Only for You (23 page)

Then I sing.

This is your song, playing
in my heart

This is your song, right
from the start

It’s a message, a love
letter, straight from me to you.

Come back home, c’mon
home, where you belong.

One look into your blue
eyes

And all rational thought
flies

Away

You’re my sweetest dream,
my prince charming

Can’t see you what you
mean

To me

And this is your song,
playing in my heart

This is your song, right
from the start

It’s a message, a love
letter, straight from me to you

Come back home, c’mon
home, where you belong

I’m waiting right here,
not going anywhere

The sun still shining as I
wait there

Down by the
creek.

Every night I fall into
your arms, breathing you in.

Your kisses heart
stopping, your touch earth shaking

It’s like nothing I’ve
ever had

And nothing I ever
will,

Again

So, take my
hand,

Don’t be afraid

We’ll get through
this,

Come what may

This is your song, playing
in my heart

This is your song, right
from the start

It’s a message, a real
love letter, straight from me to you

Come back home, c’mon
home, where you belong

Because I still
love,

And I still want to be
with

You

Because in this world,
you’re only for me,

And I’m only for
you

Finally I look up, tears in
my eyes. The darkness is awash in the blue lights of cell phones. I
smile, and then sniff. In all my life, I’ve never seen a stadium
full of people grow so quiet and stay that way.

The house lights go up.
Time for the big show. My heart falls.

God didn’t answer my
prayer.

C
hapter Twenty-Nine

Cole

I’m almost there. I can
hear the crowd chanting her name.

Breaking into a run, I haul
ass down the darkened corridors, hoping like hell Jaxon didn’t give
me bad directions. When I’d found him earlier tonight, he was
already three sheets to the wind.

A left at the Panther
Country sign.

The entire place goes
silent, and I slow, the only sound is the echo of my
boots.

What the hell?

Suddenly, her voice comes
over the speakers. Beautiful and angelic.

She’s singing
my
song.

A grin breaks free, and I
start running again. She’s waiting on me. This is my last chance,
because after tonight—she’s gone.

I dodge roadies and fan
girls along the way, then bump into a couple of
bodyguards.

“
Sorry,” I mutter, trying
to get past them, but they’re like a great big wall of nice suits
and muscles as they turn in unison.

“
What do we have here?”
one says, flashing a smile filled with gold caps.

I hold up my pass. “I’m
legit.”

“
Could be a forgery,” the
other says, and then looks at me. “We’ve had trouble with those in
the past.”

“
It’s mine, I swear.”
Yeah, this is the exact opposite of every conversation I’ve ever
had with security. Panting, I dig out my wallet and flip it open.
“See the name, Cole Morgan, matches this name, also Cole
Morgan.”

“
Smart ass.”

“
Hey, just trying to help
you guys out.”

Bodyguard one looks at
bodyguard two. “I think further investigating is
needed.”

“
C’mon.” I slip my wallet
back in my pocket. “Help a guy out. I’m just trying to get my girl
back.”

The one without the gold
caps tips back his head, looking down at me. “Why’d she leave you
in the first place?”

“
She didn’t leave
me.”

“
So you left
her?”

I do not have time for
this. “No.”

“
Then what
happened?”

“
Short version: Three
months ago, I was a dick and told her that she’s better off without
me.”

Gold-cap dude grimaces.
“You’re not making your case.”

“
I don’t want to make my
fucking case,” I yell. “I want to get to that stage and ask Rae to
forgive me.” Along with some other things, but a man can’t show
everything he’s got up his sleeve.

“
Who’s Rae?”

“
Rae’s Violet.”

“
I thought her name was
Violet Lynn.”

“
It is her
name.”

“
But you’re looking for
Rae, and the only person on stage right now is Violet and she’s
singing to some guy named…” Non-gold-capped teeth dude turns to the
other guy. “What was the dude’s name?”

“
Cole,” I
offer.

“
Colt. Colt
Morgan.”

I want to bang my head
against the wall. “I’m sure Rae… I mean Violet, meant
Cole
Morgan.” I hold up
my backstage pass and bare my teeth in the semblance of a smile at
the dudes.

They shake their heads,
grab my arms, and start to haul me away. “We have a very special
place for guys like you.”

I fight them the entire
way, shouting Rae’s name, until, that is, one of my jailers smacks
me upside the head. I see stars.

“
Not so hard.”

“
He’ll mess up her
concentration.”

“
It’s a pretty
song.”

“
My favorite song she’s
ever sung before.”

“
It’s
my
damn song,” I grumble, trying to
clear the stars.

They shove me through a
door, closing it after them. I pound on the door, check to see if
it’s locked, and finally slide to the floor in complete
defeat.

“
Fuck.”

It’s dark as anything in
here, but Rae sounds like she’s right beside me.

The door opens and the
light flips on. When my eyes adjust, I realize that there’s a girl
standing there with curly brown hair and square glass. Recognition
flashes. “Bliss Davenport?”

She smiles at me. “Cole
Morgan.”

“
I’d really like to know
what you’re doing here, but I really need—”

“
To get on stage?” She
holds out her hand. “Follow me.”

Bliss and I race down the
hall, dodging boxes and people.

“
Just a few more feet,”
she says.

The song ends and I’m
almost there. I’m almost to her.

Suddenly, Bliss stops and I
look around; it’s nearly pitch black.

“
Where are we?”

The house lights go up and
I see my girl, head bowed and standing on stage in a little, white
dress. Her hair is long and blond, without any other
color.

“
Good luck,
Cole.”

“
Thanks,
Bliss.”

“
No, thank you,” I think
she replies, but I’m too caught up in Rae.

Nothing’s going to stop me
now.

Taking a deep breath, I
stride to her.

Chapter
Thirty

Jaxon

Now that I’ve done my good
deed of the century, I can leave this tour and work on getting my
life straight. I can finally get out from under Everett’s
thumb.

In the end, it didn’t
matter if Violet believed me or not. I know the truth, and that’s
all that matters.

For now anyway.

“
That was nice of you,”
Bliss says.

Not bothering to get up, I
glance over my shoulder just as the door shuts behind her. She
drops a duffle bag on the floor.

“
What makes you think I
had anything to do with that?” Gesturing at the monitor, I stretch
my legs out further along the couch in the dressing
room.

“
Because you say things
like that.” She walks across the room and sits in a folding chair,
but not before placing it right beside me.

I’m trying like hell not to
notice her, not after our conversation the other night. And
certainly not after I felt her up on my bus. She needs to
leave.

“
What do you want,
Bliss?”

“
To watch the show. Oh,
that’s the sweetest thing,” she sighs, and I roll my eyes, not
bothering to see what my brother has done on stage.

“
You could do that
anywhere,” I point out.

Her profile is still to me,
glasses perched on her cute nose, full lips smiling. Her hair flows
down her back, and now I know what it feels like, how those curls
like to wrap possessively around my fingers when I touch them… I
swallow.

“
I thought you could use
the company.”

“
You think I want you for
company?”

She smiles in answer,
turning to me. Once again, I’m struck by her quiet beauty—it’s
deeper than skin deep. It radiates from her, but in a completely
unassuming way.

I try again. “You thinking
we could be friends or something?”

She grabs the remote and
clicks off the television. “I don’t think we could be
just
friends,
Jackson.”

There’s she goes with my
real name. “I think you’re right.”

Her smile falls.
“Oh.”

I crook a finger at her.
“Why don’t you join me?”

She stands, little pink
tongue darting out to lick her lips. “There’s not enough
room.”

“
Baby, you have to climb
on top.”

She hesitates. “But you
said… you said that you didn’t want—”

“
Oh I want you, but
someone was standing in the way.”

“
Violet.” Not a question
but a statement.

I nod.

“
So, I’m second place.”
She glances at the door. “I think I made a mistake coming
here.”

“
No mistake. It’s where
you’re meant to be at this very moment.”

Before she can walk away, I
grab her hand and tug hard, sending her tumbling down on me. Her
skirt rides up to her thighs, hair falling in my face. I gently
push it back. Her hands come between us, pressing against me as she
sits up.

I groan at the feel of her
softness against my really inconvenient erection.

“
You smell like whiskey,”
she says.

“
That’s because I’m drunk
as shit.” My fingers go to the buttons of her shirt, undoing them
slowly. She might think I’m being seductive as hell, but it’s
really because I can’t see straight and my hands are
shaking.

“
And that’s the only way
you’ll be with me?” She shrugs out of her shirt and takes a deep
breath, the plain white bra hiding what I want to see.

Her tits look to be a
handful, but I got whiskey vision. I cup them, feeling her nipples
harden against my palms.

“
A bit bigger than a
handful,” I murmur, squeezing a little.

She gasps, her hips
rocking. “Do that again.”

“
Why are you here, Bliss?
Just to get your cherry popped by someone famous?” A low blow, even
for me.

“
No.” She tries to
scramble off my lap, but I stop her, digging my hands into her
waist and keeping her in one spot. “Let me go.”

“
Hey, hey, stay with me.”
I gently cup her face, making her look at me. “Ignore my
less-than-flattering questions, beautiful girl. That’s just the
whiskey talking.”

She glances around again,
and then fixes her gaze on me as my hands travel back to her tits,
covering them. “Okay.”

“
Now tell me why you’re
here.”

“
Because tonight’s the
last stop on the tour.” She takes off her glasses and rubs her
nose, then puts them back on. Something I’m finding very cute.
Everything she does is cute, and everything she does turns me
on.

Never in my life have I
been turned on by cute.

The tits that bounce
against my hands remind me that not everything about the female on
top of me is cute. She’s downright sexy.

“
And?”

A frown appears and I sit
up, maneuvering us so that she’s straddling my lap and my feet are
on the floor. Her tits are in my face and I press my forehead to
the center of them and breathe in her scent. She smells like
lemons, and her heart is beating like crazy.