Need You Tonight, page 10
‘You betcha!’ He winked, making her laugh. ‘Now go on. I’ll be in soon.’
She was still laughing as she turned and walked back to the house. Her chuckle died as a prickling sensation shot down her back. Turning, she scanned the area, certain someone was watching her. But there was nobody.
She was about to turn back around when she spied him at the window of the Barn House.
Daemon.
She was close enough to see his pensive expression as he stared at her. He didn’t wave, just kept staring. A dizzying rise of swirling emotions and rushing heat overwhelmed her as she remembered how it had felt when he’d held her close and steady a few hours ago. Swearing under her breath, she spun away and marched out of his line of sight towards the main house.
Damn it! Damn him! And damn her stupid hormones for raising their stupid heads now, of all times. She didn’t need this. Not now. Not ever.
Chapter 11
He lowered his binoculars with a snarl.
That bitch. How dare she be so happy when his life was a living hell! Didn’t she know how to feel fear like a proper supplicant?
Had his letter not been sufficiently frightening? No. It had been. It was a good letter. He knew it was. He’d held off sending it for enough time to lull her into a false sense of security before striking. And it had worked. She had been frightened. He’d seen the fear on her face as she’d given it to the old farmer. But she’d seemed to gain comfort from whatever the old sod had told her.
As if that old man could protect her from what was coming! I am a plague sent down to smite those set against me.
And if the old man got in the way, he’d just have to dispose of him too.
Nothing and no-one could get in his way.
Not this time.
Chapter 12
‘No! That’s not right.’ Dae’s guitar made a feedback shriek as he stopped and faced Phil, Craig’s keyboard playing tinkling to a stop a bar behind him. ‘This is where you come in on the offbeat.’
‘I thought that was in the next stanza.’
‘No. We discussed it being here. Remember?’
Phil shrugged. Craig gave him a blank look. He turned to Lexi, a bit surprised she hadn’t spoken up. ‘Lexi, a bit of help here.’ She continued to stare at the desk in front of her. ‘Lexi?’
‘What?’ Her head jerked up and she blinked at them, almost as if she was surprised to see them there. ‘Sorry. I was thinking. What did you say?’
Daemon sighed in exasperation. ‘The offbeat. At the end of the second chorus. The boys say we didn’t agree on it, but I think we did.’
‘Umm.’ She rifled through some papers on the desk. ‘Let me check my notes.’
Notes? What the hell? He exchanged looks with Craig and Phil, both looking as surprised as he felt. Phil even whispered, ‘Since when does she have to check notes?’
Daemon shrugged. In the weeks they’d been working together, she hadn’t once had to check anything—she remembered every detail of every single conversation and session they’d had.
He knew something was wrong. She hadn’t been right since yesterday when she’d come running out of the house looking as pale as a ghost, tears and fear in her eyes, and had run into him. Then clung to him.
God. He could still feel her nestled into his chest, like he’d been branded with the warm imprint of her. He rubbed it now.
‘Are you okay, Lexi?’ Craig asked.
She glanced up then back down at the papers scattered in front of her. ‘Fine. I’m fine.’
Shite. She didn’t sound fine. She sounded stressed. ‘Perhaps we should have a break?’
She looked at her watch. ‘Not time yet. Okay, I found it.’ She waved a piece of paper. ‘Daemon’s right. There’s a change in the beat structure at the bottom of the second chorus to up the ante leading into the final verse and the key change. Take it from the top.’
Daemon shot Craig a look, but Craig simply shrugged. ‘From the top like Lexi says.’
They managed to get through the song a couple more times—this time with the offbeat rhythm in place—but by the end of the second run-through, Daemon was frowning. ‘It’s still not right. The build is missing.’
They all turned to Lexi for her opinion but she was staring off into space.
‘What’s up with her?’ Phil asked.
Craig shrugged and looked at Daemon. ‘You haven’t done something, have you?’
‘Why do you jump to that conclusion?’
‘Experience?’ Craig’s mouth twitched as Phil snorted out a laugh. Daemon smacked Craig on the back of the head, then looked back at Lexi. Normally she was all over them when they started to muck around, but she didn’t even register they were there, let alone joking around. Frowning, he said, ‘Let’s break. Lexi obviously needs some fresh air or something.’
‘Agreed,’ Craig said.
‘This will give me a chance to go have that picnic with Mel that she’s been asking for,’ Phil said, putting his sticks down. ‘I wonder if I could talk Bev into putting together a picnic basket for us.’
Craig snorted. ‘Are you kidding? She’ll have one ready for you five seconds after you ask her. She’s the one who put the idea in Melissa’s head, remember?’
Phil chortled. ‘Oh, yeah.’
‘What are you doing?’
Daemon looked up from placing his guitar on the stand. Lexi was staring at them through the glass of the sound booth, her voice coming through the loudspeakers now they’d taken their cans off. ‘We’re taking a break.’
‘I didn’t call a break.’
‘No. I did.’
‘You can’t call breaks. Only I can call breaks.’
‘Not today.’ He turned to the other two and gestured for them to go. ‘I’ll deal with this.’
‘Are you sure?’ Craig looked at Lexi. She’d torn her cans off her head and was in the process of marching out of the booth—although she seemed to be having problems with the lock.
‘It’s my call.’
‘But maybe I should find out what the problem is.’
It made sense that Craig would want to stay to make sure Lexi was okay—they had so much history—but something sharp and snarling unfurled in Daemon’s chest. Daemon had seen her upset. He’d been the one who had held her in that moment, the one she’d clung to, the one she’d spurned. She wasn’t going to get to do that again. He wanted to know what the problem was and how he could fix it. He wanted AJ Denholm, their producer, back.
And you want Lexi back. You want to be the one she turns to to make her feel better.
He pushed the voice aside and shook his head. ‘We agreed I would be the spokesperson for the band, so let me do that, okay?’
Craig looked like he was going to argue, but then nodded. ‘Okay.’
‘How long?’ Phil asked.
‘Back by six?’
‘Sounds good.’
Phil raced out just as Lexi managed to open the door. She glared after him and then stared at Craig who was trying to edge past. ‘Where are you going?’
‘Umm, Billy said he’d be taking Cat down to the stables about now. I thought I’d join him.’
‘We haven’t finished the session.’
Craig grimaced. ‘We all agreed you need to clear your head. You’re not paying attention.’
‘What? That’s not true.’
Craig put his hands up. ‘Not my call. See you back here at six.’ He raced down the stairs, leaving Daemon to face off with a now fuming Lexi.
Jesus, Joseph and Mary. Her eyes were even more vibrantly green sparking with anger than they’d been when full of tears. He preferred her angry. Her tears had almost torn his heart out. Her anger? Now that caused something else entirely to buzz in his chest, arrowing down his body.
Hell.
‘This was your decision?’
He cleared his throat. ‘Yes. Craig was right. You’re not concentrating. You haven’t been concentrating since yesterday.’
‘That’s not true. We got through a heap of work yesterday.’
They had. But it hadn’t been at her usual standard. ‘There’s still so much to fix. We’re still fixing it today. It hasn’t taken us this long to do any other song.’
‘This one’s tricky.’
‘No, it’s not.’ He couldn’t help reaching out to tuck a stray strand of hair that was flopping in her eyes behind her ear. She flinched and tucked it back herself, glaring at him. ‘Something’s bothering you.’
‘Nothing’s bothering me.’
‘Yes, it is. I saw you yesterday, remember. You were upset. I think you still are. Tell me. Maybe I can help.’
‘How could you help? How could you possibly know what it’s like to be—’ Her eyes flared wide and she shook her head.
‘To be afraid?’ he finished for her. ‘I know a thing or two about being afraid. I spent most of my childhood being terrified.’ She looked so surprised. ‘You don’t know?’
‘I don’t read the tabloids.’
He’d meant Craig or Billy might have told her—she wouldn’t have found that info in the tabloids. ‘Neither do I.’
She stood there for a moment, chest moving like she’d run a race, gaze still dark with fear, but there was something else swimming there now, an awareness he’d seen flare to life other times before she’d shoved it away so quickly, he thought he’d imagined it.
He wasn’t imagining it now.
He edged a little closer and this time she didn’t seem to notice. Didn’t flinch when he touched her arm. She was trembling. Hell. What was going on? ‘Tell me what’s wrong.’
‘It’s nothing.’
‘Liar,’ he said, lips curling into a soft smile. Not that she saw. She wasn’t looking at him. ‘You were virtually in tears yesterday. You haven’t been yourself in our session yesterday or today and you’re trembling right now.’
‘I’m not.’ Her voice was barely a whisper.
‘You are.’
‘It’s not because I’m frightened.’
‘Then why?’
She put her hand on his chest, as if trying to steady herself. He hissed at the contact, at the sudden rush of heat. She stopped. Frozen. Then her gaze fluttered to his and held there, caught like a trapped bird. She began to tremble harder, leaned in.
Before he could think better of it, his lips were on hers, hands in her hair. Her hands clenched against his chest as she opened to him, stroking his tongue with hers. He shifted, pulled her closer, crushing her to his length, one hand on her lower back, the other still in her hair. Heat and softness overwhelmed him. He tasted her mouth, her chin, her neck. Her fingers tightened on his chest then splayed, stroking up to his neck, through his hair, pulling him closer, back to her mouth, making him want more. So much more.
‘Lord, Lex.’ His voice a breath of sound against her silken skin. ‘I want you. I’ve wanted you since I met you. I can’t explain it. Do you have any idea how much you turn me on?’
The shove to his chest had him stumbling back. Hand to her mouth, eyes huge, skin deathly pale, she trembled, but not with passion. One glance at her terrified eyes made him step back, give her room. Tears spilled down her cheeks as she looked through him. ‘Lexi? What is it?’
She flinched, then focusing back on him, mumbled, ‘I think I’m going to be sick.’ She turned and fled down the stairs.
‘Lexi, wait!’
She didn’t stop, the door to the studio slamming with a finality that made him shudder even as he ran after her. He hauled open first the inside door then the outside one but she was already gone. Bright sunlight blinded him so he couldn’t see which way she’d gone. Swearing, wishing for the wild tumble of dark clouds that had crowded the sky since they’d arrived, rather than the startlingly bright sun shining across the craggy grey peak of Mt Timbertop, he glanced down the path towards the stables and seeing nothing, looked back up towards the manor house. Squinting, he saw her run past Craig who stood on the path between the house and the studio. Craig called out to her, but she kept running, stumbled up the back steps, and with a slam of the door, disappeared into the house. Face grim, Craig marched down the path towards him. Shite.
‘I thought you were catching up with Billy and Cat,’ Daemon said as Craig reached him.
‘Cat’s having a sleep and Billy’s catching up on some work. Did you find out what’s wrong with Lexi?’
‘No.’ Daemon ran his hand through his hair. ‘I kissed her,’ he murmured.
‘You what?’ Craig looked as if he’d just been smacked in the face.
‘She kissed me back. I didn’t force myself on her or anything.’
‘Shit, Dae!’ Craig rolled his eyes then turned to go. ‘I better tell Billy.’
Daemon grabbed his arm. ‘What does this have to do with Billy?’
‘You’ve got no idea what you’ve done.’
‘Then tell me.’
Craig shook his head. ‘I knew I shouldn’t have left you alone with her when she was obviously upset. But I didn’t think you’d be stupid enough to make a play for her.’
‘I didn’t make a play for her. We were arguing then suddenly we were kissing.’ His gaze turned towards the main house as his mind spun, still confused as to how it had happened. All he knew was that after she’d run into his arms yesterday, burrowing into him, he’d wanted nothing more than to have her back there again. Which was insane. Particularly as he knew nothing about her except these little titbits Craig gave him and what he knew of her from her music. Her music was so full of emotion, so full of her in a way that tantalised him, made him want to know everything so badly it was like living in hell because he knew she was unlikely ever to tell him anything more than what he felt when he listened to her songs.
It was a mess. A big bloody mess he wasn’t sure how to clean up.
Craig began to chuckle.
‘I don’t see what’s so funny.’
‘I think you need to work it out for yourself.’
Daemon wanted to punch the smug smile from his mate’s face. Instead, he curled his fingers at his side, turned and stalked to the Barn House. He punched in the code and opened the door, slamming it behind him. The thudding sound made him feel slightly better. He stomped into the kitchen. Stopped. Began to laugh. Shite! His actions were that of a two-year-old, sulking over something he’d been told he couldn’t have. He never used to sulk. He must have learned from Darla. She could have won competitions with the excellence of her sulking.
His laughter stopped dead, realisation dawning. Thinking about Darla no longer hurt. Well, wasn’t that bloody marvellous. But what had changed?
He no longer felt anything but indifference towards her. Wondered what he’d ever seen in her. After what he’d seen his father endure with his mother—what he himself had gone through—he should have known better. Darla was another version of his mother: lying, manipulative, self-absorbed. He’d learned his lesson and he’d learned it hard.
So why was he getting tangled up over a woman who was so full of secrets? It had just been a kiss after all. A kiss was nothing.
It was the way she’d responded after. That’s why he was so out of sorts. He hated that she’d run from him in fear. Did that have something to do with what happened to Cat? With what might have happened to her in her mysterious past that made her so paranoid about people finding out who she truly was? If he’d frightened her, he needed to know why, needed to know she was okay and apologise. They had to work together and he didn’t want to mess that up.
Why hadn’t he thought of that before he’d pulled her into his arms?
He sighed.
The kiss was his mistake. He had to deal with the consequences. And he’d better do it now before she had a chance to consider that breaking their contract was the way to go.
***
Lexi stared out the study window, watching the glorious colours of the setting sun against the lilac sky.
‘Lexi?’ It was Billy. She didn’t move. ‘Lexi?’
‘Isn’t the sky magnificent? I almost feel that if I opened this window I could breathe in the golden warmth. I wonder what it would taste like?’ She laughed, a hiccough of sound, but kept staring out the window, the golden glow outside casting the last warmth of the day upon her face. After a while she sighed and without turning, said, ‘What do you want, Billy?’
‘Craig told me what happened down at the studio.’
She bit her lip. ‘That was nothing. Just a little argument.’
Billy moved further into the room. ‘That’s not what I’m talking about.’
‘What else is there?’
‘He told me that Dae kissed you.’
Her hands tightened on the windowsill. ‘That’s none of your business.’
‘Craig told me he saw you running up to the house crying.’
‘I said it’s none of your business.’
‘But you—’
‘She’s right, Billy. So, bugger off. Lexi and I need to talk.’
Lexi jumped and swung around to see Daemon standing just inside the door. ‘Has no-one ever heard of knocking?’ She glared at them. They glared at each other. ‘I don’t want to talk to either of you. Please leave me alone.’
‘I’m not going until we talk about what happened.’ Daemon pushed past Billy and sat in the chair opposite hers.
‘I’m not going until he does.’ Billy grabbed the other chair and sat down.
‘This isn’t a Mexican Stand-off. If you won’t go, I will.’ Lexi moved from behind the desk. Both men stood up, looking like they would follow her. She threw her hands up in the air. ‘Oh, for Christ’s sake! What do you want from me?’
‘I want you to talk with me,’ Billy pleaded. ‘I want you to tell me what’s wrong. And I especially want to know what Daemon did that made you cry so I can beat the shit out of him.’
‘All I did was kiss her, mate. To date, my kisses have never made a woman cry.’
‘Then why was she crying?’
‘I’m standing right here!’ Lexi felt like a toy being wrestled over. Rubbing at the ache now hammering away inside her forehead, she said, ‘Billy, while I appreciate the fact that you care, I don’t need you to do the big brother thing. I wanted him to kiss me.’ The words were out of her mouth so fast there was no taking them back.
