He stroked the strings as he sang to her. Trying to resist a chuckle was hard. Like a handsome devil, he was using his charm to soften the tension between them. Kayla strode to the isolation booth and tried to sing along with him, but she found herself mixing her lines up. He laughed at her. He laughed long and hard as if he hadn’t laughed in years.
“What is so funny?” She walked back out to finish her tea.
“You,” he said simply. “You get this look in your eyes when you are frustrated, almost as if you wished the song was a physical entity, and you want to wrap your hands around it and throttle it.”
“Are you saying that I have a temper?” she asked him as she came back with the mug in her hand.
“No. That is not what I am saying,” he replied with his hands lifted up in mock surrender. “What I meant is you like everything to go your own way, and you’re not satisfied until it does. You know, like a perfectionist, but in a good way.”
“I’m not a perfectionist,” Kayla protested as she stood akimbo. “I don’t always want to have my way with everything.”
“You sure?” he asked her, looking up at her, and she was instantly reminded of the scene in his house. She still had no idea why she had agreed to meet him in the house to write another song together. But still, it wasn’t like he forced himself on her, at least not physically. He had just done a million little things that ended up forcing her to . . . No, she was not going to think about that. They had both agreed tacitly not to bring up that momentary lapse in judgment, and so far, he hadn’t said a single word about it. He hadn’t even tried anything funny with her, and that was the way she wanted it. That was what she wanted, she told herself again when she realized it was hard not to admit that his easy dismissal of her hurt a little. How the hell could he go from kissing her until her toes curled to being photographed waving bye to a sexy blonde woman from his door in the early hours of the morning? Yes, it hurt a little that he could kiss her like that and forget her the next minute. But Kayla reminded herself that the last thing she wanted was to be one more name in his ever-growing list of sexual conquests. Besides, she was not attracted to him in the least. Not at all. So she shouldn’t be bothered.
“Let’s get back to work,” she finally said, escaping his questioning gaze as she moved away from him to grab a seat and try to figure out the notes she was having trouble with.
A few minutes went by before she joined him again with lyrics in hand. Finally, after several attempts, they finished recording the entire song. In a few more days, they would leave New York and begin their US tour.
4
“Good evening, Chicago! How you doing tonight? What a beautiful crowd you are!” His fans went wild as he walked to the edge of the stage and shook hands with several overly excited young women in the front row.
“Today, my sexy friend, Kayla, and I will be performing a new number off her forthcoming album. In stores everywhere on Valentine’s Day. Make sure you go get it,” Jaxon informed with a huge smile on his face.
“Thank you! Thanks, darling! Hello, Chicago!” Kayla joined him on stage, giving him a quick peck on the cheek as another round of cheers sounded through the lively crowd.
That night was the third show in his three-week, cross-country tour, and he had twelve more shows to go. As expected, working with Kayla had turned out to be like hell on Earth most times. She gave him a hard time about damn near everything he did. She’d even tried to chastise him about his social habits, trying to discourage him from going out to the clubs during his free time. But unlike the other men she probably bossed around, he was his own man, living by his own rules. For as long as he could remember, he always did whatever the hell he wanted. And Miss Kayla Monroe would just need to take a chill pill.
Thankfully, so far, they’d managed to put up a great façade, pretending to be good friends in front of the cameras and press. However, behind closed doors, their rocky relationship hadn’t changed much. She was still the self-absorbed, know-it-all Brit. He didn’t understand her. It wasn’t like he had anything against the British. He actually loved their accent and the air of sophistication most of them had. But Kayla — Kayla Monroe was different. He couldn’t wrap his mind around what it was he felt towards her. Surprisingly, unlike her, he did not harbor any negative feelings. And if he didn’t know any better, he’d think he was secretly attracted to her. No, it couldn’t be. Jaxon tried to shoot down that thought immediately, watching her from the corner of his eyes as she sang the lines to her verse of the song.
Kayla strode to him, a smile on her face, and he replied with one of his fake smiles as they joined together in singing the chorus. They ended the song holding hands while staring each other in the eye. The crowd applauded and cheered them, some people throwing roses on the stage while several others screamed, requesting an encore.
“Do you think we should, Kayla?” Jaxon teased.
“Why not, love? Let’s give the people what they want.” Kayla smiled, and together they joined in the first verse.
As they sang together, her eyes caught his, and a warm, unspoken gesture was conveyed. She was such a stunningly beautiful woman. Curvy in all the right places, her curly, red hair wild but sexy. If she wasn’t so hot tempered, he wouldn’t mind taking her out to dinner somewhere nice and elegant. She was not like other women he’d dated. He could tell she had a taste for the finer things. It was kind of frustrating though, the way she could get under his skin with just one look. Nothing could make his hackles rise faster than her calling him out on yet another bad behavior of his. And she did that a lot.
Don’t do this.
Don’t do that.
Do this.
Do that.
So many rules in her world. So many dos and don’ts that he wanted to grab her and kiss her until she shut the hell up. Hell, he had done it once, and it had worked pretty perfectly. Right until the point when he realized it was not just about kissing her to shut her up anymore. Instead, it became something else, something deeper, and it touched the core of him. A core no one had ever been able to get to, and that scared the living hell out of him. Hell, he had no idea she was that good a kisser. It was as if all that good girl façade had been the Trojan horse hiding a much more daring woman underneath. One that made him see stars with just one touch of her lips. And to think, he used to see her as shy and straight-laced. Focusing his attention back to the crowd, they ended the repeat of the song on a high note, their voices in perfect harmony. He stood there smiling at their fans as they showered them with admiration and praise. If only their relationship in real life could be this great!
A few days had gone by, and as they made their way to the popular Sally James talk show, Jaxon took Kayla’s hand in his seconds before walking out before the audience. Sally had been a radio-personality-turned-talk-show host with whom he’d become good friends. When he decided to break out on his own, Addy had set up a couple of media appearances on talk shows. Jaxon thought it would just be him goofing around on camera with an audience. That was where he met Sally for the first time.
She was the first one to actually believe he could do it, and while other hosts tried to put him on the spot by demanding to know if he really thought he could accomplish anything without his band, Sally was the only one who encouraged him on her show. Now he made sure he didn’t complete any tour without stopping by her show, and as usual, she was glad to have him. The older woman welcomed them to her program, congratulating them on the success of their song that was beginning to build steam in the charts.
“So, Jaxon,” she began after he and Kayla had taken their seats on the couch reserved for guests of the show. “How has your tour been?”
“Great, Sally,” he replied with his trademark smile. “But then, I have the best fans in the world, so you know my tours have always been great.” This time his smile was directed to the audience, and yells, screams, and applause rang out across the studio. He waited for the applause to die down a little before continuing.
“Of course, this particular tour has been made all the more special by the presence of one of the best artists I have ever had the pleasure of working with. Kayla Monroe, everybody,” he said as Kayla smiled and waved to the audience. The roar of applause was yet again deafening, and she realized that, like Aaron had pointed out, the song had only helped to expose each of them to the fan base of the other.
“Wow, Jaxon,” Sally commented with a hand to her chest. “I don’t think I have ever heard applause that loud on my show before. Kayla, you should feel happy at getting such a reception on your first time on the show.”
“I do, Sally, I really do,” Kayla replied, a beaming smile on her lip as she spoke sincerely. “They make it all worth it.”
“They do, don’t they?” Sally said to her. “But then, some of them would imagine that getting to sing a love song with Jaxon Brady was reward enough. Won’t you agree?” she asked Kayla.
“Hey,” Jaxon jumped in before Kayla could reply, and just in time, too, as she was stumped on how to answer that question. The idea was to present themselves as a possible couple without actually confirming they were in a relationship. “I think I am the one lucky to get to work with someone as sexy as Kayla. Besides, you’ve heard her British accent. Tell me that isn’t sexy?” he asked the crowd as they dissolved into laughter amidst shouts of yes, yeah, and hell yeah. Kayla blushed prettily as she couldn’t help bursting into laughter. Jaxon was definitely in his element as he worked the crowd.
“So, who wrote the song?” Sally asked Jaxon.
“We did, the both of us.”
“Really? You two wrote a love song together? And which of you was responsible for the—”
“'Kiss me until the moon covers the sun and the only thing shining is our love’ line?” Kayla finished for her. “Jaxon did that.”
“Jaxon did?” Sally exclaimed with an exaggerated look of shock on her face, delighting her audience.
“Come on, Kayla, you’ve gotta take credit for it, too. Actually, Kayla came up with the line. But what she said was hold my hands until the moon covers the sun. And I thought to myself, if the moon is covering the sun, I don’t want to just be holding hands. I want to be doing something more, you know?” he said with a waggle of his eyebrow to the audience. “Then after she shot down two of my suggestions, we finally settled on just kissing.”
“We’ll visit that kissing scenario again. But for now, I’ve got a question, and this one is for Kayla. I know that this will probably be the thousandth time you are being asked this question, and you probably already have a thousand and one answers to it. Still, I gotta ask, are you two in a relationship?”
Kayla first smiled on hearing this question. She and Sally had worked on her answer the day before, and she felt confident as she answered. “Well, Sally, romance is a funny thing, isn’t it? I like to think there was a part of our hearts that came together in writing those words. I know my heart was definitely involved when I wrote my lines. But then I am a romantic at heart, so I guess it was a lot easier for me than it was for Jaxon. In the end, it doesn’t matter who you are right now. If you are in a relationship right now or not. If you think yourself cynical or romantic. At the end of the day, I believe there is a part of our hearts, all of us, that says the same thing no matter who we are. I guess Jaxon and I just happened to put that part of our hearts down on paper. Two hearts working as one in a way. Is that a relationship or is it not? Well, I think you can figure out the rest on your own.” She ended with a small smile as she leaned back on her chair.
The crowd was quiet for a few seconds, then they erupted into loud cheers and applause as they shouted at her answer.
“Well, the crowd seemed to like that answer. So I am going to accept it,” Sally said as she stood up and joined in the applause. “And now ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Jaxon and Kayla, here to perform their new single, ‘The First Night’ on The Sally Show.”
Kayla and Jaxon stood up from their seats and went to the small area that had been sectioned off for the performance. A live band was already seated, and as Kayla and Jaxon picked up the mic, the sound of the violins that began the song resonated behind them. Looking into each other’s eyes, they sang the words of the song, the crowd joining along as the people swayed to the music.
Then on the last note, as they both said the words, the hall went dark, and suddenly a sun covered moon dropped from the ceiling above the stage. Screams of delight filled the air as the audience went ballistic. Chants of “Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” began to sound as the two of them were highlighted by a single spotlight. Laughing as he held her hand, Jaxon shrugged, and before Kayla could wrap her head around what it was he wanted to do, he hurled her body over to his and captured her lips with a kiss.
It was soft, no tongue. It was just for show; that was what she told herself. It was Jaxon’s lips on hers, she reminded herself. It was pleasure like she had never felt before, and that was something she couldn’t deny. Her legs went weak at the knees, her weight solely supported by his hand around her waist. The screams of the people around her were muted by the sound of blood rushing in her ears. His lips sucked delicately at hers, and she made a low humming sound in her throat as a result. Then he lifted his head, and it was like someone flipped a switch in Kayla as all other sensations came back to her. The deafening applause of the crowd, the gentle breeze of the air conditioners that blew air across the stage.
It probably didn’t last for more than a few seconds, yet it felt like an eternity to Kayla. And even that was not enough. As Jaxon waved to the crowd, she remembered to smile along and wave back too. Even managing to put a cocky grin on her face, when all she wanted to do was grab him by his shirt and kiss him again just to make sure she had not imagined what just happened. Finally, they were walking off stage, through the entrance to the studio going backstage. As soon as they were out of sight of fans, Kayla removed her hand from the crook of Jaxon’s arm and made a beeline for her dressing room. Her goal was to put as much distance between her and Jaxon before she ended up doing something she would regret. Like kiss him . . . again.
5
Kayla reclined on the couch in her tour bus with a bowl of ice cream between her legs. The Bachelorette was playing on the small screen in front of her, and she was so caught up in the show she didn’t notice the door being opened.
“Cute,” she heard someone say and gasped as she looked up to see Jaxon standing in front of her. She jumped up from the couch and barely caught the bowl in her lap in time to stop ice cream from spilling on the old T-shirt she wore.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, more pissed that he had caught her not looking her best than anything. But if her indignation scared him in any way, he didn’t show it a bit.
“Come on, Kayla, you can’t tell me you aren’t happy to see me.”
“Actually, that is the exact thought that is going through my head right now.”
“You know, one of these days, we are going to have to sit down and talk about the real reason you hate me so much.”
“Oh, we don’t need to sit down for that. I’ll tell you right now. You are an egotistical, male chauvinistic pig who stole my assistant from me.” He seemed to stare at her with an amused smile. Then he moved towards her and leaned in just enough that Kayla could feel his breath on her face.
“I’ve wondered what it would feel like to grab you in the middle of one of your rants and kiss you. Just slide my hands into your hair and kiss all that anger away.”
Kayla’s lips parted as her breath left her in a soft whoosh. She reminded herself that she should be angry at what he just said, was angry at what he said. But at that very moment, she wondered really what that would feel like. Then she saw the taunting look in his eyes and instantly regretted letting her guard down like that. She dropped down on the couch and picked up her phone.
“I don’t have time for your nonsense, Jaxon,” she said as the pad of her fingers toyed with the screen of her cell and she pretended sh
e was no longer interested in him. “What do you want?”
“Me? Nothing. Just wondering on which side it is I am going to be staying.” He looked at her as he spoke, then laughed out loud when the meaning of what he was saying dawned on her.
Kayla knew Jaxon was joking. He definitely had to be joking. Because there was no way in hell she was ever going to share a bus with him, not for any reason. Besides, he had his own tour bus, so why was she even getting herself worried over nothing?
“Go away, Jaxon. I’m really not in the mood to start playing games with you right now,” she said as she grabbed her earphones from the table and stuck them in her ears. She was connecting them to the phone when she heard him answer her.
“I’m serious, Kayla. My bus broke down, and I am to join you for the time being, pending the time they take to fix it.”
Kayla sat up and looked at him for a few seconds, noting the seriousness in his eyes. After judging he was not kidding, she jumped off the couch.
“No, nope, nada. No way in hell that is happening.” She began to pace inside the bus. “How long do they need to fix it? Tell them we’ll wait.”
“Come on, Kayla, that’s just plain stupid. We’ll be on our way so we don’t miss the next gig. They’ll repair it as fast as they can, and once they are done, I’ll get out of your hair.” For once, he was trying to be reasonable, and Kayla hated that she could not reason right along with him. But there was no way she could stand being confined on the bus with him.
“Where is Sally? I want to talk to her right now,” Kayla demanded, walking to the sectioned-off space of the bus that served as her sleeping area and grabbing her jacket. She moved towards the exit, bypassing and ignoring Jaxon as she did, noting that he didn’t seem fazed by her insistence on not traveling with him. Which meant the problem with his bus was serious enough that he knew the only available option would still be him riding on her bus.
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