“What you saw that night? I don’t know what it was exactly, but I can tell you this much. Wroth would have probably killed himself before he did something that he knew would hurt you. He worships you, he always has.” Dallas stood, giving me a small, grim smile. “Talk to the man, Marissa. Get his side of the story before you continue to make him pay for something he might be completely innocent of.”

I couldn’t speak as she turned and left the bus. Tears burned my eyes and clogged my throat. My heart was beating hard and my hands were suddenly damp. Could she be right? Had Wroth really not cheated?

Chapter 14

Wroth

I woke with Marissa in my arms. Her head was tucked under my chin, one arm wrapped over my waist and one knee tucked between my legs. It was the perfect way to wake up every morning. With a contented sigh I pressed a kiss to the top of her head and tried to stretch as much as possible without waking her. I was tired after the last three days of concerts.

There had been no break during the days since we’d had morning interviews at six fucking o’clock for local radio stations, followed by all-day events that drained me more than being under the hot lights on stage performing for more than an hour. Then as soon as one show was finished it was back on the road and starting the whole thing all over again in the next city. And during the last three days, I’d barely seen Marissa for five minutes during the day.

If I hadn’t had her to fall asleep with every night, I probably would have gone insane by now.

Marissa sighed in her sleep and cuddled closer against me, her lips brushing over my chest as she kissed me in her sleep. “Mm.”

I tightened my hold on her, afraid she would move away in her sleep if I didn’t.

From the roost across from ours I heard a soft moan and realized that I wasn’t the only one awake. It was all too obvious that Devlin and Natalie were wide awake in Devlin’s roost at the moment. When Natalie moaned a little louder followed by Devlin’s curse, Marissa’s eyes opened and her face twisted in grimace. “Again? Didn’t we fall asleep to them last night?” she muttered sleepily.

I leaned down to kiss her lips. “Yup.” But the sounds those two had been making had gotten us both worked up and I’d taken my time getting my girl to heaven before we’d fallen asleep in each other’s arms to the sounds of the other couple still going at it. Devlin and I both seriously needed to look into getting our own buses, and soon. I reached for Marissa’s hand and brought it to my lips, kissing her fingertips one by one. “What do you say we give them a run for their money in a nosiest love-making contest?” I suggested.

Pink filled her cheeks but she grinned up at me. “I like that idea,” she murmured so softly it was like a caress down my spine.

With a happy growl, I pulled her over me and kissed her long and deep. Marissa was still naked from where I’d undressed us both the night before and the feel of her hot, soaking wet pussy brushing over my throbbing cock was enough to force a groan from me. I gripped her ass and spread her thighs wider so that the head of my cock would fit perfectly against her clit. She ground her hips down against me, making me see bright spots behind my closed lids from the sheer pleasure of her heat grinding on my agonizing flesh.

When I thrust the tips of two fingers into her opening from behind, she broke our hungry kiss to let a wanton little moan escape. She felt so good, so tight and wet and scalding hot. I wanted to sink my dick deep inside of her until we were completely one, but I’d somehow kept sane enough over the last several weeks to keep from taking her virginity. It was killing me, but I would suffer the fires of hell if I had to. I wasn’t taking Marissa’s virginity until my ring was on her finger and she was Mrs. Wroth Niall.

It might seem archaic, and if the tabloid trash mags ever got hold of that little bit of information they would have a field day. But I was an old-fashioned kind of guy. I loved this girl with everything inside of me and was going to make sure that we did this the right way, just like my mother would have wanted me to do if she had still been alive. Marissa was so innocent and pure and she deserved to still be that way on her wedding day.

Of course I still had to ask her. I hadn’t yet because I had special plans for asking her something so fucking important. It was what I’d asked Emmie to help me with and our stop in Kansas was just the next day. I was excited to ask her to spend the rest of her life with me, and at the same time I was terrified. I was scared out of my mind that she was going to turn me down.

In the last few weeks, I’d told my girl that I loved her whenever the words would whisper through my conscious. Which was a lot. But there hadn’t been one time when she had repeated them. I was okay with that, at least I kept telling myself I was okay with it. The pain that would slice through me with the absence of her words of love was like a chainsaw slicing me in half.

I couldn’t understand why she never told me she loved me when I could see what she felt for me shining back at me in her eyes every time I looked at her. Even now, as she moaned my name and dripped her release on my quivering dick I could see how much she loved me. “Wroth!”

“That’s it, sweetheart. Come for me,” I encouraged as I gripped her ass cheeks harder, grinding her pussy against me until she convulsed with her orgasm.

With a loud cry she fell against my chest, her breaths coming in hard pants as she slowly came down from the high of her release. When she lifted her head and smiled at me I turned us onto our sides. My dick was still rock hard and my balls were tight, ready to spill my own release. “Touch me, Mari,” I commanded.

The smile on her face dimmed and she pulled her hand back when I reached for it. I grimaced, knowing that she was remembering all those times I’d refused to let her touch me last spring. I hadn’t realized at the time how much damage I’d been doing to her pride. She hadn’t made the same pleas to touch me in the last few weeks, had never touched me below my navel during our love play sessions. If she had, I would have gladly let her take her time exploring every inch of my body if that was what she wanted to do to me. She hadn’t though, and I hadn’t let myself think about it much, but I could see now that my refusing to let her touch me then was affecting us now.

I caught her hand and lifted it to my mouth once again. I trapped and held her gaze as I kissed her open palm. “I love you, sweetheart.” I watched the muscles work in her throat as she swallowed hard and tried to hide my pain when she didn’t so much as open her mouth. “Listen to me for a minute, Mari. Okay?” After only a small hesitation she nodded. “Before…back then? I couldn’t let you touch me. I wanted you so badly that if I let you touch me I wouldn’t have been able to contain myself. I wouldn’t have been able to keep from sinking deep into your beautiful body and making love to you like I wanted to so badly back then—like I want to do right now. I still have trouble controlling my need to be inside of you, sweetheart.”