High Strung (Power Station Book 1) (30 page)

Dan walked ahead through the crowd, leading us to the edge of the stage where they had played. A security guard let us through the minute he saw Dan. He didn’t ask any questions. I guess he just assumed Dan had hit the groupie lottery. Either that or he’d been sent off to hunt and gather for the rest of the band. I hated someone might think of me in that way, like I could be disposable. I pushed it from my mind not willing to let someone’s possible perceptions of me ruin a good thing.

We walked along the narrow, dark hallway until we got to a room hidden in the back. Dan didn’t bother knocking, instead swinging the door open wide to reveal the rest of the band. It was surreal. Seeing them all there. Together. Sweaty and spent. In front of me.

“Hey, Ash. Happy Birthday.” Troy was the first to come over and greet us. He gave me a hug and a warm smile. I heard Megs’s breath hitch beside me. No doubt she was hoping the hugging would extend to her.

“Hey boys, this is Ashlyn.” Dan pulled me close against his side. In case they hadn’t got the memo we were together. “These are her friends: Megs, Brianne and Kyla.” He held out his hand pausing and gesturing to each of the women as he introduced them. The girls each stood silently, managing a slight wave at the mention of their name.

“And this is the band, Troy, Alex, James, and Jason.” Dan pointed around the room to the corresponding band member.

Alex Stone strolled over and smiled, all six foot four of rock god sexiness. “I believe we’ve already met. Nice to see you again. Happy Birthday.”

“Thank you. It’s a pleasure to see you again.” While I still thought he was a good-looking guy, I wasn’t tongue-tied like I had been the first time I’d met him. Nor was the compulsion to lick him pulsing through my veins.

“Back off, Stone. You can stop being so charming, she’s not interested.” Dan playfully punched Alex in the arm.

Alex’s smile twitched. “Stand down, Dan. I’m just saying hi. Not trying to be charming.”

“Well whatever you’re doing, do less of it.” Dan gripped my waist possessively. He was jealous, which was absurd but kind of cute.

Alex moved on and introduced himself properly to my friends, each of them struggling with saying hello. All except Megs, who was ignoring Alex entirely and making flirty eyes at Troy.

“Hi, I’m Jason. We met at the club a while back. Not sure if you remember. You were a little lit up.” Jason laughed as he offered his hand. It’s not like I could have forgotten that night if I’d tried. The night that had started this adventure. It was also the first night I’d spent with Dan. Not that I’d been conscious enough to know at the time and not that anything sexual had happened, but he had spent the entire night by my side. I was a little mad at myself I hadn’t seen how sweet it had been at the time. Hindsight is twenty-twenty.

“Yeah. Not my finest moment.” I shook his hand. Mentally shaking myself.

“Are you kidding? That night was spectacular,” Troy chimed from the other side of the room.

“It truly was.” Jason agreed. “Happy Birthday by the way.”

“Thanks.” I shuffled a little awkwardly. This was so weird. Being around the band and pretending they were just regular people. I hope I wasn’t giving anyone any crazy looks and at least I was still able to string sentences together.

“And I’m James. Happy Birthday.” The charismatic lead singer moved closer, his smile even more dazzling up close.

“Thank you.” I felt like I was repeating myself, unable to think of anything else. Lame.

“So how was it?” James cracked open a bottle of water Alex had tossed him.

“Huh?” I stared at him blankly. Oh please. At least repeating
thank you
was better than random sounds. I swear I’m not a moron. Not that I was doing a good job of proving it.

“The show.” James paused and took a large swallow of water before continuing. “Dan tells us it was your first time seeing a live act. Did you enjoy it?”

“Yes. It was great. Really good.” I avoided tacking on a
thanks
to the end.

James smiled politely, ignoring the fact I didn’t contribute much more to the conversation.

“I saw you watching me while I played.” Dan kissed the base of my neck and I had to stop myself from moaning loudly.

Unable to stop myself, I turned into him, my body seeking even more contact. “You like girls watching you play with yourself, don’t you?” I mumbled against his skin. It felt so good and yet so strange. The public display of affection. We were outside of our bubble.

“I’d rather watch you,” he answered predictably, moving me to a more secluded area of the room. Not that there was any privacy. This was as good as we were going to get for right now. It sort of disappointed me.

“Are you thinking about touching yourself?” Dan smirked when I didn’t answer right away.

“No.” I rolled my eyes, shaking my head.

“Thinking about touching me?” He didn’t even try and hide his excitement.

“I was just taking stock.” I answered benignly not really able to make much sense of the mess of thoughts inside my head. Was I really his girlfriend?

“Snore.” Dan faked a yawn. “Did you enjoy dinner?”

“Um, yes. It was great.” Had Megs told Dan our dinner plans? “Actually we went to this Mexican place. I think you’d really like it.” I leaned against the back wall needing some physical support.

“Who do you think chose it, babe?” Dan licked the shell of my ear. That was not helping.

I stopped. Dan had chosen the venue? “How much of this was you?” I sucked in a breath and held it. How had he known?

“The whole thing.” Dan pushed me up against the wall. “I saw your ID when you left your purse in the car that first night so I knew it was your birthday. I don’t know why you didn’t tell me, but I decided I was done being a whiny bitch and sitting on the sidelines. It seemed I hadn’t made myself clear.”

“I thought you weren’t interested in me. In that way.” I reached up and touched his face. The room around us dissolved. For all I knew, and cared, we were alone.

“Oh, babe. I’m interested in you in every way.” Dan pressed up against me. “So I called your friend Megs, got her to help me hook this up. Just so you know she flat-out denied shit for a solid twenty minutes, and it was only after I called bullshit and told her I saw your ID that she bent a little.”

I was silently relieved. Glad she hadn’t just rolled over on account it was Dan who was asking. Of course had he enlisted Troy, she probably would have given my social security, bank account details, and blood type. Thankfully it seemed like it had been a Dan solo mission. “Megs is good people. Loyal. She’s more like family than a friend.”

“Yeah, she’s great.” He rolled his eyes, hinting there was more to the story. “I had to fight her for this, you know. She wanted to plan your birthday. Take you to dinner and all of that, but I argued she’d had you all those other birthdays and this was my first one. I wanted to make it perfect even if I didn’t get to spend all of it with you.”

My heartbeat thumped out of control as the gravity of his words hit me. This was my first birthday with him and he wanted to make it memorable. Most of all, it hinted to the fact he wanted there to be others, that we weren’t as temporary as I had initially thought. “I thought you said you weren’t romantic.” Okay, maybe not in the traditional way but organizing all of this? For me to be so important he would go out of his way? It was better than any romantic gesture I’d ever received. “So you paid for it all too I supposed.” The truth was slowly coming out.

“No… Maybe…” He was such a bad liar. “Would you be mad if I said yes?”

“When I saw the roll of fifties Megs was packing I knew something was fishy. She doesn’t carry cash. That was a major flaw in your plan.” I wasn’t the slightest bit pissed. It had been sweet and I was glad Dan had bankrolled the evening and not some unknown criminal activity that would explain the cash.

“She wouldn’t take hundreds, said it was too obvious.” He shrugged, not comprehending that most people didn’t kick around with hundred dollar bills in their pockets. It definitely would have tipped me off sooner. “I have to give her a pair of Troy’s sticks as well. Fuck if I know what she’s going to do with them. I got them signed in case she want to throw them on eBay.”

There was no way those sticks were going on eBay or anywhere else outside Ms. Megan Winters’s possession.

“Thanks for an amazing birthday, Dan, and thanks so much for the show. I loved it. Every second of it.” It was so much more than I had anticipated. The dinner. The concert. Our official
coupling
. That was by far the standout.

“The night ain’t over yet, sweetheart.” His eyes darkened as he licked my neck. “Not even by a long shot.”

I don’t know when
I turned into a big fucking sap, but I had decided there was no way I was going to miss Ashlyn’s birthday, regardless of whether she told me or not.

Talking over with Troy had put things into perspective. We were seeing each other and there was no one else. At least not on my part, and Ash didn’t seem like the kind of girl who’d juggle two guys. Not by a long shot. So there was absolutely no reason why we shouldn’t just bite the bullet and get with the program. The one where she was my girl and I didn’t have to pretend that spending nights away from her didn’t gnaw at my brain. I slept better with her tucked up beside me and I loved waking up and finding her ready and wet. It’s a wonder I’d let her leave.

I’d tossed it around in my head for days and came up with the same conclusion. Fuck the reasons we shouldn’t be together, fuck her ten-year plan and fuck the fact we are different. She made me happy and as far as I could tell, I made her happy too, so that’s all that should matter.

The concert idea seemed cheesier than a hallmark commercial but when I suggested it to the band they had been eager to get onboard. We didn’t get the opportunity to play smaller venues anymore. Not that I was complaining, but there was something magical about playing a bar and having the audience right in front of you.

James jumped on the phone and made it happen. We kept it tightly under wraps so the place wouldn’t be swarmed beyond capacity and we agreed we would only play one set. Tommy Zampelli, the owner, was one of the guys who had let us play in his bar when we were starting out. He’d retired and his kid Ritchie was running the show, but they were happy to have us and jacked up security for the night just to make sure it ran smoothly.

Getting Megs onboard had been a challenge but hadn’t been impossible. I flat out told her there was no way I was going to let my girlfriend celebrate her birthday without me. The word had just kind of fallen out of my mouth without even thinking about, but the more I thought about it, the more it fit, and I wasn’t about to take it back. Hell, no. So it hung there for a while, like a pair of big hairy balls, and when Megs saw I wasn’t about to drop or forget it, she agreed. Only took thirty minutes of sweet-talking and the promise of a pair of sticks from the big guy. What the fuck she wanted to do with those was beyond me but I couldn’t give a rat’s ass. The important thing was she would take her to the place I had originally wanted to take Ash—before she blew me off—and bring her to me when they were done. The whole money thing was another fucking headache. Seriously, I could see why her and Ash were such good friends. They were both fucking stubborn. The fact she was a shrink made me edgy though. They start pulling that lateral thinking bullshit on you, and before you know it, you agree to something maybe you shouldn’t have. In any case, I stayed on course and stood my ground. Megs finally agreed.

Waiting for her to show had been a whole other hell. Megs had texted me a few times saying Ash had been trying to make excuses to bail and it was making me fucking antsy. The whole point of this show was for Ash to see it, and for us to be the first live act she saw. The fact we were even dealing with this still baffled me. It was like finding a unicorn in Queens. That shit just didn’t happen.

When she finally walked in looking all kinds of miserable, it was like being clocked in the nuts. I hated it and I hoped this little stunt didn’t blow up in my face. Either way, we were locked on for target so it was too late to abort now. I had manned up and whatever the outcome was, I’d deal.

I never expected to see the look on her face when she saw me. Fuck. Her smile made me feel like Superman and I’d challenge anyone who didn’t think I could’ve outrun a train. Playing for Ash rocked my world. Watching her move to our songs, reckless and unrestrained, I knew she had it in her. She didn’t know any of the words, which was amusing ’cause everyone around her did. But damn, seeing her covered in sweat, having a good time at my show was better than any porno I’d ever seen. I had a killer fucking hard-on to prove it.