Sam and his boys had cleared a path for us, but that didn’t stop the bastards from shouting questions and trying to blind us with their flashes. I went first, pulling Molly behind me, using my body to shelter hers as much as I could. Nate and Lia were right behind her, with Sam bringing up the rear.

There was a car waiting for us, so the four of us climbed in the back of the Suburban and let Sam take the front. The door wasn’t closed behind Nate before they were cupping their hands against the glass, trying to see in through the tinted windows. I knew they couldn’t see anything, but I yanked Mols against me anyway, tucking her into my side and pushing her face against my chest.

“I can’t breathe!” she hollered, laughing as she struggled to get free.

“You’re fine. We’re taking off in a minute,” I promised, but I loosened my hold. When she sat up, she smacked me playfully in the chest. Without thinking, I leaned down, capturing her chin and stole a kiss.

I’d meant it to be a quick, playful peck. Mols had other ideas. Her arms wrapped around my neck and she leaned into the kiss, groaning into my mouth as she moved her entire body onto mine. I forgot where we were, my hands grabbing her hips and grinding her down against my hardening dick.

Need for her consumed me. She pulled back, adjusting, but I couldn’t pull my mouth away. Instead, I kissed and nipped at her exposed neck, causing her to make all kinds of delicious little noises. I needed to be in her. I was going to explode if she wasn’t sitting on my dick in five seconds. I—

Whatever thought that had been forming quickly disappeared as Lia cleared her throat. Loudly. As if she’d done it a few times already. Molly and I both stopped abruptly, a beautiful shade of pink climbing onto her cheeks.

Tipping my head slightly, I realized that the only person in the car not staring at us was the driver. “Sorry,” I mumbled pathetically. “Got carried away.”

“We saw that,” Nate answered. For the first time, he didn’t sound pissed about the idea of Molly and me. Turning back to Sam, he shrugged. “Guess we will need some time back at the hotel before we get on the bus. The two love birds in the backseat need to have some alone time.”

“Oh, God.” Poor Molly moaned. If she’d been embarrassed before, she was mortified now.

“Exactly.” Nate pointed at her. “That’s the kind of shit I don’t want to spend the next few weeks listening to, so if you two could get it out of your system now, that’d be great.”

Fuck.

Three weeks on a bus with a bunch of assholes. Three weeks of no privacy, spending every waking moment with Molly, but not being alone with her. Three weeks of sleeping in a bunk near Mols, but not with her.

Tucking hair behind her ear, I cupped her cheek. It was almost completely healed, and I touched the fading lines gently. “I’m not sure I’m gonna be able to make it that long.”

“It’s gonna be hell.”

Chapter Twenty-One

~ Molly~

Hell. A place of torment and punishment. Or Nate Kelly’s tour bus. The two were synonymous.

Two weeks. Fifteen days. Nine shows. Thousands of miles. And zero orgasms.

My body was on high alert. If I thought I’d been horny before I started sleeping with Mike, it was nothing compared to now. Being near him, smelling him, watching him laugh with his friends when he thought I wasn’t looking, feeling his fingers run over the bare skin on my back as we walked to the stage—it was all driving me crazy.

I went to bed on a bunk above his every night, silently begging him to join me once everyone else was asleep. Three nights in, I realized that was never going to happen, and I started using my fingers to try to ease the never-ending ache. It worked. For all of fifteen minutes.

I barely had any time alone with him. If we weren’t with Lia, it was Nate, or one of the other boys, and after our embarrassing public make out session in New York, Mike refused to have a repeat. He was too good, too considerate to do anything that would make our roommates uncomfortable.

In fact, he had started avoiding me hours after we boarded the bus. At first, it was just little things, like sitting across from me instead of next to me. Then it was bigger things, like making sure Lia tagged along with us if we were heading to a party before the others or having Noah join us on our jogs. Then came the ultimate blow. I’d cornered him in the kitchen early one morning, hoping for a quick snuggle—or more—and he’d pushed me away, making some lame ass excuse before rushing into the bathroom.

For a few days, I struggled. His behavior stung, more than I would ever admit out loud. He’d started taking calls, at all hours of the day, and from the little snippets I’d heard, I knew they were from Julie. I couldn’t begin to fathom what the woman could possibly have to say that would make him stop what he was doing and sneak out. I blamed her for his change in behavior, because I needed to blame something, and she was the easiest target.

Then, one afternoon while I was curled up on the couch, lost in a heartbreaking romance, Noah sat next to me and pulled me onto his lap, wrapping his arms around me and settling his chin on my shoulder. I pulled out an earbud, tucking it into his so he could watch with me. None of the guys paid us any attention, lost in their own electronics. It wasn’t unusual to find the two of us like that. The kid may show the world a practical jokester, but at heart, he was a pure romantic.

Halfway through the movie, Noah adjusted us, and I leaned my back against his chest, adjusting the tablet so he could still see the screen. “Hmm.” He turned his mouth to my empty ear. “Don’t look now, little girl. But, we have an audience.”

I didn’t have to look to know who he was talking about. Ignoring the advice, I glanced up and straight into the unmasked jealousy on Mike’s face. Noah chose that moment to kiss my temple and run his fingers up and down my arm. The giant brat. Mike’s nostrils flared, and his eyes grew heated.

At least I wasn’t the only one losing my mind.

After that day, the few private seconds we were able to sneak were filled with stolen kisses and promises of what Mike was going to do to me once we got to the hotel in California. He was very detailed, as if he knew that I hung onto every word he said. I couldn’t fucking wait.

Thinking about it now made me squirm in my seat. Glancing up at the clock to see how long we had before the show, my eyes rested on the man that was driving me out of my mind. He was watching me, a knowing look plastered on his face. When his eyes darted to the bathroom, and then back to me, I knew what he wanted. Hell, I couldn’t think of anything I wanted more.

We’d been parked outside the Isleta Amphitheater for a few hours, waiting for the show to start. I’d hoped that the boys would be stir crazy, and want to go explore Albuquerque, but no one had gone anywhere because the weather was too hot and sticky. The general consensus was that we were just too fucking tired. Bastards.

Just as I was sliding off my seat, intending to sneak to the bathroom, the door opened, catching us all by surprise. I paused, waiting to see who it was. We’d barely seen the guys I used to live with on the second bus. They very rarely came over here, unless we planned to hang out. They were all married and settled, and apparently, we made single life look appealing. Yes, the temptation of playing video games for hours on end and remaining abstinent. I couldn’t imagine why everyone didn’t want to live our version of single life. Asshats.

I chuckled at my agitation. Apparently, this no sex thing was making me snarky. I wondered if I could use my attitude to prove to Mike that we had to have sex—for the good of the tour.