The last one had been full of fun and laughter. Simon had been a rock.
But tonight?
Safety and stability were long gone.
She pulled her violin away from her face, dropping her arm to her side as her chest heaved. Her breasts were pressed to his bare chest. Simon had lost his shirt after the first verse, for God’s sake. His usual cinnamon scent seemed even more powerful. As if his pores were overflowing with the very essence of him.
It made her insane. He made her insane.
The crowd went mad around them. Normally, she couldn’t hear them around the monitors in her ears. The noise distracted her too much. But tonight, it was a roar.
Simon glanced up to the balconies high above them. He didn’t let her go. In fact, his thigh pushed her legs farther apart as he studied the three levels of people packed into the old building full of history.
She tried to pull herself together, but her heart was trying to jump out of her damn chest. Perhaps through her bullet-like nipples.
“Look at that, Violin Girl. For you. For us. Let me hear you scream.” Simon held out his microphone to the crowd, but he was talking to her. There was no doubt about it. She would be the one screaming tonight, that she knew.
The drums slowed before building. As if the band knew they needed to spin the song out. There was nothing but them at that moment. His cock was hard against her thigh as he slowly rocked against her.
Simon crowded in closer to her. He worked his fingers into the twist she always wore on stage. Her hair fell like a blanket around her shoulders and snaked down into her corset. He dragged her head back and drew his nose lightly up the column of her neck before his lips traced the line of her jaw to her ear.
“If I could, I’d fuck you right now. Even with all these people.”
She shivered, but couldn’t say a damn thing. They played up their chemistry on stage, but nothing like this. He moved to her lips and gave her half a second to pull back. He stole kisses—he was Simon, after all—but this wasn’t a kiss.
It was a branding.
The sting of his grip on her hair and the quick snake of his tongue left her unbalanced and so hot for him she wasn’t sure she would actually say no if he pressed the issue.
The spotlight went out around them and Simon pulled back. His chest heaved as he slipped away from her and the lighting rig exploded with light and pinwheel sparks as he raced into the climax of the song.
When her heart stopped thudding in her brain, she backed up to Jazz’s drum riser and took a sip from her water. The crowd went crazy and Simon lapped it up like a beacon of energy. He dropped to his knees in the center of the stage, arching back with both hands on his mic as he finished the song. The note he held made her drop her bow.
“Holy Jesus.”
Jazz stood up behind her kit and let out a whoop.
Simon jumped to his feet and threw out an audible. Nick and Deacon scrambled up to the front of the stage at Simon’s unexpected setlist change.
“What the hell got into him?” Gray asked under his breath as he rushed over to Nick.
“That fucker,” Nick muttered as he came back to her at the drums. “I’m not sure whether I want to kiss that kid or kill him. I haven’t played this song in years.”
Margo didn’t need to know what kid he was talking about.
Jazz frowned, but immediately fell into the opening beat of “All Or Nothin’” from Tom Petty. She instinctively followed Gray and Nick’s dueling guitars as they screamed out into the crowd.
Simon hooked his microphone into his stand and switched to the box mic set up for later in the setlist. It had a feedback option perfect for the song. Simon gripped the mic stand like a lover, and the crowd lapped up his over-sexed version of the Petty classic.
Again, he reached for the edges of his vocal limits. Stepping over by millimeters before pulling back. He turned away from the mic and coughed into his elbow before withdrawing to take a sip from his water.
r /> Margo frowned before grabbing her standup bass for the next song on the regular setlist. He didn’t lose the intensity one bit, but he did pull back his voice just a touch. He was obviously revved up and determined to prove something.
She couldn’t say she minded. Neither did her damn hormones. For the love of…well, anything as far away from holy as possible, she was ready to climb out of her skin.
She made her way to her station just behind Gray and tried to concentrate on the setlist.
Simon didn’t hijack it again for nearly a solid hour. Until they moved into the acoustic portion of the night. This was where anything could go off the rails. Most nights had been safe.