tone conveyed that the girl from Birmingham was more than likely another no. What he was looking for—what they were all looking for—was someone extraordinary, a girl who stood out from the crowd, who could hold her own fronting a band that had been on the brink of major success before Marcie’s sudden and abrupt departure.
It was a crying shame that the woman should have decided at the eleventh hour that she’d rather marry her childhood sweetheart and go and cultivate grapes in the Dordogne than front a rock band. But that, as they said, was showbiz. Still, if anyone could work a miracle Jake knew that he could. All he needed to prove it was to find an amazing singer.
A door slammed loud and hard and the shock in the room was tangible. The sound reverberated round the vaulted high-ceilinged hall like a cannon exploding. What the hell…?
Jake was taken aback when he saw the perpetrator. Tall, slim and dark-haired, she was struggling with the belt of her raincoat, which he could see had become trapped between the hall’s back doors when they’d slammed shut. His transfixed gaze worked its way up from long black suede boots to slim toned legs clad in sheer black hosiery. For a long moment he was fixated by a shapely knee, where its smooth flesh peeped intriguingly through a frayed tear the size of a small coin. As she struggled to free her belt the girl emitted a breathy little sound that might have been a curse.
Briefly turning his head, Jake found Rick grinning. He knew it wasn’t just because the girl had got herself in a fix. When she finally extricated the belt and lifted her head to murmur a blushing apology he felt as though all the air had just been punched out of his lungs. She was absolutely stunning. Even at a distance he could see that her eyes were the most dazzling emerald-green he’d ever seen in his life. Add to that apple cheeks, and full, luscious lips stained the colour of ripe cherries, and Jake sensed all the testosterone in the room heave a collective sigh—his own included.
Rick was the first to recover. ‘Hi. Can I help you?’ he called out cheerfully.
‘This is where the auditions are being held, isn’t it?’
Glancing nervously round her, the girl took in the five men standing there, as well as the stacked plastic chairs lining the walls, the dusty floor and the lofty ceiling with its yellowing cracked plasterwork. Her expression was definitely bemused, as if she couldn’t quite believe where she’d landed. She still hadn’t moved any further away from the door.
‘Am I too late? I’m sorry I couldn’t get here a bit earlier but I’ve been stocktaking’ Swiping a hand down her short black skirt, she tugged the edges of her raincoat together in front of it, as if she might have inadvertently displayed more than she wanted to.
‘Stocktaking, you say?’ Rick’s wolfish grin grew even wider. ‘You can check my stock any time you want to, honey.’
Time to take charge, Jake thought with a flash of irritation. The girl might be easy on the eye, but she was more than likely another time-waster or wannabe—and God knew he’d auditioned enough of them in the past four days to be honestly weary of hearing any more.
To make matters worse, he’d lived with a girl just like that and she’d all but broken him with her relentless desire for fame and fortune. Not to mention what she’d been prepared to do to get it. In any case, the girl in front of him probably couldn’t sing for toffee.
But even as his cynical gaze surveyed her he felt a hot flash of desire throb through him. He was almost dizzy with the power of it, and in that moment he saw it as a warning to steer well clear—because something told him that, given the chance, the allure of this incredible beauty would be too hard to resist.
The realisation that he might be tempted honestly scared him. Temptation was never a simple option. In Jake’s book it equalled weakness, and he was a man who liked to be in control. From a young age he’d quickly intuited that if he didn’t take care of himself and instigate boundaries then he was damn sure no one else would.
‘Actually, you’re too late.’
But even as the words left his lips he immediately belied them. Helplessly drawn, he found himself moving towards the bewitching woman, and somehow the necessity to get her to leave…and quick…melted clean away. All his instincts told him to take the chance to admire her beauty while he could. After all, it wasn’t every day that a veritable angel presented herself in front of him…
‘What I mean to say is’ he went on ‘is that you’re too late for the auditions today but you can come back tomorrow if you’re serious. If not, then all I can do is thank you for your interest and wish you well.’
‘You’re questioning if I’m serious or not? If I’m not serious about auditioning then why do you think I’m here?’
Surprised that she would come back at him like that, Jake sighed. His innate instinct was for self-preservation, and his mind scrambled to give her a legitimate reason why he couldn’t let her audition today.
‘Well, if that’s the case, then you won’t mind coming back tomorrow, will you? We’ve been auditioning since early this morning and we could all use a break,’
Watching her wrestle with the emotion his words must have wrought, he saw her hand tuck her hair behind her ear, then free it again as if she wasn’t quite sure what to do next.
‘I was really hoping you could hear me tonight. The thing is, I won’t be able to make it tomorrow’
‘Then you can’t be that serious about auditioning, can you?’
Hot colour suffused her apple cheeks—but not because of embarrassment, Jake guessed. His cutting rejoinder had infuriated her.
Not wanting to be swayed by her angelic face and big green eyes, he told himself to stand firm. Nonetheless, he heard himself ask, ‘What’s your name?’
‘It’s Caitlin. Caitlin Ryan.’
‘Well, Caitlin…’ Folding his arms across his chest, he let his light-coloured gaze flick an interested glance up and down her figure, simply because it was too irresistible to ignore. ‘Like I said, if you’re serious about auditioning then you’ll come back tomorrow, when it’s more convenient for us to hear you. Shall we say around eleven-thirty?’
‘I’m sorry…’ The woman’s incandescent emerald gaze was immediately perturbed. ‘I don’t want to be a nuisance, but I honestly can’t make it tomorrow. A close friend—the manager of the shop where I work—is having her wisdom teeth removed, and I’m the only one who can stand in for her while she’s away’
Jake fought down a compelling urge to laugh out loud. Of all the answers he might have expected her to furnish him with, the imminent removal of a friend’s wisdom teeth hadn’t been one of them!
He could almost sense Rick’s laughter bubbling up behind him. Damn. It was going to be pretty hard to refuse this beauty anything when she was staring back at him like some little girl lost, those big green eyes of hers reflecting equal measures of hope and disappointment.
‘Give the girl a break, man.’ As he planted himself beside Jake Rick’s amiable features creased into a persuasive smile. ‘The band is still set up, so what have we got to lose?’
My sanity, for one thing, thought Jake, with grave misgiving. If Caitlin Ryan looked like a little lost puppy now, before he had even heard her sing a note, God only knew what she was going to look like when he told her Sorry…don’t give up the day job.
Expelling an aggrieved sigh, he dragged his fingers impatiently through his mane of dark hair and stared at her.
‘Okay,’ he drawled, his tone painfully resigned, ‘I’ll give you ten minutes to show me what you can do.’ Or, more to the point, what you can’t. He couldn’t pretend he was expecting very much.
* * *
Caitlin’s heart beat double-time. Okay, I can do this, she told herself. Singing