by Selena Kitt
Her heart hammered in her chest, keeping time with the beating of the drums. The lead guitarist flew into the solo that followed the second chorus and Julian leaned down, inches from her face. The crowd went wild. He plucked a small earpiece from one of his ears, "Do you want me to kiss you in front of all these people?"
His eyes, greener than she imagined they would be, drilled into her.
"K-k-kiss me?"
"Yes or no? We're running out of time."
Yes! Her head screamed, but she couldn't get her mouth to work. Panic that she might miss the single most defining moment of her life caused her chest to constrict. As a whoosh of air escaped her parched lips, Caitlin nodded her head in acceptance of his offer.
Julian's lips were on hers in a moment. An explosion inside her head obliterated all thought. The touch of his lips was gone before her muddled mind had a chance to process their connection.
He leaned back on one elbow, popped the earpiece back in, and continued on into the final chorus without missing a beat.
Caitlin's head spun. At close range she watched him sing his way to the end of a song, a song that would be inextricably linked with the most amazing moment of her life, forever.
As the song came to an end and the crowd cheered, Caitlin began to shake. Julian helped her from the floor with a gentleness and care she didn't expect.
"Are you okay?" He popped another earpiece as he waited for her response.
"Yes. Yes, I think so." She didn't know if she'd ever be okay again.
He hugged her then, and kissed her on the forehead, the way her brother kissed her when he wanted to let her know everything would be okay. "Thank you for being a part of the show. You've been great."
He was thanking her?
Julian nodded at someone and immediately a burly man was beside her, taking her arm. Did they think she couldn't walk? The intro for the next song began as he led her to the dim wings of the stage.
* * *
Now she could focus, Caitlin recognized the huge man who escorted her offstage. She'd been stalking Julian long enough to know that he was one of several personal bodyguards who spent their time protecting the object of her desire.
"Julian would like to meet you after the show for a drink." The man had a deep, pleasant enough voice and he spoke slowly to her, as if he expected her to be in a state of shock.
Caitlin nodded. She spoke with a heavy accent, but she'd been conversing in English almost since birth - the benefit of a bi-lingual family.
"Here's where you'll find us after the show. If you bring more than one other person, he won't meet you. Do you understand?"
Caitlin nodded again, shock holding her tongue, but the burley man wouldn't release the small note to her. "Yes, I understand." Then she added as an afterthought, "And I understand English."
The man escorted her through the small maze that was backstage and out again into the spot she'd been plucked from. Heaved back over the security fence, Caitlin made her way toward the tight-knit groupies and Steve, her own young Elvis.
She tucked the precious piece of paper inside her jacket pocket and made a decision to take Steve with her. No way was she sharing Julian with another one of these women, or risking him choosing them over her.
2
The rest of the concert passed in a tantric blur, Caitlin's only remembered sensation the ever-present Steve behind her and the pressure of his almost constant erection in the middle of her back. A small price to pay, she decided, for the presence of his reassuring bulk in the chaos of the mosh pit.
As the house lights came up and the screaming fans were sure Julian had left the stage for the final time, Caitlin became aware of a small throng of people pressing toward her. Suddenly everyone wanted to be her best friend.
"How did you feel?" Tania didn't give her a chance to answer the question. "I know I'd have made sure I got some tongue in there." Alcohol came off her breath in waves. Tania was one of the women you didn't want to end up standing next to in the mosh pit. The crush of people around her was probably the only thing that kept Tania upright.
"Yeah, how was it?" Amanda, all green eyes and jet-black hair, slid her arm through Caitlin's. An unusual declaration of friendship and solidarity, considering the two of them had been unable to see eye-to-eye on anything the whole week they'd been away. "It was interesting." Caitlin cast her hand in Steve's direction and grabbed his arm, before she lost him in the dispersing crowd.
Steve looked at her and tipped his head sideways, a question in his eyes that didn't quite make it to his lips.
Caitlin saved him the trouble. "You want to come for a drink with me?"
Amanda didn't give him a chance to answer. "I'd say it was more than interesting." She gave Steve a knowing wink. "I'd say the girl's got something more on her mind than talking about the concert after that close encounter with Julian MacAvoy."
"Shut it, Amanda!" Caitlin gave her the word followed by a withering glance.
As they made their way out of the arena, like cows negotiating their way to milking, someone shrieked, "There she is!" And Amanda's presence was replaced by an assortment of strangers, all wanting to know what it had been like, to be pulled up on stage, to spend three minutes with the object of their mutual desires.
Caitlin didn't know how to describe it. She knew it would be indelibly imprinted in her mind, but how to explain that to other people.
She couldn't.
So she didn't try.
Steve put a protective arm around her, keeping the growing crowd at bay.
"Come on, let's get out of here." He hustled her through the front doors of the arena and out to the cool street beyond.
* * *
Steve couldn't believe his luck. When the boys had suggested going to the Julian MacAvoy concert he'd pooh poohed the idea. Now it looked as if the hottest chick he'd seen in months might really be into him. The night was looking up.
"You didn't want your girlfriends to come for a drink?"
"No. No, I didn't want the girls to come with me."
Hallelujah. He'd gotten to know a couple of them in the four hours they'd stood around waiting for the show. Most of them were missing in the looks department, but Caitlin? Wow. Steve liked to think he was more interested in a woman's mind than her body, but Caitlin had it all, in spades. From her long platinum blonde hair, to her luscious lips, complete with tantalizing lower lip ring, she'd piqued his attention from the moment he met her.
Then, when he watched Julian treat her with such tenderness and respect on stage . . . It had been a heady combination, observing the chemistry between them play out. No wonder he had the worst case of lover's balls he'd had in years. What he wouldn't do to relieve the pressure right now.
Caitlin shuffled around inside her black leather jacket. Like her, the jacket spoke of understated rebellion, with its miniature metal studs and artfully placed silver chains. "Found it."
She unfolded a piece of paper, taking care not to rip it on the oversized rings adorning her fingers. The rings reminded him of knuckle dusters and he could imagine a swift punch from either of her fists or even a backhanded slap would result in bloodletting. He made a mental note to watch himself.
"Julian wants to meet with me after the show," she said, and the hope in her lake blue eyes quashed any he had for the evening.
"Why did you ask me to come for a drink, then, if you're meeting him?"
Dawning realization crossed her perfect european features and she tried to reach for him. He moved back a fraction, leaving her over-endowed fingers clawing at the small space between them.
"Forgive me, I wanted to spend some time with you." She shrugged. "You know how it is, someone like Julian would say they wanted to meet me and then not turn up. I figure he must say that to everyone."
"So I'm second best." Somehow, that hurt more than he expected, even though the plan at the outset had been to pick up someone who desperately wanted to be laid by Julian MacAvoy. Steve decided on the spot he nee
ded his head examined.
"That's not how it is." The lilting charm of her heavily accented English appealed to him, as much as the rest of her.
What the hell, he decided. The rock star might not turn up. Why shouldn't he go for a drink with her? "Where are we going then?"
3
The Lime Bar was underrated and probably under most people's radar, Caitlin thought. The population would never expect to find an international rock star in a local joint like this.
She scanned the room and, apart from the small gaggle of women buzzing in the corner, the place had a sleepy, almost small town air about it.
Red vinyl sofas that looked as if they'd seen better days battled it out with while faux-designer chairs for the worst possible decor award.
Chipped metallic tables looked as if they had been pulled straight from a fifties bar and thrown in random order around the room. A polished concrete floor added nothing to the overall atmosphere, except to ensure every sound was amplified in the cave-like expanse.
Dim lights and crooked pictures on the walls made Caitlin wonder again if they'd mistaken the name.
"It did say Lime Bar out the front, didn't it?" She glanced at Steve, who continued to look like a seven-year-old who'd just found out Santa Claus wasn't real.
* * *
For once, Julian would like to enter a bar via the front door, but he'd been ushered in through a labyrinth of back alleyways. Overflowing dumpsters, broken bottles and old wooden crates heralded his entrance. He snorted at the irony of it - the glamour of being a rock star.
He was a patient man, but Mags had a way of driving him to the brink. He'd wanted her to come out with them all. She'd have liked this bar, he decided. Not too flashy, just your typical suburban club. The show had been great and she should have been here with the rest of them, celebrating. But she knew, as he did, where it would lead if they spent the night out together. He wanted Mags to be more than his manager, and it frustrated him beyond measure that she wasn't ready to admit her marriage was a sham. The absurdity of the situation wasn't lost on him. He, Julian MacAvoy, could have any woman he wanted - any except the woman sitting back at the hotel room, the woman who held his heart in her hands.
Otis nudged him in the side. "She's here. You want to go sit with them?"
Julian looked up, his thoughts dragged from the hotel suite back to the bar in which they stood. Caitlin, the woman he'd picked from the crowd tonight, sat across the other side of the room with a man. A fit dude at that - at least the woman had good taste. The girls he picked from the crowd usually brought another woman with them. How did he feel about her bringing a man? Maybe he'd have to consider that over a couple of drinks.
The two of them were engrossed in deep conversation. She probably didn't expect him to show up. Would it make her night, he wondered? Did he even care? What the hell, he was out for a night on the town with the dancers and the band after a knockout show and he'd bloody well enjoy himself - hopefully she would too.
Jules shook himself out of his melancholy state. So Mags didn't want him tonight. Whatever. There were plenty of nights ahead on tour; maybe he'd change her mind later. Meanwhile, he may as well celebrate tonight's success on stage and get on with his life.
"Let's sit over here." Julian said to his ever-present bodyguard, indicating a small booth across the other side of the room. "This isn't the dance of the desperate. You can go over later and see if she's still interested."
Otis scanned the room. He was never off duty when they were out in public and Julian was grateful for that.
"You sit down with the troops and I'll get the drinks ordered. The usual?"
Julian nodded. Lemon, lime and bitters; a drink he'd found he could guzzle all night without the back of his throat closing over. Hopefully he wouldn't have to explain to Caitlin why he didn't do drugs and booze like every other musician on the circuit.
Julian sat himself down in one of the booths the band and dancers had occupied. It was the same in every city: nondescript bar, strange girl, savage sex and then a hole in his soul that he couldn't seem to fill. He sighed. Maybe he'd made a mistake coming out tonight. He shouldn't have pushed Mags. He should have just stayed at the hotel with her, watching TV and having a cup of hot tea. What was he thinking?
The slam of glass on wood broke into his thoughts and he made a mental readjustment as the cacophony of bar sounds re-entered his consciousness.
"She's spotted you." Otis indicated Caitlin with his head.
Julian toyed with the edges of his beer mat, turning the corners up into neat little triangles. He glanced across in the direction of Caitlin, unsure now what had motivated him to pick her. She resembled many of the girls who followed the tour, but there was something about her. An edge. Was it the way she dressed? Or the hint of softness he knew lay hidden beneath her studs and leather? Something about the way she held herself - even now, even after she'd spied him across the bar, there was something aloof about her, something that drove him to chase, even if she wasn't the woman of his heart.
* * *
Caitlin choked on her drink. The shock of seeing Julian. He was here. He'd walked into the bar surrounded by dancers and the band and barely anyone had blinked an eye. As if a celebrity walked into their midst on a daily basis, the locals carried on with their own carousing, ignoring the group of strangers who'd taken up residence in the booths on the far side of the room.
She could feel him watching her. Every atom of her being wanted to look up. Instead, she kept her eyes trained on Steve, terrified that if she did look up again, she'd once more get lost in those penetrating green eyes.
The coughing fit eased leaving her with a dry throat and Caitlin reached again for her glass, willing the trembling in her fingers to subside. The last thing she needed to do was rattle the glass against her teeth, or drop the damn thing - he'd think she was a drunk or off her trolley on drugs.
On second thoughts . . . Caitlin put the glass back down. She knew Julian didn't drink and the last thing she wanted to do was breathe liquor all over him - even if a good strong drink would calm her quaking nerves.
"Is he still looking over here?" She felt guilty, making Steve a part of this. Hopefully he'd disappear when Julian came over and she'd never see him again. Although she had to admit Steve had quite a lot going for him. He reminded her of Elvis Presley, the way he looked in the early years of his career, not the overweight slob he'd become near the end.
What a waste. She wondered if Julian would eventually end up like that.
"Someone's coming over," Steve hissed.
Caitlin took a deep breath and put her hands on the cool wood of the table. If she braced them flat they couldn't possibly shake.
"Hey."
Caitlin immediately recognized the man who'd helped her off the stage. "Julian's glad you came out tonight."
"He is?" She allowed herself another split second to cast a glance at the object of her desire. Julian caught her gaze, lifted his glass and winked. Her stomach did a kind of somersault and her hands shook against the table top.
"He's staying here for about an hour and then he wants you to come back to the hotel."
A wave of nausea swept over her, maybe it was the smell of deep fried something coming from behind the bar. She swallowed hard and concentrated on stemming the unexpected sense of rising panic that threatened to consume her.
"Well, I guess I'll be on my way then." Steve made to leave and, despite her best judgment, Caitlin found herself clinging to the arm of a man she'd only met half a day ago.
"I don't want you to go." Could Julian's man hear the panic in her voice? Was he used to women behaving like frightened school girls?
The burly stranger seemed to take it all in. Maybe this kind of thing happened every night.
Every night.
Did Julian pick up a strange new woman every night?
He broke into her ruminating. "Not a worry, your boyfriend can come with you. The more the merrier as far as Juli
an's concerned."
She couldn't let go of Steve's arm, she wouldn't let go of Steve's arm. Somehow he seemed the sane centre of what could easily become some kind of insane adventure.
Slowly, Steve sat back down again. Caitlin didn't release him until she was sure he wouldn't make another bolt for the door.
"I'll be back for you both in about an hour."
With that the bodyguard was gone.
Steve swung to face her. "What the hell are you up to?" He didn't even have the courtesy to lower his voice.
Caitlin took a swig of the drink she'd been avoiding. Julian had asked her to meet him in a bar. Why should she worry about liquor on her breath?