“Have a seat.” She gestured to the couch, then disappeared through another door, returning a couple of minutes later with the flowers in a glass vase. She set it on the coffee table and sat on an adjacent chair. “I’m listening.”
I ran my tongue along the inside of my bottom lip, throat suddenly dry. I tried to never think about that time, let alone talk about my pain, fear, anger, and remorse. But Aspen deserved a thread of the truth.
“I wrote that song at an extremely painful time in my life. One I don’t talk about. Ever. And I’m not going to talk about it now, either. What I will say is that I am sorry for snapping at you. I don’t even know why I chose to sing that song tonight.”
She plucked at the soft skin at the base of her throat, her eyes probing. I squirmed. Aspen Kingcaid had this ability to bring a man to his knees with one look, and she was using that look on me now. Falling to my knees for this woman would not be a hardship, but if the price was to share the shame I carried with me, it was a price I wasn’t willing to pay. Not even for her.
“I’m sorry I pressed.”
I shook my head. “That’s just it. You didn’t. You asked a simple question, and I overreacted.” Drawing in a deep breath, I let it out slowly, and with it, the anxiety melted away. “Look, cards on the table, we don’t know each other well, and to you, I’m probably just another artist signed to your label, but I like you, Aspen. I like you a lot. And when I say you, I don’t meanAspen Kingcaid, CEO of Kingcaid Music. I’m talking about the woman, not the role you hold. I want you to know that.”
Her expression softened. “You’re not just another artist, Joz. You’re the artist I most wanted to sign. An artist I relentlessly pursued, and not only because we will make a lot of money together, but because you’ve always intrigued me.”
I like where this is going.
“How so?”
She rubbed her lips together and took a few seconds to answer, as though she was truly thinking about my question rather than spewing the first thing that came to mind. “I’ve worked with a lot of musicians over the years. Even when I was a kid, I was always hanging around the studio or pleading with my older brothers to take me to concerts. Music is in my soul, which means I recognize a fake with my eyes closed. Many talented musicians may love music, but it doesn’t thread through every cell in their body. But you, you’re like me. Musicisyou. Without it, you’re empty.”
Her insightful comment hit me like a bolt of lightning. Even though I felt jaded, and I planned to quit the business in a few years’ time, I’dneverstop playing music or writing songs. I couldn’t. I wouldn’t know how. She was right. Iwasmusic, and music was me.
“Did you know I happened to be on the same cruise as you a while back? The one they cut short because of a shooting on board.”
“Serenity?”
“Yes.”
“Christ, no, I didn’t.” I ran a hand over my scruff. “I had no idea.”
“I was so excited when I heard you were a guest because I’d been trying for ages to organize a meeting with you, but your people kept giving me the runaround.”
That was news to me. Until recently, I hadn’t heard a peep about Kingcaid Music wanting to sign me. I filed away that nugget. Next time I saw Mike, he’d get a fucking earful. Sure, he had my best interests at heart, but I made my own fucking decisions. He should’ve told me they were interested and let me decide whether to sign with them.
“You should’ve just knocked on my cabin door. I would never have turned you away.”
“Hmm.” She gave me one of those looks again that made my dick swell. “My cousin, Blaize, who runs our cruise ship business, pretty much told me he’d throw me overboard if I used my privilege to find out which suite you were in. He’d have done it, too.”
I laughed. The more I heard about the way the Kingcaids ran their extensive business interests, the more I liked them. Privacy was clearly important to these people, and I respected that.
“I had a ton of people primed to call me the second they spotted you, but they never did.”
“That’s because I holed up in my suite the entire time. I was having trouble getting words down, so Mike thought a change of scenery would help.”
“And did it?”
“Yeah. Came away with half a dozen songs. Bad business what happened, though.”
She nodded, somber. “Awful. Two people lost their lives, and my cousin had to have his lower leg amputated.”
I nodded, recalling the events from the papers. “How’s he doing now?”
“Oh, nothing can keep Blaize down. He’s unstoppable.”
“A bit like you. That particular talent must run in the family.”
She grinned. “We know what we want, and we go after it with everything we have.”
I smoothed a thumb over my eyebrow and locked eyes with her. “A trait I also have in spades.”
