I worked my ass off the next day for Professor Steinbach. He was grateful for the information I’d dug up, but never really showed it.

At most I could hope for a reference in his foreword once he submitted his research paper for peer review.

At least it was something, and it would help me in the end when I submitted my own research and eventually opened a clinic to help children.

I just needed the funds, but that could be handled later.

The day after that was my first guitar lesson.

I didn’t own a guitar so I planned on going to the store to pick one up. I didn’t really know much about them, just that I’d always wanted to learn to play.

Since I was such an uptight child and adult, music represented the exact opposite to me.

If I could learn to strum a song on a musical instrument, it felt a little like loosening up and being free.

I walked in and immediately fought the urge to turn around and run out.

I was so outside my comfort zone that I felt physically ill, like my stomach was going to leap out of my body through my mouth.

“Come on, you can do this,” I said to myself under my breath.

“Can I help you?” a woman’s voice pierced my little anxiety bubble.

“Oh, yes. Um, music!” I blurted and instantly hated how out of my element I was and how nervous it made me.

I made a mental note to tell Stacy she sucked for challenging us for New Year…unless it turned out to be a good thing, then I would thank her.

“Are you looking for something specific?” she asked with a smile plastered to her face. She obviously thought I was half nuts or something.

“Sorry, let’s start over,” I said. “I signed up for guitar lessons, they start today and I need a guitar.”

“Okay, that makes more sense,” she laughed. I followed her to a wall of instruments and let her help me pick out an acoustic guitar that would suit my needs, she promised profusely.

Once I paid for it, I looked around the store and noted it was still full of other customers. My lesson was supposed to start in ten minutes and I didn’t see any other staff.

“Are we still on for today or are you too busy?” I asked Peg as she handed me my receipt.

“I would normally be doing your lesson, but I have somebody standing in for me today. Another instructor,” she said with a smile. “I usually don’t have this much traffic in here.”

“I guess that’s a good thing,” I said and picked up my guitar case. “Where are the lessons held?”

“I’ll show you the back room,” she said. “You’ll use it every day for your lessons. You did choose the accelerated plan, right? You’re doing 4 lessons a week?”

“Yeah, I’m only here until the end of the month. Then I move back home,” I replied.

“Perfect timing, the instructor you’re working with is also only here for a short time,” she said and opened a door at the back of the shop.

I stepped inside a small sound proof room and took a seat on one of the chairs in it. I opened my case and pulled out my new instrument, held it on my lap and ran my hand along the curves.

It was almost sensual, the way my hand naturally moved along the smooth surface of the guitar.

I drew my fingers across the strings and a twang filled the room. I repeated myself and couldn’t stop, I loved the way it sounded and the way the strings felt under my touch.

“Seems like I might have the wrong room, I thought somebody needed lessons,” a man’s voice said, making me jump half out of my seat.

I stopped and turned around as I sputtered about not being very good when I realized he’d been joking.

And he was Gavin Pierce.

Indie rock god.

Hottest man in America.

In the flesh.

Even with a cast on his foot, he was unbelievably hot. If anything the cast made him seem more human, more vulnerable somehow.

I felt the air go out of the room, it was hard to catch my breath.

I’d only ever seen him on TV or online and yet here he was, larger than life and right in front of me.

“I’m Gavin,” he said and he flashed me a million watt smile as he extended his hand. “I’ll be teaching you how to play that thing.”

He nudged his chin towards my guitar and I suddenly remembered why I was there in the first place.

Seeing Gavin had left me speechless and my mind numb from any semblance of language.

My mouth must have opened and closed a few times, like a fish out of water, before I finally gave myself a mental head shake.

I took his hand, shook it and managed to squeak out, “Hey, I’m Chloe and I’m here to learn to play.”

Oh god, of course you’re here to learn, why else would you be here? I groaned internally at my inability to stay cool in the face of a literal rock star.

“I kinda figured that out,” he said with that dazzling smile of his. He pulled up a chair and sat across from me with our knees almost touching.

I mentally gave my head a shake and drew the iron willed Chloe that had fearless defended her PhD dissertation and won a hard-fought research position with professor Steinbach.

I had done so much in my life that had required nerves of steel, why was I unable to center myself and get a grip with Gavin Pierce?

Sure, he was a rock star…and actual rock star used to hanging with the most famous movie stars and models in the world…but ultimately he was just a human being.

I remembered what they told me in a public speaking course I’d taken in my first year of college, if you were nervous about talking in front of somebody just imagine them naked.

I blinked, imagined Gavin Pierce with no clothes, and somehow it just made it worse.

I blushed red hot and stammered, “Yeah, okay. So what do I do?”

“First of all, let’s get you holding it the right way,” he said and leaned forward. He took my hand in his and gently placed it on the neck of the guitar, then took the other hand and put it on the strings.

“That’s better,” he said and looked into my eyes and I could barely handle it. He was famous for the unusual color of his eyes, they seemed to glow with a light of their own. They were a golden amber color, something that didn’t seem natural let alone human even.

Tiger eyes.

I didn’t think I’d ever seen eyes like his in person, and I felt a little faint staring into them.

“You have to treat your instrument like a lover,” he said and licked his lips as he looked down. I swallowed hard and nodded wordlessly. “Caress it, be gentle and careful. Find out what your guitar needs to feel in order to perform.”

“Like this?” I asked and shifted slightly to let the guitar rest against the curves of my body.

“Exactly,” he replied, then stopped and looked back up at me again, this time with amusement in his eyes. “You’re not even going to mention the fact that I’m Gavin Pierce, are you?”

“Is it supposed to be a big deal?”

I had some of my iron will back in my veins, the same strength that got me through my education. I could handle this, I could face him.

“To some people it is,” he said with a crooked grin.

“Well I’m here to learn the guitar, not get your autograph if that’s what you’re hinting at.”

Ahhh there it was, my cool aloof nature was back. He’d unsettled me, for sure, but I could handle it. I was smarter than that, I wasn’t like the throngs of screaming fan girls who went insane for him.

I was different, I was an intellectual.

But still, I couldn’t wait to tell my sorority sisters about it. They would flip their shit over me learning from him.

“You sure about that?” he asked with a chuckle. “You’re an interesting woman, Chloe.”

“Are we going to continue the lesson?” I asked, locking me gaze on him and raising my eyebrow.

He laughed this time, he threw his head back and let out an amazing laugh and I loved that I had amused him. “Yes, we are going to continue. And I’ll get you wanting an autograph eventually, I promise.”

I gave him a snotty sniff and said, “We’ll see.”

But if I ever thought I had a chance with a man like him, I’d get his autograph…and more…so much more.