Sing For Me
Tam DeRudder Jackson
(Balefire Series, #2)
Publication date: August 26th 2021
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance
Blu
My entire life is my music—and all the trappings that come with it. Sex, booze, and rock ’n’ roll is all I ever wanted. Touring the world as the lead singer of Balefire, I have it all. Until on hiatus, I meet the girl next door.
Ashleigh Baker is nothing like the groupies and celebrities who usually have all my attention. In her cute floppy hat with her knees stained with dirt, she spends her days creating a flowering show piece from her rented yard. She’s the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever met, and she acts like she doesn’t want a damn thing to do with me. But from the moment I laid eyes on her, she’s all I can think about.
Ashleigh
Growing up the only child of an Air Force Colonel, all I wanted was to stay in one place for more than a minute. When I score a pretty little house with a long-term lease, I just want to grow my flowers and my freelancing gig as a music reviewer. Then a loud Harley wakes me from a sound sleep and I discover my neighbor is Blu Connolly. Yeah, that Blu Connolly, lead singer for my favorite band Balefire. With his killer good looks and panty-melting voice, he’s a walking temptation to sin. Though I do my best to avoid him, it seems Blu has other ideas. He’s on a mission to wear me down, let him in, but what happens when he stops wanting to sing for me?
—
EXCERPT:
Mom lasered me with her eyes, and I barked out a laugh. Baiting my mother—another thing I’d missed.“What does Ashleigh do, exactly?”
“She’s a substitute teacher at your old high school and she writes articles and submits them to all sorts of publications.”
“Yeah? What does she write about? Gardening?”
I might have laughed at the idea yesterday, but after seeing her sweet ass up in the air as she bent over the row of flowers she planted this morning, I had a sudden appreciation for gardening.
“She writes about music. Does a darn fine job of it too. She’s reviewed several local bands as well as some big ones. She even wrote a review of your show at Red Rocks last summer for some little blog. Her description of Dakota’s guitar and your voice specifically could have made Balefire a household name had you needed the boost. Her writing is that good.” Mom took a nonchalant sip of her wine, but I caught the look she shot me. “Or maybe I’m biased since she complimented my boy so flatteringly.”
“Yeah, well, maybe I should sing to her next time ’cause she sure didn’t flatter me today when I invited her to lunch.”
The conversation led me right back to that dark place it had taken me three hours of hard riding to escape. Ashleigh’s wine soured in my mouth as I heard her accusations in my head again.
Mom ignored my comment and my sudden bad mood. “You slept away most of the first two days you’ve been home. What are your plans for this evening?”
“Haven’t thought about it much. Maybe head down to the Dollar, see if anyone from the old days is still around, shoot some pool. After you feed me dinner,” I added with a sly smirk.
Truly, I should have offered to take Mom out to eat, but the woman could outcook any chef in the state. After months on the road, I craved her home cooking.
She smiled back at me, reading my mind again. “Your favorite dinner is thawing on the counter right now. I baked it last weekend for when you came home.”
“Yeah?” I asked carelessly before I bounced up out of my chair and raced into the kitchen. Sure enough, a huge pan of lasagna sat on the counter. Jesus, did I love that woman.
The tangible evidence of my mom’s love for me put a giant smile on my face as I headed to the bathroom to shower off the road grime and sweat from my ride. Though it was early June, the temperature insisted on summer, and I could smell myself when I walked back into the house.
When I finished cleaning up, I found Mom in the kitchen singing some pop tune softly as she busied herself with dinner. Her taste in music ran to mellow, and I had to laugh as I walked into the kitchen. As our biggest supporter early on, she attended almost every one of our shows and smiled and danced all the way through them. We’d been playing professionally for three or four years when I discovered the earplugs. To this day I have no idea what she heard in her head as we played, but it wasn’t us. Still, she’d had a good time and inspired others around her to join her in that, which improved the vibe of our early shows.
Thoughts of those long-ago shows led me back to Mom’s comment about Ashleigh’s articles. After dinner, I googled her to see what she’d said about us. Not that it mattered. The woman appeared pretty hostile to me during our first two meetings. Then I read an article she wrote for Rocky Mountain High, an online arts and entertainment blog.
The Balefire concert at Red Rocks last weekend blasted all expectations of what a rock show is or should be. The band’s musicianship, sound quality, pyrotechnics, and light show exceeded anything offered at Red Rocks in recent memory. From Jack Whitehorse’s opening drum soloMom was right about Ashleigh’s ability to review music too. Her words made me think back on that show, one of our best. Her article reminded me why I absolutely fucking love what I do for a living even when a tour wrings me out. Panty-dropping voice. Her description made me smile. Sobering, I pondered what it would take to tempt the delectable yet prickly Ashleigh Baker to drop her panties for me.
pounding through the collective chest of the crowd to Dakota Perri’s blistering guitar licks revving the audience into a frenzy to Adam Tron’s driving bass forcing people to jump out of their seats and dance, the band grabbed the audience by the throat and refused to let go for two solid hours of nonstop, over-the-top thrill ride.
However, Balefire’s signature sound lies in the incredible vocal range of the band’s lead singer, Blu Connolly. From his primal screams on “Out of My Head” to his smooth baritone rumblings on “You’re the One” to his pitch-perfect harmonies with Whitehorse on their new song “Missing You,” Connolly’s voice is the heart and soul of the band. No wonder during a Balefire concert, women toss their underwear at the stage with wild abandon. The man has the ability to make panties to drop every time
he steps up to a microphone. Huh. So Ashleigh liked the show at Red Rocks. More than that, she loves my voice, at least when I’m using it to sing.
Author Bio:
Tam DeRudder Jackson is the author of the paranormal romance Talisman Series and the contemporary romance Balefire Series. Her favorite “room” in her house is her back patio where she dreams up stories of romance and risk. When she’s not writing her latest paranormal or contemporary romance, you can usually find her driving around with the top down in her convertible or carving turns on the slopes of the local ski hill. The mom of two grown sons, Tam likes to travel, attend rock concerts, watch football and soccer, and visit old car shows with her husband. She lives in the mountains of northwest Wyoming where she spends most of her free time trying to read all the books. Her TBR piles are threatening to take over her office, and she’s fine with that.
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