He was up and moving toward the door, Drake and Ramsey falling in behind him.

Kate didn’t make it out of her seat fast enough, because Syon was still playing with her. Before she knew it, Taz and the others disappeared, leaving her alone with Syon.

“Perfect,” Syon said with a dark promise in his tone.

Syon removed his foot, giving her enough time to clear her wits. He slid beneath the table before she realized what he was going to do.

“Syon…”

Her voice became a squeak as he hooked his fingers around her underwear and pulled it down her legs.

“I want ginger,” he said, his voice rasping as he pushed her knees apart.

She felt his breath on her cleft. “Syon…not here…”

“Oh yeah, baby.” He ran his thumb down the center of her slit. “I came here to eat…”

Words failed her. She was suddenly intensely conscious of her slit. Syon teased it with his thumb, moving from her clit to her pussy with a slow motion.

“First time I saw you…I wanted to know if you had ginger curls.” He pushed his fingers through her pubic hair. “I love them.”

“Someone is going to walk in on us.” She tried to push away from him with the help of the table, but he had his hands on her hips and held her still.

“Guess you’d better bite your lips.” He used his thumbs to pull the folds of her pussy open. “’Cause I am going to eat you out.”

The first touch made her shudder. She ended up grasping the tablecloth as her fingers curled into claws. She raised the edge of it just enough for her to see the back of Syon’s head where it was buried in her lap.

“Mmmm…” he muttered as he licked through the center of her slit. “Good.”

He was rimming her pussy with his tongue, sending her heart pounding. Her clit was pulsing, begging for attention.

Syon didn’t disappoint her. He lapped his way back to the little bundle of nerve endings and teased it.

“Oh…damn,” she gasped.

He chuckled and closed his mouth around her clit. Pleasure ripped through her, raising goose bumps all over her body. She forgot about being walked in on. Forgot about where they were.

Forgot everything except the way Syon was eating her out. He might have started slow, but there was nothing timid about his actions now. He was lapping her and sucking her, working his tongue against her clit in hard motions that were driving her to the edge of madness.

“Yeah…” she muttered, on the edge of climax. She pushed her hips toward him, twisting her hands in his hair. “Like that…”

She strained toward him as he worked his tongue. He pressed hard, pushing her toward the explosion and sucking her through it. She ended up sprawled out on the floor, the oversize pillow beneath her as Syon pulled a napkin from the tabletop and cleaned her.

It was strange to have him attend to such a personal chore. Stranger still to realize he understood her body so well. He rubbed the top of her thighs with his hands, massaging the quivering muscles before crawling out from beneath the table.

“You’re a maniac,” she said at last, sitting up and reaching for her wineglass.

“That’s what you love about me.”

The word “love” was a little sharp.

Only because you’re chicken…

With good reason. Syon had women throwing themselves at him. What sort of incentive did she have to offer for him to be monogamous?

But then again, he hadn’t insisted she be monogamous. Taz and the others came back, hooting with laughter over their adventure. They settled in as another round of food arrived. They laughed and ribbed each other. The unity was there, like a close-knit family. In a way, it was rarer than family, because what drew them together was the passion inside them. People might enjoy the idea of being rebels, but they went back to their respectable lives when the concert was over. Very few were willing to face the condemning nature of society at large.

She was lucky enough to be having dinner with four of them.

* * *

Percy caught up with her again in Milwaukee. “So how is it going, sweetie?”

“I’m not a very good gypsy,” Kate confessed. Cid’s crew was setting up her shop as she sipped coffee in an attempt to wake up. Her body was protesting, her internal clock thrown so far off, she didn’t have any hope of recovering.

But she had to work on the day they were building the concert stage, so it was up with the sun.

“You’re going to do just fine.” Percy offered her a long-distance pat on the shoulder. “Being on the road is hard, but the work I’ve seen is fabulous.”

“Thanks to your shopping.”

Percy made a happy sound on the other end of the line. “Wouldn’t miss it. Steve keeps asking when we need to go again. I think he’s fantasizing about those studs a little too much.”

“Well, I’m sure you can put his passion to good use.”

Percy laughed. “You know I will.”

The last of her shop was unloaded. The crew was unboxing her machines and setting up the cutting table. It took less than an hour, because she and Percy knew how to design a set kit.

She laid out a new hide, smoothing the winkles and studying the surface intently before laying out a pattern. Drake wanted a small pocket running down the right leg for his drumsticks. Kate considered the pattern, making a couple of new pieces to form the pocket.

“You’re intense when you work.”

Kate looked up to find Taz halfway into the suite. She lowered the shears she’d been about to start cutting with.

“Yes.”

“It shows in your work. You love what you do.”

Coming from Taz, it felt like a double compliment. He was more private than the other members of the band.

“I was wondering”—he pulled a tablet from his jacket, looking like he was working up the courage to ask her something—“if you can do something like this. If you have time.”

He laid the device on the table. She came around and looked at the picture of Loki from The Avengers.

“I like to cosplay when we’re not on tour,” he confessed.

Kate nodded. “And you want to be the bad boy.”

“I am the bad boy.”

Kate shook her head. “No, you’re not.”

Something passed through his eyes. It darkened his expression momentarily before he shook it off. “I’ve messed up pretty bad when it counted.”

“We all do.”

He offered her a shrug before leaving. For a moment she felt like going after him. There was something dark inside him, a pain that ran deep. But it was the type of demon only he could defeat.

Maybe he’d tell her more about it when she finished his Loki coat.

* * *

“Thank you, Milwaukee!”

The fans roared, and Syon left them screaming for more. Kate fought her way to the backstage entrance. She squeezed through the opening—two of Cid’s guys were blocking it and unwilling to move aside more than two inches, it seemed.

But the swarm of bodies behind her made it understandable. They tried to follow her, the men holding them back with pure bulk.

Syon looped an arm around her, pulling her close for a sweaty kiss. She followed him into the performance room, where Cid was ready to run the show.

“I’m out tonight.”

Cid turned around, looking at Ramsey like he’d lost his mind.

“Don’t think I heard you, mate,” Cid said incredulously.

“You did.” Ramsey wiped his makeup off. “I’ve got something I’ve got to take care of.”

“Yeah,” Syon joined in. “We’ve got stuff to deal with.”

“Someone’s got to meet the press,” Cid insisted.

“Fine,” Syon said. “I got that.”

Cid wasn’t pleased. Not by a long shot. A tide of red darkened his complexion, but Syon didn’t give him a chance to argue. He turned and jerked his head toward the doors. Ramsey was moving instantly, heading for the door with a hard expression on his face. Kate lost sight of him as they piled into a black SUV and made their way to the hotel.

The normal buzz was missing. Kate felt like the only one not in on the secret. But she didn’t get long to ponder it. Their driver pulled around the huge semicircle in front of the hotel and opened the doors to the delight of the fans.