Page 13 of Rock & Roll Nights: The Lila and Rivers Edit
One more word. One more whisper. I prayed he’d understand what I was asking, because I didn’t think I could manage more than that.
I opened my eyes to see that smirk turning up the corner of his mouth again. Only this time it wasn’t sweet.
And it damn sure wasn’t shy.
He lifted my hands above my head, wrapped my wrists in his large fingers, and dropped his mouth to my ear, taking it roughly in his teeth and biting down. Pain shot through me at the nip, the fire of it zinging down my belly and right to my clit, and I bucked.
“God, please,” I groaned.
“You sure?” The question was both a threat and a promise, and I bucked again.
I was desperate. His pace was still frustratingly slow, teasing me as he slid in and out, and I felt like I was going to lose my mind. I was walking a tightrope between pleasure and pain.
I wanted that answer.
“Yes.”
He reared back to look at me, gave me a slight smile, and then pulled back, tightened his grip on my wrists, and slammed into me.
I cried out in response, stars blooming around me at the sudden pleasure. And this time, he didn’t shut me up. He was too busy riding me as if I was the thing he’d been waiting for his entire life.
6
RIVERS
Iopened my eyes to the sun streaming through my window and a splitting headache.
I put my hand to my forehead, surprised at the depth of the pain in there, and tried to remember how much I’d had to drink last night. What had even been doing? And who had I been doing it with? We weren’t on tour yet; I could remember that much. But there were definitely already groupies around, and plenty of girls in town. I’d already hooked up with some of them.
Had I brought another one home last night? God, had I brought more than one? Right after I’d promised Noah that I’d try to shape up and tone it down with all that hard-partying bullshit?
Fuck.
Then the memories started to trickle back in, and I tipped my head. I’d come back to the room, annoyed with all the photographers outside—why were there so many already?—and frustrated at the interview I’d just done. It hadn’t gone well. I was supposed to be presenting a more responsible version of Rivers Shine and instead, the reporter had been asking questions she knew would rile me up.
Typical.
Then a text from Taylor.
She was upset about my reputation. She and the other higher-ups were worried about it doing damage to Olivia and Connor, who had the squeakiest, most wholesome reputations known to man. The entire tour was evidently going to take that squeaky-clean line, and I was screwing it up.
She’d said I had to do something about it.
She probably hadn’t meant I should get drunk in my room and pass out, although at least being in my room meant I hadn’t been out making any public trouble. I hadn’t involved anyone else—that I could remember, at least—and technically that was an improvement, right? Hell, maybe I was already working on my reputation. If I kept the drinking to my room, did that count as trying to clean myself up? If I took that to Taylor?—
A soft huff from my left yanked me right out of my thoughts, and I turned my head slowly in that direction, realizing belatedly that I wasn’t just hungover but also stark naked in a bed with twisted sheets. And those sheets didn’t smell like me. Or rather… Well, they did.
But they also smelled like sex.
I hadn’t slept here alone.
As I turned, I saw several things in flashes. Dark red hair. Skin fair enough that it matched the sheets it was laying on. Freckles across a tiny nose and a face so beautiful I would have thought I was dreaming it.
Except I wasn’t.
Because now that I was looking at the face, I remembered it from last night.
I hadn’t come up and gotten drunk by myself after the run-in with those photographers. I’d gotten drunk, yes, but I hadn’t done it alone. I’d gone to the room next door, where I hung out with two girls I didn’t even know. And then I’dbrought one of them back to my room with me because she’d been so interesting, so sweet, that I hadn’t wanted to let her go yet. I hadn’t wanted to be like her—never that, because it wasn’t possible—but I’d wanted her sunniness around me for a bit longer. She’d made me feel like a different person, a better person, and that was something I hadn’t felt in so long.
