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"You owe me a story," she says, her voice light as she watches me form meat into burger patties.
"Is the Wizard of Oz not doing it for you anymore, Toto?" I ask, adding spice to the meat.
"I finished the series two days ago, Memphis."
I glance at her over my shoulder, startled. "When the fuck did you find time to read an entire series?"
"I'll never tell." She beams at me, batting her lashes. "Now, spill. How did you get into music?"
I slap two burgers onto the grill, and the sizzle of the meat fills the air. As I cook burgers, I find myself sharing a piece of my soul.
"Music has always been an escape for me, even when I was a kid," I confess, assembling a salad. "Didn't have much family, just a brother. Jayson." His name catches in my throat, the memories too close to the surface to stay buried. I push them down anyway, fighting to keep them contained. "When he died, music was all I had left."
Kylie is quiet for a long moment—too long.
I turn to glance at her to find her staring at me, an odd look on her face, almost as if she wants to cry. She notices me staring and blinks rapidly, schooling her expression.
Jesus. Is she ready to cry for me?
"Riley found you in a bar, right?" she asks before I can say anything, her voice probing as she tries to understand the man I've become.
I hesitate for a moment, and then decide to circle back to whatever the fuck that look was after I answer her questions.
"Yeah." I nod, my throat tight. "She found me playing with the house band in some dive in Knoxville." It was…fuck…I don't even know. Two or three years after Jayson died. The days all blurred together.
"She signed you?" The shadows in her eyes are gone too. So are the tears. I could almost believe I imagined them; except I know damn well I didn't. She was ready to cry.
Who the fuck is she?
I nod again. "I don't know why the fuck she decided to take a chance on me. I didn't deserve it. I still don't. But she hauled my ass out of there and signed me the next day. She changed my whole life, gave me a reason to keep going when I had none."
I spent the first few years working with the studio band, laying down tracks for albums. And then she introduced me to Cami and Bentley Reynolds. Once I started touring, I never stopped. Between them, Winter Pyke, Kasen Alexander, Gwen London, and Clayton Devine, I've spent most of the last five years on the road.
"Had it not been for her, I'm not sure I'd still be here," I admit softly. "I was fucked up in the head for a long time, just trying to make it through every goddamn day. I wasn't living, princess. I was just surviving."
The sizzle of the burgers fades, replaced by the pounding of my heart as Kylie slips from her stool and walks toward me. My breath hitches when I realize what she's doing.
"Kylie," I warn, but she ignores me, pushing her way into my arms to hug me tight.
"I'm glad she found you, Memphis," she whispers, her breath warm against my skin. "I'm glad she gave you a reason to keep going. I'm glad you're here now." She squeezes me as if she intends to hold all my fucked-up, broken pieces together. "Jayson would want this for you."
"Jesus Christ," I growl, dropping the spatula and boosting her up into my arms. Her body fits against mine like perfectly slotted puzzle pieces clicking together. "You keep putting yourself in my space like this, and I'm going to stop being a gentleman, Toto. I'm going to take exactly what I want from you."
"Who's stopping you, Memphis?" she whispers, her eyes burning into mine.
"Last chance, little girl," I warn her, my voice rough with need as I turn off the grill and press her back against the fridge, my mouth inches from her. "Stop me now, or I'm not fuckin' stopping until you're screaming my name."
"Memphis? Shut up and fuck me already."
That's all the encouragement I need. A growl rips from my chest as I take her lips in a desperate kiss, storming toward the bedroom with her in my arms. She kisses me back the same way, as if she needs my air in her lungs to survive.
We're a frenzy of movement, colliding into walls as we kiss. I'm too goddamn greedy to wait to get her naked. I need my fucking hands on her body now. Apparently, she feels the same way because she's just as eager as I am.
A whirlwind of desperate hands and torn fabric follows in our wake.
I nip her neck and then bite down on one hard nipple just before we reach the bedroom, making her sob my name in ecstasy. Her nails rake down my back hard enough to make my balls throb.
Fuck, she's a little hellcat.
