Slow Body Rock (Rockstar Romance) Read Free Page B

told Brenda we needed all the time we had.” Why I need every god damn second with you I can get, Lola Cooper. Anything else is a hollow cavity.
    “Sorry,” she whispered, fingers running nervously through her hair. Over and over she toyed with the long strands. It did little to subdue their waves. “Can we just try again?”
    My eyebrows made a tight fist. “You sure it won't be wasting our time?”
    “Drezden!” Porter snapped, palming his neck. “Fuck, man. Every time. Just chill out, you know she can do it.”
    “I don't know shit.” That's a lie. She can do it when I'm not trying to sing right into her cells. I'm making her fumble intentionally. Fuck fuck fuck, I'm so hard over this. Ducking down, I grabbed a new water bottle, adjusting my erection covertly. “Again, let's go again.”
    I could keep doing this forever.
    Any question about my promise last night fled. I'd told myself I'd make Lola mine, that I'd do whatever it took to claim her. If I had to start with her skill, with controlling how she performed, then I would. I was a monster.
    And I didn't care.
    The next song was Black Grit. Lola knew this one well. She held up smoothly as I sang. Once, she even managed to look me in the eye without dropping a note. She had no idea I'd figured her out. I wished I could see into her head. Was she blaming herself? Nerves? I hadn't seen her bite herself today, but I couldn't be entirely sure.
    If she uses pain to claim her body from me, what then?
    Swelling with energy, I belted out the wild chorus to the song. It could bring the house down on stage, I'd sung it for crowds so big you'd get lost for days. Now I aimed that surge at one single girl. Lola had no chance.
    If it weren't for the strap around her neck, she would have dropped her guitar entirely.
    The rest of the band voiced their frustration. Inside, I cheered with rapture.
    “Jesus,” Colt sighed. Holding a water bottle to his forehead, he squinted across at me. “Look, at this rate, I've got to say... maybe we shouldn't have kicked Johnny so quick.”
    My stomach coiled like a cobra. A twinge of pain slid through my neck; I'd twisted that fast to look from my drummer, to Lola. Holy shit, what am I doing? The clarity was colder than the deep ocean. I was fucking sabotaging my own band. Even with my promise, my desire, in my mind... I had to admit that was messed up. But I need her, and this is the only way I can have her. The only way I can reach inside of her in a way no one else has a right to, or could even dream to.
    But was it worth it?
    Warring with the rancid chunk of me that wanted to affect Lola, I gazed at Porter and Colt. My band, guys who had stood by me for years. Guys who knew me at my best and my worst. Well, not entirely my worst.
    Lola was learning that.
    This isn't the way. If I keep this up, we all lose. How can I keep Lola by me if the band crumbles, if we fail on stage and lose it all? Observing the dark haired girl, I licked my lower lip. I knew what I had to do. “No. I made the right choice. She can do it.” Lola sat up, gawking. “One more time. Play it again.”
    That round, I reigned myself in. I didn't try to make her flounder. It took everything in me to control my need to brush that part of her in her brain... but I did it.
    With the last of the chords capering around the room, I looked over my band. Their relief, their excitement, was contagious. “See?” I graced Lola with a subtle smile. “I knew she could do it.” I need her to be able to do it.
    And I need to affect her.
    God fucking hell, why do I need both things so bad?
    Rolling his eyes, Porter plucked his base. “Yeah yeah, you're clairvoyant. Let's do another one.”
    As a solid unit, we played. Four and a Half Headstones came alive. My ears rang with our sound, telling me we were as good now as we'd been at our peak. Before Johnny had started dipping into lackadaisical habits. Back when we'd brought him on fresh, same day as we'd told Sean Cooper