Or would he just keep kissing her while he slid his hand right where hers was, beneath the cotton, where she was aching for him?
She was right there on the edge, but she wasn’t ready to stop yet, wasn’t ready to go back to having to try so hard to be in control all the time. For a few more minutes, all she wanted was to enjoy the forbidden pleasure of indulging her naughty fantasies about Drew.
Chapter Seventeen
Holy hell...was this really happening?
Drew had ducked into his bedroom on the bus to grab his guitar for the next set of photos. He’d needed to get away from all those eyes on him for a few minutes, take a momentary break from all those expectations and people from the label telling him what they thought he wanted to hear. Saying how hot he looked. That he was going to smash sales records with his next album, whenever he finally got around to signing the contract and recording it. Telling him he was a superstar.
But he didn’t care about any of that. Didn’t need their praise. Didn’t, frankly, care what any of them thought about him and his music. Only one set of eyes mattered today. Only one opinion.
Ashley’s.
It figured, then, that out of everyone watching the shoot, she would be the only one he hadn’t been able to read. Did she hate it? The flash? The props? The fact that the photographer had nearly sprayed his bare chest with oil? All the big-budget, borderline ridiculous things the label had convinced him were expected at this stage of his career?
Already, he’d come to respect Ashley’s opinion a thousand times more than those of any of the Chief Records guys in suits. She knew the business as well as any of them—better, probably, because he’d never known anyone to read so much, not even his sister Olivia.
What Ashley innately understood that the guys from the label never would was what was behind the music. The heart and soul of a lyric, a melody, a rhythm, that drew ears to it. She could break a song down and analyze each piece, but she could also simply close her eyes and let the magic of it wash over, and through, her.
All through the photo shoot he’d been thinking about the ideas she’d shared with him this morning on the bus. Could he go indie? Could he put together his own company and do things his way?
But overarching even those huge career questions had been an even bigger one. Namely, how much longer did he have to wait to kiss Ashley again? All week had been a series of near misses, and frustration was bubbling up inside of him as he grabbed his guitar, opened the bedroom door to head through the living room...
And realized he wasn’t alone.
He smelled her before he heard her, the vanilla from the body wash she used in the shower instantly turning him on. He was on the verge of saying her name to let her know he was in the back of the bus when he heard what sounded like a moan.
A moan of pleasure.
A rash of jealous thoughts hit him first. Was she with someone else? Had she brought a guy back to the bus while he was doing his photo shoot?
Thoughts of anyone else touching her, kissing her, hearing her gasps of pleasure skewered him one after the other until he realized he couldn’t actually hear anyone else.
Only Ashley and the sweet little sounds she was making from her bunk.
Sounds that were so damned good, he had to move closer, had to find out if one of his biggest fantasies could actually be coming true.
Night after night, as he’d gone back into his bedroom alone to try to take the edge off his need for her, he’d wondered if she was doing the same thing. But to be lucky enough to stumble onto the bus just as she was touching herself?
Jesus.
Just then, she gave another little moan, and Drew couldn’t stop himself not only from moving closer…but also from putting his hand over his rock-hard erection.
He could hear her breathing now, the way it was speeding up as she came closer and closer to her climax. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Drew knew he should stay in the shadows, that he should let her finish getting off without realizing she had an audience. But he couldn’t think straight anymore. Couldn’t think beyond the desperate need to see Ashley when she took herself over the edge.
When he finally got close enough to see into her bunk, he couldn’t believe his eyes. Not when the most erotic vision in the world lay only feet away.
She was lying on top of the sheets. Her skirt was up around her waist, and her hand was inside her panties. Her other hand had found its way up her blouse where he was almost positive she was playing with her breasts. Her hair had come part of the way out of the clip she wore to hold it back, and her skin was flushed with heat and arousal. Her mouth was wet, as if she’d been licking it while she lifted her hips up into her hand in what had to be the sexiest rhythm he’d ever heard.
“Ashley.”