Wandering over to the door, I heard Lennox’s voice. “He’s not in there. He must have gone down already.” Remembering we had a press conference in the hotel conference room, I pulled open the door to see Len and Mick walking down the hallway.
“Wait up guys, I fell asleep.”
During the conference there were the usual questions, smiles, flirty jokes with female reporters, and I almost yawned, because I was so tired of the same-shit-different-city routine that followed us everywhere we went. In fact, as I looked at the faces in the room, I figured it must be the same for them. There were at least eight reporters I recognized as regulars from all the conferences we had.
Fifteen minutes later, we were heading for the elevators and back to our hotel rooms for a quick shower, before going to The Staples Center. When Charlotte was making the arrangements she booked Chloe and her guests into four rooms in the Westin- Bonaventure in LA.
Initially, I freaked out about that. Putting her in a hotel that was a different one from us… how the hell was I supposed to get close to her, if she was somewhere else? Charlotte’s reasoning was that prize winners never stayed at the same hotel as the band. It was bad protocol and she should know, she’s been doing that stuff for us for almost seven years.
Clever girl put them up at the Westin-Bonaventure because it was right next to the airport. If I was headed in the direction of the airport, that hotel was the last place they would think I was going. So I reeled my neck in and mumbled a “thanks,” to her.
Standing in the shower, I had a familiar feeling in the pit of my stomach and there was only one other time where I had experienced it, and it was that split second before we went onstage. I guessed it was nerves, because there was this odd wired feeling going on inside me as well.
Unusual feelings invaded my body. As soon as we got to the venue, we were told there were twenty eight competition winners. By talking to Charlotte, the production and promotion teams, and of course the band, I found we had twenty four winners before the gig this time. Four winners afterwards: Chloe and her three friends.
I had eaten a selection of meats, cheeses and fruit on the plane, I resisted eating more because the prize promised dinner for Chloe and her three friends and if nothing else I’d enjoy dinner.
At the winners’ meet and greet, there were a few good guys who were really fans of what we did and had followed us all through our musical transition from amateur to professional musicians. Spending forty minutes with them before the gig calmed my nerves.
Disappointed faces and forced smiles surrounded us as we ended the session, and they were led out. As soon as they disappeared I gargled with some water, and then began to warm my voice, getting ready for the gig. Less than twenty minutes since they left we were walking through the maze of corridors again to the stage and an unfamiliar feeling of apprehension rose again.
As Mick struck the first chord and the lights beat down on us onstage, I was conscious that Chloe had me at a disadvantage again. I was in full view of everyone and she was out there being anonymous, able to regard me and free to judge.
The moment I came face to face with her would be different. Would I be able to hide my feelings of the initial impact of seeing her again? And what would that reaction be?
That gig was different to any I had done before. Sure, I was still Gibson Barclay the showman. But there was no female interaction other than engaging the crowd to sing along and me jumping around on stage I knew that when the show was over I would have to suppress the adrenaline rush that I always got towards the end of the show.
Somehow that made me at my most vulnerable to fuck up, because all I wanted at that point was to have sex. Performing was like foreplay to me, and because of my job, there was always someone there willing to help me out with that last part.
Scanning the audience in the section where I knew she would be, all I could see initially was a sea of heads, but as I started to sing “Inches from Paradise” a blue spotlight fell on the stage, and somehow my eyes roamed to the edge of the light. Part of the spotlight fell on the closest section of the audience, and there she was.
Those unforgettable, huge, inky blue eyes were staring up at me and when mine made contact with hers, Chloe dropped her gaze to the floor. I wondered why she still didn’t understand how hot she was. Dressed perfectly in her blue jeans and amber tight fitting top that showed her mid-rift, she had finished her rock- chic look off with a tiny brown leather bomber jacket.
Staring up at the stage, Chloe had a serious look on her face, listening intently to the song I was singing. So, without her really knowing, I focused completely on her as I sang every word I’d written about that one moment we had shared all those years ago, and how she had made me feel when she looked into my eyes.
Reaching into her jacket she took out her cell and began taking pictures of me. And fuck, if I hadn’t wanted to take mine out and capture her image, to replace the one that had been playing on a loop in my mind.
For the rest of the gig I tried not to keep looking at her and focus on entertaining the masses. Crowds crushed at the edge of the stage but all the time, Chloe remained in her seat, hand fanning through her hair, and I wondered what the hell she was thinking. Yeah…I was still looking at her.
A guy standing next to her leaned in and started speaking to her. Chloe turned to look at him. Flashing a wide smile, she nodded and accepted the hand he held out for her. Together they began weaving through the crowd towards the exit at the back. Where was she going? I knew she wouldn’t be leaving but I couldn’t make sense of what was going on. Then it clicked.
Fuck! Out of left wing, I was sucker punched. For all my planning, the one thing I never expected her to do was to bring a guy with her. When we had talked on the phone, she was pretty clear that there was no guy. Did she lie about that? Hell, maybe there was a lot more going on with her than she was able to share with me. I was a stranger, after all.
Panicking, I stared at the seating, marking it all out in my head. There were four girls in a row, the empty seats of her and the guy she was with, and one guy on the end of the row. I concentrated so hard on trying to figure out who was with whom, that I almost missed my cue to sing the next song intro.
Luckily singing was on auto-pilot, because I was too busy formulating a plan in my head for how the hell I was going to deal with her being in front of me and her guy standing next to her. My plan was going to shit. Then it came to me: I was just going to have to use the guys in the band as wingmen to keep her and her boyfriend apart so that I could at the very least talk to her.
As soon as the encore was done, I was off the stage and downstairs to the dressing room like a blue assed fly. Adrenaline was coursing through me and I knew what that meant. Impulse, and I had to dig deep to fight the horny feelings that the adrenaline rush and being on stage gave me.
Behaving appropriately wasn’t so much of an issue for me these days, but when I really got something into my head, it was pretty difficult to reason it back out without having a will of iron. What I wasn’t sure of was, after five years of fantasizing about Chloe, whether all the willpower in the world was going to be enough to stop me from fucking it up in her presence.
Lack of supervision as a teenager had made me an obstinate bastard during the first few years on the road, but I was in a different place altogether now and I had learned to control my petulant ways for the most part.
Taking a shower after the gig I was interrupted when Lennox opened the shower door. “What the fuck was that about, Gib? You almost blew the whole fucking gig tonight. Where the hell were you? Two words reversed in one bridge and a whole line missing from another song? If having that girl in the crowd has that effect on you, better you fuck and forget her tonight because I don’t want to be out there in amongst that shit again, hear me?”
Giving Lennox a solid stare, I waited until he showed signs of being unnerved, then pushed him back and closed the shower door, calling after him, “Seems I can’t even get c
leaned up without one of you fuckers trying to get into the shower to ride my ass.”
Wrapping a towel around my hips, I padded barefoot back to the dressing room to pick up my stuff and pull on my clothes. Someone had hung them neatly on the back of the door and I hadn’t even been able to choose what I wanted to wear.
Thankfully it was just some jeans and an open neck shirt with the sleeves rolled up. As I put my hand in the sleeve I mused who the hell thought to roll my sleeves up for me? Obviously, it was some anal image nut or someone with too much time on their hands.
Buttoning my black and white checked shirt, I wandered back into the communal space in the dressing room to where the others were. I was running my fingers through my hair when I became conscious of Tori, the keyboard player watching me intently. “Keep your fucking eyes to yourself, Tori. There’s nothing here for you to see, got it?”
Mick snickered and took a swig from the dark green beer bottle he was holding before lowering it and narrowing his eyes as he regarded her, “Honey, I don’t mind if you want to objectify me. I’m far better looking and a much hotter lay than Gibson. I hear his dick has been rubbed so much it’s worn smooth.”
Raucous laughter got louder, as Lennox and Simon cracked up in the far side of the dressing room, then Len saw that I wasn’t seeing the funny side of Tori leering at me and dropped his smile. Clearing his throat, he wandered over and put a foot up to rest on the edge of the chair I was sitting on and addressed everyone.
“Right, y’all, this is an important event for our baby tonight, is that right, Gibson?” Suddenly I felt some griping in my stomach. Maybe that’s why I was so frustrated and irritable these past few days. It was as if all of that was due to a culmination of pent up feelings that I really couldn’t fathom, and nerves too if I’m honest, because she would finally be face to face with me and I’d be putting a ghost to rest.
Everyone’s eyes were on me, waiting for me to say what I wanted about what was about to happen. “Guys, I know you all think I’m pulling some crazy stunt, doing this. Let me tell you all, as I stand here in front of you, that today is the most important meet and greet any of us, as a band, will ever have.” Tori was picking imaginary lint off her black velvet pants and pretending she wasn’t listening.
“Just want to reach out to you here, because I’m sticking my neck out and asking for your support with this, ‘cause I have a feeling I’m really going to need it. This chick doesn’t know who I am anymore. However, we were going to enjoy entertaining a group of four girls, but the reason I was off my game was because I never figured she’d bring a guy along.”
Lennox gave me a look of distaste and I knew exactly how he felt. It left a sour taste in my mouth as well. I figured that they could at least manage her time with him while I was around. We may have bitched and fought like dogs sometimes, but the one thing we did amazingly well, other than play together, was have each other’s backs. Staring at Tori’s attitude gave me another worry to think about.
CHAPTER 19 - HUH
Gibson
Hollow sounds came from the cheap paneled door as someone knocked and Simon made a loud grunting noise as he leaned over and sprung the door handle down, rocking back on the stool he was sitting on. The white paneled door crept open and red hair with flecks of blonde appeared, followed by a nerdy looking guy’s head. “All your guests are waiting in the green room when you’re ready.”
Slight tremors began to surface from deep inside my body and radiated to my arms and legs. It was a weird sensation. Sitting there, I thought about what I had done. It was almost as bad as stalking. Horrible thoughts about her staring at me in disgust all those years ago began to shake my confidence. What the hell was I thinking about, trying to pull something like this off?
Funny thing, nerves. I had never suffered with them before that night. However, the main issue I was fighting was how she would react to me. I was sure that as soon as I spoke the game would be up, and then another question entered my head. If she did recognize me, how would she react after how we’d spoken to each other, and what we had shared the last time we spoke.
Fighting a panic inside and the unfamiliar feelings of insecurity engulfing me, I took a final swig of the can of soda I’d been drinking, crushed the can and tossed it at the trash can. Then there I was, headed towards the green room about to meet her and say hi like I had no idea who she was.
Snickering, I shook my head at that thought, because Lennox probably thought just talking to a girl was beyond my capability. Until recently, it was.
Normally, meet and greets were second nature, yet the feeling inside me was like the first day of high school. I’d checked myself out in the mirror and was conscious of what I was wearing, and how I was behaving.
Walking toward the meeting room, there was a feeling of despair instead of excitement. It could go either way and at that point, I didn’t dare think about her reacting negatively to me. Lennox slapped my shoulder and the rest of the band walked behind us as we made our way to where everyone was waiting.
With every inch the door opened, I could see more into the room. In my mind the door opened painstakingly slowly, yet all of a sudden there she was. Chloe. Stunningly beautiful to look at, she was sitting on the far side of a huge black leather sofa; same guy sitting next to her, with his arm stretched along the back of her head.
Familiar looking body language with his body turned slightly towards her in an almost intimate way, but not. I wondered who he was to her. It was hard to read how close they were.
A tall dark haired girl, who looked vaguely familiar, perched on the arm of the sofa next to her, and another guy stood facing all of them. Heads turned and all eyes turned in the direction of us as we strode further into the room.
At first I tried not to meet her eyes, but when I found the nerve to look at her, hers were trained on her lap. Wondering what that meant, I moved closer, glad in a way that she wasn’t looking at me, because it gave me the opportunity to peruse her without embarrassing her.
Moving closer, I found that Chloe was even more beautiful than she had been at eighteen. No doubt about it, she had grown into her own skin and had developed from the gorgeous young girl that she had been, into a very beautiful woman.
Slightly more curvaceous, delicate facial features with those luscious lips, and huge almond shaped inky blue eyes, Chloe had no make-up on whatsoever and her natural flawless beauty almost overwhelmed me.
Throughout my seven years on the road, I had come across many beautiful girls, some beyond my expectations, but no one had ever had this effect on me in the way Chloe had. There was no way to explain what it was that got to me. She was amazing to look at but that wasn’t it, it was a feeling that was way different from any other feeling I’d ever known, and after all that time, it had never left me since the last time I saw her.
Charlotte began to speak and with her first words, Chloe looked up and our eyes locked instantly, shocking me. Because the one thing I never expected to see was a sadness that made me so fucking mad, I couldn’t find my voice.
What the hell was going on with her? Had she already realized that the guy on the phone was me after hearing me on stage? What had I done to her?
Introducing us, Charlotte chatted easily and Len, Mick and Simon shook hands with each of them. Len spoke to Chloe and the smile she gave him melted my heart. Those beautiful eyes lit up and suddenly she was the girl that had captivated my thoughts for years.
Just watching her smile made the corners of my mouth curl up as well and her innocent charm captivated me even further. Clearing his throat, I heard Lennox break into my trance. “So, Gib, are you going to stand there and stare or are you going to welcome our guests, dude?”
Instantly showman Gibson took over. “Jeez, Len– can’t a guy stare at a beautiful woman in peace?” As soon as I said it, I was kicking my own ass because that was the last thing I wanted her to take away from this trip. Me, objectifying her and getting pleasure from doing it, even if th
at was partly true.
Brushing over my comment I began shaking hands enthusiastically until I came to the dude who was with Chloe. “And you are the winner’s boyfriend, Gavin, right?”
Gavin’s eyes flicked to Chloe’s and hers to his. Their transferring glances were awkward and she blushed and looked a little flustered, before looking away. “I wish, he said, looking nervously back at Chloe. “No, not her boyfriend unfortunately, just a friend.”
Relief flooded though me. I hadn’t realized how tense I had become during that little interlude until I felt my muscles relax, but now my heart galloped in my chest, because that meant I’d be able to manufacture some time alone with Chloe.
“Ah, your loss is my gain then, Gavin, because that means that you won’t be jealous when I whisk the winner off for her dinner alone this evening.” Smirking, I turned and raised an eyebrow at Charlotte, who gave me a what-the-fuck look, because that wasn’t in the plans for the weekend at all. Turning back, panic and something else I couldn’t put my finger on was written on Chloe’s face.
“Don’t look so frightened honey, I don’t bite…not unless that’s your thing of course, and then maybe I could make an exception in your case.”
Gavin’s arm reached out and pulled Chloe close to him. “It’s okay, honey, he’s just messing.”
Seeing him excuse my behavior made me so pissed, I almost blew it and threw a punch, but Lennox and Mick had me covered. “Come on guys, let’s get some drinks and make ourselves comfortable. We have until late Sunday to party before you go back home again.”
Lennox smirked surreptitiously and slapped his hand heavily on Gavin’s back. At the same time Mick moved in and threw his arm over the girl Ruby’s shoulder. Both started to distract them away from where I was standing. Mick began saying, “Tell me Ruby, I’ve seen you somewhere before. Do we know each other?”
Romance: Gibson's Legacy ( New Adult Contemporary Erotic Romance) (Last Score Book 1) Page 15
