Played (Elite PR) (14 page)

Chapter Eighteen

M
el woke up alone in Aaron’s bed and missed him immediately. Probably a good thing, because it got her up and into the office before anyone else arrived. Miranda had given her a pass to do much of the work with Aaron offsite, but the days she went into the office, she was usually the first to arrive—with the exception of Tiffany—and the last to leave.

It wasn’t intentional. When she became immersed in a project, the days flew by and she hardly noticed when she was the last one in her cube. Even the Ice Queen didn’t bother her as much, maybe because she usually beat her to the punch.

Until today.

“Melody,” Miranda sang when she picked up the early morning call on her desk phone.

“Yes, ma’am?” She certainly hadn’t missed these calls.

“My office,” she snapped. “Now.”

“Shit,” Mel spit under her breath. This wasn’t good.

“What do you need?” Tiffany was next to her in the very next second.

“Do a quick search on Aaron and his label,” Mel said as she snagged her iPad, notebook and the campaign file. “Something must’ve happened. Miranda’s summoning me.”

Tiffany typed away and Mel checked her email and sent a quick text to Aaron before moving to Tiffany’s cubical. “Here it is,” Tiffany said, with a Nashville news website pulled up on her screen. The headline read:
Country Music Stars Arrested in Prostitution Ring.

Oh no. This was not happening.

Mel quickly scanned the article because Miranda would be buzzing her again any second if she didn’t hightail it to her office. It wasn’t as bad as it seemed. Thankfully, she had something to work with. One, the report said police had been watching the suspects for weeks, and Aaron just landed in Nashville this morning. Two, though the article mentioned Aaron by name, it did not state whether or not he was arrested. If he wasn’t, they’d spin it. Wrong place, wrong time. No charges had been filed. They’d deal with his reputation later.

“He didn’t do anything,” Mel told Tiffany. “Get your hands on the arrest records. Stop any promo tweets and social media alerts set to go out today. And set up a lunch with Genn Foley. She’s in my computer contacts.”

“What time do you want to meet her?” Tiffany asked.

“Any time the three of us are all open at the same time. I need you on this, too.”

Mel raced to Miranda’s office, not bothering with the three knocks. “I’ve got it under control,” she said before taking a seat.

“Let’s hear it,” Miranda said.

“Aaron only arrived in Nashville this morning, to meet with some musicians to finish up his album. But the situation this morning is stemming from an ongoing investigation. Police have been on the suspects for weeks. So Aaron couldn’t be involved.”

Mel’s phone beeped and she looked down to see a note from Tiffany:
Aaron’s been released. No charges filed.

“Why was he taken into custody, then?” Miranda pushed.

“We’re getting to the bottom of that now, so I’ve got to go.” Mel stood up before being dismissed. “Don’t worry, I’ve got this.”

She prayed that was the truth.

S
o yeah, Nashville once again had him by the balls.

His head throbbed on the ride to the police station. Fuck, they were only allowed one call and he needed to make ten. His arrest would be all over the airwaves by now. The paparazzi were there for the entire thing. They always staked out the Nashville airport and that’s where this little event all went down.

Prostitution charges,
the cops said. What were the goddamn chances?

Mel would be pissed as hell about now, and Rita would be freaking out with the calls coming in from his label. And there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

The officer led Aaron, Jayden, and their old friend Toby Lee into the station and brought them into three separate rooms. He tried to keep calm, reminding himself that he’d done nothing wrong.

Not an easy thing to do when one minute he was talking music in the passenger seat of Jayden’s car, and the next he was spread eagle, leaning over the hood with a cop’s hands all over him.

Inside the station, he sat at a table in a small room with no widows, desperate for his cell phone. They’d taken it from him during the mortifying frisking procedure. God dammit! He couldn’t believe this was happening.

Graham would be waking up to this shit. Not that he and Jayden were big news anymore, but their buddy Toby Lee was. So it would definitely get some play.

A cop who looked like a baby—mid-twenties, tops—came in to question him.

“Mr. Major,” he said, stiffly. “Do you want to tell me what happened?”

“Absolutely,” Aaron said. “I flew into town today, and my buddies came to pick me up at the airport. You can easily verify my flight.”

“Do you live here?”

“No,” Aaron spoke slowly and clearly. He was innocent. But it didn’t feel like it in his current position. “I live in Atlanta.”

“Travel here often?” the officer asked, perplexed.

“This is my first time in seven years.”

“Okay.” The officer cocked his head. Aaron was unsure whether or not it was a good or bad thing, but apparently he said something that surprised him. “Just tell me what happened.”

“I was coming into town to work with two songwriters I know. I’m finishing up an album and I needed some help. Jayden Jones came to pick me up from the airport, the other writer, Toby Lee, was in the back with a woman I didn’t know.”

“Was this typical for Mr. Lee, to have women in the back of cars?”

“Like I said, I haven’t been here for seven years, so I have no idea.” He wasn’t about to do Toby any favors—if the woman was a prostitute, and he knew about it, Aaron had no problem hanging him out to dry.

“And then?” The officer probed.

“Then nothing. That’s all. They picked me up curbside, we drove out toward the freeway, and two squad cars stopped us and brought us here.”

“Smith.” Another man opened the door and leaned in. “A minute?”

Christ, now what? Aaron wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans and waited for what felt like hours. The clock said it was only about twenty minutes. He should probably call for an attorney. Technically, he knew he shouldn’t even be talking to the police without counsel present. But attorneys said
guilty
, and he’d done nothing wrong. Man, he’d made that call so many times in the past, he just couldn’t do it again.

“Mr. Major you are free to go,” Officer Smith told him when he returned, and that was it. No explanation or apology.

He stopped by the desk to sign for his belongings, cringing when they handed him his phone. He turned it on and the thing lit up like Vegas, but he couldn’t dial Mel’s number fast enough.

“I didn’t do it,” he said when she picked up before the first ring finished.

“I know that,” she said.

“You do?”

“Of course.”

“Who’d you talk to?” He took a seat in the waiting area, unsure how much longer his legs would hold him.

“I didn’t need to talk to anyone,” she said, and her certainty relieved him beyond words. “Prostitution, really? I did call the police department right away, and we just heard you would not be charged. God, Aaron. I’m just so sorry I told you to go.”

“What doesn’t kill you, right?” His voice was shaky.

“Are you okay?”

“I will be.”

“Just get home,” she told him. “There’s a flight in ninety minutes and there’s a ticket waiting for you.”

“Okay,” he said, getting up to go outside. Cab to the airport. That, he could do.

As he walked out of the station, unsure where to hail a taxi, Rita entered his line of sight.

“Oh honey,” she said, putting her arms around him. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, but I need a ride.”

“That’s why I’m here,” she said, putting a hand on his arm to lead him to her Mercedes. He hated being fussed over, but he was too mentally drained to care at this point. That was not an experience he’d like to relive.

He followed her in a fog.

“Should we go back to my place?” she asked when she pulled out of the police parking lot. “You could lie low and crash there for a few days.”

“No, I just need to get home,” he said.

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.” She flipped on her blinker, seeming a little too upbeat about the situation. “I don’t think you should be alone dealing with this shit storm.”

“I’m not alone,” he said without thinking. “I have Mel.”

Chapter Nineteen

S
he had to admit, part of her was happy Aaron told Rita they were living together. Even though the situation was only temporary, Rita didn’t seem to know that. She must’ve called her as soon as she dropped off Aaron at the airport.

Then she proceeded to give her an earful about taking advantage of her client, and accused her of being a gold digger. She also said that she’d expose her after Aaron’s launch.

For some reason, Mel wasn’t worried.

She knew there was something more going on with Rita than your typical business pissing contest. It was clear the woman had it bad for Aaron. But Mel couldn’t be bothered with that at the moment. The more urgent matter was making Aaron all clean and sparkly again.

The music media was currently in hater mode—rehashing all of Aaron’s bad boy behavior—so they needed to combat that ASAP. It was a good thing she had all of this work to do, because sitting around waiting for him to get home would’ve killed her, otherwise.

“Holy hell, girl,” Genn said when she arrived at the Taco Shop to meet Mel and Tiffany for lunch. “I can’t even keep up with all of this craziness.”

Mel thought with three great minds on it, they should have a Clean-up Aaron Plan together before the bill arrived.

The three women brainstormed a dozen ideas, and Tiff had already started the social media campaign, which was simple: get the facts out there, leading with the fact that Aaron was not charged with any crime.

They were working on prong three of the plan when a miracle landed on their lap. Jayden Jones went on Good Day Nashville once he was released, and told the world what happened, completely taking responsibility, along with Toby Lee, for the events and clearing Aaron of any wrongdoing.

But it still wasn’t enough. The word
prostitution
was a sticky one that would hang on for a while, so they needed more goodwill, especially where women were concerned. As part of the original plan, Mel would to set up the potential of a celebrity romance to create some buzz once the single dropped. But now she had a completely new reason for it.

Putting Aaron close to a likeable, iconic woman would be the best thing for his reputation, and Mel had the perfect candidate.

June Skye was a country goddess and all-around good girl. If she took an interest in the cowboy, well then, he must be good.

She just had to get Ms. Skye to sign off on it.

“C
ome here, darlin’,” Aaron said as soon as she walked through the door.

She met him on the sofa, no questions asked, sliding onto his lap and sinking into his warmth. “Are you okay?” she asked, peppering his face with light kisses.

“I am now.” His low voice aroused and seduced her as he took
her chin in his hand to coax her closer, until his lips reached hers. He kissed her then, slow and soft at first. She didn’t stop him. And when his hands trailed over her body and she leaned into him, he intensified the kiss, plunging his tongue deeper with each thrust. God, she needed this, needed him. She moaned into his mouth.
She couldn’t say no. She could never say no to him. But she wanted to hear more of that lazy drawl. She wanted to record it in her mind so she’d always have a small piece of him.

“Tell me what you want,” she asked, willing to give him just about anything in that moment.

“I want
you
, Melody Sharp. Always.”

They had gone through so much together in the past few weeks that they needed some relief. She tried not to read too much more into it. She couldn’t—and that was simply self- preservation talking, because she was falling…hard.

She knew his words meant “I want you until the campaign is over,” but maybe tonight she’d let herself pretend. She would take what she wanted for a change.

Aaron reached for her hand, slowly reeling her in. He was determined, in control, but he was going to give her time to decide. They had never gone all the way—geez, what was she now? A virginal co-ed?

It’d been far too long since she’d done this. But that was the way it went, right? Date three: a little finger action. Date four: oral. Date five or six: ball each other’s brains out. She was sure she read that on one of those online dating sites. Of course, their progression didn’t follow any of those rules.

But it felt like it was time. Oh, how she wanted it to be time.

With a strangled groan, Aaron kissed her again. Lightly at first, testing, waiting for her to open to him. She encouraged him by parting her lips and molding her body to his. She couldn’t help but notice exactly how ready he was for her. And in the next moment, his hands were everywhere—touching and tugging, reducing her to an aching mess of need.

“Did I ever tell you how much I fucking adore these little dresses of yours?”

“Mmm.” She tried to focus on his question. “I believe you did tell me that at Pray.”

“That’s right, I did. But I’m sorry, sugar. This time it needs to go. I want to see all of you.” He pulled the dress over her head, leaving her in nothing but her skivvies once again. “Damn, I’ve wanted to do this ever since we were interrupted there.”

“So have I,” she gasped, as he took her mouth. Then, before she could sense what happened, Aaron stood up and skillfully worked off his own jeans in the process. He pushed up against her, and even with the thin layer of cotton between them, it felt better than…anything.

He stripped her of her bra and cupped her breasts, gliding his thumbs over her nipples. She arched her back, leaning into his touch. Then in a not-so-smooth motion, they both freed themselves of their underwear in record time.

“You sure you want this?” His eyes were hooded as he made quick work of the condom and eased the plump head of his cock where she needed him most. He had planned this.

“I’ve never been more sure.” She lifted slightly before sinking down onto his impressive length. She hissed at the quick pinch of pain as he filled her.

“I guess so,” he said, letting her run the show. “That’s it, Melody, baby. You take what you want. What you need. I’m here to serve you.”

She loved the sound of that.

She quickly found her rhythm, bouncing up and down so fast her breasts hurt from the violent thrusts. She couldn’t stop. And when she started to slow, tightening around him, he took over, driving into her tight channel again and again. Her orgasm found her hard and fast, and she shuddered and called out as it ripped her open.

Aaron stilled, allowing her to ride out the glorious aftershocks.

“Christ, you’re destroying me, baby,” he said, feasting on her breast, waiting for her to float back down to earth. In that moment, there was no doubt in her mind. He owned her body and was quickly working his way into her soul.

It was dangerous, but she didn’t care.

He pulled away, releasing her nipple in a loud pop before he flipped them over so she was now under him. Then he moved to her mouth. Devouring her inch-by-inch, he stirred something deep inside that brought her back to life. Soon, she began to roll her hips under him.

She loved the way his breathing grew ragged as he matched her movements. It wouldn’t be long now. He pushed into her, slowly at first, then building, building. Finally, he couldn’t move fast enough for her as he pushed her up and up until she was hanging over the edge. He was right there with her, and when she started to fall, she brought him, too.

This time he had to hold her as her climax vibrated through her, because she was a boneless puddle with no way of holding up her own body weight.

“It’s okay, Mel,” he soothed her. “I’ve got you.”

She would’ve given anything for that to be true.