Saved by the Music (Saints & Sinners Book 2)

by Kaithlin Shepherd

  “Why didn’t he just e-mail me himself?” What a stupid question. As if she didn’t already know the answer.

  Jarrod snickered on the other end and she clenched her fists under her desk. “Oh, well, I don’t know, Ashlee. Maybe it’s because he told you he was falling in love with you and you ran, left him a note. A goddamn note, Ashlee. That’s so beneath you.”

  “Anything else?” She opted to keep her answers short and to the point; she didn’t have the mental capacity to have a heart-to-heart.

  “Yeah. Grow some fucking balls. Oh, and by the way, you should stop by the accounting department at the hospital. I’m sure they’ll be happy to tell you that the balance has been paid in full with enough credit to last a while. Before you say anything, remember this. We’re your friends, Ashlee, and you might not want to ask us for money, but Sam isn’t the type of guy to wait for permission. The sooner you accept that, the better for all of us.”

  Her head spun and she couldn’t breathe. This can’t be happening. There’s no way Trish betrayed my trust like that… is there? “Jarrod, who paid the bill? Tell me it wasn’t Sam.”

  “We all did, including Sam. We’re your friends.”

  The one thing she had worked so hard to avoid, the one thing she had worked so hard to keep Sam away from, had just snuck up on her.

  “Oh, God, no… I don’t want his money—or yours, for that matter.” She was crying and there was no way she could stop the waterworks now.

  “You think he doesn’t get that? You could ask the man for the goddamn moon and he would give it to you because he’s in fucking love with you. You believe he thinks that you want his money? Give him more credit than that.”

  She could count the number of times she had heard Jarrod angry on one hand, and he was definitely angry at her now.

  “I have to go. Thank you for everything.” When she heard the knock on the door, she tried to wipe the tears from her face. She couldn’t believe they had done that for her. And then it hit her—she was so stupid to think any of them would ever believe she was after money. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust them; she didn’t trust herself. Damn it, she’d ruined everything.

  “Ashlee, did you finish the last progress report for the McDaniel Foundation?” Rebecca had been more than a little concerned when she came back to Atlanta much sooner than anticipated, but she hadn’t pushed her until two days ago when she walked into her office demanding to know what happened with Sam. Ashlee sobbed her way through the story and they finished the evening with a bottle of whiskey, reminding herself she wasn’t twenty anymore the next morning.

  “I left it on your desk last night before I left.” She didn’t even look up as she answered her assistant because the last thing she wanted was a fight. She knew she’d get the speech of a lifetime the second Rebecca saw how tired she looked.

  “You mean this morning before you left?”

  Rebecca’s snippy tone dissolved her last bit of restraint. She could understand the nature of her assistant’s worries, but there was a fine line and she kept tiptoeing on it.

  She shut her laptop down and looked Rebecca right in the eyes. She was leaning against the doorframe and, just like Ashlee feared, she looked like she was ready for a fight. “Rebecca, don’t start with me.”

  “Oh, excuse me for giving a shit about what you’re doing to yourself.” Rebecca crossed the office to stand in front of Ashlee’s desk, hands on her hips.

  In most circumstances, this conversation would go down as a heated argument, but Ashlee was going to turn it into a full-blown attack. “Back off, Rebecca. I’m not in the mood.”

  If Rebecca sensed how close Ashlee was to losing her calm, she didn’t care because she kept going. “But you’re in the mood to work yourself into an early grave. When’s the last time you actually slept more than an hour, Ashlee? When’s the last time you ate something that wasn’t takeout?”

  She pushed her chair back, grabbed some files from her desk, and headed to the filing cabinet in the opposite corner, praying Rebecca would get the message and get the hell out of her office. “It’s my life, Rebecca. Back. Off.”

  “What life, Ashlee? Ever since you came back to Atlanta, you’ve been a walking zombie. Don’t you think you owe it to yourself to call him?”

  Ashlee grabbed the edge of the cabinet, but she was too pissed to hold back anymore.

  She turned and faced Rebecca, who knew she had gone too far with her last comment. Ashlee slammed the drawer of the cabinet, grabbed her jacket and purse from one of the chairs, and headed for the door. “What I owe to myself is an assistant who minds her own goddamn business. I’m going to the hospital. Forward my calls to my cell.”

  When she pulled into the hospital parking lot, she took a few minutes to gather her thoughts. The last thing she wanted was to go in there and let her mom see how screwed up everything was.

  When she reached her mom’s floor, she heard voices coming from her room. As she drew closer, she thought she was hearing things because it couldn’t be. He couldn’t be here, could he? Pushing the door open and stepping inside the room, her knees went weak and she had to lean against the wall to stay upright. Not only was Sam sitting on her mom’s bed, but all the guys were there, including Trish and Emma.

  “What’s going on here?” she blurted before she could stop herself. She felt all the eyes in the room land on her, but the ones that were piercing through her soul were the ones of the man sitting beside her mother, holding her hand like she meant the world to him.

  Immediately, she was reminded that she could still make her mother angry, even as a grown woman. “Ashlee Daniels, your manners. That is not how I raised you, young lady.”

  “I’m sorry, Mom. Could someone please tell me what’s going on here?” Overwhelmed, she forced her feet to move forward. The room felt so small she had to fight to breathe.

  Before she knew it, Jarrod was beside her, holding her up with one arm around her waist. She could feel Sam’s cold stare on her, the warmth she once felt from him a distant memory. Her whole body shook with the knowledge that she was responsible for it, and she wished she could take it back. That she could take it all back.

  “I could ask you the same thing, young lady. You left this poor man and with nothing but a note? You should be ashamed of yourself, Ashlee. I raised you to be strong, but I also raised you to be kind, and from what I’ve been hearing, you have been neither.”

  The twinge of pain in her heart when she saw the disappointment in her mother’s eyes was her undoing. She stumbled, and Jarrod couldn’t keep her up. Before she fell to the ground, two strong arms wrapped themselves around her, lifting her upright once more. “I’m right here, baby,” she heard in her ear, and her whole body instantly reacted to his warmth, calming itself down, relaxing into Sam’s hold. “Tell me why you’re running, Ashlee.” When she opened her eyes, the intensity in his drew away the last drop of her resistance.

  “Because I’m in love with you. Are you happy now? I ran because I’m in love with you, and I don’t know how to handle that on top of everything else that’s going on. I didn’t want you to think I was after your money if I asked you for help. I didn’t run because I didn’t trust you. I ran because I don’t trust myself.”

  She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t feel anything until he wrapped his arm around her waist and the other under her knees. He cradled her to his chest like she was precious cargo. “I got you…. I got you.”

  SAM

  When he’d decided to fly down to Atlanta after the band’s last show on this run, he honestly had no idea what to expect. After talking to the guys about what had happened with Ashlee and her mother’s situation, they had all agreed to cover the hospital bills. Deep down, he knew that would only be the first of many steps toward making her realize he wasn’t going anywhere. Seeing her lifeless face when she’d walked into her mother’s room hadn’t been part of his plans though. She looked so tired—fuck that, she looked like she was ready to fall over—an
d he had no doubt that seeing him was what pushed her over the line.

  “Sam.” She said his name like she was hanging on to something more precious than life itself. Her face was buried in his neck, her voice so fragile. He hated himself for doing that to her.

  “Yeah, baby?” He pushed the elevator button so they could leave the hospital. They both needed to sleep and to just be with each other. He honestly didn’t know what would happen next, but he was ready for anything if it meant keeping her in his life.

  “Take me home.” She snuggled closer to him and he held her so tightly he thought she might suffocate. He leaned his back against the elevator wall, his chin on the top of her head, and for the first time in four days, everything felt right.

  Those days had been hell without her around, without her voice in his ear, or the scent of her perfume surrounding him. He wanted her in his life more than anything. He wanted to wake up beside her every chance he got, to call her every night they spent apart and spend hours talking to her, to see her in his living room when he got home after a long run on the road.

  He wanted everything from and with her.

  “I’m sorry. I never meant to push you this hard.” He kissed her forehead and her hands tightened at the back of his neck, like she didn’t want to let him go.

  “I’m not mad at you. Thank you.” She looked at him from beneath heavy eyelids and he felt like the luckiest, most undeserving guy in the world. Now that he knew she loved him, he would never stop trying to make her happy, to be worthy of her love.

  When they reached the lobby of the hospital, Sam decided he didn’t want her out of his hold. Hailing a cab, he carefully tucked both of them into the backseat. He gave her address to the driver without taking his eyes off the woman cradled in his arms. Taking the time to really look at her, he noticed her skin was pale. She’d lost a little weight and there were heavy dark circles under her eyes. She was a beautiful mess—his beautiful mess.

  “I look like a wreck.” She tried to hide her face using his body, but he wasn’t letting her hide anything from him anymore. They had done enough of that to last them a lifetime.

  He lifted the hand resting over her thighs to turn her head so she was looking at him. “Don’t hide from me, Ashlee. You look like you’ve been through the wringer, baby, but there is nothing wrong with that.”

  “I really am sorry that I ran, and about that note.” She pressed an open palm to his cheek. Her lips parted when he pressed his hand on her lower back, a silent invitation to let him in all the way.

  “I know, baby, I know. Let me take care of you tonight.” He imitated her motion and pressed an open palm to her cheek, using his thumb to rub and pull at her lower lip. She sighed into him—fuck, how he’d missed her making that sound.

  “I love you, Sam.” He would never get tired of hearing those three little words pass her lips. If that was all she told him for the rest of his life, he would die a happy man.

  “I know… I love you too, Ashlee.”

  Her lips were calling his name, drawing him close like a magnet. When he pressed his to hers, he kissed her with urgency, showing her exactly how he wanted to cherish her, how much he’d missed her.

  He wrapped her hair around his fist and pulled her closer to him. When she whimpered, his free hand wandered down to her breasts, desperate to touch her everywhere. He wanted to worship every inch of her seductive and tempting body over and over again until they both forgot the last four days ever happened.

  When the cab pulled up to her apartment, he paid the driver with a generous tip, and then carried Ashlee up the stairs and into her apartment. He didn’t know what he was expecting her place to be like, but the small space they were in wasn’t anywhere near what he’d imagined. He knew she had made sacrifices to cover her mom’s hospital bills, but this was beyond what he could have pictured.

  He sensed her watching him closely. “I had to sell my house when my mom got sick. This is all I could afford and still pay for her treatment.” She looked so vulnerable as he lowered her onto the kitchen counter.

  “Baby, you deserve so much more than this.” He knew she didn’t see it like that. He admired her more than she could ever know for making all those sacrifices, but he needed her to understand that he wasn’t going to let her go through this alone anymore. He was right there with her, and he wouldn’t just sit back and watch the woman he loved struggle when he had more money than one person should have in a lifetime. He wanted her to know that what he had was just as much hers as his.

  He saw tears forming in her eyes and wiped them with his thumb; he hated seeing her cry.

  “I deserve you, Sam. That’s all I need.” She kissed him hesitantly, like she wasn’t sure what else to say, and he knew the conversation needed to shift to something a lot less serious.

  “And maybe my house,” he teased before kissing her nose and eyes, memorizing her face with his lips. He was testing the territory by bringing up the house, but he needed to know if they were past the money restraints of their relationships.

  She laughed with her head thrown back, and he had his answer in the smile covering her face. “Well, now that you bring it up, I do love your house.”

  “And here I thought you loved me because of my charm and wicked bedroom skills.” He lifted her T-shirt over her head before getting rid of his.

  He fought his control when he her hands on caressed his chest, her lips on his shoulder. “Oh, that’s a part of it too, but the house… baby, it’s hard to compete with.”

  “I’ll compete with the fiercest of warriors for you. And my house is yours. We can even move your mom to a hospital in Nashville if you want.”

  He saw the shock flash across her face, but it was soon replaced by excitement. He helped her out of her shoes and stripped her of her jeans before doing the same.

  “Sam Brooks, are you asking me to move in with you?” She ran her fingers through his hair. He loved how playful she could be when she didn’t feel weighed down.

  He grabbed her ass—fuck, did she have a great ass—and pulled her off the counter. “I must not be doing this right then. Ashlee Daniels, will you move in with me?” He headed toward the bathroom, hoping like hell his plan could work, depending on the setup she had.

  She smiled at him, and he knew he had her. “Yes! Yes, I’ll move in with you.” She kissed him, making him lose his footing. He ended up with his back against the wall and Ashlee grinding down on his cock like she was starving for it.

  “Do you want something, Ashlee?” he asked, using the hold on her ass to increase the pressure and the rhythm, making her moan his name.

  “Just you… I just want you.” The little minx slid her hand between their bodies and started rubbing her clit, using the pressure of his cock to pleasure herself.

  Oh, hell no. She’s not getting off like that.

  He grabbed her hand and pushed it away. “You never get yourself off when I’m here. That’s my privilege, Ashlee, and you don’t get to take that away from me.”

  “Then take me, Sam.”

  The minute she said those words, his plan for romance went out the window.

  He headed for her bedroom, kicked the door open, and lowered both their bodies on the bed. His covered hers, and God, he’d missed those curves. He ran his hand from her knee up her hip and to the swell of her breasts. She was already squirming and writhing, and he knew she was ready for him.

  “Are you wet for me, Ashlee?” His fingers traveled down her stomach, past her panties, and when he found her hot and dripping wet, he growled into her ear.

  “I’m always wet for you.” She ran her fingers up and down his back, grabbing his ass every now and again.

  “This is gonna be hard and fast. If you can’t handle it, I’m gonna have to take the edge off.”

  He wasn’t joking; he was wound up so tight he thought he might explode any minute. His entire body was hard and stiff and if he sank into her like this, it wasn’t going to be champagne and roses; it
was going to be whiskey and cigarettes.

  “I’m not fine china, Sam. Fuck me hard. Take what you need.” He pulled himself over her, holding his weight on his hands, and saw the same fire reflecting in her eyes.

  “Condom is in the kitchen.” He kicked himself for not grabbing one beforehand, but when he felt her hand over his heart and saw the smile on her face, he didn’t care about the damn condom anymore.

  “We don’t need one… I’m clean, and I’m on the pill.”

  He didn’t think his dick could get any harder, but the thought of taking her bare was enough to send him over the edge. “Baby, I’m clean too, but are you sure about this?”

  “I trust you. I wanna feel you come inside me, please.”

  Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t be able to refuse her anything, but right then he would agree to buying her a damn country.

  He wrapped his hand around his cock, teasing her clit with the head before he slid into her with one thrust. She felt so fucking good that he could barely process what was happening around him. She was so hot and slick; he never wanted to take her with a condom ever again. When he looked into her eyes, he could see she felt it too. He took her mouth like a savage as he moved in and out of her. There was nothing sweet about the way he fucked her; it was downright animalistic, and she seemed to relish every second of it.

  “Yes, Sam… God, I need it. Yes! Harder… fuck me harder, baby. Don’t hold back. I want it.”

  She set off something primal inside him. He grabbed on to her shoulders and pushed her down on his cock as he fucked her deep. He was sweating and she was screaming his name like a prayer. All too soon, the tingle of his release at the base of his spine spurred him on.

  He needed her to come with him, so he pinched her clit again and again until her walls clenched down on him. He didn’t stop. “Your body is mine. Give it up to me, Ashlee. Come for me.”