Resolution: G-String (Resolution Pact) Read online

  She bent down next to me, held her hand out with her phone and snapped a pic. I signed her notepad next to my order and she was seemingly satisfied with it as she practically skipped to the kitchen to get our orders in.

  “That still makes me laugh like crazy,” Peg said, shaking her head.

  “I know, but if I give lessons I promise I won’t make your customers crazy.”

  “I’ll think about it,” she replied, but I knew she was on board.

  And if I needed to, I could push for another week or two before the European tour.

  Gail would just have to calm down and deal with it.

  Chapter Three

  Chloe

  I worked my ass off the next day for Professor Steinbach. He was grateful for the information I’d dug up, but never really showed it.

  At most I could hope for a reference in his foreword once he submitted his research paper for peer review.

  At least it was something, and it would help me in the end when I submitted my own research and eventually opened a clinic to help children.

  I just needed the funds, but that could be handled later.

  The day after that was my first guitar lesson.

  I didn’t own a guitar so I planned on going to the store to pick one up. I didn’t really know much about them, just that I’d always wanted to learn to play.

  Since I was such an uptight child and adult, music represented the exact opposite to me.

  If I could learn to strum a song on a musical instrument, it felt a little like loosening up and being free.

  I walked in and immediately fought the urge to turn around and run out.

  I was so outside my comfort zone that I felt physically ill, like my stomach was going to leap out of my body through my mouth.

  “Come on, you can do this,” I said to myself under my breath.

  “Can I help you?” a woman’s voice pierced my little anxiety bubble.

  “Oh, yes. Um, music!” I blurted and instantly hated how out of my element I was and how nervous it made me.

  I made a mental note to tell Stacy she sucked for challenging us for New Year…unless it turned out to be a good thing, then I would thank her.

  “Are you looking for something specific?” she asked with a smile plastered to her face. She obviously thought I was half nuts or something.

  “Sorry, let’s start over,” I said. “I signed up for guitar lessons, they start today and I need a guitar.”

  “Okay, that makes more sense,” she laughed. I followed her to a wall of instruments and let her help me pick out an acoustic guitar that would suit my needs, she promised profusely.

  Once I paid for it, I looked around the store and noted it was still full of other customers. My lesson was supposed to start in ten minutes and I didn’t see any other staff.

  “Are we still on for today or are you too busy?” I asked Peg as she handed me my receipt.

  “I would normally be doing your lesson, but I have somebody standing in for me today. Another instructor,” she said with a smile. “I usually don’t have this much traffic in here.”

  “I guess that’s a good thing,” I said and picked up my guitar case. “Where are the lessons held?”

  “I’ll show you the back room,” she said. “You’ll use it every day for your lessons. You did choose the accelerated plan, right? You’re doing 4 lessons a week?”

  “Yeah, I’m only here until the end of the month. Then I move back home,” I replied.

  “Perfect timing, the instructor you’re working with is also only here for a short time,” she said and opened a door at the back of the shop.

  I stepped inside a small sound proof room and took a seat on one of the chairs in it. I opened my case and pulled out my new instrument, held it on my lap and ran my hand along the curves.

  It was almost sensual, the way my hand naturally moved along the smooth surface of the guitar.

  I drew my fingers across the strings and a twang filled the room. I repeated myself and couldn’t stop, I loved the way it sounded and the way the strings felt under my touch.

  “Seems like I might have the wrong room, I thought somebody needed lessons,” a man’s voice said, making me jump half out of my seat.

  I stopped and turned around as I sputtered about not being very good when I realized he’d been joking.

  And he was Gavin Pierce.

  Indie rock god.

  Hottest man in America.

  In the flesh.

  Even with a cast on his foot, he was unbelievably hot. If anything the cast made him seem more human, more vulnerable somehow.

  I felt the air go out of the room, it was hard to catch my breath.

  I’d only ever seen him on TV or online and yet here he was, larger than life and right in front of me.

  “I’m Gavin,” he said and he flashed me a million watt smile as he extended his hand. “I’ll be teaching you how to play that thing.”

  He nudged his chin towards my guitar and I suddenly remembered why I was there in the first place.

  Seeing Gavin had left me speechless and my mind numb from any semblance of language.

  My mouth must have opened and closed a few times, like a fish out of water, before I finally gave myself a mental head shake.

  I took his hand, shook it and managed to squeak out, “Hey, I’m Chloe and I’m here to learn to play.”

  Oh god, of course you’re here to learn, why else would you be here? I groaned internally at my inability to stay cool in the face of a literal rock star.

  “I kinda figured that out,” he said with that dazzling smile of his. He pulled up a chair and sat across from me with our knees almost touching.

  I mentally gave my head a shake and drew the iron willed Chloe that had fearless defended her PhD dissertation and won a hard-fought research position with professor Steinbach.

  I had done so much in my life that had required nerves of steel, why was I unable to center myself and get a grip with Gavin Pierce?

  Sure, he was a rock star…and actual rock star used to hanging with the most famous movie stars and models in the world…but ultimately he was just a human being.

  I remembered what they told me in a public speaking course I’d taken in my first year of college, if you were nervous about talking in front of somebody just imagine them naked.

  I blinked, imagined Gavin Pierce with no clothes, and somehow it just made it worse.

  I blushed red hot and stammered, “Yeah, okay. So what do I do?”

  “First of all, let’s get you holding it the right way,” he said and leaned forward. He took my hand in his and gently placed it on the neck of the guitar, then took the other hand and put it on the strings.

  “That’s better,” he said and looked into my eyes and I could barely handle it. He was famous for the unusual color of his eyes, they seemed to glow with a light of their own. They were a golden amber color, something that didn’t seem natural let alone human even.

  Tiger eyes.

  I didn’t think I’d ever seen eyes like his in person, and I felt a little faint staring into them.

  “You have to treat your instrument like a lover,” he said and licked his lips as he looked down. I swallowed hard and nodded wordlessly. “Caress it, be gentle and careful. Find out what your guitar needs to feel in order to perform.”

  “Like this?” I asked and shifted slightly to let the guitar rest against the curves of my body.

  “Exactly,” he replied, then stopped and looked back up at me again, this time with amusement in his eyes. “You’re not even going to mention the fact that I’m Gavin Pierce, are you?”

  “Is it supposed to be a big deal?”

  I had some of my iron will back in my veins, the same strength that got me through my education. I could handle this, I could face him.

  “To some people it is,” he said with a crooked grin.

  “Well I’m here to learn the guitar, not get your autograph if that’s what you’re hinting at.”r />
  Ahhh there it was, my cool aloof nature was back. He’d unsettled me, for sure, but I could handle it. I was smarter than that, I wasn’t like the throngs of screaming fan girls who went insane for him.

  I was different, I was an intellectual.

  But still, I couldn’t wait to tell my sorority sisters about it. They would flip their shit over me learning from him.

  “You sure about that?” he asked with a chuckle. “You’re an interesting woman, Chloe.”

  “Are we going to continue the lesson?” I asked, locking me gaze on him and raising my eyebrow.

  He laughed this time, he threw his head back and let out an amazing laugh and I loved that I had amused him. “Yes, we are going to continue. And I’ll get you wanting an autograph eventually, I promise.”

  I gave him a snotty sniff and said, “We’ll see.”

  But if I ever thought I had a chance with a man like him, I’d get his autograph…and more…so much more.

  Chapter Four

  Gavin

  I suffered through a morning of painful lessons and was going to tell Peg I didn’t think this idea was working out.

  She’d underestimated my star power, not that it gave me a big head or anything. I was just her little brother when I was in Seattle, after all.

  But damn, it really messed with the students.

  First lesson of the morning was a teenage girl who couldn’t breathe.

  I mean she literally hyperventilated and needed to run out to her mother and grab an inhaler.

  Her mother turned out to be just as star struck as the daughter and made more than a few jokes about being a cougar.

  It got awkward. But I was used to it.

  The girl didn’t even pull her guitar out of the case, but she got me to sign it…and the case…and her phone case. And a few more items of her mother’s. And I ended up taking a selfie with her.

  That ate up the whole forty five minutes.

  The second lesson was an older guy, in his thirties. I didn’t think he’d be that overwhelmed seeing me but I was wrong.

  He pulled his guitar out of the case after a little small talk about the weather and promptly held it backwards. Without looking down, he drew his hand across the smooth surface of the back, looked down, and began to stammer.

  “Oh, shit, I’m sorry,” he said and gulped nervously.

  “It’s okay, man, I do it all the time,” I lied. I didn’t, but I really wanted to get back to my roots and teach this guy a riff or two.

  I’d started playing the guitar really early on, I’d been drawn to it from a young age.

  When I was in high school I’d been allowed to earn a little extra cash giving lessons through the school’s music department.

  Most of the time I’d get rolled for my cash the minute it was light’s out at the group home, but eventually I’d saved enough to buy my very first guitar.

  I’d been forced to keep it at school, but it had allowed me to practice constantly and become the success I became.

  This guy? He’d probably never become a rock star but he didn’t have to feel humiliated by making a stupid move like that.

  “Sure you do,” he said and flipped the guitar around. He positioned his hands, I prepared myself to hear him play, but he stopped as his fingers hit the strings. “Hey, can I ask you a question?”

  I nodded and said, “Go ahead.”

  I was fully expecting him to ask something technical or maybe about becoming a successful musician, but he didn’t.

  He looked at me, grinned, and said, “What’s it like to bang a super model?”

  And that’s how that lesson ended. Awkwardly and with me not in the mood to discuss my partying and sleeping around.

  He left after I signed a few items, but he left disappointed because I wouldn’t give him intimate details about my short, hot, and very public relationship with Serena Adams, Victoria’s Secret model of the year.

  Two more disastrous lessons along the same line left me wondering why the hell I’d agreed to this in the first place.

  Peg was thrilled though, her store was packed and she was obviously selling more than usual to the people showing up to get a glimpse of Gavin Pierce.

  I had to stick it out, I couldn’t leave her hanging, not when word of my presence had gone viral.

  And not when she needed the business.

  I sighed and went for a short break. I downed a cup of black coffee and looked at the lesson sheet.

  Chloe Kingston was up next, and I braced myself for some hyper, lusty young thing with bright blonde hair and tits hanging out of her crop top.

  That’s what the name brought up in my mind, at least.

  I opened the lesson room door, stepped inside and did a double take.

  She was stunning.

  Absolutely fucking stunning.

  She was dark haired with warm brown eyes that shone with intelligence as she looked me up and down.

  She recognized me, that was obvious in the way that she flinched slightly, but she was cool and composed about it.

  Her long hair was silky straight and drawn back into a simple pony tail. She was athletic with gorgeous, huge breasts that took every ounce of concentration for me to not ogle openly.

  She was dressed simply in a tight pale pink sweater and a pair of blue jeans with knee high leather boots overtop.

  She sat perched on the edge of the chair holding her guitar awkwardly, and I got the distinct impression that she wasn’t musically inclined.

  She was coiled and tense, and would need to be taught to relax and let the music come through her.

  I touched her hands to help her hold the guitar and it felt odd to me.

  A little jolt in my gut, a sudden realization that I wanted to fuck Chloe Kingston.

  Not fuck, like with the super models and fan girls I’d banged over the years, but something different.

  I wanted to know her, to touch her how she wanted to be touched…to find out as much as I could about her and see her loosen up. See what was behind those guarded eyes of hers.

  “Now draw your fingers across the strings,” I told her once she was holding the guitar with more ease. “Feel the vibrations of the tones through the instrument, you can feel the music in your body once you get it really going.”

  She looked down and her thick eyelashes fanned across her cheeks. I detected the lightest blush of embarrassment there in the pink flush that heated them.

  And fuck, I was overcome with the sudden urge to make her want me.

  To make her go crazy and beg for my cock like all the other girls I see everywhere I go.

  Why wasn’t she unsettled by my presence?

  Couldn’t she feel how intensely our bodies responded to each other?

  I could barely concentrate on watching her fingers, my eyes kept sweeping up and across to the swell of her breasts.

  “Is that enough?” she asked, taking a deep breath that made those gorgeous tits rise.

  I jerked my eyes up to look at her. “That’s a good start.”

  I leaned forward again and placed my hand over hers on the neck of the instrument. Her fingers were slender and elegant and I wondered how they’d look wrapped around the my cock, jerking me slowly as I lifted her sweater and—

  “What should I do?” she asked, breaking into my little fantasy.

  It was my turn to be unsettled.

  I swallowed and focused, swallowed and focused again and walked her through the motions of learning the instrument while ignoring the nagging sensation that was growing in the back of my head.

  I was going to get Chloe interested in me.

  I might only have a two or three weeks, but I would crack her code and get her begging for me like every other woman I knew.

  I couldn’t leave Seattle unless I did.

  Chapter Five

  Chloe

  “Excellent, you’re getting it,” Gavin said during my second week. His eyes sparkled with excitement and his dazzling smile lit up the
room.

  I’d signed up for four lessons a week and this was week two. Since I’d started my lessons on Tuesday, today just happened to land on a Friday.

  The undeniable electric attraction between us had only been growing, and the last couple lessons had gone on beyond forty five minutes.

  He’d seemed reluctant to let me leave, so he’d kept talking and there was no way I was going to walk out if Gavin wanted me there.

  Yesterday we’d talked for an extra hour, until Peg knocked on the door and asked him what the hell he was doing in there.

  We’d laughed and had acted like teenagers caught making out at the front door.

  Today was no different. We’d talked for a few minutes before my lesson and now were going over the limit again.

  Today we managed to keep up the façade that I was here to learn to play and not flirt outrageously with him. But the good thing about that façade was that I really was learning something about the instrument.

  And the man.

  “Your finger positions are perfect,” he said and held up his hand, wiggled his own fingers. “Soon you’ll have your own lovely callouses like mine.”

  “Thanks,” I said with a satisfied smile. “It feels good to do something with my hands. I normally spend so much time in my head.”

  I’d told him a little about my research and my education and he’d seemed duly impressed.

  We actually got along really well.

  Once you stripped away the weirdness that I was leaning from a guy like him, and once you ignored the insane sparks of attraction that popped off between us like fireworks, we really had a lot in common.

  He was smarter than I’d expected, and had a wicked sense of humor.

  He could make me laugh like crazy, to the point that I actually snorted once or twice and that in turn made him laugh out loud.

  I loved his laugh, he had a big honest laugh and would throw his head back when something really struck him as funny.

  Our time was coming to the inevitable end when Gavin helped me flip my case shut and reached out to touch my wrist.