“There is?” All I kept in the refrigerator was Diet Coke, yogurt, water and fruit, typically.
He glanced at me in the giant rearview mirror and winked. “This is a full-service kidnapping.”
Intrigued, I walked to the kitchenette and opened the refrigerator door. Inside was were champagne chilling, a cheese plate and a large beautiful salad piled with fresh greens, chicken breast, apple chunks, cranberries, blue cheese and walnuts. There was also a bakery box on the counter, but I resisted the urge to investigate. I pulled out the salad, a bottle of dressing and a Diet Coke and sat down at the small table. I was hungry after the show and the salad sounded just right.
Shay had also turned plugged his iPod into my stereo dock and soft music filled the back part of the bus. It was 90’s country sappiness, but good. The lights were turned down low and he’d laid out o u r jackets on the sofa. He’d definitely created as much ambiance as my little home on wheels could produce. It was obvious he’d taken time to think things through and it gave me a warm feeling deep inside my belly.
“Did you find it?” he called from the front.
“I did. Thanks. This is great.” I took a few bites, but then grabbed a napkin and my fork and went to sit in the front with Shay. I settled into the jump seat and fastened my seatbelt.
“You’re supposed to be relaxing,” he said, turning onto the interstate on-ramp.
“I was lonely.”
He glanced at me with a silly kind of grin on his face.
“Hey, eyes on the road.”
“You have no idea how hard that is with you sitting so close to me,” he said. “It has been hours since I last kissed you.”
God, didn’t I know it. I wanted to unbuckle and plant a good one on him, but I didn’t want him to roll the bus into a ditch, so I stayed put. I could wait a little longer. It was an exercise in self-control I wasn’t sure Gandhi would have been able to master.
“You were great tonight,” he said. “Lots of energy. You were rocking that place.”
Of course I was. I was attempting to dazzle Robert into renewing both my and Shay’s contracts at the end of this thing. I stared into my salad bowl. Guilt put a damper on all the warm fuzzies Shay’s kidnapping was giving me.
I should tell him. He deserved to know. But what if Daddy was right and he got mad and ditched the rest of the tour? It wasn’t just that it would throw a wrench in what I was trying to accomplish with a career refresh. It was for Shay’s own good, too. He had a tendency to self-sabotage when things were going good for him. Did I really want to throw a log on that fire? I wanted to see him succeed. No, it was better to keep things to myself, like Daddy had said. I pushed the guilt to the side, hiding it behind a flimsy veneer of self-righteousness, telling myself I was doing what was best for Shay.
“Thanks,” I said a little too brightly. “The duet was a hit, too, I think. People like us together.”
“So do I.”
Shay signaled and then exited the interstate. When we coasted to a smooth stop at the end of the ramp to wait on the light, I unfastened my seat belt. Setting my food on my seat, I went to Shay and sat on his lap. I grabbed the sides of his face and laid a good one on him.
He didn’t argue, his arms immediately going around my waist as he took the kiss deeper.
It took the sounds of car horns behind us to remind us where we were and I jumped up laughing. “Sorry. Couldn’t resist,” I said, moving back to the jump seat.
Shay put the bus in gear and turned right. “Just be glad it’s not far now or we’d be pulled over at the first rest stop we came to. And then you wouldn’t get the full kidnapping experience.”
“Can’t have that. This is my first kidnapping and I think I deserve the full monty.”
“Oh, Monty will be full, alright. As much as I enjoy your company, I’m banishing you to the back of the bus,” Shay said, checking his GPS. “You’re distracting the driver.”
“Fine.” I moved back to the passenger area. “But I’ll be getting naked back here, just in case you wanted to know.”
“You’re so going to pay for that.”
“Did I mention a friend from Victoria’s Secret sent me something from their new collection?” With that I put the leftover salad in the fridge and went to change clothes.
I had no idea where we were going or what the dress code would be, so I just pulled on a pair of jeans and a top that was cut way too low over my lacy black bra and thong. I brushed my teeth, ran a brush through my hair and touched up my make-up, smiling all the time. On impulse, I pulled out a pair of black stiletto-heeled boots and tugged them on.
Shay was just so unexpected. He had a way of being able to surprise me in so many ways. His actions, sure, though the free-spirited way he floated through life drove me crazy sometimes. It was the way he pushed me to surprise myself by peeking outside of my comfort zone on stage and in my personal life. The duets had really challenged me creatively, something I hadn’t experienced in a while. I’d been on auto-pilot in my career. Shay had taken away my safety net and forced me to wing it.
Whatever was going on between us was a surprise, too. It was something new, something I typically didn’t do, with a kind of guy I’d never seen myself with. Whenever I thought about the non-career side of my life and who I wanted to share it with, I’d pictured someone kind of like me, though definitely not in the business. Someone mature, responsible. Maybe a lawyer or someone in finance. Someone predictable, someone I could count on to be where he said he’d be, do what he said he’d do. Someone who would be a solid husband, a solid father, get along with Daddy, understand when I had to work and be there when I got home to listen to how my day went. Someone I could ask for advice and trust to steer me in the right direction.
Shay was not that guy. Well, except for understanding when I had to work. And he did have great instincts as far as what would work on stage. But as a long-term partner? No. I doubted Shay thought past the next 24 hours, let alone had any capacity for long - term planning. He just went where that moment’s desire took him and didn’t think about what would happen when the shit hit the fan.
Of course, that’s also what made him so much fun to be with.
I felt the bus roll to a stop. We were here, wherever “here” was.
I shut my bedroom door and went to see what crazy thing Shay had planned for us.
*****
Shay really didn’t know if Michelle was an outdoor kind of girl, but he was willing to take a chance that she was. She had a ranch, after all. A few weeks ago he would have said she was one of those rich people who liked to seem down to earth by telling people they had a ranch—which basically meant they had a multi-million dollar mansion on a couple hundred acres of property with stables full of horses someone else took care of because they were always vacationing on a private island in Turks and Caicos.
But Michelle had turned out to be someone different that he’d thought she was. Once you got past all the layers of who she thought she needed to be to make everyone else happy, she was genuine and honest and real. Not a princess at all. And so he was taking a gamble that she’ d s like to leave all the high class restaurants and limos behind and have a low-key night with him.
A campfire, the lake, stars, a cooler full of beer and his best girl sounded a lot like the chorus of a country song, but it was just about perfect to his mind. If he’d had a tent handy, he would’ve borrowed a pick-up truck and gone that route, but he’d had to settle for a tricked out tour bus with all the bells and whistles instead. The advantage, if all went well, was that they could move indoors to the nice big bed in Michelle’s room and spend all night in the buff without worrying about bug bites or poison ivy putting a damper on things.
Shay was careful to keep the bus on the pavement when he pulled to a stop at the little campsite he’d reserved for them at the closest campground he could find. Being late fall, the campground wasn’t busy, so it was unlikely they’d have any fans or press to ruin the evening. After he put the bus in par
k and applied the emergency brake, Shay grabbed the blanket, the pre-packed cooler and a battery-operated camping lantern kept on the bus for emergencies.
“We’re here.” Shay waited for Michelle to make her way to the front of the bus. She’d changed clothes, looking sexier than ever with her hair down and make-up natural. Skin tight jeans and a shirt that clung to her breasts had him thinking about scrapping his plans for an outdoor party and taking her right back into the bedroom. And those boots. Jesus. Those were going to be the death of him. But he loved her like this—laid back and real.
“Should I close my eyes or something?” She was close enough that Shay could smell her perfume, sort of light and sweet.
“If you want to.”
“You aren’t a very good kidnapper.” She frowned, but there was a twinkle in her blue eyes.
“I could tie you up.” Oh God. Now that image was going to be stuck in his mind while he tried to play the romantic guy instead of the oversexed horn dog.
“Hmmm. That has possibilities.”
She moved closer and kissed him slowly, sucking his bottom lip into her mouth. Blood went straight to his sex as Shay remembered how sexy and hot she’d looked all those years ago trussed up in her own stockings. But tonight wasn’t about sex. Ok, it wasn’t just about sex. He wanted to do something special for her, to show her how much he liked her and appreciated her friendship…or whatever this thing was.
He pulled back. “Behave for now. You can get all naughty on me after my surprise.”
“Fine. But I’m holding you to that.” Her voice was a husky whisper and she ran her hands down his chest before stepping away.
Letting out a breath and willing his erection to take five, Shay exited the bus and Michelle followed. The night was perfect for early fall. The breeze coming off the lake was cool enough to make a fire and snuggling in a shared blanket excellent options. During the height of summer in the South, the night was alive with sounds of insects and animals. The thick scents of lush green foliage and wild flowers perfumed the breeze. Now it was quiet enough to hear the sound of the lake lapping gently against the smooth pebbles at its edge and the scent of the land had mellowed to give merely a hint of earth and evergreen. With only a pale sliver of a moon lighting the inky heavens, thousands of stars twinkled overhead as clearly as if they were in a planetarium. Shay breathed deeply, wishing he could bottle the kind of peace and calm this place gave him.
Shay set down the lantern and cooler and spread the blanket on some soft-looking grass not far from the edge of the lake. “Here we are.”
Michelle plopped down on the blanket and looked out over the lake. The faint moonlight flickered in the lake’s ripples. “This is beautiful, Shay.”
“Glad you like it.” He settled in beside her and turned off the lantern. “Lie back.”
She lay on the blanket and even in the darkness, her golden hair picked up the scant moonlight, making it shimmer.
“Oh my God. I’d forgotten there were so many stars.” Shay lay back, too, gathering Michelle into his arms so that her head was pillowed by his shoulder as she gazed at the heavens.
“I know. I used to park in the wheat fields and lay on the hood of my truck for hours just staring at the sky and sipping beer.”
“Do you know any of the constellations?”
“Nope. You?”
“Just the Big Dipper. But I think it’s better that way, don’t you? I mean we can just enjoy their random beauty without trying to figure anything out. They can be anything we want them to be.”
Something squeezed inside Shay’s chest. “What would you want them to be?”
“Well, that cluster there to the right sort of reminds me of my beagle, Reynolds.”
“I didn’t know you had a dog,” Shay said. “You don’t bring him on tour?”
“He likes to run around chasing the squirrels and annoying the horses. Totally wild. He’d be miserable cooped up on a bus all the time.” She turned her face towards Shay. “You have pets?”
“I have a hard enough time taking care of myself, let alone some other poor creature. It would run away the first chance it had to find a better home.”
“I don’t know. I think you have a nurturing side that you just haven’t let out of the box.”
The way she said that, with so much hope, gave him a warm feeling all over. And scared the hell out of him.
“Maybe if I eased in slow,” he said. “Started small and worked my way up to something bigger.”
“I could get you a turtle. Pretty low maintenance there. They have a hard shell and eat mostly vegetables.”
Shay smiled into the darkness. “Reminds me of someone I know.”
“So I’m a turtle now? Slow, bald and toothless?” She laughed. “Let me see. What animal would you be?”
“A lion.”
“They do have sex 20 times a day when the female is in heat,” she said. “But I was thinking you remind me of a Bonobo. They have sex all the time, with all kinds of different partners for all different kinds of reasons.”
“You’re an Animal Planet junkie,” Shay guessed.
“Sometimes I can’t sleep. It’s better than infomercials.”
“Wish I would have known that. I have three Pocket Hoses, two Chillos and a pair of Pajama Jeans I’ve never even taken out of the box.”
“Pajama Jeans? Aren’t those for women?”
“I was thinking they’d make a good Christmas gift for a special lady. Interested?”
“Oh my God. You’d better never give me Pajama Jeans. And besides, the tour will be over in a few more days and we’ll be back home in Nashville way before Christmas.”
His grin faded. It was so easy to forget this thing with Michelle had a firm expiration date. But he didn’t want to think about that. Not tonight. “Good point.” He sighed deeply. “I guess I’ll have to find some other girl worthy of such an awesome gift.”
“Make sure it’s someone you want to dump because once she opens that box, it’s over. On second thought, maybe you ought to call and see if they’ll give you a bulk discount.”
Shay stiffened. Is that what she thought about him? That he was a tomcat running around with a different woman each night? OK, maybe that had been his style in the past. But the new-day, new-woman kind of thing wasn’t appealing to him anymore. There was only one woman now. His mind seized up the moment he’d touched her and no other woman held any appeal for him. Too bad Michelle was the one woman who wanted the kind of temporary relationship Shay had always gone for before her. He was Michelle’s for-a-good-time-call guy, not a real part of her life.
He’d never wanted that kind of relationship before. It was too messy, too much potential for pain once the other person realized what a fuck-up Shay really was. He was the guy who took you out and had fun, did crazy things to make you smile, maybe showed you a good time in bed. But at the end of the dance when all the players paired off for keeps, Shay would always be the one left without a partner.
This thing with Michelle was no different. He had no doubt that she liked him and had a good time with him. And the sex…well, they’d taken that to a whole new plane. But once it was over, it was over. She’d go her way and he’d go his.
There was a song in there. A sad one.
Chapter Thirteen
“Thank you for this, Shay,” I said, sitting up. “This is amazing.”
The night was cool, but I didn’t want to go inside or even move. Maybe for a very long time. I loved that Shay had stolen the tour bus and brought me someplace where we could be alone, away from all the glare of fans and press and even the watchful eyes of Daddy and Rayna.
“Good.” He sat up and pushed a hand through his hair. “I just wanted to let you know that I…this has been great. This time with you.”
“I’m having fun, too,” I said carefully. I didn’t want him to think that I’d changed my mind about the relationship and was asking for more. This was a time out of time where we could enjoy each other
’s company in bed and maybe a little bit out of it, before going back to our real lives and careers.
Shay opened the cooler. “Want something to drink?” He held out a miniature bottle of white wine.
“Raided the minibar at the hotel, huh?”
“Absolutely.” He twisted off the lid and handed it to me.
“Thanks.”
He popped the top on a beer and we sat in silence for a moment, just looking out over the lake.
“You were great out there tonight,” Shay said. “I was blown away.”
I shrugged. “Just trying to keep up with you.”
“I’ll never be as good as you. Your voice, your history, all those hits. I’ve been awe of you since I first heard your voice on the radio.”
I froze, remembering those exact words coming out of his mouth after the first time we’d slept together. Basically he’d admitted that he’d only wanted me because I was a celebrity whose notch he wanted to put in his bedpost.
“Is that still all I am, Shay? A poster on your bedroom wall?”
“What?”
I swallowed. If that’s the way it was I needed to know. “Last time, seven years ago, you pretty much told me the reason you’d wanted me was because I was your pin-up idol.”
He stared at me for a moment and took a sip of his beer before answering. “I’m going to be honest, Michelle. I was just a kid, had never been away from home, never seen a celebrity before in my life other than on TV or in magazines. So, yeah, part of it was that I was really jazzed about meeting Shelly May, a girl I’d fantasized about…well, a lot.”
“I see.” I swallowed the hurt. Somehow I’d hoped I’d been mistaken, that maybe I’d blown things out of proportion all those years ago. I hadn’t. “And now. Is that what all this is about now?”
“No. Michelle…no.”
“Just be honest with me, Shay. If that’s all it is, it’s all it is. We knew this was no love story when we jumped into it. But I can’t stand being lied to.”
Shay took my cold hands in his warmer ones. “Before, I wanted the girl I saw up on stage in the glitzy little cowgirl costumes and little red boots. Now I want the woman behind the boots. I want the Michelle that’s off stage, behind the scenes, the real Michelle that no one knows as well as I do. The girl who jams to Eminem on her iPod. The girl who steals all the covers. The girl who comes off a little prissy on the outside but who can let loose like a wild thing in the heat of the moment.” He smiled a little, melting my heart and setting all my fears to rest. “I want you.”
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