Listen To Me (Fusion #1)(4)

I nod. “Yeah, I heard somewhere that he lives nearby. Maybe he needs an ego boost?”

But then he begins to sing a familiar Lifehouse song, and my chest tightens. I love this song. I love his voice. It’s raw and rich and just a little bit raspy. It’s pure sex.

“He’d be absolutely perfect.” Kat’s voice is a whisper. She probably didn’t mean to say it out loud.

“I know we can’t afford him. He probably plays at celebrity weddings and shit.”

Jake glances up, showing his face and those amazing green eyes for the first time, and aims them right at me. He sings at least five lines, holding my gaze, then winks and lowers his head again.

Arrogant.

“Speaking of egos,” I murmur. “That would be a hot mess.”

“A sexy-as-f*ck hot mess,” Kat replies. “God, look at the way his muscles bunch as he plays.”

Trust me, I noticed. You’d have to be blind with an IQ of minus 20 to not notice the way Jake Knox moves. He makes everything in me come awake. Which makes sense because he’s probably been trained to do that. He has to sell music, after all.

He finishes the song and leaves the stage. There are murmurs in the audience. We obviously weren’t the only ones to recognize him. Let’s be honest, Jake Knox is one of the biggest rock stars there is.

Or, was. I don’t think he’s released any new music in the past few years.

I wonder why.

“I don’t think we’re going to find our act here,” Kat says with a sigh. “We’ve seen at least twenty people in the past two hours. The only ones we liked were a homeless guy, an egomaniac couple, and a rock star.”

“You’re right. Let’s go.” We gather our handbags and walk out into the cool spring evening. Walking ahead of us, away from the club, is a man with his guitar case. I’d recognize that shape, that walk, anywhere.

Jake Knox.

What is up with me being so damn attracted to the bad-boy musician type? It never fails. If there’s a bad-boy musician within a thirty-mile radius, my girl parts are on high alert. Every. Single. Time. Ever since I lost my virginity to Todd Perkins in the eleventh grade. Todd was the lead singer of a garage band and happened to seduce me out of my pants in said garage, right behind the drums.

And dump me the next day.

“He even walks sexy,” Kat whispers into my ear.

“Mm,” I reply.

“Don’t act all nonchalant with me,” she says, shoving my shoulder. “He turns me on, and you’re the one who loves the bad boys. You have ever since I met you freshman year.”

I shrug. She’s right.

“Let’s go to the restaurant. I want to see how Jamie is doing behind the bar,” Kat finally says when it’s apparent that I’m not going to talk about my penchant for musicians.

“I’ll check on the waitstaff, and we can both make Mia go home.”

“Mia’s working?” Kat asks with a frown.

“Of course Mia’s working. She’s not sleeping.”

“She needs an intervention.”

“I’LL TAKE A glass of that,” Mia says as she joins Kat and me at the bar after closing. Kat and I each handled our own staff for the rest of the evening, juggled a few mishaps, then sent everyone on their way and decided to unwind with a glass of wine before we head home.

“I can’t believe you’re still here,” I say to Mia. “You’ve been here since this morning.”

“Back at you,” she replies with a sigh as she sits on a stool beside me and rolls her head back and forth on her shoulders, stretching. “It was a good day.”

“You’re taking tomorrow off,” I say, not looking her in the face.

“You’re not the boss of me.”

“Yes, we are,” Kat replies and passes two glasses of wine to Mia. “Of all of us, you work the longest hours. The kitchen will survive for one day without you.”

“What does one do on a day off?” Mia asks.

“Clean your bathroom. Go to the coast and put your feet in the water. Get laid. Just don’t come here.”

“Maybe.” Mia shrugs. “Did you find us an act?”

“No.” I shake my head and sip the crisp, dry wine.

“But you both look so hot. No one threw themselves at you?”

“Kat had her ass grabbed a time or two.”

“I want to grab Kat’s ass,” Mia replies. “Ever since we met her in college we’ve wanted to grab her ass.”

“And you have,” Kat replies with a salute and takes a shot of tequila.

“And you loved it,” Mia replies. “Tell me about tonight?”

“There’s not much to tell. We found one couple that would be good but they wanted a ton of money.”

“We also found Jake Knox,” Kat says with a satisfied grin.

“What?” Mia shrieks. “You did not!”

“We did. He sang one song.”

“Why? He’s famous. He doesn’t have to go to those things.”

“Trust me, I wasn’t questioning his motives.” Kat tops off our glasses again. “I was simply thankful to be sitting roughly ten feet away from him.”

“I’m so jealous! I had Hard Knox posters all over my bedroom!”