Songbird (Songbird, #1) (33 page)

“Where are you?” he asked, obviously able to hear the band playing in the background.

I told him excitedly about catching up with Jay and lining up the band to meet Marcus, and how I was now bussing tables at the bar. For some reason I felt the need to avoid mentioning Cole, but Riley could hear him singing in the background, and commented on his voice.

“Ah, yep he does have a great voice,” I said, feeling guilty, even when I hadn’t done anything to feel guilty about.

Then I changed the subject, and asked Riley what he had been up to. We had only been speaking for about fifteen minutes when the band stopped for a break, and then the door opened and Cole was standing there.

He could see I was on the phone but didn’t seem to care, as he came in and pulled off his sweaty T-shirt, before rummaging in a bag and pulling out a clean one.

I looked at his shirtless body in awe. Not only did he have the full sleeve of tattoos up his left arm, but he had angel wings, or was that eagle wings, across his shoulder blades.

He turned around to face me and saw me looking at him, so he stood still and cockily held his arms out to the sides so I could get a good look, watching my expression.

I couldn’t help it. I exhaled loudly at the sight of his ripped body.

Finally, I managed to tear my eyes away from his amazing physique and turn my back to him. I heard him chuckle softly. Then, realising that the bar would be busy with people buying drinks now that the band was on a break, I reluctantly told Riley I would have to go.

“I’ll see you in a week,” Riley said as he was getting ready to hang up. “I miss you, babe. I think about you all the time.”

“I miss you, too,” I said quietly into the phone. “I love you. See you next week.”

“I love you, too.” Then he was gone.

“Hmm, I take it that wasn’t your mum,” Cole said. “Boyfriend not around at the moment?” he asked with a smirk.

“He’s in the army, based in Sydney,” I replied as I headed for the door.

“Must get lonely,” he said with a glint in his eye as he pulled his clean shirt on over his head.

R
ILEY WAS
finally due back this evening, and I was dancing around the living room in my underwear, tidying up as I went. Jay had made me a CD of some of the band’s songs, and I was playing it as loud as I could without feeling guilty, considering I lived in a block of apartments. The ballad that was the standard make-out track came on, and I did my version of a sexy stripper dance, wiggling my bottom around as I tidied up my books and put my DVDs and CDs away.

Turning around mid-hip-swivel, I stopped dead in my tracks. Riley was leaning up against the doorjamb, watching me with a huge smile on his face. I squealed and took a running leap into his arms.

“What are you doing here? I was going to pick you up!” I exclaimed, still wrapped around him and covering his gorgeous face with kisses.

“I managed to get on an earlier flight and thought I’d surprise you, and I’m glad I did. I wouldn’t have missed that dance for anything,” he said with a cheeky grin.

“How did you get in?” I asked, realising he didn’t have a key.

“Your security door downstairs was wedged open. You really should lock this door, it’s not safe,” he said, suddenly sounding very serious.

I nodded in agreement, but I wasn’t worried. I’d been taking self-defence classes at the gym for weeks, and was confident I could throw a man the size of Riley over my shoulder without putting a hair out of place.

Unwrapping my legs from around his waist, I went to turn the music down. He followed me in to the lounge room.

“Is this Jay’s band? I didn’t know they had a CD,” he said, dumping his bag in the corner before taking a seat on the couch.

“They don’t have a CD. Jay just burned some demo tracks for me to listen to.” I sat myself down on Riley’s knee and he wrapped his arms around me, nuzzling his face into my neck. “They’re playing tonight, but I told Marcus I couldn’t work because I was picking you up.”

I had agreed to work on Saturdays until Marcus could hire someone extra. We knew it was going to be really busy, and I felt bad that only two weeks in to the arrangement I was taking the night off.

Riley shrugged. “We can go if you want. I’d like to meet the guys you seem to be hanging out with.” He said it casually enough, but the thought of introducing Riley to Cole made me nervous. You never knew what Cole was going to say or do.

We had a couple of hours before we needed to be at
Songbirds
, and I still had some last-minute Christmas shopping to do, so I got dressed and we headed into town.

The streets were decorated with fairy lights in all the trees and giant red, green, and gold baubles were hanging from the streetlights. We walked hand in hand through the central mall, stopping to look at the nativity scenes set up in the windows of one of the major department stores. Finally, we found the little cobble-stoned arcade I was searching for, and headed for the music memorabilia store at the end.

I knew I wanted to buy Marcus something to do with Jimi Hendrix, but I didn’t know what exactly, until I saw it. Hanging on the wall they had a signed concert tour T-shirt from 1969 in a simple black frame. It was perfect. It was also quite expensive.

Riley looked at me when I pulled out my credit card to pay for it.

“Are you sure, Tara? It’s a lot of money,” he said quietly, as the guy behind the counter wrapped it in tissue paper.

I nodded. I knew it was a lot, but I also knew I could afford it. Tips from playing at the bar were growing, and Marcus had paid me for working last Saturday night as well, even though I had told him it wasn’t necessary.

Next we walked to the Arts Centre and Concert Hall. I had invited Jay to join our group for Christmas lunch on Wednesday, because he wasn’t going to Sydney to see his parents. I didn’t want him to be the only person to not get a gift, so we stopped in and I bought him two tickets to see the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

As soon as the tickets were in my hand I exhaled, relieved that all my shopping was done.

“Now,” Riley said, when we had reached the apartment and closed the door behind us, “there’s something I’ve wanted to do for the last five weeks.”

He scooped me up and carried me into the bedroom.

Rushing into
Songbirds,
I apologised to Marcus for being late, which was a bit pointless, seeing as I wasn’t expected there anyway. He went to give me a hug as was our normal greeting, but saw Riley following me in and stepped back, choosing a smile instead.

I hurried down to the back room and dropped off my bag, then checked my hair and make-up in the little mirror on the wall before heading back out to the bar.

The band was all sitting at a table near the stage, so I took Riley over to meet them.

Jay recognised him straight away, and stood up to shake his hand. Mitchell and Ethan, the drummer and other guitarist, smiled and gave Riley a nod, not really that interested in meeting my boyfriend. Then I turned to Cole who was watching Riley, sizing him up. They greeted each other reservedly at first, until Riley complimented Cole on his voice, telling him that I had been playing their CD earlier in the day.

Cole looked at me with an amused expression on his face. “Really? Can’t get enough, hey?” he said, raising his eyebrows at me.

“No,” I replied. “Jay’s playing on tracks two and four is awesome.” Then I turned, and, taking Riley’s hand, went back over to the bar.

Songbirds
filled up quickly, and it was soon time for the band to go on, but Cole had disappeared and Marcus was getting annoyed.

I had seen him the week before go into the back room to warm up his voice, so volunteered to go and get him while Marcus stayed behind the bar.

Knocking on the door once, I walked straight in, talking as I entered. “Cole, you’re up.” I immediately regretted what I had just said. He was standing behind some bimbo, and she was leaning over the staff dinner table with her skirt hitched up around her waist.

“Good choice of words, Tara.” Cole chuckled as he looked me in the eyes, not missing a beat as he continued pounding into the bimbo.

Standing frozen to the spot, I stared into Cole’s emerald-green eyes for a minute, not quite able to process what I was witnessing.

The bimbo went to move, finally realising that they were no longer alone.

“Just stay there, sweetheart,” Cole told her, gently resting his hand on her back. “Nearly finished.”

I stood there, mouth agape, before turning my back on the scene.

“Well, are you coming, Cole?” I said, flustered, then cringed. Poor choice of words yet again.

“If you … turn around and let me … look into your eyes … for another ten seconds … I will be,” he said, breathlessly.

I hesitated for a split second before heading back toward the door.

“Just hurry up while you still have a job here,” I snapped at him and walked out.

“Hey, what’s wrong, babe?” Riley asked concerned as soon as he saw my face.

I shook my head. Marcus was looking at me as well, and I didn’t want to get Cole into trouble.

“He’ll be out in a minute, just warming up,” I said to Marcus as casually as I could before leaning in to whisper to Riley, “I just walked in on him doing …” I looked up as Cole and the bimbo came walking back into the bar. She was still straightening up her skirt. “… doing her,” I said, pointing to the bimbo.

Cole saw us looking at him, and leaned in as he walked past. “It’s her birthday. I couldn’t disappoint her,” he said with a shrug, before jumping up on stage to start the show.

He walked into the light and up to the microphone. I shook my head in disbelief. He was wearing a white T-shirt, and in big black letters it read
Mr Hotbod
.

The band was excellent, and I was run off my feet, clearing tables and stocking the fridges behind the bar. Riley even pitched in where he could, which Marcus was really grateful for, before the band started their final set, which included the make-out ballad.

The girls down the front were reaching up to Cole, wanting to be pulled up onto the stage. He teasingly reached for one after another before passing them all to finally select a girl who, with long soft curls in her hair and long legs, looked remarkably a lot like me.

He followed his usual performance, rubbing against her, but this time he seemed more tender. He ran his fingers through her hair and caressed her face with the back of his fingers. When the song finished and the kiss was imminent, he looked up at the bar until his eyes finally found me, then he kissed her. It wasn’t the over-the-top kiss I had seen in the past, but a slow sensual kiss that had me spellbound just watching it.