Page 66 of Seven Night Stopover

His eyes met hers and he nodded. “Okay, I’ll behave. Maybe.”

She laughed.

Two flights of stairs later, they went up a rigged staircase and onto the stage. Introductions were made to the six-man band and two backup singers. The band members drifted away to their instruments, leaving them with Gary, a thickset black man, and Fliss, a young blonde with tattoos down her left arm.

Kendal strolled toward them, carrying a mic and a song sheet. He handed her the song sheet. “Guys, Leia will be joining you in backup for the last three songs. You mind working on the chorus of the songs with her?”

Leia looked at the titles of the songs and shook her head. “There’s no need. I know all your song lyrics.”

Kendal smiled and held out the mic. “Give us a taste of your pipes then.”

Noah’s hand tightened on hers. She didn’t dare look at him.

“The chorus to ‘Blue Noise’?”

Kendal nodded. “That’ll do.”

She took the mic and tried to free herself from Noah. He delayed that freedom until she looked at him. His eyes gleamedwith myriad emotions: possession, lust, anger, and a touch of vulnerability, each stamping its way into her heart.

Her fingers curled around the cold mic, her breath snagged somewhere in her chest as Noah took two steps back, folded his arms and sat on the stool someone had brought for him.

“When you’re ready.” Kendal’s voice bounced on her consciousness like rain on gravel. She didn’t want to look away from Noah; she wanted to explore those emotions sizzling like lightning between them.

But she had the leader of a world-famous band standing in front of her, waiting to make her dream come true.

She cleared her throat, resisting the urge to tap her finger on the mic like she’d seen so many amateurs do. She looked at Kendal and he nodded.

A bass guitar struck a chord somewhere behind her, strumming the tune of the first chorus line. She waited till the guitarist was done with the practice run. Then she joined in:

You turn your back, and I am grey noise

When you’re away, my life is black noise

When we make love, my world is gold noise

Love in your eyes, my heart is blue noise

Sweet baby mine, I’d give my last dime,

My heart and soul, my every dollar sign

To have your love, to have your blue noise

My heart and soul, to hear that blue noise

24

Everything tightened in Noah’s body and he struggled to stay upright as the incredible sound of her voice boomed through the auditorium. Her sultry come-pour-yourself-all-over-me voice was sinfully sexy, evoking images he had no doubt every man on stage was thinking.

His stomach clenched and he forced himself to sit still. She’d taken her place beside the other two backup singers after wowing everyone with her initial test.

Now he watched her sing another track, one about a fast and loose heart in New Orleans. He tried to look away, take a beat. And failed.

What this woman was doing to him. How fast she was consuming him. Three days. Just three fucking days, and he couldn’t imagine his nights without her. Couldn’t imagine fucking anyone else but her. And he still knew only less than a handful of facts about her. Granted, a couple were facts he was sure she’d told no one else but…

Things were escalating too fast, spiraling out of control.

She wrapped both hands around the mic, meshed her long fingers and slid them up and down. Gold and blue spotlightsdanced over her face and upper body, bathing her beauty in soft lights. She tilted her head and that swathe of shaved scalp made his breath catch. Made him yearn to know what had triggered that and her tattoo.

---