She made non-committal noises. “It’s just me. Ewan’s off globetrotting again. Couldn’t get away fast enough to be honest.”
“If I’d known you were feeling ill, I wouldn’t have called.” He certainly regretted waking her.
“Then I’m glad you didn’t know. I’m fine, Spook. It’s just a cold. One of the many downsides of touring. Can’t say I’m sold on it.”
“Xane said you’ve been touring with Ronnie.”
“Yeah. I had to do something to take my mind off—the fact my boyfriend’s been missing. But it’ll never be a favourite. It’s exhausting, repetitive, and kind of tedious. Plus, a zillion things go wrong in different ways every show. I’m definitely a studio girl. Give me some mixing to do, some producing. Live music can go suck itself.”
“Cute. But Captain Bubblebutt will presumably be back in the studio before long.”
“Maybe.”
He’d expected more enthusiasm. “Are you saying you don’t want to work with him? Or are you thinking you’re going to get pushed out in favour of some industry bigwig?”
“Actually, I heard a rumour that my favourite band might have something in the works.”
He’d walked straight into that one. “And where did you hear that?”
“Is it true?”
“No comment.”
“Tease.”
“You know it.”
“Ooh! Careful Mr Mortensen, you’ll give a girl ideas. Shit! Can we video chat again? I really want to see you.”
“Yeah, no! I’m stark bollock naked.”
“All the better. Also, tease!”
“Not deliberately so.”
“Come on, I don’t mind a bit of skin. I’ll leave it up to you whether your dangly bits are in the picture.”
Damn her, she was making him smile, and he did want to see her. The pictures in his head weren’t nearly good enough. But he was also one hundred per cent wrecked after everything that had gone down over the last twenty-four hours. “I sometimes wonder if that isn’t the only bit of me you’re interested in,” he said to distract her.
“Babe,” she drawled, voice riddled with sarcasm. “If it was only that bit that fascinated me, I wouldn’t be so desperate to see you, given I’ve a life-sized working replica of your cock conveniently situated in my bedside drawer.”
Dammit, now he was laughing. “Goddamned Ginny’s got a lot to answer for.”
“Best merch ever! Needs to be rechargeable though. Batteries are expensive.”
“Stop it.”
“I always wondered how she managed to persuade you to model for the mould. I mean, I assume you had to get it up in order for them to make the cast. I feel there’s a story behind it. Makes a girl wonder what she’s got on you.”
Not a damn thing. He stayed silent. Let her think that Ginny had blackmail material, it was better than her realising the truth: that he’d made the mould specifically so he could screw her without screwing her.
That sounded bad. Like, really bad.
“How come you’re up so late?” she asked, having obviously realised that no amount of cajoling was going to get him to ‘fess up, or accept a video call. “Are you and Xane writing?”
“Nah, he’s in bed with Luthor.”
Spook realised immediately that was the wrong thing to say. Or maybe it was the right thing. If they were going to default back to the “it’s definitely not a relationship” status of the previous year, then he ought to at least be honest with her about the fact he was getting hands on with someone…someones else.
