"I want you."
"Well, believe me, I'm honored. But you're kind of making me uncomfortable. Besides, you could have held onto those four groupies from last night."
Chuck shook his head. "I had them-last night. Now I want you." He squinted at me. "Is there nothing about me that appeals to you?"
What a fragile ego. I had to give him something. Chuck was, after all, the lead singer of the Fiery Boys-he deserved more than my disdain. And I'd gotten to the point where I wasn't bothered by his sexual advances anymore. I could talk to this man, perhaps even be his friend.
"I'm sorry for being rude. There are things about you that appeal to me. You're certainly good looking. You used to be too skinny for my taste, but ten years have filled you out nicely. I couldn't help but notice a fine physique when you were standing in the bedroom door naked last night." I grinned at him, and he shot it right back.
Before he could react to my statement with another sexual advance, I went on. "And second, I like the songs you wrote. Well, one of them, anyway."
Chuck brightened. "Which one?"
Before I could answer, River stumbled out to the living room wearing a bathrobe. "I know which one she likes." He plopped down at the table and gave me a smile that warmed me from the inside out. "'Fiery Life,' right?"
Little parts of me were already starting to liquefy, and now I felt like I could melt into a puddle on the floor. River, my rock idol, was paying attention to me. I thought he was ignoring me, but now I knew that he wasn't. Maybe this week would bring us closer, after all. "Did Jason tell you?" I managed to ask in an almost normal voice.
"Nobody told me. I saw you dancing to it last night. Obviously your favorite." He noticed me? Now I was buzzing all over.
Chuck gave a little shrug. "Yeah, that song's okay."
River laughed. "Okay? It's one of our signature songs." He leaned closer to me. "Why do you like it?"
I was in heaven. River actually wanted to know about me. I felt so lightheaded that I gripped the table to keep from floating up into the air.
"That's my life Chuck wrote about." Thinking about my life back then took me down a little, but I couldn't keep any secrets from River. I smiled guiltily. "All of that actually happened to me."
Before anyone could ask what had happened to me, I explained it with the song's lyrics, growling it out the way Chuck did.