It turned out the decision was taken out of my hands.

After five minutes of pretending to look casual, Damon huffed and grabbed my hand, pulling me up. “This is ridiculous. Come on.”

He tugged me across the room and I let him, dazed. When had Damon become so assertive?

“Excuse me! Coming through.”

People in the crowd frowned at us and I heard a few ‘hey’s as Damon pushed his way through. I swear one woman hissed at us as Damon shoved past, but he chose not to notice.

“There,” he said triumphantly as he deposited me at the bar, right in front of Gabe.

Gabe stopped talking to the bartender and his face lit up, those gray eyes flaring in the dim light. “Hey.”

“Hi. Sorry. Damon insisted and I wasn’t going to bother you until after—”

Damon huffed again and thrust me toward Gabe so I overbalanced into his chest.

“There. That’s better. You know where I’ll be,” Damon said, and disappeared back into the crowd.

I attempted to step back, but Gabe’s hands found my waist and he held onto me. “Hey,” he said again. It was hard to hear him in the packed space but I could feel his laughter reverberate through me.

“Hey,” I said, suddenly shy. I cast a self-conscious glance around us.

Gabe’s hot breath tickled my ear as he bent down to speak to me. “Don’t worry. No one is interested in us. It’s all about Johnnie and Levi. See?”

I shifted and saw his bandmates standing further along the bar. Gosh, he was right. The crowd only had eyes for the lead singer and guitarist.

“That doesn’t seem fair.”

“Oh, I don’t mind. Trust me.” His hands were still on my hips.

“It still doesn’t seem right,” I persisted. “You’re just as much a part of Gypsy Hour as they are. How does Emilio feel about it?”

Gabe shrugged. “It suits him too, believe me.”

“Well, I thought you were wonderful tonight.”

“Thanks.”

“I mean it.”

“I know you do.”

Oh. Oh. When he looked at me like that I was grateful he was holding onto me.

“Want to hear something funny?” he said.

Funny? The way my body was tingling with awareness at his closeness didn’t seem funny to me.

He gave me a lopsided grin. “I once jogged around the stadium before a show and no one noticed me.”

“What?”

“You heard me. I ran right past the lines of people waiting to get in and they didn’t see me.”

My mouth fell open and I shoved his shoulder. “You did not!”

“I did.”

“But that’s so dangerous!”

“Hardly. Not when you’re me.”

“What if they had noticed you and then you wouldn’t have any security staff or anything.”

“They weren’t going to notice me.”

The humor in his eyes disappeared.

“Sing for me,” I blurted.

Gabe’s eyebrows shot up. “What?”

“I love your voice,” I said more softly. “I’d love to hear you sing again. Not now, obviously. But another time.”

He reached up and brushed a curl away from my forehead. “I could say the same for you.”

“You’d like to hear me sing?”

“Very much.”

His lips brushed mine and I closed my eyes. It was just a whisper of a touch, and I wondered how something that felt so right could leave me feeling so unsteady.

“Perhaps you could do a duet.”

My eyes flew open at the snap of a camera phone.

Her. It was her. That woman. The one with the big mouth and tiny dress.

I froze.

Gabe set me gently to one side. “Yeah, not a bad idea, but hey—that image you just took? Would you mind deleting it?”

The woman smirked. “Why would I want to do that?”

“Seems to me it would be the polite thing to do seeing as we don’t know each other.” He was all casual charm.

“Oh, I know you, don’t worry.” She checked the image she had just taken on her phone and then dropped it into her bag.

“You!” I managed.

Her smirked deepened. “I don’t believe we’ve met.” She held out her hand. “Tanya Symons, reporter for E-tainment News.”

I ignored her outstretched hand. “How did you get in?”

“I have connections.”

Her smirk was really starting to annoy me. If it wasn’t for the obvious Botox, I was certain she’d have deep lines from the self-satisfied bitch expression.

“Nice to meet you,” Gabe said smoothly. “Look, I appreciate you’ve got a job to do, but I’m going to ask you again to delete that image.”

“Ask all you like. It’s not going to happen.” Tanya snapped her bag shut and went to walk away.

Gabe caught her arm and her lip curled in a silent snarl. “Let me go, drummer boy.”

He released her and stepped back, all signs of the easygoing guy gone. “You’ll be hearing from my lawyer.”

“Have fun with that. This is a public place.”

She flicked her straight blond hair over her shoulder as she turned away and I stared at her back in dismay.

Unexpected rage surged in my chest, hot and choking. For a brief second I didn’t know what to do with it. I wasn’t used to feeling like this. Angry and out of control—and then I remembered. I wasn’t nice anymore. I didn’t have to be the good girl. In fact, that night in my trailer, Faith had shared too many cold, hard Hollywood truths for me to ever want to be nice again.

I slipped past Gabe. “Hey, bitch.”

The people around us paused their conversations and I saw plenty of eyes widen when they recognized who I was.

Tanya stopped, but didn’t turn around. “What did you call me?”

I had the irrational urge to tip her over on her teetering black heels, but I had something better up my sleeve.

“You heard what I said. I can say it again if you like. Bitch.”

This time she did turn around and her expression was like the cat that got the cream.

“Chloe.” Gabe said my name like a warning.

“I got this, Gabe.”

Two lines formed between his eyes. Even I was surprised by my authoritative tone. In my peripheral vision I saw Viktor lurking in the shadows, and I shot him a back-off look, too.

“But stay here,” I said more gently.

I waited as Tanya strolled back to us, green eyes flashing with malice. “This will make quite a story.”

“That’s what you want, isn’t it? A story?” I was using my stage voice now, projecting from abdomen so my words could be heard all around the room.

She stopped in front of me. “You’re making it very easy.” Glee creased the corners of her eyes where she hadn’t had work yet. Give her a few more years and she would.

“Am I?”

“Oh yeah, real easy.”

I held my arms out and the people surrounding us moved back. It reminded of the musical film I’d worked on where the dancers circled the cast before they broke out into song.

“You want a story. I’ll give you a damn story.” I clapped my hands above my head, one loud, no-nonsense clap. “Everybody get your camera phones out!”

The wide-eyed crowd remained still, the silence echoing their disbelief.

“You heard me! Get your phones out and get ready!”

Tanya put her hands on her hips, clearly amused. Beneath her veneer of self-assuredness, I also saw something else: wariness.

“What? Are you going to hit me?” she sneered.

Oh, that would be so much fun, but I’d been raised by a classy Southern woman who knew the importance of keeping the media eating out of her hand.

“Better. Get ready everyone.”

I turned to Gabe and met his eyes. I read amazement in them and maybe some of that same wariness. Satisfaction settled over me. I liked feeling powerful and sure of myself.

I leaned in and whispered in his ear. “I’m going to kiss you now. Is that OK?”

He chuckled in reply, low and seductive so only I could hear. “I’d like that a lot.”

“Excellent. Let’s make it a good one.”

I kissed him deeply, my body pressed hard against him. The room exploded into a series of flashes as almost everyone in the crowd held up their phones and snapped pictures of us.

I didn’t care that my tongue was down his throat or his hands were on my ass. It felt good to show the world how much feeling I had for this remarkable man, who didn’t seem to be aware of quite how remarkable he was.

After about thirty seconds—I couldn’t be exactly sure of how long it was because even kissing Gabe in front of a room full of people I was still capable of losing myself—I pulled away.

With a self-satisfied smile I waved to the crowd. “Thanks so much. Now feel free to share it with your friends on social media. Or your favorite news channel. Whatever. And yes, that’s Gabriel da Silva, the drummer in Gypsy Hour, that I just kissed. We’re kind of a thing.”

Laughter and exclamations filled the room.

I turned back to Tanya with the sweetest of smiles. “Good luck with that story, Tanya. I hope it goes well for you.”