Nate dropped Stevie off at the bar where she had left her car the night before and then went on in to the studio. He hadn’t told her yet about the gig at The Bluebird. He thought it would be better to talk to the whole band at once. They were trying to keep their relationship a secret, if you could call it a relationship, and if he seemed to have spoken to her before the others they might get suspicious.

He was keen to play the new song for an untried audience, but The Bluebird was a big deal and he felt the stirrings of the stage fright that had plagued him on his last tour. He knew the song was good, but he also knew that he had played fast and loose with his fans. Country music fans were loyal, but they didn’t forgive easily. He would need to win them over and he hoped that having Stevie there would help.

Coming back to Nashville to lick his wounds after his aborted tour had been good for him, but it had also highlighted how weak he had been to let Gina railroad his career. He had never set out to be a rock star per se, but he had wanted to be famous and had been prepared to do whatever he had to to achieve it. Jumping ship from country to more mainstream rock and then pop had damaged his credibility with his fans and it would be a long road back, but he was prepared to put in the hard yards and grovel to his fans if necessary. He could never be an artist who could successfully straddle that line between country and pop and if he was honest, he didn’t want to. His heart had always been for country and always would be.

“Hey guys,” he said as he entered the studio and set his guitar case down. “We ready to lay down that track?”

“About that,” Jace said, shooting a look at his sisters. “We wanted to run something by you.”

He sat down on one of the leather armchairs and tried to look casual, but the nerves in his stomach were beating an irritating tattoo and his ears began to buzz. He took a couple of discreet breaths to try and calm himself and then smiled at the three Court siblings. “Shoot,” he said.

They shared another glance between them before Jace spoke again. “We wanted to wait for Stevie, to run it by her too—”

“What do you want to run by me?” Stevie asked as she came into the room out of breath like she had been running.

“I want you both to listen to something,” Jace said, turning to press a button on the desk.

The familiar strains of ‘No Good for Me’ began to play. It was the live recording from yesterday and Nate closed his eyes and let the music flow over him. It was good, the best they had recorded so far. There was a different sound to a live recording than one that was laid down track by track and he had to admit that the live recording seemed to suit this song. The energy was different, the result of having an audience, Nate was sure.

When the song finished he opened his eyes and looked to Jace, raising his eyebrows in question.

“Ness and Nadine and I were thinking that, well, maybe we should release this version instead of trying to record it again.”

He glanced at Stevie and the corner of her mouth tipped up in a smile. “I like it,” she said.

He nodded slowly, his nerves turning into excitement. “I do too,” he said. “And on that note, I have something else to discuss with y’all.”

“What?” Jace asked looking between him and Stevie as if they were going to confess something. Stevie shot him a quick glance with a quirked eyebrow and he knew she was worried that he was going to spill the beans.

“I had a call from Mabel this morning,” he said and noticed Stevie relax slightly. “She has gotten a gig for me at The Bluebird on Tuesday night.”

The collective gasp made him smile.

“Mabel was wondering about debuting the song that night, the only catch is that there can only be three of us on stage and no drums.”

“So a cut down version,” Jace said thoughtfully.

“Yeah. What do you think?”

“Let’s do it,” Vanessa said, bouncing in her seat.

“So who’s going to play—”

“Well you and Stevie, obviously,” she said, “and Nadine. The song needs the violin.”

Nate looked at Jace. “Do you agree?” he asked.

Jace exhaled a long breath and nodded. “Yeah, I agree.”

Nate felt the pressure in his chest lift. He and Jace didn’t always see eye to eye and he knew that the other guy was extremely protective of his music. For him to agree not to be a part of the song’s debut was a big step.

“Okay, so do you want to work on the arrangement today seeing as though we’re not recording?” Nate asked, wanting him to have a bit of control over the song.

“That sounds good,” Jace said. “Man, The Bluebird.” He shook his head, slowly. Nate understood.

The Bluebird Cafe was a big deal. Everyone who was anyone had played The Bluebird at one time or another. Some of the biggest names in country had been on that stage when they were first starting out. Their open mic nights were almost impossible to get into and it was an absolute miracle that Mabel had been able to get them a slot on a regular night so quickly. She was worth every penny of what he was paying her.

The rest of the morning and a good part of the afternoon was working through the cut down arrangement and by then end of it, Nate was feeling good about the song and the performance. There was a good chance he wouldn’t get booed off the stage and for that he was grateful.

Stevie had let Darla do her hair and makeup for the gig at The Bluebird, but had reined in her creativity. Dressing up to do karaoke was one thing, but this was The Bluebird and she needed to get her look right. YouTube videos of tonight would be all over the web tomorrow and Stevie was determined to make a good impression.

She never used to get nervous before a gig, but it had been so long since she had played a live audience that she was feeling a little anxious. Besides, it was The Bluebird! The fucking Bluebird! She didn’t think she would ever get to play there, let alone this early in her career.

The week had gone quickly, days filled with rehearsals for their performance, as well as for her upcoming tour. Marci had booked them into some bars and festivals to refine their set before the tour started and to get some buzz going for them as a band. Their album was doing well, but they were still relatively unknown and they needed these shows to boost their sales. The tour would launch them, but first they needed to win over the country faithful.

That was another reason the performance at The Bluebird was so important. It may have been Nate’s set, but it was showcasing her as well. They would be doing ‘No Good for Me’ as well as two other songs from Nate’s upcoming album with her and Vanessa performing with him. They may not be on the final album, but this could go a long way to cementing their reputations as serious contenders on the country music circuit.

They all sat together at a table, well two tables pulled together, with Darla and Tom and Stevie kept quiet, not wanting to strain her voice on one hand, but too nervous to do the whole small talk thing on the other. She sipped her warm lemon, ginger and honey concoction letting it gently warm her vocal chords. Their set was the last one on the docket. It was late, almost too late, but a gig was a gig and it was The Bluebird.

The name of the cafe kept rolling around her head. The Bluebird, The Bluebird, The Bluebird. She said the name so many times that it began to sound funny, like it wasn’t made up of real words, just random sounds. A warm hand on her leg made her jump and brought her back to the present. She turned to look at Nate and he smiled encouragingly at her. She smiled back and took a deep breath. She could do this. She had played worse crowds in her time, less sympathetic audiences who preferred redneck anthems than the soft ballads she and Nate had played. Playing the Bluebird would be a piece of cake.

“You okay?” Nate whispered in her ear.

She nodded and sipped her drink. He knew she wouldn’t talk. It was a ritual that they had played out many times. In fact, sitting next to him with Darla and Tom while they waited for their set was like slipping into a comfortable old pair of slippers. It really didn’t matter that it was The Bluebird and she was silly to get so uptight about it. This was just her and Nate doing what they had done so many times before. The stage might be a bit nicer and the audience a hell of a lot more receptive, but it was just another performance and she loved performing. Any time she got to make music was a good day.

“Next up we have Nate Nash with some brand new material.”

There was a half-hearted smattering of applause and Nate looked vaguely sick before he plastered a smile on his face and got up to move to the stage. Stevie and Vanessa followed him and readied themselves on the stage, the three of them sitting in a row on tall stools. The lights were bright and hot, but not bright enough to blind her and she could see Darla’s grinning face behind her phone as she held it up to record.

“Thanks for having me tonight,” Nate said and Stevie was surprised to hear the nerves in his voice. “I’m lucky enough to have half of the group Court’n Jacks up here on the stage to help me out tonight. Stevie Jacks and Vanessa Court.”

Another half-hearted applause. Stevie looked to Nate and waited for him to count them in. From the first chord her nerves vanished and the song poured out of her. She was aware of Nate’s few skipped notes before he found the sweet spot and then the three of them were in the zone. The song was killer and the cut down version didn’t lose anything in the translation.

There was brief pause after the song ended before the audience clapped, and not just a polite golf-clap either. They launched into the next song and she knew they’d won the audience over. It felt good to be up there in front of them and singing. Performing with Nate at her side felt like coming home, not that she would ever tell him that, but it was true. They knew each other in a way that could only be achieved after years of performing together. It may have been five years between drinks, but it all came rushing back. It didn’t matter that they had spent the last few weeks playing together almost exclusively, there was something different about being on stage together, a chemistry that couldn’t be manufactured in the studio or rehearsal room.

A chemistry that was even more potent than it had been five years ago.

She couldn’t think about that. She couldn’t let her mind put that pressure on their sex life. Yes, they had chemistry, on stage and in bed, but the two weren’t mutually exclusive. They could still have chemistry on stage without the sex and they could still have chemistry in the bedroom without performing on stage. But there was no denying the chemistry. It was electric and she didn’t care that she knew she was going to get burnt. That was the thing with chemistry, you were hopeless to resist it.

Nate kicked the door closed behind him, barely looking up from Stevie. They were fused together at the lips and their arms were wound around each other as if they couldn’t get close enough. The familiar adrenalin high from performing coursed through both of them and they’d extracted themselves from the rest of the crew as quickly as they could, desperate to get each other naked and work out the overload of adrenalin. They didn’t even care if the band put two and two together, they were way past caring about anything except getting their body parts aligned.

By the time they made it to the bedroom they were naked, stripping their clothes off along the way and leaving a trail that even a blind man could follow. They may have even knocked over a plant or two in their haste to get there. But neither of them even noticed the mess they were making.

They bumped into the bed and Stevie fell back onto the comforter. Nate kneeled on the floor between her legs and ran his hands up her thighs, parting them so that he could feast his eyes on the sweet pink lips that beckoned him. He leant forward and drew his tongue along her slit slowly, savoring that first taste of her.

Stevie’s hands went to his hair, threading through the long strands and tugging him closer. He loved that she wasn’t afraid of demanding what she wanted in bed. It was a change from the timid women he had been with in the past who spent more time trying to make him feel good then letting him make them feel good. But with Stevie, it was different and better. It turned him on to know that what he was doing to her was taking her higher. Giving her an orgasm made his that much sweeter.

He feasted on her, delighting in her taste as it flooded his tongue. Her legs wrapped around his head and he fucked her with his tongue as she rocked into his face. His cock pulsed in time with her and her moans pushed his control to the limit. If he wasn’t careful he would come just from going down on her, not that that was a bad thing, but he was hoping to draw it out a bit longer.

He sucked gently on her clit as he inserted two of his fingers into her tight channel and she arched her back, bearing down on him. He slid his fingers out and then back in, coaxing her orgasm from her. His other hand found her nipple and he tweaked it, none too gentle, just how she liked it, and she exploded, crying out as her orgasm slammed into her.

He didn’t give her time to come down. Moving quickly, he extracted himself from the vice grip her legs had around his head and then flipped her onto her stomach. He pulled her hips up so she was resting on her knees, and reached for a condom. Once he was covered, he slid into her from behind, her core clamping down on him and making the fit tight. He slid one arm around her waist and up between her breasts, is hand coming to rest at the base of her throat. He lifted her torso from the bed, resting her weight on his arm, his hand applying a small amount of pressure to her throat; not enough to choke her, but enough to know he was in charge.

He began to move inside her, pumping his hips, his balls slapping her ass as he went deep. He bit down on her shoulder as his other hand gripped her hip, keeping her still as he pounded into her.

It wasn’t a gentle joining of souls but a hard, violent fuck and it was what they both needed. The high from performing, the adrenalin from the applause and cheers of the crowd and the knowledge that maybe he hadn’t caused irreparable damage to his career drove his body on.

He heard Stevie cry out, a long keening cry, and then she clamped down around him as she came spectacularly. He felt her pulse under his fingertips at her throat and the slamming of her heart against her ribs. A shout was torn from her throat and then his as he came. He kept pumping in to her and felt the aftershocks of her orgasm spasm around him, milking him dry.

They collapsed onto the bed, breathing hard and barely conscious. His body felt weak, his energy spent leaving him nothing but an empty husk. He managed to summon enough strength to roll off her and he stared up at the ceiling, not seeing anything and in a complete daze.

She whimpered beside him and he drew her into his arms, needing the reassurance of her body next to his. He knew he should say something, ask if she was okay, apologize for being so rough, but he couldn’t form words, he could barely maintain brain function.

She nuzzled his neck, her lips skimming over his sweaty skin and something in him calmed. He floated back down from the rafters, finally being coherent enough to check on her.

“God Stevie, I’m sorry. Did I hurt you?”

She looked up at him, her big blue eyes glassy and wet. “No,” she said, “you didn’t hurt me.”

He pulled her close and kissed her head. “Shit. I’m sorry. I was way too rough with you. I just can’t seem to control myself around you.”

“Hey,” she said, rolling him onto his back and leaning over him. "I know how to say no and if I thought you were too rough, I would’ve said something. That…” she shook her head and smiled, “that was fucking awesome and exactly what I needed…what we both needed.”

She leant down and kissed him and he got lost in the taste and feel of her. God, what had he ever done to deserve her? Nothing. The truth was she was far too good for him, but it didn’t stop him from wanting her anyway.