Sed entered the song again and an unexpected twang alerted the guitar technician, and anyone else paying attention, to a snapped guitar string. Jake grabbed a replacement instrument and switched it out with Brian before Reagan had even comprehended what happened. With only a few notes missed, Brian got right back into the song on a different guitar, while Jake hurried to remove the pieces of the broken string and replace them with a new one so Brian could get his preferred instrument back as soon as possible.

Before the show, Reagan had followed Jake around learning all she could about how the equipment was managed for well-known bands. She’d been particularly excited to find out she wouldn’t have to tune her own guitars or replace the strings. Technicians would do that for her. She was liking this gig more and more.

The song ended and the crowd erupted in cheers. While Sed did his usual thing and talked to the crowd about how great they were, Trey headed to his microphone for a little crowd interaction of his own.

“This crowd is hot tonight,” Trey said.

Someone in the audience yelled something that Reagan couldn’t hear. Trey apparently heard it though, because he chuckled and said, “I won’t argue with that, sweetheart.” His deep voice sounded even sexier echoing through the enormous, jam-packed stadium. Reagan was so going to jump his bones the second the performance ended. If he didn’t stop looking so freaking irresistible, she might not make it that long.

Sinners segued into their crowd favorite, “Twisted.” They usually ended a show with that song. Sinners’ show had evolved since she’d last attended one. Reagan was stunned when Jace took the ego riser and played a bass solo in the middle of the song. The crowd ate up every minute of it. Reagan couldn’t take her eyes off Trey even then. Maybe he looked so good to her while up onstage because they’d spent the last couple of hours apart. Or maybe it was the way he played a guitar like he wanted to have sex with it. That guitar didn’t know how lucky it was, but Reagan did.

Reagan didn’t think her heart rate returned to normal for the first thirty minutes of the band’s set. Near the end of the sixth song, someone moved to stand beside her. She turned and instantly recognized Sinners’ ex-bass-player Jon Mallory.

He tugged her headphone back and said in her ear, “Hey, cutie. You look lonely.”

“That will be remedied as soon as Trey’s finished.”

Jon grinned. “So you’re Trey’s hook-up for tonight.”

Reagan wasn’t sure why that little statement made her spitting mad. “I’m Trey’s hook-up every night.”

Jon chuckled. “Sure, sweetheart. Whatever you need to believe to remove you from your panties.”

“Fuck off,” she said and shoved his hand from her headphone.

He shrugged and someone handed him a bass guitar. Reagan watched him in confusion until she saw a white baby grand piano rise from the center of the stage with Jace at the keyboard. Jon played bass in this song while Jace played piano. How could she have forgotten that? Eric’s voice singing the chorus was another unique part of this amazing song. During Jon’s entire short time onstage, he tried to upstage the rest of the band. Reagan wasn’t sure why they didn’t push him off the stage and into the pit, but Jon’s three minutes of fame (or idiocy) ended quickly and Jace was back on bass by the guitar solo.

Jon paused next to Reagan on his way offstage. He pulled back her headphone again and said, “I’m finished now if you don’t want to wait for Trey. Or we can get in a quickie and he’ll never even have to know about it.”

“Are you fucking serious?” she asked.

“Jon, leave Reagan alone,” Jake said, his blond mohawk looking somehow threatening in the alternating colors of the stage lights. “If she doesn’t kick your ass, I will.”

“No respect,” Jon said. Some girl in the audience standing on the floor near the end of the barrier gate waved at Jon. She flashed her tits at him and he lifted his guitar strap over his head. “Never mind. I’ve found my own good time.”

He handed his bass guitar to Reagan, who had no idea what to do with it, and sauntered over to the giggling fangirl who’d caught his attention. Jake took the guitar from Reagan and she returned her attention to the stage wondering how much she’d missed while Jon had distracted her.

The next song was Sinners’ new ballad, “Fallen.” It was common knowledge that Trey wrote the song about his addiction to painkillers and his recovery. It had never occurred to Reagan that Sinners’ two ballads had both been written by her boyfriend until that moment. He truly was a sensitive soul. Intermixed with that unmistakable naughty streak. Near the middle of the song, Trey took the mic and recited a soliloquy in a somber tone.

“Sometimes when your world crashes down from above and you think there’s no way to claw yourself out of the rubble of your life, a hand reaches for you. Finds you. Drags you from the depths of despair and refuses to let you go.” Trey looked across the stage at Sed. Reagan felt the emotion behind Trey’s words in her chest. Tears sprang to her eyes and the lights blurred. When Trey and Sed sang the chorus in a perfectly harmonious duet, the tears started to fall. She didn’t even try to stem the flow. She couldn’t remember the last time a song had touched her so deeply. With a few words spoken before a crowd of thousands, Trey held her heart. Completely.

Four songs and two encores later, the lights went down for the last time. The second Trey stepped off the stage, Reagan pounced on him. He was always sexy, but watching him onstage had saturated her panties and reinforced her love for him. “I don’t think I’ve ever wanted you this badly.”

“Oh yeah?” he murmured close to her throbbing ear. Even with the headphones the music had been loud.

She grabbed two fistfuls of his T-shirt and started walking backward, too fixated on Trey to even care if things were in her way. “I don’t even need foreplay.”

He chuckled and gave her a kiss on the temple. “I’m going to go take a shower in the dressing room before we head out.”

“Can I join you?”

“Next time. We have an appearance at a mall tomorrow, so we need to leave as soon as possible. Even before the equipment is packed up. I need to hurry.”

“So take a shower on the bus. Preferably after we spend a couple hours in the back bedroom. Unless Eric and Rebekah…”

“Rebekah is riding on the other bus tonight. She has to help tear down the sound equipment. That bedroom is all ours. Why don’t you go change the sheets on the bed?”

Reagan scowled. “Are you rejecting me?”

He laughed. “Not in a million years, baby. I just need to cool down a little.”

“I like you hot.”

“Do you like me having heat stroke? I need too cool off. I’m so overheated I’m nauseous.”

She wanted him desperately and it was as if he’d totally lost interest. “Fine, go take your shower.”

He kissed her gently and left her standing in the corridor outside the dressing room. She crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the closed door. If she didn’t know better, she’d think he was avoiding her or hiding something from her. He probably just needed a moment to himself. And that’s all he was getting. A moment. If he wasn’t on the bus by the time she changed the sheets, she would drag his wet, naked body to the bus no matter how much he protested.

“Real classy, Reagan,” she said to herself as she shuffled toward the bus, not sure why she was off to change the sheets without his assistance. The guy already had her wrapped around his finger.

Trey closed the dressing room door and leaned against it. He’d like to say he was surprised to see the gorgeous, naked man waiting for him, but he wasn’t. It’s the reason why he’d had to talk Reagan into going to the bus without him. Jake had alerted him to this situation right after the show when Trey had handed his guitar to him. If it had been a woman waiting for him in the dressing room, he would have brought Reagan in to make sure his past lover knew that he was serious, but since it was a guy… Well, Reagan didn’t need to know this man rocked Trey’s world every time he came to Topeka.