Rock Star Romance: Dan (Contemporary New Adult Rockstar Bad Boy Romance) (Hard Rock Star Series Book 4) (35 page)

****

“Okay, who ordered the
cappuccino, the drink that we all love but can’t even begin to spell? Oh, you,
all the way down there at the end? Okay then, catch! Just kidding. It would not
be becoming of a seasoned, dignified barista to actually throw scalding coffee
in the direction of her customers. And, for that matter,
I
wouldn’t do
it either.”

Carrying the frothy cappuccino to
the tail end of her coffee bar, Sarah delivered the brew with an amused smirk
to the hands of her laughing customer—a smirk that dissolved abruptly as she
stared into the eyes of this particularly jovial patron, immediately losing
herself in their crystalline depths as a sharp sliver of icy recognition went
sailing up her spine.

Standing stock still at the end
of the bar, she watched with amazed eyes as the man before her sipped calmly at
his coffee, seeming totally unaware of the fact that he was the living and
walking embodiment of her deepest and most intense fantasy.

Or one of them, at least.

With flowing golden hair, bronzed
skin and a tall muscled frame—adorned in a tight ivory muscle shirt and
sculpting blue jeans—the gentleman before her looked just like the living,
three-dimensional version of the golden-haired dragon man who visited her
dreams.

“Hello, Sarah,” he spoke finally,
his deep, sonorous voice sending tingles down her spine.

Sarah froze.

“How did you know my name?” she
asked, voice low and disbelieving.

The man chuckled, taking a long
deep sip of his rich cappuccino as he considered her question.

“I just read your nametag,” he
explained.

Sarah guffawed outright.

“Well, that would explain it,”
she exclaimed, her shoulders relaxing as she offered him her hand, “And what,
may I ask, would your name be?”

It was the stranger’s turn to
smile, taking her hand in his and raising it to his lips for a gentlemanly
kiss.

“My name is Gabriel,” he
introduced himself.

Somehow, though, he didn’t even
need to give her that particular nugget of information. In the instant that
their fingers touched, an unseen spark flared wildly between them as they
stared deep into one another’s eyes. With certainty, Sarah realized that this
was not her first meeting with the golden-haired stranger before her; it simply
was the first meeting to be properly conducted in this plain of reality.

Seeming to read her thoughts,
Gabriel kept hold of her hand as he revealed, “I know that this sounds
completely insane, Sarah, but I’ve been a customer here for quite some time and
have been altogether too bashful to approach you—until today.”

Sarah smiled.

“Well, I knew I had seen you
somewhere before,” she revealed, her tone friendly but cryptic.

Gabriel nodded.

“Well would you, by any chance,
like to see me again—perhaps in a quieter and more relaxed setting?” he
proposed, inclining his golden head sharply in her direction. “Would you like
to have dinner with me this evening?”

****

Once again, Sarah found herself
lost in a dream; only this time, she realized with a thrill, she was fully and
completely awake.

Dressed in a flowing kaftan of
sleek ivory silk that flowed gracefully to her feet, Sarah left her coffee bar
behind and escaped into the night. Once she was seated at the edge of the lace
covered table—one situated at the center of Le Jardin, an elite French
restaurant she counted among her favorites—she sipped chamomile tea from a
floral print cup and basked happily in the attentions of her dashing young
dinner date.

Dressed for the occasion in a
black silk dinner suit with a crisp white shirt underneath, the ethereal
Gabriel insisted on spoon feeding her every bite of the filet mignon, escargot
and fluffy chocolate mousse that comprised their elegant dinner.

“I must tell you, Gabriel, this
meal is delicious,” she praised, adding with a casual shrug, “No match for the
ramen noodles and cheese puffs that this college girl consumes on a regular
basis, of course—but it’ll do.”

Pitching his bronzed head back,
her dinner date let loose with a deep melodic laugh; the long strands of his
silky gold hair falling gracefully across his broad shoulders as he took her
hand in his.

“You, Madame, are an absolute
delight,” he praised her, squeezing her fingers tight between his own. “And
speaking of your studies, I am most intrigued to know, why is it that you
happen to favor Renaissance literature?”

Sarah shrugged.

“I don’t know…there’s something
about the stories and legends of that era that just transfixes me. I’m simply
awestruck whenever I read another story in the Renaissance canon. I lose myself
in the pages,” she breathed, adding more seriously, “Honestly, I never tire of
reading about princes and queens, of studying their courtly ways and imagining
myself as a Renaissance queen.” She paused here, waving away her own lofty
sentiments with a most dismissive hand. “Ridiculous, I know.”

Her breath suspended as her
attentive date raised her hand to his soft lips, holding her gaze as he
released on a whisper, “Nay, it’s not ridiculous at all. You
are
a
queen, my lady. Your wit, your strength, your humor, the way that you carry
yourself. Perhaps you were indeed born at just the right time, but not in the
right place.”

Sarah looked at him for a moment,
wondering as to why his seemingly nonsensical words made perfect sense in her
fanciful mind. And when her mysterious date asked her to dance, she felt almost
compelled to accept.

Soon she and Gabriel moved and
swayed with a certain grace across the Le Jardin dance floor; a small but
distinguished space denoted by the presence of sleek red carpeting, lush
wallpaper of silver brocade, and an overhanging candle-lined chandelier—a
brilliant luminary that lent an angelic cast to the features of her already
devastatingly handsome date.

Acting on instinct, Sarah threw
herself deeper into Gabriel’s strong arms and graced him with a shy smile,
issuing him a silent invitation that he seemed prepared to accept.

Seizing her lips in a passionate
kiss, his mouth enveloped hers in the tenderest of advances; his agile hands
running like warm water down the planes of her sturdy back.

Angling his head over hers to
intensify their kiss, Gabriel held her closer than close as they continued to
sway as a single radiant unit across the vast expanse of the dance floor.

Their fingers entangled as one as
their joined beings made broad, slow circles on a smooth clean-tiled surface,
with a besotted Sarah leaning full and hard into Gabriel’s heavenly kiss.

Leaning her body backward in a
thrilling dip, Gabriel kissed her deeply as her breasts crushed his hard
massive chest and he cradled her in his arms.

Finally he surged upward with her
in his arms, breaking their kiss as she moaned in protest.

“As much as I would love to
continue this dance, my lady—indeed, this very evening—I fear that it is most
difficult for me to resist the intense temptation that you represent,” he told
her, cupping her flushed cheeks in two tender hands as he kissed her smiling
lips.

“I don’t want you to go,
Gabriel,” she demurred, losing herself in his arms as he encompassed her entire
body in a long last embrace. “I don’t want this night to end. It’s simply
been…magical.”

“It has,” he released on a
soothing whisper, running his fingers through the strands of her long dark hair
as he led her from the dance floor. “For now, my princess, I do have to go.” He
paused here, adding as he seared her lips with a final kiss, “Please believe me
when I say that I will see you again. And soon.”

****

“Miss? MISS? I asked you for a
black coffee, not green tea.”

Idling near the far end of the
beverage bar at The Coffee Castle, Sarah shrugged as she regarded one of her
regular customers—an older, silver-haired gentleman who always seemed just a
bit annoyed at one thing or another—with a slight, vacant grin.

“Well, green tea
does
have
caffeine, much like the beverage you originally ordered,” she reasoned, adding
as she reached quickly for the nearest coffeemaker, “Sorry about that, sir; one
black coffee, coming right up!”

Once the chagrined customer took
leave of her coffee bar, Sarah took up a nearby dishrag and polished the bar’s
mahogany surface, all the while daydreaming about the prince of a man who
seemed determined to occupy her every waking thought.

For what seemed like the
umpteenth time that evening, she found herself reliving every last moment of
her date with Gabriel. She heard his deep melodic voice, she experienced his
succulent kiss, she felt his big strong arms around her; and through it all,
she repeatedly asked herself the same probing question.

“When will I see him again?” she
said aloud at one point. “He promised that he would return to me, but when?”

Just then, she froze as she felt
the heat of a sudden, penetrating gaze, one that seemed to sear through to her
very soul as her heart pounded in response.

“It
has
to be him,” she
reasoned, taking a deep sustaining breath as she jolted her head upward. “Who
else would have this effect on me?”

Her question was answered moments
later, as her gaze collided with that of a gorgeous man who seemed like
something out of a dream.

“Two in one week?” she queried, arching
a single eyebrow in a show of keen curiosity. “What the….”

All coherent thought scattered
moments later, as Sarah’s errant gaze perused the perfection of the man who sat
just across the room.

Boasting a tall and muscular
frame, the stranger had long luxurious ebony hair that fell past his shoulders,
framing a bronzed chiseled face with carved cheekbones, full lips and wide dark
eyes—eyes that now seem riveted on her as he tipped his coffee cup straight in
her direction.

Lifting her hand to greet her apparent
admirer with a broad friendly wave, Sarah seared him with a dreamy smile; her
heart pounding as she felt an immediate connection to the handsome stranger
before her.

Responding in the affirmative, he
immediately rose upward from his seat and made smooth, slow strides straight in
her direction.

Soon she found herself face to
face with yet another creature of fantasy; this one whose smile seemed more
wicked than sweet.

“Good evening, Miss,” he said,
his tone deep and sultry as he took her hand in his. “I suppose that if we’re
going to sit around and stare at one another all night, we may at some point
wish to know one another’s names.”

Opening her mouth to meet this
obvious come on with some form of a saucy retort, Sarah found her speech stolen
and breath suspended as emotion overcame her; an odd but not unpleasurable
feeling of divine warmth that ran rampant through her entire being.

The moment that their hands
clasped between them, an unmistakable electric current seemed to bind and link
them as they shared a secret smile.

“I would call it fate,” she
reasoned in silence, “but this is exactly the same feeling that grabbed a hold
of me the moment I met Gabriel, just two days ago. What on earth is going on
here?”

Her troubled meditation was
disrupted by the sound of that sexy deep voice; one that again resounded as he
kept a firm but gentle hold on her soft, fair-skinned hand.

“I must know your name, Miss,” he
told her, squeezing her fingers tightly between his as he inclined his head
sharply in her direction.

“Sarah Coleman,” Sarah supplied,
inhaling the gentleman’s citrus-tinged scent as she lost himself in his ebony
gaze. “And you are?”

“Lachan,” the man answered,
tossing back his ebony mane in a sleek leonine flourish. “All evening, Miss
Sarah Coleman, I have not been able to take my eyes or my mind off of you. And
I have been wondering just how to get your attention. After some consideration,
I do believe I have the answer.”

Leaving her with these cryptic
words, the dark-haired stranger took leave of the bar and headed for the corner
of the café, approaching the shiny ruby red jukebox that supplied some needed
atmosphere at The Coffee Castle.

Slipping a shiny coin through the
slot of the jukebox and pushing a button on its illuminated menu, Lachan stood
still for a moment as he stared over his shoulder at his awestruck—if just a
bit perplexed—spectator.

“What is this guy all about?” she
pondered, squinting confused as he refused to budge an inch from the corner of the
jukebox. “Don’t tell me he’s going to attempt an off key rendition of ‘You’ve
Lost that Lovin’ Feeling’ or ‘Hello’ by Adele.”

She gaped outright seconds later,
as—in lieu of a sentimental, time-honored love song—the opening strains of the
immortal chestnut “Bolero” by Ravel resounded through the cafe.

“One of my favorite
compositions,” Sarah pursed her lips, adding on a suspended breath, “How did he
know?”

Her thoughts scattered as her
mysterious customer launched his strong muscled body into a smooth seductive
dance; flexing the muscles of his hard massive chest through the threads of his
fitted white shirt.

The mysterious dancer held her
gaze as he gyrated his hard trim hips, thrusting blatantly in her direction as
she blushed in response. Her gaze remained fixed on his taut, toned body as he
writhed and slithered in time with the music, narrowing his smoky eyed gaze in
blatant seduction as he pinned a watching Sarah with a piercing stare.

As much as she tried, she could
not tear her gaze from the source of her temptation; her eyes lingering on his
rock hard pecs and gyrating hips, the washboard abs that rolled for her
pleasure as he tossed his mane of thick ebony hair with reckless abandon.

When the song ended, a grinning
Lachan approached the coffee bar and ordered a cappuccino, taking a seat at the
bar as he asked his server, “So what do you think, Ms. Coleman? Did you enjoy
the show?”

Sarah smiled.

“Indeed, I did,” she admitted.
“You have quite the talent there,” she paused here, pursing her lips curious as
she added, “And Bolero—well, it never fails to put me in a certain mood.”

His answering chuckle, deep and
sensual, sent tingles down her spine.

“Well if you’d like to see more,
my lady,” Lachan purred, “then why don’t you come see me after your shift? I am
here in town for one night only. And, frankly, I can think of no better way to
spend it than to fulfill your every need and desire and make all of your
fantasies come true.”

Sarah froze, biting her lip hard
as an unbidden wave of red hot desire coursed wildly throughout her entire
being
. Am I dreaming?
she wondered. Somehow the events of the last few
hours, the last few days even, just didn’t seem real.

It’s all so much better than real
, she
pondered, grinning in spite of herself as the handsome stranger pressed a shiny
golden key tightly into her palm.

“I’m staying at the Plaza Hotel
downtown,” he whispered, “Room 18. Feel free to let yourself in, as I really
don’t feel comfortable answering the door in the nude.”

Gaping outright at this bold
assertion, Sarah watched wordlessly as Lachan left her with a wink and a smile,
turning for the door as the women in attendance collectively begged him not to
leave.

A few of them are even linking
hands and forming a human barrier in front of the door
, she
noted with amusement, slipping her key into her apron pocket.

“That guy was so freaking hot!
Did you notice the tattoo on his upper arm?” one of the ladies commented. “It
was a dragon.”

Sarah gaped, staring at her
oblivious customer in the face of this assertion.

“A dragon,” she repeated.

And once again, she was lost in
dreams.