Effortless (Thoughtless #2)(24)
Author: S.C. Stephens

My heart surged, racing through my veins and thudding in my ears. A list of horrible, life changing events passed through my mind. Was I being attacked? Was I about to be raped? Would anyone hear me scream back here? Would anyone rush to my rescue? Where was Kellan?

Panicked and scared out of my mind, I instantly turned around. Or I tried to anyway. The strong hands jerked my head straight. The body behind me pressed me up against the shelves, the arousal of the man evident against my low back. Oh God, so this was going to be rape then? I started shivering as the voice growled in my ear, "I said, don’t turn around."

Just as I was debating which part of my body to hit him with first, my attacker started laughing. The ice and fear leeched from me as I instantly recognized the amused chuckle. Rolling my eyes, heat taking over fear, I twisted to face him.

"Kellan! You scared the shit out of me!" I smacked him in the chest, then did it again for good measure.

He backed away a step, then pulled my body flush to his. Still chuckling, he shook his head. "You’re disobeying me…" Grinning devilishly, he leaned his face against mine and backed me up into the shelves. I could smell the wave of alcohol on his breath. "I may just have to punish you tonight," he whispered.

It was so erotic, I instantly wanted him, then hated my treacherous body for submitting so fast. It was hard to think, though, with his evident pleasure now pressing right where I needed it. Grabbing my leg, he hitched it up his hip a little, and pressed that marvelous hardness against me even more. I groaned softly, closing my eyes and wrapping my arms around him.

"Don’t…I’m mad at you," I muttered.

A low rumble came up his throat as his mouth attached to my neck. "It makes me hot when you’re angry," he murmured, dragging the tip of his tongue from my neck to my ear. I sucked in a breath, my head dropping back to the shelf behind me while his ready body rubbed against me.

Oh, damn.

His fingers deftly untucked my Pete’s shirt, one hand dipping underneath to cup my breast. His teeth lightly tugged on an earlobe before his hot lips closed around it. He groaned low and seductive as he pressed against me, and before I knew it, I was nearly panting, silently begging him to take me.

Hissing through his teeth, he murmured, "God, I want you…do you want me?"

The hand not engaged in fondling me, slinked inside of my jeans and darted inside my underwear. I exhaled in a rush, my eyes flying open. "No, Kellan, don’t." I grabbed his hand right before his fingers could reach me. God, if he actually touched me…we’d be undressed and all over each other a second later. And I knew from experience that this room wasn’t exactly secure.

Frowning, he pulled back to look at me. Or he tried to look at me. His eyes focused and unfocused. "Why’d you stop me?" he said, slurring a little and blinking slowly.

Sighing, I tried to get his hand out of my pants; somehow he managed to inch it down a little more. "Are you drunk?" I whispered, bringing my other hand down to try and yank his up.

He laughed lightly, his stronger hand not budging, even with all of my efforts. God, I hoped no one walked in on us like this. "Probably," he giggled a little, "and I want that sex now."

Shaking my head, I set my mouth into a firm line. "No, I’m not hav**g s*x with you in the back room."

Frowning, he brought his lips to mine. I resisted, but he teased me with light flicks of his tongue against my skin and I had no choice but to let him in. My grip on his hand relaxed just a fraction, too. "Why not?" he murmured. "I had Pete fix the door…it’s locked, if that’s what you’re worried about." His hand slid down a half inch lower, and I let it. "Besides, it is my big night."

Summoning all of my will power, I pulled back from his mouth. "Why would you have Pete fix the door?"

He shrugged, heading back towards my lips. "I like it back here. This room holds…happy memories for me."

Avoiding him, I raised an eyebrow. "Happy? Us screaming at each other is a happy memory for you?" I cringed at the night we’d finally blown up at each other. It had been the worst verbal fight I’d ever been in, and hoped to ever be in again.

He grinned lazily, the alcohol flowing through his veins apparent in his features. "Remember what I said about your being angry making me hot?" The tip of his finger brushed over a curl below and I hissed in a breath, yanking his hand up a smidge. He grinned wider, then exhaled softly. "I told you I loved you in this room." His voice wistful, he shook his head. "I should have said it earlier."

Seeing the love in his drunken haze, I smiled and released one of my hands from his arm to stroke his cheek. "Yes, you should have." Sighing, I shook my head. "And I should have said it back."

His expression turned serious for a second and he lowered his head against mine, closing his perfectly deep eyes. "Yes, yes you should have." Giggling, he added, "You always were stubborn as shit, though. It took you forever to admit you even had feelings for me."

Pulling back from him, I frowned as deeply as I could with his hand still down my pants. He giggled more and leaned over to kiss me. "What? You know I’m right." His tongue brushed against mine and I moaned. I considered letting him do whatever he wanted with me. He did get the door fixed after all…

Maybe sensing where my head was, or maybe too drunk to care, his hand slid down to cup my body. I groaned, aching with the need for him to lift a finger and touch me. He didn’t, though, just held his hand there and passionately kissed me. His breath was harder, and as my fingers reached down to tentatively touch his arousal, I could feel that it was harder too.

Wanting to scream, "Okay, okay, just take me!" I suddenly remembered the chaos we’d left in the bar. Releasing my hand from him, I pushed his shoulder back. "You have to go play, Kellan." Narrowing my eyes, ignoring the throbbing in my body, I looked over his slightly glazed face. "Can you even do that?"

Laughing, he nodded. "There’s a lot I can do when I’m drunk." He laughed again and I frowned, also remembering the earlier revelations that had been made to me by my coworkers.

"Yeah, I hear you make out with Pete’s waitresses on New Year’s Eve when you’re wasted."

He looked at me blankly, a dopey, satisfied smile on this face, then he frowned. "What?"

Rolling my eyes, I yanked on his hand still happy and content on my privates. "Kate, you ass. You never told me you almost had sex with her…Jenny too."

He rolled his eyes and slurred, "I never got anywhere near sex with Jenny. She said no. And Kate….doesn’t count."

I narrowed my eyes, leaning into his face. He blinked as he readjusted his vision to look at me. "What do you mean she doesn’t count?"

He shrugged slowly. "Almost doesn’t count."

Grunting, I successfully yanked his hand free from my jeans. He openly pouted at me as I handed his hand back to him; he even gave me puppy dog eyes. Smiling, in spite of my objections to his comment, I shook my head. "What am I going to do with you?"

His smile turned lascivious as his eyes locked onto my pants. "I could think of a few things."

Chuckling, I physically turned him around. Hopefully his…situation…wouldn’t be too apparent to the patrons when I stormed him back out to the bar. That could be a little embarrassing for him. Then again, probably not. Kellan didn’t get embarrassed by things that would have most people mortified. He’d probably just shrug and drink another beer.

He sighed morosely while I pushed him forward. I chuckled again, realizing something. He looked back at me once we got to the door. Frowning, he muttered, "What’s so funny?"

Smiling at the look of insolence on his face, I grinned and laughed a little more. "Well…Casanova…since you are obviously living it up on your night, guess what I get to do later?"

He grinned again, bringing his still ready body around so he could press it into mine. Unfortunately, I was still ready too, and it felt, really, really amazing when we pressed together. I started to close my eyes but opened them when he mumbled, "Me?"

Pushing him back, I raised a finger in warning. "No…" Smiling innocently, I reached behind him to open the door. "I finally get to drive the Chevelle again."

He frowned and instantly started protesting, but I shoved his drunken ass though the door. There was no way I was letting him drive to the after party.

Just as he was back out into the hallway, adorably sputtering that he was fine and of course he could drive, he started ringing. Well, the cell phone in his front pocket started ringing, but since Kellan wasn’t used to wearing one on him, he looked around himself like he had no idea why he was making noise. He started patting his body, looking for the source of the sound. Laughing, I stopped his hands and put one of them on the slight bulge that was his cell phone.

Giggling to himself as the people walking past looked at him oddly, he muttered, "Oh thank God, it’s the phone. I thought my c*ck was ringing."

As my cheeks flamed bright red and my hand slapped over my mouth, Kellan dug his phone out of his pocket and answered it. Upon hearing his greeting, I instantly wondered if Kellan should be speaking on the phone in his condition. I also wondered who could be calling him…most of us were already here, or on our way here.

"Yo, talk to me," he spouted merrily, sitting back on a hip. Shaking my head at him, I rolled my eyes. Lord help whoever he was talking to. I figured out who that was a moment later. His face dropping in complete surprise, Kellan loudly exclaimed, "Dude! Denny, man! You have, like, fuck-tastic timing. Tonight’s my last show and Kiera and I were just-"

My eyes widened and I immediately tried to take the phone from him. Of all the people for Kellan to talk to drunk, Denny was the worst one. There were way too many delicate topics he could accidentally start talking about.

Glaring at me, Kellan twisted out of my reach, stumbling back a step. "Relax, Kiera, I wasn’t going to tell him that you just blew me off." My mouth dropped open; he’d just said that directly into the phone and it sounded really, really bad. His hazy mind registering what he’d done, Kellan blinked and quickly covered with, "Oh, Denny, not that she actually blew me or anything, she didn’t, she doesn’t really hang out down there, if you know what I mean," he paused to giggle, "and I guess you do, huh?"

Reattempting to snatch the phone away before the idiot told Denny everything that he didn’t need to hear, I watched Kellan frown as he batted me away. "Sorry, man, you probably don’t want to hear shit like that." There was a pause from Kellan as Denny spoke, then Kellan laughed. "Yeah, well, at least I didn’t say you caught us in the middle of doing it… that would have been awkward."

I closed my eyes and shook my head. Idiot. Joking or not, Denny really didn’t need to picture Kellan and I together. I heard silence and peeked an eye open at Kellan; he was frowning. "Denny? You still there?" After another second his frown lifted to a medicated smile. "No, the tour starts tomorrow, we’re livin’ it up for our last night in Seattle."

Sighing, I grimaced. I hadn’t realized that Kellan had told Denny that he was leaving for a few months. I could just imagine what Denny thought about that. Denny probably wouldn’t say anything directly, but I was sure, in his head, he was making some comparisons to when he’d left me.