“Do it or I’ll stop.”
She did it. He again moved behind her. Gauging her height, he repositioned her hands so she was leaning more forward. Then he nudged her legs apart, exposing her to him. He saw how aroused she was by how rapidly her chest rose and fell.
After adding more body wash to his hands, he moved back behind her. She groaned when she felt him pressed against her, then gasped when his hands slid around to her breasts.
He knew she wanted to move, wanted to touch him. He also knew that by keeping her in place and under his control, he was heightening her desire.
He had come to understand his Lily very well.
Leaning down, he took her earlobe between his teeth as he pleasured her with his hands. “Are you still on birth control?”
“Y-yes,” she gasped when his hand lowered to see if she was ready for him.
He knew the answer because her body told him, but he still whispered in her ear, “Do you want me, Lily?”
“God, yes.”
Taking her long hair in his hand to hold her in place, he warned, “This is going to be rough.”
Then he claimed her in one swift thrust.
Her surprised cry echoed in the tiled room. He grasped her hip with his free hand and took a moment to savor the feeling of being connected to her like this. It was the first time he’d ever taken a woman without a condom. The difference in his level of sensitivity was beyond words.
But this coupling wasn’t about romance, tenderness, or taking it slow. It was about hot, fast, and now.
He withdrew and then drove himself into her again and again. When he knew he was close, he released her hair and reached around her, dipping down between her thighs. The contact of his fingers on her sensitive flesh was all she needed.
“Dane!” she shouted as her body erupted.
It was enough to drive him over the edge. He gripped her waist and gave one final plunge before bliss consumed him.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Lily barely recognized the deeply satisfied version of herself in the bathroom mirror as she finished drying her hair and started donning her underwear after the shower. She might as well have a neon sign flashing over her head reading, “Lily Montgomery just had the most amazing sex of her life.”
There was a time even several days ago where that would have mortified her. Now, she gave herself a mental high five.
“What are you grinning about over there?” Dane asked from the bedroom where he was pulling on a pair of jeans.
“Just reflecting on my incredible laying abilities,” she said as she rummaged in the bag Aria had packed for her. She knew it was Aria who packed it because the outfit she pulled out was both stylish and a little slutty...a sleeveless white floral-knit sheath dress that fell several inches above the knee and tan gladiator sandals with delicate laces that wound up the calves.
Dane snorted at her response. “I hope Keith didn’t offend you. I don’t know what’s with him today.”
She waited until she had slipped the dress over her head before replying. “I know he didn’t mean it.”
“I’m not sure what he meant by anything this morning. He said he had something to tell me that would make me want to go a round with him.”
Lily heard the strain in his voice and glanced over at him as she inserted a white hoop earring. “Did he tell you what it was?”
“No. It was right before you came out of the bedroom.”
She watched him pull on a maroon T-shirt. It was easy to see that he had something weighing on his mind.
“Do you have any suspicions?” she prodded.
“My first thought was that he wants to leave the band.”
She knew that nothing would unsettle him more than that. The Void was everything to him.
Walking out of the bathroom, she went to him and put her arms around him. “I’m sure you’re wrong. That should be the last assumption you make. You guys are going strong. He’d have no reason to leave.”
“Maybe his sister...”
She shook her head. “Lex is fine. If anything, Keith knows how important it is that the band succeed so he can help support her.”
He didn’t look convinced.
“Look, tell me exactly what happened this morning while I finish getting ready or Christopher will come up here and drag us both downstairs by our ears.”
She listened to Dane recount what Keith had said and how he was behaving while she put on her other earring, slapped on some mascara and lip gloss, and pulled her hair into a quick bun. She couldn’t spare the time to clean and treat her contacts, so she stored them and pulled on her glasses instead.
Sitting on the edge of the tub, she started lacing up her sandals and asked Dane a few follow-up questions, shuffling his responses into what she had been observing herself over the past few days. By the time he finished responding to her last question, she was nodding to herself.
“He’s going to break up with Nikki,” she concluded as she finished lacing the first sandal.
“He...what?”
“He’s going to break up with Nikki,” she repeated. “Haven’t you noticed how he’s distancing himself from her?”
“Uh...”
“Well I have,” she said, moving on to the other sandal. “He doesn’t really pay much attention to her anymore. I’ve gotten the sense that he’s just going through the motions. Since you ragged on him about not screwing up with her and upsetting the band’s dynamic, he doesn’t want to tell you. And seeing you happy with me just reiterated to him how unhappy he is with her.”
Done with the lacing, she got to her feet and looked over to see how he was taking her investigative deductions. He seemed distracted. His gaze burned with a fever she now knew all too well.
“What’s happening right now?” she asked suspiciously.
“Those sandals are....really something.”
She swore he was going to lick his lips. “Oh, no. We’re down to T-minus thirty seconds here.”
When he started towards her, she held up a hand to ward him off. He seemed to take that as a challenge.
“Dane, no!” she warned, attempting to dart around him. Then she broke into peals of laughter as he grabbed her around the waist and pretended to chomp down on her neck.
“Fine,” he huffed, setting her back on her feet. “But tonight you’re coming to bed wearing nothing but those sandals.
“I think we can work something out.”
* * *
Dane wanted Lily to ride with him on the tour bus for the ten-plus hour drive to the hotel in Glendale. Normally she wouldn’t have. She still needed to talk to Sydney to find out what was troubling her, and she knew one more person on the tour bus could make things uncomfortable space-wise, especially with the House of Archer camera people tagging along. The only reason she caved in and agreed to ride on the bus that day was because she needed to get some writing done and the bus was more accommodating than the SUV.
Knowing she hadn’t gotten any more sleep than he did the night before, Dane tried to convince her to crawl into his bunk with him for a while. She had a ton of work to do, though, and sent him off to get some sleep without her.
She claimed the table near the front of the bus, setting up her laptop and positioning her new Tweety Bird notebook and purple pens that Dane had given her next to it. She had already finished the tea and slice of lemon poppy seed pound cake that Trey brought her, so she grabbed a bottle of water to have handy. She plugged in her ear buds and pulled up her Void playlist to listen to while she worked. Then she logged into the band’s social media hub and started pouring through what she had missed overnight.
Jenny’s guest stint was being well received, which Lily hoped gave the teen a charge. Fans had commented with warm birthday wishes for her. Many of them also wanted to know how they could serve as a guest host, prompting Lily to jot down a note about doing a fun promotion down the road. She’d have to do research into projected costs and potential liability before runn
ing the idea by Christopher.
The video of her and Dane on the Xtreme Skyflyer was still gaining views. She took the time to scroll through any new comments and liked or replied to the ones that warranted it. Maybe there was something else she could do with the video since it was so popular.
Something to think about.
She went through all of The Void’s sites and made notes about which kinds of posts were getting the most traffic and which ones were duds. It wasn’t a surprise to see that posts with Dane in them drew the most attention. He was the face of The Void for a reason.
What did surprise her was the apparent interest in her short selfie posts where she did a kind of “eye witness behind-the-scenes” snippet about what was happening right then. It seemed viewers enjoyed feeling like they were getting sneak peeks into the band’s lives.
Seeing that she had the front of the bus to herself at the moment, Lily decided to create a video snippet. She removed her ear buds, held her phone up, and looked at the lens while pressing record.
“All right, everyone,” she said with a smile, “time for another Lily Quickie.” She knew the title for these videos was a little risqué, but Christopher assured her it suited the band’s fan base. “We’re headed to Glendale, Arizona, where we’ll be staying for the next couple days. The Void’s getting some rest so they can rock both of the concerts on this leg of the tour. I’ve never been to Glendale, so let me know what I absolutely can’t miss while I’m there. Maybe I can even drag Archer along with me.” She winked at the camera. “Hit me up in the comments or shoot me an e-mail with your suggestions.”
Christopher had instructed her to use the band’s fan mail e-mail address, so she shared it at the end of the video like she had done on the few other ones she posted. Elijah had cleared her posting the selfie videos without getting each one approved, so she immediately went to YouTube. As she waited for the video to upload, she once again put in her ear buds and pulled up her personal e-mail to scan the messages.
Sydney had sent back the edited version of Lily’s article on Brewer Street after Lily had added some content about Corey and his recent injury, so Lily saved it and read through it again. She smiled when she read Sydney’s comment at the end that it was the best article Lily had ever written. Lily was rather happy with it herself.
With Sydney’s vote of approval, she decided to go ahead and submit it to her three favorite magazines, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, and Variety, for them to consider for publication. None of them had ever picked up one of her stories before, but she could admit this one was her first article with any teeth.
It didn’t hurt to try, she thought. And hopefully she’d hear back from the magazines before her relationship with Dane was well known.
A wide yawn had her glancing at the clock. She realized she had been working for over an hour already. Unfortunately, the night’s activities were catching up to her. Each blink of her eyes seemed slower than the last.
But she had to plow through. She still had to check The Void’s fan mail account in case there were any messages that needed a response. With that in mind, she took several long swallows of water and gave herself a little shake to wake herself up before she opened the fan mail account.
She frowned in confusion when she saw there were over three hundred messages. Christopher had an admin back in his main office who screened the fan mail, deleting the junk and issuing generic responses to things like requests for autographs, how to book the band, and other messages like that. The admin was only supposed to leave messages resulting from social media that Lily needed to personally reply to. Up until now, Lily hadn’t had more than fifteen or twenty messages waiting for her.
Maybe the admin hadn’t logged in yet that morning, she mused. She scrolled through the subject lines in hopes she would be able to tell which ones truly needed her attention. Only when she noticed that her name appeared in nearly all of them did she begin to feel a mild sense of panic.
Hi Lily, we’d love to interview you, she read in many of the messages. What’s your availability?
Anxiety had her pressing her fingers to her temples to stave off a stress headache. Why did people want to interview her? Was it because of her role with the band, or her newly revealed friendship with Dane?
She’d have to talk to Christopher about those. She supposed if it helped the band, she would be willing to engage in interviews. She was getting plenty of practice thanks to the reality show.
Other e-mails were far less professional.
Lily, how did you become friends with Archer?
Lily, what kind of influence do you have on Archer and The Void?
Lily, do you always get to travel with the band? How come I’ve never heard of you?
Lily, I want to be your BFF, too...can I have an autographed photo?
Lily, you looked so hot last night.
And her personal favorite, Lily, are you going to fuck up the band?
Sitting back in her seat and rubbing her grainy eyes, Lily considered what to do. If she started e-mail conversations with all of these people, she’d never have time to get anything else done. She imagined it would only get worse as time went on and her full relationship with Dane was revealed. The public was already latching onto her whether she wanted it or not.
But sending along a generic rubber-stamped “Thank you for your message” e-mail seemed straight-up rude. No one would appreciate that. She knew she had to be approachable to continue gaining fans.
She kept her eyes closed in thought a hair too long and nearly dozed off. Her body jerked awake before she fully succumbed. She glanced around and was relieved that the only person in the area was Nikki, who was sitting on the couch across the bus watching TV. It would have been embarrassing if Lily had started snoring or something.
The moment of lethargy jogged a thought loose, though. What if she wrote down every question she received on a strip of paper, folded it up, and put it in something fun, like a quirky handbag, and then randomly during the day she could have one of the band members pull out a question and ask it of her on camera? She could call it Lily’s Grab Bag or something edgier. That might get fans to tune into the band’s social media accounts so they could hear the answers to their questions and the questions of other fans.
If she did that, she could send a semi-generic response to e-mails like these, thanking fans for reaching out and directing them to the social media sites for the answers to all of their pressing questions. It would save her time but not make it so obvious she couldn’t communicate with everyone personally.
The idea continued to swirl around, so she started jotting down some thoughts to discuss with Christopher. She was pretty sure he would be on board. With that in mind, she decided to start writing down questions so she’d be ready to have her first Grab Bag—or whatever they decided to call it—ready to go later.
Another yawn had her questioning her sanity. More than three hundred e-mails to cull through? Was she really up for this?
Just get it done, Lily, she told herself.
And she dug in.
Chapter Thirty-Four
That was where Archer found her when he woke up a couple of hours later. Of course, she wasn’t working. She was dead asleep.
Her head was pillowed on her right arm, a purple pen still held in her hand poised over a slip of paper. Her left hand had fallen beside her on the banquette bench she was sitting on. Sunlight fell through the window behind her, glimmering on her hair and exposed skin. Something about how delicate she looked tugged at him.
“All right, sweet Lily,” he said quietly, taking off her glasses and removing the pen from her hand. “Time for bed.”
She didn’t even stir as he managed to pull her out from behind the table and lifted her so he could carry her to his bunk. Thank God she wasn’t very heavy, he mused, as she was dead weight.
The woman would sleep through Armageddon.
He made his way back to his bunk and laid her down, pulling a
blanket over her. When she immediately curled up on her side and issued a contented sound, he smiled and placed a kiss on her forehead. Then he stepped away from her, nearly plowing into the House of Archer camera operator standing at his elbow.
Where the hell had the guy come from?
Archer had been instructed not to react when the camera was on him, but he found himself scowling at the man who apparently thought him putting Lily to bed was stimulating entertainment.
“Give it a rest, would you?” he said to the operator. “She’s sleeping.”
The camera lowered, but the operator didn’t look affected by Archer’s ire. He just shrugged and followed Archer as he went back to the front of the bus.
“Long night?” Nikki asked as Archer passed her where she sat on the couch.
He hadn’t noticed her there when he first went hunting for Lily. “Been a long couple of nights for everyone,” he replied, walking over to Lily’s workspace so he could straighten it up for her.
“Yeah. For some more than others,” she said.
Archer didn’t care enough to delve into her rather cryptic comment. He glanced at Lily’s laptop and found the screen had fallen asleep, so he closed the lid. His gaze moved to the huge pile of torn strips of paper beside it. There had to be more than a hundred of them. He saw Lily’s handwriting on them in purple ink and lifted one of them to see what it said.
Lily, what’s your favorite Void song?
Puzzled, he picked up another one. Lily, where did you grow up? Then another: Lily, are you a natural redhead?
Just as he was reading one asking, Lily, do you have a boyfriend?, Nikki said, “It’s nice, you know?”
“Hmm?” he absently replied, picking up another slip. Lily, when’s your birthday?
“You and Lily,” Nikki continued from the couch. “It’s nice. I finally know why no one else had a chance.”
Her voice was like a buzz in the background as he tried to figure out why Lily had written down so many questions for herself. “Had a chance at what?” he asked as he grabbed another slip.