“Don’t even think about making it your new label name,” I muttered, kissing him and feeling his laughter rumble in my mouth.
I gave a little “oof” of excitement when my back hit the bed and then squirmed with anticipation as Killian removed my jeans and underwear. Pulling my T-shirt back off, I threw it somewhere on the floor and was unclipping my bra when Killian braced himself over me.
Something in his expression stilled my movements.
“What?”
“You can’t let that album die, Skylar.”
Horrified at what he might be suggesting, wondering if he was actually nuts to be bringing it up after everything, I froze.
He raised his hands in a placating gesture. “I don’t mean putting it out there in the usual sense with all the plans we had at Skyscraper. I mean self-publishing it. Just putting it out there. You don’t have to do anything with it. Upload it, and if people want to buy it, great. It deserves to be heard.”
I’d never really thought about it, but the idea didn’t suck.
“It would be a great advertisement for your songwriting skills if songwriting and producing is the path you want to go down.”
It would. He was right. “So I’d self-publish it and maybe send out a tweet with a link, and that’s all I’d have to do?”
He smiled slowly. “Aye, that’s all you’d have to do.”
Excitement bubbled up out of me at the notion. “I could do that.”
“Yeah?”
I grinned, nodding. “Yeah.”
His answer was to tug on my bra, sliding the straps down my arms. He threw it over his shoulder and grasped my wrists in his hands. He slowly guided my arms above my head and brought his lips to a whisper above mine. I opened my legs wider and wrapped them around his back.
We both gasped at the feel of him throbbing against me.
“Tell me you love me,” he demanded.
I tingled everywhere at his fierce expression. “I love you. I love you more than I love anyone.”
His chocolate eyes smoldered. “Overachiever.”
I chuckled, the sound curtailed by another gasp as he rocked against me.
“I’ll never love anyone the way I love you,” he promised with a whisper in my ear.
Heat, need, and a rush of wet moved through me at his words.
“Come inside me,” I panted, tightening my legs around him.
His answering kiss was long and slow, as if he was savoring me. When we finally came up for air, I was pushing against his hold on my wrists with impatience. Wanting him now.
“Foreplay, my love,” he admonished as he held me down. “Need to make sure you’re ready.”
My eyes widened at the endearment. “I think you’ll find I am ready.”
Killian raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “I know I’m good, but I’m not that good.”
Lips twitching with the need to laugh, I replied, “I had an interesting reaction to you telling me you loved me like you did. Plus—” I pushed against his hold on my wrists and my inability to break it caused another tug of arousal between my legs—“apparently, I like you holding me down.”
Lust darkened in his eyes. “Is that so?” he murmured, shifting his hips against mine as he pushed into me. His nostrils flared at finding me wet, and tingles of pleasure scattered down the base of my spine as he glided deeper into me.
The pullback caused those tingles to flare like sparklers.
It was his expression that made the tension inside me stretch deliciously.
And it was something else entirely that made me come hard around his thrusts on a cry of his name.
It was knowing we had the kind of trust between us that allowed me to delight in him holding me down to take and give pleasure. The kind of trust I found when a man who kept himself so closed off to the rest of the world divulged the depths of his feelings for me without fear.
“Skylar,” he groaned, letting go of my wrists to hold my hips as he shifted onto his knees to power deeper, harder into me.
Delighted surprise flushed through me as I felt that tension start to rebuild. “Oh my God.” I curled my fists around the bedclothes above my head as Killian hit a magical spot inside me with each drive.
As my uninhibited cries filled the apartment, the need in his eyes burned brighter, shooting me closer to oblivion. I was vaguely aware of the headboard smacking against the wall as he thrusted into me with so much lust.
“Come,” he demanded through gritted teeth. “Come for me again.”
It was surely too much for his ego that I shattered with a garbled scream around his pounding drives on his command.
“Fuck!” he cried as my inner muscles squeezed around him, demanding his climax. His grip on my thighs turned almost bruising as he throbbed with hot release inside me.
His hips jerked in a prolonged shudder against mine. It was the hardest we’d both ever come and I felt slightly dazed by it as Killian groaned and collapsed over me. Little aftershocks caused me to pulse around him while he was still inside me. He kissed and rocked against me like he wanted to prolong the orgasm even further.
A pounding on the wall behind us stilled his movements and he lifted his head to look at me.
Laughter bubbled on my lips. “Maybe try not to shake the headboard so hard next time.”
We burst into laughter and he wrapped his arms around me to roll us so I lay on top of him. When our laughter eventually died, he said, “We need to move.”
“But your place is nice.”
“Nah.” He shook his head. “We need to live somewhere we can slam that headboard as hard as we want.”
“Surely your neighbor is used to it,” I teased. “Mr. Serial Monogamist.”
Killian cut me a look, like he knew my game and wasn’t walking into that trap. “Sex has never been like this for me. I’m addicted to making you come harder every time.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You’re too good at this.”
His body shook against mine in amusement. “I’m only telling the truth.”
I squirmed with happiness and admitted, “That was pretty spectacular.”
“Aye.” He agreed, kissing my forehead. “And I intend to repeat it, so we’ll look for somewhere more private.”
“It doesn’t even surprise me that we’re going to look for an apartment based on where we can knock the headboard against the wall without pissing off the neighbors.”
“Why should it?” He yawned, caressing my arm as his whole body relaxed beneath me, ready for sleep. “It’s the best reason I can think of.”
Smiling, I snuggled deeper into him, feeling more content than I had in a very long time. The truth was if he wanted to look for a new apartment so he could do that to me anytime he wanted, I was all for it. “I love you.”
“I love you too. Now sleep. We’ve got a lot to do when we wake up.”
We did. And the prospect filled me with anticipation.
How amazing was that, I realized. Not just to sleep to wake up to the day hoping to simply survive it.
I was going to sleep to wake up to the day to actually live it.
* * *
THE THRUM OF MUSIC VIBRATED through the walls and right into my chest. Nerves like I’d never felt before caused demented fluttering in my belly.
This was what I’d done for years. Why the hell was I so anxious?
I must’ve said it out loud because Autumn grabbed my hands in hers and replied, “Because this is different.”
This was different.
And it was a dream I thought had ended when I gave up a conventional career as an artist.
The small room I was in smelled of old cigarette smoke and beer, and the wall was covered in the autographs of the artists who’d played at the legendary King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow.
And now I was going to be one of them.
The door to the intimate VIP room opened and Killian strolled in. “You ready?”
Three months ago, when we’d sat across from
each other at the breakfast table in our new small but perfectly formed apartment near Kelvingrove, I never expected what was about to come out of his mouth.
Killian and I found a new apartment pretty fast so he could concentrate on starting his own label. There was a lot of financial stuff involved and it would take a while, so he wanted to get the ball rolling. He wouldn’t accept my offer of financial support, and I understood that. He needed to do this on his own.
As for me, I hired a recording booth and a band, Killian guided me through producing, and we re-recorded my album. We still had the digital files from the recording at Skyscraper but to avoid any legal problems, we decided re-recording it on my own money was the safer bet.
After sharing a fantastic Christmas with him and Autumn, we flew first to LA to see my guys and Gayle. And then they supported me when I took my first trip back to Billings to lay flowers at my mother’s grave. It was not an easy time, and I wouldn’t have gotten through it without my two best friends there with me.
When we returned to Glasgow, I didn’t dwell and got back into the studio to wrap up the album in time for an end-of-January release. I self-published it. Posted that I’d self-published it on my social media and something magical happened.
My fans bought it.
They really bought it.
Autumn had stayed in Montana to visit with her friend at a ski resort on Whitetail Mountain so she wasn’t around for what happened.
But that’s another story entirely.
While Autumn was off changing her life for the better, my album hit number two on the US Billboard and charted in the top ten in the UK.
I honestly hadn’t expected it and was anxious about the chaos it created. We were still dealing with the paparazzi and Rick and Angus were still around, thankfully, but the crazy got crazier for a while because of the album’s success.
It became clear to everyone, however, that I had no intention of promoting it or going on tour.
By April the chaos died down, people got bored, and for the most part, they moved on. Killian finally got the label off the ground. He’d successfully talked a couple of artists into taking a shot on him and rejecting Skyscraper’s offers. Only time would tell but he was already showing his uncle what a mistake he’d made firing him. I had the utmost faith Killian’s label would one day overshadow James Byrne’s. My guy had a true passion for music and that, along with how smart he was, would prove his uncle’s undoing.
Killian had been traveling on and off to hear artists he was interested in, and the traveling had kind of intensified in the past few months. Sometimes it was hard, but his homecoming was always worth it.
When the bands he was interested in were local, I went with him. What I learned and loved about my adopted city was that the people here couldn’t give a shit if you were famous. I got the occasional shout-out if I was out shopping with Autumn or Killian, but otherwise, they left me alone.
Killian and I had ended up on the front of a couple of tabloids at first, but we agreed to ignore it entirely and get on with our lives. In fact, there was a positive to Killian’s sudden exposure as my boyfriend. It opened doors for the label and although the unfairness of that frustrated me, in the end it was a good thing for him. And I had to accept that it was the way the world worked.
That morning in April I’d returned home from LA to listen in on Tellurian’s recording sessions for the new album. When Brandon invited me to come over, I wanted to turn him down because I didn’t think it was fair to Macy to have me there. However, Macy called me. It was awkward, and weird, but in the end, it was okay. I could honestly tell them that I loved the new direction they’d taken with this album and I was happy to see Macy had gotten rid of the rainbow hair in favor of the fire-engine red of her own choosing.
I flew home thinking things with the guys were in a great place. Except maybe for Micah. I didn’t know if we’d ever be truly okay. He threw around a couple of caustic remarks about Killian that I had to ignore. It was either that or punch him in the gut. I decided to let it go. I was happy. One day, I hoped, Micah would find a way to be happy too.
“So, I have something to tell you,” Killian had said that April morning, pushing his empty breakfast plate away. “And I’m not sure how you’re going to react.”
“Okay.”
Although still Mr. Aloof-and-Intimidating with almost everyone else, Killian was rarely expressionless or grim with me. Autumn called me his happy pill, which he hated and I found hilariously adorable.
“I . . . Now you don’t have to do this, but I wanted you to have the option.”
“Spit it out, Killian.”
“I booked you to play an intimate gig at King Tut’s this summer.”
Completely not expecting that, I could only gape at him.
“Skylar?”
King Tut’s? King Freaking Tut’s?
“I know you don’t want to perform anymore, but I know this is a bucket-list thing. If the opportunity is—”
“Yes!” I’d shouted in excitement. “Hell yes! Oh my God!”
He’d grinned. “Yeah?”
I’d laughed. “It’s King Tut’s. I’m not saying no to that. But keeping it small, right?”
“It only has a three hundred-person capacity.”
“One hundred,” I’d stated. “Let’s cap it at one hundred.”
“We can do that.”
So that’s how I found myself getting ready to perform for an intimate crowd of a hundred when I never thought I’d be doing this again.
Autumn hugged me tight. “We’ll be out there cheering you on. Remember that.”
I smiled gratefully at her and watched her leave before locking gazes with Killian.
“I’m proud of you,” he said.
“I’m proud of you.”
“Mutual appreciation society,” he murmured, strolling toward me.
My love for him was a deep ache in my chest. Would the sharp sweetness of it ever fade? Right now, it didn’t feel like it ever would.
Killian blocked my path and I raised an eyebrow. “In order to go out there, I kind of need your sexy ass to move out of my way.”
“Marry me,” he blurted out.
And just like that, all the air went out of the room.
“Your work visa will come to an end,” he continued, studying my face for reaction. “And there’s no way in hell I’m putting you on a plane.”
The amazed shock I’d been feeling was not so slowly turning to indignation. “What?”
“You’re not leaving me for the States, so we need to get married,” he said in staccato, as if I was a moron who didn’t understand him the first time.
I smacked his chest. “That’s not how you ask someone to marry them!”
Killian looked confused enough to enrage me.
“You don’t marry someone to get them a visa!”
Understanding dawned and he had the audacity to glare at me. At me! “Did you not hear the part where I can’t live without you?”
“Not really.”
“Fuck,” he muttered, reaching into his pocket. “I’m doing this all wrong.”
“Oh, you think?”
He cut me a dark look and then yanked whatever it was he was searching for out of his pocket.
I stared at the black velvet ring box in his hand.
“I meant for this to be romantic. That you’d walk out there with my ring on your finger. Whole big thing . . .” he trailed off, shrugging.
Despite the awfulness of his proposal, my anger died under the weight of my affection for him. “How can you be so good at the romantic thing but always wreck the big moments?”
He rubbed a hand over his face in distress.
I reached for him, feeling bad now about reacting so negatively. “Hey, hey, it’s okay.”
“It’s not okay.” Killian opened the box and my heart stopped at the sight of the engagement ring. It was a rectangular cushion-cut diamond on a simple platinum band.
Simple
and elegant, but a little different.
It was perfect.
“Killian,” I whispered, my fingers itching to touch it.
“Even if we didn’t have the impending visa hanging over us, I would ask you to marry me, Skylar. I’m not a man who sits around and waits for what he wants. I tried and failed spectacularly with you when I was attempting to keep it just business between us.”
I grinned, remembering that night after we left King Tut’s. “Yeah, you did.”
“When I decide on something, I am absolute and steadfast in that decision. And I decided last year that you were the only woman I needed and would ever need. Marry me, Skylar. Marry me because I love you and I will do anything to make you happy.”
I hit him again. “You bastard!”
“What now?” He threw his hands up in agitation.
“You’re going to ruin my makeup!” I blinked back the tears burning in my eyes. “I’m all ready to perform, nervous as hell, and then you turn me into a pile of mush before I go out there. Good going!”
Killian scratched his eyebrow while he gestured with the ring. “Was that a yes?”
I knocked him back on his feet, I threw my body at him so hard. But he had fast reflexes. His chest shook against mine with laughter as I kissed him hungrily. I pulled back, hanging onto him to him breathlessly, “That was a yes. Guess I’m not so good at these things either.”
“That’s okay.” He flashed me a wicked smile. “Your talents lie elsewhere.”
“That’s right, make it dirty.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I was talking about your music.”
Not fooled, I made a face and then kissed him again, pouring my second “yes” into it.
Killian pulled away only to rest his forehead against mine. “They’re waiting for you.” He said it like he didn’t want to let me go and I knew he didn’t when he continued, “I should have proposed after. Near a bed.”
I pulled back, my eyes lit with anticipation. “After my set, let’s do it in here.”
In answer, he gently extricated himself from me. “This is a sacred space, Skylar.”
Snorting, thinking he was being funny, it didn’t take me long to realize he wasn’t.