Page 4 of Reckless

Not that her libido cared.

Part of her excitement about that night was that she’d see him again after several years. She liked him, or the person she’d known as they were growing up, hanging out backstage at festival shows their fathers played.

Soon enough, breakfast was ready and they ate, chatting between bites as the day fully woke up. Harlow’s phone rang and when she noted it was their agent, she answered and told Jeremy she was putting him on speaker with everyone.

From the beginning, it had been important to the three of them to make as many decisions as they could as a unit. They argued and cajoled, sometimes they didn’t talk for a day or three, but no matter what, they always presented a united front to the outside world.

“It’s not the first time I’ve been backstage at an arena show,” Harlow muttered as she tried not to gawk because it might not be the first time she’d seen the organized chaos of a live rock and roll tour show, but it was the first time it washerarena show.

Giant crates called work boxes had the band names stenciled on them along with other letters and numbers that would enable the load out of all that gear so it could be set up in a very specific order. She’d always found that part fascinating. The way the show went up in one order and was taken down in the opposite order. And it worked!

Harlow had decided to walk around so she could enter the arena as a fan would. There were hours before their soundcheck so she had plenty of time to find a seat up and out of the way and watch.

She took photographs and some video as first, trucks arrived to help place protective flooring over the arena polished wood. Then the stage was set up to one side and midway through that, people began to scramble up ladders, climbing up into the complicated foundations of the set. Then the light and sound booth set up center on the floor. Given the complicated rigging that had gone on with giant white sheets of fabric hanging at the rear of the stage, with hanging video screens alternating between them, Harlow figured Earthquakes would have great visuals to go with their set and was really pumped to see them live.

Maybe one day Above Me would have such a complicated and amazing set to go with their show. Certainly a goal to work toward. But their lack of such a thing wasn’t a reason for her not to celebrate the fact that Earthquakes had come this far already in their career.

“These would be some great seats, huh?”

She turned toward the voice, already smiling as she recognized Miles. “I was just thinking that very thing. Hi.”

He opened his arms and she stood, moving to hug him, lingering longer than she’d planned to, but he smelled good, and he didn’t actually loosen his hold immediately either.

“It’s good to see you, Harlow,” he told her, settling into the seat next to hers.

“Same. Thanks again. This is…” She waved a hand at the giant speaker stacks that were currently being built and then the black cases with Above Me emblazoned on them just waiting to be unpacked.

“This is our first arena tour too. I’m blown away by just how big everything is. Between you and me? I’ve been part of the process of building the stage and the overall show with the designers and I’m dying to see it all in play tonight.” His grin rendered some of the edge into softness due to the joy on his features.

Miles Brown was beautiful. She sat at his side, both twisted to face the other better, so she got the full impact of his physical nearness and his looks. He wore jeans with a T-shirt. Nothing fancy. It was the man inside them that did all the work.

Green eyes fringed with dark lashes took her in with open interest. He had a ring in his septum piercing and her gaze kept returning to it over and over again because where it met his mouth and the dark caramel lushness of a beard so perfect he had to have just had it trimmed up, well it was perfection. The entirety of him, so big and delicious smelling did something to her pulse. The watch he wore on his left wrist drew her attention. Classic. Elegant without being ostentatious. And it went well with the fine dusting of dark hair and the muscles and tendons of his forearms.

Charisma and charm rolled from him and over her. Damn it. She was no stranger to super compelling people. She’d grown up with and around them her entire life, so why was this man so…alluring?

“My goddess, Silas’s drum kit is incredible. Nora is going to have kittens when she sees it.” Even though Above Me was going on first to open, their gear would be set up after Earthquakes’s was. As the other band’s set up dominated the stage it wasn’t that big a deal.

“It is. And like every other drummer I’ve ever met, he’ll be happy to talk about drums with Nora at length any time she wants.” Miles snorted a laugh. “I probably don’t even need to ask if you’re ready for tonight. You just got off your solo tour right?”

“A week ago yesterday. Then we went home for two days, washed clothes the whole time, watered plants and headed down here. We’ve been here since Monday.” Rehearsing all day. Meeting their various techs and their sound engineer. “By the way, Kenya, our sound engineer, she tells us your people have been great about coordinating with her and front of house. Appreciate it.”

Earthquakes was a hot property earning a lot of money so being able to make use of their sound was a huge bonus. Most headlining bands were good about sharing, but there were some who wereproprietary—stingy in Harlow’s opinion—with everything and the openers had to scramble to make do.

“Makes no sense to us not to share that resource. We’ve got a great engineer and he’s grumpy with everyone but other engineers. Oh and my mum, but that’s due to them both being English and my mother being impossible not to like.” Miles’s blush brought those damned butterflies back. “There’s no fucking reason to be a dick. This industry is hard enough so I can’t see the point in playing dominance games. If Kenya has a problem, or any of your people, let me know. Please. It makes no sense to have something that’s supposed to make things easier actually making things worse.”

Surprise and then pleasure slid through her at his request. They were a far less powerful band and it would be easy to run them over to serve everything else that favored Earthquakes. But she believed Miles. To her toes. He truly wanted to be sure they were okay.

“Thank you,” she said.

“You look really good,” he said and then paused as if to gauge her reaction—which was wildly flattered. “Can’t lie, I’ve been looking forward to being able to see you in person. Not a disappointment.”

She’d been wearing the same leggings and t-shirt for the last few days as they’d rehearsed and hung around the house, but when she came to the arena that day and knew she’d be seeing Miles she’d decided to put on pants with a zipper and a blouse that flattered while remaining comfortable and easy to move in. “You’d never know they lost the crates with our clothing in them, huh? Found this morning, thank goodness.”

“You could just wear hotel robes the whole tour.” He laughed. “Super comfortable.”

“Too hot. Plus it gaps open and as my clothes were gone, they’d see a lot more than the price of their ticket can buy,” she told him around a snicker.

“We’d certainly sell out every night.” He winked.

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