Come Undone. Madelynne Ellis

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       Chapter 6

      ‘You have reached your destination.’

      Dani cut the engine, thankful that the whiny woman had bleated her last. She unbuckled her seatbelt before turning to Xane, who hadn’t moved for the last forty minutes. He faced the door, with his knees drawn up towards his body. A shroud of black hair masked what little she could see of his profile.

      Lucky for him Dani wasn’t the sort to molest a sleeping man. That was assuming he was actually asleep and not merely avoiding conversation.

      Based on the fact he’d taken pills to switch off, she generously supposed the former.

      Actually, thinking on those lines, it seemed a shame to wake him. Maybe exhaustion accounted for the gig being cut short, although that didn’t explain Ash Gore’s remarks as they’d left. It sounded as though the band had had a bust-up. She hoped it wasn’t serious.

      Dani tentatively prodded Xane’s shoulder, hardly daring to make physical contact with him, half convinced the resulting feedback would zap through her synapses causing her to spontaneously combust. He didn’t stir, not even to grunt.

      ‘Xane.’ Dani risked a second jab into his shoulder. This time he yawned and stretched, so that the muscles flexed beneath his shirt, reinvigorating Dani’s pulse. Would he freak, she wondered, if she leaned over and licked the back of his neck?

      What was she doing even contemplating such an act?

      ‘We’re here. I think.’

      Xane glanced at his phone, which currently displayed an image of their current location, overlaid with the words ‘Destination Reached’.

      ‘Back up, and swing us round. Then take the first left. It’s just behind the rise.’

      ‘All right.’ Good to know their destination wasn’t actually a field. Dani restarted the car and followed his instructions.

      Xane unplugged his phone from the car charger. ‘Now, turn in here. Just pull up in front of the house.’

      ‘House’? If you were being super-kind, maybe. The building she drew alongside could more accurately be described as a brick shed. Weren’t rock stars supposed to own swish penthouses, not ten-by-ten cattle barns?

      ‘What is this place?

      Xane mumbled something that might have been ‘bolthole’ as he clambered out of the car.

      Dani tentatively climbed out too. The night wind whipped across the open countryside and nipped her bare arms. Mud underfoot sucked at her shoes. Only the sight of Xane leaping about beneath the orange glow of the security light convinced her not to get straight back into the car.

      ‘Keys,’ he muttered, before launching himself towards the eaves again. His T-shirt rose as he stretched, giving her a tantalising glimpse of his torso. No doubt about it, Xane hit the gym on a regular basis. He was ripped to perfection, the muscles clearly defined. Rather intriguingly, a faint trace of hair led down from his navel, under the waistband of his leathers, and probably all the way to his loins.

      OK, she was not pursuing that thought. Thinking about the package he had hidden there only raised her blood pressure.

      ‘Gotcha!’ Xane finally snagged the key from its hidden hook. He blew off the cobwebs before applying it to the lock.

      ‘Come in if you dare,’ he remarked before stepping inside, leaving her alone in the dark.

      She wasn’t sure if that was a challenge or merely an invitation. Either way, she accepted.

      Besides, it wasn’t as if he was welcoming her to a vampire dungeon. At worst, this would turn out to be his shagging shack, home to two thousand scented candles, an iron rack and an oversized four-poster bed. And crossing the threshold would automatically grant him licence to debauch her in whatever manner he fancied. That didn’t seem so bad, although she intended to have a nice long chat with him before any shagging took place.

      If any shagging took place.

      Gah – why did her brain fog up at the mere thought of him naked?

      A light flickered on inside the building. Dani squelched forward onto the raised porch. She СКАЧАТЬ