Page 32 of Jaz
Chapter Ten
A collective gasp went up through the ladies in the small crowd. An equally collective groan went down through the men when Vinter stepped up to a microphone.
A smile played about Elise’s mouth. Carrie’s eyes widened. Jackie glared daggers at Mac. And Mandi couldn’t stop staring between the man center stage and the one behind him sitting at a drum set.
Vinter was still shirtless, and the ink covering his body took her breath away. Jaz shucked his shirt, too. Her mouth dried up as Jaz shucked his shirt. The play of his muscles beneath his skin, his own ink … Her mouth was dry despite the glass of water in front of her.
“Now, for those of you who don’t know me and, well, if you don’t, you should. My name is Vinter.” He spoke with an open, yet mischievous grin on his face.
Elise leaned toward the center of the table. “The man’s ego and sex appeal knows no bounds.”
“You should put a leash on him,” Carrie said, loud enough to even Vinter heard her.
“What fun would that be?”
“Hey, girls.” He pointed in their direction. “Got something you want to share with the rest of us?”
Three of the four women shook their heads. Jackie still glared at Mac.
Mandi had never been so embarrassed or had so much fun in years. She hadn’t had close female friends in even longer. Save for Jackie. Most of her Mandi’s friends were business contacts, not people she’d have dinner or a drink with outside a tradeshow hotel. Elise and Carrie, though? Yeah, she could see going out for pizza and a movie with them or having them over for wine and girls’ nights. Girls’ Nights with Jackie were few and far between as Jackie spent most of her time atKatz.
But what if she and Jaz weren’t seeing each other? Would Elise and Carrie still want to be friends with her? Would it be awkward?
“Our birthday girl seems to be off in space.”
Mandi blinked and focused at the mention of birthday girl to find everyone looking at her. She’d never been more embarrassed.
“Ah, she’s back with us. Missed ya, girl. Were you someplace fun?” Vinter was teasing her and it made the humiliation easier to take, what with his wicked smile.
“Back to what I was saying … Mandi has only been in our little community a few months. Jackie hatched this plan soon after and came to us asking if we'd like to play. We said yes. It was optimistic of us. We hadn’t played in public for anyone before, but we don’t sound like a bunch of screeching cats either. And who knew our man Jaz up here would take a fancy to the guest of honor.”
Oh god, he didn’t. Mandi buried her face in her hands, both cringing and laughing.
“Then again, who knew she’d take a shine to Jaz, but I’m tellin’ ya … If y’all had seen what I saw earlier between these two … Man oh man.”
“Remind me to kick your ass after the party.”
Vinter laughed at the grouchiness in Jaz’s voice and turned his head to look at his drummer. “Remind me to let you try.” He looked back at the small crowd of people gathered. “He actually could kick my ass. Okay, so we have it on Jackie’s authority that one of Mandi’s favorite groups is Nickelback. And yeah, they kick ass too. We do a decent job covering them and Mac doesn’t sound half-bad, so what say we get on with this? Mandi, we wish you a very happy birthday.”
* * * * *
“You okay?” Jaz wasn’t sure about the look on Mandi’s face at the moment. He didn’t know if she was ready to cry, laugh or jump his bones. He brushed the hair from the side of her face and curled it behind her ear. “Mandi?”
She crooked her finger and he leaned down, thinking she wanted to whisper something in his ear. He was wrong. She wrapped her arms around his neck and took his mouth in a plundering kiss. She flicked the tip of her tongue between his lips until he opened.
The ravishing had him leaking in his jeans.
He stood up to his full height, but she didn’t let go. That was fine with him. He liked the way she clung to him and wrapped her legs around him when he lifted her. Unabashed. Unashamed. Open. Damn, but he’d been holding her a lot the last twenty hours or so … From behind, from the front, against the door, against the wall.
Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew people watched. And from somewhere faraway he heard the whistles and cat calls from the people left insideKatz. He didn’t care. He didn’t care about anything but her. Getting inside her, sleeping with her, and starting fresh with her tomorrow.
He lightly bit her tongue. She retreated and raised her head. He understood the look on her face all too well right then. He knew exactly how she felt. “I need you. Right now. I want you real bad, so unless you want an audience, we need to get the hell out of here.”
Her gaze roamed over his face, as though searching for something before she smiled and asked, “Can you walk?”
“Brat. I could walk with my dick buried so deep inside your cunt you felt it in your throat.”
“Yeah?”
