Strung Tight (The Road To Rocktoberfest #1) - Ann Lister Page 0,49
I can help you get through it,” Mike suggested.
“Keep that to yourself, please,” I said. “I don’t need the rest of the guys busting my balls over my having stage fright.”
Chapter Sixteen
Mike drained his mug again and explained he was going to Uber over to the strip club where his girlfriend worked. I figured this was the perfect opportunity for me to bow out as well and walk back to see if Dallas had finished working for the day. Mike and I said goodbye to Jeff and Potter, who were now in the middle of their second game of pool, and we left the bar with two of the security guys while the other two stayed behind. I gave Mike a final wave out on the sidewalk in front of the bar while he was getting into his waiting Uber with a guard, and I started back to the rehearsal studio with the other one.
“Isn’t this weird for you?” I asked my guard, Paxton.
“Is what weird?” Paxton asked.
“You following me around,” I stated.
“It’s my job, just like performing is yours,” Paxton explained.
Who was I to argue over someone’s choice of work? Mike’s girlfriend liked to take her clothes off for strangers for money. We enjoyed playing music for a bunch of strangers for money, and Paxton babysat strangers for money, so how was any of it different? I guessed at the end of the day—a job was just a job.
Paxton and I walked around to the back of the building that Black Ice owned and found Dallas just finishing up with a stack of crates he had piled up against a concrete wall near the loading dock. I watched him for a moment wearing his black tank top and loose-fitting jeans. I’d seen him completely naked, and he looked fine as hell, but ogling his body in action while he worked, flexing and straining, transformed him into something else altogether. A sheen of sweat made his skin shine and accentuated all of his muscles. I remained there—even with Paxton nearby and quietly admired the ridges and bulges in his arms, shoulders, and chest. I was getting hard from watching him, which made me feel kind of pervy, but I didn’t care enough to turn away. He was gorgeous to look at, but when I glanced around at the other roadies working and all sweaty, not one of them caught my eye the way he did. I didn’t quite understand what it was about him that turned my crank, and I might never know, but he sure did hold my attention like no one else. Every time I looked his way, that odd feeling in the pit of my stomach returned, but it wasn’t a bad thing. I recognized it now as being an incredible lightness that made me somehow think I could float away on just this one sensation alone.
Dallas finally noticed I was watching him and our gazes locked. The knowing smile that slid over his face and the softness his expression took on stole my breath. Part of me wanted to run to him and kiss him senseless, but I couldn’t do that. He lifted the hem of his tank top to wipe the sweat from his forehead, and when a few inches of his firm stomach was revealed, I caught a peek at a slice of heaven. He didn’t have a gym-rat six-pack but, instead, a solid expanse of skin with a trail of dark hair that separated his stomach into two equal parts and then disappeared beneath the waistband of his jeans. It probably sounded crazy, but I was oddly proud of the fact I knew what was concealed behind his zipper. I knew what Dallas’s cock looked like fully aroused and the faces he made when he came; just thinking about both of those things made me shiver.
So fucking sexy.
Dallas was far from virginal when we met, and I wasn’t particularly innocent either. For all I knew, he’d screwed a bunch of the guys on the crew he was working with right now. I thought about that for a second and realized it made me feel a little jealous, but I shrugged it off because we both had pasts we couldn’t erase even if we wanted to. We only had control over what happened from here on out.
As long as Dallas wasn’t fucking around with anyone other than me, I was okay, but that was probably a conversation we’d need to have sooner rather than