R.J. sidled over to her and put an arm around her shoulders. “Something wrong, Lyric?”
She shrugged him off, unable to explain why she could suddenly not bear for either of them to touch her.
“Just not in the mood,” she said darkly.
Trent chuckled. “But, sugar, you’re always in the mood.”
“Not tonight,” she said sharply. “I just want to be . . . alone. Okay?”
The two men looked at each other in shock, then stared back at her as if she’d lost her mind. And maybe she had. Alone? What was she thinking? She didn’t do alone. Ever. The only thing worse than being alone was being one-on-one with someone. She didn’t like either option and surrounded herself with people even in sleep.
But tonight? Yeah, she could do alone. Connor Malone’s disapproving stare had rattled her. Way more than she’d ever admit aloud. She got plenty of that on a regular basis. Thrived on it, even. She didn’t give a rat’s ass what people thought of her and had made it her mission in life to give the public as much ammunition as possible. So why did one condescending asshole get under her skin so badly?
She shook her head but couldn’t get his sneer out of her mind. He made her uncomfortable. As if he could see right past her shields, all her secrets and all her fears. It was as if he’d seen her naked and vulnerable and hadn’t been at all impressed. But then, why should he be?
“Lyric, are you all right?” R.J. interrupted. She could hear the worry in his voice, but at the moment she didn’t care and didn’t have the mental energy necessary to reassure him.
She waved dismissively at them and turned away. It was a clear signal for them to leave, and they’d be fools to ignore it. They might be intimate with her, but sex was all they offered. They weren’t her friends. Weren’t her confidants. She didn’t have those.
When she heard the door open and close, she turned back to survey the empty suite. Cold panic clawed at her throat and she took several long, steadying breaths. Sweat that had nothing to do with her exhaustive performance beaded on her forehead, and she could feel nausea well in her throat.
She gazed around, absorbing the loneliness that surrounded her like fog. It seeped into her skin. Wrapped around her bones until she was paralyzed by its grip.
She crossed her arms over her chest. Gripped her arms with her fingers and then rubbed up and down to assuage the coldness that emanated from the inside out.
Connor Malone had looked inside her. He’d looked past the flashy, brassy veneer and stared coldly at her. Disapproving. She’d felt stripped bare before him and it pissed her off. He was nobody to her. Just some flunky that her record label wanted to hire to babysit her. Fuck that.
They wanted someone to rein her in, and that cold bastard would probably delight in doing just that. Over her dead body.
She grabbed on to the anger, harnessed it like someone desperate to ride the wind. The alternative was fear.
A knock sounded at her door and she flew to open it, relief rocketing through her system. She yanked it open to see Phillip and Barry standing there in their smarmy executive clothing, but in that moment, she was so relieved to see them, she didn’t care.
“Lyric, are we disturbing you?” Phillip asked.
She shook her head and opened the door wider. “Come in. Can I get you a drink?”
They walked inside and looked around, surprised, she knew, to find her alone. Phillip shrugged out of his expensive coat and tossed it over the back of the couch. “We need to talk, Lyric.”
She bristled at his tone and donned her best belligerent sneer. “You can talk. I don’t have to listen.”
Barry, who didn’t do confrontation very well, looked as though he wanted to be anywhere but here. Which was fine because she wasn’t too crazy about here either.
“You need Connor Malone—”
“I don’t need anybody,” she said icily.
“You need him,” Phillip said firmly. “I’ve let things go on as long as I’m going to. You’re in breach of contract and I’ve let it go. Until now. Connor Malone basically told me to fuck off and headed back to Houston. You’re going to go there and do whatever it takes to make him reconsider.”
Her mouth fell open. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” he said grimly. “I’m not giving you a choice, Lyric. You’ll do this or you’ll be out on your ass, and trust me, even as big as you are, I don’t see another record label lining up to pick you up with all the shit you’ve pulled.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Don’t threaten me, Phillip.”
His expression softened just a bit, but determination still glinted in his eyes. “Things can’t go on as they are, Lyric. You’ve been lucky, but sooner or later, your luck is going to run out. We need Connor Malone to buy us some time to hire more security whether you like it or not. He’s not any happier over the arrangement than you are. I’ve put in a call to his boss, who’s going to lean on him. I want your ass in Houston to reinforce the issue. You’ll be nice. You’ll be accommodating. You’ll do what it takes to make him agree to the job. And then,” he said, putting up a finger, “you’re going to behave yourself.”
She set her jaw until her teeth ached. She opened her mouth to argue but he shut her down with one swift shake of his head.
“Don’t speak. You’ll fly out after the show this weekend. That’ll give him and you a few days to cool off.”
He snapped his fingers at Barry and the two of them walked out of her room, closing the door with a sharp bang. She sank onto the couch like a deflated balloon.
She ran agitated fingers through her hair, pulling on the ends in repetition. Connor Malone was an arrogant ass. But more than that, he frightened her. And that pissed her off.
He was smug and too damn good-looking. Her brow wrinkled in irritation. Good-looking? Yeah, he was. It might get her goat to admit it, but he was exactly the sort of man she was attracted to. Tall. Strong and silent. And blond. Muddy blond with different tones and shades, like he spent a lot of time out in the sun. He wasn’t pretty blond, but rugged, yummy blond. She had a weakness for blonds. She didn’t normally go for the good guy, military-type cut, but on him it looked good. It looked damn good. Just added to his badass appearance.
He had those piercing green eyes that saw way too much. He cut through the layers at supersonic speed. Maybe he was some goddamn superhero. She laughed. Maybe he was supposed to be her goddamn superhero.
Yeah, she could have taken him back to her room if not for the fact they loathed each other on sight. She couldn’t even say she’d had an instant reaction to him. Her dislike had been in self-defense. More of an “I hate him because he hates me” response.
And now Phillip wanted her to fly to Houston and grovel? Jesus. She didn’t grovel. Ever. The mere thought nearly choked her.
Why did she need Connor fucking Malone? She didn’t need goddamn anyone, and that was the way she liked it. Connor could take his self-righteous prig self and take a long walk off a short pier.
She leaned farther back on the couch and propped her feet on the coffee table. She shouldn’t have sent Trent and R.J. away. They could be having hot, sweaty sex right now and she could slip into oblivion. Instead she was mad as hell because if she wanted to stay employed, she was going to have to go play nice with some good old boy without a sense of humor.
For a moment she was tempted to call Trent and R.J. back. They’d be more than happy to climb into bed with her, and then she wouldn’t feel so terribly alone. But try as she might, she couldn’t make the disapproving look on Connor Malone’s face dissolve from her memory. And it pissed her off even more that it had mattered.
CHAPTER 3
Connor stalked into Malone’s with the beginnings of a headache already wracking his brain. His flight from L.A. had been delayed. He’d spent six hours in Dallas, and just when he was ready to say fuck it and hire a damn car and drive the five hours to Houston, his flight had boarded.
Then, when he’d landed, he had six voice mails, three of them from Pop and another three from Micah, who’d delighted in giving him hell about his meeting with the pop diva. Asshole.
“Hey, you’re back,” Faith called from her office as he passed.
His frown eased into a smile, and he backed up to Faith’s doorway. “Yeah, I’m back. Finally. You’re a sight for sore eyes.”
“Heard it didn’t go too well,” she said, her green eyes bright with sympathy.
He gave up the idea of sneaking to his office to blow off some steam and sauntered into Faith’s office, where he slouched in a seat in front of her desk.
“Let me guess. Micah has been regaling you with tales of my torture.”
Mirth glistened in her eyes as she tried to stifle her laughter. “Well, uhm, yes. I’m afraid he has.”
“Jackass,” Connor muttered.
“Was it that bad?”
Connor sighed. He loved his sister dearly, and he had no intention of bitching at her for the better part of an hour. So he ignored the question. “Where’s Gray and Nathan?”
She accepted the change in subject with her usual good nature, but her eyes gleamed speculatively as if to say she’d get the dirt later. Yeah, she was sweet, but she could also be downright evil.
“They’re out on a job. Pop should be in shortly, and, to be honest, I have no idea where Micah is.”
“Damn.”
“Avoiding Pop?” she asked, her lips quivering with another smile.
“It’s pointless. The old coot would just show up at my apartment.”
Faith did laugh then. “Yes, he would. He’s been muttering under his breath about insubordination and hardheaded employees ever since the record execs called to tell him you’d walked.”
Connor rolled his eyes. “If he wants the job so damn bad, he can send Micah. He’d totally dig the chick.”
“And you don’t.”
“She’s . . . she’s . . . I don’t have words.”
“Wow, Connor Malone speechless. And over a woman. Never thought I’d see it.”
He glared at her. “It’s not what you think. She’s . . .” He couldn’t even finish. Faith burst into laughter, her long blond hair shaking over her shoulders. She reached up to wipe tears from the corners of her eyes and kept on laughing.
He rolled his eyes heavenward and wondered if asking for a sudden lightning bolt would be asking for too much.
“There you are.”
Connor flinched when Pop’s raspy voice filled the room. “Here I am,” he muttered, not turning around in his chair.
Pop ambled up and smiled at Faith. “Your husband said to tell you that he’s going to be running late and for you not to wait on him.”
Her cheeks pinkened, and a soft smile spread over her features. “Guess I’ll head out, then.”
Traitor, Connor mouthed at her.
She winked, then collected her purse and headed for the door.
Pop turned his hard stare on Connor. “Now. You.”
Connor held up his hand. “I don’t want to hear it, Pop.”
Pop grunted. “Well, you’re going to hear it.” He leaned against Faith’s desk and crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t care what happened in L.A. This job is a personal favor to a friend. I told him we’d do it, and I can’t spare one of the others to do it. You’re it.”
Connor set his teeth together. “Just because they all had the poor sense to get all fucked-up over a woman and think they need to all be married does not mean that I get every shitty job that crosses your desk now.”
Pop snorted. “No sense getting your panties in a wad. You’re acting as bad as that pop star you don’t want to babysit.”
Connor scowled but Pop held up his hand. “I’m asking as a favor.”
Connor groaned.
“She’s flying in this Friday. You’re meeting her for dinner Friday night and then she’s coming in to the office on Saturday for a meeting with you and me.”
“Why am I meeting her for dinner?” Connor demanded.
“Because the two of you are obviously off on the wrong foot, and you need to kiss and make up if we have a hope of making this work.”
“Goddamn it, Pop. You go out to dinner with her. I’ll make the Saturday meeting, but I have no desire to spend five minutes with her alone, much less an entire dinner.”
Pop stared at him for a long moment. “Are you refusing the job?”
Connor swore long and hard. “No, I’m damn well not turning down the job. You’ve made it personal by asking a favor and you know damn well I’m not going to tell you no. But I don’t have to like it.”
Pop grinned. Cagey old bastard. “Phillip Armstrong will be e-mailing all the pertinent information as well as what they want from us as far as security. Tomorrow afternoon I want you to sit in on the conference call that he and Barry Kennedy will be heading up. Then you and I will hash out a game plan so that when she arrives on Friday, you two can discuss what will be done during her time in Houston. I left a detailed file on her on your desk. It will give you a very good idea of what this job will entail.”
“Fine,” Connor muttered.
Pop straightened and started for the door. Grudgingly, Connor stood and turned around to follow. Pop paused in the doorway and faced Connor. The old coot was working to keep a straight face. “Think of it this way. You’ve been bitching about wanting to take vacation for a long time now. Now you get two whole weeks.”
“Fuck you,” Connor growled.