Sweet Seduction Serenade (9 page)

"Do you always leave your band to field your fans' needs after a show?" he asked in a bored voice, hands in jeans pockets, a look of casual disinterest on his face.

"I had to check on Dad," I said, cursing myself internally for bothering to offer an explanation at all and for noticing how nice his shoulders looked when he stood like that.

"I see," he said as though he didn't see at all and thought I was an uppity bitch going off on my own and leaving the band to handle the chaos that happened after a show.

"Well, I'll just be getting back then," I mumbled and tried to step around him. He didn't move and he took up all of the pathway back to that part of the store. I looked over my shoulder trying to see if there was another escape route available, but it looked like it only led to an office.

"Your cousins have slipped the net," he said out of nowhere, making my head spin back to him.

"What does that even mean?" I asked softly.

"It means they know we're after them, seeking retribution for having a go at you. They've called in favours, people are hiding them from us. This pisses me off," he declared as though this was all a big inconvenience and it was all because of me. Of course, the fact that was true, didn't make the pill any easier to swallow.

"Sorry?" I said, because honestly, what else could I say?

"Why are you sorry?" he demanded back.

"Well, for inconveniencing you," I explained slowly.

He stared at me as though I had two heads. "We'll find them," he said, ignoring my apology which I thought was rude in the extreme. "Until then we'll up your protection. They may call in more favours and have someone else rough you up in an effort for you to call off the hounds."

What?

"So, I'm taking tonight," he announced beginning to turn away. "When you're ready to leave come get me."

"Hey!" I shouted at his back, making him stop in his tracks and turn reluctant ice-blue eyes of frost on me. "You don't have to do that," was all I could think of to say.

"It's nothing," he muttered and then turned to walk away again.

"No, it's not," I announced to his back, making him stop again and turn back.

He stared at me for several seconds, then stunned me by saying, "Don't read more into it than there actually is." Turned and started walking again.

"What is it actually?" I asked, getting decidedly pissed off with his attitude.
I
didn't ask for him to announce I had ASI protection to the world. At this point I'd take Adam as a bodyguard over Nick any day, purely because the guy actually wanted to be around me, unlike Nick who was clearly doing this all as a favour to one of his staff. And because he wanted me there for his fiancée’s opening night of local talent showcasing.

"You know what it is," he shot back, turning fully to face me, arms crossed over his chest.

"No, quite frankly, I don't know what the darn hell your problem is and I don't much like it, cowboy," I shot right back at him, cowgirl attitude in full swing.

He took a menacing step towards me. "Eight years," he said slowly, taking another step and forcing me to take one step back to not come chest to chest with him. "Eight years you're out of my life and then in
one
night you come crashing back in, in your short, cute little cowgirl dress, your fuck-me cowgirl boots and that" - his eyes shot up and over my head - "fucking cowgirl hat. Legs and tits and arse in my face and a Tennessee attitude that wasn't there the last time I looked and I'm finding kinda hard to fucking ignore. Not to mention," he went on taking another step closer, forcing me to step numbly back and feel the hard edge of the LP stand at my back, "that fucking voice and what it does to not only me, but half my fucking men. Who all spend way too much time in the control room at night watching you sing." Um, what? "You know fucking damn well what this is all about," he finished, pushing himself right up into my face and then leaning further forward, one hand bracing himself on each side of my body, effectively fencing me in.

I was stunned. So stunned, I could hardly breathe. I had no darn idea what the hell he was talking about. I was so confused, my head was shaking from side to side and then his face tipped forward, as though he was going to do something. And the something I mean is
kiss
me. I couldn't have that. I had no idea what sort of fucked up relationship he had with his fiancée, letting his cousin - or whoever the darn hell that guy-who-could-have-been-related-to-him was - do whatever the darn hell he was doing to her in front of him, but even if I was a bad-girl cowgirl on occasion, I
did not
kiss another woman's
man
. Period. End of story. My bottom line.

"My boyfriend's on his way from Nashville right now," I blurted out in his face, which was only by this stage a mere inch away from mine. "On a plane," I explained, because obviously he needed to know that information and then in a worthy imitation of Gen, I added my own run-away mouth moment. "To see me. He misses me. He's got someone driving his truck so he could take time off and fly all the way here to see me. He's a cowboy," I added, because that was important. I'd only ever have a cowboy as a boyfriend and he needed to know that, considering he wasn't a cowboy at all.

He pulled back from my face, hands still gripping the edge of the LP stand on either side of me, and I watched in fascination as a muscle fluttered in his clenched jaw from a mere few inches away. He was stunning, even when about to let loose with rage - I was betting - he simply stole all breath from the room, sucked in all the light and then blasted the darn hell out of you with it.

"Boyfriend," he semi-repeated in a strange low voice. "So," he finally added, ice-blue frost eyes flicking over my face, "you just filling in time, while he's not here, teasing Adam?"

I blinked back at him. Where in the darn hell did Adam fit into all of this? And with Nick standing here still fencing me in, in the dark recesses of his fiancée’s store.

"I..." I started.

"Forget it," he snarled and pulled away completely, arms no longer bracketing me, but hanging by his sides with clenched fists instead. I felt suddenly cold at the loss of his body so near mine. "Come find me when you're ready to leave."

And with that he stormed out of the shadows, back towards the light of the shop's frontage and no doubt his fiancée. The man was crazy and unstable and fucked in the head.

And there was absolutely no darn way in hell that I was seeking him out for a ride home tonight. That was for darn sure.

When I came back out the front I noticed the band was relaxing with some of the ASI guys and Sweet Seduction gang, as though they'd known them forever and this was all part of a post-practice wind down. They each had takeaway coffee cups in their hands that matched the colour scheme of the store: black with hot pink and white writing, saying
Sweet Seduction on High.
I wasn't sure what to do, my eyes flicking over them all and suddenly feeling like I didn't belong.

I was a visitor here in their world. Playing a few gigs with the guys, practising in these people's local coffee-come-chocolatier-come-music shop. Entering their world for a few weeks and then fading into the sunset when it was time to go. In a fit of jealousy I glared at my band, thinking if they so chose, they could incorporate these people into their lives permanently. But that I couldn't. Evidence of what waited for me back in Nashville was currently winging its way here right now.

And I didn't even want him. How bad was that? A genuine, honest to God, cowboy flying all the way here just for me and right in this second I didn't feel like I belonged with him, in Nashville or here in Sweet Seduction with these happy-go-lucky, beautiful people.

I suddenly felt so tired. Exhausted of it all. Waiting for Dad to die. Cleaning his stash of preciously hoarded items daily since I got here, dealing with Aunty Jessie and the Russell boys. Nick. I wanted it all to be over and then what? I wasn't sure that my life back in Nashville was the right one for me anymore. If I did, wouldn't I be looking forward to Derek surprising me with an impromptu visit? Derek wasn't the first cowboy I'd dated in the past eight years, he was - embarrassingly - one of a string of the very same. And all at once I wanted to step off the bucking bronco. I wanted out of the rodeo ring.

Not completely, I was cowgirl through and through, but I was thinking I was tiring of the type of cowgirl I had become. A little too late it would seem, judging by Derek's last voice-mail message. And didn't that make me feel guilty.

Just then I saw Adam's SUV pull up at the curb across the street outside, as Spike had just opened the front door to come back inside after a ciggie break, no doubt. I grabbed my guitar case and without thinking or waiting to say goodbye to the guys or anyone else, I slipped down the side of the shop, invisible to those having a good time chatting and laughing, and pushed through the manual doors into the night.

I met Adam halfway across the street.

"Stalker, I'm about to make your day," I announced with a Tennessee smile. He stopped mid step, deep blue eyes running over the length of me and landing on the guitar case. "Wanna take me home?" I knew I'd said it seductively, I knew I'd thrown every ounce of Evangeline, cowgirl-in-the-rodeo-ring, Rowe into it. And in that instant, I didn't care. I needed to get out of here and I was determined not to be doing it in Nick Anscombe's car.

"Sure thing, cowgirl," he said, a twinkle starting up in his eyes. He turned back and unlocked the passenger door of his car, taking my case and placing it on the rear seat as I climbed up into the cab.

In a second he was around his side of the vehicle and pulling us away from the curb. It was then I spotted Nick, arms crossed over his chest, standing, scowling, right outside Sweet Seduction's doors. Maybe I hadn't escaped unnoticed after all. I tipped my hat to him as we passed, Adam missed both Nick and my hat tipping, his eyes on the road and partially on my bare legs down to his side.

"So, good practice session?" he asked into the ensuing silence. "Your jaw OK?"

I hadn't had much time to think about it, but in actual fact my jaw was killing me. A good excuse not to talk. Darn, and now I was going to be rude.

"Um, actually, you know what, it kind of hurts like all get-out right now."

"I know just the thing," he said, turning the car onto Queen Street and making me smile despite myself. "They're open twenty-four, seven and will take away all that ails you."

He pulled to the side of the road, finding a carpark easily at this hour of the night, or early morning as the case may be.

"Stay put, cowgirl, I'll be right back," he said with a wink as he slid from the cab and took off to a gaily lit M
övenpick store.

I slumped into my seat and wondered what the darn hell I was up to. This was wrong on so many levels. Most importantly that although in a previous cowgirl-in-the-rodeo-ring life I would have jumped his very fine body without a second thought, but all of a sudden I couldn't feel it anymore. Not only had Nick ruined all other men for me - again - he ruined my appetite for all other men too.

So what the darn hell was I doing?

Adam's phone on the dash lit up in its holder and started ringing. I checked out the window and saw Adam still at the counter inside the ice-cream shop, then glanced back at the phone. It said
ASI calling
. I was so relieved it didn't say
Nick calling
, that I reached out without thinking, to shut it up, aiming for the disconnect, but somehow hitting the button that answered the call instead.

"Adam?" came the same voice as earlier. I think he called him Eric.

"Um," I said, feeling like an absolute tool for answering Adam's phone. "Adam's busy right now, I accidentally answered his phone," I admitted sheepishly.

"Accidentally answered his phone, huh," came the sardonic reply down the line. "You wouldn't happen to be the cowgirl who is causing so much trouble of late, would you?" He said it with a little laughter in his tone, making his voice sound friendly and teasing.

"Um, yeah, that would probably be me," I confirmed quietly.

"I thought Nick was taking you home tonight?" Eric asked. I could hear electronic beeping in the background down the line, Eric was obviously a busy chap at ASI HQ.

"Adam. Adam was taking me home." I tried for a convincing, no argument tone. If I said it with authority, then he'd believe it right?

"No. I got Nick's name next to your address tonight. Nick's on guard in Eden Terrace. Adam's meant to be over in Herne Bay."

"What's in Herne Bay?" I asked, surprising myself at how interested I was to know what it was they all did.

"Another client," Eric said distractedly, then, "Hold on a tick, cowgirl." Followed by elevator music, definitely not Country. I'd have to have a word with Adam about changing ASI's hold music.

Several seconds later the line reopened, mid Simply Red song.

"Nick's on his way to your location now to relieve Adam," Eric announced and I squeaked an embarrassing high pitched sound in reply. "Two minutes out. By the sounds of it, you should see fireworks soon."