“Nolan, what doyouwant to do today?”
Nolan’s eyebrows furrow, his fingers curling to bite into my knuckles. “What?” he asks, sounding slightly affronted.
I dip down to brush a kiss over his cheek. He gasps slightly, just barely audible, but it’s a sound that settles low in my gut.
“Do you want to go out? Stay here with me? Dates don’t have to be us gallivanting around whatever city we’re in. We can dosomething in this hotel room until it’s time for you to get ready for your show.”
“Can we fuck?” Nolan asks, voice pitched low. The sound settles low and warm in my chest, sending a zip of lightning shooting through my body.
“After the show.”
Nolan tilts his head back in frustration. “Whatever. Fine. I don’t know why you’re so set on spending time with me anyway. Just collect your paycheck and fuck me after the shows.”
Something about his tone rings an alarm in my brain. He’s not even being sarcastic or irritable. I can tell now what his tones mean, and that one means everything he said was a statement of fact to him. Even without the fucking, I’m so curious about Nolan that I’d happily spend days getting to know his irritable, sour self. If only he’d let me.
“Bath first.” I roll out of bed and bite back a laugh when Nolan stares up at me, annoyance painted across his face. I wiggle my fingers in invitation. “Come on, angel. It’s my date day. I’ll give you what you want even if you don’t know how to ask for it.”
An emotion that I’m not privy to crosses Nolan’s face. His eyes crinkle and his mouth turns down into a new frown that I catalog in my memory bank. I think I’ve shocked Nolan so greatly that he has no other choice but to go along with me. His fingers tangle with mine, making it easy to tug him out of the bed.
The bathroom has a large clawfoot tub that’ll probably, maybe,hopefully,fit us both. If not, Nolan can sit comfortably on my lap, and I won’t complain. Turning the water on high and to the type of hot, scalding temperature I’ve learned Nolan likes, I toss in some of the bath salts and oils the hotel provided. The air fills with the scent of lavender and vanilla. When I glanceover my shoulder, Nolan is leaning against the sink, carefully keeping his gaze pointed away from the mirror.
“Come on, angel.” I climb into the tub and wiggle my fingers again in demand for him to join me. He never fails to smile when I do this. It’s a small Nolan smile, the one that tips just one corner of his mouth up, but I always count it as a win.
“We’re too big for this,” Nolan mutters as he climbs in, easily settling between my legs.
I wrap my arm around his cold chest, pulling him tightly against my front until he’s snugly pressed into the curve of my body. His heart pounds a rapid beat against my palm, so I gently swipe my thumb across his damp skin, hoping to calm it.
“Tell me something I can’t learn from Google,” I whisper into the skin of Nolan’s neck.
His hands rub up and down my thighs, as he sighs deeply. “My entire life is on Google. You know everything.”
“I haven’t looked you up, so I don’t know anything already.”
Nolan’s hands still their questing journey on my thighs. “You haven’t looked me up?”
I shake my head and nuzzle deeper into his neck. Pressing a kiss against his pulse point, I slowly raise my hand to cup his throat. “No. I want to know what youwantme to know. Nothing the internet says means shit.”
“You’re so fucking weird, Benjamin.”
“That’s not my name,” I whine, because it’s actually starting to have a ring to it when he says it.
“I know,” Nolan quietly admits, almost quiet enough for me to miss it.
“What’s my name?”
“Sunshine,” Nolan whispers, fingers dancing across the skin of my thigh.
“How do you…”
Nolan chuckles lightly. “Chris does background checks on all my men. Just like I knew everything about Trevor’s past. I know your name is Sunshine and that you dropped out of college after two semesters.”
This fact should probably piss me off but it doesn’t. “Doesn’t seem fair that you know that about me but I’ve never googled you.”
“Well…” Nolan trails off with a soft, barely audible sigh. “I don’t call you by your name, do I? It’s pretty obvious you don’t like it.”
“I go by my middle name,” I admit quietly.
“I’ll offer you a trade,” Nolan says just as quietly. Goose pimples pop up in their wake as I trail my fingers over his forearms. “The first time I performed on stage for a crowd of around one hundred people… I ran off as soon as I finished singing and vomited all over the stairs behind the venue.”
