Chapter 7 Amber
amber
His eyes were like twin dark holes in the dim light. The mask was just unsettling enough to make me feel alive.
I’d been going through the motions for so many months.
Train, interview, rehearse, play—rinse and repeat.
I loved my job and everything about music, but I’d gotten into a serious rut by the end of the tour.
My life was restricted because it had to be.
I wasn’t like some famous musicians who could still go out on their own.
But here I wasn’t Ambrose.
I was a woman who was flirting with a safe kind of danger. I knew Tate would never hurt me, but this version of him was just different enough from the boy I’d grown up with that I felt an echoing hunger in him.
We were both trapped by our lives in different ways.
I bumped into one of the large, seven foot animatronics and gave a startled gasp which dissolved into laughter. I ducked under the creepy arm of the monster and felt Tate at my back.
Instead of grabbing me, he flicked his fingertip down my back.
It made my nipples tighten and the fear response thrum inside of me. I swung around and slammed into a stack of hay bales. Tate caged me in, one arm over my head.
He was so tall that he literally loomed over me. He smelled of crisp autumn nights and a hint of beer on his lips. Of our youth and yet not the same at all.
I trailed my fingers up his chest to his shoulders, my breath stalling in my chest.
“Remember when you almost kissed me?”
He groaned. “Yes.”
“Do you have a broken heart this time?” I asked on a whisper.
“No. Do you?”
“Mending,” I replied, surprised at the honesty.
“Do you want me to be careful with you?”
My heart kicked—hard.
The fact that he asked made it all the more surreal.
“No.” Then I went up on my toes and he met me on the way down.
His full lips and the softness of his beard activated every nerve in my body.
My fingers dug into his shoulder as our lips met in a wildness I couldn’t ever remember experiencing before.
I knew passion—felt it in my bones for the music that owned my soul—but I’d never actually felt it matched physically.
His hand slid behind my neck, holding me possessively as he turned me where he wanted me. His thumb drifted down the sensitive skin behind my ear as he kissed the oxygen right out of my lungs.
He slid a knee between my thighs, pinning me against the hay bales with an intensity that revved the lust up another notch. He brushed his hardness against my belly just enough to let me know he wanted me.
As if the kiss didn’t tell that tale.
I moaned and stroked his tongue with mine as he deepened the kiss. It was drugging and invasive as if he wanted to own my mouth. I was at the mercy of his hands and hips which ratcheted up my excitement.
When I opened my eyes all I saw was the mask and it made my breath back up in my lungs.
I’d almost forgotten about it.
He seemed to understand and ripped it off, before covering my mouth again.
I went up on my very tiptoes so I could get my arms around his neck. His other hand dropped to behind my hip to cup my ass until there was no space between us at all.
I was enveloped by him.
He was lightning and I was the bottle.
We were caught together in a moment that shouldn’t have happened.
Suddenly he tore his mouth from mine and buried his face in my neck, his breath coming as fast as my own. “Gotta stop.”
“Right. You’re right.” I slowly lowered until my feet were on the ground. My body still humming even though sense was starting to prevail. “Thank you for not being careful with me.”
He groaned and kissed the side of my neck. “You deserve to be held carefully.”
My belly jittered. “Sometimes I just want to be wanted.”
“No worries there.” He lightly pulsed his hips against my middle. “Pretty sure I’ve never wanted anyone more.”
“Easy to say in the dark,” I whispered.
“Isn’t that why you ran up here?”
The urge to deflect as I always did was on the tip of my tongue. To give the safe answer that wouldn’t be misconstrued. “Yes.”
“Well, I chased you, so I guess we’re on the same page. Or is it just tonight?”
“I don’t know.”
“I can work with that,” he said against my ear. He backed up and I immediately wanted to pull him back down to me.
He drew me through the maze to where we started.
And it felt like I wasn’t the same Amber who started the day.
In more ways than one.
His big hand was in mine when we walked back down the hill. I was suddenly conscious of my swollen and abraded mouth. I slipped my hand free of his just before we got to the crowd of people.
He glanced down at me, his fingers curling into his palm. Was he embarrassed too? These were his people and I, most definitely, was not.
A woman with red hair, wearing a Daphne outfit of all things, stared daggers at me.
He slowed, his sea glass colored eyes intent on mine. “Do you want to escape before people recognize you?”
Yes, I sure did, but I shook my head. “People will figure it out soon enough.”
He nodded and urged me forward. “It’s mostly just my employees left. A few are from the drama department at a local college.”
I braced for the theater kids. They would probably recognize me right away.
“Hey guys, this is my neighbor Amber. Amber, this is my team.” He made introductions and I tried to remember all the names, but I knew it was impossible. Between the brain bending kiss and a long day, my brain was on overload.
The redhead narrowed her eyes. “Amber? Since when?”
Guess I should have expected someone to recognize me. And it wasn’t the first time it included a sneer. I lifted my chin. “Since I was born actually. Nice to meet you, Valerie.”
Oh, I’d be remembering her name for sure.
“Amber Dalton?” A woman with a blond ponytail shifted from the crowd.
Molly Sutton, the girl I’d always secretly wanted to be. Cheerleader captain, homecoming queen, most popular girl in school. She’d never been mean to me, I’d just been invisible. Band geek because it was the only way I could learn every instrument possible.
I nodded. “Hey, Molly. It’s been a long time.”
She looked from Tate to me with an arched brow. “Very long time. You hungry?”
Surprised at the semi-welcome, I nodded. “The funnel cake was a while ago.” I glanced over my shoulder at Tate.
He gave me a warm smile. His hair endearingly mussed and sticking up from...well, from before.
Used to the whispers around me, I tried to focus on one step in front of the other.
I felt naked on a number of levels. I was used to bodyguards around me and keeping people at arms’ length, but it was pretty damn obvious that I’d been making out with their boss.
My skin was way too sensitive not to show the beard burn that I could definitely feel.
“I didn’t realize you were back in town.” Molly stood next to me at the tablescape of food. She picked up a mini sub from one of the platters and set it on a plate along with a scoop of mac salad.
It looked good to me, so I did the same. “I got in a few days ago. I’ve been—” Ugh, it sounded so pretentious to say resting at my parents’ house. “Visiting.”
“I saw a few clips from your last show.”
Surprised, I glanced over at her. “You did?”
“Pretty sure the whole world did from all the views on the YouTube video I watched.”
I winced. “Was it bad?”
“What? Are you serious?”
I laughed. “I learned a long time ago not to look myself up on the internet. Usually when there’re a ton of views, it could be cringeworthy.”
“That must be one helluva way to live.”
I shrugged. “Comes with the territory.”
“Well, it was amazing.” She pitched her voice lower. “‘Exile’ is one of my favorite songs. I’m sure you get people saying that all the time.”
I smiled and leaned in conspiratorially. “Actually, I don’t. It’s one of my faves too. I don’t get to sing it too often anymore. It was never a hit.”
“It should be.”
I grinned. “Thanks.”
“That whole little set at the end of your last show is just blowing up the internet.”
The urge to share was at the tip of my tongue, but a lifetime of getting burned had me swallow it down. “I thought the last show deserved a little something special.”
“I can’t imagine putting that kind of thing together. I juggle a few deliveries here, as well as helping Tate plan this holiday bonanza he has in mind, and I’m ready for my bed. Sometimes I even manage an episode of Bones before I pass out.”
“Secret?”
She nodded.
“I’ve watched Bones about three times all the way through on tour. Along with Supernatural and Criminal Minds. Sometimes it takes me hours to sleep after a show.”
“You’re not at some glam party?”
I snorted. “Definitely not. Most of the time, I don’t actually talk to anyone after the show. I have to preserve my voice.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, the glamorous life of a pop star. An Epsom bath for my sore hips as I watch a comfort show on my iPad and try not to doom scroll on my phone.”
“Wow.”
I shrugged and popped a potato chip in my mouth. “This tastes way better than the rice cakes my trainer lets me eat when I need something crunchy.”
“I just assumed you were living a glamorous life every day.”
“Definitely not. Oh, I do get to do some amazing stuff. I don’t want to sound like I’m being disingenuous. One night at the Grammy’s is followed by thirty-seven nights of travel, rehearsal, and shows. And trying to find a new way to entertain people so they don’t get tired of me.”
Surprised I said so much, I forked up a bit of macaroni salad to shut my damn mouth.
“Just another working girl like the rest of us.” She held up her sandwich to me.
I laughed and put my fork down to do the same. “Cheers to the never-ending list of things to do as women.”
I took a bite, but there was a smile behind it for the first time in a damn long time.
The usual heat of a stare burned into the back of my head. I was used to people watching me, usually with a camera. I glanced over my shoulder and found Tate. I gave him a little toast with my sandwich. He was sipping a beer, a group of men creating a half circle around him.
I couldn’t read him.
Which was new for me. I was so on guard all the time, I learned to read people quickly.
But then my gaze crashed into Valerie, and I bit back a sigh.
That stare, I was used to the most.
Anger and distaste. Intellectually, I knew it was probably just envy. I was encroaching on the work dynamic and if I wasn’t completely crazy, she had her sights set on Tate.
But the woman inside me who craved friends shrunk a little.
Then I focused on Molly. “So, tell me all about this winter wonderland Tate’s creating.”
“Oh, girl. You sure you want to know?”
I laughed. “Lay it on me.”
Her bluebell eyes lit up. She led me away from the table to a hay bale they’d pulled out for seating. “Just remember, you asked.”
“I want to know everything.”
And what surprised me most, was that I did.