and baring her tiny top and flowing skirt for the next song. The name “Lick” was fitting, since it was every bit as dirty as the title suggested.
Michael swapped his guitar Jimi for his battered Les Paul, letting Elle do her thing as he set it up to enter the song after her. She bent low, her blond hair streaming down her back as she made the strings sing. When he joined her, she flashed him a smile at a wattage he only ever saw from her on stage. High on it, and on the fact that his brother was playing behind him, and that somehow, somehow they were getting through the show, he let his gaze wander the crowd.
The redhead caught his eye immediately.
She was close to the front, dancing back to back with one of her girlfriends while the other gyrated against her side. They were definitely feeling the lyrics that Molly was rasping as if she were fifteen seconds away from an orgasm. Ryan and West were doing the joint thing on the keyboards again, crossing hands and all kinds of tricks that only emphasized the erotic nature of the song. They pounded on the keys like he and Elle and Juliet were shredding their guitars. Like Mal was steadily drumming the kit, slow, sinuous. Building, building, building, until the final explosion.
The redhead turned and looked up on stage, playing with the strap of her halter top. For a second, he thought she’d flashed him some damn nipple. On purpose or accidentally, he didn’t frigging care. All he knew was her big eyes were on him while she nearly fondled her own breast, and her lips were wet and parted, and he couldn’t stop strumming his guitar the way he wished he could play with her. He’d sit her on his lap and slip under her skirt, then push aside her panties and slide one finger between the lips he knew would be soaked for him. While she watched, open-mouthed and silently begging, he’d suck on the finger that tasted of her until she was squirming against his rock-hard erection. Bouncing back and forth while he swelled against his zipper.
Christ, like he was doing right now.
Juliet came up behind him, sliding one hand in the front pocket of his jeans as Mal’s drums and West and Ryan’s keyboard faded. She jerked back and quickly shot over to the other side of the stage to set up for the next song, making him smother a laugh.
Guess she thought her onstage seduction routine with him had worked a little too well.
“What’s her problem?” Elle whispered, trading her Gibson for her Stratocaster.
“Almost sure she thinks I like her butt too much.”
“It is a cute butt.” Elle winked at him, and he laughed.
“Hers or mine?” he asked, unable to resist. Hell, he had a freaking hard-on onstage from some sexy as hell redhead in the second row, who he was trying not to look at until the next song started so he didn’t tear through his jeans.
Elle pretended to think as she put the strap over her head. “Gotta say hers. Looks firmer.”
“You suck.”
She laughed again then dipped her head close. “He isn’t really your brother, is he? Tell me he isn’t.”
“Afraid so.”
“He’s a beast.”
At the dark, moody chords of “In Your Arms,” heralded by Ry on the blues harp, Michael glanced back at Mal. He was tapping the skins in almost perfect time. “Hell yeah, he is.”
“Men.” Elle snorted and surprised him by pulling her own Juliet-type routine, going back to back with him as they slid into the song.
Elle didn’t grind or dance, just challenged him to get his fingers moving as fast as hers. He kept up, rippling up and down the strings so fast that he didn’t dare look at the audience. His shoulders hunched and he bent closer to his instrument, cradling it, imagining again that he had the redhead in his arms. That hot, lush body he’d scarcely glimpsed curling against his as she pressed those glossy lips to his ear and said dirty things that didn’t fit such an innocent face.
Pure face, smokin’ body, hair like a goddamn siren. He wanted to hear her voice to see if it matched the sexiness of the rest of her. Perhaps she’d sing to him, maybe while he was going down on her. He’d part those creamy thighs and lean in for a taste—
A crack overhead caused him to jerk, then he remembered the shower of lights