“If she thinks I’m leaving with you, she’ll find someone else to harass.”
“There are perhaps a dozen other girls here who would happily leave with you. Why me?”
He looked into my eyes. His were bloodshot. “I’m completely exhausted. I haven’t slept well in weeks, and I just want to get out of here without having to deal with any drama.”
“Noah, what’s Shane going to think if I walk out of here like that with you?”
Noah ran a finger through my hair. “Maybe I was wrong about you.”
I was a microsecond away from slapping him. “Noah,” I growled.
“I guess you think I’m a jackass. For what it’s worth, the other day, I was aiming my anger at Shane and Micah because they’re my brothers, and they have to put up with me. I didn’t mean to get my assery all over you. Apologies?”
“I think Shane could use the apology more than me.”
He nodded once. Whether he agreed or was just taking the unsolicited advice with a grain of salt, I had no idea.
“Will you just come with me? We’ll find Shane and then we can all go to the hotel together. That’s all. Okay?”
“Fine. But don’t ever touch me again.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
We caught up to Shane and grabbed an Uber to the hotel. Noah hooked a left for the bar as Shane and I waited side by side for the elevator.
Shane whispered, “I’ve got some very definite ideas about how to spend the rest of the night.”
Going up to a hotel room with a rock musician felt like the ultimate cliché. I’d spent a decade deleting stories of hookups with these guys only to find myself on the cusp of becoming a groupie.
When the elevator doors opened, I grabbed both his hands and pulled him after me. Without even waiting for the door to close, he tangled his fingers in my hair and kissed me hard.
He drew back, one hand against the wall behind me, and it reminded me of the way Noah had pinned me at the afterparty. Until that moment, I hadn’t even thought about how I’d reacted to Noah Kennedy’s face inches from my own. He was a heartthrob I’d once crushed on, but the reality of Noah did nothing for me. He’d shown me a level of self-centered disrespect I couldn’t unsee. My response to him had been revulsion rather than attraction.
My response to Shane, on the other hand, was desperate need. I tugged on his T-shirt to better slide my hand up his muscled torso. “I’m dying to get you out of these clothes.”
I fell back and hoped he’d take it for an invitation to possess me. He pushed me against the elevator wall, hands roaming down my body, reaching under my skirt, thumbs hooking the hips of my panties.
“May I?”
“Yes.”
He slid my panties halfway down my thighs, then as he kissed me, his finger touched me and stroked, increasing the pressure until my voice escaped with an Ah, making my body feel like a bottle of champagne, bubbly, effervescent, tingly. He knew how to shake me up until I exploded.
He whispered, “I want every inch of you.”
The elevator dinged, and he lifted me up without the slightest effort, hands under my thighs, my legs and arms wrapped around him koala-style.
He strode down the hallway like it was on fire, plucking the key card from his pocket and kicking open the door with urgency.
I lay my hands on either side of his face. Before I could utter a word, he crushed his mouth against mine and carried me to the bed, then dropped to the floor, tore my panties straight off, pushed up my skirt, and knocked my knees apart with his chin. He paused and looked up at me for approval.
“Shane.”
“I’ve been thinking about this all day.”
As his tongue touched me, we both mmmed at the same time, his last words echoing in my mind. He’d been thinking about this all day.
Here was a man who knew what he liked.
And he took the time to learn what I liked. Soft, then hard, licking, then sucking, his mouth found my secrets. He slid a finger in and out, rubbing his thumb in places I’d never dreamed could feel such intense pleasure.
“There,” I encouraged when he hit a particularly amazing combination. “Yes.” He made me say yes a lot.
My back arched as I climaxed, but he didn’t slow down,