Surfing the internet on her phone confirmed that he had an impressive rock pedigree. He’d drummed for three big-name bands and had credits on a host of tracks performed with other acts. Luthor’s Denna Rädsla project, on the other hand, only brought up a couple of links, one of them to a scathing review.
‘He’s missing Steve Matlock’s flourishes, but he’s otherwise not bad,’ Ulf confirmed when he was content that everything sounded as it should. ‘You can get out of here now. Leave your case. I’ll see it gets put on the bus. You don’t want to be dragging that around.’
Dani didn’t give him the chance to change his mind: she was out the door and down the stairs, flying towards the dressing rooms. She saw no sign of Luthor. Hopefully, he’d just taken himself off somewhere quiet to calm down and hadn’t genuinely walked out. Though she wouldn’t blame him if he had. If she’d been passed over for a chance of drumming for Black Halo, she’d have been gutted too. Not that she possessed any musical talent.
She found Xane’s dressing room easily enough, knocked and let herself in. Whoa! She crashed headlong into Ash Gore, which startled her into a shriek. He brushed her off, stalked past her and disappeared into another room three doors down.
‘Are you OK?’
She turned her head to find Jan ‘Spook’ Mortensen addressing her.
‘Dani?’ he enquired, hitching a brow. She nodded in confirmation and he stuck out his hand for her to shake. His white-blond hair swept forward over his shoulders and tickled the skin of her arms as he lifted her hand to kiss her knuckles. ‘Nice to meet you again. We seemed to skip introductions last time.’
‘Yeah.’ Her ability to form words dried up. She stared at him as if she had concussion or something.
‘Who are you talking to, Spook? I thought I told you to get out.’
Dani’s grin stretched even wider at the sound of Xane’s voice.
‘I’m just saying hello to your lovely lady.’ Spook leaned forward again and gave her another kiss, this one on the cheek. ‘He’s grouchy and irritable, see if you can cheer him up.’
‘Over what?’
‘Life.’
‘Life?’ she queried, but Spook was already gone.
‘Dani?’ Xane was right there in front of her, wrapping his arms around her, bowing his head and drinking her down like a man desperate for water. ‘It feels like eternity since I last set eyes on you.’ He didn’t seem irritable, only desperately pleased to see her. More pleased than she’d ever imagined he would be. ‘I thought you’d be here before the soundcheck.’
‘I was, but Ulf made me wait with him. He didn’t want me distracting you.’
‘Bastard,’ Xane hissed. ‘I needed distracting.’ His lips found hers again and he drew her tight against his body. He’d already dressed in his stage outfit, so that his dark, ragged shirt was open to the waist, and easy for her to slip her hands inside. All that was missing to transform him into the demon he was on stage was his yellow cat’s-eye contact lenses. Dani was glad they were missing. Without them she could see right into his soul. There was a great gaping hole there caused by Steve Matlock’s death, and he was desperately trying to fill it by clinging to her.
‘So, you have a new drummer,’ she said, hoping it would prompt him to talk. He’d experienced a massive loss. He needed to talk, but every time she tried to prompt him to open up, he sidestepped the subject. The only way he seemed to express his grief was through his lyrics.
A shadow passed across the surface of Xane’s eyes. ‘Apparently.’
‘That must have been a hard decision to make. I know you loved Steve, and –’
He cut her off by covering her mouth with his fingertips. ‘Don’t. I have to go out there and sing. I can’t do that if you make me think about stuff. Yes, we have a new drummer. He’ll do. He’s not my choice.’
Given the mournful look in his eyes, she doubted he’d have chosen anyone.
‘OK,’ she agreed, though it was hard not to try and dig deeper and attempt to console him, when the sadness rolled off him in such tangible waves. ‘Did the others choose him?’
‘Tell me how you are. I’ve been worried sick about you facing those bitches alone. I wish you’d let me come with you.’
If she’d done that, things would very quickly have got out of hand. ‘One of those bitches is my mum. And I needed to do it alone.’ Despite dreaming for years that he’d ride up and rescue her from captivity, she’d realised that the only way to truly be free of her past was to sever the links for herself. The final showdown between her and her mum hadn’t been pretty. And, Lord help her, there’d be no going back. ‘Besides, you had plenty stuff of your own to sort out.’ Such as tour preparations and grieving, and finding a way forward for the band. All those things were more important than having him hold her hand while she dealt with her screwy family.
‘Will they leave you alone?’
She nodded. Rather more permanently alone than she’d really wanted, but her mum wasn’t prepared to see reason. She wasn’t interested in Dani finding happiness, only in keeping her on a very short leash. Dani wasn’t about to discuss it with Xane, but she had about sixty quid in total to her name now. The Sisterhood had reclaimed everything that was officially theirs, which pretty much accounted for everything she owned that wasn’t jammed into the suitcase she’d left with Ulf. ‘Let’s discuss it later, eh? How long until the show starts?’
‘Not long.’
‘Long enough for me to wish you good luck?’ They both needed to push past events aside and to start living in the present again.
Xane eyed her thoughtfully, while he rotated the ring piercing at the centre of his lower lip. ‘What did you have in mind?’ The way his eyes suddenly glittered told her exactly what he was envisaging. In some ways he had the ultimate one-track mind. Her problem was that she couldn’t resist reacting to him. She could never get enough of his hands on her skin, or the feel of his warm body pressed tight to hers, coupled with that was the fact that he was the most beautiful man she’d ever met – all long inky hair, hard body and wicked-as-sin smile. If she stared at him too long, she sometimes forgot to breathe.
She rubbed a hand across the band of scars that girdled her hips, determined to ground herself a little. ‘Good luck.’ She lifted both her brows and shoulders.
‘That’s it?’ Xane quirked one eyebrow. ‘You come dashing into my dressing room right before I go on stage and all I get is two words?’
‘Would you rather I made it three?’
‘Depends on the words.’ He fixed on his prince-of-darkness mask. The one the fans went wild for, the one that made the girlies’ panties wet. It made her pretty giddy too, but then everything about him called to her. She moved closer to him, drawn as though he were magnetically charged, tilted her head up towards him.
‘Is there time?’
‘Always, for this.’ His tongue met hers and slipped teasingly between her lips. It was barely any step at all between that and being so slippery with need that she was grinding her hips against his body in a hungry imitation of coitus. Xane had always been able to unmake her with his kiss. The man had a tongue so wicked he could probably overcome the Queen of Darkness with it … oh, hang on, he had. Elspeth was his ex.
Xane slid one hand down her back and rested it at the base of her spine. Then both his palms skimmed over her bottom. He pulled her closer. ‘When you were late, I started thinking maybe you weren’t coming back. That those dreadful women had got to you and poisoned you against me.’
It