One Night with Sole Regret 02 Tempt Me (10 page)

“
Don’t mind me,” Madison
said. In actuality, she wanted to see it too—assuming the woman
struggling to return her hand to Owen’s crotch was interested in
his piercing.

“
Are those my cookies?”
Adam yelled and yanked the container out of Owen’s hands. A single
gingersnap rattled around at the bottom of the bowl. Adam stuffed
it into his mouth and then threw the container at Owen’s head.
“Fucker,” he said through a mouthful of cookie.

“
They were delicious. Did
your girlfriend make them for you?” Owen said in a teasing
tone.

“
Yeah, she made them
for
me
. Not
you.”

The fact that Adam hadn’t denied she
was his girlfriend had Madison struggling to find air. He took her
hand and gave it an encouraging squeeze. Did she look that
freaked-the-fuck out? She felt like a skittish horse being saddled
for the first time. Was this really happening? Was Adam claiming
her as his girlfriend? Publicly? What would her life be like if the
media discovered they were dating? Would her face be posted all
over the Internet and the tabloids? Would jealous fangirls find
Madison’s every fault and insist she wasn’t good enough for the
perfection that was Adam Taylor? Was she ready for this? There was
no question that she was ready to love the man, but she wasn’t so
sure about loving the rock star.

“
Where are Force and
Shade?” Adam asked. He craned his neck to look out the
window.

“
Don’t like waiting around
for other people?” Owen asked. “Does it piss you off when your bros
don’t value your time?”

Adam huffed and shook his head. “Don’t
you start in on me too.”

“
What’s he talking about?”
Madison asked.

“
Shade was pissed that I
was five minutes late to the show.” Adam rolled his eyes as if
Shade was the inconsiderate ass.

“
Were you late because of
me?” Madison asked.

“
It’s fine,” Adam said.
“He’ll get over it.”

“
Oh wow, I feel it, Tags,”
Owen’s female companion said. She had her entire hand down Owen’s
pants and was moving it around inside the front of his jeans.
“What’s it feel like when you’re hard? Oh! Do you leave it in when
you screw?”

“
That’s the only reason to
get one. It feels fantastic.”

Madison made a mental note to share
that tidbit of information with Kennedy. Her sister would be
relieved to know Owen had pierced his fifth appendage for pleasure
not pain.

The young woman’s free hand moved to
Kellen’s crotch. He was sitting next to Owen, shirtless and sweaty,
his long dark hair sticking to his bare chest. A heated flush made
his strong cheekbones appear even more pronounced. “Do you have one
too, Cuff?” she asked, fondling him through his jeans. “Can I feel
it?”

“
Uh, no.” Kellen lifted her
hand from his crotch and dropped it on Owen’s thigh.

She then turned and reached across the
limo toward Adam. Recognizing her intent, Madison slid onto Adam’s
lap, blocking Miss Touchy Feely from finding her target. Madison
glared at the bold woman, whose gaze lifted from Adam’s suddenly
hidden lap to Madison face. “Does Adam have his cock pierced?” she
asked.

“
None of your business,”
Madison said.

“
I’m sure his fingers move
really fast when he strokes you down there, huh?
You should ask him to play the solo to “Light Me”
on your clit. That should get you off in, like, five seconds.” The
fangirl nodded at Madison’s lap, lifted her eyebrows up and down
and then laughed until she snorted.

When Madison just stared at her as if
she’d escaped a loony bin for sluts, Miss Touchy Feely stopped
laughing and blew a raspberry. “Old prude.”

Madison bristled.

“
You’re really getting on
my nerves,” Owen said, pulling his fondler’s hand out of his pants,
rearranging himself as discreetly as possible and securing his fly.
“Bye now.”

He leaned out the open door, said
something to one of the security guards just outside and in an
instant, the girl was gone.

“
Since when do you care how
obnoxious a babe is behaving as long as you’re getting laid?”
Kellen asked.

“
Madison doesn’t need to
see someone acting like that,” Owen said. “She’s
 . . .
nice.”

Nice.
It didn’t feel like a compliment. Madison kept encountering
the women who naturally hung around the band and
nice
wasn’t the first
descriptor that came to mind. Maybe that was why she felt so out of
place.

“
She also makes the best
gingersnaps I’ve ever tasted,” Owen added.

Adam growled and tried to kick him,
almost unsettling Madison in the process.

The band’s drummer, with his black and
red mohawk, tattooed scalp, and startlingly green eyes, slid into
the seat next to Owen. If Adam was damp, and Kellen was wet, then
Gabe was drenched. Madison wasn’t sure how Owen managed to look
like he’d just stepped out of a styling salon. He didn’t have a
single hair out of place.

“
Hey, Gabe, where’s Shade?”
Adam asked.

Now that Miss Groupie, make
that Miss
Grop
e-y,
was out of the car and Adam was no longer in danger of sexual
harassment, Madison tried to shift off his lap. He wrapped his arms
around her to keep her from moving away.

“
I think he’s on the phone
arguing with Tina again,” Gabe said.

“
He can do that at the
hotel,” Adam said. “Let’s go.”

“
Keep your pants on, Adam,”
Kellen said.

“
If you had this woman on
your lap, would you want to keep your pants on?”

Madison flushed. She could not believe
he’d said that.

“
Well, no. I’d already have
my pants off if I was in your situation,” Kellen said, “but you
might not want to piss Shade off any more than you already have.
He’s having a bad day.”

“
Which I’m sure he blames
on me,” Adam said. “Just like he blames everything on
me.”

Shade slid into the car next to Adam
and the door shut. Someone slapped the roof of the car and it moved
forward.

Shade was still clutching his
cellphone and didn’t spare any of them a glance, not that it was
easy to tell what his gaze was fixed on as he always wore a pair of
aviator sunglasses. While Owen enthusiastically described some sex
club in San Antonio to Kellen, who seemed interested, and Gabe, who
did not, Adam’s hand kept wandering under Madison’s skirt to stroke
the inside of her thigh. Shade stared out the tinted window and
didn’t say a word to anyone. Madison’s need to counsel him was
overwhelming. She extended a hand in his direction and opened her
mouth to ask him a question, but thought better of it and pursed
her lips.

“
Come on, Gabe,” Owen said.
“You’ll have a great time.”

“
I told you,” he said,
running a finger along his head at the boundary of his mohawk. “I
have this thing I’m working on with Melanie.”

“
What
thing
?” Owen asked with a smirk.
“Does it involve batteries or a gas-powered generator?”

Brows drawn together, Gabe bit his lip
and punched Owen in the thigh. “A relationship. You know,
commitment?”

“
Never heard of it,” Owen
claimed as he elbowed Kellen in the ribs.

Madison’s attention turned to Gabe.
She’d never known any of the band members to commit to a woman in
the entire year she’d been acquainted with them. If Gabe could
manage it, then maybe Adam could hang out with him while the other
three went out and fooled around with their grope-ies. Or went to
sex clubs. Or whatever other activities they partook in that might
involve the indiscretion of Adam’s dick.

Owen’s blue eyes shifted to Adam and
then immediately diverted to Shade. Apparently he knew better than
to ask Adam in front of Madison. “You’ll come, won’t you,
Shade?”

As the sound of his name, Shade pulled
his strict concentration from the dark streets outside the car.
“What?”

“
This club I heard about in
San Antonio. You’re coming, right?”

“
Sex club?” Shade asked, as
if it was their most typical excursion.

“
Oh yeah.”

“
When?”

“
Day after
tomorrow.”

“
Exclusive?” Shade
asked.

“
Yep.”

“
I’m in.”

Owen glanced at Adam again. Madison
could tell he wanted to ask Adam if he was going, and she wanted to
hear Adam’s response. Did he go to sex clubs often? Was that where
he’d learned to be such an amazing lover? She wasn’t even sure what
went on at sex clubs. Sex, she presumed, but would it be like a
brothel or a free-for-all orgy or what?

“
What do you do at a sex
club?” Madison asked Owen.

Adam’s thighs stiffened beneath
her.

Owen glanced nervously at Adam.
Madison turned her head and found Adam staring ice daggers at the
bassist.

“
Nothing that would
interest you, sweetie,” Owen said. “Or Adam,” he added with a wave
of his hand.

Of course Adam would never
be interested in something like that.
Sure.
She wasn’t going to be deterred
that easily. “Do you just have sex with strangers out in the open
in front of everyone?”

“
If that’s your kink,”
Kellen said.

Madison’s heart rate accelerated. “Is
it yours?” she asked him, lost in his dark brown eyes. The man had
an unquestionable strength about him. He didn’t say much around
her, but she was always aware of him. Owen drew attention with
ceaseless interaction, Kellen by his presence alone.

“
Performance sex?” Kellen
shook his head. “Not particularly, no. That’s more Adam’s
thing.”

“
Don’t tell her that,” Adam
said. “She’s liable to believe you.”

Shade leaned across the back seat and
slid a hand onto Madison's knee. “I think you should come down to
San Antonio and join us, sweetheart. I always wondered what it was
about you that kept Adam interested. You seem pretty vanilla to me.
What are you hiding behind that innocent act? And beneath that
skirt?”

Adam grabbed Shade’s hand and crushed
his fingers. “Don't touch her.”

Shade chuckled. “See? He's all
pissed-off now. Hey, Adam, what's so great about her anyway? Does
she give good head or what?”

Before she could tell Shade to go fuck
himself, Madison found herself bouncing across the seat beside Adam
when he tossed her off his lap and jumped on Shade. Within seconds,
a full-out brawl raged in the back of the limo. Adam got in a few
good punches before Shade found enough leverage to send him flying
toward the backseat. Adam careened into Kellen's and Owen's legs
before launching himself in Shade's direction again.

Heart thundering out of control,
Madison grabbed the back of Adam's shirt to try to pull him off
Shade. “Stop!”

She instantly found her back secured
against a hard chest with both wrists trapped at her
sides.

“
Let them fight,” Kellen’s
deep voice said in her ear. “This has been building for
weeks.”

Madison struggled to be set free, but
not only was Kellen strong, he seemed to know some technique for
keeping her easily immobilized. “One of them is going to get hurt,”
Madison said.

Adam and Shade’s rapid-fire punches
were already slowing and becoming less punishing. After less than a
minute, they separated, glaring acid at each other. Shade's
sunglasses were bent and askew. Adam's full lower lip was bleeding.
A red mark darkened his cheek.

“
I am sick of your
bullshit, Shade,” Adam yelled. “I've fucking had it.”

“
What? You gonna leave?”
Shade returned. “Go ahead. Leave. Then maybe we could find someone
to take your place who shows up for sound checks on time, doesn’t
think fucking is more important than breathing, isn’t stupid enough
to smoke pot backstage while on probation, and isn't the all-around
most inconsiderate asshole I've ever met.”

Madison’s heart slammed into her
ribcage. What did Shade mean about Adam smoking pot backstage?
Recently? Why would he keep something like that from her? Why would
he lie? And if he lied about something like that, how could she
believe anything he said to her?

“
Yeah, maybe I will leave,”
Adam yelled. “At least I won't have to put up with getting bitched
at by an egomaniac like you.”

“
No one is leaving,” Kellen
said. “You two need to stop pissing each other off on purpose. It’s
juvenile.”

Adam and Shade gaped at Kellen in
astonishment.

“
It's fucking obvious that
you do it,” Owen said. While Adam and Shade agreed on nothing, Owen
and Kellen seemed to agree on everything. “Adam knows how much it
pisses Shade off to be late, so any opportunity he has to be late,
he takes it.”