She closed her eyes, the gentle plea in his voice hitting her right in the chest. “You’re hard to say no to.”
“So don’t.”
She swallowed hard. What could it hurt? It was just an old song sung in an empty studio. It didn’t have to be a big deal. She lifted her head. “Fine. One song.”
The smile that broke over his face was genuine and breath-stealing. “Thank you.”
Without another word, he led her to a stool in the studio and set her up with a microphone and an acoustic guitar. She took the instrument and stilled. “Holy shit, is this a Martin?”
“Yep, D-42. Geoff insisted we have one on hand even though we don’t record a lot of acoustic stuff.”
She stroked the neck of the instrument with more than a bit of envy, taking in the ebony fingerboards, the gold tuning gears, the gorgeous inlays. She loved her beat-up Yamaha. She’d had it long enough for it to feel like a family member, but she couldn’t help but covet the gleaming, high-end instrument. “She’s beautiful.”
“You look beautiful with it.”
That brought her back to earth, the anxiety rushing back. She was about to sing. For Pike.
Pike must’ve noticed the fear on her face because he dimmed the overhead light, making everything feel more private, intimate. He took the spot behind his drums and gave her a nod. “You start whenever you’re ready, and I’ll find the beat and jump in.”
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Her fingers hovered over the frets, trembling. But after another few seconds, she mustered up enough nerve to pluck out the opening notes of “Dandelion.” The instrument was unfamiliar in her hands and took some getting used to, so she let the intro go long, not adding words yet and letting Pike get a feel for it as well. In a matter of seconds, he was tapping out a beat in time with her—subtle but rich.
The old lyrics came to her like they’d been burned into her skin, and she began to sing. The first few lines were shaky but as soon as she hit the chorus, her mind went to that place where it was only notes filling her head and fingers on strings and words pouring out of her. Pike’s drumbeats pulsed through her, deepening the original song, and the emotion behind the lyrics welled in her. She angled her head back and let her voice off the leash, allowing the song to sweep her away. She’d written the song after she’d left the group and Liam. But the song wasn’t about him. It was about the dream for her life exploding around her, her wishes for her future slipping away like dandelion seeds on the wind.
“Blow it away, blow me away. Watch us fade away.”
When she hit the final lines of the last verse, she didn’t even notice that Pike had stopped playing until she felt his lips on the back of her neck. Her fingers strummed and her voice sailed, a deep, cleansing ache in her chest. She didn’t stop until she’d come to the end of the song, but her body became liquid with each soft caress of his mouth.
When the studio was silent again, Pike slipped the guitar strap from around her neck and set the instrument aside, then his arms wrapped around her from behind, anchoring her. “Baby, I don’t even know what to say. I felt that all the way down to my gut. You’re … spectacular. So soulful.”
She looked down, her heart pounding behind her ribs. “Thanks.”
He pressed his nose to the nape of her neck, inhaling her. “Sing me something else.”
“What?”
“Anything. I don’t care what it is as long as it’s in your voice.” He pushed her hair all to one side and nipped at her ear. “Sing for me, Oakley.”
Twining threads of need and adrenaline snaked down her body and wrapped around her mind, holding her spellbound. She didn’t know what song to pick so she sang the first thing that came into her head—“Wicked Game.” It’d been a song she’d slowed down and revamped when Pop Luck was planning on doing a cover album. But she’d left before that album had come out and her song had been cut.
So as Pike kissed down her neck, she sang about the world being on fire and how no one could save her but him. But when he stepped around her, all hungry eyes and dark looks, and opened the top buttons on her blouse, she couldn’t hear the words anymore. Her voice switched to autopilot as her body went up in flames.
“Don’t stop,” he whispered before kissing along her sternum and palming her breast.
She continued to sing but with him sliding his thumb over the lace of her bra and nuzzling the curve of her breast, she kept going off key. Then he lowered to his knees.
She gasped into the microphone when he inched up her skirt and slipped off her panties, but she didn’t stop singing. The singing was anchoring her, weaving the spell around them, holding them hostage. She held on to the side of the stool and closed her eyes as he spread her knees apart. All of it seemed to be happening in a dream—the low lights, the song in her throat, the big, warm hands on her thighs. It’d been years since she’d been touched by anyone but herself, so she was half-convinced the man kneeling in front of her was pure fantasy. She’d wake up soon and he’d vanish like a specter.
But Pike wasn’t going anywhere. Her stomach muscles quivered as he moved closer, his breath balmy on her damp skin and anticipation a living, pulsing thing inside of her. He kissed her inner thigh and her voice caught on a word, but she swallowed past it and kept singing. Kisses trailed higher and higher, and his teeth nipped at the sensitive flesh. As he reached the apex of her thighs, her fingers curled against the wood of the stool and her breath went choppy. His tongue glided along her sex, grazing her clit, and she lost all sense of her place in the song.
“Keep going,” he said softly, his words punctuated with teasing licks against her flesh. “I want to hear that voice while I taste you. If you stop, I stop.”
Her pussy throbbed, and she whimpered. Fucking whimpered. “God.”
“What’s the matter?” he asked, drawing the tip of his finger over the lips of her sex, teasing her.
“I sound like one of my callers—panting and whining.”
“You sound fucking hot. Don’t be ashamed of that.” His fingers dipped into her heat and sent frissons of need through her. “Now sing to me while I lick this gorgeous cunt.”
Damn. The crude words didn’t shock her. She heard them all the time on the phone. But hearing Pike say them only made her desire burn brighter. He wasn’t talking to Sasha, he was talking to Oakley—inexperienced Oklahoma girl who’d grown up in a house where saying hell outside of Bible study would get you grounded. That girl went molten at the sexy, forbidden words.
She took a shaky breath and started the chorus of the song again—her voice wobbly but back in tune. Pike moved his mouth against her again, and his talented tongue lashed at her most sensitive spots while his fingers curled inside her. She arched on the stool, her arousal going to Spinal Tap eleven. The man’s mouth was a weapon of mass destruction—teasing and hot, confident and precise. No matter how advanced sex toys had gotten, none could stand up to this—teeth grazing, lips sucking, and tongue lapping at her like she was ice cream melting in the blazing sun.
Pike sucked her clit between his lips, and she lost her place in the song again, her body shifting all resources to the orgasm that was rushing toward her. But he wasn’t cruel enough to stop this time. Instead he hooked her legs over his shoulders and spread her wider, sliding his tongue inside her and letting his nose rock against her clit. Every one of her muscles tightened, all of her senses going on high alert, taking it all in—the scent of her arousal in the air, the sweat gathered on her neck, the erotic sounds of Pike’s mouth devouring her. Wet and crude and totally obscene.
She moaned, her eyes squeezing shut and her arms shaking from her stranglehold on the legs of the stool. Then every molecule in her body detonated at once. Boom!
She shouted Pike’s name, her voice blasting through the quiet of the studio, and rocked her hips against his mouth with jerky, involuntarily movements as she rode the wave of her release.
Pike didn’t let up until she was gasping for air and nea
rly falling off the stool. He eased back and rocked to his feet, keeping his hands on her waist so she wouldn’t fall, then he was gathering her to him.
She pressed her face into his shoulder, breathing hard and trembling from the aftershocks. “Jesus Christ.”
“Amen and hallelujah,” he said, a smile in his voice.
“That was—”
“My pleasure,” he finished.
She shifted against him, and his very prominent erection brushed against her belly. Her stomach fluttered. Normally, after an orgasm, she was set for a while, but the ache inside her pulsed anew at the thought of feeling Pike inside her. She tucked her hand between their bodies and curled her hand around the outline of his cock.
He groaned.
“Your turn now,” she said, giving him a stroke through the denim.
He leaned back and smiled down at her. “This isn’t about tit for tat. I can wait until we get to The Ranch. I just couldn’t resist you once you started to sing. I had to taste you. Had to hear you come.”
Oh, was that how he thought this was going to work? She pulled off her unbuttoned blouse and unhooked the clasp of her bra, channeling that place inside her where the confident Sasha and the real Oakley collided. She’d been bold on the phone with him. She wouldn’t chicken out in person. She let her bra fall to the floor. “No, Pike, this can definitely be about tits. And there’s no way I’m going to make it through the hour drive without having you inside me first.”
He groaned as he coasted his hands up her rib cage and cupped her breasts. “Fuck, baby. This isn’t how I planned to have you the first time, but you’re killing me.”
She sank into the touch, the feel of his callused thumbs grazing over her nipples. “So stop planning.”
He growled under his breath and put his hands beneath her thighs to wrap her legs around his hips. “Quick and dirty it is then.”
“Yes. That.” Her heartbeat picked up speed and she looped her arms around his neck.
He carried her a few strides and pressed her back against the window that separated the control room from the recording area. The wide ledge of the window took a little of her weight, but he kept an arm around her while he flicked the button on his jeans and opened the fly.
Taut belly appeared behind the zipper, no underwear between Pike and his jeans, and Oakley’s fingers itched to touch. Pike dipped his hand in his pants and freed his erection. He swiped a bead of moisture from the top and drew it down his length, giving himself a slow stroke. “This what you want?”
Another flood of arousal hit her. Fuck, he was beautiful. That snug T-shirt hugging his abs, his arm muscles flexing beneath his tattoos, and that long, thick cock promising erotic oblivion. She could watch him all night. “This view is so much better than what I imagined on the phone.”
He smiled and let his gaze travel over her naked torso and spread legs, her bunched up skirt providing no modesty. “Same here, beautiful. This is going to feel a lot better than our hands did, too.”
He moved closer and drew the tip of his cock along her outer lips, teasing her and sending a bolt of need straight to her core. She wanted to reach out and guide him inside her, fill the desperate ache, feel that hot silken skin against hers with nothing between them. But she couldn’t afford to be reckless. And she hoped to God he was prepared because her supplies were in her bag in the car. She licked her lips. “Please tell me you have a condom.”
He grinned, reached into his back pocket, and handed her his wallet. “Outside compartment.”
“Thank God,” she said on an expelled breath. She fumbled with the wallet for a second but managed to get the condom out and rip it open. She tossed the wallet and wrapper to the floor. Pike was still holding her up against the wall with one of his arms, so she reached out to roll it onto him. She’d never actually done that for a guy before, but he put his hand over hers and helped her smooth it down his length. The feel of his erection in her hands and his fingers pressing over hers was surprisingly sensual. She wanted to explore more, to get on her knees and touch and taste him. But there’d be time for that later. Right now, she needed him inside her.
She leaned back against the glass and hooked her arms around his neck again. “Fuck me, Pike.”
His lips curled wide at that. “Dirty words rolling out of your sweet mouth are becoming an addiction for me.”
“That’s why I make the big bucks.”
He ran his fingers over her wetness, making her writhe. “Yeah, but when you say them to me, I know you mean it.” He took his slick fingers and swiped them over her mouth. “And that makes all the difference.”
He took her mouth in a heated kiss, sucking and licking her arousal from her lips, and she moaned into the connection. He stroked his tongue against hers and shifted forward, spreading her thighs wider and pushing the head of his cock against her entrance.
That desperate ache surged in her and her arms tightened around his neck. Then he was easing inside her, stretching her and hijacking her breath. Her body fought to accommodate him.
He groaned into the kiss. “Fuck, baby, you feel so good around me, but I don’t want to hurt you. Try to relax and let me in.”
She pressed her forehead to his, her blood pumping in her ears. “You won’t hurt me. I’m okay. It’s just been a long time since I’ve done this with another human being.”
He lifted his head to look at her, his eyes searching. “How long?”
“At least five years.”
If he was shocked, he hid it well. He gave her a devil’s smile. “Well, we need to fucking fix that right this minute. Breathe for me and let’s make up for lost time.”
She took a long, expansive breath, focusing on relaxing her muscles. She’d used the toy so she knew this wasn’t about anything but nerves. But when she met Pike’s eyes, saw the inferno burning there, the need, her body gave up the fight. She pulled him closer and he entered her.
He made a grinding noise of pleasure as he sank deep, and a whole body quiver went through her. She tilted her head back, that full, decadent feeling overtaking her. “God, yes.”
Pike’s fingers dug into her hips as if he was taking a moment to regain his composure, and then he started to pump into her. The sounds he made were better than any he’d given her on the phone. Low and masculine noises that said everything words couldn’t. And his eyes … they never left hers. His look said, Pay attention. I’m the one making you feel like this. I’m the one who’s going to drive you out of your fucking mind.
“You’re so goddamned sexy,” he murmured. “Can’t get you out of my head.”
The words hit her in a soft spot, one she didn’t want prodded. “Better fuck me out of your system then.”
Her response was blunt, but she needed to remind both of them why they were here. This was their one night together. They were eating cake. That’s all this could be.
His eyes flared, but he set his jaw and picked up speed. The window rattled behind her with every hard thrust, and he dipped one of his hands between them to stroke her.
Soon, any errant thoughts or worries slipped from her mind, and all she could do was hold on and feel the pleasure of it all. He knew exactly how to angle himself, how to rub inside her in a way that let her feel every bit of him, every ridge and swell.
Sweat beaded on his brow. “Come for me, Oakley. Let me see how much you love being fucked against a wall, how bad you needed my cock.”
The command zipped through her, pressing her hot buttons and assuring her that they were on the same page. This was sweaty, dirty sex. Period. End of sentence.
And they were going to make it the hottest and dirtiest they could.
One night.
One night.
One night.
The mantra floated through her head until her orgasm whipped through her like a maelstrom and emptied her brain.
Pike called her name and rammed into her with abandon as she gasped her way through her release. The window rattled louder, his
shirt knotted in her fists, and she lost all sense of place, nearly sliding off the windowsill. But he didn’t let her fall and soon he was flying alongside her, his neck muscles straining with the force of his orgasm. The ecstasy plain on his face.
Beautiful, wicked perfection. She could drown in it.
She nearly did. Her muscles went loose and her body lax as he took the last bit of his pleasure in a few short, hard thrusts. But he never let her go.
When they’d both given everything they had, he gathered her to him and they slid to the floor. She sat astride his lap, his cock still buried inside her, and they kissed until they couldn’t breathe.
So this was what sex was supposed to be like.
She’d told Pike it’d been five years.
Now she realized that had been a lie.
It’d been a lifetime.
This—she’d never had.
EIGHTEEN
Pike parked Oakley’s car in the garage behind the studio before helping her to get into his truck. She hadn’t said much since they’d put their clothes back to rights and locked up the studio, but as she settled into the seat, she seemed at ease, everything back in place.
Good thing she was put back together because he certainly wasn’t. He’d only planned to convince her to sing, to show him some piece of herself, some trust, so that he could feel good about taking her to a place like The Ranch. Then when he’d approached her while she was singing, he’d only meant to take the edge off, indulge his desire to finally touch her. But the plan had gone off the rails almost immediately. The way she’d responded, the physical abandon, the sound of her singing while he tasted her. She’d been so ready for him. Wet and hot and bold. Fuck. He hadn’t been able to hold back.
But he’d also gotten the sense that she was working hard to make it all about sex, blocking out anything else that might creep in. She was white-knuckling this. When he’d told her he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her, she’d flinched like he’d pinched her. The girl was scared.