When I fucked Juniper that night after a breathless walk on the beach, it was better than the first time. I didn’t know what it was about make-up sex, but it trumped just about everything. Then she’d sucked me awake.

Juniper Rowe, huh? Thinking back to that first day on the beach, I smiled. Who would’ve thought all that was underneath that jacket and foul mouth.

Outside, the sun was rising. Staring at the ceiling of her apartment, I felt the warmth of her body as she coiled it around mine. Naked in bed was fast becoming my favourite place to be with her. Hell, I’d take just being with her, too.

“If you need cash to keep the shop open, I’ll give it to you,” I said, the thought bypassing my brain and going straight to my mouth.

She didn’t reply straight away, and my heart began to beat double-time. It was the exact same thing I’d blasted her about the other day and here I was practically throwing hundred-dollar bills at her face.

“No,” she said, filling the silence, “I couldn’t.”

“Well, I’m offering. No strings.”

“I can’t take money from you, Sebastian.”

“Why not?” I narrowed my eyes. Wasn’t my cash good enough for her?

“You’d be bailing out a dying business,” she said, her gaze fixed on the ceiling. “It’s a bad investment.”

“If it’s what you love, then there’s nothing bad about it.”

“If I can’t turn a profit, it doesn’t matter how much I care about it,” she argued. “What about your band? In the early days, were you making money?”

I snorted and shook my head. “Nah. We made CDs on Damon’s computer and sold them for five bucks a hit. We broke even for those. Most times we were paid in beer, or enough to cover the petrol in Josh’s beat-up van.”

“Breaking even is better than losing cash. You had no overheads. I need a better business model.”

“Seems you know a thing or two about management,” I said. “The offer is still there if you want it.”

Her brow creased and she looked at me. “I can’t take your money. I won’t.”

“Okay,” I whispered, holding her close. I could respect her conviction. When it came to business, it was difficult to separate the personal from the professional. I supposed that was my problem, too. “What do you think you’ll do?”

“I don’t know. I’m still waiting on the figures from Mrs. Hopkins.”

“The real estate lady?”

“Yeah.”

I could see the worry in her eyes. The uncertainty over her future was eating at her from the inside out. I knew what I had to do—well, what I was contracted to do—but Juniper’s future was wide open. The Page Break and her mother had been her entire life, but without it, I didn’t think she knew who she wanted to be.

“Come to Melbourne with me,” I said, my heart sparking with hope. “Come to the concert, see what I do, then we can decide.”

“We can decide?”

“I want to make this work, Juniper. You and me. I want to see where it goes.” I brushed my hand over the curve of her waist, relishing the shiver that ran down her spine from my touch. She was fucking perfect. Perfect and pure.

“I don’t know,” she murmured. “Maybe your life is too big for me to handle. I mean, screaming fans? I live in a town of one hundred people.”

“Give it a try,” I urged. “You don’t know until you see with your own eyes, right?”

“I suppose...”

She still sounded uncertain, so I went for broke. “You could come on tour and see the world.”

Her eyes lit up and she bit her bottom lip. She did that a lot.

“I always wanted to see Paris,” she murmured.

“Then I’ll take you. I haven’t seen it, either.”

“You haven’t seen Paris?”

“Well, I’ve seen concert venues and hotel rooms.”

“That’s criminal.”

A grin pulled at my lips and I caught her in a kiss. I could feel her smile fade against my mouth and I pulled back.

“I can’t afford... I—”

“Don’t think about the money,” I whispered. “Let me take care of you for a change.”

“Sebastian—”

“Shh. What’s the point of having all this money if I can’t spend it on the people I care about?”

Her breath caught, and I coaxed her onto her back.

“Will you come?” I asked.

“Yes.”

I slipped my hand between her thighs and caressed her soft skin, dipping a finger inside her. She gasped and spread her legs wider, and I plunged deeper, rubbing slow circles over her clit.

“Where else do you want to go?” I murmured into her ear as she began to moan. “Your wish is my command.”

The beach house was cold and dark when I walked in the front door.

Juniper wanted to spend as much time at her place as possible. Considering everything, I agreed to stay with her until we went back to the city. It seemed pointless to keep renting this big place if no one was going to be in it.

Yeah, she was coming to the concert at Festival Hall with me. She was going to dip her toe into the chaos that the Beneath juggernaut created. She wanted to see how deep our feelings ran just as much as I did. Juniper had taken my hand and we were leaping.

Life seemed within my grasp again.

The moment my phone connected to the WiFi, it began to beep as messages started scrolling down the screen. There were multiple texts from Josh, Damon, and Vix. Emails and photos, too. They couldn’t leave me alone for half a day, could they?

I opened Josh’s messages with a frustrated sigh. Reading through them, my frustration turned to anger with each one.

Heads up, arsehole.

They’ve found you.

Have you seen this?

He’d attached a paparazzi photo of me on the beach, and normally I’d be whatever about it, but Juniper was in it. Her arm was threaded through mine and her free hand was clutching Ziggy’s lead. Josh had taken a picture of a magazine page, so the caption was clear at the bottom. Sebastian Hale and his new mystery girlfriend.

Shit, shit, shit!

Just as I was about to find his number, Josh’s name flashed on the screen as an incoming call and I answered it immediately. “When was this published?”

“Hello to you, too,” he grumbled. “It was on the stand this morning. Hot off the presses.”

“Fuck.” They worked fast. We’d only taken Ziggy for a walk last night, and besides, Vix had assured me she’d plugged the leak. I’d never have taken Juniper out if I’d known more paps were lurking.

“Are you playing house with your pussy now?” Josh asked with a snort. “Talking long walks on the beach with a girl and her fucking dog? Have you lost your balls?”

“Don’t,” I snapped.

“You need to get out of there while the going’s good, man. The paps will probably be outside your door and hers in the next half hour.”

“I thought Vix stopped it,” I said, peering out the windows. I couldn’t see anyone on the bluff or the cliffside path, but that didn’t mean any photographers weren’t lingering. They could probably see me through the floor-to-ceiling windows from underneath their camouflage nets.

“Who knows. You know what these guys are like. They smell cash in the water and it’s a free for all. Anyway, we need you back in rehearsals like yesterday.”

“I told Vix I’d be back in time for the concert.”

“Yeah, on your own terms, you selfish prick. We’ve been friends a long time, Seb. Sometimes I’d even go as far as calling you my brother from another mother, but right now, I’d gladly see the back end of you.”

“Josh.”

“I know you want to take your fucking stand and protest or whatever it is you’re doing, but you not being here hurts all of us. Take one for the team, Seb.”

“I can’t leave Juniper. She doesn’t know how to handle this stuff.” They’d dissect her life, drag up painful memories of the past, splash it across the headlines, and eat her alive. Dealing with that kind of poison was my every day life, but she wasn’t like me. She was a small-town woman with a pure heart. She’d be obliterated if I didn’t do something.

“Don’t worry about her, man,” Josh said with a sigh. “What did you think was going to happen with her anyway? Were you going to fall in love and run away?”

He said it as a snide joke, but I gritted my teeth and swallowed my anger. Fall in love and run away. It didn’t sound so bad right about now.

“I’ll be back in time for the concert,” I said striding into the bedroom and tossing my leather duffle bag onto the mattress.

“Vix will be proud.”

I hesitated. He said it sarcastically, which wasn’t anything new for Josh—that man had a smart-arse streak that rivalled most mean girls—but it was the undercurrent that got me.

“Vix?” I asked, hoping what I suspected wasn’t true. “What do you mean by that?”

“Don’t play dumb, Seb. You’re a smart guy.”

“She tipped them off.” My blood ran cold and I began to shove my clothes into the bag.

“This is her way of making sure you came back,” he went on. “You know she doesn’t care about collateral damage. She’s got these fucks on speed dial.”

“Bitch.”

“Yeah, tell me something that ain’t new.” I could hear the eye roll in his voice.

“And you’re okay with this?”

“Why are you so fucking mad?” he demanded. “This isn’t new, Seb. Even if she didn’t tip them off, it would’ve happened eventually. Does this chick have honey dripping out of her hole or something?”

“Juniper is different,” I shouted.

“Settle down.”

“One day, when you finally feel something for someone other than yourself, you’ll understand why I’m going to punch you in the face the next time I see you.”

Not waiting for his reply, I ended the call and immediately called the Page Break, but the line was engaged. Remembering Juniper had taken the phone off the hook last night, I cursed under my breath. I had to get back there ASAP.

Whirlwinding through the house, I shoved my stuff into my bag—toiletries, razor, clothes, coat—and zipped it closed as I strode towards the foyer. I snatched my car keys from where I’d tossed them on the table in the hall, desperate to get out of here and find Juniper first.

I wrenched open the front door and screeched to a halt, my heart jackhammering in my chest.

“Sebastian, over here!”

“Sebastian! Who’s the mystery woman?”

There were fucking photographers everywhere. They’d climbed the fence and were sitting on top of the brickwork, pointing cameras at me and snapping like mad. I was like a rabbit caught in a spotlight, staring at the circus outside my refuge, blinded by the rapid-fire flash bulbs.

“Tell us about Juniper!” someone yelled.

“Is it serious?”

“Are you giving up your career to be with her?”

“Do you love her, Sebastian?

“What about Mallory?”

Slamming the door closed, I beat my fist against the wood and shouted the foulest word I could think of.

It was too late. The vultures had landed.