She was out of the elevator in a flash, and James was clearly concerned as he took in her flushed cheeks. "Ashley, do you need anything? A drink of water? Or maybe just to look out a window for a few seconds?"
"No, thanks, I'm fine."
But anyone could tell that she wasn't. And Drew knew it was entirely his fault.
He wasn't the kind of guy to play mind games with a woman. What's more, Ashley was the very last person he'd ever want to mess around with. Especially considering how great she'd been to talk to about his mom and his music.
The problem was, he'd never felt about anyone the way he felt about her. When she was in his arms, he wanted to hold her forever and never let her go. And every word she spoke played straight to his soul, affecting him more strongly than any song ever had.
James didn't ask Drew how he was doing after being stuck in the elevator. On the contrary, his bodyguard scowled at him. Don't hurt her, was the clear message in the other man's eyes, right before they stepped into the TV studio.
Drew worked like hell to concentrate on his job and give his fans the best interview he could, but with Ashley only a few feet away behind the cameras, he knew he wasn't coming anywhere close to pulling it off. Because even though he'd vowed that Ashley would leave his tour as pure as she'd come, he still couldn't stop hoping that her answer to his question about whether she dreamed of him was yes.
Chapter Thirteen
Ashley was standing in front of the table on the bus, quickly reading through her email before heading into the venue to watch Drew's show, when she suddenly felt him move behind her.
"Close the computer and turn around, Ash." When she didn't obey his command fast enough, he put his hands over hers and bent his mouth to her ear. "I promise you'll be glad you did."
Together, they closed her laptop, and then he moved his hands to her waist to turn her around to face him.
"I thought you were about to start your show," she said, her voice sounding far huskier than it normally did.
"The opening band went on late." His eyes were dark as midnight. "Which gives me time to make up for what happened in the elevator."
"You don't have to--" Her words fell away as he stroked his hands up her back from her waist to her shoulders.
"I do." He brushed her hair over one shoulder, then bent his head to press a kiss to the skin he'd exposed at the side of her neck. "You taste so good. Your mouth. Your neck." He licked out against her, and she shuddered at the pleasure of it. "I need to taste more of you. I don't care what anyone else thinks about the two of us. Just you." He took her earlobe between his teeth, and she couldn't hold back a moan of pleasure as he lightly scraped over her sensitive flesh. "Do you still want me the way you said you did?"
She couldn't stop herself from saying, "Yes," and the next thing she knew, he was lifting her up onto the tabletop and moving to stand between her legs. It was pure instinct to throw all caution to the wind and wrap her arms and legs around him as his mouth crashed down on hers.
While their first kiss out on the beach had been gentle, this kiss was ferocious, as if both of them were desperately trying to get their fill before they were yanked apart again. She threaded her fingers into his hair to bring his mouth even closer, and when his tongue swept out against hers, she gasped at the pleasure of it.
"The sounds you make when I'm kissing you, touching you," he said in a raw voice against her jaw as he nipped at her. She arched back to give him better access, and he nuzzled in against her neck, his stubble grazing her skin in the sexiest possible way. "There's nothing sexier, Ash. Not one goddamned thing."
It was warm on the bus, so she'd worn a tank top with her jeans today. Drew clearly appreciated the bare skin as he first ran his big, warm hands over her shoulders, and then bent his head to follow up that caress with a trail of kisses.
"Your skin is so pretty, so soft. I can't wait to see all of it. All of you."
She shivered at the thought of being completely naked in front of Drew. Not only was she a virgin, but the truth was that she hadn't actually gone all that far with any of the guys she'd dated. Clothes had been unbuttoned and unzipped, but her panties and bra had always stayed on...and no one else had ever made her come. Not because she was a prude--she figured she had the same sexual urges as anyone else. But because none of those guys she'd dated had turned her on that much.
Not like this. Not the way just one look, one touch, one kiss from Drew did. Heck, she was nearly all the way there, and she still had all her clothes on.
"Do you want that, Ash? Do you want me to strip you bare? Do you want me to kiss every beautiful inch of your body?"
His eyes were intense as he asked her his sexy questions in a voice made raw with need. The same desire that had been eating her up day by day, hour by hour, second by second, ever since the moment they'd met.
She tried to remember why this was a bad idea, but her brain and body felt fuzzy and thick with wanting. Need that obliterated every rational thought. "Yes," she told him, "I want that. I want all of that. Now."
"Thank God," he said as he put his hands on either side of her face and leaned in for a kiss that she felt in all the places he hadn't yet stripped bare, hadn't yet touched. "Because I can't wait any longer, Ash. I need you bad. So damned bad I'm going crazy from being with you but not being able to touch or kiss you."
His callused fingers were wonderfully rough on her jaw, and his chest was rock hard where her breasts pressed into him. Slowly, too slowly for the fever pitch he'd roused her to, he slid his hands down from her face and back over her shoulders and arms, until he reached her waist. Her breasts ached for his touch, under her cotton top and bra. But he was teasing her, teasing them both, by coming so close without actually touching her where she needed it most.
Finally, he gripped the hem of her tank and began to pull it up, his fingertips grazing the sensitive skin of her stomach. "Mine," he whispered against her lips as he drew the fabric higher and higher until it was just below the bottom edge of her bra. "I can't wait until you're mine."
"Yours."
It was all she wanted, too. Everything she'd dreamed of for so long. His songs had helped get her through her awful teen years...and now Drew would be the one to take her all the way into adulthood. It felt right, so incredibly right, that he was going to be her first.
The knocking came loud and suddenly, jarring Drew so that he jumped away from her, his hands dropping, his face blurring.
Blurring?
Why was his face blurring?
The knocking came again, louder this time, and she closed her eyes and shook her head.
When she opened them, she wasn't sitting on the table in the bus--she was lying in her bunk with the tank top she'd gone to sleep in bunched up in her hand. That was when she heard footsteps on the other side of the thick, dark curtain that enclosed her bunk, and then the door being opened as male voices drifted into the bus.
Oh God. It had just been a dream.
*
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Five minutes later, though Ashley was fully awake, she remained lying in her bunk as still as a statue. She was utterly mortified at the thought that Drew--or anyone else who had come onto the bus with him--might have guessed at the sexy dream she'd been having.
Had she been talking in her sleep?
Or, worse still, had she actually moaned out loud?
She'd never had a dream like that before. Not one that felt so real...or that she so desperately wished were real.
But the truth was that embarrassment over talking or moaning in her sleep wasn't the only reason her body felt overheated. Normally, if she were at home in the small studio in her father's backyard in Palo Alto, she would have taken a few minutes to fantasize a little longer beneath the sheets in secret. But she couldn't touch herself on Drew's bus, could she?
For nearly a week now, she'd been riding the edge of desire, and her dream definitely hadn't helped. Not one bit. If anything, she was more fru
strated than ever. Especially since it had ended before she got to the really good part...
Unfortunately, she couldn't stay in her bunk forever. Especially since now that she'd looked at her watch, she knew Drew's workday was due to begin soon. She wasn't here to hide out in her bunk twenty-four seven, she was here to learn as much as she possibly could.
So even if she'd never been so confused, or so frustrated before, that didn't mean she could lose sight of her goals. She'd just have to make sure that she didn't spend too much one-on-one time with Drew. Because that's when things always got out of control. Like in the elevator yesterday, when it had been just the two of them in the small, pitch-black space, and all she'd wanted to do was--
No. She couldn't go there again. Couldn't let herself keep fantasizing about a man she couldn't have. She was far too pragmatic for that kind of behavior. At least, she'd always thought she was...
Sitting up carefully so that she didn't hit her head on the bunk above her, she put on her glasses, then did her best to smooth down her hair and clothes. She didn't sleep with a bra on, but since she was going to head straight to the bathroom for a shower and didn't hear voices anymore, she figured Drew must have gone into his back bedroom and the coast was clear.
Deciding it was safe to push back the curtains, she had just stepped out of the bunk when he emerged from behind a cabinet door where he'd been kneeling. "Morning, Ash." She jumped, her hand going to cover her thumping heart as he said, "I thought I'd make us eggs today, but I can't find the--"
When he finally turned all the way to face her, his words fell away. His hot gaze moved from her face to her light blue tank that didn't quite cover her hips, then to the soft leggings she slept in, and then back up to her face. He'd never seen her in glasses, and though it shouldn't matter if he thought she looked extra geeky in them, it did. Simply because everything about Drew mattered to her, whether she wanted it to or not.