Read Online Caught in the Glow (The Glower Chronicles Book 1) by Eva Chase - Free Book Online

with a suppleness that sent the wrong sort of shiver though me. I fixed my gaze on his eyes.
    “It’s easy,” he said. “They’re easy. They’re right there. They come to me. I know exactly what they want. I don’t even have to think about it. I mean, it’s fair. They don’t really like me either, just the idea of hooking up with a ‘hotshot rock star.’”
    Somehow that answer surprised me. Because, I realized as I said it, “I didn’t take you for the type to prefer easy.”
    He rolled his head over against the back of the sofa so he could look at me. Those amber eyes were far more penetrating than I liked. “No?” he said. “What type do you take me for?”
    I thought of the guy I’d seen fingerstyling an improvised solo on a cafeteria table five years ago. “The type who figures out what he wants and then goes for it, no matter how far away it seems.”
    He made a faint sound that might have been a laugh. “And you figure you know me pretty well after hanging around here for all of a week?”
    “I knew you from a distance for four months, at Rushfield,” I pointed out. “I know you’re the only person from our year there who’s pulled together an indie album that got radio play, and not only that, was good enough that the record labels came knocking with big checks. You’re not going to tell me that was easy, are you?”
    “No,” he said, still holding my gaze. He sounded almost puzzled, as if he’d forgotten how he’d ended up here. “I guess it wasn’t.”
    Something had shifted in the way he was looking at me. It wasn’t the suggestive eyeballing he’d given me the other day in my bathing suit, but the intensity of it sent a pleasant prickle over my skin all the same. He eased himself more upright on the sofa, sliding half a foot closer to me with the same movement, and my breath stuck in my throat. I scrambled to my feet.
    Ryder raised his eyebrows at me. Maybe I’d misinterpreted the gesture. But one thing I knew for sure was I had no intention of acting as a stand-in for the woman whose attentions he’d just dismissed. That wasn’t going to help either of us.
    “I’m beat,” I said. “I’d better crash.”
    His look followed me as I sidled around the sofa. Guilt gnawed at me. I wasn’t sure if he’d recognized my rejection for what it was. I wasn’t even sure what exactly I’d rejected.
    It didn’t matter. He was still my client. I was still his Tether. And even if I hadn’t been, I didn’t want to see him hurting.
    Fee was right. I liked him.
    So I offered him as much as I felt I safely could. I reached over the back of the sofa and gave his shoulder a light squeeze. “If you miss easy, there’ll be plenty more of that tomorrow, right?”
    His lips quirked up. “I guess so.”
    I didn’t look back, but I felt his eyes on me the entire time it took me to walk to my room.

 
     
     
     
    7.
     
     
    “Y ou really don’t have to stick around if you’ve got other things to do,” Ryder said as he parked his Audi beside the studio building the next day. If last night’s odd conversation had affected his opinion of me at all, he hadn’t shown it so far. “You shouldn’t have to put your whole life on hold to follow me 24-7.”
    “That’s sort of what the job is,” I said. “Anyway, after last time...” I shot him a pointed look.
    He set a hand on his chest over his heart and raised the other palm forward. “I solemnly swear I’ll behave myself for at least the next three hours. I’m in a much better mood today. See?” He dropped his hands with a grin that was broad and authentic enough to set off a fluttering in my chest.
    I clamped down on the feeling, but I couldn’t help smiling back. “Maybe I want to see the brilliant Colin Ryder at work,” I said as I got out of the car. The truth was, I wouldn’t have left regardless of whether I believed him. Even though I hadn’t seen his Glower groupie since the day his parents had visited, I couldn’t