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  Toby motioned for Sienna to follow them to the dressing room. Sienna headed toward the back of the club, trying to decide which of the spacious executive offices she would demand at Mulholland, Davis and French.

  ***

  Toby stood sentry next to Aria as she autographed at least two hundred photographs outside the back door at Caesar’s Ghost. The crowd couldn’t get enough of her. When the last picture was signed, Toby, along with the cameramen and the club owner, escorted Aria back into the club’s dressing room.

  “We’ve got to take fifteen,” one of the cameramen said. He dropped his camera and pack, the other cameraman following suit.

  The club owner held up a finger. “Give me a minute, you’ve both earn a drink on the house.”

  “Nothing alcoholic while we’re on the clock,” the other cameraman said, earning a glare from the one who’d suggested the break.

  The club owner walked up to Toby. “Whenever Ms. Jordan is in need of a venue, you call me.” He pointed his stubby thumb to his chest. He looked down at Aria, who’d resumed her seat at the lighted vanity table. Her smile stretched from one side of her face to the other. “You, young lady, have a long career ahead of you. This club has never been as electrified as it was when you took to the stage.”

  “Thank you,” Aria said, still beaming.

  Toby clasped the man’s hand. “Thanks again for having us.”

  He nodded and left the dressing room, pulling the door closed behind him. As soon as he was gone, Aria bolted from the chair and crashed into Toby’s chest, wrapping her arms around his waist.

  “Toby, can you believe it!” she gasped. “Tonight was unbelievable.”

  “Yeah, it was,” he said, trying to extract her arms from around him.

  Aria stared up at him from where she’d laid her head on his chest. The look in her eyes caused trepidation to race down Toby’s back.

  Oh, damn.

  “Uh…Aria.”

  She kissed him.

  For a moment, Toby was rendered speechless. When he didn’t do anything, she must have taken it as his acquiescence and reached up to kiss him again.

  Toby reared back. “Whoa…Aria, wait a minute.”

  “What?” she asked, those doe-like brown eyes staring straight at him. “What’s the matter?

  Don’t you want to—”

  “No.” Toby pulled her arms from around his waist and took three huge steps back. Damn, this was awkward. “Look, Aria, I’m not sure where you got the impression that I wanted anything more than a professional relationship.”

  She took a step toward him. “But—”

  “But nothing,” Toby said with another step back. “I’m your manager and producer. You’re my client. That’s it.”

  The pain-filled look she shot him attacked Toby’s conscience. He ran a hand down his face and swallowed a groan. He should have addressed this the minute Sienna had told him to. Now, here he was, in the middle of the most important week of his career, breaking the heart of his most important client.

  “Aria, I’m sorry,” Toby said, taking a tentative step forward. He was about to reach for her hand but decided against it. He needed to set a firm boundary, starting now.

  Aria looked up at him then quickly lowered her eyes to the floor. “I just thought…you know. We’ve been together for nearly a year.”

  “Working together,” Toby said softly. “It’s always been about the work. I thought you understood that.”

  “I did...I just. Well, you don’t have a girlfriend,” she returned accusingly.

  Toby hesitated, then said, “Actually, Sienna and I are seeing each other.” The minute he said it, Toby wished he could take the words back. Aria blinked. She looked as if she were going to speak, but instead, she nodded, wrapping her arms around herself, her expression going from bewildered to resigned, with a bit of hurt still mixed in.

  “Well, okay,” she said, with the fakest smile Toby had ever seen. “I guess that’s that.”

  “Aria.” Toby reached for her, despite his vow to maintain his distance. But Aria stepped out of the way.

  “No, I’m okay,” she said.

  The door to the dressing room pushed open and one of the cameramen came through, clutching a can of soda. If he noticed a change in the room’s atmosphere, he didn’t acknowledge it.

  “I’m gonna turn in early,” Aria said, turning to the vanity. “I’ve got a full day tomorrow.”

  Toby briefly closed his eyes in relief. She was sticking to the plan. Before they started the taping, Toby had given her an hour-by-hour itinerary to follow so there would be no surprises. Other than the visit by her mother, they’d been able to stick to the plan.

  “Yeah, you should probably head home,” Toby said. He walked over to the chair that held her duffle bag, but when he picked up the bag, she stopped him.

  “I’ve got it,” she said, the false brightness still in her voice. “You can go.”

  Toby debated saying more, then figured it was best to quit while he was ahead. For a minute, he thought he saw tears forming in Aria’s eyes, and he damn sure didn’t want the cameras to catch her crying.

  “Okay, then,” Toby said, dropping the bag back on the chair. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” He made his way to the door, but before leaving, turned back. “Congratulations again, Aria. You wrote your own ticket to stardom with tonight’s performance.”

  “Thanks,” she answered, her voice sullen.

  Toby shut the door before those tears he’d glimpsed could fall.

  ***

  I could have asked for things to go better, but I don’t think it’s possible,” Toby said as he handed Sienna a glass of wine. He took a seat beside her on the sofa that faced an amazing view of the city.

  “Tonight was unbelievable,” Sienna replied, sipping her wine. “Almost as unbelievable as this apartment. Just how much is this setting you back?”

  “You don’t want to know,” Toby answered.

  Sienna’s eyes roamed over her surroundings, overwhelmed by the sheer opulence.

  Honey-colored hardwood floors dotted with plush rugs spanned the entire penthouse. The kitchen was done with stainless steel appliances and beautiful teal-tinged granite countertops above the sand colored cabinetry. A narrow bar, with high, backless stools separated the kitchen from the living room.

  A rust colored leather sofa faced a vista of windows that ran from the floor to the top of the eleven-foot ceilings. Sienna walked over to the windows and took in the glorious view they afforded. Lights shimmered across the Mississippi River like fireflies as the few commuters still up at this hour made the trek across the Crescent City Connection that linked the city’s East and West banks.

  “Pretty nice, huh?” Toby came up behind her, wrapping his arm around her waist.

  Sienna tipped her head back. “Tell me again why you felt the need to rent this apartment in the first place?”

  “I wanted to impress the producers, but I doubt they’ll even have the opportunity to see it. That’s okay, though. It’s practice for when I really do own a place like this.”

  “Thinking big, huh?”

  “Why shouldn’t I? After the way my girl put it down tonight, it’s only a matter of time.”

  “Speaking of your girl,” Sienna said, disengaging from his hold and marching him back toward the sofa. She waited until they were both seated and she had Toby’s undivided attention. “Aria wasn’t all that shy about making her feelings known tonight.”

  “No, she was not,” Toby answered with a sigh.

  “What are you going to do about her not-so-subtle infatuation?”

  “I took care of it.”

  Her brows rose.

  “I talked to her after the show,” Toby clarified.

  She studied him with guarded uncertainty. “Are you sure that was a good idea?”

  “What else would you have had me do?”

  Sienna lifted her shoulder. “I’m not sure. It’s just that I don’t think this was some
insignificant thing on Aria’s part. She’s really into you, Toby. What if your crushing her hopes messes with her mind? That’s something you definitely don’t want this week.”

  “She assured me she was okay with it. I let her down easy, Cee Cee. I told her that I was sorry if I’d led her on in any way, but that I’ve always wanted only a professional relationship with her.”

  “So, how did she take it?”

  “She’ll be okay,” Toby reassured her. “She’s still flying high after her performance. Honestly, I doubt it matters all that much to her.”

  “Well, I hope so,” Sienna said, settling on the sofa with her back against Toby’s chest. “After pining away for someone for so long, having your dreams crushed can be a severe blow.”

  Toby caressed her arm. “Do you know much about that?”

  Sienna thought about the nights she’d lain in bed, fantasizing about making her best friend more than just a friend. Nights when she knew he had been out with other girls. Heck, she’d even helped him pick out clothes for some of those dates.

  “A little,” she finally answered his question.

  “Who was foolish enough to break your heart?” he asked.

  Sienna remained silent. She wasn’t about to admit to Toby that she had been just as infatuated with him as Aria had been. Probably even more.

  He grasped her chin between his fingers and tipped her head up. “Whoever it was, that fool’s loss was my gain,” Toby said, angling his head and dipping low. His lips touched hers, tentatively at first, brushing slowly back and forth over her mouth. Sienna felt the moist tip of his tongue as he licked at her closed lips with gentle pressure, becoming more insistent with each pass. She reached her hand over and placed it behind his neck, pulling Toby down.

  He groaned, twisting her around and gently pushing her onto the sofa, his demanding lips never leaving hers. He guided her down, cradling her head as they both sank into the butter smooth leather.

  Sienna’s head spun in the sweet, seductive swirl of emotion that had captured her. The sensation of Toby’s mouth molding to hers was straight out of long ago dreams. And when she finally opened her lips and accepted his tongue, Sienna was certain she had never encountered anything more powerful. He consumed her, his tongue bathing the recesses of her mouth with fierce tenderness. Tasting. Exploring. Possessing.

  Toby’s hand trailed from her hair to run along her cheek with a caress so tender it wrenched a moan from her. His knee rode along her hip before settling between her thighs. Sienna fought the urge to open fully for him, but her body did so involuntarily. It felt all too natural, too right, to relax her legs and create a cradle for his body.

  Toby settled his strong thigh between her legs, teasing her with gentle pressure as his mouth’s insistent plundering continued to wreak havoc with her senses. Sienna wrapped her arms over his shoulders, drawing him closer, reveling in the sensation of his sculpted muscles against her breasts.

  She let herself drift on the wave of desire. So long she had dreamed of joining her mouth to his. Patiently, she had waited for him to see her as a woman instead of the awkward teenager he’d left behind. Now that the time was finally here, Sienna nearly laughed at how unbelievably altered her expectation was to reality. Toby’s kiss was ten times sweeter, hotter, and more passionate than anything she had ever dreamed.

  He released her mouth, dipping his head low and drawing his tongue along her collarbone. He laved her skin with slow, luxurious swipes of a tongue wicked enough to elicit raw, potent desire from a woman who’d been deprived of such pleasure for far too long. Toby captured her hand and drew her fingers into his mouth, tasting and suckling like he couldn’t get enough of her.

  Sienna moaned. The warmth of his mouth shot sparks of heated need through her bloodstream. He moved his thigh up and down between her legs, testing it against her core, wringing groans of desire from deep in her throat. Sienna could feel the part of his body she both craved and, in ways, still feared, pulsing against her stomach.

  Toby ran his hands under her silk shell, roaming over the crest of cleavage thrusting forward from her lacy bra.

  “Damn, you taste good,” he whispered, nipping at her lips.

  Sienna wasn’t sure she could take anymore. She wasn’t sure if she should. It was all moving too fast. If they continued at this pace, Toby would be inside of her in a matter of minutes. The thought made her dizzy with anticipation and fear. She had never allowed a man to get this close to her. After what happened the night of her debutante ball, she had been too afraid to offer herself as a part of this intimate dance so many women her age took for granted. She wanted it to be with Toby when it finally happened, but Sienna wasn’t sure she was ready just yet.

  If she didn’t put a stop to his kisses soon, she wouldn’t have a choice.

  “Toby, stop,” Sienna whispered.

  Either he didn’t hear her, or he ignored her, too wrapped up in his pursuit to get the rest of her clothes from barricading his final destination. Toby trailed his tongue across the rise of her shoulder, pushing her shirt up and feathering light kisses along her neck.

  “Toby!” Sienna shouted in a near panic. Capturing his wrist before he could undress her any further, she started to squirm on the sofa, trying to wrangle free from him.

  “Cee Cee, what’s wrong?”

  Sienna managed to get one hand between them and pushed against his chest. “This is going a little too fast for me, Toby.”

  He looked at her, saw she was serious. He instantly sat back, and Sienna nearly cried in relief. The last boy who’d attempted to go this far had not stopped so willingly.

  Sienna straightened to a sitting position on the sofa, wrapping her arms around her stomach. Toby grabbed the chenille throw that lay across the arm of the sofa and draped it around her. Sienna shivered despite the warmth the throw provided, her mind reeling from the intense emotions dancing through her body.

  Why was she so afraid? She knew Toby better than to think he’d ever do anything to hurt her. She could not allow what Curtis Henderson did all those years ago to rule her life.

  “Sienna?” Toby’s soft query drew her head up. “Sienna, what’s wrong?”

  “Nothing,” she lied. “I just…I’m not ready to go there yet, okay.”

  “Hey,” He put his hands up. “You only have to say the word. Always. It felt as if you were afraid I wouldn’t stop.” He captured her chin between his fingers and raised her head. “You know I will never do anything you don’t want me to do, right Cee Cee?”

  She nodded, the emotion welling up in her throat preventing her from uttering a single sound.

  “Okay,” Toby said. “When you’re ready we’ll only go as far as you say.”

  Sienna leaned over and placed a soft kiss on his lips. “Thank you.”

  A slight smile curved one corner of his mouth. “You’re welcome. Now…” He settled another peck on her mouth. “If you don’t mind, there is a cold shower with my name on it.”

  Gathering the wrap more closely around her, Sienna watched as he moved across the living room on his way to the penthouse’s master suite. “Toby,” she called out before he reached the glass French doors that led to the hallway.

  He turned.

  Sienna stared at him for a moment, before making him a quiet, solemn promise.

  “Soon.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Katie LeBlanc of the Wake Up with Katie morning show kept the plastic smile plastered across her face. Toby wished he could rip her head off.

  What they’d been promised would be a standard Q&A about Aria’s blossoming career and her participation in A Week in the Life of A Wannabe Star had turned into a bludgeoning of probing questions that had caught everyone—especially Aria—totally off guard. The confidence she had built up had plummeted. Katie fired questions at her at lightening speed. But it was all done with a smile, so apparently, it was okay.

  “The temptation of drugs and sex is so strong in the hip hop music world.
How do you avoid getting caught up in that lifestyle, Miss Jordan? Or, have you taken a walk on the wild side?” Katie asked, all bleached white teeth.

  “I…ah, I’ve never done drugs,” Aria said. Her eyes were as wide as a deer in headlights, a blush turning her caramel cheeks crimson. “And, well, as for sex...um…I’ve only done it a couple of times.”

  Standing just to the right of the morning show’s set, which was made to look like an inviting living room, Toby groaned in frustration and dragged his hands down his face. “This is a freaking disaster.”

  Sienna stood beside him, biting her fingernails. “I’m trying to find the bright side, Toby, but I really can’t with this one. It is a freaking disaster.”

  Toby shot her a glance and chuckled. “Don’t you go using that language around your mother. She’ll blame me for corrupting you again.”

  “With good reason,” Sienna said, the knowing look on her face intimating that a mere cuss word was not what she was thinking about at the moment. Toby couldn’t afford to comment. He’d had a hard enough time pushing thoughts of last night from his mind. If he thought about the way Sienna’s silken skin had felt on his tongue, his day would be shot to hell for thinking about anything else.

  “We should have demanded to see the questions before the interview,” Toby said after a moment.

  Sienna shook her head. “I’m not sure it would have made a difference. I think Katie LeBlanc wanted this ambush.”

  Toby had a feeling Sienna was right, but thankfully, the interview was almost over.

  “What we need to do today is work on a way to counter any backlash that may come from this interview,” she continued. “The only thing that may raise a few eyebrows was her views on American Idol. I’ll construct a more tactful response, indicating that Aria was misunderstood.