Wild For You (Always a Bridesmaid 3) (4 page)

Melody shook her head. “No, I know you and Mason love your Saturday mornings. I’ll be fine.”

She would. She would be fine, or she would make a fool of herself without any family members present to witness her shame. Melody knew Lark would never make fun of her for failing at something, but for some reason she didn’t want her sister there to watch her audition. It felt like something she had to do by herself, a step in a new direction that was best taken alone.

“Okay, but call me if you change your mind in the next twenty minutes or so,” Lark said. “I’m going to swing by Aria’s on my way out of town and drop off the favor boxes she’s painting for the wedding. You sure Kitty’s going to give you a ride home?”

“She’s got dinner with her cruising club, and is going to meet me right after.” Melody leaned over to press a quick kiss to Lark’s cheek. “Love you, Sissy.”

“Love you, too.” Lark smiled that glowing, contented smile she’d had ever since she and Mason got engaged earlier in the summer.

It was a smile that made Melody believe in happily ever after, but it also reminded her of how alone she was. Ever since she and Brian had broken up—and even before then, if she were honest; things hadn’t been good between her and her ex for months before they finally called it quits—she’d felt her single status in new and painful ways.

Being alone was more difficult than it used to be. She longed for a connection like the ones Lark and Aria had found, for a guy who would get her and love every part of her, even the new, exploratory parts she didn’t know quite what to do with yet.

But until she found this mystery man, she wouldn’t mind spending some quality time with Nick Geary…

As she climbed out of Lark’s car and waved goodbye, she glanced over at the tattoo shop. The lights were on and the “Open” sign showed in the doorway, but Melody couldn’t see back to where Nick had been sitting last night.

Probably for the best. Making eye contact with Nick right now would only make her more nervous. With one final glance at the neon sign, Melody squared her shoulders and headed for the entrance to the bar.

The bouncer seemed to remember her from last night and let her in without checking I.D. Soon, Melody was enveloped by cool, faintly beer-scented darkness. Outside, it was still twilight, but inside
The Horse and Rider
it was always midnight. Midnight pierced by pockets of light in the darkness like dying spotlights. One muddy yellow ring of light surrounded the fifty-foot circular bar at the left side of the room, another moody blue puddle illuminated the tables on the right, and a brighter white with flashes of red lit the stage against the far wall.

Ghost Town Double Wide
was just getting warmed up and center stage was occupied by a twenty-something guy wearing Wranglers, a sleeveless black vest fraying around the armholes, and shiny black cowboy boots. He belted out a popular Top-40 country-western drinking song, while behind him the four members of the band
played backup: Lily, the only female of the group on bass, Hank on backup guitar, Reggie on lead guitar, and Seth on drums.

After chatting with the owner of the bar, Willy John, last night, Melody had gotten the feeling he would prefer a male singer—the last lead singer had been an older woman and Hank mentioned that it might be nice to see if a good-looking man might bring in more female clientele.

So far, Wrangler Guy seemed to have a strong voice and a good rapport with the audience. The dance floor was packed, and more than a few women were casting longing glances at center stage. He was good. If he was good enough, it might not matter that his audition song was cheesy, or that his vest looked like it should have been buried in a shallow grave sometime during the nineteen-eighties.

Melody felt a strange emotion rise inside her as Wrangler Guy finished his first song and launched into his second amongst a smattering of applause. It took a moment for her to recognize the competitive instinct for what it was.

She wasn’t usually a competitive person, but she wanted this more than she had realized until this very second. She wanted to be up on that stage every Friday night, losing herself in the music, free to be a different Melody than the one she was at work or home or even out with her friends. She wanted to belt out songs that made people want to get up and move, songs that helped people forget their troubles for a little while, and remember life was an adventure that called for dancing and laughter and moments of celebration.

In that moment, Melody decided not to hold back. She was going to go for this audition with everything in her.

She headed for the wings of the stage with a spring in her step, ready to show Wrangler Guy who was boss.

***

The first thing Nick saw when he walked through the doors of
The Horse and Rider
on his Friday night “Forget about Melody March” mission, was…Melody March.

She was wearing a red sleeveless dress that emphasized her killer curves and flared around her thighs and a dangerous-looking pair of brown motorcycle boots. Dangerous because they made her look even hotter than she did last night in that purple dress and heels.

There was something about a girl in boots…

Nick pulled in a ragged breath. Melody would have been enough to stop his heart if she’d simply been standing at the bar, but she wasn’t. She was up
on stage
.
Singing
. And she had one hell of a voice, high and sweet, but with a rough edge on the lower notes that lifted the hairs on the back of his neck and made his skin prickle.

Nick froze a few steps inside the door, mesmerized by the way Melody’s hips swiveled as she belted out the chorus of a country song about cheaters that he was sure had never sounded as sexy as it did coming from her lips. Her red lips, the same color as that red dress, lips that drew his gaze to her angel face with the wicked smile and eyes that flashed with trouble.

“Dibs!” John said, shouting to be heard over the music.

Nick frowned. “Dibs on what?” he asked, still unable to tear his eyes away from Melody.

He’d never seen her like this, so wild and free and lost to something in the best way. She was having so much fun it almost seemed wrong to stare at her, like he was spying on a private moment, but that didn’t stop him—or any of the other men in the room—from keeping their attention glued to the stage.

“Dibs on the blonde singer,” John said. “I think I’m in love.”

Nick’s frown transformed into a full-blown scowl. “No. No way.” He turned to face John, making sure his friend could see how serious he was. “Melody is off limits.”

John’s eyebrows lifted. “You know her?”

“Yeah, I know her,” Nick said. “She’s my boss’s little sister. She’s a kid, a sweet kid.”

John grinned. “Sure doesn’t look like a kid.”

“She’s not one of your Friday night fucks, man,” Nick said. “Do you get me? Or should we go talk about this outside?”

John’s grin spread a little wider and a knowing look flashed in his eyes. “You should have just said something, dude. Obviously you’ve got it bad for the girl. I get it, I totally get it.”

“I do not have it bad.” Nick crossed his arms at his chest and tried not to sound defensive. “I told you, she’s my boss’s little sister. I feel obligated to look out for her. That’s it.”

John nodded a little too long. “Right. I feel you. No worries, brother, I’ll turn my amorous intentions elsewhere.”

“You do that,” Nick said, still not liking the way John was looking at him—like Nick was the punch line in some dumb romantic comedy—but at least they understood each other. Melody was off-limits. For both of them.

Too bad Nick couldn’t force a similar promise from every male in the bar.

By the time Melody came offstage to applause louder than Nick had heard in three weeks of Fridays at
The Horse,
half the men in the place were lined up offering to buy her a drink.

Nick had to fight his way through a crowd three deep to get to her side.

Once there, he intended to tell her she’d done a great job and offer his services as bodyguard for the rest of the evening, but when he slid up beside her and their eyes met, everything he’d planned to say flew straight out of his head. His mind emptied, words swept away by a wave of awareness as she turned to him and smiled, so obviously happy to see him that he couldn’t do anything but smile back.

“Nick!” She threw her arms around his neck and gave him a giddy hug.

Nick’s arms went around her, holding her close for a long moment, smiling when the men prowling around Melody saw the hug and began to back away from the bar with defeated expressions.

“How long have you been here?” Melody asked, pulling away, her cheeks flushed.

“Long enough,” he said, shouting to be heard over the next woman taking the stage, a cowgirl who probably wasn’t happy to be following a firecracker performance like Melody’s. “You were amazing. I didn’t know you were a singer.”

“I didn’t either,” she said with a laugh. “I mean, I’ve sung at church since I was little, but I’ve never done anything like that. It was so much fun!”

“You looked like you were having fun,” he said. “Too much fun. The men in here couldn’t take their eyes off of you.”

“Is that right?” she said, mischief flashing in her expression. “
All
the men?”

“
All
of them,” Nick confirmed in a husky voice, knowing he shouldn’t be encouraging her, but unable to stop himself.

“Even you?” She leaned closer, tipping her head back to look up at him. “Have you finally realized I’m not a baby in need of brotherly protection?”

“I never said you were a baby,” Nick said.

“No, you said I was a good girl and that you liked good girls,” she said. “But since the day we kissed you sure haven’t acted like it.”

Nick shrugged and hoped it didn’t look as awkward as he was beginning to feel. “I think we get along fine at work.”

“We do,” Melody said. “But I’d like to do more than just get along, wouldn’t you?”

Before Nick could think of a response, Melody reached up, trapping his face in her warm hands. A second later, she pressed up on tiptoe, capturing him with a kiss.

The second their lips met, sparks flew and Nick’s brain short-circuited in a flash of white light. A kiss was all it took. Suddenly, he was no longer capable of thinking about the promises he’d made or the danger of dating good girls or anything except how perfect Melody felt pressed up against him.

His arms went around her with a moan, his lips parted, and her tongue slipped into his mouth, mating with his with assured strokes that were sexy as hell. Melody kissed like a woman who knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to take it. She was driving this moment, but Nick couldn’t be happier to be along for the ride.

Her soft curves molded to his body, temptation personified, and her honeysuckle smell swirled through his head, making each second more dizzying than the last. Nick angled his mouth, deepening the kiss, tasting strawberries and beer and a flavor that was all Melody and as sweet and earthy as fresh cut summer grass.

She was intoxicating, and he’d already had too much. There was no way he was going home without her, and no way he was sharing another minute of the chemistry between them with a crowded bar.

He pulled away, breath coming fast. “You want to get out of here?” he asked, brushing a lock of hair from her face. “My place isn’t far.”

Melody’s eyes widened. “Your place?” she asked, chest rising and falling faster than usual, making it impossible to keep from glancing down at the swells of her breasts rising above her dress.

“Or yours. Whichever,” Nick said, already imagining the way that red dress would fall away from her curves, leaving her breasts bare to his hands, his mouth, his tongue as he pulled one nipple inside his—

“We can go to your place, but I…” Melody trailed off, drawing her bottom lip between her teeth.

“But what?” Nick cupped her cheek and brushed his thumb across her kiss-swollen bottom lip, urging it free.

He supposed he should worry that he was rushing things, but the way Melody had kissed him had made it clear that she wanted to take this further, too. Just as the way her breath rushed out over his fingers now left little doubt that his touch affected her the same way hers affected him.

They drove each other crazy. Now they just needed to see if they could make it through to the other side, past Crazy into the realm of multiple orgasms and bodies lying heavy and entwined, drunk on sex and each other.

“I just… I wanted you to know…” Melody curled her fingers into his biceps, sending another ripple of longing shooting down to where he was already so hard it was almost painful. Thank god for the bad lighting in the bar or he would definitely be embarrassing himself on the way out.

“I’ve never gone home with a guy before,” Melody continued, nervousness mixing with the anticipation in her expression.

“Then we can go to your place. It’s no problem.” Nick hugged her closer, refusing to listen to the voice beginning to nag inside his head, telling him he should nip this in the bud, before he and Melody did something they would both regret. Common sense said that if she was already nervous, then they were moving too fast.

But Nick wasn’t in a common sense frame of mind. He was in a “get Melody in a bed, naked and writhing beneath him, as fast as possible” frame of mind.

“No, I mean…” Melody rolled her eyes and smiled a goofy smile that was completely adorable. “I’ve
never
gone home with a guy. And no guy has
ever
come home with me.
Ever
.” Her eyes met his again, an unspoken question lingering in their depths. “Do you know what I’m saying?”

And suddenly Nick did.

He knew exactly what she was saying, and it cooled him off faster than a bucket of ice water down the front of his pants.

Melody was a virgin, and he’d come dangerously close to making sure she’d always remember her first time as a one night stand.

Or maybe a two night stand. Maybe they’d even last a month or two, but in the long run Nick knew he and Melody would never be a couple. They would have hooked up, realized they were wrong for each other, and then drifted apart. And Melody would always regret that she hadn’t waited for the man of her dreams, a good guy who knew how to treat a good girl, who would have been happy to wait until their wedding night to sleep with his bride if that’s what she wanted.