"It's not how I planned our first date," he said.
She swallowed hard. He better not ask her how she imagined their first date. She had never gotten around to picturing the date part. Her imagination jumped straight to the… dessert.
"You can tell me in the car," she said. "If we don't leave in about ten seconds, I'm going to be all over you again."
He stepped closer and she closed her eyes when he leaned in for the kiss. His breath on her skin made her dizzy. She opened one eye when the kiss didn't land.
"Were you trying to talk me into leaving the house or…"
"Come on," she begged. "Help me out."
He sighed and took a step toward the door.
"You don't know what you're asking."
"I'll make it up to you, I prom-"
"No," he said suddenly serious. "Don't feel like you owe me anything because you have your own life. I can wait."
"I know you can," she blurted. "I'm the one who had enough of waiting," she said, feeling her cheeks grow hot.
"Anything you want, my Queen," he said with a bow of his head that seemed only partly playful.
Did he know what he did to her with that stuff? When Carter had proclaimed her the Queen of Rock on the Viaverde stage, she nearly fainted. That title was her secret treasure. Andrew's words when they left the Jungle haunted her. You'll always be my Queen.
It took her an inordinate amount of time to gather her things. He watched her in silence as she picked up and dropped books, clothes, flowers, her cell and once even her laptop.
"I'm so glad I don't have to drive," she said, when they were in his jeep, and she could feel herself shaking. "Did you really plan out our first date?" she asked.
"Sort of," he said. "It started with a table at Mirage-"
"I love that place," she interrupted him. "Sorry. Go on."
"It sort of also ended with the table at Mirage. If I tell you the rest of the plan I wouldn't be able to focus on the road."
"You are such a massive tease!" she exclaimed.
"We should talk about something else," he said, the strain in his voice causing her to gape at him.
"Okaaaay," she said. "Who do you think will be the new mayor?"
"Christian Sinclair," he answered.
"What? Alice's ex-fiancé?"
"Fiancé?" he exclaimed. "I thought they were just dating before…" His voice trailed off.
"Looks like you don't know as much about my best friend as you thought you knew," she said teasingly. "You're right about Sinclair though. Even I'll vote for him if he runs next year."
"Did you ever think of getting involved in politics?" he asked.
"The thought never even crossed my mind until Carter told me about my father."
"What did he tell you about Paul?"
Paul?! He was on first name basis with her father. She wondered briefly if her father would object that she was dating an older man.
"Do you think he will mind?" she asked.
"Paul or Carter?"
She didn't know which of them would have an issue with her relationship. Carter surely knew about her crush. And if her father was the people reading machine she thought, he had probably guessed, too.
"I just realized that I don't care what either of them thinks," she said. "About me and you I mean. I still care about what they think… in general."
"So if either of them asks me to leave you alone, I have your permission to ignore them?"
She snorted. "Yeah, you do!"
Chapter 18
Vy
HE HAD SLOWED DOWN CONSIDERABLY on the highway, but even so, they arrived in Salona too soon. She couldn't let him go. She checked the shared calendar and saw that Alice was supposed to be in Drama Club for the next three hours at least.
"Do you want to come up?" she asked when they stopped in the parking lot near the building when she and Alice lived.
"For coffee," he said.
"No," she replied. "Not for coffee."
He put his hand behind her neck and leaned to kiss her. "You really don't do subtle," he whispered between kisses.
She wondered vaguely if her room was tidy. If her bed was made. It mattered less and less with each kiss. She locked her arms around his neck and pulled him halfway out of his seat until her shoulder blades were pressed against the passenger door.
"Maybe we should not have coffee upstairs," she said nibbling at his earlobe.
"Mmm?"
Her head swam with the intensity of her desire. She could keep kissing him for days, but she couldn't stand the pressure building up in her lower belly.
"Please," she said.
"Anything you want."
"Let's go upstairs."
He looked at her with those hypnotic dark eyes. He looked adorably confused with his raven hair messed up. Her skin tingled from the contact with his beard. And she wanted more. So much more.
He finally got out of the car, and Vy didn't wait for him to open the door for her. She held his hand as they walked from the car to the building entrance. She felt suddenly awkward, holding his hand in public, but as soon as the elevator doors closed, her awkwardness vanished and she pulled him into a kiss.
She unlocked the apartment door with trembling hands and as soon as she dropped her key in the bowl by the door she pulled him into a kiss by the lapels of his leather jacket. She pushed the jacket off his shoulders in the living room, and they kicked off their shoes without as much as stopping for air.
"Couch?" he asked.
"My bed," she answered and dragged him by the hand into her room.
#
She woke up in Andrew's arms, and for a moment she thought she was still asleep. She had had plenty of dreams about Andrew. This could be a really, really good one.
The hardwood floor in the living room screeched loudly. That old place had been Alice's choice and they always joked that the noise of the hardwood floor would be an excellent alarm if anyone broke in.
Before she could panic, she heard Alice's voice.
"I'll make your damn coffee and then you can mosey off back to Orsino!"
Oh, damn! What time was it? Alice was supposed to be at her Drama Club for hours. Her brain was mush after the first orgasms in her life that hadn't been self-manufactured. Maybe she could sneak out and make sure Alice was in her room before Andrew woke up.
Her stomach clenched at the sight of the gorgeous man sleeping tangled in her sheets.
Then it struck her. Alice had been talking to someone. Double damn. Then again, maybe she could keep Andrew in her room until the other person left and Alice went to sleep.
She froze when she heard Carter's voice.
"They're still outside. It will damage my reputation if I don't spend at least a couple of hours here, and you wouldn't want that. I'll be in a very rotten mood afterwards."
The living room couch squeaked.
"I could use a nap before driving back," Carter said.
Holy fuck! Carter was there, and he was making himself comfortable on their couch! She tried to think frantically if there were any traces of Andrew in the living room.
The shoes!
She pulled on a long t-shirt and rushed out of the room, hoping she could kick Andrew's shoes under the couch before Carter saw them.
She was going to have a word with Alice after this was over. Her friend had lost all control of Carter's behavior. She was supposed to be the adult and the Carter expert, but since their weird relationship started, Carter had seemed to become even more insane than usual.
She skidded to a halt in the living room, in time to hear Alice tell Carter, who was lounging on the couch:
"You can sleep in my bed if you really need to. I can smother you there just as eas-"
They both turned to look at her. She realized that she was blushing crimson and her brain failed to come up with a snarky remark before Carter spoke.
"Your paid date with Ryann went well I see," he said.
Vy's eyes were drawn to And
rew's shoes, but she turned her gaze back to Carter before he'd get the idea to see what she was staring at.
"What are you doing here?" she said in a low voice. "Can't you leave her alone at least in Salona? What's wrong with you?!"
"Oh, yeah, because I'll fall for that," Carter said. "Hey, Ford," he shouted.
"Will you shut up!" she whispered loudly walking over to him. "We have neighbors, you know?"
She managed to nudge the shoes under the couch with her foot, but that put her in Carter's immediate proximity.
"Mhm, neighbors," he muttered, craning his neck to look at her shoulder.
Her t-shirt had fallen off her shoulder and she gathered it hurriedly. A heat wave went through her at the memory of Andrew's beard, lips and teeth on her skin.
"Those are hickeys, Miss Cesara."
"Stop being such a jerk," Alice said in an outraged whisper. "It's her business what she's doing."
"Who she's doing," he said. "Hey, Ford, come out, man," he shouted again. "I take it he's all tuckered out. I would have expected more stamina from-"
Carter stopped in mid-sentence, and Vy turned to see what he was looking at.
Oh, fuck!
Andrew's leather jacket.
Andrew
He startled awake, patting the bed, searching for her. He panicked for a second until he heard voices from outside the room. He pulled on his jeans and he was reaching for his shirt when he heard Carter shouting
"Hey, Ford, come out, man!"
He grinned. If it had to be someone to find out first, it might as well be Carter. He walked out shirtless, and the first thing he saw was Vy wearing nothing but a t-shirt.
"Good morning, Carter," he said, trying not to stare at Vy's long legs.
"Maybe it's morning for you," Carter said, beaming with delight. "For the rest of us is evening."
Vy took a few steps away from Carter, busily studying the floor. Her cheeks were bright red. She looked deliciously embarrassed.
"If that's settled, we're going to retire," he said, holding his hand out.
Vy took it and he pulled her close.
"Finally!" Alice exclaimed. "I was getting fed up with the two of you! Now go back to your room and think about you did! I have a coffee to make and a butt to kick out."
He smiled at his assistant, and followed her order.
"I think that's possibly the longest you were quiet since I met you," he said when he and Vy were alone in her room again.
She opened her mouth but no sound came out. When he cupped her blushing cheeks, he felt them burning.
"Hey, are you okay?" he asked gently.
The only answer he got were Vy's hands over his shoulders and up his neck. She pulled his head toward hers and all questions and doubts faded away when their mouths met.
The End
Author's Note
A few words about Illyria
Illyria is a fictional country in Europe. I think of it as an English speaking France. Geographically, it's in the middle of Europe, stretching down all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. Because it borders France, Germany and Italy, there are people in Illyria with French, German and Italian sounding names. But they all speak English.
Illyria is a former monarchy. The Illyrians don't miss their days as a kingdom, but they are proud of their history. Illyrian politics and its history becomes more important in the next few books.
Vy's decision to audition on Sing instead of following in her father's footsteps and study Law in Salona brings about a series of consequences much bigger than her own carrier and her relationship with her parents.
Next books
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The next books in the series will be a duet about TC & Alice. The action starts after Andrew hires Alice as his assistant on Sing and it concludes a few weeks after the last scene of this book.
Rockstar vs Heiress (release date - August 12)
and
Heiress vs Rockstar (probably August 30)
and another duet between characters that appear in the Rockstar & Heiress books
Bella Illyria
and
Forza Illyria
www.adalindwhite.com
Rockstar vs Heiress
Andrew King wasn't the only one to bring his two assistants to the kick-off meeting. Lauren DeSalle had both of hers, Ryann Ford and TC had only one each. Alice recognized Mark, the Waves' drummer sitting next to him TC.
Robinson Dean went over the rules, and Alice split her attention between him and the others. After watching Sing! for ten years, and reading all the material the network had given Vy before she entered the House, she probably knew more details than anyone in that room.
TC's gaze passed over her without as much as a flicker of recognition. She must have made little impression on him. Better that way. Last thing she needed was him getting paranoid about what she and Vy could talk about behind his back. Alice wondered if TC's second assistant would be Vy after all.
Although she was looking straight at Dean, she studied TC from the corner of her eye. Much like King himself, he seemed to have aged a decade. Torturing Vy probably took its toll on him as well. She refused to speculate on any other reasons.
When the meeting ended, King waved over one of the guys from the team. The young man came immediately with a bright smile on his face that got wider when they shook hands. He had the same expression as all Alice's friends whenever Andrew King was around. King's earnestness had a strong effect on people. He inspired loyalty in anyone he worked with. She was no exception.
"Good to see you, Mike," King said shaking his hand. "This is Alice. She will be my assistant this year. Can you give her a tour of the House?"
She shook hands with the guy.
"Sure thing, Andrew."
"Thanks, man. Alice, give me a call when you finish, and we'll come pick you up."
She pretended to listen to Mike as he talked about the Bracciano Mansion. Alice knew the real history of the Bracciano family and their whole estate. They were one of the old families who had been unlucky to lose their fortune. They had dwindled into the pages of history books. Unlike the Cesaras. Or the Orsays. Or the Montrachets. Those old and cunning families had survived and flourished after the war. The Sinclairs and even the Lewises were considered young families by comparison.
When the mansion came into view, her first thought was that Vy's assessment from the year before was correct. The old place was built very much like the Montrachet mansion, Leonie's house. The Cesaras' ancestral home had been destroyed during the War, and they had never bothered to rebuilt it when they rose back into prominence. Compared to her grandparents' castle, the Bracciano mansion seemed plain on the outside. Mostly rectangular, it was symmetrically split into east and west wings. IBC kept the exterior a bland shade of grey that made sure to remove any traces of personality it might have had.
The large entrance hallway didn't resemble Leonie's apart from the antique chandelier. The Montrachet mansion had a revoltingly modern interior design which had so much of Leonie's personality stamped on it that Alice couldn't help adoring it.
"Ask me anything you want to know," Mike said.
Since King mentioned that he'd be in America a lot, she needed to know if she could still work with the team in his absence.
"Andrew said that the Captains can go in and out of the House every time they want. Is this t
he same for the assistants?"
"Not exactly. They can only go into the House outside scheduled practices with the team Captain."
"But during scheduled practice we can be here without our Captains?"
He nodded.
Well, that was something. Scheduled practices could be any time from 9 am to 9 pm. She'd have to make sure they scheduled plenty of practices for her and David so they can prepare the contestants even when King was gone.
"Can I see the music rooms?" Alice asked.
"Your team will have number two. The Captains get the room number according to their rank the previous season. Do you want to go there first?"
"Yes, please. Ours first, then the all the others."
They went into the west wing of the house. The hallway opened into an antechamber with three doors. As she knew from Vy, Room One was in the East Wing and it had an antechamber all to its own.
"Your Music Room," Mike said, opening the door.
He held the door open for her, but he let her go inside alone. She was grateful for this unexpected courtesy. She needed to be alone to get the feel of a room.
In the middle of the room, a beautiful large piano reigned supreme. Ten chairs were lined by the left wall, one chair upturned on top of another in five neat pairs. Across from the door there was a large window.
Alice opened the piano's cover and played the opening notes of the Illyrian national anthem. She nodded approvingly to find it well tuned, and closed the lid. She walked to the window and tried to orientate herself. Outside she could see a section of the parking lot, so they were facing the front of the house. South facing windows meant they would have natural light longest during the winter.
When she came back out in the large antechamber, Mike jumped from the Chesterfield upholstered in red velvet.
"Room four," he said, opening another door for her.
Light Dream (Love in Illyria Book 2) Page 15
