Bought by the Lone Cowboy

by E. Walsh

  She had no idea how he’d feel about her playing his piano, the one instrument in the studio he wouldn’t let anyone touch, and she made sure that she was careful he would never find out.

  Without effort, her fingers found the keys she was looking for and she smiled as they danced across the keyboard, her feet pressing down on the pedals as needed, the sound of the strings vibrating blissful in her ears.

  The chords formed quickly, and soon she had a constant harmony flowing, echoing through the room, begging to be heard.

  When she felt she was ready, Jessica began to sing.

  It was at that moment she felt the entire world around her dissolve into nothing, her music wrapping her inside her own bubble as her voice started soft and low, picking up as she played.

  With her eyes closed, Jessica sang her heart out, the melody emanating from the piano mixing beautifully with her voice.

  Every night she would slip into the rehearsal room, sit at the piano she secretly wished she could own, and sang.

  She practiced her music for hours on end, sometimes deciding on spending the entire night in the studio instead of going home to the nothingness that waited for her there.

  Here she could be herself, lost in her music, alone with her words, her voice rising and falling as her fingers danced across the keys.

  With every thread of being inside her, Jessica Hart sang.

  And it was beautiful.

  * * *

  Chapter Three

  The first thing Sarah Maxwell noticed as she pulled up to the curb and stepped out of her BMW, was the brunette standing outside the studio with a cigarette in her hand.

  She had never seen her before, usually making it a point not to waste her time with smaller studios, but the sight of the woman standing there, one leg bent as she leaned against the wall, blowing smoke out in rings, made her wish she had not been too strict on that particular rule.

  Sarah felt a smile creep across her lips, and quickly pushed it back. She wasn’t known for being pleasant, and it was her reputation that was keeping her from being eaten up alive in this industry.

  She had an image to maintain, after all. She made her way past the brunette, barely glancing at her, and walked into the small studio.

  “Sarah Maxwell,” Simon smiled at her as she walked in. “What a most unpleasant surprise.”

  Sarah scoffed and slumped into the small couch in the control room, immediately crossing her legs and staring hard at the producer.

  “Trust me, I don’t want to be here either,” she said. “If you’d actually do your job, maybe we wouldn’t have to spend unnecessary time together, Simon.”

  Simon swiveled in his chair, eyes fixed on his guest. “Your artist is garbage, sweetheart. She’s as tone deaf as they come, and I’m sick of constantly using auto-tune just so my ears can actually cope with the sounds coming out of her mouth. Now she’s making demands?”

  “She sells millions,” Sarah replied. “I don’t care if she sounds like my grandmother. It’s not her voice people are going for.”

  “Then tell your label to find someone else to produce her crap,” Simon said.

  Sarah forced a smile. “Simon, my label’s already hired you to do a job, and agreed to your ridiculous advance. Quite honestly, you owe us a track.”

  “I gave you a track.”

  “You gave us the beginnings of a track,” Sarah corrected. “Honestly, I told management that outsourcing to small-time producers such as yourself was a waste of time and money, but why would they listen when they could cut costs, right? Right now, you’re asking to get paid what I would get for producing that track.”

  “I think it’s a fair price,” Simon argued through gritted teeth. “And I am not small time.”

  Sarah scoffed again. “Don’t be ridiculous, Simon.”

  It was at that moment that Jessica walked into the studio, apologizing for interrupting as she quickly gathered her things from the control room and escaped. Sarah watched her leave, her eyes taking the girl in from head to toe.

  “Stay away from my assistant, Sarah,” Simon said.

  Sarah winked at him. “Probably the only thing here worth a damn. Now, about that track…”

  “The best I can do is let Jessica there give it a go,” Simon said with a shrug. “What she does, you get. I’m not touching the track.”

  Sarah raised an eyebrow. “You’re willing to let an assistant work on a Simon Hewitt production? You really want her to produce a track that’s going to have your name associated with it?”

  Simon shrugged. “She can’t make the girl sound worse than she already is. Besides, she knows what she’s doing.”

  “Guess I shouldn’t be surprised,” Sarah said, standing up and adjusting her clothes. “I’ll pass by later on tonight and check up on the progress.”

  Simon shrugged. “Whatever makes you happy, darling.”

  * * *

  Chapter Four

  Jessica couldn’t bare it anymore.

  She clicked on the stop button and sat back, frustrated. She had been working on the track Simon had assigned her for the past two hours, and was getting nowhere.

  There was nothing specifically wrong with the music, but the voice; God that voice! Jessica immediately understood what Simon meant when he had wished her luck.

  Still, it was a job, her first shot at being in the producer’s chair, and she wasn’t going to complain now.

  She had tried playing around with the music itself, taking down parts she had felt were a little too loud, only to return them back to the original after realizing Simon had been trying to mask what passed as singing to this girl.

  She thought of adding a few more instruments, and then realized that it would take too much time, more than the label was willing to wait for.

  Jessica sighed heavily and closed her eyes, wracking her brain for ideas; anything would be better than this.

  Her eyes caught sight of the piano, her fingers itching to play, to work on something that made sense, but she knew she couldn’t.

  She fought the urge, knowing that she had to have something to show Simon in the morning or she’d probably lose her job.

  She played the track again, wincing as she listened. Was this what passed for music these days?

  She looked at the piano again, and smiled when an idea came floating in from the back of her head.

  She took out her iPod, copied the track onto it, and shut down the computer.

  Maybe, she thought, just maybe.

  * * *

  Chapter Five

  Sarah was a little surprised when she found the studio’s front door unlocked. Simon had given her Jessica’s number, but apparently she wouldn’t need it.

  Typical, she thought.

  She had never really liked assistants, her experience teaching her that most of the time she just had to do their work all over again.

  She wondered whether the girl was here because she was actually capable of doing anything, or just to cater to Simon’s ego.

  She believed it was the latter.

  Sarah closed the studio door behind her, locking it for good measure, and made her way to the control room.

  It was empty, the computer monitors were turned off, and the lights had been dimmed to a sleepy low.

  She frowned at the thought that the girl had actually gone home and had forgotten to lock up behind her.

  Her eyes caught the light of the mixer, one line on and pulsating green and red.

  Someone was in the rehearsal room.

  Sarah made her way out, angry at the fact that girl was not actually doing her job.

  It wasn’t the track she was worried about; she couldn’t care less about the no-talent artist her label had decided to invest in.

  No, it had more to do with the professionalism of what they did. If you were going to call yourself a producer, you had better damn well be spending your time producing.

  She almost pulled the rehearsal room’s door off its hinges as sh
e stormed in, ready to burst in fury.

  What she heard and saw froze her in place.

  *

  Jessica had her eyes closed as the sound of her playing echoed across the rehearsal room, the ambiance caused by the dim lights mixing beautiful with the music.

  Her iPod was hooked to a small sound system in a corner, the singer’s track playing on acapella, much to the dismay of Sarah’s ears.

  But the piano’s intricacy somehow took her away from that, her ears more focused on the notes and harmony than anything else.

  Sarah smiled to herself, understanding what the girl was trying to do.

  Maybe there’s something in this girl, after all, she thought.

  It was when Jessica started to sing that Sarah fully realized the potential that sat in front of her.

  Her eyes went wide, her ears at full attention as Jessica’s voice rose and fell, singing in harmony with the artist, now fully taking the spotlight away from her.

  Sarah’s smiled widened, her eyes closing as she let the music envelope her, the track now sounding like a ballad she could have on repeat for the rest of her life.

  She leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, watching the pretty brunette as she played and sang, the music both mesmerizing and refreshing.

  Sarah felt something inside her stir, a longing she had rarely felt before, and for a split second realized that she was enamored by the girl playing the piano.

  In the few minutes she listened to her play, she had forgotten the original girl’s voice completely and was completely concentrating on Jessica.

  Her artist wasn’t going to like this one bit.

  When Jessica finished, Sarah began to applaud.

  * * *

  Chapter Six

  Jessica felt incredibly awkward.

  First of all, it was odd being out at a bar when she had work to do. She wasn’t a genuine workaholic, but being Simon’s assistant for so long had taught her two important lessons: don’t ever substitute work, and if you have something to do, get it done as quickly as possible.

  That usually meant she would be free for a new list of tasks, but these were rules that kept her employed.

  On top of that, she was sharing drinks with one of the top producers in the field.

  Sarah Maxwell wasn’t just any producer; she was a legend.

  Her picture had been on the cover of Rolling Stone a number of times, the genius behind at least four of the top ten hits.

  She was one of the people you were allowed to envy, and Jessica idolized her.

  She had almost lost it when Sarah had come in this morning, using the excuse of gathering her things just to get a closer look at her.

  Now, sitting at the bar, smiling and discussing music, Jessica felt like a little girl who had finally met her idol.

  “What I don’t get is why Simon’s got you on the bench,” Sarah was saying. “You’re obviously talented, and your approach to the song is incredible. Have you even told him about it?”

  Jessica shook her head. “Simon doesn’t even know I play his piano when he’s not around,” she said, sipping her drink. “Please don’t tell him. I need this job.”

  Sarah grinned. “He’d be an idiot to fire you, especially after he hears what you did.”

  Jessica’s smile was almost childlike, and she was thankful that the bar was too dark for the other woman to see her blush.

  Sarah sensed her discomfort, though, and it was quite enchanting. The girl didn’t just sing beautifully, she was incredibly attractive to be hiding away in Simon Hewitt’s studio.

  “I wouldn’t be so sure,” Jessica said. “Simon isn’t the forgiving type.”

  “Believe me, I know,” Sarah smiled. “Did he ever tell you that we started off almost at the same time?”

  Jessica frowned and shook her head, smiling at the chance to hear some history about her employer.

  “He hasn’t changed a bit, all about the music, nothing else really mattered,” Sarah said. “Funny thing about that is he was actually good. Still is. He just never learned how to play the game.”

  Jessica thought back at the time she had spent as Simon’s assistant, how he bitched and moaned at weak music, terrible singers and ridiculous requests he never agreed to.

  Jessica admired him, in a way, although she would have loved to suggest a few things that would have ease a lot of the hassle they usually went through because of his stubbornness.

  Still, she knew her place, and when it came to Simon Hewitt, you either agreed or you didn’t work for him anymore.

  “I guess I have him to thank for my big break,” Sarah was saying. “I was approached to finish a job he had been working on for two weeks before getting into a fist fight with the manager. From there, I was hired to finish the album, and one thing led to the next. He sees me as a sell-out since.”

  “Have the two of you ever been, you know, involved?” Jessica asked.

  Sarah laughed and spit her drink back into her glass. “Not my type,” she said, coughing.

  “Was it the ego?”

  “No,” Jessica shook her head, smiling. “It’s what’s between his legs.”

  “Oh,” Jessica said, eyes wide and eyebrows raised. “I’m sorry, I had no idea.”

  Sarah waved it off. “I might be famous, but I’m still just a producer. My sexuality doesn’t make it into the papers.”

  Jessica nodded and was about to say something when the feedback from the stage microphone broke through the crowd and caused everyone to cringe.

  She turned around, annoyed at the man standing in front of the drum set and stage piano, tapping at the microphone as he adjusted the levels of his mixer.

  “Uh, hello?” his voice echoed as he clicked his tongue and worked the dials. “We have a few minutes before we start, and management’s asked us to offer an opportunity for any of the amateurs out there to maybe come up on stage and show us what they’ve got.”

  His smile was smug, and Jessica knew she was witnessing a musician who would never make it past the stage of the bar.

  She remembered numerous moments an artist’s attitude ruined any chance of a future he might have had if he had just toned down the ego a bit.

  It was a dog-eat-dog business, but you rarely made it through the door by being an ass first.

  That usually came later.

  “How about it?” Sarah asked from behind her.

  Jessica turned to her, one eyebrow raised, a little tipsy and ready to be more adventurous than she was accustomed to being.

  “Why don’t you show that idiot that there are more than just amateurs in the crowd?”

  Jessica looked back at the stage and considered it, eyeing the piano. She turned to Sarah and smiled. “Really?”

  Sarah stood up and raised an arm in the air, signaling to the man on stage. “Come on,” she said with a smile. “I’ll work the drums.”

  The two women weaved through the crowd to a small encouraging applause, the man on stage fixing the microphone’s angle as Jessica settled down in front of the piano.

  She glanced at Sarah as the blonde took the drumsticks in her hands, twirled them about and tested the bass drum.

  She winked at her and nodded that she was ready.

  Sarah gave her the tempo, tapping her sticks four times before Jessica took a deep breath and started to play.

  The bar was busy that night, the customers’ voices rising over each other and intertwining, everyone caught up in their own little world of laughs and drinks.

  The sound of Jessica’s playing mixed well with the crowd, the music weaving in between the laughs and chatter, filling up the empty spaces of air with melody.

  A few heads turned towards her as she and Sarah played, slow, soft, intricate.

  When Jessica started to sing, the whole bar went quiet. One by one, the crowd stopped talking and turned to watch the brunette at the piano as she sang her heart out, her voice rising above the noise, enchanting, like a siren luring its prey in.

/>   Soon it was only her voice in the bar, her music filling the spaces, and every eye was on her.

  Sarah watched from behind the drums, maintaining the tempo as she felt her entire body tingle.

  Jessica was singing one of her own songs, she was sure, and the words mixed with the voice had her at the edge of her seat.

  Someone had dimmed the lights in the bar even more, and Jessica suddenly stood out more than ever, although she didn’t need it to enforce the presence her voice had already set.

  This girl’s a star, Sarah thought to herself, secretly cursing Simon for not noticing this before.

  She couldn’t pull her eyes away from her, and when the song was done, when the entire crowd was cheering and applauding, Sarah felt like she had just witnessed greatness like she had never seen before.

  * * *

  Chapter Seven

  Jessica made sure she locked the studio door when she and Sarah returned.

  Barely turning the key through the second click, Sarah turned her around and kissed her, pushing Jessica against the studio door as their lips locked and their hands were already grasping at each other’s shirts.

  They had played another two songs at the bar before the original performing band quietly asked them to leave.

  Sarah had laughed about how they had probably intimidated them, showering Jessica with praise that the brunette couldn’t help but feel enamored.

  By the time they had finished their drinks and were getting ready to leave, Jessica had kissed Sarah before she had even known was she was doing.

  They had practically raced back to the studio.

  Jessica grabbed Sarah by the hips and pulled her deeper inside, their kiss only breaking between smiles, giggles, and quick catches of breath.

  Sarah had her pressed close against her, their movement awkward until they slammed against the control room door and fell onto the couch.

  Sarah straddled the brunette, kissing her deeply, breathing her in as her hands found their way under her clothes and scratched at her back.