Page 40 of Places I've Never Been

“These songs aren’t going to finish themselves, Mr. Rock Star. We can’t just half-ass our way through this.”

“I don’t half-ass anything.” His eyes flashed with irritation. “Really good songs come from a spontaneous, inspired place. You’re so determined to spit out words there’s no way they’d be any good. Admit it, if you had great lyrics in that notebook of yours, nothing would stop you from singing them at me.”

He pushed past her toward the steps at the back of the boat. “Stop trying to force it. Come over here and look at this view. If this isn’t inspiration, I don’t know what is.”

What he’d said was so unfair and at the same time so undeniably true. She thought back to the horrible chorus she’d just read and tried not to cringe. She joined him at the steps, embarrassment rising as his words hit home. “If I don’t have great lyrics, it’s because you haven’t given me anything to work with.”

“Oh please. I’ve given you an entire island to work with.”

She clenched her fists. “I don’t need tropical scenery, Adam. I need feedback fromyou. I need to know what matters to you and the rest of the band. What themes you want to explore. What messages you want to send.” Her heart pounded and her voice rose as she went on. “I need to know what you want to singabout.”

“Well maybe if you unclench and spend more time with us you would figure all that out.” He stood at the top of the steps that led to the water with his shirt flapping in the breeze and his face lifted in smug satisfaction.

“Unclench?”

“Yes. Unclench. You know, the act of relaxation? Surely you’ve heard of it.” He turned away from her to gesture at the beach. “You know, live a little. Maybe if you relaxed, you’d feel a little more inspired.”

“You want me to feel inspired?” Something sweet and dangerous came into her voice as inspiration of pure evil struck.

“Yeah. I do.”

“Spontaneous?” She raised an eyebrow.

He turned back to face her and looked far too excited. “Definitely.”

“How’s this for inspiration?”

Sheput her hands on the smooth muscles of his chest and shoved. She had a brief impression of taught muscles and hot skin, and then he toppled off the back of the boat.

His startled yelp of surprise was swallowed by the splash as he hit the water.

A wave of satisfaction rolled through her, followed by a flicker of guilt, which amplified into mortification.

What had gotten into her?

She’d just shoved Adam Brooks, a world-famous rock star and, more importantly, herclient, off a boat.

She never acted like this. Piper did. Della, sometimes. But her? No. Not ever. She was the nice one.

She looked over the edge of the boat.

The deckhand joined her with a life preserver in one hand. “Mr. Adam?”

Adam sputtered to the surface and wiped his face.

“It’s okay,” she told the deckhand. “He’s fine. I think he’s fine.”

The deckhand looked doubtfully at her.

Mattie stared down at the man bobbing in the water and cringed. “He’s probably fine.”

He sure had a way of pushing all her buttons. She usually hid her emotions well, but it was becoming painfully clear that she couldn’t hide anything around Adam.

Chapter Ten

Adam coughed out salt water and squinted up at the woman who’d just thrown him off the boat. She looked horrified, like she couldn’t believe what she’d done. He couldn’t believe it either. Never in his wildest daydreams and fantasies had his dream girl pushed him off a boat, or called him on his bullshit.

He burst out laughing. “I did tell you to be spontaneous.”

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