God, she was getting wet from the sensuous slide of his tongue against hers and the feel of his palms against her jaw.

How did he do this to her? How did he make her want him so badly that nothing else mattered?

Her hands reached for his hips to draw him closer—

And he took a step back.

Her eyes flew open to find him staring down at her, his eyes an intense blue now.

“That was no fucking mistake.”

Then he turned around and walked away.

Chapter Six

Fucking sonovabitch.

Still breathing like he’d run a five-minute mile after smoking a pack of cigarettes, Baz slammed the door to the studio behind him and briefly considered locking it.

Not that he thought she’d follow him, but because he wasn’t sure he could trust himself not to go back out there and seduce her out of her clothes.

Damn it, she’d pissed him off when she’d said last night had been a mistake. Even though that’s exactly what he’d been expecting her to say, it’d still made him want to show her how wrong she really was.

Yeah, but where the fuck do we go from here?

Good question. And here he was, hiding from the answer.

No, he wasn’t hiding. He was giving her time to think. Yeah, that was exactly what he was doing.

But it also gave him way too much time to think.

And he’d been doing enough of that already. Now, he needed to do some acting.

He’d come to a couple of conclusions while he’d been playing earlier. One: He needed to call Nik. It was way past time.

And two: He wanted to kiss Tru again. And he didn’t want to stop kissing her.

She hadn’t exactly said no. In fact, he was pretty damn sure she’d been reaching for him when he’d stepped away.

So, yeah. He was going to kiss her again. He just needed to go a little slower than he was used to. She wasn’t a groupie looking to score after a concert, a fan looking for another notch in her bedpost.

She was the girl next door who didn’t date guys with tattoos who played in rock bands.

He was going to be the one to change her mind. But first he needed to be the kind of guy she did want to go out with. One who had his shit together.

Which all started with a phone call.

Grabbing his phone off the top of the piano, he tapped at screens until he found the number he was looking for. He didn’t stop to think. He just punched it.

It rang. And rang. And rang.

And Nik didn’t pick up.

“Fucking leave me a message or don’t fucking leave me a message. Don’t care which. Maybe I’ll call you back. Probably not.”

Baz had a grin on his face by the time the beep sounded.

Then he took a deep breath. “Hey, it’s me. Call me back.”

He tapped the screen harder than normal to end the call.

Was he a little relieved that Nik hadn’t picked up? Yeah, maybe. But that just gave him more time to work. Which he couldn’t do with his fingers wrapped up tight. He’d been too involved in watching Tru to realize she’d doubled wrapped his fingers like he’d severed an artery.

The girl didn’t do anything in half measures, did she?

He’d started to unwrap his mummy hands when movement from the mixing booth caught his eye. He saw Greg come through the door and head straight for the studio.

“You okay?” Greg pointed at his hands.

“Yeah, fine. Common casualty.” He picked up the roll of medical tape he’d grabbed from the other room before he’d left Tru standing there and held it up.

Then Baz smiled. He couldn’t keep it contained anymore and Greg raised an eyebrow at him.

“You gonna tell me what the grin is for?”

“I think I’m finished with the score.”

Greg’s eyes widened. “Seriously?’

“Yeah. Listen.”

As Greg slid onto the nearest stool, Baz turned to the piano, opened the laptop and queued the film to the right spot before starting to play.

When he was finished, Greg’s smile was the only reassurance he needed to know that he’d gotten it right.

“Holy shit.” Greg shook his head. “I think we’ve got ourselves a film. You did a damn good job on this, Baz. You know that, right?”

Yeah, he was pretty proud of his work but it was nice to hear it from the man who’d believed in him. “Thanks. I think it’s pretty fucking awesome myself.”

“So what sparked the breakthrough?” Greg crossed his arms over his chest, his expression intent, and Baz had the distinct feeling Greg knew exactly what’d sparked his creativity. The guy had an uncanny way of seeing things no one wanted him to see.

Like Baz’s attraction to a certain woman who happened to be in the same building with them. And who he’d kissed just a few minutes ago.

“Saw some old friends last night.”

Greg nodded. “Tru told me you ended up at a bar. Xander’s place?”

“Yeah. Zach was there. We talked.”

“And . . .”

“It was . . . helpful.” He couldn’t help his shrug. “I miss ’em. I’m not sure I realized how much until I saw Zach. So I called Nik.”

Greg’s expression didn’t change. “Did you actually talk to him? You guys didn’t exactly part on the best terms the last time you saw him.”

No, they’d tried to pummel each other when Nik had tracked him down at Haven a few weeks ago.

“Didn’t pick up. Left a message.”

“Think he’ll call back or do I need to be ready for another cage match?”

Baz grimaced. “Hopefully we got that of our systems.”

“So, you wanna tell me what’s going on with you and Tru?”

Baz blinked and his eyes went wide for a second before he managed to cover his reaction. “I don’t know what—”

Greg rolled his eyes. “Save it. You don’t wanna talk about it, that’s fine. But I’m telling you right now, you don’t wanna screw with her. Got me?”

Was Greg warning him away from Tru? Did Greg think he wasn’t good enough for her?

Fuck that. “I’m not screwing with her.”

Holding up one hand, Greg shook his head. “Don’t get your panties in a twist. I’m not telling you to stay away from her. I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. I’m only saying that you don’t want to mess with that girl’s emotions because she will rip you to pieces and leave you bleeding. Then again, if you’re sure you wanna pull that trigger, I say more power to you, because Tru is one of the best people I know. I love her like family and if you hurt her, I’ll kill you.”

Baz blinked at the utter sincerity in Greg’s tone but he wasn’t surprised. Greg had known Tru a lot longer—

Greg’s hand landed on his shoulder. “But know this, you’re family now, too. And anyone hurts you, I’ll beat their heads in.”

Then Greg got up and headed for the door, leaving Baz to stare after him.

“I like the raw sound of that take. I think that’s the one we should use for the film. Do whatever you need to make that happen so I can put this damn thing to bed and we can make the distribution deadline. I’m sick of waiting for people to rip me apart. It’s been a while. I kinda miss it.”

The door shut behind Greg and Baz sucked in a deep breath like he’d been holding it in for hours. And maybe he had.

So smart guy, what the fuck do you do now?

*   *   *

“Trudeau, hi. It’s Cory Ryder. We met last night at dinner. How are you?”

Her brain was occupied with a million other details at the moment and Trudeau’s immediate response was all business.

“Hello, Mr. Ryder. It’s nice to hear from you again. Greg’s on the phone at the moment but I could take a message.”

“Actually, I was calling to speak to you.”

Automatically comparing the time on her laptop to the arrival time of her first receptionist candidate on her schedule, she calculated that she had approximately five free minutes.