by Raine Thomas
Lily took a quick bath so she wouldn’t destroy her hair or makeup and then applied the scented lotion she loved from Bath and Body Works. She hunted for the rose-gold colored bra and underwear she had bought to coordinate with the knee-length rose-gold cocktail dress she wanted to wear. It was the last of the new evening-appropriate dresses she had bought. They definitely needed to take advantage of the hotel’s laundering services while they were there over the next few days.
She was just slipping on her high heels when there was a knock at the door. She got up to answer it, picking up her hoop earrings from an end table so she could put them on as she walked.
When she opened the door, Dane stood on the other side. He gave her a big smile as he looked her up and down.
“My, my,” he said. “You look like a delicious glass of champagne. I could just lap you up.”
The words paired with the wicked gleam in his eye shot carnal heat to several parts of her body at once. To deflect from her reaction, she rolled her eyes and used her chin to direct him past her so she could finish putting on her earrings. He deliberately rubbed against her as he stepped inside the room, holding her gaze and coming a hairsbreadth from touching her lips with his. The door closed with a loud bang, but neither of them noticed.
“God, you smell as good as you look,” he said, his hand coming up to touch the side of her face and running along her neck where her pulse fluttered like a trapped butterfly. “I just want to press you up against this wall, take this dress off, and kiss every inch of you.”
Not giving her time to respond, he stepped away from her and moved further into the room. Her skin tingled where he had touched her. She didn’t realize she had been holding her breath until she released it in a longing sigh. He glanced at her over his shoulder and grinned, obviously knowing she had been affected by his words and his nearness.
“I’ve got something for you,” he said.
“I know,” she replied. “I felt it against my hip.”
Now he rolled his eyes and brought a small package out from behind his back. “I meant this, gutter-brain.”
She tilted her head as she approached him. The package was wrapped in what appeared to be pages torn out of a magazine. A string that she suspected was dental floss held it together. She gave him a dubious look.
“Hey, you didn’t give me much time to put this together,” he said, pressing the package into her hands. “No judging.”
Shaking her head in amusement, she took it and unwrapped it. She had been expecting something along the lines of jewelry or perfume from the hotel’s gift shop, so she stared in amazement at the Tweety Bird spiral notebook, purple Bic pens, and bottle of White Out that spilled out of the magazine pages.
“I want you to have every tool you need to be successful in your new gig,” he explained when she didn’t immediately reply.
She didn’t know what to say. How he had managed to pull off the gift in the brief span of time he’d had between late last night and that afternoon, she had no idea. Even if he’d had help getting the items, she knew he had been the one to think of them. Very few people knew about her writing process and tools she preferred like he did. That alone was enough to melt her heart.
“Thank you, Dane,” she said at last, meeting his dark gaze. “It’s the most thoughtful gift I’ve ever gotten.”
His smile faded and he reached out to brush a stray strand of hair behind her ear, making her shiver. “Then you have been woefully neglected, Lily Montgomery,” he said in a low voice. “As of right now, I am taking it upon myself to change that.”
“Dane—”
“Nope,” he interrupted, now allowing his hand to brush her jawline. “You won’t win, so just accept it. You deserve only the best and I want to give that to you.”
“But—”
He yanked her against him, cutting her off with a stunned gasp. While her lips were parted, he swept in to kiss her. Her tongue instantly rose to meet his.
Instinct and desire took over. Her hands wrapped around him to pull him as close to her as possible. The heat from his hard body felt sinfully erotic, making her want to rip their clothes off so every inch of their bare skin could touch.
Her cell phone’s ring interrupted them. Lily tore herself away from Dane, staring at him dazedly as she tried to remember where they were and what they were supposed to be doing. Never before had a simple kiss made her lose every other thought in her head.
“Ignore it,” Dane said, right before his cell phone started ringing. “Damn it.”
They parted and Lily took a couple of wobbly steps over to her purse sitting on the television console while Dane took his phone out of his pocket and answered it. By the time Lily managed to fumble her phone out of her purse, the call had rolled to voicemail. She heard Dane replying to someone on the other end of his phone with short, clipped responses.
He disconnected the call and said, “Everyone is downstairs waiting for us.”
She nodded and grabbed her purse. “Okay, I’m ready.”
“I’m not.” He once again moved closer to her and used one fingertip to trace the edge of her neckline, lightly caressing the tops of her breasts in a way that had her glancing at the bed. “I want to stay here and make love to you. I want to make you scream my name. I want you so much I can’t stand it, Lily.”
There was nothing she could say to that since she wanted the same thing, so she took a deep breath and forced herself to walk to the door. The only thing keeping her from succumbing to her own lust was the knowledge that a group of people was waiting for them. Her engagement was barely a shimmer on the horizon of her thoughts.
Twelve days? Yeah, right.
Chapter Eighteen
It was a good thing that Lily was riding to the restaurant with Aria and Sydney. She suspected she really might have tried to seduce Dane into a quickie if they had been alone together right then. She used the ten-minute drive to collect herself. Reminding herself that she was still engaged went a long way towards cooling her jets.
So did the voicemail that Caroline had left her. Although Lily knew her half-sister was only making another attempt to get herself and Bridgette invited to one of the concerts, Lily listened to the message anyway.
“Listen, Lil,” Caroline snapped into the phone, “you can’t keep ignoring us. We’ve already told Mom, so if you keep ignoring us we’re going to get the car from her and follow you everywhere on this damn tour. You might as well just get us into the L.A. concerts so we’ll leave you alone. Call me back this time or you’ll regret it.”
With every word, Lily’s stomach pained her more and more. This was exactly what happened with Caroline and Bridgette. They whined, threatened, and bullied until they got their way. It didn’t help that their mother always gave them whatever they wanted, so they were used to being indulged. Caroline meant every word of her threat, too.
It was a problem for a later time, Lily decided. Barney was pulling into the restaurant’s parking lot and she didn’t have time for a conversation. Too bad the last thing she wanted to do right then was eat.
She ignored the questioning looks from Aria and Sydney when she silenced her phone and put it back in her purse without saying who had left the voicemail. They didn’t press her.
Barney pulled into the valet circle and parked. A team of uniformed valets descended upon the vehicle to open the doors, clearly anticipating their arrival. The valets were all men who did double-takes at Aria when she stepped out first. Lily smiled as they all tried not to gawk at her or The Void as they exited their vehicles.
The mouth-watering aromas of sautéed garlic and fresh bread helped Lily’s appetite recover as she also got out of the SUV and joined everyone in front of the restaurant. It resembled a charming Italian villa constructed of beautiful gray and brown stonework that was partially covered with flowering vines. Soft, romantic lighting spilled from vintage gas lamps along the sidewalk, illuminating the path to the entrance. A pretty arch of the flowering greene
ry swept over the restaurant’s two beveled front doors and surrounded the sign identifying the restaurant as Sogni di Cibo.
“Dreams of food,” Sydney translated absently as she took everything in. “It’s beautiful.”
“You’ve been here before?” Nikki asked.
Lily hadn’t realized Keith’s girlfriend would be attending the dinner. Then again, since all of the acts participating in the tour would be attending, she supposed it made sense that significant others would also be there. If anyone thought Nikki’s skin-tight black dress showed a little too much cleavage and leg, they certainly didn’t mention it.
“No,” Sydney replied to Nikki with a smile. “Have you?”
Nikki shook her head. “No. I just wondered since you knew what the name meant.”
“Sydney speaks several languages,” Aria explained as the front doors were opened by two of the restaurant’s greeters. “Even American Sign Language.”
Nikki seemed surprised by that. It wasn’t an unusual reaction. Being so soft-spoken, Sydney sometimes came across as an airheaded dreamer because she didn’t voice her thoughts at every possible opportunity. Lily and Aria knew otherwise. Sydney was smarter than both of them combined.
Lily saw Keith give Sydney a speculative look and suspected that was because his little sister was hearing impaired. Nikki also noticed the look even though it had been little more than a glance. She frowned and Lily’s intuition kicked in, warning her that Nikki might see Sydney as a threat.
“Aren’t you learning ASL, too, Nikki?” Lily asked.
Nikki’s expression immediately eased when the attention again turned to her. “Yes. I had to take a break during the tour.”
“I’d be happy to help teach you during some of our down times,” Sydney offered, clearly oblivious to Nikki’s earlier reaction.
Lily considered making the same offer. She had become rather fluent in ASL with Sydney’s help. She had asked Sydney to teach her so she could communicate with Keith’s sister when she went to visit her. The offer to help Nikki remained unvoiced, however, as she reasoned that Sydney’s tutoring might help ease any potential issues between her and Nikki. Maybe it would even help them bond.
“Thanks,” Nikki said with what Lily thought was forced enthusiasm. “That’d be great.”
The group came to a stop in the restaurant’s grand entryway beneath a magnificent wrought-iron chandelier. Dane worked his way over to Lily as a dark-haired woman in a dusky-orange suit hurried out from behind a gleaming wooden hostess stand and reached for Christopher’s hand.
“Are you avoiding me?” Dane asked Lily out of the corner of his mouth.
“Welcome to Sogni di Cibo,” the woman in the suit said in a rich Italian accent, her gaze encompassing the group. “I am Sophia De Luca and my family owns this restaurant.”
“No,” Lily whispered back to Dane, her gaze on the woman. “Just trying not to climb all over you.”
He issued a quiet snort as Christopher said, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, signora. You have a beautiful place here.”
“We could always escape to the bathroom,” Dane murmured so only she could hear. “I’ll let you climb all you want.”
Lily’s face flushed as Sophia smiled at Christopher and said, “Grazie. We are so pleased to have you with us tonight as our distinguished guests. If you need anything during your meal, you have only to ask. Please, let me show you to your tables.”
She led them all along a short path beside the main dining room to a set of stairs. When Lily glanced up, she realized the second floor was partially exposed to the main dining room, separated only by a decorative stone half-wall. One of the tables on the upper level was visible from the base of the stairs. Since the members of Brewer Street and Genevieve Shaw were seated there, the loft was clearly where the dinner was being held.
Lily tried to ignore the stares and murmurs of the other restaurant patrons who were following their progress up the stairs through the wrought iron railing. Even though they were all nicely dressed, The Void members were unmistakable to their fans. It was clear from the level of excitement Lily detected that more than one fan was dining there that evening.
“We have staff dedicated to your event this evening,” Sophia informed them as they all reached the top of the stairs. “Marco is the captain of the banquet team and will be overseeing your meal. I hope you enjoy.”
Marco was a slim man with dark hair, a dapper moustache, and olive-toned skin. He stepped forward and issued a little bow. Lily actually felt tall next to him in her heels.
“Ciao,” he said in a surprisingly deep voice. “Please allow us to seat you.”
Lily started to advance into the room but Dane took her arm. “You’re not escaping me that easily,” he said.
“Why would I want to do that?” she asked with a dramatic fluttering of her eyelashes.
“Right this way, Mr. Archer,” one of the female servers directed. “We have your table ready.”
“Thank you,” Dane told her with his usual smile.
The smile faltered when he realized the server was leading them to a table for four. In the other two seats were Brandon and a woman with big blue eyes and chin-length brown hair whom Lily had never seen before.
Sensing that Dane was about to protest the seating, Lily grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze. She had spotted the cameras positioned around the room and didn’t want him to say something he’d regret.
When he looked down at her, she stood on her toes and whispered, “Smile,” into his ear.
He smiled. She could only appreciate that he didn’t second-guess her.
Having resolved himself to the seating arrangements, Dane moved ahead of the server to pull Lily’s chair out for her, a sweet gesture she couldn’t help but appreciate. The server seemed to agree based on the besotted smile on her face. She just stared at Dane while he took his seat.
“Do we get menus or something?” Brandon asked, jarring the server out of her daze.
“Oh, o-of course,” she stammered.
She hurried off to get the menus. An uncomfortable silence descended on the table. Dane seemed absorbed in watching everyone else get seated and Brandon was staring sullenly at Dane.
“Hi,” Lily said to Brandon’s date. “I’m Lily.”
“I’m Heather,” she said with a tentative smile, her gaze moving between Brandon and Dane. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you, too.”
The server returned with their menus, sparing Lily from coming up with more small talk for another few minutes while they gave their drink orders. Lily decided to try one of the restaurant’s highly recommended Bellinis and hoped it wouldn’t go straight to her head.
Then again, she mused as she felt the ice building between Dane and Brandon, maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.
“So...do you work with the band, Lily?” Heather asked as they waited for their drinks.
“Yes. I’m the social media manager.”
Heather’s eyebrows lifted with interest. “That sounds fun.”
“It is so far. How about you? Do you work with Suddenly Something?”
“No, I’m—”
“It isn’t important who she is,” Brandon interrupted, leaning back and putting his arm across the back of Heather’s chair. “Archer may want his life plastered all over social media, but I don’t.”
When Dane’s head whipped around and he pinned Brandon with a glare, Lily reached under the table and gave his leg another warning squeeze. He once again looked at her and seemed to simmer down.
“It doesn’t much matter what Heather and I discuss,” Lily said lightly. “It appears all of this will be on camera, so a social media feature is pretty irrelevant.”
“Yeah,” Heather agreed, looking around. “There sure are a lot of cameras all over the place. Is that normal?”
“On this tour it is,” Dane said before Brandon could respond. “It’s all the media can talk about lately.”
Brandon’s eyes narrowed slightly as he studied Dane. Lily couldn’t quite read his expression, but she thought he looked puzzled. Or maybe he was irritated. In either case, he wasn’t sniping at Dane so she didn’t much care.
“What are you going to order, Bran?” Heather asked as she opened her menu.
Lily always ordered the same thing at Italian restaurants—eggplant parmigiana—so once she confirmed it was on the menu, she took a moment while the others read their menus to absorb the scene around her, hoping to get future writing content. The space had been arranged in a mix of square and round tables that sat between four to eight people. Each table was covered in white linen that she imagined would have its share of marinara sauce all over it by the end of the night. Candles flickered in the fresh floral centerpieces, enhancing the elegant ambience.
Aria and Sydney were sitting at a nearby round table with Keith, Nikki, Sage, Noelle, Mandy, and Xander. Lily envied the friendly banter taking place at their table as they all pointed at each other’s menus and discussed the options. Even as that thought occurred to her, Aria gave her a look as if to ask if she wanted to join them. Lily smiled and shook her head, tilting her head towards Dane and shrugging as if to reply that he needed her support, but she appreciated the offer. Aria’s nonverbal response told Lily to let her know if she changed her mind.
Lily’s attention then moved to the next table. Christopher sat there with Regina, who gave Lily a cool, calculating look when she noticed Lily studying her. Lily dismissed the look, knowing there was no love lost on Regina’s part since Lily had convinced Dane to leave Suddenly Something. Regina could glare all she wanted.
Also at Christopher’s table was a balding, heavyset man Lily had seen at several Void events now. He had to be traveling with them to have been at every location. When he waved at one of the two guys holding cameras and the guy started making his way slowly around the room, Lily assumed the heavyset man had something to do with all of the filming going on.
“Who is that?” she asked Dane as he closed his menu.
His gaze followed hers to the man at Christopher’s table. “Oh, that’s Elijah. He’s with the film crew.”