Chapter 10
Avery wokeup to a loud song shattering the dark quiet of the hotel room. She jerked awake, startled, heart racing, and sat up, thinking it was an alarm. Her intention was to just hit it so it would stop making that awful ear-splitting sound, but after a second she realized it wasn’t an alarm—it was a call coming to the phone Shane had left on the nightstand.
Shane. The man she had sex with.
The thought had her turning back to the bed. Shane showed no signs of waking up, his mouth slightly open on a small snore. His arms were up over his head in what was a sexy yet adorable sleep position. It was damn near incomprehensible that she had a man this gorgeous naked in her bed. This kind of thing just didn’t happen to her. Obviously, it had though. He was the proof, still lying beside her.
Not ready for him to wake up and her to have to make morning-after conversation, she wanted to at least turn down the volume on the phone. Picking it up, she saw the picture that had popped up was Shane with a blonde. He had his arm around her and the name that was on the screen was “Sis.” Which wasn’t weird at all, because clearly he had a sister who was calling him. He had told her that he had two sisters in town. What was off was the woman in the picture was Jolene Hart, the country singer. Avery would recognize her anywhere, with her big blonde hair and wide smile.
The call ended and the picture disappeared and Avery suddenly doubted what she had seen. Maybe that hadn’t been Jolene Hart because come to think of it, the woman in the picture had been wearing jeans and a T-shirt—not a sequin in sight. Plus, Avery was still half-asleep, so she had to be wrong, because if she wasn’t, that would mean Shane’s sister was Jolene Hart and that was just crazy talk. A text message came in, buzzing, and making Avery jump in guilt that she had his phone in her hand. She glanced at Shane again. Still sleeping.
The text was from “Sis.”
Hey! Why aren’t you in the studio? I thought you were coming in today. Wanted to say hi and thank you for being cool with Chance last night. He said y’all had fun.
Another text arrived immediately after the first.
He said you left early and by yourself, so now your sister is worried about you since you’re so late. If you’re dead, let me know. Haha.
Avery dropped the phone back on the nightstand like it was on fire. Could it just be a coincidence that someone who looked like Jolene Hart was talking about a guy named Chance? The real-life Jolene Hart was engaged to Chance Rivers, and they were due to get married any day now. Shane had been at a bachelor party. Avery eased out of the bed, trying desperately not to make any noise.
Oh, Lordy, had she actually slept with Jolene Hart’s brother?
No. That was ludicrous.
Grabbing her dress off the floor, she pulled it on over her head without a bra and winced as she tiptoed across the room. Her girl bits were sore. She thought about what she had done with Shane and she paused, her cheeks burning. That had been some delicious stuff. Way better than anything she could have imagined. She now understood what she had always been told—there was a reason people were always trying to have sex. It felt amazing. No one was lying about that.
She had a feeling she was going to spend the next few days going over and over it again in her head, reliving the pleasure. He had done right by her, no question about that.
But if he was Jolene Hart’s brother, she was going to croak. She found her panties and stepped into them, remembering with both pleasure and mortification how he had ripped them off of her. Grabbing her purse, she went into the bathroom and pulled her phone out. It was simply a matter of doing a search on “Jolene Hart family” and there it was. Parents divorced. A sister, Elle, who did makeup and hair in Nashville. A brother, Shane, age 29.
Avery might have been able to convince herself that the man she’d met was just a liar assuming a persona for the night, except that there were several pictures of him, and yep. The man lying naked in the next room was a well-known music producer, the brother of country’s hottest female star, the future brother-in-law of Chance Rivers, songwriter extraordinaire. Not to mention that Chance was the man Avery thought was her half-brother. She was only two degrees of separation from a blood relative.
How had this happened? Of all the men in Nashville, the one who had stepped forward to save her butt was both rich and famous in the music industry. It was mortifying. Shane was going to think she had slept with him knowing exactly who he was, probably in some effort to further her career. It made her hot and dizzy with embarrassment. He would think she was just an idiot.
It also put a different spin on his own behavior. Was he lying to her so he could sleep with her without any expectations on her part?
As she splashed cold water on her burning cheeks, she reminded herself that Shane hadn’t told her anything about himself that was identifying. He had given her no last name, had mentioned his family and roots without any specifics and had flat-out avoided telling her what he did for a living. He had been the one who had approached her when he saw her in trouble. Maybe he had wanted to stay anonymous, but so what? It wasn’t a stretch to think he had young hopefuls throwing themselves at him on a regular basis because he was well-connected, successful, and good looking.
He hadn’t been hitting on her initially. He had been helping her.
She still didn’t think she could look the man in the face. He had seen, and licked, every inch of her. It was going to be awkward no matter what, and this made it ten times worse. Fanning herself, she left the bathroom as quietly as she could, and stepped into her boots. Shane had rolled onto his side away from her. He slept deeply and she felt a wave of tenderness towards him. She couldn’t just bolt without at least saying goodbye. It was the only polite thing to do when the man had made her first time sexy and satisfying.
No matter who he was, that was the truth, plain and simple.
His phone buzzed again and it was a tiny picture sent via text. If she closed one eye, she thought it was Jolene Hart sticking her tongue out. It said “Call me, idiot.” Avery felt a little star struck being one text removed from such a famous musician. Sure, she had come to Nashville to write songs, and it was a dream she intended to pursue. But it was only a dream. One that felt very far away. She was on step one of a five-year plan: get herself to Music City. Knowing that right there on the other end of that phone was someone who had made it was unnerving and awe inspiring. It made her feel like anything was possible.
It helped that Jolene was obviously just a normal person, worried about her brother no-showing.
On the desk across from the bed was a notepad and a pen. Avery scratched out a note to Shane before she changed her mind and put it on top of his phone. Then, as discreetly as she could, she left the room, making sure the door didn’t slam behind her.
Then in the way of women everywhere, she immediately texted her best friend back home, Kayla.
Ben cheated on me with 3 different girls and I jumped out of his truck and had sex with a total stranger
.
She was stepping on the elevator when Kayla texted back.
WTF??????? Call me.
On the elevator, give me a min.
Once in the lobby, she didn’t glance over at the front desk, afraid it would be the same man who had checked her and Shane in just a few hours earlier. It was nearly ten. They had only slept about four hours and she felt the effects of it, her thoughts a little fuzzy. She was having a hard time processing everything that had happened in the last twelve hours. It was such a joke that she had booked this hotel hoping Ben would propose to her or at least have sex with her. Now she would rather have her eyeballs removed with rusty spoons than sleep with Ben. The very thought of him was nauseating, which was bizarre given the sheer volume of years she had spent dating him.
It was like waking up one day and finding out your parents weren’t really your parents. Her whole foundation had shifted.
The sunshine and heat slammed into her as she burst out of the front door of the hotel onto the sidewalk. She had to use the ladies’ room desperately but she needed to get the heck out of there. Using her phone she looked up the closest affordable hotel. She would go there and grab a few more hours of sleep, and a hot shower so she could no longer smell the scent of sex on her. Every time she moved her arm, the faint remnants of cologne wafted up and filled her nostrils.
Shane. Shane Hart.
She pictured him naked, hovering over her, eyes dark with lust. Have mercy.
Maybe instead of a hot shower she needed a cold one.
Shane woke up slowly,reaching for Avery, sensual memories of her staring up at him tugging at his subconscious, pulling him out of sleep. But the bed beside him was empty, the sheets cool. He opened his eyes reluctantly and confirmed what he already knew. No Avery. For a second he thought she might be in the bathroom, but the room felt empty. Too quiet.
Well, hell. This was ironic.
He was usually the one leaving first, though he hadn’t actually sneaked out of a room in many years. Now he usually woke a woman up, gave her a kiss, a smile, a few compliments. Then he rolled. But it seemed for the first time in longer than he could remember, he had been ditched. No number. No goodbye. He rubbed his eyes and pondered the thought. Had she been embarrassed? No telling.
It shouldn’t feel like anything. He should have no reaction to it other than relief that now he wasn’t responsible for shattering any expectations she might have about what they might or could be. Because that was nothing and most women knew that, expected that. Hell, wanted that. But Avery was a wild card. There had been no telling what she would have said or how she would have reacted, but now he didn’t have to worry about it.
Funny, relief was not what he was feeling.
Rolling over to grab his phone and see what time it was, he found a piece of paper laid over it. Lifting it up he saw a note scrawled in very loopy and large handwriting.
Thank you for being decent.
Hugs,
Avery
What the actual fuck did that mean? Shane stared at it, irritated as hell. Was she suggesting he was merely decent in bed? A decent dick? Or was she saying thanks for being nice? He had no idea but somehow it sounded terribly insulting. There was no scrawled phone number or anything else. Just a giant kiss off as far as he was concerned. The girl had been a virgin, and this was all he got? Thanks for being decent, his ass.
His sister was blowing up his phone. Which also irritated him. A guy couldn’t sleep late without everyone freaking out? Maybe he had a headache. Maybe he had the flu. Maybe he had changed his plans. He wasn’t twelve. Jolene didn’t need to know where he was at any given moment. Since when was she keeping tabs on his studio time anyway? They weren’t working together. He suspected she wanted to grill him on the bachelor party antics, of which there had not been any.
He texted her.
I’m not dead.
That was all she needed to know as far as he was concerned.
As he lay in bed naked, Shane contemplated finding Avery O’Leery on social media. It couldn’t be that hard. He could message her and make sure she’d gotten home okay.
That was when he dropped his phone like a hot potato. “Don’t do that, you total fucking idiot,” he murmured out loud. He sat up and ran his fingers through his hair.
If Avery wanted to see him again, she would have left her number. He wasn’t going to chase after her. Even though everything inside him wanted to.
How was that for ironic? He’d spent his adult life avoiding relationships and now he could actually see dating a woman for real and she wasn’t interested.
He was going to take a hot shower and forget he’d ever had the pleasure of encountering Little Miss Sexy.
Twenty minutes later his skin was bright red and burning, but he still couldn’t get Avery and her beautiful eyes out of his head.
So he grabbed a coffee and went to the studio so he could force himself to stop replaying every minute of their naked tango.
Two hours later he was still trying.