Only Drew’s music had been able to do that.
Chapter Five
The expression on Ashley’s face when Drew stepped out of the radio station—a cross between heartbreak and hope—hit him square in the chest. He knew that feeling. Hell, sometimes he felt like he’d invented it, loving so hard and hurting so much at exactly the same time.
“Ashley?” He quickly moved to her side and didn’t think before putting his hand beneath her chin to tip her beautiful face up to his. “What’s wrong?”
She shook her head, so fast that she blurred in front of him for a second. But when she licked her lips, he lost his focus on everything but how much he wanted to kiss her. More than he’d ever wanted anything.
“Nothing.” She put a smile on her lips that didn’t reach her eyes. “James was just telling me some stories for my research.”
What kind of stories could they be to make her look the way she had when he’d walked out? But he never got a chance to ask her, because his bodyguard got off the phone and said, “A big crowd has assembled out front. Do you want to go out the back?”
Drew was tempted to escape without being seen, simply because then he could return his focus to Ashley. But early on in his career, he’d promised himself he’d always be there for his fans the way they’d always been there for him. Plus, in his lowest moments, playing for them had given him a reason to get up in the morning.
“Nope, let’s go say hello to the fans.”
James nodded. “I figured you’d say that, so I’ve got a local security crew already waiting downstairs.”
“Make sure to write down in your notes that James is the best security director in the business,” Drew told Ashley.
“I already have,” she said with a smile that knocked Drew’s heart around in his chest like a pinball.
“Do you want to head out the back? Max could take you down.”
“While I’m here, I need to see and experience everything. At least,” she added with one of those beautiful blushes that turned her creamy skin rosy and flushed, “everything you’re okay with letting me see.”
Jesus. If she had any idea of the kind of things he wanted her to experience with him, and that he wanted to show her...
He’d never been caught in this kind of conflict before—at the same time that he wanted to protect Ashley, he also wanted to do precisely the things to her that he should be protecting her from.
His insides were completely twisted up over her, and yet he still couldn’t stop the runaway train of remembered visions that his brain kept sending him about how soft her naked skin had been that morning. Or how good she’d smelled. Or how much he’d wanted to pick her up and carry her back to his bed to—
Damn it! He was doing it again. Completely losing focus. Keeping Ashley safe while she was on tour with him was his number one priority. He couldn’t let himself forget that.
Still, this was her first time in Vegas. And he couldn’t let her leave without experiencing his favorite part of it. Not the bright lights, but the awe-inspiring beauty that most tourists never even knew existed, let alone saw.
“Max,” he said as they headed down in the elevator, “after we say hi to the fans, we’ve got time for a trip to the Valley of Fire before they need me at the venue, right? I’d like to show it to Ashley.”
Max nodded. “If we leave right away, we should have plenty of time to get there and back even if the traffic is nasty.”
“What’s the Valley of Fire?” Ashley asked.
“Only one of the coolest places on the planet. And no sneaking a peek at pictures of it on your phone. It’s better if the first time you see it, it’s the real thing.”
The words the real thing seemed to hang in the air between them, even with James and Max in the elevator with them.
“I won’t look online,” she said in a solemn voice, one that made it even harder not to kiss her.
A few seconds later the elevator doors opened, and the screams of his fans brought him back to reality. At least, they should have. But just as he’d been so wrapped up in Ashley that he’d forgotten to call for security at the airport, he wasn’t at the top of his meet-the-fans game today either. Because while the Las Vegas security team did their best to keep everyone orderly, when a bra went flying, Drew wasn’t able to react fast enough to grab it out of the air before it landed on top of Ashley’s head.
She stopped dead in her tracks, and through the din of screams from the girls outside, he heard her say as if to herself, “Somehow, I don’t think this is meant for me.” She took it off her head and reached out to hand it to him, her lips twitching. “A gift for you.”