Marco, he of the “good drugs,” was in the doghouse it seemed, and all of the dancers were giving Daphne a wide berth, unsure of her mood. She didn’t seem to be partying, but Kylie wasn’t sure if that was due to being between shows, or if she was really and truly trying to clean up.
Kylie was just glad the next concert had begun and Daphne was finally on stage and occupied with something. At least for a few hours, there would be a reprieve from her mood swings. She hauled her four makeup cases, each one stacked on top of the next.
“Let me help you with that,” a familiar, warm voice said, and someone lifted the cases out of Kylie’s hands.
Oh, sweet baby Jesus. Her face turned bright red and she stared in a mix of surprise and horror at Cade Archer as he took the stack from her and set them down on the lit makeup table.
He turned to give her a gorgeous smile. “Hello again.”
God, he was so good looking. It was unfair. He wore a dark button-down shirt, slightly open at the collar, with a white undershirt underneath. The sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, and an expensive watch decorated one wrist. And he wore slacks again. No jacket this time, but he still managed to look delectable and wealthy all at once.
Kylie blinked repeatedly, but he didn’t disappear, wasn’t a figment of her imagination. Well, shit. So much for her one-night stand thing. “What are you doing here?”
“I had to see you again,” he told her, those blue eyes focusing on her face.
“You did?” Her initial bubble of pleasure popped as she realized there could be another reason why he was here to visit her. He had to? There were only a few reasons why a man would have to see his one-night stand again . . . and none of them were good. “Oh God, you’re not clean, are you? What do you have?”
His eyes widened and then he laughed, a smile crinkling the corners of his eyes. “I don’t have an STD, Kylie.” He grimaced. “Though I really do need to apologize.” He leaned in. “I’m normally the kind that wears a sock.”
“I’m not normally the kind that goes for a one-night stand,” she murmured, still in a daze.
“Me either,” he confessed. “Which is why I had to see you again.”
“But why?” Her brows furrowed. “I thought it was supposed to be wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am. I wasn’t expecting anything—”
“I know,” he told her, his beautiful mouth quirked with amusement. “I think that’s one of the things I like about you. But maybe I wanted to see you again for myself? I thought we could talk. Maybe over dinner?” He gave her an inquisitive look.
Her initial shock at seeing him gave way to horror. “You what?”
“I just asked you out,” he told her, a sheepish look on his face. “I’m sorry, are you already seeing someone?”
“I, what? No!” She shook her head. “I’m not seeing anyone.” She looked around the greenroom, and was chagrined to see that Ginger and Snoopy were both watching her talk to Cade. It was going to get back to Daphne for sure. She grabbed his arm and dragged him toward one of the couches set up for Daphne’s guests. “Daph’s on stage right now,” she said loudly. “But when she’s done, I’m sure she’ll be glad to see you.”
“I’m not here to see Daphne,” he said, taking her hand in his.
Oh boy. Kylie closed her eyes, willing herself not to panic. “Cade, you can’t imagine what trouble this is going to cause.”
“Trouble?” His blond brows furrowed and he glanced around, as if just now noticing that several people were watching them. He leaned in. “Can you not talk here?”
“Understatement,” she told him with a faintly apologetic look.
“Then come to dinner with me,” he said. “We’ll talk there.”
“I can’t,” Kylie said automatically. “That would be very, very bad.”
“Worse than talking here?”
He had a point. She looked around, biting her lip anxiously. The crowd began to roar, a sign that Daphne’s show had just started.
“I’ll have you back before curtain call,” he promised.
God, she was so weak. “Come on, I’ll show you out,” she said loudly. If she left her purse here, no one would notice she was gone, right?
Cade grinned, and her heart skipped a little beat of happiness at the sight of that. “Thank you.”
When they got to the front of the concert venue, he raised a hand and a limo driver at the curb nodded at him and moved to open a door. “After you,” Cade said.
A limo? “Why is there a limo out front?”
“Because everyone thinks that a limo belongs at the front of a concert instead of waiting in the parking lot,” he said with a devilish grin. “Hop in.”
This seemed like a spectacularly bad idea, but she seemed to be running low on spectacularly good ones.
So she got into the limo, because it was either that or have a messy confrontation back in the greenroom, right?
Cade got in after her. “Closest restaurant, please,” he told the limo driver. Then he turned and looked at Kylie for a long moment. “I have the most intense urge to kiss you hello right now.”
Oh. She clamped her thighs together, willing her pulse to stop beating in her girl parts. “You can’t kiss me,” she told him desperately. “We shouldn’t even be seeing each other. Daphne—”