Rock Addiction (Rock Kiss 1)

“See some koala bears.”

Molly laughed, thinking he was joking.

“No, I mean it.” He tapped her playfully on her butt. “I’ve been to Australia so many times, but I’ve never seen a koala. It’s f**king embarrassing.”

Giggles bubbling in her blood, Molly wriggled out of his hold to get her phone from the bedside table. Propping herself against the headboard after tugging up the sheet to cover her br**sts, a pillow at her back and Fox sprawled on his front by her side, she searched for places to see koalas. “There’s a wildlife park about a forty-five-minute drive away,” she said, skimming down the search results to tap on what looked like the best option. “It’s open today and their website says you can get close to the animals.”

Fox squeezed her thigh. “Come ’ere first.”

Her body one big languid sigh, Molly leveled a mock scowl in his direction. “The park’s only open until five, and it’s already”—a quick glance at the clock—“almost a quarter till one. If I slide back into bed, we won’t have much time there.”

Fox wanted to tug her down, kiss that adorable scowl into his mouth, but she was right. If he had her under him, they wouldn’t be leaving this room anytime soon, and he wanted a date with his Molly. “I’ll take a rain check.” Shoving off the sheet, he got out of bed. “Half an hour.”

Twenty-five minutes and rapid fire showers later, the two of them having eaten a quick room-service breakfast despite the fact it was technically lunchtime, Fox pulled on jeans and a plain white T-shirt, then sat down on Molly’s bed to finish lacing up his sneakers. In front of him, Molly was bent over, looking for something in her suitcase. He grinned. She had an incomprehensible woman thing about her ass, but he liked the view fine. Way better than fine.

Before he could give in to the urge to walk over and stroke the sweet curve of it, his phone rang. It was Noah, asking if he wanted to check out a music shop the guitarist had heard about.

“No, man,” Fox said with a wink at Molly, “I’m going to go get my photo taken with a koala bear.”

Lips twitching, Molly sat down beside him to do up her own sneakers. Wearing a casual but fitted pink shirt with fine white stripes and elbow-length sleeves teamed with jeans, the top three buttons of the shirt undone to reveal the white tank she wore underneath, she looked pretty and young and bitable. Her hair was in a ponytail, the tail fed through the back of one of his baseball caps, her creamy skin vulnerable to even the fall sun.

“Seriously?” Noah said into the phone. “I’ve never seen one either. Can I come?”

Fox thought about it. This was meant to be a date… but Noah rarely sounded excited about something as innocent as this, the world he lived in a dark place that often threatened to suck him under. Abe might appear the most dysfunctional of the four of them, but Noah was far more seriously f**ked up. “Yeah,” he said, “but you have to be ready in ten. Underground garage, level two.”

Hanging up, he tugged on Molly’s ponytail, delighted with her. “Noah’s coming. He’s never seen a real koala either.”

“Ah, the debauched rock star life.” Molly leaned in to kiss his dimple, and yeah, he grinned, loving the little things she did that told him what they had, it was special, was way more than sex.

“That was nice of Justin,” she said afterward, “to take out a hire car in his name for you.”

Fox snorted and pulled on his own cap, having asked the lawyer to do the favor yesterday, then drop off the keys. “Nice, my ass.” Rising, they headed to the door. “I bribed him with the promise of a bottle of single-malt whiskey.”

Once outside in the hallway, Fox waited for Molly to pull the door shut before taking her hand in his. Her eyes were startled when she looked up, but then her fingers curved shyly around his and it slammed all the air from his lungs. If he had his way, he’d walk through the hotel lobby with her hand in his so no one would make any mistake about who she was to him—but Molly wasn’t in any way ready for the glare of the limelight.

So he satisfied himself with holding her hand until they stepped out of the elevator and headed to the black SUV Justin had hired. Unlocking it, he nodded for Molly to get into the front passenger seat. She shook her head. “Noah’s much taller than I am. He’ll have more legroom in front.”

“Push your seat forward.” Fox looked at the space behind her once she did. “He’ll be fine. Bastard’s the one horning in on our date,” he said with a grin as Noah exited the elevator… with Abe and David behind him.

“Well, f**k.” Fox groaned. “Damn it to hell, guys! How are we supposed to be anonymous if we go en masse?” Two of them could’ve skated under the radar if they were careful, but no way would that work with all four members of the band together.

“Hey, you don’t own the koala bears.” Abe folded his arms over a dark gray shirt with short sleeves, muscles bulging under the rich mahogany of his skin. His head was bare, his hair cut close to his skull and an intricate pattern razored in on one side—that pattern was dyed a vivid purple with jagged slashes of white and orange.

“You’re about as inconspicuous as David’s goddamn T-shirt.” Fox scowled at his other bandmate’s screaming tee. “Jesus. It looks like someone threw up a rainbow on you. You’ll scare the koala bears away before we get near them.”