by Terry Towers
Standing she was about to put the iPad back, when a knock sounded at the door. Clutching the iPad to her chest she walked over to the door and opened it to reveal the band manager, Victor.
Surprised to see Victor standing before her, she took a step back. "Victor. Hi. Ummm."
"Can I come in?" He didn't wait for a response, but brushed past her and into the dressing room. "I'd like to talk to you."
"Ummmm. Sure."
He sat down on the sofa and motioned for her to take a seat next to him. In the past month that she'd know Bo, she could count on one hand how many times she'd spoken more than five words to him. He seemed to avoid her like the plague, like she was a nuisance or inconvenience. She'd learned to simply avoid him.
She sat down and waited for him to reveal the reason for his showing up.
"What's that?"
She looked down at the iPod and shrugged. "Nothing. Just entertaining myself until Bo gets back."
"We need to talk."
The tabloid articles long forgotten, Hanna's mind was spinning trying to read Victor and get a hint of what was going on.
"As you may know the public hasn't had much support for your relationship with Bo."
The articles came crashing down to the forefront of her mind against and she fought to keep the tears from coming. "And..."
"My intention isn't to be rude or mean in any way, but when you really think about it many of the points they're making are valid. You don't belong with Bo, Hanna. I know it's been fun, but Bo has a career to worry about and you're jeopardizing it.
Hanna flinched as if she'd been physically hit. "Bo wants to be with me. And I want to be with him. We're happy Victor."
Victor reached out to touch her jean clad leg, but she jerked backwards out of his reach. "Honey, you're just a phase. Longer than most, but a phase. However, you're the first fling that Bo's had that is potentially damaging to his career."
Hanna's frown deepened. How could Bo being happy be a bad thing? "I don't understand."
Reaching into the inner pocket of his suit jacket, Victor pulled out a check book and a silver pen. "How much is it going to take to have you walk away? You might as well take some money and leave as to wait around until Bo gets bored of you and get nothing. You go back to that little town of yours with no job, no prospects. I'm offering a way out."
"I don't... I... I don't want your money."
"How does two million sound?" Not waiting for a reply Victor began writing up a check for two million.
Hanna's jaw clenched as the anger began to build up within her. She sat up straight, squaring her shoulders. "I don't want your money."
The sympathetic smile he'd been wearing faded and his expression turned to anger. It was at that moment that she picked up the scent of alcohol on his breath and a coil of fear formed in her stomach.
"I've worked a long time getting these boys to where they need to be. Some coffee house bimbo isn't going to ruin it for them!"
"Bo's a grown man, he knows what he wants."
Victor huffed. "Why can't you be as sensible as your friend was?"
"Jackie took the money?"
"Oh course she did. Took it and ran like any woman with half a brain does."
"But her mother was in an accident."
"Yeah, and she took the money and agreed not to come back. At least she had some common sense to see what she really was. A temporary fuck."
"Do you do this with all the women?"
He huffed. "Those with half a brain take it. Now be a good little girl and accept the money and go home. This is a one time offer." He finished writing the check and shoved it into her hand.
"No!" Crumpling up the check she tossed it at him in disgust. The anger she'd been harbouring over the years, of being bullied and picked on came raging to the surface. She was done being a victim. "If Bo doesn't want to be with me anymore then fine, but I'll be damned if I'll let you run me off!"
His eyes narrowed. "You're going to take the money. And you're going to leave or God help me..." His eyes turned menacing. It was evident he wasn't accustomed to someone saying no to him, and he didn't take no well.
Doing her best to keep her voice even, she lifted her chin and met his gaze. "Please leave."
"Take the money!"
"No!"
"Can't you see. You're not worthy of him. He needs a beautiful woman on his arm, not one that's a candy bar away from needing two seats on an air plane.
Although she knew it wasn't true, the comment still hurt. Lashing out on instinct, her hand drew back and she slapped him, hard, across the jaw.
Victor froze, as if in shock for a split second. "You fucking whore!" He grunted and lunged. Pulling his hand back, he slammed it into her jaw. "You will not ruin all the hard work I've put into that group."
A bolt of pain shot through her a salty, metallic taste filled her mouth. Her head began to throb and she closed her eyes as she saw his hand draw back to strike a second time. Just as his fist was about to make contact with her face, his weight was lifted and there was a crash as presumably his body was thrown across the room.
With hesitation, she opened her eyes and gasped as she saw Anthony hovering over Victor, his fist making contact with the other man's jaw. Two blows and the older man went limp, knocked out. She yelped and struggled to her feet. As she stood her head began to spin and she fell back onto the sofa.
"You okay?" Anthony hurried across the room to her just as the world went dark to her.
*****
"He did what!"
"Yeah man. Let me take care of the girls here. Go see her. They took Victor to the hospital, he's already gone. She's a little woozy, but I think she'll be okay." Anthony turned to the girls and gave them a smile. "Ladies. I may not be the big man, but I'm much more fun. And single."
I'm going to fucking kill him! Bo sprinted from the backstage area to his dressing room.
"She's fine man," Anthony called after him, but Bo barely heard him. All he could think about was all the bullshit that Hanna had been through to be with him and now she was getting physically assaulted on top of it all! He cursed himself for letting anything happen to her. He should have been there. He should have...
He raced into the open dressing room to see two paramedics crouched in front of Hanna, one holding an ice back to her rapidly swelling lip.
"Hanna!" He ran into the room and pushed past the paramedics to pull her into his arms. "Oh-my-God Hanna, I'm so sorry. I'm so-so sorry."
"Bo!" She reached out and wrapped her arms around his neck holding tight to him. "I'm so glad you're here."
"I can't believe I let this happen. Are you okay?"
She nodded, but the stiffness in her body told him differently.
Taking the ice pack from the paramedic he turned to them. "Is she okay?"
"Yes Sir."
"Then leave us."
The paramedics packed up and left the room, closing the door behind them.
Once they were gone, Bo applied the ice pack to her jaw and kissed her forehead. "What happened?"
She sighed, tears welling up in her eyes. "I was on your iPad. I broke my promise to you and read the articles."
Bo's heart sank. Many of those articles were cruel, which is why he'd been shielding them from her. He'd prayed she never see them, but knew she'd eventually be too curious to help herself.
"Those articles are bullshit sweetie. Written by assholes trying to make a buck and consumed by idiots who are jealous of us and take satisfaction in seeing us fall from grace."
"Maybe you're better..."
Bo placed a finger against her lips stopping her. "You want to know the real reason why Nadine and I broke up."
She shrugged and then nodded.
"It wasn't drugs. Sure she had a habit for partying, but the truth was she didn't love me. Never did. But we stayed together because it looked good in the tabloids."
He lowered his fingers.
"I've been blessed with a great career. Ever
ything anyone could have asked for, except no one to share it with. I thank God every day for having that idiot run our car into the island at your coffee shop. I know it's only been a month, but it's been the happiest month of my life and if you were to leave, it would kill me Hanna."
His heart was thudding in his chest. He was feeling something he hadn't felt in a long time. Scared. With each second that passed that she didn't respond he got increasingly nervous.
"I love you Bo. I just don't want to ruin our career or be a burden or..."
An intense rush of relief washed through him, along with shock that she'd actually said the words out loud. I love you, it sounded so sweet to his ears. Instead of silencing her with his finger he covered her lips with his, taking care not to hurt her. Pulling back, he gazed into her beautiful green eyes and fingered a lock of her satiny hair. "I love you too baby."
The hesitation and doubt that he'd been seeing in her eyes, virtually from the day they'd met faded away. What remained was the love and contentment he'd been longing to see for weeks. She was his.
She smiled as widely as her cut lip would allow and then winced. "Can we go home now?"
"Wouldn't like anything more sweetie."
The End
Excerpt From
The Porn Star
and the Girl From The
Coffee Shop
By
Terry Towers
Available Now
Chapter 1
Nadine gave the bag of hot chocolate mix a little jerk, freeing the remaining powder from the bottom of the bag. The powdered mixture poured into the hot chocolate machine, just as she heard the front door of the coffee shop opening, signalling a customer. She groaned inwardly. It was one of those nights where customers trickled in at just the right speed to royally piss her off and hinder her cleaning progress.
After placing the cover back onto the hot chocolate dispenser, she spun around and her heart caught in her throat. Suddenly her annoyance over her nightly routine being disturbed evaporated and her frown turned to a bright smile that reflected in her bright emerald green eyes.
The reason for her change in mood was strutting across the dining room floor towards the front counter, his strides long and confident - bordering on cocky, but not quite. Her eyes scanned him from head to toe, taking note of the scuffed black boots, faded blue jeans and t-shirt stretching across his broad, powerful chest and shoulders. But his most striking feature was his eyes. His deep blue eyes caught hers and a shiver rushed down her spine and a throbbing between her legs commenced - as it did every single time she set eyes on him. Why did his gaze have such an impact on her? She both loved and hated the feeling.
"How's my favourite girl tonight?" he asked as he leaned an elbow on the countertop dividing them and watched as she began to prepare his coffee.
"Same as always, Hunter." She shrugged trying to appear as nonchalant as possible, though she knew she was doing a piss poor job at it. "How was your night?" She looked over at the clock on the cash register; it read 1:00 am. His usual time. What did he do for a living that had him coming in for a coffee this time of night? Her best guess was that he was a bartender, or at least that was the general consensus between the girls working at the coffee shop.
The problem was that the bars didn't close until 2:00 am, so leaving at the peak time for the business seemed unreasonable. He also had an air of confidence about him bordering on arrogance, despite his friendly demeanour. Yeah, he knew how sexy he was, Nadine could see it in is cocky smirk. Normally she had no attraction to men like him, but dammit he had such an effect on her.
"Wild."
She cocked an eyebrow at him. "That so? Did you just get off work early?" They'd been through the work questions before. She'd ask, and then he'd avoid the question and turn the conversation over to something else.
He nodded. "I did." His smirk widened to a smile as he accepted the coffee she passed him and took a tentative sip.
"So what line of work did you tell me you were in again?" she asked, again attempting to appear nonchalant, and again failing miserably as she accepted the bill he gave her for payment.
"I didn't."
She growled softly as she thrust the bill into the register and counted out his change. As usual he waved it off. Her eyes met his once more. Why she needed to know what he did for a living was beyond her, but it was annoying her to no end that he refused to divulge that information. She knew she had no business asking or getting indignant when he refused to answer, but she was at her wits end with his smug attitude.
Placing a hand on her hip, her eyes narrowed at him. "Are you ever going to tell me?"
His jaw clenched and he cocked his head to the side, his eyes moving up and down the length of her causing her to flush and feel highly uncomfortable under his eyes intense scrutiny. "Hmmmm. Dunno."
Pushing back her shyness, she threw her hands up in the air in frustration. "Okay. What do I have to do for you to tell me?"
The soft, sexy smile that sent her heart rate racing touched his lips again, adding to her annoyance. Rubbing his chin as if in contemplation he gave her body one more slow once over. "When is your next night off?"
"Tomorrow night. Why?"
"Go out with me tomorrow night and maybe I'll tell you."
Dumbstruck, Nadine stared at him for a long moment not responding.
Hunter shrugged. "Well, if you don't want to..." Grabbing his coffee he turned to walk away, but she leapt across the counter grabbing his arm.
"No... Wait!"
His smile was gone when he turned back to her, but amusement danced in his eyes. "Change your mind?"
Gotta remain cool, the man already has an ego you can't let him see the affect he has on you, she coached herself. Planting her hands on her hips she took her time moving her eyes up and down his body as he had done to her. When her eyes met his, to her annoyance there wasn't a shred of shyness in his expression, only more amusement. "So I agree and you tell me, correct?"
"Correct."
Upon a moment of hesitation he nodded. "You have yourself a deal. So where do I pick you up?"
Grabbing a pen and a napkin Nadine quickly jotted down her phone number and the address to her tiny one bedroom apartment a few blocks away from the coffee shop. To her dismay her hand shook slightly as she wrote due to her nervousness. He's just a guy, she reminded herself. A fucking hot guy that gets you wet just by looking at you, a voice in the back of her mind mocked. She ignored that voice as she gave him a bright smile and passed him the napkin with her information on it.
"Well, then I'll be seeing you tomorrow. Eight?"
"Eight," she confirmed. "You gonna give me a hint on where we're going?"
Taking a deep breath in, he exhaled loudly and then shook his head. "Nah. We'll keep it a surprise." With a wink he turned and exited the restaurant.
Nadine watched him leave, flabbergasted at what had just transpired. Despite his slightly cocky demeanour, Nadine had had a crush on him from the first day he'd strolled into the coffee shop. In truth, she suspected his cockiness had a fair amount to do with why she was so smitten with him. They always flirted lightly when he came in, but she never dreamed he'd ask her out. She assumed he had some hot little Barbie look-alike hanging off of his arm when he wasn't in the coffee shop or working at the mysterious occupation.
As Hunter hopped into his Escalade and sped out of the parking lot, a new worry came to the forefront of her mind. How was she going to dress for a date when she had no idea where they were going?
****
For the first time in Hunter's adult life he was nervous about going on a date. The last time he was this nervous he'd been fifteen and he was about to make a move on Becky Tanners, behind the bleachers during a school football game. That was almost twenty years ago. When he put some thought on it, this was the first actual date he'd been on since he began working in the adult industry close to fifteen years ago. Up until that point Hunter Roberts didn't do dates.
> A good chunk of that nervousness was because he had promised to tell Nadine what he did for a living. Generally, what he did would be something he bragged about. He was a former porn star for God's sake! For years women had been mailing him nude pictures and their worn undergarments hoping for a night with him. Even now as a porn director, producer and photographer he still had a fair amount of women chasing him, though the novelty of those women's attentions had begun to wear on him many years ago.
Pressing the buzzer marked Nadine Ambers he waited; going through the ways he could tell her his occupation and have any chance of seeing her again. While his occupation may have brought him an abundance of women out for a single night of fun, establishing a solid, long term relationship with someone special was an entirely different story.
"Hello?"
The soft, sweet sound of Nadine's voice broke into his thoughts. "Hey Nadine? It's Hunter."
Pause.
"K, I'll be right down."
Letting out a loud huff of air, Hunter rocked back on his heels and shoved his hands in his jeans pockets. Get a handle on yourself Hunter man. It's just a simple date. Not a big deal. Turning his back to the building he looked out into the parking lot and then off further and watched the traffic zooming past on the adjacent highway. Minutes later the sound of the apartment building's main door opening had him spinning around and he felt as though he'd been slammed in the chest at the sight before him.
At the coffee shop Nadine was a cute girl with her dark hair tied high in a ponytail, and her emerald green eyes giving her an exotic look. And despite the heinous frumpy, brown uniform that they were forced to wear at the coffee shop, he was able to detect her curvy figure. While the majority of the women he had been with over the years were slim to the point that he seriously doubted they ever ate, he preferred women with soft womanly curves - like Nadine's.
"Ummm. Wow." He mentally kicked himself for sounding like such a moron, but the woman standing before him was absolutely stunning. Her long, dark hair cascaded down her back and her eyes sparkled under the overhead light as her eyes slowly worked their way up his body until the met his.