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An attack of the blues was the last thing she needed. But, as well as missing Jake’s touch, the truth was that she was missing Lia—missing the easy camaraderie they shared. She also missed the buzz of working with her in the bookshop. Caitlin wasn’t ungrateful for the privileged position she found herself in—actually living her dream of being a singer—but she’d be lying if she said she didn’t miss the people and the place that she thought of as home.
Sighing, she reached for a magazine that was lying on the coffee table and decided to take it to bed with her. She was heading towards the prettily covered divan when there was a soft knock on the door. She opened it to Jake.
‘Hi,’ he greeted her. ‘Can we talk?’
With her heart skipping a beat, she automatically stepped aside to let him enter. Her whole world immediately narrowed down to the force of his presence, her senses registering sensation overload with just one whiff of that sexy cologne he wore and one scorching glance from those extraordinary blue eyes of his.
Jake was a big part of the reason that Caitlin had crashed so low after tonight’s performance. She still didn’t really know where she stood with him, and the situation was making her as jumpy as if she was walking barefoot on tin tacks. One minute he was scowling at her and the next he was eating her up with his eyes. No wonder her nerves were stretched tight to the point of snapping.
Tonight he’d been very cool again, addressing her only when he had to, while in contrast Rick and the guys in the band had been elated with her performance and hadn’t hesitated to show it. She was seriously perturbed that Jake seemed intent on giving her the cold shoulder. Had he decided that she was right about keeping their relationship a purely business one?
‘You didn’t eat your supper.’ He glanced at the untouched tray of food balanced on the coffee table..
‘I wasn’t very hungry.’
‘You have to eat to keep your strength up. Performing night after night can really take it out of you.’
‘Thanks for your concern.’ Making no attempt to couch the sarcasm in her tone, Caitlin raked her fingers through her recently washed hair, then caught the belt on her robe and wound it round her hand.
‘Your performance tonight was wonderful. Anyone would think you’d been doing this for years. The others can’t sing your praises enough.’
‘And you?’
She barely managed to get the words past the ache in her throat. She ached to touch him, to drive that too serious expression from his haunting eyes and make him smile.
‘If I started to tell you what I really think about you I wouldn’t get back to my room tonight.’
His voice was huskily low, and every word he uttered sent inflammatory arrows of desire scudding crazily all over her body. Grabbing for a lifeline, Caitlin’s gaze found and settled on the bottle of mineral water she’d ordered with her meal.
‘Would you like a drink? It’s only water, but—’
‘I don’t want a drink. I know I’m breaking all the rules here, but the truth is, Caitlin, I just can’t stay away.’
His glance never leaving her face, he shrugged off his leather jacket and threw it onto a chair. Her mouth went dry at the sight of the hard, lean biceps that defined his upper arms in his black short-sleeved T-shirt. Startled, she focused on the dimple right in the centre of his chin—as usual his firm jaw was fashionably unshaven—but the dark shadow of beard didn’t detract one jot from his heartbreakingly good looks. If anything, it simply added to the ‘bad boy’ persona he seemed to project without even trying.
‘Well, you should,’ she snapped. Turning on her heel, she unscrewed the top of the bottle of mineral water and took a swig. When she’d finished she turned back again and said, ‘Because I don’t want you here.’
Not commenting, Jake strolled across to the light switch and dimmed the overhead lights to a softly seductive glow.
Barely aware of what she was doing, Caitlin placed the water bottle back down on the tray. ‘What are you doing?’
‘I want you to come over here.’
‘No.’ But even as she answered in the negative she moved slowly towards him, as if she didn’t have a will of her own…
