The notion instantly sobered her. ‘You mean, you all strip off in front of each other?’
‘Have you seen the size of the bathroom? Babe, it’s like a locker room in here. There’ll be so many arses waving about you’ll not be able to look in any direction without being mooned.’
‘It’s not their backsides waving about I’m concerned over. What if I walk into one of them and they’re hard?’
‘Then tell him to get it out of your face, or I’ll tear the fucking thing off.’ He wasn’t having anyone making any moves on her, and, while he trusted Spook to be a gentleman, he didn’t put it past Ash or Paul to try it on. Ash didn’t understand the concept of exclusivity, total man-whore that he was. As for the new guy, Iain, well … who knew a damn thing about him? With any luck he’d turn out to be gay.
Actually, scratch that. With Dani’s hang-ups, having a gay guy on board would be terrible.
‘Do you get hard in front of one another?’ she asked tremulously.
Xane made a tactical decision not to answer. Considering how much time he and the guys spent living in confined spaces together, of course he’d seen them all standing to attention. He’d heard every one of them masturbate too, except Spook. Spook didn’t do that sort of thing. He’d also shared beds with all of them and done a bit more than that with one person, but Dani really didn’t need to know that.
‘Are you going to help me get out of these things?’ he asked instead, lifting one leather-clad leg.
‘Sure.’
She wriggled down to the foot of the bed in order to drag his leathers off him. Xane happily shimmied out of them and left them on the floor for somebody to trip over. ‘And now what?’ He cocked an eyebrow. ‘Now that you have me totally naked in your bed – what are your plans for me, O wicked one? Are you going to bind me to the bedposts, torture me with feathers and ice cubes? Drive me demented with a hundred thousand nips and kisses?’
She pressed a finger to her smile. ‘None of them. I thought I’d do some total hero worshipping and suck you.’
‘Yeah. Want me to wash first?’
‘Uh uh.’
Oh, boy, being dirty was washing off on her. He hoped hanging around the bus with a bunch of bad asses didn’t change her too much – he liked her exactly as she was.
‘Is that wrong?’ she asked.
Xane stroked her hair. ‘Of course not. It’s hot.’ His cock stirred to life at the mere prospect of her mouth coming anywhere near it. It was fully awake again by the time she’d meandered down his body, by way of his nose and his lips, one elbow, a section of ribs and one or two other bits as well. He liked that she took her time and didn’t just dive on him. Most of the women who claimed to want him had done exactly that. They seemed to be labouring under some strange notion that if they dived straight for his genitals, bypassing conversation, imagination and pretty much any other sort of pleasant human interaction, he’d somehow love them best. Not that that had bothered him for much of his adult life. He freely admitted he’d used sex as a coping strategy. If there was shite in his life, then fucking had been the answer.
It wasn’t like that with Dani. They’d inhabited some of the same dark spaces in the world. They spoke the same language, saw things through a similar lens. Sex with her was a celebration, not a means of escape … at least, mostly. Could he help it if he always craved sex most when he was in emotionally bad places?
‘Hey.’ Dani nipped the flesh near his navel, which made his cock jerk. She was poised over him, ready to deliver on her promise. ‘Say please.’
‘Pretty please.’
‘With a cherry on top?’ She flicked a glance up the length of his body. ‘That’s kind of what your cock looks like, when it’s this red and shiny.’ She gently flicked her tongue over the very tip, causing his cock to flex and grow harder.
‘I can taste myself on you.’
Xane’s fingers curled against the sheets until his knuckles were in danger of cracking.
‘So good. Think I need to taste you some more.’ She swirled her tongue around the tip, as though she were licking an ice-cream, then wrapped him in her heat and started making infuriatingly teasing pulls on his cock.
‘Come here, you.’ Xane made a grab for her and managed to upend her and twist her around so that she was straddled over his face with her knees planted beside his ears. Two could play at this game.
He stuck his tongue out and licked along the whole length of her slit, which caused her to buck and damn near hit her head on the bunk above. ‘Xane! You can’t expect me to concentrate if you’re going to do that.’
‘But I like doing that.’ He did it again to prove the point.
‘OK.’
He liked the way it made her shudder too.
Dani peeped along the length of their bodies at him. ‘Is your view as good as the one I’ve got?’
‘Better. I like having your knees as ear-muffs too. Come closer. Sit on me.’ He pulled her down onto his face, which let him push his tongue right into her. Hell, but she tasted good, all musky and sweet, and, to top that, she gently danced her fingertips over his balls. He tensed a little when he realised what she intended to do, but trusted her to be gentle.
Breathe.
She gently drew one of his nuts into her mouth, and then released it. It felt irrationally good, but bordered on too much. ‘Stop,’ he hissed after a minute or two. ‘Just suck me.’
She did, but he could feel the tension building inside her.
‘What’s the matter, Dani?’
‘Do guys give better blowjobs?’
Oh, fuck! Where had that come from? Were thoughts of him and Steve together still playing on her mind? He wished he could come up with a way of convincing her that his desire for her wasn’t some sort of temporary anomaly. He wasn’t suddenly going to come out as being gay.
‘Xane,’ she prompted him, and he realised his silence had given her the wrong impression.
‘It’s not really about gender. It’s about the individual. And you’re perfect in every way. You don’t have to compete with anyone. Not even a memory.’
Besides, Steve had sucked at sucking. But she didn’t need to know that. The best blowjob he’d had had been courtesy of someone else entirely.
Dani wanted to believe him, but the fact that he had experience with men and was attracted to them niggled away at her and stirred up all the abandonment issues she had been bequeathed by her father. He’d pretended to be straight – until he ran off with their neighbour’s son. It was hard to believe that Xane wouldn’t eventually do the same.
That said, if she didn’t have faith, then they had no chance of surviving.
Dani looked at him spread out before her. He was perfect in every way, with his ink, his washboard abs and the cute V-shaped ridge she didn’t know the name for that led down to his loins. How could she possibly hold on to him? He was a rock star, and she … she was nobody.
‘Are you doubting that we’re made for each other – again? I guess I’ll have to do something about that.’ He pulled her down onto his face again. Dani shivered