Page 60 of Wild

The lawyer laughed and sat back down, and Erin dropped into the seat beside her while she waited for the stylist and her assistant to free Mia up so she could take her vitals.

"He can be kind of an ass sometimes."

"He doesn't give a damn what happens to Mia. She should fire him and find someone who builds her schedule around her health, not around how much he can bill."

"That's her call to make." Violette glanced over at Jude, making sure he wasn't listening. "There's an agency in New York called Stone & Cottet. Two partners, Abigail and Liam—either of them would do a better job than Jude, and I promise you they'd put Mia's health first."

"How do you know?"

"Because I know them, especially her. I've worked with their lawyers a few times. Abigail is cold as ice, but she's one of the best agents in the country, and I guarantee she'll negotiate whatever she has to while always protecting Mia's wellbeing. Like I said, I can't get involved, but you…"

Erin looked back at the singer and thought that if the subject ever came up, she'd mention it so Mia could consider finding someone who actually looked out for her.

Erin tugged at her shirt and drank water until the bottle was nearly empty. It was stifling in the venue, and she'd demanded more fans on the stage for Mia, who had come down a while ago drenched in sweat after the sound check. The suggestion had cost her yet another argument with Jude.

"That's going to set us back, Dooley. They can't just go anywhere—this stage is smaller."

"I don't care how small it is. Either you get them set up or you cancel the show, but Mia is not spending two hours up there in this heat. She'll pass out before the halfway point."

Jude had huffed and turned his back on her, but he'd obeyed, and now three technicians were running cables and moving equipment around to fit four massive fans that covered every part of the stage where the singer moved.

A murmur of voices made her turn, because she recognized one of them—and she immediately found herself looking at Lexie Farhall's smile as she waved from a few yards away while talking with a couple of photographers covering the event. Erin waved back and suddenly felt nervous under the journalist's gaze, which made it clear she wanted a repeat of what had happened at the last concert.

She turned back and took her position at the right side of the stage. She couldn't think about her right now, but her mind kept circling back to Mia's laughter and the stylist's assistant. The jealousy returned for a moment, and she glanced sideways at Lexie, feeling so confused that she shoved a hand into her hair and pulled until the sting against her scalp made her exhale hard and loosen up.

The lights went out all at once, and the roar of the thousands of people waiting to see Mia nearly left her deaf. Her pulse spiked as though she were the one about to walk out in front of all those people, and her heart lurched when she saw Mia coming from her left, escorted by a technician who lit the way with a flashlight. The singer wore wide black pants with strips of fabric hanging everywhere, open-top boots, and a crop top that left part of her stomach exposed. Erin swallowed hard, especially when Mia was about to climb the steps and stopped at the last second to change course and walk toward her instead.

"Wish me luck, Dooley," she said, and though her expression was just a shadow in the dim light of the flashlight, Erin could see the brightness of her eyes and her full lips.

"I don't think you need it, but good luck, Wilder."

Mia answered with a wide grin, adjusted the earpiece she wore, and this time, finally, climbed the steps. The concert kicked off with the same ferocity as always, and Mia brought that magnetic energy that defined her, but to Erin it felt like everything was amplified compared to the other times: the aggression when she lunged forward, the sensuality when she moved among the dancers, the intensity of her gaze. Erin was on the verge of losing her heart through her mouth, completely hypnotized by her. There was even a moment when Mia moved to the edge of the stage, dropped to her knees, and sang out at an audience that went absolutely wild, while Erin felt a restless ache stir between her thighs.

The show went off without incident: Mia hydrated whenever she could, and the fans did their job, keeping the brutal heat from making her collapse. But at one point Erin noticed the singer's hands shaking slightly, and on instinct she stepped forward as if she were about to go up on stage—then stopped, because in that moment Mia turned toward her side and she saw nothing alarming in her expression.

The concert finally ended and Mia came off it flooded with energy and adrenaline. She ran down the steps and came toward Erin with a huge smile, breathless and sweaty as always, and Erin had to work very hard not to lean in and devour her.

"Your hands are shaking. Are you okay?" the doctor asked, taking them in hers and studying them as if she expected to find something there.

"Yeah, it's the adrenaline." Mia couldn't wipe the smile off her face, even as it trembled with exhaustion.

Erin took her pulse at the neck with one hand, not noticing the other was still covering Mia's, holding it tight as though trying to steady the tremor herself.

"Racing," she said with a smile. "Go shower. I'll come check on you in a little while."

"Did you like it?" Mia asked suddenly.

Erin looked at her and found the singer's blue eyes locked on hers. She could see the anticipation in her expression, and it made her smile, because she had the sense that her opinion mattered to Mia.

"More than any other show I've seen you do. Tonight you were incredible," she admitted—and she wasn't lying. It had felt like the best performance of all the ones she'd witnessed.

"Good." Mia's crooked smile appeared. "Because I performed like you were the only person in the audience."

The singer turned and walked away, leaving Erin frozen in place, heart in her throat and a battalion of sparks dancing across her whole body.

When her legs finally cooperated, she moved to the medical room to collect her things and give Mia time to shower and let her body settle. She startled when, distracted while loading up her bag, the door clicked shut behind her. Erin turned and found Lexie, who walked toward her and slid a hand along her neck just before kissing her. The doctor couldn't react—she hadn't had time to decide whether she wanted this—and found herself kissing back because she'd been turned on since the moment she'd seen Mia at the start of the show, and the journalist's hands were fast, already touching places on her body that only fed the desire building inside her. She let herself be pushed back until her hips met the edge of the exam table and Lexie was between her legs, but when she felt the pressure against her, Erin was pulled back to the bus that had brought them to Philadelphia, to Mia's room, to the singer's legs wrapped aroundher waist while it was she who had pressed in just like that—and even though she was very turned on and still carried that unsatisfied ache from the orgasm Noah had interrupted, she realized Lexie was not who she wanted to let herself go with.

Erin broke the kiss and eased back slowly, while Lexie blinked, trying to understand why she was being denied something she'd very much enjoyed.