Wanting Shaw

by Terri Anne Browning

  Cannon suggested the music video, because the song I wrote for her hadn’t done jack shit to force her to listen. It started off as just an apology song that I had to fight tooth and nail with the producers at Petrova to get on my solo album. I’d pushed for it to be one of the singles released before the album even dropped, and Ma had to do some fast talking to make them see it was a good idea.

  I knew Shaw must have heard the damn thing by now. Every person in the world with access to a radio had heard it at this point. The first week on the air, it had hit the top ten on both the pop and rock charts. It had hit number one on Billboard and had remained there ever since. I’d hoped Shaw would call me and at least give me a chance to explain once she heard it, but she’d remained stubbornly quiet.

  Now, I was relying on Cannon’s self-proclaimed brilliant idea to get my girl back.

  There wasn’t an actual video for Shaw to be in, although I was paying her fee for her time. Everything was being staged to seem like there was one, though. Ma had even called in a favor with a director she knew, and the guy was going to be on set the next morning in case Shaw got suspicious. Her parents and even Piper were in on the whole thing, so they were playing along like everything was the real deal.

  My record label had already filmed a video for the song. Just me singing in front of a window while it rained. The storm in the background had given it a dramatic effect, and it had hit all the top music video lists as well as logging over ten million views on YouTube over the course of a single weekend.

  Around midnight, I fell asleep, but it felt like I’d just closed my eyes when Aunt Dallas was nudging me awake. “Hey,” she whispered. “Time to get up. Filming starts early if you want to be done in time for the concert tonight.”

  There were only two more weeks left of the tour. One more show in Miami that night before we worked our way up to Atlanta, where we would wrap things up the following weekend. We’d sold out every venue, and it was only our first time headlining. But I was ready for this tour to be over so I could get home.

  With Shaw.

  Aunt Dallas touched her daughter’s shoulder. “Time to get up,” she said a little louder, and Shaw groaned, burying her head in the pillow. “If you aren’t up in the next five minutes, you won’t get anything to eat until we get to the filming location.”

  “Whatever,” she muttered. “Big whoop. I don’t need food. I need sleep.”

  “There’s a Starbucks on the third floor of this hotel.” I tempted her.

  Her head snapped up, and she blinked at me a few times. “You’re here?” Grinning, I nodded. “I thought you were a dream,” she complained and pushed the covers off her as she angrily got to her feet.

  Running her fingers through her hair, she gave a small scream. “Fuck. I’ll have to wash my hair again.”

  “Hurry up,” Aunt Dallas instructed. “We leave in twenty minutes.”

  Shaw huffed but turned for the bathroom. “Jagger, get me some Starbucks. If I have to be in this stupid video, you can at least be my assistant this morning.”

  I got up to do just that, but Aunt Dallas stopped me.

  “Cannon is already making a coffee run for us all,” her mother announced. “Yours will be waiting for you. Downstairs. With our transportation. I might have even put some coffee cake loaf on the order list. Doesn’t mean you’ll get any if you don’t hurry, though.”

  While Shaw showered, I pulled on fresh clothes and then stepped into the bathroom to brush my teeth. I tried not to watch her in the shower while I scrubbed my mouth, but I was only so strong. There was so much steam that I couldn’t see more than her silhouette, but it was enough to leave my cock in agony as it pressed against the confines of my jeans.

  Groaning, I rinsed my mouth and left before I either joined her in the shower or exploded in my pants.

  Shaw came out to the living room ten minutes later, dressed and with a brush in her hand. “Will there be someone there to do my makeup and hair?” she asked.

  “Yes,” I confirmed, my eyes eating up the sight of her in an olive-green crop top that exposed her flat stomach and showed a hint of her cleavage. The jeans she was wearing fit her like a tight glove, and my cock was back to stretching my jeans to capacity at the sight of her ass in those damn things. She pulled on a pair of sandals and tossed her brush aside before grabbing her purse and phone.

  “In that case, I’m ready,” she announced.

  There was a van waiting outside the hotel for us when we got downstairs. Shaw’s parents, along with Cannon and Piper, were already inside, and as soon as I closed the door behind us, the driver was pulling into traffic.

  “Piper!” Shaw exclaimed when she saw the younger girl. She threw her arms around the feisty little rocker and kissed her cheek. When she pulled back, she gave Piper a thorough inspection, as if looking for injuries. “Has my brother done anything I need to kick his ass over? I swear, I’ll hold him down, and you can kick him in the balls on repeat for ten straight minutes if he hasn’t behaved himself.”

  Piper snorted out a laugh. “That holds some serious appeal. But no. He’s been fairly good all summer.” She lifted her venti caramel frappuccino and took a sip. “Besides, no one can order the perfect coffee like your brother.”

  Shaw glanced at me with raised brows, as if asking me if Piper was for real. I shrugged. My surprise at how Cannon had been treating Piper had been just as huge as her own when the tour first started. But if anything, those two seemed to be somewhere closer to frenemies now. It helped that Piper gaze zero fucks about what she said to Cannon. The weirdest part was that Cannon seemed to thrive off Piper busting his balls.

  “Jags, your dark roast, two sugars, no cream.” Cannon handed over my venti coffee, then gave Shaw hers. “White chocolate mocha with coconut milk, extra whip, and caramel drizzle. And a slice of coffee cake.”

  Piper gasped and turned to glare at him. “You got her cake and not me?”

  He rolled his eyes and produced a second bag. “Red velvet loaf for the spoiled brat.”

  She snatched it from him greedily and took a huge bite. “My favorite,” she said with a moan.

  It took half an hour to get to the location for the video. As soon as we got inside, Shaw was swept away. Two people worked on her hair and makeup, while I went to talk to the director and the other people who were going to star in the video.

  “You ready?” I asked Kayla, who was standing with Dana sipping their iced coffees. When I’d asked them both to help me out, they hadn’t hesitated. I’d paid for their flights, hotel, and everything in between, so this was like a mini vacation for them.

  Kayla lifted a brow when she saw how nervous I was. “I think the question is, are you?”

  “Yeah, you look like you’re about to puke,” Dana said with sympathy.

  I scrubbed my hands over my face. “If this doesn’t work, it’s only going to push her further away.”

  “You should have just let us explain everything to her back then,” Dana muttered. “She would have believed us.”

  “Doubtful.” I grimaced.

  “Even I would have had difficulty believing what she saw if it were me, babe,” Kayla told her fiancée. Reaching out, she tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear, the five-carat engagement ring glittering blindingly on her finger. Dana had popped the question New Year’s Eve, and they had invited me to their engagement party a few weeks later. The wedding was set for May of the following year, and I’d already gotten the invitation.

  I was hoping to take Shaw as my plus-one if this all went as planned.

  “All right, ladies,” Cannon said as he joined our group. “Take your places, because baby sis is almost ready, and we don’t want her to see you too soon.”

  Kayla and Dana went into the room we were using as a replica of my apartment, and I followed Cannon to where Shaw was getting dressed. Piper gave me a thumbs-up as she pushed Cannon back out the door. “We’re not needed here, dumbass.”

  “Whatever, bra
t,” he grumbled but let her push him again.

  The door closed behind them, leaving just Shaw and the wardrobe chick in the room with me. My eyes ate up the sight of Shaw. Her makeup, hair, and outfit, all the way down to the killer heels she had been wearing that fateful day, were as I remembered, but she didn’t seem to get that yet. She would soon, though.

  “Can we get a minute?” I asked the woman who was making sure Shaw’s top was perfectly in place.

  She exited quickly without a word, and I held my breath until the door shut behind her. Shaw turned from examining her reflection in the mirror, her brows pulling together in a frown. “You need to tell me what I should do out there. I mean, I’m not exactly the best actress. Maybe you should have gotten Arella if you wanted something worth showing the world.”

  “You’re perfect,” I told her as I grasped her wrists and pulled her in close. With the heels she had on, we were eye level with each other, and I loved it. I stroked one hand up her arm to her neck and then skimmed my fingertips along her skin to her collarbone. The goose bumps that popped up along the way and the shiver she couldn’t hide had me hard as steel once again, but I tamped down the need to push her up against the wall and make her mine once and for all. “I want you to go out there and just be natural. Whatever you feel like doing, I want you to do. All I ask is that you take everything in before you react.”

  Her brows pinched together with a deep frown, but before she could speak, I placed the key she’d returned that day back in her palm and folded her fingers around it so she couldn’t see what I’d given her.

  “I’m going to be completely honest here, baby.” I inhaled slowly, trying to calm my pounding heart as I fought my nervousness. “You might want to slap my face. You might even tear this place apart. I’m okay with you doing whatever, as long as you just take it all in. Can you do that for me?” She just stared at me, and I swallowed hard. “Please?”

  “I’ll try my best,” she finally answered, making me smile.

  I touched my lips to her cheek and stepped back. “I have to go get in position. Cannon will clue you in when to take your place.” I got to the door before stopping and turning back to face her. “Please don’t leave again.”

  “I won’t,” she whispered.

  Chapter 33

  Shaw

  As soon as the door closed behind Jagger, I looked down at what he’d placed in my hand. Seeing the key ring with his apartment key on it that he’d given me once before, I felt something painful squeeze in my chest.

  What the hell was going on?

  I couldn’t lift my eyes from the damn thing, even though I wanted to hurl it across the room. How long I stood there just staring down at it, I wasn’t sure, but Cannon eventually opened the door and told me it was time.

  He led me down a corridor and then on to a set that gave me such a sense of déjà vu, it felt like my entire equilibrium was off. My brother placed me in an “elevator” and reminded me to act as natural as possible before stepping back, and the doors slid shut.

  When they opened, I stepped out, but I knew instinctively which way to turn despite not having been instructed. This layout was just like Jagger’s apartment building, and as I walked past the door that would have been Dana and Kayla’s apartment, a door farther down the hall opened.

  Dana, wearing nothing but one of Jagger’s T-shirts, stepped out along with Jagger, who was dressed in only his boxers. I froze, the air suddenly trapped in my lungs as I had to relive one of the worst moments in my life.

  I knew this was all staged, that all around me, different cameras were filming everything happening on the set. But what I was feeling, the pain and betrayal that were trying to consume me all over again, was very much real. My hand fisted tighter around the key in my hand, and I pressed it to the ache between my breasts just as Jagger turned his head and spotted me.

  “Shaw,” he mouthed my name, and I felt my knees go weak all over again. “It’s not what it looks like.”

  As he spoke, he took a step toward me, and then I had to blink because Kayla stepped out into the hall behind him. Only, she was dressed just like Dana was, in one of Jagger’s T-shirts. Which didn’t make sense to me. Maybe I’d only known Kayla a short time, but I knew she was very much not into guys.

  While my eyes had been locked on Kayla in confusion, Jagger had been making his way toward me. Slow and steady as if he were approaching a feral lioness. I shifted my gaze to him, locking in on him like a predator homing in on its prey. Hands up imploringly, he stopped midstep.

  “Baby, you wouldn’t let me explain,” he murmured softly. “Cannon thought this was the only way to make you understand.”

  “Is this really a music video?” I demanded, then frowned at my own question. Really? That’s what I wanted to know first? Shaking my head at myself, I took a step back.

  “Don’t leave,” he rasped, his hands shooting out as if to reach for me, but I was too far away for him to grab. “You promised you wouldn’t leave again.”

  “I’m not,” I gritted out as I glanced around, but I didn’t see any cameramen or even my family. Just him, Dana, and Kayla. “This is just…a little much.”

  “Dana and Kayla’s air conditioning stopped working the night before, and I offered them my extra bedroom so they wouldn’t have to get a hotel,” he rushed out.

  “It was so hot in our place, we couldn’t breathe,” Kayla said as she came down the hall. “Jagger is a really good guy, Shaw. He offered to let us stay without hesitation, and then when I whined about going to our apartment for a change of clothes, he gave us his shirts to sleep in. What you saw the next morning? I swear to you it was innocent. We made him a late breakfast as a thank-you, and by then, our AC was working again. Our clothes were kind of gross from all the sweating we’d done the day before, so we wore his shirts home and told Jagger we would wash and return them later.”

  Dana came up beside her girlfriend. “I’m so sorry you got the wrong impression that day, Shaw. I’ve felt so bad that you two broke up over it. But I swear on all that I love, I would never do anything to hurt Kayla. She’s the other half of my soul.”

  I glared at all three of them. “Why didn’t you just tell me this back then?”

  Jagger made a pained sound deep in his throat. “Would you have actually listened, Dimples?”

  My teeth sank into my bottom lip, and I lowered my eyes to the floor that separated us. “Probably not,” I whispered honestly.

  “Do you…believe me now?” he asked hesitantly, and my gaze snapped back to him.

  I couldn’t help how my eyes devoured the sight of him in nothing but a pair of black boxer briefs. His tight abs, the way his arms were so damn defined. I loved his ink, and I noticed a few different tattoos I hadn’t seen before. I had to force myself to meet his eyes, and when I saw the emotions rolling around in them, my chest began to ache all over again. I saw the sincerity in his pale blues, but also the fear.

  It was kind of a relief. That I hadn’t been wrong to trust him back then. I’d felt so stupid, so gullible to have put my heart in his hands after being so cautious before, then to have him shatter me so easily. I’d second-guessed every decision I’d made since then. Now I knew the truth, and my heart felt lighter.

  “I believe you,” I breathed.

  “Thank fuck,” he groaned. The distance between us disappeared, and he wrapped me up in his arms. His lips crushed mine, and I moaned as his taste exploded on my tongue.

  It was a hungry kiss that left me dizzy by the time he lifted his head. I clung to him as he pressed his lips to my brow. “But seriously, Jags. Is this part of the video or what?”

  He laughed, and the sound was so happy it caused my stomach to clench with need. “No, baby. There isn’t a video.” He kissed me again, quick and hard, before lifting his head. “Are you pissed?”

  “Maybe. I mean, why did we have to get up so damn early?” I pouted. “I was sleeping so well.”

  Kayla and Dana giggled then wrappe
d their arms around us both in a group hug. “Does this mean you’re going to be Jagger’s plus-one at our wedding?” Dana asked hopefully.

  I blinked at the beautiful girl in surprise. “You’re getting married?” I looked from one to the other before Kayla flashed me her engagement ring, and I squealed in delight. “Congrats! I would love to come to your wedding.”

  Someone coughing behind us had us all turning to find my parents, Cannon, and Piper standing at the “elevator.” All of them were grinning, but it was Dad who waved his hand in Jagger’s direction. “Maybe you guys should put some clothes on. There are some things a dad just doesn’t want to see when a dude is hugging his little girl.”

  Kayla and Dana moved to stand in front of us like a human shield, blocking my dad’s view of the impressive hard-on Jagger was wielding. Grasping my hip, he pulled me into him for one more kiss before nuzzling my neck. “Give me five?”

  I nodded, and he grabbed the backs of Kayla and Dana’a shirts, keeping them in front of him as he backed the three of them toward the door to what would have been his apartment. The two women laughed the entire way until they were safely behind the closed door.

  “Does this mean you two are good now?” Cannon asked as he slowly swaggered up beside me, looking all kinds of smug that I wanted to slap his face.

  “It’s a step in the right direction,” I told him, wanting to burst his bubble simply to fuck with him, but unable to completely deny that I was seconds away from jumping his best friend.

  Chapter 34

  Jagger

  The high from the relief I was feeling that Shaw believed me was exhilarating. I rushed to get dressed then swept her out the door before anyone could stop us. Other than the show later that night, I didn’t have a damn thing to do except soak up every minute with my girl by my side.