Page 26 of Wild Tonic
It couldn’t wait.
If Alik liked it, they could get the engineers to work with them and have something ready for when Parker came to see them to check on progress.
He reached for his guitar. “Richey’s singing is obviously better than mine,” he said as he began to play. The words moved around the page of their own accord, as tiredness took hold.
Alik listened, moving around so he could see the notebook better, nodding his head and tapping along. Around three minutes later, he stopped.
“That’s deep. Richey wrote it?”
“Yeah, I think it’s something that came out of his stay in Beech Hill House. You know how much he wrote while he was there.”
“Has it got a name?”
“Well, the chorus talks aboutBig Periods of Nothingness. That could work.”
“You think it works as an acoustic? Or can you see it fully plugged in?”
“Electro acoustic,” said Nate. He already heard it in his head when they pulled it all together.
Alik nodded, seemingly deep in thought. “Why don’t you go and get some rest? We can work on this later. I’ll get Dev to take a look at this.” He waved the chord patterns that Nate had jotted down.
Music always superseded whatever was going on in Nate and Alik’s relationship.
It took all of Nate’s efforts to get up the stairs to the small room that was his. The bedroom was barely big enough for a small double bed, but it didn’t matter.
Nate tumbled across the bed like he’d been felled and slipped straight into a dreamless slumber.
Chapter Seventeen
It had been a long day. Clem was finally home, snuggled up on her bed, laptop resting on her outstretched legs. The shoot with Cordelia Lyons had gone well, amazingly well in fact. The photographer had already sent through some proof shots for her to check out. No-one was more stunned than Clem herself at how the photographs had turned out. If she didn’t know it was her in the images, she would have needed to check.
The last set of shots was the best. The lingerie was easily the raciest in the collection: a sheer, white quarter cup bra with the same embroidered stars as the rest of the pieces, with matching white net tulle panties that had narrow trims of vanilla lace and a ribbon bow, centre front. Clem’s hair had been styled in tousled waves and her make-up was smoky and sultry, her lips painted a vivid shade of plum.
On impulse, she reached for her phone and messaged Nate.Are you alone? xxx
She didn’t want to share these pictures with the whole world. Yet.
While she waited for a reply, she clicked on the other images. The campaign was going to be fabulous and it would really put the brand on the map. She sighed inwardly as she thought of Dean’s sensible, business planning reaction. There were times when that side of things really bored her. If she wasn’t so excited about the design and promoting the items in the collection, it would be such a dull job.
She glanced at her phone, checking it had power and signal. Nate hadn’t responded. Even while he’d been in the studio, he’d usually reply pretty quickly.
Before she could change her mind again, she selected one of the pictures, took a quick snap with her phone and pressed send. It was one of the behind the scenes ones, with the stylist attaching the black suspenders to her stockings, the curve of her arse bare, framed with smoky lace. She didn’t add a message. The image spoke for itself.
Almost instantly the reply came back.Holy fuck!!!! Are you still wearing them??? Xxxxx
Clem laughed. If she knew that was the way to get his attention, she’d have done it sooner.
Afraid not. You want to chat? xxx
Gimme a couple of minutes, I’ll call you right back xxx
It was closer to ten minutes before he called her. She pushed the laptop to one side and made herself comfortable against the headboard, plumping up the pillows around her.
“Sorry, we were finishing up on the last of the songs for today. And I wanted to be in my room when we spoke. I didn’t want the guys around when you tell me all about your shoot today.” His voice was husky. “You look absolutely gorgeous in that picture, by the way.”
“Oh, such a compliment.”
“You want me to tell you how much I want to fuck you instead?”
