“I don’t care if I change schools,” Lucy informed me around a mouthful of cow, pickles and ketchup.
“I’m glad, Lucy. I really think this is going to be a good thing for all three of us.” I took another drink of my water. “I just need you girls to do one thing for me, okay?”
“What?” Lana questioned, still sounding a little strangled. I knew how she felt. Today had been one big surprise after another for me too.
“Well, the people I’m going to be working for are really famous. They need their privacy. We can’t talk about them to anyone. So if anyone asks you who I work for, you tell them you don’t know. And you can’t bring friends over.”
Lana laughed at that. “I don’t have time for friends anyway, Layla. So that isn’t going to be a problem.” I was a hard ass about studying, but she wanted a good education just as much as I wanted it for her.
“What’s your boss’s name?” Lucy asked.
“Well the woman who hired me is called Emmie. She’s my boss…” I met Lana’s eyes and grinned. “…but the guys that live there are in a band called Demon’s Wings.”
“No way!” Lana exclaimed. “No way!” She wasn’t a big fan of the rock genre like I was, but she knew exactly who I was talking about.
I laughed. “Yes way!”
“They’re demons?” Lucy asked with fright in her dark eyes. “I don’t think I want to live there, Layla.”
“Oh Lucy, baby no. They aren’t demons.” I quickly assured her. “That’s just their name, honey. I promised you, they aren’t demons.”
Chapter 5
Layla
I found out why Emmie was willing to offer me more money the next afternoon.
By the time I got to the house in Malibu the band was already gone. More time in the studio, Emmie told me. I was glad that I wouldn’t have to worry about running into Jesse. After a night filled of some really naughty dreams about the sexy drummer, I wasn’t sure I could look him in the eye and not jump on him. That wasn’t a good thing. Emmie would probably fire me on the spot for attacking the man.
For the first part of the morning, I helped Emmie hang pictures. Mostly they were beautifully framed posters of the band. A few had Emmie in them. I’d had seen several of them over the years. I really liked the one with Emmie pressed up against Jesse. She was wearing a pair of jeans and nothing else. Her auburn hair hung free and her breasts were pressed against his side. It didn’t come off trashy like some I had seen in the past were the girl was all skanky. The other guys were all shirtless as well, with the brothers on either side of Jesse, and Nik glaring into the camera from his position just behind them, as if daring the world to say anything.
I helped decorate the living room with things I had never even dreamed of touching before in my life: Grammys, MTV video awards, platinum records. I was scared to touch some of the awards that Emmie had carefully wrapped in a box, like the crystal guitar that the band had received in London for Rocker of the Year just the year before. It was beautiful and I was terrified that I would break it.
After a small lunch that Emmie insisted I share with her in her office, I got to work on the upstairs. I vacuumed and scrubbed the toilets. I even picked up a few dirty clothes and put them in hampers. It was easy to decipher what bedroom belonged to whom. The bass guitar in one told me it was Shane’s. The drumsticks on the bedside table in another assured me it was Jesse’s. But when I got to the bedroom at the end of the hall, I knew that I was in for a treat. I didn’t need to see the Gibson and Fender guitars against the wall of this bedroom to realize it belonged to Drake.
I smelled it as soon as I opened the door. It was unmistakable, that stench that comes with vomit and sweat, but I had a very strong stomach. It took me an hour to get the smell out. I opened the window in the bedroom and the one in the bathroom. I scrubbed every surface in that bathroom with bleach and then went back over it with two other cleaners. I smelled like the chemicals that I had used, but at least the bathroom no longer smelled like the men’s room at the club I use to work at.
I put away my supplies in the laundry room before going in search of Emmie. I needed to talk to her about that room. When I found her she was glaring at the screen on her laptop with her cellphone pressed to her ear. “I said no. You know how I feel about her. I don’t really give a fuck. Who cares?” She raised her head when I knocked quietly on the office door. “Ax, I have to go.”
She tossed the phone aside and motioned me in. As I walked closer her nose wrinkled. “You smell like a bleach factory.”
“Sorry. I just finished cleaning the bathrooms… Listen I need to talk to you about something.”
Her eyes darkened. “I told you it was going to be bad, Layla. Just tell me how much more you want.”
I stopped, taken aback. “No. No, that isn’t what I wanted to talk about.” She frowned but didn’t say anything so I went on. “You said that you wanted his bathroom done every other day, but I think it would be better on us all if I can get in there every day.”
“Oh.” She seemed surprised. “So you aren’t demanding more money?”
“No, of course not. I’ve cleaned worse things than that bathroom.” Much, much worse. “So is it okay?”
“If that’s what you think is best.”
I nodded. “It is… And is it okay if I change his sheets every day too?”
“Layla, I hired you to help me out around here. That doesn’t mean that you have to worry about Drake to that extent.” She didn’t sound irritated, just concerned for me. “I don’t want to overwork you.”
“Please?” I didn’t think I could stand the thought of Drake having to sleep on those sheets every night. They had been tossed every which way and the stench of sweat and fear had been worse than the actual smell of the vomit.
“I…” She was still frowning at me, but she nodded. “Okay. If it means that much, then you have free reign in Drake’s room. Clean what you think needs cleaning.”
“Thank you.” Her phone rang and I turned to go so that she could get back to doing whatever it was that she did.
“Layla?” she called after me as I started to close the door.
I stopped and looked back at her. “Yes?”
“Thank you. Drake is special…and he needs a little more TLC than the rest of them sometimes.” Her voice was choked and she blinked several times to keep the tears in her green eyes from falling. “So thank you.”
Before I could answer she picked up her phone. “I told you that I don’t want to have dinner with you and the bitch troll, Axton.”
I changed Drake’s sheets and pillow cases and put his comforter in the heavy duty washer. By the time I was done, his room smelled so much better. I didn’t understand what Emmie had meant by him being special, but I was glad that I could make him feel like he was.
It was almost six before I told Emmie that I was leaving. She was in the living room with a bowl of cereal. “Okay, thanks. Oh, tomorrow I want to show you the guest house. I meant to do it today but things got away from me. Have you talked to your sisters about it?”
“Yeah, they seem excited. Lana was worried about changing schools, but I assured her that she could use my car so that she wouldn’t have to.”
“I wouldn’t want to leave my friends either.” She put her empty bowl on the glass coffee table.
“That’s not it. I think she couldn’t care less about all of that. Mostly she was worried about all the extra classes she’s taking.” Emmie patted the sectional beside of her, and I dropped down on the edge. “She’s crazy smart, and I push her hard. She already has enough college credits from all the extra AP classes to start college as a sophomore. Her education is important to us both.”
“Wow. She sounds like a good girl.”
“She is. Lana has her head on straight.” I was proud of that girl. Even after all the shit our mother put her through she was still so strong and loving.
“Well, I can’t wait to meet her.” The front door opened without w
arning and in walked the band. She stood to greet them. “Hey!”
“Emmie, I’m starving.” Shane dropped a kiss on her cheek. “Tell me you made something that doesn’t have bacon on it.”
“I thought we could grill out on the patio. Burgers and hotdogs okay?”
“As long as it isn’t from a fast food place, that’s perfect.” He rubbed his hand over her distended belly lovingly before focusing on me. “Well hello there, beautiful.”
I couldn’t help but grin. I knew all about the reputation of Shane Stevenson. There didn’t come a bigger horn dog. This man was king of orgies, or so the trash magazines had said. “Hello.”
Emmie muttered something under her breath and shook her head. “Layla, since you are a fan I’m sure you know who this is. Shane, this is our housekeeper Layla Daniels. Our housekeeper, Shane. And her job does not include personal turn down services.”
He looked a little disappointed but still offered me his hand. “I love your name, Layla. I’m a huge Clapton fan.”
“You’re a huge something.” A deep voice informed him, and my heart actually skipped a beat. Jesse shoved Shane from behind. “I thought you wanted a run.”
“I changed my mind.” Shane gave me a wink. “Excuse me, Layla. It was a pleasure to meet you.”
I watched him go because it was safer to look at Shane than at the hulking piece of male perfection standing mere feet from me. “It was nice to meet you Shane,” I called after him.
“Baby, I missed you.” Nik came into the living room looking tired. I guess working on their new songs was hard work. He pulled Emmie close and kissed her softly on the lips. It was sweet and yet none the less passionate. I had to avert my eyes because the look on Emmie’s face was so full of emotions.
Jesse grunted. “Break it up, you two. I can only stand so much of that before I want to break Nik’s face.”
Nik shot him the finger without even lifting his head. I grinned and picked my keys up off the end table where I had left them earlier. “Well on that note I think that I will head out.”
“You can’t leave. We’re going to cook out.” Jesse followed me out of the living room and stood in front of the door, blocking my exit. “I grill a mean cow.” He gave me that cocky grin that had literally melted my panties yesterday. “Come on, Layla. Don’t go home yet.”
I was so tempted. I wanted to stay, and not just to try out his mad skills with the grill on the patio. My heart was aching to be close to him just as much as my body was. That alone terrified the shit out of me. “Maybe another time. I really have to get home.” Wait, why did I have to get home? Oh yeah, the girls.
His eyes narrowed. Was it me or had his eyes actually changed color? That was so sexy! “Do you have someone waiting for you?”
“Yes.” I told him honestly. His eyes darkened and for some reason I was quick to tell him about the girls. “My sisters.”
Those incredible eyes of his changed again, turning back to the brown from earlier. “Sisters?”
I grinned. “Yes. I have custody of both my sisters. They will be wondering where I am, so I really have to get home.”
“Call them and ask them to join us. Tell them to grab a cab, and I’ll pay the driver when he gets here.” He took a step closer to me, and my breath caught in my chest. “You know you want to stay,” he whispered.
I tried to keep calm, tried to remember how to breathe, but he was to close, too alluring and smelled to damn good. “I…” I had forgotten how to form words.
“Call them.”
Finally I found the strength to suck in a deep breath. “I can’t.” I couldn’t let Lana and Lucy ride in a cab by themselves all the way out to Malibu, especially when they had school in the morning. The disappointment in his eyes—oh goodness, they’ve changed color again—made my heart ache a little. “They have school in the morning,” I told him. “I would love to stay, really, but school is important.”
His mouth lifted in half a smile. “Okay, I understand.” He stepped back enough that I was able to breathe without getting assaulted with that deliciously sexy smell of his. It wasn’t cologne, but something both subtle and hypnotizing. “Drive safely.”
Jesse opened the door for me and I was reluctant to walk out. I had to force my feet to move. The entire drive home I felt almost depressed.
Stupid, stupid, stupid! I was already developing feelings for the rocker.
Jesse
It was crazy, but I felt depressed after I watched Layla pull out of the driveway in her beat up old car. I had been thinking about her all day, had woken up hard as a fucking rock twice the night before with her on my mind.
I hadn’t wanted to go into the studio this morning because I wanted to see her again. Then when we got home it was to find Shane undressing her with his eyes and her grinning up at him like she knew it too. So I might have shoved him a little harder than was deemed playful to get him to keep his eyes to himself.
Layla Daniels had invaded my mind, and I didn’t know why, but I was willing to explore the possible answers. I wanted her with an ache that I had never felt before in my life, but it was more that. I wanted to get to know her too, and that wasn’t me. Jesse Thornton didn’t care about getting to know women. All he cared about was his band brothers and Emmie. I was a bastard like that, but they were all I knew and all I loved. Nothing else mattered.
Yet here I sat with this desire to know that little goddess inside and out. Sisters? Why did she have custody of them? How old where they? Did they look like her? Where were her parents? I wanted to call her, to ask her all of those questions and more, a million more. I had never called a girl in my fucking life!
“You’re quiet tonight,” Emmie commented after swallowing a big bite of the bacon cheeseburger that I had made for her. I was getting tired of the very smell of bacon, but that was all she wanted, so that was what she would get, even if I gagged at the thought of eating another slice of pork again.
“He’s been moody all day,” Shane muttered, taking a swallow of his Corona.
Emmie gave me a long thoughtful appraisal. She knew us all inside out, so I knew she would realize what was wrong with me. And I both wanted to talk to her about it and hated her for seeing so much. “You really like her, huh?”
I shrugged, not wanting to talk about it with the other guys sitting right there with us. Nik’s head shot up from playing with something on his phone. “Who?”
The brothers seemed just as curious. I raked a hand over my smooth head and glared up at the star filled sky. “Okay, so I like her. She’s…” I broke off, because I didn’t know what she was like. I was attracted to her on a deeper level than any other woman I had ever met, and from the few minutes I’ve actually spoken with her, I had enjoyed her personality.
“She’s great,” Emmie told me. “She’s sweet and caring. I love that she can get just as bitchy as I can. I don’t have to ask her to help me because she jumps right in without complaint. I could really see her as my friend.”
We were all surprised at Emmie’s praise of the other woman. Emmie had a hard time trusting other females. Her monster of a mother had really fucked her up and she felt like she could only trust herself. The guys and I hadn’t helped much in that department, letting her see how other women acted around us and, subjecting her to all the jealous bitches that wanted to be her simply because she was the only female that would ever hold our hearts. If Emmie thought that Layla was already good friend material, then there was something very special about Layla indeed.
“So…” Shane took another pull from his beer. “…Jesse likes Layla. She’s so fucking hot, dude.”
Emmie, seated between him and Nik, smacked him on the back of the head. “Respect, Shane. Respect.”
“What?” He grinned at her. “She is. Come on, Em. Tell me you don’t think she’s hot. Tell me.”
“She’s beautiful.” Emmie conceded, “but you guys need to show her some respect. I mean it. You will not talk to her like you do your little s
luts. And with her and her sisters moving in this weekend, you will clean up your language. Understand?”
“She’s moving in?” That news blew me away. She was going to be right here, every day? How would I survive that without getting to touch her?
“I told you guys I wanted a live-in. With the baby coming I can’t clean your shit up like I use to. She and her sisters are going to take the guest house.” She narrowed her eyes on us all. “Lucy is only six, so please try to watch your language around her.”
Six? So young. I wondered if she looked like Layla. “I’ll watch my mouth.” I promised. We had made that mistake with Emmie while she was growing up. She could put sailors to shame with her vocabulary. Sure, she had heard it from her mother daily, but we should have at least attempted to get her to not repeat those words.
The others agreed as well. Emmie pushed her half-finished burger away. “Good. I’m counting on you guys. This will be good practice before the baby gets here.” She took a sip of her milk. “So, which of you will volunteer to help Layla and her sisters move in on Saturday?”
The other three guys groaned, but I was quick to offer my help. I wasn’t about to turn down the chance to spend more time with the little goddess.
Chapter 6
Layla
If I was depressed that I had to go when Jesse had asked me to stay, then I was even more so the rest of the week. I didn’t see him at all on Thursday or Friday because the band was spending so much time in the studio. I hated that I went home both evenings with a heavy heart because I hadn’t gotten even a little peek at the sexy rocker.
Lana noticed my downbeat attitude. She asked me if something was wrong Friday night as we sat on our little couch in the living room sharing the rest of the pizza I had picked up for dinner on my way home. Lucy was already in bed, and I was happy to have some us time with Lana. But she saw way too much sometimes, and I knew that I couldn’t keep my feelings about the rocker from her, especially since we were going to be living right next door to the guy.