Tempt Me

  Chapter One

  Adam’s heart raced as he waited for Madison to answer her phone. Just the anticipation of hearing her voice thrilled him. He had no problem playing a guitar solo before fifteen thousand fans, but the prospect of speaking to one sweet woman made his palms sweat. Fucking pathetic. If his bandmates caught wind of his infatuation, they’d ridicule him nonstop. The entire group tended to gang up on whichever member happened to be jonesing over a woman, and Adam didn’t want to be their current target. That was Gabe’s role this week.

  Standing near the back of the tour bus in the passageway between the bunks, Adam turned his back to the common area. Owen and Kellen had stolen Gabe’s cellphone when he’d fallen asleep in the recliner, and they were currently sending text messages to some chick Gabe had hooked up with the night before. Adam had no idea how Gabe could sleep with the amount of sniggering going on around him. Maybe all that drumming had permanently damaged his hearing.

  “Now type: I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours,” Owen said as Kelly thumbed in his words. “Send it, dude.” More sniggering.

  Adam was glad they were occupied with Gabe’s torture while he attempted to hide his current weakness.

  “Hello,” Madison answered in Adam’s ear.

  It had been too long since he’d last seen her. Just the sound of her voice made his jeans tight. “Hey, baby,” he said quietly.

  “I can’t wait to see you after the concert,” she said.

  “That’s why I’m calling.”

  “Oh.”

  The disappointment in her voice made his heart twist. Damn, but this woman could reduce him to mush with a single syllable. He considered teasing her and making her think they wouldn’t be able to see each other that night, but if it had been the other way around and he’d thought she was breaking one of their far-too-infrequent dates, he’d be devastated.

  “We should be in Dallas around five.” Adam glanced at the bunk where Shade was resting. Sole Regret’s nosy lead singer was probably asleep, but his curtain was closed, so there was no guarantee Adam’s conversation wouldn’t be overheard. He made sure to keep his voice down when he asked, “Do you want to meet for dinner before the concert?”

  “Yes!”

  Now he couldn’t resist teasing her. “No? Why not?”

  “Yes, Adam. I said yes. Yes!”

  He chuckled. “Yes?”

  “Y. E. S. Where? What time?” The fact that she was so excited split Adam’s face in a truly embarrassing grin. Thank God no one was paying attention. If anyone saw him smiling like a lottery jackpot winner, his gig was up.

  “Italian. Five thirty. Meet me inside.” He didn’t have to tell her which restaurant. For almost a year, he’d been seeing Madison whenever Sole Regret’s tour bus blazed through Dallas. Their favorite place served fantastic breadsticks and had a family-style restroom with a sturdy lock. The hip-high vanity had come in handy for more than one quick reunion between Madison’s insatiable body and his.

  “Hey, Adam!” Owen called from his seat on the sofa. “Who are you talking to? Your girlfriend?”

  Adam cringed.

  “No one would be stupid enough to date a man-whore like him,” Kellen said.

  Adam scowled at the wall and covered his cellphone with his hand, hoping Madison hadn’t heard. “I have to go,” he said.

  “I can’t wait to see you.”

  “Madison?” He wasn’t ready to hang up yet.

  “Yeah?”

  “Will you make cookies?”

  She laughed softly. “You don’t have to ask, Adam. I already made them.”

  Her homemade gingersnaps were to die for, but he mostly loved the idea of her making them for him—especially since he pictured her baking in a frilly white apron, her black cowboy boots and nothing else. Her soft, round breasts would be fully exposed. When she turned and bent to slide the cookies in the oven, he’d have a clear view of her spectacular ass and more. The white bow in the center of her back would beg him to untie it and reveal what she was hiding beneath the front of that fantasy apron. Or maybe if he pleaded nicely, she’d lift the fabric and display her secrets to him. Mercy.

  Lost in his fantasy, the crotch of Adam’s jeans shrank an additional size.

  “Are you still there?” she asked.

  He snapped back to his uninspiring reality. “Yeah. Um, Madison?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Wear a dress for me?” She wouldn’t agree to wear nothing but an apron in public, but a dress would at least give him a view of those spectacular legs of hers. “With a short skirt.”

  “Okay,” she said breathlessly.

  Dear lord, he was already picturing her skirt bunched up around her waist and her panties clenched in his fist.

  “Later.” He hung up and, nowhere near as trusting as Gabe, buried his phone deep in his pocket where pranksters couldn’t get to it.

  Adam adjusted his over-eager cock into a less tenting position, grabbed a Mountain Dew from the fridge and hopped into the empty chair across from Owen and Kellen. He tried his damnedest not to smile like a dipshit, but it was a challenge with thoughts of Madison filtering through his head.

  Gabe was still out cold in the matching recliner beside Adam. Their drummer must’ve had one hell of time with that accountant babe the night before.

  Still in Kellen’s possession, Gabe’s cellphone beeped to alert a new text message.

  “What did she say?” Owen asked eagerly.

  “Show you my what?” Kellen read from the screen.

  “Boobs,” Owen blurted.

  Kellen rolled his eyes. “Gabe wouldn’t call them boobs.”

  “Lady lumps.”

  Kellen shook his head.

  “Tits?” Adam suggested.

  Kellen texted a response.

  “Breasts?” Owen read over Kellen’s shoulder. “What kind of dude calls them that?”

  “Gabe.”

  At the sound of his name, Gabe rubbed his nose with the back of his hand and inhaled deeply. His eyes opened a crack. He smiled trustingly at Adam and immediately fell back to sleep.

  The phone beeped again. “Did she send a pic?” Owen asked in a whisper.

  “Nope,” Kellen said, “She says, You first. Show me your nipple and I’ll show you mine. Seeing your piercing makes my nipples so hard.” Kellen read her text in a halting monotone, as if verbalizing stock quotes.

  “Whoa,” Owen said. “And she looked so sweet.”

  Adam knew just how naughty those sweet-looking ones could be. “Hey, Tex,” he called to the driver. “How long until we reach Dallas?” And Madison.

  “Couple hours,” Tex called from the front of the bus.

  “Anxious to see your girlfriend?” Owen asked with a perceptive grin.

  “Not my girlfriend,” Adam said. “Just a great piece of ass I like to fuck.” He knew they’d leave him alone if they thought Madison didn’t mean anything to him.

  “How do we get a picture of Gabe’s nipple?” Kellen asked. He eyed Gabe’s chest appraisingly, tilting his head to the left and right and using both hands to form a finger frame for his inspired masterpiece, Guy with a Pearl Nip-ring.

  “You restrain him,” Owen said. “I’ll get the shot.”

  Kellen shook his head.

  Adam chugged his liquid sugar rush and waited for Kellen and Owen to make their move on Gabe. He really couldn’t wait to see Gabe’s revenge.

  “Fine,” Owen said. “I’ll jump him; you snap the picture and send it before he knows what’s happening.”

  “Maybe we should tranquilize him first,” Kellen said. “He hits fucking hard.”

  Gabe’s hand suddenly covered his belly. His eyes snapped open. “Where’s m
y phone?” he asked, his voice thick with sleep.

  Kellen shoved it under Owen’s thigh. “No idea.”

  The phone beeped with Gabe’s characteristic tone from beneath their looking-entirely-up-to-no-good bassist. Gabe leveled Owen with a glare. Gabe looked badass. Black and crimson mohawk. Tribal dragon tattoos on his scalp. A long, wiry drummer’s body—all lean muscle and sinew that packed a deadly punch. But they all knew Gabe too well to be intimidated by his looks. His fists on the other hand . . .

  “What are you doing with my phone, assmunch?”

  Owen, with his big blue eyes looking their most innocent, retrieved the phone from beneath his leg and glanced at the screen. “Oh yeah, now those are some nice-looking boobs. I could lick them for hours.”

  “I guess she didn’t need to actually see Gabe’s piercing to make her nipples hard,” Kellen said as he viewed the screen over Owen’s shoulder.

  “Melanie?” Gabe’s eyes narrowed dangerously.

  “Oh yeah,” Owen said. “I’d definitely love to squeeze those pretty titties together around my dick and give Gabe’s sweetie a nice pearl necklace.”

  Gabe’s face went as red as the crimson tips of his mohawk.

  “Shouldn’t have gone there, Owen,” Adam said with a chuckle.

  Gabe launched out of the recliner and onto Owen. Kellen had the sense to scramble out of the way.

  “Oh Melanie,” Owen egged Gabe on. “Yeah, baby, lick my dickhead while I fuck those plump titties.”

  “I’m going to make you pay!”

  “Sure, I’ll pay for it,” Owen said, laughing through Gabe’s hard jabs. “I’ve got your five dollars right here, baby.” He grabbed his crotch suggestively.

  Adam picked up Gabe’s phone, which had landed on the floor near his feet. What better way to keep his own romantic interest under the radar than to join in on harassing Gabe? The picture of Melanie’s breasts hinted at uncommon beauty, but Adam was sure the blurry shot didn’t do them justice. Still, he whistled long and loud. “Nice. Maybe she’ll show us more.” Adam pressed reply so he could add to Gabe’s misery. “They’re as beautiful as I remember from last night,” Adam said as he composed a new text message and thumbed it in, “but you know what I really want to see.” He pressed send and handed the phone to Kellen, who was now standing between the two recliners to stay out of the way of the brawl between their drummer and bassist.

  “Show me what’s in your panties,” Kellen said as he typed. “And send.”

  Kellen’s diversion effectively got Gabe’s attention. Gabe abandoned Owen, who lay immobilized on the floor by either pain or hilarity. He rubbed his ribs with one hand and clutched his stomach with the other as he gasped for air between laughs. Gabe stumbled to his feet and grabbed Kellen by the back of the neck. Kellen took his one-quarter Comanche heritage very seriously. In addition to always keeping his straight black hair long and well-kept, he also had a personal vendetta against wearing a shirt. It made getting a good grip on him a challenge.

  “Give me my phone, Kellen.”

  Kellen handed it over calmly. “You should be thanking us,” he said. “Now you have jack-off material to aid your attempt at long distance monogamy.”

  “He’ll never last,” Owen said, still lying on the floor, gasping for air.

  Gabe’s phone beeped again, and he looked down at the screen. His eyes widened at whatever picture Melanie had sent him. “Sweet Jesus,” he swore under his breath.

  “Let me see.” Owen used the sofa to haul himself off the floor. “Get his phone, Kelly.”

  The pair of friends cornered Gabe against the refrigerator.

  Gabe held his phone out of reach over their heads. “Get the fuck away. No one sees this one but me.”

  Adam wondered if Madison would send him a sexy picture. He’d love something to remember her by on all those long, lonely nights on the road. Maybe she’d let him take a pic with his cellphone while they had sex—a shot of her beautiful pussy stuffed with his cock. Adam tugged at his fly. Damn, but these incredibly shrinking jeans were uncomfortable. And they had to be close to their destination by now. “Tex,” he called to the driver, “how long until we reach Dallas?”

  “One hour and fifty-nine minutes,” Tex yelled. “Keep your pants on, stud. Her pussy will still be warm when you get there.” Tex laughed so hard, Adam thought he might burst a blood vessel in his wide, ruddy neck.

  Adam looked to the back of the bus to see if he was about to become the new target of his band’s teasing. Fortunately, Kellen and Owen were too busy trying to pry Gabe’s phone from his death grip to have heard Tex’s barb.

  Adam rested his elbows on his knees and took another sip from his can. The road between Tulsa and Dallas had to be the longest in existence.

  Chapter Two

  Madison tried to stifle her excited flutters by covering her belly with both hands and taking several deep breaths. Her attempts to calm her jumbled nerves did no good. Between the butterflies and the perpetual grin, she was a giddy wreck. It had been weeks since she’d last seen Adam, and she hadn’t been able to think of anything all day but being in his arms, in his bed and, hopefully someday, in his heart.

  She was meeting Adam for dinner in half an hour. The seconds ticked by so slowly she wondered if the batteries in the large, wooden wall-clock were going dead. Though she knew her relationship with Adam was not exclusive—did world-famous rock guitarists ever have committed relationships?—she never felt alive unless he was near. Adam opened her eyes, her mind, her heart and yes, her thighs, to all that was wonderful in the world. Just the prospect of seeing him overwhelmed her with wonder, anticipation, joy and yes, panting lust.

  “I’m not sure what you’re smiling about, Madi,” her twin sister said. Kennedy placed both hands on Madison’s shoulders from behind and caught her blue eyes with her matching set in the antique dresser mirror. “All he ever does is hurt you.”

  Madison scowled. Being with Adam was her greatest joy in an already fulfilling life. Kennedy just didn’t understand. “He only hurts me when he leaves.”

  “And that’s what he does best. He leaves.”

  “He has to,” Madison said. “Sole Regret is still on tour.”

  “Madi . . . ” Kennedy’s lower lip protruded in an unhappy pout.

  “Don’t do this to me, Kennedy. You know I love him. There’s nothing I can do about it.”

  “How about don’t go running to him every time he calls? How about telling him if he doesn’t commit to you, then you’re through with him? How about remembering what he was like when you met him?”

  How could she forget?

  “He’s clean now.”

  “You of all people should realize how unlikely it is for him to stay that way.”

  As a licensed chemical dependency counselor, Madison was well aware of how common it was for an addict to fall back into the web of drug abuse, but she never gave up on any of her clients—even the most hopeless of cases—and Adam was no exception. She would do anything to prevent him from falling into the deep, dark hell she’d found him in. “He’s clean now,” she repeated.

  Kennedy’s arms slipped around Madison’s waist, and she dropped her forehead against the back of her sister’s shoulder. “How long is he in town this time?”

  Madison’s heart squeezed in her chest, knowing how dismal she’d feel when she had to say goodbye to him in the morning. “Just one night. We’re going to an early dinner before his concert and then afterward he promised to spend time alone with me. Tomorrow they leave for Austin.”

  Kennedy’s arms tightened around her. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then. We’ll go riding this weekend. That should cheer you up a little.” She snorted. “And maybe Daddy will get off our cases about how much the horses need exercise.”