Rock My World (15 page)

“I’m into you.” He smoothed her hair back from the side of her face.

“You were
in
me.” She gave an exaggerated bump and grind to emphasize the words.

“You know what I mean.” He kissed her, a single gentle brush of his lips against hers. “I love you.”

The words were spoken in a whisper, and she wasn’t sure at first whether she’d really heard them, or dreamed them. But his eyes when he looked at her were filled with such tenderness, she felt a tightness at the back of her throat.

“I love you, too, Adam. So much.”

They held each other for a long time after that, not speaking. Then the air conditioner came on and she shivered. By silent agreement, they broke apart and dressed, then knelt to pick up the scattered CDs.

“It’s almost eleven,” she said, straightening.

“We didn’t get much work done,” he said, surveying the box of CDs that were yet to be sorted, the paperwork that hadn’t been completed.

She shrugged. “It’ll get done, eventually. We can come in tomorrow and help Nick and Davie, if you like.”

He nodded. “We’ll do that, then. I can drop you off at your place. Unless you want to come back to mine?”

“I was thinking you could stay at my place.”

He smiled. “I could be persuaded.”

“Good. I’ve got a bottle of Godiva I just know needs drinking.”

B
ONNIE PUNCHED
in her security code on the door monitor at the KROK studios and waited for the click that told her the door had opened. She glanced around the darkened parking lot and shifted nervously from foot to foot. She never liked coming up here alone at night, but Doug had to work and she couldn’t put off taping these commercials any longer. She was supposed to have done them earlier in the week, but Carl’s refusal to look at her photos of Erica and Stan DeWitter, and his refusal to even listen to her had upset her so much she’d been in no mood to sound perky on tape.

The door opened and she let herself in. She started across the lobby, then paused and slipped off her high
heels. No sense risking someone finding out she was here. Adam and Erica were around somewhere, doing their shift at inventory. She was in no mood to run into them and have to explain that she was behind on her work. She’d tape these two commercials for Mighty Mike’s Used Cars then be out of there and no one would ever know.

She bypassed the main studio and headed to a smaller one used for taping promo spots like this one. It was across the hall from the CD library, but with the door closed she doubted anyone would be able to hear her.

Once in the studio, she set up the recording equipment, and pulled out the spiel from the ad agency. “Talk sexy,” the ad rep had said. “They don’t want the usual ad where the spokesperson shouts like all the listeners are a bunch of morons.”

“I can do sexy,” she’d assured the man. After all, sexy was what she was all about.

She leaned close to the mic. “Hello there,” she purred. “This is Bombshell Bonnie to tell you about an
explosive
deal going on right now at Mighty Mike’s Used Cars and Trucks. Don’t go anywhere else when it’s time to buy your dream ride. Mighty Mike has the perfect car or truck for you. No credit is no problem at Mighty Mike’s. If you’ve got a job, he can get you in a car. Mighty Mike’s, where car buying is a real
blast!
”

She slipped on a pair of headphones and played back the tape, decided it sounded good, and recorded a second, similar announcement. She uploaded both files to the computer. On Monday, when the play list called for a Mighty Mike’s commercial, all the jock on duty had
to do was punch it up on the computer and everything was good to go.

She switched off the recording equipment and checked her watch. Time to meet Doug for a drink when he finished up his shift as a stocker at the computer warehouse. And then home for a little fun. She had a new outfit she’d been wanting to try out on him….

A noise caught her attention as she stepped into the hall. A woman’s soft…moaning…rose above the music that pulsed through the speakers.

The sound came again. Low and intense, it sent a prickle of awareness through her. This wasn’t a noise made by someone who was afraid or injured. No, this was a moan definitely associated with passion. She looked across the hallway. Was the noise coming from the library?

She scooted across the hall and pressed her ear to the door. She heard a man’s low rumbled voice. Adam. A woman’s breathy reply. Probably Erica. Unless he’d managed to sneak some other woman up here.

Slowly, with infinite care, Bonnie turned the knob and opened the door a scant inch. With one eye pressed to the gap, she could see across the room, to where Erica stood on a ladder in front of the CD shelves. The female half of the Hawk and Honey Show was stark naked, her body pale in the overhead light, small, perfect breasts standing at attention, her face, contorted by ecstasy, thrown back. Standing below her, his dark head bent to the task, Adam was going down on her with intense enthusiasm.

Bonnie caught her breath at the sheer…eroticism of the moment. A ladder! Why hadn’t she thought of that?

She stood up straighter and forced her attention away from fantasy. Erica and Adam obviously weren’t the mere “friends” they’d led everyone to believe. Now Erica’s question at the meeting, about Carl’s no dating rule, made perfect sense.

Bonnie couldn’t keep a satisfied smile from her lips. Carl may have refused to look at her pictures of Erica and Stan DeWitter, but there was no way he’d be able to ignore this. Adam and Erica going at it like porn stars on station property—when they were supposed to be working.

Bonnie’s glee faded somewhat as she realized Carl would never believe her story if she didn’t have proof. Damn! Why hadn’t she kept Doug’s camera phone with her? She’d returned it to him when he’d told her he needed it at work.

She looked around for something—anything—she could use as evidence against the two lovers. Her gaze fell on the studio door as Erica’s cries rose in volume. A jolt as satisfying as a climax hit Bonnie as she realized the solution to her problem. She’d record the lovemaking and give Carl a real earful.

No longer worried about being discovered—Adam and Erica were obviously too far gone to care—she unlocked the studio door and retrieved the microphone from its stand. She hit record and dragged the mic across the hall.

She held the mic just inside the open doorway. Things were really heating up now. Erica’s cries increased in tempo and pitch. She certainly wasn’t shy about expressing her feelings. Bonnie shifted from foot to foot. She’d done a lot of kinky things in her time, but
this was her first foray into voyeurism. She couldn’t believe how hot and bothered it was making her.

She heard Erica climb down off the ladder, and strained her ears, trying to catch some discussion between the two. But Adam’s voice was too low-pitched for her to make out his words.

She risked a glance in the door again and watched him position Erica up against the bookcase. She caught her breath as he entered Erica from behind, and Bonnie felt her own vagina contract with desire.

Why should they be the ones having all the fun? Still holding the mic, she leaned against the wall just outside the door and slid one hand into her pants to finger herself. Yes, that was it. She closed her eyes and smiled. Might as well make this soundtrack stereo.

And when she was done, all she’d have to do was upload this baby to the computer. Erica and Adam would be history.

“G
US FROM
E
NGLEWOOD
had the correct answer to the trivia question. He wins tickets to tomorrow night’s sold out Lyle Lovett show at Red Rocks.”

Erica smiled at Adam as they began the final hour of the Monday edition of the Hawk and Honey show. She’d certainly gotten her share of good loving this past weekend. Of all the things she and Adam had experienced together, his admission that he loved her had turned out to be the biggest aphrodisiac of all. After they’d finished up at the station Friday night, they’d spent practically the whole weekend in bed.

He returned her grin. “We’ll be back with more music after these messages.”

He flipped a switch and Bonnie’s voice filled the room: “This is Bombshell Bonnie to tell you about an
explosive
deal going on right now….”

Adam muted the sound and rolled his stool over to Erica. “Have I mentioned how hard it’s been for me to keep my hands off you during the show?” he whispered.

“I’m having a hard time keeping away from you, too.” She reached out and rubbed his thigh, figuring no one outside the room would be able to see them. “I’m
not sure we can keep this a secret from Carl much longer, though.”

He sighed. “Yeah. We should probably try to arrange a meeting with him soon. Try to catch him in a good mood.”

“Is Carl ever in a good mood?”

“Good point. So, is your résumé in good shape?”

“I think you’re worrying for nothing. Sure, Carl will probably pitch a fit when he finds out, then he’ll calm down and let us keep our jobs. It’s not like he’s going to pull some bum off the street to fill our airtime slot.”

“That’s one thing I love about you. You’re so damned confident.” He leaned toward her and her breath quickened in anticipation. Was he going to risk a kiss?

But before his lips could touch hers, they were interrupted by frantic pounding on the studio door. “Hey, what is it?” Adam jumped up and raced to the door. He jerked it open and Davie collapsed into the room. “What do you think we’re doing?” Adam demanded. “We’re on air.”

Davie looked at them, wild-eyed. “Kill the audio!” he said.

“Kill the audio? What—”

Davie reached past him and punched up the volume, so that the broadcast going out to their listeners filled the studio.

At first, Erica couldn’t figure out what she was hearing. It sounded like…moaning. Very passionate moaning.

“How does that feel?” Adam’s voice, hoarse with emotion, but still recognizable, asked.

“Oh, yes, that feels wonderful,” she heard herself answer breathily.

Adam hit the kill switch. In the silence that followed, Erica couldn’t bear to look at anyone. Her face was hot, and she had a hard time swallowing past the knot of fear in her throat. Memories of Adam and her, making love in the library on Friday night, warred with her confusion. Had someone
recorded
them? Who? And why?

The phone began to ring, a shrill summons like nails scraping against a chalkboard. A second ring followed. Then a third. She stared as all five incoming lines lit up.

“I’m outta here.” Davie gave her a pitying look, then left.

Erica turned to Adam. “What happened?”

His mouth was set in a grim line. “I don’t know. I can’t even think about that now.”

As if on cue, Carl appeared in the doorway. His face was bright red, and the tendons on his neck stood out like strings around a package. He glared at them for long moments, as if too furious to speak.

The phones continued to ring. Adam picked up the receiver and punched the first line. “KROK, this is the Hawk.”

“I don’t know what happened, ma’am.”

“Yes, ma’am, it’s very unfortunate.”

“Yes, ma’am. I apologize, ma’am.”

“No, ma’am. It won’t happen again.”

Carl walked over and took the phone from his hand. “My office.” He jerked his head toward Erica. “Both of you.” Then he turned and strode out of the room.

“I guess we’d better follow him,” Erica said, but she couldn’t find the strength in her legs to rise. She swallowed and looked at Adam. “What’s going to happen now?”

“He won’t be able to skin us alive, though he’d probably like to.” He stared after the manager, his shoulders slumped. “If we’re lucky, it’ll blow over pretty quickly. We’ll probably be fined. Maybe have to issue some kind of apology.”

She moistened her dry lips. “And if we’re not lucky?”

He shook his head, but didn’t answer.

Maybe she already knew the answer. If they weren’t lucky, they’d never work in radio again. Her career would be over before it had really begun.

Adam walked out of the studio as Davie slipped in. “I’m, uh, supposed to take over here,” he mumbled, reaching past her for Adam’s headset.

She forced herself up out of the chair and straightened her shoulders. Fine. Carl would yell at her. She’d take it, but she wouldn’t admit guilt. After all, she hadn’t done anything wrong.

Not really. Yes, making out with Adam when they were supposed to be working wasn’t good. But she had nothing to do with recording the session, or airing it for the whole city to hear.

When she got to Carl’s office, he was leaning against his desk, scowling at Adam, who was seated on the sofa. “Shut the door behind you and sit down,” he said, not looking up.

She sat next to Adam. She wanted to reach out and touch him. She wished he would hold her hand, or offer some reassurance that they were in this together. But he wouldn’t even look at her.

“I’m giving you one chance to explain what I just heard on your show,” Carl said. “What all our listeners heard.”

“I had no idea that tape even existed,” Adam said. “I cut to a commercial and the new car ad Bonnie did for Mighty Mike’s came on. I muted the sound to talk to Erica and the next thing I know Davie’s rushing in, telling me to cut the audio.”

Carl’s stony expression didn’t change. “I didn’t ask whether you knew what was playing, I asked you what was playing.” He turned to Erica. “You care to answer that one?”

She shook her head. Her tongue felt glued to the roof of her mouth.

“No, you don’t care to answer, or no, you don’t know?”

She swallowed. “I don’t care to answer,” she croaked.

Carl folded his arms across his chest. “Let me try. To me, it sounded like you and Adam were having sex. Very loud, very explicit sex.”

She opened her mouth to object and he cut her off. “Don’t try to deny it. I’ve been in radio thirty years. I know voices.”

Beside her, Adam’s body was rigid, every muscle tensed. He stared at Carl, eyes dark and angry, but said nothing.

“How long have you two been sleeping together?” Carl asked.

Erica thought about stonewalling, but why bother? After all, they’d intended to tell Carl about their relationship soon, anyway. Though she’d never pictured him finding out this way. “Since the bed-in at Mattress Max’s.”

Carl’s eyebrows rose. “In spite of the security cameras? Who do you think you are, Paris Hilton?”

She flushed. “The electricity went out one night, remember? So the cameras were out, too.”

“What about tape recorders? Did the two of you think it would be fun to record your little lovemaking session?”

“We didn’t record anything.” Adam finally spoke. “Someone else did. And someone else planted that tape in place of one of the commercials so that we’d get caught.”

“Excuse me if I find that one a little hard to believe.” He walked around the desk and sat in his chair. “First off, who would be listening in on your little private get-together, and who would have the opportunity to plant the recording?”

Erica had been wondering the same thing. She stared at her hands, which were knotted in her lap. “I don’t know.”

“I don’t have to tell you the seriousness of this,” Carl said. “You broadcast the sound of the two of you having sex to nine hundred thousand listeners. The switchboard is clogged with calls.” His voice rose as he rattled off the consequences of their
accident.
“The FCC will have a field day with this one. Our advertisers will freak. I could lose my job.”

What about our jobs?
Erica wanted to ask, but she didn’t dare.

A knock on the door interrupted. “Who is it?” Carl demanded.

“It’s Bonnie. I have to talk to you.”

“Not now. I’m busy.”

The door opened and Bonnie stepped in. “I think you’ll want to hear what I have to say. It’s about them.” She looked at Erica and Adam.

“What about them?”

Bonnie moved farther into the room. She was dressed almost demurely today, in a pale blue sheath dress and heels. “Friday night, I stopped by the station to record my commercials for Mighty Mike’s. I heard Erica and Adam in the library.”

Adam stood. “We never saw you.”

She smiled. “You were too busy to notice me.” She turned back to Carl. “They were both naked, going at it like rabbits.”

Carl’s face turned the color of a beet. He glared at Adam. “Is that true?”

Adam flushed, but said nothing.

Bonnie took two steps toward Carl’s desk and leaned against it, her posture casual, as if she couldn’t care less about the conversation or its consequences. “Anyway, I left them to it and finished my work. But I accidentally left my day planner behind, so I turned around and came back for it.” She looked at Erica, her eyes glittering with triumph. “That’s when I saw Erica in the control room. She was doing something with the computer.”

Erica jumped up. “That’s ridiculous. I never even went near the computer Friday night.”

Adam studied Erica’s face. She looked stunned. Angry. All the things he felt. He wanted to believe she was telling the truth. That she had nothing to do with the tape. But he’d been wrong about people before, and it had cost him.

“I was with Adam the whole night,” she continued, turning to him. “I couldn’t have done what she’s saying.”

He nodded. Except she had spent some time in the ladies’ room before they made love. Could she have set up the recording then? But why would she do something like that?

“She’ll do anything for attention,” Bonnie said. “Anything she thinks will get her ahead in this business. Look at the way she jumped at the chance to spend three days in bed with Nick. And the way she shamelessly seduced Adam on the air.”

As Bonnie herself had done?

“I did not ‘jump’ at the chance to do the bed-in with Nick,” Erica protested. “And I didn’t seduce Adam on the air.”

Bonnie gave her a pitying look, then turned to Carl once more. “She’s already entertaining offers from other stations who’ve promised to give her her own show. She even had lunch with the manager of KMJC.”

“Bonnie, you’re crazy,” Erica said. She looked at Carl. “It’s not true.”

“Then how do you explain these pictures?” Bonnie opened her purse and handed Carl a stack of photos.

The manager flipped through the pictures, then looked up at Erica, his face gone gray. “This looks like you having lunch with Stan DeWitter, from KMJC.”

Erica flushed. “Tanisha and I were having lunch one day and he approached me. I didn’t even know who he was before then.”

Pain pinched Adam’s chest. What else wasn’t she telling them?

“Did you talk to him about a job?” Carl asked.

“He offered me a job, but I turned him down.” She turned to Adam. “Adam will vouch for me. I love my
job here. Yes, we broke your dating rule, but only because we fell in love.”

Was that what they’d done? Fallen in love? An hour ago, he’d have said yes, but Bonnie’s revelations had him reeling. Erica had risen very fast in the ranks of radio personalities. Maybe unusually fast. She was ambitious, and he’d been burned by others’ ambition before.

“She never said anything to me about KMJC,” he said slowly. “I think she would have if she’d been seriously considering a job there.” But she’d never told him about the job offer, either.

He turned away from the anguish in her eyes.

“What will happen now?” she asked.

“The FCC will have questions,” Carl said. “Corporate will have questions.” He stood again. “You’re both laid off until further notice. Bonnie, you’ll fill the afternoon slot for the time being.”

Erica started to protest, but Adam took her arm and pulled her toward the door. They wouldn’t gain any ground by arguing with Carl now. Better to leave him to cool off.

As they walked through the station, he could feel others watching them, though no one had the nerve to say anything. It seemed to take forever to reach the front door. He’d had the same sick, lost feeling in his gut the day he’d been arrested, and had to walk past his colleagues wearing handcuffs. There were no handcuffs today, but he had the same sensation of being trapped.

He and Erica didn’t speak until they reached the parking lot. “Bonnie’s behind this. I know she is.” The
words erupted from Erica as soon as they reached Adam’s car.

He’d wondered the same thing, but Erica seemed so certain. “How do you know that?”

“She said she was here Friday. She heard us. She must have made the recording and substituted it for the commercial. And it got her exactly what she’s always wanted. Her own radio show.”

“You can’t prove it. Anyone could have done that. At least, anyone who had access to the station and knew how to work the equipment.”

She stared at him. “You don’t think I did it, do you?”

Did he? It seemed impossible, but then, why would
anyone,
even Bonnie, do something like that? “Did you? Maybe you meant it as a joke and it backfired.”

“No! I wouldn’t be that stupid.” Tears brimmed in her eyes. “I can’t believe you’d even think that of me.”

Now on top of everything else, he felt like a jerk. “You’re right. I’m sorry.” He turned to his car. “I need to get home.”

She put her hand on his arm. “Let me come with you.”

“No. I think…I want to be alone for a while. I need to think.” He couldn’t think clearly with her around.

She released his arm, and he got in the car and drove away. But the image of her standing there, alone, stayed with him.

He hadn’t meant to hurt her, but he needed time to try to sort this out. What Bonnie had said seemed to make sense, though he knew she gained the most from making him and Erica look bad. But would Bonnie really do something that nasty?