Maybe I was being selfish, but I wanted them to stick around.
“Don’t be silly,” I said and then realized maybe they were just being polite. “Unless, of course, you have something else to do.”
Chaz laughed. “Yeah, right. This is the most fun we’ve had since we got to LA.”
“I thought Ted was taking care of you.”
Kurt shivered. “Um, yeah ... about that. Not to be ungrateful or anything, but can you call the kid off? He’s like a strung-out Chihuahua on meth.”
Dave groaned, and Jace looked away, but I felt my lips quirking at Kurt’s description. He wasn’t wrong.
“Most guys like him.”
Again, it was Kurt who answered. “Yeah, well, maybe fifteen years ago we would have.”
“Yeah,” Chaz said, grinning widely. “’Cause we’re so much more mature now.”
“Right. Got it. I’ll handle Ted.”
“Thanks,” Dave said appreciatively.
“So, how about hanging out here? We’ve got a big flat screen, a ton of DVDs, and some streaming services. There’s even a popcorn machine.”
The kids whooped and looked to their parents with hope. “Can we?”
“Yeah, we like it here.”
“You had me at flat screen,” Chaz said, smiling. “You sure it’s okay? They can get pretty loud.”
I laughed. “You haven’t met mine, or you wouldn’t be asking. The house is too quiet without them.”
At eight and thirteen, Dave’s boys reminded me so much of Brian and Tommy at those ages—all arms and legs and big eyes. And Chaz’s little girl was so cute—five years old and very clearly the apple of her daddy’s eye.
Then, I looked at Dave’s and Chaz’s wives, feeling a momentary flash of envy. I hadn’t missed the way the guys looked at them with love in their eyes. Clearly, fame and fortune hadn’t prevented them from having families and being happy. Somehow, they made it work.
I realized then that I’d unfairly prejudged them, allowing my own experiences to cloud my judgment. The men of Dark Wing were charming, overgrown boys, their wives and kids surprisingly ordinary. Like Jace, they were all very down-to-earth—nothing like the stereotypical rockers I’d come to expect.
After showing them where everything was—the men were as thrilled as the kids with Brian and Tommy’s assortment of gaming systems and equipment along with a pinball machine, pool table, and air hockey—I went into the kitchen to get a bag of popcorn kernels for the machine. When I turned around, I found myself cornered by a particularly sexy, golden-voiced rock star. He backed me up into the counter and nuzzled my neck, his hands a welcome warmth at my hips.
“Too quiet, huh? I thought we were pretty loud when it was just the two of us.”
I smiled, snaking my hands up around his neck, indulging myself by running my fingers through his silky hair. Jace had a way of centering me and commanding my full attention.
“Mmm, I can’t remember. Maybe you can show me later.”
He nipped at my ear, sending white-hot shivers of desire straight to my core. “You are a wicked, wicked woman.”
“Now, that sounds familiar.”
Chapter 12
Dear Ida,
I inadvertently said something I shouldn’t have and now I’m in the doghouse with my woman. What should I do? – Bad Dog Rocker
* * *
Dear Bad Dog,
Foot in mouth disease is a common affliction among the males of the species. Seek treatment immediately in the form of a sincere apology and follow-up with one or more thoughtful and heartfelt gestures.
~ * ~
Jace
Pressed as I was against Eva, I clearly heard—and felt—her stomach rumbling. Before she could roll over in an attempt to silence it, I pounced. I nuzzled her belly, delighting in the taste of her skin. She tasted like a delicious, satisfied woman.
Correction: she tasted like my delicious, satisfied woman.
Over the last two weeks, one thing had become increasingly clear. I was falling deeper in love with her every day. Those power ballads I’d been belting out all these years? I finally got it.
Fast? Maybe. That didn’t make it any less real. Case in point: my father had proposed to my mother on their third date. He said he just knew, that everything had just clicked into place the first time she smiled at him. That was exactly how I felt.
I wasn’t about to say any of that to Eva yet though. She’d been hurt—pretty badly, from what I guessed—and words weren’t going to cut it. I had to show her and hope that, eventually, she’d come to the same conclusion I had.
“Methinks my lady craves sustenance,” I murmured into her soft flesh.
When I’d come over earlier, it had been with the intent of taking Eva out to the marina for a romantic lunch, just the two of us on the little houseboat I’d rented for the afternoon. But when she answered the door in nothing but a well-worn, oversized concert T, I’d forgotten about all that. I wasn’t complaining. There was no place I’d rather be than in, under, behind, beside, and on top of my angel.
I chanced a glance at the digital clock beside the bed. It was too late for a lunch on the bay, but a twilight dinner at the harbor restaurant was definitely doable.
“I’m fine,” she murmured lazily, her fingers tangling in my hair.
I nipped at her hip bone, making her squirm, and then licked away the sting. “When’s the last time you ate something?”
Eva moaned and moved, giving my head a subtle push southward in quiet demand, accentuating the request with a scratch of nails on my scalp. It served its purpose, distracting me with one of my new favorite things to do until her stomach rumbled again.
I stopped nibbling. “Eva? When was the last time you ate something?”
She mumbled something unintelligible and attempted to turn onto her stomach, but I used my bigger, stronger body to keep her right where she was.
“You’re ignoring me.”
“Am not.”
“Then answer the question.”
She exhaled, a feminine sound of annoyance if I ever heard one. “Jace, if you’re hungry, there’s plenty of leftovers in the fridge. Help yourself.”
I was hungry, and I knew she had to be, even without the physical cues. We’d expended a lot of energy over the last few hours.
“Join me.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“Your growling stomach begs to differ.”
“I’m not like you,” Eva said, no longer attempting to mask her irritation. “I can’t just eat when I’m hungry. I gained five pounds over the last two weeks alone. Five pounds! Do you have any idea how long it’s going to take me to lose that?”
I licked the sweet curve from her hip to her breast. “I like my women with a little meat on them.”
She stiffened beneath me—my first clue that I’d said something wrong.
My second clue? The icy chill of her too-soft voice when she said, “Do you now?”
She pushed me away and rolled out of bed, then proceeded to jab her arms and legs into a T-shirt and yoga pants.
“I wasn’t insulting you, Eva.”
She said nothing.
I rolled to my side and propped my head up on my hand to keep myself from reaching out and tugging her back onto the bed. “Talk to me.”