Nalini Singh - Rock Addiction

“Fuck, man,” Noah muttered with a scowl. “I really need a girl backstage.”

Fox snorted. “You have about three hundred girls lined up outside your door every night.”

“Yeah, yeah, but it’s not the same as having a Molly.” The guitarist swung his arm around Molly and smacked a kiss on her cheek before heading farther backstage.

“He’s right,” Fox said, dimple on display, “it’s not the same.”

She had to kiss it, to his chuckle. “You must be exhausted,” she said afterward, exhilarated from having witnessed what she knew was a concert that would go down in rock history. “Starving, too.”

“It hasn’t hit yet—I’m riding on adrenaline.” Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, his energy sky-high from the rush of performing, he headed toward his dressing room. The concert attendees who’d won a backstage pass through a radio contest hadn’t yet been escorted up, so it was an easy walk.

David and Abe were standing outside their rooms, swigging on chilled bottles of water. Abe threw a bottle to Fox, who caught it one-handed. Noah appeared in his open doorway the next instant. “That might be the best concert we’ve ever done.”

“I hope the crew got it all on tape.” David glanced at Molly after she returned from Fox’s dressing room with a fresh T-shirt for him, his own thrown out into the crowd as had become tradition. “What did you think, Moll?”

“Incredible, a legend in the making.” The entire crew had stopped and listened as much as they could, not wanting to miss out. “Now what you need to do is get some food into your bodies, followed by a good night’s rest.”

Abe, David, and Noah grinned at her before saying, “Yes, Molly,” in unison.

Well aware she was being teased, she made a face at them.

“Don’t worry, boys.” Fox tucked Molly to his side. “She’ll be far too busy to hassle you tonight or tomorrow morning.”

Molly elbowed him. “You are so not getting lucky tonight.”

Noah hooted just as one of the crew called out a warning that the backstage fans were about to come in. Leaving the band in the corridor, Molly slipped out of sight. She had no problem with being known as Fox’s girl, but she had no desire whatsoever to be a celebrity.

Fox winked at her as she entered the dressing room, and she knew he understood. Just as she understood that he thrived in the spotlight, in the surge of energy that came with performing live, and in interacting with the band’s fans. If he’d needed it all the time, they would’ve never worked, but he was a musician at heart, liked the peace of home to create.

So they fit.

Her rock star did get lucky that night—as if she had any chance of resisting him. She kissed his throat when he collapsed on top of her, tasting the salt and untamed masculinity of him, her fingers weaving through his hair.

On her wrist sparkled the white fire of a diamond bracelet he’d given her before the concert. Molly was almost afraid to ask what it was worth—she’d probably never wear it, she’d be so worried about losing a stone. “Don’t,” she murmured when he pushed himself up to his elbows. “I like you there.”

A grin, his hand fisting in her hair to hold her in place for his kiss. “I need to get some more fluids into my body. Especially since you’ve just wrung me dry.” Another slow kiss before he left her pleasured and sated body—to her shuddering moan—and walked out of the bedroom area of the coach. “You want a drink, baby?” he called out.

“Yes, please.”

He came back with a sports drink for himself and a bottle of lime-flavored water for her, since she didn’t like the taste of the sports drinks. Sitting up, she drank as he guzzled his standing up. Molly enjoyed the view, a smile on her face. Tattooed and muscled and all man, Fox could walk around naked as much as he pleased—for her eyes only.

Finishing off his bottle, he put it on the bedside table and opened up the safe built into the bedroom closet. “What’re you looking for?” she asked, her attention on his gorgeous shoulders, and on the puzzle tattoo on his arm that she’d almost totally figured out.

It made her goofy with happiness that she knew him that well.

“This.” Withdrawing the flat blue box, he got back into bed as her mouth dropped open.

 “You didn’t get me something else?” She put aside her own bottle.

“The bracelet’s part of a set. I wanted to give you the necklace when you were naked so I could see it lying between your breasts.”

Her lips twitched. “You are such a guy.”

Grinning unabashedly, he hooked the necklace around her neck. “Oh yeah, I like this visual.”

It was a simple pattern, two strands knotted together to hang along the line of her cleavage. Timeless, classic… and from the fire in the stones, each was of flawless clarity. “I’m going to pretend this is cubic zirconia,” she said, “so I can wear it without freaking out.”

A glint in his eye, Fox tumbled her onto her back. His hand was warm on the mound of her breast as he touched her in a way that said he was simply enjoying being with her. “Didn’t I tell you? All your jewelry is fake.”

“Liar, liar, pants on fire.” She pretended to punch his jaw, then wrapped her arms around his neck. “It’s stunning, Fox. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” His thumb brushing over her nipple, the light in his eyes dimming as he said, “You can ask me for anything you know. I want to give you the world.”

“I know.” Molly caressed his nape, unsure what was wrong. “The fact is you’re the best present I could’ve ever received. I’m not a greedy or possessive person, except when it comes to you—there, I’m afraid I’m awful.”

“I like your kind of awful.” An intense look, his voice rough. “Always be possessive and greedy about me, Molly.”

 “Something’s bothering you.” She could sense it with every cell in her body, had even before the concert. “Talk to me.”

Bracing himself on his forearms above her, his lower body tangled with her own, he blew out a breath. “I got a call from Tawanna this morning to say my half sister Lauren’s been trying to get in touch with me again.” A hardness to his jaw. “You saw her right after Abe was hospitalized.”

Molly connected the dots. “Linen shift, shiny bob, called you Zachary?” At his nod, she remembered what he’d said then, about everyone wanting something, and her protective instincts bristled. “What does she want?”

“She’s trying to sell me some sob story about her husband losing his job and their house being repossessed by the bank.” His expression was grim. “I checked it out the first time she asked months ago. They have enough money coming in from investments to live a stress-free, normal life, but she’s used to luxury. Enough to lower herself to asking me to support them.”

Aware of Fox’s loyalty, his generosity, Molly knew his half sister must’ve done something horrible to cause the breach that clearly existed between them. She took a guess. “Has Lauren ever made any effort to stay in touch except to ask for money?”

“Hell no.” Fox snorted. “I reached out after she turned twenty-one, figured maybe she hadn’t ever been in touch herself because it would create friction with her parents. I wasn’t planning to mess that up, just wanted to know her.”

Molly nodded, her heart aching. She knew exactly what it meant to find a sister; her relationship with Thea was an integral part of her life. So she could understand Fox’s need to reconnect, hoped desperately this story would have a happy ending—even though Fox’s tone made it clear the hope was a futile one.

“You know what she said?” Fox’s shoulders tensed. “That she didn’t associate with trash like me and she’d appreciate it if I didn’t flaunt our relationship, as it might taint her reputation in the circles in which she moved.”

“That bitch.” Molly put one of her hands on Fox’s cheek. “You don’t have anything to feel guilty about then.” When he would’ve argued, she pressed her fingers to his lips. “You do feel guilt—because you’re a good man with a huge heart.” A heart strong enough to have survived the rejection and neglect of his childhood. “But here’s the thing: you might be related by genetics, but she’s a stranger to you in every other way.”

Fox’s expression was intent. “You’re not going to tell me to make nice with my family, all that stuff?”

“Lauren isn’t your family. She’s toxic, and you can’t let her get to you.” Weaving her fingers into his hair, Molly said, “I’m your family. Noah, Abe, David, and Kit are your family.” She picked up his wrist, kissed the strange characters above his pulse point, which he’d finally confessed were from a made-up language he’d created as a lonely eight-year-old. “You told me this means loyalty. That’s what family is, whether of blood or of the heart.”

She kissed the characters again. “If Lauren has children later on, and you want to reach out to your nieces and nephews, I’ll go with you.” Molly wouldn’t blame the children for the sins of their mother. “But Lauren doesn’t deserve you.”

He settled more heavily against her, the green of his irises rich against the jet-black of his pupils. “There’s something else I haven’t told you.”

“I’ll spank you later. Now talk.”

It made him laugh, his shoulders shaking. “So fucking strict.” Thrusting a hand into her hair, he kissed her the pure Fox way, all tongue and sex.

She was close to melting when he sat up and brought her into his lap so they were face-to-face. “When I was eighteen,” he said, “I decided to give my mother another chance.”

Molly’s throat grew thick. She knew how much courage it must’ve taken for him to do that. Wrapping her arms around him, she held him as he spoke, but to her surprise, though she’d expected bleak pain, his tone was even, his eyes unshadowed.

“I walked up to her front door, knocked.” He ran his knuckles down her back. “The maid who answered said my mother was in the park with Zachary.”

“What?”

“Yeah, that was my reaction.” Still no anger, no hurt. “I walked over to the park, and there she was playing with a little boy who called her Mommy. She redid her life, Molly. Redid me.”

Molly had no words for the cruelty of it. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “Your mother has no idea of the incredible man her son grew into, a son she’ll never know, and that’s her loss, Fox, not yours.”

Fox kissed her throat, his lip ring brushing over her skin as he made his way back up to her mouth. “It was a kick to the guts then, and for a long time,” he said. “It stopped hurting the first day you smiled at me and I knew you adored me just as I am. My sweet and honest and fucking sexy Molly who means it when she tells me she loves me and who comes knocking if I brood.”

Lower lip quivering and eyes burning, Molly locked her legs around his hips, her hands on his shoulders. “I fall more in love with you each and every day,” she whispered. “I will hurt anyone who causes you pain.” If Lauren ever showed her face in front of Molly again, she’d better watch out.

Fox’s lips curved, one big hand spreading on her lower back, the other curling around her nape. “No one can, not when I’ve got my Molly-love armor.” Another kiss, his cock growing hard against her. “Enough of the bullshit. I want you.”

“I thought I wrung you dry?” she teased, letting the subject of his mother and sister go. Fox wasn’t the kind of man to worry things to death—what mattered was that he trusted her enough to tell her about something she had a feeling no one else knew. If he ever needed to talk about it again, he would.

Because she was his Molly.

“You did,” he now said, tipping her flat on the bed and straddling her body. “I’m a broken man.”

“Poor Foxie.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Someone wants to be in trouble.” Grabbing her wrists, he used his other hand to shake out a pillow from the case. She knew that case was going to be used to tie her wrists together before he shifted higher up her body and pinned her hands to the bed frame.

Excitement hot and dark under her skin, she looked down from his face as he knotted the fabric around her wrists… to realize his erection was within reach of her mouth. Since Molly Webster, good girl, was now Molly Webster, good girl with a naughty streak, she leaned up and sucked the blunt tip into her mouth.

“Christ!” Fox’s hands slammed into the bed frame, the entire bed shaking. “That was not in the plan,” he gritted out, one hand sliding down to cradle her head so she’d be in a better position to take more of him.