Free All Night Long by Madelynne Ellis

dirty tricks. I’m not desperate for nuddy shots of me appearing on the Internet, so I’ll pass on the offer if it’s all the same.’
    ‘Sorry,’ she said, not following his logic. ‘How? What?’
    ‘Give it a minute and I guarantee he’ll be in here with Spook and his camera two paces behind.’
    ‘Oh,’ she remarked, making the connection. An uneasy feeling clenched her innards. Spook had already captured her image. ‘Is that what he does with them? Ash only said he put them into scrapbooks.’
    Rock Giant reached out around the curtain and gave her a pat on the head that left her wet. ‘Don’t worry, you’re all right. Ladies do indeed go in Spook’s albums, and nobody outside of the band ever sees those, but the net is where he’d post any shots he got of my arse.’
    ‘Well, that’s a shame. I mean about it being the reason why you don’t want me soaping you up. You’re absolutely sure?’
    He peeked around the curtain again and gave her a friendly grin. ‘Yeah. Really lovely of you to offer, but I think I’m good.’
    ‘Good at what?’ Ash asked, arriving just as Rock Giant had predicted with Spook on his tail. ‘What’s he good at? I don’t know anything he’s good at, except maybe downing beers, and for such a big guy you make a pretty poor show of holding them.’
    ‘Why are you in here?’ Ginny asked.
    ‘To use the facilities.’
    ‘What, has Spook come to hold it?’ Mortensen had also shuffled his way into the room, making it rather crowded.
    Spook sheepishly retreated to just outside the bathroom door. ‘Seemed like a party. I didn’t want to miss out.’
    ‘Don’t lie. The pair of you were trying to set me up,’ Rock Giant insisted. Ginny was inclined to agree with him.
    ‘I should punish you for that,’ she said to Ash.
    ‘Oh, yeah?’ he retaliated. Ash flicked his black hair away from his face and gave her a penetrating look, his hands resting on his hips. ‘And how do you propose to do that? Are you going to line us up like naughty schoolboys and make us drop our pants, then give us ten whacks each and make us promise not to be bad?’
    ‘Certainly not,’ Ginny replied, though the notion of three members of Black Halo lined up in such a fashion was certainly an entertaining one. Not that she any reason to include Rock Giant in the punishment, unless she took him to task over his driving. ‘I expect you’d enjoy that too much. Besides, there simply isn’t enough space in here to get a decent swing, and Rock Giant is trying to shower.’
    She’d probably have let things go at that, if it weren’t for the hint of challenge in Ash’s expression.
    ‘How about I spend the night getting your friends off and leaving you hanging?’ she remarked, knowing that would strike home.
    His bolshie expression crumbled. ‘They’d never agree to it.’ Fatigue and resentment swallowed him up. He refused to meet her gaze, turning to the sink instead. Too bad the mirror there reflected back his hurt.
    ‘That’s not punishment, it’s the normal state of play,’ Rock Giant remarked. Having finished showering, he turned off the spray and reached for a towel.
    ‘Shut up,’ Ash muttered through gritted teeth.
    ‘It beats me what you get out of it, besides tongue ache and friction burns.’
    ‘I said, shut up.’ He made a swipe in Rock Giant’s direction, but fell short of making contact, only ruffling the shower curtain instead.
    ‘Well, name one girl in the last month who actually satisfied you.’
    ‘He couldn’t name any of them,’ Spook chimed in.
    ‘How many of them even got you off?’
    ‘It’s none of your goddamned business.’ Ash spun on his heels and stormed out of the bathroom. He wrenched open the door to the suite only to be brought to a halt by the waiter delivering Spook’s extensive room-service order on a wheeled trolley.
    ‘Where shall I put it?’ the waiter asked.
    Ash backed up slowly. ‘On the table, I guess.’ He about-turned and led the