Closed Off To You (Singing Star Trilogy #1) (12 page)

“How do you know what song we’re going to sing?” Lizzie blurted.

Larry looked up at her, blinking when he saw her big blue eyes. “We asked for your top three songs before you came. You’ll sing the first one on that list.”

Larry actually smiled. Lizzie was a pretty girl; I could see why he all of a sudden paid attention. His gaze travelled to Ella before landing on me. His smile grew wider. Did people really see us that way?

“If you need anything, just ask.” Larry winked before he looked back down at the paper in his hand.

I followed the others into the booth, my heart pounding. I had never imagined myself to be in a recording studio. I had never imagined being judged on a recorded song.

“This is certainly something to be ticked off our bucket list,” Ella said, picking up the big headphones and placing them on her head confidently.

Lizzie followed suit, smiling in the direction of the glass that separated the booth from Larry. She was going to flirt with him to get him onside.

“Larry, you do know that I’m from outer space?” I asked him when I put on my own headphones.

The sound vibrated in my ear before Larry’s voice came over the speakers. “Ah, you’re the one. They told me to look out for you. Said you were an alien. That doesn’t mean you get special treatment, by the way.”

“Oh, Larry, I don’t need special treatment. I’ll just probe you when you’re asleep.”

I couldn’t help it. My nerves were getting the better of me, and I turned stupid when that happened. I giggled, my cheeks heating when the shake in my voice was obvious. Ella and Lizzie glared at me. If looks could bring me to my knees, they were doing a good job.

“Well, I must say I’m not often speechless in this business, but I think you may have just achieved that,” Larry said.

He grinned at me through the glass. I stopped my banter and became serious as the girls waved their hands at me.

“Are you ready?” Larry asked.

We gave him a thumbs up after clearing our throats. This was it. It was all or nothing. I hoped my stupidity hadn’t jeopardised the girls.

The music filtered through the headphones. I wet my lips, trying not to panic as Lizzie started to sing. I could hear her in my ears, which was new. When I opened my mouth to back her up, a screech came out. I clamped my hand over my lips, forcing myself not to rip the headphones off and run out of the room.

“I’m so sorry,” I said to Larry.

He smiled gently. “Don’t worry, it’s quite common. Just take a deep breath and we’ll start again.”

I had underestimated Larry. He was kinder than I had first thought.

How had my voice turned into Darth Vader the moment my mouth had opened?

“I’m sorry,” I mouthed to Lizzie and Ella.

Ella was trying her hardest not to laugh, while Lizzie wiped sweat from her forehead. They were probably just as nervous as me, but fortunately they didn’t turn into a man when they sang.

“You haven’t taken that deep breath, girls,” Larry said.

We looked at each other and nodded as we took his advice. Breathing in deep, I held my thumb up to Larry again. He counted down and the music started to play. I looked at the floor instead of at my friends. It was much easier to concentrate without making eye contact with them. Many groups had been performing together for years. They knew each other so well when it came to singing, they could concentrate on everything they were doing. We were so new to being a serious group, it was hard not to laugh when we looked at each other.

“That was great, thank you,” Larry said into the headphones when we were finished. “You can go now.”

The breath left my lungs. I didn’t even realise that I’d held it from the moment the last note had faded away.

I shot glances over to the others as we took off the headphones. We acted calm as we left the booth, but inside, my mind was spinning. Had we pulled it off? Did it sound awful?

“That was an enjoyable first audition of the day, girls,” Larry said as we waved goodbye.

“We’re not girls, Larry, we’re women.” Ella couldn’t help herself. Her hands were clenched together as she quickly escaped without waiting for a reply. I smiled at Larry as he pretended to zip his lips. Shrugging, I followed the others out to the hallway.

“What was that about?” Lizzie asked our friend.

Ella huffed as we made our way back to the main room. “What? We’re women, not girls. I get rather offended at being called a girl when I’m in my thirties. Don’t you agree?”

The assistant from earlier hurried down the hallway towards us. “Well done, girls. I’ll show you to the waiting area. I’m sorry, you’ve got a long day ahead of you. You’ll need to wait as the others do their auditions. The announcements will be made later this afternoon.”

Biting back my groan was almost impossible. I wasn’t very good at waiting; patience was not my virtue. I wasn’t sure I had any virtues. Unless celibacy was a virtue, I had been pretty good at that. Until recently.

My skin prickled at the thought of Nathan being in the same room as me. It wouldn’t be long until he had done his audition. Would he come and sit with us? A bolt of pleasure ran down my spine as I remembered our last encounter. He hadn’t gone easy on me, but I didn’t mind.

“What are you thinking about? You’ve got a dreamy look on your face, which is unlike you.” Lizzie linked her arm through mine as we were shown into a room full of chairs. There was a table at the end with drinks and snacks. It would be a really long day.

“Nothing…”

“She’s thinking about Nathan,” Ella declared as we helped ourselves to a hot drink.

Being the first people in the room was intimidating. It meant hours of sitting around. Hours of my friends trying to get the truth out of me. They had asked me about the night when Charlie had caught us. I had declined to go into detail. Not because I didn’t trust my friends, but because I didn’t trust myself.

“Did you know Nathan was here?” Ella asked as we sat down and prepared ourselves for a day of waiting.

Lizzie shook her head quickly. “No, she didn’t. I could tell by the look on her face.”

Taking a sip of my drink, I cringed when the strong coffee hit my taste buds. If I wasn’t awake before, I would certainly wake up now.

“I’ve not heard from him. Which is a good thing. Anyway, he doesn’t have my number.”

Lizzie spurted her drink.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

Lizzie cleared her throat, refusing to look at me.

“What is it?”

Lizzie gave me one of those
please don’t hate me
smiles as she handed me a bar of chocolate that she’d picked up. “I may have given him your number. I wouldn’t have told you, but…” She tried to get me to take the chocolate by waving it in front of me. I ignored it.

“How? When?” I snatched the chocolate, dropping it on the floor in my haste.

A pair of trainers came into view as Nathan bent and picked up the chocolate, handing it back to me. It was as if the universe conspired against me when it came to him. My heart thumped in my chest when my gaze travelled up and met his.

“Nathan. How did it go?” Ella kindly took the attention away from me.

Nathan wandered over to the snack table. We had planted ourselves pretty near, deciding that we would need a lot of sustenance throughout the day.

Nathan smiled at us as he poured himself a cup of tea. His arms were encased in a long sleeved tight dark grey top. His strong thighs peeked through the rips in his blue jeans. He’d had his hair cropped short since the last time I had seen him. My body hummed with the memory of his tongue against my pussy. He was one hot man. Boy, he was a boy. Well, not really, but I had to put myself off him somehow. Stupid age gap.

“That was pretty epic. What an experience.” His deep voice travelled over to us.

His gaze skipped past me as he directed his answer to Ella. A few other acts filtered into the room, taking away the tension as they started to scream amongst themselves.

“I think those girls enjoyed it,” he said in his gravelly voice as he took a seat next to Lizzie.

I was in a daze. We had just recorded a song, yet, we sat around chatting normally. We’d had an experience of a lifetime. And…we drank coffee.

“I can’t believe we just did that!” I exclaimed, grabbing Ella’s hand and clenching it in mine. She was on my left, so I turned my back away from the others. Call it a defence mechanism.

Ella’s eyes widened. “I know! We just recorded a song. Do you think we’ll get a copy?”

Shaking her, I opened my mouth wide without screaming. I wasn’t that far gone. The adrenaline that had been waiting to express itself poured through me. I jumped up and grabbed another chocolate bar from the table.

“You’ve picked up! Finally realised what’s actually going on?” Lizzie grinned.

My gaze clashed with Nathans as he gestured for me to throw him a snack. The corner of his lip lifted into his cheek when my cheeks flushed.

“You didn’t mention that you were going to be here, too,” Lizzie said as I passed him what he wanted and sat back down. “That was a bit sneaky.”

I watched a group of girls as they came over to stand around the snack table. They threw heated glances at Nathan. They were a bit younger than him, certainly more his age.

“I didn’t tell anyone. I’ve always wanted to sing. It’s a dream that I never…” His sentence trailed off when he lifted his gaze from undoing the packet and looked directly into my eyes.

He coughed as I looked away. “I’ve got a friend who works with the show. He told me about the auditions in the studio. I should have let you know, but I don’t want to tell anyone until I’m definitely on the tour. Just in case I don’t get through.” Nathan ducked his head. So he should. It was one thing sleeping with me, and then not contacting me, but it was quite another to not tell us about his place in the contest.

“I get it. You don’t want competition from us.” I took a gulp of coffee as his eyes looked past Lizzie and made contact with mine.

The fizz of excitement that spread over my body was quickly dampened down. I couldn’t let his gorgeous body distract me from our goal. Beating him was probably going to be impossible considering how good he was. However, when I finally settled on something, I did all I could to achieve it.

Getting to my feet before he could reply, I made an excuse about needing the toilet.

“I’ll come, too,” Ella said.

We left Lizzie to talk to Nathan. As soon as we got up from our seats, the girls from the other group surrounded him. Clenching my hands into fists, I followed Ella out of the room and down the hallway.

“It’s so obvious that something has happened between you two.”

I ignored Ella as I went into the toilet cubicle. I was too nervous to go to the toilet, so I sat on the lid and crossed my legs. There was something about Nathan that made me need to cross my legs. My pussy pounded with need as I closed my eyes and remembered what had happened on my sofa. I had fantasised about it every night since.

“Melissa, as much as I love you, I’m a little worried. I’ve never seen you act like this with a man before. Do you want to be with him?” Ella called.

Her question instantly snapped me out of my turned on mode. I lowered my head into my hands and rested my elbows on my knees. Why did my friends have to know me so well? Why couldn’t they stop me from questioning myself?

“I don’t know what it is about him. I don’t even know him. And he’s a young man. Hardly father material.” I bit my tongue. That wasn’t fair. “Actually, I don’t know that.”

Ella sighed so loudly I could hear it through the cubicle. Everything was so sombre. It was supposed to be one of the best adventures of our lives. Our nerves were probably getting the best of us. And the sexy Nathan was certainly getting under my skin.

“If you’re supposed to be together, you will. Don’t worry about it.”

My head shot up. I jumped up from my seat and opened the door. “You’re so right. Come on, let’s enjoy this. I refuse to let a man make me feel nervous. He is not God… Except in the bedroom, maybe.”

Ella’s mouth dropped open as she hopped off the sink and fell into step beside me. She wrapped her arms around me and we might have squealed a little bit.

“Don’t tell anyone we did that,” I muttered.

Ella shook her head as she plastered a smile on her face. “We’ll get through. I have a good feeling.”

Leaving the toilet, we skipped down the hallway. There was something about amazing opportunities that made a person skip.

“Is he really that good?” Ella whispered as we came back into the room.

The girls had retreated to the back, leaving Nathan and Lizzie to talk amongst themselves. I nudged Ella with my elbow as my cheeks burnt. Nathan glanced over at us, grinning when he saw how red my cheeks were.

“Did you find someone you fancy?” Ella asked as we took our seats.

What was wrong with her? I had just told her that I didn’t want the man to bring me down, and there she was, asking him about his love life in front of me. It was the last thing I needed.

“Nah, they’re too young for me. I like a mature woman.”