Cover Me (Rock Gods #3) (7 page)

             
The sound of slow clapping made her turn around.

             
Bruce was leaning against the wall of the hotel and watching her.

             
"Impressive."

             
She tossed her hair in annoyance. His timing sucked. She really did just want to be alone. Alone to go back to her room and lick her wounds.

             
"I'm not in the mood Bruce."

             
His eyebrows shot up. In her annoyance she'd used his real name. He smiled at her triumphantly.

             
"What are you in the mood for?"

             
"I just want to be left alone."

             
He tilted his head and gave her a wry smile.

             
"That's going to be difficult for two reasons. Number one being that you were a sensation tonight. You are going to have a long career in the public eye if you keep this up."

             
She sighed. He was being kind but she knew it was true. The audience had loved her. They'd loved them together even more.

             
"What's the second reason?"

             
He crossed over to her and lifted her hand to his lips.

             
"The second reason is that you are driving me absolutely insane."

             
She gasped at the feeling of his lips against her hand. Then he turned it over and kissed her wrist. Hot spirals of lust started to pool in her belly.

             
"Bruce…"

             
He pulled her into his arms and lowered his mouth to hers. Gently he nudged her lips apart. The moment her mouth opened he delved inside, tasting of ginger ale and something else indefinable. Something that was pure him…

             
She moaned as he maneuvered her into the shadows, pressing her up against the wall. His larger than average arousal pressed firmly at her juncture. They both moaned as his hand closed over her breast. He started kissing her neck, using his hands to pull her hips into him. Kat stared blindly into space as he rocked his turgid erection against her.

             
Before she knew it he was tugging her dress down so he could touch her breasts. Then he was kissing them, making her moan and run her hands through his hair.

             
Sharp laughter pierced the air as she saw a group of girls cross the courtyard to the club. They hadn't seen them but the effect was still like a bucket of ice being dumped on her head. She pushed her hands against Bruce's shoulders. His head snapped up and he looked at her with his heavy lidded eyes.

             
Kat swallowed and shook her head.

             
"Please- stop-"

             
He cursed and pushed back, leaving his hands on either side of her head where he was braced against the wall. He was visibly struggling for control.

             
"Kat- please- you are leaving me in a state of constant frustration."

             
If she'd been hoping for love words, she was clearly going to be disappointed. He hadn't said anything remotely romantic. He just wanted to screw her, that was all. At least he was honest. She had to give him that.

             
"Maybe you should work that out with one of your groupies."

             
The hurt look on his face was the last thing she saw as she brushed past him and ran into the hotel lobby. She promised herself she could cry when she got upstairs. Cry once, and then put Bruce out of her head and heart forever.

             
As soon as she got into her room though she noticed something.

             
The light on her phone was blinking.

             
She had a message.

11

              Bruce took a big gulp of the bourbon the busty waitress had brought him. He stared around the club without seeing anything. Most of the cast and crew were gone now. Only Harry was sticking around to keep an eye on him.

             
Harry looked worried.

             
Bruce sneered and downed another mouthful. After seven years, getting buzzed felt amazing. Hell, he was more than buzzed.

             
Bruce was
drunk.

             
Anything to numb out the empty feeling inside. She'd rejected him. More than that, she'd inflamed him beyond reason and then abruptly left him standing there alone, wanting her.

             
He was still in a state of unrelenting lust, even after he'd been drinking steadily for hours. Ever since she ran off on him. The way she'd responded to him had lit his whole body on fire. And she had responded to him, no matter what she'd said.

             
He thought about what Kat had said about groupies and grimaced. Then again, there had been something about the way she'd said it that he couldn't quite put his finger on.

             
Wait a minute… yes. That was it. That was it
exactly.

             
She'd sounded jealous.

             
A flash of hope went through him.

             
"What room is she in?"

             
"Who, Kat?"

             
Bruce stared at his friend and manager steadily.

             
"Look that doesn't sound like the best idea. It's the middle of the night. You should hit the hay man."

             
"Harry, shut the hell up."

             
Harry shook his head and pulled out his phone. He flicked through his lists and looked up at Bruce with his lips pinched together.

             
"Room 301. But I still say this is a bad idea, man!"

             
Bruce clapped him on the shoulder.

             
"Thanks Harry."

             
In minutes Bruce was in the elevator to her room. He stood outside her door, wondering if maybe Harry was right. He was drunk. He was belligerent. And she was probably sleeping like the angel that she was.

             
To hell with it.

             
He lifted his fist and knocked.

             
Nothing. He knocked again and waited. No sound of feet. No exasperated voice coming from the other side of the door.

             
Nothing.

             
He went to the lobby and asked to speak to the manager.

             
"I'm looking for one of my musicians. Kat Henley."

             
"Miss Henley left a few hours ago."

             
"What?"

             
"She took her car and left. Let’s see... It was around 11 pm. She said we should pack her stuff and hold it for her. She didn't know when or if she'd be back."

             
Bruce's fists clenched into balls as white hot fury shot through his body. He nodded his thanks stiffly and headed back to the elevator.

             
She'd actually left. The gig, him, everything.

             
She was gone.

             
He picked up the phone in his new suite- the one he'd switched to be closer to her. He laughed harshly. What a joke. She was a bitch. Maybe she'd done him a favor by running off.

             
That didn't do anything to fix the giant hole she'd left in his chest.

             
"Harry. What is Kat's number. Did she ever give you her new cell?"

             
"No man, I just have a landline."

             
"Give it to me. Oh and she'll have to be replaced. Cut the duet- or give it to one of the other girls."

             
"Which one?"

             
"Either. Doesn't matter. Nothing matters."

             
"Bruce man, you alright?"

             
"No."

             
He hung up and went to the mini bar. There was a mid sized bottle of bourbon in there. He pulled it out and started to swig directly from the bottle. Then he went back to the phone and dialed the number Harry had given him.

             
The phone rang for a long time. He glanced at the clock. It was almost 5 am. Where the hell was she at 5 am???

             
With another man most likely. She must have been stringing him along no doubt. All while she laughed at him behind his back. Bruce felt sick to his stomach just imagining what a fool he'd made of himself over her.

             
Finally a voicemail picked up. It was an older woman. She sounded like Kat a bit. Her mother then. He took another swig of the bottle and waited for the beep.

             
"Hi, this message is for Katrina. You are in breech of contract and your… your employment is terminated."

             
He took a deep breath and cursed under his breath.

             
"And you can keep the damn car. I don't want to look at it."

             
He hung up, feeling a sudden sense of loss. That was it. He washed his hands of her. Tomorrow was a new day. Maybe he would take her advice and bang a few groupies.

             
He doubted that would do anything to fill the gaping hole she'd left behind.

**********

              Katrina stared at the woman who was filling out the paperwork for Tommy.

             
"Insurance?"

             
"None."

             
"You realize that even with financial assistance, this is going to cost at least three thousand dollars. That's just for last night."

             
Kat nodded. She could sell her new clothes. And her job paid well. As soon as Tommy was better she would go back to Vegas. They wouldn't do more than dock her a few days pay.

             
"I can pay it. Just not in one lump sum. You accept installments, right?"

             
The woman nodded and continued typing away at her computer.

             
None of it mattered anyway. As long as Tommy was okay. He'd come down with a sudden infection. That happened all the time with leukemia. But this fever hadn't gone away with children's Tylenol. Finally in desperation her mother had taken Tommy to the emergency room.

             
While Kat had been kissing Bruce in that courtyard, her kid had been fighting for his life.

             
She swallowed and stared at her hands. She'd never felt so ashamed of herself. She clenched her hands into fists around her handbag.

             
"That's it for now. Thank you Mrs. Henley."

             
"It's Ms."

             
"Oh, I see. Thank you Ms. Henley."

             
Kat nodded and walked slowly back to the pediatric oncology unit. She slipped into Tommy's room and curled up in the big chair by his bed. He was sleeping soundly and she didn't want to wake him, no matter how badly she wanted to kiss his beautiful forehead.

             
Her boy. The single thing she'd done right in her entire life.

             
He had to be okay, he just had to.

             
Kat was dozing when her mother came into Tommy's room around 6 am. She'd just gone home to shower and bring Tommy some of his favorite books. The kid didn't get to play much but he loved to read.

             
"Hello sweetheart. Any change?"

             
Kat shook her head tiredly.

             
"He's holding steady. They said it might take up to a week of intravenous antibiotics but he should be able to beat this off."

             
There was a worried look on her mothers face that didn't go away with the good news.

             
"What is it, Mom?"

             
Her mother shook her head and waved her off, sinking into the couch along the wall by the window.

             
"Nothing."

             
"Mom. Tell me."

             
"There was a message for you. From Bruce."

             
Kat lifted her head from her knees, knowing somehow that it was bad news.

             
"I'm so sorry Kat. They fired  you."

             
Kat felt the floor drop out from under her. She'd left a note for Linda and Betsy. They alone knew about her kid and the situation as it stood. She'd told them when they asked her why she didn't want to date Bruce. Because obviously she was insane to turn down a gorgeous rock star who wanted her to be his girlfriend.

             
And he had wanted that. More than just a roll in the hay. She could admit that to herself now.

             
Now that it was too late.

             
She was planning to call Harry in the morning to explain. Somehow though, they'd found out that she was gone already.

             
She put her head in her hands. It was over.

             
There had to be a way to get the money for Tommy's hospital stay.

             
She'd figure it out, even if it meant stripping. She'd had plenty of offers to do that in the past. Maybe she could do it just long enough to pay the hospital bills and then find a quiet job somewhere. Out of the limelight.

             
It didn't matter that she was giving up her dreams. It didn't matter that her stomach turned at the thought of taking off her clothes for strange men. It didn't even matter that her heart felt like it was breaking at the thought of not seeing Bruce again.

             
All that mattered was Tommy.