See You at the Show (40 page)

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the piece of paper with Angus Gordon’s number on it, picking up the ‘phone.
 
He’d tell him he wanted no part of this, get that straight once and for all.
 
Then he’d have to start working out just what he was supposed to do next.

***

Stevie walked around the backstage area of a buzzing Wembley Arena and that feeling of coming home almost overwhelmed her.
 
The whole atmosphere, the noise, the people, it made her feel instantly comfortable.
 
She’d been talking to Colin, and he’d told her how much they all missed having her around and she’d felt a pang of longing for something that she hadn’t felt in what seemed like an eternity.
 
Or was that some
one
.
 

She looked around as she waited for Johnny, taking everything in, soaking it up.
 
She’d called and told him she was coming and the excitement she felt at seeing him again was indescribable.
 
She’d spoken to him loads on the ‘phone over the past few months but she hadn’t actually seen him in so long and she’d missed him.
 
She’d really missed him.
 
She’d missed this.

“Hey, baby, there you are!” Johnny smiled, suddenly appearing from a side entrance and she ran over to him, throwing herself into his arms, jumping up and wrapping her legs round his waist.
 
“Pleased to see me, huh?”

She smiled too.
 
“You know I am.”
 
And she was.
 
She was unbelievably pleased to see him.

“So, what’s the deal then?”

She jumped down from his arms and let go of him, looking up at him, sticking her hands in her pockets.
 
“What do you mean?”

He sat down on an empty equipment box and she sat next to him, curling her legs up underneath her.

“Is life with the most important man in
Britain
suddenly not all it’s cracked up to be?”

She started fiddling with the leather bands round her wrist, not meeting his eyes.

“It’s tough, Johnny.”
 
She looked at him.
 
“And I’m finding it so hard, I really am.
 
In the beginning it was good, y’know, it was different, and I needed that.
 
I needed different.
 
But ever since it’s all gone public…”

She looked down at her hands again and Johnny reached out, taking one of them in his, squeezing it tight.

“It’s changed?”

She looked up at him again, nodding.
 
“Yeah.
 
It’s changed.”
 
She sighed heavily, part of her feeling guilty for walking out on Daniel like that and part of her still relieved that she had.
 
Things would only have got worse if she’d stayed.
 
Some time apart might be good for them.

“I needed some space, Johnny.
 
It’s the most claustrophobic atmosphere sometimes, being with him, even though I love him.
 
I just don’t love what comes with him.
 
I don’t get it, I can’t do it.
 
I had to get out and get back to where I feel free and alive, because his world is trying to batter me down and take everything away from me that makes me
me.
 
Am I making any sense here?”

Johnny squeezed her hand again, nodding.
 
“Yeah.
 
You’re making sense.”

“It’s not just that though.
 
I was stupid, we should never have gone public with this because now…”
 

She trailed off and Johnny watched as she stared into space, her hand fiddling with the frayed hem of her jeans.

“Because, what?”

She snapped back to reality, pulling her hand away and jumping off the box, tightening the knot in the bandana round her head.
 
“Nothing.
 
It doesn’t matter.
 
Where’s everyone else?”

He knew she meant Mark; she couldn’t really care less where Billy and Jack were.

“Back there, I imagine.
 
We done then are we?”

She smiled, leaning forward to kiss him quickly.
 
“For now, yeah.
 
Later, ok?”

He watched her run off in the direction of the dressing rooms, stopping to say the occasional hello to people she knew.
 
This was where she belonged; she had no business being with Daniel Madison.
 
He was no good for her, that whole world was no good for her.
 
And she wouldn’t want to leave this world again now she’d come back.
 
Of that, Johnny was certain.

***

She turned the corner, walking with her head down as she checked her watch, not really taking any notice of anything going on around her so when she heard his voice she wasn’t really ready.
 
She was still preparing herself to see him again, still trying to work out what she would say, so when she looked up and came face to face with him for the first time in months, it took her by surprise.

All of a sudden he was there in front of her, all ready to take to the stage in a black t-shirt, jeans and heavy army boots, his dark hair all messed-up.
 
Still the same devastatingly handsome Mark Cassidy.
 
The habit she thought she’d managed to kick when she’d really only ever been kidding herself.
 
The feeling in the pit of her stomach told her that.
 
She’d thought that when she’d fallen in love with Daniel she’d be able to put Mark to the back of her mind but she’d never been able to forget this man.
 
Not really.
 
She’d never be able to forget him.

“You look amazing,” he said, looking her up and down in a way that made her stomach flip over a hundred times and she had to look away.
 

Mark had known she was coming, Johnny had told him as much, but he guessed he just hadn’t been prepared to remember how beautiful she still was, and how that still made him feel.
 
He should never have let her walk away from him so easily and he was determined she wouldn’t do that again.
 
Mark Cassidy wanted his rock chick back, and he was going to get her.
 
No matter what it took.

“I shouldn’t have come here,” she whispered, turning to go but he grabbed her arm, swinging her back round.

“You came because the second you heard I was back in the country you couldn’t stop yourself, Stevie.
 
Could you?”

“Still so fucking full of yourself, Cassidy.”

“It’s the truth though, isn’t it?”

She looked at him, right into those deep, dark eyes.
 
It was starting again.
 
They’d come full circle and they were right back where they’d always been.
 
Some things were just never meant to change.
 

She pulled her arm away from his grip but she didn’t answer him, and she didn’t break the stare.
 
Then he laughed, a sound that made her stomach flip over again and she kept looking at him, her eyes never leaving his as he backed her up against the wall and she knew what was coming, she’d felt it the second she’d looked at him and she should have stopped it, she should have walked away but she couldn’t, because she wanted it.
 
That’s why she’d come here after all, wasn’t it?
 
That’s why she’d
really
come here.
 
She could have avoided it if she’d really wanted to but she hadn’t, so Mark was right.
 
She’d come here for one reason only and from the second she’d set foot inside this arena there was only ever going to be one outcome.

So, when his mouth touched hers, gently at first before the kiss got harder and deeper, she didn’t push him away or make him stop because she’d come home.
 
Stevie Stone was home.
 
In the arms of Mark Cassidy.
 
Rock star.
 
Game over.

***

Angus put down the ‘phone and sat forward in his chair, clasping his hands together in front of him on his huge mahogany desk.
 
So, Connor Franklin wasn’t willing to give up any information to the press.
 
The lure of money wasn’t enough to make him betray the woman who’d left him and their two year old son behind to pursue a life on the road with rock stars.
 
It wasn’t that simple, of course, there was much more to it than that and Angus had hoped that Connor was going to be the one to break the story.
 
He could have written it himself, after all, but it seemed the man was a tabloid journalist with morals.
 
So it looked as though Angus was going to have to be the one to leak the story.
 
He wasn’t left with many more options now.
 
But Daniel obviously wasn’t going to find out who the real Stevie Stone was all by himself and it seemed she had no intention of telling him, so the time to make it obvious had arrived.
 
Angus had waited long enough.
 
Do it now, get it out of the way, and although a hell of a lot of damage limitation was inevitable they’d weather the storm, he was confident of that.
 
He wasn’t the best spin doctor in town for nothing.

Sitting back in his chair he picked up the ‘phone and punched in the number of one of his closest media contacts.
 
Time was up for Stevie Stone.
 
Tomorrow the truth would be out.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

She hadn’t come home and Daniel had woken up with a feeling of emptiness and dread, a fear that she’d never come back, that he’d lost her because of his inability to accept her as the person she was instead of the person he felt she should be.
 
But Stevie Stone shouldn’t
be
anyone else; to make her do that, to make her change would take away everything he’d ever fallen in love with in the first place, he knew that now.
 
But he also knew she’d never be accepted in this world if she stayed the way she was.
 
He was the Prime Minister.
 
He needed to have a partner that would be as much a part of this leadership as he was and as much as it killed him inside to realise it, Stevie Stone could never be that.
 
And it wasn’t that she
couldn’t
do it because he had every faith that she could.
 
No, she
wouldn’t
do it, and that was the difference.
 
Because it just wasn’t her.
 
He loved her with every inch of his being, he ached for her now she wasn’t here but what could he do?
 
Part of him hoped she loved him enough to compromise and she’d come back home and they could work this out, but another part of him knew that was just wishful thinking.
 
She was head-strong, independent, she had her own identity, and nothing would change that.
 
Not even him.
 
And while that was the one thing he loved about her, it was also the thing that was driving them apart, and it hurt.

He walked into the kitchen where Angus was sitting at the dining table sorting through the post, a pile of newspapers by his side.
 
Daniel always liked to look through the newspapers over breakfast, even the tabloids.
 
He liked to get all angles on the day’s news.

Angus looked up and smiled.
 
“Good morning, Daniel.
 
Are we all ready for the day ahead?”

Daniel looked at him.
 
Why was
he
so cheerful?
 
“Something put you in a good mood, Angus?”
 
Daniel poured himself a mug of tea and sat down at the table.

“Nothing in particular, no.”

Daniel took a sip of tea and put his mug down, taking a newspaper from the top of the pile, but it was the one underneath that caught his attention, the one he’d initially picked up now discarded on the floor, and all he could do was stare at the front page, at the words that screamed out at him - and that’s when his whole world stood completely still.

***

Stevie woke up and turned onto her side, looking at the sleeping figure beside her.
 
The most incredible, most annoying, most irritating man she’d ever met in her life but he was a habit she just couldn’t kick.
 
Wouldn’t kick.
 
And let’s face it, she’d tried.
 
But watching him up there on stage last night, she’d known that trying to persuade herself otherwise was pointless.
 
Mark Cassidy was still her greatest weakness.
 
A handsome, sexy pain in the arse that she couldn’t stop needing.

She leaned over and kissed him slowly, moving her mouth against his until his eyes opened and he smiled that Cassidy smile, pushing her over onto her back as she laughed out loud.