Wait for Me Read online

  Man, he loved to perform. He loved that he could coax emotion and meaning from his guitar and voice and convey it to hundreds, thousands of people. He loved that he could make people dance and sing and forget — for a few precious hours — the rest of the world, their worries, their cares.

  Every time he performed he reminded himself he was a lucky, lucky bastard to earn a living this way. He’d made a ritual out of taking a few seconds before he stepped on stage to remember the long road he’d walked to find this place. He felt luckier and more grateful than usual tonight, though, because Beth was out there. Somewhere beyond the blinding spotlights, she was waiting for him — if she didn’t renege on their agreement to meet after the set.

  He pushed the thought away, refusing to rain on his own parade. She was here. That was enough. After three years, they were standing under the same stars again.

  The final notes of the second last song on their set list hung over the crowd for long seconds before being swallowed by a roar of applause. The stage shuddered as the audience stomped their feet, eager for more, and Jonah couldn’t hold back a smile as he looked over his shoulder to check the Boys were ready to power into the next song on their playlist. Brett gave him a nod from his seat behind the drum kit, and Gus threw him a big, happy grin. Dan was swigging water, but he gave Jonah a thumbs-up to signal he was ready to roll again, too.

  “It’s good to be home, Australia,” Jonah said into the mic. “Dorothea McKellar had it right — ‘I love a sunburnt country.’ The Boys and I wrote this song when we were doing our first big tour of the U.S. We were homesick as dogs, desperate for a mouthful of real beer and a glimpse of blue skies. One night we sat down and this song found its way onto the page. Sing along if you know the words.”

  He paused a moment to build a little anticipation, then strummed the opening chords of Take Me Home. A roar of recognition and approval went up, and he was smiling as he sang the first verse.

  He couldn’t help wondering if Beth recognized it as the song he’d been working on when they’d first met. Talking with her during the tour had helped crystalize and distill the essence of his homesickness and he’d poured his insights into the lyrics. She’d been gone by the time he’d finished the song, though. Whisked away by Troy the moment the final concert ended. It had taken the Boys and Jonah another year before they released the song as part of their third album, and it had been their first top-ten hit.

  Even though he knew it was pointless, he couldn’t stop himself from searching for Beth’s face in the sea of dim shadows beyond the lights. As always, he felt the pull of connection to her. The drag of attraction and wanting and liking.

  His heart had stopped in his chest when he’d spotted her in the crowd as they unloaded the SUV. Even though she’d lost weight and cut her hair, even though her brown eyes had been dull with sadness, he’d recognized her instantly, and the place he’d stuffed all his feelings for her had sprung open like a hair-trigger jack-in-the-box.

  In the space it took for his heart to resume beating again, a thousand memories flashed across his mind. The sound of her laughter; the way she frowned ever-so-slightly when she had to sign her name to anything; the swing in her walk; the way she smelled; the slim elegance of her hands; the sweet, delectable curve of her ass; the warm velvet of her eyes…

  Hard on the heels of the memories had come anger for her, and concern, and relief that she was home and safe, away from the madness that had erupted after Troy’s serial infidelities had become public.

  Jonah gave himself a mental shake, conscious he was approaching the tricky bridge of the song. For the next minutes he concentrated on the performance, throwing in a few flourishes here and there, working the crowd, giving it his all. Aware, every second, that Beth was out there watching.

  He wanted to sprint off the stage when he was done, but he made himself stay and play one more song to appease the eager crowd. Then he was backstage, handing his guitar over to a roadie and accepting a bottle of water from his assistant, Marty.

  “Did you sort things out with the security crew?” Jonah asked, wiping a hand across his forehead. He was damp with sweat as usual post-performance, and desperately in need of a shower. “They know to let Beth through?”

  “Relax, it’s all done.”

  “The whole crew knows, right? I don’t want to hear that the one guy who had her name was off on his break when she got there.”

  “Jonah, chill. It’s sorted.” Marty looked over his thick-rimmed glasses at Jonah. “Have I ever let you down?”

  Jonah smiled. Lack of confidence was not one of Marty’s problems. “You realize you’re riding for a fall every time you say that?”

  “I can live with the thrill,” Marty said, deadpan.

  His dry take on the world was one of the reasons Jonah had hired the guy two years ago when success hit and Jonah’s life started to get crazy.

  “Can I be nosy and ask who this chick is, anyway?” Marty took the empty bottle from Jonah and pitched it toward the nearest trash can.

  “Just a friend,” Jonah said. A bead of sweat ran down his spine. At any other venue, he’d be able to walk straight off stage and into the shower in his change room, but out here at the showgrounds in Dubbo his only option was to brave the public toilet block or wait until he was at his accommodation. “Tell me honestly — do I stink?”

  He offered Marty his forearm to sniff-test, worried about being stuck in a car with Beth if he was ripe.

  Instead of giving Jonah his verdict, Marty made a rude noise. “Just a friend. Yeah, right.”

  “You want to help me out here or not?” Jonah asked, his forearm still in the air between them.

  “Mate, are you actually nervous about seeing this woman?” Marty asked, clearly delighted by the thought.

  “On second thought, get out of my face. You’ve officially got the rest of the night off,” Jonah said, waving dismissively and hoping like hell that Marty couldn’t tell that he was blushing.

  Not that Marty missed much.

  “You want me to make sure there are oysters and champagne waiting for you at your villa?” Marty said, a knowing light in his eye.

  Jonah and the band had scored big with their last-minute accommodation, each of them being assigned a private luxury villa at the River Bend Winery Estate on the outskirts of town.

  “No,” Jonah said instantly. Because how would that look to Beth?

  “Have you eaten?” Marty asked. “You should at least let me organize some food for you.”

  “Which part of ‘your services are no longer required’ did you miss, mate?” Jonah asked, his gaze scanning the busy backstage area, on the lookout for Beth’s blonde head.

  Because surely she’d had enough time to make her way to the rear of the pavilion and make herself known to security by now.

  “I’ll leave you to it the moment she shows up, don’t worry,” Marty said. “I’m not going to cramp your style.”

  Dan appeared at Jonah’s elbow, a beer already in hand. “You ready to head to the estate?”

  “You guys go ahead. Marty’s organized a separate car for me.”

  “You mean you’ve commandeered my car,” Marty said.

  Dan blinked with surprise. “You kicking on to a party or something?”

  Jonah was about to answer when he spotted a security guy guiding Beth in his direction. One glimpse of her was enough to vanquish every other thought from his brain.

  Her severe haircut hugged her skull, highlighting the delicacy of her features and the length of her slender neck. Her eyes seemed huge in her face, and he guessed she’d lost a good ten pounds since he’d last seen her. A reminder, if he needed it, that she was going through a tough time.

  Which meant the surge of pure lust he felt at the sight of her was really, really inappropriate.

  He couldn’t help it, though. His body had wanted hers from the moment he first met her. He didn’t know what it was about her. He’d met women who worked their sexuality more
, women whose physical beauty was their stock-in-trade, and none of them made him hot the way Beth did. There was just something about the way she moved, the way she looked at him, the shape of her mouth, the slight curves of her body, the huskiness of her voice… He’d spent the first month of their friendship working on ways to stop himself from getting rock hard every time she walked into the room — then he’d gotten to know her and redirected all his energies toward not being dumb enough to fall in love with another man’s wife.

  “You found me,” he said as she approached.

  “I had a little help,” she said, indicating the security guard.

  “You remember Dan, and this is Marty, my assistant,” Jonah said.

  Dan’s eyebrows shot toward his hairline as he processed who he was looking at.

  “Jesus, Beth. I hardly recognized you with your hair like that,” Dan said, swooping forward to pull her into a hug.

  Beth smiled and hugged him back. “That was kind of the point.”

  Dan’s own smile faltered as he remembered all the reasons why Beth might not want to look like herself right now.

  “Shit. Right. You okay?” Dan asked.

  “Yeah, I am. I’m home. It’s all good,” Beth said a little too brightly.

  Marty was looking arrested, and Jonah guessed his assistant had just worked out who Beth was.

  “Rest of the night is all yours, man,” he said, silently urging Marty to be on his way. “I can handle everything from here.”

  “All right. Call me if you need anything,” Marty said, a million questions in his eyes.

  “I won’t, but thanks.”

  “I’ll catch you later, too, Beth,” Dan said, taking the hint.

  Then it was just the two of them, surrounded by the bustle backstage.

  “If you don’t mind, I was hoping we could drive past my accommodation so I can take a shower, then find somewhere to grab a drink in town,” Jonah said. “Unless you’re worried about leaving your friends?”

  “I have no idea where they are, to be honest. As long as I can get back here at some point, they won’t worry about me.”

  “Not a problem.”

  “Then I’m all yours.”

  It was just a turn of phrase, he knew that, but for a long time he’d wanted Beth to be his and it was impossible to stop his body from responding.

  If she was his, he’d make sure she never looked so sad ever again. He’d fill her world with laughter. And he’d worship her body with his own until she forgot everything except how good he made her feel…

  He gave himself a mental slap. The last thing Beth Walker wanted was him panting all over her like a horny dog. Her marriage had just ended. What she needed was a friend, not some guy who’d been half in love with her for years.

  “Let’s go find my car,” he said, turning away.

  Beth did her best to keep up as Jonah led her past the piles of gear and electrical equipment that constituted backstage at the ball. She’d been in similar spaces enough times to know to keep an eye out for tripping hazards and distracted people, but neither of those concerns stopped her gaze from gravitating to Jonah’s ass as he walked ahead of her.

  She frowned and looked away when she registered what she was doing, then she remembered that there wasn’t a reason in the world why she couldn’t help herself to a good, long eyeful of Jonah Masters’s truly excellent butt. She was as good as divorced, which meant she was free to do whatever she wanted — including admire Jonah’s backside if she chose to.

  And she did. So she let her gaze return to the muscular firmness of his ass, showcased to perfection by well-worn denim and his no-nonsense stride, and deep inside, something hot and primitive sprang to life.

  It took her a moment to recognize it as desire.

  It was such a startling realization she nearly stumbled over her own feet. Ahead of her, Jonah stepped out beneath the canvas flap of the pavilion and glanced over his shoulder to make sure she was still following. Heat stole into her face. If he knew where her head had just been…

  Not to mention her eyes.

  “Still with me?” he asked.

  “Still with you,” she answered, although in truth she was feeling more than a little thrown. It had been so long since she’d felt anything but numb, she didn’t quite know what to do with the realization that she was still capable of feeling something as simple and basic as sexual attraction.

  That was how desperately out of practice she was at life and living.

  Jonah had a quick word with the two security crew hovering at the entrance, then gestured for her to follow him into the night. He kept his face downturned as he made his way toward a white SUV parked alongside one of the generators, clearly trying to avoid being waylaid by fans. The car lights flashed as he unlocked it and he opened her door before rounding the hood and sliding behind the wheel.

  “So far, so good,” he said.

  He started the car and eased slowly toward a break in the fence where another pair of security guards was on watch. They waved him through, then she and Jonah were bumping over gravel, the bright lights and noise of the showgrounds slowly fading behind them. Beth tried to think of something to say, but most of her brain was preoccupied with understanding what had happened a few minutes ago when she allowed herself to look at his ass.

  “The place I’m staying isn’t far,” he said. “Just on the outskirts of town.”

  “Nothing’s far in Dubbo.”

  “Yeah. It’s hardly New York, is it?” He smiled at her. Then his gaze dipped for the briefest of moments to her breasts before returning to the road.

  It was barely a glance. If she’d blinked, she’d have missed it. But she hadn’t, and the idea that Jonah might be interested in her as a woman — that he might have designs on her breasts — transformed the ember of desire in her belly into an undeniable lick of heat and suddenly she was acutely aware of half a dozen things all at once.

  How close they were sitting. How dark it was outside. How alone they were. The feel of her clothes against her skin. The smell of aftershave and deodorant and the tang of fresh sweat.

  “Do you know any good places we can grab a drink in town?” Jonah asked as he slowed to a stop at a red light.

  “Sorry, I’m a Dubbo virgin.”

  “Which, I guess, makes me the scarlet woman, since I’ve been through here dozens of times. Never done anything more than gig and eat, though.”

  “I could ask Google.” Beth suggested, pulling her phone from the pocket in her dress. Frankly, it would be a relief to have something to distract her from herself.

  “Why don’t we just go wild and wing it? See what happens.” He glanced at her, laughter in his eyes, and for the second time in as many minutes she was sideswiped by how freaking hot he was.

  How magnetic.

  How sexy.

  “Sure. That sounds like a plan,” she managed to say. Somehow.

  Her heart was racing so fast she could feel it throbbing in her throat. She pressed her knees together, as if by doing so she could disguise the growing warmth there.

  Dear God, she was out of control. Yes, Jonah was a very attractive man, but it was insane to feel this turned on simply because they were alone in a small, intimate space. And utterly inappropriate, given this was a pity mission for him. That glance at her breasts had probably meant nothing to him — men did that sort of thing all the time. It was as instinctive as breathing for them. She needed to get a grip on her over-the-top reactions before she did or said something foolish.

  And yet…

  For weeks now she’d been living on a steady diet of regret and self-recrimination. She’d called herself every bad, ugly, unflattering name under the sun for being fool enough to believe her lying, cheating rat of a husband. She’d scoured every scurrilous gossip rag she could get her hands on for details of Troy’s betrayals until she’d been filled to the brim with fury and shame. She’d lost her appetite for food, laughter, hope, joy, friendship…

&nb
sp; In short, she’d turned into a zombie. A living, breathing corpse who shuffled from place to place, going through the motions, fake-smiling and putting on a show for the people who cared about her. This…lust pumping through her veins was the first visceral, human urge she’d felt since her life blew up. It might be confusing and even a little unsettling, but it felt good. It felt real and empowering and energizing. It felt like light at the end of the tunnel after a very long walk in the dark.

  Most importantly, it felt like proof positive that Troy hadn’t broken her. For a while there, she hadn’t been so sure about that. But she wanted Jonah Masters. She wanted him bad.

  Frankly, it felt like a miracle.

  She allowed herself a small smile in the darkness of the car, refusing to shy away from her wild, crazy thoughts. Owning them, no matter how out of place they might be. Despite all evidence to the contrary, she wasn’t dead yet.

  “So are you visiting with your friends for long?” Jonah asked as the car left the smoothness of the highway for a gravel road lined with towering ghost gums. Their pale trunks looked otherworldly as the car’s headlights swept over them.

  “I haven’t decided yet. Ellie said I can stay with her as long as I want, but I need to make some decisions.”

  “Like?”

  “Where to live. Where my best chance is of getting a job. That sort of thing.”

  “Where’s top of the list at the moment?”

  “Sydney. I did my degree there, so I know my way around. And there are people I studied with who might be able to put in a good word for me and steer me toward any openings. But I’ve always liked Melbourne.”

  “You’re not thinking of setting up your own practice?”

  Beth smiled faintly at the thought. Launching her own music therapy business would take far more energy than she possessed right now.

  “I need to find my feet before I bite off something that big,” she said.