Fascinated, she put the empty hot-chocolate cup in the holder and turned slightly in her seat. "Did you four meet at boarding school?" It was something she'd assumed but didn't know for certain.
"Yes, at an honest-to-God choir tryout. The music teacher forced us to go."
"No!" She grinned. "You were in the choir?"
"Hell, no." A growl of sound. "I sang flat and off-key on purpose. So did the others--Noah and I were friends already, but that's when we decided we were soul mates with David and Abe, too." A pause as he slowed the car to allow another limo, this one virgin white, to merge into traffic, a topless woman popping out of the sunroof to blow kisses their way before she was yanked back down.
"Was she wearing giant bunny ears?" Shaking her head, Molly shifted her attention back to the rock star who intrigued and compelled her far more than anything around them. "What happened next?"
"We made music together," he said simply, and brought her hand to his mouth for a kiss. "Starting out, we crashed in a cheap two-bedroom apartment, working every day job we could to make the rent and feed ourselves."
Molly could hear the passion in his voice, knew the dream of music had driven him. "How old were you?"
"Eighteen. Right out of high school." He placed her hand on his thigh as he shifted gears. "Noah and Abe, they both come from heavy-duty money, but it was an unspoken rule that we did this on our own. Best decision we ever made--money's never come between us, and the band? It's ours, no one else's."
Molly loved the insight into the band's friendship, into Fox, and kept urging him to continue. So engrossed was she in his stories of what it had been like to go from flat broke to filling stadiums with screaming fans that it took her a while to realize they'd left the lights of the city behind to prowl up one of the hills. "Where are we going?"
A sinful smile, the dimple lean and gorgeous in his cheek. "Best make-out spot in the city."
The row of cars at the top, complete with steamed-up windows, proved him right.
Pushing back his seat once he'd parked, Fox said, "Come here, Miss Molly," and maneuvered her into his lap.
She snuggled close. "This is so romantic." Los Angeles spread out in front of them like a twinkling carpet, the lights fireflies in the dark.
"Does that get me points?" Fox ran his hand under her unbound hair to touch her nape.
Skin taut at the tone of his voice, she said, "Depends."
"On what?"
"On what you intend to do with the points."
"Trust me?"
It was no longer even a question. "Yes," she said, "this earns you many brownie points." Nervous anticipation in her veins, she looked into eyes shadowed by the darkness inside the vehicle. "What do you want to use them for?"
Fingers trailing up her neck. "A little rope."
"You want to tie me up?" Molly's voice was husky, the sound a caress over Fox's senses.
"Yeah." He cupped the lush warmth of her braless breast through the T-shirt she'd thrown on over jeans, enjoying the simple pleasure of being able to touch her as he pleased. "I've always wanted to try it."
"You're telling me Zachary Fox, rock star named Reigning Sex God by a certain men's magazine three years running," she said, her breast pushing into his palm as she leaned closer, "has never tied up a woman during sex?"
"Even a Reigning Sex God has to develop his tastes." He rubbed his thumb over her nipple. "By the time I realized it was something I wanted to try, that girl I walked home from the bar had sold her story to the tabloids. I didn't trust anyone enough to play those games." Molly though... she could have every one of his secrets.
He was hers.
"Some people would say I'm being naive believing that--"
Ice in his blood.
Screwing up her nose, Molly glared at him. "I said some people. I know you don't lie. You never have, not from the start." A pause. "Though you did let me assume you were perfectly happy for our relationship to end after a month."
Fox winced. "You ever going to forget that?"
"No"--Molly tugged at his lip ring--"I plan to hold it over you for the rest of our lives together." Shifting position to straddle him, she held his gaze with the clear brown of her own. "Thank you for never lying to me."
He heard the honesty, saw the vulnerability she didn't try to hide. "I never will, baby. Even if I know what I'm about to say will piss you off." Tucking his fingers under the edge of her T-shirt, he stroked the bare skin of her lower back. He'd always been a tactile man, but with Molly, it was more than that--it felt good deep inside to touch her, as if he was where he was meant to be. "Speaking of which... I got you something in New York."
"Other than the ridiculously expensive robe with which I'm madly in lust?"
"The robe was a present for me." She'd accepted that with open pleasure, but this next gift might slam up against her boundaries--it continued to frustrate him that she made no demands on him financially when he wanted to give her the world, wanted to make her happy. "It's in my front jeans pocket."
Chapter 32
Wiggling her fingers into his left pocket, Molly brushed something rigid and hot. "Is that it?" she asked, feeling sexy as only Fox could make her feel.
"That's for later." A wicked promise. "Try the other pocket."
Molly managed to get her fingers inside despite the way the fabric had pulled taut because of his seated position, touched velvet. Working it out, she saw it was a pouch from a high-end jewelry store he must've ducked into when he went to get the donuts yesterday.
"...you should know I plan to spoil you. Let me."
The memory of his words broke her heart as she considered what this gift meant to Fox. And it had nothing to do with money.
"Are you going to open it?" A fine tension to his body, lashes lowered to shade the expression in his eyes.
She could swear her commitment until she was blue in the face, she thought, but it would take him time to accept that she didn't need enticement to stay. Until then, she'd never turn down a gift, no matter how outrageous, never hurt him with what he'd read as a rejection. "I want you to show me," she said, handing him the bag.
Lips curving, he tugged open the little gold tie and poured a tumble of glittering gemstones onto his palm before picking up one of the earrings and holding it out. "I don't want to poke holes in you."
Aware she was handling thousands of dollars, she carefully hooked it on, then added its twin. "So?" She tucked her hair behind her ears to better show off the precious stones.
"You make them look beautiful." Sliding one hand under her tee and onto bare skin again, he cupped the back of her head with his other and smiled in the way that always made butterflies take flight in her stomach. "Want to make out?"
Molly had never made out in a car with a boy. Even the idea of it had nauseated her after her father was caught in his luxury sedan with his underage lover. "I might freak out," she warned, because while she felt fine now, the past had a way of biting when she least expected it.
Fox didn't ask for explanations; his expression told her he got it. "I can handle a freak-out. Especially if you let me get to third base."
They steamed up the windows, almost got busted by the cops, and there was no freak-out. It was the best date of her life.
"You look happy," Thea pronounced a week later when they met up at a sunny little cafe a couple of minutes' walk from Thea's office, the two of them choosing an outdoor table.
Molly took a sip of her passion-orange tea. "I am." She was starting to believe she and Fox would be okay, even in this hothouse atmosphere. "Is that stubble burn on your cleavage?"
Thea shoved her sunglasses up on top of her head to glance down, groaned. "Damn it. I thought this neckline was high enough." She pointed a finger at Molly. "'Fess up. You told David to write memos."
Molly gave her innocent eyes.
Snorting, Thea picked up her phone to check her e-mails.
"So?" Molly prompted, used to the way her sister multitasked.
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"So... I guess we'll see if I can trust him while the band's on tour." A whisper of pain, an echo of the brutal blow her fiance had delivered, the cheating, supercilious piece of crap.
Molly didn't know if her sister's heart could take another beating without permanent damage; she truly hoped David was the man she believed him to be. "I thought you'd be traveling with us?"
"No, it'll be one of my associates. I need to remain at base command for the most part so I can quickly stamp out any fires." Thea's eyelashes flicked up. "The other guys, how are they handling what's happening between David and me?"
"No one's making a big deal of it," Molly said, conscious Thea continued to worry about the possible repercussions of being involved with a client, especially if things didn't work out. "They mess with each other all the time, but not on this topic." Tight as the four were, it was clear Fox, Abe, and Noah understood exactly how important this relationship was to their bandmate. "We're all rooting for you." Smiling, she said, "As your sister, I hope that stubble burn is the first of many."
Thea laughed, her tension easing. "I'm considering flying in to meet up with the band during some of the tour stops, so you never know." Spooning up the foam from her cappuccino with one hand while typing a return message with the other, she turned the conversation back to Molly. "Are you looking forward to the tour?"
"Yes and no." Molly watched a bouncy, tanned woman walk by with two tiny dogs on leashes, each dog pure white with a diamante collar. It wasn't until the woman had passed that Molly noticed she was wearing four-inch Perspex heels and had another fluffy white dog in the handbag slung over her elbow, her fingers curved to show off hot-pink talons. "Sometimes I feel like I've fallen down the rabbit hole."
"You'll be fine." Thea nibbled at her bran muffin. "Stay grounded, don't allow all this"--a wave at the flamboyance and wealth around them--"to taint what you have with Fox." She took a drink of her coffee before saying, "Why yes and no?"
"I'm excited because I get to travel with Fox, watch him perform." Molly would never get enough of watching him onstage. "But I'm worried about the pressure it might put on us--it's an intense environment." Pausing, she admitted, "I'm so possessive of him, Thea. I hate it when he poses with female fans without his T-shirt, even though I know it means nothing to him."
Her sister turned off her phone, gave Molly her full attention. "Have you spoken to him about it?"
"We fought about it after Sydney, but I haven't brought it up since."
Thea shook her head. "Do it, Molly. Otherwise, he'll end up hurting you without knowing it, and you'll become angry and resentful." She held up a hand when Molly would've spoken. "I've worked in this industry for a decade and the couples that make it are the ones who have no secrets. Because even a tiny thing can act like a grain of sand against skin, rubbing and rubbing until it makes you bleed."
Two days later, Thea's words circled in Molly's mind as she sat at home watching the live broadcast of a prime-time show: Schoolboy Choir was currently being interviewed by the witty, likeable host. The host's questions--which the guys were handling without problem, shooting back good-humored retorts--weren't what had Molly's nerves taut. That came courtesy of the other guest, a tall, curvy blonde in a dramatic, figure-hugging dress of deep blood-orange.
A major recording star in her own right, Carina had sung a chart-topping duet with Fox for Schoolboy Choir's most recent album, the rock ballad as hard as it was romantic. Molly had loved it. Until now. It only took her a couple of minutes into the interview to realize the other woman was intelligent as well as talented and physically blessed. She'd also clearly not been faking her enjoyment of the sultry kiss she'd shared with Fox in the music video for the song.
Molly would've had to have been blind to miss the flirtatious invitations Carina was sending Fox's way. And it wasn't just her imagination or jealous paranoia. The show had a tweet stream running along the bottom of the screen and the majority of the tweets had to do with the chemistry between Fox and Carina. Whoever was choosing the tweets to display had picked relatively tame messages, as opposed to the more sexually charged ones Molly knew had to be flooding the site, but that didn't matter.
So shipping Carina and Fox. #perfectcouple
She is totally hot for him. Love it!
OMG, most beautiful couple or what?
We saw it first! Foxina 4ever!
Molly's stomach knotted further with each second that passed. No one, she thought, seemed to remember that Fox had been spotted with a different woman in New York, Molly forgotten in the blink of an eye. The only thing that kept her from throwing something at the television screen was that no matter what the viewers believed, Fox wasn't returning the signals. And Molly knew every one of his signals intimately.
Forcing herself to breathe, she consciously relaxed her death grip on the cushion she'd hugged to her chest. Fox couldn't help it if he drew women like flies. The only way Molly would survive this relationship was if she trusted in their bond. "Doesn't mean I can't be a little irrational though."
Decision made, she put a piece of duct tape along the bottom of the screen so she couldn't see the tweet stream, and muted the TV every time Carina opened her mouth. The interview was suddenly enjoyable--enough that she didn't mute Carina's part in the live performance of the duet--but when the woman got too close to Fox, as if to recreate their kiss, she did throw the remote at the television.
Justifiable, she rationalized, just as Fox--strumming an electric guitar--smoothly deflected the attempt by leaning into Noah for an off-the-cuff jam session that had the audience rioting in their seats. In the interim, Abe grabbed Carina as if stealing her away. By this stage, the audience was wild, and they stayed that way as the host yelled out a good-bye message, the credits beginning to roll across the bottom third of the screen.
Molly didn't think, didn't give herself time to second-guess her emotions. Picking up her phone, she sent a message to Fox. You were amazing. Smooth moves with a certain Miss Touchy-Feely.
The response came quicker than she'd expected. She'd figured the audience had to be swarming the men for photos and autographs. I thought so. Just so you know--these brownie points equal more ropes.
Molly's teeth sank into her lower lip. Promises, promises, she sent, a deep happiness inside her at the unmistakable sign that though he'd just been publicly hit on by a superstar, he was thinking about her. By the way, don't take off your T-shirt even if a fan wants it.
Yes, Molly.
When his car purred into the drive an hour and a half later, exactly when he'd predicted he'd be home, a smile broke out over her face. Running downstairs, she opened the internal door to the garage and watched him park the Aventador, jumping into his arms as soon as he stepped out, her legs wrapping around his waist. "Hi."
A slow smile that was so real it stole her breath. "Hi, yourself, Miss Molly. I think you missed me."
Since the day she'd first understood she came last in her parents' lives, Molly had been protecting herself. Charlotte alone had broken through, but much as she loved her best friend, it was nothing as terrifying and as beautiful as what she felt for Fox. And her rock star needed to know that, needed to see she was in this for the long haul.
"Yes," she said, not hiding any of her emotions, though the exposure made her pulse stammer, her throat go dry. "You've been gone all day."
A hot tangle of a kiss, one of Fox's hands at her nape, the other under her butt. "I missed my Molly-time, too."
They just cuddled there for a minute before Fox turned to place her on the hood of the car. Pushing her down gently until she lay on her back on the metal, her feet on the ground in front of the low-slung vehicle, he ripped off his T-shirt. "So, I'm not allowed to be shirtless when I take photos with fans?"
Molly shook her head. "No. I hate it when other women touch you." He couldn't totally stop that, but at least this way, they wouldn't be touching his skin beyond the arm.
Leaning down, one hand on her breast, he suckle
d her upper lip into his mouth, his smile unhidden. "Then you'd better have spares backstage for me," Fox said, luxuriating in her possessiveness.
"I will." A firm statement, Molly watching him rise back up to his full height, her eyes following his movements as he dropped his hands to the studded black leather belt that held up his faded and ripped jeans.
"You want me, Molly?" he asked, sliding out the belt to drop it to the garage floor.
"No." Her fingers curled into her palms. "I think you need to come here and rev me up."
Nudging her thighs farther apart, he undid the button on her jeans, tugged down the zipper. "Want to take back what you said?"
Chapter 33
Molly stubbornly shook her head.
Stripping off her jeans, he settled between her legs again, so damn pleased with her that he'd play with her all night if she wanted. "Maybe it's the car," he said, undoing the buttons of the cardigan she wore as a top. "That's what has you so hot."
The fact she'd run into his arms, her need for him open and unhidden, it meant everything, his passion for her about far more than lust. He wanted to pet her, pleasure her, cherish her. "Seems like you're getting me to do this under false pretenses."
"It is," Molly said, tone breathy, "a very nice car."
"Just for that, I'm not going to put my mouth on you."
Molly flexed her fingers against the flawless red paintwork. "What if I ask nicely?"
"It'd have to be very, very nice indeed." God but he fucking loved that she trusted him enough to let her body be his favorite instrument.
Shivering as he peeled apart the sides of the cardigan to bare the lace-covered mounds of her breasts, his lover said, "Please, Fox." A feminine whisper that wrapped him in silken chains tinged blush pink with the color on her cheekbones. "Please put your mouth on me."
Never had he talked this much during sex, but this was Molly and there were no rules. "Hmm, good start," he said, pressing a kiss to the delicate skin of her breastbone, "but I don't know if you really mean it."
"Maybe I don't want your mouth." Her hand gripping his hair, tugging him up with a scowl. "I can take care of myself."