Steady Beat (17 page)

“My saliva,” he repeated.

With a grin, he snatched his own jeans from the floor and shoved his legs into them. Pepper watched him struggle to tuck his still-rigid cock behind his fly. The swollen organ strained against the zip as he pulled it closed, turning his crotch to a massive bulge.

She couldn’t help herself. She giggled.

He dropped a wink. “The beauty of being a rock star? No one will give a flying fuck if I walk around with a hard-on. They expect it.”

Pepper laughed. “Really?”

His eyes twinkled with merriment. “Sure. Most of the time bands take to the stage with socks shoved down their trousers to make it look more impressive.”

Flinging his shirt over his shoulder, he held out his other arm. “Okay, Ms. Kerrigan. Get your arse dressed. We’ve got some romantic, rose-petal-embellished fucking to do.”

Five minutes later, Pepper climbed back into the same limo she’d arrived in. If the driver thought it curious Noah carried his shirt and boots, rather than wearing them, he didn’t let on. Nor did he react when Noah told him to call the hotel with instructions to cover Noah’s bed with rose petals—a second before raising the privacy glass.

Pepper gave him a surprised look. “They really do that kind of thing?”

“For the right guest, they do.” He took her hand, threaded his fingers through hers and placed it in his lap. The hot steel of his erection pressed at her knuckles, a reminder—as if she needed one—of how aroused he was. “I told you I was going to show you the life of a rock star today. It starts with rose petals and fucking.”

A cold little ripple of unease squirmed through Pepper at his words. She caught her bottom lip. “So you do this kind of thing…the roses…” She paused, hating the doubt and jealousy scratching at her euphoria.

Noah closed his fingers firmer around hers. He touched her chin, shaking his head. “I’ve never done roses with anyone before, babe. Never. Never wanted to.”

Pepper’s belly flip-flopped. She studied him, once again aware how easy it would be to love him.

Was that what she wanted? To fall in love with him? To be his girlfriend? Rather than the singer of his band? It felt right, it truly did, the way it was meant to be, but was that wise? Especially given he’d just come out of an eight-year relationship with a supermodel?

He may deny she was his rebound fling, but could she risk her heart on that?

Would she?

“Hey.” His low voice drew her gaze back to his eyes. Worry swam in their light-blue depths. He frowned. “There’s nothing to be scared of, Pepper. I’m not going to hurt you. I was a bit wild in my young days, sure. I did the insane groupie thing. I’m not going to lie to you about that. What your dad wrote in that article about the band was mostly true. But remember, he also wrote an article just about me a few years later. Did you read that one? The one that said how I’d matured. How I’d left behind the madness, how the music was all that mattered to me? How playing the drums was what motivated me, not the orgies and drugs and fame?”

His eyes beseeched her.

Pepper’s heart beat faster. She nodded. “I did read that article,” she answered. “I just…” She stopped, her fears trapped in her throat.

He brushed his thumb over her bottom lip. “Since I’ve met you, I’ve been motivated by something else. Something new and wonderful.”

Pepper’s mouth grew dry. “What’s that?”

He nudged her forehead with his. “Your smile.”

Warmth flooded Pepper’s cheeks. She lowered her eyes. Tried to duck her head. Noah didn’t let her. He stared into her eyes, his hand holding hers to his heart. “Groupies don’t get rose petals and candles, babe. Not even singing ones. Only someone truly amazing, truly beautiful, deserves rose petals and candles.” He brushed a soft kiss over her lips. “And Keith Moon solos.”

Pepper burst out laughing, the intensity of the moment, as well as her fears and doubts, shattered by Noah’s playful quip.

He winked at her and then settled back in his seat, returning her hand—still held by his—to his lap. “So tell me,” he said, resting his ankle on his knee, “about Black Toad Dare. Did you enjoy being their manager?”

Pepper nodded. “I did. It’s the longest job I’ve ever held, and I didn’t consider it work. They were a garage band when I first met them. Dad had been researching indie groups and he told me about this young group of guys—barely out of their teens—who had real potential. He’d sat in on a couple of their rehearsals and was impressed by them. He said with good management they could go far. I was between jobs at the time, with no real sense of direction. I went along with him to one of their first appearances—a homecoming dance at one of the smaller high schools on the east side—and knew straight away they had something.”

“And you approached them there and then?”

“Oh God, no.” She snorted. “Chronically shy, remember? I went home and penned the most persuasive letter I could, outlining what I believed their future could be, based on the right management, and offered my services. I may have…elaborated my relationship with most of the important people in the music industry, but only a little. I
did
know the right people to call and talk to, thanks to Dad. I’d just never actually talked them. The group accepted my offer, not because of who I was but more—I suspect—because of who my father was. Every rock band in the world wants an in with
Rolling Stone
magazine, and they saw me as that. Still, they agreed to let me be their manager and I managed the shit out of them. By the end of my first three months with them they were playing at music festivals and had appeared in three magazines. By the end of my sixth month, they’d signed their first recording contract with Hypnotic Records and opened for Green Day.”

Noah whistled. “Impressive. So what happened?”

Pepper let out a slow sigh. “My dad died. He suffered his heart attack while I was prepping them for their first appearance on Leno. I asked them to give me a few days to sort myself out. When I called them again, Ewan Burgess had already made his move, convincing them I was nothing without the contacts Dad gave me. They sent me a text cutting our ties during Dad’s funeral.”

“Bloody hell.”

Pepper shrugged off Noah’s shocked anger. “It’s okay. They got their just deserts. Have you seen them on any charts or performing at any festivals since?” She sighed again. “Still, it was fun while it lasted.”

Noah frowned. “You take it so well.”

“I’m used to failing. My mom told me that’s all I was ever good at.”

“Jesus. Has she ever heard you sing?”

“Yeah. But she’s also seen me freeze on more than one school-talent-contest stage. She left Dad and me for her cosmetic surgeon years ago, and I haven’t heard from her since.”

Noah’s stare roamed her face. “You’re too hard on yourself, you know?”

Pepper raised her eyebrows.

He nodded. “You’re obviously very talented and your music-industry knowledge is very impressive, and yet you consider yourself incapable of doing anything. Of achieving anything. Give me a month and I’ll have you believing how incredible you really are.”

She laughed, even as a blush crept over her cheeks. “I…I think you’re exaggerating. I know I can sing, but incredible?” She shook her head and lowered her gaze to her knees. “That’s not me.”

“Bullshit. Remember what you told me you’d do for Synergy. That was pure genius.”

She frowned. “Synergy?”

Noah grinned. “The band. Can’t call ourselves Blackthorne without Nick, although I guess we could have called ourselves Blackthorne sans Blackthorne.”

Pepper chuckled. “An interesting name to be sure.”

He smirked. “It is. I’ll mention it to the guys.”

“I think I like Synergy more.”

“I think I like
you
more. And more and more and more.”

Pepper ducked her head, her laughter spilling from her. “You’re mad, Noah Holden.”

His gentle pressure on her chin made her turn to him. “You’re right,” he murmured. “I’m completely, irrevocably mad about you.”

And, with his fingers holding her hand tight, he leant forward and captured her lips with his.

Chapter Eight

They fell into his hotel room. Try as hard as he might, Noah couldn’t stop kissing her. He made love to her mouth in the lift. He worshipped her body with his hands as they walked the entire length of the hallway to his room. He pinned her to his suite’s closed door and branded her throat with a love bite, not caring other guests walked by as he did so.

There wasn’t a hope in bloody hell he could control himself any longer. Pepper Kerrigan hadn’t just captivated him, she’d completely enslaved him.

He’d fallen for her, was
still
falling for her, and nothing was going to stop him showing her how much he wanted her. Needed her.

Craved to have her.

By the time he shoved the keycard to his suite into the lock and yanked it out, by the time he pushed the door open, he could no more stop kissing her than he could stop breathing.

He drove her backward into the opulent hotel room, their feet stumbling over each other, the scent of roses a potent perfume in the air. He wrapped one arm around her waist, holding her to his body even as he desperately tried to release his fly with his other hand.

His cock, on permanent alert since the Loft, throbbed with straining agony. If Pepper touched it he’d come. He had no doubt. As it was, he didn’t think he’d last even long enough to cover the engorged thing with a rubber.

The reality that he couldn’t undo his fly with enough speed while still holding and kissing Pepper scratched at the fringes of his mind. He groaned, swiping his tongue over hers one last time before breaking the kiss and letting her go.

She stumbled back a step, her breasts heaving as she watched him.

Without a word, he yanked his fly open and shoved his jeans down over his hips. Still shoeless, nothing interfered with the complete removal of the snug denim, and a second later he stood before her as naked as the day he was born.

She drew in a shaky breath, her stare roaming over his body.

A hot spasm claimed his cock as she openly studied it. The suite’s cool air flowed over his flushed skin, cool and teasing and driving him crazy. Not because it made him cold, or affected the size of his organ, but because it wasn’t Pepper’s skin on his.

And at this point in time, Noah wanted nothing but Pepper’s skin touching his.

He stood still, waiting for her gaze to return to his face.

It did, her dilated pupils telling him just how aroused she was.

When she reached for the hem of her shirt, he shook his head. “I want to undress you.”

Her answering nod was short. Her breaths were shallow. Quick.

He stepped toward her and slid his hands over her hips. The smooth material of her hot pants was cool under his palms, and he shivered, impatient for the warmth of her skin.

She lifted her eyes to his, and then let out a soft sound when he lowered the zip of her fly. Holding her stare, he hooked his thumbs between her hips and the waistband of her hot pants and slowly, slowly inched them downward.

Gravity claimed them halfway down her thighs. They fell to the floor, revealing her to the room. The subtle scent of her arousal slipped into Noah’s breath and he swallowed, so close to the edge already that any stimulation of his senses threatened to undo him.

Lowering himself to one knee, he brushed a hand over the back of Pepper’s leg, from her thigh to her calf. With gentle force, he lifted her booted foot, pushed aside her hot pants and returned her foot to the floor. Repeating the action with her other leg, he smiled up at her, trailing his fingers up the length of her inner thighs to the exquisite heat of her pussy.

He twisted his wrist, just enough to allow his fingertips to stroke over her seam. They came away damp, her pleasure already seeping from her.

She hitched in a quick breath and another when he raised his fingers to his lips and licked her juices from them.

“Oh, Noah.” His name fell from her in a groan.

He brushed her pussy again, with a little more pressure this time, lingering longer on the hooded button of her clit.

Her eyes fluttered closed and her hips pushed forward.

He rolled a finger over the small nub of flesh, two slow circles that made her moan, and then raised his hand to his mouth once more.

She watched him suck her moisture from his index finger, her tongue swiping over her lips.

Once again, he returned his hand to her sex. Traced the velvet heat of her folds with two fingers. This time he pressed harder, hard enough to penetrate her wetness to his first knuckle. She gasped, swaying on her feet even as she parted her thighs more.

He ground his teeth, determined not to rush. Pushing his fingers deeper into her pussy, he wrapped his other hand around the distended length of his cock and pumped once.

Concentrated pleasure rushed through him, hot and scalding and ready.

Releasing his cock, he withdrew his fingers from Pepper’s sex and replaced them with his tongue.

She shuddered, her hands burying in his hair. “Oh Noah…”