She took a long pull from her glass. Too long of one, probably, since the red wine now burned a trail down to her stomach. She hissed out a breath and coughed to clear her throat before she answered. “Yeah. That’s the majority of my business.”
“Who have you designed for?”
The question was casual, but she could tell he was fishing for answers. She blew out another breath and rattled off a few names of some up-and-coming bands.
“Wow. Impressive.”
That he thought so made her heart leap. But, being that bragging was never really her style, she casually lay down on her side and propped herself up on an elbow, mimicking his relaxed pose. She ripped off another piece of chicken, took a bite, then fed him the rest and shrugged. “I like what I do.”
“Me too,” he said with a wink.
It took enormous effort to hold back the full-blown silly grin tugging at the edge of her lips. His comment made her beam inside. “Professionally,” she clarified.
“I know.” He lowered his eyes on a devilish smirk. “And these bands you’ve designed for,” he said then, meeting her stare. “What was it that inspired you?”
Hmm. How to answer this one?
“Their music, mostly. And the feeling that runs through me listening to it. It might be kind of odd to say out loud, but more often than not the music and lyrics speak to me. You can tell a lot about what a songwriter is going through from the words and expressions they put into their music.” And seeing as how Shane wrote all the lyrics for Blackguard, she knew he’d understand what she was talking about.
“So you listen. Interpret.” He poured more wine first in her glass, then his. “Then what?”
Nobody had ever asked her these questions before, and she wasn’t really sure how to answer so it all made sense. She took another sip, and did her best to explain. “Then I design what my heart tells me to.”
It seemed like such a simple, childish answer, but it was true nonetheless. She couldn’t really explain how she came up with her ideas. Once the connection came, so would the images. She’d draw them freehand on paper, or manipulate them on her computer, letting the design morph little by little into the finished creation. That’s how she turned her creativity into a tangible, marketable product.
“I like that. I like that a lot.” After another bite of chicken, he said, “My band’s been on the hunt for a new artist. Did you know that?”
She wasn’t going to lie. “I’d heard.”
“Yeah, it’s not exactly a big secret.” He licked his fingers, his lips. The sexy way he sucked on each one, then drew his tongue across his lower lip made her want to groan. “We went round and round with the artist our manager hired for our first CD. Me and the guys, we wanted…well, something not so ordinary. Darker. Edgier. What our manager made us settle on fell short of those initial expectations in pretty much every way. It was so cookie-cutter. Typical, you know?”
“But the CD did well. You still have songs topping the charts.”
He nodded. “Yeah, don’t get me wrong, the album turned out great, even despite that. But the cover never really felt right. I made it very clear that we need someone who really understands who we are for this next one. Who I am.” He pushed the tray toward the headboard and moved closer. So close, the combined aroma of their earlier sex drifted off both their bodies and permeated the small space that remained between them.
With an evil glint in his eyes, he tilted his glass and dribbled tiny drops of the red wine down her breast and let the streams run over her nipple before leaning in to lick her clean. “I’m thinking maybe that person is you.”
Her heart rate quickened, from both his mouth on her breast and the statement he just made. “Really? How do you know?”
He shrugged a shoulder and dripped a bit more wine. “Gut reaction. I like that you design from your soul.” He lifted his head and kissed her lips this time. “That says a lot about who you are.”
He set their glasses on the tray above their heads and lay back down in front of her. With a gentle sweeping motion, he ran a hand from her waist down her thigh, which he pulled on top of his, and then back up again.
“Does it?” she whispered.
“To me? Yeah, it does.” He yanked the pillow lying next to the tray down for them to share. “So what are you working on now?”
She tucked her hands under her cheek and edged closer to him. “I have a few CD covers contracted, and we’re doing a book cover shoot next week.”
“Yeah?” he asked. “Got anything you can show me?”
He wanted to see her work? Little tingles of professional pride battled with the sensual tingles his teasing touch had already created. “I have a few things on my laptop.”
He nipped at her lips. “Go get it. Show me.”
“Now?”
“Sure, why not?”
“Um. Okay.”
He rolled away and collected the tray, setting it on the dresser while she went for her bags. When she arrived earlier, she’d haphazardly dropped her laptop case next to her overnight suitcase by the closet doors, more than a little miffed at Ava for keeping Shane’s attendance a secret. All of that seemed like ages ago to her now.
She tugged the laptop from its case and turned to find Shane once again propped on a heap of pillows. “Come here,” he said, holding his arm open for her to snuggle back in beside him. As they waited for the computer to boot up, she hoped the whirls and clicks would drown out the steady thumps of her excited heartbeats. God, she thought it might beat clean out of her chest.
Once the laptop powered up, she opened a program and displayed an album cover she’d recently completed.
“Eden, this is gorgeous.” He toggled through dozens of screenshots, tracing every image with his talented fingers, pointing out intricate little details that most people would’ve never picked up on. At the same time, he unconsciously played with a strand of hair hanging over her shoulder.
“You have an amazing eye for color. Shadowy and dark when you need to be, vivid when the feel calls for it. I know the guys will relate to your style and they trust my judgment. I’d really love for you to do our cover.” He met her gaze and she sucked in a breath. “Say yes and work with us.”
Words left her, she couldn’t think straight. All she could do was offer up a huge smile. A smile she put her whole heart and soul behind.
“I love how your designs are a direct result of your passion, a product of what you’re feeling inside. And because of that, I know you’re going to go places. You’re headed straight for the top, sweet Eden.” He kissed her then, slowly, but she also felt the stark desire lying just under the surface. “I want to be a part of that. I want to be part of you.”
“Shane.”
He closed her laptop and set it at the foot of the bed, then rolled back to crawl up her body, devouring every inch of her skin along the way.
Insatiable, he was so…amazingly insatiable.
She wound her fingers into the hair at his nape as he traveled higher, nipping over her breasts, and licking along the valley between them. She felt the fire from his hands everywhere at once. Her thighs, hips, ribs. When he reached her lips, she opened for him, loving the way he kissed her and the possessive way he held her.
Lordy, she had it bad.
“Mmm…” he murmured against her lips.
He pulled back a fraction of an inch, slaying her with the heat in his eyes. “Now, about that tongue thing…”
Chapter Five
Ordinarily the thought of what a typical Monday in Eden’s studio entailed would put a serious kibosh on any remaining weekend happiness. This client would demand that, that client—having had the last two days to really study the proofs she sent over, thanks so much for being prompt—would bitch about this. Not so today. As she breezed through the front doors of her graphic arts studio, she knew it was going to be a day unlike any other.
Her assistant Macy glanced from her computer and grinned. With her coal-black hair d
one up in a spiky punk-do, she looked the epitome of young and reckless. “Looks like someone had a good weekend.”
Eden returned the grin as she flipped through the morning mail. “I did. And for the record, I consider good to be a complete understatement.”
Macy spun from her computer monitor. “Do tell.”
Tapping an unopened envelope against her chin, Eden said, “Let’s just say things are looking up—in more ways than one.” She headed to her office. “Oh, by the way,” she casually threw over her shoulder, “set up a new account in the books. For Blackguard.”
Macy’s scream followed her into the small room. “Blackguard? Oh my God! How? When?”
Eden rounded her desk and eased into the well-worn leather chair behind it as Macy bolted through the doorway in a flash of black leather and hot pink lace. “Saturday night, at Ava’s birthday party.”
Macy plopped into the chair opposite Eden. “I just knew the planets were aligned right this weekend! Don’t keep me in suspense. Spill it, tell me everything.”
How could she without sounding even giddier than Macy was already acting? “Nothing’s signed, nothing’s official yet. I…I can’t really explain it.”
“Try, please! You met them? You met the band?”
“I met the band,” she answered, doing her damnedest to sound professional despite the flutters in her stomach. She reached across the desk to power up her computer.
“All of them?”
Eden laughed. “No, not all of them. Just Shane and Brett.”
Macy flopped back in the chair. “I can’t believe it. Finally. You finally met with Shane Tolan and Brett O’Neal. So how was it? What are they like? How’d you pitch your ideas?”
Damn, loaded questions, all of them. “Well, I really just skimmed over my ideas,” she replied, being evasive while struggling to keep a blush from coloring her cheeks.
After she’d shown Shane the pieces on her laptop, they’d ended up talking further about her thoughts for the band’s next cover. Their ideas, as it turned out, were actually quite similar. In between more kisses, caresses and another round of amazing sex, she believed she had a fairly good grasp of what he wanted, of what it was that made Shane Tolan tick. Both professionally as well as personally.
Especially personally, she thought, getting warm all over again remembering the way his body tightened as she took him in her mouth, the deep groans rising from inside his chest, the way he held her hair back in a clenched fist so he could watch her…
“Hello? Earth to Eden.” Macy’s chuckle brought her back to the here and now. “What did they say?”
Eden cleared her throat and attempted to calm her now hammering heart, feeling a bit awkward that she’d been caught so blatantly daydreaming. “I was, um, able to show Shane a couple things on my laptop, which he really liked. Actually, he’s due here in a couple hours to look over the specifics I have started for their new CD. Barring any issues the other band members may have, I’d say we’re a go for this project.”
Macy beamed. “This is just amazing. Is Brett coming with him?”
Well, seemed as though Eden wasn’t the only woman she knew with a thing for rockers. “Sorry to disappoint, but my meeting is with Shane.” A little meeting, a little lunch… Then a whole lot of one-on-one time. Eden couldn’t wait. She smiled over at the crestfallen Macy. “Maybe I can see if we can set something up for later in the week, bring in the whole band.”
Macy grinned before feigning interest in her matching neon-pink fingernails. “Yeah, that’s a great idea. We always do our best work with the clients we know personally. Right?”
They both laughed at the unspoken meaning. Eden’s fun screeched to a halt, however, the moment she opened her email program. There had to be at least twenty emails from Ava, the first one sent at six that morning, the remainder delivered at ten-minute intervals after that.
“What the…” She clicked on the first one to open it.
Eden! Where are you? Why aren’t you answering your phone? Do not do or say anything until I talk to you! Call me.
Eden pulled her cell phone from her purse and checked the display. Dead. Figures. In the midst of her wild weekend, she’d forgotten to charge it. She clicked on the next email and found more of the same. What on earth had Ava so desperate to talk to her?
“Have you taken the phone off the answering service yet this morning?” she asked Macy.
“No, not yet. I started right in on the graphics for the new compilation CD when I got here. Sorry, it completely slipped my mind.”
About to ask Macy to check with the answering service now, she froze when a new email from a rival at a leading art studio popped into her inbox. Panic replaced curiosity as she read it, the snarkiness of each word coming through as if they’d been spoken out loud.
Well, this is certainly one way to win a client. Beautifully played, wonderfully down and dirty, Eden. Hope it all works out for you. T.K.
Eden stared at the blue website link below the message. All the happiness she’d felt, the way her life had somehow evened out over the weekend, shattered into oblivion once she clicked on the underlined words.
A sleazy paparazzi-hungry gossip website opened in a new window. At the top—in full-on night-vision-green glory—was a picture of her and Shane. They were both naked, with her leg draped over his arm and her head tossed back on the cushion of the chaise lounge. The angle of his biceps covered her breast and the side of his hip hid the rest of her, but it was very obvious what they were doing.
Blood rushed from her head as rage rose in her throat. The noise that night, that quiet rustle in the leaves at the edge of the tree line she’d heard. It had been a fucking photographer. “God, no.”
“Eden?”
Macy’s voice sounded a million miles away as Eden helplessly stared at the picture. Underneath were thumbnails for a half-dozen other shots. She clicked each one in turn, reading captions of how Hot Rocker Shane Tolan of Blackguard and graphic artist Eden Foster melted this photographer’s lens with a liaison so hot it would make even the calmest night creature blush.
Macy rushed behind her and peered at the monitor from over her shoulder. “Oh shit,” she whispered.
Stunned, shocked—mortified—Eden forced the pointer of the mouse over the last image and clicked. Shane’s eyes glowed an eerie green from looking in the direction of the camera. Her thigh suddenly cramped where his fingers dug into her flesh in the picture, her shoulder ached where his teeth had latched onto her skin. The description under the photo simply read, “Smile for the camera, Shane.”
“Yeah,” she blew out. “Oh shit is right.”
—
Thank God Eden could count on Macy. She squeezed Eden’s shoulder, said, “I’ll go run interference,” and headed back out to the main office, closing the door gently as she left.
Eden couldn’t take her eyes off the monitor. The nasty e-mail message combined with the telling pictures said it all—the credibility she struggled for so many years to build just burst into a fireball in her face. Everything she’d worked so hard to accomplish, every personal sacrifice she’d ever made would be scattered to the four winds like the proverbial ashes they now were.
The first time I give up control, let loose and live a little for myself, and look what happens.
The pinpoint glow of Shane’s eyes in that last picture niggled at the back of her mind. She wanted to believe he’d never willingly set her up for something shady like this, but the way he stared in the direction of the camera had unwelcome doubts circling the edges of her thoughts.
After all, there was no such thing as bad publicity, right?
As she figured would happen, the phone lines rang off the hook the second Macy took them off the answering service. All three lit up simultaneously, and Eden cradled her forehead in her hands as Macy’s muffled pat responses to the callers drifted through the closed door.
“Ms. Foster has no comment at this time.”
“I’m so
rry, no statement will be made.”
“Ms. Foster is not taking calls.”
After twenty or so identical responses, Eden’s head snapped up when Macy’s tone changed. “Mr. Tolan? Let me put you on hold. Yes, yes…just a moment, please.”
Macy knocked softly, cracked open the door and poked her head in. “Eden, it’s him. Do you want me to put the call through?”
Oh hell, did she?
Through all the misgivings firing in her brain, the answer came swiftly enough. She nodded to Macy, who turned and went back to her desk.
Eden steeled herself and picked up the receiver on the first ring.
“Eden? Are you okay?” A tinge of anger edged Shane’s voice. “Tell me these bastards haven’t been hounding you all morning.”
“I’m fine. A bit shocked, but I’m all right.”
A deep breath sounded over the line. “Hell, baby. I’m sorry. So damn sorry. Brett and I were so careful when we drove out there, I was absolutely certain the car hadn’t been followed. But every now and again one of these jerk-offs sneaks in under our radar. It’s my fault you got caught in the middle of this. I should’ve been more careful, protected you from the possibility.”
The honest sincerity in his tone chipped away at the doubts in her mind. She mimicked his weary breath, knowing in her heart he hadn’t purposely sold her out.
“No one can blame you for wanting to live a relatively normal life, Shane. I don’t hold you responsible. We both made the decision to be outside.”
His voice took a sultry turn. “Current circumstances aside, it was the best decision I ever made.” He paused and she heard a door closing on his end. “I want you again, Eden. I’ve thought of little else since you went home last night. Come to my place. We’ll lay low for a while, work on the cover for the CD—while we work on each other.”
God, how she’d love to. She got a heated rush just from thinking about it. But then she peered toward her computer with the email from her rival open in one window, the website with the pictures open in another.
Chasing Eden Page 4
