The Price of Love (Rockin' Country Book 2) (8 page)

“He disapproves of your throw, babe. He looked back at you like, ‘really?’”

She laughed. “I know, I can’t help it. That hurt to throw that far.”

“Bring it over here, buddy.” Garrett tapped his thigh.

“He’s never going to drop it at my feet again,” she giggled as Havock chanced a second glance at her, disappointment in his eyes.

“That’s okay; you give him cuddles, all day, every day.” He grunted as he threw it extra hard.

“Oh, now you’re just showin’ off.”

“I was letting him get one more nice run in because we’ve got to go back to the house and change. I’ve got to be at the studio in an hour.”

She glanced up at him, shielding her eyes in the late day sunlight, even though she wore sunglasses. “Is it okay for me to come with you tonight?”

“If you want to, I am more than happy to have you out. I just don’t want you to get bored. You got finished with your own shit a few days ago.”

“Yeah.” She gripped his hand tighter. “But it’s different watching you. It’s almost like I look at it through different eyes.”

They were quiet for a minute until she sighed.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but I’ve gotta know that you’re okay with those pictures. You kinda glossed over it earlier.”

“They do piss me off.” The honesty was blatant in his voice. “But what kind of a man would I be if I took those pictures at face value after I preached to you about the picture of you being ‘fat’.” He made quotation marks with his fingers.

“You’re still mad about it?”

“I’m mad at the fact they used Shell to get to you. Then they play with your head. That’s what pisses me off.”

“I asked them if they would contact your record company so that we could sing together. We’ll have to see what they say.”

Garrett had a pretty good idea of what his record company would say, but he realized that he could always hope for the best. “They haven’t contacted me, or management, so maybe they haven’t made a decision on what they’re going to do yet.”

“I hope they say yes. I would love to sing with you.” She put her arms around his waist and hugged him tight, burying her head in his chest.

“I would love to sing with you too. Maybe we should see if we can get an Instagram campaign going. You know something like hashtag Harmony and Reaper Duet?”

“That’s an awesome idea.” She laughed against his shirt.

“Okay, we really gotta go.”

“Fine,” she sighed. “Let’s go see you be all sexy while you work.”

His face burned bright. “Yes, let’s do that.”

They walked towards the house, Havock following closely behind. Hannah looked behind her, hoping to get one more look at the ocean before they had to be cooped up in the studio for the rest of the night. Sweeping along the coast was a dark cloud; she could see rain coming down. Shaking her head, she hoped it wasn’t an omen of what was to come.

*  *  *

A
s Hannah listened to the amount of opinions being thrown out, she had to shake her head. This experience was making her very glad that she was a solo artist. The guys were knee-deep in a discussion about whether the song they had just spent over four hours recording was going to work or not, and there were four very different opinions.

“What do you think, Hannah?” the sound engineer asked, obviously sick of hearing the guys go back and forth. He wore an exasperated look on his face.

“Ohhh, no, no, no.” She shook her head, looking up from her phone, where she had been texting with Shell. They were working on getting their friendship back on track. “I’m not getting in the middle of this.”

“You’re a fan, aren’t you? You were one before you met and married Garrett, what do you think?”

She gave him the evil eye for throwing her under the bus like this, because now, she had four sets of eyes staring intently at her. “I think that I’m a fan, but I’m too close to the situation to be objective.”

They all began talking, this time at her.

“C’mon, babe. Whatever you have to say, whether it is a popular opinion or not, might make us decide what we need to do,” Garrett told her.

She knew that she shouldn’t do this, but she was sick of hearing them fight, and they had been doing it for too long. She wanted to get out of here and spend some more time with her husband. Carefully, she bit her lip, considering how she needed to say this. “If you’re wanting to move away from your old sound, then you’re not doing it with this song.”

“So you’re saying it’s too much like our old stuff?” Brad pumped his fist in the air. He’d been arguing that.

She nodded, cutting her dark eyes over to where Garrett sat. She was going against his opinion, and she hoped he could respect that. He gazed openly at her, but nodded as their eyes met.

“I’m beating a dead horse?” he questioned.

“You are. You wanted this one to be different, and while it is, it’s not different enough. Not in my opinion. It sounds like a watered-down version of the music that all the fans love.”

He smirked at her. “Damn, baby, just tell me what you really think.”

The room laughed because she had.

“But you guys do what you want,” she quickly added. “I mean, it’s your record, it’s not mine, and it’s not the fans. It’s yours.”

Her alarm on her phone went off, and she sighed. She had hoped they would be done by now. “I hate do this to you guys, but I’ve got to go meet with the photographer and take some shots for my new promo pictures and stuff.”

“You going by yourself?” Garrett asked. It was going on seven at night, and while it wasn’t unusual for shoots to be done at night, he didn’t want her going by herself. Especially given that this photographer was a man.

“Nope,” she smiled. “Stacey’s coming with, but I’ve got to get out of here if I’m gonna have time to pick her up.”

She said her goodbyes, kissing her husband on the cheek before she left. As she always did before she drove in California traffic, she sat in the car for a few minutes, giving herself a pep talk. This would all be okay.

*     *     *

“You want me to wear what?” Hannah glanced at the outfit the stylist held up, trying to keep her eyes from popping out of her head.

“You’ll look hot in it, and you’re the wife of a rocker now. You can pull it off. Besides, I listened to some of the new stuff. It definitely has a more rocking sound to it, a harder edge. You’re a gorgeous woman, embrace it.”

This stylist was insane, Hannah was sure of that. Shaking her head, she took the outfit into the dressing room and began putting it on. This type of look had never been her thing, but maybe she needed to expand. Maybe now that she was married, she wouldn’t mind looking sexy.

“C’mon, Han, it’s just an outfit,” she told herself, disrobing.

Fishnet stockings were something she’d never once in her life worn before this moment, but she dutifully pulled them over her bare legs. Same with the leather miniskirt. She turned around; checking herself out in the mirror, making sure everything was covered. One wrong move and she would be showing parts of herself that she only wanted Garrett to see, but it looked good, if she did say so herself. Grabbing the clothing pack that the stylist had given her, she pulled out a hot pink bra and had to blink at the brightness of it.

“Wow,” she laughed.

Once that was on, she grinned slightly as a thought popped into her head. She grabbed her cell phone and took a picture in the mirror, sending it to Garrett. She felt a little evil and wondered what he would have to say about this. Next, she grabbed what appeared to be a black tank top, along with a cropped motorcycle jacket. The tank top came down low, showing the top of the hot pink lace, and the motorcycle jacket covered up the gaping holes in the side.

Looking at herself, she had to admit that she did like it. The stylist had done her hair in corkscrew curls, and her makeup was dark to match the outfit. Her cell made a noise, and she bent down to pick it up from where she had dropped it.

Please tell me you’re wearing a fucking shirt, and can you, for the love of all that’s holy, wear that home? Especially after you sided with everyone else during our conversation about the new song.

She threw her head back, laughing loudly. Leave it to her husband to get to the heart of all he really wanted to know. She quickly texted back that she wasn’t sure if they would give her the clothing from this shoot. Normally they did, but she didn’t want to make it that easy on him.

“You ready, Harmony?” the stylist asked from outside the door.

“Give me just a sec,” she yelled back as she put on the stiletto heels they’d also given her. A deep breath fortified her courage, and she stepped out. “How does it look?” she turned around in a circle.

“Hot. I’m glad you let me do what I wanted to do with you. You have such great muscle tone; it shows you aren’t afraid to eat, and that’s sexy. Thank you,” the other woman grinned.

Hannah didn’t know if she was being hit on or not, so she smiled back and walked towards the photography set. The guys in attendance, along with Stacey, whistled loudly. She blushed but turned in a circle and did a curtsy anyway. “Thank you! You’re great for a girl’s self-esteem.”

“We ready to get to work?”

She nodded. “We are, Damien.”

He was one of the top music photographers at the moment, and she was more than excited to work with him. It wasn’t easy to get an appointment, but he was a huge Black Friday fan and saw it as an honor to shoot Reaper’s wife. She would take it however she could get it, and if that meant using her wedding ring, she would. Garrett had laughed when she told him that.

“Okay, Harmony, give me heat,” he told her as he directed her on how to sit. This time it was with her legs crossed, her arms propped up behind her. Damien stood on a ladder, shooting her from over top.

She turned her head to the side, a slow smile spreading over her face as she saw Garrett standing next to Stacey. His tattooed arms were held in front of his chest, and she could see that his muscles bulged slightly against the tightness of the T-shirt.

“That’s it Harmony, that’s what I want to see,” Damien encouraged her.

Garrett’s eyes met hers, and she was pretty sure that the temperature in the room went up about thirty degrees. Her arms were getting tired, so she casually let herself drop to her elbows, turning her head so that she now looked at the camera. She threw her head back, exposing her throat. If she closed her eyes, she could imagine that Garrett was right there with her, and it made it easier to turn on the heat that Damien wanted so badly.

“You’re gorgeous,” he told her, as he snapped away. “Can you arch your back, just a little, not overly so. We’re not going for pornographic here.”

She giggled, opening her eyes as she did her best to arch her back in the way that he was describing.

“There, that’s great, I love that little look of mischief you have. Keep going, you’re a natural.”

It was easy to pose for his pictures, because he knew exactly what to say to her, and it didn’t make her self-conscious. She wished she’d had him on every photo shoot from the last four years.

“Okay, just need a few more shots,” he told her. Glancing to the side, he spotted Reaper. “You think we can get your husband in on these?”

They had never really done pictures together that were posed, except for their wedding pictures, and those had been done quickly. She would love to do this with him. Crooking her finger at him, she beckoned him over. “You wanna pose for a few with me?

“In that outfit? Fuck yes,” he answered, grinning brightly.

They called a makeup person over who gave him a quick touchup, and then he had a seat on the prop that Hannah had been leaning against.

“Okay, Harmony, I want you to stand in front of him with your back to his chest. I want some romance, you two are newlyweds.”

Garrett clasped one of her hands at her stomach and then carefully placed one hand at her thigh, slightly pushing the skirt up. It wasn’t indecent, but it still caused Hannah’s breath to catch. She could feel the heat coming from his body, and she couldn’t help but look partially behind her shoulder at him, closing her eyes.