Josh was Trey’s head of security and one of his older brother’s best friends. “Hey, man, pull up a chair.”
Josh set his beer down and sat in the chair Jimmy had vacated. “Good to see you, man. I’m surprised you’re not here with your buddies, stirrin’ up all kinds of trouble.” Josh winked. “You’re about due, ain’t ya?”
J.T. laughed, looking around the bar for the friends Josh referred to. He hadn’t even thought to look for them earlier. When he came in, all of his attention had been focused on Nikki, then Jimmy’s offer. “I’m too damn old to be gettin’ into bar room brawls.”
Josh tipped his bottle. “Amen to that. I know hearin’ that’d make your mama happy.”
He smirked as he brought the bottle to his lips. “Did she send you down here to check up on me?”
Josh shook his head. “Nah, I just stopped in for a beer on my way home from my karate studio. I heard Nikki was singin’ here tonight.” He looked around. “Where is she?”
“She must be in the dressin’ room.” J.T. said, scanning the crowd for the woman in question.
“My boy Mike was gonna stop by, too. You haven’t seen him around, have you?”
J.T. knew Josh’s son Mike was one of Nashville’s finest. In uniform, he wouldn’t have been able to miss him. “Is he workin’ tonight?”
“Nah, he was gonna stop by for the show.” He grinned. “Seems he’s got a thing for little Miss Nikki.”
Gripping the beer bottle in his fist, J.T. said, “You don’t say. They ever gone out?”
“Not yet, but I think he wanted to ask her out after the show tonight.” He laughed. “I told him he was setting his sights high, but I guess he won’t know unless he tries, right?”
“Josh, listen…” J.T. was about to tell him that Nikki was already spoken for when Officer Mike stepped up to the table, slapping his father on the back.
Laughing, Mike asked, “What’re you doin’ here? You afraid I couldn’t close the deal on my own?”
“Nah,” Josh said, taking a drink of beer. “You got my genes. How could the ladies not love you, right?”
Mike rolled his eyes at J.T. and smiled. “How you doin’, man? Long time, no see.”
J.T. had watched Mike and his twin brother, Jay, grow up. They had idolized him as kids. He was eighteen, they were barely nine, and in their eyes, he could do no wrong. He couldn’t believe they were now competing for the same woman. Fate sure had a wicked sense of humor.
“It’s good to see you, Mike.” And it was. Mike and his brother were good guys, just like their old man, salt of the earth. He was the perfect man for Nikki, a do-gooder with his head on straight. He’d always lived on the right side of the law and learned to respect women from his mama. That didn’t mean J.T. had any intention of stepping aside and letting Mike have a shot with Nikki. As far as he was concerned, she was already his woman, whether she was willing to acknowledge it or not.
Nikki made her way to the stage, trying to still her pounding heart. It didn’t matter how many times she took the stage, or how big the audience, it always felt like the first time. She heard the announcer call her name over the applause of the capacity crowd, and she felt like she’d stepped out of a dream. Waiting years to share her music with the world only made moments like this sweeter, knowing that songs she’d agonized over had touched people the way she hoped they would. She had turned listeners into fans, and with every disc they bought or song they downloaded, they showed their appreciation for her talent. No matter what happened, how big she got, she would never take that for granted.
After storming the stage with a rousing rendition of the party anthem off her debut album, she put on a show she hoped those patrons wouldn’t soon forget. By the time she finally left the stage, after countless demands for an encore, her voice was raw and she was dripping in sweat and riding the wave of a high that seemed to have no peak.
She sprinted to the dressing room, tucked safely between two bulging bouncers, and slipped inside and closed the door. Leaning against the solid wood, she took a minute to catch her breath before summoning the energy to search out a bottle of water. Just as she was twisting the lid off the plastic bottle the door flew open.
J.T. filled the doorway, giving her a thorough once over before raising his hands to applaud her. “That was some show you put on, sweetness.”
She tried to hide her pleasure at his praise. More than anyone, she wanted him to recognize and appreciate her talent. She wanted to earn his admiration and respect, because whether he realized it or not, he already had hers. “Didn’t think I’d be seeing you again,” she said, pressing the cold bottle against her chest.
His eyes followed the action as he slammed the door shut, turning the lock. “You didn’t think you were gonna be able to get rid of me that easily, did you?”
She shrugged, trying to pretend she hadn’t been thinking of him and little else since their talk at his brother’s ranch. “After your talk with my dad… He did go to see you, didn’t he?” Since her father had returned to the house unscathed, she assumed the argument hadn’t escalated to physical blows, but she had decided to leave well enough alone when he didn’t offer up any details.
“Yeah, Luc stopped by my place. We had it out.”
She waited for him to continue. When he didn’t, she prompted him. “And?”
“And I told him I’m crazy about his daughter.”
Trying to ignore the flutter of excitement his words evoked, she said, “That couldn’t have gone over well.”
“I don’t want to talk about your old man,” he said, closing the distance between them. “I want to talk about you and me.”
She swallowed, trying to coat her dry throat as he moved into her space, stealing her breath, yet again. “What about you and me? I thought I told you where I stood on that.”
He took the water bottle from her hand. Setting it down on a nearby table, he gripped her waist, pulling her close. “But I didn’t tell you where I stand,” he whispered, brushing a lock of damp hair off her cheek.
Her eyes drifted closed of their own volition, waiting, anticipating the sweet pressure of his mouth as he invaded hers. “What do you want from me, J.T.?” She wanted to hear him say it. She may have told him she was willing to walk away last night, but her heart and mind had been battling it out ever since.
He leaned in, brushing his lips against her ear. “I want you, only you. At my side, in my bed…”
She swayed, unable to satisfy the urge the touch him. She needed to feel every inch of his hard body, skin to skin. “Go on.” The sound of his deep, raspy voice slid over her skin, making her long to hear her name on his lips as he reached for his release.
“I want you to be mine, only mine. I want to be the only man to give you pleasure.” His big, calloused hands worked the snaps on the front of her shirt, spreading it open. “I want to give you everything I have to give…”
She shuddered, thinking about what he would do to her, given the chance. “That’s asking a lot.”
He brushed her hair aside, exposing her neck. He placed feather-light kisses, intended to tease and torment, up one side and down the other. “I’m offering a lot, a hell of a lot.”
She wanted to surrender to him, more than anything, but she couldn’t allow her judgement to be clouded by a few sweet words uttered in the heat of a passionate moment. She needed to think clearly, instead of making promises they would both live to regret. Threading her hands through the hair at the nape of his neck, she drew his head down. “I’m going out on the road soon. We both know it’d be impossible to stay connected while I’m out there and you’re here, or out on the circuit, or wherever the hell you’re gonna be.”
“I’m gonna be here, right here, in fact.” He slid his hands up her ribcage. “I’m buying this bar.”
She drew back to look at him, trying to determine whether he was kidding. “Are you serious? You’re buying Jimmy’s?”
He smiled. “Yeah, by tomorrow morning this place will be mine, officially.”
“I can’t believe it.” She knew he was considering retiring, but buying a business meant he was serious about settling down. It made it harder for her to brush him off when she knew he was sincere about changing his ways.
“Don’t sound so surprised, sugar. I meant what I said; it’s time for me to grow up.” He grinned, gliding a finger down the front of her body. “No more bulls or buckle bunnies for me. From now on, I’m gonna be a respectable business owner and a one-woman man. That is if the woman I want will have me.”
J.T. held his breath, waiting for her response. He had never laid it all out there for a woman before, and the possibility of getting rejected felt like a noose tightening around his neck. When he couldn’t stand the silence a moment longer, he asked, “Aren’t you gonna say anything?”
She pressed her palms against his chest. “I don’t know what you want me to say. This doesn’t change anything, J.T. If you want to do this for you, I think that’s great, but don’t do it because you think you’ll score points with me, because you won’t.”
He wanted to bellow in frustration. What the hell did he have to do to get this stubborn woman to take him seriously? “You wanna tell me why you’re not willin’ to even give me a chance to prove to you that we can make this work?”
She turned her back to him and fastened her shirt. Grabbing her water bottle, she began to pace the length of the small room. “Why can’t you understand that I can’t afford this kind of distraction right now? I’m finally on my way to achieving my dream, and then you charge into my life, determined to take center stage. I can’t let that happen.”
He watched her press the water bottle to her lips, trying to find the words to refute her statement. How could he when he knew she was right? He would never be satisfied being relegated to a small corner of her world. He would want, need, to be a priority in her life, just as he intended to make her a priority in his. “I don’t think it has to be all or nothing, baby.” He wanted to believe it was true, but even as the words hung in the air between them, he knew he hadn’t convinced her any more than he’d convinced himself.
“We both know you’re not the kind of person who does anything half-assed. You’re an all-or-nothing guy, and I obviously can’t give you all, so I think it would only be fair, to both of us…”
He held his hand up, silencing her. She didn’t need to say it. He couldn’t stand to hear it. “I want you, and I don’t know how the hell to make you understand…” He released a gusty breath, wishing he could show her, instead of tell her, how he felt. He’d never been good with words, but he was skilled with his hands, and mouth, and…
“I’m not gonna lie, I feel the same way. To say I’m attracted to you is like saying Trey’s sold a few albums, a gross understatement.” She crossed her arms. “I wish things could be different. I wish we had all the time in the world to see where this might take us, but we don’t. I’m going to be out on the road for the better part of the next three years. That’s just the way it is when you’re starting out. This year I’ll open for your brother; next year I’ll open for Trey. Hopefully, by the following year, I’ll be the main act. At least that’s the plan…”
No matter how much he wanted her, three years was a hell of a long time to wait for the chance to start their lives together. He wasn’t getting any younger, and he was beginning to realize a family of his own was something he wanted. If he married Nikki, that wouldn’t happen for at least ten years, if at all. They would never have the kind of family he had growing up, where they all sat around the table at the end of day, laughing, talking, arguing, while their mama served up a home-cooked meal and filled their father in on which of the boys had gotten into trouble on the playground or with their teacher that day.
He tossed his cowboy hat aside, thrusting his hands through his hair. There had to be a way to make this work. He wouldn’t consider the possibility that he had finally found the “one” and he was being forced to make the impossible choice of letting her go or standing in the way of her dream. He knew he couldn’t ask her to choose. Not only because he feared he would lose her, but because he wouldn’t run the risk that she would end up resenting him because he encouraged her to make sacrifices she didn’t want to make.
He reached out and took her hands, pulling her into his arms. “Will you come home with me tonight, sweetheart? I need you.” He buried his face in her hair, hating that she was witnessing his weakness. “Please, I’m not ready to let you go just yet.”