Out of Chances (2 page)

The arguments had been the soundtrack to her childhood. As soon as she'd turned eighteen she'd left Kalgoorlie and hopped on the train to Perth. She went back for Christmas, sometimes midyear. She loved her parents, she just hated the way they treated each other. Her mother needed to get a lover so her father could see how it felt to be on the other side of the affair, but Indigo knew she wouldn't. Her mother believed in love and keeping her vows no matter what.

Her mother would also be horrified if she ever learned of the kind of tally that Indigo was racking up.

Eh, Indigo really didn't give damn. It was her life and she wasn't going to live it for someone else.

At the man's table she stopped, hip cocked to the side. ‘My buddy over there says that you're no one famous. I think you are.'

He smiled, but it was cautious. ‘Who do you think I am?'

‘I have five bucks that says you're the bass player from Selling the Sun.' There was no money on the table, and the guy she was working with didn't give a damn, but that didn't stop nerves from pushing her heart harder or her hands from feeling a little slippery on the tray.

‘And if I am?' He leaned back and his smile broadened.

‘A free beer?' She put the one he'd ordered on the table.

He nodded. ‘I am.'

‘Prove it.' Anyone could say that they were.

‘Driver's licence okay? Or do you require a full hundred points?' He was still smiling as though this was a game. ‘But that will only work if you know my name. Do you?'

‘What kind of fan wouldn't, Dan Clarke?'

He lifted one eyebrow as he reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out his wallet. He flipped it open, covered his address with his thumb and showed her his name. Daniel Sean Clarke. ‘Happy?'

She nodded, more than happy. Her happy was doing its own happy dance. Now for part two of her daring plan. She'd never slept with anyone close to famous, and while she'd fancied Dan from the audience of the concerts, he was here now, right in front of her. She could reach out and touch him. She resisted. Just. ‘What are you doing later?'

‘How much later?' His blue eyes took on a guarded look, as though he wasn't sure where this was going.

She didn't buy that for a moment. He'd broken up with his girlfriend and he must get hit on all the time. Indigo checked her watch. An hour and a half left of her shift. That was probably too long, yet there was no way she could have him out the back of the pub in the middle of the afternoon—no matter how appealing that seemed right now.

‘I finish in ninety minutes.'

‘And then?' He drew a line in the condensation on his glass, his gaze firmly on her. He was waiting for her to make it clear. Maybe he wasn't that interested. She could walk away, opportunity taken and declined. But he hadn't said no.

So she gave a shrug as though the outcome didn't matter. ‘We do whatever two consenting adults feel like.'

‘Are you hitting on me?'

‘Did I not make it clear enough for you?' Did he not want to be hit on or was he not as smart as he appeared? She didn't like either of those options.

Then he smiled and gave her a slow, lingering look that seemed to take in everything, from the top of her head down to her ass. ‘Just checking … I get that free beer while I wait?'

She nodded. She'd kind of promised him that anyway. Was he more interested in the beer than her? She drew in a breath, ready to blow him off at the first sign of rejection. Get in first before she got hurt was her motto.

Dan picked up the glass and took a sip, his gaze still on her. ‘Well, I guess the only question left is your place or mine.'

It was never her place. Would he want to go to his? She picked up his empty glass—she was supposed to be working after all—and leaned a little closer. ‘Who said it had to be either?'

His eyebrows lifted a fraction, but the shock was quickly hidden. ‘I'm staying in East Freo. That's nice and close. Got a ride or do you need a lift?'

She held out her hand. ‘Just give me the address.'

Dan picked up his pen and wrote a flat number and street on the back of her hand. His touch was warm, his fingers calloused. Her heart was beating fast with excitement. She almost died on the spot. She'd just picked up one of her favourite rock stars.

On the outside she was keeping it cool. Just a smile before she turned.

God, she hoped he wasn't a dud in bed.

She walked away to gather empties and wipe tables.

‘Hey,' he called after her. ‘What's your name?'

She glanced over her shoulder. ‘Do you really care?'

He frowned. ‘Yeah, I do.'

‘Indigo.'

‘Just Indigo?'

‘For now.' The only guys who learned more were those that went beyond a third date. She didn't expect this to go past one screw. She was a realist, not an optimist.

Chapter 2

Dan watched her back, then her butt for a moment. Her tight black jeans hugged every curve. She had a great ass. However if he stopped to think about what had just happened, he was pretty sure he'd get whiplash.

He couldn't remember ever being picked up by a woman who was stone cold sober. He hadn't even picked up that many drunk … he'd just let the guys think he did because he didn't want them thinking he wasn't over Lisa. He wasn't. In part because he'd never had the chance to confront her and put it on the table. He should, but he was a little concerned that she'd somehow twist things around and they'd end up together again with promises that it would be different.

It was pretty fucked up to love someone without liking them. But there had been so many good times. She had been his first real relationship, they'd even moved in together. She'd even been talking rings and mortgages. His family had liked her—they never liked anything he did, or anyone he was with.

In hindsight, that should've been a warning.

Now Lisa was friends with his sister and his mother. He would be willing to bet his last hundred that they didn't know the truth. He was going to have to see his mother soon and grovel for a hand-out. His bank account had dwindled and paying rent on Mike's flat was sucking it clean. He needed to get his name off the lease on the place he'd shared with Lisa and stop paying for that. That would make it final. That would mean speaking to her.

He closed his eyes. He'd rather be dragged over hot coals then sprinkled with salt and vinegar. He'd worry about it tomorrow. Today he had somehow managed to get a groupie to land in his lap without even trying.

That should be a good thing.

However he wasn't sure he wanted her to come around to Mike's flat. While it wasn't as messy as it had been, it wasn't exactly clean either. And then she'd know where he was living. His driver's licence still listed the house he'd shared with Lisa. He still had stuff there.

Unless she'd thrown it out.

It had been almost six months since they'd split up, but in that time he'd seen her at his parents' place a few times and they'd been forced to be civil. She'd apologised and said that maybe they needed some time apart. He'd agreed because that was easy.

Dan finished his beer and caught Indigo's eye. He pointed to the empty glass. If nothing else he'd scored a free beer today. That had to be a win.

And possibly sex.

If she showed up.

It had been fun to flirt with her, but he wasn't sure he wanted to sleep with her. She wasn't what he usually chased. If he was after something fast, she seemed a bit too together—and too sober. She was nothing like career-driven Lisa. And Indigo would be lucky to get past the first letter of the alphabet when it came to filling her bra … he liked more.

She walked over, hips swaying, and placed the glass down. Her lips curved and there was a glint in her eyes. She was trouble and she wanted to play with him.

He swallowed, too aware of the heat rising in his blood and making his jeans tight in the wrong place. Maybe there was a bit of attraction, but only because it had been a few weeks and she was making all the moves.

‘I'm going to head off after this one.' He needed to clean up the flat. Put fresh sheets on the bed. Drunk chicks didn't care about that stuff. Indigo would and he didn't want her telling everyone what a pig he was on social media. Ed would have kittens. Mike would probably kick him out.

‘I'll see you there.' She touched the address on her hand.

There were so many questions he wanted to ask. Did she make a habit of picking up random guys? Favourite band members … maybe he wasn't her favourite, he was just convenient? It was one fuck, why did he care?

He obviously hadn't had enough to drink yet.

‘I look forward to it,' he said with a smile he didn't have to force. Maybe he needed the shake-up.

As she walked away, he looked down at his notebook. It wasn't drinking alone in the middle of the afternoon when he was working. He was working. However he also remembered a time when he hadn't had a beer in his hand. When he could sit for hours and concentrate.

He shook his head. It was free, he couldn't let it go to waste.

Forty minutes later Dan was throwing clothes into a box that was working as a laundry hamper, binning empty beer cans and attempting to make the one-bedroom flat look like something slightly above a one-star dive. When Mike had lived here the place had never looked this bad.

Dan didn't remember ever being quite this messy. It pissed him off when he couldn't find clean clothes. It pissed him off more when he remembered that his favourite pair of boots were still in Lisa's possession, along with his game consoles, a couple of guitars and speakers he no longer used. Selling them would be a quick buck. He could do with that money.

He brushed his teeth and ran his fingers through his hair and added a spray of deodorant. When was the last time he'd gone to this much effort for a one-night stand? He didn't need to impress her. His name had done that.

If only his name meant there were a few more zeroes after what was in his bank account.

His phone buzzed. He checked it thinking it might be Indigo, before remembering that she didn't have his number.

It was from Mike.
Are you home? Good time to stop around?

Got company … later. Bring dinner.

Leech.

Dan shrugged. Unlike Mike, he didn't have a trade to fall back on and fill his pockets in the lean times. His degree in music and history wasn't going to get him far and he was not doing an extra year of study to become a teacher.
Hell no.
He knew exactly how bad kids could be; he'd been one of them. There was no private school in Perth that would touch him in the end. He grinned at the memory of his father's purple-faced apoplexy after another expulsion. The shame of sending his only son to public school …

Since nothing Dan ever did was good enough, he'd done his best to be bad. He'd been very good at that.

Dan straightened the cover on the bed, then decided that it looked too much like he gave a damn so he messed it up a bit. He did not want Indigo thinking that this meant anything or that he'd gone to any trouble. She wanted it, he was obliging.

That was all.

Someone knocked on the door.

His heart immediately swelled and stopped as nerves took hold. He breathed out and they were almost gone. He preferred an audience of thousands to just one. One was intimate, personal, and he wasn't ready for anyone to get beneath his skin again.

He opened up the door. ‘Hey.'

Her lips flicked up in a grin. ‘Hey, yourself.' Her hair was out now, tumbling over her shoulders in messy curls. ‘Gonna invite me in?'

Dan stepped aside. Truthfully, he wasn't quite sure what to do next. This wasn't post-concert drunk sex where he could obliterate the hurt until the hangover kicked in. This was kinda odd.

She came in and looked around. He shut the door with a solid thunk, and followed it up by locking the door.

‘So, this is where you live.'

‘For the moment. It's temporary.' If she turned out to be a stalker fan he might have to move sooner than he planned, not that he'd actually planned on going anywhere.

Indigo dropped her hot pink handbag on the sofa and stripped off her shirt. Her shoes came off just as fast. She obviously knew what she was doing. The buzz from the beers he'd drunk earlier was still in his blood and watching her shimmy out of those skin tight jeans was doing all the right things.

She was also fucking fit. She had more abs than him. Christ, that was going to be embarrassing. He wished he'd had another drink while cleaning up so he wasn't thinking. He wasn't going to let any of his doubts show. He knew what was expected and this time he was happy to play along.

Then she crooked her finger and beckoned him closer.

He wasn't sure he wanted to be closer. She was … dangerous … exciting … this was going to bite him on the ass later, he knew it. He'd been in trouble enough times for his gut to have an accurate read on when things would go from fun to pear-shaped. But he was halfway down the hill already so he'd better make the most of it before he hit the bottom.

He undid his shirt as he walked over. This was feeling cold and too planned. Where was the heat? The lust? Or was he too used to drunk, desperate sex?

Her grin widened. ‘I totally did not expect you to say yes.'

‘What did you expect?'

‘An autograph? A photo?'

He stepped back. ‘Well, I can still do that.'

She closed the distance and grabbed the front of his shirt. ‘Nope. This. Is. Way. Better,' she said, punctuating each word with kisses.

Somehow her tongue ended up in his mouth, and then his hands were on her ass pulling her closer as blood rushed down. This thing that was happening started to feel better. Her hand slid lower and stroked the length of his dick. He was definitely up for whatever she wanted. He needed to stop thinking so hard.