Harley (West Coast Rock Star #1)

by Michelle Jo Quinn

  Harley knew that Cade did not live in Newark, but her grandmother lived in one of the boroughs, one that was close to New York City, and she recalled Cade talking about some of the tourist attractions in her hometown. Before letting Niki go, she purchased a flight to Trenton and from there, she’d hoped that something would jog her memory, and she would know which direction to head. But her mind was tired. Her body was getting weaker by the minute. There was a reason why she chose Trenton Airport, but at the moment, she couldn’t figure it out.

  Her stomach grumbled, and her head throbbed. Harley bent down to remove the ill-fitting shoes so she could rest her aching feet. How other girls survived in platform shoes all day was beyond her. The action of bringing her head down caused dizziness, and Harley couldn’t stop herself from falling over, banging her head right on the hard floor.

  Someone went over to her, a woman, and asked if she was okay. Harley grumbled a response before passing out.

  ***

  Jax rubbed the tiredness from his eyes with both hands. Someone sat beside him, even without seeing who it was, he knew it was Cade. He removed his hands from his face and admired how calm the woman was next to him. She’d kept it together. If she hadn’t come, they wouldn’t even know where to start searching for Harley.

  “How are you?” Cade asked, lolling her head to one side before glancing around them, and taking his hand in hers.

  “As good as I can be, given the situation.” Jax, without a care to check who was watching them, leaned over to press a quick kiss on Cade’s lips. “I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t come, Cade.”

  She patted his hand reassuringly. “She’s safe now, Jax. People I trust are looking after her until we get there.”

  “She eluded all of us. I think Zee was about to rip Penny’s head off when she told us that Harley had gone missing. I’ve never seen him lose his cool.”

  “Zee? Lose his cool? Unlikely,” she joked, and Jax couldn’t help but chuckle.

  What were the chances that Cade’s contacts were checking the smaller airports when Harley fainted? And better still, Cade’s neighbour was a nurse in the hospital where Harley was taken. Everything was fitting well, because of Cadence.

  “Why don’t you rest up? I’ll wake you up when we land,” Cade suggested.

  “Rest while you’re around me? Do you know how impossible that is?” Jax enjoyed seeing the blush colour Cade’s cheeks. He reached up and ghosted the back of his hand over her smooth skin. Cade leaned her head to his touch. In that moment, Jax knew what he needed to do to keep Cade. Never again would she leave his sight, or his side. All he had to do was convince her it was the right step to take.

  ***

  Noises began trickling into her waking senses. There were murmurs and beeping sounds around her. The room she was in when she came to was dark, illuminated by a single lamp on the bedside. Harley’s hand went immediately to her forehead. She winced when she felt the goose egg just beneath her hairline. When she moved to sit up, there was a pinch on her arm. She was hooked up onto a heart monitor and an IV drip.

  Harley grunted, pushing herself higher up on the bed.

  “Har, try not to move, baby.” The voice in the dark startled her.

  “Dad?” Her voice came out hoarse. She blinked to clear her vision. Sure enough, her father sat on an armless chair beside the hospital bed. As she settled back down, he moved over to her side, squeezing her hand.

  “Hey, you.” He smiled at her. Harley tried to ignore the weariness around his eyes. “You gave us quite a scare, Har.”

  Harley nodded. “I know. I’m sorry. I missed Cade and I thought if I visited her, I’d get her to come back.”

  “I should have thought of that too. It wasn’t until she came to help us that I realized how special she is to you and me.”

  “She helped?”

  “Yes, if it wasn’t for her, things could have been a lot worse. Next time, kiddo, if you have an idea, come to me first. I would have gone with you, you know.”

  Harley bit the inside of her lip. She felt the guilt eating at her. How could she not have trusted her father?

  “Where is she now?”

  Jax raised his head and nodded at the door. “She’s just getting coffee. She’ll be thrilled to see you up. I have to let your doctor know that you’re awake.” With another squeeze of her hand and a gentle kiss on her forehead, Jax straightened and walked out of the room.

  Harley might not have been proud of the actions she had taken. She considered herself one lucky duck. Everything could have gone completely wrong. Minus her fainting at the terminal, she’d been able to get Cade back into her life. Yet, now she wondered if she would choose to stay.

  She looked wistfully at the door where her father and a doctor were talking. Cade appeared by Jax’s side, and as surprised as Harley was, she couldn’t stop the smile spreading on her face when Cade intertwined her fingers with Jax’s. Yes, Harley was indeed one lucky duck. Now off to phase two of her plan.

  Chapter Twenty

  Cade lifted a corner of the sheet, folded it, and expertly tucked it under the mattress. Try as she might, she couldn’t quite ignore the rugged sex appeal emanating from Jax, who’d chosen to watch her every move. How many people could say that they’d had a rock star at their home? In their bedroom? In her bedroom…where there was a bed…a rock star in her bed…Cade shook the thoughts out of her head.

  “What’s on your mind?” Jax asked, a teasing tone in his voice.

  Cade halted making the bed and let herself look at him. All lean muscles, tattoos, a mess of hair, which on Jax just added to the overall appeal—and why did it seem like no one else could wear jeans better than him? She was willing to bet he knew exactly what had crept in her mind. He moved away from the vanity and rounded to the opposite side of the bed.

  Good, Cade thought, a queen-size bed should keep her hands away from wandering all over Jax. She raised a brow as Jax copied her previous actions of tucking in the bed sheet.

  “You don’t have to do that. I can manage on my own,” she protested. “You should be resting before your flight back.”

  He ignored her, finishing off the task, and surprisingly, he had done well. “I worked at a hotel in Bel-Air when I was younger. Not as a chambermaid, but I helped a few of my colleagues, then they split the tips with me,” he recalled.

  Cade proceeded to fluff the pillows. “You’re evading. I’m almost done here. If you’re worried about Harley staying over here, I can get us a hotel.”

  “I didn’t say I was worried.” Jax glanced at the open door. Out in the living room, Harley could be heard chatting away with Cade’s grandmother. “She’s having a lot of fun here.”

  “Yeah.” Her voice ended at that. The rest of the words clung in her throat as Jax walked to the door, closed it quietly, and made his way to her.

  She moaned at the sudden heat that surged through her body when Jax mashed his lips on hers, holding her face with his hands, and his hard toned body pressed against all her softer curves. Jax nudged her backwards and they fell onto the bed, all efforts from before forgotten. His lips on her neck skimmed the edge of her ear, kissed the maddened pace of her pulse, and meandered over her collarbones. Jax could do so much harm and so much good with those lips.

  He had her lower half trapped between his denim-clad legs. She was hauntingly aware of what else was under those jeans. Blood rushed to her head when his hands sneaked up under her shirt, brushed her skin, and caused her a jolt of a tickle and something else. Something more. Lust.

  “Jax,” she sighed out his name, squirming underneath him, but welcoming his every touch. “Jax.” His fingers posed to peel away a cup of her bra.

  Jax looked up, panting, his lips red and inviting. Then he released her from the trance, his hands moved out from under her shirt, and propped on either side of her. He lowered his head and kissed the V of her cleavage, then shimmied his entire body up so he could press his forehead to hers.

/>   “I lost my head for a moment,” he confessed.

  “You think?”

  “Sorry.” And he looked it, his puckered lower lip sucked between his teeth, and his eyebrows drawn together.

  Cade lifted her hands up to cup his face, and gave him the gentlest kiss, a hover over his lips. “If we were somewhere else, Jax, I wouldn’t have stopped you.” Then he smiled, and she forgot where they were…for a single beat. “You’ll have to help me fix the bed again.”

  His chuckle reverberated into her chest and scooped up her heart. She could have her fun now. He wasn’t her employer any longer.

  When Harley was released from the hospital, Cade offered for them to stop by at her grandmother’s house for lunch. Jax needed to return to LA for the concert that night. How he was going to do it with very little sleep, and exhaustion from all the excitement of the previous day, Cade couldn’t surmise. He was the one who insisted that Bruno not postpone the concert.

  “Make sure everything’s ready when I get there,” he had said over the phone.

  What Jax hadn’t counted on was Harley asking to stay with Cade for a few days in Princeton, New Jersey, while she recovered.

  “Travelling the same day might be harmful for her, Jax,” Cade had reasoned. “I don’t mind looking after her here.”

  Jax had pouted. “Then maybe I should cancel the concert. I wanted the both of you there.”

  Cade shook her head and captured his lips with her fingers. “Stop pouting. It doesn’t suit you. We’ll fly out in a couple of days,” she had promised.

  But the thought of being away from him even for a few days wore Cade down. How did this even happen? She was never a clingy girlfriend. What was she thinking? She wasn’t his girlfriend at all! They were friends, nothing more. Friends who made the bed together only to mess it up with some heavy petting.

  Cade groaned as she and Jax got up from the bed. She needed a moment to get herself together, away from Jax. “I’ll be ba—” Jax stopped her with another heated kiss.

  “Don’t overthink this, Cadence.” His eyes seared through hers. He held her in his arms. “I want to be with you, Cade. I can see you fighting it.” He sealed that with another kiss, softer but not at all less toe-curling. “It was dumb of me to let you go before. Not going to happen again.”

  Cade laid her head on his shoulder. She felt his breath on her hair, and heard his rapid heartbeat. Was she willing to admit that she wanted the same thing? She could count on one hand how many times her heart had been broken, but she had managed to recover from those without any scars. If things didn’t work out with Jax, would she even survive the fallout?

  Jax was a rock star. He was popular. Women screamed his name. Men emulated him. He was desired by many. Loved by most, through his music, his talent, his voice, and that killer look he had going on. His face would be all over, and those would be painful reminders of how epic a failure their relationship could be.

  Or should she jump into untested waters? Calm blues like Jax’s eyes, and deep like the love he had for his daughter. His luxurious scent was enough of an invitation, inhibiting her from walking away. The sheer magnetism of Jax’s overall persona appealed to Cade. He had confessed before that he no longer craved or desired different women during long, lonely nights. He only wanted her.

  Jax’s deep moan woke her from her ministrations. “Don’t overthink it, Cade. Please. Give us a chance.”

  To her surprise, Cade nodded.

  The sigh which came out of Jax was so audible that she couldn’t help but laugh. He cupped her chin up and she saw the pure ecstasy swimming in his eyes, on the relaxed features of his face, on the tilt of the corners of his lips. Jax was hers. And she was his. Whatever else came after that, she knew she wouldn’t be the only one to go through it.

  ***

  Bruno placed his large hands over Jax’s shoulders.

  “You look like hell,” his agent told him through the lit mirror.

  “I might look like it, but I, my friend, I’m in heaven!” Jax proclaimed, lifting his fists up in the air.

  Bruno stepped back and wondered for a moment, then his face lit up. “She said yes? She’s going for it?”

  “Yeah. And I couldn’t be more relieved,” confessed Jax. “They’ll fly back in two days, and I’ll meet them in Vancouver.”

  Bruno patted his rock star friend’s back. “That’s good. Will she be travelling with us throughout the tour?”

  Shoulders sagging, Jax felt a little defeated. How could he miss something that important?

  The band would be on tour, first, all throughout the US, stopping at ten different cities, then they would be heading over international waters. Knowing Cade, and after what had just happened, she wouldn’t want to leave Harley behind. Due to Harley’s condition, travelling that much wasn’t allowed. He had waited for this chance to be with Cade, but they would be physically away from each other for months. Jax could wait longer, but Cadence had taken the chance to try out this relationship. What would the long distance do to her decision?

  “I can see that you haven’t thought this out much.” Bruno’s statement was like ice-cold rain on Jax’s parade. “You have nothing to worry about. She already said yes, and she will be with Harley. You’re like a family already. What could go wrong?” Bruno exhaled, loud and hard. “I shouldn’t have said anything. Forget I said it. Let’s get this show started, huh? Michael has the cam ready. Your girls in Jersey will be able to see you perform.”

  “Yeah. Gimme a minute, Bruno.” With a roll of his neck to ease the tension, and a few cleansing breaths, Jax put aside his troubles and donned his rock star persona.

  Zee greeted him outside his room, and together they walked through the hallways and up the crowded backstage. The hard-working crew whistled and clapped, offering him encouragement. He stopped by the curtains and shook his hands and arms, then jumped on the spot. When he stepped out onto the stage, the stadium exploded with cheers from thousands of fans.

  This…the energy, the high…this was why he became a rock star.

  ***

  “There he is!” Harley pointed at the screen, jumping on the sofa where she and Cade sat.

  Cade’s neighbour’s techie son had helped them connect Cade’s laptop to her grandmother’s TV. But when he’d found out that the video streaming was in fact a special live broadcast of the band, he had insisted they watch it at his mother’s house instead, where the TV screen was much larger, and hooked up to a surround sound system.

  “Big fan of the band, man,” he whooped when Cade thanked him.

  They all settled in Sheila’s living room with popcorn and drinks. Even Cade’s grandmother joined in on the fun, telling her granddaughter that if the music got too loud, she would turn down her hearing aid. Harley had laughed at her comment and given the older woman a hug.

  She reminded her of Harley’s great grandmother, and being around her had given Harley a brighter hope. Her plan had been to get Cade and her father to spend more time together, until they both realized that they were crazy for each other. But she had mis-stepped, ending up at a hospital, and the doctor who’d been in charge of her had advised against any long flights.

  It would have been disastrous, but since she’d be staying with Cade and her grandmother, she’d taken that as a good omen. All Harley had to do was put a bit of information in Cade’s ears of how great her father was, a little nudge here and there in the right direction.

  Jax owned the stage. Even through the TV screen, she could feel the power of his presence, what attracted many to her father. After dedicating the entire show to Harley, the band started, and the crowd went wild. Before leaving, he had promised Harley that she would get to see him perform live one of these days, when she was healthier.

  “Can Cade come too?” Har had asked.

  Jax had nodded and laughed. “That’s the plan, kid.” At that moment, there had been no doubt that Jax was attracted to Cade.

  But where was Cade’s heart in a
ll of this?

  While Jax’s voice filtered into the room, Harley snuck a peek at Cade, and found her entranced and enthralled. If that didn’t answer her question, then she didn’t know what would. Harley relaxed into the couch cushions, reached for Cade’s hand, and held it.

  Yes, she would love more of this.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The much cooler air in Vancouver was a welcome feeling to Jax’s warmed skin. It was scorching hot in LA during the past two days of their shows. Ideally, he should have gone straight to San Diego with the band, but he wanted to see Harley back in Vancouver. And he’d be lying if he didn’t admit that he wanted to be with Cade too.

  He checked his watch. Three o’clock in the morning. After the last song, he did one quick interview, skipped the after party, and went straight to the airport. The drive home didn’t take long through downtown Vancouver. Jax managed not to go ballistic when he found his private elevator was out of service. He would take the stairs all the way up to the penthouse if it meant being with the two people he cared for the most. The other elevator wasn’t nearly as quick as his, and only a couple of residents had gone on with him and Zee.

  His place was quiet. It would have been calming if his heart wasn’t on high-speed from the start.

  “Go on home, Zee. Everything looks good here. Take tomorrow off too and I’ll see you Wednesday.” He shook hands with his bodyguard before striding towards the stairway.

  First stop, Harley’s room.

  He found her curled up under her blanket, clutching a pink bear. Harley, his larger-than-life daughter, asleep as snugly as one child could be. Jax hoped she was dreaming.

  When she was two, she had the energy of ten kids. She was exuberant, lively, and rambunctious. Fiona had often passed her to him when she couldn’t deal with “it” anymore, telling Jax that there was something significantly wrong with the child.