He rested his butt against the back of the couch and crossed his arms. “Same page. Same sentence. Same word.” Nonchalance bled into every word.
She didn’t like that. Annoyance crackled around her like lightning flashing across the sky. “Excellent.”
“Great.”
“Fabulous.”
“Yep.”
Their exchange was thornier than a bouquet of roses.
“Thanks for stopping by.”
“No problem.” She moved to the door, and stepped outside. “See ya later.”
“See ya.” He might’ve closed the barrier between them harder than he needed to, but the bit of irritation from earlier was now a full-on case of pissed-off-ness.
Women didn’t snub him or act like it was no big deal to walk away from him. He pulled cold air into his lungs. Maybe he could extinguish whatever it was that made him want to fling the door open and go after her and give her a piece of his mind.
That was crazy. He’d gotten what he wanted. He should let it alone.
His good sense battled with his ego.
His good sense never stood a chance.
Chapter 23
Hailey stared at the white door of Beau’s apartment. Her belly churned with aggravation. His automatic dismissal of her stung way more than she cared to admit. He’d blown her off like she meant nothing. Like they hadn’t had mind-bending sex less than twenty-four hours before.
She should go back in there and rip him a new one.
She should run and not look back.
“Screw it.” She raised her fist to knock, but the door flew open.
“You.” He stepped back and pointed to the interior of his apartment. “Get inside.”
“Gladly.” She put enough attitude into the word to be voted queen of the mouthy teenagers and marched inside without looking at him. “I have a few things to say to you.”
The door slammed behind her. “Good, because I have a few things to say to you too.”
She turned to face him and a bolt of something dark and thrilling shot straight between her legs. He stalked toward her like a wild animal on the hunt. Anger grabbed her and yanked her spine straight. “I think you need to be taught a lesson, cowboy.”
“Oh, really?” He loomed over her, fire shooting from his livid eyes. “And who’s going to do that?”
“I am.” She put some extra oomph behind the words so he’d know she was good and pissed. He was so close that the scent of his body wash filled her head. He smelled delicious, and that ticked her off even more. Her palms went to his chest to push him away, but instead, her fingers massaged over his amazing pecs.
His big hands framed her head, and he tilted her face up to his. An angry thunderstorm roiled over his spectacularly handsome face. “That feels incredible.” The clipped, furious tone of his words ricocheted off the wall like bullets from a gun.
“Yeah, well, you smell incredible.” She hurled the accusation at him to let him know she meant business.
“I’m going to kiss you,” he shot back at her, anger riding every word, while his fingers tanged in her curls.
“Yeah you are.” She dared him to defy her.
His lips took hers, and their tongues battled for dominance.
It was hot, heady, and hurling them straight toward naked.
And then…it changed.
He loosened his grip on her hair and slid one hand to the back of her neck, while slow licks of fire followed the path of his other hand down her back. He cradled her body against his and took his time discovering her mouth.
Every unhurried lap of his tongue and grind of his hips was a declaration of the things he intended to do to her body. He made love to her mouth like it was the main event, like there weren’t other places to explore and orgasms to be had.
When he kissed his way to her ear, her brain synapses began to fire again. Something… There was something that should be said before they went any farther, because they were definitely going farther.
“Beau.”
His tongue traced the shell of her ear. “Hailey.”
She gently pushed on his shoulder. “Wait.”
He pulled back to give her his attention. “What’s wrong?”
Her forehead fell to his chest, and she willed her thoughts to organize. This was important. She was probably making the biggest mistake of her life, so it would be on her terms. She shuffled her feet back to put some distance between them. It was too hard to think with his scent surrounding her. How did the man smell so damn good?
He ran his finger down her cheek. “You okay?”
A deep breath to fortify her, and she nodded. “If we’re going to do this—”
“Oh, we’re doing this.” He hitched his lips up on one side in true Heartbreaker fashion. It should’ve put her off, but it only stoked the desire throbbing through her blood.
“If we do this….” She raised one brow, daring him to speak. When he remained silent, she continued. “There will be rules.” He was too much in every way, and if she didn’t put some safety measures in place, then she’d lose everything to him.
“Rules?”
“Yes.” She swallowed to force saliva past her dry vocal cords. “First, this is a fling—a wild, passionate, down-and-dirty fling. No hearts and flowers. No analyzing the other’s motivations. Nothing long term. This ends in a few months, or sooner if one of us decides they’re done.”
“Okay.”
“Rule number two. We’re exclusive for as long as this thing lasts.” When he didn’t automatically agree she went on. “I’m not kidding, Beau. This is a deal breaker for me. You want to be with other women, fine. But you won’t be with them while you’re with me. If you have a problem with that, then I’ll leave now.” She’d taken that ride before and had no interest in once again paying the price of admission.
He crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t have a problem with that, and I’m insulted that you’d think I would.”
“Fine. Last rule…no beds.”
He cocked his head to the side like he hadn’t heard her correctly. “Excuse me?”
“We’re not having sex in or on a bed.” Too intimate. She’d be giving away more than she could afford to lose, if that kind of intimacy was involved. She gathered all her sass around her and rested her fist on a popped hip. “Beds are boring. If I’m having a fling, then I want it to be with someone thrilling and imaginative—someone memorable.” She looked him up and down and cocked a brow. “Unless you’re not up to the challenge?”
His jade gaze raked her from head to toe. Like a panther circling and hemming in his prey, he moved behind her. “Oh, I’m up for the challenge. The question is, are you?”
“Ye…yes.” She’d willingly taunted him and would now pay for that error in judgment. Her brain called her every kind of fool for making such a mistake, but her body screamed…
Best mistake ever!
Chills danced along her skin when he buried his face in her neck and inhaled a long deep breath. His warm exhale was like melted chocolate sliding over every inch of her overly sensitive skin. He stayed there, torturing her without touching, until she was ready to beg him to end her misery.
A surge of excitement rode every heartbeat blasting through her chest when he grabbed a handful of her hair and placed his lips next to her ear. “Bend over.”
Raw, unadulterated, raging lust pounded through Beau’s body. Need overrode good sense, but at the moment he didn’t give a damn about anything but getting skin to skin with this maddening woman. “Put your hands on the back of the sofa.”
“Um—”
“Do it.”
She complied, and the movement brought her round ass into direct contact with him. The thin material of her leggings and his basketball shorts meant there was only the thinnest barrier between them. The pleasure/pain of it all short-circuited what control still remained after her direct challenge. He bent to her ear and ground into her. “Is this what you want, Hailey?”
Her arm came up and snaked around his neck, securing him in place. The scrape of her nails against the sensitive skin there yanked a groan from his chest. “Woman, you are playing with so much fire right now.”
“Prove it.”
She tried to turn to face him, but he held her in place with his body. “Ah, ah, ah. Did I tell you to move?”
“No.” The word slipped out on short, gruff pants.
“Then stay where you are.” He unhooked the front clasp of her bra and peeled one of the cups from her perfect breast. His fingers played with the tip, flicking and circling until she was writhing and whimpering beneath him. “Mmmm, just like that.” He licked the side of her neck. She tasted like the worst and best mistake of his whole fucking life.
“Beau…”
“Yeah, baby?”
“I want…”
“What?”
“Everything.”
His hands went to the waistband of her leggings. “I plan to give you that and more.” He peeled her pants and underwear from her body and couldn’t hold back a groan at the sight of her. He smoothed his hands over her bare ass. “I’m going to do all kinds of filthy things to you, Hailey Odom. Are you ready for that?”
“Yes.” It was more of a plea than an answer.
He turned her in his arms and lifted her to sit on the back of the sofa. “Don’t move.” His wallet was on the bedside table behind him. He grabbed it and retrieved a condom.
His mouth went dry as a bone, and if it was possible, he got even harder at the sight of her naked and waiting for him.
She separated her legs slightly and cocked her head. “You gonna stand there and stare, Heartbreaker, or are you going to put that condom to good use?”
This woman would be the death of him. He unclenched his jaw and rolled on the condom. “You’ve got a sassy mouth.” Three stalking steps to her, and he grasped a handful of her glorious hair and tilted her mouth to his.
“So I’ve been told.” She nipped his chin. “What are you gonna do about it?”
He hitched one of her legs over his hip. “I’m more of a shower than a talker. Hang on.” That was all the warning she would get before he was inside her. Psychedelic sparks exploded behind his closed lids, liquid fire screamed along his vertebrae, and he nearly lost his damn mind. “Holy, fuck.”
She dropped her head to his shoulder. “Oh, my God.”
Much like the night before, things escalated quickly. But unlike the night before, there was no frenzied race to the finish. He moved with deliberate strokes, meant to draw out every moan and cry.
Blunt nails scraped the skin of his neck. “Oh, my…Beau…”
With every roll of his hips, he wound them higher. But it wasn’t the pleasure of it all that had his head spinning. It was the emotions crashing around inside him. They weren’t part of the plan. This was supposed to be a fun game. A chance for them to blow off steam and get what they both wanted.
What they didn’t want? Emotional entanglements. They’d both made that very clear, so he needed to get his head out of the hearts and flowers and back to how she felt wrapped around him.
Her leg tightened around his hip. “More. Harder. Faster.”
The hoarse, breathless command put his head back into the game. Over and over, he gave her everything she wanted until she cried out his name and hung like a ragdoll in his arms.
His legs were none too stable, but he held them up by force of will. He lifted both her thighs and growled into her ear. “Hold on.”
She did, plastering herself to him. More fevered, mind-blowing thrusts that made it hard to know where he ended and she began, and he found his release.
He hoped like hell he hadn’t just lost his heart in the process.
Chapter 24
Beau scrolled through the social media notifications on his phone, while he waited in Jack’s office at Honey Child Records. He hearted some of the comments on an Instagram post he’d made that morning. Photos of his bedhead always got a lot of responses. Being shirtless in a tangle of sheets probably didn’t hurt either.
He smiled when he read a comment that suggested he’d gotten laid the night before and that was why his hair and bedding looked the way they did. If the commenter only knew that the woman he was sleeping with had a no-bed rule in place.
Heat settled low in his belly. She’d wanted a wild, passionate fling and that’s what they’d had for the last month. He’d never had so much fun or wanted a woman more. They’d been sneaking around like a couple of teenagers, trying not to get caught and coming up with new and creative ways to be together. He rubbed his right thigh and the muscle he’d strained during one of their more inventive attempts. So not a teenager after all.
Still, the rules grated, even though he knew she’d created the boundaries to keep things from getting too serious between them. If they were just screwin’ around then she couldn’t get hurt. He understood. All you had to do was spend five minutes in Hailey’s presence to know she was skittish as a feral cat.
She was also amazing in every way, smart, capable, an incredible mother, and becoming more and more important to him with every day that passed. The ache that had been building since his first night with her pressed against his ribs. Maybe he should’ve set his own restrictions because he was in deeper with the smart-mouthed beauty than he’d ever intended. If he didn’t know any better, he’d say he was falling—
His thoughts skidded to a stop.
Blood hammered through his head.
The phone slipped from his sweaty hand.
A tidal wave of panic rose in him.
No. He was not falling in love with the most unavailable woman in the world. He wouldn’t allow it. Not now, when the world was at his fingertips. If Clyde had taught him anything, it was that everything had to come second to a music career, especially in the beginning.
“What the hell’s wrong with you?” Jack walked into his office and slapped Beau on the foot he had crossed over his knee. “You look like somebody kicked your dog.” He sat in his desk chair and pulled his phone from his pocket.
Beau shoved his new emotional status to the back of his mind and pasted on the cockiest grin he possessed. “I’m good, just thinkin’.”
Gavin came in and took the other chair. “You tell him yet?”
Beau looked from one man to the other. “Tell me what? And where’s Luanne?”
“She’s not feeling well today. But I’m going to FaceTime her when we tell you.” Jack hit a button on his phone.
“Tell me what?”
“Hey, baby.” Luanne’s picture came on the phone. “Did you tell him?”
“No way, not without you,” Jack said.
Beau gripped the arm of the chair. “If somebody doesn’t tell me something right this damn minute, I’m gonna lose it.”
Gavin grinned. “You’re such a diva.”
“Well, most award-nominated artists are,” Luanne said from the screen.
“I’m not a… What?” He couldn’t have heard them correctly.
“You’ve been nominated for the New Artist of the Year, by the Country Music Association,” Luanne squealed.
He looked at all three smiling faces. “You’re shittin’ me.”
Gavin slapped him on the leg. “Nope, we got the call this morning.”
Beau leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and dropped his head in his hands.
Did you hear that, Clyde?
He could practically hear his grandfather’s cackling laugh. Shit, was he crying? He wiped under his eyes, and sure enough, his fingers were wet. He raised his head to Luanne on the phone screen. “Tha
nk you.” He looked at Jack and Gavin. “Thanks all of you.”
“It’s all you, buddy,” Jack said. “Lou, are you staying on while we discuss the details?”
“No, I’m going to take a rest and see if I can feel better. That place will fall apart if I’m gone for too long. Love you.”
“Love you, baby.”
Beau couldn’t have washed the grin off his face if someone paid him. “What details?”
“First, there’s something else we need to tell you,” Jack said.
“There’s more?” He didn’t know if he could take any more surprises.
“The CMA wants all the New Artist nominees to perform at the awards,” Gavin said.
“What…are you serious?” It was official. He was going to have a heart attack.
Jack grinned. “You going to be okay?”
“I don’t think so.” He couldn’t wait to tell Hailey. He refused to examine his overwhelming desire to run straight to her and tell her the big news. “Do they want the whole band or just me?”
Jack shuffled through some papers. “The whole band.”
“Then we might have a problem.”
“What could possibly be the problem?” Gavin asked.
Beau slicked his hair from his face. “We’ll need a backup singer. There’s no way Hailey will get up in front of millions of people.”
Jack folded his arms on his desk. “You’re not even going to ask her?”
“Of course I’ll ask her, but I’ll be shocked if she says yes. I’m going to have a hard enough time getting her to go to the awards show with me.” He glanced from Jack to Gavin. “I do get a plus one, don’t I?”
“Yes,” Jack said. “Ask her, and if she won’t do it, we’ll get someone for one night.”
“When is it?”
Jack consulted a printout. “The Sunday after Thanksgiving.” He handed Beau the paper. “Those are the other nominees.”
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