One Night with Sole Regret 01 Try Me (4 page)

“My navel’s pierced,” she blurted. One moment of
recklessness on her twenty-first birthday.

“I don’t believe you.”

She lifted the hem of her top to show him the
jewelry dangling from her belly button. His breath caught, and his
fingers traced the slender chain around her waist. A pulse of
pleasure converged between her thighs, and she clenched her legs
together to ease the building ache.

“God, that’s sexy.” His pinky dipped beneath the
waistband of her jeans as he traced the gold chain again. “What
other secrets are you hiding, sweet Melanie? I want to discover
them all.”

Melanie covered Gabe’s hand before he delved any
deeper into her pants. “You have piercings?” she asked, staring up
into his eyes. She didn’t see any in his ears or face. It was one
of the reasons she hadn’t recognized that he was one of them. His
clothes covered his body tattoos. His ball cap hid his
unconventional hairstyle and the ink on his scalp. She’d let her
guard down with him before she’d realized he was frightening. That
had to be the difference. She’d talked to him before she’d known
she should be afraid. “Where? I don’t see any.”

“You’ll have to feel it.” Gabe took her hand and
directed it to his chest. Her fingers brushed against a hard ridge
within his nipple.

“Oh!” She rubbed her tongue against the edge of her
teeth, wondering what that bit of metal would feel like if she
flicked her tongue over the barbell she fingered under his T-shirt.
His muscles tautened beneath her touch and she silently prayed that
he was as attracted to her as she was to him. She wanted him to
fist her hair in both hands, drag her beneath his long, hard body
and press himself firmly against the throbbing ache between her
thighs.

“Melanie.” Her whispered name was like a silken
caress. “You’re gorgeous.”

The corners of her mouth turned up. “So are
you.”

Their gazes locked and everything resembling
rational thought vacated her skull. Gabe shifted forward and
claimed her mouth in a plundering kiss. Dear God, he had strong,
demanding lips. Her fingers curled into his chest, and her breath
caught in her throat. When his tongue brushed her upper lip, her
entire body ignited. The taste of beer. The scent of his body. The
hard barbell of a nipple piercing against her fingertip. All so
foreign. So dangerous. So fucking sexy. He tugged his mouth away
and looked down at her. Her hand slid down his belly toward his
hip.

“Show me your tattoo,” she demanded breathlessly.
Part of her wanted to prove to herself that she wasn’t afraid. The
other part just really wanted to get another eyeful of his great
body.

“Which one?”

“The one on your hip. Are there more?”

He grinned. “I thought you didn’t like tattoos.”

She shook her head, her gaze moving to the design on
the left side of Gabe’s scalp. On closer inspection, the tribal
pattern looked like a dragon. Not realistic. Artistic. The thick,
black lines that made up its long, slender body arched along the
edge of his hairline. Red fire spewed from the beast’s terrible
mouth inches from his temple. The dragon’s claws seemed to be
reaching for his ear. “I don’t. I’m curious is all. It’s not a
skull design, is it?” She gulped. What would she do if it was?

“No. Not a skull.”

She went limp with relief. “Then what?”

“I’d be happy to show them to you. All of them. But
not here.”

He turned his head to remind her that they were in a
fairly secluded corner of a very crowded room. Melanie sat up
abruptly and tugged her shirt down over her belly. Had anyone
noticed what they were doing? She should be mortified by her
reckless behavior, but it excited her instead.

“Force!” someone yelled from across the room and
waved wildly at Gabe.

Gabe waved back.

“Why do they call you Force?” she asked.

“That’s my lame stage name.” He adopted a menacing
expression—lip curled, brows drawn together—and cracked his
knuckles. “I’m a force to be reckoned with.” He grinned and lifted
her hand so he could capture her fingertips in sucking kisses.

“Oh.” An aching throb continued to build between her
thighs, and she knew there was only one thing that was going to
alleviate it. And only one man she wanted to drive it away. The
excitement of being with Gabe, of overcoming her ridiculous fears,
was far too seductive for her to deny. “I’m not normally attracted
to guys like you.”

“So you said.”

Her heart thudded faster and faster as she gathered
courage. She wished she could be more like Nikki and make it
perfectly clear what she wanted. “If I tell you that I want you,
would you believe me?”

“Try me.”

“I want you.”

He caught her gaze and held it for a long moment.
“Do you want to get out of here?”

“Will you show me your tattoos?”

“That would require me to get naked.”

She grinned at him. “I’m okay with that.”

Chapter 5

Gabe wasn’t sure what it was about this woman that
had him so fired up. Yes, she was attractive, but that didn’t
explain it. He knew innumerable attractive women. Maybe it was
because she liked him despite him being a rock star and not because
of it. Or maybe it was because she’d turned down Jacob—no one
ever
turned down Jacob. Or maybe it was because there was
something naughty and wild just beneath her conventional exterior,
and he very much wanted to unleash her inner vixen. Whatever it
was, he was hooked. He never questioned his little head’s
instincts. His dick had excellent taste.

He followed Melanie out of the stadium to a
convertible, melon-orange Volkswagen Beetle wedged between two
gargantuan SUVs in a parking garage.

“Cute,” he said when the she pressed her key fob and
the Bug’s lights flashed. He’d hoped one of the gas guzzlers was
hers. No such luck. Normally he wouldn’t be caught dead in such a
feminine car, but he wanted to show her more than his tattoos. He
had the pressing need to be alone with her. To figure out what made
her so appealing. Yeah, that belly chain and navel piercing of hers
had turned his thoughts thick with lust, but it was more than
that.

“It’s Nikki’s. I should probably text her and let
her know I took off without her. Or maybe I should let her worry
about me for a change.” She paused to squint at him with assessing
eyes. “Does she have a reason to be worried?”

“Only if she plans to see you before morning.”

“Just how many tattoos do you have? It shouldn’t
take you all night to show me.”

She offered him a challenging smirk. It made him
want to kiss the sass out of her.

“But it will take me that long to work you out of my
system.”

Her breath caught. After a moment she closed her
gaping mouth and squeezed her tight little body between the SUV and
the Bug on the driver’s side of the car. “Are you hungry?” she
asked as she inched open the door and sidled into the car. “I’m
starving. I missed dinner so we could stand in line for two hours.
There has to be an open restaurant around here somewhere.”

He took note of her rapid words. He hoped she didn’t
freak out and leave him hanging. Well, actually, he was more hard
than hanging. Did she have any idea what he had in mind? It had
been a while since he’d had to work at seducing a woman. They
tended to fall out of their pants and into his. Maybe he was off
his game. She wanted to have dinner first? For real? He was
wondering how she was still clothed.

Gabe squeezed into the car with her and closed the
door. Folded into the small space, he felt he was in danger of
kneeing himself in the eyeballs. “Does the thought of being alone
with me make you nervous?”

“No,” she squeaked.

“Good. Then we’ll order room service,” he said,
fiddling under the seat for a lever to give himself some room. He
sighed in relief when the seat shifted and offered him a few extra
inches for his legs.

“But—”

“You do realize I plan to fuck you, don’t you?” No
sense in pretending this was something it wasn’t. “If you’re
playing games with me—”

“I’m not playing games, Gabe. I plan to fuck you
until you can’t move. I just thought we could get to know each
other a little better first. I’ve never had a man seduce me this
quickly. I feel kind
of . . . um . . . slutty.”
She whispered that last word as if it had never applied to her
before.

Heat flooded his groin. Fuck, yeah. She did want him
after all. He was used to women coming on to him, making their
intentions clear, and being blunt. He just wasn’t used to women
like Melanie doing so. Damn, his balls ached. There was no way in
hell he’d make it through a polite dinner with her. He was
perfectly fine with her feeling slutty. Especially because he
didn’t think she let herself feel that way often. Convincing her to
do something she wouldn’t normally do stroked his ego until an
inferno of lust blazed inside him.

Melanie started the car while Gabe struggled to form
coherent thoughts. They were pulling out of the parking garage
before he managed to fire a rational synapse.

“Um, where to?” she asked.

He gave her the name of the hotel and she searched
for it on the car’s navigation system. It began to spout directions
in a robotic voice.

“You have until we get to the hotel to get to know
me,” he said. “It isn’t far. You’d better get started.”

“How often do you do this kind of thing?”

“What kind of thing?”

“Have women you don’t know drive you to your hotel
room?”

“Less often than you think.”

Her full lips pursed skeptically, she lifted an
eyebrow at him, before returning her attention to the road. It was
mostly deserted at this hour, which meant the short trip to the
hotel would be especially quick. A good thing. If he caught the
scent of her fruity shampoo one more time, he was going to unzip
his pants and show her the effect she had on him, indecent exposure
laws be damned.

“I usually take them to the tour bus,” he said,
forcing his mind to keep up with the thread of their conversation.
“It’s easier to get rid of them that way.”

She laughed. “At least you’re honest.”

“How often do
you
do this kind of thing?” he
countered.

“Before or after I graduated college?”

There was a distinction? “After?”

“Not often.”

“Before?”

“Whenever I felt like it,” she said. “Which wasn’t
often.”

“So why are you doing this now?”

“I figure I’m entitled to a little slutty fun every
now and then.”

She turned her head to smile at him. She had a great
smile. It made his heart swell in his chest. And other things swell
in his pants.

“And I really want to see that tattoo on your
hip.”

He didn’t understand why a tattoo on his hip was
such a big deal to her. It wasn’t anything spectacular, just his
astrological sign. “I think your idea of who I am and who I really
am are entirely different things.”

“Duh. That’s why I wanted to get to know you first,”
she said.

Maybe he was the one who was nervous. He didn’t know
if she’d be impressed with the real him. Usually the rock star
thing did all his work for him. Gabe ran his knuckles down her bare
arm, and she shuddered. “And that’s why I’m in such a hurry to
occupy you with other things.”

She glanced at him and asked, “So, do you have
family?”

Well that topic definitely pulled the brakes on his
libido. “Yeah. Doesn’t everyone?”

“I suppose most do. Are they huge fans of your
music?”

He laughed. “Not especially. Hate isn’t a strong
enough word to describe how they feel about my music. I had a
strict, religious upbringing. My family is very conservative.”

“You don’t talk to your family then?”

“I didn’t say that. They don’t necessarily approve
of how I live or the career I chose, but they love me. As long as I
grow my hair out to cover the ink on my head before Thanksgiving,
we get along just fine.” And while he mostly did whatever he wanted
to do, he respected his parents enough not to flaunt his liberal
attitudes in their home. As far as he was concerned, it was a fair
compromise. His family’s comfort meant more to him than showing off
his tattoos. He hadn’t discovered his wild side until he’d gone off
to college. He didn’t have ink out of rebellion against his
upbringing but because he’d legitimately liked all the designs
enough to have them permanently etched on his skin. To him tattoos
were art, not a statement.

Melanie pulled into the hotel drive and stopped the
car near a waiting valet. Gabe tensed with anticipation.

“The ink looks good on you though,” she said, her
eyes fixed on his scalp. “I’m not sure why.”

He knew exactly why. “Forbidden fruit.”

“So you think the reason I want you so bad is
because my father would shoot you on sight?”

“That sounds about right,” he said. And he had no
issue with exploiting her daddy issues.

“Well, seeing as he’d shoot any man I hooked up with
before a wedding band strangled my finger, don’t think you’re so
special.”

The door opened, and the valet offered Melanie a
hand out of the car. She exchanged her keys for a valet ticket
while Gabe mentally cursed himself for abandoning his manners and
not being the one to open her door. When had he started sucking at
impressing women? Around the time a sexy accountant had careened
into his chest and didn’t even have the decency to be hot and
bothered the instant he’d touched her.

“Charge that to my room,” Gabe said to the valet as
he hurried around the car to claim Melanie’s elbow.

“Yes, Mr. Banner.”

Melanie managed to look impressed. “He knows you by
name?”

“I’m a VIP,” he said, “it’s his job to kiss my
ass.”

Unable to keep his hands to himself for another
minute, Gabe draped an arm across Melanie’s lower back and drew her
warmth against his side. She allowed him to lead her toward the
grand entrance of the hotel, but apparently she was still in
get-to-know-you mode.