Face the Music (A Brothers of Rock - GONE BY AUTUMN - Novel) (17 page)

“I didn’t mean it the way it sounded,” Jocelyn said. She walked to the sink and jumped up on it. “The fantasy thing. I’m sorry if I offended you.”

“You didn’t. You were being honest. I just… all this, so fast, so much. I still don't even know if you’re actually single. Normally, I wouldn’t give a shit. But with you, I care.”

“I’m single, Asher,” Jocelyn said. “Believe me, I’m single.”

“Then what’s the deal with
him
?”

“That’s hard to answer.”

“Try me,” Asher said. He stepped from the shower and grabbed a fresh pair of jeans from a bag on the floor. He turned, dropped the towel, and looked over his shoulder. “Talk to me, love.”

“I’m kind of staring at your ass.”

Asher put his jeans on and turned. He folded his arms. “I’m losing it here.”

“I know,” Jocelyn whispered. “There was a time when it was fun, and then it wasn’t. He’s doing so much right now. It scares me.”

“Before or after he hits you?”

Asher turned his head when he asked it. He didn’t mean it to be like that…

“Ouch,” Jocelyn said.

“I didn’t mean…”

“You’re right,” she said. “I remember the first time it happened, okay? And a few times after that. Then it all became a blur. It would happen, we wouldn’t talk, then something good with the company would happen. It’s this cycle. And my father looks at me like I’m a success. I can’t find the way to talk to him. Asher, he saw the picture of us together and he brought Chad into it. To baby-sit me. Chad came over and had bodyguards with him. They looked through my apartment to find… you…”

“Holy Christ,” Asher said. “You didn’t tell me that part.”

“I don’t want any of it to be your problem,” Jocelyn said. “That’s why I said the fantasy thing. When I’m with you and just… even this… just talking… it all slips away. But if we get into this, it’s going to bring you into it.”

Asher stepped toward Jocelyn. “Then we talk to him. Together. You and me. I’ll talk to your father.”

Jocelyn scoffed. “You don’t know my father. The great Victor. It’s not that simple.”

“Yes it is. He’s a person. So am I. So are you. That’s ridiculous to think of it any other way. He loves you, right? He wants the best for you. What if he found out that someone… hurt you?”

Jocelyn hung her head. “I don’t know if he’d believe me. Chad has his grips…”

Asher was in front of Jocelyn now. He gently touched her shoulders. She looked at him, her eyes glossy.

“Love, then we make him believe you. That’s why I’d be there. And if Chad dared to come near you, bodyguards or not, I’d be there. I have more money and power than he could ever imagine. I’ll protect you.”

Jocelyn blinked fast and then wiped away a tear. “This is what I mean. Then you’re pulled into it.”

“I’m not being pulled,” Asher said. “I’m walking. Right next to you.”

“But why?”

“I care. I can’t imagine not seeing you. Touching you. Getting to know more about you. Caring for you. I can’t imagine you with anyone else… or getting hurt again.”

“No,” Jocelyn said. “You don’t get my family. My mother’s gone. Since I was so young. My father…”

“My family was gone a long time ago, love. I know what it’s like. To have, to lose, to feel desperate. But with me, you don’t have to feel desperate. Just feel honest. That’s all I could ever ask from you. Honesty.”

“You want honesty?” Jocelyn asked. She sucked in a breath. “Honestly, I need to you take my shirt off. Strip me. Touch me. Pull me close to your naked body. And let me slip away.”

Those words should have been pure, beautiful poetry to Asher’s rockstar ears. It should have had his hands moving fast now. Hell, he was only in a towel. Half the work was already done.

But Asher didn’t move.

“And if I want more?” Asher whispered. “The honesty of your heart, not your body. Your eyes, love. Holy shit, your eyes are the prettiest I’ve ever seen. That’s where it’s coming from.”

“Then I’ll shut my eyes,” Jocelyn said.

“No. You deserve more.”

“Don’t tell me what I deserve. I can figure that out.”

“But you’re not. You’re stuck and you’re staying stuck.”

“It’s my business. Not yours.”

“I know what I saw,” Asher said. “Not just you and
him
. But I saw you. Your heart, body, and all the beauty you try to hide. Don’t push me away.”

Jocelyn brought her hands to Asher’s body. Her fingertips sliding up along the damp ridges of muscle. Her touch set him on fire. His jeans weren’t going to be able to hide what she was doing to him.

“Then don’t get involved in anything but me,” Jocelyn said. “Please. Just take me tonight.”

“And tomorrow?”

“It doesn’t matter. We can still…”

“Live a fantasy?”

Jocelyn looked him dead in the eyes. “A sexy fantasy.”

“Where you’re in pain and I stand there and watch it? Where I suffer. Where I hurt. Where I go against everything I believe in because of you.”

“You’re hurting yourself then. I didn’t ask for your help. I didn’t ask for you. You just appeared. You’re the sexy rockstar. You’re the one who’s supposed to screw me and then ditch me.”

“That’s what you think? That’s what you want?”

“What if I said yes?”

Asher backed up. He touched Jocelyn’s face and went to the door. “Then I guess I’m going to just call it a night.”

*

Jocelyn knew not to let him leave the bathroom. That wasn’t supposed to happen. In her mind, it had been so easy. She’d come into the bathroom and just seduce Asher. Not that it would take much. He was a rockstar, right? But he cared. He really did. And leaving Jocelyn to herself to prove it.

The second the bathroom clicked shut, tears filled her eyes again and she lost herself. She started to weep in silence, head bobbing, her heart unable to hold back any longer. This was where it all led. Feeling scared, alone, threatened. Knowing that Chad could be anywhere, anytime, or maybe his dumb hulk bodyguard guys lingering around. But Jocelyn meant what she said about not getting him involved in all this. The emotions in all this mess would only end up hurting everyone. Well, maybe not everyone, but definitely Jocelyn and Asher.

As Jocelyn wiped a tear from her eye, she knew she was giving power to everyone else but herself right now. It was just all so much to carry at once. The way life moved along, boring or excited, and then a wall just appeared from nowhere. Sometimes that wall is big, bad, and hurts. Sometimes that wall just wanted to hug you and love you.

Jocelyn looked to the bathroom door and she shook her head. Asher was meant to be on stage. And when he was done on stage, he should be with someone. Someone who wasn’t a mess, didn’t have baggage, and who wouldn’t chase him from the bathroom of an expensive and beautiful hotel room.

When Jocelyn pushed herself away from the sink, she refused to look back at her reflection. It would make her sadder.

She went to the door and opened it, wanting to see if Asher was gone yet. He deserved to leave. He could probably catch up with the tour bus and enjoy the rest of his night. Hell, Jocelyn would even pay for the hotel room. Then again, if she did that on a credit card, Chad would probably find out.

Asher wasn’t gone yet. He stood just outside the door, back to Jocelyn, hands at his sides.

“Asher?” she asked.

He turned his head. “Hey, love. I’m so sorry… I promised myself I would never make you to feel guilty about anything. And I just did…”

“I’m afraid I’ll lose everything,” Jocelyn said. “I’ll be standing there, the weight on my shoulders and I’ll end up in trouble. He’s doing things with my name. And maybe I should talk to my father, but if I go to him, I have to sell to him that Chad is a bad person. It would just be him listening and understanding. And if he does find out the truth… then what? He’ll never let it go. He’ll never go a day without making sure to remind me of what happened. Then I have nothing. Nothing, Asher.”

Asher slowly turned. “That’s where you’re wrong, love. You’ll have everything you could ask for. And that’s freedom. If you lost your company I’m damn sure you could start a new one.”

“It’s not the easy.”

“I know that. But if this guy is doing thing in your name or the company’s name that can really hurt you, you have to get out. You have to face it all and get the hell out.” Asher reached out and gently touched Jocelyn’s face. “Let me put it this way… the only time I want to see you in handcuffs is if I put them on you.”

Jocelyn laughed as another tear fell from her eye. “Can we skip the handcuffs tonight?”

“Yeah, sure. What do you need, love?”

“A hot bath,” Jocelyn whispered. “And you.”

Jocelyn felt her heart opening even more. She put her hand to Asher’s hand, still touching her face. She stared into his eyes. He was strength. He was power.
He was a rockstar.
Tonight, she wanted to feel everything he had to offer.

(15)

Asher had his hands at Jocelyn’s waist and guided her away from the bathroom. He jumped back to the closet and opened it to find a long, white bathrobe. It was a thick as a winter blanket and had the softness of Jocelyn’s sweet body. He gave it to Jocelyn with a nod and a smile.

“I’ll get your hot bath for you,” he said. “You need to be wearing nothing but this.”

Asher would have most definitely preferred to have stood there and watched beautiful Jocelyn strip herself from all her clothes, but he knew the payoff would come soon enough anyway. His hands could be tempted only for so long. The same for his body, and his heart.

There was no way in hell Jocelyn was going to end up in trouble. Not with Asher in her life. And if she really did want to push him away and demand he leave, then he’d slink away into the night. But that wouldn’t happen without a fight. Because Jocelyn was worth fighting for and she needed to see that. To understand it. To believe it.

Asher crouched and turned on the water. He poured some kind of lavender stuff into the water that was very soothing and calming. Right above the bath was a small light. He turned that on and turned off the rest of the lights in the bathroom. Within a minute, the bathroom started to fill with steam. It rose from the water and spread across the ceiling and then pushed down.

The mirror started to fog and Asher checked on the water one more time. Hot but not too hot. Hot enough that Jocelyn’s body would tense up for a second but then quickly adjust to the temperature.

The buildup was turning Asher on like crazy. And then Asher opened the bathroom door and Jocelyn stood there in nothing but the white bathrobe. It stole his breath. He stood there, shaking his head. He couldn’t speak because his heart was racing.

“You have no idea,” he said.

Her blue-green eyes were so special. Her hair a little messy but just naturally beautiful in the way it fell. Some pieces curled, some didn’t. The way the top of the robe wasn’t completely closed. A
V
dipped down close to Jocelyn’s breasts. She was every bit of a dream standing in front of him.

“Ready to go,” he said. “Enjoy your bath.”

Jocelyn stepped into the bathroom and quickly reached for Asher’s wrist. She pulled at him, glancing at him over her shoulder with that lust filled look in her eyes.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“I told you what I want,” Jocelyn said. “A hot bath and you.”

Asher slowly shut the bathroom door.

Jocelyn took a few steps forward and then she opened the robe. She let it fall and glanced back over her shoulder at Asher. He stared at her slender back. The succulent curves of her body. Her beautiful ass, leaving Asher’s hands wanting to touch, hold, love. Even her legs were amazing. Asher counted three cute freckles on the back of her left leg. But that was enough looking at her damn legs.

Jocelyn lifted her hands to her hair and with a slight turn, Asher saw the curve of her breast. Not everything but enough to make him hard as a rock in his jeans. Jocelyn let her hair down and walked to the bath. She stepped into the water, her left toes first, gently curling, and playing with the hot water. She let out a hiss and then stepped into it. Her right hand touched the wall for balance and this time when she turned, Asher got to see her entire body from the side.

Groaning on the inside, Asher gritted his teeth. He was forced to make fists, desperate to seek relief from the torture Jocelyn was enacting upon him. The best part was that she had no idea what she was doing. Which meant she didn’t know how beautiful she really was.

Jocelyn then sank into the water, putting an arm to the side of the bath. She was completely in the water now and from Asher’s angle, he couldn’t really see much, but he knew damn well she was freaking naked and in the bathtub.

“This is amazing,” she said. “It’s so relaxing.”

“Good,” Asher said. “You deserve it.”

“Come here, Asher. Please.”

Asher kept his fists tight and then walked to the bathtub.

There were little cloudy patches in the water from the stuff Asher had poured into the bathroom to give it its soothing smell. One of those clouds rested right over Jocelyn’s belly, just under her belly button, covering
everything else up
. But her breasts weren’t covered at all. He could see was nervous right now, being so exposed to him.

Asher dropped to his knees and smiled at her. “Just relax, love. I promise you, everything will work out. Somehow. I’ll take your lead, but I can’t let you get hurt.”

Jocelyn reached for Asher’s hand and squeezed it. “I don’t get it.”

“Get what?”

“You. Me. This…”

“Neither do I,” Asher said. “But it happens like this I guess. You make me forget everything I know. And I don’t care about it. I just want you, Jocelyn. I don’t want you to leave later. Or tomorrow. Or the day after that.”

“Do you really mean all that?” Jocelyn asked. “You’re not just trying to get at me?”

Asher laughed. “Love, if I wanted you like that, we’d already be done twice. And we wouldn’t be in a hotel room. I don’t have the care or energy for that. But you, you’re worth all this. To try and attempt to prove to you how special and pretty you are.”