I peered at them, then fired her a grin. “You came prepared.”
She picked up the first vibrator and handed it to me. “Let’s see what you’re made of.”
“Oh, baby.” I turned it on, and it started buzzing. “I hope these walls are soundproofed.”
Chapter 25
Aspen
I’m going to kill Penn.
For all Joz’smisgivings about being here, he’d thrown himself into Mom’s party. He’d charmed every guest, batted off my brothers’ not-so-subtle probing like a pro, and he’d even played a couple of his hit songs. Every single heterosexual woman in attendance had virtually swooned.
Including me.
And anyone who knew me would confirm I was not the swooning kind. With Joz, though, I was different. Less stiff, corporate, uber-professional woman determined to succeed in a patriarchal world, and more young, hetero woman who had fallen hard for the kind of man she swore she never would.
I’d seen enough relationships with rock stars end in crushing heartbreak to keep well away, but for all his public persona, Joz wasn’t like anyone I’d ever met. Maybe if our lives had collided a few years ago, when he was in his self-confessed drugs and drink phase, I’d have put him in the same box as all those others,but he wasn’t that man any longer, despite the crushing guilt he carried over his ex-girlfriend’s death.
I caught Joz’s eye as my brother Roman bent his ear about something. Joz winked, and I swooned that little bit more. I was about to head over and rescue him when my cousin Asher approached me.
“You know you haven’t stopped looking at him all night.” He slung an arm around my shoulders and kissed the top of my head. “Love looks good on you, Aspen.”
“Love?” I fake-laughed, his comment a little too close to an admission I wasn’t ready to make to myself yet. “A bit early for that, don’t you think?”
“No, I don’t. I fell in love with Kiana the night I met her.”
“You always have been a romantic.”
“It’s good to see you let your hair down.”
“You make me sound like a crusty old spinster.”
“Not at all. Just a woman who has always put business first, sometimes to the detriment of her personal life.” He let me go as his wife came over, and the way he looked at her like she hung the moon made me ache.
“He looks at you like that,” Kiana said.
I frowned. “Huh?”
“Joz.” She grinned. “When he thinks you can’t see him, he gazes at you with hearts in his eyes. That man is a goner.”
“What is with you two tonight?” I flicked my hair over my shoulder and made a big fuss of smoothing my dress. “First, your old romantic husband keeps blathering on about love, and now you’ve gotten in on the act.”
“Hey, less of the old,” Asher said.
“Don’t worry. You’ve still got it.” Kiana stood on tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “You seem happy, Aspen, and I don’t think it’s an overreach to say it has a little something to do with a certain musician.”
“Anyone would think I was a miserable bitch before,” I grumbled. “A woman can be complete without a man on her arm, you know.”
Kiana nodded. “Oh, I agree. I’m not saying otherwise. I’m only telling you what I see. You’ve got this glow about you.”
“Probably all the orgasms.” Penn gripped the tops of my shoulders and squeezed.
I glanced behind me and rolled my eyes. “Oh, great. Reinforcements. For your information, commenting on my sex life is liable to earn you a knee to the balls.”
He chuckled. “Gotta get near me first.”
“Nope. I’ll just have Gia do it when you least expect it.”
