by Livia Grant
“Thanks for that, Mr. Davidson. I really do appreciate your hospitality. You’ve made me feel so much better.”
“The name’s Jaxson. Mr. Davidson is my father, and believe me, I want no part of being associated with him.”
With a final smile, he stopped long enough next to her to reach out and squeeze her shoulder in a sign of support.
She held her breath until she heard the door click closed behind him. Glancing around nervously, she finally felt she had some privacy. Sam raised the remote and pressed the volume button higher, filling the space with the masculine voice of her long-lost friend. The feed playing on the TV looked like it was a well-produced movie, catching the band from several angles.
Finally relaxing a bit, she lifted her boots to the matching leather ottoman directly in front of her, sinking back and trying to calm her nerves before she had to go another round with Jonah.
Jonah somehow made it through the rest of the show on auto-pilot. He had done something he’d never done before—phoned it in. Because he loved what he did, he lived for spending time on stage playing the music he’d poured his heart and talent into for his growing fan base.
But not tonight.
Tonight the only thing he could think about was rushing through the line-up of songs as fast as possible so he could get back to her.
The band normally did several encores, but he couldn’t bring himself to spend even one more song on the stage when he knew the answers to what the fuck had happened seven years before were here in the building in the form of Samantha Stone.
Frank was the first one to greet him when he rushed back stage, adrenaline still pumping through his veins.
“What the hell was that stunt all about, Cash? You aren’t happy getting women to sue you over rough sex. Now you want to get dozens of people suing because you landed on them when free-falling off the stage?”
Jonah wasn’t in the mood. He tried to brush past the older man in the three-piece suit, but Frank held out his hand, stopping him from moving past. Jonah was already on the edge. He didn’t need to add punching his manager to the list of shit on his plate.
“No one is gonna sue me and you know it, Frank. Now, back-off. I have somewhere to go.”
“Not until you tell me who she is.” Jonah’s face must have shown surprise because Frank grinned an ugly smile. “Oh yeah, I saw. Every person in the club saw. I think I deserve to know the name of your next lawsuit, don’t you? This was new even for you. Interrupting a show to pick out your next fuck-buddy?”
Frank’s vulgar language had never bothered Jonah before, but somehow hearing Samantha referred to as a fuck-buddy didn’t sit well with Jonah. “Shut the fuck up, Frank. You don’t know shit about it.”
“So educate me. I saw her with Jaxson. Don’t lie and try to tell me she isn’t hidden somewhere in the club, waiting for you. Now who the hell is she?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
His long-time friend River had caught up to him, pulling him around. The entire band had pressed in, sandwiching him in the narrow hallway. He wished they looked angry. He was jacked up enough that he wouldn’t mind a good fight. Instead, each musician looked concerned.
Juice pressed him first. “That was some flying leap you took there, Cash. If I was a diving judge, I’d give it a 9.1.” Juice was the only one to laugh at his silly joke.
Ryan pressed him, “Who was she?” The worried look on his friend’s face gave Jonah a hint that Ryan knew exactly who she’d been.
“Don’t worry about it. I have it under control.”
Frank injected, “No you don’t. Not until you get her signature on the NDA.”
Jonah had had enough. These guys were keeping him from answers. He needed to go.
“Fuck the NDA. We don’t need one for Sam.”
Ryan pulled his arm back, keeping him from pressing down the hall towards the coming Jaxson.
“I fucking knew it. Is it your Samantha?”
Jonah stopped in his tracks, turning back to his friend clinging to his arm. “You of all people know damn well she isn’t my anything. She is and always has been daddy’s little girl.”
“Bullshit,” Ryan challenged him.
“Let it go, River.”
“The hell I will. I’m not gonna scrape you up off the floor again like I did the last time this went south.”
“It was seven years ago. All I’m looking for now are answers.”
River looked skeptical. The friends were still in a stare down when Jaxson stepped closer. “You guys gonna hang out in the hall all night? I have some refreshments setup up in the second floor dressing room. Why don’t you all head on up. I need to talk with Cash here for a few minutes.”
The band reluctantly peeled off from the group one by one with Ryan the last to leave. Jax waited until the two men were left alone before he started silently walking towards the small elevator in the corner, knowing Jonah would follow.
Jonah’s pulse increased with each step he took towards the lift that would take him to Samantha. It wasn’t until they were in the elevator and Jaxson had inserted a keycard to make it start moving that the silence between them became awkward.
“How is she?” He finally asked the club owner.
Jaxson kept his eyes forward, refusing to look his way as he replied, “Emotional. I stayed with her until she’d calmed down.”
“Thanks.”
“Want to talk about it?” This time Jaxson glanced sideways and Jonah could see his curiosity.
He said the most honest thing he could in the moment. “No words, man.”
Jaxson whistled, surprised, “That bad?”
Jonah nodded, refusing to let emotion take him over. “Worse.”
The door opened to a small vestibule. Two large French doors were directly in front of the elevator and he knew without Jax confirming that Samantha was behind those doors. He felt her and it unsettled him. He remembered a time when he loved feeling his connection to her, but now… all these years later… that connection was supposed to be dead and buried.
I’ll have to be sure to kill it before I leave here tonight. I don’t need this kind of trauma in my life.
Jaxson was speaking again. “This card will get you out of the suite and call the elevator. That will get you back down behind the stage or to the dressing room, but you’ll have to phone me when you’re ready to go down to Black Light. You won’t have access there until I escort you the first time.”
Before tonight, Jonah had been so looking forward to playing after the show in the new BDSM club also opening in the basement of the building. Funny how Samantha showing up had knocked him on his ass so much he’d forgotten about it completely.
The doors clicked as Jaxson used the keycard and his retina to unlock the private space. Jonah was only a few steps into the suite when he saw her. She’d been standing close to the fireplace, as if she were warming herself. At the sound of the door unlocking, Sam spun around, self-consciously hugging her arms tight around her thin waist as her eyes widened.
She’d taken her jacket off and thrown it over the back of the couch, exposing the form fitting blouse that hugged her ample breasts. She’d filled out perfectly. Gone was the picture of the too-thin teenager he’d had stuck in his memory for the last seven years; replaced by this womanly version of herself.
When his gaze swept up to her face, he wasn’t prepared for the panicky look in her eyes. She appeared as if she were about to jump out of her skin. He wanted her fear to make him feel vindicated.
She should be afraid of me, dammit.
Jaxson leaned in to talk softly. “I have a bad feeling about this. Maybe I should stay. I’ll hang out in the kitchenette.”
“No offense, but I need you to get lost, Jax.”
“You’d better damn well get her safeword and live by it.”
With regret, he answered truthfully, “Wrong guess. We’ve never played or scened together, man.”
That surprised his friend. He co
uldn’t blame Jaxson. Samantha looked like exactly the type of groupie Cash Carter usually played with. He hadn’t done it consciously, but in that moment, he knew he’d been subconsciously picking out play partners who had reminded him of Sam all these years. How fucked up was that?
“Fine, if not sex, then how the hell do you know each other? And don’t fuck with me.”
“We went to elementary school together, okay? She was my best friend all through school.”
Jaxson let another soft whistle of surprise escape before he leaned closer to make sure Sam couldn’t pick up on their conversation from across the room. “If you say so, but I got news for you, buddy. Best friends aren’t supposed to be afraid of each other. So let me make this clear for you. You hurt her, and I kick your ass. Got it?”
It took a second for Jonah to internalize the very real threat. He tore his gaze away from Samantha to look at his fellow Dom and friend.
“Yeah, I got it. Now get the fuck out. It’s time I get some answers.”
Chapter 4
The silence was deafening. Jaxson had nodded to her just before he turned and left, pulling the door closed behind him. She’d almost panicked and yelled to him to stay behind, afraid to be alone with the angry man staring her down from across the room.
If possible, he was even more devastatingly handsome than ever before. He hadn’t taken the time to shower or even change after the show. His thick hair and muscular arms glistened with sweat from the exertion of his art. It had been surreal to watch the concert on the television knowing he was performing just two stories below her.
A full minute of silence went by as the old friends sized each other up. The anger in his eyes hadn’t diluted so when he took a step closer, her boot stepped back out of self-preservation. The old friends danced a silent two-step; each move Sam made was choreographed to keep as much distance between them as possible.
“Since when are you afraid of me?” His voice was foreign to her.
“I’ve never met you. You’re a whole different person, Cash.”
She’d said the words to shock him, hoping he’d stop scaring the shit out of her. It didn’t work.
“I’m exactly who you made me into, Miss Stone.”
“Stop calling me that.” She wasn’t sure why it bothered her, but she somehow knew he meant it as a slur.
“Why? It’s your name, isn’t it? Or did you already get married? Daddy get you married off to a nice stiff from the country club yet?”
“Not yet. For some odd reason I’ve resisted his matchmaking efforts. Maybe that was a mistake.”
“Oh baby, I’m sure it was. I expected you to be living the high life, ruining people’s lives at a breakneck speed by now.”
Samantha felt her fear fleeing, replaced with bubbled-up anger. “What the hell is wrong with you? If anyone should be angry here, it’s me. You’re acting like I set out to ruin your life when instead, I’d think you could at least say you’re sorry if you’re not going to say thank you.”
“Thank you?! What the fuck do I have to thank you for, Samantha?” At least he’d used her first name, even if he had said it like it was a curse.
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe the fact that you’re a Grammy-Award-winning, multimillionaire musician.”
He was closing the distance between them one step at a time, careful not to spook her and make her run, although she had nowhere to go. Her brain was screaming to put more distance between them, but her other body parts were being drawn into his magnetic field, just like the old days.
If anything his green eyes got darker. “Even if I do have success, why the hell would I thank you for that? I have what I have because I worked hard for it. I had to overcome all the bullshit obstacles thrown at me by you and your fucked up family so thank you? No. More like fuck you.”
It was worse than she ever dreamed. Not only was Jonah gone, but Cash Carter was a jerk. She decided she needed to let him know.
“You’re a real asshole, you know that, Cash?”
It wasn’t much, but she saw the small flinch at her use of his stage name. It gave her the courage to press on. “I never should have come here tonight. It was a mistake.”
“Hell yeah, it was. Why’d you come, anyway?”
The sadness of losing the last trace of her best friend threatened to weaken her to tears. She fought to stay strong. She didn’t want him to see how hurt she was.
“I was curious, I guess. I live in D.C. now and I mistakenly thought fate might have finally brought us back together when I realized you were going to be playing just a few blocks from my apartment.”
She should have shut up then. She’d already said too much, but he was moving closer and she had circled around the couch and was close to being cornered by the advancing, angry man.
The words just kept falling out of her mouth, “Maybe I came because I mistakenly missed my friend. I wanted a glimpse of what your life was like. To see what you looked like having everything you ever dreamed of.” Emotion had her choking to get the final words out.
His wicked laughter at her distress brought tears to her eyes as he spewed, “That’s funny, Sam. What would you know about my dreams?”
Her anger was deserting her, leaving her deflated. “I used to know everything.”
He was almost close enough to reach out and touch her. She was relieved when he didn’t as he spewed his next angry rant. “Used to is right. You don’t know shit anymore.”
She tried to rally her anger again. “I can see that. At least your new name suits you. What a fool I’ve been. Missing you. Wishing things had turned out different for us.”
“There never was an us. Your father and uncle saw to that.”
It was true her father had never liked her choice in best friends. Jonah and his mom had lived on the wrong side of the tracks—figuratively and physically. She loved her father, but he really could be a judgmental jerk. Jonah had witnessed that first hand.
The memories softened her so his next attack hurt her hard. “What’s the deal? Your fiancé know where you are tonight? Maybe you’re here because he’s no good in bed and you always wondered what good ‘ole Jonah would have been like in the sex department?”
“You really shouldn’t talk about things you know nothing about.” She paused, unsure how much to share. “I’m not with anyone now.” She bit her tongue before adding the truth, that she never had been.
“Ah, I see. So you decided to come on down and slum it with the token bad-boy in your life. Is it exciting going behind daddy’s back to come see me?”
Why she felt the need to come to her father’s defense she didn’t know, but she did. “Well at least my father has never hurt me. He loves me.”
“Oh, baby, don’t I know it.” He hesitated then, only inches away. He was close enough she could feel his warm breath on her as he leaned in to deliver more hateful words. “I’ve always wondered how close the two of you have gotten since I left.”
He was trying to hurt her and it was working. His innuendo was clear and it infuriated her. She reached out to slap him, but he caught her hand easily. His grip was firm enough to hurt, but it was nothing compared to the devastation when he reached out with his other hand to grab her breast, squeezing so hard it hurt through her blouse and bra. “Does Daddy like your tits? How about your little cunt?” His hand slid lower, cupping her sex through her skirt while she fought to be free. “Did he get to finish off what I started our last night together? I always knew he was jealous of me.”
Her outrage gave her the strength to yank her hand away. She wound up and slapped his left cheek as hard as she could.
It was a toss-up who was more surprised by her striking him. His eyes darkened another shade, yet a smug smile curved his lips into an ugly smirk.
Anger consumed her.
She raised her hand to slap him again, but this time he was ready. He stopped her arm mid-strike, subduing her easily by pushing her right arm up behind her back and yanking her whole body against
his. It was like hitting a brick wall, he was so hard.
Their faces were just inches apart as she spat her angry rebuttal. “I didn’t think it was possible, but I hate who you’ve become.”
“That’s rich, Sam, since you and your family are the ones that made it all possible.”
She didn’t understand his anger at all. Fame and money had corrupted him. There was no other explanation for it. Unfortunately, she’d gotten exactly what she’d come for.
Closure.
There would be no more daydreaming of what might have become of her and her best friend and high school crush. She knew now that he was dead.
She needed to get away from him so she could lick her wounds. She knew when she left him, she would grieve his loss all over again.
“Let me go. I want to leave.”
“I don’t think so. I told you. We have unfinished business.”
“I thought so too, but I got what I needed tonight. You’ve shown me Jonah is dead. Thanks for helping me get that straight.” Her voice quavered as she fought the urge to cry. How could her Jonah be physically so close and yet caverns away from her emotionally?
“I’m so happy for you, but I think I deserve closure too, don’t you?” His grip was tightening, making her more aware than ever of his physical perfection as he ground his erection into her tummy.
Samantha pushed down her excitement at knowing she still had the power to arouse him. A long-lost thrill consumed her as memories from stolen moments past clouded her judgment.
He continued on, pinning her with a hard gaze she was helpless to avoid. “I will only get closure by finishing what we started six years, nine months and fourteen days ago.”
Her heart lurched. Even she hadn’t counted the days they’d been apart. That he had, was interesting enough. What really freaked her out was she knew in that moment the exact event he was referring to.
I’m in serious trouble.
His next words confirmed it. “You owe me one hard fuck, Miss Stone.”
