by Tasha Taylor
The Rock Star's Girls
Tasha Taylor
Dedication
"Dedicated to Mum, always with me.
To M & B, my boys, I love you.
To Clare & Sarah, USA 93-94.
To BG, thank you for your everlasting belief in me.
To Char, my CP, you rock."
Chapter One
Leah cast one last glance at the interior of the newly opened nightclub, nodding her approval, allowing herself a little smile of satisfaction.
“You’re looking pleased with yourself,” Joe’s gruff voice came from behind on the upper balcony.
Leah glanced over her shoulder, her smile widened to a grin as he joined her. “Just enjoying the view. I’m just so glad we’re finally open.”
“You’ve got every right to be proud. This is all your hard work.”
The nightclub was set on two floors, with a bar and a dance floor on each and a balcony running around the top level, where Leah and Joe were standing. Above them, the ceiling glowed with a million tiny stars and then faded down the walls, which were midnight blue until on the lower level. There was nothing but the odd star glinting on the floor.
Leah glanced at the portly man, his chest still heaving after climbing the stairs. He really needed to look after himself more. She wondered if he’d actually start to take it easy now that the club was opening. Joe talked often about retiring and letting her take full control of his empire, but he enjoyed the social side of his business too much to ever fully give it up. Still she’d practically free reign over this project and she’d relished the challenge. She’d come a long way from her first job with the McGuire’s as a bartender.
“You look tired. You shouldn’t be working so hard.”
“That’s rich!” Leah tore her thoughts from her checklist for opening night “You phoned me at seven thirty this morning to ask what time I’d be in. You’d already been here an hour by then.”
“This is your baby. I’m just here to help where I can.”
“Like you helped with the mystery celebrity who’s coming to the grand opening?” Leah laughed. “Who is it, Joe? Royalty?”
“As good as. Everything is ready, right?”
“Of course, I wouldn’t be doing my job if it wasn’t. Which means, I can go pick up my daughter. Good luck for tonight. I’ll pick up the papers on my way in to work, see exactly who you’ve got up your sleeve.” She kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow morning.”
“You should be out front of the house with me tonight.”
“Not my cup of tea. I’m strictly behind the scenes. Just enjoy yourself.”
Backstage was definitely the way Leah preferred it. She’d planned everything to within an inch of perfection; she had a list to keep track of all her lists. Joe joked that he let her organize him, but she knew he secretly loved being bossed around. He had his wife Louise to do it at home and Leah to do it at work. Between them, they kept him on time and in check.
“Will you stay? Louise phoned to say she can’t make it.”
“Really? What’s she got on that’s more important than opening night?”
“She’s babysitting.”
“She’s what? For who?” Leah didn’t like the sheepish look on his face. “Oh, no, you don’t. Pippa and I are getting pizza. It’s all arranged.”
“That’s no fun. When was the last time you had a night out? I’ve already discussed it with Louise. She’s more than happy to have Pippa stay the night.”
“And what did Pippa say?” Leah’s control of the situation slipped just a little and a tiny flutter of panic pulsed in her throat. She recognized the look on Joe’s face, the one that said my word is final. He only trotted it out on special occasions and she’d learned over the years it was futile to resist. Joe and Louise were the closest thing she had to a family. They took her in when she was homeless and pregnant. “I have nothing to wear.”
“We’ve thought of that one.” Joe winked at her, before disappearing back through the private doors.
“It’s a conspiracy,” she muttered a moment later as he handed her a garment bag. Inside she found a black cocktail dress and recognized it immediately. She had tried it on the week before whilst shopping with Louise. She glanced from the dress to Joe and back, and saw the expectant look on his face.
Leah knew that he didn’t understand her reluctance to participate in the opening night celebrations. She’d never shared the real reason why she did not wish to mingle with the rich and famous guests. She knew it would sound strange to someone who doted on public attention.
She was no stranger to the spotlight. Her mother was a leading novelist, her sister a model. Just before Leah’s 16th birthday, her father died, leaving her devastated. He had been her rock, giving her life a sense of normality. With him gone, her world had closed in on her as the media attention increased. The one person who had loved her completely had gone and she vowed never to let anyone close to her, to let them see how vulnerable she was.
Leah shivered unconsciously at the thought of still being under that intense scrutiny and realized that Joe was still waiting for her answer.
“I don’t appear to have much choice,” she said quietly.
“You will always have a choice, Leah.” She guessed it would mean a lot to him if she stayed. He only wanted her to enjoy the party, and it was the least she could do for him.
“I’ll stay, Joe.” A smile lit up his face. “You’re right. I haven’t been out much lately. The dress is beautiful, by the way.”
“Go put it on.”
***
“And we’re off the air!” The floor manager announced, as the red light on camera four went out.
Everyone began to bustle around, hurrying to clear the set. Nathan let the smile fade from his face, his jaw aching from maintaining it so long for the cameras. The talk show host shooed away his assistants as he stood up and extended his hand to Nathan.
“You have a really good relationship with the camera. Ever thought of branching out into the acting business?” David Williams smiled.
Nathan released the man’s hand with a brief shake of his dark head. “I don’t need any more work at the moment, David.”
“That’s right. You’re off on holiday, aren’t you?” David’s glance flickered to the notes on Nathan that he had referred to throughout the interview. “Any special plans?”
“No.” Nathan was no longer forthcoming now the cameras were off.
The chance for further probing by the interviewer was cut short by the arrival of Nathan’s manager, Justin Lloyd-Smith.
“Brilliant,” Justin slapped him on the back. “You gave them exactly what they wanted, a glimpse of the real Nathan Llewellyn.”
Nathan smiled half-heartedly. He desperately needed some time to himself to sort out his thoughts and the happenings of the last few years. The holiday he was about to take was as much for his mental as for his physical health. Nathan had been suffering for weeks with the lingering symptoms of flu and he had been to see his family doctor. He’d been in the doctor’s office less than five minutes when Doctor Franklin delivered his diagnosis.
“You’re on the verge of physical exhaustion. You need to take a long break.”
Many nights, Nathan awoke from sleep in a cold sweat, left with an image of a dream that was so vivid it felt like it had been burned into his eyelids. When he closed his eyes, he could see the face of a woman whom he had once loved, and whom he had believed had loved him, but her disappearance one night had told him otherwise. Now, all he had for her were feelings of regret. She had left him when he really needed her, and try as he might; he had never been able to forgive her for that.
Nathan blinked as a br
ightly lit lamp was wheeled past him by a stagehand, as the set was cleared for the next program.
"Are you ready to leave?" Nathan tried not to flinch as his manager put an arm around his shoulders.
"Yes. Let's go. I've had enough of this place."
As they stepped out of the building, Nathan felt a sense of freedom that seemed to spread through his entire body as he inhaled deeply of the crisp air. Justin seemed to be in more of a hurry to escape the attention of the groups of female fans gathered outside the studios than Nathan was, as he practically pushed Nathan into the waiting black limousine.
"Thank God that's over," Justin sighed, pushing his dark glasses up onto his head. “I need you to do me a favor."
"What?" Nathan's tone was wary.
"One more appearance?" The request hung in the air for a long moment, and Justin appeared to shrink back into seat.
“Damn it, Justin!” Nathan exclaimed, his tone impatient. “I told you that interview was the last thing I wanted to do. I need this holiday!”
The whine in Justin’s voice set Nathan’s nerves on edge. “It’s for an old friend of mine.”
“Who is it?”
“Joe McGuire. He started out as a cabaret act in the sixties, and worked his way up through the club circuit. He has a couple of nightclubs up north. He’s just about to open his third.”
“Is he just small-time?”
“Sure. The only reason I asked is because you’re going up that end of the country anyway. It’s in Newcastle.”
“And saving your butt. Do you owe him money?” Justin was a gambler.
“I lost to him in a card game last month. So I sort of used you as an I.O.U.” Justin at least had the grace to look sheepish.
“You are a snake.”
“You’ll do it?”
“Give me the details.” Nathan had long been resigned to the fact that his personal life was destined to take a back seat to his career for as long as he was in the spotlight, but that fact now bothered the hell out of him.
Justin handed him an itinerary that had him on a plane to Newcastle that afternoon to arrive at the club about nine o’clock that evening, and a flight to Edinburgh the next morning.
“It’s the last time I bail you out.”
Justin grinned, and Nathan wished he could please himself as easily.
***
“This is the place.”
Nathan leaned forward to look out of the tinted front window, and frowned. “Are you sure?” he asked the chauffeur. There were hundreds of people gathered outside the building.
“Yes sir. Opening night. Biggest nightclub in the North East.”
Nathan cast a glance at the beautiful woman who was seated beside him, touching up her make-up. She flashed him a smile.
“I’m ready.” Jennifer placed a hand on his thigh and squeezed it gently. She was a model with whom Nathan had been romantically linked by the press. Justin had seen their coupling as a good publicity stunt and so Nathan had taken her out a few times.
The car door opened and a tall, well-built man, leaning towards him to help him from the car. Nathan took the extended hand and registered a faint feeling of reassurance in the firmness of the man’s handshake.
“Joe McGuire. Thank you very much for agreeing to do this tonight.”
“Nice to meet you, Joe. Looks like you’ve got a popular place here.” Nathan helped Jennifer out of the car, camera flashes popped in his face from every angle.
“Please, come inside.” Joe took Jennifer’s arm and led her up the steps to the door, Nathan by her side, giving them a potted history of the building on the way.
The crowds cheered louder with every step Nathan took. His smile faltered a few times in the seemingly eternal walk from car to entrance. He could feel his head pounding, his adrenaline running at high pitch due to a searing, red-hot anger that filled his body. Then, just as soon as it had started, the noise and commotion were over, as they came to a halt in the midnight blue foyer.
In the silence, Nathan began to think that maybe it was not going to be such a bad night. Perhaps it would be just a couple of hours as Justin had promised him. The bouncers had not let in a single member of the paparazzi, and there had been no sign of any press in the foyer.
Upon entering an upstairs room, Nathan’s spirits plummeted. He could not see for the cameras and people pressing to get a better look at him. Frustration rose in him again, his face passive and a frozen smile, but inside he was seething.
Introduction followed introduction. He heard Joe presenting them to some girl called Leah, but Nathan could only look silently at her, as if he could not quite believe who was standing right there, after so many years. Of all the places in the world she could have run to when she left him, she came here. His dark gaze flitted over her slim body, sheathed in an expensive dress, the black silk clinging to the curves that he had once known intimately. Her dark chestnut hair glowed with hidden fire, the smooth skin of her cheeks echoing that heat as she colored, but she watched him with ice in her eyes, and he could imagine that ice spreading all over her body if he came any nearer.
She extended her hand after what seemed like minutes and he took it, expecting her skin to be cool to the touch, to match the air that she pervaded, but it was completely the opposite. Her touch was as warm and smooth as he remembered it, and he was filled with memories of her skin on his, her lips on his, her body pressed against his, and more. Every nerve ending in his body seemed to be teased by fire at their contact. His reaction was instantly cooled with the icy stare she fixed him with.
“I’m needed elsewhere,” she whispered, pulling her hand from his. She turned on her heel.
Nathan watched Leah’s retreating figure. What, no tearful reunion? No begging forgiveness? No please take me back?
“I need a drink,” he announced to no one in particular.
***
Nathan sat at the bar, nursing a whiskey to calm the churning of his mind. He was shaking too. What the hell had come over him? Okay, so he hadn’t seen Leah for years. She was just one of many lovers he had. People always came and went in his life. Why was he so shaken up by seeing her?
“Enjoying yourself?” Jennifer purred in his ear, her hand on his shoulder.
“So-so. How about you?”
“I’d be better if I had some company.”
Nathan accommodated a thought that Jennifer had not bothered to ask why he was seated alone at the bar. Someone else might have inquired if he were feeling all right -- someone who cared for him. However, there was no-one like that in his life, there hadn’t been since Leah.
“Would you at least look like you want to be with me?” She sounded annoyed, but Nathan had already forgotten it as he saw Leah re-enter the bar.
“Let’s go,” he said, nearly pulling Jennifer off her designer heels.
Nathan had an overwhelming urge to go after Leah, to make her talk to him, to answer questions he had for her. But he didn’t. A firm resolve settled in the pit of his stomach that he would have those answers from Leah if it killed him, just as it almost had when she walked out of his life before. This time, he was not about to let her walk away from him.
***
Leah was bombarded with a thousand thoughts all at once, as she ran headlong down the stairs. From the second she’d seen him, that man, the mystery celebrity, when she stood in front of him as Joe introduced them, all she could think about was the last time she had seen him. The force of his stare penetrated her mind, stealing the memories before she even saw them in her mind’s eye; entering her body through her skin to steal the breath she was trying so hard to control.
Here was the very man she had spent much of the last seven years trying to forget, suppressing memories, hopes and dreams. Yet, there he was, contempt brimming from every pore in his body, she felt it. A breath shuddered from her throat; his very presence reached inside and dragged it from her, seizing her living essence, trying to extinguish her very being.
Le
ah’s world held no sense of reality anymore. She uttered a small cry of desperation as she stumbled down the hall to her office. All the way, she felt as if the walls were closing in around her, and practically ran into her office, the door firmly shut behind her, as if the action could keep out the cloying sensations she felt.
Just as Leah felt she had been drained of every single feeling, she was knocked sideways as emotions came flooding back in a tide that overwhelmed her completely. The mere sight of Nathan’s face had acted as a catalyst to a past that she truly believed she had dealt with. She had loved him once, deeply and completely, but Nathan had hurt her more than she had words to describe and for the longest time, she had harbored feelings of hate and disgust for him. Over the years, she came to view the circumstances of their relationship in a tempered manner, and she knew that it was for the best that she had left him.
Time, and Pippa, had made Leah moderate in her reasoning when dealing with people, and she realized that her memories had overridden her common sense when she had come face to face with Nathan. It was a shock to her to say the least, but the possibility of Nathan finding out the secret she had kept for years was causing her more pain.
Nausea came to her suddenly. There was no way she could stay here, not while Nathan was in the same building. Just the thought of him was enough to throw her into confusion again. She’d pick up Pippa and go home, where she was safe, just as she should have done all along. For now, for her own sanity, she had to get away from Nathan.
Driving like she was being pursued by a pack of wolves, instead of her memories of Nathan, Leah made it to Louise’s house in record time. Her heart was still racing, as she climbed out of the car and knocked on the front door.
“Hey Lou,” Leah muttered, as Louise stood back to allow her to enter. As she closed the door, Leah strained her ears for any sound of her daughter. “Is Pippa asleep?”
“Just about. Do you want me to call her?”
“No. I need something strong to calm my nerves before I have to deal with her.” Leah shivered unconsciously.
“Come into the kitchen. You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”