Michelle gasped and tilted her head so she could look up at Devlin. She hadn’t been thinking that before, but she was definitely thinking it now. “Yes,” she whispered. “And I want his mouth on me as well.”
“I bet you never realized how hot our little cheerleader was while you were masturbating to your memories of her pompoms,” Jake said to Devlin.
“I never—”
Jake snorted and cut him off again. “You’re a fucking liar.”
Jake eased Michelle’s body from Devlin’s and wrapped an arm around her lower back. Her knees were shaking so bad, she could scarcely support her own body weight. “Let’s go sit down for a while,” Jake said. “You seem to have forgotten where we are.”
Guilty as charged. Though had they been alone, she knew she’d already have one hand in Jake’s pants and the other tugging impatiently at her panties.
“Come with us,” she urged Devlin as Jake led her back to her no longer empty corner table.
“He will if I have any say in the matter,” Jake said in her ear.
What the hell did he mean by that?
There was a gorgeous strawberry blonde stranger sitting at the table now. She looked more than a little out of sorts as her eyes followed the movement of something across the room.
“Hey, Jess,” Jake said to the woman. “Why are you sitting by yourself, gorgeous?”
“Sed went to get me some punch. Ten minutes ago.”
Michelle glanced over to where Sed was standing, surrounded by almost every attendee of the reunion. He wasn’t anywhere near the punchbowl.
“They’re just excited to see him,” Michelle said.
“Even though he had little to do with any of them in high school, he goes out and gets famous and suddenly he’s the cool kid,” Jake said and rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. “I’ll go get your beverage, Jess,” he offered. “I love giving Sed a hard time when he’s not meeting your needs.”
Jess smiled. “That would be wonderful, Jake. Thank you. And I definitely want you to give him a hard time about it, since he refused to let me get up and get my punch for myself,” she said, before turning her attention to Michelle. “Let me guess. You’re an old flame of Jake’s.”
“Not that old,” Michelle said with a wry grin.
“Oh, I didn’t mean—”
“I’m just teasing. I know what you meant. I’m Michelle and this is, uh, Devlin,” she said, not sure how to introduce him. As her new flame, maybe?
A spark of recognition touched Jess’s green eyes. “Nice to meet you. Devlin McAllister, isn’t it? The CEO of Stormwall Enterprises? I read an article about you in Time Magazine last year. And I must say, you’re even better looking in person.” Jess chuckled. Devlin went pink about the ears.
“Nice to meet you too, uh…” His eyes dropped to the name badge on her chest. “Jessica Lionheart.”
“You were in Time Magazine?” Michelle sputtered.
“Yeah,” he said, pulling out a chair.
She didn’t sit. She stared. Had his eyes always been such a remarkable shade of gray? Had they always been surrounded by thick dark lashes that made the unusual color absolutely riveting? Probably. They’d just been hiding behind a pair of thick-lensed glasses before. Her fingers itched to dive into the thick, silky black waves of his hair and tug that delectable looking mouth to hers.
“Why didn’t you mention that?” Michelle asked. “I mean, Time is a pretty big deal, you know.” What she wouldn’t give to have one of her photographs featured in Time. Her work had been in National Geographic a couple of times, but most of her livelihood came from selling stock images and reproduced prints.
Devlin cleared his throat, a grin curving his sensual mouth at one corner. “We haven’t done much talking yet.”
True. She’d been too busy bumping and grinding against him on the dance floor. What must he think of her? She supposed she could blame Jake for her improper behavior. He always brought out the brazen hussy in her. But she’d been hot for Devlin even before Jake had arrived and she was still hot for him now even though Jake was halfway across the room. So she supposed she couldn’t really blame her vagina’s enthusiasm for Devlin on Jake.
“Not that I minded,” Devlin added, his voice low and seductive as his eyes met hers and held her gaze.
Her heart rate kicked up as he inched closer. She licked her lips in anticipation.
Damn, the man was sexy. When had that transpired exactly? Her body shifted closer to his as if she had no control over her muscles.
Apparently, Jake wasn’t the only one she responded to on a purely instinctual level. She hadn’t had much time for romance in the past ten years. Perhaps her cooter had decided its dry spell was over and it wasn’t taking no for an answer. Or maybe because the last few men she’d slept with had been total bores in the sack, she was looking for something a bit more exciting and her body knew a good time when it brushed up against one.
“Have a seat,” he said, indicating the chair he’d pulled out for her.
She collapsed into it as if her bones had gone soft. Devlin took the seat beside her, shifting his chair close. So close their knees were touching. Michelle spotted her drink on the table and grabbed it, taking a huge gulp. The bourbon burned going down and she winced.
“Easy,” Devlin said, his breath stirring loose strands of her hair, tickling her neck, making her throb in places she’d almost forgotten could throb. Dear lord. He took the plastic cup from her hand and set it on the table. “I want you in full command of your senses when I take you to bed.”
Michelle choked. Not on her doctored beverage. On her own saliva.
Not if he took her to bed, but when. She liked his newfound self-confidence even if it did make her cough.
Devlin rubbed her back not so soothingly.
“You, okay?”
She nodded, eyes watering as she tried to hack up a lung. Keep it together, Michelle. It wasn’t as if she’d never had a gorgeous, considerate man who’d been featured in Time-freaking-Magazine hit on her. Okay, so she hadn’t, but this wasn’t just any gorgeous guy, this was Devlin McAllister. She had no reason to be so unsettled around him. Except that he was very good at unsettling her.
Michelle glanced up when Jake stopped at the table between herself and Jessica—who might as well have turned invisible for all the attention Michelle had minded her. Where in the hell where her manners?
Jake set a cup of punch and a small plate of finger foods in front of Jessica before he patted her back. “There you go, beautiful,” he said.
Jessica smiled up at Jake in gratitude which apparently set off territorial alarms in Sedric’s head, because the linebacker-turned-vocalist immediately plowed through the crowd surrounding him—sending bodies scattering in all directions—as he made his way directly to his wife’s side.
“I’m sorry, baby, I got sidetracked,” Sed said to Jessica.
“It’s fine,” she said, and took a nonchalant sip of her punch. “That’s what roadies are for, right? Retrieving beverages?”
She winked at Jake, who grabbed a chair, turned it around, and set it between Michelle and Jessica. He then sat facing the seat and helped himself to several of Jessica’s carrot sticks and pretzels. “I thought our job was to entertain the band’s wives while they’re busy entertaining the fans,” he said as he crunched into a carrot stick.
“Yeah, that too.” Jessica patted his knee.
Sed wrapped a large hand around Jake’s throat and squeezed. “Don’t make me kill you,” he said, before planting a kiss on the smooth skin just to the side of Jake’s mohawk.
Jake grinned, so apparently Michelle didn’t quite understand the dynamic between the two men. She wouldn’t have been grinning if the large, muscular, highly tattooed metal vocalist had threatened her life.
“So how did you end up a roadie, anyway?” she asked Jake. “I remember you being a very accomplished guitarist.” And it had definitely done something to her panties’ elastic. The waist
band had never been able to keep the garment up when he’d played those six strings.
Sed released Jake’s throat and pounded him in the center of his chest. “Yeah, Jake. How did you end up a roadie?” he said with a laugh and took the unoccupied chair on the opposite side of Jessica.