That Lip Ring

  That Lip Ring…

  A Rock Kiss Short Story

  By Nalini Singh

  Molly looked around and shook her head.

  The rock star who lounged in the soft leather of the seat across from her, his lip ring catching the light coming in the plane’s windows, pushed up his ball cap to drawl. “What’s got you scowling, Miss Molly?”

  That gritty voice rasped over her in an intimate wave. Her breasts tightened, her thighs clenched, and she had to fight off a heat wave that'd stain her pale skin a betraying pink. Fox knew it, too, because his lips curved in a slow smile that just intensified the hot flush.

  But since she was now married to the man and had developed some self-defense skills, she leaned back in her own seat of soft cream-colored leather and crossed her legs. Her fifties-inspired dress was very respectable…until she hitched up the skirt to reveal a hint of thigh.

  Groaning, Fox put down the sheet music on which he’d been making notes. “Come here.”

  Molly blew him a kiss before saying, “Nope. I just changed and did my makeup. You’re not mussing me up.” She’d kept things light, but she couldn’t walk out in her slouchy travel clothes and makeup-free face when she might end up being snapped by the paparazzi. “I was just thinking that how is this my life?”

  She waved around them to indicate the plush confines of the private jet. “I was a librarian. I filed books about private jets. Now I’m riding around in one like it’s normal.” Molly wasn’t sure if would ever become actually normal for her—it was all too surreal.

  Fox’s muscles flexed under the vivid colors of his sleeve tattoo as he put the sheet music aside, then took off his ball cap. That was his token effort at a disguise, though he’d also throw on a jacket after they landed. “We should be fine,” he said. “No one expects us.”

  That was because Molly’s best friend, Charlotte, wasn’t getting married for a while yet. Aware Molly would definitely be attending, the media would be on alert in the weeks directly before that—because they knew it was highly unlikely she’d do so without Fox by her side.

  In the time since the first conflagration of their love, Molly and Fox’s relationship had matured and deepened. They each had their friendships and hobbies, some shared, others not, and were used to doing things independently. But it was rare for them to spend a night apart.

  The sexual fire between them flamed hotter than ever, but they were best friends beyond that. She loved just hanging out with her rock star husband—and he felt the same about his editor/researcher wife.

  That she was always with Fox when the band went on tour, and that they holidayed together more often than not hadn’t escaped the media. This time, however, her husband might just be right about the two of them slipping unnoticed into New Zealand. “I can’t wait to help her look for her wedding dress.”

  She all but danced in her seat. “I’m so glad we could come.” Molly and Charlotte had ruthlessly compared schedules and changed commitments to carve out this week between Fox’s concert performances and Charlotte and Gabriel’s business travel commitments. “It’s going to be so much fun going dress hunting.”

  A grin from Fox. “Good luck. I’m so sorry to miss it.”

  “At least try to be a sincere liar,” she said with a laugh. “Are you looking forward to the camping trip?” Charlotte’s future husband was taking Fox up north, with kayaking and off-road driving on the menu along with the camping.

  “Yeah.” Fox grinned. “Gabe’s also promised to teach me more rugby moves so I can kick his little brothers’ asses now and then.”

  Since Gabe’s “little” brothers included two champion rugby players and one who was no slouch though he played just for fun, her lover was setting himself a challenge. But Molly would put her money on him. Always. Because he was hers and she was his. “Make sure you teach me too.” Gabe’s family was seriously into rugby and they always ended up playing a friendly game when together.

  “You know it, Miss Molly.” Fox threw that slow smile at her again, and this time, she groaned and gave in. A woman had only so much self-control.

  Moving over to his lap, she sat primly sideways with one arm around his neck and the fingers of her other hand brushing his bristly jaw. Smoky green eyes looked into hers as he wrapped his tattooed arm around her waist, while using his free hand to push up the skirt of her dress so he could close his fingers over one curvy thigh. “There you are,” he said in that voice that had made millions of women fall in love with him.

  But Fox loved only one: Molly.

  Leaning in, she kissed him slow and deep and wet. He groaned and leaned back in his seat, his hand massaging her thigh. When she tugged gently on his lip ring, it was to another deeper groan, his body hardening under her. “This ring,” she murmured, her blood honey. “My downfall.” It had caught her eye from the first, and she couldn’t imagine a time when she didn’t utterly adore it.

  His lips curved. “Did I tell you about the new tattoo I’m getting in New Zealand?”

  Hand spreading over his chest, where he’d gotten a tattoo that shouted his love to her, Molly tilted her head to the side. “You know you didn’t, foxy man.”

  After pretending to spank her for that teasing comment, he said, “Grab my phone. It’s the last photo in my camera roll.”

  Opening his photos app, Molly laughed. “Books!” Specifically, a pile of them with a small female form drawn leaning up against the pile—as if the pile was so big the woman couldn’t ever finish reading them. But she was absorbed, her head bent over the one open on her bent knees. And her hair, it was like Molly’s untamed black waves, her body all curves.

  Delighted with her grinning lover, she kissed him until his hands clenched on her hips, his breath short and sharp, and his heart thunder. Pulling back only when the pilot announced they were coming in to land, she dropped one final kiss on those gorgeous, sinful lips. “We’ll finish this later.” Her own breathing wasn’t exactly steady.

  “Count on it,” Fox murmured, but let her go back to her seat—with one final squeeze of her hips. “Think I can talk Gabe into another tattoo?”

  Since Charlotte’s fiancé was already inked, Molly took a moment to think about it. “I think it’ll depend on the design, but…yes.” Suddenly remembering what had happened with Fox’s bandmate and a drunken bachelor party, she scowled at her husband. “Don’t get me in trouble with my best friend.”

  Smile wicked, Fox sprawled back in his seat. “You’re leaving us menfolk alone for five days. Who knows what will happen?”

  Lips twitching, Molly crossed her legs again. “Careful, you’re giving me ideas about getting up to mischief with Charlotte.”

  Fox’s grin intensified. “I’ll come bail you out if you’re arrested.”

  Molly burst into laughter, happy to be here, in this moment, with a rock star who would be there for her no matter what. Jail included.

  Postscript: Dear Reader, Molly and Charlie were not arrested. They did however, crash a Mercedes, talk with ghosts, have tea with a stranger, and find the perfect wedding dress. But that’s a story for another time…

  Copyright © 2020 by Nalini Singh

  Timeline: All of my contemporary stories can be read in any order, but if you'd like to read Molly and Fox's story, you can find it in Rock Addiction. Charlotte and Gabriel's book is Rock Hard.

 

 

  Nalini Singh, That Lip Ring

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