He reached down and caught the backs of her thighs, picking her up and spreading her legs as he moved her back to the wall. He pushed her against it, his cock tunneling into her flesh, slipping deep because she was so wet.

“Mine,” he grunted, pulling back and straining back toward her. “Mine… Mine… Mine!”

He punctuated every word with a hard thrust. Driving deep, touching that spot inside her that sent a current of pure rapture through her. It forced the breath from her, leaving her moaning.

“Yeah, baby… Let me hear you…”

There wasn’t any real choice. But she didn’t really want one. All she craved was the next connection between their flesh. She was suspended between time, falling through a crack in reality. There was only the two of them and the way they were satisfied only by each other. She was his; he was her addiction.

She craved him.

Would have done anything to keep him feeding her needs.

She dug her fingernails into his shoulders, trying to lift her hips toward him. He flattened her back against the wall, growling at her while he pumped against her, forcing her to let him set the pace.

“Mine.”

It was more than a word.

It was an entire idea.

Her entire reality at that moment.

It shattered in a mind-numbing jolt of light, searing as it burned through her. She was caught in its grip, wrung by the power of it until she ended up as nothing but a pulsing lump clinging to Syon as he ground himself into her and let his passion explode. She purred as he emptied himself into her, the hot spurt of his seed intensifying the intimacy of the moment—binding them together with trust.

Everything was base, primal, and savage.

And the animal inside her wanted that last confirmation that she’d satisfied him.

Someone laid their fist on the suite door.

“We need to roll!”

Syon lifted his head and let her legs slide down. He cupped her chin and kissed her, a soft compression of his lips against hers that made her tremble with how tender it was.

* * *

“You don’t need to turn in a time sheet again.”

Kate looked up, catching a look from Syon as he took a final glance in the mirror. Everyone was amped up again, the arena full as Toxsin prepared to take the stage.

“You didn’t need to get involved.”

Syon turned away from the mirror, looking every inch the rock god he was: his makeup perfect, his skin hot and smelling like leather and man animal. The heavy eyeliner accentuated the slant of his eyes, making him once again into the Goblin King.

“You didn’t ask me to get involved. But I needed to make sure things were clear. You’re an artist.”

He’d stopped in front of her. It might look like he was talking to her, but she knew him better than that. He was making a point of bringing up the subject during an official moment. The makeup girls were listening, along with at least eight of Cid’s crew. Two private security men were there, pigtailed ear devices on as they watched everything from behind dark glasses. A sound guy was trolling around, checking the small personal sound systems attached to each of the band members. Two of Cid’s girls were there as well, but the road manager was outside the performers’ room, chatting up some VIPs.

Syon leaned down and kissed her. It was soft and quick, but it felt like a brand.

“Time to get down into the seats.” Cid had walked into the doorway, his standard, happy-go-lucky grin in place.

“Sure.” Kate walked toward the door.

“Got to take that.” Cid reached for the glass in her hand. “Stadium rules. No booze in the stands.”

Kate tossed back the last bit and relinquished the glass. One of the polo-shirted guys guided her through the backstage maze. Thick power cords ran along the floor. There were barricades set up to form walkways from the back of the stage to the performers’ room. The lights were already flashing, a preshow soundtrack playing over the speaker system.

The crowd was already filling the stadium with a dull roar, like distant thunder. It was only going to grow in intensity until Syon whipped them up into a storm of spine-tingling climaxes.

She was pumped up for it, edging her way into the crowd forcefully when people didn’t want to let her get to the seat reserved for her. The security guy made them move aside. He reached out and snagged the “reserved” sign off the seat and made sure she’d slid into it before the crowd converged. Surrounding the catwalk and stage was the mosh pit. People had arrived hours earlier to fill it, and they were pressing up against the stage without mercy for anyone in their way. They were there to be in the crush; no one was interested in maintaining distance.

The crowd surged toward the stage as the performers entered. She felt it as much as saw it—a wave that seemed to lift the crowd off its feet and send it crashing into the music. Kate was carried along with it, giddy to be a part of the exuberance.

The concert went on and carried her deeper and deeper into the current. She lost track of what was happening, Syon the only fixed point in her world. Everything else blurred, until it was just a backsplash of colored smears that spun in a crazy circle. People pushed against her, dancing, well, maybe it was dancing. Maybe it was more of a primal straining.

Rubbing.

Groping.

She stopped, trying to push someone’s hand off her butt. But concentration was impossible. In fact, holding her head up felt like too much effort. Her neck had lost all its strength; her eyelids felt heavy.

There were just hands everywhere. She felt them but didn’t really understand what was happening. She was leaning on the catwalk but moved her hands to push the groping hands off her. When she did, she slid down, falling beneath the weight of the next wave of people surging toward the stage. They flooded in, filling the spot she’d occupied, stepping on her as Syon and Ramsey whipped them into the last frenzy of the show.

Pain tried to make it through the haze clouding her thoughts, but at least the haze was thick enough to block most of it. It bore her into a tunnel of darkness that made the impact of feet insignificant.

Yeah…everything was insignificant.

* * *

“Can you tell me your name?”

Kate rolled away from the light being aimed into her eye.

“Do you know what’s happening?”

Whoever it was, they lifted her eyelid and aimed the light right back in her eye. It felt like a needle being shoved down the center of her pupil. She tried to roll the other way, pulling her legs up to fend off the spinning.

“It’s Kate Napier.”

She turned over, lifting her eyelids a tiny bit. There was something about the sound of that voice that she knew, but the world beyond her eyelids was a swirling mess. She sank back down into the abyss of unconsciousness.

Syon fought to get close to Kate, but the medics were pushing him back. Cops were holding people back, the blue-and-red flash of their emergency vehicles casting an eerie glow over the scene. Ramsey was suddenly there, the only person who could pull him back.

“She needs a hospital.”

* * *

“I’m going to fucking kill someone.”

The security guard near the emergency-room door sent him a warning glance that Syon ignored.

“Let’s watch what you say, mate. No need to say things you don’t mean.”

Cid tried to hook his arm, but Syon turned on him, curling his hand in Cid’s shirt front. “Why the fuck wasn’t someone watching her?”

He couldn’t get to Kate’s side, but he could sure as hell deal with his own people.

Cid covered his hand, smiling as the guard eyed them. He waited until the security guard looked away before answering. “Didn’t know she needed babysitting.”

Ramsey pulled him away, which likely saved Cid from getting his nose broken. Syon let Ramsey pull him across the waiting area before he shrugged free.