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Normally I was utterly focused on the music. But tonight I was distracted. Restless. In fact I’d been like that all week. Ever since Jake Delancey had cornered me in the alleyway. That was his name. I’d heard all about him since learning it. He was bad news. Very bad news, considering my reaction to him.
He'd been about to kiss me. I knew it. And damn if I hadn't wanted him too.
Just for a moment. But it was a moment of pure weakness. A moment I’d been revisiting non-stop for days now.
What the hell had gotten into me? He was a bad boy. And worse than that, he was rich. It was a horrible combination. But I was reacting to him all the same.
I closed my eyes and let it rip. The song was an upbeat take on an old standard. I loved singing it. But all I could see when I closed my eyes were his bright blue ones staring back at me.
Damn it all to hell and back again!
I finished the song and stalked off stage without a word. I needed to take a break. I had to focus on the task at hand. I was here to sing, dammit! And to be dreaming about Jake Delancey of all people was foolish in the extreme.
Oh yeah, I’d heard all about him this week. Jake Delancey was back in town. He was the talk of the club. The town too. And with good reason.
He was born rich but a rebel, choosing to eschew all his family wealth and trappings. Shirl had told me that he was persona non grata at the Country Club and everywhere polite company met. People put up with him for his father's sake. Harrison Delancey was a big deal in this town. The whole family was. Except the youngest son.
Jake Delancey was bad news. Everyone said so. I knew it my gut.
But not for the reasons that everyone else thought he was dangerous. Oh no, this was a very specific kind of danger. To me.
And that didn't even begin to cover what I’d heard about the women he'd dated.
Apparently, Jake Delancey went through women like tissue paper. Rich, poor, it didn't matter. The only thing they had in common were good looks. That and the fact that they all ended up falling in love with him.
Damn if it wasn't easy to see why.
Jake was exceptionally handsome. His symmetrical face, the straight nose and strong jaw, the wavy sandy brown hair that curled just so over his forehead.
Never mind those bright blue eyes. The damn things looked radioactive. But in a good way.
And that wasn't even talking about his body. He was tall but not too tall. Built but not too built. Slim but not too slim.
In short, Jake Delancey was perfect.
Cruelly and impossibly perfect.
Impossible to resist.
Which was bad news for me because he seemed to have taken a shine to me. More than a shine. I just knew I hadn't seen the last of him. The way he'd looked at me had sent shivers down my spine… and elsewhere.
It had been a long time since I felt anything even close to that.
"There you are."
I turned to see Tom watching me smoke and pace. He looked like a cat watching a mouse. I did my best to hide my annoyance. We needed him. We needed the gig.
Did he have to skulk about when I was just trying to be alone?
"Hey."
"Are you going to do another song? Because I thought we could get a drink or a bite to eat after."
I shook my head and tossed my smoke to the ground.
"I have to be at work at 6 am. I'm working a double."
He smiled but it didn't quite meet his eyes. It wasn’t that he was ugly. He wasn’t, not by any stretch of the imagination. Tom was attractive in an overly groomed way. The sort of guy girls called a metrosexual. His eyes were dark and piercing, his suit well cut, his straight teeth a shining bright white. It was obvious that he worked out.
He had to, to achieve that over grown muscle head look. But he just didn't do it for me. I wished he did, since I knew he could basically make or break my career in the Nashville scene. His club was the launching pad for many huge music careers.
Didn’t matter though. Even if he could get me a spot on the charts overnight. I wasn't cheap and I wasn't for sale.
Hopefully he would understand that I wasn't going to sleep with him just to get ahead.
With the assessing way he was looking at me, it wasn't likely.
I smiled but there was a cold feeling in the pit of my belly.
My mother taught me to always listen to my gut. Right now it was practically screaming at me.
