Page 98 of Not Another Love Song

She smiled. She knew all of them.

The rest of the night was a blur.

She played the next six songs with them until she finally got self-conscious about stealing the spotlight and refused, handing the violin back to Dominic. Her heart didn’t stop pounding for the rest of the set, and she couldn’t stop smiling either. They forced her to come out and take a bow at the end and play the encore with them, and when she bowed she couldn’t help but think that this kind of bow was different than the one she got at the Pops. This bow wasn’t about respect for craft. This bow was pure joy and giddy terror—being the center of the universe for five seconds.

They split a bottle of whiskey backstage afterward, and despite Alex’s best efforts to go immediately back to the hotel with her, the rest of the band convinced them to come to the bar for an hour.

Carlos found the video on Instagram first, reposting it to his own account. Someone had filmed Gwen playing “Smooth Criminal” with them.

#GwenJackson #violinKaween #steponme #SHE #ThorneandRoses #XanderThorne #burymewiththis

“Is this okay?” she asked Alex as Carlos found two more Instagram videos and one YouTube video of the entire performance of “Highway to Hell.”

Alex swallowed his scotch and said, “Of course. Why wouldn’t it be?”

She nodded into her glass, trying to shake off this feeling that she’d gotten a free gift that could be taken from her at any moment.

When Dominic tried to buy another round, Alex stopped him and all but dragged her from the bar and into a taxi. His fingers danced along her thigh in the back seat. In the elevator up to their suite, Alex pushed her up against the wall and angled her head so he could kiss her while his thigh slid between hers. She moaned all forty floors up.

Getting the key card to open the door was a huge ordeal that Alex didn’t seem to have the patience for, so Gwen took it from him and let them in. He carried her in, hugging her body tightly to his as he kissed her.

“You were remarkable tonight,” he murmured into her neck. “The way the lights hit you…” A kiss against her throat. “We have to watch those videos so you can see yourself. You were so free. So much more alive than you’ve ever been.” His tongue was against her skin, and his hips rolled into her. “Fuck, I wanted to fuck you all night.”

Gwen still wasn’t sure how Alex was able to leave her breathless with just the words that came out of his mouth. Sinful, sinful words. She could do nothing but smile into his shoulder.

His hands slid up her ribs, tracing the grooves in her T-shirt. She chuckled, a weightless feeling filling her head. “What?” he said, pulling back to smile down at her.

“Just thinking of eighteen-year-old Gwen,” she said, “if I told her she’d get to see Thorne and Roses live, play onstage with them, and then go back to Xander Thorne’s hotel room.”

She grinned and leaned up on her toes to kiss him softly.

“Mm. Eighteen-year-old Alex wouldn’t have believed it either, if I told him he’d get to take someone like you back to his hotel room,” he mumbled against her lips.

“Eighteen-year-old Alex could get it.”

“He could not.”

She laughed, and he lifted her up, grabbing at her thighs as they wrapped around him. He walked her to the king-size bed in the middle of the suite, dropping her to bounce on the mattress with a yelp. Scrambling up the bed, she kicked off her boots and pulled her shirt over her head.

A humming sound reverberated from somewhere.

Alex stood from unlacing his boots to pull his phone from his jeans pocket. Frowning at it, he silenced the buzzing and placed the phone on the bedside table with his room key and wallet. Before she could ask if he needed to answer it, he’d grabbed her ankles, pulling her down to him and unbuttoning her jeans.

Gwen giggled, breathless and grabbing for the back of his shirt to pull over his head. His hands were frenzied on her hips, rolling the tight denim over her ass and down her thighs. He left them hanging from her knees, reached for her waist, and as easily as if she were a doll, flipped her onto her stomach. He pulled her up on her knees, ass in the air.

Kisses against her backside, and Gwen gasped when he pressed his lips over her black lace underwear.

There was a quick buzz of a voicemail notification.

But Alex ignored it, pulling the lace to the side and starting to lap at her. Long, flat strokes that made her thighs quiver and pulled the breath from her lungs. It wasn’t long before he had her groaning into the mattress, squirming to do anything but just kneel with her hips in the air.

He pulled away and encouraged her to undress as he did the same. Gwen peeled her jeans the rest of the way down her legs and tossed her shirt across the room. The whiskey and tequila were making her brain happy, and her body thrummed as Alex crawled over her.

A buzzing from the nightstand again.

Gwen turned her head to his phone.

Lorenz.

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