‘That’d be useful,’ Rock Giant’s voice rumbled through the receiver.
Xane snatched the phone. ‘What?’ he hollered. ‘Aren’t I allowed a minute’s peace?’
‘Not if all you’re doing is using it to screw pretty ladies. How many were there last night, five, six?’
‘I was with Dani.’
‘Yeah, you’re so chewed up about Elspeth and Steve that you picked up the first bird that walked past and ran away with her. That’s not grieving, Xane. That’s being an arsehole. And breaking the band up because you’re not top dog any more is just sad. Now will you quit with the pity party and get your dumb arse back here so we can sort out the financial mess you’ve created or do I have to send the men with straitjackets for a nice stay in rehab? Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing. Does she know you’re using her?’
‘F off, Paul. I’m not using anyone, and there is no financial mess. We cancelled one show. We might be slightly out of pocket, but I don’t think we’re going to need to get out the collecting buckets. And there’s no need to do anything about the studio time we have booked. I’m sure
I’ll
have something to work on. What else is there to talk about? The band’s finished, as I told Ash, when he tried to hold me hostage in my own fucking house. I suggest you all think about why that is.’
‘You’re a dick, Xane.’
‘Not half as big a one as you.’
‘Maybe we’ll just replace you.’
‘Yeah? Try it and I’ll see you in court.’
‘Fuck you.’
‘I can’t work with people who show no respect for my feelings.’
‘Maybe you should try showing some respect for theirs. Why can’t you be happy for them, Xane?’
Xane whipped the phone away from his ear and threw it so that it smashed against the wall. Sadly, while the screen cracked, the call remained connected.
‘You should have stepped up first, Xane. It wasn’t as if you didn’t know what she wanted.’
‘This is not about whether or not I wanted to get hitched,’ he yelled. ‘Why are you all so fucking obsessed with Elspeth? Have you remotely considered that I might be more cut up about being shafted by Steve? Or, that, you know, they’re only the tip of the problem?’
‘Steve shafting you is –’
Dani gingerly tiptoed over to where the phone had come to rest and picked it up. She turned off the phone, cutting off Rock Giant in mid-sentence, and then retrieved the data card, which she stowed carefully in her purse.
To her relief, Xane no longer looked as though he was about to rampage like a madman. He sat cross-legged on the bed with his elbows resting on his knees and his long hair drawn over his face like a shroud.
‘I’m sorry about your phone,’ he apologised. ‘I’m not generally violent, but I can do without Paul Reed telling me I’m the one at fault. You’re welcome to have my phone, or I can get you a new one, whichever you prefer.’
‘I thought Rock Giant was supposed to be a big softy.’
‘Only if you’re blonde, about five foot tall and female. Otherwise he’s an opinionated git. I know it probably doesn’t look good that I’ve come here with you, but I had to get away from them … And this isn’t about me wishing them ill. I hope they’re very happy together. They totally deserve one another. And I’m not just using you, Dani. You’re the only one who understands at the minute.’
Dani parted his curtain of hair. The graze he’d sustained last night had scabbed over. Naked, it made him look vulnerable. ‘The guys are just frustrated. They’re thinking about their careers, and not how this is impacting you as a person. They want things to be simple, that’s all.’
‘Nothing’s ever simple,’ he grumbled.
‘It can be. This is,’ she said, releasing the knot in the throw she’d fastened around herself.
Xane extended his hand towards her, which she pressed to the soft skin of her bared stomach.
‘It can be as simple or complex as you need it. Tell me what you need.’
‘Don’t tempt me, Dani.’
‘Whatever fantasy you have, whoever, whatever, you need me to be.’
Xane eyed her thoughtfully. ‘You’re sweet, and too good for me.’
‘I think I liked it better when you accused me of torture.’
‘You’re that too.’ He ran a hand down the length of her arm. ‘I’m genuinely sorry about your phone.’
Dani pressed a kiss to the tip of his nose. ‘It’s OK. The only person who ever calls me is Ginny, and I’d rather she didn’t call again at the moment.’ Given whom she was hanging out with, Dani wouldn’t be surprised if Ginny tried to put Elspeth on next time.
‘I’m not trying to screw them over. We’ve all worked hard at this, but I can’t go on with things the way they are.’
‘I know,’ she said, cradling his head against her chest. ‘I’m here for you. Just like you’ve always been there for me.’
Xane’s fingers lightly traced the scars over her left buttock. ‘I wasn’t really there, Dani.’
‘You were,’ she insisted, pushing him backwards so that he fell amongst the jumbled bedclothes. ‘Through your music you were. Here, turn over. Let me work out the tension in your shoulders.’
Xane sighed, and then rolled onto his stomach. She knew from his tone of voice that his expectations for relieving his tensions were pretty low.
Dammit, Ginny, did you have to intrude?
Dani flexed her fingers. All right, she was going to do this, work the tension out of him and the sexy back in. Maybe then her offering to do anything for him would result in something more exciting than a massage.
Such as him allowing her to smother him in chocolate body paint and lick it all off.
Xane buried his face in the pillows. Tension knotted his shoulders and most of his spine. He appreciated Dani’s efforts, but he just wasn’t feeling very sexy at the moment. Instead he had a Black Halo inferno raging inside his skull. Couldn’t any of them see that by ruthlessly hounding him they were making the situation worse? He hadn’t been persuaded by Ash’s suggestion that instead of splitting they ought to fire Steve and Elspeth, and after Rock Giant’s tirade he was certain that wouldn’t work. Not without sacking Rock Giant too. That in turn would upset Spook. And if because of that they’d reduced the core of the band to two, then they might as well start afresh anyway, in which case it made sense to call it a day on Black Halo. Rock Giant’s last remark, the one Dani had thankfully cut short, had been completely uncalled for. Of course the guys would think it all a big joke. It wasn’t a joke to him though. He teared up thinking about it. Memories of Steve, behind him, above him, touching him as Dani was doing now, momentarily overwhelmed him.
Xane swallowed hard. His breath seemed to stick in his throat and fail to reach his lungs, which in turn made his muscles convulse. There was no point dwelling on it, or churning over events to see if there was any way things could possibly have worked out differently. He knew Steve didn’t feel the same way. What they’d done together hadn’t engaged him emotionally. It hadn’t confused the hell out of him, or left him reeling and giddy. Connections that ought to have snapped into place and brought them closer simply hadn’t formed. Instead, Steve had fallen hard for Elspeth, which rather left Xane out in the cold as the spare part that nobody wanted.
OK, that wasn’t entirely true. Dani wanted him. And her warm hands did feel good against his shoulders. She worked diligently at the knots with both her thumbs and the heels of her palms. She’d even offered to listen to him snivel about his relationship with Elspeth being over. He wondered what she’d make of Steve’s involvement, and the fact that his grief was over that loss and nothing to do with Elspeth.
‘Relax,’ she insisted. ‘Push all the bad thoughts out instead of trying to internalise them. Let them go.’
He tried but couldn’t seem to master it, until her lips and tongue became part of the act.
An intense shiver rolled through Xane’s body as she traced her tongue along the line of his spine, from his tailbone to his neck.
‘Again,’ he whimpered.
‘Like this.’ The second shiver proved equally intense, forcing him to adjust his position on the mattress. Though, thinking about it, it wasn’t really where she was going that excited him so much as where she started from. Her tongue tickled where it dipped between the uppermost cleft of his buttocks. It was something Steve had done, the first time they’d … performed for Elspeth. It had set him alight then with its dirty promise. But it was pointless to think Dani was going to take him on remotely the same kind of exhilarating journey. She wasn’t going to dip down any further in that direction no matter how hard he projected the idea. She simply wasn’t the sort to initiate that sort of act.
‘I like your bottom,’ she announced, digging her fingernails into both cheeks.
Fuck! Maybe that psychic link was working. Maybe he’d completely misjudged her and she’d surprise him.
‘It’s all springy and firm, and it has these cute little clefts when you tense up. Like that,’ she laughed delighted, and then licked at the dip formed by the tightening of his muscles.
Xane groaned. He couldn’t help it. Nor could he help it when she did it again or in fact each subsequent time. God, if only she’d be bolder and use her tongue to explore the channel between his cheeks. Possibly, tickle him there – with her tongue? Or, hell, even tease a naughty fingertip inside?
His body tightened at the thought.
Instead, disappointingly, her attention strayed back from his bottom to his spine – only this time she leaned close to him, so her breasts brushed against the curve of his backside.
‘Are you sure that you still only want a massage?’
Xane tingled all over. Earlier he hadn’t been aroused; now he very much was. Sadly, most of that arousal was linked to frustration. She wasn’t going to miraculously do what he wanted, and he very much doubted that what he wanted right now featured on her list of things to do – ever.
Oh, sod it! Nothing ventured and all that.
‘You could explore my arse a little more.’
He braced himself for her shock and,
what a surprise
, she tensed right up.
‘How do you mean, exactly? You mean squeeze you there some more?’
‘Lick me. Kiss me. There’s some flavoured lube in the drawer if you’re worried about the taste.’ He stretched to find it for her, but couldn’t quite reach.
Xane waited, seeing what she would do.
‘Seriously, you want me to kiss your arse?’ Despite the laughter in her voice, he could feel the underlying tension vibrating through her nerves where her body touched his. ‘Is that something you like a lot of?’
‘It’s something I like. I like lots of things.’
‘You like … rimming?’ she asked, hesitating over the word as though uncertain she’d got the right one.
‘As a prelude to other things. How about you?’
‘I don’t know.’ She continued to grin nervously as she reached over to the bedside cabinet, presumably to find the lube, which had him smiling too. ‘I can’t say I’ve ever tried it.’
Her smile wavered a bit as she looked into the drawer and a crease formed across her brow. ‘Is this your DIY toolbox? Tape. Clamps.’ She lifted each of the objects before replacing them. ‘Oil. What’s this thing?’ Xane kept this mouth tightly closed. ‘OK, lube.’ She held the bottle aloft in victory at finding it. ‘Should I ask why you own a vibrator?’
‘Is that a trick question?’
Why did anyone own a vibe?
‘I don’t think so.’ She gave her head a tiny shake as if she hoped to shift something into place. ‘You just don’t strike me as the sort of guy who needs extra help getting a woman off.’
Nope, but sometimes he enjoyed other ways of getting himself off.
‘Why don’t you use it on me?’ He looked over his shoulder and met her gaze, just so there was no mistaking what he actually meant. He wasn’t embarrassed; he’d done worse before now than ask a girl to fuck him with a dildo.
However, Dani’s cheeks turned scarlet. ‘Wh-what, actually put it inside you?’ She gaped at him.
Xane sighed. ‘Only if you don’t have a problem with that.’
‘I don’t have a problem. I never said I had a problem. I just never thought you’d be into anything like that.’
‘My arse is as sensitive as the next bloke’s.’
‘I guess.’
She stared at the offending item, which Xane fully admitted was a little intimidating, given that it was rather lifelike in both shape and colouring. He guessed she wasn’t the type to get excited over a cock being stuffed up her boyfriend’s arse. No matter. ‘The original suggestion is fine if you prefer … or fingers.’ He cocked an eyebrow inquisitively.
‘What do you prefer?’
‘That you touch me in whichever way you’re most comfortable with.’ Though it was pretty apparent that she wasn’t comfortable with any of it.
Dani gingerly placed the vibrator back in the drawer as if were an explosive device. She grabbed the lube again and made a big deal out of squirting blobs of it into her palms and all over his arse. Xane grimaced as the cold gel hit his skin. Thankfully, it warmed quickly. Besides, he was more concerned about the deep ridges furrowing her brow. Xane enjoyed a bit of coercion play, but only if he knew his partner was actually consenting. He didn’t want her doing this if it genuinely made her this uncomfortable. That wasn’t going to do either of them any favours.
Hesitantly, she fanned her hands out over his bottom, her fingers spread wide.
‘Dani, you don’t have to.’
‘I want to make you feel good,’ she said, all in a rush. At the same time, her thumbs dug into the grove between his cheeks, and then pulled them apart a little. ‘It’s part of you, like any other part. I’ve touched the rest, why shouldn’t I touch you here as well, if you like it?’
Why indeed? He wasn’t arguing.
Her index finger stroked into the top of the channel, then glided downwards, aided by the slippery lube. ‘I guess it’s sensitive. It’s probably nice. I don’t know.’
He’d have to remedy that.
Her index finger brushed against the pink whorl. Xane’s breath caught in his throat. He held it, while Dani tentatively continued to dance her fingers in that area.
‘What if I hurt you?’
‘You won’t. Just go in a little way to start with.’