Mere hours ago, romance had been on her long list called: To do if I survive. She mentally scratched it off and put it on her bucket list. Life was short and hers far shorter than most. If Asa wanted her—and he obviously did—she intended to ride this train to its final destination.
Overwhelmed by wild, new sensations, the intimate moment could have gone on all night as far as Chelsie was concerned. She didn’t realize until Asa finally pulled away, the two of them had a huge audience.
Chelsie glanced about. Dancing couples skimmed around them on the floor staring as they passed. Tiffany and Christian stood to their left. To her right she saw Chad stalking across the dance floor, and he was fuming.
Chad pushed himself between them and snarled at Asa, “Get your hands off my woman. You ever touch her again. I’ll rip your balls off and shove them down your throat.”
Chelsie gasped, indignant. Meddling jerk! “Shut up, Chad, and get away from me. I am not your woman.”
“You heard the lady,” Asa growled.
Chad obviously didn’t know what to say, so he said nothing, just puffed out his chest and glared at Asa with fuming rancor.
She glanced at Tiffany, who wore a smirk. Christian seemed a bit amused as well. Chelsie knew why. Chad was a big boy, but not nearly as big as Asa, and he didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell against a vampire. She looked back at Asa, who appeared surprisingly calm. Chelsie, however, was anything but calm. She was sick and tired of Chad and seriously resented him ruining one of the best moments of her life.
She stepped toward him. “Look, Chad, I agreed to be a part of the band again, but I never agreed to be with you again. It’s time for us to get honest. You really aren’t interested in me romantically. You want me emotionally tied to you because you’re hoping if I am, should another recording contract present itself, this time I’ll be compliant and make your dream come true.
“Allow me to disabuse you of your fantasies. There can be no record deal on the face of the earth that could tempt me away from practicing medicine, because money and fame hold no interest for me. I enjoy singing, and I’m happy to be back with the band, but on the scale we are now. I have no intention of leaving my practice to cut a recording deal and go on tour. If you can’t accept that, then seek another female vocalist.”
After that speech, Chad looked fit to be tied. For several moments, Chelsie thought understanding had actually dawned for him, but then his ire faded and he spoke, proving her wrong.
“I couldn’t be happier that your back with us again, Chels. No one could ever replace you—and not just as lead female. You’re my girl. I know your career is important to you, but I promise you’ll feel different once we do get another contract.” He paused and gave her a rather secretive smile. “In fact, we may have one. I spoke with a producer from Nashville several weeks ago and sent him a CD. He’s going to be here tomorrow night to hear us. I wasn’t going to tell you until after the fact, because I didn’t want you to be nervous, but I guess it’s best you know.”
Chelsie’s mouth fell open. It was like talking to a brick wall. She looked at Tiffany and shook her head, nonplussed.
Tiffany rolled her eyes then speared Chad with a hard look. “I don’t know what part of what Chelsie just said you didn’t understand, but let’s see if I can clarify things for you, Chad.” She stepped forward, put her face mere inches from his and poked his shoulder with her forefinger. “Chelsie isn’t your girl, and she ain’t going to be a part of cutting any recording contract. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever. Comprende?”
A tick started on Chad’s right jaw as he glared back at Tiffany with fury and hatred burning in his light blue eyes. A low vampire growl jerked Chelsie’s attention to Christian. His gold eyes gleamed with dangerous intent. Chelsie knew Christian respected Tiffany enough to let her fight her own battles and wouldn’t step in unless Chad got nasty with Tiffany. She prayed Chad had enough sense to back down.
Mercifully, he did.
Chad faced her and said in a sharp tone, “It’s time for the next set. We’d better go.” He stalked off across the dance floor toward the stage.
Chelsie turned and ventured a glance at Asa, who wore a concerned frown. She didn’t know what to say in light of the complicated scene, so she opted for politeness. “Thanks for the dances, Asa. If you’ll excuse me.” She followed Chad’s path to the stage, cursing him under her breath.
A record producer. Just great. She had a half notion not to show up tomorrow night just to spite Chad. If it wouldn’t put the band in jeopardy of losing the Cajun Refugees gig, she’d do it in a heartbeat.
She had to think this thing out, but now wasn’t the time. All she knew for sure was that she intended to make Chad sorry for embarrassing her in front of Asa and for bringing this blasted record producer to New Orleans.
Chapter 4
Chelsie reached for her cell phone and glasses to check the time then sat up in bed. “Wow. Twelve thirty?” She’d slept a bit later than usual, but it was not surprising, she supposed. She hadn’t arrived home last night until around three in the morning, which was normal when the band performed.
For a new OB, Chelsie had some pretty sweet hours. She rarely worked on Saturdays or Sundays, because she had no patients even close to delivering. She wasn’t exactly pleased with that fact. She’d much rather have patients than weekends off.
That thought made her think of Asa, and she drew in a deep breath and smiled. He’d kissed her! Mercy! What a kiss it had been. On a hunch, she checked her messages and missed calls. None from Asa, but she hadn’t really expected any.
They’d danced every time the band had taken a break. During the last one she’d asked him if he would like to come back to Cajun’s tonight, and he’d agreed, which had pleased her greatly. Before they’d parted ways for the night, she’d given him a ticket, and he’d given her another steamy kiss.
Whew! The man was a master at the art of lip locking!
The only downside to last night had been the lack of privacy to talk with him. There had been too much noise and people surrounding them. Then there’d been Chad, who kept butting in when they’d danced. Finally, fed up with his jealous nonsense, she’d told him to stop interrupting them. Then Asa had, too, in a much more forceful way than she, which had made Chad livid.
Chelsie hadn’t cared. She was fed up with Chad’s inability to listen to her wants and needs. She was sicker still of this game he played, pretending to care about her, when all he really cared about was rocketing the band to stardom.
What Chelsie cared about was this new turn of events between her and Asa. He seemed genuinely interested in her, but at what level, she didn’t know. Had his attitude changed toward her merely because of Tiffany’s handiwork? Did he just want to hook up? Or did he think of her as life mate potential?
Chelsie suspected he’d entertained the latter notion, because she’d felt the prick of his fangs on her neck during that first dance. Had they been somewhere private, she would have happily welcomed his bite because she knew what it meant in all facets of vampire courtship. He wanted to discover if she was his life mate. Of course, he might have just been horny, but Asa transfused. She knew his character. He would never drink from her if he just found her mildly fascinating.
The possibilities occurring between them made her heart soar. Like Asa or any un-life-mated vampire, she’d been looking for her soul mate for years. She’d be delighted to discover Asa was the one, because she really deeply and truly liked the man. A mere bite from him and she’d find out. The thought made her shiver. Chelsie understood vampire mating rituals far better than human ones, which honestly, had never made any sense to her.
Thanks to Tiffany and Christian, soon she would be free to think this way. Once she was vampire and no longer had to worry about her health, she could explore things with Asa to her heart’s content. Doing so now was perhaps a little premature and dangerous should Asa find out about her tumor. Somedays her headaches and nausea were nea
rly impossible to hide. If Asa suspected she was sick, he might tell Christian. She couldn’t have that. Still it was no reason to stalwart things between them. She had to work around him every day anyway. Like it or not, she always ran the risk that someone would witness her misery and think she was sick. Fortunately, as a doctor she knew of dozens of non-life-threatening illnesses and conditions that mimicked her brain tumor symptoms.
The cell in her hand began to vibrate and buzz. She adjusted her glasses then frowned when she saw the caller was Chad. Chelsie sighed and allowed it to go to voicemail. She was in no mood to deal with him at this point in her day, when she hadn’t even ingested a mere cup of coffee.
She sat her phone on the nightstand then noticed the array of pill bottles sitting there. Her heart, which had been flying high, took a huge plummeting nose dive. She’d forgotten. Until a few minutes ago, she’d literally forgotten she was dying. Since the first time she’d learned the awful news, she’d gone hours without thinking about her disease. She had Asa to thank for that, and the notion made her smile.
Chelsie crawled out of bed, slipped on a robe, and headed to the kitchen to fix coffee. She had just poured herself a cup and settled into a chair at the kitchen table to enjoy it when her doorbell rang. Chelsie groaned then made her way through her apartment, mug in hand. She peered through the peephole. Irritation bloomed inside her when she saw Chad standing in the hallway.
“Damn it,” she muttered. The guy was like a tick, latching on and draining her dry of patience and sanity. She wanted to ignore him but knew it would do no good. He’d surely seen her car in the building’s parking garage.
Chelsie opened the door and scowled at him. “What?”
“Hey, baby, did I get you out of bed?”
He wore a huge grin and gave her a playful wink, which many moons ago would have played havoc with her female sensibilities. Now such actions just grated on her nerves. She glanced down at a large, white rectangular box in his hands that sported a red ribbon and bow. “What are you doing here, Chad? It may be nearly one o’clock, but that’s still very early for both of us on a Saturday.”
“I bought you a present.” He extended it toward her, wearing a silly grin that seemed to say he was very proud of himself for having shopped for her.
Gag me, Chelsie thought then sighed, realizing there would be no getting rid of him until he was appeased. “Come on in.” She headed toward her couch, a brown and green leather and suede piece, part of a very nice living room set she’d acquired recently.
For the first time in her life, money was not an issue. A vampire practice paid extraordinarily well, even for a new doctor with a pittance of patients. She had no student loans either. Her mother and Nathan Davenport, her stepfather, had funded her schooling in full. She had allowed it because of their insistence and also because, for Nathan Davenport—literally the richest man in the states, probably the world—paying for a Harvard degree was like tossing a quarter into a wishing well.
Chelsie took a seat and gestured for Chad to join her. He sat the white box on her lap. She frowned at it then him. “What’s this?”
“Open it and find out.”
She sat her cup on the coffee table and tugged at the bow, which came off easily, then peeled off the top. Inside was a very lovely, cobalt-blue dress with silver threads woven into a gauzy material. She pulled out the dress, held it up, and studied it. The hemline had jagged silver and blue threads sewn on the edges, and it was a respectable length. The bodice cut was rather low, and it had off-the-shoulder sleeves, similar to the one Tiffany had purchased for her. It looked like an outfit Taylor Swift or Miranda Lambert might wear on stage.
Chelsie knew Chad wanted her to wear it tonight, and she knew why. Anger began to percolate within her. Chad’s goal here today was to truss her up like a Thanksgiving turkey so this Nashville producer coming to hear the band tonight would be pleased with her stage presence.
Damn Chad! Why couldn’t he understand all she wanted to do was sing a few nights a week for mere enjoyment?
She tossed the dress into the box and thrust it at him. “You have some nerve, Chad. If that discussion hadn’t occurred last night, would you have told me about this Nashville guy? Or did you just intend to spring this on me tonight hoping I’d say, ‘Oh how wonderful’?”
He had the decency to appear halfway repentant. “It’s like I told you, baby. I didn’t want you to be nervous. But then I realized if I didn’t tell you, you’d be mad.” He shrugged. “Obviously, I was right.”
She was more than mad; she was fuming. “First of all, quit calling me baby. I’m not your girlfriend, Chad. Secondly, you’ve wasted your time and that man’s. Because if he does decide to give us a contract, I intend to let him know, most emphatically, that I will not be doing any tours. Ever. And once my practice gets more stable, there will be nights I won’t even be able to perform here in the city because I’ll be delivering babies. I’ve told you this repeatedly.”
Fury sparked in his eyes. “You’re being selfish, Chelsie. You know this has been my dream for years—and not just mine, but Colt’s, Wayne’s, and Randy’s too. What about them? Think about everything they gave up to get us all back together. To get us to this point.”
She had a dream too: her practice, which Chad did not know the true nature of. He had no idea vampires existed, let alone the fact they could bear children like any mammal on the planet. Keeping the secret from him hadn’t been hard. He rarely asked questions about her work, because he could care less about her goals and dreams. His were all that mattered.
Chelsie clenched her teeth, so tempted to quit the band on the spot. Then she did think of Randy, Wayne, and Colt, who had completely uprooted their lives in Missouri to move to New Orleans in order to have her a part of the band. They each had wives and children.
As much as she hated and resented Chad in this moment, she loved and cared about the boys more. She couldn’t wreck their lives. She just couldn’t. But she couldn’t flush her medical career down the drain to give them a recording contract either.
Chelsie knew what came with that signature: a life on the road, performing wherever your agent booked you. There was simply no meshing a medical career with a music one. It wasn’t possible. Neither was a solution that would benefit them all.
She heaved in a labored breath. “You have no idea just how often I have thought about the lives of the guys, Chad.” The four of them had moved to New Orleans with a pie in the sky hope of making a living singing. That just wasn’t happening yet. All the boys had day jobs, except Chad. She had no idea how he made ends meet.
“So will you wear this tonight for me?” Chad asked, his tone soft, cajoling as he pushed the box toward her.
This dress was the least of her concerns at the moment. Chelsie was sickened that the entire band had moved to New Orleans on the false premise—from Chad—that she’d just fall into line with his intentions and make all of their dreams come true. Fame and fortune could be a wicked seductress. Apparently, the boys had been snookered by Chad because they had wanted that big break as much as him. Each of them knew she was their key to obtaining that break. Chelsie had ears. She wasn’t vain, but she knew had a very good voice and stage presence.
Now it all made sense. If the guys thought she and Chad were back together romantically, then of course they would have been comfortable uprooting their lives to move here. No wonder he was always trying to touch and kiss her in front of the boys and call her baby.
Dear God, how could she have been so naïve? Her smarts were the one thing about herself she could always count on. But they had failed her miserably this time.
“Chels?” he pressed. “Will you wear it?”
Chelsie had a great deal of thinking to do. She decided to pander to his nonsense in order to get his butt out of here. “Sure. It’s very nice, and I’ll wear it. Thanks for thinking of me.”
He beamed. “Great. I’ll see you at the club around eight?”
She no
dded. “Of course.”
He stared at her for a few moments, his smile fading into a pensive pout. “I don’t know what was going on between you and that partner of yours, but I don’t like it. I know you’re upset with me, and that’s why you were dancing and flirting with him. I guess I deserved it for all the times I did the same sort of thing. But, Chels, it’s always going to be you and me. You have to realize that. You’re wasting your time with that guy. You may be a doctor now, but you’re still the redneck girl I fell in love with way back when. A stuffed-shirt doctor would bore you to tears. I can’t lose you, Chelsie. Not again. Leave this guy alone before someone gets seriously hurt.”
Chelsie’s fury reignited and her fists clenched. How she wished she was like Tiffany, who in this moment would have hauled off and belted Chad. But she wasn’t. She didn’t even have it in her to give him a proper cussing, which was probably best based on his ominous next words.
“I hope you take me seriously, because if this doctor continues to sniff around you, I can promise you, he’s going to be needing a doctor.”
His gaze had darkened menacingly. Chelsie tried to tell herself it was just jealousy. She knew he didn’t really want her, but he didn’t want anyone else to have her either. There was something akin to viciousness in his eyes that she’d never witnessed. Before she could contemplate the threat, Chad leaned forward, gave her a quick kiss, then stood. “I’ll see you tonight.”
As soon as Chad shut the door, she took the back of her hand and swiped it across her lips.
What a mess she was embroiled in. Chad had a tongue so well-oiled, it put Satan’s to shame. She’d missed the band, and she’d allowed the desire to be back on stage singing for a country audience to override good sense. She’d allowed herself to believe Chad had accepted the ultimatum she’d given him when she’d reunited with the band. When did Chad accept anything he didn’t want to hear from her? She should have seen this mess coming a mile away. But no, she’d decided to take Chad at his word. Now, because she’d trusted him, three men and their families were on the verge of having their hopes and dreams destroyed.
Deadly Secrets (Forever and a Night Book 3) Page 5
