They walked back across the road and into the hotel, the crew having deliberately picked a place nearby so no one had to worry about driving. Molly was crossing the lobby when she spied Fox inside the small hotel bar; he was leaning against the bar itself, the sex-kitten who’d wanted a “reward” in the seat right next to him.
It felt like being punched in the stomach.
The ding of the elevator had her snapping her head away from the cozy tableau. Punching in the number for her floor, she tried to keep her face from crumpling, Jen thankfully too tired to pay her much attention. “Good night,” the other woman said one floor down from Molly’s. “If you want to check out the opera house, too, meet us downstairs at eleven.”
Molly nodded. “Thanks.”
Managing to keep herself together with the same furious will that had allowed her to survive that year of hell in high school, she entered her room and, striding across to the connecting door, locked it on her side. Only then did she give in to the urge to kick at the wall. It didn’t help.
Damn him. Damn him. Damn him!
She ripped off her Schoolboy Choir T-shirt, toed off her sneakers and, leaving a trail of clothes on the carpet, walked into the bathroom. Choosing a water temperature so hot it was almost unbearable, she was about to step inside the shower cubicle when there was a banging on her door.
Chapter 18
Molly’s heart leapt, but she knew it was likely a guest who had the wrong room. Wrapping herself in the hotel robe and switching off the shower, she frowned as the banging came again.
Not about to make herself vulnerable if the person was a drunk or otherwise aggressive, she padded out quietly and put her eye to the peephole—to see the last person she’d expected. Wrenching open the door when Fox went to pound again, she said, “What are you doing?” through clenched teeth. “You’ll wake everyone on the floor.”
Striding inside, he watched her close the door, then imprisoned her against it by slamming his hands palms-down on either side of her body, six feet four inches of pissed-off male. “What the fuck, Molly? You blow me off after the show and now you lock me out?”
Instead of being intimidated, she shoved at his chest. The fact it was a futile effort only ratcheted up her anger. “I didn’t think you’d notice.” Her eyes burned with furious tears. Blinking them back, she said, “You looked plenty busy at the bar!”
“Seriously? A groupie sneaks into the hotel with the intention of getting into any bed she can, and you—”
“And I what?” She thudded her fists against his shoulders. “I shouldn’t wonder what the hell you were doing the hours I was at the site?”
Grabbing her wrists, he pinned her arms above her head with one big hand. He gripped her chin with the other, the green of his irises violent and his breath hot against her skin as he said, “You trust me, that’s what you do!”
Kicking out at him, Molly tried to wrench away but he pressed his body so close that she couldn’t move. “Trust you?” She sucked in ragged gasps of air. “Why? What do I know about rock stars?”
“I don’t fucking care. You know about me!” It was a growl. “I made a promise and I don’t break my promises.” His kiss was a wild storm, his mouth demanding her response.
A red haze across her vision, she bit him on that luscious lower lip. Hard enough to hurt. Pulling away with a hiss, he shook his head. “That was not a good idea, baby.”
Dark and low and rough, his warning rasped over her skin. “What,” she said, hating that she was still so susceptible to him, “your little playmate didn’t scratch your itch?”
His fingers tightened on her wrists, his other hand curling around her throat. “Don’t push me.”
She could almost see him throttling back his temper, and it infuriated her that he could remain in control while she was falling apart, hot, angry tears rolling down her cheeks despite her every attempt to rein them in. “I’m not the one being pushy!” Twisting in his hold, her chest heaving, she was angrily aware of his jean-clad cock shoving against her abdomen. “If you think I’ll let you in me after you’ve been inside her—”
His temper snapped with a snarl, his mouth slamming down on hers and his hand shifting to hold her jaw so she couldn’t bite him again. Molly sent her knee up between his legs instead. Blocking her by pressing his body against hers, he thrust his hand into her robe, palming her breast with blunt possessiveness—as if he had the right to handle her however and whenever he liked. “Why didn’t you answer my calls?”
“I didn’t want to talk to you, that’s why.” Molly twisted again but only managed to open her robe even more. “You let her touch you!” Images assaulted her of that woman’s fingers on his chest, her skanky breasts rubbing against his arm.
“Shit, Molly, people think they can touch us all the time.” Tugging the loosened belt of her robe all the way open, he ran his hand down her otherwise nude body to squeeze her hip. “If I’d wanted her, I wouldn’t still be in the clothes I was wearing after the show, and I damn well wouldn’t have been at the bar keeping an eye out for you. I’d be in my room feeding her my cock.”
Giving an aggravated scream, she managed to wrench a hand free and slapped it on his chest, shoving hard. “You think that’s going to make me feel better?”
He released her all at once. Picking her up in an effortless move before she could take advantage of her freedom, he dumped her on her back on the bed. The robe gaped around her and when he came down over her, she felt him on every inch of exposed flesh. And his raw, masculine scent, it was pure Fox, no hint of the groupie. Her body surged to erotic life. Shoving his hand between them, he began to undo his fly. “Say no, Molly.” Harsh words. “Say no right fucking now if you want me to stop.”
Thrusting her hands into his hair instead, she pulled him down to her, ravaging his mouth as he ravaged hers. Teeth and tongue and fury, it was as much a fight as a kiss. The fact her body was liquid for him only enraged her further. Sucking on her tongue, his knuckles brushing against her clit before the blunt head of his cock did the same, Fox pushed up her thigh and shoved inside her in a single push.
She screamed into the kiss, her hands clawing at his back through his T-shirt while her body rocketed out of control. His mouth dropping to her neck, the lip ring grazing her skin, he bit down hard enough to leave a serious mark… and Molly’s orgasm tore her to pieces in a violent pulse that had her muscles locking around his cock. One hand tight in her hair, Fox pulled out and shoved deep again, and then he came and came inside her.
The first thing Fox did after his brain started functioning again was push up and look down into Molly’s face. “I lost my temper. Tell me if I hurt you.” The idea that he might have was a chunk of ice inside him. Never had he spun that out of control with a woman. That it had been Molly who’d borne the brunt of his temper? Fuck.
“No,” she said, and tried to turn her head aside, but he cradled her face with one hand, forced her to hold the agonizing intimacy of the eye contact, their bodies still locked together.
“Tell me the truth, baby.”
“You didn’t hurt me.” Naked vulnerability, confusion, the remnants of anger in those brown eyes that couldn’t lie, but no pain. “I was with you all the way.”
Blowing out a shuddering breath, he pressed down on his forearms, his hair falling across his forehead. “Now we’re going to talk.”
Fine tremors ran over Molly’s skin, each a kick to Fox’s gut. “This isn’t my world,” she said. “I don’t know the rules.”
“There’s only one rule you need to know with me.” The embers of his temper glowing to life again at the reminder she’d doubted him, his voice came out a growl. “I won’t fuck around on you while we’re together. I told you that at the start and nothing’s changed.”