“Too bad.” She pushed him onto his back and stroked her hands down his chest. Under her touch, his muscles tensed, a faint tremor whispering that she had him. “And after tonight’s show, I’m going to take you to Nashville, and show you where I come from.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“I can’t wait.” And damned if that wasn’t the truth.
“For Nashville?”
“For all of it.”
Chapter Twenty
“WHEN you saidyou were going to show me where you came from, a hole-in-the-wall bar was not exactly what I pictured,” Dean said, sipping his beer and looking around the crowded honky tonk a block off Broadway where Liana got her first break.
She beamed at him. “Well there’s no way I’m taking you two hours out of town to look at an abandoned trailer park. As far I’m concerned, this is where Liana Hansen was born.”
From the number of people who’d stopped to say hi to her since they’d arrived, it was clear that this was one part of her past she’d hung on tight to. He liked seeing her in her element. He was glad she actually had a comfort zone, although he’d known intellectually she must, he hadn’t seen it for himself before this moment.
They’d been in Nashville for twenty-one hours. They left Memphis after her second concert there last night, and drove through the night, arriving at Liana’s house before dawn.
He’d gotten the quickest tour ever of her home before they tumbled into bed. Sleep came first, but then they spent most of the morning making love.
He knew it wasn’t the smartest way to think about it, but there wasn’t really any other term for how it felt to be inside her. It just felt right, and boy did that worry him pretty hard.
But he knew that Liana understood where his head was at. And he knew that he’d do his damnedest not to hurt her. It was the best he could promise himself, and silently, promise her.
From across the room, a tall, young, bearded man in a faded chambray shirt waved at her.
She squealed and threw her arms in the air. “Caleb Anderson, you get over here.”
Dean took a sip of beer and tried like hell not to react to the way the younger man picked Liana up and twirled her around—and hung on to her hips for a good long while after he put her down, too.
“Tell me we’re singing tonight, Li.”
Li?Dean’s eyebrows shot up.
Liana just laughed. “I’ll cheer you on.”
“You’ll do nothing of the sort, gorgeous. I want you on stage with me.”
Gorgeous?Caleb might as well have said he wanted Liana naked, which Dean was sure was about to come next.
He stood up and shoved his hand between the two of them. “Caleb. Nice to meet you. Dean Foster.”
Liana gave him a pleased smile. “This is Caleb.”
“So I gather.”
“He’s just a fantastic singer and songwriter. I’m like a one-woman fan club.”
Dean gave her a totally understanding smile. He hadn’t realized he could lie so easily with his face. “Cool.”
“Hey, there’s West!” She waved at her drummer, who shouldered his way through the crowd and shook Dean’s hand, then Caleb’s.
“Hey, man. You playing tonight?”
“Sure am. Trying to get your boss up on stage with me, too.”
