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Chapter 1

Sleep. Sleep was the only though that could manage tonight. Sure it was going to be a killer concert for a great cause, but rehearsals might kill him first. The never-ending gleam of New York City's lights called to him from outside his top floor window at the Bryant Park Hotel; there was so much nightlife buzzing out in the big city, but instead of jingling it just the drapes shut and turned the city off.
Living it up till 4 am in the Big Apple would have to wait for another day; a day that wasn't still feeling the effects of jet lag and complete body exhaustion from nonstop dance rehearsals. Peeling off his sweat soaked hoodies and tossing it onto the arm chair; he collapsed into the large king size bed. The moment he hit the thick down comforter it swallowed him up like a cloud. In the large empty room the only sounds to be heard was the faint subtle of traffic far down on the street below mixed with the trickle of water from the fountain on the desk. ' eyes immediately fell shut, lulled by the fountain into a Zen- like sleep. Quickly his mind raced between awake and asleep his eyes adjusting to the beginning colors of a dream.

BBBZZZZZZING;

The dream world quickly dissolved. It was the email alert on 's laptop. Definitely not a loud noise by any means, but it was one that his brain instantly recognized and unfortunately pulled out of his short lived sleep.

"Oh c'mon. It's late!"

he grumbled while blindly dangling his arm over the side of the bed to fish his laptop out of his carry on bag.

"I swear to God if this is someone trying to get me to buy something I am going to throw this damn thing against the wall."

was able to navigate his inbox with his eyes practically, or in this case, completely closed. Only cracking an eyelid when he knew he had reached his inbox. One new message flashed in small blue letters. The subject said none and the sender was listed as unknown.

"I knew it."

He hit the enter button harder than necessary with his palm. It opened to a blank white page. Other than the menu bar the only other sign of color was a small, red sound button at the bottom of the page. hesitated for a moment remembering the last laptop he had crashed when he clicked on an unknown link that turned out to be a virus; but against his better judgment he moved his arrow to the speaker and clicked on it while holding his breath; curiosity always won out to common sense in ’s world. As he waited for it to load all he could do was hope it wasn't sending him another sound clip of a bloodcurdling scream in the middle of soft music. That made him jump out of his skin last time.

No, no I said no sauce on the pizza. Just cheese.
Yes, I know that just makes it cheesy bread, but I'm allergic to tomatoes. No sauce.

replayed the clip. It was a woman's voice that he didn't recognize. She had an American accent and was yelling over a lot of background noise. He replayed it over and over again trying to understand the joke. But no matter how many times he listened it made no sense why this was sent to him.

's tired eyes stared at the computer expecting some explanation to finally pop up.

" is such a moron!"

He finally slammed the laptop shut; surrendering to sleep, only to let the pleasant and unknown voice play out in his dreams.

Every one of the bleary eyed young men agreed that morning had come far too fast today. They were all slumped down in the lobby chairs; polishing off their second pot of coffee.

"What time is the cab supposed to be picking us up again?"
's haired best friend asked, while he hid his black ringed eyes behind a pair of sunglasses that screamed 'CELEBRITY!'

"They get here when they get here ."

answered. couldn't help but smile; was a notorious grump if he didn't get a full eight hours of sleep. And seemed to know just how to push it when was running on barely four hours.

“This is just too damn early. I mean we just flew in two days ago and then had to work all day yesterday, couldn't they give us a few days to recover?"

continued whining and knew it had to be a subconscious desire for him to be slapped senseless by .

"It's all for a good cause and with so many other bands performing I imagine it's got to be an absolute circus trying to organize everyone, so let's just put on a good face alright?"

thankfully intervened.

"Fine."

contended, slumping further down into the hotel chair; crossing his arms like a pouting child.

lifted up the cap he had pulled low on his brow; it was his alternative to showering that morning. He leaned over to his best and most obnoxious friend, “maybe if you didn't stay up all night sending people stupid cryptic emails, you wouldn't be so tired."

“What are you going on about? I didn't send anything."

looked at him completely shocked just rolled his eyes and turned away from him; it was the same story every time. was the master of playing innocent; even though he rarely ever was actually innocent, his face always as the picturesque angel.

"No Man, this time I swear; I didn't send anything. I did have a good pic of some nuns in bikinis that I was going to send but I swear I haven't sent it yet."

“Um, ewww! And I'm talking about the sound clip."

's eyes were saucers of innocence as his mouth dropped, but before any further protest couldn’t be made out over the honking of a limo from outside the hotels revolving front doors.

"C’mon now- that was awesome! Was that not awesome, tell me that wasn't awesome?"

As the four men fell- literally- back into the hotel lobby and crawled into the elevator; wasn't even a little tired from the insanely grueling eight straight hours of dancing they had just been through. As the door let them out on the 25th floor, he continued with the same excitement he'd been bouncing off the walls with every since they were told that they would be performing two Elvis covers for the (RED) benefit concert. Twenty of the hottest groups from the world had been invited and today it was announced which famous icon they would be performing as. As soon as heard the name Elvis announced right after Westlife a new energy poured through him; he was covering The King. And so the general dance, stretching and conditioning that they had done the day before turned into a day of arm swinging and signature pelvic thrusts.
“They picked the best songs too, the best! I still can't get over it...”

, and acknowledged him with only a sigh as they all shuffled into 's room- the closest of the four rooms from the elevator-and collapsed

"I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm starving."

announced; grabbing a cheap beer out of the courtesy fridge.

"I am too sore to eat, if you go out though could you please pick me up a new set of hips."

had not taken to the signature Elvis pelvis grind as well as the others had

"Who’s going out? I'm not."

through his arms up, which caused him to grimace in muscle pain.

"Nice try , you know it's your turn.”

"Damn." Leave it to to always keep track of whose turn it was to play gopher. "How about we just order in?"

made one last feeble attempt at not having to actually get up and make his legs work again.

"I want one of those giant New York Pizzas; I love those things; dripping with pepperoni and cheese grease."

"Fine," looked at , who was curling up his lip in the mirror “I’ll order pizza.

"I saw a place just down the street. You know it'd be faster to just go pick one up."

insisted. had lost. “So pepperoni then? One? Two?"

pulled himself out of his hip moaning to add, " Something better than this crap they call beer "

"Got it,” yelled over his shoulder; leaving his coat on the chair and grabbing his wallet as he shut the room door behind him.


Chapter 2

had been right, the pizza Shoppe was just a block down from the hotel. A giant slice of glowing, neon pizza sign guided him straight to the small brick building .Opening the door, the first thing that hit him was the heat ; it was at least twenty degrees warmer than it was in the cool night air outside. The heat was only made more claustrophobic by the heavy garlic smell that seemed to invade his lungs as he inhaled. The third thing that hit him as he stepped inside was a large man with a briefcase.
"Excuse me, " the man said as he slammed into . The place was packed from one wall to the other; people pushing in a giant hungry line to order and then pushing in an even more impatient line to pick up their order.

let out a large exhale and took his place in where he guessed the end of the line formed to order. The girl behind the counter was yelling orders over her shoulder almost as loud as she was smacking her gum. Through a small window behind the counter could see two guys in the back; throwing the dough in the air and catching it with movie style perfection. It was pretty impressive and actually distracted him from all the chaos going on around him as slowly the line moved forward.
As soon as she started talking he instantly recognized the voice, even over all the other voices and noise around him. He knew exactly what she was going to say too.

"No, no I said no sauce on the pizza. Just cheese.
Yes, I know that just makes it cheesy bread, but I'm allergic to tomatoes. No sauce."

He followed the voice to the front of the pick up line- where a tall woman with hair pulled into a braid was arguing over all the noise with a teenage boy in grease a stained tee shirt.

"Whatever lady." the boy replied. "We'll make a new one but it's gonna take awhile."

"Thank you" the woman smiled, not at all put off by the employee's rudeness.

couldn't help but watch as she walked to the back of the room and leaned against the wall. She pulled a cell phone out of her jeans pocket and began pushing buttons. She was not what he had pictured to go along with the voice- then again he hadn't pictured anything. Even though he couldn't get her sweet, likeable voice out of his head; he never imagined an actual person went with it.

"Honey! Hey there pretty boy, order or go to the back of the line!"

snapped his head around to find himself at the counter, the girl behind the register snapping her gum impatiently waiting for him to order.

In the short amount of time it took for two giant pizza boxes to be emptied had came to the conclusion that somehow had taken things too far and this girl was in on his mind games too. But he decided not to give the satisfaction of knowing that this was utterly confusing him; he wasn’t even going to give it another thought.

“What time tomorrow?"

rubbed his full stomach as the second pay-per-view movie began to roll through the credits.

"You'll be happy to hear we're supposed to be there at the crack of dawn- six!" answered him.

“Are you serious?"

“Yep and then we have to be in bright and early the next day too for press photos, along with the other acts."

Grumbling was useless, everyone headed off to their own rooms to get some sleep. was tired too, but was left with the mess. He crushed up the boxes and tried to cleanup a little,

"Forget it; the maid can do it tomorrow. I need sleep, unless they want an Elvis Presley zombie for rehearsals."

In his room he pulled pajama pants and a t shirt out of his suitcase; but barely made it towards the bathroom when his cell phone began vibrating across the bedside table, making a loud ssssssssss noise as it skidded onto the floor. picked it up,

"Probably wanting me to go out and grab him another pizza for a midnight snack."

As opened the phone green letters glowed at him: 1 new message across the screen. "Not again." He mumbled to himself, “he is taking things too far this time." He clicked on the message that read:

Corner of 8th and 31st 1:00 pm

No sender number and nothing but an address that didn't recognize. He sat down on the bed and hit reply on is phone; typing away on the keypad as fast as an experienced texter can type.

Who is this from? What is this address for?

He hit send. . Although he was pretty sure it was the Elvis fanatic next door. This seemed a bit too elaborate for ; His pranks usually weren't much more evolved than grade school level. Someone was sending these messages to and he had no idea who.

The vibrating made him jump slightly as a new message replied back to his phone:

Message cannot be delivered Sender unknown

sat on the bed with the small, silver phone in his hands; staring at like it was a poisonous snake. The first message had been correct about what was going to happen, what if this was some sort of secret prediction or sign. What was waiting for him at that address? He ran through a dozen different scenarios in his mind; from elaborate virus to crazed fan. Finally slamming the phone back on the bedside table he turned it off completely; no more messages tonight he told himself and picked back up his pajamas. Whatever was going on, tomorrow he would go to the address at 1:00 and put an end to this.

Sleep that night was restless and the bright spring sunshine was a welcoming wake up. had spent an unpleasant dream filled night; cell phone carrying monsters chasing him intertwined with the blond woman from the pizza parlor saying something to him he couldn't make out over and over again while on top of a windswept mountain.
He checked the bedside alarm clock:5:30 just enough time for a shower to wash away the strange night; he could grab coffee when they got to Madison Square Garden. At least the grueling hours were made up for with unbelievable catering for all the acts.

As the Westlife members stepped out of the car an adjacent car pulled up next to them carrying the other Irish act for the show and also one of the people who had helped put the whole show together; Bono along with the rest of U2.

"There are our Elvis’, how are ya fellas?"

Their longtime friend stuck his hand out to them.

"Hey man." shook respectfully," What are you all performing as?"

The four men smiled between one another, “Don’t hate us, but we're coverin' Queen for the show."

"No fair!'

shouted as he heard the name of one of his all time favorite groups.

"Just call me Freddie Mercury."

Bono flashed a big smile.

"All acts in for announcements please."

A small man with a headset twice the size of his actual head called to everyone standing outside the arena. hadn't noticed all the mingling people that had gathered outside around them. For the most part the performers kept with their respective countries. And knew a handful of them, but many were unfamiliar. He knew the American acts; they were all in the same hall of green rooms as U2 and Westlife: Jack Johnson, Green Day and Beyonce. Westlife had met them all on previous occasions- awards and such. Walking in everyone slowly found seats up front in the massive building; and made a bee line to the breakfast spread set left of the stage; fighting over the last maple glazed donut. just rolled his eyes and watched as a small costumer, half their size, stepped between them and snatched the donut right off the table smiling as he took a big bite at both off the dumbfounded Irishmen.

As the last stragglers gathered on the stage, a few of the red shirt wearing organizers pulled their head microphone close to their mouths and began reading off a clipboard of what was suppose to happen that day in fifteen minute increments. ’s mind began to drift as he looked up at the massive domed ceiling.. The vivid dreams from last night began mingling with the reality of daytime. Both of the messages he had received were teasing him; with a sprinkling of the woman from the restaurant mixed in. He truly didn't believe she was behind all this, but somehow she was involved.

" ; earth to ! Move your lazy ass; we're off to get sequined."

slapped him on the shoulder.

"Wha- huh?"

"Costumes man. We're going to get fitted for those God awful sequined jumpsuits."

looked nauseas just mentioning them. was the picture of trendiness; never seen in anything but designer, even the mousse that held his hair in place was ridiculous expensive and made sure everyone knew it.

"It's like a dream- a beautiful dream."

said in a put on flighty voice, but sadly enough guessed wearing an Elvis Jumpsuit was probably actually one of 's sick and twisted dreams.


Chapter 3

Time flew by that day, except every time that looked down at his watch the hands seemed to be moving in slow motion. As soon as 12:55 came excused himself and walked out the double doors behind the stage. When he had typed the address into MapQuest that morning wasn't too surprised to find that 8th and 31st was just outside Madison Square Garden. Lunch hour traffic was dying down a bit, but the traffic was still typical New York bumper to bumper. turned the corner and entered a large parking lot surrounded on three sides by tall buildings; one of them being the back of The Garden and across the street was a train station. Other than clusters of people who looked like they were on their way to work or out sightseeing; nothing caught 's eye. There was nothing that stood out.

It really had been a prank.

Spinning on his heels, with a bit of disappointment that surprised him, he turned to go back inside, but froze in his step.
It was the same girl; he would know her anywhere; since last night he had been seeing her every time he closed his eyes, hair fell down her back as her head tilted up - she was holding a large camera, with a heavy zoom lens attached, in front of her face clicking away at the rooftops of some of the surrounding buildings. Over her arm was slung a large bag. She took a step back and kept snapping pictures. But noticed something she seemed totally oblivious to. Coming out of the driveway behind her was a large delivery truck. Its lights flashed and reverse horn beeped alerting anyone behind it, but for some reason she didn't hear it. And she was too small standing on the ground for the tall truck to see her standing there.
"Hey Hey!"

yelled at her as the truck continued backing up without her making any attempt to get out of its way.

Can't she hear it? Move lady!
He continued yelling to her as his feet began to move. The truck was within feet of her now, slowly reversing. broke into a full run. As he got closer to her, she looked over at him; a look of complete shock on her face at the shouting man barreling towards her. With full force he knocked them both to the ground, pushing her to the sidewalk on the other side of the driveway. The truck turned and headed out of the parking lot.

"What the hell?"

She coughed with a lost voice. Her eyes like saucers as she yanked headphones out from her ears.

"Oh my God! That truck...and you...and it almost...and...Oh my God!"

The woman was still breathing in sharp heaves while pulling bits of gravel and debris from her hair, her hands shaking furiously. watched her take everything in, while holding the arm he had landed on.

"Are you o.k.?"

She noticed him holding his arm; ignoring the bleeding road rash she had sustained on her own arms and legs.

"What were you doing? Didn't you hear it backing up?"

At first the woman's cheeks fumed in anger at 's tone. She opened her mouth but closed it again before speaking, her face stayed red but her eyes turned to embarrassment instead of anger.

"No, I turn this up to drown out all the noise of the city when I take pictures." From out of her black capris pocket she produced an IPod that was connected to the earphones that she pulled out of her ears. “I guess I just get in a zone. I don't see anything but what's through the lens"

"Apparently."

couldn't truly be annoyed with her, even if she had caused him injury.

"I am so sorry. But you saved me. I can't believe it. How did you happen to be out there? I thought I was alone in the parking lot."

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." stood up brushing dirt of his track pants and then holding out a dirty hand to help her up. Once standing she didn't release his hand, instead she started shaking it and smiled at him,

"I'm . And you're my hero."

"I'm ,” he tried not to blush at the word hero, "so you're a photographer huh?"

"Yep. You know you look really familiar to me."

"So do you."

replied under his breath, causing to give him a curious smile as she reached into her giant bag and dug through some papers.

"Ah ha!" she pulled out a photo of Westlife and held it out to him. “You’re one of the Westlife members aren’t' you? Here for the benefit concert?"

"How did you know that?"

The thought of a stalker quickly crossed 's mind, it wouldn't be the first time. But he quickly shook it away; looked the least like a stalker of any person he'd ever known. In fact she looked exactly like his definition of beautiful. She was petite and had a tan even though the sun was just starting to show itself this spring. He was a sucker for s and her hair seemed like a frame on her picture perfect face. When she smiled; which he quickly realized was often, her whole body smiled; it was like light beaming out of her brilliant eyes and giving her cheeks a rosy glow form the inside. Even her delicate hand in his felt beautiful; feminine and soft.

"Did you hear me?"

heard ask him and he snapped himself out of the daydream he was starting to have about her.

"Sorry. No."

"Still a little shaken up huh?"

He nodded; glad she couldn't tell that he had been mesmerized studying every feature of her face.

"I said that I am actually here to cover publicity shots for the (RED) concert."

"You're a reporter?"

"No." pulled a wild strand of hair that had flown in her mouth back behind her ear, “I’m just filling in for Marcy Conklin; she's sick right now and I'm her assistant."

"Oh."

couldn't think of anything clever to say to keep the conversation going; his mind was blank. Just then came around the corner,

" there you are. We've been looking everywhere for you. They want to start the photos."

He grabbed ’s arm and began to drag him back around the corner; ignoring his friends new company completely.

"Oh I'd better get in there too if it's photo time."

tucked the camera carefully into the bag and stepped in sync with the two men back towards The Garden.

enjoyed watching snap random pictures of the crazy rehearsals. She was full of life and made everyone smile. After filling up two discs of pictures she told everyone bye and confirmed with the organizers that the pictures would be in Wednesday's paper. watched her leave, tucking everything carefully inside her bag. She turned around as she reached the door and found him immediately through the mass chaos; he knew he should look away because it was surely obvious that he was staring, but instead he just met her smile and wave with a weak own of his own and watched her disappear behind heavy metal doors.

The next day was an easy day, for once, it was a final tech rehearsal before the big publicity show the night following. The Saturday main event was already said to be a great success with all 20,000 seats being sold out in record time, especially considering the steep price of the tickets. joined a handful of people who went to the 230 Fifth Penthouse for a drink after the long boring tech rehearsal; their first night off since they had arrived in The Big Apple; and a lot of people wanted to party. After three drinks called it quits; half of the group was heading on to another club, but he decided to take advantage of some extra sleep and called a cab to take him back to the Bryant Park.

got ready for bed in the empty room. He hadn't seen that day and hadn't received any new mystery messages either. It seemed strange. Whatever it was that had crossed their paths the first two times seems to taken their hand out of the mix now, but wanted more. He wanted to see . Sighing, he turned off the bedside lamp and quickly fell asleep; ready to forget the real world for a short while.

Walking through the double doors at the Garden into a long white hallway that he had never been in before; everything looked like it was being seen through a fish eye lens. This wasn't like the other messages, this was showing him something. Unlike any dream he'd ever had before. could actually smell the damp concrete smell of the walls and hear the sound tests going on in some other part of the building. Even the colors were brighter than any dream. As he walked further down the long corridor he felt himself bump into another body, for some reason he was distracted and hadn't seen anyone else standing there. Turning around to apologize his thoughts became distracted by the intoxicating smell of a light floral perfume; it was a woman he'd bumped into. Even in his sleeping state could feel the anticipation that this should be ; of course it was , all the past messages were about her. His heart sank when he turned around and, someone with short white hair stood in front of him.

That's when the dream ended. jolted upright in bed. A new person? It had been enough to accept that someone or something was playing with his future and he had finally become o.k. with it, a little freaked out, but o.k. about it because it had brought into his life, but he didn't want some other person brought into this mystic, future predicting chaos. He decided right there; in the pitch black middle of the night that there was no way he would go out into any hall tomorrow. No way!


Chapter 4

Morning couldn’t come soon enough, which was a rare thing for an over scheduled, sleep deprived singer. After hours of tossing and turning on bed that wasn’t your own in sheets that didn’t smell like yours, it began to get a bit claustrophobic. With a million questions left from a cryptic dream the night seems endless. thanked the sun for rising in it’s normalcy; nothing to decipher, no secret message to it; it just rose. With it’s gentle reminder that today was the beginning of a new day, even if in the back of his already too jumbled thoughts he knew that today was the big publicity show; some could say this was more important than the actual concert; this was what got everyone pumped for the real thing. All the fine tuning would be done in the morning and lights went on at six this evening. All of this was going to be happening while avoided all hallways, and tried to keep misdirected thoughts of disappointment from not getting to see a girl that made his heartbeat feel like someone doubled his batteries.

Sure. No big deal.

snorted, knowing full and well it was!

“I don’t care what anyone says, from now on I wear nothing but sequined jumpsuits.”

The excitement in the polyester suits that made itch and sweat profusely caused to bubble over with excitement; it made sick. Actually, it just made him annoyed; maybe it was the fact that he was overheating in this ridiculous get up. His hand automatically shot up to rub his scalp; something he always did when he was stressed but instead it only got lodged in slick, sticky goo that held his hair into a finely greased pompadour.

“Let’s just get this over with.”

“What’s up with you man, you haven’t seemed like yourself lately?”

’s face showed genuine concern; could definitely be moody sometimes, but his attitude had crossed to downright distracted.

“It’s a girl man, it’s always a girl.”

snuck behind them and smacked them both on the shoulder.

“There's no girl.”

mumbled even as the image of a familiar face ; complete with hypnotizing eyes and delicate pink lips that begged to be kissed materialized in his mind, betraying his words. Unfortunately those lips had teased ’s mind more often that he could handle that day; it was all he could think about it.

“That goofy far off look always means there’s a girl.” smacked him again, just shrugged him off, annoyed by how right he actually was.

The show was going great; lights burned like the sun onto the stage. Pyrotechnics went off without a hitch and the press was eating it all up. The buzz around this whole show was electric enough and it charged every act on the stage. Each one following up on the last act’s energy. ’s mind cleared quickly as he stepped onto his favorite place on earth; center stage; microphone in hand. They belted out a classic rendition of I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You and then picked up the tempo for All Shook Up; the crowd went wild; cameras snapped like mad and everyone back stage was shaking and grinding just outside the curtains. The boys got into it and the way could move his pelvis worried that he was going to throw his whole damn body out of alignment, but his fun loving, slightly insane friend was having the time of his life. just laughed and continued singing into the mic; he had even somehow managed a decent southern accent.

O.k. I’ll admit it – this is pretty cool!

He though, finally letting go and doing his own, somewhat stiff pelvic thrust.

That’s kinda fun, who knew?

He did a few more and threw in a quivering leg; the swooning screams were louder than the back up music. He heard the guys cheering each other on.

They ran off stage with adrenaline coursing through their veins, sweat pouring off them, puddling in the wrong regions of their restrictive suits. chugged one water bottle after another being handed to him by the stage crew.

“Thanks man.”

All four members of Westlife were out of breath.

Another stage hand handed them each their towels and they dried off; as unfolded the towel and his cell phone fell out. Still on silent, but blinking wildly with five new messages. He flipped it open and scrolled through the missed calls; the buzz of excitement as third to last act hurried on stage to the roar of a satisfied crowd played out behind him.







“Damn,”

said, dialing his voice mail and listening to his brother’s frantic voice on the other end.

“ , where are you? Pick up your god damn phone man. I’m on the side of the road. I can’t get a hold of anyone and I am supposed to be somewhere.”

Second new message

Its Julie’s birthday, I’m supposed to be at the restaurant, she’s going to kill me, you have to come get me. I’m at…..”

Beep,
Third new message

“I’m going to kick your ass when I see you little brother, where the hell are you?”

was struggling to hear the message through all the noise, he backed around the stage; the front noise growing quieter, but still a frenzy backstage and he couldn’t quite make out ’s words.

He hit repeat on the phone, rounding the corner of the large backstage corridor; the people wearing black shirts with white letters reading: CREW, grew fewer and fewer. With one final turn he pushed open a small door with his back as read off the location of where he was and how he was going to beat to a bloody pulp when he saw him.

Fifth new message

“I finally got a hold of dad; he’s coming to get me. I’m still going to kill you when I see you, oh and have a good show man.”

finally let out the breath he’d been holding while listening to his older brother’s drama unfold.

“Oh! Excuse me”

The phone fell from ’s sweaty hand as his back knocked into someone bumping him back into the reality of where he was

Where am I again?

He looked at the cement walls and harsh fluorescent lights.

“I am so sorry. I was looking for the stage manager and someone pointed in this direction, but I think now ……..”

He knew this rambling and quickly turned around to look at the face every nerve in his body was praying to see, but no one was there.


Chapter 5

“I am such a klutz, what a mess….”

The rambling was coming from the ground.

He didn’t realize he had bumped into her that hard.

At his feet was a woman scurrying around collecting scattered papers from every direction; not a trace of deep hair falling from her head.

But that voice

“I...I’m sorry. I wasn’t paying attention.”

The figure stood up and met his confused eyes with sparkling eyes of her own her exotic face breaking into a smile that made ’s heart skip a few beats and then race like a marathon runner.

He watched as she pulled the white knit skull cap off her head and out tumbled thick hair, his hands twitched at his side; daring him to touch it.

“It’s me. Remember? .” She beamed.

Remember you? God, how could I ever forget you? I spend every waking moment dreaming of what it would feel like touch you and trying to get your mind numbingly sexy scent out of my head.

“Oh yeah, the photographer right?”

He tried to sound cool, even though every vein in his body was now pumping full of lighter fluid.

Looking down at the white cap in her hand, a knot that he wasn’t even aware had been forming in his stomach seemed to loosen. And he chuckled to himself.

It was her along.

“I was supposed to meet the stage manager and get some backstage shots and interviews, but as you can see I’m more than a little lost.”

She held out her arms helplessly and the overwhelming urge to scoop her up and hold her closer than any two bodies have ever been to one other overtook. Another wave of heat crashed over him; causing a shiver.

He watched as mimicked his shiver with a slight tremor in her own body.

What is going on?

Was all his mind could think, but at the same time couldn’t care less.

“I hate to break it to you, but the show’s almost over, I’d be happy to give you a behind the scenes tour myself when the show is over.”

“Really?”

Her face lit up all over and gulped.

“Sure.”

He couldn’t will his body to move for anything or come up with any word more than one syllable. A loud bang slammed behind causing them both to jump as a burly man walked toward him, talking into the two way,

“I found him. We’re heading back. Mr. , you are needed back on stage for current call in five minutes.”

Pulling from the man’s grip, stepped back towards .

“You can hang out in,” gulp, please don’t take this wrong, “my dressing room.”

A slight blush crept across her golden cheeks, showing exactly where his hand was supposed to touch and he flexed his fingers using up ever last reserve of restraint.

“You’re sure you don’t mind?”

You waiting for me in my dressing room would be my birthday and Christmas gifs combined.

“Of course not.”

bit her lip, trying desperately to look professional, but instead only appearing to like she desperately needed someone to kiss her long and deep.

turned to the security guard with the name Mike screen printed across his chest,

“Mike, I’m just going to escort Miss...”

He turned to back to and raised an eyebrow.

“”

“I’m just going to escort Miss back to my dressing room and I’ll be on stage in two.”

Mike gave a humph and turned; hurrying back through the double doors.


Flopping down into the large overstuffed chair, ’s face was flushed and had to take a few extra deep breaths watching her as he shut his dressing room door behind them.

“That was just, wow!”

She was still out of breath with the innocent excited voice that had come to realize in a short amount of time he loved about her.

“The tour was fantastic. This place is so big. How did you know about the haunted room in the basement?”

She was still gushing over it.

“I do my research. Coffee? Water?” Dare I risk sounding like a playboy? “Glass of wine?”

“Thanks I‘d love one.”

She didn’t seem to think anything of the offer to get her drunk and have his way with her.

From over his shoulder he could catch a glimpse of her cozying down into the big chair. Finally turning around with two glasses in his hands she had her black sweater clad arms wrapped around her knees that were had tucked underneath her chin.


Chapter 6

Never in his life had anyone or anything created such an internal cocktail of emotions inside this usually cool and collected Irish man. This girl:

,

His palms became sweaty just at the name on the tip of his brain. She was a mystery to him; it was exciting and scary and romantic and completely confusing. Suddenly became very nervous.

Does she have a clue about anything that’s been happening? Had the weird dreams and messages happened to her too? Did she send them? What if she really was a stalker? What if she thinks I’m insane...Oh God maybe I am!!!

“ , .”

Good Lord, my name sure sounds sexy with her accent.

“Uh, huh, wha?”

shook himself from the thoughts and realized he had no clue how long he had been standing halfway between the bar and just staring at her.

was trying to stifle a laugh.

“Welcome back.”

“I’m sorry. I was just...”

Trying to hand her the drink was futile; his hand was still shaking, not fully pulled back from la-la land. She grabbed it ghost brushing his fingers and causing another debilitating jolt through his still not fully recovered body.

“It’s me isn’t it?”

took a swig of the pale yellow wine, letting it trickle over her lips into her mouth which made involuntarily lick his own lips.

Please don’t notice that.

“What?”

This completely caught off guard, he tried to meet her eyes, but focused on her drink, running her ringer around the glass rim, her hair beginning to fall down over her face.

“I make you nervous don’t I?”

Yes! No! I DON’T KNOW!!

couldn’t think straight he took a huge drink from his cup trying to buy time before having to answer.

“ow yuck!”

His mouth was instantly engulfed in flames, burning as it gushed down his throat faster than he could spit it out.

“ . No! Hot Coffee!”

yelled the same moment his head exploded with bright lights at the scalding heat.

He had completely forgotten that he had made himself a mug of fresh brewed coffee when he poured ’s wine. The heat slowly cooled, but the raw pain of a swollen tongue still teased him.

“Well I guess that answers my question. I do make you nervous.”
was up and standing next to him, holding a glass of water and checking over him like he had just fought a brave duel in her honor rather than downing a cup of scorching coffee like a moron.

“No, no et nt ew.”

pursed her lips trying hard not to smile at his swollen tongued speech.

“It is.” She turned her back on him and began a slow pace of the small room, “because I work for the paper. You’re worried I’m going to blab all about your personal life and try to dig up dirt on you.”

There were no words that came to his mind at that moment; it definitely wasn’t what he had been expecting her to say.

Taking a huge breath, it was now or never, he walked over to where her pacing had finally deposited her, near the wall beside the loveseat. Stopping inches in front of her body he placed his hands gently over her arms; amazed that he had even enough courage or coordination to handle that. His hands instantly began to run up and down the soft cotton of her sweater; feeling the feminine muscles hidden underneath. Without even skin contact the connection was almost too intense; for a minute all thought fled the room and could only replay everything up until this point in his head. The first time he heard her voice on the computer; it had invaded his dreams; teasing his mind until he’d recognize the sweet rich sound of it anywhere. The time he had first laid eyes on her in the pizza shop and for two seconds nothing else existed; it was just her. And the next day rescuing her from the truck; the way his heart stuck in his throat; he had to save her; somehow he knew life without this stranger in the world wouldn’t be worth living. And the horror when he thought the dream wasn’t about .

It has to be . I don’t want anyone else.

“There is no one else.”

“What?”

Leading her to the loveseat, he couldn’t help but let his desperate hand brush a piece of hair behind her shoulder as they sat; knees touching ,

“ . Has anything strange happened to you before you... before you met me?”

“Um, I’m a little confused,”

Her playful giggle had an edge of concern in it that made worried maybe he shouldn’t have brought anything up.

“Do you believe in fate?” tried again.

For a minute her thick black eyelashes fluttered, while her mouth twisted up in a bewildered expression, and ’s heart was thumping like a an elephant tearing through the jungle,

She thinks I’m crazy.

“You’re going to think I’m crazy –“

watched her eagerly as she was obviously deciding whether to continue or not.

Her hand was so delicate as he enveloped it in his own; his body instantly warming as his finger began to trace reassuring circles over her palm.

“I would never think that.”

“O.k. then, yeah, I guess I do believe in fate. I believe that what is meant to happen will find a way to happen. I always have. Everything in my life has had sort of, well, funny way of working out. It’s like the cosmos had their hand in it all. Take my job for instance I had been rejected from every photography job in the New York and ended up taking up a paper pusher job at the local parks and rec. Well it just happened that my first morning there the director choked on his morning bagel and a ten year old girl , visiting on bring your daughter to work day, ended up doing the Heimlich and saving him . It was a huge local hero story and I had just happened to have my camera with me and took pictures. When the Electric Voice saw my pictures they loved them and offered me a full time photography position instantly. And now here I am snapping pics of some of the biggest performers around."

Reaching behind her she picked up her camera and caught off guard.

“Work it , this is front page stuff.”

was laughing hard by the time tickled the camera out of her hands.

“You are in so much trouble young lady.”

He threatened pinning her arms over her head on the love seat when her face suddenly became serious.

“I hope so.”

She whispered; for the first time since he’d met her, looking nervous.

let his hands release their fierce hold, gently sliding down her arms until he was holding her face ; was trembling in anticipation beneath him as he angled his sitting body off the loveseat so that he wasn’t crushing her under his weight. He leaned his chest to press against hers; heartbeats matching one another as her head finally lifted in eagerness and found his agreeable lips instantly. He took back the lead and laid her back down leaning into her as he began the night of exploring every inch of <script>
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.


TO BE CONTINUED



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