Rock Courtship Rock Courtship (Rock Kiss #1.5) by Nalini Singh Read Free Book Online Page B

boarding school that he’d stopped eating. Without Abe, and then Noah and Fox, he wasn’t sure he would’ve survived the culture shock despite his burning desire to make his parents proud, give them and his brothers a better life.
    “So,” Noah said from his perch, “you cooked and you were drumming with a steak knife. What gives?”
    That was the thing with Noah. Voted one of the world’s most beautiful people recently, complete with a cover photo shoot where he was dressed only in ripped jeans that were barely hanging on, a wicked smile on his face, the guitarist pulled off the laid-back musician routine so well that most people never realized he was always stone-cold sober in company unless with those rare few he trusted down to the bone.
    The fact was, Noah’s intelligence was a blade; it was Noah who’d read all their gig contracts back when they couldn’t afford a lawyer, Noah who’d made sure they walked away from things that would’ve equaled handcuffs in the long-term.
    So David didn’t try to bluff. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
    “Fair enough.” Hopping off the railing as David put the steaks on two plates, the other man went inside and came out with a couple of beers.
    They ate outside, and as they did, they talked about music. It was what had first brought the four members of Schoolboy Choir together, and though they were now bound by deeper bonds, it remained an integral part of their relationship. Noah was working on a song he’d mentioned to David before and grabbed his guitar to show David what he had so far. “Think you can do your magic?”
    “Hmm.” David asked him to play it again, tapped out a clean, precise rhythm with his knife and fork on the edge of the table, using the clink of the fork against his plate to replace the sound of the cymbals. “Yeah, I can feel it.” He played some more, accompanying Noah as the other man segued into one of the band’s biggest hits.
    Noah had an excellent voice, but he didn’t add it to the music. “This one needs Fox’s lungs.”
    David agreed. They all had their talents and the lead singer’s voice was a force of nature. “Him and Molly, it’s serious.” Fox smiled at Molly with a possessiveness you’d have to be blind to miss—but it wasn’t only that; there was a raw tenderness there, something David wasn’t used to seeing in his friend’s expression.
    Making it though… it’d be a hard road for the two. Molly seemed to have a dislike of the spotlight, and no woman who was with Fox could avoid the cameras.
    “Never seen him like this about a woman,” Noah said, shooting an incisive glance at David. “Seen you like it about Thea though.”
    “Damn it, Noah. How the fuck do you do that?”
    Undaunted, Noah continued to play, his fingers dancing over the strings with an ease envied by millions. “You get this look in your eyes when you’re thinking about her,” the guitarist said. “So?”
    “So… I’m working on it.” But he’d have to wait, be patient. Much as he wanted to talk to Thea face-to-face, she was spending time with her family, and he wasn’t an arrogant ass, wouldn’t just fly in and invite himself to their home. Not only would that wreck her well-earned vacation, it would be shooting himself in the foot.
    For now, all he had were his words.
     
    In Rebuttal
     
    Introduction: In which I, David Rivera, prove that you, Thea Arsana, are so very wrong and should be with me.
    I agree that you’re brilliant at your work and certainly don’t need anyone to look over your shoulder, which makes my point: you are more than capable of handling a lover who is also a client.
    After all, it’s not as if I plan to walk into your office, stroll around to the back of your executive chair, and bend down to kiss your neck as I undo that sleek twist thing you do with your hair. Not that I’d blame me if I did. The length of your neck is so elegant that it’d be a crime not to kiss it, taste it, draw in your