“Is someone still threatening you?”
“Yes. Sending creepy e-mails and leaving menacing messages. I don’t know who I’ve pissed off, or how serious he is. You know crackpots, and some never get past the threatening stage. But this one has mentioned you and said he’ll hurt you to hurt me.”
“This isn’t new, and nothing has ever happened to me.”
“There’s always a first. This one seems tenacious, so I’d feel better if you didn’t go anywhere alone right now. Remember your self-defense. I can’t persuade you to carry, can I?”
Unease sliced through her, razor-thin but impossible to get complacent and let their guard down. Who knew if this guy fit that profile?
“I’m not getting a permit to carry a handgun. I’ll be fine. I’m surrounded by people here.”
Her dad growled into the phone, like he wanted to say something more, but knew it was a futile argument. “So, you’re going to come visit your old man while I’m home, aren’t you?”
“Jesse’s tour stops in Dallas on the second night. I’ll drive out while we’re there.
I’m looking forward to seeing you.”
“Me, too. Take care, little girl. I’ve missed you.” He hadn’t called her that in years. Hadn’t said anything remotely emotional in even longer.
“Is there something you’re not telling me?”
He hesitated. “No. I just want you to be careful.”
CHAPTER 9
“How was rehearsal?” Kimber asked as Jesse entered the hotel suite late in the afternoon nearly a week later.
He was shirtless, his longish hair wet from a recent shower. With a towel in one hand, a bottle of water in the other, he strode into the room, all lazy-hipped grace.
The sleek bulge of his shoulder moved sinuously every time he swiped at his hair with the towel. His masculine throat worked with each swallow of water. His perfectly symmetrical features pulled into a balanced smile.
In the last five years, he’d definitely grown. No longer a cute boy, quite simply, he’d become a gorgeous man. No wonder he was on posters, billboards, and magazine covers all over the world. After years of sightless communication with him, Kimber was almost stunned anew by his beauty.
She enjoyed looking at him. Just looking. She wasn’t moved to touch him. Instead, she ached to see denim-dark blue eyes, razor-short hair, square jaw tensed, and a hard face filled with lust for her.
Damn it, she had to stop thinking about Deke. It wasn’t helping her here. Focus!
What would be helpful was a hot ache in her belly that urged her to get naked with Jesse, the way a single glance from Deke had inspired her. The way a tender kiss from Luc could. But that urge to get down and dirty with Jesse wasn’t coming. In the last few days, she’d felt occasional bursts of feeling for him, like a camera’s flash, brilliant and brief, then gone.
Nothing more.
It seemed the urge hadn’t hit Jesse, either. He’d kissed her sweetly every morning and tenderly every night, then retired to his own bed, leaving her alone in hers.
Thank God. But she did wonder, was there something wrong with her that no man seemed to want her virginity?
Confused by it all, Kimber shook her head.
But the mystery was deeper. In a handful of days, Deke, a man she’d told herself she couldn’t fall for, had barged his way into her heart and burrowed in deep. And she felt so stupid.
Missing and loving a man who would never return her feelings made no sense.
Jesse had been in her dreams, in her plans, for a long time. He was supposed to be her future. True, he wasn’t the same carefree teenager she recalled, no longer quick to laugh.
But she wasn’t the same woman. And she no longer saw Jesse through rose-colored glasses. What she needed, she feared Jesse didn’t have.
“Rehearsal was a regular f**kin”—he grimaced, as if remembering her presence—“It wasn’t smooth. We got some lazy people not doing their jobs. Hung over, the ass**les.” He rolled his eyes. “And the press crawling around. Like they want to report it as news every time I spit. I wish to hell they didn’t follow me everywhere, but Call encourages them. All for my ‘image.’”
“I’m sure he means well. Tonight’s show will be great.” Kimber did her best to sound supportive, like a friend should be. But she wasn’t familiar with the snarling side of Jesse.