Last Dance (Rock With You #3) Rock Star Romance

By Adriana Hunter

Rock Star Erotic Romance
Rock With You (#3)

Adriana Hunter

http://www.AdrianaHunter.com
 

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This is a work of fiction. All names, characters,
locations and places are solely the product of the author’s imagination. 
Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, including events, areas,
locations and situations is entirely coincidental.

 “It can’t be mine, Melody.”

Logan’s
face reflected the shock Melody felt, like a sucker punch to the gut. She was
numb, barely able to think. The only thing that kept replaying in her mind was
the lilting Scottish voice on the phone, the voice of Logan’s ex-fiancé,
Claire, telling him she had his baby.

“There
can’t be a baby. Or, it canna be mine.”

They
were sitting on the couch at the hotel, the phone still lying between them.  Logan
had ended the call abruptly; the call they’d both been dreading but knew had to
be made. The call that had the potential to change everything, ruin everything.
Or so Melody thought at the moment.
I can’t deal with this now.

“Melody.
Say something, anything.” Logan face was a maelstrom of conflicting emotions,
his eyes desperately searching hers.

“I’m
not sure yet what to think. You said that she…she’d told you…she said she
didn’t want children.” Melody’s voice trailed off into a whisper.

“Aye,
she did. And if she’s got a baby, she’s gotten it with someone else.”

“How
can you be so sure? She could have been pregnant when you left her.”

Tears
stung her eyes and even as she tried to hold them back, they spilled down her
cheeks.

“Melody.
I knew the girl. I was going to marry her. I’d think I’d have known…”

Melody’s
harsh bark of a laugh startled them both. Logan tossed the phone on the table,
sliding across the cushions to Melody. She tried weakly to push him away, but
he pulled her against his chest.

“I
know this isn’t what you wanted to hear, but there it is. We know now what
she’s after.”

“Do
we? All we know is there’s a child and she wanted you to know. And that she
says it’s yours.” Melody’s voice broke, tears overwhelming her, her words
coming out between the tears.

“We
don’t know anything else. Does she want you to support it, or her? Or be part
of its life? Or hers?”

He
didn’t answer her and that worried her more than what Claire had said. It was a
long time before Melody relaxed into Logan’s arms, letting the tears flow
unchecked. It was even longer before she sat up, wiping her nose on the back of
her hand.

“I’m
sorry, Logan. This isn’t what I was expecting, by any means. I guess it took me
completely off guard. Her wanting to meet you even more so.”

Logan
sat forward, running one hand through his hair. “Aye, it is a shock. I never
would have thought this. I expected her to beg me to return, or something like
that, but not this.”

“So,
she said she’s in New York now. She must have followed you from Inverness.
Where do you think you’ll meet with her?” Melody struggled to remain calm.

Logan
shrugged. “I don’t know yet. Not here, not at the hotel. I don’t want to see
her here.” He glanced at Melody. “You’re frowning. What is it?”

“I
think she wants something. Something she didn’t want before this. What made her
surface now…suddenly?” Melody hesitated. “I want you to think about meeting her
at my office.”

Logan
regarded her for a moment. “You want to meet her?” His voice was reserved, his
face closed.

“No,
not particularly. But she may want something from the lawsuit. That’s been
splashed all over the tabloids. There may be a connection in her mind,
something she feels she’s owed…or she can get, now that she knows you’re
vulnerable. As your attorney, at least I can look out for your best interests.”

Logan
stood, long legs taking him across the room, pacing back to the table. His
hands were back in his hair and by now it was a disordered tangle falling around
his face. She’d never seen him this distraught, even after breaking up his
band, even after seeing her in the arms of Ryan Marshall.

But
she felt powerless to comfort him. Her heart was torn and she didn’t know how
to feel, how to reach out to him, and to protect herself.  All she could
do at the moment was think like his lawyer, cold and analytical.
As if
that’s any easier.

He
was standing by the window, looking out over the dark skyline of New York. She
could read tension in every part of his body, in the tilt of his head, the set
of his shoulders. And she knew what she had to say, what she was compelled to
ask, was only going to make things worse. She tried to keep her voice neutral, tried
to ask as his attorney, not as his lover. But she failed miserably and her
voice broke.

“Logan,
if this is your child, this is what you’ve wanted, isn’t it? You said you
wanted children. You’d want to know, you’d want to see it…see her.”

Logan
turned, and in the doubt in his face, she saw her answer. Any resolve she’d
built to remain detached crashed down and the tears started again and this time,
she couldn’t face Logan. She fled down the hall, closing the bedroom door
behind her.

* * *

She
woke when Logan opened the door and came into the bedroom. He moved about
quietly for a few minutes, undressing, putting something in a dresser drawer,
and then she felt the bed move as he climbed in. Wordlessly she turned to him,
and his arms went around her shoulders. She pressed her face against his neck,
her words muffled against his body.

“I’m
sorry, Logan… I’m so sorry…” Before she could continue, he tilted her face to
his, ending her words with a gentle kiss, but a kiss so full of love, the love
she knew he had for her.

He
stroked her face gently as he spoke. “I know. It’s alright. You ran away, like
I did. But ye didn’t run that far, so I let you be. And I thought you needed
some time by yourself.”

Melody
curled against him, the warmth of his body, his scent, all comforting and
familiar.

“It
was silly… an emotional reaction.”

“Aye,
but if ye didn’t have emotions, ye wouldn’t be nearly as loveable as you are.”

Even
though his words were light, his tone was serious. “We need tae face this
together, Melody. We’ve made that promise to each other, to be here for each
other, always. Nothing that happens will drive me away, ye ken, don’t ye? I
love ye, Melody. That will never change, ye ken?”

His
voice had grown husky, his accent broadening, as it did when he was upset. She
touched his face, and felt the warmth of a tear beneath her fingers. He caught
her hand, kissing her fingertips before holding it against his chest.

“I
love you too, Logan. And I know what we said.”

“Do
ye still believe it?”

“With
all my heart, Logan. With all my heart.”

* * *

Logan
was already out of bed when Melody awoke. She glanced at the clock, groaning.
It was early and she could still have hours of sleep. But she slipped on her
robe, padding down the hall to the hotel suite’s living room. Logan was sitting
at the table by the window, dressed in just sweatpants, an untouched cup coffee
and his notebook in front of him staring out at the sooty gray sky. She wrapped
her arms around him from behind and closed her eyes, resting her head beside
his. He reached up, his hand soft against her cheek. They stayed like this for
a long moment before Melody spoke.

“Are
you okay?”

“I
couldna sleep. Too many thoughts in my head. I left you there though, in bed.
You looked so peaceful I didn’t have the heart to wake you.”

She
poured herself a cup of coffee, taking a seat in the chair across from him.
“Have you made any decision about what you want to do about Claire? I still
think meeting her at my office would be best.”

“Aye.
I know. I’m not pleased with the thought of the two of you in the same room
together, for the pain it will cause you.”

Melody
sipped her coffee. “Right now, I just want this to be over with. Getting her to
tell you exactly what she wants, making it clear what responsibilities…if
any…you have, I think that’s what we should focus on.”

Logan’s
quick smile was there, but it didn’t quite reaching his eyes. “You’ve gone into
lawyer mode, haven’t you? That’s how you deal with things, make them clear and
rational.”

“I
have to, in this case. There’s no other way for me to think about this now
that’s not going to drive me crazy. I let Ryan and his harassment get to me,
let it eat at me. I’m not going to let this situation do the same.”

She
reached across the table, taking Logan’s hand. “We are in this together, like
you said last night. But we both can’t be emotional wrecks. Let’s just look at
the next thing to do with Claire and see where that takes us. Will you call her
today?”

“I
will. And you…what are you going to do about the next thing in front of you?
About Victoria, I mean. If you think she was somehow spying for Ryan, do you
think she’s still giving him information?”

Melody
sat back. “I don’t know if she is, or if that still matters, if she was. I
don’t trust her and I’d honestly like to fire her, but ironically she’s really
good at her job. And I really can’t prove she spied for Ryan. I just have my
hunches. I’d rather work with just Lori, but this interim partner thing, plus
my case load and with Ryan gone… it’s too much for just one paralegal to
handle.”

She
idly played with the spoon on her saucer, her brow furrowing in thought, the
conversations she’d had with Victoria running through her mind.

“We
need to be careful though, if Claire does come to the office, or even if you do.
Victoria can’t know the real reason she’s there. I can tell her it’s for your
lawsuit, because I know she’ll ask. It was twenty questions the other day about
why you and I came to the office at the same time. If she gets wind of the real
reason Claire is there, and if she is somehow connected with Ryan, it has the
potential to go very badly. For all of us. I want to avoid that at all costs.”

Logan’s
laugh made her look up. “You’re not really cut out for the cloak and dagger
routine, are you? You’re not a John Grisham lawyer, facing men with guns in the
alley?”

“No,
not at all,” she said, shaking her head. “Thinking I saw someone here and then outside
the hotel was bad enough. It could have just been a hotel guest, for all I
know, and now I’m not even sure what I really saw.”

Melody
replayed the images of the man stepping from the shadows, a hat over his eyes
as he watched her cab pull away from the hotel.

At
the time, she thought it had looked like Ryan Marshall. Ryan was obsessed with
her, but she wasn’t sure he’d go so far as to stalk her outside Logan’s hotel.
Nonetheless, the whole incident had unnerved her.

“I
think it was one of Ashton’s photographers, if anyone. Don’t you? I mean, he
sent all those photographs he had taken to Ryan, those pictures of you with
different women. He might have known where you were staying now.”

Logan
shook his head, rising from the table. “I don’t know to be sure. Ashton’s a
crafty bastard and so is Ryan, for that matter. Just be careful. There was one
picture with you in it, so Ashton knows who you are.”

Melody’s
frown deepened as she sorted through the chaotic thoughts running through her
mind. “I’m not so sure about that anymore. Listen, that photograph was taken
over a month before I took your case. I wasn’t your attorney then. There wasn’t
even a case at that point. I’m not famous, not a model or an actress, not in
the same league.  If Ashton took that photo, what could he have done with
it? No one would have cared who was in the photo.  Except Ryan.”

 “You
think Ryan had the photo taken? That he was following you, not one of Ashton’s
photographers following me?”

“I
think so. He used it to harass me, playing the hunch that we were really having
an affair. But I think he took it for other reasons, some perverted personal
reason of his own. It just came in handy later.”

“So
his hunch proved the photo, not the other way around?”

“Yeah,
something like that. I think I want to look at those photos again. Maybe
there’s something different about that one. Maybe I missed something. Or maybe
Lori knows something.  She would have signed for the package from the
courier.”

Logan
shook his head. The worry lines were back on his face, furrowing his forehead,
etched around his mouth. She rose, walking across the room to him. He wrapped
his arms around her, his hands sliding over the smooth silk of her robe. His
lips found hers, his kiss gentle at first, but growing more intense the longer
it lasted. After a time he broke away with a deep sigh, looking at her with a
far-away expression on his face.

“It’s
a good thing you don’t have a cat.”

“A
cat?” A small burst of giggles escaped her. “Why on earth would you say that?”

“You’ve
moved in here, brought your favorite robe. I noticed it the other day, when you
came back from your apartment. It’s a vast improvement over the hotel robes.”

He
was slowly undoing the sash of her robe, his fingers gently tugging at the
knot. “You’d be needing to leave to tend to it. I have nothing against them, I
like cats well enough. Never could have one though, being on the road so much.”