“About half an hour.”
“Thank you.”
The driver raised the screen, leaving Skye and Ash in relative privacy once again.
Ash looked at his phone. A furrow formed between his brows “I bet the hotel is swarming with paparazzi by now.”
“How would your fans know which hotel?”
“You’d be surprised how resourceful fans can be.”
Remembering their lack of luggage and their late-night shopping trip, Skye gave a shrug. “We don’t have to go back there. We can check out by phone.”
He shook his head. “My guitar is in there.”
“They can mail it.”
Ash’s eyes rounded with an oh-hell-no expression.
“Okay,” she said. “How about we have their staff meet us out front with it?”
He shook his head. “I’m not comfortable with a stranger handling my baby.”
She shrugged. “Okay, then drop me off. No one is going to recognize me.”
A smile curved the corners of her lips as she thought about sneaking into a hotel to retrieve a rock star’s precious guitar. The fans weren’t hers, and the cameras didn’t care about immortalizing her face, but it was exciting to wonder what it must feel like to be so adored by strangers.
Despite his claim to fame, he was simply Ash, the guy who had chased after her to return a backpack and the one she’d poured hot cocoa on. He’d kissed her into incoherency, and as much as she felt guilty for admitting it, the sound of Ash’s fist smacking Spencer's nose had been very satisfying. The cut under Ash’s eye would scar, and he would carry the mark for the rest of his life. And hell if a part of her liked that a small piece of her would always be in his life.
He’d erased the sting of Spencer's betrayal. Instead of crying her eyes out, watching chick flicks, and eating ice cream to ease her broken heart, she’d found herself smiling, laughing, and looking forward to the next adventure with Ash.
And, right now, that meant retrieving a most precious guitar.
Of course, he might be blowing the whole thing out of proportion.How many paparazzi lived in Niagara Falls?
“How’s this going to work then?” she asked. “If we pull up in this limo, we’re going to draw attention.” She scooted back to him, grabbed his hand, and brought it to her mouth. “Maybe we should rent a car?”
He smiled at the tender show of affection and cupped her chin. “Yeah, we could use a car. Then I can drop you off at the loading dock or something.”
She gnawed at her lower lip. “How about you wait down the street? I’ll walk from there.”
The furious toe and finger tapping slowed to a moderate beat.
Suddenly, he lifted her, positioning her in his lap, settling her knees on either side of his powerful legs. “How much have you had to drink?”
There was the bottle at breakfast in the hotel and two bottles shared with Ben and Edna on the way to the courthouse. Maybe she’d had more than she thought. Certainly, her memory of the courthouse was fuzzed a little. Not that she couldn’t remember the efficient ceremony or the clerk fangirling over Ash.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, loving how the conversation had changed between one beat and the next. The desire in his eyes heated the air between them. A breath escaped her, and she wiggled against his swelling cock. Perhaps she could act upon her fantasy.
He groaned. “You are playing with fire, babe.”
Confidence and a sense of purpose swelled inside her chest. She tucked her lower lip between her teeth.Would he stop her?Her fingers smoothed down the cotton of his shirt as she traced the outlines of the muscles straining against the fabric.
“I want to do something.”
He focused on her lips. “You’ve been drinking.”
“Only a little.” Her buzz had faded, and now, she was left with a strong desire to drive him wild.
