The Songwriter (9 page)

“
No. I make perfect sense. It’s just that you’re too blind to see anything.”

Gwen stormed off the stage and ignored his,
“What the hell does that mean?” Her breath was coming in short gasps and she knew she was going to cry. She rushed to her bus and locked the doors. She had a couple of hours before Barbie and Cassie came by to start hair and makeup. When she walked into her bedroom she stopped dead when she saw the man sprawled on her bed.

The man was long, unshaven and gorgeous with a tousled Mohawk,
hoop earrings and beautiful tattoos on the top half of his body which was nude. He still had on jeans but he tossed his shirt in the corner with a duffel. With a silent prayer of thanks, Gwen climbed into bed beside Johnny and curled up against him. Johnny, being the ladies’ man that he was, sensed a female nearby and turned on his side to spoon her, throwing an arm around her waist and tucking her up against him.

Trey couldn’t get the conversation with Gwen out of his mind. It pissed him off
on every level. She was on tour with him for the first time as a lead singer and he was responsible for her. Okay, so Gabe wasn’t a horrible guy, but who knew how he’d treat Gwen? Even though he knew enough about Gwen to know she would try to hide it, he didn’t want to deal with the tears or the heartache. She was super private and no matter how angry or frightened she was of being onstage she was a pro. She was a star born in an introvert’s body, which made her all the more fascinating to him.

Watching his best friend shimmy
onstage each night wasn’t easy. The only relief he had during their performance was when he touched her. Their chemistry heat him up from the inside out and as soon as she walked offstage, she shut herself off from him. He wasn’t sure what was going on and his attempt to right what happened the night Gabe visited was an epic failure.

He’d been in hell since she
threw open her robe. She definitely wasn’t thin. She had thighs, hips and she was delectable. It took all his self-control to step away from her and walk off the bus that night. What made matters worse was the confidence she gained from doing the show each night- it was in her body language as she walked and talked, drawing the gaze of every man. She wasn’t beautiful like Natasha but she was attractive inside and out in a way Natasha could never be. Gwen’s brand of beauty would never fade.

He wasn’t sure what Gwen wanted. She taunted him with her body and tossed Gabe in his face… Did she
want
him to be jealous? Couldn’t she see he was desperate for her? When women dared him to make a move, usually he didn’t have to be asked twice. This was a different situation though. Gwen was his best friend, employee and they would be on the road for months. Getting involved sexually was
so
not a good idea but…did she want him?

He clenched his teeth as he looked at himself in the mirror. Each show deepened
the intimacy between them and instead of letting it happen, Gwen was fighting it. What was wrong with her? He wasn’t sure what he wanted from Gwen but he felt more connected to her than he ever had with Natasha and he’d been with her (off and on) for almost fifteen years.

Seeing Gwen blossom from someone who never sang in front of another living soul to the woman that overcame her worst fears every night and faced the crowd without showing an ounce of
fear made him the proudest man in the world. He hadn’t made a move on Gwen, though. Every night, he was tempted to head to her bus to check on her and see if she was
available,
but he held back.

Trey prowled his small master bedroom and kicked his jeans out of the way. What the hell did she want?
Gabe? Trey ran his hands through his hair in frustration. He knew Gwen wanted him back. It was in the way she sang to him, the way she looked at him. You couldn’t fake that so why was she?

“
She’s driving me insane,” he muttered.

He strode out of his trailer and
passed the band who fell silent when he stormed by. He approached Gwen’s bus just as Barbie and Cassie knocked on the doors.

“
It’s locked,” Barbie said.

Growling, Trey pulled out his set of keys and let the women set up all their equipment in the living area and strode to the
bedroom door. They were going to have this out. He pushed open the door and stopped dead. Gwen was cuddled up with a half-naked Johnny Bentley. The only thing that stopped Trey from killing Johnny in his sleep was the fact that Gwen was still dressed. He didn’t know why Johnny, a rival country artist, was in Gwen’s trailer or why she was sleeping with him and he didn’t care.

Gwen
woke when she felt hard arms wrap around her. She blinked up at Trey and realized she was wrapped against him and he was yelling at someone behind her. She heard a dry reply and remembered where she was and with who.

“
Johnny’s a friend,” Gwen said sleepily.

Trey looked down at her with such a murderous expression on his face
that she would have been alarmed if she wasn’t so sleepy.

“
You were
sleeping
with him!” Trey blasted down at her.

She tilted her chin.
“So what?”

“
So what
? Johnny’s the worst playboy in the business! Do you know anything about him?” Trey snapped.

“
Of course,” she said shortly and pushed away from him and faced Johnny who was sitting on the edge of the bed, yawning. “We’ve known each other for a while now.”

“
You dated Johnny Bentley?” Trey spat as if Johnny was a homeless man.

“Johnny’s a sweetheart
.”

Johnny grinned roguishly and rose, displaying h
is tattoos in all their glory. Cassie and Barbie filled the doorway and their mouths dropped.

Barbie mutter
ed, “Yeah, I’d definitely hit that. Twice.”

“
What is he doing here?” Trey demanded.

“
Gwen’s supposed to help me with my new album and since she’s on tour, here I am. You got a problem with that?” Johnny asked, crossing his arms.

“
Yeah, I do!” Trey said, the veins in his neck standing out.

“
You don’t get a say in this, Trey! You said whatever it takes to make it work with my clients.” Gwen said, losing patience with him.

“
How can he be a client when you’re sleeping with him? I won’t have it! This is
my
tour!”

Gwen’s spine stiffened.
“If Johnny goes, so do I.”

“
I cannot believe this,” Trey hissed. “Johnny and I go way back and I don’t need him on tour with us causing trouble.”

“
I’m here because of Gwen. Believe me, I wouldn’t be here otherwise,” Johnny put in.

Johnny curved an arm around Gwen’s waist and pulled her up against him and kissed her neck.

“You let him use you like this?” Trey roared.

Gwen shrugged. Trey was so angry he was shaking. He stalked out of her room and they all heard the bus doors slam behind him. When Gwen jerked her head
, Cassie closed the door to give them privacy. Gwen looked up at Johnny Bentley- rock star, womanizer and one of her best friends. They were songwriters before they were singers and that bonded them tighter than sex or blood.

“
You don’t know how happy I am to see you,” Gwen groaned into the hot skin of his chest.

“
I’m pretty sure I do. He’s temperamental, isn’t he?” Johnny said dryly.

Gwen groaned.
“Johnny, I don’t know how the hell I ended up agreeing to this.”

“
You never could say no to that asshole,” Johnny said in disgust.

Gwen blanched.
“I had to-”

“
No. You didn’t. I’m sure Trey thought up a lot of good reasons for you to sacrifice your life for his tour. I think he’s just being selfish.”

“
I agreed to this.”

“
With pressure.”

“
Yes, but he didn’t force me.” She wasn’t sure why she was defending Trey.

“
Whatever. He was right about something, though. Damn, you can sing. Everyone’s talking about it.”

Gwen eyed him warily.
“Everyone as in…?”

“
As in everyone in the biz. Everybody thought Trey would cancel the tour and replace Natasha with a mediocre singer. Your videos are viral, honey. I can’t wrap my mind around it. I know you rescheduled my time, but I thought I’d come and see how you’re doing myself.”

She sank down on the bed and looked up at him.
“It totally drains me but when I’m onstage… I’ve never felt anything like it.”

He raised a brow.
“Bit by the adrenaline bug?”

“
Before I go onstage every night I fall apart. It hasn’t gotten easier. Someone has to make me angry. That’s the only way I can walk onstage under my own steam.”

“
Because you don’t like people telling you that you can’t do something,” he surmised.

She cupped his face when he knelt in front of her.
“I missed you. You just get me.”

“
And you get me. I need help with my new album.”

Johnny was a restless, wandering soul that only found true peace when he was on tour. Johnny and Trey were similar but despised each other. Johnny had a handful of friends, male and female
, that he visited between tours to gain inspiration for his next album. Johnny visited Gwen, every couple of months. Their songwriting souls recognized one another and connected in a way they’d never found with anyone else.

“
Does Trey know?” he asked gently.

Gwen paled.
“No.”

“
Let’s leave it that way, shall we? You mind if I play with him a bit?”

Remembering their
earlier conversation and her humiliation, she shrugged. “Why not?”

Johnny and Gwen walked up as Trey came backstage to do his wardrobe change. His eyes narrowed when he saw Johnny holding Gwen’s hand
but he didn’t say a word. They chatted a good distance away until he went back onstage. Gwen listened to Trey weave humor and stories between songs and the crowd leaned forward, drawn to him.

“
He’s rusty,” Johnny muttered.

Gwen laughed.
“You’re jealous.”

The rivalry between Trey and Johnny wasn’t a secret. Trey was the reigning king of country and Johnny straddled the line between rock and country. Trey couldn’t stand it. Every now and then
, Johnny won awards that Trey would have scooped up. Johnny liked to experiment and fuse genres and was infamous for his wild partying and women. Compared to Johnny, Trey was a straight-laced grandfather but the core of both men was good and loyal and Gwen loved them both.

“
Did I tell you Vicky Delaney gave me a key to her house?”

Distracted, she looked up at him.
“Why would Vicky Delaney give you a key to her house?”

Gwen was from a small town in Montana and she knew it was Johnny’s new favorite vacation destination. He’d fallen in love with White Mist when a fellow small town girl from White Mist
caught his attention. At eighteen Regan Lee Delaney jumped onstage with Johnny during a performance and Johnny fell head over heels for her. That lasted a hot weekend before he fell for a blonde with big boobs. Regan Lee didn’t take it personally and they’d been friends ever since. Regan Lee moved home after being estranged from her family for ten years and Johnny visited White Mist and fell in love with the simple lives of the locals.

“
Regan’s mom loves me,” Johnny bragged. “Regan still doesn’t trust me with my godson though. Can you believe that?”

Gwen knew Johnny was trying to distract her and it was working. Angie’s brand of tough love worked but having someone talk
about her hometown and the people there was the best distraction ever. It filled her with longing yet at the same time, it made her proud to be where she was.

“
What would you do with the baby? He’s what, barely a year old?” Gwen asked and knew she had less than two minutes to wrap up her conversation up and step onstage. Her heartbeat picked up.

“
He just turned one. I’m going to teach him to play the guitar. I’d probably take him with me to the café and the bar so he can listen while I play.”

There was so much wrong with that sentence that she didn’t have time to address it. A woman in the front row waved a sign and Gwen’s heart stopped. She squealed and clutched Johnny’s arm.

“That woman has a sign with my name on it!” Gwen gushed and pointed.

Johnny read,
“Go go Gwen.” He glanced at Gwen’s flushed face and for her sake added, “Catchy.”