Rock Addiction (Rock Kiss #1)(50)

Before he could give in to the urge to walk over and stroke the sweet curve of it, his phone rang. It was Noah, asking if he wanted to check out a music shop the guitarist had heard about.

“No, man,” Fox said with a wink at Molly, “I’m going to go get my photo taken with a koala bear.”

Lips twitching, Molly sat down beside him to do up her own sneakers. Wearing a casual but fitted pink shirt with fine white stripes and elbow-length sleeves teamed with jeans, the top three buttons of the shirt undone to reveal the white tank she wore underneath, she looked pretty and young and bitable. Her hair was in a ponytail, the tail fed through the back of one of his baseball caps, her creamy skin vulnerable to even the fall sun.

“Seriously?” Noah said into the phone. “I’ve never seen one either. Can I come?”

Fox thought about it. This was meant to be a date… but Noah rarely sounded excited about something as innocent as this, the world he lived in a dark place that often threatened to suck him under. Abe might appear the most dysfunctional of the four of them, but Noah was far more seriously f*cked up. “Yeah,” he said, “but you have to be ready in ten. Underground garage, level two.”

Hanging up, he tugged on Molly’s ponytail, delighted with her. “Noah’s coming. He’s never seen a real koala either.”

“Ah, the debauched rock star life.” Molly leaned in to kiss his dimple, and yeah, he grinned, loving the little things she did that told him what they had, it was special, was way more than sex.

“That was nice of Justin,” she said afterward, “to take out a hire car in his name for you.”

Fox snorted and pulled on his own cap, having asked the lawyer to do the favor yesterday, then drop off the keys. “Nice, my ass.” Rising, they headed to the door. “I bribed him with the promise of a bottle of single-malt whiskey.”

Once outside in the hallway, Fox waited for Molly to pull the door shut before taking her hand in his. Her eyes were startled when she looked up, but then her fingers curved shyly around his and it slammed all the air from his lungs. If he had his way, he’d walk through the hotel lobby with her hand in his so no one would make any mistake about who she was to him—but Molly wasn’t in any way ready for the glare of the limelight.

So he satisfied himself with holding her hand until they stepped out of the elevator and headed to the black SUV Justin had hired. Unlocking it, he nodded for Molly to get into the front passenger seat. She shook her head. “Noah’s much taller than I am. He’ll have more legroom in front.”

“Push your seat forward.” Fox looked at the space behind her once she did. “He’ll be fine. Bastard’s the one horning in on our date,” he said with a grin as Noah exited the elevator… with Abe and David behind him.

“Well, f*ck.” Fox groaned. “Damn it to hell, guys! How are we supposed to be anonymous if we go en masse?” Two of them could’ve skated under the radar if they were careful, but no way would that work with all four members of the band together.

“Hey, you don’t own the koala bears.” Abe folded his arms over a dark gray shirt with short sleeves, muscles bulging under the rich mahogany of his skin. His head was bare, his hair cut close to his skull and an intricate pattern razored in on one side—that pattern was dyed a vivid purple with jagged slashes of white and orange.

“You’re about as inconspicuous as David’s goddamn T-shirt.” Fox scowled at his other bandmate’s screaming tee. “Jesus. It looks like someone threw up a rainbow on you. You’ll scare the koala bears away before we get near them.”

David gave him the finger. “It was for charity.” A wink at Molly from his uninjured eye, the other one ringed by a deep blue-black bruise. “Also, koalas aren’t bears, you genius, they’re marsupials.”

“Shut your trap, Rainbow Boy.” Fox pointed a finger at Noah. “Explain.”

Shoulders rising under the black of his sleeveless sweatshirt, the hood flipped up to conceal his hair, Noah spread his hands. “What was I going to do? They saw me sneaking out.”

Fox thought of these men as his brothers, but they’d just ruined his one chance to be with Molly like a normal guy on a date with his girl. Before he could snarl at them, Molly stepped forward. “I have an idea,” she said with the smile that had hit him like a roundhouse punch that first night and showed no sign of decreasing in potency. “I’ll be your assistant.” She hefted the little multi-zip travel bag she’d slung across her body. “I’ll buy all the drinks, tickets, etcetera, and everyone will see what they expect to see.”

“She’s smart,” Abe said to Fox. “You should try not to f*ck it up with her.”

Fox narrowed his eyes. “Just for that, you get to sit in the back. All three of you. Molly gets the front passenger seat.”

Much whining and complaining later, the three men somehow folded themselves into the back of the SUV. Then it began. The one-liners, the zingers back and forth, the insults, the jokes. Molly laughed until she protested that her stomach hurt, and Fox had to forgive the others then, didn’t he?

“Christ,” Abe groaned when Fox brought the car to a stop at the wildlife park. “I think my joints are permanently frozen in place.” Stepping out, he began to stretch his heavily muscled body.