Groupie/Rock Star Bundle (44 page)

By the third day Graham finally started to come
to. He called for me so the nurses allowed me into the room, alone,
to be with him.

He was drugged and in pain, but when he opened
those beautiful warm brown eyes I cried in relief. “Andy,” he
croaked. “You’re here.”

“Where else would I be, silly?” I said softly
as he leaned forward to kiss his forehead. I took his hand in mine
and he squeezed it gently, which for some reason made giddy with
hope. Possibly because it was tangible proof he was strong enough
to hang on for dear life. I was so thankful I brought his hand to
my mouth and kissed it.

“Don’t leave,” he managed before his
eyes fluttered shut again. I sobbed quietly as I clasped his hand
in mine.

“I won’t,” I promised. To Graham. To myself…
and even to God.

I’d do anything to make sure he
would recover.

Days later we learned that recovery
from injuries like the one Graham sustained were highly
unpredictable. He may be paralyzed from the waist down for the rest
of his life, or he may walk again after extensive therapy. With the
bullet removed and the spinal cord repaired as much as possible, it
was all up to Graham and to luck.

He’d start his recovery at the
hospital in Philadelphia, and would eventually go back to Los
Angeles in need of long-term, live-in care. Graham’s eyes met mine
when the doctor asked if there was anyone who could stay with him,
and it was a pleading look I could not deny. I went to him and took
his hand in mine.

“I’ll be there,” I said softly, and
looked down at Graham. “However long it takes.” Graham smiled at me
and covered my hand with his other hand.

I didn’t even look back at Vanni, who had been
standing next to me as we listened to the doctor’s prognosis. I
knew how bad this looked, but I couldn’t help that. Graham needed
me and I was going to be there. And by God he would walk again if I
had anything to say about it.

Vanni was silent after we left the room, and
didn’t really say anything much at all as we rode back to the
hotel. My own mind was reeling with all the things that had to be
done to get my house closed up in Nashville, to make the trip out
west. I’d stay with Graham, of course, in the guest room like
before. That way I could be close whenever he needed me.

When we closed the hotel room door
behind us, Vanni wordlessly pulled out his suitcase and set it on
the bed.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Packing,” he replied. “I’m going back to Los
Angeles. I have a tour to finish. You’re obviously going to have
your hands full here.”

“Vanni…”

He swung on me and flung something
my direction. “I guess you won’t need that anymore.”

I glanced down at the floor. It was a house
key. “What is this for?”

“My new place,” he said as he turned back to
his suitcase. “I was going to ask you to move in with me but I
guess you’re going to have a much nicer house on the beach when you
get to L.A.”

I reached for his arm. “Vanni…”

“We almost made it,” he said without
looking at me.

“You’re talking like it’s over. It isn’t over,
Vanni.”

“It isn’t?” he challenged as he looked my way.
“What if Graham never recovers?”

“Don’t say that.”

“But it’s a real possibility, isn’t it? And yet
you still chose to go with him. However long it takes,” he reminded
with a snarl.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” I snapped as
I sprung off the bed. My furor was only matched by my fear, that he
could really be ready to leave me over this. “Where do you get off
being mad at me for trying to take care of someone? Are you
forgetting all the times I had to wait in line for you for no other
reason than your precious image?”

He didn’t care much for the comparison. “This
isn’t some random guy. This is a guy who has my entire career in
his hands. If you think we can just pick up and carry on in Los
Angeles then you’re deluding yourself. This is different and you
know it.”

“No, I don’t know it,” I said. “It seems to me
you think you can just keep me on the chain whenever it’s
convenient and I’m supposed to dump everything and everyone
whenever you decide to crook your little finger. You really are an
arrogant son of a bitch sometimes.”

He glared at me. “You know that Lourdes wasn’t
a real relationship, and I couldn’t help I fell in love with Kat.
It’s not like you’re in love with Graham.” I said nothing which
made him pause. “Are you?”

“He doesn’t have anyone else!” I
tried to explain. Certainly not anyone he loved enough to nearly
die for.

“He’s got money. He could hire people to care
for him. Why does it have to be you?”

I sighed as I flopped on the bed. “It just
does,” I said softly. “Graham took the bullet that was meant for
me. If he hadn’t… I’d be the one who would need to learn how to
walk again, and I know that Graham would take care of me if the
situation had been reversed.”

Vanni swung around. “And you don’t think I
would have, is that it?”

I looked up at where he stood towering over me.
It took me a long time to answer, and when I did, I did so quietly.
“I don’t think you could.”

Vanni said nothing for a long moment, and I
could tell by his clenching jaw I had broken something in
him.

“I guess that’s it then,” he said through
clenched teeth. His eyes were rimmed red with unshed tears. He
stooped and retrieved his key.

“I still love you,” I said as I reached for
him, but he spun out of my grasp. I watched helplessly as he
finished packing and zipped his case shut. “Vanni,
please!”

When he looked back at me there were tears on
his cheeks. “See you in L.A.,” he said softly. “Boss.”

He stomped from the hotel room. My whole body
felt numb and hollow as I glanced down at the bracelet on my wrist,
a haunting reminder of what almost was.

All I could do was pray that I would be able to
fix everything when I got out to Los Angeles. Once I got Graham
mobile and independent again, I could prove to Vanni that I
wouldn’t be the woman he loved if I could walk out on the man who
saved me, and that same woman was ready to fight just as hard to
win him back as well.

My mouth settled in a firm line as I determined
this wasn’t the end. It was just the beginning. And I would do
anything necessary to reclaim my happy ending that Talia had done
her best to steal.

BOOK TWO/ROCK STAR

ROCK STAR

By

Ginger Voight

SMASHWORDS EDITION

*****

PUBLISHED BY:

Ginger Voight on Smashwords

Copyright ©2012

This ebook is licensed for your personal
enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to
other people. If you would like to share this book with another
person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If
you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not
purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com
and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work
of this author.

Disclaimer: This book is entirely a
work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead, or
specific past or current events, is purely coincidental.

“Told her all I’ll ever want and all
I’ll ever need is just enough to make me leave…”

“She Waits” – Zero 1 featuring Hal
Sparks

http://halsparks.com

Chapter One

July 1, 2010. Los Angeles

Vanni

Giovanni Carnevale dragged the suitcase behind
him as he let himself into the sunny oceanfront house in Redondo
Beach, California. The wall facing the Pacific was almost entirely
glass from the ceiling to the floor. An amazing southern California
sunset filtered in, casting a vibrant orange glow across the
hardwood floors and eggshell colored walls. A black fireplace sat
in one corner, a spiral staircase up to the loft bedroom above
wound against another, but one’s eye immediately drew to that
spectacular view as the focal point of the room. His interior
decorator had positioned a cozy leather sectional couch facing the
windows at Vanni’s request. From the instant he saw it Vanni
fantasized about all the sunsets that he would share with Andy
there.

His throat closed up just to think of her. Ever
since he left her in that Philadelphia hotel room he felt like a
half of his heart was missing. He had gone to Philadelphia to piece
together this next chapter of his life. He’d waited a long time for
it, even longer than the music, and he was finally ready to jump
off the cliff certain someone would finally be there to catch him.
It took him a long time to figure out that someone was Andy, and so
once he decided to give over his heart he never dreamed that she
wouldn’t be standing right there beside him upon this auspicious
homecoming.

He left the suitcase at the door and walked
over to the open kitchen just off to the right of his entryway. The
fridge was pretty bare given that he had been out of town for the
last few weeks. There were some non-perishable staples around the
cabinets but it was clear he’d have to make a trip to the market at
some point.

He barely even wanted to leave the
house.

What did sit in the fridge were a few bottles
of expensive champagne. These were to celebrate the beginning of
his and Andy’s new life together. It never occurred to him that
she’d ever say no. Sure they had had their problems but he knew she
loved him. He knew that he was stitched just as deeply under her
skin as she was under his.

This was why they had spent the last few years
alternately running towards and running away from each other. He
was stupid, he knew, to have used other women just to ensure she
could never hurt him… even when she’d never given him any
indication that she would. But no one knew more than Vanni himself
that he’d ultimately let her down.

He knew he couldn’t bear it if he gave his
heart away once more only to watch the person he entrusted with it
squeeze it dry in a bloody grip. He couldn’t stand the idea someone
else he depended on to love and protect him would figure out he
didn’t deserve it and would ultimately move on down the road to
something, or someone, else.

And yet as he popped the cork on that first
bottle of champagne, he knew he couldn’t deny that was exactly what
had happened. All this time he thought he could fool her into
thinking he could be her knight in shining armor, her rock and roll
fantasy come true. But when push came to shove, it was another man
who rode to her rescue.

And that was the man she ultimately
chose.

He snarled as he thought of Graham. Lucky
bastard. He had money. He had power. He’d already had two other
wives. And now he had Andy too. She was too kind and too good
hearted to leave him after he had become disabled from taking her
bullet. That bitch Talia had done more harm by shooting Graham than
had she actually shot Andy.

Even as he had the thought he shook it right
out of his head. Andy was gone but she wasn’t dead. He’d lost too
many people he loved; he didn’t think he could bear it if she
wasn’t still on this earth with him in some way. That was the only
thing that kept him from walking right out the door and right into
the ocean. He couldn’t imagine a world where he’d never be able to
look into her sparkling hazel eyes, smell the perfume from her
skin, or take those luscious curves into his arms once again
whether or not they were his to claim.

Only the sad truth remained she was as far away
as the moon. Everything he loved about her was completely out of
reach now. Graham’s needs would trump Vanni’s desires for the
immediate future. Who knew how long it would take Graham to heal,
if he ever would?

Worse, in all the time it would take for him to
recuperate Andy was sure to figure out which of the two of them was
the best choice for her: Graham, who jumped in front of the bullet,
rather than Vanni, who ran away.

Fresh tears sprung in his eyes when he
remembered that fateful day. Everything happened so quickly, but it
ran in a recurring loop in slow motion in his brain. He saw every
missed opportunity to protect Andy from the psychopath Vanni
himself had inadvertently aimed her direction. He saw the gun and
he did what any kid from the streets of Philadelphia and New York
would do… he dove for cover. It was a reflex, he didn’t even think
about it.

But Graham did. Graham saw where that gun was
aimed and was ready to throw his body in the path of that bullet
just to save the woman Vanni understood they both loved.
Apparently, in that moment, the only one that counted, Graham loved
her more.

Vanni ignored his tears as he threw back the
bottle and chugged the expensive, effervescent liquid just like
water. He wanted to forget. He needed to forget. But how could he?
Everything in this new place was designed to share specifically
with Andy. There was a brand new cat tower for Simon, and the
metronome she had purchased for him sat atop the piano which
sprawled under the stairs. He had made his life her life, this
woman who had done what no other woman before her had been given a
chance to do – she had rejected him.