Amanda lifted her gaze to meet her friend’s. “Huh?”
“You look mad.”
Amanda shook her head. “I’m just a little drunk. You know how I get when I’ve been drinking.”
“She’s a mean drunk,” Leah informed Colton.
“I figured she was a li’l spitfire,” Colton said.
Well, tarnation! Amanda thought, but somehow she kept the taunt locked inside.
“Tina wants me to drop Julie off at her dad’s house in the morning,” Amanda said.
“That’s convenient,” Leah said with a laugh.
“I know it’s selfish, but I wish it wasn’t his weekend to have her,” Amanda said.
“What?” Leah lightly slapped the back of Amanda’s hand. “You love Julie to pieces!”
“I do. But I’m sure it’s going to make jumping her dad’s bones a bit awkward.”
Jacob’s response to her text dinged on her phone.
You’d better bring a pair of crutches. I don’t think you’ll be able to walk unaided after I fuck you all night.
At reading his words, a distracting throb pulsed between her thighs.
Are you almost home?
Getting on the plane now. Have to shut off phone soon.
Ugh. She wasn’t sure she could wait several more hours to see him.
He sent another text. What are you doing? I’m imagining you lying in my bed touching yourself while yo
u wait for me.
Well, there was a plan she could get behind. It would sure beat sitting here at the bar with her friend and the guy she was getting to know. Amanda was glad the two had finally started talking to each other, but she felt like an unnecessary and unwanted accessory to their good time.
That’s quite the imagination you’ve got there, she messaged Jacob. Let’s see if I can make those fantasies a reality.
If you do, you’d better record it so I can watch later.
I’d rather you watch in person.
I’m not going to argue with that. Got to go. Plane is taking off.
See you.
Amanda sighed as she dropped her phone on the table again. “Are you ready to head for home?” she asked Leah.
“You don’t have to stay,” Leah said.
They had a rule about abandoning each other at bars. Especially when one of them was in the company of a man neither of them knew well. “I’m not leaving you here by yourself.”
“She’s not by herself,” Colton said. “She’s with me.”
Leah smiled at this, but Amanda scowled. “You know our rule, Leah. I won’t leave here without you.”
Leah’s shoulders sagged. “I’m not ready to go yet.”
“Okay,” Amanda said. “Let me know when you are.” She ordered a glass of water—no more alcohol for her tonight—and munched on the now soggy nachos, waiting for Leah to get bored with Colton so she could go to Jacob’s house and wait for him. It seemed she would have a long, long time to wait for Leah to be ready to leave. Especially now that Colton had found the balls to rest his hand on her lower back.
Maybe she should call Anthony back over for a chat. He wasn’t very good at pretending he wasn’t watching her. Or maybe he wasn’t even trying. Best to ignore him, she decided. Jacob probably wouldn’t appreciate her flirting with another man. Or maybe he wouldn’t care. She wasn’t sure where their relationship was headed. Did Jacob want more than a hot and dirty fling? And if he did, what in the hell was she going to do about it? If they became an item, Tina would gut them both and tie their entrails together.
Oddly, that gruesome thought didn’t stop her from counting the minutes until she could see him again.
Chapter Three
Shade couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this excited for two days off. Unless it was his weekend to have Julie, he usually stayed in a hotel near the next scheduled venue and partied the nights away, slept most of the day, and pretended he wasn’t miserably lonely the entire time. He surrounded himself with people, but didn’t feel that any of them knew the real him. Amanda was different. And this tour was different. He’d exercised his clout so that he had every other weekend free—he would not be missing any of his scheduled time with Julie if he could help it. In the past, their tour dates had centered around weekends because many concert goers preferred shows on Friday and Saturday nights. He’d given up so much time with his little angel to make the fans happy, and his ex-wife seemed to think the court’s visitation order was gospel—weekend meant weekend, not a random Thursday—but he was through putting his daughter last. He could maintain a rigorous concert schedule and see Julie as much as the courts and Tina allowed. And if half of his eagerness to get away from the grueling life on the road for a weekend was due to a certain lovely lady he had no business sleeping with, so what? Amanda made him laugh, chased away the loneliness he could never seem to shake, made him feel good about himself, fucked him just right, and she wasn’t bad to look at either.
Inside the small private plane, Shade reclined his seat, crossed his arms over his chest, and tried to catch a nap on the trip from New Orleans to Austin. As usual, he’d given his all to his performance that night, and he wanted to restore some energy for his night with Amanda. Plus, it was easier to ignore the band’s white elephant—was it crass to think of a pregnant woman that way—when he had his eyes closed.
When he pulled into his driveway hours later, the house was dark. He supposed it was well after midnight. He smiled in relief when he noticed a familiar sedan parked on the street across from his house. Amanda had probably crawled into his bed and fallen asleep—hopefully naked with her hand between her legs. He parked in the garage, plugged the Tesla into the recharging bay, collected his overnight bag from the trunk, and let himself into the house, turning off several zones on his home security system so he could make his way through the house and to the back yard without alerting the local police. His dick was already half hard with wanting her. God, what the woman did to him. He peeked into the great room to see if she’d fallen asleep on the sofa, but there was no sign of life. The kitchen was equally empty. No dishes in the sink or snacks on the counter. He hoped she realized she should make herself at home in his house and not just in his bed. He had already formed a plan to wake her with passionate kisses when he entered his bedroom. His heart sank when he found the bed empty and meticulously made. Amanda wasn’t there waiting for him. She wasn’t there at all.
He had been sure it was her car parked across the street when he’d pulled up, but it was dark outside, so maybe he’d been mistaken. Was she still at that bar? Had she picked up some other guy, deciding he was more trouble than he was worth?
Not likely. She was probably out in his hot tub. Naked. Touching herself as she thought of all the things he’d do to her when he found her there wet and rosy skinned waiting for him. He opened the French doors that led from his bedroom to the pool area, but with the exception of the soothing trickle of the waterfall that fed the pool from the spa, nothing moved. The hot tub across the yard that was fenced for privacy was also empty. What was the point of having two hot tubs—one for relaxing in and the other privacy screened for discreet fucking—if Amanda wasn’t in either of them?
He pulled out his phone and called her. Before the second ring, his house lit up as every light switched on and a loud siren blared from the massive structure. He raced inside and found Amanda in the foyer, poking buttons on his alarm system.
“Shit! Shit,” she said as she squinted at the keypad. “Six seven two four, dammit! No, it’s seven six four two. Wait.”
The landline started ringing. Jacob lifted the receiver and was greeted by the security system operator. “We have evidence of an unauthorized front door entry.”
“Everything is fine,” Jacob said. “My girlfriend accidentally set off the alarm.” And she was adorable when flustered. He was strangely glad he hadn’t shut off the entire system when he’d entered through the garage. Amanda spun around and splayed her hands, shaking her head when she recognized she wasn’t alone in the room.
“These things happen. We’ll cancel the call to the police and reset the system on our end. What’s your pass phrase?”
“One day the light will fade, the end will come, his debt repaid.” It was a line from one of Sole Regret’s songs—“Darker.” He sang it almost every night, so it was easy to remember.
The alarm stopped blaring. Jacob’s heart rate didn’t slow, however. Not with Amanda in the room.
“Thank you, sir,” the operator said pleasantly. “Have a good night.”
“Oh, I will,” Jacob said, his gaze drifting down the slender curves of Amanda’s bare legs.
Jacob hung up the phone. The lights dimmed to darkness.
“Well, that’s one way to announce my late arrival,” Amanda said.
Jacob chuckled and approached her in the dimly lit foyer. The lights on the exterior of the house filtered in through the glass of the front doors, but otherwise it was dark.
“I had hoped to beat you here, but I’m glad I didn’t set that thing off while I was by myself. You’d have had to bail me out of jail.”
“I was expecting to find you naked in my bed when I arrived,” he said. “I must admit I was a little disappointed.”
A little? Fuck, he’d been devastated.
“I couldn’t get Leah to leave the bar. She met some guy and they really hit it off.”
“So why didn’t you just leave her with him to get acquainted?”
“I have trust issues,” she said.