“If you want me to sing my own
songs, I have all the backing tracks on my iPod upstairs and can
plug it into the sound system,” she offered.
“I feel embarrassed asking you
to sing Robbie and Kylie cover versions.” The groom recovered his
voice at last and was laughing with excitement.
“Well don’t. Only yesterday I
was telling my friend how much I miss singing in small venues. If
the band will lend me a guitar I’ll have the time of my life.”
Aiden chose this moment to
emerge from the bar, only to find Erika being hugged by a
newly-married couple and surrounded by musicians stunned by the
prospect of playing in Erika Fenn’s backing group.
“Is everything okay?” he asked,
pushing his way to the centre of the group and positioning himself
protectively beside Erika.
“Fine.” Her eyes were alight
with excitement. “Georgia and Phil’s wedding singer can’t make it
so I’ve offered to fill in.”
“Are you sure?” Aiden looked
dubious and moved her away. “Shouldn’t you be resting your
voice?”
“This is a wedding party, not
Madison Square Gardens,” she reminded him, laughing. “It’s
everything I’ve been missing for the last five years – proper music
to a small crowd and the chance to play real instruments.” She
glanced back at Georgia and Phil who were watching them, holding
their breath. “I can’t let them down.”
It was impossible for Aiden to
resist the huge smile on her face but he couldn’t help reminding
her that they’d originally had other plans.
“I’ll expect you to make it up
to me later,” he warned.
“Don’t worry. I will. Big time.
Remember, we always had the best sex after a great gig.”
Leaving Aiden with that very
dangerous thought, Erika sent him to retrieve her iPod. By the time
he returned, she was in the ballroom with the band, running through
the music with all the professionalism she’d show at a major
stadium concert. Picking up a guitar, she strummed a few chords of
a Stevie Wonder song to check she could still play it and then
switched effortlessly to a Bee Gees ballad, crooning softly under
her breath. She suggested changes to the set in order to play old
favourites that she knew would have the guests up and dancing, and
the band insisted she included more of her own music
Eventually, Erika climbed the
steps at the side of the stage, sat down at the piano and looked
over at Aiden who’d taken a seat at the bar. He smiled
encouragingly and raised his glass, although the standing ovation
was all the reassurance Erika needed to banish her nerves.
Her fingers picked out the first
few notes of Perfect Together, one of her earliest hits and a
haunting ballad that had become a favourite with lovers the world
over. Georgia and Phil took to the floor, looking so perfectly
happy tears rose to Erika’s eyes, lending an emotion to her voice
she rarely tapped into in a major venue.
Even though the song had been
written for Aiden, it spoke to any lover’s heart, and the couple
danced closer while the words floated around them.
Perfect for each other
Two halves of one whole
There’ll never be another
Two hearts, one soul
If I’m correct
The question’s not whether
Each of us is perfect.
But are we perfect together?
Erika sang huskily into the
microphone, living every phrase. She couldn’t help but sing
directly to Aiden, asking herself whether the two of them would
still be perfect together.
Or had too much happened to
break the unique connection they’d shared before love and life had
torn them apart?
The song ended in a storm of
applause, jolting Erika back to reality. Without missing a beat,
she launched into a rocking, Motown classic that had every guest
storming the dance-floor. Vocally, Erika had always been a
chameleon and her romantic, mellow tone became that of a soul diva;
raunchy, throaty and making everyone’s feet itch to dance.
The band followed with a medley
from Saturday Night Fever, Robbie Williams’s greatest hits and a
selection from Kylie and Shakira, all of which Erika delivered with
gusto before leading a conga line through the reception area to the
O’Jays Love Train. She grabbed Aiden on the way past the bar.
“I’d forgotten how much fun this
is,” she called to him over her shoulder.
“And I’d forgotten what a
fantastic entertainer you are. This crowd love you.”
After steering the breathless
guests back into the ballroom, Erika ran up onto stage for three of
her own dance tunes that had been massive worldwide hits. Seeing
that two of the younger bridesmaids knew the dance routines step
for step she called them up beside her, creating an impromptu
backing group. In a stadium or massive indoor arena, Erika had been
separated from her audience by barriers and a legion of security
men, and it had therefore been impossible to create a level of
intimacy. However, in a small hotel in Yorkshire, Erika suddenly
recaptured everything she loved about music and danced as if her
feet were on fire, grinning so much she could barely sing.
After a couple of hours her
voice desperately needed a break so she left the band to perform a
Beatles medley while she joined Aiden at the bar.
“I’m having the time of my
life,” she said, hugging him so hard she almost knocked him off his
stool. “I can’t believe how much fun this is.”
“This is just like the old days.
You look so sexy up there, I can’t wait to get you alone.”
Aiden handed her a glass of iced
water and she gulped it down before slipped her arms around his
neck and kissing him.
“Your lips are freezing,” he
laughed, holding her closer for another kiss.
“Play your cards right and I’ll
let you warm them up later.”
The idea appealed and Aiden slid
his hands down over her backside, pulling her hips sharply to him.
“After seeing you up there tonight, there’s no way I can let you go
back to Marty. I want you with me.”
Erika smiled tenderly at him
feeling more hopeful than she had in years. And more secure.
Someone was finally on her side and waiting to catch her if she
fell.
“I’ll hold you to that promise,”
she said, stroking his cheek. “A week ago, I wouldn’t have believed
any of this but you’ve literally changed my life overnight. There’s
no way I can go back to America now.”
The band played the opening
notes of The Beatles’ Something, slowing down the mood, and Aiden
took Erika’s hand.
“Dance with me,” he said, making
it sound more like an command than a request.
“Dance?” She couldn’t remember
the last time she’d slow danced with anyone.
“You remember – that thing we
used to do standing up.”
“As opposed to that thing we did
lying down.”
Aiden grinned wickedly. “We
often did that standing up too.”
He pulled Erika into his arms,
her body moulding to his as she laid her cheek against his chest.
He’d been dancing with one of the bridesmaids and his skin still
felt seductively hot through his shirt. When he rested his chin on
the top of Erika’s head, he let one hand stroke the length of her
naked arm before dropping kisses down onto her shoulder. His breath
scorched her skin and raised goosebumps down her spine.
Longing overwhelmed her and she
looked up at him, reading an identical need in his face. Forgetting
the crowd around them, Erika pulled Aiden’s lips down to hers and
kissed him deeply, feeling his arms tighten around her as he held
her like he never wanted to let her go.
His hand trailed up her back
before tangling itself in her hair, so Erika couldn’t have pulled
away if she’d have wanted to. Her kiss deepened, drinking in his
very soul, his touch filling her with a confounding concoction of
love, yearning and a desperation to make up for lost time.
The past five years melted away
and Erika knew then that she’d forgive and forget, no matter what.
Every sense told her there never had been – and never would be –
another man like Aiden, even if she lived another hundred
lifetimes.
Someone who completed her and
filled up the spaces from where love had been missing for too long.
He was worth the risk.
If Aiden needed her back in his
life, that’s exactly where she wanted to be and she couldn’t wait
to prove it to him.
“I want you so much,” he
breathed against her cheek. “And not just tonight. I need you,
Erika.”
She pulled away so she could
look at him. “Don’t talk,” she said, placing her thumb across his
lips. “You don’t need to say anything. I feel it too.”
This time he kissed her.
A kiss that brought back every
memory of the love they’d once shared and branded them afresh
across her heart.
It would take her a long time to
completely trust Aiden again, and she’d worry every time he was out
of her sight, but Erika knew he desperately wanted to put things
right.
Their love had lain dormant
through a harsh winter of loneliness, waiting for a little warmth
to coax it back to life. Allowed to flourish, it could be as fresh,
beautiful and intense as it had always been.
All Erika needed to do was open
her heart for it all to be given back to her again.
The song ended too quickly,
making Erika and Aiden aware of the crowd around them and forcing
them apart.
“No encores tonight,” Aiden
warned in a whisper, unable to resist kissing her once more. “I
want you all to myself as soon as possible.”
Tingling at the many promises
those few words contained, Erika made her way back onto stage to
perform a solo while the band took a break. She’d intended singing
along to backing tracks on her iPod but instead, picked up a guitar
and approached the mic.
“As it’s a special occasion, I’d
like to sing some songs that I’ve never performed before,” she
began, strumming soft chords to set the mood. “Most of my lyrics
were inspired by a man I loved more than I can ever say. Sadly, we
broke up.”
The audience gave a collective
sigh of aah shame, and Erika laughed.
“I ran away to America,” she
continued, still strumming softly, “and the rest, as they say, is
an awful lot of downloads from iTunes.”
Aiden managed a sad smile at a
joke that concealed a colossal heartbreak. It gave Erika the
courage to go on.
“I secretly wrote an album
called Songs Of Love and Loss but the lyrics have always been too
private to share.” Erika wondered what Marty would make of this
information – probably around twenty million dollars, she guessed.
“These songs are for the man that got away.”
The soft, random chords
solidified into the opening bars of Breach Of Trust, a song of
sadness and betrayal that brought every heartsick feeling rushing
back in on Erika.
You said you’d love me for all
time
But in her bed you quickly
climbed.
Lying in her arms not mine.
Dreams turned to dust – you
breached my trust
In her mind’s eye, Erika was
turning the key in Aiden’s door and letting herself into his dark
apartment, planning to slip into bed with him and celebrate the end
of her exams in his arms. Instead, she’d opened the bedroom door to
find him having tempestuous sex with a blonde who was enjoying
herself far more than she was entitled to.
When I saw I’d been betrayed
There’s no way I could have
stayed.
Not with the dirty tricks you’ve
played
So run, I must – you’ve breached
my trust.
Back then, Erika had turned and
run, hearing Aiden calling desperately down the stairwell to her.
She’d never really stopped running until that moment, but she
finally felt she’d come to rest. She saw the same desperation in
his eyes that she’d heard in his voice that night and knew his mind
was in exactly the same place.
Rapturous applause greeted the
closing bars but Erika didn’t pause, not wanting to slow down the
silent conversation she was having with Aiden.
“I wrote this next song on a
plane to New York,” she told the audience, “with tears streaming
down my face and no idea how I’d ever recover. Instead, I made a
vow that I’d pick myself up and make him sorry that he’d ever let
me go.”
The soft strumming turned into
the opening bars of Prove Myself and the audience stilled, held
spellbound.
Leaving my world behind.
Putting an ocean between us.
Running to prove myself
And learning to love myself
Without you.
I’ll pretend I’m fine
Although my world no longer
rhymes.
I’ll make a new me
To make you see
That letting me go was a
crime.
When the song ended, Erika went
straight into a third tune, intending to bring the story full
circle. “Five years on, I’ve achieved far more than I ever dreamed
of. But now I need someone to fix the hole in my heart.”
“I’ll marry you if he won’t,”
one of the ushers shouted, to roars of laughter.
“Thanks.” Erika pretended to
consider the offer. “Leave your number behind the bar and I’ll get
back to you,”
As her guitar picked up the
melody, Erika didn’t dare look at Aiden, although she felt his eyes
on her, reading her mind and seeing into her soul.
“This is for the love of my
life,” she said. “The man I lost but who never really let me
go.”
I don’t want to cry myself to
sleep tonight.
I need your arms to hold me
tight.
Your kiss is the only thing that
might
Heal this hole in my heart.
Take this pain you put me
through
And kiss it better. Make me
brand new.
Take a dozen loving lifetimes
to
Mend this gaping hole in my
heart.