Hard Freak

“You haven’t had second thoughts?” he asked, as though he was reading my thoughts.

“Not a one.”

The way he gazed into my eyes made me woozy. It’d be so easy to skip breakfast and stay in bed with him. I suggested that. We could get room service and stay right here.

“And what’s everyone going to think if we’re both missing from breakfast?” he asked.

Even when we stayed at places with room service, Damo liked everyone to gather for breakfast, which was unusual for someone who liked his privacy so much. I guessed it was one of the few chances to get the bands together in one place, but I bet it was more to make sure no one had stayed out all night partying.

“I don’t really care what they think,” I said. “They have to get used to us being together sooner or later.”

I could think of a lot of things I wanted more than breakfast, and most of them involved Crow’s body parts being in close contact with my body parts.

“I told Polly we’d take things slow,” he said.

“We could at least shower together.”

His eyes twinkled. Was that a sign I had a chance?

“You think it would be that easy? That it’d be just showering? Because I sure as hell couldn’t have that temptation in front of me without giving in.”

“You have that temptation in front of you now.” I wrapped my leg around his thigh just to prove it.

He screwed up his face in thought. “It’s different. You’re not naked. And there’s no water involved.”

“There could be water involved,” I told him.

He laughed and climbed out of the bed. Damn it. I wasn’t ready for that yet. This bed thing worked nicely for me.

“So, how slow are we going?” I asked him. “Can I get a time frame?”

“You want a color-coded schedule?” he said, his eyes twinkling.

I sat up on the side of the bed, hugging my legs up as I watching him put on his jeans. That was a sight I’d never get sick of, although watching him take them off suited me much better.

“That would be nice, actually,” I said. “Yellow for gentle kisses, orange for intense ones, and red for all the way.”

“What about green?” he asked.

I looked up at him with a cheeky smile. “Oh, you’ll love green. And then there’s blue. We could do a bit of blue right now if you like.” I waggled my eyebrows, full of suggestion.

He threw a pillow at me. “Get ready for breakfast.”

I sighed. He hadn’t even kissed me. This was way too slow for my liking. I wasn’t getting any younger.

“So, before we leave Paris? Barcelona at the latest?” I asked.

He didn’t answer.

“Rome?” Surely, we’d do it before Rome. Rome was weeks away. I’d die if we didn’t do it before Rome.

“There are more important things,” he said.

Maybe, but I couldn’t think of any. Not when he was so close to me. We didn’t even have to go all the way. Just some more kissing and fooling around would be nice.

When I stood up, though, he pulled me to him. “We have plenty of time,” he said. “Don’t rush things.”

A thrill went through me, right down to my toes. As much as this waiting drove me crazy, I did like the teasing.

Then he put his lips to mine. Finally, a kiss! But it ended way too soon.

“Okay, get ready for breakfast,” he said. “I’ll see you down there.”

I gave a little moan but he left my room. The man had way too much self-control.

I got down to breakfast before Crow. Polly gave me a glance, then craned her neck to peer around me, wanting to check whether Crow and I were together. Ha, I’d fooled her. Well, I guessed that was more Crow’s doing than mine. She waved at me with a big smile. She was way too happy to see me.

After I’d loaded up my plate with bacon, I sat down with her and Damo.

“Tonight is going to be huge,” she told me. “We’re being filmed for some big music show here. It might get shown all over Europe.”

No wonder she’d been so happy to see me, with news like that.

“Yikes. We only found out now?”

“Yep. They were planning to film the Freaks. That was organized way back, but they’ve asked if they can film us too.”