He could feel anger brewing inside. Could feel his heart rate escalate in preparation to . . . what? Fight? Flight?
Fucking waves. He took a deep breath. Stood holding her hand even as she tried to tug her hand out of his.
“Hear me out for a minute, Cerys. You asked me in the car what I would want to tell my brother about this weekend if he and I had a great relationship. I’d want to tell him about you. I’d tell him how easy it was to create songs with you. I’d admit to being impulsive with women in the past, and how I want to be the opposite of that with you because I want us to build something. So, now I need to know, what would you tell your dad? If he wasn’t your boss or our producer. If you had a great relationship with him, what would you say?”
Cerys looked around the lobby of the hotel and sighed before returning her gaze to his. “I’d tell him that you turned out to be so different from who everyone thinks you are. That beneath the ink and swagger, there’s a sensitive guy with complex emotions who I already feel more for than is probably healthy after only two weeks.”
Jase cupped her cheek, his palm soft, as he lowered his forehead to hers. “Then, that’s what we need to remember, right? Yes, we might need to adapt some things to make it work, and yeah . . . I think I’m about to say the C word.”
Confusion filled Cerys’s eyes. “The C word?”
“Yeah. Compromise.”
Cerys smiled softly. “Compromise?”
“Are you just going to repeat everything I say, babe? Because this could take a while.”
“This could take a while?” she repeated, but from the grin on her face, he could tell she was messing with him.
“Compromise. I don’t see why we need to hide this, but you do, so I’ll compromise and keep it professional around the band and your dad. And I’ll speak to Alex, so he doesn’t go blabber mouthing to everyone else. But you need to work with me too. Figure out when you can let go of some of that reserve. Figure out when we can hang out, if it’s cool for me to come stay at your place, if you want to come stay here at the hotel with me now you have a key. We need to spend time together to build this. Right?”
“Who are you and what did you do with Jase Palmer?”
“Still right here, babe. I’m serious, Cerys. Now we’re back, I don’t want some kind of wall to go up between us. And I’m not going to let you build one, just so you know. I’m happy for boundaries. Which, holy fuck, I can’t believe I just said the word boundaries, either, given I’m not really known for them. But, if you need them, I’m happy to respect them. But I need to know it’s a two-way street when it comes to building this. Is it?”
“You know it is. But this. Walking through the hotel, holding hands and kissing, when you are so popular right now. It’s asking to appear on a gossip site. And I’d hate for this to be the way any of the band or the guys at the studio find out that we’re dating.”
Jase grinned at her words. “It’s pretty hot hearing you admit we’re dating. Say you’re my girlfriend too, and my day will be made.”
“As your girlfriend, I’m deciding to go home. You need to go talk to Alex. And I need to go do laundry. Call me tonight and we’ll do the C word.”
Girlfriend had a pretty nice ring to it the way she said it. “Compromise?”
“No. The other one. We’ll communicate.”
He pretended to shudder. “Communication after dinner it is. But as your boyfriend, I’m walking you back to your car.”
“That sounds like a totally boyfriend thing to do. Unnecessary, but lovely.”
“I’d rather be having dinner with you,” he muttered.
Cerys grinned up at him. “Perhaps one day soon you’ll get to have me for dinner.”
“You have no idea how good that sounds.”
Once she was tucked up in her car, he leaned his head through her window and kissed her. “Drive safely. Wait. I forgot who I was talking to. Text me how many times you get beeped at on the way home.”
Her laughter as she turned on the ignition made him wish she’d decided to stay.
And yet, for once, he fully understood why she had to go.
9
The following morning, Cerys finally parked her car a few blocks down from the packed studio lot. Why there were so many fancy cars, she had no idea. She wasn’t particularly a car person, but as she’d driven around trying to find a place to park, she spotted two Hummers, two Cadillac Escalades, and the Spirit of Ecstasy bonnet ornament meaning there was at least one Rolls-Royce.
She thought back over the schedule. A rapper had been booked into Studio One for the day yesterday, but by the packed parking lot, he was still in there, along with everyone else in his contact list. Grabbing her bags, she hustled to the studio doors and let herself inside. People crowded the entrance and spilled into the coffee area. Two people were asleep on the orange sofa, shocking, given the pulsing beat currently playing.
While they weren’t at their capacity, she needed to find her father. By the time Sad Fridays arrived, the lobby needed to be twenty decibels quieter.
At some point today, she was going to see Jase. Even so, her nerves raced. She had sensed from yesterday’s run-in with Alex that Jase wouldn’t see the difference between being here and the cottage. And while part of her wanted to experience being with Jase like he was at the cottage, it was the furthest thing from professional. Especially when she wanted to prove to her father she was worth having on the team.
The words Jase had spoken at the cottage came back to her. She needed to make space for herself.
It was why she was here at six thirty in the morning. After a long soak in a super bubbly bath the night before, she’d climbed into bed and talked with Jase. They’d decided that he’d tell the band that morning about what had happened over the weekend with his music. Alex didn’t want to be put in the tough spot his brother had been put in with Matt and Izabel. Jase had shared the whole story with her. How Matt and Iz hid their relationship because of Jase and Luke, but how Ben had found out and been caught in the middle.
But she’d decided, realising timing was everything with her father, that she would still wait for the right time to tell him.
Nobody paid her any attention as she headed straight past her office to Studio One. The control room was packed. Four men sat on chairs along the back wall. Two stood hovering over the production desk. Another blocked her view into the studio.
“Get your fingers off that,” Jimmy barked as one of them messed with the fade. He pressed the button to speak to whoever was in the isolation room.
“You’re losing the beat. Let’s start recording it in sections.” Jimmy tugged his hand through his hair. His shirt was untucked from his jeans and looked rumpled.
“But, man. It flows better in one go, yeah?” The voice filtered back into the studio.
“It does if you can keep time. Everyone’s getting tired. We can switch the way we capture the song, or we can call it and come back another day.”
“He can’t,” one of the seated men said. “It’s the tour. Gotta get this down today before he flies back to Dallas.”
Jimmy rubbed his hands over his face. “He needs less distraction. This is a fucking circus.”