“Rabbits?” He grinned, not realizing her chest problems might be critical and he would’ve had to give her CPR. Actually, those full lips on her mouth and his hands on her chest would be worth the cardiac arrest. God, where were these thoughts sprouting from?
“Okay, not rabbits, he’d probably eat them, but someone might depend on him,” she said.
“Don’t worry. I’ll set him up someplace else so he can feed his…rabbits.”
This time Nathan didn’t hold back, and the smile turned into a laugh. The deep, husky sound sent a warm flush over her skin like she’d stepped too close to a fire. Moving away, she mentally shook herself. She needed to find Liz and get the hell out of there.
“Thanks for helping me out with Mr. Gym-Junkie, but I better find my cousin. She might get worried and call Brimland Police Department to report a homicide.” She pointed in the direction they’d come from. “And what I saw back there…I promise not to say a word.”
The smile that was still playing on his lips dropped into a flat line. The muscles tensed around his jaw, and his face looked hard as stone. “No one can know about that. I wasn’t joking about suing you.” His tone matched the cold expression on his face.
Wow, could this be a case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? “I don’t need you to threaten me with a lawsuit to keep quiet.”
“It wasn’t a threat.”
Trying not to explode, she inhaled deeply and mentally counted to five like she did when she was in a classroom of rowdy six-year-old children. “You’re a jerk. You accuse me of stalking you like a horny groupie, you try to come onto me for who knows what reason, and then threaten me—no, not threaten, warn me you’ll sue if I tell anyone your dirty little secret. Well, I’m sorry to break it to you, Mr. Rock Star, but I don’t care who you are and have no interest in telling anyone about your Hannah Montana secret.” With that, she spun on her heels and stormed away, the deep breathing and counting exercise failing miserably.
At the end of the corridor, instead of turning left—the direction she needed to take to get the hell out of there—she turned right and realized her mistake a second too late. She stopped, spun around, and with her head held high, continued past the corridor entrance where she’d left Nathan, and in her peripheral vision she saw him laughing. Probably at her terrible sense of direction. Jerk.
Chapter 3
Two nights later, Nathan Harvey sat in a booth at Jovi’s Pub without his disguise. Nate Miller was the person he really was. The one that felt most comfortable—where he could breathe in peace without the attention and scrutiny of the public.
“Man, we spent many Saturday nights here when we were younger,” Nate’s childhood friend Toby said, sitting opposite him with a beer tilted to his lips. “Although, I was the one doing the drinking while you sang on that wooden stage to an uninterested crowd. How times have changed.” He chuckled before taking a swig.
“They sure have,” Nate agreed.
Now he grabbed the attention of thousands of people before he even opened his mouth. And as he looked at the small, empty spot where musicians came in the hope of the success Nate had achieved, he missed the simplicity.
“Happy to be back home?” Toby asked. “It’s been what, two, three years?”
“Three, and yeah, I’ve missed the place.”
“Just missed the place?” his friend said with a raised eyebrow.
Nate grinned, knowing what Toby was getting at. “Missed my grandmother too.”
“Whatever,” Toby grumbled, causing Nate to laugh.
“You know I missed you, mate. But you just flew out to see me two months ago.”
“Big shot rock star didn’t have much time for me,” Toby mumbled into his bottle.
“God, you’re sounding like a girlfriend. Maybe if I buy you something pretty it will make you happy?” Nate snickered.
“Whatever.” Toby flipped him the bird. Then dropping all pretense, he said, “It must be nice to stop touring for a few weeks.”
It felt like the weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders. “Yeah, I needed a break.”
“Can’t be easy living in your disguise for so long without messing it up and revealing who you really are.”
With a heavy sigh, Nate slouched in the seat. Toby was the only friend he trusted with the secret. And he’d kept it for over ten years. “I did mess it up.”
“What?” Toby almost jumped out of his chair. “What the hell did you do?”
“I got too close to a groupie. Well, I thought she was one, but I’m not so sure what she was.” When Toby stared at him wide-eyed with confusion, Nate continued. “Like I said, I got too close to this girl, and my wig got tangled in her fingers and it fell off.”
Toby blew out a long breath, slouched over the table, and leaned closer to Nate, whispering, “This makes no sense. No one gets that close to you. How did this happen? I’ve seen nothing in the media about it. Shit…” He pulled out his phone from his jean’s pocket and tapped at the screen. “Surely I would have seen something by now?”
