Those were the lyrics.
Suddenly her eyes flew open and Caitlin’s glance fell on Jake. He was attired from head to toe in black, and his concentrated expression was utterly serious as he watched her performance. Minutes later, when she came to the end of the song, she was glad, because she desperately needed to suck in a steadying breath. Her heart was thumping hard at the painful memories the words had evoked. Yet, meeting Jake’s gaze once again, she didn’t immediately withdraw when it hit her that he had seriously begun to fascinate her.
It was probably just hormones, she thought irritably. She certainly wasn’t looking to take things further than a working relationship. Apart from it being against the rules, she wasn’t looking for a man. Just like in the song, Caitlin had had the relationship from hell with one particular man and it had nearly destroyed her. She certainly wasn’t going to entertain the idea of being with someone who could twist her insides into knots merely by looking at her.
‘Not bad,’ he said grudgingly.
Her fervent hope had been that she’d done much better than just ‘not bad’, and Caitlin’s heart plummeted. Still, Jake was the boss, and she wasn’t there simply in search of praise. Her ambition was to earn her living as a bona fide singer—never to be dependent on anyone either for love, self-esteem or security.
That was why seeing the ad for the auditions had excited her. It really had seemed like a sign that she should step up to the plate and start to fulfil her destiny. Staying at the shop and ‘playing safe’ just didn’t feel like the right option any more. Her family had moved on and so should she. It wasn’t the possibility of fame that interested her…far from it. Her passion was the music itself—the potential to experience joy in doing what she loved to do and to share it with anyone who cared to listen.
So she would bow to the man’s far greater experience in such matters and give her all to improve. She prayed her efforts would be enough.
‘Wow! Honey, you’ll never be poor with a voice like that,’ Rick told her as he went to stand next to his friend.
The contrast between the two men was striking. Rick’s longish tousled hair was tinted a sun-kissed blond, while Jake’s was a dark chestnut-brown, and their physiques were markedly different too. Jake was broad-shouldered and lean, his body supremely fit and toned, while Rick was shorter and more muscular. But, whatever the contrast in appearance, Caitlin sensed the two men were firm friends. There was a definite camaraderie between them that suggested their association had been born out of knowing each other for a very long time.
‘She was fantastic,’ Rick commented, turning towards Jake. ‘I felt every ounce of emotion she put into the song…she made it her own.’
‘That may be true,’ Jake responded, his cool glance deliberately sliding away from Caitlin’s. ‘But it won’t belong to her until she knows it intimately, inside and out. Let’s do it again, guys. Then you can do some of your own material.’
* * *
It was three hours later when Caitlin was finally able to take a breather. Perched on the edge of the stage, with her long slender legs dangling over the side, she was attempting to eat her portion of the Chinese take-away that Rick had ordered. Her throat ached, her head throbbed and she could have fallen asleep standing up.
The band’s charismatic manager hadn’t let up for one minute in his efforts to get the best out of her vocal performance and she felt as if she’d done twelve rounds with a prize fighter. Whilst she was perfectly aware that singing was a very physical occupation, even if a person was blessed with a good voice, nothing could have prepared Caitlin for the sheer effort that Jake demanded.
During the past three hours she’d survived admonition after admonition to, ‘Try again!’ ‘Put your heart into it, woman!’ ‘Hold back a little on that note…drop down a key…’ ‘Damn it, Caitlin! You’re just not trying hard enough!’ Now she could barely summon up the energy to eat, despite the fact that the shrimp chop suey and bamboo shoots with Chinese mushrooms looked and smelled delicious.
‘Not hungry?’
Her tired glance fell on Jake’s long jeans-clad legs as he dropped down beside her. Her heart skipped a beat. Lifting her gaze, she looked up into the hauntingly misty depths of his soulful blue eyes. It struck her as unfair that a man should possess such enviably long black lashes, but then she mused that Jake must have been at the head of the line when God was dishing out extraordinary good looks…not to mention sheer animal magnetism.
Caitlin sucked in a less than steady breath when the scent of his cologne forged another assault on her beleaguered senses. In answer to his question, she responded, ‘I thought I was.’ Shrugging, she put her carton of food aside and touched a paper napkin delicately to her lips. ‘I only had a sandwich at lunchtime…it wasn’t very nice either.’
‘You must have known this wasn’t going to be easy. Still sure you want to go through with it?’ Jake challenged. ‘You need more than just talent in this game, Caitlin. You need equal measures of grit and stamina too.’
‘I can summon up plenty of grit and stamina when I need it. Just try me.’
A flash of defiance lit up her defensive green eyes and Jake chuckled softly. She’d freed her lustrous long hair from its ponytail and now it flowed down her back like shining black silk. Examining it more closely, he detected flashes of mahogany within the darker strands. His fingers were itching to touch it and he closed his hands into fists to stop himself from reaching out to do just that.
‘It’s obviously going to take me a little while to learn all the new songs,’ she breathed, ‘but I’ll take a copy of the music and lyrics home with me and practise them on my guitar.’
Jake had almost forgotten that Caitlin was a guitarist as well. How good he didn’t yet know, but judging by her vocal talent he guessed it wouldn’t be far behind.
‘Good move,’ he commented, ‘but the first thing you’re going to have to do is to hand in your notice at the shop. There’s no way you can have a full-time job there outside of singing with the band. In just three weeks’ time we’ll be on the road and you’ll have to kiss this sleepy little village goodbye.’
The words sounded so final that Caitlin couldn’t help shivering. But she immediately reminded herself that the most amazing opportunity had come her way, and she should take it with open arms and think herself blessed. No one got anywhere in life without taking risks. God knew she should have absorbed that fact by now, with all the New Age reading she’d done since working for Lia.
She’d lived in the village for most of her life, having moved from London with her family when she was just a toddler. When her parents had decided to join her brother Phil and his wife in California three years ago Caitlin had opted to stay put. She wasn’t ready to leave the country, she’d argued. There was still a lot to experience living in the UK.
But most of all she’d stayed because she’d needed time to forge her own identity—the chance to bring her own dreams into fruition, not just tag along on someone else’s. She’d even needed to make colossal mistakes, like her relationship with Sean. None of those things would have been possible surrounded by her well-meaning but highly controlling family.
She swallowed hard.
‘So…does that mean you’re offering me a full-time position
