Mastered: Ten Tales of Sensual Surrender (45 page)

“No problem. Absolutely. You don’t need to worry about a thing.”

She was going to do this and prove to her peers exactly how good a sound engineer she was, while doing her upmost best not to drool at the same time.

Chapter Two

Spook Mortensen stopped playing guitar the moment she walked in.

He forgot the riff he’d been working on for most of the morning. Temporarily forgot how to even play guitar. In fact, why was he holding a guitar again? Especially one that wasn’t connected to an amp?

He gaped at the woman who was blinking at the gloomy light in the editing studio, hardly able to credit what he was seeing. He saw a lot of women, and none of them made him sit up like this. She was right out of his subconscious. Tall. With an old-fashioned pin-up girl figure, and flame-red hair that cascaded down her back forming ringlets at the ends.

Where was his camera?

Like, damn, where was his camera?

She was perfect fantasy material in every way, right down to her straight, no nonsense, pinstriped skirt. She looked very professional, unlike him and his two band mates in their scruffy T-shirts and jeans. The three of them had tumbled into the studio looking as if they’d come straight from an all-night party, with bloodshot eyes and more than a little stubble. He rubbed his jaw. Yeah, definitely in need of a shave. Still, at least he’d put in an appearance. Elspeth and Paul hadn’t shown up at all. Not that there was a whole lot for them to do. Ultimately, lead singer Xane would be the one who said yea or nay to the remastered track before it was re-released because he was their main composer.

“Hi. I’m Allegra Hutton. Alle, like Allie, but without the I.” The vision stepped forward with her hand outstretched for one of them to take. Xane nodded his head at her. Ash mumbled a vague affirmative, and yawned. He seemed to have mislaid his charm this morning. Normally, Ash only had to flash a girl a smile and she got all giggly and started playing with her hair—or him. Actually, mostly the latter. They usually found some reason to touch him.

Allegra—Alle had hair like spun copper, thick enough that you could bury your hands in it. That’s what he wanted to touch, along with each of the freckles on her nose and her cute bow-shaped lips.

Spook sat on his hands, wary of what might happen if he gave in to that desire. Already, a thousand pretty pictures were streaming through his mind’s eye, not one of them even remotely appropriate and all of them too tempting by far. He bet she’d look fantastic sprawled across the mixing board, her long legs splayed and her sensible skirt hitched up so he could see the creamy cheeks of her bottom, and maybe the odd curl of fiery red hair. How good would she look with a white-stripe across her arse from the lick of a leather belt?

Why the fuck hadn’t he brought his camera?

Because they were here to make music, or at least re-make it, that’s why. And who was he going to get her to pose with anyway? Both Xane and Ash had somehow gotten themselves attached, which was darned inconsiderate if you asked him, at least, at this moment.

He wasn’t going to touch her. He wasn’t even interested in a fling. Relationships were frankly too much effort. It was problematic enough keeping the members of the band talking to one another without the additional stress of maintaining a romantic attachment. Especially the sort of attachment he’d be looking for given his atypical tastes. He hadn’t come across such a woman for years.

Not that he’d been looking.

And well, the last time hadn’t exactly ended well. He still had the letters to prove it.

No—life was a lot simpler if he just internalized his particular kinks. Then, there was no chance of misunderstandings occurring regarding consensuality.

That didn’t stop his palms from itching though, or a fuzzy glow spreading through his body when she smiled at him.

It made him eternally thankful that he had a guitar across his lap.

Spook smiled back, to compensate for the fact that they were all being hopelessly rude by failing to accept her handshake. But he couldn’t touch her. Couldn’t…

Damn, this lady needed issuing with a hazard warning sign. She was like a little piece of ecstasy just waiting to happen. He attempted to wrestle his gaze off her and onto something more innocuous, like his feet, but it didn’t work. His gaze just kept on sliding right back to where it started—her perfectly formed heart-shaped face.

Damned, if she didn’t have a delightful heart-shaped bottom too.

“Mr Mortensen.” His dream lady addressed him directly. She gazed at him with her pretty blue eyes aglow with excitement. “It’s an absolute thrill to meet you. I’m awed, you’re awesome. It’s insane the way your fingers fly when you play. You’re my favourite guitarist ever.”

“Uh, thanks.” His tongue got stuck in his mouth. He wasn’t used to being singled out. Maybe the guys were giving off weird
I’m attached
pheromones or something. “You know I’m only rhythm. Ash is lead.”

“You’re better.” Her smile lighted up the room and lighted up his insides too.

Damn! He officially crowned her as queen of his bikini list—as in break out the radiation shields because she’s totally going to screw with your equilibrium. Touching her without having a Hazmat suit on would result in lasting damage. Just her radiance was causing him severe motor issues. He’d forgotten how the hell to speak. Instead he made a few halfwit type noises.

“Don’t be shy, the lady’s right.” Ash slid his sunglasses down his nose, so he could peep over the top of them. His grin was broad as he looked at Spook and then back at Alle. “You’ll not get him to admit it, but he can play better with two strings than I can with six. That’s right, isn’t it, Spooky man?” Ash slapped a hand against Spook’s thigh to make his point.

A little flash of lightning brightened Alle’s gaze at the sound of the smack.

Spook watched her tongue peep out and sweep across her lower lip, removing some of her scarlet lipstick. The trace of pink it revealed made him want to reach out and wipe away the rest. He liked his women au naturel, so he could see every blush, every hint of arousal.

Ash was now staring at him as if he couldn’t quite figure what was going on, and Alle remained in apparent awe.

“Not to interrupt or anything, but who are you?” Xane stepped in. He was head to foot in black, without a splash of colour anywhere, and looked bloody intimidating when he towered over them. His motion caused Alle to edge away.

“I’m sorry, didn’t I say. I’m the mastering engineer that’s been hired to fix your song.”

She was a sound engineer!

“You’re a sound engineer.” He was glad to see Ash was equally surprised by that fact. Music techs weren’t normally even remotely this cute. On the other hand, that didn’t bode well for his inner balance. As it was, he had to adjust the position of his guitar across his lap.

Xane scowled. “It doesn’t need fixing. It isn’t broken.”

“Tidying up, then.” She smiled uneasily at Xane. Scary bastard was intimidating her.

“It doesn’t need that either.”

Xane considered the precision of every note and word he wrote. He thought about their image, and meanings and the symbolism of their songs constantly. The man believed in perfection. If he said something was right the way it was, then it was right the way it was, but he didn’t need to be so vehement about it.

“All it needs is lifting from one source to another.”

“Oh, I don’t know.” Ash drove his knuckles against Xane’s broad shoulder, before leaning closer and lowering his voice. “Lighten up and cut her some slack.” He turned on his mesmeric grin, causing a rosy glow to spread across Alle’s cheeks. “I’m always up for some spit and shine.”

Xane groaned, but resumed his seat. “I don’t want to know about your dirty habits, Ashley.”

“Well I think it’s only fair you hear about them, given how much time I have to listen to you splurging your emotional shit. Twenty-three times I had to listen to your ode to Dani yesterday afternoon.”

Xane’s lyrics were often deeply personal, and the inspiration for his latest song was clearly his new girlfriend.

“Shut the fuck up.” Xane slowly rotated the ring piercing through the centre of his lower lip, a sure sign that he was irritable.

“Don’t,” Spook warned Ash when he opened his mouth to make another remark. Things were still tense between them all following Xane’s walk out a few weeks back. Black Halo was only back together now because of the untimely death of their drummer, Steve Matlock. Solidarity, in the face of adversity had seemed the right course at the time, but emotions were running at an all-time high, and Xane’s sense of humour had flat lined.

“OK, OK!” Ash raised his hands in surrender. “So, are we working on this track or not?”

“We are.” Alle took the seat at the main console, necessitating Spook’s need to move if he was going to see what she was doing. Although given the tightness of his fly, that didn’t seem such a grand plan. Maybe he was better off staying put and listening. He didn’t want to give Ash ammunition to rib him with. Because he would, mercilessly. The situation he was in was too unusual not to be comment worthy.

Xane scooted his chair over to sit beside Alle at the controls. “I suppose Graham gave you the spiel over how it should sound.”

“He was very particular, yes.”

“I want you to forget everything he said.”

Her brows furrowed as she tilted her head to regard Xane. “I’m not really sure I can do that. I did promise him I’d deliver on his wishes.” She fiddled with a couple of the settings.

“What about our wishes?”

“Of course, I’ll try and accommodate all your visions too.”

“Hm.” Xane folded his arms across his broad chest. “Excuse me if I’m unconvinced. I think you’re going to do exactly what Graham Callahan told you to, to the letter, because you haven’t the experience to realise that’s going to result in ear numbing shit that’s been stripped of all its subtleties.”

“Xane,” Spook snapped. “That’s a bit much.” They didn’t know anything about her. She could be amazing for all they knew.

She was amazing. That much he could already see.

“Give her a chance, eh?”

“Sure. Go ahead. I’ll drop by later to see how it turns out.”

“You’re not sticking around?” she asked.

Xane stroked a hand through his long black hair. “I don’t see the point. All you’re going to do is ramp up the volume, squash the shit out of the range and say it’s done never actually having listened to it, same as all the other newbies on the scene. I need to go and talk to Graham about getting us someone with some actual know how.”

“You’re wrong,” she barked. “I do listen to what I’m working on. It’s always the first thing that I do.” She hit a switch and the room flooded with the sound of Xane’s voice, and the thunderous thrash of guitars.

Xane’s expression didn’t alter. “Then maybe you’ll surprise me. I look forward to it.” He strutted towards the door, Ash following on his heels.

Sometimes, Xane could be an atrocious prick.

“Are you coming, Spook?” Ash asked.

Spook spied Alle’s tightly pursed lips and the vexation burning in her eyes. “I think I’ll stay a while. Maybe offer some constructive input.”

Ash sighed. “You know he’s already made up his mind. You know what he’s like.”

“Desperately in need of a good lay,” Alle muttered to herself. Spook was sure she hadn’t intended them to hear her, though her remark was more accurate than she could ever imagine. When his life went down the pan, sex was the only thing that seemed to have any impact on Xane’s mood. Right now he needed to get himself laid a good dozen times.

“I’m not sure he’s slept since the funeral,” Spook said to Ash. “Go and watch him. We need Graham for the tour, and in the mood Xane’s in, he’ll probably fire him.”

“I think I’ll see if I can take him to a hotel and tuck him in. Catch you later. And Spook, don’t go having fun while I’m not around.”

“Given that you’re the lord of fun, how could that even be possible?”

Ash blew them kisses before gently pulling the door to.

Chapter Three

Alle was tense as hell and seething over Xane’s remarks. She knew how to do her job, thank you very much. She’d graduated university with a first class honours degree, and while
Within You
, the track she’d been hired to work on, wasn’t among her favourite Black Halo songs, she’d heard it dozens upon dozens of times. And that was saying something, since it made for darned uncomfortable listening.

Graham Callahan was absolutely right in that it did need softening. The current version left the listener clinging to the nearest object for support. Applying a few limiters would deal with that, but it would need a whole lot more sweetening to make it palatable to a broader audience.

“Sorry about him. Steve’s death has hit him badly. I’m sure you’re very good at your job.”

Alle turned in time to see Spook put his familiar purple Washburn guitar aside on the tub sofa. A little thrill ran through her veins over the realisation that he’d been the one who stayed. Not that she believed in prophecy, but surely that was a sign.

Attempting to tear her gaze off him, totally drained her will power as he moved across the room. The guy was graceful and light on his feet, and her attention totally zoomed in on the way his soft leather jeans rode against his thighs as he walked.

“Yeah, I’m sorry for your loss,” she mumbled, feeling hampered by a suddenly oversized tongue. “It must be difficult for you all.”

She’d seen their drummer’s death mentioned on the news, but she hadn’t really considered the impact it would have on them as individuals. It had to be akin to losing a family member. Spook had a few dark shadows around his eyes that hinted at his own grief.

“Thanks. Having something to focus on helps. Shall we?” He grabbed the chair Xane had vacated and skated it back to the console. An instant jolt of pleasure tickled her nerve-endings from having him sit so close by. He smelled faintly of leather and some sort of woodsy cologne. His white-blond hair settled like a sheet around his shoulders. Unlike his band mates, he wasn’t head to foot in black. Beneath his jacket, his T-shirt was burnt red.