Would he insist on making her saturate them with her arousal?

Oh lord, she was going to embarrass herself for sure.

Next time she saw Owen, she promised herself that she’d wear sexy underwear for him.

If there was a next time. She was starting to believe there might be a lot of next times.

After tossing her toiletries and make-up into her overnight bag, Caitlyn yanked the zipper shut and went to rescue Owen—and her own reputation—from Jenna’s clutches.

As expected, Jenna had Owen in stitches. They were standing next to the car, Owen leaning against the door so he didn’t collapse in hysterics and Jenna talking in her typical animated fashion. Caitlyn could only guess what her friend had been telling him. Probably about the time she’d forced Caitlyn to go zip-lining and she’d gotten stuck over a canyon. Caitlyn had been fascinated by the physics of the exercise and had determined the effectiveness of hand-braking via experimentation. Her experiment had been a marvelous success—she’d stopped dead in the center of the line—and it had taken her nearly an hour to pull herself, hand over hand, to the nearest station, much to the displeasure of everyone waiting a turn to zoom across the canyon.

“When she fell, she grabbed the nearest guy—by the pants, unfortunately—and we all soon discovered that he was a man who went commando.”

Owen sniggered and rubbed his forehead.

Oh, this was her rollerblading fiasco story. What was next, the “stuck upside-down between two rocks in a kayak” story? Jenna had never gotten it into her head that Caitlyn had the athletic prowess of a common sea slug. While their exploits were adventures for Jenna, those excursions had been exercises in injury and humiliation for Caitlyn. But she went because she knew how much Jenna enjoyed the not-so-great outdoors. And Jenna sometimes accompanied Caitlyn to science fiction conventions because she knew how much Caitlyn enjoyed pretending she was from space. Caitlyn pinked at her thoughts. She hoped Jenna hadn’t told Owen that she liked to dress up as Princess Leia on occasion. She kept the fake-braid earmuffs in the top drawer of her dresser at home.

Though she should be mortified, she wasn’t really. It was stranger to see Owen laughing with Jenna than knowing he was laughing because Jenna was embarrassing her. Seeing him with her best friend made it seem possible that Owen could become a part of Caitlyn’s regular life and not just be the guy who’d given her one night of thought-shattering sex.

Did she even want Owen as part of her regular life? That hadn’t been what she’d been after when she went to the sex club.

Just because something was possible didn’t mean she had to follow up. Maybe she could still blow him off and spend the day with Jenna. Jenna was… safe.

Owen smiled a greeting when he noticed Caitlyn approaching. Jenna turned and her face fell. You didn’t change? Jenna mouthed without speaking.

“I put on clean panties,” Caitlyn said defensively.

Jenna turned and said to Owen, “Can you give us just five more minutes?”

He turned to the driver, who stood next to the front fender. “When does the bus leave?”

The driver checked his watch. “We need to leave here in the next couple of minutes to make it.”

“I guess you have time to put your dirty panties back on,” Owen said.

Jenna burst out laughing and patted his chest playfully. “This one is naughty and nice,” she said, tossing her hair in an obviously flirtatious way. “You were so right about him.”

“He has his cock pierced too,” Caitlyn blurted, and then she clamped her hand over her big mouth.

“Hurry, baby.” Owen said. “We need to get going. I can’t wait to introduce you to Force.”

“What force?” Caitlyn asked.

“Our drummer. He’s going to love you.” Owen scratched the back of his neck. “On second thought, I should probably keep you away from him.”

“We’ll be right back,” Jenna said, pulling Caitlyn back into the house. She slammed the door behind them and spun to confront Caitlyn. “Oh my God, Caitlyn, he’s gorgeous. And funny. And sweet. And apparently rich and famous. How in the hell did you luck into that?”

“I dunno. He likes older geeky women who give off men-suck vibes in sex clubs.”

“If you want to keep his attention, you’re going to have to dress better. You look like you climbed out of a thrift store Dumpster.”

“I’m telling you,” Caitlyn said, “he likes this look. I don’t get it either.”

“He can’t possibly like this look,” Jenna said. “He likes you and, unfortunately, you come with this look.”

“He likes me?” Caitlyn said breathlessly.

“Well, duh. What’s not to like?”

In a semi-trance, Caitlyn allowed Jenna to strip her down to her bra and panties. After a deserved eye roll at Caitlyn’s cow panties, Jenna stuck her in a pair of black capris that were tight in the rear and a soft pink T-shirt that stretched taut across her boobs.

“It’s not me,” Caitlyn said.

“You look cute.”

“I look like you.”

“Right,” Jenna said. “You look cute. Now do me a favor.”

“What?”

“Pretend to be cool.”

“Jenna…”

“Just for today.”

Caitlyn released an annoyed sigh. “Fine. I’ll pretend to be cool. But I need to hurry.” After being forced into sandals, she shoved her discarded clothes into her overnight bag and hurried out to the limo.

“What are you wearing?” Owen asked when she paused before him.

“Uh, Jenna thought…”

He shook his head slightly. “She thought wrong.”

For a moment, Caitlyn believed he was going to tell her to get lost, but he opened the door to the back of the limo, and she slipped inside.

He climbed in beside her, and the driver shut the door.

“I told you I like the jacket. I like the bow at your throat that begs to be untied. I like that your bra doesn’t match your panties.”

“It still doesn’t,” she said. “So you’re only attracted to me for my wardrobe, is that it?”

“No, you’d look hot in anything you wore—or nothing—but this outfit doesn’t give me a permanent boner. I have to be honest.”

“That’s probably a good thing,” she said and laughed. “My vagina needs a few hours to collect itself. It’s not used to so much attention.”

“Well, then, I’ll try to contain my blinding lust.” He grinned and took her hand, holding it gently in his. His thumb rubbed a lazy circle on her knuckles. “So,” he said. “Tell me about your camping trip. Jenna said you’d kill her if she told me about the skunk that got stuck in your tent.”

Caitlyn cringed. “She’s right. I’d kill her for that.”

“I didn’t take you for the outdoorsy type.”

“That’s because I’m not. Jenna is, though, and I am weak to her charm. She can talk me into anything.”

“It’s great to have a best friend, someone who pushes you to try things you’d never consider on your own. Makes life interesting.”

Caitlyn smiled, knowing he was thinking about Kellen again. Kellen was Owen’s Jenna. She suddenly felt a lot more comfortable about Owen’s relationship with Kellen. Caitlyn probably would never call Jenna’s name during sex, but whatever. If Owen said there was no attraction between them, she believed him.

“Interesting? I guess that’s one way to describe it.”

They both laughed and somehow ended up kissing all the way to the tour bus. Maybe it wasn’t her pathetic wardrobe that turned him on after all.

Their driver handed off their bags to some guy who stuffed them into a compartment under the bus.

“I’ll need to change later,” Caitlyn said.

“You can get your bag when we stop at the venue.”

She nodded.

“Ready to meet the rest of the band?”

Her stomach flopped. She was scared out of her mind, to be honest. Who’d have ever thought she’d be riding on a tour bus with a bunch of heavy metal musicians? Not her.