Madelynne Ellis - All Fired Up

‘No.’ Ash snatched at the nearest piece of black velvet and tore it down. ‘I didn’t do this.’ He didn’t volunteer any information about the culprit but just stripped the area and, when he was done, bundled the material into the bottom of the larder cupboard.

‘Where’s everyone else? You must have eaten quickly.’

‘You fucked the dinner up by leaving,’ Rock Giant informed him. He seemed torn between talking to Ash and pursuing Elspeth into the bedroom. ‘Xane took an extended bathroom trip the moment you left, and Iain used that as a cue to make more dickheadish remarks.’

‘He’s lucky I didn’t smash a plate over his skull,’ Elspeth hollered from the back end of the bus. ‘If he ever dares joke about Steve again in my presence I’ll string him up by his nads.’

Um, OK. It sounded as if things had gone downhill rapidly.

‘Speaking of nads, you might want to attend to your fly, since I’m not interested in seeing what you like poking people with,’ Rock Giant suggested.

‘All in all it was a pretty shitty night,’ Elspeth finished. ‘I’m going to bed, so switch the racket you’re listening to off.’ She slammed the bedroom door.

Rock Giant hit the button on the stereo’s main control panel while Ash was still trying to locate the remote. Once the throbbing bass was cut, he realised how hard his heart was still hammering. No doubt Elspeth would be out and yelling at him to quieten that down too. Hell, was it too late to go after Ginny? He’d rather spend a night with her at a hotel than here listening to his bandmates gripe about the man he’d brought in to save them. They needed a drummer. He’d found them one. What was their fucking problem?

‘I’m gonna crash too,’ the big guy muttered. ‘It’s been a fucking long day what with the gig and all the practice we’re having to put in due to the awful drummer you picked for us.’

‘He’s not awful. He got one solo a little bit wrong. We played a set of near twenty songs. You’re all just looking for reasons to despise him. Why can’t you just give him a chance instead?’

‘I was one of the ones who did vote to give him a chance. He’s just not living up to my expectations.’

‘Yeah, but the problem’s that your expectations are way too high. You’re all expecting him to be perfect overnight.’

Rock Giant dragged a hand through the spikes of his hair. They didn’t budge. ‘No, I just expect him to shut his trap once in a while and listen to criticism without acting like a prima donna. We’re all shit sometimes, Ash. The difference between him and us is that we’re prepared to own it and strive to do better. He just whimpers that it’s not his fault. Also, his image is all wrong for us.’

‘No one can see him sitting behind a drum kit.’

The only response he got to that was a snort. Rock Giant then took the stairs two at a time, leaving him standing in the kitchen, his nerves in shreds and his libido chewing itself.

Ginny pitched into the dark and concealed herself in the shadows between the side of the tour bus and the wall it was parked up against. She waited until the cab the rest of the band had returned in rolled away and she was sure they were all safely on board the bus. She half hoped that Ash would come tumbling down the steps looking to catch up with her, but he didn’t show. Maybe his friends weren’t making it so easy to escape, or her speedy departure had left him a gibbering wreck. He’d been so turned on, he was probably thumping his head against a wall right now trying to relieve the tension. Mind you, she was out here still panting herself and more than a little in need of physical release. This wasn’t the place to let off steam, though.

It became clear after a little while that Ash really wasn’t going to appear. She thought about dialling his number again and getting him to meet her, but maybe calling him away twice in one evening was a bit much. Too bad, she’d have liked them to have spent the night together. They’d not done that since the tour began. It’d all been speedy hook-ups in railway carriages and dirty sex in dirty alleyways. She wanted to be able to lie in his arms for hours, make love as if time didn’t exist rather than as if a bomb were about to explode beneath them, and sleep with her arms around him before enjoying a lavish breakfast. Not that she ever ate that much first thing in the morning, but Ash did, and she liked spending time with him chatting and doing normal things, as well as fucking him blind.

She wondered how far into the tour they’d have to get before Ash relented and admitted their relationship to the rest of the band. Not too long, she prayed. She couldn’t stomach the idea of six months of this. Sneaking around, being at his beck and call, didn’t sit well with her. It’s why she’d rebelled tonight. She’d been the sort of woman who sat around waiting for a man, and when she’d finally found the strength to walk away, she’d promised herself she wasn’t going to waste any more time on guys who expected her to be available when it suited them, but weren’t prepared to be there for her in return. Not that she thought Ash was that sort of guy, but he was lying about the reason he wanted to keep things quiet.

Lying to himself as much as to her.

It wasn’t about protecting her from the press. They’d get hold of the story and print their venom sooner or later. That was just how the world worked. She didn’t like it, but she did accept that invasion of their private lives was inevitable while she was dating him.

Ash was really protecting himself in case it all went wrong.

She didn’t blame him for it. She’d had enough relationships to know how bad break-ups could be, and the more crazily these things began, the crazier they ended.

Though, touch wood, it never came to that.

Ash was right for her. She wasn’t exactly sure what it was about him that so convinced her of that, she just knew it, and she’d learned to listen to her guts. If she’d done so earlier in life, then she might have avoided a whole lot of adolescent screw-ups.

OK, she was very obviously spending the night alone.

Ginny skirted the parking lot, staying in the shadows. The way out was via the security gate, and with any luck the same guy who’d been there on the way in would still be working. All she’d had to do to get past him earlier was flash him her ID card from the last gig she’d attended. He hadn’t bothered to check the date on it or anything.

He had to be new. He’d definitely been clueless. It was miraculous really that there weren’t girls clawing at the outside of the bus, but they seemed to be contained outside the wire perimeter fence.