Jenn sipped from her moonlight martini as Cole made his way toward their table. He had to stop a half-dozen times to greet people. Women fawned all over him. Men fell all over themselves trying to impress him. And this was a private party. What it would be like to go out with him in public?
Not that she had any intention of finding out. She tossed back the last of her martini and set the glass down on the table in front of her a bit more vigorously than she’d intended. Colton Nix was nothing but eye candy. Okay, ear candy too, because, let’s face it, the man could sing.
“Well, if it isn’t the lady of the hour.” His voice was rich and decadent and so damn sexy. But when she looked up, he was staring at her instead of Kate. And the world seemed to tilt on its axis.
“She sure is.” Kate’s voice seemed to filter in through some kind of haze, because Jenn could not look away from Cole’s midnight stare or hear past the out-of-control pounding of her heart.
He was the one who broke eye contact, stepping forward to greet Kate, who’d stood to give him a hug. “It’s been an absolute pleasure,” he told her.
“Likewise,” Kate said. “Believe it or not, you’re my first duet.”
“No shit?” A wide smile broke across his face.
“It’s true,” she confirmed. “And based on the buzz so far, it’s something I should do more often.”
“I was thinking the same thing.”
Jenn slipped away from the conversation to visit the ladies’ room, and whoa…now that she was on her feet, she could definitely feel the effects of those moonlight martinis. But actually, she kind of liked the feeling. She wasn’t technically on the clock tonight, and she so rarely got to cut loose. She knew herself well enough to know she was a quiet drunk. And maybe she deserved to live it up a little bit tonight.
Just not with Cole.
When she got back to the party, she made her way to the bar to grab another martini. “Who’s getting married tonight?” she asked the bartender, gesturing toward the garland twinkling on the beach beyond. The moon had risen now and hung in perfect silhouette behind the arch, with silvered waves crashing beyond. It was breathtaking.
“A couple’s eloping. They were supposed to arrive by helicopter about an hour ago,” the bartender told her as he set a fresh martini on the bar in front of her. His name tag identified him as Tony, and he had the most delightful Caribbean accent. “If you ask me, I think they’re going to no-show.”
“Really? That’s such a shame.”
“You’re telling me. We’ve got our justice of the peace here waiting and all the preparations already made.”
“That’s depressing,” she said, taking a sip of her new drink.
“What is?” a rich, masculine voice asked from behind her, and she felt Cole’s presence in the tingling sensation at the pit of her stomach. She’d been in the industry long enough that “starstruck” was not a condition that affected her. Nope, this was just plain old-fashioned lust.
“Not showing up to your own wedding,” she answered him.
“That will never happen to me.” He slid in beside her and nodded to Tony, who placed a shot of something in front of him.
“You sound awfully sure about that,” she said.
“I am, for two reasons. One is that I never make promises I don’t intend to keep. And two, I don’t ever plan on getting hitched, so it will be impossible for me to skip my own wedding.”
“Hmm.” She eyed him with interest this time. The attraction seemed two-sided. She wasn’t ordinarily a hookup kind of girl, but it had been a long time since she’d been with a man, and spending tonight with Cole would have no impact on her plans to settle down and find a husband once she got back to New York. He might be a rather interesting and fun way to relieve her sexual frustration, though.
“Why all the talk about weddings?” he asked, angling himself so that his thigh brushed hers. Oh yeah, he was definitely interested.
She nodded toward the lit arbor on the beach. “There was supposed to be one here tonight.”
“Supposed to be?”
“Looks like the happy couple might not show up.”
Something dark flickered in his expression. “Maybe they came to their senses.”
“Be careful, Cole,” she said, reaching for her martini glass, “or I might get the impression you’re not romantic.”
He leaned in until his lips were mere inches from hers and her heart was pounding so hard, she thought it might burst through her rib cage. “I’m romantic. If you’re in my bed, I’ll worship your body until you’re screaming my name. I’ll make you feel beautiful and treasured and just a little bit scandalous.”
A flush rose on her skin, hot and tingly. “I try to avoid anything scandalous.”
He smiled then, a genuine smile that lit up his face. “I appreciate that more than just about any man on the planet.”
She watched him as she polished off her martini, feeling the comfortable burn of rum in her belly. Cole was no stranger to scandal. Last year, a woman he’d slept with had posted a picture online, claiming it was Cole’s very tiny—and limp—penis. Naturally, other women had chimed in, looking for their five minutes of fame, and suddenly Cole, once nicknamed the King of Manhattan after one of his most successful songs, became known as the King of Tiny Dix. And unfortunately for him, the moniker just would not die.
Tony placed a fresh martini in front of her, and she thanked him with a smile.
“I’ve seen the dirty side of the business,” she told Cole. “I think what those women did to you—true or not—is absolutely disgusting.”
A strange look passed across his face before he gave her another wicked smile. “That is the sexiest thing I’ve heard a woman say in a long damn time.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “You have a strange definition of ‘sexy.’”
He leaned in closer, his expression gone serious. “I’ve already told you I don’t do relationships, and the only women trying to hook up with me these days just want to find out if the rumors are true.”
“Are you saying…?”
“That I haven’t had sex in damn close to a year?” His voice dropped to something close to a growl. “Fuck, yes, that’s what I’m saying.”
“I’m…I’m sorry.” She crossed one leg over the other. For some reason, his admission was a huge turn-on.
“Not as sorry as I am.” He looked angry and frustrated and…aroused. “And, for the record, it’s not true.”
Her gaze dropped involuntarily to his crotch. “I believe you.”
He let out a rough sound that seemed to echo inside her. Her whole body felt pleasantly fuzzy and warm and increasingly horny. She took a big gulp of her new martini.
Their eyes locked, and his dark gaze seemed to sizzle right through her. “So, Ms. Jennifer MacDonald, how do you feel about one-night stands with popular musicians?”
She swallowed, hard. “I’d say there’s a first time for everything.”
Cole knocked back another snakebite, feeling it burn all the way into his gut. He and Jenn had been drinking at the bar for a while now, long enough that he could no longer remember how many shots he’d consumed, plenty long enough that he was pleasantly trashed and thinking entirely with the head in his pants. The idea of having Jenn in his bed tonight—of finally ending his sexual drought with a woman who was basically guaranteed to be discreet but who also turned him on more than any woman had in years? Well, he was as hard as granite inside his shorts.
The thing was, as desperate as he was to get her naked, he was really enjoying hanging out at the bar with her too. Jenn was fun and refreshing. She knew the industry inside out and was completely unaffected by his celebrity.
“And then she threw up all over Kate’s shoes.” Jenn bent over the bar, laughing so hard that tears leaked from her eyes and a lock of shiny red hair fell across her face.
He reached over to tuck it behind her ear. “That hasn’t happened to me yet, thank God.”
“It’s happened to Kate four or five times. People are so weird.” Jenn wiped a tear from her cheek and reached for her martini. Since Kate and her husband left the party a half hour ago, Jenn had definitely loosened up.
“I do get panties thrown at me onstage, which is less sexy than you’d imagine.”
“It doesn’t sound sexy to me at all,” Jenn said, still giggling. “But then again, I’m not into women’s panties.”
“Well, some of them are hot, but some of them are dirty…and not in a good way.”
“Oh God.” Jenn’s giggles intensified.
“You ever been to one of my shows?” he asked.
She shook her head, then gave him a sultry smile. “But maybe I will the next time you tour.”
“You say the word, and I’ll hook you up with anything you want.”
She glanced over her shoulder at the mostly empty bar. “What do you say we get out of here?”
He grinned. “I thought you’d never ask.”
“Let’s go for a walk on the beach,” she suggested, and okay, he’d already been mentally undressing her, but making out on the beach sounded like fun too.
“One more for the road.” He motioned to the bartender, who placed another round of drinks in front of them.
“We’ll see each other again,” Jenn said as she lifted her martini. “You and Kate are performing together this summer.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, not sure where she was going with this.
She stared into her drink. “We can’t let anything that happens between us tonight affect our ability to be professional when our paths cross in the future.”
“Won’t be a problem. I am strictly a one-night kind of guy.”
She nodded, tapping her glass to his as if sealing some kind of one-night-stand pact. He downed his snakebite, and Jenn gulped her martini in similar fashion. In the back of his mind, he realized they might have an alcohol-related problem, but he was distracted by her dress as she stood from her barstool. It was knee length, flowy, and sheer but with so many layers, he couldn’t see through it, the color of the ocean he’d stood in with her that afternoon. She stumbled against him, and he wrapped an arm around her waist.
He slapped a hundred-dollar bill on the bar and wandered off into the night with Jenn on his arm. The sand was cold now, the night cloaked in darkness and pleasantly cool. The ever-present slap and hiss of the waves against the beach was the only sound other than their feet kicking through the sand. He wasn’t sure if he was holding Jenn upright, or vice versa. “I feel like you have somewhat of an advantage here tonight.”
“How’s that?” she asked, looking up at him in the moonlight.
“You know something very private about me, something that no one else knows. It seems only fair if you offer up something juicy in return.”
She laughed, her grip on his arm tightening. “You want to know my deepest, darkest secret?”
“Yeah, baby.” He held on to her as she swayed dangerously to the side.
“I’m not sure I have one.”
“Oh, come on, everyone has secrets.”
She was silent for so long, he’d decided she wasn’t going to answer before she said quietly, “I want to be a songwriter.”
“Say what now?”
“It’s why I got into the business in the first place, to learn the ropes, and then I just got comfortable because I love working with Kate, but my real dream is to write songs.” The words tumbled out in a rush. She blew out a breath, leaning against him. “I guess it’s a secret because no one else knows, but one of my goals for this year is to change that.”
“Good for you.” He wrapped his arm around her, keeping her close. “I think that’s great, and I hope you make it happen.”
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“Your secret is deeper than mine,” he said as the waves tilted in front of his eyes, and he and Jenn went down in a tangled heap of laughter in the cool sand.
“We’re so drunk.” She looked down at him, moonlight dancing in her eyes.
“Yeah, we are.” He was completely shit-faced, but not so drunk that he didn’t realize the enormity of his fuckup. She was too drunk to come back to his villa tonight. He’d found the perfect girl, spent the entire evening in a state of painful arousal anticipating having her in his bed, and now it couldn’t happen.
He was destined for a life of miserable celibacy.
No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than her lips crashed into his, and his capacity for rational thought ceased. His tongue was in her mouth, and they were kissing. He was desperate for the taste of her, the feel of her hands in his hair and her warm body pressed against his. She let out a needy whimper, and her knees dropped down on either side of his hips so that she straddled his poor, aching cock.
“Your dick is definitely not tiny,” she murmured as her hips pressed against his.
“Fucking headlines.” He gripped her ass, moving her against him.
“Or limp.”
“Been hard practically ever since I met you,” he growled, dragging her mouth back to his for another greedy kiss. He rolled her beneath him, and sand went everywhere, showering over them.
Jenn sputtered, crawling out from under him. She sat up, wiping at her eyes. “Sand.”
It was dripping from his hair and sliding down the back of his legs. “Sorry.”
She grinned as she spat onto the beach. “I’m not.”
“Okay, then.” He struggled to his feet, pulling her up beside him. She was so beautiful. He’d thought so right away, but now—drunk, disheveled, and covered in sand, her lips swollen from his kisses? She was absolutely the most gorgeous woman he’d ever laid eyes on, and he had to find a reason, an excuse…anything to see her again.
She grabbed his hand, leading him toward the lit wedding arch on the beach before them. “It’s so beautiful.”
It was pretty. Jenn was beautiful, much too beautiful to be compared to a cheesy contraption of metal and Christmas lights for a couple who’d bailed on their wedding.
“I’d love to get married like this,” she whispered. “On the beach, beneath the moon in front of an arbor lit with fairy lights.”
He gripped the arbor to keep them upright before they sprawled into the sand again. “It’s—”
She doubled over with laughter, almost taking him down with her. When she straightened, she looked him dead in the eye. “Wouldn’t it be hilarious if we stood in for the bride and groom the way I stood in for Kate during the video shoot earlier?”