by Sam Crescent
Seven years of bubbling anger.
Lucas stared at the woman, and he didn’t like how the nerves on the back of his neck stood on end. You took everything away from me. You deserve to die. I fucking hate you, whore. Those were just some of the words that had been written.
Glancing around the stage, Lucas became aware of how busy it was. With so many artists and bands performing, there were more people, making it easier for people to blend in, and others to get backstage. Kate had left the stage about five minutes ago.
Her crew warned him that between each set, she often had a few minutes by herself. He didn’t like the panic that began to fill him.
This was the perfect opportunity for anyone to attack.
“Was everyone accounted for here?” he asked.
“Yes, of course, but you always have people entering backstage, or some groupies. It’s impossible to keep an exact list.”
“So anyone can get backstage, right?”
Benjamin frowned at him. “Of course, anyone can get backstage, but we have security in place.”
“It’s her,” Lucas said. It was taking a huge leap, but his gut was telling him that this woman was someone he wouldn’t have considered. He didn’t even know about her. She’d been part of the industry long enough to know how it worked.
“What do you mean it’s her?”
Benjamin began to follow him.
“No one knows what happened to Melanie, right? Kate’s rise to fame damaged hers. She’s everywhere. Fully booked for the past seven years, and this girl just faded into the background. The letters. ‘You took everything from me.’ ‘No one would care about your fat ass.’ ‘You deserve to die just like you killed me.’” He read out just a couple of the notes that Kate had received. Lines he’d memorized. The specialist had told him it sounded like the person blamed Kate for taking something from her, but what? All he needed to fill the missing gaps was right here. “We all thought it was some crazed fan because most stars have them. Kate’s never harmed anyone, but in a way, someone could blame her for ruining that woman’s career.”
He moved toward the end of the stage that wasn’t completely blocked and saw a band was already playing. Checking his watch, he saw Kate had already ended her set five minutes ago. He had to get to her.
“Where’d Kate go?” he asked someone.
“She went toward the refreshments.”
“Go and get security. Alert Wayne that I need him. Tell him Kate’s life is in danger. Now, go!”
He moved toward the refreshments area, and saw that it was vacant.
“You took everything from me, and I don’t get it. Look at you. You’re too fat to fit into this world. This is my world. My dream. All you had to do was pick up a damn microphone and sing!”
“I don’t…”
“Shut your fucking fat whore of a mouth. You don’t get to talk to me. I knew it was going to be a tough industry. I was told it was tough and that I had to make certain sacrifices. The only way to get ahead is to give head. I sucked cock to get that single, and then you with your pathetic song, and you … did it.”
He saw Melanie, and the woman before him didn’t look like the teenage girl in the music video he just watched. She’d aged. Her blonde hair looked thick with grease.
“I was going to do everything that I could to be a star. I fucked who I needed to in order to get in the door. Who did you screw? You got it handed to you easily. You knocked me off the top spot, and then I couldn’t get a hit again. I was tossed out for being a waste of time, and no one wanted to know. So, I left, and then I had to sit back while you took everything away from me. Your number one hits, your albums, the girls screaming your name whenever it came on the fucking radio. I’m done listening to that bullshit. You’re not taking my place.”
She held the gun steady, and Lucas grabbed his gun, aiming it at the woman.
“Melanie,” he said, drawing the woman’s attention to him.
“Don’t you come in here!” She pointed the gun straight back at Kate. “She deserves to die. They all do.”
“You’re the one who stabbed her one year ago?” he asked.
“I was aiming for her heart. She deserves to have her heart cut out and ripped to shreds.” The anger, the hatred toward his woman shocked him.
Kate clearly didn’t have a clue who she was or what she’d done. Tears trailed down her face.
“Killing her is not the answer here, Melanie.”
The woman paused and glanced over at him.
“You know my name.”
“Of course, I know your name.” He didn’t mention that he’d only just seen her on the has-beens episode. He didn’t think she’d take too kindly to being referred as that.
“I was good. Damn good, and they said they were going to make me a star.” The smile on Melanie’s face looked … scary.
She was crazy. Her hatred of Kate was based on the belief that Kate had somehow stolen her fame from her.
“I’ve seen pictures of you with her. You’re her precious bodyguard.”
“Killing her is not the answer to your troubles.”
“Troubles? She’s the reason I’ve got them. My life was just starting, and she took it away from me.” Melanie focused the gun on Kate, and he didn’t have a choice.
Firing his gun, he watched Melanie fall.
****
Sitting in Lucas’s apartment, Kate had already been told that Melanie had been obsessed with her. The other woman was convinced that Kate alone had ruined her life and her career. Sipping at the whiskey Lucas placed in her hand, Kate stared straight ahead of her until he bent down, staring into her eyes.
“Am I a horrible person?”
“No.”
“I ruined that girl’s life.”
“What happened in her life is not your fault. You couldn’t control any of that, babe.” He cupped her face, tilting her head back. “You’re not the one responsible for this.”
“She’s dead.”
He pressed his lips against hers, and she put the whiskey down, wrapping her arms around him. “Her obsession got her killed. She was going to shoot, Kate. You know that, and I know that. She was determined to end your life, and I wasn’t going to let her. They searched her apartment, and found several more of the letters along with some knives and stuff. She’d kept the knife that stabbed you a year ago. She’d placed it in a sealed plastic box, and there was still blood on it.”
She shivered.
“You’re not to blame for this, and I won’t let you take any of it. I’ve spoken with Benjamin, and he’s in agreement with me. You and I are going away for a little while. I’m going to take you far away from here.” He kissed her, driving any other thoughts from her mind. “And if I have to keep you completely naked and at my mercy … I will.”
****
Three weeks later
The story broke worldwide about Melanie and her attack on Kate. Everyone had their own thoughts, but none of them blamed Kate for what happened. They discussed Melanie’s rise and sharp fall into and out of fame, how she worked to get there, only to have been promised the world and then pulled out at the last minute. Behind closed doors, no one believed that she’d ever succeed in the world.
Her number one hit had only gotten there on a really bad week when sales had plummeted. Kate came out, and the rest was history. They sat and watched the news, seeing the same footage of Kate falling that had brought them together over a year ago. No one knew why it had taken Melanie so long to finally lash out, but Lucas believed it was down to the simmering rage that she could no longer keep locked away inside. She’d finally snapped, and Kate had become Melanie’s target.
It had taken some time, but Kate had fully recovered. Lucas wouldn’t leave her alone, and he certainly made sure that she knew none of this was her fault. He’d known when Melanie began to blame her that Kate would believe it was entirely her fault. Especially as she’d told him being a singer wasn’t always her dream. She’d wanted to be
something else. The guilt had weighed heavily on her because this hadn’t been the life she’d sought. Everything had been given to her in that one moment.
Sitting on the edge of their bed, he held a small velvet box in his hand. Kate had become a part of his world, and the love he felt for her wasn’t the kind that would disappear, not that he wanted it to.
His kind of security wasn’t needed for her anymore, but he’d long ago decided that he couldn’t live without her, and that he didn’t want to. She was under his skin, in his heart, and he wanted a future with her.
She opened the bathroom door, and the smile on her face made him so damn happy. At the beginning of them getting away, she’d been very emotional, crying, and the guilt had weighed down on her. Slowly, he’d been able to pull her out of her depression, and now he sat, waiting to propose.
“Did you get the Chinese food?” she asked, climbing behind him onto the bed and wrapping her arms around him. She hadn’t seen the velvet box yet. Feeling her lips against his neck had him closing his eyes and just enjoying her touch.
“It’ll be arriving very soon. There’s something I wanted to ask you.”
“What is it?” she asked.
He held the box within his hand, and he felt her stiffen behind him.
Pulling out of her hold, he held the box on display, and smiled at her. “I want you to be my wife, Kate.” He opened the box for her to see. “I love you more than anything in the world. I’d protect you with my very life, and I know that you love me.” She told him every single day.
“You’re proposing?”
“To the love of my life.” He reached out to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. “I know I can make you happy, just like I know you can make me happy. I know your career is very important, and I’m here with you. I’m not going to leave your side.”
“What about your company?”
“I can do the work from anywhere. Your case was a special one, Kate. I wasn’t going to allow anyone to risk your life.” He kissed her lips. “Marry me. I can make you the happiest woman in the world. All you’ve got to do is give me the chance.”
“Yes. How could you even for a second doubt that it? I love you, Lucas. I love you more than anything else in the world.” She threw her arms around his neck, slamming her lips against his, and he held her tightly, knowing he’d never let her go and that he would protect her for the rest of their lives.
Epilogue
Five years later
Marrying Lucas had been the best thing she’d ever done. She loved him more than anything in the world, and of course he supported her career. They had a small wedding a couple of months after he proposed. Everyone speculated, the tabloids, the press. They all wanted to know every single detail from a prenuptial agreement to if she was pregnant.
Kate and Lucas didn’t pander to their needs though.
There wasn’t a prenuptial agreement signed, even though her team wanted her to do it. She believed in Lucas’s love. She didn’t need a piece of paper to protect herself, nor did she intend to have one.
From there, every time they stepped out together, someone always had something to say about their relationship. She’d even seen that they’d joined the age gap celebrity, and Lucas had certainly become one of the hottest older men to date.
Five years from their wedding, Kate stared down at their newborn son. She’d just gone through the most painful experience of her life, wishing at times someone would take the pain away, but staring at her and Lucas’s child, everything felt right in the world.
She’d decided to take a break from work, and she wanted to raise a family with her husband.
“He’s perfect, Kate,” Lucas said.
The doctors hurried around them, and she smiled up into the face of her husband, loving him.
“We made the perfect human being.”
Lucas wrapped his arms around her, staring at their son over her shoulder. In that moment, she’d never been happier in her life.
“We’re not having any more kids,” he said.
She giggled. “Why not?”
“Because I cannot go through another minute of seeing you in pain.” He turned her face to look at him. “I never could stand it.”
“We’ll see.” She kissed his lips, knowing that they would have more children.
Three years later, she was right as she gave birth to a baby girl.
They were in love. They had a family to call their own. Whenever Lucas stared at her, Kate knew what others didn’t. He loved her completely, just as she loved him.
The End
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Other Books by Sam Crescent:
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BONUS SAMPLE CHAPTER
BRED BY THE BILLIONAIRE
Breeding Season, 1
Sam Crescent and Stacey Espino
Copyright © 2017
Chapter One
“Where’s my fucking coffee?” Tobias Bennett sifted through the files on his desk. He was getting too old for this shit—late nights at the office and staff who couldn’t follow simple instructions. At this point in his life, he’d imagined living on a private island, a mojito in one hand and The Wall Street Journal in the other. But he was still running the family business with no sign of slowing down. He’d been termed a perfectionist, and probably a lot worse, but he strongly believed wealth was the measure of success.
A couple minutes later, one of the interns set a mug on the corner of his desk. She scurried out of his office, nearly breaking into a jog. Was he that much of an asshole?
Tobias scrubbed both hands over his face. He knew exactly what had been driving him crazy lately. His parents were riding him hard for an heir, another Bennett to carry on the family empire. The problem—he wasn’t looking for a wife. His bachelor life suited him just fine, and even at forty-five, he wasn’t ready to settle down. He would have told his aging parents to back off, but they had a point, one that kept crowding his thoughts.
Morgan peered in his office. “Why are you still here?”
“Work.”
“Go home. It’s Friday night, for God’s sake.” He’d gone to university with Morgan, and hired him to work on the Bennett Corporation legal team over a decade ago. Morgan was the only man who dared to speak freely with him.
“I’ve got that big bid on Monday. I need to be prepared,” said Tobias.
“We’ve already got it covered. Everything’s in order.”
“It has to be perfect.”
Morgan exhaled, then shook his head. “Well, I’m heading out.” Then he added, “Don’t push yourself so hard.”
“See you Monday.” Tobias leaned back in his leather chair and gave his friend a mock salute.
Once alone again, he pondered Morgan’s words. Yes, he pushed himself. It was life as a Bennett. His parents expected perfection from day one, and he’d always delivered. The company was strong, profitable, and dominating the stock market because he didn’t fuck around. He always put a hundred percent effort into everything he set out to do, and demanded the same from his staff. If one of his employees couldn’t meet the mark, he didn’t think twice about showing them the door. He had no room for weakness.
After another couple of hours, he packed up his paperwork and flicked off the lights to his corner penthouse office. As he stood in the darkness, the lights of the city sparkled with life beyond the floor to ceiling windows. He grabbed his briefcase and walked over to the window, looking down from one of the highest vantage points. It was one big party below, a city that never slept.
He’d put the Bennett Corporation on the map, made his father’s business into something multi-national, but what happened next
? What would happen when he died? The legacy he’d built would die along with him, all his hard work and sacrifices for nothing. The business might continue with the family name, but without the blood of a Bennett, it would be a soulless enterprise, nothing more than dollars and cents.
“Mr. Bennett?”
Tobias snapped out of his reverie, turning to see a silhouette in the doorway of his darkened office. “Yes?”
“Would you like some company tonight?”
He narrowed his eyes as he strode to the door. “Aren’t you one of the new analysts we just hired?” Tobias had thousands of employees, so couldn’t remember many names and faces. He only allowed minimal staff on the penthouse floor of his skyscraper. He remembered this woman from the new staff tour yesterday morning, and only because she’d worn a short skirt.
“Yes, sir.”
“And why are you up here?”
“I wanted to offer my company.” She ran her finger along the low collar of her blouse. Was she actually trying to seduce him? “I have many skillsets beyond analyzing, and I thought you’d like me to show you some.”
He scoffed. “You thought wrong, sweetheart. If you’d actually done any digging, you’d know I never mix business with pleasure.”
“But—”
“Stay on the fifth floor. I don’t want to see you up here again.”
She sulked off, clearly not expecting him to reject her. Tobias wasn’t hard up. He had a long list of women he could call for a hook-up. None of them meant a thing to him. They were available for sex, and that’s how he liked it—until now. If he wanted a kid, he had to find a decent woman to be the mother. Unfortunately, most of the women he fucked were gold-diggers, and he didn’t want any baby drama. He just wanted the heir, nothing more.