Sing to Me Read online

  “Hey,” Xalan whined. “What about my –?” His shirt hit him in the face, causing Anise to laugh quietly against her hand.

  ****

  Neal was in Los Angeles to keep a long-standing promise to accompany a popular super-model to the VMA’s. The long-leg Australian beauty had appeared in three music videos that year and at least two of the songs were slated to win an award. She and Neal were nothing more than good friends, but when they appeared together in public and made it onto the cover of a gossip magazine or online; rumors would abound about the nature of their relationship. It was always pointed out how good they looked together.

  Being used to winning movie and video game soundtrack awards from a variety of annual presenters; Neal knew what to expect and how to behave for the paparazzi covering the event. This night was more for Shauna’s benefit, though, even if Neal was likely to win in the movie soundtrack category. He wasn’t particularly fond of the process of the more popular shows or the temporary notoriety that followed winning. It was always more of an honor to be nominated by the lesser-known awards programs that concentrated solely on video game and movie soundtracks; his specialty of late.

  It was a long, drawn-out night of musical entertainment that suddenly had less appeal than in previous years. Neal would much rather have remained in Michigan with Liv, but his word was and always would be his honor. He wouldn’t make any excuses to Shauna even if it ended up having a negative effect on his budding relationship with Liv.

  As he prepared for the long night ahead, Neal thought about Liv and the unexpected yet amazing things that transpired between them in such a short amount of time. When he returned to her after settling the legal case against his stalker, Neal had anticipated more of the same, with Liv behaving standoffish while he continued the gentleman routine. Slow and steady wins the race kind of give and take that could have lasted weeks, if not months.

  While inside the shower, his memories of seeing her naked for the first time surfaced and he struggled to keep his composure. As he stood before a mirror to shave, Neal had to resist the urge to smile whenever Liv entered his mind. Appearing at an award ceremony with razor cuts wasn’t his idea of helping Shauna to look good for the cameras.

  The doorbell of his oceanfront Malibu home rang while he pulled his hair back at the nape and wrapped a black band around it a few times.

  “I’ll get it,” Shauna shouted in her Aussie accent.

  After dressing up in a black tux despite its having started to fall out of fashion at this particular awards show, Neal left his bedroom and entered the livingroom. He stopped fast to see Liv standing near the door.

  Shauna smiled at him before she handed Liv a glass of champagne and sat with a long leg tucked underneath her on an upholstered chair.

  “She’s adorable, Neal! Introduce me to your new girlfriend.”

  Neal glanced from the magazine beauty with a teasing smile to Liv, who appeared uncomfortable and shy but no less attractive in his eyes.

  Liv set the drink on a nearby lamp stand and quietly apologized for barging in on them. When she turned to leave, Neal took a step toward her, but before he could think of the right thing to say, the door closed.

  “What happened?” Shauna asked, and with genuine confusion in her tone. She turned in her chair to look out a large picture window with a magnificent view of the ocean. The taxi Liv arrived in had already pulled onto the main highway.

  “I don’t . . . know,” Neal managed, absentmindedly fussing with a diamond cufflink while frowning at the floor.

  When he had told Liv about the previous engagement, she hadn’t seemed too upset until he told her who it was he had promised to date. She was clearly upset as well for his having asked her to return to California with him. Liv had looked at the invitation as being a fifth wheel when Neal had hoped it would be the start of a lasting relationship.

  The situation turned out to be the cause of their first real argument, and she had accused him of being unsympathetic and thoughtless about having asked her to return to the past. It had made no sense to him at the time, but seeing her just now had a strange effect on him.

  A hellish past I’d rather forget and never go back to relive were the words she used to describe California and the memories of an incident that apparently still gave her nightmares.

  Of course Neal understood and felt sympathy for her; he always had and likely always would since he was partially to blame. Still, it had made him angry to think she never once considered having met him as being a good thing; the way he felt about having met her that fateful day in their shared past.

  Shared. Neal now scoffed at that word and gritted his teeth at Shauna. “It’s nothing,” he said and winced at the sudden flicker of guilt that accompanied his remark. “I mean, I can find out what’s going on later. After the show.”

  “You’re such a good man, Neal.” Shauna rose from the chair to fix his tie. “It’s probably just a misunderstanding about us.” She smiled, patting his prominent chest with both palms. “I’ll be happy to speak with her if you’d like. She needs to understand you’re not the two-timing type and that we’re just good friends.”

  “No,” Neal said through clenched teeth and paused after opening the door to let Shauna leave ahead of him. “It’s nothing you need to concern yourself with. Let’s go, or you’ll miss the chance to be photographed on the red carpet outside the venue.”

  Shauna giggled at his attempt to tease her about her vanity and kissed his cheek before leaving the house.

  Neal craned his neck and tugged at the lapels of his jacket, still clenching his teeth while he tried even harder to let go of the flurry of unexpected emotions now crowding his mind.

  Chapter 14

  Liv arrived back at the hotel and went up to her room in a daze. She couldn’t recall how she got back from Neal’s place, and another twenty minutes passed where she sat on the edge of a king-size bed staring at nothing other than her brief but hurtful memory of seeing Neal with such an attractive woman. The way he and the super-model with the cool accent looked together, it appeared to Liv as if they were an established, perfect couple.

  “With hot sex afterward,” she mumbled. “And, all because I got angry when he asked me to come back to this God-awful place. I guess this means he’s through with me, then.”

  Anger started to replace the initial feeling of trepidation at having bravely decided to visit his place without notice, and then the astonishment and pain she felt to see him with another woman.

  Leaving the bed, Liv swung her leather purse as hard as she could, letting it slam onto a padded chair set against a wall that blocked off the sleeping quarters from the bathroom. It was a mid-range hotel with budget accommodations, and although she could afford a luxury suite in a high-class hotel, Liv rarely considered anything outside the ordinary.

  “Bastard,” she grumbled, staring through a blur of unshed tears at her reflection in a wall mirror. Then she made a sour face before slowly crumbling to the carpeted floor, her legs bent so that her feet were behind her bottom. “Now I have to tell Carmen she was right and I was wrong,” she uttered, hiding her face in her hands. “When she finds out Neal used me, she’s going to laugh like mad before kicking my dumb ass.”

  She started to cry, but not because she feared Carmen’s I told you so. Knowing that Neal had taken what he wanted before he walked away hurt more than she wanted it to. It wasn’t supposed to since it had never occurred with the few other guys she had lain with in the past.

  The too recent to vanish from her mind images of Shauna dressed in a sparkly, tight dress that showed off her gracious figure refused to leave her alone as well.

  After about five minutes of childish sobbing, Liv calmed down but continued to pout and feel sorry for herself. Then she noticed a menu standing against the wall near a telephone next to the bed and a mouse-like noise of curious interest escaped her.

  “Pizza,” she whispered, sniffing and using an arm to wipe away the tears from he
r face. Sitting atop the bed, she perused the delivery menu and placed an order. While waiting for her food, she turned on a flat-screen television and channel surfed for something to do.

  “Big, fat, ugly surprise,” she grumbled while pressing the remote every few seconds. “Come back to this state and what happens?” She sat up and sniffed, blotting more tears from her eyes. “Whatever. Forget about it. He’s hot, he’s famous, and he’s always been with women like that accented model. I knew that and got naked with him anyway, so it’s my fault I’m miserable right now.”

  The channel stopped on the VMA show when a knock at the door signaled the arrival of her pizza. While she ate, she watched the show.

  Liv was in California to meet with her attorney. The woman had phoned a few days ago to let Liv know that something highly unlikely came up that she didn’t want to discuss over the phone or through e-mail.

  “It’s too personal,” she had insisted. “I’m sorry that I’m unable to fly out to Michigan right now, too. You’ll just have to come to my office, Liv. I’m afraid there’s no way around it.”

  And at the time, Liv wasn’t too concerned about flying out to California anymore. After arguing with Neal, she felt a little guilty about having been overly sensitive. He had accused her of being stuck in the past, and Liv was already too upset to let the remark get the best of her.

  It wasn’t long after he left that she began to miss him, though. She started to believe he could be right; that if she really intended to let go, then she needed to face the past. So, she told the attorney that she would see her in a few days and used that time to work up the courage to drop in on Neal unannounced; to surprise him, or so she thought.

  “So, he ends up surprising me in the worst possible way,” she mumbled while chewing the pizza and staring at the television without really watching what was going on. “It’s over,” she sniffed. “I’ll find out what Mrs. Barnes has to say and go back home like nothing ever happened. I’ll just have to sleep in another bedroom until his scent and my memories fade. I’ll go back to being a happy recluse and pretend he never re-entered my life.”

  Liv dropped a pizza slice into the open box and started to cry. Loud and hard; her mouth open and her eyes shut. “I hate you, Neal Hendrix! You’re a bad omen! A jinx! A –.”

  She stopped crying and pointed at the television, making another mouse noise.

  “Neal!” She scooted along the mattress until she was at the end of the bed and gaped at the big screen. Smiling while tears still trailed down her flushed face; she whispered his name and reached out to him. “It’s Neal,” she breathed. “So handsome.”

  A few seconds later, the smiled faded along with her mood. “I hate you,” she grumbled, pouting at his smiling countenance.

  Flash bulbs filled the background while he and the super model posed, smiled, and waved to the screaming crowd behind the cameras.

  “Big shot, famous celebrity, world-renown musician with secret ties to another famous guitar legend,” she muttered. “Go ahead, hot guy. Enjoy your life without me the way I said you should. Remember? Come into my life and make me feel like a billion dollars and then make me cry like an idiot. Get my hopes up, dazzle me with them sexy eyes of yours, and charm your way into my bed with that huge –.”

  With a heavy groan, Liv fell onto her back atop the mattress and gazed at the ceiling through another blur of tears. Knowing it was her fault, and that she had given in to a moment of weakness, Liv closed her eyes and cried some more. She fell asleep to the low drone of the television and didn’t awaken until late into the night.

  She turned off the television and used the bathroom before crawling back into bed and sleeping another few hours. No thoughts of Neal appeared in her dreams to disrupt that sleep or cause any more bouts of sadness.

  In the morning, Liv took a shower and resolved to let the matter go. It was over between her and Neal, she had no right to get involved with someone like him to begin with, and after meeting with the attorney, she would return to Michigan the same woman she was before all the madness occurred.

  ****

  Attorney Barnes’s office was in a glass tower in downtown Los Angeles, and it was mid-afternoon when Liv arrived for her appointment. As she waited for the elevator doors to open, she thought briefly about what could be so personal a matter that it was too involved to discuss over the phone.

  The elevator’s ding brought her back around, and she waited for the lift to empty before she started inside. Someone latched onto her arm, startling her. Liv looked up to see Neal gazing at her, and all she could do was to blink. It was becoming a bad habit to lose it just by looking at him, and as he asked what she was doing there, the feeling passed.

  Yanking her arm free and lifting a stubborn chin, Liv narrowed her eyes and proceeded inside the elevator; determined to ignore him.

  After pressing the floor number, she glanced in his direction and saw the wary smile on his handsome face. He waited for the others to gather inside the lift before joining them.

  Startled, Liv tried to behave like she hadn’t seen him, but then she could feel him standing right beside her, and all she could do was frown while the heat of discomfort slowly rose up her face.

  “Liv.” His quiet yet sexy-enough tone made her shiver the way it always did to hear him speak; especially at such intimately close range. It didn’t matter that they were in public, either. Her desire knew no bounds with this man, and even if she believed they were through, her body still wanted more. “We need to talk,” he said, glancing at the floor numbers as they rose. “Why are you here if you said you’d never come back?”

  The elevator stopped and the doors opened, allowing three of the nine people to get off and for two more to get on. They were two young office women who huddled in a corner and eyed Neal while whispering to one another.

  Just as Liv began to realize how dangerous it was for her to be seen with someone famous, a middle-age man in a business suit turned to face them. He smiled up at Neal and extended a hand for him to shake.

  “Saw you at the awards ceremony last night,” he said. “You looked great alongside Shauna. She’s quite a beauty, isn’t she?” The man paused to chuckle at his own remark. “Congratulations on winning another award.”

  “Thank you,” Neal said, sounding to Liv like he felt just as uncomfortable as she did.

  The two girls were still staring at him. Liv gasped inwardly to see one of them lift a cell phone, and while the two stared at the screen, Liv turned away and raised her purse alongside her face.

  The elevator stopped again, and the two girls got off, squealing at their decent phone image of Neal. His grip on her arm relaxed before he let go, and Liv was slow to recover from such a terrifying prospect like ending up online again even if it was for an entirely different reason.

  Arriving at her floor, Liv quietly excused herself and stepped off the elevator, hoping that Neal wouldn’t follow. She paused to get her bearings, and using a finger, she turned right to left. Starting in that direction, she stopped to see Neal standing in front of her.

  “Do you mind?” she quietly whined, hitting him with her purse and marching away in a huff. She could feel him behind her, so she quickened her pace, but the attorney’s office was at the end of the hall. She didn’t have far to go. She had to knock first, giving Neal plenty of time to catch up and stop her from entering the office.

  “Liv, please,” he said while managing to set her back against the wall without her realizing it. His smile was tight but effective at distracting her from her true feelings. His touch didn’t help matters, either. His scent, too. Everything about him was a major distraction that worked too effortlessly to make her feel one way over another. “Is something wrong that you need to speak with an attorney? What’s going on? I don’t get why you came over and then left right away, either.”

  “I’m busy, Neal,” Liv managed, pushing away from the wall and brushing a hand down the arm that still tingled from his touch. “Can we do
this another time?”

  Neal stared at her for a few seconds before he turned with a deep intake of breath and glanced down the hall.

  Liv’s eyes zeroed in on the expanse of his chest, and then she looked up at his profile. Before he could set his mesmerizing gaze on her again, she slipped inside the attorney’s office and let the door click shut in his handsome face.

  Mrs. Barnes greeted Liv with a genuine smile and a hearty hello, asking her to follow her inside a private office. She was in her late fifties now; short and plump but sharp looking in a light gray suit with a white, ruffle-collar blouse. Her perm-curled hair was a mix of yellow, gray, and white and her pale, blue eyes stood out under the thin purple liner she applied with perfection.

  “Now, my dear,” she began after sitting behind an impressive desk uncluttered with stacks of files, sticky notes in two neat rows on a glass blotter, and with her computer screen tucked in the right-hand corner facing the window wall that was covered by a sun shade at that hour of the day. “I hope you’re not too upset with me for making you come all this way.”

  “No,” Liv said and waved a dismissive hand. She sat in a comfortable leather chair facing Mrs. Barnes, leaning forward in anticipation of something huge. “It’s great to see you again after all this time. How have you been?”

  “Oh, fine,” Mrs. Barnes said and laughed. “You look great, too. You’re still not spending much money, though. All those investments I’ve been handling for you have paid off and you’re sitting more pretty than ever.”

  “I know.” Liv giggled, smiling shyly. It seemed criminal the way the dividend checks kept piling up in her account. She eyed the attorney owl-like. “I can’t stop buying clothes and jewelry.”

  Mrs. Barnes laughed even louder and slapped the desk. “I was wondering if you were going to admit as much or not.” She sat up and appeared serious. “I’m talking about things like property, business ventures, and what-not. Are you interested?”