Bright Lights: Book One of the Talia Shaw Series

by Darcy, Christine J

  He shook his head but I searched his pockets for his phone. He fought against me and I tickled him to incapacitate him. He was laughing and protesting but I got his phone.

  “Give it back,” he demanded. I scooted over to my side of the car and held the phone tight to my chest. He sat back in defeat. “Oh, fine.”

  It was off from the flight so I turned it back on. A request for his password came up.

  “What’s your password?” I asked, sweetly.

  “Why don’t you guess?”

  “Is it my birthday? That’s so sweet of you,” I joked. The phone in my hand started ringing. The number was private.

  “It’s private.” He held his hand out and I handed it over.

  “Hello?” Teddy said. “Oh. Hey, mate. Just got back like an hour ago.”

  I looked at Leif in the rear-view mirror. “You hungry?”

  “Tonight? Yeah, I could probably swing that,” Teddy said, then looked at me.

  “In and Out?” Leif asked.

  Teddy nudged me. “Laurie wants to know if you want to come to his party.”

  I sat up. “Who?” I asked, not sure I heard the name correctly.

  Please be Laurie Siler. Please be Laurie Siler. “Laurie Siler.”

  Five

  Teddy had showered and changed in fifteen minutes. I hated to be a cliché but I had spent fifteen minutes showering and shaving my legs and was just beginning the blow dryer when he knocked on my door.

  “Come in,” I shouted over the blow dryer.

  Teddy walked in, in casual jeans, yellow t-shirt and his usual black hoodie.

  “How long are we thinking? Another 5 minutes?” Assuming he was kidding, I laughed.

  He lay back on my bed. “Your bed is comfier than mine.”

  “You mean the spare bed? You refused to move in with me, remember?”

  “Yeah, yeah.” He rolled his eyes.

  “How is Georgia?” I was pretty sure it was for her sake that he didn’t want to live with me. I supposed I could understand that.

  “She’s good. We’re hanging out tomorrow.” He had been tight lipped about her since we came back from Hawaii but I knew he saw her regularly. I wanted to hang out with her and get to know her, but it seemed like Teddy was waiting to take that step.

  My hair was taking too long to dry so I gave up on it and ran, holding my towel, to my wardrobe.

  I took out a few options, short sweet dresses I had bought in the days before and threw them Teddy’s direction. He caught them, sitting up and considered them.

  “What’s wrong with jeans?” he asked.

  “What kind of party is this?” I asked. That kind of information would’ve been useful.

  “He didn’t say. But it’s not the Grammys.” I scoffed, there’s no way I’d be wearing a flowery mini dress to the Grammys.

  I shut the door quickly and threw on a simple short sleeve sweater dress.

  “What about this?” I asked Teddy. He looked me over.

  “It’s good.”

  “If it’s a dressy party, I will kill you,” I assured him as I pulled on some white Air Force 1s and the leather jacket Ari had given me. I threw my makeup bag into a clutch with my phone and keys and pulled Teddy off the bed and out the door.

  “What is with you?” he asked as he followed me down the stairs.

  “What?” I asked as we walked out the door toward Leif.

  He shook his head rather than go on and got into the car.

  “We’re heading to West Hollywood,” Teddy instructed.

  “Will you hold this?” I handed Teddy my compact and had him hold it up for me as I did my makeup.

  “Bump coming up,” Leif called out. This wasn’t the first time I’d done this.

  “Thanks Leif.” I took my compact back from Teddy. “You should invite Georgia.”

  “She’s too far away.”

  “She’s an hour away,” I argued.

  “It’s fine. We’re hanging tomorrow.”

  “You don’t think she’d want to go to this party?” I asked.

  “Maybe not as much as you,” he teased.

  “What does that mean?” Teddy took a breath. “What?” I demanded.

  “You’ve got a little thing for Laurie,” he said casually.

  I opened my mouth, pretending to seem shocked. “I do not. Why do you think that? Because I want to look nice for a party?”

  “You never care about how you look,” he contended.

  “Yes, I do. That’s why I bought all those stupid dresses because the magazines were saying I only owned one pair of jeans.”

  “Who cares about the magazines? Why are you reading those things?”

  “I wasn’t. I was just grocery shopping and it was there with my picture. This is beside the point.” It seemed like we were arguing, and I had no idea why.

  “You look good in whatever you wear. You shouldn’t care,” Teddy said.

  I smiled at him. “Thanks.” He nodded. “Can I see that picture now?” I said, remembering that I hadn’t yet seen it. He took out his phone, unlocked it and handed it over. I went through his picture scroll. All the latest pictures were of his friends and family back home. Then I saw it. Too tiny to make out much other than a figure surrounded by greenery. I opened it up and there he was in all his glory. I cracked up. Teddy laughed a little at himself beside me. I looked at it again and laughed harder.

  I saw Leif’s eyes shift to mine in the rearview mirror. I moved forward and held it out for him to look at. He pulled up to a light and looked. He started cracking up, too.

  We turned onto Laurie’s road. Cars were jam-packed parked either side of the short street. His house was a modern white box-like mansion with a couple of classic Hollywood palm streets in the front yard and bright green planter boxes lining the driveway and up the stairs to the door. Leif let us out at the bottom of the drive.

  I looked at myself in the light reflected on the black door and adjusted my dress and hair.

  “Come on.” Teddy dragged me. “He’ll love it.”

  I bumped his hip. “Don’t say anything to him.”

  “Yeah, yeah.”

  The door was closed but I could hear a Rihanna song playing loudly inside. Teddy knocked. A young Asian man with a shaved head, in a white button down, slacks and glasses opened the door with a smile. “Hello, come in.”

  “Thank you,” I said. He held his arms out.

  “Can I take your jackets?”

  “I think we’re good,” Teddy said, looking at me. I nodded.

  “Enjoy your evening,” he said before closing the door and scurrying off.

  “Who was that?” I asked Teddy.

  “No idea,” he answered. The entryway led to a stairwell, a formal living room which was darkened and a hallway which opened onto a kitchen where the light and music seemed to be coming from. We moved that way. The kitchen bar was filled with trays of finger foods and there were buckets filled with ice and beer and cider. Past the kitchen and down the stairs was a giant living room with glass doors that folded away to open the room up to the backyard. There were dozens of people there, eating, drinking, some of them dancing in the backyard where a DJ was spinning. There were half naked girls swimming in the pool and lazing on deck chairs. There were people lounging, including Lucy and Merrick.

  “Teddy! Talia!” They waved us over.

  “Hey Teddy,” a girl I didn’t recognise stopped Teddy on the way. He stopped to press a kiss to her cheek.

  I hugged Lucy and Merrick. “What are you two doing here?”

  “We’ve both worked with Laurie,” Lucy explained.

  “You want a drink?” Merrick asked.

  “Sure. Thanks.” Merrick moved back to the kitchen, taking Teddy with him.

  “You look great,” I said, looking over Lucy’s tartan pants and sweater.

  “You, too. I’ve never seen you dress like this,” Lucy replied. I shifted a little.

  “I went shopping,” I explained, embarrass
ed that people were noticing a difference.

  “It looks good,” she said.

  “Excuse me,” a young girl, in only her bikini, stood there with her iPhone held up. “Can I?” she asked. I nodded and posed for a selfie with her. “Thank you,” she said.

  “You’re welcome,” I answered. She scurried away.

  “I guess you’re officially famous,” Lucy said with an expression I couldn’t identify.

  “I don’t know about that,” I answered. I couldn’t seem to fully resign myself to the idea that people would keep coming up to me for photos or that I would hear my songs playing in stores.

  I looked over to the kitchen and saw Merrick and Teddy had been joined by Laurie. I flushed. He wore a Hawaiian button down with a few of the top buttons undone and black skinny jeans. Teddy pointed our direction and Laurie looked over. I couldn’t stop myself from turning away. Why did I do that? Lucy stepped a little closer. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. How are you?” My voice was all over the place.

  “You want to get some air?” she asked. The room was completely open, so my problem definitely wasn’t a lack of air. It was that I couldn’t look at Laurie without feeling on fire. We stepped out onto the paved entertaining area. There was a big timber outdoor dining table with people sitting all the way around it. A few of them were smoking weed. We moved toward the pool.

  “God, I’d like to get in there,” I said to Lucy. I pulled my dress away from my neck, fanning myself with it.

  “So, do it,” she suggested. She was the type to just jump in in all of her clothes. I was definitely not. I looked back and I couldn’t see them anymore. I started to calm down. “You gonna tell me what that was about?”

  “No. I feel like an idiot.”

  “I won’t judge,” she claimed.

  “I’m quite sure you will,” I argued.

  “Try me.”

  A couple of deck chairs opened up and we took seats. “Laurie,” I started.

  “I figured.”

  “He’s ridiculously good looking,” I continued.

  “He is,” she agreed.

  “I get like…” I gestured to myself, my hands fluttering foolishly.

  She nodded. “A lot of people do. It’s probably going to make it worse but I have to tell you that he’s coming over here.”

  “Oh my god. Am I red?” She shook her head quickly and smiled at the approaching boys. Teddy, Merrick and Laurie arrived with drinks.

  “Ladies,” Laurie said. He kissed Lucy on the cheek. Merrick handed her a beer. I felt his arm on my back as he moved in to kiss my cheek. I tensed a little. My breath stopped. He smelled so good. The kiss lingered. “Nice to see you again.”

  I looked down and could see my necklace hanging from his neck, the pendant half hidden beneath his shirt. I looked up to his face to see him smirking, having watched me looking. He handed me a cider.

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” He kept looking at me. How was I supposed to recover if he kept looking at me? “Anyone for a tour?” he asked the group.

  “We’ve all been here before,” Merrick answered, confused.

  “Talia hasn’t,” Teddy answered, looking between Laurie and me.

  Lucy nudged me. “Go on. Take the tour.”

  Laurie was still looking at me. “Okay,” I nodded.

  “We’ll be back,” Laurie said as he led me away. I looked back at Merrick’s confused face, Lucy’s unsubtle thumbs up and Teddy’s encouraging smile.

  As we moved through the lounge room and toward the stairs, a couple of the occupants – girls and guys alike – gave me dirty looks. My skin was so hot, I worried that he could feel it on the palm he kept against the middle of my back. He led us past the kitchen and the darkened room.

  “Formal living room. We never use it,” he explained.

  He took his hand away to lead me up the stairs. The upstairs living room had a few people in it, musician types and the young Asian man who’d opened the door for us. “Fellas, this is Talia Shaw,” Laurie introduced me as we approached.

  “Hi,” I said as they greeted me. We walked past them and up to the next level. There were three closed doors up there. He opened the first one.

  “This is… the study, I guess.” It was indeed a study. Desk, chair, everything was very stylishly decorated, I guessed by someone professional. It looked untouched. He opened the next door. “Spare bedroom.” I peeked in. The room had an incredible view of the city, all lit up.

  “The view is incredible,” I offered.

  “Wait till you see the next one,” he teased. We went to the last door. It opened up into the master bedroom. A giant room with a simple dark furniture and timber accents. There was a piano in one corner and three guitars hanging on one of the walls. He had two framed posters, one for 2001; A Space Odyssey and the other for Some Like It Hot. “This is my room,” he said, though it was obvious.

  His view was better. It looked over the lit-up city, but it stretched all the way to the Pacific Ocean. “Wow,” I offered. We walked over to the balcony doors. He opened them up and we stepped out. The music wasn’t as loud up there. The wind muffled it. The balcony had a day bed and a small table and chairs. Laurie took a seat and sipped his beer. He was still looking at me.

  “You want your necklace back?” he asked, casually. I looked back at him. He smiled that same smile, perfect white teeth, all cocky charm. He looked me up and down. He was flirting shamelessly.

  I found the confidence to flirt back. I leaned back against the balcony rail and sipped my cider. “It looks better on you.” He raised an eyebrow. “It looked good in your music video.”

  “You saw that, huh?”

  “I did.”

  “I was going to send it with the bear, but I grew attached.”

  I almost choked on the cider. The bear without a card. The one that was still sitting in the spare room at home in Sydney. “You sent that?” I asked.

  “Yeah?” he said, confused that I was surprised. “You didn’t get a card?”

  “No,” I assured him. “We had no idea who it was from.”

  “I wondered why I never got a call,” he shook his head.

  I didn’t know what to say. “That’s crazy.”

  “Why is that crazy?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” I floundered. “You’re you.”

  “What does that mean?” He was looking at me perplexed but surely he understood what I was saying.

  “You’re this big musician-”

  “I’m really not. We’re both musicians. But we’re also just people. We’re just a guy and a gal flirting on this balcony.”

  “I am not flirting with you.” I don’t know why I felt the need to argue. He was admitting it.

  “Really? Shame.” He stood up, leaving his own empty bottle on the table. “I guess we should head back to the party.”

  I really didn’t want to do that. I had to backtrack. “What if I were?” I asked.

  He turned back to me with a smile. “Then I’d feel like I could kiss you.” I lost my breath. My knees almost buckled. And he hadn’t even touched me yet. “Are you flirting with me, Talia?”

  I swallowed and nodded and in two quick strides he had his hands on my cheeks, pulling my lips to meet his. We slammed together. He sucked at my lower lip before our tongues moved to meet each other. His hands moved to my back and he squeezed me closer to him. I ran my hands up his arms, over his shoulders and grabbed a hold of his brown locks, tugging him closer to me. He was good. Really good. I could have kissed him forever, taking little sips of breath as I went, but he pulled away to get his breath.

  “You feel incredible,” he said, his hands holding me at the waist, still eyeing my lips.

  It seemed impossible that he was saying that to me. I felt woozy. I felt properly kissed like Scarlett O’Hara after Rhett Butler had taken her in his arms. Laurie was looking back into my eyes. He looked hungry still. And I felt the same way.

 
He kissed me again, I could taste the beer on this one. Our noses rubbed hard together, he was pulling close, like he couldn’t get close enough. He lifted me up and I wrapped my thighs around him. He carried me to the day bed, sitting down with me on top of him. He ran his fingers over my thighs bringing my dress up just a little. I ground into him and I could feel him growing hard against me. It was happening so quickly. But so was everything else in my life so why not? And God, I’d been dreaming of this.

  “Oi!” That was Teddy’s voice. “Let’s play some pool.”

  He banged on Laurie’s door. Laurie groaned. “No!” he shouted back.

  “Talia?” Teddy knocked again.

  “We’re coming,” I said, and climbed off Laurie.

  “We might have been, if not for him,” Laurie joked.

  “In the middle of your party? Classy,” I teased.

  “Not the middle. Upstairs.”

  I laughed as I rearranged my dress and tried to catch my breath. I was just making out with Laurie Siler. Laurie Siler had been hard for me. Still was if his rearranging his jeans was any indication. I hoped to God this wasn’t an anomaly.

  I opened the door to Teddy leaning against the bannister.

  “What’s this about pool?” I asked.

  We all went downstairs to where Merrick had set up a game. Lucy was drinking and dancing with a very tall blonde boy. So, it was Merrick and Teddy vs Laurie and me, and both of us were terrible. We spent most of the game laughing at how terrible we were and the other half making eyes across the table.

  We had a few more drinks and mingled with other guests. Laurie went off to play host and I tried, without any success, to take my mind off the kiss.

  After most of the party had cleared out, Laurie asked me to dance. I’d seen him dance with a few girls before it but not like he did with me. The first song was low and slow. He brought me close and we dirty danced like no one was watching. It wasn’t cheesy or awkward. It was so him. Just relaxed, confident and sexy. I would’ve been embarrassed but I couldn’t think about anyone else. We danced for another hour at least, getting ourselves good and sweaty.