His Melody (32 page)

Her friend nodded. “We just had to know—are you Grayson Meadows?”

Austin’s eyes hardened for a moment, and Melody thought he was going to deny it or do something worse like ignore the women or snap at them. Then he composed himself, pasted on a smile, and looked up at them. “Yeah,” he said. “I go by Austin now, though.”

They squealed and turned to each other. “I told you so!” the redhead said to her friend. She turned back to Austin. “I just loved your show. We both did.”

Her friend eagerly agreed.

“We were just wondering…” the friend started to say.

“Could we have a picture with you?” the redhead finished. She whipped out a smart phone. She looked across the table and smiled at Melody.

“Sure,” Austin said. It was clear he’d made their night by their reactions.

“Could you…would you mind taking the picture?” She held out the phone to Melody.

“No problem.” Melody took the phone. The women pressed in on either side of Austin—much closer than was necessary—and Melody took the picture. They then chattered on for a while, eventually asking Austin to sign whatever they could find. He signed a napkin for the redhead and a compact case for her friend. After a little more gushing, they finally said goodbye.

After the women walked away, he put a hand over the lower half of his face and closed his eyes. Melody pulled his hand away from his face and folded hers inside of it. He opened his eyes, and she smiled at him.

“It’s no use.” He heaved a huge sigh. “No matter what I do, I’ll always be Grayson Meadows. I’ll never be able to get rid of him.” He looked up at her with doleful eyes. “Will I?”

“He’ll always be a part of you, yes,” she said. “But just a part. There’s so much to you, Austin. You’re funny, smart, ornery—all sorts of things. And Grayson’s just a part of that. A part you learned from and that makes you the wonderful man I. Well. The wonderful man sitting in front of me.”

“What were you going to say?” He brought the heel of her palm to his lips and kissed it moistly. “The wonderful man you what?”

“There’s no point in denying it, I guess.” Rational thought was hard with his lips pressed against her skin. “I love you, Austin.”

“I love you, too, Melody.” The look he gave her melted her. She almost told him she wanted him to move back into her room.

“But we have to be sure that a relationship is what we both want.”
That you won’t get swept away by your new career and the groupies that come with it, or fly off at the handle for something you won’t let me explain and leave me behind. For good this time
, she added silently.

“I’m sure it’s what I want,” he said. “I’m just waiting on you.” He kissed the inside of her wrist. “In the meantime, I plan on doing everything in my power to convince you of just how serious I am.”

She could see some serious benefits coming out of that plan.

#

Thursday night, after their meeting with Global, Melody and Austin sprawled out on the floor with takeout from a great Korean place in Duluth. They’d picked up soup, some noodles, and kimbap. Austin sat with his back against the couch, watching Melody who sat across from him. She’d been pretty quiet since the meeting. She’d seemed so far away from him. The one thing she kept stressing was how fast all of this was happening. He’d definitely noticed. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that, but he could safely say he wasn’t thrilled.

“So what’s our next move, manager?” Austin asked. He popped a kimbap into his mouth. Flavor exploded on his tongue.
 

“I can’t be your manager. I’m thinking that’s a serious conflict of interest,” she said. “I don’t know what we’re going to do for a manager.”

“That’s what you really want, though, right?” he asked. “You push me to follow my dreams, but you’re going to work under someone else again instead of being your own boss.”

She stared into the bowl of noodles that rested on her lap. “I’m not ready yet. I don’t have enough money saved.”

“There’ll always be an excuse. Trust me. That’s one thing I definitely do know. I’m the king of
excuses
as you well know. You called me on my denial. Now I’m calling you on yours.”

She took a bite of her noodles and took her time chewing. When she was done, she said, “Right now, we need to focus on you. We have to find you a lawyer. The next meeting with Global is coming up quickly. Have you looked through that list of contacts I gave you?”

He stared at the paper that laid on the coffee table where he’d left it right after she gave it to him. “I’ve been trying to find somebody. It’s hard for me to put that much trust in a stranger, though.” The truth was he wasn’t in any particular hurry. The longer he put it off, the longer he didn’t have to think about the fact that everything in his life was about to change again. The last time he’d gone this
route,
it hadn’t gone well at all. Sure, the circumstances were different this time, but he couldn’t help but think about how big he’d crashed and burned the last time.

“The list of lawyers I gave you
are
business contacts of mine. These are people I know, Austin. Don’t you trust me?”

“That’s the same question I find myself asking about you,” Austin said. “Do you trust me, Melody?”

Instead of answering him, she looked down at the notes she’d made in the Global meeting. She could be downright infuriating when she wanted to be.

He reached over and put his fingers under her chin. Tilting her head up gently, he forced her to meet his gaze. “We haven’t talked about what’s going to happen between us since that night you asked me to move out of your bedroom. I respect that you’re not willing to jump back into my arms, and that I’ll have to work for it, but I would like to know where I stand with you. Give me some idea of how to go about fighting for you. Which I fully intend to do.”

He kissed the corner of her mouth, and she sighed. It was clear she wanted more. At least he knew she was missing his touch as much as he missed hers. “You’re distracting us from the most important thing right now. We need to find you a lawyer.”

“No, I’m not,” he said simply. “You’re the most important thing.” He ran his fingers up and down her arms, and he felt goose bumps raise under his fingertips. They hadn’t made love since the night she’d kicked him out of her room. Every inch of his body missed her body. He was trying to be patient, but he felt like he was going to explode every time he was near her. He kept thinking of the silky skin of her thighs, cupping her perfectly round breasts in his hands, and other things that heated his blood. All he could think about was being inside her again.

“I was thinking we could go to the beach this weekend. Clear our heads. Get ready for our next meeting with Global,” she said. “Maybe we could talk about it then.”

“Okay,” he said. “I just want you to know that I mean every single thing I’ve said. I can’t remember ever wanting anything more than I want to be with you. You changed the way I think about everything. I hope you’re not asking me to give that up now.” His breath was warm against her throat.

“You’re making it impossible for me to think right now,” she whispered.

“Maybe you do too much thinking.”

Chapter Forty-Four

The weekend after Austin and Melody’s meeting with Global, Melody decided they needed a beach weekend. They drove out to Tybee Island, which was near Savanna. It was a bit of a drive, but Melody knew it was worth it the moment she saw the sparkling blue-green ocean.

She and Austin spread an old blanket out over the sand and collapsed onto it. After the whirlwind of the past few days—getting fired, having unbelievable luck by getting hired by a fast-growing label that was sure to be a major label soon, losing Austin, getting Austin back and getting him on the road to a record deal—some downtime was essential.

Melody adjusted her black bikini halter-top before flopping onto the blanket and nestling her cheek against it. Austin sat next to her in only a pair of gray swim trunks. She lifted her head a little to appreciate the view of his perfect golden body. He stretched, and his back muscles rippled in a delicious way. Staring at a half-naked Austin wasn’t a bad way at all to spend a day.

He grinned down at her. “Am I being objectified?”

She slid her sunglasses down her nose. “You’d better enjoy it while you’re young and gorgeous. You’ll be flabby and gray one day, you know.”

“Growing old won’t be so bad so long as I get to do it with you.” He lay down on his side and propped his upper body up with his elbow.

Her heart beat a little faster. It always did when he mentioned anything about them having a future together. “I don’t plan on letting you go anywhere,” she said. Then she smiled playfully. “You’re my meal ticket.”

“Hey. I haven’t signed the contract yet,” he said. He had a draft of the Global contract. He just had to get a lawyer to look over it before he signed it. Melody had a few friends in entertainment law that he was supposed to meet with after they got back to Atlanta at the end of the weekend. She’d finally made him pick out a few to meet with, insisting he have a lawyer before he met with Global again.

“You know I’m kidding,” she said.

He twined their fingers together. “Of course I do.”

She squeezed his hand. “I’m so happy right now.”

He kissed her fingers. “Me, too.”

“I know I keep saying this, but I can’t believe how fast it all happened.” She didn’t want him to take that the wrong way. She wasn’t saying she was ready to take the next step with him romantically. “You could be signing a contract next week.”

“Hm.” Austin moved closer and grabbed a bottle of suntan lotion from her bag. He poured some into his hands and began rubbing it into her shoulders.

“That feels nice,” she said.

“Yeah,” he said in a distant tone.

“What are you thinking about?”

“Huh?” his firm, capable hands moved between her shoulder blades.

“You seem distracted.” She melted under his kneading fingers. “What’s distracting you?”

“Besides the obvious?” His hand slipped under her top and caressed the side of her breast. A spark of warmth spread through her.

She grinned. “Besides the obvious.”

“I’m thinking of how incredibly lucky I have been to have you in my life from the moment you stepped out of Regan’s truck and I first saw you.” His hands made their way to her lower back.

She closed her eyes, enjoying the sun beating down on her back and the feel of Austin’s strong hands probing deeper. He worked lotion into the backs and sides of her thighs. “That stupid car breaking down is the best thing that ever happened to me.”

“It’s the best thing that ever happened to me, too.” His hand dipped between her thighs and gave the sensitive skin there a quick rub. He slipped his fingers into the bottom of her bikini for a moment, stroking her skin quickly but in a way that made her gasp and writhe under his fingers. He leaned over and kissed the top of her ear. “You booked one room. With one king bed.”

She grinned, her eyes closed. “I had my reasons.”

“Good.” He moved his lips to her neck.

“This better be a preview of what I’m getting tonight.” The thought of going back to the hotel with him that night warmed her all over. They hadn’t made love since the night she told him she needed a little time to think. Nearly a week had passed since then, but it felt like years had passed. She couldn’t fight the temptation any longer.

“We’ll see.” He closed the top on the suntan lotion bottle.

“Tease.” She grinned up at him.

He scooted down next to her and kissed her full on the lips. “We’ll see about that.”

“Why’d you stop?” She pouted and nodded her head in the direction of the suntan lotion bottle.

“Because I was getting the kind of ideas that could get us arrested out here.” He stretched before giving her bottom a light tap. “Speaking of which, I think I need to go for a swim. Get my mind on other things.”

She sat up. “I’ll come with you.”

They went down to the water. She shrieked the moment it touched her. The cold water was a shock against her hot skin.

“Jump in. Get it over with,” Austin said before running in deeper and diving in. She followed his lead. She swam next to him for a while before leaning back and treading water. She watched him
swim,
admiring his powerful shoulders and back as he cut through the undulating water.

After their swim, they went back to their blanket. Melody passed out and took a much needed, very long nap. When she woke up, the late afternoon sun had dipped lower in the sky. She looked around for Austin and found him down the beach a little playing a pickup game of touch football with some new friends he must have made while she was asleep. She sat up and watched him, satisfied with the knowledge that he was hers. All hers.

#

When they got back to the hotel room that night, he grabbed her as soon as the door shut. Pulling her to him, he kissed her softly yet deeply in that way
that always made her knees buckle
.

“Hold it,” she murmured reluctantly between kisses.