“Well, the way you do that—make someone feel like they’re the center of your universe? You bring that energy to the stage, too. You’re …magnetic. You must know that. With all those screaming girls in the audience?”
There was a bit of jealousy in her voice and it made him smile.
“Ah, it’s all part of the live show experience. Clapping, shouting.”
She arched a skeptical brow but let it go. “So, then what happened at the radio station?”
“Oh, em, we basically got thrown out of the guy’s office with no hope about being played.”
“Oh, that sucks.”
“Yeah, it did. But on our way out, we ran into Sean Reynolds—the very same fella who played our bootleg to begin with. We introduced ourselves and he was shocked to see how young we were. We gave him the demo and basically begged him to play it.”
“Did he?”
“No,” he said with a laugh. “Not even after he said he was impressed with our confidence and that if we were as good as we claimed, he’d want to be able to one day claim to have discovered us.”
“His loss.”
“Well, the thing is, he’s been trying to act as if he had some hand in our success. When we hooked up with James—our manager—and got signed, Reynolds made the biggest noise over our album. He’s fucking obsessed with trying to say he discovered us. Of course, playing a bootleg one time on a whim doesn’t make it true. Still, he’s our biggest fan to this day.”
“As long as it works in your favor, right?” she said. She dipped a French fry in ranch dressing before taking a bite.
She wore nothing but the white bathrobe provided by the hotel. Her hair was tousled and her makeup was smudged. He had never seen a sexier woman in his life. The look in his eye must have given him away as she returned his gaze with her own open desire.
He leaned toward her and the trays of food slid to the center of the bed. Rather than take the time to clear it away, he took her hand and pulled her with him to the aqua-tiled bathroom. As she watched, he adjusted the hot and cold tub faucets to get the right temperature.
She poured a stream of Kiehl’s bath and shower gel into the water and bubbles quickly multiplied.
“I got you dirty,” he said. “Time to clean you up.”
She smiled and let her robe fall to the floor.
The tub was small but they fitted themselves together, her back to his front. With inordinate care, he wet her hair with a washcloth and proceeded to lather it with the shampoo. Ensuring that no soap got into her eyes, he rinsed her hair and then conditioned it as well. He massaged her scalp and the base of her neck as he went.
“That was another first,” she said, leaning back into him when he was done.
“What’s that, darlin’?”
“Having my hair washed that way. That felt so nice.”
He wrapped his arm around her and squeezed her to him. “It all feels so fucking good, being with you again.”
She looked back at him with a smile and he leaned forward to kiss her.
“What did you mean by ‘another’ first?” he asked as he trailed a soapy washcloth over her belly and between her breasts.
“Just, you know, because you’re my first. And only.”
That took a moment to register in his sleep-deprived mind. When he looked at her, she averted her eyes. He touched her chin to turn her face up to his.
“Really?”
She nodded and he couldn’t hide his confusion.
“What?”
“I just, em, I don’t understand how you couldn’t have been with anyone else. You’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.”
