Love's Rhythm (13 page)

Her eyes fluttered closed. She turned her face to his hand and pressed her mouth to his palm.

“Drinks,” Josh called out, and Nick jumped. But not as violently as Lauren. She jerked away from him, spinning back to the counter to retrieve the last plate of toasted sandwiches just as Josh loped into the kitchen, two bottles of apple cider in one hand and a lemon in the other.

He deposited them on the counter beside his mum and then hurried over to where Nick had left the CD.

“Dude.” His laughter bounced around the small room. “I am so going to hold you to that.”

“What?” Lauren frowned at him, flicking Nick a sideward glance.

Josh grinned at her, holding up his signed CD case. “He promised to deal with you every time I play this album.” He laughed again, his grin widening as he turned to Nick. “Which means you’re pretty much going to have to move in, Nick, cause I plan on playing it every day.”

Nick dropped into a chair and reached for the sandwich sitting on the plate in front of him. “You know what, Josh?” He bit into the grilled cheese, the warm gooey cheddar, salty Vegemite and toasted bread the second most delicious thing he’d tasted all day. “I’m completely down with that plan.”

Josh dropped into the chair beside him and scooped up his own toasted delicacy from its plate. “You see, Mum? I
told
you you’d find a boyfriend this year. Who woulda thought it’d be Nick Blackthorne?”

Nick choked on a mouthful of toasted bread and cheese. Lauren sat in the chair opposite, her face calm and completely unreadable. She gave Nick a crocked smile, one eyebrow cocking as she lifted her sandwich to her lips. “Lucky me,” she said, and took a bite.

Chapter Eight

Lunch was wonderful. Damn it.

Nick was funny, relaxed, casual, self-effacing and charming. He regaled them both with tales of his life, painting lavish details about tantrums thrown by
other
recording artists. Recording artists that, according to Nick had “to remain nameless for fear they will hunt me down and slice my…ahems…off”. He told them wild stories about tour mishaps, about some of the more bizarre fan mail he’d received. He spoke about the nervous anticipation he would endure every time he was up for an award. He had them both in stitches as he showed them his practice routine for the perfect oh-crap, I-didn’t-win-it-but-I-have-to-still-look-happy face. He sang them a rather twisted version of “Gotta Run” he’d learnt while touring India, his Indian accent atrocious, his smile infectious.

He talked about growing up in Murriundah with the only cop in town for a father and then told them highly exaggerated stories of Lauren’s supposed adventures when they were school together, even informing Josh in a loud whisper about the time she was put on detention for kissing a boy behind the sports equipment shed. He left out that the said boy was him.

That Lauren’s heartbeat tripled at the memory of that kiss—their first—made her want to smack him. But she couldn’t. Not when he made her laugh so much. Not when her face ached from smiling, damn him. He entertained them both, and answered every question Josh threw at him, even one about groupies.

Lauren had sat motionless for
that
answer, pretending to study her apple cider, her fingers gripping the sweating glass, her heart doing its damndest to thump its way into her throat. It had been there so much since Nick returned she suspected the deluded organ believed that’s where it was meant to be.

“Groupies are like chocolate, Josh,” Nick said, mirth still threading through his words. His eyes however… Lauren could feel them on her, serious and contemplative. “A stupid man will think he can gorge himself on them with no consequences. But then he turns around and discovers they’re just empty calories. They’ve just messed up his life when the only thing good for him was what he’d already been eating all along.”

Josh raised his eyebrows, the action so like Nick’s that Lauren’s belly clenched. “And what’s that?” Josh asked, voice almost a bated breath.

Nick held up the last of his lunch. “Toasted cheese and Vegemite sandwiches,” he answered and popped the final corner into his mouth with a grin.

Lauren wasn’t surprised to see Josh was utterly, completely enthralled. So much so, that when Rhys called and asked him to come over for a game of Rock Band, he said no. She’d never known her son to turn down his best friend. It should have petrified her. It didn’t. It made her heart sing. And her soul weep. Even more so when Nick rose to his feet, gathered up the dirty dishes and began washing them in the sink.

Finally, Aslin returned, the bodyguard moving about Lauren’s small kitchen like the proverbial bull doing his best to keep the proverbial china shop accident and breakage free. “Got rid of Holston,” he said, lowering himself into the last seat at the table. “Although I don’t think he likes me much anymore.”

Nick laughed and Josh asked what Aslin had done. Lauren found herself warmed by such contented enjoyment that she stopped breathing for a second, her heart stilling. And then Nick smiled at her, just a simple smile, and it started again. Fast. Hard.

It was too much. Too much to take. Too much to comprehend, and she’d turned her back on the disquieting scene. Now, here she stood at the counter, her back to them all, trying to steady her heart’s rapid beat with slow, steady breaths in the guise of making a cheese sandwich without the Vegemite for Aslin.

“How do you think he knew you were here, Nick?”

It was Josh who asked the question, his voice part awe, part consternation. Lauren pulled another steadying breath. Her son was falling under Nick’s easy charm and the excitement of his celebrity. How did she return life to normal after this?

You can’t. You know that. You know that and a part of you doesn’t want to. A bigger part than you would have yourself believe. And you know that as well.

“I’m guessing it was someone at the pub last night.” A relaxed humour threaded through Nick’s answer. “Most in there seemed like locals, but I must admit, the barkeeper didn’t look like it.”

“He’s not. He’s from Tamworth. He moved here a year ago. Asked Mum out a couple of times.”

Lauren scrunched up her face, giving up any hope of slowing her heart. Of course Josh would have to reveal
that
little tidbit of information.

“And what did your mum say?” Nick asked, the laugh in his voice sounding over emphasised. She closed her eyes. Just what she needed, a jealous rock star.

“No,” Josh answered. “Even when he asked if she wanted to go to your latest concert in Sydney. He bought tickets and everything.”

“The concert I haven’t done yet? The one that’s only just gone on sale? The one that doesn’t happen until March next year?”

Josh laughed. “That’s the one.”

“The tickets to that only went on sale, what, three days ago, am I right, Aslin?”

“That’s right, Nick.”

There was a pause. “So this bloke asked your mum out three days ago?”

Lauren heard Josh chuckle. “Yep.”

“And she said no.”

“Yep.”

“What do you think she’d say if I asked her to the concert?”

Try as hard as she might, Lauren couldn’t stop the grin pulling at her lips. She turned, leaning against the counter with Aslin’s sandwich held out before her. “I think she’d say maybe.”

Nick smiled up at her, his wholly kissable lips curling, his eyes telling her quite clearly what he thought of her maybe. Her stomach did a nice little flip-flop thingy at the heated intensity in his gaze. Her sex did a nice little fluttering thingy too. And her nipples got tight. She licked her lips. Oh boy, she was insane.

“Josh?” Aslin suddenly asked, and Lauren blinked, the hypnotic pull of Nick’s complete attention shattered by the bodyguard’s clipped, strong voice. “Have you been in a helicopter before?”

Josh pulled his patented are-you-kidding face, the kind reserved for questions from adults all teenagers knew to be pointless. “No.”

Aslin gave him a nonchalant look. “Would you like to?”

The question hadn’t finished before Josh was on his feet, staring at Lauren with an open-mouthed excitement she hadn’t seen since…well, since he’d discovered Nick Blackthorne in his home. “Can I, Mum? Please?”

Her belly twisted again. If she said yes, did that mean she would be left alone with Nick? Would she be strong enough to resist him, to resist herself, if that was the case?

“What about your friend—Rhys, is it? Would he like to go too?” Nick asked, enjoying his son’s happiness.

If possible, Josh’s mouth fell farther open. “Are you fucking—I mean, are you serious?” He held out his hands to Lauren, his face beseeching her as only a teenage boy can do. “Mum? Ya gotta say yes? Please? Please?”

Nick’s bodyguard turned to her, a smile she could have sworn was conniving on his menacingly handsome face. “It’ll only be a couple of hours, Ms. Robbins. And I’m a fully licensed pilot. He’ll be safe, I promise.”

She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry.

“Aslin’s an ex-British SAS commando, Lauren,” Nick piped up, his body loose and relaxed in his seat. “I trust him with my life every day.” His eyes grew serious. “And I’ll trust him with Josh’s as well. Every day. Any time.”

The significance of the last part of his statement wasn’t lost on Lauren. Nick was telling her—and Josh, even though Josh didn’t know it—that Josh’s safety was equally as important as his own. And that as far as Nick was concerned, now part of his responsibility.

A heavy vice wrapped around her chest and squeezed. God, she should be furious about that. She should be, but she wasn’t. Truth be known, she had no bloody clue how she felt.

Messed up, Lauren. Messed up, confused and petrified. And horny. So bloody horny since Nick showed up.

“Mum?”

It was the desperate note in Josh’s voice that undid her. The small-town kid given a chance to experience something completely outside his known world and half-convinced his mother was going to ruin it all.

She fixed him with a stern stare. “Okay, but—” She had to stop and wait for him to finish making whooping noises and jumping around the kitchen. “But Mr. Rhodes is in charge and he has my full permission to break you in two if you don’t behave.”

“I will.” He laughed, still leaping around the small room. “I mean, I won’t, I won’t.”

She let out a sigh. “Try not to fall out of the thing, okay?”

Josh did something totally unexpected then. He grabbed her in a bone-crunching hug and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “You’re bloody brilliant, Mum.”

“That she is,” Nick murmured, his gaze on her face. Lauren doubted Josh heard him. He was too busy grinning and bombarding Aslin with questions about the flight, the most important being when?

The massive man swallowed the last of his sandwich and then rose to his feet. “How’s now sound?”

“Epic.”

Lauren’s pulse leapt into overdrive. Now? She wasn’t ready. She wasn’t…

But it was too late. Before she could utter another word, Josh was digging his mobile out of his jeans’ pocket and running for the front door. “Rhys, get your arse to the helicopter. Now!”

Aslin laughed. So did Nick, but to Lauren’s ears it sounded strained, as if he was just as on edge about the approaching situation as she.

Nervous? Why the hell was she nervous?

She licked her lips, her mouth dry. She watched Aslin nod to Nick, a single nod that seemed to speak volumes. Nick nodded back, and then the bodyguard was gone, leaving her along with her ex.

Her heart thumped harder in her chest.

“You should have told me, Lauren.”

His reproach was soft and gentle, as was his gaze. Not what she expected at all. But then, the Nick that had come back to Murriundah wasn’t the Nick who had left her in Sydney. There was something different about him, and it wasn’t just the age in his face. Something…deeper. She frowned, wrapping her arms around her ribcage. Her legs were cold, her toes the same. That had to be why her nipples were tight and her breath shallow. It had nothing to do with the confusion knotting in her belly.

“You should have told me,” he repeated, not moving from where he stood on the other side of the table.

She licked her lips again. “And what would you have done, Nick? Come back? Given up your new life, your new world? I can’t see you working in an office, can you? Or packing shelves to pay for nappies and doctors’ appointments?”

A flicker of darkness flared in his eyes. “You didn’t give me that chance, did you?”

Lauren’s stomach churned. She hadn’t. At the time she was convinced she was doing the right thing. She still thought she had…didn’t she?

His gaze didn’t waver from her eyes. “Did you know you were pregnant when I…” He didn’t finish the question. So she did for him.

“When you left me? When you decided the lure of being a rock star was more powerful than the lure of being us?” She shook her head. “No.”

A short breath left him and he scrubbed at his face with hands that looked like they were shaking. Another difference in the man she’d known since he was fourteen. The Nick Blackthorne she’d fallen in love with all those years ago would never show any sign of weakness. He’d worn cocky confidence the same way most people wore their clothes. It had been part of his charm, part of the reason why she’d fallen so hard for him, and she’d grown to hate it toward the end. Now that cockiness didn’t seem to exist, not the way it had before. He was still Nick, still arrogant, but that cockiness was tempered with what she’d thought was maturity. Perhaps it was something else though. Something she couldn’t understand?

No. You’re just making excuses, Lauren. You want him so much. You want the fantasy he’s offering so much you’re willing to believe he’s changed. And you’ll find yourself exactly where you did fifteen years ago—broken and empty and wounded.

She hugged herself tighter, her throat thick.

Nick dropped his hands from his face, staring at her across the table. The smell of toasted bread hung on the air, a smell she’d once enjoyed, a smell that always brought with it memories of laughter and contentedness and sensual passion. God, how deluded could she be?