Let Me Be the One (3 page)

“We did. How do you guys like to work in the studio?” Jason asked.

Suzi sipped from her glass, trying to appear interested in the details of recording an album. She hated tonic, but unless she wanted to start drinking, she had to get used to it. She didn’t imagine Jason would be too pleased to make her a Shirley Temple, even if she were able to ask for it.

* * * *

“That was fantastic. This is going to be so cool,” Greg effused from the phone Logan had hooked onto the dashboard.

Logan glanced at Suzi. Greg’s enthusiasm wasn’t catching. She was staring out the window. His beautiful, bright Suzi had retreated into a shell before they’d left home, and he’d only seen glimmers of her all night. “Jason has some really good ideas, but he’s gonna be a pain in the ass to work with.”

“Exactly.”

“I’m going shopping with Bonnie Ellis tomorrow,” Charity sang.

“This is going to be the big breakthrough, man,” Greg said. “This is going to be huge.”

“I know.” Logan caught Suzi’s eye. Maybe she was jealous that Charity nailed a meet-up with Brian Ellis’s wife. Suzi didn’t like shopping, and Bonnie Ellis had been kind of a bitch all night, but that didn’t mean Suzi wasn’t down about it. “You got along well with Cass,” he said to her.

“She’s very nice,” Suzi mumbled.

“I can’t believe you told Jason you hoped you kept him up.” Greg snorted. “I thought I was going to die laughing.”

“Jesus Suzi, that was so dirty,” Charity howled.

“I didn’t mean it that way.” Suzi twisted sideways in her seat. “I meant up as in with nightmares.”

“But the way you write…” Greg whistled. “Sometimes you keep me
up
. Hey!” A thump had preceded his protest.

“You are gonna be so fucking famous,” Charity said. “And then we are going to live in a huge house like that, and I am going to fuck you on every square foot of it.” There were kissy noises on the other end of the line. Logan hoped someone was watching the road.

Suzi turned forward, staring out the windshield. “I didn’t mean it that way.”

“I know, Suzi.” Reaching over, he lifted her hand to his lips. She didn’t seem happy. Why wasn’t she happy? Meeting two-fifths of Touchstone should have made her whole year. When he met her, she’d had a Touchstone poster hanging on the wall of her dorm room above the poster of his band. “It’s going to be great. They read your books.”

“Yeah. That’s good. They didn’t say if they liked them.”

“He said your compliment meant something because they’d read your books. I think they liked them.” The porno sound effects through the phone intensified. Not the soundtrack he needed for this conversation. “Hey, you die in a car crash now, and I’m gonna kill you.”

“Fuck you,” Greg said. Charity giggled.

“We’re home. See you tomorrow.” Logan disconnected the line. “Jesus, she’s hammered. I’m glad we got out when we did. I think she was working up to hitting on Jason or Brian.”

“Would she have?”

“When Charity’s drunk enough she’ll hit on anyone.”

Suzi twisted her hands together in her lap. “I should have told Greg to stop her earlier.”

Logan laughed. “Earlier, as in when she got dressed? I can’t believe she went there like a total tramp. You looked fantastic, Suzi. You were the most beautiful woman in the place.”

“Do you think I annoyed them when I was talking about the album? I was trying to cut Charity off before she said something even dumber than talking about songs from the wrong album.”

“You were fine.”

“I told them their platinum album was
interesting
.” Suzi groaned and covered her face. “Damned with faint praise. I love that album. ‘Love Lies Bleeding’
is so beautiful it makes my mother cry. Why couldn’t I have said that? Lyrical complexity? I sounded like a professor.”

“It was good. They weren’t mad.”

“Oh God, I just about propositioned Jason in front of his wife. You don’t think–—do you think I caused an argument between Jason and Cass?”

Well, at least she wasn’t worried about missing an outing she didn’t want to go on with a person she didn’t like. He should have guessed she’d be more inventive with her stress. “I don’t think so.”

“But at dinner he said I was a pretty young thing, and she sounded annoyed.” Her sweet face wrinkled with worry.

“I think he said that because you’re pretty and you’re a lot younger than he is.” Logan shook his head. “He’s like fifteen years older than you.” Though Jason had been watching Suzi a lot… Had his register lowered when he said Suzi was pretty?

Jason could be thinking about trading Cassie in on a younger model, or rather, writer. How was Logan supposed to fight that?
Gee, Suzi, I know you’re being wooed by the singer of one of the greatest rock bands in the world, and I’m sure you think he’s sexy, but you should stay with me because I’m cute, too
? All Jason had to do was crook his pinky at her, and she’d be gone. What woman in her right mind would pass up the chance to live in that house? With that guy?

And Jason Callisto was what? The fifth guy he’d thought was trying to steal Suzi from him in the past three months? Sixth? Suzi was hot, but every guy in the world couldn’t be after her.

Could they?

“I don’t think they like me,” Suzi muttered.

Logan pulled the car into the garage. It was tiny, so he had to concentrate, which gave him a minute to let that sink in. They didn’t like her? How could they not? But if that’s what she thought, good. It would make it easier to keep her. “It doesn’t matter if they like you. I love you.” He reached across the seat and pulled her into his arms. “I can’t wait until finals are over, and you can come out to West Virginia with us. I can’t stand to be without you.” He kissed her, teasing open her mouth.

Suzi melted in his arms. She twisted toward him in the front seat of the car. “Make love to me,” she whispered. “Right here. Right now. Let me show you how much I love you.”

“Suzi, I know how much you love me every time you look at me.” He pulled her skirt up over her hips, relishing the silken softness of her thighs. She’d worn thigh-high stockings to please him. Before they left, she’d treated him to a preview. All night long, the knowledge of those stockings had lingered in the back of his mind.

“You make me feel so good.” Unbuttoning his shirt, she kissed his chest as she bared it. “Every time you touch me, it’s magic.” She pulled his shirt out of his pants, and the friction was tantalizing. “Do you like this?” she asked, swirling her tongue in his belly button.

“I love everything you do.” He tangled his fingers in her hair. In the harsh light of the garage, it lay across his skin like suede.

Her fingers worked open his pants, pulling them down. He’d hoped to get inside the house before they got this far, but when she wanted him, she was unstoppable. As if he wanted her to stop. Her hot mouth closed over him, and he shuddered. Every time she touched him was a gift. Her lips and tongue stroked him. “Jesus, Suzi. You’re the most amazing woman ever.”

“Ever?” she asked, panting. She continued to stroke him with her hand. “What about all those other women?”

“There are no other women.” Opening the car door and reclining the seat, he reached for her before she could go down on him again. “No. I want to be buried inside you when I come. I want to feel you wrapped around me.” He pulled her shirt over her head and dragged her into his lap so he could reach the clasp of her bra.

She straddled him, sinking onto him. Her body clenched, wringing a groan out of him. He arched up to capture one of her hard nipples between his lips.

“Oh yes.” She threw her head back, clutching the headrest for balance as she rode him. “You make me feel so good. I love you. You’re the only man I’ll ever love.”

His climax smashed into him, carrying him along for a few endless moments until it left him beached. Suzi thrust twice more before she cried out and collapsed on him. She lay with her head in the crook of his neck, gasping. Logan stroked her hair. “I love you, Suzi Q,” he murmured. “I’m glad you want to come with us to record.”

“I’m sorry I’m mucking this up for you,” she whispered. Her voice grated on the edge of tears. She hated to cry. If she was that close to tears, she was really upset. “I know how important it is.”

“You’re not fucking it up.” He twisted her hair around his fingers.

“Jason and Brian and their wives all hate me. Jason thinks I’m a little girl.”

“He doesn’t think you’re a little girl.”

“He called me a pretty young thing. Isn’t that going to make things difficult for you?”

“No. You don’t have to hang out at the studio if you’re uncomfortable.” That would make it a lot harder for Jason to seduce Suzi away from him. Logan could already picture the other man with his deep, golden voice talking to Suzi, luring her away. He could see her in Jason’s arms. As if already being married would stop Jason if he decided he wanted her. Jesus, Logan was an idiot for bringing her around the other man at all. The risk was insane. He needed to keep her away from Jason. “I guess they live on the side of a mountain out there. You’ll have the great outdoors to explore when you’re not writing. And that campground Jason’s wife owns. I bet there’s stuff to do around there. I bet there’s historical things, too. Stuff you like. Civil War battlefields and museums in Washington.” She was interested in history. Letting her travel around would keep her out of Jason’s range and still make him a hero.

Suzi lifted her head. “You wouldn’t mind?”

“No, not at all. Even if you had to stay away overnight.” He buried his fingers in her hair. “Just not too many nights. I’d get lonely.” He kissed her again, reveling in her hot, sweet mouth. All semester he’d worried that the professor she liked so much would steal her away from him, and he’d stupidly brought her into the territory of a much more threatening rival. Now he had to figure out how to hang onto her.

* * * *

“The guitarist’s girlfriend was a high and mighty bitch, wasn’t she?” Bonnie took off her earrings and dropped them into her jewelry box. “Did you see how she cut off their singer?”

Brian hung up his coat, wishing he had a good exit from this conversation. He needed time to process the encounter with Suzette Miranda Bazian, but Bonnie hadn’t shut up since they left Jason’s, working her way up to Ms. Bazian—Suzi. She’d insisted on Suzi. “He’d had four, and Jason had poured all but one of them. You know Jason pours heavy. Greg was probably over his limit.”

“But to just grab the glass out of his hand?” Bonnie slammed the top of her jewelry box closed.

“It looked to me like she just took it.” In fact, she had intercepted Greg at the bar, talked to him quietly for a minute with her hand on his arm, lifted the glass away from him, and filled it with ice water. Logan had glanced over to see what she was doing but hadn’t said anything. None of the other guys had even noticed anything was up, which led him to believe it wasn’t unusual.

“You notice she didn’t try to cut off Charity.” Bonnie raised an eyebrow at him as if that explained everything. Naturally, Bonnie remembered the name of the slutty, stupid one. Charity had gone well over her limit. Suzi had made no effort to stop her, though Brian had seen her pull Greg aside for a moment just before Greg tried. Based on Charity’s conniption, he wasn’t surprised Suzi hadn’t tried herself. “And what about that crap about lyrical complexity? My God, she had her nose so far up Jason’s ass with that one her whole head disappeared.”

Had she been sucking up? She’d called the album “interesting.” He’d thought, and he knew Jason had, too, that it was a backhanded compliment. Jason had gotten that hawk-eyed expression when she said it, but by the time she zeroed in on “Love Lies Weeping,” he’d been puffed up and pleased again. Brian unbuttoned his shirt. She couldn’t possibly know how much time he and Jason had suffered over those lyrics. Plus, she was a writer. She had to be capable of sucking up a lot better than that. Brian balled up his shirt and stuffed it into the hamper.

“I noticed how she refilled all the men’s drinks after dinner, but she never offered to refill mine.”

“You hardly touched yours.”

“Well, she could have offered.”

“She’s not the maid. I don’t know why you insisted on coming tonight. You didn’t even want to be there.”

“Please. It’s not like we do anything else.” As she folded her sweater into a drawer, Bonnie stood in front of the dresser mirror so he could see both sides of her underwear. Some kind of expensive French lace. Made him wonder what Suzette Miranda Bazian wore under her clothes. “You’d be happy to just sit around the house drinking coffee and playing piano all the time. You have to be the most stuffy, boring rock star alive.”

Brian pulled on a T-shirt. Bonnie was officially on a tear. She’d ruined dinner for him, and now she wanted to make sure he spent the night miserable, too. He never should have told her how much he liked Ms. Bazian’s books.

“Where are you going?” she demanded.

“Music room.”

“When are you coming to bed?” she shouted down the hall.

He muttered something that might have been an answer and might have been a growl. He wasn’t sure himself, but as long as it shut Bonnie up, it didn’t matter. On the way downstairs, he went past the kids’ rooms. Bubbie had managed to turn himself upside down on the bed and throw his blanket on the floor. Brian turned the boy around and draped the blanket over him. Then he paused to brush Bubbie’s reddish hair off his face and wondered why he didn’t enjoy being a father. He’d always assumed he wanted kids, and when they came, he’d be thrilled with them. So far, the kids just seemed like something else he fought with Bonnie about.

Tess blinked when he opened her door. “Hi Daddy.”

“Hello, sweetheart.”

“Did you and Mommy have fun tonight?”

“Yes,” he lied. He didn’t remember the last time he’d had fun with Bonnie. Maybe four years ago when Bubbie was conceived. “What did you do?”

“I played a game with Sophie.”

Brian brushed his hand through Tess’s long blond hair, waiting for the rush he was supposed to feel. It didn’t come. Again. Jason was nuts about Andi. All his other friends who’d had kids thought the sun rose for them. Was something wrong with him? “You go back to sleep. You don’t want to get me in trouble, do you?”