Insider (Exodus End 1)

midsection, giving him a tight hug. He half-heartedly hugged her back with his free arm.

“I don’t suppose you’re interested in sloppy seconds,” she said, just loud enough for Toni to hear.

“Not at all,” he said.

“Is Logan around?” she asked.

Toni stiffened.

“I think he’s hanging in the commons.”

“I love it when you guys come to town,” the black-haired beauty said. “I will get into your pants one day, Dare Mills.”

“Not tonight. I have company.” He lifted an eyebrow in Toni’s direction.

Toni’s heart produced a thud so hard, she jumped. What did he mean by that?

The woman slipped her arms from Dare’s waist and turned to give Toni the twice over. She obviously didn’t think much of her competition. “Hmm,” she said. “Interesting choice.”

She sauntered off, probably in search of Logan, whom she apparently believed was fair game. Toni wasn’t sure if she had the right to be jealous. She and Logan had openly admitted to liking each other, but neither of them had committed to anything. One thing was for sure: if he messed around with another woman, Toni wouldn’t be sharing his bed again. She crossed her arms over her chest and glared after the woman. Logan wouldn’t sleep with her, would he? Toni honestly couldn’t say she knew for a certainty.

“You have nothing to worry about,” Dare said and held his free hand out to the open door to beckon her inside. “You’re much more interesting than she is.”

Dare entered the room behind her and while she was glancing around for the best place to conduct their interview, she heard the unmistakable click of Dare locking the door behind them.

Thirteen

Logan decided that Toni had been interviewing Reagan for far too long. He didn’t want to get in the way of her work, but he couldn’t help but want to be with her. There was something about her that made him notice her. And when she was missing? He couldn’t seem to notice anything else. He stretched to his tiptoes and scanned the room, looking over the tops of heads for one very specific one. How could she not be done with her interview? What the hell could possibly be so interesting about Reagan?

Logan went still when his gaze landed on their sassy little guitarist. Reagan was standing against the wall chatting very animatedly with Steve and the same woman who’d tried to talk Logan into joining her in the dressing room not ten minutes ago. When he’d refused, the brunette decided to hang out with Steve. Logan really didn’t want to have to interact with the pushy woman again, but if Reagan was back from the interview, then Toni should be as well.

Attempting nonchalance, Logan approached Reagan and waited for her to look at him before asking, “So how did the interview with Toni go? Should we be worried about all the terrible things you said about us?” If pretending indifference didn’t work, he was all about demanding to know where Toni was and when Reagan had last seen her. He didn’t care if the knowing smirk on Steve’s face spread from here to Nebraska.

Reagan’s slim brows drew together over her grayish-blue eyes. “What interview? She took a shower in my dressing room a couple of hours ago, but we didn’t talk much. I wouldn’t call it an interview.”

Logan’s stomach dropped. “She said she was going to your dressing room to interview you about twenty minutes ago.”

Reagan grinned. “I bet she was the one who knocked when I was busy with, uh, my makeup. I haven’t seen her.”

“I saw her down by the dressing room¸” Steve said, his smirk at least halfway to Colorado at this point.

“That nerdy girl?” asked the dark-haired beauty who was plastered to Steve’s side. “With the glasses?”

Logan didn’t particularly appreciate such a lackluster description of the woman who had him completely out of his head, but he nodded.

“She was with Dare. They were headed into the dressing room for a little alone time.”

Logan’s heart dropped to join his stomach in his shoes. Another scan of the room told him exactly what he feared: the other conspicuous absence in the room was Dare. And Dare was on a mission to get back at him for hitting him in the nose. Sweet, sweet Toni didn’t stand a chance against the guy’s libido if he set his sights on her. And if the guitarist was seducing the innocent young woman that Logan had taken advantage of the night before—as well as most of today—Dare was about to suffer injuries a lot more severe than a bloody nose.

Fourteen

Toni turned to face Dare, a little thrill of panic spiking though her heart. He smiled reassuringly, but she didn’t feel reassured. She wasn’t accustomed to being locked in rooms with men she scarcely knew.

“Why did you lock the door?” she asked.

“So we wouldn’t be bothered.”

“I’d feel better if it wasn’t locked.” She didn’t really think Dare was the type of man who would harm a woman, but she wasn’t the first woman to think that about a deranged lunatic, a serial killer, or a throat-slitting rapist.

He didn’t unlock the door, but instead crossed the room to pour a drink. “Would you like something?”

“I’d like to unlock the door.”

He filled a lowball glass with amber whiskey and set the bottle aside. “If it makes you that uncomfortable to be alone with me, please unlock it. I didn’t mean to alarm you. I just figured Logan will interrupt us before we even get started and you’ll never get any work done.”

She wasn’t exactly alarmed. She felt no malice from the mysterious guitarist. She just thought it was weird that he’d lock the door in the first place. She studied him. She was starting to think Dare’s behavior had nothing to do with her and everything to do with Logan. “Why would Logan interrupt?”

The door handle jiggled and there was a loud knock on the door.

“Right on cue,” Dare said, one corner of his mouth lifting sardonically. “He’s entirely predictable.”

“Toni?” Logan called from the corridor. “Open this goddamned door.” The jiggling became incessant rattling. The knocking became pounding. “Toni!”

“Should I open it? He sounds mad.” Toni said.

“Of course he’s mad. He thinks I’m fucking you. That’s because he never uses his head and always jumps to conclusions. Then he acts on his false impulses and punches people in the nose.” Dare pointed to his swollen face. “Case in point.”

“Toni!”

Toni frowned at him. “So you lured me in here to get back at Logan?”

“Maybe,” Dare said, taking a swig from the tumbler in his hand.

“Toni, please,” Logan cried, sounding desperate now.

“He punishes himself. It’s not like I’m a big enough ass to actually make a move on the woman of one of my friends,” Dare said. He sat casually in a club chair, crossed his long legs at the ankle, and took another sip of his drink. “But I am enough of an ass to make him believe that I would. He’ll think twice before sucker punching me in the face again.”

“I’m going to let him in,” Toni said. She understood that Dare was pissed at Logan. She couldn’t blame him for wanting to teach Logan a lesson, but she couldn’t stand the thought of Logan thinking she’d toss her skirt up at the first sign of interest from an attractive man. Oh wait, she had done that. With Logan. He knew firsthand that she was capable of unleashing her inner slut.

Toni unlocked the door with trembling fingers and it flew inward, almost banging her in the face. Logan looked from Toni, fully clothed and obviously not violated, to Dare, who was sitting across the room completely apathetic and looking rather bored.

“What’s going on in here?” Logan demanded.

“She was going to interview me for the book when you so rudely interrupted,” Dare said.

“Is that so?” Logan said, his eyes narrowed.

Toni nodded. “Yeah, that’s right. What did you think was going on?”

“I thought,” he said. “I thought . . .” He looked down at Toni and swallowed hard. “Ah hell,” he g

rumbled and stormed off, slamming the door behind him.

“You sure you want to deal with that?” Dare said. “The guy runs on instinct. He doesn’t know how to be rational.”

And that was half his allure.

“I’m sure,” she said as she flung open the door to go after him. She glanced toward the common area, but saw no sign of him. She looked in the opposite direction, toward the exit, and caught a brief glimpse of blue T-shirt turning the corner. Her boot heels clicked on the tiles as she raced down the hall after him. She caught up with him only because he had to wait for a roadie pushing a giant black case before he could get through a door.

“Logan.”

He didn’t even glance at her. “Can you let me feel like an idiot in private?”

“No. I think you should face your idiocy in front of me.”

He scowled, and then his face softened and he laughed.

“It could have been worse,” she said. “Dare could have punched you in the nose.”

“I’d have preferred that and he knows it.”

“We weren’t doing anything.”

“So why did he make sure Steve’s chick saw you together? And why did you lock the door?”

“He locked it. Apparently, so you’d think we were doing something. I was about to unlock the door when you started banging on it. I told him I didn’t feel comfortable being alone with him in a locked room.”

“So he was going to try something on you. I’ll fucking punch him in his other nose.”

He swung around, but Toni pushed both hands against his chest. “First off, he only has one nose. And secondly, I don’t think he was going to try anything. I wasn’t sure at first. I thought it was strange that he wanted the door locked, but he really was just passive-aggressively kicking your ass.”

Logan raked a hand through his hair, disheveling golden curls. “I’m sure he’s saving the real ass kicking for later.”

She couldn’t stand the fact that he was upset. “Logan, I know we haven’t known each other long—”

“Are you sure?” he interrupted, pushing her glasses up her nose for her. “It feels like I’ve known you forever.”

“I’m not the kind of woman who would sleep with you twice . . .” She paused. “Three times? Does a blow job count as sleeping with you?”

“Even if it was in your mouth, I came inside you,” he whispered into her ear. Her vaginal walls contracted to remind her of her current unfortunate emptiness. “It counts.”

The rising ridge against her lower belly told her that he was as affected by his whispered words as she was.

She continued with what she had to say before three sexual encounters became four. “I’m not the kind of woman who would sleep with you three times and then have sex with some other guy in the same day. Who does that?”

He chuckled. “You’d be surprised. A lot of women behave differently around famous people. Especially if that famous person is the lead guitarist of Exodus End.”

“I’m not like that,” she insisted.

“Toni, you don’t have to explain yourself. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

She looked into his eyes and tried to keep her wits about her. Not an easy task with those baby blues wreaking havoc on her thoughts. “I know. I just . . .” She sucked in a deep breath. “This is going to sound ridiculous and naïve and probably a little desperate, but I need you to know that as long as I’m in your bed, I will not allow another man touch me. No man. Not even Dare Mills.”

“Not even if I talk Steve into having a threesome with us?”

Her jaw dropped, and Logan chuckled. He hugged her against him again and rubbed her back soothingly.

“I’m just trying to get a rise out of you, lamb,” he said. “I won’t even ask him, because I know he’ll say yes.” His body shook against hers as he laughed.

“People don’t really do that kind of thing, do they?” she said, her gaze darting from one uninterested passerby to another. “Not really.”

“Some do.”

She couldn’t even figure out the logistics of that. Did the men take turns? Or use different orifices? Her head was spinning at the very idea. “Have you done it?”

“Maybe.”

“You have!” She pushed away from him and stared up at him with wide eyes.

“More often with two women than a woman and another man, but yeah, I have. More than once.”

Holy shit!

Toni buried her face in his neck. What kind of man had she gotten herself tangled up with? A worldly one. So how could she possibly keep his interest if things like threesomes and fucking women’s tits and getting blow jobs were common occurrences for him? She didn’t know how to do any of that stuff. Well she did have a bit of experience with blow jobs now. But she was sure her single attempt had been less than exciting for him. He’d had to tell her what to do, for fuck’s sake.

“I’m sorry if that disgusts you,” he whispered in her ear. “We don’t have to do anything as wild as that.”

“I’m not disgusted,” she assured him. “I just feel so . . . so, well . . . so virginal!”

“You’re not virginal—we took care of that last night, remember? You’re just inexperienced.”

That didn’t make her feel better. She needed to educate herself about these things. Maybe it was time for an internet search with the adult filter off.

“Toni?” he said after a moment.

“Yeah.”

“What you said about not letting a man touch you?”

“I meant it,” she said, tugging away so she could look into his eyes again.

“Yeah, I believe you. I just . . . I want to promise the same to you.”

She almost choked on the happiness welling in her chest. “Really?”

“Yeah. I promise not to let any men touch me.”

She snapped her mouth shut as her happiness burst into despair. He was making fun of her? She’d meant that pledge from the bottom of her heart.

“But I need to be honest with you,” he said.

She wasn’t sure she wanted him to be honest with her.

“I’ve never been good at monogamy. Probably because I’ve never had anyone expect it from me.”

She wanted him to be faithful to her, but she was too afraid to press the issue. She wasn’t prepared to lose him entirely. They hadn’t forged a strong enough bond to declare themselves in a committed relationship. She knew that much.

Logan stared down at her as if challenging her to demand his fidelity. Was it because he wanted an excuse to dump her or because he wanted someone to draw a line he may or may not cross?

“Hey, Logan!” one of the roadies called to him. “Mad Dog has been looking for you.”

“I’ll be right there,” Logan said. He glanced down at Toni. “Do you want to meet a legend?”

Toni slipped a hand into her pocket and silenced her phone. “Maybe later. I need to go back to the bus for something.”

“Will it require you to be naked?”

Toni shook her head at him. “Is that all you think about?”

“Absolutely.”

Twenty minutes later, Toni closed herself in the lounge area at the back of the tour bus and pulled her vibrating cellphone out of her pocket. It had been ringing nonstop the entire time she’d made her way through the backstage area of the arena to the bus. She knew it was her mother; no one else would call her over and over again. Text her repeatedly? Sure. But not call. And there was no way she was talking to her mother in front of Logan or backstage at a metal concert. Her mother could be overprotective—stifling even—but Toni didn’t want her to go into cardiac arrest with worry. And Toni couldn’t help but wonder if there was an emergency involving her sister.

“Toni, is everything okay?” her mom asked as soon as Toni