softened, because he was genuinely apologetic, and because close-up he was even more gorgeous than he was onstage. But she still stood there, making him suffer.
‘Petal! I’m sorry, right!’ He dropped to the ground and pretended to kiss the toes of her beaten-up vintage cowboy boots. ‘Forgive me, won’t you? Pity a poor country boy who doesn’t know big-city ways!’
She was laughing now.
‘Get up, you idiot!’ she said, hauling him to his feet again. ‘So – you a friend of Charlie’s, Dan?’
‘You what?’ he said, momentarily baffled.‘Oh, right! Can’t afford it usually,’ he admitted. ‘We’re into the whiz up our way. Cheaper, y’know.’
‘You’ll be able to afford it now,’ Petal assured him, pushing back the door of the unisex loo. ‘Now that you’re a rock star.’
‘Keep saying that, babe,’ Dan said happily. ‘It’s really turning me on.’
JC and Rudy were in the loos already, chopping up their own gear on the chipped old sink surround. Petal joined them, pulling her own supply, stashed in a silver cigarette case, from her Gucci bag. JC and Rudy had a bottle of Absolut Pear vodka, and they all took long pulls at it after they’d done nice fat lines, Rudy snapping some photos on his camera phone that sent them into hysterics. It was a grotty backstage loo, the black paint on the walls chipped and peeling, the red stall doors heavily graffitied, the Formica floor sticky with beer and God knew what: the perfect place for an up-and-coming rock star and an urban girl about town to make out.
Coke always made Petal horny. More people came in and out, more lines were snorted, and after half an hour of vodka and charlie, she was more than ready to be alone with Dan. Grabbing his arm, she pulled him into a stall and slammed the door shut as JC and Rudy and the singer of KillBuzz yelled approvingly after them. Dan was a quick learner, or maybe coke had just the same effect on him; he had his tongue down her throat the moment the door closed, kissing her hard and deep, grinding his long skinny body against hers, making her moan into his mouth with excitement and lust.
She reached down and grabbed his arse, pulling his crotch into hers, the stacked heels of her cowboy boots getting her just high enough to wriggle herself where she wanted to be, feeling his instant erection through his tight jeans.
‘God, this is good,’ she mumbled against him. ‘You’re a great kisser.’
‘And you’re wild,’ Dan said, biting her neck. ‘Are you, like, the fastest girl in London? You’re like a fucking lightning bolt.’
‘If I’m not –’ Petal ran her hands under his T-shirt, grabbing his belt buckle, pulling him in even closer – ‘I don’t know who is.’
‘Fuck, you’re driving me crazy!’ he groaned, sliding his hands up under her skirt. ‘You even wearing knickers? What do wild girls wear on their bums?’
‘That’s for me to know . . .’
‘. . . And me to find out!’
He hooked his thumbs under the waistband of her tights. She was wet already, totally turned on by him, by the smell of his sweat – no aftershave for an indie kid from Newcastle, nothing but him, the sharp scent of his excitement mingling with her own – by his hands on her, the way he’d really got into it, followed her lead and gone nuclear. Boys were all the same: they’d hang around, nervous of rejection, waiting for the signals that it was OK with you for them to go for it, but when you gave them the green light they couldn’t get your knickers off fast enough.
‘You can’t fuck me here in the loos,’ she said, running her hands around his waist, making him moan. ‘Not with everyone right outside.’
‘Nah,’ he said, his grey eyes bright, his grin wide. ‘I’m going to eat you out. Seems the least I can do by way of apology for treating you like a groupie. I’m going to get down on me knees and give you a good old seeing to. How’s that sound?’
Petal was practically dripping