‘Oh, my God, it’s Ash Gore. You’re Ash Gore, aren’t you? I just watched you rock! Did Xane really stick his hand down your pants and fondle your cock?’
Whoa! Ash raised his hand in a bid to get the shapely blonde to slow her tongue for a moment so that he could reply. ‘Um, yes, it’s me.’
The blonde and her three girlfriends performed some weird little tap-dance-cum-stomp then closed in around him, leaving the guys they’d been with watching from a short distance.
‘That’s really great that you watched the show. Good performance?’ He rolled his thumb from side to side questioningly.
‘Fab.’
‘Completely awesome!’
‘You rocked so bloody hard.’ One of them slapped him on the shoulder. He stiffened, expecting a second touch to follow, and one of them to shove something or other inside his pocket, or else grab his arse.
In fact, two of them tried it, from different angles. Ash clasped both of their hands and brought their knuckles to his lips instead, which satisfied them enough that they didn’t immediately try to grope him again.
‘What about the last part, about you and Xane?’ the blonde girl asked him again. She was wearing shorts and wellies, and came up to just below his shoulder, much like Ginny. Except his Ginny was lighter and lither, and dark-haired instead of blonde, and he ought to get back to her. He was going to share his bed with her tonight. Fuck lying on the cold, hard ground. He could draw the curtains across his bunk and they could pretend they were in the Dome of Delicious Delights, and to hell with what anyone on the other side of the barrier thought.
‘Did he?’ One of the friends prompted him, as she snuggled up to his side, and her other friend took a picture with her phone.
Ash decided that tactfully avoiding giving a straight answer was probably the best course. Xane had only actually stroked his lower abs, but the minds of fan-girls did like to wander along homoerotic pathways, and he didn’t want to flatten their fantasies. On the other hand, he didn’t want to end up on the front of tomorrow’s papers having come out as gay.
‘Can I have your babies?’ one of them asked him.
‘Uh, ’fraid not. Wasn’t planning on any.’
‘Oh! OK, how about a kiss?’
That he could manage. He pecked her on the cheek.
‘Not something a little less superficial?’ She grinned. ‘I’m free all night.’
‘But I’m not.’ Damn, his reputation preceding him. ‘Got to get back.’ He attempted to extract himself from her grip upon his waist.
‘Are you guys partying? Can we join in?’
‘Um, no. I was on my way to bed, actually.’
And that was totally the wrong thing to say, as he immediately received four offers to tuck him in.
‘You know it’s really lovely talking to you ladies, but I’ve left somebody waiting, so I really ought to get back.’
‘Oh!’ He faced four pouty faces. Six if you included the two guys, who were beginning to look kind of bristly.
‘Nikki, let him go,’ the long-haired guy said, allowing Ash to wriggle his way out of the group, his arms raised above his head to stop anyone latching onto his hands and trotting along behind him. He’d learned that one long ago. If you didn’t want to leave a room with someone, you had to make sure your arms were out of reach.
‘See you around.’
‘Absolutely,’ they agreed.
Ash chuckled to himself as he jogged back to where he’d left Iain. That was another thing he’d learned: if you were already running, people didn’t tend to pursue you, whereas if you were strolling then it was no effort at all for them to tag along behind.
He was rather surprised when he couldn’t immediately see Ginny. He couldn’t believe she hadn’t returned yet, even allowing for the fact that the queue for the ladies’ was always twice the size of the one for the gents. Iain had been busy in his absence. He was cosied up tight to some lady he’d picked up. God was obviously smiling on him tonight, because that got Iain out of his hair so that he and Ginny could get smoochy. He had an idea or two he’d been mulling while she’d been at home, inspired by their many sexy phone conversations, about one or two things he’d like to try involving some buzzy toys and her pussy.
‘Where are you, Gin?’
He scanned the nearby crowd, wondering if she was dancing. Ginny wasn’t the green and prickly type. If she’d arrived back to find Iain making out, she’d have given him some space, just as he was doing. Though he was going to have to intrude in a minute to find out where Ginny had gone.
Ginny, he realised. His gaze jerked back to Iain. She wasn’t keeping her distance at all; she was the one making out with Iain.
‘What in frickin’ hell!’ Protests, even the odd reciprocated shove, didn’t slow him as he covered the ground between them in ten long strides. And no, he really didn’t give a toss whose drink he’d just spilled.
‘Ginny? What in God’s name is going on?’
Iain peeled himself away from her, mouth open as if in shock, and, seeing Ash’s clenched fist, raised his hands as if in surrender. ‘Whoa! Man … Ash …’
‘What are you doing?’
Ginny just looked at him gobsmacked, her mouth forming a perfect O.
Iain was as ever more vocal. ‘Shit! You mean you’re not OK with this? I totally thought you were. That’s what she said. She’s been whispering a heap of sweet nothings while you’ve been gone. Said it was a favourite fantasy of hers to have two guys fucking her at once and that you and Xane going at it earlier had totally turned her on, but he wasn’t up for it because of Dani.’
‘She said that to you?’
He stared at Ginny, expecting an explanation, but she only managed to garble his name.
‘I thought we’d agreed we were exclusive, but I’m gone ten minutes and you’re coaxing my mate into bed with us without even bothering to consult me?’
‘Didn’t …’ she croaked.
‘You fucking bitch.’ His jaw locked unbearably tight, making not only his teeth but his whole skull ache.
‘Ash …’
‘Fuck you. Piss off.’
‘Better do as he says.’ Iain led her away until they hit a band of people coming to watch the live show on stage. Drunk Alien Fuck were finished and a new band had just struck a few warm-up chords.
‘I’m sorry, man,’ Iain said turning back, having released Ginny into the crowd. ‘I swear, if I’d had any idea, I wouldn’t have … you know I wouldn’t. I’m so sorry.’ He came over and tried to pass Ash a beer.
‘You can fuck off too,’ Ash yelled, taking the bottle and throwing it so that it smashed against some gravel. He bent and grabbed another from where the bottles were huddled by the base of the barricade, but instead of throwing it chugged it down instead. He should have known. He ought to have fucking known that trusting a woman was stupid. The only reliable one was his mum. Shit! He’d really thought he and Ginny had something special, but then he’d thought that about Connie too, and she’d let him down.
He really ought to have known. Ginny hadn’t exactly been picky the night they’d met, and then she kept banging on about Spook all the time, trying to get him involved in stuff. He guessed Iain had been more willing to act on her whispered lies, being far more easily led by his cock than Spook ever was.
Great! Just fucking great.