WE WERE STILL IN EACH other’s arms the next morning. “I could get used to waking up next to you,” he said.

“You’d better,” I answered. I kissed him lightly on the nose. “Waking up next to me should be on your life agenda, top priority.”

“Your bed hair...”

Yikes! Did I look like an idiot? I tried to jump up to fix it, but he held me tight.

“I like it,” he said. “It’s cute.”

I crept my hand up his body until my arm was around his neck. “It is nice waking up together,” I said.

It was also nice seeing him much happier today. The storm had passed and the sun had come out. I guessed it was a relief for him to have confessed his secrets and have that out of his system. He’d been brave telling me, not knowing how I’d take it and thinking I might reject him. My heart ached for the younger Crow. Walking away had never been an option. Instead, I wanted to make his life brighter and happier, to wipe out the horrors of his past.

“You haven’t had second thoughts?” he asked, as though he was reading my thoughts.

“Not a one.”

The way he gazed into my eyes made me woozy. It’d be so easy to skip breakfast and stay in bed with him. I suggested that. We could get room service and stay right here.

“And what’s everyone going to think if we’re both missing from breakfast?” he asked.

Even when we stayed at places with room service, Damo liked everyone to gather for breakfast, which was unusual for someone who liked his privacy so much. I guessed it was one of the few chances to get the bands together in one place, but I bet it was more to make sure no one had stayed out all night partying.

“I don’t really care what they think,” I said. “They have to get used to us being together sooner or later.”

I could think of a lot of things I wanted more than breakfast, and most of them involved Crow’s body parts being in close contact with my body parts.

“I told Polly we’d take things slow,” he said.

“We could at least shower together.”

His eyes twinkled. Was that a sign I had a chance?

“You think it would be that easy? That it’d be just showering? Because I sure as hell couldn’t have that temptation in front of me without giving in.”

“You have that temptation in front of you now.” I wrapped my leg around his thigh just to prove it.

He screwed up his face in thought. “It’s different. You’re not naked. And there’s no water involved.”

“There could be water involved,” I told him.

He laughed and climbed out of the bed. Damn it. I wasn’t ready for that yet. This bed thing worked nicely for me.

“So, how slow are we going?” I asked him. “Can I get a time frame?”

“You want a color-coded schedule?” he said, his eyes twinkling.

I sat up on the side of the bed, hugging my legs up as I watching him put on his jeans. That was a sight I’d never get sick of, although watching him take them off suited me much better.

“That would be nice, actually,” I said. “Yellow for gentle kisses, orange for intense ones, and red for all the way.”

“What about green?” he asked.

I looked up at him with a cheeky smile. “Oh, you’ll love green. And then there’s blue. We could do a bit of blue right now if you like.” I waggled my eyebrows, full of suggestion.

He threw a pillow at me. “Get ready for breakfast.”

I sighed. He hadn’t even kissed me. This was way too slow for my liking. I wasn’t getting any younger.

“So, before we leave Paris? Barcelona at the latest?” I asked.

He didn’t answer.

“Rome?” Surely, we’d do it before Rome. Rome was weeks away. I’d die if we didn’t do it before Rome.

“There are more important things,” he said.

Maybe, but I couldn’t think of any. Not when he was so close to me. We didn’t even have to go all the way. Just some more kissing and fooling around would be nice.

When I stood up, though, he pulled me to him. “We have plenty of time,” he said. “Don’t rush things.”

A thrill went through me, right down to my toes. As much as this waiting drove me crazy, I did like the teasing.

Then he put his lips to mine. Finally, a kiss! But it ended way too soon.

“Okay, get ready for breakfast,” he said. “I’ll see you down there.”

I gave a little moan but he left my room. The man had way too much self-control.

I got down to breakfast before Crow. Polly gave me a glance, then craned her neck to peer around me, wanting to check whether Crow and I were together. Ha, I’d fooled her. Well, I guessed that was more Crow’s doing than mine. She waved at me with a big smile. She was way too happy to see me.

After I’d loaded up my plate with bacon, I sat down with her and Damo.

“Tonight is going to be huge,” she told me. “We’re being filmed for some big music show here. It might get shown all over Europe.”

No wonder she’d been so happy to see me, with news like that.

“Yikes. We only found out now?”

“Yep. They were planning to film the Freaks. That was organized way back, but they’ve asked if they can film us too.”

Polly’s grin almost split her face. I could imagine mine was nearly as huge. Just being asked meant we were doing great things.

“Oh,” she said. “There might be an interview beforehand, too.”

“I need Fiona to do my makeup. I have to look sizzling.” I looked around but couldn’t see her.

“They’ll have their own makeup artists,” Polly said.

“Yeah, but they won’t be as good as Fiona. She’s magic. I’ll ask her when she comes down.”

Before that, Crow arrived. Even though I’d only seen him a few minutes ago, the sight of him walking into the room made my heart flutter.  I wanted to jump up and fly into his arms, but I stayed seated. He’d be beside me soon enough, and I didn’t want to put on a public display.

Polly stared at me.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Your necklace, it’s new?” she asked.

I put my hand up to touch it. I’d thought my grin couldn’t get any wider after the TV news, but remembering the necklace amped it tenfold. Crow must’ve been pretty confident of Polly’s answer to have bought this before he’d even spoken to her. I liked that.

“It sure is,” I replied.

Polly kept looking, but I didn’t explain. She could wonder all she liked.

I wanted to spend the morning with Crow, but he had to go pick up some drumming stuff from one of the shops in the city. I’d have gone with him, but this TV thing was freaking me out. I needed to be super-prepared.

I spent way too long doing my makeup and hair before heading to the arena. Even if it was going to be redone, I wanted to look perfect. Then I had to pick what to wear. It had to be cute and cool and sexy. I had outfits that hit two out of three of those things, but nothing that ticked all the boxes. Why did I have such shit clothes? I needed to go shopping. Did I have time? I checked the clock. Nope. Not nearly enough. Why hadn’t we had more warning of this?

I called Polly’s room. “Pick two of these: cool, cute, sexy?” I asked.

“I think you want Polly,” Damo said.

“Well, give me your opinion first,” I told him. “The more input, the better.”

“Sexy and cool,” he said.

That was what I thought, too. Then he gave Polly the phone.

“Cute and cool. Not sexy.”

I’d figured she’d say that. I wasn’t sure why I’d even asked.

“Don’t panic too much. Anything you have is fine,” she added.

“How do you know that?”

“I know every outfit you own by now. Anyway, no one will be looking at you with me onstage.” She laughed.

“Yeah, good one, Polly,” I said.

I hung up and tried on the tight, sexy black dress again. It would be perfect but it was a bit tight for easy movement onstage. I held it up in front of me. It did look better on me than anything else I had. A little tightness wouldn’t be too bad.

With that sorted out, I had an hour or so to kill.

I went back online to continue my search. I got about five likely results, but I wasn’t sure what to do with them now that I’d found them. I just stared at the names for a while. One of these people had to be Crow’s sister.  Then I dug deeper and whittled that list down to three.

Screw it. I sent emails to those three. I didn’t mention Crow’s name. That would be stupid. If you asked anyone if they were related to the drummer in a famous rock band, they’d say yes. Instead, I put in the few details he’d told me about his past, hoping one of them would respond. I’d work out what to do next if that happened.

I was on a roll. The stars were all converging in my favor, and things would only get better.