Effortless (Page 56)
Effortless (Thoughtless #2)(56)
Author: S.C. Stephens
She smiled sweetly at me. "It’s the company’s way of protecting the asset. It’s a very common practice nowadays." Laughing a little, she shrugged. "Athletes have to sit through a seminar about it." Leaning down to rifle through her suitcase, she murmured, "They never listen though…"
Griffin snorted and threw his pen down. "Well, what’s the point of being a rock star if I can’t bang the groupies?"
Rolling my eyes, I found myself muttering, "I thought it was supposed to be about the music?"
Griffin, unfortunately, heard my sullen comment and chose to respond to it. "No, no I’m pretty sure it’s the p**sy."
Flushing, I leaned back and crossed my arms over my chest. Jackass. Kellan reached over and patted my thigh. I wanted to smack his hand away for some reason. Griffin’s comment just cut a little too close to home. I heard my sister smack Griffin across the head and looked back to see him scowling at her and rubbing the sore spot.
"What?" he muttered. She rolled her eyes and shook her head as Matt laughed at his nimrod relative.
"Dude, it doesn’t say you shouldn’t have sex. It says you should always use protection." Matt rolled his eyes. "You can still sleep with them if you want, just wrap it up." Smirking, he shook his head. "And please do. The last thing the world needs is another you."
Griffin turned his glare to Matt. "Fuck you, man." Looking a little defeated, Griffin looked over at Kellan again. "Is that true? Do girls really do that?"
Squeezing my leg, Kellan shrugged. "Some."
Picking his pen back up, Griffin started signing the papers. "Well that’s f**ked up."
Kellan, finished with his stack, handed his papers to Lana. She smiled at him as she tucked them in her briefcase. It was a friendly smile, like she clearly liked him on a personal level as well as a professional one. I wasn’t exactly thrilled that he was friends with her, but I wasn’t really surprised either. Kellan made friends everywhere he went, even if he wasn’t always aware of it. Sometimes I think he thought he was completely alone in the world, but he wasn’t. Even without me, he had a wide circle of people who cared about him.
Kissing my cheek, he ran his lips up to my ear. Closing my eyes, I heard him whisper, "I still have forty-five minutes of free time…want to go somewhere more private?"
I could only nod as a flush of desire swept through me. I may still have doubts and insecurities, I may still question whether or not he’d been a little too friendly with Lana, or some fan, and I may still want to rip his phone out of his pocket and read his secretive messages…but ultimately, I loved him and I’d missed him, and I wanted to be alone with him.
Kellan stood, telling the guys he’d see them before they went on. Matt and Evan glanced at me, smiled, then nodded. Griffin stared at his contract, looking horribly confused. Anna leaned over his shoulder, her br**sts pressing into his arm. He shifted his gaze to stare right down her cl**vage. Then he didn’t seem so confused. Then he didn’t seem to care much about the contract at all.
Still gallantly holding my bag, Kellan led us out of the building through a secret, hidden exit. It let out right by their busses parked behind the building. Pushing open a bus door, Kellan smiled back at me and nodded to it. "Come on, let me show you where I live now."
I giggled a little as I clutched his hand. I’d never been on a tour bus before. Mirrored sets of plush chairs were under the huge windows, small tables tucked between them. It sort of reminded me of the inside of a train and I smiled, remembering that my first train ride was with Kellan…ages ago.
Kellan tossed my bag on one of the empty tables, then led us through a curtained off area. There were no outside windows in this portion of the bus and as the heavy curtain fell back into place, the only light reaching us was from the tiny bulbs embedded in the floor.
Kellan twisted to face me, wrapping his arms around my waist. It was quiet in here, our breathing the only sound not absorbed by the heavy fabric doors. Leaning his head against mine, Kellan softly said, "Welcome to my bedroom."
My breath picked up as his lips inched closer to mine. "Your bedroom?" I whispered, my voice coming out a little huskily. The anticipation of being with him made my body feel like Jell-O.
His lips angled away from my mouth, to rub against my jaw. My eyes fluttered as his breath washed over my skin. "Mine and the other guys…" One of his hands slid down my backside as he trailed soft kisses down my neck. Breathing heavier, I tilted my head so he could explore all the way down.
Murmuring as he went, his voice just as husky as mine, he continued describing his traveling home. "We’re all packed into these cubbies, like sardines." He got to the base of my throat and moved over to lightly run his tongue up the center. I gasped, dropping my head back as my hands ran over his backside.
Making a deep, satisfied noise as he reached the top, his free hand not cupping my bottom grabbed my cheek. "It’s not as spacious as your bed back home, but there’s just enough room for two…"
He rested his face against mine, his lips so close, we were nearly touching. It was hard to focus on anything other than those lips, but I made myself look over at what he was talking about. Lining the walls of this enclosed area, were bunk beds. There were four beds per stack, with two stacks per wall. Each bed had a curtain closing it off…for privacy, I guess. They looked exceedingly small and claustrophobic.
Kellan’s hand on my cheek released me, as he pointed to the bottom one in the stack we were leaning against. "That’s mine," he whispered. "My home away from home, where I try and get some sleep with a bunch of snoring, smelly dudes around me." He chuckled a little, then sighed and brought his hand back to my face. Pulling back to look at me, his face gorgeous, highlighted by the soft lighting along the floor, his dark eyes searched mine. "Where I dream about you…where I miss you…"
His eyes watered a little as I watched him take me in, which made mine water a little. "I miss you too, Kellan."
Then I couldn’t hold off anymore, and my hand came up to tangle into his hair, pulling his lips into mine. He groaned at my force, then kissed me back just as hard as I was kissing him. The quiet space was quickly filled with fast breaths and noisy moans as we reconnected. Pushing me against the bunk bed frame, Kellan reached down to hitch my leg around his hip. I scratched my nails down his back as his body lined up with mine. Damn, maybe I’d just let him take me right here, pressed up against the beds.
Filling with need every second his mouth was on mine, I reached down and pushed up his shirt. He helped me halfway through, tossing his shirt somewhere over his shoulder. I drug my fingers over the swirls of my name inked across his chest and he hissed in an erotic breath, whispering something that sounded like I love you, or I miss you, or maybe even I want you…I was too dazed to know for sure.
As he pushed his h*ps into mine, grinding the hardness of his ache with the softness of mine, I wrapped my arms around his head, pulling him into me. God I’d missed him. His lips attached to my neck as his fingers worked their way up my shirt. When he had the material far enough, he pulled aside my bra and enclosed his hot mouth over a sensitive nipple. An overly sensitive nipple. A nipple that had apparently missed his caress, as just his mouth being on it brought me right to the edge of cli**xing.
Knowing we were alone, I let out a long cry as his tongue threatened to push me over the edge. He moaned against my skin as he felt my body tensing for that glorious moment. Pulling back his hips, he used just one hand to quickly unbutton my jeans. I cried out, "Yes," as his fingers headed down for the spot that would definitely send me spiraling into bliss. As nice as his erotic notes and steamy phone calls had been, there was just nothing that compared to him physically touching me.
I was gripping his shoulders and panting with everything I had, waiting for his finger to slide against me…just once…when a flash of light entering the room nearly blinded me.
Kellan instantly removed his hand from my jeans and released my breast, helping me smooth the fabric back into place. Ice washed over me, killing my near-release. I struggled to breathe like a normal person. Kellan’s breath was fast too, as he stepped in front of me, shielding me from view even though he was much farther along in the undressing portion than I’d been.
As we both stared at the person entering the sleeping area from the other side, where I had to assume the bathrooms were, I quickly refastened my jeans. Holding onto Kellan’s bare shoulders, I peeked over at a disheveled looking rocker. He had crazy, going-everywhere hair-a poor imitation of Kellan’s sexy mess, if you asked me. And with heavy eye liner, corded bracelets all the way up his wrists, and skull rings on every darkly painted finger, he clearly didn’t want to be mistaken for anything but a stereotypical musician. He really only needed, I’m a rebel and you’ll never understand me, stamped to his forehead to spell it out any clearer.
Hoping this guy hadn’t heard me nearly orgasm, and knowing there was no way he hadn’t heard all of that, I turned beet red. The guy feigned surprise as he held the curtain open, still blinding us. "Hey, sorry, Kellan…didn’t mean to…interrupt." He smirked and smiled at me as he stepped into the room. "Hey, cutie, what’s up?"
I buried my head in Kellan’s shoulder, just wishing to disappear. Now I was mortified to be around two of Kellan’s tour mates. Wonderful.
Kellan shoved the guy’s shoulder, trying to get him to leave the private area we were trying to have a moment in. "Yeah, well, it happens, don’t worry about it."
The man surrendered under Kellan’s force and chuckled as he walked to the other side of the curtained off area. "Yeah, yeah, I’m leaving." Opening the other side, he grinned back at Kellan. "Damn man, I don’t know how you manage to always score with the hottest chick." He eyed me up and down. "And two in one night, bro…I wish I had that kind of stamina."
I felt all the blood draining from my face as I stared up at Kellan. He seemed paler, too. I vaguely heard the rocker say, "Hey, sweetie, I’m available, if you want to bang me next? I don’t mind getting his seconds…again."
I was too dazed to respond. I was too dazed to do much of anything. In a couple of sentences, that man had just confirmed all of my biggest fears. Kellan was cheating on me…repeatedly. As I heard chuckling from the rocker leaving, I dropped my hands from Kellan’s body. I didn’t feel like touching him anymore. I watched as Kellan closed his eyes, swallowed, then reopened them. In slow motion, he twisted to face me.
I did it without thinking. I did it without realizing I’d done it. My hand reached out, all on its own, and smacked him across the cheek. The promise ring around my finger dug into his skin, cutting his jaw, and a tiny drop of blood fell on his skin.
"You son of a bitch!" I snarled, backing away from him as far as I could in the cramped space.
He winced and rubbed his jaw. "Jesus, Kiera. Can I explain before you start wailing on me?"
His eyes flashed to mine, angry, but it was nothing compared to the anger and betrayal I felt. "You can explain ‘scoring the hottest chick’? You can explain ‘two in one night’? You can explain him ‘getting your seconds…again’?"
Sighing, Kellan ran his hand over his face. When he looked at me again, he seemed less angry. I wasn’t. "Yes, Kiera. I can explain."