At the same time that he was glad she trusted him enough to show him what she was working on, he hated that they weren’t touching anymore. But when he looked at her screen, his eyebrows went up. “You’re putting together a business plan for an indie, artist-run label?”
“I’ve learned so much this week with you, Drew—learned things I never could have from a book or case study or documentary. And the biggest thing of all that I’ve learned is that you not only know your music and what makes it special better than anyone else ever will, but you also understand your fans better than anyone else does. All I could think of as I sat in those meetings earlier this week at your label, and then during every interview and planning session you have with your crew, is how incredible it would be if you were running your own label. And when you said to Smith and Valentina that you were worried about not having a hit for them on the soundtrack and they said they didn’t care about hits, only that your heart is behind the music, everything fell into place. What you’re doing—it doesn’t have to be about hits that radio stations have to approve before playing. You can put out whatever you want on the Internet in whatever format you want. Or you can just play songs live at shows and never play them the same way twice. Your fans love what you do so much that I know they’re going to follow you wherever you are and love whatever songs you write. At least, they will as long as you love the songs you’re writing.”
Her eyes were shining with excitement and all of that incredible passion that made him fall even harder for her. He had quickly scanned the charts and documents on her computer, but even though it looked great on paper, he liked listening to her talk about it even more. God, how he loved hearing that melody in her voice that he’d missed so much during the past few days.
Because she was the most beautiful melody he’d ever heard.
“Tell me more, Ash.”
“I know you wouldn’t be able to do it all, not if you wanted to focus on creating and playing great music. You’d need a great staff, but if it were your label, you would be in charge of hiring the staff to run it. Just like you brought in all these great players for your tour, and Max and James. You’re a great judge of character, and they’d be answering to you, rather than you feeling as though you have to answer to them the way you do with Robert and Ansel.”
When she halted suddenly, he could fairly easily guess that she felt she’d just overstepped her bounds. But she hadn’t. On the contrary, she had everything exactly right.
“That’s just how I feel, Ash. Like I’m locked in a cage, one I’ve given Chief Records the key to. It’s funny, actually—when I was signing with them, they wanted to do a multi-album deal, but even back then I couldn’t do it. Not just because my brother Grant advised me that I’d be able to negotiate an even better deal for the second album if the first did well, but mostly because I couldn’t stand the thought of wearing handcuffs that tight.”
“You are the one who made yourself an indie success when you were a teenager,” Ash told him. “The label has been lucky to have you for this album, and they’d be crazy lucky to get you for another. But I can’t stop thinking about your brilliant entrepreneur brother and wondering if he might have any interest in partnering with you on something new.”
“With Grant, anything’s possible. Especially if he senses a challenge.”
“He sounds a lot like you.”
As he stared into Ashley’s beautiful eyes, Drew’s focus shifted from the music business to the woman he’d been obsessing about ever since he’d first seen her. He’d desired her from the start. But it hadn’t taken long for him to need her, too. Her smile. Her laughter. Her brilliance. Her support.
And especially the way he felt when she was in his arms—as though he’d finally found the other half of his soul.
“Do you have any idea how much I want to kiss you right now?”
“Yes.” The one word was barely more than a whisper. “Because I want to kiss you just as much.”
He lightly stroked his fingers over the incredibly soft skin on the inside of her wrist, and the way she trembled at his touch made him crazy. Absolutely crazy for her in a way he’d never been crazy for anyone else.
“Ash, I swear I’ve been trying to keep from doing this...” But even as he said it, he was moving closer, needing to erase the space between them.
“So have I,” she said as she leaned in toward him, too.
“What if we can’t stop it, Ash?” He moved another inch closer so that he could see the way her pupils were dilating and her skin was flushing with heat. “What if we shouldn’t stop it?”
When her tongue flicked out to lick her lips, Drew knew that nothing could stop him from kissing her. He reached out to tangle his hands in her hair, and she made a little humming sound of anticipation that heated him up even more as he lowered his mouth to hers.
He was just about to taste her, could feel her warm breath across his lips, when a loud knock sounded at the door.