Beverly. My manager. Dammit.
“Sorry,” I sighed. “I’m gonna have to take this.”
I nodded just as he swiped his finger across the screen.
“Hello?… Yeah… Uh, hold on a sec,” he said, glancing at me. He stepped out onto the balcony and slid the door closed behind him.
I walked to the kitchen to find the recycling bin for glass bottles and then peeked around the lower level for a bathroom.
After finishing up, I walked back to the sofa. Chris was still outside, pacing the balcony and talking in hushed tones. He looked like he might be engrossed in conversation for quite some time. If I’d had my car, I would have slipped out, but I didn’t. I was stuck there until he finished his phone call, so I slid my shoes off and propped my feet up on the sofa. I may as well get comfortable. I might be here a while.
I found the remote and clicked the power button for the television. Flipping through channels, I finally found something to watch and settled into the couch. I relaxed and enjoyed some of the show, but the beers I’d drunk were making me feel sleepy. Before long I was dozing off with my head on the armrest.
Beverly was talking entirely too long, as usual. I paced back and forth, eager to get back inside to Salem. Almost thirty minutes had passed and we were still hashing out venues, dates, songs, and marketing. I just wanted to fling my phone off the balcony and go back inside where a beautiful woman sat, waiting for me.
“Beverly,” I finally managed to get a word in edgewise. “Can we finish this tomorrow? It’s getting late. I have company.”
Beverly laughed a feminine, airy laugh. “Ahh, okay. I get it,” she insinuated.
I could almost feel her winking at me through the phone.
Not that it was any of her business, but I’d known Beverly for years. She was as much of a friend as anyone. “No, no. It’s not what you think,” I chuckled.
“Riiiight,” she teased. “Well, go entertain your company. I’ll call you again tomorrow.”
“Goodnight, Bev,” I said hastily.
She sighed breathily into the phone, “Goodnight, Romeo.”
I stepped inside to an angelic Salem sleeping on my sofa. I didn’t dare wake her. She looked so comfortable with her legs curled up and her arm cradling her head. She was the epitome of radiance and class, unlike some of the groupies who had been known to crash the band’s after-parties in the past. I loved this quiet little after party with this exquisite beauty resting peacefully in my living room.
Damn. On any other given night, I would…
Ugh, let it go, Chris. Can’t happen. Won’t happen. She doesn’t see you like that.
But I wasn’t about to let her sleep all night in that uncomfortable position. Gently lifting her from the couch, I carried her toward my bedroom. No woman had ever spent the night in my bed. Ever. Hotel rooms? Fuck yeah. But not this place. Not my space—the place where bad-ass rock star and vulnerability meet. I had a sneaking suspicion that Salem was about to change a lot of things in my life, and it scared the hell out of me.
She sighed quietly in her sleep as her head rested against my chest, and she instinctively wrapped her arm around my neck. My skin tingled as her fingers grazed across the back of my neck while my heart thundered in my chest. Fuck, this woman does crazy things to me.
I couldn’t help the thoughts that ran through my mind as I lay her down softly on my bed among the throng of pillows. I tugged the blanket up over her body, covering the very thing I wanted to admire—those long-ass, sexy as hell legs. Damn, I don’t remember her having those when I was seventeen.
She unconsciously snuggled against my pillow, breathing deeply in her sleep. I brushed a strand of her hair away from her face.
“You have no idea what you meant to me, Salem,” I whispered softly. “The heart doesn’t forget that easily.”
Slowly, I leaned down and lightly placed a kiss on her forehead. The scent of strawberries from her hair invaded my senses while the heat of her skin on my lips caused my imagination to run wild.
She clutched my pillow tighter in her arms. “Mmmm,” she hummed in her sleep, a sound that instantly resonated in my cock.
My body wanted me to stay, begging me to slip under the covers with this beautiful vixen asleep in my bed. But, my mind insisted I walk away. The internal struggle was intense. With a silent groan, my brain finally won the argument, and I quietly slipped out of the room unnoticed.
A sliver of sunlight sliced through the curtain and poured onto my face. I rolled over, reaching for my alarm clock, when I realized that something about the feel of the blankets and the space around me felt different. That’s when it dawned on me that I was in an unfamiliar place. Glancing around, I tried to get my bearings. Plush bed with a down duvet, lots of pillows, guitar stand in the corner. The scent of the pillow I was lying on held a hint of masculinity.