SailtotheMoon by Lynne Connolly Read Free Book Online

never denied an emotion. That blocked him from writing
lyrics. The emotion went into his memory bank. “Who to?”
    “An old man. Nobody remembers him, but he used to be famous
once. More than that, he’s old, frail and lonely.” She met his gaze, traced a
finger down his cheek, tantalizing him with the touch of her fingernail. “God,
this is hard.”
    He wriggled to let her know how hard it was. “Sure?”
    “I need a couple of hours, and anyway, his file’s at my
house.”
    “File?” An ominous dread crept over him, tightening his
stomach. Had he made a mistake? Avoided the wrong Laura? He rolled off her.
“What do you do?”
    “I’m a social worker.” She swung out of bed and numbly, he
watched her cross the room to the bathroom. “I have to see one of the crew to
discuss his father. Well, I don’t have to, because we’re in touch by email, but
I wanted to persuade him to see the old man.”
    He heard the shower start, but any inclination to join her
had died along with his arousal. Real life had come back to kick him in the
gut, as it always did.
    She didn’t linger in the shower and came out in ten minutes,
fully dressed. Still looked gorgeous, but he couldn’t take her now. “So who is
this crew member?” He knew the answer before she told him.
    She smiled. “James Asaro. You know him?”
    “You could say that.” Watching her reaction carefully, he
said, “You already know who he is, don’t you?”
    “No. Chick was going to introduce me. He said he had to find
James first and then talk to him. His father has the same name, did you know?
But he prefers Jimmy. Perhaps you know him, he was a musician. Jimmy A, they
called him in his day. His son’s been busy, but I think he’s also avoiding his
father. He sent me an email to say he wouldn’t see him, but I wanted to give it
one last chance. Mr. Asaro wants to see him, and he’s getting frailer every
day.”
    With every cheerful sentence, Zazz’s heart sank. “He’s good
at that, isn’t he?”
    She watched him, frowning, but said nothing.
    “Jimmy’s been dying for thirty years. As long as I’ve known
him. Why didn’t you just ask me, Laura?” That last revealed far too
much. He didn’t want to give her anything. Panic twisted his stomach. He’d
almost agreed to meet his dad, in the company of the middle-aged social worker
he’d expected Laura to be. One more reason he didn’t recognize her. But as soon
as they’d arrived at the hotel in the center of town, passing the familiar
landmarks of the huge Town Hall and Piccadilly Gardens, he’d decided not to go
through with it. He wouldn’t meet the social worker caring for his father, he
wouldn’t give her the opportunity of reintroducing father and son. He was done
with that. He could write to her when he was safely in London, tell her he’d
been ill or something. She’d carry on thinking of Zazz and James Asaro as two
separate people. The imperative command ran through his brain, throbbing like a
heartbeat. Don’t go back, don’t go back.
    She must have worked it out, decided to get her jollies
before she broke the bad news over his head. Jesus fucking Christ, how was he
supposed to think straight now? His head whirled, his stomach churned. He had
to get her out of here.
    He got out of bed, shamelessly naked. “I thought that other
Laura was you, the one I was dodging at the arena.” Such a fucking idiot. How
could he have let her take him in like this? “I thought I’d seen it all, had it
all. Women who want to fuck me because I’m Zazz. People who want to fuck any
member of the band, didn’t matter which, and I do mean ‘people’. I’ve had them
all, men, women, in any combination you care to name, and none of them fooled
me for a minute. They offered, I took. Why not, when I worked hard to get here?
What do I have to lose?” He snapped his fingers under her nose. “Then you come
along, and like that, I’m gone. I’m a fucking twat. Still, you did me a