kind of jealous of that.” It seemed I was passing into the brutal and embarrassing honesty stage of drunk. I slammed another shot and hoped to pass into belligerent soon.

  “You, jealous of me?” Jared asked, incredulous. “Seriously?”

  “Seriously. The press call it natural charisma. You got it, dude. I don’t have it for shit.” It was the first time I’d said those words, in as many words, out loud. Drunk as I was, a weight lifted from my shoulders at the admission. “There’s a reason they call you the Emperor.”

  “Well, I’ll be damned,” Jared mused, his words becoming slurred. Mine were too, so I couldn’t exactly judge. “I just sing, man. You. You’re the one with the real talent. You’re like… you’re the Emperor of Guitar.”

 
Both my eyebrows raised, despite the pleasant buzz I was getting from his praise. Not that I needed it or craved it, but it was easy to feel overlooked sometimes. “Emperor of Guitar? You’re way drunker than I thought.”

  “Me? No. I’m serious. You’re the backbone, Caleb. Without you, none of this would’ve happened. That’s why I don’t get why you’re so hung up on the past when you should be focused on our future. You’re so convinced that everything’s going to end that you’re not enjoying it before it does. Besides, even if it does end, it doesn’t matter. We’ve had our fun. We’re about to go on a world tour. If it ends, fuck, look at all we’ve done. Either way, our future looks fuckin’ great, so get out of the past. It’s too much of a depressing place.”

  It was a depressing place. That much was true. Jared had a way of looking at things that I’d never quite understood, but in this instance, he was right. Sort of. We’d already achieved so much more than we’d set out to.

  Maybe just this one night, I could let it all go. Adopt Jared’s stance and just think about fun in the here and now. And when I thought of fun, big green eyes and a halo of blonde hair popped into my mind’s eye. Kelly and her voluptuous curves were suddenly all I could think about.

  Drunk as I was, even the memory of her was enough to make my dick stir. It was insane how attracted I was to her. I needed, like, almost zero recovery time with her. I hadn’t slept with the same chick twice in forever, but just that week, I’d fucked Kelly time and time again. I liked sleeping with her, and I definitely wanted to do it again.

  But that was all it was. Sex. That was all it could ever be. It wasn’t a relationship. I didn’t do hearts and flowers and romance. Never again.

  Chapter 10

  Kelly

  “So, talk romance to me.” The three men sitting across the coffee table from me stared at me dumbly, almost like I’d said a word that they didn’t understand. “Since Jared hooking up with Alicia was the biggest event to impact the band in a long time, the fans are dying to know who’s next.”