One Night with Sole Regret 04 Touch Me (13 page)

“I think I’m all funned out,” Kellen
said.

“Speaking of fun… Wanna dance?” Owen asked
her.

She gawked at him. “Dance?
Here?
But…”
She rummaged through her brain for an excuse. “There's no
music.”

Owen pulled his smartphone out of his pocket
and started his playlist. The tiny speaker sounded awful, but they
had music. Very hard and heavy music. Caitlyn frowned. “Is that one
of your songs?”

“Yeah,” he said, “do you like it?”

“Not especially,” she shouted. Even though
the music wasn't loud, she felt compelled to yell when confronted
by the sounds blaring from the speaker.

“What kind of music do you listen to?” he
asked.

She hesitated, looking from one musician to
the next. She couldn’t lie about it. It would be much too easy to
catch her at it. “I… uh… I don't listen to music.”

Based on the look Owen gave her, she must
have contracted a severe case of purple Chicken Pox.

“You're kidding,” he said.

“No. I mostly listen to podcasts. And, well,
I'm a fan of silence.”

She reached over and muted the song blasting
from the speaker. Much better.

“Have you ever even been to a concert?”

“Oh, sure. Charles took me to the symphony
once.” She’d even bought a new dress for the occasion and had worn
it exactly once.

“Symphony? That doesn’t count. What about a
rock concert?”

She bit her lip. She was about to lose her
cool-card. “Never been.”

Owen gaped at her. Her pox must have started
seeping blueberry jelly.

“Inconceivable,” Owen said. “That needs to
change.”

“I agree,” Kellen said.

“Tomorrow night we play in Houston. You're
going.”

She might be able to handle a Journey or .38
Special concert, but Sole Regret? If the ten seconds of music from
Owen’s smartphone had made her ears bleed, what would an entire
show do to her? Make her head explode?

“I couldn't possibly,” she said.

“Do you have other plans?”

“Yes, actually. I came to San Antonio to
visit Jenna, and I've hardly spent any time with her yet.” Nice
save.

“She can come with you.”

“She has to work.”

“So you can come with us—”

“On the tour bus?” Kellen interrupted.

“Yes, on the tour bus.”

“I don't think that's a good idea.”

Caitlyn wondered why. Considering the kind of
clubs these guys frequented, she could only imagine the kind of
debauchery that occurred on that tour bus.

“I didn't ask for your opinion,” Owen said to
Kellen. Then he turned his attention back to Caitlyn. “You can come
with us, and I'll send you back to San Antonio—in a limo if you
want—to return to visit your friend.”

“I honestly don't think I'd like it.”

“You have to try it at least once. I can't be
seen in public with a woman who's never been to a rock concert
before.”

She chuckled. “Well I wouldn't want to ruin
your reputation.”

“It was ruined years ago,” Kellen assured
her.

“So is that a yes?” Owen pressed.

“I could save your reputation by asking you
to take me someplace private,” she said. “Then you wouldn’t have to
be seen with me in public.”

“Damn, woman. You’re killing me.”

“Smart girls,” Kellen said. “They pay
attention to what you actually say and use it against you.”

She hadn’t meant to use anything Owen said
against him. She just enjoyed their easy banter. “I’ll go,” she
said decisively. Kellen’s wink made her realize that she’d just
been outsmarted by a rock star. Damn it!

“Awesome,” Owen said. “I was trying to think
up an excuse to get her to have sex with me on the tour bus. This
played out perfectly.” He glanced at Caitlyn when she gasped. “Did
I just say that aloud?”

She laughed. “Unless I’m imagining
things.”

“I think she's onto me,” he said to
Kellen.

Kellen scratched his nose. “Since you tend to
show all your cards, I'm not surprised.”

“I don't show all my cards. I still have an
ace or two up my sleeve. Did you know dancing with a woman is a
great method of seduction? If you move to their liking, they
subconsciously think you’ll be compatible in bed.”

“You made that up,” Kellen said.

“Did I?” Owen took Caitlyn’s hand in his and
caught her gaze. As she stared into his eyes, her heart thudded
faster and faster. Her palm became increasingly damp. “Caitlyn, may
I have this dance?”

Her first instinct was to accept, but then
the rattling of dishes in the diner’s kitchen reminded her where
she was.

“I'm not going to dance with you here,”
Caitlyn said in a loud whisper.

“Why not? We have music. I'll even download
your favorite song if you'd like.”

“This isn't the kind of place where you
dance.”

Owen looked at Kellen. “Name three places
where I would never dance.”

“Never?”

“Never.”

Kellen shrugged. “Can't think of one.”

“This is why he's my best friend. He always
agrees with me.”

“I didn’t say it was normal.”

Owen blocked his screen from view as he
downloaded something to his phone. The waitress set two bottles of
water and a glass of ice tea on the table. She smiled first at Owen
and then at Kellen before blushing and rushing back toward the
kitchen.

“Do you think she knows who we are?” Kellen
asked.

“Did she rip off her shirt and ask you to
sign her tits? No, she doesn't know. She just thinks you’re
hot.”

Caitlyn reached for her tea, but before she
could take a sip, Owen took her by the hand and pulled her from the
booth.

“What are you doing?”

“Dancing.”

From his phone, “The Chicken Dance Song”
began to play. When Owen began to flap his arms and scratch and
peck, Caitlyn gaped at him.

“Dance with me, Caitlyn.”

She laughed—half mortified, half amused. “Oh
my God, you are so embarrassing!”

“Dance, Caitlyn, or I'm following this with
‘Play That Funky Music White Boy.’ ”

“You don't want him to go there, Caitlyn,”
Kellen said, opening his water and sipping it nonchalantly.

Every person in the restaurant was gawking,
pointing, or laughing. And if Owen hadn't been so fucking cute,
they probably would have called the cops on him for disorderly
conduct.

“Dance, Caitlyn.”

“I don't know how,” she lied. She'd danced to
this song as a child. Back when she'd known how to have fun.

He whirled her around and stepped up behind
her, one hand on her belly and his groin pressed against her ass.
She wasn't sure how he made The Chicken Dance sexy, but by God, she
was completely turned on the instant he began to move with her.
Especially when he made her shake her hips and rub up against him
just right.

Her face was flushed with something other
than embarrassment as she let loose and started to move.

“I thought you didn't know this dance,” Owen
said in her ear.

“I'm a fast learner.”

Two young women in a booth several tables
away climbed to their feet and joined in. It appeared that they’d
had a few too many as they stumbled around more than they danced.
When one of the girls spotted Kellen in the booth, looking amused
rather than annoyed, she grabbed his wrist and tried to pull him to
his feet.

“Come and dance with us,” the tipsy girl
said. “Come on. It’s fun!”

“No, thanks.” There was no room for argument
in his tone, so with a scowl she released his wrist and settled for
rubbing up against Owen from behind.

Owen laughed as he attempted to avoid hands
not belonging to Caitlyn. “Three on one, no fair. Save me,
Kellen.”

“There isn't enough tequila in Mexico to make
me dance The Chicken Dance in a diner at one o’clock in the
morning.”

Caitlyn turned to face Owen and wrapped both
arms around his neck. She lifted an eyebrow at one of the eager
young women behind him and the woman stepped back, tripping over
her own feet. Her friend kept her from falling to the floor.

“Want to go party with us?” one of the girls
asked Owen. “We love to party.”

“Caitlyn's all the party I can handle right
now,” he said and kissed Caitlyn, as if to make his intentions
clear.

She drew him closer, kissing him deeper,
still sort of wiggling to the song. He squeezed her to stop her
motion and tugged his mouth free. “Now that I have you loosened
up,” he said, “how about a slow song?”

“How about you hurry up and eat your sandwich
so we can go to your room and be alone?”

Owen glanced at Kellen and lifted his eyebrow
to accompany the I-told-you-so lift of his head. “Now do you
believe that dancing is a great method of seduction?”

“I have less obnoxious methods,” Kellen
said.

“Yeah, sitting there looking cranky actually
works well for you,” Owen said.

Kellen gave him the finger.

“There's a bar that's open for another couple
hours just down the street,” one of the young women said, “if you
want to have some fun. Come on, you don’t want to hang around with
her
all night, do you?”

Caitlyn hoped it was the alcohol making the
girl so impolite.

The girl tugged on Owen's arm, and he pulled
his gaze from Caitlyn's to look at her. “I’m not interested. But my
friend might be.” He nodded toward Kellen and grinned at the look
of horror on Kellen’s face when both girls squeezed into the booth
with him.

“If you don't stop torturing him, he's going
to wind up hating you,” Caitlyn said.

“Not possible.”

But based on the look on Kellen's face as he
tried to put some space between himself and the tipsy women now
crowding into his booth, Caitlyn wasn't so sure.

“Are you ready for that slow song?” Owen
whispered. “I need a good excuse to hold you close in public until
my sandwich arrives.”

“You really do show your cards,” Caitlyn
said.

“Did you think Kellen was joking?”

“I didn't think Kellen was joking, I've just
never met anyone who throws it all out there in the open.”

“Do you like it? I hope so, because I’m not
sure if I can keep a lid on it now that I’ve let loose.”

Caitlyn leaned back so she could look him in
the eye. He scared the hell out of her, to be honest. She had no
idea what to expect out of him next, and he had no problem alerting
her to the fact that it would be something she was
not
expecting, but yeah, she did like it. “I like it when you’re being
yourself. Don’t put a lid on it. Just be you. That’s what I
like.”

His brilliant smile did things to her heart,
and she definitely wanted to be pressed against him, swaying to a
slow song in the middle of diner at one o’clock in the morning.

“Can I pick the song this time?” she said. “I
wouldn't want to end up doing the chicken dance again or worse,
dancing disco to some song better left in the past.”

“Promise you’ll pick something slow and
sexy.”

“I promise.” Caitlyn found the song she
wanted on his phone while Owen tried to talk the young ladies into
leaving Kellen alone since Kellen was having no luck convincing
them that he didn't want to get drunk with them. Even though they
kept yelling, “Party!” intermittently, Kellen was obviously not the
least bit interested in joining their brand of fun. The young
ladies had no business drinking any more than they already had,
anyway.

When Caitlyn found the song she had in mind,
she had to hand the phone to Owen so he could enter his password
and purchase it.

“Don't peek,” she said. “I want it to be a
surprise.”

“I won't peek,” he said.

“Strange as it sounds, Owen loves surprises,”
Kellen said.

“I do.”

“He can't keep a secret though.”

Caitlyn chuckled. “Why does that not surprise
me?”

When the song began, Owen tugged Caitlyn
against his chest and stole her breath by singing along in a low
sultry voice. She wasn't sure how he knew “Unchained Melody,” but
he sang it as if he were a long lost Righteous brother. He had a
pitch-perfect tone. He
should
be a lead singer. She’d pay to
hear him sing.

Her body was entirely in tune with his. Her
skin tingled in want of his touch. Her ears strained for more of
the sensual words pouring from his lips. She’d never felt a song
before, but she felt every word of this one. They swayed slowly as
he led her into a leisurely turn around the floor between their
booth and a small table. Caitlyn clung to him and let him lead.
Allowed herself to enjoy their dance and not worry about what
everyone else was thinking or whispering. She didn't much care at
the moment. Owen gave her an odd measure of courage. Even though he
was several years younger than she was, he was teaching her
something she hadn't realized she'd been missing—how to have fun
and not worry about what people thought. She tugged him closer and
nuzzled her face into his neck.

“Most women don't make it past The Chicken
Dance,” he said as the music played without accompanying
vocals.

“So you dance in diners on a regular basis, I
take it,” she said. She wished she could say that she had something
special with him. And not the things she'd done to him back at the
sex club. She hoped he didn't hold that against her. She'd been
really hating on men when he'd approached her. And she should have
never taken out her frustration on his ass. Even if he had seemed
to like it.

“Not regularly,” he said. “I’ve danced in a
few. But it’s been years.”

Caitlyn caught sight of the waitress,
standing with a large tray beside the table. She was watching them
with a smile of longing on her face, waiting for their song to
finish. Maybe all women wanted a man like Owen, a man who didn't
care if the world thought he was a little crazy for making his own
dance floor, just so long as he got to hold his woman close.