Seduction by Song Read online

  “I doubt you could ever be a waste of time, bonita,” he says deeply.

  The promise of the chase is clear enough. I try not to let it excite me, but when I realize that it is hopelessly exciting, I tell myself it’s only anticipation for the thrill of turning him down—someone needed to knock this guy down a few pegs, after all.

  If he was intent on pursuing me, then that someone would definitely—and happily—be me.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Romeo is pulled away to mingle with his fans before long. The girls find me after a few minutes, arms loaded up with t-shirts and posters, and announce (finally!) that we can start making our way home. I try not to look too relieved, but dealing with guys like Romeo was thoroughly exhausting and I couldn’t wait to climb into bed and forget all about the fact that people like him actually exist.

  Maddie and Juliet sing along to the songs we heard that night on the way home. I had thought that might be annoying, might aggravate this headache I feel sneaking back into my skull, but it has a surprisingly soothing effect on me. I suppose, at the end of it all, I’m just glad the girls had a good time.

  Juliet drops April and me off at our apartment first, and we all step outside to exchange hugs and split the loot they got from the friendly merch guy with all the pre-autographed goodies. April takes a couple of posters and a shirt before grabbing my hand and leading me inside.

  She waits until we’ve kicked our shoes off and changed into something more comfortable—sweats and my favorite worn-out tank top for me—before sitting me down on the couch with her patented we need to talk expression on her face.

  “Something’s wrong,” she says, without making it sound at all like a question.

  I blink a few times as I fold my legs beneath myself. “What do you mean, hon?”

  “Don’t hon me, hon,” she says, a playful grin coming to her lips to ease the mood. “Look, I know you weren’t exactly—comfortable back there. Did Romeo do something?”

  I hesitate. Maddie was certainly the biggest fan of the Rocks out of all of us, and the last thing I wanted was to ruin Romeo Ortiz for her. That didn’t mean I was any happier about ruining him for April, either, but she did seem like she genuinely wanted to know.

  And I didn’t want her to assume the worst, either. I especially didn’t want to lie to her.

  “No, nothing—bad,” I say, even though that’s still somewhat of a lie. “He just—he’s kind of a jerk, you know? Not any worse than any rock star, I guess, but he just can’t take a hint. I just really wish one of you girls could have gone up there instead. You all like him loads more than I do.”

  There. It was mostly the truth, at least.

  April sighs and nods, relaxing noticeably. “People do strange things when they’re famous and in the public eye. I hope he hasn’t totally put you off the music?”

  I cringe because, well, he kind of has. I’m sure April doesn’t need to hear that, though. “Well, maybe that one song,” I say, not wanting to answer the question directly. “Does he try to kiss everyone without permission?”

  April laughs and pulls me in for a hug. “Let me make you some tea. Something warm. We’ll forget all about that hussy.”

  I laugh, too, because hussy isn’t a word I would ever have thought of to describe Romeo—I’d have to make a note of that for future use. April always did know how to make a girl smile. I curl up with the remote on the couch and switch on the news while April gets the water boiling. We indulge in some specialty brew that she got from her last random, unannounced excursion to Asia and talk about anything but Romeo Ortiz while an old episode of some cop show plays after the news.

  We’re both almost asleep when the phone rings. I furrow my brows and check the wall clock for the time, narrowing my eyes even more when it tells me very clearly that it’s nearly two in the morning.

  “Who the hell would be calling now?” April grumbles as she rubs drowsiness out of her eyes.

  “Dunno,” I say, yawning. “Leave it to the machine?”

  She nods and lets our voicemail message play out, followed by a beep. It’s what follows after that that wakes me right up.

  “Hello, Erin,” Romeo’s voice says, flowing out of our answering machine like a melody. I share a look with April, myself stunned and her somewhat amused. Romeo continues, “I quite enjoyed our talk today. I hope you know I’m a man of my word—well, even if you don’t, you’ll see soon enough. Meet me for a coffee at noon at The Daily Brew next week. I’ll be expecting you.”

  The answering machine beeps again, indicating the end of the message.

  “Wow,” April says after a moment of silence stretches out between us. “So—he is a fucking asshole.”

  I do cringe, then, and shake my head as I sigh. “No, no. Just—entitled, I think. Very, very confident. Someone probably gave him too much attention as a child.”

  “Is that Erin my friend or Erin my future psychiatrist talking?” April asks, nudging me as she grins. “You know you can let yourself react naturally once in a while, right? You don’t have to justify everything for everyone—sometimes a dick is just a dick. Freud, right?”

  I laugh and nudge her right back. “See, this is what happens when you only half-listen to me when I talk about my classes. And I’m not making excuses, I’m just—refusing to engage.”

  April nods as she rises from the couch to stretch and set her cup down on the coffee table. She leans down to press a kiss to the top of my head, as motherly as she ever gets.

  “Good. That’s probably for the best.”

  We say our goodnights, then. She shuffles off into her own room while I snuggle into the couch to finish my tea before getting up as well. On my way to my room, I stop by the house phone and frown at it for a good solid minute before firmly, resolutely, deleting Romeo’s message.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Of course, nothing could be that easy. The Daily Brew happened to be the best coffee shop within walking distance from my apartment. They were far away from the university to be quiet in the mornings and I did my best studying there when April was busy in the kitchen—I didn’t mind her singing, usually, but it did get a bit distracting when I was fifty pages into my thesis and barely able to focus without distraction.

  Knowing that Romeo knew of the place, my favorite place, I avoided it for as long as I could, not wanting to run into him in case he just happened to be frequenting the shop. I tried a Starbucks a little bit further down the road in the other direction, but it took me half an hour to claim a table and even longer to get any work done what with all the chatter filling the cramped space of the shop. I missed the plush armchairs and old tables of The Daily Brew, where I could spread out and work in peace.

  Ultimately deciding that Romeo was probably only bluffing anyway—after all, why would he make any special effort to seek out a girl like me—I packed up on my things on a Sunday morning, during which April had started on a mock-up of a huge cake project for a catering job (which meant she would be singing endless pop songs all day), and made my way to my usual table.

  Lydia, my favorite barista and a friendly townie who always gave me some extra whipped cream on my iced coffee orders, waves as soon as she sees me. “The usual for you, babe?”

  I nod and return the wave with a smile before going to settle down in my corner. My iced latte arrives lightning fast and I invite Lydia to sit for a while since I was one of the only customers in the shop so early in the morning.

  “Where’ve you been? We missed your little intellectual babble the past few days,” she says as she brings over a mug of tea for herself.

  I laugh and pull a face at myself as I pull my books out. “Really? I’m not that loud, am I?”

  “Oh, no, of course not—but we do notice when our little corner isn’t mumbling under her breath about psychosis and whatnot,” she says teasingly.

  I laugh again as I reach for my purse to grab some cash to pay for the coffee. “I’ve just been—busy.”

  Lydia qui
rks an eyebrow at me, clearly not believing my very vague answer. She doesn’t press the matter, though, and simply nods as she counts out my change. I’m grateful for the silence. It isn’t that I don’t consider her a friend—I do, really—but I didn’t exactly want to think about Romeo. That would just lead to a completely unproductive and frustrating day of distracting.

  Once the early lunch guests start to come in, Lydia peels away to take care of the customers. Finally able to relax in peace, I open up my books and get down to work.

  I’m nearly done with another sub-section of my thesis by Thursday, having spent nearly every morning of the past week hard at work. There was still a daunting amount of work to be done, but getting so close to the end of this step had my flying on cloud nine. (Well, maybe the two lattes I had earlier had something to do with that whole flying thing as well.) My conclusion was at the tip of my tongue—or my fingers, as it may be. I could probably wrap this up before lunch and reward myself with a trip to my favorite sushi place downtown.

  As I type and retype the last lines of my current work, trying to find the perfect wording for my thoughts, I’m interrupted by the loud scraping of the chair in front of me being pulled back. Startled out of my focus on my work, I blink up at the tall intruder who’s taking a seat at my table when there are clearly many others open.

  Before I can open my mouth to politely ask him if he could move, or if he’d like me to move, my eyes register the sight of Romeo Ortiz, grinning like he’s just won the lottery. I clench my jaw shut, then, and frown.

  “I knew you wouldn’t disappoint me,” he says, crossing one leg loosely over the other as he leans back in his chair as though he belongs there. “Good morning, Erin.”

  “Good morning, Romeo,” I say, icily. “Get out.”

  He throws his head back and laughs, the deep baritone of his voice flooding my sacred, quiet space. “Changed your mind about meeting me so quickly? I never took you for fickle, Erin.”

  The way he repeats my name, rolling the sound right off of his tongue, is annoyingly distracting for a moment before I shake my head to clear my mind.

  “Who says I changed my mind? I never planned on meeting you here—it’s not my fault you chose my favorite coffee shop to harass me in, is it?”

  “This guy bothering you, ‘rin?” Lydia calls out from the counter, her all-serious no-play voice in place. I’ve seen this girl kick the burliest men out of her shop before and knew that she wouldn’t stand for any disturbances.

  I shake my head, though, wanting to take care of this myself—but before I can tell Romeo off properly, he’s reaching over and picking up my latte, taking a slow sip from my straw. I could feel my jaw drop.

  The nerve!

  “Hn. Not bad,” he says as he returns the drink to me. He turns to the counter without taking his eyes off of me and snaps his fingers. “I’ll have one of what she’s having.”

  I could practically hear Lydia boiling over in the background—she was pissed and, honestly, so was I. There was charmingly commanding, and then there was Romeo: cocky and rude with an ego the size of the fucking moon.

  “You can order at the counter,” I tell him, keeping my words clipped and curt. “Then you can leave.”

  “Aw, but we’re just starting to have fun.” He grins as he settles back, looking as though this really was his idea of fun—knowing him, much more than I ever wanted to know him, it was exactly what he thought of as fun.

  Frustrated beyond words, I begin to close my books and shove everything into the backpack I’d brought with me. I would have to apologize to Lydia for bringing this ignoramus into her shop, maybe bring her one of April’s cakes to make up for it.

  “Leaving so soon?”

  I slam my heaviest book shut with more force than is probably necessary, glaring up at him over the table as I stand once I’ve finished packing. “I will if you won’t.”

  He holds out a hand, palm open, and lowers it slowly as though he thinks he can command me to sit with a simple hand motion—does this actually work on the girls he usually knows?

  “Sit, Erin,” he says when he notices me standing firm. “Give me one minute of your time, then I’ll leave you be.”

  I frown, not trusting him for a second, but—I suppose one minute couldn’t hurt, and if he did leave afterwards, I could continue working in peace. I nod reluctantly and sit myself back down. “What.”

  “I look forward to seeing if you’ve got a bite to go with that bark,” he says, that grin sneaking back onto his lips.

  I roll my eyes and begin to stand again, only stopping when he reaches out and catches my arm, gently, yet firmly, guiding me back into my seat.

  “Dinner,” he says simply. “Meet me back here ten days from now, around eight. I’ll pick you up for dinner. If you don’t change your mind about me after that, you’ll never see me again.”

  I frown at his hand on mine, his touch not bothering me as much as it did the last time we met. I suppose it helps that he wasn’t forcing me to stay seated, but rather simply reassuring me of his patience and will to pursue me—though that was hardly what I’d call reassuring! Was dinner really what it would take to get this guy off my back?

  “Why, though? Why are you so insistent on pursuing me?” I find myself asking before I can remind myself that I really don’t care, because—I suppose, in the end, I do want to know.

  He releases my wrist after stroking his fingers down the back of my hand, sending a surprising shiver shooting up my spine.

  “I don’t know, Erin. You’ve grabbed me and you’re refusing to let go—I’m a poet by trade and I don’t know if I have a good explanation I can put into words. But you know what? We don’t need one.” He leans in closer and lowers his voice to a whisper, as though he’s telling me some great secret, to say, “I’m going to make you mine, over and over and over—.”

  I stand again, abruptly. My hands are shaking at my sides, partly from rage and partly from a strange feeling of excitement that I don’t even want to put a name to. I couldn’t possibly be excited about this—this absurd chase that he’s promising to pursue.

  Could I?

  “Fine,” I say once I’ve gotten my nerves under control, “but you’ll find yourself proven wrong, you know. It’s going to take more than some fancy dinner to make me fall for you.”

  “Trust me, I’ve got more,” he says as his lips curl up into a smirk.

  Not wanting to hear more, I grab my bag and leave. It isn’t until I’m nearly home that I remember that he was supposed to leave, that I was supposed to be left alone to my work with my table.

  I sigh, shaking my head as I make my way into my room, waving a quiet hello to April when I find her still hard at work with the oven. The way Romeo rattled me with his presence was completely unacceptable. I had to learn to keep my cool around him.

  Just one night, I tell myself. Just one night, and he’ll be gone forever.

  And if I feel any lingering excitement, I tell myself it’s over the thought of getting rid of him—and not, definitely not, over our impending date.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Ten days proves to be a hell of a long time. After telling April about my latest run in with Romeo and his proposition, I resolve to put the whole thing out of my mind for as long as possible. April is kind enough to not press me for details. She even helps me fill my days with things to keep my mind off of the date—teaching me how to bake some simple cakes and even taking me with her on a few catering jobs.

  She can’t babysit me all day, though, and I don’t expect her to. I throw myself back into my work and pump out a good twenty pages of notes before hitting a snag. A book I could have sworn I already bought turns up missing and the local library didn’t have a copy. Annoyed, but simultaneously grateful for having something to keep me busy, I make an appointment with my professor to discuss the research that I needed to do, hoping to find another source of the information.

  Fortunately, she finds me a copy of the very book
I’m looking for in her own private library and allows me to borrow it for a few weeks. After I thank her and review the progress I’ve been making over the summer, I take off towards the quad with plans of loitering about for a few minutes to kill some time before catching the bus home.

  As I get closer and closer to the center of student life, I notice a huge commotion by the clock tower. Speakers have been set up all over the stage area, where student bands sometimes performed for passing audiences during the lunch rush, and a group of what looked to be every single student taking summer classes had gathered around the place. I peer over to try and make sense of what’s going on there—I hadn’t heard of any special events or guests scheduled to appear over the summer, but it must be something really special to hold such a large crowd.

  “I just heard,” a bubbly young brunette says into her cell as she passes me, quickly making her way towards the crowd. “Mmhm. I don’t know what they’re casting for, but oh my God. Romeo Ortiz is right here! We’ll get to audition for him! Get here—now.”

  I blink at the snippets of conversations I catch, staring as she disappears into the crowd. I could have sworn she said Romeo Ortiz, but that’s just—I sigh. That’s just my luck.

  As though on cue, Romeo appears on the makeshift stage under the bell tower, just barely visible over the crowd. I watch him joke around with the crowd, getting closer to his fans than I ever expected him to, before turning to make a break for the nearest building, the campus bakery.

  Of course, I move just a second too late.

  “Well, well,” Romeo says, his voice booming out loud over the sound system as he begins to speak into a microphone. “Look at that—our leading lady has appeared.”

  I cringe, knowing without turning around that he’s speaking to me. I’m tempted to keep walking away like I hadn’t even heard him, but a few people standing near me are starting to stare at me. I sigh and turn, tipping my head in acknowledgement to Romeo. The crowd parts like the Red Sea as he steps off of the stage to jog towards me, leaving the mic with a confused and star-struck blond in the audience.