Lick (Stage Dive 1)

So it was messy. Never mind. My jaw hurt a little. Big deal. And I could have done with a glass of water. But his reaction …

David dropped to his knees and gathered me up in his arms, all the better to squish me against him. My ribs creaked, and his dug into me over and over as he fought for breath. I pressed my face against his shoulder and waited till he’d calmed down some to seek my acclaim.

“Was it okay?” I asked, reasonably certain of a favorable response. Which is always the best time to ask, in my opinion.

He grunted.

That was it? I sat there feeling rather proud of myself and he gave me a grunt. No, I needed more validation than that. I both wanted and deserved it. “Are you sure?”

He sat back on his heels and stared at me. Then he looked around, searching for something. The T-shirt he’d left forgotten on the floor. And then he wiped beneath my chin, cleaning me up. Nice.

“There’s some on your shoulder too.” I pointed at the unfortunate spillage I’d obviously transferred onto him. He wiped it up as well.

“Sex can get messy,” he said.

“Yes, it can.”

“You on the pill?”

“You can’t get pregnant that way, David.”

The side of his mouth twitched. “Cute. Are you on the pill?”

“No, but I have the birth control thing implanted in my arm because my periods are erratic so—” His mouth slammed over the top of mine, kissing me hard and deep. Shutting me up really effectively. A hand cradled the back of my head as he took me down to the floor, stretching out on top of me. The cold, hard flooring beneath my bare back barely registered. It didn’t matter so long as he kissed me. My hands clung to his shoulders, fingers sliding over slick skin.

“I care about your periods, Ev. Honest to f**k I do.” He kissed my cheeks, my forehead.

“Thanks.”

“But right now I wanna know how you feel about us going bare?”

“You mean more than losing the shirts, I take it?”

“I mean f**king without a condom.” His hands framed my face as he stared down at me, eyes that intense shade of blue. “I’m clean. I’ve been tested. I don’t do drugs and I always used protection, ever since I broke up with her. But it’s your call.”

The mention of “her” cooled me a bit, but not much or for long. Impossible with David sprawled all over me and the scent of sex so heavy in the air. Plus pizza. But mostly David. He made my mouth water, forget about the food. Thinking wasn’t easy given the situation. I’d said I trusted him and I did.

“Baby, just think about it,” he said. “There’s no rush. Okay?”

“No, I think we should.”

“Are you certain?”

I nodded.

He exhaled a deep breath and kissed me again.

“I f**king love your mouth.” With the top of a finger he traced my lips, still swollen from what we’d been up to.

“You did like it? It was okay?”

“It was perfect. Nothing you do could be wrong. I almost lose it just knowing it’s you. You could accidentally bite me and I’d probably think it was f**king hot.” He gave a rough laugh, then hastened to add, “But don’t do that.”

“No.” I arched my neck and pressed my lips to his, kissing him sweet and slow. Showing him what he meant to me. We were still rolling around on the kitchen floor when the buzzer on the oven screeched, startling us apart. Then the phone rang.

“Shit.”

“I’ll get the pizza,” I said, wriggling out from beneath him.

“I’ll grab the phone. No one should even have this damn number.”

An oven mitt sat waiting on the counter and I slipped it over my hand. Hot air and the rich scent of melted cheese wafted out when I opened the oven door. My stomach rumbled. So maybe I was hungry after all. The pizzas were a touch burnt around the edges. Nothing too bad, though. The tips of my broccoli were toasted golden brown. We could concentrate on the middle. I transferred the pizzas onto the cool stovetop and turned off the heat.

David talked quietly in the background. He stood in front of the bank of windows, legs spread wide and shoulders set like he was bracing himself for an attack. Relaxed, happy people didn’t strike that pose. Outside the sun was setting. The violet and gray of evening cast shadows on his skin.

“Yeah, yeah, Adrian. I know,” he said.

Trepidation tightened me one muscle at a time. God, please, not now. We were doing so well. Couldn’t they stay away just a little longer?

“What time’s the flight?” he asked.

“Fuck,” came next.

“No, we’ll be there. Relax. Yeah, bye.”

He turned to face me, phone dangling from his hand. “There’s some stuff going on in LA that Mal and I need to be there for. Adrian’s already sent a chopper for us. We all need to get ready.”

My smile strained my face, I could feel it. “Okay.”

“Sorry we’re getting cut short here. We’ll come back soon, yeah?”

“Absolutely. It’s fine.”

That was a lie, because we were going back to LA.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

David’s knee jiggled all the way back to LA. When I put my hand on his leg he took to toying with my wedding ring instead, turning it around on my finger. Seemed we were both fidgeters, given the right circumstances.

I’d never been in a helicopter before. The view was spectacular, but it was loud and uncomfortable—I could see why people preferred planes. A chain of lights, from street lights to houses to the blazing high rise towers in LA, lit the way. Everything about the situation had changed but I was the same bundle of nervous energy in need of sleep that I had been leaving Portland, not so many days back. Mal had thrown himself into the corner, closed his eyes, and gone to sleep. Nothing fazed him. Of course, there was no reason this should. He was part of the band, welded into David’s life.

We landed a little after four in the morning, caught up by delays on departure. Bodyguard Sam stood waiting at the helicopter pad with a business face on.

“Mrs Ferris. Gentlemen.” He ushered us into a big black SUV waiting nearby.

“Straight back home, thanks, Sam,” David said. His home, not mine. LA had no happy memories for me.

Then we were ensconced in luxury, locked away behind dark windows. I sank back against the soft seating, closing my eyes. It kind of amazed me I could be so damn tired and worried all at once.

Back at the mansion, Martha waited, leaning against the front door, wrapped up in some expensive-looking red shawl. His PA gave me all the bad feelings. But I was determined to fit in this time. David and I were together. Screw her, she’d have to adapt. Her dark hair shone, flowing over her shoulders, not a strand out of place. No doubt I looked like someone who’d been awake for over twenty hours.