“Uh, the guy with the crazy hair?” I looked to Maggie for help, but she just raised an eyebrow, staying out of this one. “You know... the kinda bow-legged one.” I looked up into Jesse’s eyes, which were blackening by the second.
Pepper and Raf walked up and Pepper slapped Jesse on the back. “Great show, man.”
Jesse ignored them, still locked onto me. “A blow job?”
Pepper and Raf took their cue from Jesse’s tone and made themselves scarce. I would’ve liked to join them, but Jesse still had me in his arms and his grip wasn’t letting up.
“Um… actually, he asked me to blow his creepy friend. Lame, right?” Damn. He looked pissed.
I didn’t even do anything wrong.
“Uh-huh. What creepy friend?” Okay. Definitely pissed. And also sexy, even when pissed.
It was starting to dawn on me, however, that I wasn’t the one he was pissed at.
“Oh. The, uh, mute one in the Slayer cap.”
I glanced at Maggie again, who for once had nothing helpful, clever or managerial to say.
Not a good sign.
“Last one?” Raf called over, switching out his guitar.
“In a minute.” Jesse wiped the sweat from his face with a towel someone tossed him. “Wait here,” he told me. He tossed the towel aside, kissed me again, and stalked back toward the stage.
The guitar tech handed him one of his guitars and he slung it on. I followed as far as I could and stood with Brody at the side of the stage, watching.
A singe white light shone on Jesse as he walked onstage. The thunder of the crowd was deafening as he took his place, center stage. It died down slightly when he gripped the mic in his fist, and gradually hushed as he began to speak.
“This one’s for Katie,” he said, and the crowd erupted again as the band kicked into a song I’d never heard before.
By the time they reached the chorus, I figured it out.
It was the new song. My song.
The one he said he was going to play for me on tour. I’d really thought he was joking. Flirting.
But the song was real. And it was awesome. Sweet. Sexy. Catchy as all hell.
By the end of it I was humming along with the chorus. If Brody wasn’t standing right next to me, I would’ve sang it out loud.
There’s a new girl, and she’s just my kind...
Found a new girl now, and I’m gonna make her mine.
CHAPTER 15
KATIE
I could totally see how it could overwhelm a guy, like completely hijack his hormones, when a bunch of pretty French-speaking chicks in very little clothing swarmed around him, begging for his autograph and firing questions at him with their cute accents.
For a moment as Jesse and his entourage, includingmoi, entered the crowded, thumping afterhours club, I found myself mentally preparing to get ditched. I could easily envision Jesse getting swept away in the tide of adoring fans and the promise of fast, easy sex, completely forgetting everything he’d promised me in my kitchen.
I stayed back and out of the fray with Flynn, pretending I was caught up in Pepper’s story about the last time he was at this club, with his other band, and he got kicked out for taking off his pants. It was probably a hilarious story; everyone was laughing but me. I just couldn’t take my eyes off Jesse, and the girls circling like sharks over a bit of bloody meat.
I knew the way I was feeling was irrational, because the man wasn’t actually mine. Maybe it wasbecausehe wasn’t mine, would never be mine, but I felt a wicked stab of envy toward those girls. I couldn’t even be one of them, outright throwing myself at him in hopes of getting noticed. I couldn’t afford to throw myself at him. I was his contractedemployee. If I did that and he told me to take a cold shower and get over it, I’d be humiliated.
Worse, if he took me to bed once or twice, then lost interest, I’d be crushed.
