Next Song I Sing (NEXT TIME AROUND)

by McDonald, Donna

  “Okay,” she whispered softly, hanging up the phone.

  Then she sank to the bed on very weak legs, wondering how on earth her life had changed so drastically in just four days.

  Chapter 14

  At five minutes before seven, Chloe stood outside the door of Jasper’s suite, taking deep breaths and reassuring herself that she wouldn’t regret what was about to happen. Finally, she lifted her hand and knocked because her nervousness wasn’t going to get any better waiting in the hall.

  The door opened in a few seconds. It was obvious Jasper had been waiting anxiously for her. Instead of soothing her, the knowledge made her anxiety worse.

  “Hi,” Jasper said, taking in the long teal dress that scooped low at the neck and gathered at the side of her waist. It showed off every curve he had come to appreciate in the short time he’d known her. The split that ran up one leg was nice too.

  He’d have to remember not to rip her dress reaching under it. He had no doubts he’d be doing at least that before the night was over.

  “Come in, Chloe. I’ve been waiting for you.”

  Chloe nodded at his invitation and swallowed around the nervous lump in her throat as she walked into the room. She smelled Jasper’s cologne as she passed by, and it seemed to be everywhere she walked. It made her want to bypass the sitting area and head straight for the adjoining room that she would bet money had a king size bed in it.

  Something of what she was thinking must have shown on her face because Jasper came straight to her and pulled her into his arms.

  “I know this is too fast, but I can’t seem to slow down where you’re concerned,” he said, touching his mouth to hers, feeling her glossy lipstick slide across his lips.

  The thought of having her mark him made him dizzy with lust. The thought of kissing it off her mouth until her lips were as naked as he intended to make the rest of her made contemplating the act even worse. He would probably go on some crazy rampage soon if he didn’t indulge the urge.

  “Kiss me, Chloe. I’ve missed you all afternoon,” Jasper said.

  Chloe tossed the small purse she carried on a nearby couch and wrapped her arms around him. Her mouth opened to his, her hands found their way into his hair, and when she pulled away she saw he wasn’t wearing a tie. Groaning as his hands cupped her breasts again, she kissed his neck and the opening of his shirt.

  “Wait—I’m getting lipstick all over your expensive shirt,” Chloe said, groaning in dismay instead of lust this time.

  “I’ll probably save it as a souvenir,” Jasper said in voice that was husky with arousal. “Please don’t stop kissing me.”

  His hoarse plea made her legs weak, and Chloe groaned against his collarbone.

  “Jasper, I—oh screw it, I want you too,” she said hoarsely, wrapping herself around him, pouring her whole self into exploring his mouth when she went back to it.

  Then she kissed his neck and down his chest as she happily undid the first few buttons of his shirt. They were weaving and both dizzy with longing when they heard the insistent knocking at the door and broke apart.

  “It’s a bit earlier than I requested, but I think that’s probably our dinner,” Jasper said sadly, bending his forehead to hers.

  “Dinner?” Chloe asked, having totally forgotten she had come for any other reason than to be alone with him and kiss him all she wanted.

  “Yes, dinner wasn’t just a ruse to get you into bed. I really did have intentions of feeding you,” Jasper teased, rubbing his forehead playfully against hers.

  The insistent knocking sounded again. Jasper swore and moved his head to Chloe’s shoulder, burying his face against her throat and groaning loudly.

  Laughing at his reluctance to leave her to answer the knocking, Chloe used both hands to run them through Jasper’s hair while he was burrowed into her neck. He was ruffled and wild looking when he finally raised his head.

  The wild hair matched his eyes, Chloe thought. She couldn’t wait to make Jasper even wilder. She intended to strip every smidgen of prim and proper from the man.

  “Better answer it before your staff alerts Max or Sam,” Chloe told him, reaching out to wipe a smear of red away from the corner of his mouth. “You’re a mess though. I’ll try to remember to omit the lipstick next time I come to seduce you.”

  Jasper stepped back, his gaze still locked on hers, and then finally pivoted and stomped to the door, listening to Chloe’s giggling laughter.

  He pulled the door open to find Rayonna’s friend Lea standing there in a light blue designer gown that was practically transparent. She was beaming at him initially, but her triumphant smile faded little by little as she took in his appearance.

  Not that he cared a flip, but Jasper could only imagine how he looked to Lea with Chloe’s red lipstick all over him. All he could think was that if the woman hadn’t shown up, he might have looked even worse in a few more minutes. He might have lipstick marks in other more interesting places. He hadn’t had enough time to kiss all of it off Chloe’s mouth yet.

  “I came to see if you were free for dinner,” Lea said, putting her cheerful face in place, despite the awkwardness. “I can see I’ve surprised you at an inopportune time, Jasper. Perhaps another day?”

  Before he could tell her no and never, Jasper felt Chloe at his back.

  “Is that our dinner, Jasper?” she asked, her tone dry with irony. She’d heard the soft female voice asking him out and come to see for herself.

  “No—not dinner,” Jasper said, struggling to keep his voice soft. “It’s a misguided friend of my ex-wife’s.”

  “Really? Whatever does she want?” Chloe asked wickedly, knowing full damn well what the woman was wanting. She walked around Jasper’s arm and made herself smile at the beautiful blonde standing there in a mostly see-through dress. Chloe mentally swore even as she smiled. “Oh, hello.”

  “Hello,” Lea said in return, taking in the woman’s off-the-rack dress that flattered her outrageously and the dazed look of arousal on her face. It was a perfect match for Jasper’s. “I can see now I’m interrupting your evening.”

  “Yes, you certainly are,” Jasper said harshly. “So go away and don’t come back.”

  Chloe smacked his arm lightly. “No need to be mean.”

  She looked at the beautiful woman, consigning her to hell.

  “I just have to ask this. What kind of friend would ask you to seduce her ex-husband just to keep some other woman away from him?”

  “A not-so-very-smart friend who hasn’t got a clue?” Lea suggested with a guilt-free smile, for some reason liking the outrageous woman’s chutzpah.

  “If I was that friend of yours, I think it would be awfully hard to share my man with a woman as equally beautiful as I was. I mean, what if you didn’t want to give the man back afterwards? I seriously don’t get her thinking on this,” Chloe offered, wrapping herself around Jasper’s arm and leaning her breast against it. She tried to put a confused look on her face, instead of an angry, appalled one.

  The beautiful, and much younger, woman looked surprised, but eventually smiled even more brilliantly, demonstrating her suitability for having been selected for what she did for a living. If she had been in a commercial, the woman could have sold anyone anything, Chloe thought, but a single glance at Jasper’s still angry face said he was definitely not interested in buying. Since that was the only thing Chloe truly cared about, there was no use standing there in a face-off comparing assets.

  So after a lifetime of being nice, she found herself smiling back and shrugging instead of spitting venom and making threats like Taylor would have or getting in the woman’s face with a fiery lecture like the new, improved Emma would have. Chloe was never going to be in the woman’s league when it came to looks, but she was lucky in her friends. She found herself feeling sorry for the twisted friendship the model obviously had with Jasper’s ex.

  “Question—am I supposed to be the man in your example?” Jasper asked sharply, turning to loo
k at Chloe.

  “Of course you are, darling,” Chloe said, tilting her smiling face to him as she tried her best to match haughty tone for haughty tone.

  “Then don’t I get to have a say about this ludicrous situation?” Jasper asked, his tone edged with impatience.

  Chloe gave in to her urge to laugh. Evidently, Jasper was at his snootiest when pissed. She was amused more at herself than him for liking it so much.

  “You’re wearing more of my lipstick than I am, your hair is standing on end, and your shirt is half unbuttoned,” Chloe told him calmly, rubbing his arm. “Your appearance tells the story of where your loyalties lie at the moment. I—on the other hand—am still wearing all my clothes.”

  “Which I assure you would not be the case if you hadn’t made me answer the damn door,” Jasper said testily.

  To his mortification, both women laughed at his heated comment. After that, Jasper had no idea what to say next.

  Then to his further consternation, the service elevator chose that moment to open and out rolled their actual dinner. Jasper glared at the silver cart, irritated beyond reason that his evening alone with Chloe had been ruined by his ex-wife. There was barely enough fury left over to blame Lea personally for arriving nearly nude at his door.

  “Is everything okay, Mr. Wade? Did I come at the wrong time?” the server asked, seeing his employer’s frown.

  “No. Your timing is perfect,” Jasper said quietly, sighing and putting his hands in his pockets. “Bring it inside. Chloe, let the man pass by.”

  Chloe stepped out into the hallway with the nearly nude model while Jasper and dinner disappeared into his room.

  “This is like a scene from a movie,” Lea said in a quiet conspiratorial whisper, the giggle escaping after Jasper went inside. “My name is Lea. Sorry we’re meeting under these circumstances. Paris show or not, I’m just going to apologize profusely for this farce and wish you a good evening. Rayonna is a friend, but not that good of one. I thought Jasper was going to take my head off when he saw me.”

  “I thought the same thing when I made him answer the door,” Chloe said, joking to cover the urge she had to sigh over how beautiful and alluring the woman was the closer she got to her. They were of similar heights in their shoes, but Chloe still felt like a bull moose standing next to a gazelle.

  To her shock, Lea reached out and took hold of her arm. “Your name is Chloe, right? I want share something with you, Chloe. My sister looks like you and is ten times happier in her life because she doesn’t eat, dress, and spend every waking moment looking in a mirror and checking the illusion she works so hard at creating. I envy you more than you could ever possibly envy me because you have a man to look at you like Jasper is tonight. And that dress looks great, in case you were wondering. Please consider forgiving me,” Lea said, turning to walk away.

  Then she stopped and turned back as the server exited the room.

  “By the way, your voice is absolutely amazing. You should think about singing professionally. I hope I get to hear you sing again sometime,” Lea said with smile, her voice bright and cheerful.

  Chloe automatically lifted a hand to wave, chalking up her unbelievable gesture to still being in shock. She had no angry words to yell at the model’s elegant back as Lea glided over the carpet to the elevators, smiling and causing the server to stumble as he held the door for her.

  Had the woman actually complimented her? The situation was too surreal for Chloe to even believe it had happened, but it had.

  Sighing, she stepped back inside Jasper’s room.

  Chapter 15

  When she walked back to the sitting area, she saw Jasper opening a bottle of champagne.

  “You said no alcohol, but I had them send a bottle up in case of a romantic emergency,” he said dryly. “I think having Lea show up all but nude at my door while I’m trying to seduce you qualifies. Don’t you? Drink?”

  He held out a full to the brim champagne flute. Chloe took the glass and sat on the couch, moving her discarded purse to an end table.

  “I don’t get it,” Chloe said, her voice and tone serious. “I don’t understand your ex-wife’s motivation for sending a friend to seduce you, or that woman’s motivation for showing up. It seems counter-intuitive to try and keep you by loaning you out. Maybe I’ve led a very sheltered life up to now. I can’t see willingly sharing a man I wanted with another woman. I hated when my husband came back to me from other women. I never got over how awful that made me feel. It’s emotionally devastating.”

  Jasper walked to the couch and sank down beside Chloe. He drank half his champagne before speaking.

  “Not to excuse her, but given my history in the last ten or fifteen years, I can see why Rayonna thought I might be interested in someone like Lea. My ex-wife is not caring enough about my real needs to be able to see how wrong she is. Sam and Max are the only ones who know that you’re much more my type than a woman like that will ever be—I mean, physically.”

  When Chloe looked at him kindly, but also in total disbelief, Jasper felt all the actions of his life culminate in his stark inability to convince such an incredibly sexy woman of the truth of what he was saying.

  Chloe Zanders was the only woman he’d been sincerely attracted to in years, but Jasper knew that most of the world—hell, most men—would not have passed up Lea either. She was beautiful in the way art was beautiful. For him, dating Rayonna and the clones before her had been simply a matter of making do with what was most available. This was especially the case because he had spent years and years denying himself what he wanted most, which was a real woman with the kind of beauty that warmed you with a look.

  Jasper got up and paced to windows that overlooked the pool and grounds, complete with a nine-hole golf course and two spa buildings with a private walkway down to a secluded beach near the cliffs. Building the hotel had been relatively easy, and seeing to its care seemed second nature to him.

  It was the rest of his life that he had never really been good at fixing.

  He figured what Chloe thought about him now was true to some degree, but it wasn’t the whole truth. Until he’d met her, he hadn’t really known it either.

  “It’s true that I’ve dated models, business women, professional athletes, and even a princess. They all looked just like Lea—just like Rayonna for that matter,” Jasper said carefully. “My parents taught me the importance of seeing and being seen, and I bought into it when I started my first hotel and needed to make sure it took off. Being seen with famous, beautiful women can be quite a reputation maker. Rayonna was the first one I ever married though.”

  When she had first come back into the room from the hall, Chloe had hoped to maybe laugh off what had happened, despite her shock over it. One look at Jasper’s tortured expression as he confessed was all it took for Chloe to realize his reaction to Lea’s appearance was something far more complicated.

  The thin, beautiful woman at the door was a normal part of life for Jasper Wade, and the situation might happen again if she was with Jasper for any length of time. Chloe couldn’t see herself handling the pressure of women like Lea constantly putting the moves on Jasper at every turn. She simply wasn’t equipped to deal with that level of female competition.

  Plus, her divorce was hard evidence that she hadn’t been successful in keeping her ex-husband’s interest when he’d gotten bored. There wasn’t a chance in hell she could keep a man who was used to dating models interested for long, even if she believed Jasper Wade was temporarily enamored of her.

  “I guess your wife was special then. Most men probably think that at some point about the woman they marry,” Chloe suggested, breaking the long silence and sipping her champagne for something to do because the seduction mood had definitely slipped away for her.

  “If you’re asking if I loved my wife when we married, the answer I would give you now is a firm no. The answer I would have given you eight years ago when I married her would have been yes. It’s never that easy to
figure out. Two years ago, my wife had an open affair, which became very public. I didn’t even care. There had been other men before that one, even though I had been faithful to her. I continued to sleep with her after we divorced because I didn’t want to move on to another clone of her. Moving on to another woman like her seemed more futile than my failed marriage,” Jasper said.

  Chloe sipped, considered, and sipped some more.

  “So are you doggedly pursuing me just to be with someone outside your norm? Am I just someone different?” she asked.

  Jasper closed his eyes. There were no good words to explain his dishonesty with himself. How could Chloe believe him? Time alone with him might show her how he felt about her, providing he ever got her into bed after tonight.

  “You’re the woman I wished for when I was making love to the other women in my life and feeling dissatisfied. I just never found you until last Friday. I swear to God that’s not just a line to get you into bed,” Jasper said, coming over to sit beside her on the couch again. “If you ever let me touch you, I promise you will come to believe me when I say I want you. You are the most alluring woman I’ve ever met.”

  Chloe decided that maybe she was more desperate than she realized or maybe she just wanted to believe she could inspire a man to want her more than he wanted some beautiful, thin model. Her sigh was heavy and laden with all kinds of doubts, but as she searched Jasper’s face, the sincerity there was so appealing. Maybe—like Aaron—he wouldn’t always be faithful either, but God help her, she believed Jasper meant what he was telling her tonight.

  She held out her empty champagne glass. “Hit me again. Believing you is going to be easier when I’m less sober. You’re not the only one with a bad history.”

  Jasper sighed and took her glass. He went to the small table containing the champagne, refilled her glass, and brought it back to her.

  Chloe took a few sips for courage. The champagne bubbles made her head fuzzy, which was the perfect condition to loosen her tongue enough to be honest with him.