Nashville Flirt (3 page)

He wasn’t even all that surprised to
find out that the women were the winners of the radio station
contest Bo had been coerced into doing. Even though he didn’t
believe in things like love at first sight, fate, karma, or any
other crazy juju, it was like meeting Sarah was meant to be or
something. The way she’d returned his stares, he’d been sure she’d
felt it, too. Actually, he was still sure. She was just fighting it
for some reason.

“
How did you really like
the show?” Bo asked. His gaze roamed over her face—her dark eyes,
dark reddish brown hair, her full sensual lips. He hadn’t ever
wanted a woman this badly, but it went beyond just looks. The
intensity scared him a little.

“
Honestly?” She asked,
turning her gaze on him.

“
Always.”

“
I’m not much of a country
music fan.”

“
I’ll bet I can change
your mind,” he said, leaning in and lowering his voice to a husky
whisper.

Sarah glared at him, though her cheeks
turned a bright, telling pink. He wondered if she blushed like that
everywhere. He’d do just about anything to find out.

“
Does that really
work?”

“
Work?”

“
With women. Does that
line really work?”

He couldn’t help but grin.
“Usually.”

She rolled her eyes. “Ok, I’ll bite.
How, exactly are you planning to change my mind?”

“
I don’t know yet,” he
admitted. “But I have several hours to figure it out.”

Sarah shifted in her seat. “This is
Emily’s date. She’s been looking forward to it for weeks. She’s a
huge fan.”

“
I’ll be sure she gets an
autograph.” Bo draped an arm across the back of Sarah’s chair. She
wasn’t wearing perfume, but her hair smelled like something
flowery. That subtle scent did it for him.
Everything
about her did it for
him.

“
And some one-on-one
time,” Sarah said, twisting the simple ring she wore on her right
hand. Not a wedding or an engagement ring. Good sign.

“
Absolutely.”

“
Really?” She looked a
little relieved.

“
Sure. As long as I get
some one-on-one time with you, too.”

“
I’m just the plus-one.
Along for the ride.”

Bo concentrated on
manifesting the smoldering look that had gotten him the
People Magazine
cover
last month. “Look, I’m attracted to you. And you’re attracted to
me. I can tell.”

She started to open her mouth, no
doubt to protest, but he put his finger on her lips. She froze, her
eyes going wide.

“
Don’t deny it. It’s cool.
I’m single, you’re single. We have the whole night together. Why
not explore this thing a little?” Bo dropped his hand, though what
he really wanted to do was continue touching her. Her hands, her
lips, the soft fleshy part on the inside of her thigh…

“
Because of Emily,” Sarah
said. “She worships you. Besides, there is no ‘thing’ between us. I
don’t even know you.”

“
Emily doesn’t know me,
either. She knows the stage version of me.”

Sarah shook her head. “I can’t explore
anything with you, tonight or ever.”

“
This isn’t all about your
sister.”

Sarah paused, then exhaled heavily. “I
just got out of a long term relationship. I’m moving. I’m finishing
my PhD. Men are not high on my list of priorities.”

A rebound. He could work with that.
“All the better. Maybe what you need is a weekend fling. You know,
to purge the ex from your system, take your mind of all your
worries.” He leaned in. “I can promise you won’t be thinking about
packing boxes while you’re with me.”

Sarah looked at him strangely. “Did my
sister say something to you?”

The sound of Emily’s heels clicking on
the polished wood in the foyer interrupted what was turning out to
be a productive conversation. He just needed a little more time
alone with Sarah and he had no doubt they’d be spending the rest of
the weekend naked and sweaty.

“
Here you go, Miss
Kingston, Sean said as he pulled out a chair on Bo’s other side for
Sarah’s sister. “Sit right here.”

“
Do we have a deal?” he
asked Sarah as Emily settled herself next to him and scooted her
chair closer.

Sarah glared at him, but then nodded.
She scooted closer to Sean so that the two of them were on one side
of the large table, and Bo and Emily were on the other.

Damn, he was good. Bo turned his
attention to Emily and smiled at her as dinner was served. “Is this
your first trip to Nashville?”

“
Yes. But I’ve always been
drawn to this city, you know? Like I just
had
to come here. Maybe it was so I
could meet you.” She dropped her voice and leaned forward so that
Bo had a good look down the front of her low-cut dress.

Sarah hadn’t been kidding. Emily was
nutso. “Maybe,” he said.

Dinner was served—fried chicken,
mashed potatoes, green beans, collard greens, and sweet tea to
drink. Typical Southern fare. It wasn’t his favorite, but he didn’t
get to eat like this much. Most nights it was whatever take-out
place was open late after a show, or whatever was laid out in his
dressing room.

Across the table, Sarah was smiling
and animated, chatting with Sean. The way the music echoed across
the foyer made it difficult to hear exactly what was said, but Sean
was asking her something about college. Damn, why hadn’t Bo brought
that up first? It was obviously something that got Sarah’s engine
running.

“
You were amazing up
there,” Emily gushed, touching his arm to bring his attention back
to her.

“
Thank you,” he said, his
gaze flitting to Sarah. She seemed comfortable with Sean. What
could he do to make Sarah relaxed and amiable to his
advances…besides kissing her breathless? That was really the only
thing he could think about at the moment.

Emily wasn’t easily deterred. “So what
do you do for fun, when you’re not on stage?” Bo forced himself to
focus on Emily. He’d promised Sarah to show her some attention,
after all.

“
Well, there’s not a lot
of time I’m not on stage,” he said, honestly. “I’ve been playing a
lot of shows. Mostly I try to rest as much as possible and get a
workout in once in a while.”

“
I can tell.” She stroked
his bi-cep. “What’s your tour bus like?”

Well, crap. Usually when a woman as
attractive as Emily came on to him and he had the night free, like
tonight, he totally took the bait and enjoyed every second of it.
But now? The thought of giving Emily a personal tour of his bus
left him cold. His gaze flicked back to Sarah. Time to change the
subject.

“
So where are you and
Sarah from?”

Emily frowned and pulled her hand
back.

“
Indiana. Chicago while
I’m going to school, though.”

School. Safe topic. “What are you
studying?”

“
Theater—stage design. How
about you? Where did you go?”

“
I never went to college,”
he said. “Didn’t even finish high school. Never saw the
need.”

“
I know that feeling,”
Emily said. “It feels like I’ve been in school forever.”

“
Does Sarah go there,
too?”

“
Yes,” Emily said. “She’s
transferring though.”

“
Why?”

Emily leaned in close. “She was
engaged to a grad student in the same department, and when she
found out he was having an affair with the department secretary,
she decided that it would be better to finish her PhD
elsewhere.”

“
What an idiot,” Bo said.
“To cheat on your sister, I mean. She seems, uh, nice.”

“
Yeah,” Emily said,
letting her smile slip a little. “I mean, she’s kind of boring. You
should see her wardrobe.”

“
She looks OK to
me.”

“
That’s because I picked
out her outfit tonight.” She laughed. “I even made her throw out
her granny panties and wear a thong. I never thought she’d go for
that.”

Thong.

Thong.

Thong
.

That word repeated in his head over
and over, blocking out any other rational thought. Of course, since
most of the blood in his body was now rushing to his dick, it was
no surprise.

He glanced at Sarah, images of her
wearing nothing but a pair of thong panties and a smile flooding
his brain.

The music track ended and Sean and
Sarah’s conversation carried clearly across the large
table.

“
You’re not a romantic?”
Sean asked.

“
I'm more of a realist.
That stuff just doesn’t happen,” Sarah said, twisting her
ring.

“
Me too. I mean love at
first sight? Give me a break.”

“
Exactly,” Sarah said,
smiling at Sean.

Bo would have agreed with
her 24 hours earlier. Hell, 24
minutes
earlier. Oh, Bo wasn’t in
love with Sarah, but there was definitely
something
going on. And Bo fully
intended to explore it. In fine detail. All night long.

Chapter
Three

As the foursome waited on the sidewalk
for the limo that would take them on the tour of the city, Sarah
was pleased to realize that dinner hadn’t been as bad as she had
anticipated. The food had been pretty good, and once she focused
all her attention on Sean, so was the company. They chatted about
her favorite writers, her plans to finish her PhD, and
Emily.

Emily had been laughing and flirting
with Bo across the table and Bo seemed to be keeping his end of
their bargain, as far as paying some attention to Emily. Sean
clearly didn’t like it, though. He’d been sneaking glances at Emily
all during the meal.

Could Sean be into Emily? Or was he
just trying to keep a lid on the evening’s festivities? He’d said
himself that it wasn’t meant to be a real date. He could be trying
to cover his employer’s ass and was unhappy about the amount of
flirting going on across the table.

The limo arrived and everyone climbed
in. Emily and Bo on one side, Sean and Sarah on the other, they
started their tour. Sean talked a little bit about the downtown and
about how the flood of 2010 had brought the Cumberland River right
into the heart of the city. He pointed out the “Batman” building
and they cruised along the river, the city lights reflected in the
rippling water.

Bo was silent, but Sarah could feel
his gaze on her. When she finally dared a glance at him, he was
staring at her. She glared at him, which only got her a smile and a
wink.

“
Wow, this is amazing,”
Emily said as the limo pulled to a stop in the circular drive
between a large building and a pond. “It's so big!”

“
It's an exact replica of
the Parthenon in Rome,” Bo said, glancing at Sean.

“
That's right. It was
built for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition in 1897 and is the
world’s only full scale model of the Parthenon in
Athens
. There's an art
museum inside, and a huge statue of Athena,” Sean said. “But it's
closed right now.”

“
Too bad,” Emily said. “I
would really like to see that. I kind of have a thing for Greek and
Roman stuff. Classical Studies was my minor in college.”

Sarah gazed at the building. Normally
this would be something that was totally fascinating to her.
History, architecture, art. Right up her alley. But now she wished
she anywhere but here…the original Parthenon would be good. It was
hard to ignore Bo and her attraction to him when he stared at her
as if he was envisioning her in nothing but the uncomfortable bit
of lace lodged between her butt cheeks.

“
What was your major?”
Sean asked Emily.

“
Stage design. I just love
classic architecture, though. And all the stories about the gods
and goddesses.”

“
You and your fairy
tales,” Sarah said. Emily had never had a solid grasp on
reality.

“
You read all day, too,”
Emily pointed out.

“
Not about people who are
based in fantasy.” Like Bo Branson. Why couldn’t Emily see that her
infatuation with Bo was based on an image that wasn’t
real?

“
Hello? Captain Ahab?
Billy Budd? Jo March?” Emily said, leaning forward and glaring at
Sarah. She was getting pissed, too. Bo was paying attention to
Emily, like he’d promised. What the heck was Emily’s
problem?

“
All characters based in
reality. No magical mountains or winged creatures.” Sarah knew she
was coming off a little bitchy, but damn, Emily was making a fool
of herself over Bo.

“
Maybe if you come back to
Nashville sometime I can take you on a tour,” Sean said, clearly
trying to disarm the tense atmosphere in the limo. “Do you ladies
want to get out and see it up close?”