Between a Rock and a Hard Place

BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE

By

Alicia Sparks

© Copyright October 2006, Alicia Sparks

Cover art by Jenny Dixon, © Copyright October 2006

New Concepts Publishing

Lake Park, GA 31636

www.newconceptspublishing.com

This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and places are of the author's imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons or events is merely a coincidence.

Chapter One

Whiney, whiney music that could only be classified as the heartbreaking kind made its way up the winding staircase and into the hallway before it poured out of the speakers in her office. Stacey attempted to ignore it, but when Nate flipped on the speaker to her office, the situation demanded her attention. She reached for the intercom button and paged her brother.

"What the hell is this?"

She heard him laughing. "Country music, why?"

"Turn it off. I don't like it." The guy was singing about losing a woman. Tell me another sad story.

"Well, you'd better get used to it," Nate replied.

"Says who?" She pushed away from the computer. She'd put a stop to this. The controls to the stereo system were downstairs in the living room. She heard Nate say something else into the intercom, but she was already out of the room by now and on her way down the stairs. He could explain when she saw him face to face.

Going down the stairs and then padding down the hallway, Stacey found Nate reclined on the sofa, swinging a straw back and forth as if it were a composer's baton. He sat up straight when she killed the stereo.

"What the fuck?"

"I was trying to work," she folded her arms, pulling her terry bathrobe around her as she did. "Did you turn on the air conditioner down here? Sheesh. It's cold."

"Yeah, I did. It's May. Hot as hell. Join the rest of the world. Well, I suppose you'd know the weather if you so much as moved from your computer."

"My time in front of the computer is what pays the bills here, in case you missed it. It's also paying for your summer tour, so I wouldn't start complaining."

Nate ran a hand through his long, dark hair, giving up on playing baton. "I know. I know. It's just that you need a life, too. When was the last time you went out?"

"I go out all the time."

"No, you don't. You go grocery shopping and call that an adventure."

"It is," she defended herself with a little whine in her voice before sinking down onto the chaise lounge. "You know how everyone stares and talks. It's an adventure, believe me."

"You're loaded. Shit, you should be proud to have everybody's attention."

"Just what I always wanted, all of Rock, Louisiana talking about me." She rolled her eyes.

"They're just jealous they didn't think of it first."

"Yeah, okay. If you say so. This is the Bible belt. I don't think too many of them are keen on the idea of having porn right at their back door."

"Shit, I bet most of them would submit tapes to you if they didn't know you."

"Probably." Stacey knew enough upstanding citizens from other places were submitting tapes. That's what kept her internet amateur porn site up and running and kept her living comfortably. Her site had had more hits last year than any other and pulled in several hundred thousands. It was clean, upscale fun for married couples everywhere who wanted to film their sexual adventures and then have them available for instant downloads. She kept them anonymous and wealthy, giving them a cut of the money from their films, and it made her filthy rich.

"And I bet your business would go to the dogs if everyone knew the porn queen herself wasn't getting any."

"My sex life is none of my customers' business."

"Fine. But admit it, you could use some excitement." The twinkle in Nate's eyes was enough to warn her that he was up to something.

"I'm not interested in excitement. I'm perfectly fulfilled. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have videos to digitize." She pushed herself off the lounge and headed for the door then stopped. "By the way, no more of that whiney music."

"You didn't like it, then?"

"No." She turned to leave.

"You'd better get used to it." He half-sang behind her.

She quickly turned back around to face him "Why's that?"

"Cause I've found you a new client."

"I'm not into country music. I'm not using a country soundtrack. It'll be like Beverly Hillbillies porn and I'm not interested."

"I'm not talking about a soundtrack." He stood and walked to the stereo, flipping it on again. "I'm talking about somebody wanting to use your recording studio."

"Who?"

"You don't recognize the voice?"

"How am I supposed to recognize it when I don't listen to country music?"

"His name is Shanon Gentry. And he's slated to be the next big thing."

"And he wants to use your studio?"

"Yours," Nate shook his head. He had always been insistent that the studio was Stacey's because she had paid for it.

"No way. Uh-uh. You leave, what, in two days for the Warped Tour? No way am I letting somebody come in and record all summer when I don't know anything about that system."

"He's a professional, Stace. He'll be able to run everything. I'll be here to get him settled in and "

"When does he arrive?" Warning bells went off in her head as Nate checked his watch.

"No fucking way! Today? He's coming today?" Her heart pounded. Great. Today. She wasn't ready for guests. Her entire staff had the summer off since she would be the only one here. She could cook the basics, but, shit.

"Calm down. I won't leave you hanging. I'll be here to get him settled in. Come on, he's country. Low maintenance. And he can stay in one of the guest rooms on the West Wing and he'll be out of your hair, okay?"

She steadied her breath. "The West Wing is being painted starting Monday."

"Oh, shit. Well, I guess this is a problem then. Well, you know me and the guys. Our rooms are trashed." Yeah, she knew him and the rest of the guys in the band. They lived in the East Wing and kept it equivalent to a boys' dorm. She couldn't let anyone stay there. Which left her part of the house. Shit. Of all the times to have renovations going on in the guesthouse, painting in the main house. No cook, no butler. Nobody here but the paint crew, and they would only be here 'til noon every day.

"You are in fucking hot water."

"No, it'll be okay. You'll see. He can stay in your wing. I'm sure he'll be out of your way. 'Sides, he'll probably be recording all day and well into the night. Trying to lay down the tracks by summer's end and all."

"Who is he again?" She went back to the lounge and sank down. It felt as if her whole world were out of control. And she hated being out of control. Hated having strange people in her house. The painters were bad enough, but they were being handled by her best friend, Lauren, who refused to move in and take a job as her personal assistant.

"Catch," Nate tossed the CD cover to Stacey, barely missing her head with it. It crashed to the floor and she bent over to pick it up. The back was nothing more than a list of songs. The front … her stomach dropped to the floor.

The bluest eyes she'd ever seen stared back at her. And that mouth. She couldn't take him all in at once. Every feature was more striking than the next. From the serious, sexy eyes to the tiny cleft in his chin, he was 100% male. The cowboy hat that sat on his head only added to the mystery. Good Lord! She opened the CD to look at the insert. Gracing the pages there, she found him leaning against a fence, standing in the open door of a barn and resting his head on the sand. Each picture was more enticing than the last, leaving her needing to be hosed down in a bad way.

Then it dawned on her why those eyes felt as if they were looking straight into her soul. That one night in Nashville, when her plane had been delayed and she had been rendered weak by a set of blue eyes and a soft, Southern twang. Just thinking back to that night was enough to make her grow weak in the knees. But thinking of the stranger who had held her, caused other things to weaken … like her resolve. It had been a one-night stand, but she had never had one and she couldn't seem to move past it.

If she had to spend the summer with a man whose name she had never known but who had loved her as if the world would end with the rising sun, she would lose her freaking mind.

Nate was talking, but she had no idea what he was saying. She knew she looked like a deer caught in headlights when she looked up. "Huh? Did you say something?"

He laughed. "Yeah, I said, he's a nice guy. I think you two will get along great."

Yeah, right. Nice guys didn't like what she did for a living. Unfortunately, in her business, she either met guys who thought she was a nympho or guys who were intimidated by what she did. And considering her past with the cowboy she now knew was Shanon Gentry, there was no doubt on which side of that debate he'd land.

"I'm sure we will," she managed, her stomach doing flip-flops as her fingers clung to the CD case.

"You can keep that if you'd like."

"Bite me," she tossed it back to him.

Nate caught the CD case and placed it back on top of the stereo. Then he shoved his hands into the pockets of his raggedy skater boy shorts. "You might wanna mosey on up the stairs and fix yourself up, then," he said in a mock country accent. "He'll be here in a few hours."

Stacey was sure to punch him in the shoulder on the way out.