by Raine Thomas
“What’s wrong, Lilliputian?” the tall rhythm guitarist asked, settling one of his long, muscled arms around her shoulders. “You don’t like my jokes?”
A more convincing smile lifted the corners of her mouth over his brotherly embrace. She lifted her right arm around his waist and gave him a sideways hug.
“I’m sure she’ll find your jokes more humorous after a couple of drinks,” Aria said, turning from the bar with two martinis, one of which she handed to Lily. “Or maybe three or four.”
“Ouch,” Xander said, bringing a hand up to his chest. “Lily, what will it take to win over your sexy friend here?”
“Talking directly to her wouldn’t hurt,” Aria said dryly.
Lily bit her bottom lip to hide her amusement when Xander reached for Aria’s free hand and lifted it to his lips. “A thousand apologies, my queen.”
Now it was Aria who rolled her eyes, but Lily saw her friend fighting a smile. Although Xander was every inch the rock star with tattoos covering most of his warm brown skin, his dark hair worn in short, spiky dreadlocks, and his attire consisting of a skin-tight T-shirt and black camo pants worn with heavy black boots, Lily thought he paired well with Aria’s more sophisticated beauty.
“Why don’t you make it up to her on the dance floor?” Lily suggested, reaching for Aria’s drink.
“It would be my pleasure,” Xander said with a wide smile.
He ushered Aria off before she could protest. Lily figured her friend didn’t have much argument in her anyway. The quick way she matched Xander’s rhythm on the dance floor told her that much.
“They look good together,” Sydney said, echoing Lily’s thoughts.
“Yeah.”
The camera operators in the room seemed to agree with them. Within minutes, the couple was surrounded. Lily couldn’t remember ever seeing so many cameras and reporters at one of The Void’s after-parties. She guessed it was due to this being the first stop on the Under the Bridge Tour.
Did they all know about her formal request not to distribute her image? She didn’t want her professional reputation sullied by being caught partying, nor did she need the stress of dealing with her mother if her mother saw her in such photos. Christopher was supposed to have taken care of that but Lily hadn’t thought to confirm it with him.
To be on the safe side, she decided to make an effort to avoid the cameras. She stepped away from the crowded bar and looked for a table or place to sit as Sydney accepted her Diet Coke from the bartender and slipped a couple of dollars into the tip jar. Lily’s gaze crossed the room towards Dane and Camilla. The interview still appeared to be going strong. They must have just started it when she got there, Lily figured as she battled another bout of jealousy. She ignored the voice in her head telling her that it could easily have been her interviewing Dane if she wasn’t so damn stubborn.
The doors to the room opened then, ushering in a wash of bright light from the hallway outside. The new guests were backlit and cast in shadows. It took Lily only a few seconds to know it was Brandon and his band mates making their grand entrance. She would recognize Brandon’s swagger anywhere.
She glanced at Dane. She didn’t want Brandon to say or do something that would upset him. There were so many cameras in the room that any conflict was bound to be captured and shared with the world.
But Dane was oblivious to Brandon’s entrance, she realized. He was too busy talking to Camilla.
Lily looked again at Brandon, who was now more easily visible with the doors closed. His grin faded when he realized no one had apparently noticed his arrival. He, too, glanced over and saw Dane talking to Camilla. His eyes narrowed and his hands tightened into fists. She thought she might have to stage an intervention after all. Then his gaze moved to the cameras swiveling in his direction and he seemed to shrug off his irritation. His charismatic smile fell right back into place and he gave a careless wave to the cameras.
Her brain immediately switched into writer mode. The Void wasn’t the only band involved in this tour. Suddenly Something had a lot to prove. This was as much a PR opportunity for them as it was any of the other tour participants. The tour was also a hot topic in entertainment right now. Would it be worth Dane’s ire to approach Brandon about an interview?
“Lily?”
Sydney’s voice reached her, alerting Lily to the fact that she had stopped walking in the middle of a busy path between the tables and the dance floor. Someone shoved past Lily, jostling her arm and sending liquid sloshing over the rim of her glass. It splashed onto her arm, dress, and purse.
“Watch it,” snapped the female who had hit her.
Lily realized it was Genevieve Shaw. “I’m sorry,” she instinctively blurted, though it had largely been the singer’s fault for the collision. When Genevieve turned to keep pushing through the crowd, Lily hustled after her. “Wait, Ms. Shaw...I’ve been trying to catch up with you. My name is Lily Montgomery and I’m a writer. I’d love to do a feature—”
Genevieve stopped walking and spun to face Lily, her dark hair swirling around her bare shoulders in a dramatic fashion that had Lily’s eyes widening. She looked Lily up and down before lifting her chin.
“The last thing I want to do is sit down to an interview with some underage, drink-swilling Void groupie,” she told Lily. “Just look at yourself. Even I have higher standards.”
Humiliation kept Lily rooted in place as the singer turned back around and stalked off. Lily was suddenly highly conscious of the fact that she was holding two martinis and reeked of alcohol since it was now coating half of her body. Murmurs started around her as the nearest party-goers began spreading the word about what had just happened. Hoping to minimize the damage and make a quick exit, Lily turned to head back towards Sydney.
She froze again when she saw all of the cameras behind her. She could actually feel the blood draining from her face. Flashes popped like strobe lights, blinding and disorienting her.
“Is that true, Ms. Montgomery?” someone asked her. “Are you underage?”
Lily’s mouth opened. She thought of a number of responses, none of them making it past her tightly closed throat.
“No, that’s not true,” Sydney said, coming to her rescue from somewhere in the crowd. “Lily is twenty-four years old, for heaven’s sake. Look elsewhere for your stories, people.”
Ignoring the other questions tossed out by the reporters, Sydney grabbed Lily’s arm and pulled her away from the cameras. Lily stumbled awkwardly by the abrupt movement, spilling a little more of her drink on herself. Somewhere in her numb brain she considered how ironic it was that she looked absolutely plastered when she hadn’t had a single sip of alcohol.
Sydney steered her competently through the tables towards the exit, pausing only long enough to take the two martini glasses from Lily’s hands and place them on a tray near the door before she led Lily away from the party and over to the closest ladies’ room. The bathroom had a large, blissfully quiet lounge just inside the door. Lily walked over to a nearby chaise and dropped heavily down onto it. She placed her elbows on her knees and lowered her pounding head into her hands.
“Good Lord, Syd...what just happened?”
Sydney ran a soothing hand over Lily’s back. “Well, apparently God saw an opportunity and decided to take it.”
Lily groaned. Sydney had grown up in a religious household. Although she wasn’t nearly the Bible-thumper that her parents had tried to raise, she still often placed things into a religious or spiritual context.
“I’ve made a total mess of things,” Lily said.
She ran her hands over her face before finally lifting her head. The brightness of the bathroom in contrast to the dark after-party impacted her head like laser beams. There was no way she would make it through the evening with her head splitting like it was.
“You just had a two-minute run-in with Genevieve Shaw,” Sydney said, still rubbing her back. “Now that the reporters know you’re actually not underage, they’ll have
no interest in airing any of that.”
Lily shook her head. “I still looked like some sloppy, brainless drunk. All I wanted was to try and get an interview with her. Now I’m covered in vodka that I never even got to drink.”
“We should try and clean some of that up.”
“I guess. Then I think I just want to get out of here.”
They rose and walked around the corner of the bathroom to the side with the toilets, sinks, and mirrors. Lily felt a hot flush building in her face when she spotted the tall, slender woman applying lipstick in one of the mirrors. The woman had most certainly overheard their conversation.
Oh, well. Nothing much could be done to recover at this point. Might as well just embrace her humiliation.
“Hi,” Lily said.
She only briefly met the other woman’s gaze in the mirror before grabbing several paper towels out of the dispenser. Sydney stepped into one of the bathroom stalls, leaving her briefly to fend for herself.
“Hi,” the other woman replied.
Since she sounded friendly enough, Lily looked back over at her as she got the paper towels damp. It took her a moment to recognize her as Erica St. James, the lead singer of Brewer Street. Lily hadn’t immediately known who she was because the singer usually wore a signature red top hat over her short ebony hair when she performed.
“How are you enjoying the party?” Lily asked.
“Can’t complain,” Erica said with an easy shrug. “Sounds like you’re having a rough time of it though.”
“Yeah. I’m not usually one for crowds. I really showed it tonight.”
“Funny...crowds are what I live for,” Erica said with a small wink and a smile as she put her lipstick back in her purse.
“I’m sure. It’s a good thing you guys are so good. Keeps the crowds coming.”
Erica gave her an approving look. “Nicely done. Subtle and engaging compliment.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean—”
“I know. I’m just teasing you. You’re Lily Montgomery, right? Corey mentioned that you were interested in interviewing us.”
Lily stopped dabbing at the stains on her dress. “Absolutely.”
“We’d be happy to sit down with you. We’ll be on the flight with everyone tomorrow at the crack of dawn. Why don’t we talk then?”
“Absolutely,” Lily repeated, crushing the paper towels in her excitement. “Thanks so much, Ms. St. James. I’m looking forward to it.”
“It’s Erica. See you in the morning then.”
Lily waited until she heard the door close behind Erica before she let out a little squeal. Sydney stepped out of the stall with a big smile on her face.
“Oh my goodness, Lily!” she exclaimed as she crossed to the sink to wash her hands. “That’s so great! I guess it was fate that you ended up in here.”
Lily’s smile widened. “Maybe so.”
“Do you still want to leave?”
“I think so. I’m damp in places I shouldn’t be and my head and feet are killing me.”
“That’s fine. We have to get up so early tomorrow anyway. I’ll text Aria and have her meet us at the car, or she can always get a ride back to the hotel with the band.”
“I should let Da—Archer—know I’m leaving,” Lily said. “He mentioned wanting to talk to me.”
Sydney gave her a knowing grin. “Sure.”
As they left the bathroom, Lily pulled out her cell phone to text Dane. She couldn’t bear going back into the loud party and hoped he’d come out to talk to her. Just as she started composing her message, though, she glanced up and saw him exiting the party with Camilla, Trey walking a discreet distance behind them. Dane and Camilla were both smiling and laughing. Dane put his arm over Camilla’s shoulders in a way that Lily knew well, guiding her towards a set of glass doors leading outside. As they walked, Camilla released her long hair from its pins so it spilled down over Dane’s arm.
A quick, sharp pain struck Lily right in the heart. Apparently she didn’t need to let him know where she was going. It didn’t appear as though she’d be missed.
“I’m sure it’s nothing, Lily,” Sydney said in a quiet voice, following Lily’s gaze.
“Yeah...nothing,” Lily said, though she suspected they didn’t mean the same thing.
Her gaze shifted to her phone as Sydney texted Aria. She deleted the couple of words she had started typing in her text to Dane, trying to convince herself that it didn’t matter. There was no use getting bent out of shape over him speaking with another woman. This was his life. It wasn’t going to change.
So he had kissed her. So what? It wasn’t a freaking marriage proposal.
No, that had come from Johnathan, the great guy she still hadn’t talked to even though he had gone out of his way to send her flowers. The guy who would most definitely be by her side that evening if he was there.
The guy who deserved much more from her.
Nodding to herself, she stepped away from Sydney and scrolled through her phone until she reached Johnathan’s name. There was no time like the present for her to give him the response he had been waiting for.
Chapter Fourteen
Didn’t the woman ever stop talking?
Archer fought the urge to check his watch as Camilla continued narrating a story about the time she met Taylor Swift. They were standing on a terrace outside the venue because Camilla had said she was having trouble hearing him over the music at the after-party. Archer had deliberately not headed over to one of the available benches on the terrace, hoping that standing would help move things along. Trey positioned himself off to the side next to a vine-covered trellis, his observant gaze scanning the parking lot beyond the terrace.
There were a few other people outside smoking near a tall outdoor ashtray, but they weren’t close enough to overhear their conversation. One of the House of Archer camera operators sat on a nearby bench, his camera focused on Archer and Camilla. Archer assumed Elijah had anticipated something like this, as the camera guy had been sitting there when he and Camilla arrived. He couldn’t imagine the lighting from the few surrounding lampposts would be ideal for filming or that the sound quality would be good enough for airing, but what the hell did he know?
The interview had been slated to last fifteen minutes. It was now going on an hour with no signs of wrapping up. Archer desperately wanted to pull out his phone and text Lily, but Camilla was a big presence in the media. Christopher had told the band multiple times how important it was to stay on her good side. Interrupting their conversation to send a text surely wouldn’t go over well.
But damn it, all he could think about was Lily. He’d been replaying their kiss in his head since he left her green room. It had been brief and only barely touched on passionate, yet no other kiss in his life had left him wanting so much more.
“...so you can imagine what I said to that,” Camilla said with a laugh, touching his arm in a way that conveyed more intimacy than made him comfortable.
“Oh, I can imagine,” he said, shifting subtly away from her to lean against a nearby concrete wall.
She either sensed something from his tone or his body language. The amusement faded from her gaze, leaving her looking uncertain. After a moment, she cleared her throat and focused on a vague point in the distance.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’ve hijacked this interview. I certainly know better than that.”
“No, it’s okay,” he assured her. “I’ve enjoyed talking to you.”
She ran her hand from the middle of her forehead to her temple and issued a dry chuckle, still not meeting his gaze. “I’m afraid I misread things. This is a first for me. Can’t say I care for it much.”
Dread crept into his gut. This was far and away the worst way to leave things with such an influential person.
“It’s not that,” he hedged. “You’re a beautiful woman, Camilla.”
“Oh, God.”
“No, really.”
She rolled her eyes and turned to go.<
br />
Envisioning a horrible write-up in her next article, he blurted, “The thing is, there’s someone else.”
The woman was quickly replaced by the reporter, her discomfort gone in a snap. “Oh, really? And who would that be?”
Relieved, he laughed. “Oh, no. You’re not getting that out of me. Not yet. Things are still developing.”
“I can’t believe you kept this from me, Archer,” she said with a delighted gleam in her eye. “This is huge news. I need details.”
“I’ll tell you what...when things are on a more even keel, you’ll be the first reporter to know.”
She held out a hand. “I’ll hold you to that.”
He accepted the handshake with both of his hands. “You really are a wonderful woman, Camilla Ramsey.”
Her mouth twisted into a rueful half-smile. “Watch where you toss that charm, Archer. It’ll get you into big trouble one day.”
“I’m sure you’d be only too happy about that.”
“My readers sure would be.”
Archer considered her words as he finally made his way back to the after-party with Trey on his heels. Charming people wasn’t something he deliberately set out to do. It was just instinctively how he interacted with others. His mother called it his natural charisma. It had played a large part in allowing him to enter the world of entertainment at such a young age and continued to aid him in his chosen career. After seeing how Camilla had reacted to him, he could see how it might, indeed, get him into trouble if he wasn’t careful.
His pace as he strode through the hall leading to the after-party was brisk in anticipation of hunting Lily down so they could talk. He figured she’d be ready to leave by then anyway. He was eager to get her away from the crowd and the cameras. He’d also be lying if he didn’t admit he really wanted to kiss her again.
He noticed that Barney was no longer standing outside the party’s room. “Where’s Barney?” he asked Trey, who shared an earwig communication system with the rest of the security team.