Page 20 of Slow Ride

“Never heard a crowd scream louder.”Van grinned.“You killed it, Kason.You’re back.”

He nodded because he believed hewason the right path again.As long as he didn’t do something dumb, he could reenergize his career.

Kason smiled because the strains of a song began to play in the back of his mind.Faint, but the music—newmusic—was in there waiting for him to discover it.He was going to be okay.“Let’s celebrate.”

He exploded from his dressing room, not too proud to admit the roar of applause, whistles, and shouts still had the power to move him even after nearly ten years of working as a fulltime musician.Even better, he saw her.Wren.Right there in front of him.

His stare clashed with hers, and the appreciation written there erased the effects of the hand job he’d given himself less than ten minutes ago.He didn’t even try to fight it.

The list of shit he could have was a lot shorter now than before.

Motorcycles.

Music.

Booze.

Drugs.

Gambling.

Sexy thoughts about men.

Women.Lots and lots of women.

Hell, that last vice was practically part of his job description.So he did what he was learning to do best and lived up to everyone’s expectations.

He strode to where Wren was leaning up against a wheeled case the roadies were about to refill with wires and scaffolding so they could roll out of Middletown and set up wherever the next show would be.When you never stayed in the same place long, it made it tough to do things the old-fashioned way.You know, meet a girl and ask her out, take her to dinner a few times before kissing her goodnight and working your way up to spending some quality time together in bed.

Or even the less-old-fashioned way of hunting for someone on a dating app and meeting up for a good time.He didn’t even have time to swipe right on someone or the guts to put himself out there knowing he’d have crazy fans show up instead of people interested in him for him.The one time he’d tried, he’d been reported for attempting to catfish someone.They hadn’t believed it was really him.

So he just went for it, for Wren, the way he’d gotten used to operating.

Kason reached out and put his hands around her slender waist.When she beamed up at him instead of slapping his scruffy face, he bent down and sealed his mouth to hers.

Half the people around them cheered louder.The rest, mostly women who didn’t approve of his not picking them to manhandle instead, grew quiet.But Wren, she melted.

Her tough, indifferent mask fell away at the first contact of his lips on hers.She looped her arms around his neck and kissed him without a moment of hesitation or insecurity.If she gave a fuck about what any of the hundred or so people swarmed around them thought, he couldn’t tell.

This was the woman he’d glimpsed the other day.The one who’d met his gaze directly at the shop and dared him to criticize her for her hanging on to the memory of a dead lover.The one who’d done her job despite having someone famous waltz into her shop.The one who’d tried to obscure a killer body beneath work clothes that did nothing to highlight the subtle curves he was now familiarizing himself with.The one who was a mechanic of some sort and certainly not the garage’s receptionist.

Kason’s hands wandered from her waist, up her back, and then lower, lower to the curve of her ass.Wren didn’t object.Instead she hummed and leaned into his embrace, giving him a non-verbal green light by spearing her fingers into his hair and tipping his head so she could reach him better.

She slipped her tongue into his mouth and sparred with his own, meeting him thrust for thrust.

In a flash, he realized that sex with her would be…incredible.

Wren was a wildcat.A badass in an angel’s clothing.

Well, okay, an angel had never looked like her with that slinky black dress, but still.

Kason was about to signal Van to escort him and Wren to whatever secret wormhole he’d arranged when, from behind them, a man called her name.Maybe the dude couldn’t tell they were busy.The equipment case was probably hiding Kason’s hands, which were about to slip beneath Wren’s dress in full view of anyone who cared to look.

“Wren?Is that you?”the newcomer persisted, even though he had to have figured out what they were up to by now.

Instantly, she stiffened.And not in a good way.

The heat and liquid grace she’d been as she burned in Kason’s arms vanished in an instant.Tense and shocked, she jerked away looking guilty as fuck.

---