Encore (Stereo Hearts Book 2) (12 page)

He zigzagged through maze-like halls, jaw tight, ignoring the curious eyes of the club’s employees, security guards, and administration. Some of the workers milling through had to press their bodies against the wall to get out of Yoshi’s path, lest they be run down in his blazing trek to the back.

A hand clutched his arm from behind, and he snatched it away.

Coming to a stop in front of the next security guard he saw, a burly black man standing with his hands behind his back, manning one of the many doors that led back out into the nightclub, Yoshi tried to keep his voice level, motioning to his left eye. “A dark-skinned girl with an eye patch?”

The security guard pointed down another hallway—the club seemed to have a million of them. Yoshi followed the direction of his finger without a word, huffing as he ran a hand over his downturned lips.

“You should be out onstage performing right now,” Simon said, taking Yoshi’s arm again.

Yoshi yanked it away and came to a complete stop, facing Simon, Carmen, and Gus. All three of them barreled to a stop behind him, and Yoshi pointed a finger at Carmen first.

“That wasn’t what we talked about,” he said.

“Yoshi, this is
business.
” Simon pressed his thumb and forefinger together, speaking as if he were communicating with an infant. “Of course Carmen kissed you. She has to keep up appearances. She’s doing her job. You need to get out there and do yours.”

“Not until I speak to Aria. And if you want me onstage tonight,
at all
,
let me make one thing really clear. Disrespecting her won’t fly. Period.”

“Yoshi.” Carmen stepped in front of Simon, who was laughing under his breath. She took both of his arms.

Yoshi reared back from that too.

She swallowed, facing Simon and Gus. “Can you give us a minute, please?”

Simon and Gus looked at Carmen in disbelief. Then Yoshi. Then each other. Gus was the first to break, turning and making his way towards the door of the club.

“You’ve got five minutes to get your head right and get back onstage. We’ve spent way too much money on you for this kind of bullshit,
Yoshi. Just because you’ve sold a few albums doesn’t mean you’re in charge. One phone call from me, and this all ends—” Simon snapped a finger “—like that.” He pointed at him. “Don’t you ever forget that.”

Gus took Simon’s arm as he snatched at his suit jacket, which had gotten rumpled in his haste to follow Yoshi offstage. Gus pulled him away. After they’d re-entered the club through the side door, throwing Yoshi one last heated look, Carmen turned to face him again.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, her green eyes searching his.

Yoshi kept his eyes on the bare walls of the service hallway, licking his teeth.

“I really was just trying to keep up appearances. Make it seem more real. I’d assumed that you and Aria had already discussed our arrangement.”

“We didn’t discuss your tongue in my mouth.” Yoshi met her eyes, nearly breathing fire as he motioned between them. “Because
we
never discussed your tongue in my mouth. Where the hell did that come from, Carmen?”

“Look. Every other man I’ve been involved in these kinds of relationships with wanted me to make it look as real as possible. Touching. Kissing. Sometimes even fucking, if they wanted. The last one even moved me into his house. He proposed to me. He introduced me to his family. He met my family.
None
of it was real. But damn if our faces aren’t on the cover of every newspaper in Europe right now, and yours too, because the public is
so heartbroken
by our breakup. Because we were
so perfect
for each other.” She exaggerated every other word with goofy faces and a bent spine. Then, she straightened, fixing her face. “All fake. Fake, fake, fake. Yoshi, this is business, and if your girlfriend is already crying off one kiss?” Her eyes went wide. “Holy shit, she’s never going to make it. She is never going to make it in this town. They will simply eat her
alive
.”

Yoshi licked his lips, motioning to his heart. “Every other guy might’ve enjoyed you, and all the perks that come along with you. But I’m taken, Carmen. I’m in lo—” He couldn’t even finish, his body jolting in shock at the words that had nearly left his mouth.

Carmen’s eyes searched his, going darker. “If Aria doesn’t understand this industry now, she never will. Those tears in her eyes are going to end your career before it begins. I’ve seen it a million times. She will
never
understand. She will
always
be standing in your way.”

A silence fell between them.

Yoshi blinked, his eyes softening. He licked his lips, unable to stop his gaze from falling to her heaving chest.

Carmen nodded towards the door of the club where Gus and Simon had just disappeared.

“Now, are you going to get back out on that stage where hundreds of people are waiting to hear you live?” she asked. “Are you going to do what you need to do to be the star you were born to be?”

She reached down and took his hand, tightening her fingers around his.

Yoshi looked down at their hands, swallowed thickly, and then lifted his eyes to hers.

--

“I feel like such an idiot. He told me not to let it upset me tonight. I
promised
I wouldn’t get upset. I think I even believed it, but when she kissed him out there….”

“She went over the line, and she knows it. Did you see her checking for you the second after she kissed him? That was a plan and it was for your eyes only,” Kimmy whispered, standing between Aria’s splayed legs from where she was hunched over on the counter of the employee bathroom. She blotted the damp tissue rolled around her fingers against Aria’s cheek, dabbing away the black mascara that had run with her tears. “In theory, a P.R. relationship seems like it should be easy to stomach, but it’s the farthest thing from it. Seeing another woman touching your man, kissing him, is
not
easy. It never will be. Only the toughest-skinned women can take it. You’re an artist, my love, and that means you’ll never have the skin for some bullshit like that. Yoshi knows it too. That’s why he warned you.”

“I can’t believe I’m one of those girls crying in the bathroom of a club over some guy.”

Kimmy smiled gently, still blotting her cheeks. When she reached the bottom of Aria’s eye patch, where mascara had caked between her cheek and the rim, she hesitated.

Aria finished the job Kimmy was too uncomfortable to do, pulling the eye patch over her head completely.

Kimmy’s dark brown eyes danced back and forth between Aria’s, and a slow smile spread on her lips.

“Oh, love, you really have no idea…” She cupped Aria’s jaw.

Aria watched Kimmy taking in her blue eye, but didn’t shift. “No idea about what?”

Kimmy squeezed her cheeks. “You’re a star.”

At that, Aria laughed boisterously. And in an instant, her tears were dry.

“I’m dead serious.” Kimmy beamed, even as she laughed with Aria, continuing to clean up her face until all traces of her mascara were gone. As Aria re-donned her eye patch, Kimmy stepped back and pressed her fists to her hips. “I’m calling it, right here tonight, in this employee restroom… You, Aria, are a fucking
star.
Yoshi who?”

Aria snatched up her clutch, which Yoshi had also bought for her, bedazzled with metal spikes just like her eye patch, and let Kimmy sling an arm around her waist once she’d jumped down from the counter.

A moment after Kimmy swung open the door to the bathroom, about to step out into the hallway when she stopped dead in her tracks.

Leaning on the opposite wall with his hands shoved deep into the pocket of his jeans, Yoshi looked up. His pained eyes immediately locked onto Aria’s over Kimmy’s shoulder.

Kimmy lingered in the doorway, looking over her shoulder at Aria. “I’m going back into the club. Holler if you need me.”

Kimmy tossed her waist-length black hair at Yoshi and strutted away, her hips swinging and heels clicking on the hallway floors.

Yoshi didn’t even turn his head to watch her go, pushing away from the wall as Aria stepped into the hallway. He tried to catch her eye but she kept her gaze low, lingering across from him.

“Shouldn’t you be onstage?” she whispered.

“No.” His deep voice filled the area.

Her favorite ballad from his album permeated through the walls, dulled by the plaster barrier. Her heart ached to be in the club so she could hear it properly, but her bones felt heavier than lead.

“I’m fine, Yosh,” she said, meeting his eyes.

He blinked lazily. “No, you’re not.”

Her eyes fell again, and the moment she sniffled he was across the halfway in a flash, wrapping his arms around her neck and pulling her in.

She buried her nose into his shoulder, slamming her eyes shut and trying to find her composure. Her arms snaked around his waist, taking his leather jacket in her fists.

She disappeared into the feeling of his hand in her hair, his warm breath in the crook of her neck, his hard body flush with hers.

“If you want me to walk away,” he whispered, “I will. I’ll walk away right now.”

Aria pulled her head back with a gasp, meeting his eyes. When she saw nothing but truth there, saw that he really meant it, she stopped breathing.

He nodded, his eyes ripe. “We can walk away and never look back.”

Tears were in her eyes again, but that time for a completely different reason.

She shook her head softly, frowning. “No.”

He mirrored her. “No?”

Swallowing, she leaned back and grabbed the flaps of his jacket, shaking him. “You’ve worked way too hard, overcome way too much, and recorded an album way, way too beautiful… I would never ask you to walk away.”

“That’s not my album.” He cupped her cheeks. “That’s your album. Every track is a byproduct of you. And if you don’t go, I don’t go.”

She caught the deep kiss he seared on her lips with a moan, dragging her nails along the back of his jacket.

“This is your destiny,” she said, when he pulled back.

“You’re my destiny.”

“No. You’re doing this. You’re going back on that stage and performing for the people who came here to see you. You’re going to go after your dream full force. Ignore my tears.”

“No
.
”

“Yes!” She pointed to her face. “If anyone knows how easy these tears can come, it’s you. But that doesn’t mean they’re forever. I’ll get stronger.” She sniffled again, letting him push her hair softly away from her face. “It’s not like it’s forever, right?” Her eyes searched his, and her voice lowered. “Just until you’re—”

“Too big to move.” He gave her a soft smile.

She tightened her hold on his jacket one more time, and then shoved him back. His laugh reached across the hallway, wrapping around her heart like a vise.

“Get your ass back out there, Yosh. Seriously. What the hell are you doing back here?”

Yoshi exhaled, shaking his head and flying across the hallway once more, catching her surprised laugh in a deep kiss. He pulled back, still clutching the sides of her head, brushing his nose against hers before stepping away.

He moved backward slowly, holding her eyes, his bottom lip trapped under his teeth.

Aria pointed to the end of the hall. “Go!”

Yoshi skipped a beat, and then broke into a sideways jog. He held her eyes for as long as he could before he was forced to look away, racing down the hallway and towards the security guard who was already holding open the door of the club.

Aria watched him disappear, heard the crowd celebrate his return, and wondered how her heart could be so in awe yet so uneasy all at the same time.

--

Instead of following Yoshi back into the club, Aria had gone for the exit, stepping out into the cool night air. The moment she was in the parking lot, she felt like she could take a full breath for the first time that night. When the thought of going back into the club and seeing Yoshi and Carmen together again nearly emptied her stomach, she pulled her arms around her body and walked to the curb. She sat down next to an Aston Martin, one of the many luxury vehicles that filled the lot.

The moment she got comfortable, with her arms curled around her body and her knees pulled to her chest, a voice behind her froze her in shock.

“Hey, you.”

Unable to believe what she
thought
she’d heard, Aria turned her head slowly, trying to convince herself that the voice over her shoulder wasn’t….

Then her eyes locked to his, leaning against the brick wall of the club in jeans, a black hoodie and dark sunglasses.

But it was him. “Adam…” she breathed, leaping to her feet.

Adam pushed away from the wall and swept the hood off his head, licking his lips and lifting his chin. “Hey.”