“What can I get you?”
Kyra looked up to see a handsome man standing in front of her from behind the bar. He was wearing a white dress shirt with the hotel’s emblem on it. She could tell even in the dim lighting of the bar that he had very beautiful eyes but she couldn’t tell what color they were. She smiled her most winning smile and leaned forward slightly, lowering her eyelashes in what she thought was her most seductive gaze. “What do you recommend?”
She saw a smile start tugging at his lips as he planted his palms down onto the bar, widening his stance as he took her in. She let him do that quietly, glad that she’d showered and changed before coming down to the hotel bar to meet with her literary agent. After washing off flight germs and changing from her comfortable travel outfit, she’d put on her new A-Line Kelly green dress and paired it with a thin tan colored belt around the waist. She’d even put on her tallest heels and let her hair down.
She’d wanted to clear her head; needed something else to think about for a few hours.
Ever since she’d found out that he was in the same hotel she hadn’t been able to think about anything else. She was distracted, jumpy and slightly irritable. She didn’t want to bump into him now, not after they hadn’t seen or spoken in three and a half years.
Of course, the chances of them bumping into each other accidentally was pretty much nil, she at least took some comfort in that.
She figured that they had an entire floor booked for him and everyone travelling with the tour. They did it that way so they could control who came and went for security’s sake. It was also so that they guys didn’t feel shut into their rooms as much; they could roam the hall any time they wanted, going to each other’s rooms or visiting band mates without needing security escorts everywhere.
She assumed that’s how it still worked. It was how it had worked three and a half years ago when she’d come to visit him on the Ain’t No Stopping Us Now tour. They had been big then but now they were gargantuan.
On second thought they probably had two floors blocked off.
She didn’t think there was a remote possibility that any of the guys would come down to the crowded hotel bar and restaurant. So, she figured she’d come down early and have a drink or two before her meeting. God knows she needed to steel herself for the next few hours of talking with Alison in person.
Alison was confident and abrasive; so basically everything Kyra wasn’t. She pushed Kyra hard because she knew she could do it, but at times she was…overwhelming. It was easier when Kyra was in Boston and Alison was in New York to simply let the phone got to voicemail or to send an email instead of calling her, but now that Kyra was in New York she had no excuse to avoid Alison.
“…or a Screw me Sideways?”
Kyra blinked a few times; she’d forgotten about the whole flirting thing with the bartender. She cleared her throat softly and smiled again, leaning forward to look at him. “How about a Slippery Nipple?”
His brow arched and he smirked as he started grabbing bottles to make her drink. “Coming right up, beautiful.”’
She watched him make her drink, his movement fast and efficient.
A Slippery Nipple? What the hell.
She didn’t even know what was in that drink. It was the first dirty drink name she could come up with in a short time. She really sucked at trying to be sexy.
When he placed the drink in front of her, her eyes ran up the length of his large hand to his forearm where he’d rolled up the sleeve of the white dress shirt. She could see the very tip of some kind of tattoo peeking from the edge of the sleeve.
Tattoos.
He doesn’t have any. He’d never get any.
You need to stop thinking about him.
Now.
She reached down and picked up the drink and then held the tiny red straw between her thumb and forefinger as she leaned down to take a sip as the bartender watched intently.
“Mmmm.” She smiled up at him seductively before nodding.
He grinned, winked at her and said, “It’s on the house,” before moving away to go help someone else at the other end of the bar.
As soon as she was no longer in his sight she brought the glass back up to her lips and as daintily as possible spat the drink back into the glass.
Blech.
“You better not fuckin’ do that during dinner with the publishers’ tomorrow night…”
Alison.
If she hadn’t just spit into her drink she would have downed it in one shot at that point. But she had, so she straightened her shoulders and turned on the bar stool to smile at Alison.
“Well hello to you too.”
Alison rolled her eyes and leaned forward to give Kyra the apparently obligatory New York big shot air kisses on each cheek.
Gah, she’s fake.
“Nice to see that you did something to your hair, it looks nice for once,” she said as she took a seat on the barstool next to Kyra’s and commandingly tapped the bar with a long manicured nail. “Glass of red.”
As Alison watched the sexy bartender pour her a glass of red wine, Kyra self consciously ran her fingers through her hair. She’d decided to change it up for the press tour and had dyed it a flattering auburn color. The new layers that the hairdresser had put into her cut framed her face nicely when she let her hair down and for once she actually felt pretty.
It was a nice feeling and the wink the bartender gave her when he placed Alison’s wine glass in front of her felt even better.
“So everything is set for your morning show interview tomorrow morning. Your call time is seven-twenty a.m., make sure you get to the studio at least an hour beforehand so they can do your hair and makeup. Then it’s off to the book signing from one to three-thirty pm, lastly we have reservations at 8 for dinner with the publishers. Don’t be late for anything.”
Kyra started to speak as Alison took a sip of her wine but got cut off by her as soon as the glass had left her lips. “How is the second book coming? How many chapters do you have done?”
Nice to see you too, Alison.
My flight was great. The hotel is nice.
Kyra wasn’t usually the type of person to let someone else walk all over her but this was different.
She’d been shopping around for a literary agent for years and had finally found one that was interested. When she’d met Alison she’d thought she was abrasive, but she’d also been pleased that Alison was willing to use that abrasiveness to sell Kyra’s manuscript. She had the teeth and the connections to make it work.
And although the loudness and the pushiness at times could become overwhelming, Kyra had been pushed to the limits of her writing with Alison and it had resulted in her best work.
“I-Um, sure, yes…” Kyra replied, stumbling over her words when she sort of didn’t know which question or statement to address first. “I mean, I won’t be late. And the second book is…coming along. I’ve got a couple of chapters that are in very rough draft right now. I’ll send them along when I’m comfortable with them.”
“Good. You know we’re still on a timeline,” Alison said before she sighed theatrically and took a long drink of her wine, effectively draining it. “Well, I must leave you. I have something else scheduled tonight.” With that she reached down and grabbed an expensive looking leather bag. She pulled out a thick envelope from its depths and handed it to Kyra. “Read this over; email me any questions you have before we meet with the publishers’ tomorrow night.”
Kyra accepted the package and placed it on the bar next to her glass with a nod. After a few more instructions from Alison and the slightly condescending request from her to try and wear something nice, Alison was gone leaving behind her empty glass of wine and a strong lingering perfume smell.
Guess I’m going solo for the night.
“Can I get you something else?”
The sexy bartender was back and he was smirking down at her untouched drink. This time when he looked up at her, he was close enough that she could see that his eyes were a piercing blue. She sighed and dropped the sexy act.
She didn’t do blue eyes, not anymore.
Not when each time a blue eyed man batted his eyes her way made her compare them with his.
Because no one’s could ever compare with his.
“Tequila. Straight up.”
******************************
That had been the very first of several bad decisions that night.
The second had been to order another. Then another. Then another and finally, another.
When sexy bartender, who she was no longer able to look in the eye, cut her off she’d left the bar quite tipsy carrying her rather tall heels in her hands. When she’d made it to the elevator, she’d lost her patience when it seemed to be taking eons for it to come.
What the hell, I’ll take the stairs.
That had been the third bad decision. She’d slowly but surely made it up to the fourth floor and pushed the door to the hallway open.
Or at least she’d tried. She ended up sliding against the door slightly as the apparently locked door wouldn’t budge.
Come on! They can’t lock these…isn’t it against some kind of code…like fire code…or something?
Maybe it’s just stuck.
So she’d started to pull on the door really hard, shaking it as hard as she could to try and get it open.
When that didn’t work she banged her hands against the door a few times and then decided she was tired and slid all the way to the floor where she sat and looked around.
A few moments later said door started to slide open slightly, pushing against her back. “You can’t stay there, ma’am,” came a deep voice and she looked up to see a very large, very imposing African American man who was staring down at her.
“I don’t want to. The door was stuck! I just want to get to my room…” she said trying to get up as efficiently as possible, which wasn’t working out in her current state.
The large man leaned down and helped her up before saying, “Your room isn’t on this floor.”
“Yes it is! It says it right on here…” she said taking her hotel keycard clumsily out of her clutch. “See? Right there…four…ohhh…seven.”
The man shook his head and repeated his statement. “Your room isn’t on this floor.”
Kyra sighed and tried to slip her way past him in the small crack that was left between the door and him. When he tried to stop her she struggled against him and screeched, “Let me go!”
“What’s going on here?” Another voice joined in and Kyra was able to separate herself from the large man and stand on the other side of the door with him, now surrounded by an additional man.
“I just want to get to my room! I’m tired, I had a liiiitttllle bit to drink and I just want to go to bed!”
*******************************
Tonight’s show had been good. The crowd had been wild, the mood had been great and the energy had been high. And although JC had given his 110% as he always did, tonight he’d been more on auto pilot than anything.
All he had been able to think about was Kyra.
It had been over three years since they’d seen each other, let alone spoken. He’d always regretted the way they had left things and tonight it had been on his mind.
Earlier when he’d done a quick search of her name on the internet, he’d seen that she was also in New York this week. She was doing a press tour which included a book signing tomorrow afternoon.
He’d been going back and forth all day as to whether he should go. It would take a lot of pleading and compromising with security but he figured he could make it work. Put on a hat and shades, cover his face. Maybe even try to get the bookstore to shut down for a few minutes so he could go in. He never liked using his celebrity for things like this, but sometimes you just had to work with what you have.
I promise I’ll be the first in line to buy your first book.
He still remembered that day when he’d promised her that. He didn’t want to break it.
With that in mind, he stepped out of his room in order to go down the hall to try and find Lonnie so they could try to figure out their best action plan.
As he stepped out of his room, he was immediately aware of a commotion happening at the other end of the hall. When he got close enough he could see that two of the security guys, including Lonnie, seemed to be arguing with a woman.
Probably an overzealous fan. Plus, she sounded as if she’d had a few drinks too many.
He stopped his step for a moment as he considered if he should still go down the hall. He didn’t want to make any security incident worse.
After a bit of consideration and hearing more of the conversation, he chuckled a bit at the thought that even if she did get a glance of him that she probably wouldn’t remember in the morning.
When he resumed his walk down the hall he couldn’t help but think that there was something familiar about her voice. As if he’d heard it before.
Many times.
Kyra?
No. You’ve just been thinking about her all day, that’s all.
She’s in New York.
C’mon man, what would be the odds?
Apparently the odds were very good because as he turned the corner and set his eyes on the woman standing there, it was most definitely Kyra.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Enjoy.
Thanks again to my beautiful beta, elle-miranda who also doesn't know she came up with the chapter title yet!
Chapter End Notes:
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