Her eyes were shining with excitement and all of that incredible passion that made him fall even harder for her. He had quickly scanned the charts and documents on her computer, but even though it looked great on paper, he liked listening to her talk about it even more. God, how he loved hearing that melody in her voice that he’d missed so much during the past few days.
Because she was the most beautiful melody he’d ever heard.
“Tell me more, Ash.”
“I know you wouldn’t be able to do it all, not if you wanted to focus on creating and playing great music. You’d need a great staff, but if it were your label, you would be in charge of hiring the staff to run it. Just like you brought in all these great players for your tour, and Max and James. You’re a great judge of character, and they’d be answering to you, rather than you feeling as though you have to answer to them the way you do with Robert and Ansel.”
When she halted suddenly, he could fairly easily guess that she felt she’d just overstepped her bounds. But she hadn’t. On the contrary, she had everything exactly right.
“That’s just how I feel, Ash. Like I’m locked in a cage, one I’ve given Chief Records the key to. It’s funny, actually—when I was signing with them, they wanted to do a multi-album deal, but even back then I couldn’t do it. Not just because my brother Grant advised me that I’d be able to negotiate an even better deal for the second album if the first did well, but mostly because I couldn’t stand the thought of wearing handcuffs that tight.”
“You are the one who made yourself an indie success when you were a teenager,” Ash told him. “The label has been lucky to have you for this album, and they’d be crazy lucky to get you for another. But I can’t stop thinking about your brilliant entrepreneur brother and wondering if he might have any interest in partnering with you on something new.”
“With Grant, anything’s possible. Especially if he senses a challenge.”
“He sounds a lot like you.”
As he stared into Ashley’s beautiful eyes, Drew’s focus shifted from the music business to the woman he’d been obsessing about ever since he’d first seen her. He’d desired her from the start. But it hadn’t taken long for him to need her, too. Her smile. Her laughter. Her brilliance. Her support.
And especially the way he felt when she was in his arms—as though he’d finally found the other half of his soul.
“Do you have any idea how much I want to kiss you right now?”
“Yes.” The one word was barely more than a whisper. “Because I want to kiss you just as much.”
He lightly stroked his fingers over the incredibly soft skin on the inside of her wrist, and the way she trembled at his touch made him crazy. Absolutely crazy for her in a way he’d never been crazy for anyone else.
“Ash, I swear I’ve been trying to keep from doing this...” But even as he said it, he was moving closer, needing to erase the space between them.“So have I,” she said as she leaned in toward him, too.
“What if we can’t stop it, Ash?” He moved another inch closer so that he could see the way her pupils were dilating and her skin was flushing with heat. “What if we shouldn’t stop it?”
When her tongue flicked out to lick her lips, Drew knew that nothing could stop him from kissing her. He reached out to tangle his hands in her hair, and she made a little humming sound of anticipation that heated him up even more as he lowered his mouth to hers.
He was just about to taste her, could feel her warm breath across his lips, when a loud knock sounded at the door.
“Drew,” James called out, “you in there?”
Drew cursed under his breath, and Ashley let out what sounded like an extremely frustrated sigh. And as James let himself onto the bus, she grabbed her computer and slid out of the booth.
“Hey, Ashley,” James said, “how’s it going?”
“Good,” she replied, but Drew could hear the way the four letters trembled slightly on her tongue. As if she was as twisted up over missing out on their kiss as he was.
“I’ve been texting you for fifteen minutes, Drew. We’ve got to get to the photo shoot before the photographer the label hired has a coronary.”
The very last thing he was in the mood for today was posing for a bunch of pictures, even if the photographer was reputed to be one of the best in the world. But his mother had taught him not to take his career for granted—and not to waste anyone’s time either—so he stuffed away his frustration as best he could. He slid out of the booth on the side opposite Ashley, who was standing by the table holding her laptop in front of her chest like a shield.
“Ready to go?”
For a moment, he worried she was considering going back to keeping her distance the way she had for the past few days. But, thank God, she nodded and gave him a small smile instead.
“Let’s go.”
* * *
Moment by moment, as Ashley watched Drew during his photo shoot, the heat built inside of her. And when the photographer—a woman who clearly wanted to have Drew for lunch and dinner—asked him to take his shirt off, Ashley actually started to worry that someone on set was going to slip on her drool.
The last week had been the biggest tease of her life, and she had finally hit the point of no return. She’d never been a sex-crazed person—at least, she hadn’t thought so, not when she’d easily managed to hang on to her virginity for twenty-two years. But today the sound of Drew’s laughter and the way his bare abs rippled sent every last hormone into overdrive. Especially after he’d told her how much he missed her, and then had been on the verge of kissing her again.