Klement struggled to focus on Cliff and Rod’s chatter, but from the moment Kat came up to the music room and sat next to his drummer, he couldn’t stop looking at her. Her scruffy jeans and t-shirt didn’t stop him from picturing the curves of her luscious body, curves that he’d explored with his hands and mouth.
What had he been thinking? He’d just had sex with a colleague, a woman he’d promised to protect. This was going to wreak havoc on their working relationship, and it would bring him hell when she inevitably broke his heart. But when she’d come into his office wearing unbearably sexy lingerie, he’d been incapable of resisting her.
He should be angry with her for that, but he couldn’t muster up even the slightest hostility. That had been the best sex of his life. One would think their vast size difference would have made things awkward, with him being six-five and her only five feet tall, but her body fit to his like she was made for him.
As he raised the pipe to his lips, the scent of Kat’s arousal, still on his fingers, filled his senses. God, she’d smelled so good. And she’d tasted and felt even better. He lowered the pipe. He didn’t want weed. He wanted Kat. Again and again. Like a potent drug, one taste had him hooked.
Before his arousal returned, he shifted his attention back to his friends. “How was the Hellion?”
Roderick shrugged. “I lost twenty bucks on pool, and Cliff hung out with his new friend.”
Cliff shook his head, clearly perturbed. “I don’t know if I want to hang out with that guy anymore. He turned out to be kinda whacked.”
Klement leaned forward. “Oh? What happened?”
“First he suggested grabbing this chick off the dance-floor for a three-way…”
Rod perked up. “A little double stuff? Nothing wrong with that.”
“I’m not into it, but if that’s his thing, fine.” Cliff took the pipe and ran a thumb down the swirling blue glass. “It was the fact that when I pointed out she wasn’t interested in doing anything with anyone Rick got all date-rapist about it.”
Kat shuddered. “Ugh, he sounds like my ex. He was always trying to get me to agree to having a threesome with Kinley, and when I told him first off, ‘Kinley would never go for it,’ and second, ‘Hell no.’ He kept trying to get us drunk. Kinley wouldn’t even hang out with us for awhile because she was scared he’d slip something into her booze.”
Klement’s frown deepened. The more he heard about her ex, the more he sounded like a piece of shit, and his protective instincts raced to the forefront. I would never treat you or your friends like that, he wanted to assure her.
Roderick leaned back in his chair with a smirk. “I don’t blame him for wanting that.” At Kat’s glare he held up his hands. “But I wouldn’t be like that, I swear. I know what ‘no’ means.”
Cliff took a hit off the pipe, filling the room with the slightly skunky odor of burnt weed. “Yeah, well, I wouldn’t have been surprised if this guy had busted out some roofies, but instead he suggested we do some crank. Even in my coke days I never touched that shit.” His mouth twisted into a disgusted scowl. “That’s when I left.”
He passed the pipe to Kat, who passed it to Roderick then frowned. “So, hanging out with him when he was being all rapey was okay, but when he offered you meth it was a problem? I mean, I hate tweakers, but…”
Klement nodded. “She’s got you there.” Still, he was relieved that Cliff had taken the band’s official stance on hard drugs to heart.
“No, I wasn’t going to keep hanging around with him,” Cliff countered. “I was even about to tell him so, but then he brought up that shit and I was just done.”
“A tweaker-rapist.” Klement shook his head as Rod passed him back the pipe. “Man, you know how to pick ’em.” He glanced back at Kat. Her upper lip still curled in revulsion.
“Hey, I can’t help it if I’m social. I give everyone a chance.” Cliff leaned back in his chair. “Besides, he seemed cool before that. I wish I hadn’t given him that backstage pass. Hopefully he’ll spend all of his money on smack and won’t be able to get a plane ticket.”
Klement handed over the pipe. “We can hope. At least these things are always crowded, so he should be easy to avoid.”
Kat looked up quickly and blushed before turning back to the others. “He just better stay the hell away from me.”
“Don’t worry,” Klement said. “I…ah, we will keep you away from the creeps. Plus, there’s always a lot of security at these things.”
Their eyes met once more, sending an arc of heat between them. Kat’s face pinkened further before she rose from her seat.
“Well, I’m going to bed. G’night, guys.”
As Klement watched her leave the room, he felt like an invisible cord bound them, pulling tighter the further away she went.
After a long, awkward silence, he got up from his seat. “I think I’m going to crash, too. I’ve got those bass tracks tomorrow.”
Once downstairs, he paused by Kat’s door. What would she do if he knocked? A thousand delicious fantasies played out in his mind, but reluctantly he continued on to his own room. There his gaze lit on her satin robe, still pooled on his bedroom floor. Scooping it up, he inhaled the silken fabric. It still smelled like her.
He needed to return the robe to her tomorrow before the guys saw it. They didn’t usually go in his room, but he didn’t want to take any risks. However, he couldn’t give it back to Kat tonight.
After undressing and climbing into bed, he tucked the robe under his arm, wishing instead for the softness of her skin.
***
Kat’s stomach roiled with butterflies as she joined Klement in his Suburban the next morning. It was the first time they’d been alone together since he’d taken her into his bed.
She’d been up all night trying to figure out what to say to him, rehearsing imaginary conversations in her head. Would they do it again? Was she now his girlfriend, or was it a one-time thing that he never wanted to repeat? She hadn’t really given him much opportunity to say no. She’d just barged into his office in sexy lingerie and thrown herself at him. What normal guy would pass that up?
But, as much as she should be ashamed for her behavior, she couldn’t muster more than a twinge of remorse. Klement’s lovemaking had been magical. Earth-shattering.
She peeked over at him as he drove down the windy mountain road, studying the sharp angles of his cheeks, the curve of his lips that had been between her thighs. His large, lean body that had been entwined with hers. Had the experience been as powerful for him? Kat practically vibrated with frustration at the unanswered questions. If she didn’t have some sort of closure or resolution soon, she’d go insane.
Klement kept his eyes on the road, his hand at ten and two on the steering wheel like a model driver’s ed student. He had to be feeling the awkwardness, too. Didn’t he?
She opened her mouth, closed it, then took a deep breath and found her voice. “A-about last night…”
His gaze whipped to hers, intense with unreadable emotion. “I’m still processing that. Can we discuss it later?”
“Okay.” Kat sank back in her seat. “Are we still cool?” Was he mad at her?
His voice softened. “Of course we are.” He reached out and squeezed her hand quickly before returning his grip to the steering wheel. “I just need to focus on my session today, okay?”
A thrill ran through her at the small physical contact, brief as it was. “I understand.”
Actually, tension in her muscles eased at his gentle tone. At least he didn’t seem to be too mad at her.
At the studio, Kat felt a different sort of awkwardness, as she didn’t have any sessions herself. Today they were focusing on the bass and drums. Klement had told her that she could stay home, but she wanted to watch him play—and spend a few stolen moments alone with him in the truck if she could get them.
To her surprise, Cliff had managed to drag his hungover ass out of bed to accompany Roderick. He met her in the sound engineer’s booth and offered her a McDonald’s hash brown. Kat was beginning to suspect that he was one of those people who couldn’t stand to be alone. Her mom was like that, and Kat would call her soon. She should. Right now, her aunt was staying there. She hoped they two were having a good time.
Her thoughts broke off as Klement stepped into the recording booth. She admired his confident demeanor as he shrugged the strap holding his bass over his shoulders, donned the headphones, and signaled for the engineer to begin.
Frank pushed a button, and Klement began playing, but Kat couldn’t hear a thing. Feeling like an idiot, she grabbed a pair of headphones from the table and put them on.
Throbbing bass notes filled her ears, thrumming through her body and pulsing in her blood. It took her a moment to recognize that he was playing his riffs for “Sorrow’s Harvest.” Kat’s lips parted as she watched his fingers dance along the fret board in a blur of speed, but it was his right hand that plucked the strings with a deftness that made heat unfurl in her lower body. Last night, those skilled fingers had worked their magic on her, inside her.
To her embarrassment, she found herself getting wet again. Even though Cliff and the sound guy couldn’t see her predicament, she couldn’t help but cast them guilty looks. What was it about this man that affected her so much?
Cliff’s eyes were closed as he mouthed the lyrics to the song and moved his fingers in time with the rhythm section. Kat clenched her fists, determined to follow his example and focus on the music instead of lusting after the musician.
Bringing forth her guitar solos from memory, Kat moved her own fingers in time with her parts. Tapping her foot to compensate for the missing drum beat, she let the music overtake her consciousness, drowning her in melodious desire.
When the bass stopped mid-song, the silence was as sudden as a bucket of ice water, and Kat’s eyes snapped open as Cliff pushed the microphone button.
“You sped up after the third bridge.” He released the button and turned to Kat. “Now we get a chance to get back at him for his nit-picking.”
Klement’s voice filled her ears. “Damn it, I was afraid of that. Should I start over at the second?”
In the end, it took three takes for him to get the bass track for the first song and four takes for the second. Kat tried to give helpful feedback, but mostly she remained transfixed watching and listening to him.
After all of her years of listening to Bleeding Vengeance, how had she not realized before how incredible he was? His riffs were fast and complex, blowing the usual pedestrian thrums of many bassists out of the water. He was fierce, he was dynamic. And as she watched him move with his instrument like he was joined to it, she’d never seen anyone look so powerful, so alive.
On the ride back home, he was so quiet and fidgety that she didn’t dare broach the subject of their lovemaking again.
Klement fixed a quick dinner of halushki for them back at the house, a delicious Czech pasta dish, before retreating to his office. Kat went to her own room and tried to call Kinley, but her friend’s phone was out of service. With a sigh, Kat settled on fiddling with their website and writing a post on Thrashfest.
Klement’s door opened, and his footsteps came down the hall. Was it her imagination or had he paused for a moment nearby? The urge to follow him made her muscles twinge, but Kat stayed in her seat. The last thing she wanted was to be seen trailing after him like a lost puppy.
Her phone rang. Gratitude filled her for the distraction, until she looked at the caller ID and her heart stopped.
It was IT Guy.
Why was Klement calling her as his alias? They didn’t have any website work scheduled until next week before she left for Thrashfest.
She took a deep breath and willed herself to sound normal as she answered. “Hey, IT Guy.”
“Hi, Kat.” It was Klement all right, though his voice echoed over the speakerphone and he was adding a slight Southern accent to his usual tone. “I’m calling to let you know that I’ll be unavailable for the next couple of days.”
Also, there was a sound of rushing air in the background. The noise triggered her memory, and she figured out where he was calling from. The grow room.
“Oh? Where are you going?” What excuse was he going to come up with?
“I’m going to take a break and figure some things out,” he said quietly. “Something in my professional life is getting…personal.”
Was he talking about her? He had to be. Nothing could be more of a professional and personal conflict than her getting naked with him last night. But did he mean it in a good way or bad way?
“Me too,” she couldn’t help saying.
“Hmmm.” Uncomfortable silence ensued before he spoke again. “So, how’s everything going with the band?”
As much as he must be trying to hide it, he sounded nervous. As she understood. It was so weird talking about Klement to Klement.
“Great. Almost all of my guitar tracks are done, and they invited me to play Thrashfest with them.”
“Excellent!” He sounded genuinely enthused. “And how are the guys treating you? None of them are getting inappropriate, are they?”
Kat had to cover her mouth to conceal a startled squeak. Was he worried about how he behaved last night? She laughed. “No, but I’m afraid I got a little inappropriate with the bassist.”
He feigned a scandalized gasp. “You naughty girl.” Then he sighed. “I thought you were going to wait for me.”
“You never expressed any interest that way,” she retorted, momentarily forgetting who she was really talking to. “I don’t know where you live, what you look like. Hell, I don’t even know your name.” Well, now I do.
“I was just teasing you,” he said quickly. “Wait. You mean I would have had a chance?”
What kind of a game was he playing? Kat answered honestly. “Yes, if we’d ever had the opportunity to meet. But I guess that’s a moot point for now. I’m going to see how things go with Klement.”
“What’s he like?”
Klement’s curiosity emanated from the phone. He wanted to know what she thought of him?
“He’s funny and kind, and extremely intelligent.” Kat couldn’t hold back a smile. “He’s a lot like you.”
IT Guy Klement laughed. “Sounds like you have good taste. I hope everything works out with that.”
“Me, too. And I hope everything works out with your situation too.” She meant every word. After all, it was her situation as well.
“I’ll let you know when we talk again.” Klement paused awhile before he sighed. “Well, it’s getting late. I better let you go.”
“Goodnight, IT Guy.” Klement, she mouthed in addition.
After hanging up, Kat paced the length of her room, mind spinning with the implications of their conversation. Was it possible he was considering telling her the truth? God, she hoped so. That would spare her the awkwardness of confronting him. Except…what would she say when he told her who he was? Should she tell him she already knew? Or should she pretend to be surprised? The thought of further deceit churned her stomach.
She replayed their conversation in her mind. It seemed like he’d wanted to check up on her and gauge her feelings about what happened between them. But why couldn’t he have just talked about it with her in person? Was he more insecure even than she was?
Taking a Xanax and changing into her pajamas, she struggled to calm her racing thoughts. Klement had been right about one thing. It was late and she would be worthless in the studio if she didn’t get some rest.
After brushing her teeth, she headed back to her room. Klement met her in the hall, her robe tucked under his arm. She froze at the sight of his tall, handsome form, studying his face for answers to a million questions.
“I thought I’d return this,” he whispered, giving an enigmatic half smile that made her want to leap into his arms and wrap her legs around him. Despite the strange situation with his deception, she still wanted him more than anyone else she’d ever wanted.
“Thanks.” She took the silky garment, enjoying the brief touch of his hands. She was about to say something else—she didn’t know what—but he’d already turned and walked back to his room. It took every effort not to follow.
Kat carried her robe back to her room. She was about to toss it in the dirty clothes pile, but then she caught a whiff of a tantalizing, masculine scent. Lifting the black satin to her face, she realized it smelled like Klement.
Even though it was the sort of childish thing a teenager would do, Kat took the garment to bed with her, cuddling it tightly as she slept and dreamed of him.