Night After Night by Janelle Denison

Zoe’s voice, he smiled. “How did the two of you become friends?”
    She took a drink of milk before answering. “We met our freshman year in high school. Our personalities were so opposite in so many ways that we never really should have become friends. I was energetic and outgoing, and she was guarded and a loner. Whenever I saw her at school, her head was down, she never made eye contact with anyone, and she avoided any kind of conversation.”
    It was difficult for Sean to associate that insecure young girl Zoe spoke of with the confident pop star Jessica Morgan was today.
    “It wasn’t until we were paired up to work together on a monthlong project in our history class that I really got to know her.” After taking a bite of her cake, Zoe licked the extra frosting off her fork, her expression thoughtful, as if she was thinking back and remembering. “She was very quiet and wary at first, but the more time we spent outside of school working on our project together, the more she opened up, and we just clicked. By the end of our freshman year, we were best friends and were inseparable. Unfortunately, her home life wasn’t the greatest, which accounted for why she was so guarded and didn’t let too many people get close to her.”
    “Yet here she is, a famous celebrity who sells out concert tours within hours of their release.” He shook his head in amazement. “How did that happen?”
    “I know. Crazy, isn’t it?” Zoe tucked a silky strand of hair behind her ear before taking another bite of her cake. “She’s definitely a different person these days. But back in high school, she dealt with the ugliness at home by writing songs and making music. Her choir teacher noticed what an amazing voice she had, then learned that she also played the guitar, and cultivated her talent. By the time Jessica graduated, she wanted to be a singer or songwriter.”
    “That’s quite a long shot,” he said, and drank the last of his milk.
    “Yeah, she was a realist and knew how difficult getting into the music business would be. She’d originally planned on attending UNLV for a degree in business, so she’d always have that to fall back on, but things changed for her at home that summer.”
    Zoe grew quiet and reflective, the look in her gaze pained as she continued. “Something really bad happened, and she just couldn’t stay at home any longer, so I insisted that she move into my small apartment with me in Los Angeles. When she arrived on my doorstep, all she had was the clothes on her back and her guitar and the fire of determination to make something of her life. When auditions opened up for a new vocal talent show called Make Me a Star, she tried out and made the top twelve, then went all the way to the final three. She didn’t win the title, but being on the show was enough to get the attention of a few record labels.”
    The corner of his mouth tipped up in a grin. “And the rest, as they say, is history?”
    “Yeah, pretty much.” Nodding, Zoe set her half-eaten piece of cake on the coffee table in front of the couch. “At the age of twenty, she was recording her first album and touring, and it’s only gotten crazier for her since.”
    “That’s a great story.”
    “She’s deserved every bit of her success.” Zoe took his empty plate from him and placed it next to hers on the table. “So, what did you think of dessert?”
    “It was pretty darn good,” he replied honestly. Stretching his arm across the back of the sofa, he twined a strand of her hair around his finger, feeling just as ensnared by the woman herself. “Who would have thought you were so multitalented.”
    Husky, playful laughter escaped her lips. “Jessica insists my chocolate cake is better than sex. What do you think?”
    The woman was such an adorable vixen. So delightfully daring and so damn irresistible. She was cavorting with the underlying fire that had been simmering between them all evening, and boldly traveling down a path