Joy Ride (27 page)

“Yes and no.” He eased himself slowly from her body, disposed of the condom, and pulled her against him. “This could be a really big break for us. And in this business, they’re very hard to come by. You have no idea the intensity of the competition. Everyone who’s ever played a high school dance is knocking on the doors.”

“But Lightnin’ is going to get that chance, right?”

“Yeah, thanks to Rick knowing Butch Meredith. It’s a long story, one of those one-in-a-million things you hear about. Usually for other people. I’ll tell you about it sometime. Anyway, when the opening act for this show had to cancel, Butch called Rick and here we are.”

“And if this goes well?” she persisted. She was so conflicted, on the one hand hearing his excitement and wanting success for him. On the other, she was afraid it would be the thing drawing him away from her.

Be unselfish for a minute, Emma
.

But there was the fear, filling her again as she waited for his answer.

“Hopefully more concert dates with them. Maybe interest from the record label. And more money.”

“A lot more women, too, I’ll bet.”

Emma, why can’t you keep your mouth shut?

Marc went absolutely still. “Are you worried?”

She tried her best to sound nonchalant. “I have no claim on you.”

He cupped her chin and tilted her face toward his. “You know, you could if you wanted to.”

She shifted her gaze away from his. All of her emotions warred inside her. She wanted Marc, her Guitar Man. Wanted a life with him. Wanted a joy ride that never ended but carried them into the future. Could she actually fit into his life? It’d be harder to fit him into hers, right? If only she could make a decision and stick to it. But vestiges of the old Emma clung to her like ancient cobwebs, tangling her mind.

“You don’t understand. ”
I’ve still got one foot in my other life and can’t seem to pull it out.

“Why not? What are you afraid of?”

That I won’t be enough for you. That in the end, despite what you say, you’ll want a woman like Lacey who fits more into the scene. Someone who knows the ins and outs. Who won’t accidentally say something stupid. Who won’t embarrass you
.

Emma worried about that almost as much as anything else. She saw herself as not cool and untrendy. Someone who could easily put her foot in her mouth and say the wrong thing at the wrong time.

“Nothing. Nothing at all.” She wriggled from his grasp and pushed herself to a sitting position. As long as he held her like this way, she couldn’t think straight. And she wanted desperately to believe nothing he said would change. “Hey, didn’t you say you had my concert pass here?”

“Okay, okay, I get the hint.” A muscle jumped in his cheek. “But this conversation is far from over.”

“My pass, big guy?” Emma hated the uncertainty lingering in her brain. Just when she thought she had things under control, she’d had that sort-of confrontation with Lacey and she couldn’t get the redhead’s words out of her mind. Despite the fact that Marc kept insisting there was nothing between them, it brought all of her insecurities to the surface again.

Please, please understand, Marc. My Guitar Man
.

He tensed for a moment then pulled her back into his arm. “Sure do. I’ll give it to you before you leave.” He licked her jaw lightly. “You know where the Amphitheatre is, right?”

“Of course.”

“Okay, go to the back gate. It’s where the roadies and performers enter. There’ll be a guard there. Show him your pass and he’ll direct you to the door you’ll use. The guard there will tell you where our dressing room is, but I’ll try to keep an eye out for you.”

“What time should I get there?”

“We go on at eight, so if you get there at seven I can hang around the door looking for you.”

“Then that’s what I’ll do. And I’ll be on time. Definitely.” She snuggled against him, pushing back her own misgivings to assure him. She shared his anticipation and knew what all this could mean for him, and she did want him to have this success. “I’m really excited about this, Marc.”

“Excited enough to tell me your name?”

Her stomach tightened at the thought but she’d made a bargain with herself. “Maybe. Depends how good your performance is.”

“How about my performance tonight?” He grinned. “The one right here? Doesn’t that earn me points?”

“Hmm. I don’t know. “She trailed her fingers over his stubbled cheeks and the line of his jaw, pressing her reawakening body against his. Sliding one leg over his, she rubbed her sex against his cock, feeling it pulse in response.
Yes!
“Maybe I should ask for a repeat just to make sure.”

“How about a shower first?” His mouth curved in a predatory smile. “We do real good in the shower.”

Hunger, so recently satisfied, surged through her again. “Yes, we do.”

They took a long shower, leisurely soaping each other and teasing each other to a fever pitch of desire. Then they made long, slow, lazy love. Touching each other everywhere. Tasting each other. Emma had never spent such a sinfully satisfying night in her life.

“One of these nights,” Marc told her in his deep, slow voice, “I’m going to show you a few things we haven’t even tried yet. Think you’ll be ready for me?”

She tried to read the look in his eyes. But all she saw was intense heat. She tried to imagine what things he could be referring to. Maybe something from the erotic romances she read and wrote? Acts she’d conjured up in her imagination? A shiver of anticipation glided over her. “I don’t know. Will I like it?”

Red-hot scenes from the erotic romances she read flashed through her mind, things she’d never done but sometimes fantasized about. Would he do some of those things to her? Would they do them together? Anticipation shimmied through her, accelerating her pulses and making her nipples and clit ache with pleasure. Whatever they did, she was glad it would be with Marc, the man who made her body sing in three-part harmony. She wet her lower lip, breath hitching in eager anticipation.

“Oh, babe.” He chuckled softly. “I promise you, you’ll love it. We’ll work up to it, okay?”

How much higher could they go? Emma skimmed her hand over his chest, rubbing the soft fur of the hair curled there and brushing against his nipples. Liquid flooded her sex as her movement drew a gasp from him.

Sleep wasn’t even on the menu in the hours that followed. Marc was over her, under her, thrusting up into her as he showed her the best way to ride him. He used his mouth on her and groaned with pleasure when she did the same to him. They explored every inch of each other’s bodies until they were almost too exhausted to move.

It was nearly five in the morning by the time they’d had enough of each other. For Emma, with so many of her fears still unresolved, there was a sense of urgency, as if she needed to cram days into hours but again she pushed the uncertainty away.

Don’t borrow trouble
.

“How about breakfast?” he asked as she pulled her clothes on.

She actually laughed. “You’re really hung up on this breakfast thing.”

His face was sober when he answered her. “The breakfast thing, as you call it, makes the difference between meaningless sex and something more. And while I have the feeling you might not believe this, right from the beginning I could tell we had something special going here and I want to see where we could take it.”

Emma paused in the act of stepping into her shoes. She wanted to tell him she thought he was special, too, but she couldn’t manage to push herself that last step. To give everything to him, nothing held back.

I’m being such a child. God, it’s a wonder he hasn’t just gotten sick and tired of me and pitched me out. Doesn’t that alone say something?

So tell him, you idiot
.

She just couldn’t make herself say the words. Was she going to lose him, not because he lost interest in her, but his patience wore thin?

Fear was the worst obstacle of all. And now, with the concert and all approaching, she was afraid that she wouldn’t be able to keep up. Marc would see it and that would be the end of things. So how could she tell him now what her feelings were?

Finally she asked, “But how could you even know? I mean, the first night you were already asking me to breakfast. Looking for something more.”

Marc climbed off the bed and stood before her in his glorious nakedness. “Because I knew then this was something different. Something more. I know you caught it. Sensed it. I don’t know what’s holding you back but sooner or later I’ll find out and then I’ll be able to tell you how I really feel about you.”

“How can you be so sure this is more than what it seems?”
That you, the man who lives in a world of excitement, could be satisfied with me?
Annie was right. She’d been raised to fit a pattern, not to be herself. Before Music Lady began to emerge she was grateful for men like Andrew. Now she had trouble believing anyone like Marc would care for, never mind love the person she was becoming. Bot oh, god, she wanted it so badly.

“I know. Believe me.” The look on his face was equal parts of earnestness and determination. “And like I said, if you’d just be honest with yourself, so do you.”

“Kiss me, Marc.” She wanted the reassuring touch of his mouth on hers before she had to leave again.

“With pleasure.”

This was no kiss of passion, but one filled with emotion. It made her heart turn over and hope blossomed deep inside her. Hope she could believe his words and have faith in herself as well as him.

Sunday night. I’ll tell him my name and how I feel Sunday night and then we can go on from there
.

He broke the kiss. “Let me get your pass for you.”

Still naked, as usual, he walked her into the kitchen and took an envelope off the counter, then handed it to her. “Your pass for Sunday night. Put it on before you try to get into the facility and keep it on all time. It’s your entry to the backstage area and the dressing rooms.”

She opened it and took out a rectangle of plastic stamped Backstage Pass. The name of the concert facility was front and center along with the promoter and below that Aftershock. It hung on the end of a woven fabric lanyard.

“Thank you. I won’t lose it.”

“Will you be at Aftershock tomorrow night?”

“No. I’m…having dinner with my folks.” It was the birthday compromise. “But I’ll see you Sunday night right on the dot of seven.”

“Be careful.” He kissed her again as he walked her to the door.

She paused at the threshold and wrapped her arms around him, squeezing him tightly.

“What’s that for?” he asked suspiciously.

“For good luck. For Sunday.”

Then she hurried out to her car before she could say anything more.

Chapter Fourteen

Emma spent the day arguing with herself while Annie fixed her hair and makeup, and helped her get her outfit ready. It was her birthday. She was thirty. Time to finish growing up and act like an adult. Her determination from the other night still stuck with her, although at times it wavered slightly. Tonight, she would tell Marc her name. All about herself. And how she really felt about him.

Right?

Yes
. She’d take the final step into her new future, the world she created in her mind for her and Marc, her Guitar Man. So much of it yet unknown. If she still had the courage when she saw him.

“Don’t even think of chickening out.” Annie snapped the case of eye shadow closed and studied Emma’s face. “Time to put your big girl pants on, girlfriend.”

“And if I’m misreading the whole situation?”

“Then you’ll have had the ride of your life and be prepared for the next one.”

Still, a hundred butterflies were beating their wings in her stomach as she was waved into the Amphitheatre parking lot. It took her a few minutes to find a parking space. Then she had to weave her way past two delivery-type trucks, one larger than the other, and a huge bus with Deep Blue River painted on the side.

If Lightnin’ gets this job and it works out for them, will Marc be touring the country some day in one of these? And where will I be?

Stop that! Right now!

Hauling in a breath to calm herself, she showed her pass to the guard at the back door, who smiled and stood back for her to climb the few steps to stage level.

Emma had been backstage at community theater plays before, but that was nothing at all like this. The ceiling seemed miles above her head, and the entire place was a frenzy of activity. People moved everywhere, guys in jeans and T-shirts hauling strange looking items from one place to another. Someone with a set of headphones and a clipboard was talking into a lip mic and making notes. Others were walking around with no apparent purpose. In one distant corner, three men, one in a suit, were huddled as if discussing the fate of the nation. For Emma it was almost like falling asleep and awakening in a foreign country.

But an incredible buzz of excitement hummed in the air, like an electrical charge sizzling along the surface of her skin.

“Hey, Music Lady.”

The low timbre of his voice made her body react instantly. Her every pulse point throbbed. Relief he was actually there waiting for her, along with heat, warmed her blood.

“Hey.” She gave him a shy smile.

“Wow.” His eyes travelled over her from head to toe and back again. “You look damn hot, Music Lady.”

Her heart stuttered at the compliment. “Thank you.”

Emma sent a silent thanks to Annie for dragging her to a boutique and outfitting her in embroidered jeans and layered tees. And also for convincing her to have her toenails painted a hot, sensuous pink.

He took her hand. “Come on. I want to introduce you to the rest of the band.”

Emma stopped, suddenly frozen in place. “M-Meet the band?”

Of course he intended to introduce her. She hadn’t even thought of that, although she didn’t think Marc was going to hide her away in some corner. Anxiety threaded through her as she wondered how they’d react to her. Would they like her? Accept her? Or would they take one look and try to convince Marc he was making a huge mistake? That she was just the old Emma hiding under a new veneer that could crack at any moment. She wiped her damp palms on her new jeans, her pulse racing. So much to worry about.