Grabbing my backpack off the ground, I asked, “Yeah? How?”
“My father called an emergency meeting at the studio. Something about the album release date. They are all there, and your mom just left for Trestan’s haircut appointment.” He wiggled his eyebrows as Walter opened the door for us.
“Hello, Miss Alivia. Welcome back.”
“Thank you.” I refrained from saying anything else, or even making eye contact, because I always felt Walter knew exactly what we were up to when no one was home.
Shane, on the other hand, thought it was hilarious and would usually engage with the old man just to tease me. But today, all he said was, “Catch you later, Walter. I missed my girl.”
Predictably, my cheeks blazed when the man’s knowing chuckle followed us. Proud of himself, Shane grinned and dragged me and my suitcase across the lobby. The moment the elevator doors slid closed caused my lips to tingle for his. Almost as if he knew, I received a side glance but nothing else.
All bets were off once I unlocked the door. He hauled me even faster through the apartment, right to my bedroom. Along the way, he tossed his sunglasses and kicked off his shoes.
“Alone at last.” With one swift twist of the lock, he propped my bag in the corner, tossed the backpack in my grip, and pounced. “My cock has been hard for you all week, Liv,” he admitted shamelessly and pulled my T-shirt over my head.
“Then I guess you should do something about it.”
“I have every intention to.” His lips were on the swell of my breast before I could respond. And once they sucked my nipple through the satin, the response I would’ve voiced died on my tongue. He skimmed his mouth over the exposed parts of me before landing on my earlobe. Meanwhile, his hands went to work getting my shorts down my legs, where I aided the process by kicking them off.
With my back still against the door, using it as leverage, he gripped my thighs and lifted me. “As much as I want to lick every inch of you, I need to fuck you first.” That announcement led to him unbuttoning his jeans, reaching in to take hold of his cock, and using it to push aside my panties.
“Oh. My. God,” I said as every inch of him slowly slid into me.
“Fuck, Liv. I may come within seconds.”
I wasn’t quite there yet, but each piston of his hips against mine brought me much closer. As if sensing that my climb trailed his, he moved one hand between us and circled in just the right spot. Instantly, I was right there with him. And my bucking between his hard body and the hard wood behind me proved I may have sprinted ahead in the final stretch. During it all, our tethered eyes practically crackled with electricity.
“Shane,” I rasped out between heavy breaths, gripping the back of his neck for more leverage. He nodded and grunted his way throughout my orgasm. Determined, Shane increased his speed with each thrust until he stilled to come deep inside me. Once done, our joint gasps for air were the only sounds echoing around us in my room.
The first words he uttered after that very long pause were, “Now that we got that out of the way… I have another surprise for you.”
He pulled out of me, the loss immediately felt, and set me down as I tilted my head and asked, “What?”
A weird expression crossed over his face when he gripped the back neckline of his T-shirt with one hand and dragged it over his head. At first, I expected he was about to continue our sexcapade for a slower round two… that was, until my eyes raked over his naked torso. It took a moment to register the inked outline of a bass guitar over his heart, with the body of it in the shape of an A.
My mouth gaped while I tentatively skimmed over it with a whisper of my touch. “You got a tattoo?”
His smirk came before a nod. “Yeah… of the two things I love the most.” I couldn’t believe he’d done that for me, and my surprise stunned me silent. “We all got one. Do you like it?” he prompted when I hadn’t said anything else.
“Are you kidding? I love it.” That was by far the sexiest thing I’d ever seen.
His unsure expression morphed into a heated stare. “I love you, Liv. You’ll always be a part of me… forever.” There was no levity in his eyes, no humor, as the green and gray flecks I loved so much seared and ignited every fiber of my being.
“Kiss me.” He slowly brought his lips down to mine. This kiss wasn’t rushed or frantic. It was slow and deliberate. It was everything.
With our mouths connected, he easily lifted and carried me to my bed. Placing me down, he then began loving me with more than just those familiar words he had proclaimed.
Fooling around always made Shane hungry. As he sat at the island, filling in the blanks about the debacle Chase had arranged for them to play in LA, I heated up a plate loaded with my mom’s leftover paella.
“It kind of scared me,” he admitted for the first time.
“The crowd?”
“Yeah, that… but more the being used part.” Surprised by his comment, I studied his handsome face. “That chick didn’t know me, yet she and her dad had no problem capitalizing on my name. It pissed me off more than anything. I’ll always wonder if offers I get are genuine or not.”
“You had every right to be pissed off, Shane.” Waiting for the microwave to beep, I leaned across the granite and took his hand. “And when the time comes, you’ll have a support team to help you weed out the assholes.”
“Will I? People talk a good game, but that doubt will always be my life, Liv. It’s my reality. I’ll forever wonder if it’s my talent or my last name that gets me anywhere in my career.”
“You’re a prodigy, Shane. You were able to master the greatest rock songs by the age of ten. Your name may open the door, but your talent will most definitely push you through it.” Not looking convinced, he lifted our hands and kissed mine. I meant every word and hated he doubted his gift. “Tell me about playing in Santa Monica.”
Instantly, his face lit up. “Fucking fantastic, Liv. I’d never experienced a high like that. And if the guys had been into it, it would’ve been so much better. The crowd loved us. So different than playing in New York, where the people watching seem bored.”
“I wish I was there.” The ding announcing his food was ready forced me to pull away, and that prevented him from seeing my doubts through my expression. Doubts that he shouldn’t be cooped up in classrooms in a few weeks but instead should be out there doing his thing.
“Me too.” When I grabbed his dish and slid it across the island, he seemed lost in thought.
“Earth to Shane.”
“Oh… thanks, baby. I’m starving.” He instantly shoveled a forkful into his mouth, as though the last conversation had never happened. Suppressing the urge to keep him talking, I instead watched amused as he huffed through the intense heat inside his mouth and swallowed. “Shit, your mom is such a great cook. You need to take lessons from her.”
“Your mom is also a great cook.”
“You’re right; she is. I’ll have her give you lessons too.” He winked before shoving more rice and seafood into his face. It was true. Although we’d both grown up with housekeepers, our moms enjoyed cooking most of the time.