Bedded Bliss (Found in Oblivion #1) - Cari Quinn Page 0,1

week—he had girls throwing themselves at him. Hell, some guys too.

He hadn’t been part of a successful band for long. They were still suffering from growing pains. For some reason, they just couldn’t get their lineup to gel. Members had come and gone, and Ryan had tried to fill in wherever he could, but Jesus, they needed a real drummer, someone who could kill it like Matt Sorum or Dave Grohl. So he wasn’t that used to anyone seeing them as a legit entity, mainly because they didn’t quite see themselves that way yet. Even with all the shows they were doing, and the EP they’d cut that had done better than expected on the Hot 100, Warning Sign was definitely still suffering from poser syndrome.

And hot, willing, adoring groupies? Well, they eased the pain.

Not that he’d gotten to enjoy that many of them, despite recent public theorizing otherwise. He was too worried about being a good guy. Too concerned about not being like his dad and leaving behind a trail of broken hearts—or like his mom and leaving behind a trail of broken marriages, and engagements, and embarrassing legal battles.

Tabitha was actually one of the first women he’d connected with a few times on their mini tour of the west coast. The rest had been faceless, momentary thrills. Amazing, but brief. He’d also usually been too drunk to remember names the next day.

According to his manager—and former stepmother, Lila Crandall—he had a problem.

With the drinking and the girls? Nah. He was just having fun. No one was getting hurt, so what was the big deal?

Now there was Tabitha, who was pouring more champagne on his abs, and licking it up while her big brown eyes made love to his.

“You can’t do this.” His voice sounded faint, even to him.

He wasn’t drunk or hungover, but he was horny. He was also a twenty-three-year-old male. Fuck, it got so tiring being the morality police all the time. That was exactly why he’d started letting loose a few months ago. He’d always been sheltered from the real world, locked away in the ivory tower of his father’s money and his mother’s endless carousel of crappy relationships. When he hadn’t been forcibly rejecting their bad examples, he’d been sequestered playing his guitar.

Was it any wonder he’d gone a little nuts when he’d first tasted freedom and success of his own? But he could rein it in at any time.

That mean telling Tabby sayonara. Again. This time he’d have to convince her that she was murdering both of their reputations, and he damn sure wasn’t going to have sex with her anyway, so she might as well not bother.

After his background, there was no way he’d be a homewrecker or a cheater, even by proxy. Helping someone else to cheat wasn’t any better. If she wanted to leave her relationship, fine. Instead she wanted her piece of “rockstar cake” as she’d once called him while she married a senator.

Fuck that. He wasn’t anyone’s cake. He also needed to actually speak up and get her back into her clothes before she started eating him without benefit of a fork.

“You need to go,” he managed as she dripped a few drops of champagne around his nipple and let out a husky laugh. “I’m not kidding, Tabitha. I don’t know how you got in here, but it’s breaking and entering. I was asleep, goddammit.”

“Aw, sugar, I hate when you throw around accusations. Especially when we both know you gave me this key,” she lifted a long necklace hidden by her towel, “a couple weeks ago and told me to use it. Actually, you begged me.” She circled her bright pink fingernail around the sensitive peak she’d just drizzled with bubbly and he barely restrained a hiss. “You said how you get so lonely out on the road. That you hate sleeping alone on the bus but it would make you feel so much better to have a girl waiting for you in your bed. One who would keep the home fires burning.” She let go of the key and reached for the knot in her towel. The terrycloth parted and her luscious body came into full, glorious view. And fuck it all, his balls clenched. “Wanna see how warm I can get for you?”

It was just a line, and a cheesy one at that. Christ, he didn’t remember telling her any of that, but she had a key. She was in the apartment. He did get lonely