“It wasn’t exactly like you think it was, Ronnie.”
“It wasn’t?”
“No.”She scraped her bottom lip raw, realising that she was digging herself a deeper pit.This was ridiculous.Also, it was cold out here, and she couldn’t get her arm into her cardigan no matter which way she seemed to turn it.She pushed Ronnie aside in a bid to get back inside and warm up.“We haven’t actually done it like you think we’ve done it.”
His amber eyes crossed as he worked through the semantics of her sentence.“This gets more intriguing by the minute.But you did something?Something that wasn’t just a nice chat over a shared bag of Jelly Tots.”
She was never going to be able to eat them ever again.And actually, she and Spook had been doing more than something for a while now.“He’s kinky, all right.And so am I.Now, shut the fuck up.I’m not handing out salacious details.Seriously, Ronnie.If you ask even one more thing, I’m going to call Chauncey and force reality on you.”
He followed her to the seating, and gathered his legs up before him.He never did sit like an ordinary person.“Please don’t.”He rested his chin on his knees.“Kinky, how exactly?”
“No.We’re not talking about it.”They weren’t.She wasn’t.“He spanks me, okay.”Apparently, that fact was burning in her brain so brightly she needed to spit it out to someone.Hell, she’d been chasing Spook for a year in the hopes that he’d raise his hand and redden her arse.Now he had, she really, really, needed to say it aloud.Just the once.
Just once.
To make it real.
Like the fact she was sitting gingerly wasn’t proof enough.
Ronnie’s brow furrowed.He tapped his fingertips against his lips as if he were playing piano on them.“You’re into that?”
“Is that so hard to comprehend?”
Two narrow shoulders lifted.“No.I guess not.”The light in his amber eyes winked with some sort of hidden meaning.As if he’d just then deciphered a timeless puzzle.“I wouldn’t like that.Not giving or receiving.”
“You don’t have to.Everyone’s kinky in their own way.”
“I don’t think I am.”
“No?”She thought.“You’re not turned on by the notion of paddling in gummi bears or being tied up with strawberry laces and having to eat your way out.”His eyes crossed.Whether that was because he was happily imagining such a scenario, or because he was shocked and revolted by it, she wasn’t sure.Either way, he stayed surprisingly quiet for a few moments.Long enough for her to get twitchy about not being understood, and the possibility that he might not respect her choices.
She really needn’t have worried though.All he eventually said was, “Did you know before you started seeing him?”
“Before I met him, I hoped.I had a bad crush on him, and in my fantasies…” Best not to say too much about them.“I knew from the first time we met, when I remastered one of their early tracks.We were talking and working, and it just came out.I’m not really, exactly sure how.It just did.”
“And your crush became something way more intense.”
That did indeed pretty much sum it up.
Ronnie twisted open his half-eaten bag of Jelly Tots and offered them to her.Alle shook her head, then regretted it as she watched him flatten and inhale a few.
“I spoke to Flynn this morning,” Ronnie admitted.“He said you two had exchanged words.”
“My brother said that?”
“Not in those exact words.He wanted me to confirm that it was real and not a hoax, and if you and Xane had ever been a thing or Marshall was talking utter bollocks.He’s going to be at this festival, if you didn’t know.”
“Marshall is?”She guessed that wasn’t such a big surprise.He did work for an entertainment group.
“Flynn made me promise that I’d try to hook you up with them for drinks later.”
“Flynn’s going to be at the festival too?”That was news.She’d assumed, along with Black Halo, that her brother would be staying aboard ship.That had been the logic behind choosing to go with Ronnie playing keys for them.This bit of leave had to be a new development, or Flynn would have corrected them yesterday.
“Should I expect the other two to spring up out of nowhere too?”It took no effort to picture it.All four of her brothers come to make sure their little sister didn’t do anything crazy, like—shock, horror—make out with a guy.A rich, handsome, wet dream of a guy.Heavens above, she wasn’t sixteen any more.Nor was she rocking up to stand by the barriers with a bunch of other overeager girls in a bid to be ‘the one’ for the night.They were having a grown-up relationship.
“Did Flynn ask you to spy on me too?Are you about to report back that I’m doing kinky shit and probably need dragging back home for my own good?”
“Moi?”Ronnie held his mouth open in mock shock.“No… I would never.I don’t snitch.He did ask a shit ton of questions about Spook, but it’s not like I know anything.We haven’t exactly sat down and had a conversation, whereas your brother is apparently acquainted with his shoe size.”
Alle wrapped her arms tight around him, and planted a kiss on his temple.“All right, so BFFs is a go after all.”She pursed her lips.“Therefore, in the interests of openness, I think it’s only fair to remind you that Marshall works forBang!Therefore, drinks are a total nope.Even if he hadn’t printed all that shit about Spook and got him arrested I’d have thought twice about it.He’s a weasel.Seriously, he’ll do whatever to further his own agenda.Think nothing about printing stuff he was told in confidence.I seriously doubt Chauncey would want you talking to him.Maybe speak to him.”
“You know I can’t talk to Chauncey at the minute.”
As if Chauncey had heard the mention of his name, Ronnie’s phone began chirping with his designated ringtone.Alle swiped it from his hand, as he reached to silence it.“Close your ears,” she warned.“I’m answering, and I’m going to mention Marshall andBang!I’ll only tell you stuff if I think it’s essential you know.Okay?”
Reluctantly, he echoed her last word.
