He lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “He does.”
“With me?”
He looked into her eyes. “With you.”
Of course they couldn’t keep this from James. Not when his job was to know exactly where Drew was at all times while on tour. “Your whole life is so open, so public.” Her words were halting, and though she didn’t want them to come out the wrong way, she still needed Drew to hear them. “Do you think we can keep this private?”
“I want to tell the whole damned world that you’re mine, Ash.” He paused for a moment. “But I’ll do anything you want. Anything you need me to do.”
She wouldn’t let herself think about the future right now, wouldn’t let herself get twisted up in worries. Not tonight. So she lifted her mouth to his and told him exactly what she needed. “Kiss me again.”
His lips curved up into a sexy smile even as he lowered them to cover hers. Just minutes ago, his kiss had been rough, and oh so raw. Now his kiss was barely more than a whisper of breath and heat.
A low moan sounded from her throat at the stunningly sweet kiss. She’d never known there were so many ways to kiss or to be kissed.
The next thing she knew, he was saying, “Hold on to me, Ash,” and then he was lifting her up as if she weighed nothing, with one arm under her knees and the other around her rib cage.
“Drew!” His name bubbled out along with her surprised laughter. “What are you doing?”
His eyes were so dark and full of heat that she nearly lost her breath when he looked down at her and said, “Taking you to my bed.” With nothing but those five words, even though he was simply holding her in his arms, she nearly came apart right then and there. “Is that where you want to be?”
“Yes.” Instinctively, she knew why he was asking her again—because he didn’t want her to regret one single moment with him. But Ashley needed him to know that no matter what happened after tonight, she would never regret it. Never. “It’s the only place I want to be tonight. And you’re the only person I want to be with.”
He lowered his mouth to hers as he walked toward the back of the bus and laid her down on his bed. Somehow, somewhere, she must have done something really right to get to be here tonight with the most incredible man on the planet.
He traced one of her eyebrows and then the other with the tip of one callused finger. “What are you thinking, Ash?”
She didn’t want to hide anything from him, so she told him, “How lucky I am.”
“I’m the lucky one.” He crawled over her on the bed, then took her hands in his and lifted them so that he was holding them on either side of her head. “So damned lucky I can hardly believe it.”
He was a master lyricist, knew exactly how to bend words to tug at people’s heartstrings. But every word he spoke while she lay beneath him on his bed rang pure and sweet, straight to the center of her heart.
He lowered his head so that the tips of his hair tickled her skin, and he began to run more of those impossibly soft, heady kisses down from her lips and over her jaw. She arched her head back to give him better access to swipe his tongue into the hollow of her throat and lightly scrape his teeth over her collarbone.
Her breath came faster and faster, making her breasts swell up from the top of the pink sleeveless dress. She was dying for him to touch her there, but he didn’t just touch. Didn’t just kiss. Instead, he said, “I need to see you, Ash.”
“I need it, too.” So badly that she was trembling with anticipation.
He moved his hands from hers and slipped them under the thin straps holding up her dress and slowly slid the fabric down, kissing first one shoulder and then the next as he bared them to his hungry gaze. His hands were warm and strong as they slid behind her back to unstick her zipper and open it all the way. And then, finally, he was drawing the fabric down, and she was holding her breath waiting, waiting, waiting for—
Oh God, the way it felt when he put his lips, his tongue, on her. She’d never felt anything like the sensations currently rocking through her, never knew any part of her body could be so wonderfully sensitive. The dress had slid up her thighs when he’d laid her down on the bed and now she wrapped her legs around him to bring him closer.
He cupped her breasts in his big hands, and she marveled at how pale her naked flesh looked against his tanned skin. How right in a way she’d never been able to see her body before. Somehow, when Drew was touching her, the curves she’d never known what to do with finally made sense.
With every swipe of his tongue over her nipples, his groans vibrated through her. He’d told her that her voice was the prettiest melody he’d ever heard, and now the sounds of his pleasure, and his excitement at being with her, were easily the best song she’d ever heard. A song she wanted to play over and over and over again until she’d memorized every tone, every dimension, every subtly changing pitch.