Backstage Pass

Chapter 9

“I’m glad,” he said quietly. “I’ll call you back.”

He disconnected and she sat back in her office chair, listening to dead air until the phone began to beep at her. She hung up. It had been almost a month since they’d parted in Des Moines. She missed him and regretted not staying in contact with him, though she hadn’t realized how much until that moment. When the phone rang almost an hour later, She was still staring off into space with a stupid grin on her face.

“Can you be on a plane in four hours?” Brian asked.

“Four hours? I’m still at work.”

“Well, I realize that. I did call your work number.”

She laughed. She hadn’t laughed this much in… a month. “It’s Thursday. I have to work tomorrow.”

“Call in sick.”

“Call in sick?” She never called in sick. Not even when she was sick.

“I’m not worth a sick day?”

“I don’t know. Are you?”

He chuckled. “You sure don’t make this easy on a guy. Our concert isn’t until Saturday night, so I thought we could spend all day tomorrow getting reacquainted.”

Reacquainted? Yeah, they’d need at least a day. Her gaze drifted to the huge stack of her students’ final papers. She’d been grading them when Brian had called. One sick day wouldn’t hurt. She could finish her grading by Tuesday, when final grades were due. “Where am I flying?”

“Portland.” She could hear the smile in his voice.

“What’s the flight number?”

“Fuck.”

Inside the cramped bathroom of the tour bus, Brian hurried through his shower. He couldn’t wait to see Myrna. Couldn’t believe she’d agreed to come visit him. Couldn’t think of anything but drawing her into his arms. Holding her. Touching her. Looking at her. God, I’m a f*****g moron. He knew she would break his heart, but he didn’t care. After his shower, he hurried to the bedroom in search of clothes.

“You could knock,” Trey said.

Brian paused in the bedroom’s doorway holding his towel around his waist. Standing before the long dresser, Trey wrapped his arms around the thin young man in front of him and plastered his body to the guy’s back. Trey’s hand slid up under the hem of his new friend’s T-shirt.

The guy’s eyes widened and he caught Trey’s hands in his. “H-hey, Master Sinclair, erm, Brian. Can I call you Brian?” Brian shrugged and the guy flushed. “This isn’t what it looks like. I don’t like guys or anything.” He shook his head vigorously.

“You will,” Trey murmured, inching the guy’s shirt further up his belly.

“Trey, are you molesting virgins again?” Brian grinned at his best friend’s delight with his latest conquest.

“This one is named Mark. And you know how much I like cherries.”

Brian chuckled. He supposed that didn’t only apply to lollipops.

Trey slowly ran his tongue up Mark’s neck. Mark shuddered and turned his head to look at Trey over his shoulder.

“You know this bedroom is mine as soon as I collect Myrna from the airport.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Trey murmured. “This won’t take more than a couple of hours.”

Mark tensed.

Brian rolled his eyes. “I need to get dressed. I’ll be gone before you know it, and then you two can continue doing whatever it was you were about to do.”

“Um, wait. I…” Mark untangled himself from Trey’s embrace and pulled a piece of paper from his back pocket. He spread it across the dresser. It was a drawing of Brian’s and Trey’s guitars crossed at the necks with Sinners’ band logo above the V-shape. “I’m going to have this tattooed across my back and I wanted to include your signatures under the guitars. A tribute to my favorite guitarists.” He glanced at Trey nervously and quickly averted his gaze to settle on Brian. “You guys rock. I absolutely idolize you. I want to be you.”

“I want to do you,” Trey said, toying with the hair at the nape of Mark’s neck.

Brian scratched his head behind his ear, deliberately staring down at the drawing to avoid watching Trey’s actions. “Nice design,” Brian said. “Sure, I’ll sign it. Do you want my real name or my stage name?”

Mark smiled brightly and handed him a black, fine-point pen. “Just Sinclair would be awesome.” Mark glanced at Trey, who leaned up against his back to stare over his shoulder at the drawing. “And Mills.” Mark swallowed. “Please.”

Brian scrawled his last name under the black guitar with white flecks. “After you get this done, you should send a picture of your tattoo to the webmaster on the Sinners website. There’s a fan tat page on there. Sinners Ink.”

“I’m the webmaster,” Trey murmured. “So make sure it’s a naked picture.”

Mark laughed nervously.

Brian handed the pen to Trey, but he set it on the dresser and covered his pretty fan boy’s belly with both hands. His pinkies dipped into the waistband of Mark’s jeans. “I’ll sign it later.”

While Brian got dressed, he tried to ignore Trey and his entertainment for the afternoon. It turned out to be as easy as ignoring an air horn.

“You’re so sexy,” Trey murmured as he suckled and licked Mark’s neck and ear.

“No…”

“Shhh. You are.”

A black T-shirt landed at Brian’s feet. Brian dressed faster. His zipper went up; someone else’s zipper went down.

“Don’t like guys, huh?” Trey murmured. “Is this a rabbit in your pocket?”

“Wait,” Mark gasped. “Ohhhh.”

“Yes,” Brian yelled. “Wait until I’m gone. Please!”

Trey chuckled. Mark’s breath caught in his throat and he groaned in pleasure.

Brian grabbed his boots, socks and shirt and headed for the door, keeping his eyes off Trey’s defilement of Mark. And then he remembered his lucky hat.

“s**t,” Brian muttered under his breath. He’d put it in the dresser. In the drawer right in front of where Trey was stroking that guy’s c**k. And rubbing. And stroking. Slightly twisting his wrist at the tip. And…

Why was watching Trey give a hand job turning Brian on? He seriously needed to get laid. It had been almost a month since he’d seen Myrna and he wasn’t used to this length of abstinence. He hoped she was as sexually uninhibited as he remembered.

Trey glanced at Brian, grinning wickedly. The green eye not obscured by his overlong black bangs twinkled with more mischief than usual. “Need something, bro?”

“I need to get in that drawer.” He pointed at it, his nose wrinkled.

“What’s wrong? Afraid Mark’s going to come on you?”

Actually, yes. The guy looked about ready to blow his load as Trey worked him over with practiced ease. Mark glanced down at Trey’s hand, gasped brokenly, and then dropped his head back on Trey’s shoulder, his eyes squeezed shut. “Ah, God. I am gonna come. I am.”

Trey chuckled and released Mark’s c**k. He then shifted his lover back against his body so Brian could get into the drawer.

“Feel how hard I am for you?” Trey said in Mark’s ear. “That’s going in your ass as soon as Brian clears out of here.”

Mark gasped and tried to pull away. “No, I don’t want… It will hurt. Won’t it hurt?” He glanced over his shoulder at Trey uncertainly. Brian noticed he wasn’t protesting very hard.

“Not the way I do it.”

“Change the sheets when you’re done.” Brian retrieved his hat from the dresser and hurried out of the room. He finished dressing in the hall, pretending he couldn’t hear Trey’s newest lover crying out in ecstasy on the other side of the thin door. Brian tipped his lucky hat—a floppy, leather fedora—on his head. He didn’t want to waste time fixing his shoulder-length hair in its usual messy, spiked style. What he wanted to do was make Myrna’s flight arrive sooner.

“So is she on her way?” Eric asked.

Brian checked his watch. “She should be here in a couple of hours. Will you do me a huge favor?”

“Depends on what it is.”

“Clean this place up. It’s a f*****g embarrassment.”

Eric glanced around as if seeing their living conditions for the first time. “You’re right. God, how do we live like this?”

“We’re slobs, but I doubt Myrna will appreciate having to stay here in our filth. Do you know where Jace is? I want to borrow his bike.”

“No idea.”

Brian went in search of Jace, checking his watch excessively. He didn’t want to be late picking her up. If necessary, he’d drive the f*****g bus to the airport.

“What’s wrong now?”

“I thought I had that hard-on under control. Turns out I was wrong.”

She laughed.

“God, I want you,” he whispered. “Laugh again.”

“I can’t laugh when I try.” She did laugh though, because she was incredibly happy.

“Do you have something to write on?”

She reached for a pen. “Yeah.” She wrote down the e-ticket information he read to her. After she hung up, she shut down her computer and locked her office. She walked out of the office suite and stopped at the department secretary’s desk.

“Gladys, I’m going home early. I don’t feel well.”

Gladys’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “You’re sick?”

“Yeah. I probably won’t be in tomorrow either.”

“That’s too bad. I hope you feel better.”

“Thanks.”

“Oh, here’s your mail.” Gladys handed her a stack of mail.

Myrna tucked it into her purse and headed to the airport. She didn’t bother packing any luggage. She didn’t have time. Besides, it wasn’t like she would need clothes.

The first hour of her plane ride, Myrna could think of nothing but Brian and all the things she wanted to do to him when she saw him. The plane could not get to Portland fast enough. Eventually, she grew tired of checking her wristwatch every thirty seconds and sorted through her mail. Among the textbook advertisements and interdepartmental memos, she found a letter from a funding agency. Her last ditch grant! She’d almost missed the submission deadline and knew it wasn’t her best work, but without research funding, the university wouldn’t let her keep her job for long. She didn’t have tenure yet.

Myrna hesitated, afraid to open the letter. She’d applied on a whim the day after she’d left Brian in Des Moines. She had the groupies to thank for the inspiration. And now that she knew for sure her government-sponsored grant would not be renewed for the following year, she didn’t just want to work on this project as a fun summer side project. She needed this project to keep a roof over her head. But would it make good research? Did anyone care why women became promiscuous in the company of rock stars?

Heart hammering, she tore open the letter and scanned its contents. Score! Full funding. Enough to get her through the summer, in any case, and hopefully secure her faculty position for one more year.

“Yes!” she said, startling the man in the seat next to her. He snorted and fell back to sleep.

She could use the summer months to do her field work. That would give her the time she needed to collect data without her added teaching responsibilities. She just needed a famous rock band to follow around for three months. Would Sinners be willing to let her tour with them? It wouldn’t hurt to ask. It probably would hurt if the band refused her request. She cared about them. As friends. But if she spent every moment of the next three months with Brian, how would she keep him at arm’s length? Did she even want to? The joy his call had incited indicated she was more attached to the man than she’d like to think. Here she was on an airplane to Oregon to visit him, after all.

She took a deep breath. The only reason she wanted to see Brian so badly was because he was so good in bed. So open to suggestion. So accommodating. He never tried to make her feel like a w***e. She could be herself with him. Yeah, that was the reason her heart rate hadn’t returned to normal since he’d called. Holding him at arm’s length would be no problem. No problem at all.

But what if he didn’t want her to tour with his band? How would she feel if he said no?

Maybe she should ask another band. She couldn’t put her heart on the line again. She’d barely survived her marriage and divorce. Emotionally. Mentally. Physically. It had literally almost killed her. She slid her hand under her hair and absently fingered the thick scar on the back of her head. No, she never wanted to open herself to that kind of devastation again. Not even with a great guy like Brian. Jeremy had been great in the beginning. She couldn’t let herself forget that.

Myrna tucked the grant letter into her purse. This news was too good to dwell on negative possibilities. She would decide if she wanted to ask Sinners to participate in her study at the end of the weekend. For now, she’d just enjoy her moments with Brian and not think about real life. Or her ex-husband.

Near the end of the plane ride, she went to the bathroom and removed her panties. She tucked them into her suit jacket pocket. A little present to get Brian in the mood and set this rendezvous on the right track from the start. Not that Brian ever needed help to get in the mood, but she was competing with young girls begging him to autograph their perky t**s. If she wanted to keep him interested in her body, she’d have to surprise him occasionally. With all that young, available p***y around him, he was sure to get bored with her in no time.

When the plane circled Mount Adams and landed in Portland, Myrna felt a surge of nervousness. What if his opinion of her had changed since she’d last seen him? What if that insatiable spark between them had fizzled out? What if he wasn’t attracted to her any longer? What if—

“Nervous?” the man seated next to her asked.

She shook her head, though yes, she was nervous. She needed to get a grip.

“First time in Portland?”

“I was here a few years ago for a meeting.”

“It’s a beautiful city. I hope you enjoy yourself.”

She flushed. With Brian between her thighs, that was guaranteed. “I hope so, too.”

When she exited the ramp onto the concourse, she glanced around for a familiar face. Clad in leather from head to foot, including his floppy fedora, Brian stood at the end of the ramp. She recognized him instantly despite the dark shades he wore to disguise himself. Every concern clouding her mind vanished the instant he smiled at her. He pushed his way through the exiting passengers and captured her in his arms, claiming her mouth in a passionate kiss. Her knees went weak. My God, this man could kiss. He pulled back and raked his eyes over her.

“You look gorgeous,” he said, kissing her again.

“You look… mysterious.” She tapped the brim of his hat with her fingertips.

“It seems we have a lot of rabid fans in Portland.” He chuckled. “I’ve been dodging them all day. Poor Sed had the shirt ripped off his back this morning.”

“Really?”

“Yep.”

“So my plan to rip your shirt off isn’t very original.”

He laughed and kissed her tenderly. “I probably shouldn’t say this, but I’ve had you on my mind non-stop all month. I really missed you.”

Her heart thudded. “I missed you, too. I didn’t realize how much until I heard your voice.”

He stroked a stray hair from her cheek and tucked it behind her ear. “Are you opening up possibilities between us?”

She grinned. “s****l possibilities.”

He smiled and kissed her again. “I’ll take what I can get. Should we get your luggage?”

“What luggage?”

“You didn’t bring anything?”

“I didn’t have time to pack.”

He grinned. Smugly. “I see.”

“I did bring you a present.” She fished the white, satin panties out of her pocket and handed them to him. “They got so wet from thinking about you, I took them off on the plane.”

He held them up to his nose and inhaled deeply. “Are you trying to kill me?” he murmured. “God, Myrna.”

She chuckled.

He whispered in her ear, “Does this mean you aren’t wearing any panties under that skirt?”

She grinned at him. “That’s what it means.”

“Christ, Myrna. You are trying to kill me!”

He took her hand, urging her forward at a run. She had a hard time keeping up with him in her high-heels. He found a deserted concourse and tugged her through the door of a men’s room.

“Brian? What are you doing?”

“You don’t really think I can wait until we get back to the bus, do you?”

He shoved open a stall and pulled her inside, pressing her up against the stall door. His mouth descended on hers. His hands moved down her hips to lift her skirt up around her waist. She shuddered when his fingers found the moist heat between her thighs.

“You really are wet,” he said, as if awed by the discovery.

“Did you think I was making up stories for your amusement?”

Her hands moved to the fly of his leather pants, releasing his c**k. When she touched him, he drew a shaky breath through his teeth. “Abstinence is so not my thing.”

His words didn’t have time to register before he lifted her thigh to his hip and plunged into her body. She clung to his shoulders, groaning at the enthusiasm of his strokes.

“Garters under a conservative gray suit, Professor?” he murmured, his fingers running under the straps holding up her stockings. “Do you know how hot that is?”

“I like to keep my smuttiness carefully concealed.”

“You’re not fooling me,” he whispered.

“I’m not trying to, but you’re the only one who knows.”

“That makes it even hotter.”

He held her against the door as he thrust up into her, grinding deeply as he knew she liked it. “Brian. Brian! Oh God, Brian!”

“Shh, someone might come in,” he said. “The last thing I need is to be arrested for public indecency.”

She tensed. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean to be indecent.”

“There is nothing indecent about you, baby.” He cupped her jaw and kissed her gently. “You scream my name all you want.”

She opened her eyes to look at him and found him still wearing his sunglasses. She took them off and tucked them into his jacket pocket. She wanted to see his eyes. Brown. Intense. Glazed with desire. For her.

He grinned. “Can we change positions? This is pretty hard on my back.”

“Are you getting old?”

“Yeah, I must be.”

He pulled out and guided her hands to the wall at the back of the stall. He bent her over the toilet, not the most romantic view, and pushed her skirt up around her waist. He buried his face in her ass and lapped at the liquid heat between her thighs.

“Mmm,” he murmured, spreading her labia with his fingers to gain better access. “I missed this, too.” As he licked and sucked on her flesh, he ran his hands up and down her thighs, fascinated by the bare flesh above the tops of her stockings. Her breathing became erratic and shaky as she neared orgasm.

He stood and leaned over her, possessing her body with his thick c**k again. She cried out as her body shook with release.

She thought she heard a door open, but didn’t care as she shifted backward to meet his every stroke.

“God, baby, I’ve missed you. I hear it again.”

“The music?”

“Yeah, the music.”

The sound of a zipper being released came from the stall next to them. Brian surprised her by increasing his tempo, seeking quick release. “We need to get out of here,” he whispered into her ear. “I want to make love to you slowly. With lots of blank paper and pens nearby.”

She wriggled her hips and he gasped.

“Do that again.”

She complied. Brian groaned.

The guy in the next stall echoed Brian’s groan and let a loud fart rip in the toilet.

Myrna covered her mouth with her hand, trying to hold in her laughter.

Another groan, followed by splashes and then… the most horrendous smell.

Myrna gagged.

“Okay, even I can’t come under these conditions.” Brian pulled out and forced his rigid c**k into his pants. She stood and adjusted her skirt.

“Let’s go, sweetheart,” he said.

She smiled and nodded, hoping he didn’t end up with a huge case of blue balls. Poor guy.

They exited the stall and Brian knocked on the door of the next stall. “Someone’s in here,” a startled man’s voice said.

“Yeah, dude. I heard. You picked a horrible time to take a s**t, you know. Have a nice day.”

Myrna burst out laughing and ran to the exit, jerking open the door and surprising a young man trying to enter.

“Excuse me,” she said.

He looked at the Men’s sign on the door and then back at Myrna with a confused expression. Brian came to a halt behind her. The man looked even more confused when he spotted Brian, and then a look of realization dawned on his face.

“No, excuse me,” the man said and stepped aside so Myrna could exit the men’s room. The guy offered Brian a high five as they passed each other in the doorway.

“I don’t know what he’s high-fiving me about. That didn’t go as expected.”

“Hey, I came really hard, so I’m not complaining.”

He hugged her against his side as they walked toward the parking garage. “If you’re not complaining, then I won’t either. But you owe me one.”

“I’ll make it up to you.”

He kissed her temple and put his sunglasses back on. “I have no doubt that you will.”

Brian led her to the first floor of the parking garage. Beside the stairwell, a large, red Harley Davidson leaned on its kickstand. He inserted a key into the bike’s ignition and handed Myrna a spare helmet.

“A Harley Fat Boy! Sweet. I didn’t know you had a bike,” she said. “It looks brand new.” She slid the helmet over her head and fastened the chinstrap.

“It’s not mine. Jace let me borrow it. He bought it a couple of weeks ago.”

“I’ll have to thank him. Motorcycles make me hot.”

“Is there anything that doesn’t make you hot?” He flipped up her visor and kissed her.

She thought for a moment. “Taxes and politics?”

He laughed. “Just tell Jace you rode it without any panties on and that will be all the thanks he’ll ever need.”

She looked down at her gray, pinstriped suit skirt and three-inch heels. “I’m not exactly dressed for this, am I?”

He took off his leather jacket and handed it to her. “Put this on.”

She slid into the jacket and inhaled deeply through her nose. The jacket smelled of leather and Brian—the two biggest turn-ons on Earth. She hoped it wasn’t far to the tour bus.

His jacket was several sizes too big and draped over her hands. She could almost wear it as a mini-dress. She zipped it up to her chin.

He smiled at her. “You look adorable.” He tapped her nose with his index finger.

Brian crammed her purse in the small compartment under the seat. He took off his floppy, leather hat and tried smashing it inside as well. It wouldn’t fit.

“Would you mind holding my hat while I drive?” he asked.

“Not at all.”

He handed it to her.

“It’s a good thing I didn’t pack a suitcase,” she said.

He laughed and scratched his head as he stared down at the motorcycle’s lack of cargo space. “True. I was in such a hurry to get here, I didn’t think things through clearly. Jace’s bike seemed more manageable than the tour bus.”

“This will be fun.” She grinned at him and then closed her visor.

Brian put on a helmet and climbed on the bike. God, he looked hot straddling the big machine. The Harley roared to life, rumbling through Myrna’s entire body as he revved the engine. He held her hand while she climbed up on the bike behind him. She had to hike her skirt to the top of her thighs to sit. Her garters showed on both sides, but there was nothing she could do about it. Brian’s hand gripped the bare skin above her white, lace-trimmed stocking.

“I should have called a cab!” he shouted over the roaring engine.

“No, you should not have! This is great! Let’s go!”

“If you say so.”

He turned the bike out of the parking spot and, once in the exit lane, took off like a shot. She held on tight, molding herself to his back with a satisfied sigh. Her free hand splayed over his black T-shirt and the hard muscles of his chest underneath. She couldn’t think of any place in the world she’d rather be at that moment.

They exited the parking garage and took a ramp to a city street. She assumed he avoided I-5 for her benefit. The sun settled beneath the western horizon like an orange haze. Streetlights flickered on as they traveled a main street through the city.