Chapter 22

She watched him stride to the door, her fingers still brushing over her lips. He couldn’t have said what he just said, there was no way. Absolutely no way. Her brow arched as three men entered, Richie chatting up a storm. They were workmen of some sort.

God was he really going to attempt the studio in a week? She rolled her eyes and moved to the couch, the lap top lifted and back on her lap before their conversation had faded from the room. Well he could try, but she doubted he could get a quality sound studio up in a week, besides, not like he knew the questions to ask to get any information if he managed to win.

Her fingers tapped aimlessly on the keyboard as she tried to settle her thoughts, but each time she opened a graphic her mind kept teasing her with the memories of his kisses, of his laugh, and even his ability to call her on her stubbornness. Shaking her head she again bent over her laptop, fingers still as she studied the photos she'd loaded. Would make it easier to not admire him if I didn't have to stare at him hours on end.

Richie set up his Pro Tools for Jake to calibrate to. It was set to the board at the SoHo studio, so it would all match. As much as he hated to admit it, technology made it much easier to record just about anywhere these days. He didn't really like the idea of a studio in his house. He liked to keep the house as the Sanctuary of sorts, but this was no ordinary situation and definitely no ordinary woman.

She was testing him on every level. And now he'd royally fucked up by getting involved with her. He was far less than she deserved, but he couldn't stop the reactions he was having toward her. He couldn't even control himself with an entire room between them. He pressed his lips together, her taste was still there.

"Richie...do you want the glass on this end or the other?"

Richie looked over his shoulder at the closet sized room that he'd have to play and sing in and sighed. He figured he wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight, so he might as well work. He went over to Jake and explained what he wanted. Eventually, they'd compromised and he got a window to the ocean in his sound room. Could there be anything better than his guitars and his water together? He looked up as Alex walked by, her eyes darting toward his and quickly away. Well...maybe one thing.

She settled the cup of coffee on the table and sighed. He was working, she should be watching. Fuck she HAD to; it was another side of him. Reaching into her tote she pulled out a small digital camera and took a deep breath. IN for a penny in for a pound.

Walking back the way she came she made a pit stop in the kitchen and poured another cup of coffee. She'd show him it was just a kiss; that she could just work and not let it affect her. Turning around she started for the supposed studio, her thoughts jumping and tumbling over the fact that no matter how she liked it he was different, and she was different around him. The thing was how to keep him from seeing that.

He looked up when she came back again, hovering outside the door. "Hey," he said with a smile. "Welcome to the madness." He reached for the cup. "Thanks, you're a life saver." Taking a sip, he motioned to the camera. "So now you want to see me dusty and dirty too?"

She couldn't resist the assessing glance or the snort that followed. "Yeah, you're real dusty and dirty." She lifted the camera and caught him mid smile. "You should do that more often you know."

“Drink coffee?" He laughed. "Nah, no one needs me hyped on caffeine on top of the whole sober thing. Talk about annoying."

Her eyes rolled at his humor as she forced a business like tone into her voice. "No, you should smile; it’s a rather nice feature of yours. Fan's appreciate that more than Grumpy Gus's right?"

He smiled big. "Should I go with the dimple for the death threat?"

She snapped the pic and nodded even when visions of teasing that dimple with her tongue rose. You’re hopeless Alex, get back on track dammit. "Less muscles used to smile than frown you know. Energy conservation." She stepped back to watch the mayhem a moment, So much went into recording things. "Sheesh, what happened to the days where you just used a reel to reel recorder?"

"Believe me, when Jon and I work...we still use a little tape recorder for writing. But true demos are a thing of the past. With pro-tools I can have an honest to God song done before sundown." He sipped, looking at her wrinkled shirt and lopsided ponytail with glasses slipping down her nose. Half in work persona, half not. "What do you know about reel to reel, darlin'?"

She forced back the rising blush, "I do work with people in the music industry." Her brow flicked up, "Did we forget that?"

"Aww, I thought I was special with all the studio time." He tugged on her ponytail. "C'mon, the guys have to do the installation of the cedar and plexi, why don't I go stare at your work for a change?"

She nodded and turned, then started praying she'd shut down the main graphic program. "Sure thing. You're the boss. Guess it’s about time you see some of my ideas.” Breathe Alex, breathe, you turned that program off, you did.

He walked beside her, their stride usually on target, but she took the lead. He watched as she leaned in to shut laptop. Kicking up his pace, he spun the screen his way. At her quick little noise, he met her eyes. "C'mon, I know it's like your version of a demo, but I just want to see what..." His skin went hot, then prickled at the dark profile shot she had up. A stylus pen lay beside her laptop and a flat mouse pad looking tray was tucked into the cushions. "Are you hand rendering?"

She felt the heat in her cheeks as she nodded. "Ahhh yeah, it’s how I usually put things together."

He studied the screen, hitting a few keys until it enlarged. It looked like a sketch with water purples inserted into the grays and vivid purples in the darks of the photo. It gave him a smoky look, with a few squiggles of vivid yellows for the highlights. "Is this how you see me?" It was softly blended with harder edges around the eyes and mouth, a deeper cleft along his chin than he'd seen in more years than he could count.

"I only sketch what's there. If you can't be honest in your art... there’s no need to even put pen to paper, so to speak." She glanced his way, surprised at how intently he was studying the render, "That's just a part of it though, a before picture if you will."

"Hell, girl if this is before, I can't wait to see after." He dragged his eyes away, covering her hand with his to make her look at him. "It's amazing. I didn't know anyone could see beauty in this old face anymore."

It was out before she could stop it, as corny as it was, as often as he'd probably heard it, “Isn't it not old, just older?" She shook her head a moment, her hand reaching to shut the laptop, "The only one not seeing you as you are is you."

He stilled her hand. "No, don't." He shuffled the image until the next rendering came forward. This one black and white with the word Redemption fading into his full body shot. Redemption, again in that same watery purple as it faded into midtones. He looked up. "You have been paying attention." His lips quirked. "Well, that's what this is all about, right? Redemption in every way."

She smiled as he complimented the basics of her ideas. That's exactly what it was all about, and although at its most basic he was a job to her, he'd become somewhere inside of that someone she liked, and for some crazy reason she wanted him to see what she had started seeing.

"Well that’s what you keep telling me." She walked to the window, her gaze moving out to the crashing surf. "Well look at the rest of them, I know you're dying too."

Curiosity warred with the need to go to her. As she folded her arms in tight, he ignored the laptop, moving to stand behind her. "I know it's hard to show your work to people, especially when it's not done. I go through that every time I give one of my babies to the record company. He lifted the ragged tail of her hair, the thick corn silk curled around his finger. "I appreciate that you're taking the time to get it right."


She tried to fight the shiver, she had to maintain coolness, but the longer he played with her hair the harder it was to ignore him standing there quietly behind her. "Well some things are worth the extra effort."

He leaned forward, "A lot of things are, Lex." His breath teased the whispy sunshine strands at her ear. The fresh scent of her with ocean mixed in was as addicting as anything he'd ever done, imbibed or ingested. He took another deep breath of her and stepped back. He also knew how to say no, even if he didn't want to.

He turned back to the laptop, clicking around at the images that were minimized. Each as good as the last, but the purples and the yellows were the winners in his book. The others were clean and perfect, but the profile shot was earthy and real. It was him, with a little polish. He turned back, but she still faced the water. "Truly amazing, Lex. I hit the mother lode of all artists, now didn't I?"

She took a deep breath and hated herself for the coolness in her tone. "Well the mother lode of computer tech yes."

He snapped the laptop closed. "If you believe that, then you're more delusional than I am."

She turned to look at him, her grin nearly lopsided, "Takes one to know one."

He couldn't stop the laugh. "You're a dangerous woman, Alexandra. C'mon, it's time to play hooky. We've worked long enough today."

Her brow arched, “I don’t play hooky, never have really."

He rubbed his hands together. "Then we definitely need to change that, Lex." He snagged her hand. "I know just what to do."