“Can I talk to you?” Nikki asked Jacob. She seemed for once to be the most reasonable person in the vicinity.

“No,” he said simply. “I have nothing to say to you. If I had, I would have called you.”

Melanie gnashed her teeth and rounded on Jacob. Gabe would have probably cowered at the look on her face if she’d turned it on him, but Jacob, being Jacob, was used to women berating him. In this particular instance, he deserved it, but that wasn’t always the case.

“You have no problem f**king her in a public hallway—”

“Or a sauna,” Nikki added helpfully.

“Or a sauna,” Melanie echoed several decibels louder than her friend, “but you don’t have the common decency to carry on a polite conversation with her?”

“That about sums it up,” Jacob said. He turned on his heel and stalked off.

Melanie screeched in fury and started after him—no doubt to have it out on his nuts—but Gabe stopped her with a firm arm around her shoulders. He drew her against his chest, stiffening slightly when her elbow gouged him in the side in her struggle to throw him off.

“Easy,” he said. “You’ll only hurt your toe.”

She jerked out of his embrace and glared up at him, redirecting some of her anger. At him.

“What are you talking about?”

“When you kick Shade in the balls,” he said. “You’ll just hurt your toe. They’re made of steel, you know.”

Her jaw dropped. She blinked at him, closing her mouth with a snap, and then snorted before breaking into laughter.

“She got a bit wound up there,” Nikki said as Melanie tried to calm herself with deep, gasps for air between laughs. “She always cracks up after an explosion.”

Yeah, he’d gotten that from earlier.

“Oh, Gabe,” Melanie said, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. “You do have my best interests at heart, don’t you?”

He grinned. “Well, of course. And Nikki’s too.” His lifted both hands in surrender. “But not because I want to get in her pants or anything.”

“Why don’t you?” Nikki asked, her head cocked to one side as she studied him closely. “They’re great pants to get into.”

Ask anyone, he added silently.

“Because,” he said, “I have a thing for your smart, charming, and beautiful friend. The one who isn’t attracted to Shade Silverton.”

“I’d say it’s because she has bad taste,” Nikki said, her gaze skimming over his body with obvious interest, “but she likes you, so she must not be totally lacking in that department.”

“Thanks,” Gabe said, rubbing Melanie’s smooth back, which was still jerking intermittently with her giggles. “I think.”

Melanie finally quieted and wrapped her arms around his waist to relax against him. Nikki’s presence seemed to take a lot out of her, and he completely understood why. The woman seemed to draw drama the way stink draws flies. Gabe shifted Melanie closer to the wall so that they were out of the flow of intermittent traffic using the hallway to prepare for the concert. She felt perfect tucked against him. He rested his cheek on her soft hair and closed his eyes, giving himself a moment to experience the feel of her in his arms. This is how he’d prefer to spend their time together. Just like this. Close. Not dealing with other people’s problems and insecurities. He was sure if Nikki hadn’t tagged along, they’d be spending the entire evening just like this. Except maybe they’d be a little more naked. Thinking of Melanie naked had his hands roaming her back, slipping under the hem of her blouse to seek bare flesh. How was he going to make it another several hours without feeling the press of her warm skin against his? Maybe he should call in sick. Would anyone notice if the drummer didn’t show up for the concert?

“I’m sorry I got jealous,” Melanie said. She drew away and stood on tiptoe to kiss his jaw. She held his gaze, so he knew she was sincere. “But I’m not sorry I want to kick Shade in the balls.”

Gabe chuckled. He had a million things to say about why Jacob had acted that way toward Nikki, but because the woman in question was standing right there examining her fingernails with obvious boredom, he decided to keep those thoughts to himself until he and Melanie were alone. And even then he’d have to guard what he said about women with pussies more hot and ready than a Little Caesars’ pizza. He didn’t want Melanie to get mad at him for inadvertently insulting her friend, so he’d watch what he said about her. He only hoped Melanie could get comfortable after they ditched Nikki. He’d just have to suck it up until then.

When the three of them entered the band’s dressing room, Gabe noticed Jacob talking to their tour manager, Sally. Sally was a black-haired bombshell with big br**sts that she liked to show off in skintight, low-cut shirts. Talking to her was distracting—you just had to gawk at her boobs. It couldn’t be helped. Man, woman, child, or monk, you had to stare at them, wondering if they were real and if your hand was big enough to hold one properly. Jacob was no exception. It didn’t matter that he was happily involved with Amanda or that Sally was happily married to one of their road crew—Kris, a giant, weathered biker with a huge heart—it was impossible not to stare at Sally’s endowments. Gabe had fallen into the same trap many times himself. So when Nikki saw Jacob paying undo attention to another woman’s chest and bristled, Gabe didn’t see any reason to correct her false assumption that Shade was not interested in her tonight because he was already hooking up with Sally. Nikki would probably understand that arrangement. It might even cause her to keep her distance.

Or it might make her storm across the room, shove Sally in the shoulder, and jerk on Jacob’s arm. Seriously?

Fuck.

“Control your friend, Mel,” Gabe said exasperatedly.

Melanie rubbed the center of her forehead with two fingers. “I think we’re going to have to go to the hotel after all,” she said. “This isn’t a good environment for Nikki in her present state of mind.”

Nikki had varying states of mind? Since when?

Gabe watched Melanie cross the room to interfere with the three-person shoving match going on in the corner. He wondered why watching her walk away had his heart panging unpleasantly in his chest. It was obvious who was more important to Melanie. He knew that she had known Nikki for a lot longer than she’d known him, but that didn’t make the realization that Nikki was her top priority any easier to take.