One Night with Sole Regret 03 Take Me (5 page)

Jacob
located her cellphone and flicked his finger over
the screen. “Hmm,” he murmured.
“What’s this?
A sex tape sta
r
ring Amanda Lange?”

“What?” She made a grab for her phone—knowing damned well there weren’t any X-rated videos of
herself
stored on it. “I thought I erased that.”

“
Ooo
,” he said,
holding the phone cradled in both hands
. “I want to see this.”

An off-key rendition of “Happy Birthday to Julie” came from the tiny speakers on her phone.
Jacob
stared down at the screen completely mesmerized and if Amanda
wasn’t
mistaken, a teensy bit misty-eyed. She smiled. All talk. The man was all talk.

“Make a wish, Julie,” Tina’s voice said from the phone’s speaker.

“Like Aladdin?” Julie asked.

“Hurry, the candles are dripping.”

“I wish I
is
a princess.
A really real princess.”
There was a pause and then everyone clapped.

“See, you made her wish come true without even knowing about it,” Amanda said.

“This kid is going to be the death of me,”
Jacob
said
.
He
replayed the video.
Twice.

Her hand hovered above his thigh. She so wanted to touch him but ultimately couldn’t find the courage to do it and so fiddled with the air conditioner instead.
She fleetingly wondered if it needed repaired. She was strangely overheated though the vents were directed toward her and blowing air at full blast.
“I could send you videos of her, if you’d like
.
”

She turned onto the road that led to
Jacob
’s house
,
thinking that she should h
ave driven like her grandfather—as if trying to throw a race
to
a snail
. The drive had been much too short. She slowed until her foot was off the gas and they literally rolled the length of the final block. “I do babysit her a lot, you know. She thinks her Aunt Mander is
pretty
cool.” And someone had to look after the kid
when
Tina went shopping. Tina
loved spending
Jacob
’s money. She tackled the task as if
competing in
an Olympic event.

“You’d do that for me?”
Jacob
said,
turning in his seat and leaning into her field of view so he could look into her eyes
.

“Yeah, of course I would. I should
’
ve thought of it sooner.”

“Thanks, Amanda. You’re a real sweetheart.”

She stifled a cringe. She didn’t want him to think of her as that one
nice
,
forgettable
girl. The one
who
guys always seemed to think of as their
friend
.
Their
buddy
.
She didn’t want to be called a real sweetheart. Not after
Jacob
had flirted with her ever so briefly moments before and made her believe her fondest wish could come true.

Amanda turned into
Jacob
’s drive and coasted to a halt behind his car.

“Um, Jacob?” she said. “Isn’t that your
car
?”

He didn’t answer her, just tore open the door and leapt out of her
car
. He was hugging the shiny black hood of the roadster before she could release her seat
belt. She climbed out and went to stand beside him.

“I thought you said it was stolen.”

“I thought it had been.”

“Then how did it get here?”

“No idea.”

Amanda noted the piece of
pink
paper stuck under one wiper. She pulled it free and read the note aloud
.
“
Shade, I know you won’t mind that I borrowed your car to beat you home. I’ll be in the hot tub waiting to rock your world, stud.
It’s signed Veronica. And she dotted
the
i
with a heart.
How precious.”
Amanda pretended not to be affected by the note, but she’d really been looking forward to spending the evening with him.
Unfortunately,
some other woman had beat
en
her to it. And unlike Amanda,
Veronica
probably had the self-confidence, beautiful face and hot body to actually attract someone like
Jacob
.

“
Fuckin
’ Veronica,”
Jacob
bellowed. “I wondered where I’d left my spare set of keys.”

Probably in her skirt the last time she’d been in his hot tub. “I guess I’ll go on home,” Amanda said. “I’m glad you got your car back. It was good to see—”

Jacob
moved to stand in Amanda’s path. She wasn’t sure how he managed to so easily trap her between one gorgeous hunk of metal and one gorgeous hunk of metal vocalist, but it got her attention.
With h
er back pressed against the side of the car, she tried to regain her senses. No good.
Her
heart thundered out of control as she slowly lifted her gaze to look him in the eye.

“You’re staying,” he said. “I invited you. She’s leaving. No one invited her.”

“Maybe I don’t want—”

Jacob
touched her cheek
,
and her breath stalled in her throat. “You’re staying.”

She couldn’t look away from his intense blue eyes. “I’m staying,” she said obediently.

He smiled crookedly, plucked his sunglasses out of the neckband of his T-shirt and put them on. She stared at the cross around his neck.

“Do you want to wait out here while I call her a cab or would you rather wait in the house?” he asked. “She’s sure to cause a scene.”

“Um.”

“You could go to the family room and pick out a movie to watch or scrounge
in
the kitchen for food. It won’t take me long to get rid of her.”

“Well, okay. Do you have the movie
Steel Magnolias
?” She kept her poker face firmly in place as she blinked up at him. “It’s been ages since I’ve seen it, y’all.”

He laughed. “I thought we agreed no chick flicks.”

Amanda huffed as if she was very put out by his demands, when in truth she just wanted to put out. She couldn’t blame Veronica for inviting herself to a night
in a hot tub
with this man, but Amanda was oh so glad that
Jacob
was making the woman leave.

“I suppose
we did
.”

He tucked his forefinger under her chin and stroked the skin just beneath her lips with his thumb. “I’d kiss you,” he said, “but I don’t want Veronica to think I’m sporting a hard-on for her.”

What?

Had he actually just said that?
He couldn’t possibly have meant it. Too flabbergasted to form a comeback, Amanda gaped at him.

He laughed. “What a priceless expression.”

He squeezed her shoulder
,
and her legs began to tremble uncontrollably.

“I’ll see you inside.”

“Uh huh,” she might have said around her mouthful of drool.

Jacob
turned and hurried to front door, unlocking it and leaving it open so she could g
o inside
. He then strode to the walk along the side
of the house
that led to the pool and hot tub ou
t back.

It was all Amanda could do to keep from sliding
to the ground
in a puddle of lust.

Chapter 3

Shade covered
the
distance
to his back yard in long, angry strides. He couldn’t believe Veronica had had the audacity to “borrow” his car without asking. And then she thought he’d be happy enough about it to fuck her
?
Not tonight.
Maybe not ever again.
Of course, if she hadn’t taken his car
,
then Amanda wouldn’t have driven him home and he wouldn’t
be
anticipating
an
evening with one of the few people
who allowed him
to let his guard down.

A trail of discarded clothing started at the back corner of the house and continued to the hot tub that was surrounded on three sides by a cedar privacy fence. As he continued around the house, he picked up her clothes one sexy item at a time.
Lace
-
topped stocking here.
Black satin thong there.
Shade dumped the clothing on the slate patio at the bottom of the hot tub’s wooden steps.

Veronica was right where she’d said she
be
. She had a glass of wine in one hand, her ebony hair piled on top of her head, her eyes closed and her beautiful naked breasts
hover
ing
above the surface of the water. She had a fantastic set of tits. Yeah, he noticed. There wasn’t a heterosexual male alive who wouldn’t have found her sexually inviting. And if Amanda hadn’t agreed to stay, Shade would have undoubtedly stripped off his clothes to join Veronica. But Amanda
was
here and strange as it seemed, he’d much rather spend the evening teasing her than fucking the
hot-tub
sex goddess
until he couldn’t move.

He cleared his throat
,
and Veronica’s sultry brown eyes blinked open. An inviting smile spread across her lush lips. “There you are, lover,” she said. “I was starting to regret not just waiting for you in the parking lot, but you were hours past due and I was all hot and sweaty.” She pouted. “And not because
you
made me that way.” She took a sip of her wine. The green bottle sat in a Styrofoam cooler of ice behind her. “Would you like a drink?”

“I have company, Veronica. You need to get dressed and leave.”

“Company?
What kind of company?”

He struggled to come up with the best way to describe Amanda.
Friend?
Family?
Long-time crush?
“
Female
company.”

“So? I have no problem with her joining us, Shade. Is she sexy?” Veronica
emitt
ed a throaty chuckle. “You know how much I enjoy women.”

While normally he’d have thought that
would be
a great idea, he didn’t think Amanda would be into threesomes with a woman she didn’t know. Shade loved to flirt with Amanda, tease her, but she was off-limits. He had no intention of ever sleeping with her.
Which made him wonder why he would rather spend the evening with her than enjoying the tits and ass in his hot tub.
Probably because he was still recovering from that crazy chick in Tulsa.
What had her name been?
Nikki.
Damn, the woman had tried to wear his dick down to a nub.

“No, Veronica, I came back here to tell you to leave. You can’t just take my car without asking. You’re lucky I don’t call the cops and have you hauled in for grand theft auto.”

“Did you expect me to wait out in the parking lot for hours?”

“Why were you waiting for me in the first place? I didn’t ask you to.”

“Now you’re just being a jerk.”

He’d been called worse. “How did you get my keys?”

“You left them at my place. Remember?”

“No.”

“You were too drunk to drive, so Selene took you home and the next day you came and picked up your car. I wasn’t home, so you must’ve used your spare set.”

While he remembered little of his drunken evening with Veronica and Selene, he did recall waking up with Selene in his bed and then picking his car up the following morning. He’d completely forgotten to get his extra keys from Veronica. Sole Regret had been back on tour by the next day
,
and recovering his keys hadn’t been a priority. “That was over a month ago. You’ve had them all this time?”

She smiled. “And don’t think the idea of taking your car for a joyride every night didn’t cross my mind. I didn’t though.
Until tonight.
And I wouldn’t have taken it tonight if you hadn’t been so late.”

And he wouldn’t have been so late if the lead guitarist of his band wasn’t such an inconsiderate ass.

Julie’s birthday wasn’t the only major event he’d missed because of Adam. He’d missed Julie’s
birth
because he’d been
accompany
ing Adam’s unconscious ass to the hospital. Back in those days Adam had had a tendency to overdo the heroin. While waiting in the emergency room for Adam to be revived, he’d missed the call that Tina had gone into premature labor. By the time he got the message, Julie had already been born in a different hospital, in a different state—three weeks early, but healthy. He’d never forgive Adam for making him miss his daughter
’s
first breath.
Never.
Especially since the jerk didn’t even understand why Shade was so angry with him.
Maybe someday Shade would give up on Adam and just let him destroy himself, but the guy was a walking disaster and Shade felt responsible for him. If someone didn’t keep tabs on Adam, he’d likely end up dead. As much as the guy ticked him off, Shade wouldn’t want that. They’d been through a lot together.
And n
ot all of it bad.
In fact, Adam had been the one to give Shade a dream to pursue. Before Adam had convinced Shade that he could sing, Shade had been on the fast track to working in some factory—if he
’d been
lucky.