The Last Love Song (A BWWM BDSM Romance) (5 page)

I never said a thing about our encounter to anybody. I tried my best to forget about it.
There's no way in hell I'll ever go to that man's room
, I assured myself, though my eyes trailed after him as he led my crew's way through the lobby the next morning.
No way
.

If I couldn't fire him and I couldn't get through to him, I'd just have to ignore him.

So that's exactly what I tried to do. I refused to look at him as we were driven over to the airport. I was dressed in travel-casual, which still meant a skirt and heels because people snapped pictures no matter where I went. At least my white blouse was loose and comfortable and I could sit barefoot for the flight. Vaughn sat in the front of the towncar and I sat in the back with Lexi and Gavin riding the backwards-facing seat, facing me. They busily made phone calls to the venue and the hotel and double-checked our itinerary for our short time in Chicago while I stared out the window and gave them unenthused answers to their questions. Pauline would not be joining us for this leg of the trip, so I would have to rely on the two of them to get everything done. They were competent, though, they could handle it.

I continued ignoring Vaughn as he led us through the airport to one of our record label's jets. We hadn't flown with the general public in ages. The security lines alone were too much of a risk, our schedules were tight and we couldn't afford to miss a flight. I deliberately wore sunglasses and stared straight ahead as we were ushered into the plane.

And I managed to ignore him for the entire flight - a real accomplishment, as he kept shooting unreadable looks in my direction once we were allowed to wander the cabin. I instead focused on my laptop - I was working on a new song. This one was meant to be all about getting stronger through the power of dance. Totally cheesy? Maybe. Danceable and catchy? Absolutely.

But unwanted words kept sticking in my head and finding their way onto my page.
Lips. Breath. Hold me down
. Luckily this was one part of the job where I didn't have to rush. If the words wouldn't come out right I could work on them later. Apparently it would have to be after I managed to shed Vaughn from my little entourage. After the Relevance Awards.
But it'll have to be before the next official tour
. I didn't think I could tolerate four straight months traveling with him without totally flipping shit.

My intention was to keep ignoring him - but then we were mobbed outside our hotel.

Just perfect.

I didn’t see anything amiss right away. I stepped out of the car as soon as it pulled to a stop, eager to get out of the confined space and further away from Vaughn.

It was a mistake. I was a few feet ahead of him and my assistants when I first heard the screaming. I stopped in my tracks but it was too late - the hoard, wherever it was coming from, had spotted me.

Screaming fans, waving albums and posters and paraphernalia in the air as they ran towards me from around the corner of the lobby. They'd hidden there on purpose.

"Who fucking leaked?" I heard Gavin shout. These people had known I was coming - somebody on my crew had let my location slip somewhere.

Then they were on me. They swarmed around me, cutting me off from the car and my crew. I heard Vaughn curse somewhere over their excited screams. One person shoved a pen and an album under my nose - I grabbed it and tried to sign it, but someone else was waving their poster in my face and another fan was touching my hair.

As one mass, they pushed into me, backing me away from the car. It wasn't deliberate - everyone just wanted to get as close as they could. They weren't dangerous individuals, they were just fans. But so many of them crowding me all together at once
was
dangerous. I nearly stumbled. "People, if you can't be orderly I'm not going to sign another damn thing."

That seemed to quiet them. At least they stopped shoving each other and formed a sort of line that still managed to snake all the way around me.

Vaughn finally reached us. He had to physically lift and turn fans out of his way to get to my side. "All right people, back off!" he barked. A few stepped back - just one step - but not all.

"It's fine," I said, resting a hand on his arm. "I'll just sign a few things for these nice fans. Are you all coming to the benefit concert tonight?"

They answered in shrieks. "We love you, Zenaida!" was shouted from somewhere in the back of the mob, and someone else screamed, "You're my favorite!" from behind me. The woman in front of me asked, "Can you give us tickets?"

"Sorry, I'm sold out," I said with a tight smile. I didn't know if that was true - I only knew that I had no tickets in my pockets.

I signed a few posters and tickets and CDs but the crowd showed no sign of thinning. If anything else, it was getting bigger. The word was out and people were gathering. "We should get you out of here, soon," Vaughn warned.

I nodded in agreement. Time to quietly try to extract myself. "Okay, folks," I said, "I've got to rehearse for tonight. Thank you all for coming to see me."

Sounds of disappointment rose from the crowd. Others muttered angrily. There was another hard push from the back. Vaughn grasped my arm, all business now. "Let's move."

But the crowd had gone from orderly to restless and aggressive. Someone made a grab for my hand. Another got a handful of my hair and tugged. I shrieked and tried to wrench away from both of them. "Get the fuck off me!"

Hair ripped free from my scalp. I stumbled a step and took a sharp elbow to the ribs. Fuck, they were going to tear me apart in their frenzy to get close.

But then my feet were off the ground. Strong arms lifted me up and spun me away. Vaughn held me upright but off the sidewalk, my hips against his shoulder. I grasped his thick bicep and held on as he strode away from the crowd - not running, but not wasting any time.

"We've got this," Lexi said, giving me a worried look before she and Gavin rushed towards the crowd. "Who wants tickets?" she asked in a sing-song voice. "Line up! Come on, people, I've got a limited amount!"

Then Vaughn was packing me into the backseat of the car, crawling in after me, blocking my view of the mob. "Go!" he shouted at the driver. I nearly tumbled from the seat as he stepped on the gas.

"Shit, your fans are insane," he said, "Are they always like that?"

I touched the sore spot on my scalp. They hadn't gotten a clump of hair as I'd feared, but it still hurt. "They get too excited," I said, "They don't really mean much harm."

"No, but it would be easy for someone who did to get too close in all of that," he said.

It was true. Every celebrity I knew had a story about a stalker that got too close. "Well, that's why you're here," I said. I pulled a mirror from my purse and checked my makeup. Still intact. "And thank you. You acted quickly. The last time I was mobbed like that, I lost a watch and a shoe before I was fished out."

He laughed out loud - a deep rumble that I could feel in my bones. I spared him a short glance before returning my mirror to my purse.

We circled around to the back of the hotel. Luckily all seemed quiet. Vaughn jumped out first. "Wait here, let me find the entrance." I watched him jog up to the building and test the closest door. Locked. He tested the next and yanked it open. He exchanged words with someone inside before coming back to the car.

"Okay," he said, "It's an employee entrance. The girl doesn't know if the suite's ready but she'll take you to another room until they can straighten all this out."

"Great," I muttered, getting out of the car. He moved to take my hand and help me step down but I shook him off and strode ahead.

The employee - a young woman in a housekeeping uniform - began to sputter as I approached. "Where can I wait?" I asked. "My assistants will be checking me in momentarily."

"F-follow me, Miss Zenaida." She led us down a short hallway, then unlocked one of the rooms and let us past. "I just cleaned it myself," she said, "I'll find out what's happening and let you know when the real room is ready."

"Thank you, Monica," Vaughn said. He shook the girl's hand - and my eyes narrowed. "We appreciate your help."

"Oh, it's no trouble at all!"

Then, Vaughn and I were alone. The very man I had been trying to ignore all day stood in the tiny, single-room hotel room with me, with the door shut, with no one else around and no idea how long we'd be waiting.

I was used to mobs of fans. I was used to this sort of chaos. I'd been around the world many times, stayed in many different types of hotels and hovels, traveled by bus, plane, train, you name it. I was a worldly woman, a pop culture icon, a millionaire many times over.

But there, with him, I suddenly felt shy.

"Sit down," he said. I was still hovering near the door, watching him warily like I was afraid he was going to pounce. "We may be here for a while."

I didn't want to sit on the bed. Not with him there. So I pulled out the single chair from the tiny desk and lowered myself onto it, never daring turn my back on him.

He chuckled. "Shit, Zenaida, I'm not a wolf, I'm not going to attack you. Stop looking at me like that."

"I'm glad you think this is funny," I mumbled.

"I don't," he sat. He sat on the edge of the bed, facing me, and rested his elbows on his knees. "Thrilled as I am to have you alone in a hotel room, I don't think you're ready. But we'll get there."

"What do you mean?"

"I'll earn you trust."

"Oh." I didn't quite know how to take that. The man was full of surprises, that was for sure. I did know that I was getting damn tired of feeling so confused, so off-balance in his presence.

Looking at him sitting there so calmly, his blue eyes steadily holding mine, I realized what at least part of it was.

I was attracted to him, and I was in denial about it. It had been a long, long-ass time since I'd felt attracted to anyone - nobody since my ex, honestly - and the feeling had just sort of snuck up on me. Probably because I wasn't expecting it. Firstly he was my employee, secondly I'd never been all that into a white guy before, and thirdly, there was his damn attitude.

"You look like you just figured something out," he said.

I was never the type of woman to bury my head in the sand and let myself go on denying anything. I'd lived too much for that. I was blunt to a fault and I always would be, so I faced him the way I faced everything else in my life - unblinking. "You're an attractive man, Vaughn. Really. And maybe that's why I've given you a pass on speaking to me the way that I do. But nothing can happen here. You're my bodyguard." As if he needed the reminder after the madness outside.

He shrugged as if that didn't matter at all. "We're human beings first, our jobs second. You can't deny what you feel for me."

"I don't deny it," I said, "But I have to reject it. We both do. It's just business."

"So you're telling me," he said, "that you don't want me to kiss you again."

"I don't," I breathed, sounding less sure than I wanted.

He stood, and I cringed back. But instead of approaching me, he circled the bed. "You're telling me that you don't want me to tie you up sometime. Here." He gripped the headboard and jerked it once, just enough to prove that it was sturdy. "You're not curious about how it might feel."

"I'm not," I said. I didn't sound one bit sure of it, then. Flashes of images came to me, then - pictures of myself, on my back, my hands bound above my head, and Vaughn exploring my body with those magical lips of his. I shuddered.

"Close your eyes," he said softly. "Put your hands behind your back."