Just Another Spark

  A Stand-Alone Short Story

  NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR

  Carly Phillips

  Copyright © Karen Drogin, CP Publishing 2022

  Kobo Edition

  Cover Photo: Wander Aguiar

  Cover Design: Maria @steamydesigns

  www.carlyphillips.com

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  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Chapter One

  Read Just One Spark for Dash and Cassidy’s full story.

  Note: This stand-alone short story takes place nine months before Just One Dare and four years after earlier Kingston stories.

  “Once again, Dash Kingston has been photographed out with Peyton Jones, the twenty-two-year-old singer and opening act for his band, the Original Kings. The Kings are currently finishing up the final leg of their US tour on the West Coast, and it looks like their lead singer is taking full advantage of being away from home.”

  Cassidy Kingston glared at the television in the break room of K-Talent Productions’ New York City offices. Someone had left the TV on, the channel showing CGC. Celebrity Gossip Central was currently focusing on Cassidy’s husband and whatever dirt they could make up about him based on no evidence and innocent interactions.

  She placed her laptop down on the table just as the well-known host of the show continued to talk. “What does Dash’s producer wife, Cassidy Kingston, think of all the intimate time the two stars are spending together, heads bent in deep conversation?”

  “She thinks you’re full of crap,” Cassidy muttered.

  “Or has Dash already broken up with his wife so he feels comfortable moving on in public?”

  Despite knowing better, she glanced at the screen in time to see Dash, so sexy with his inky-black hair long and falling over his face, as he leaned close to Peyton. The young, dark-haired rock star was beautiful, a pink stripe on one side of her hair only adding to her funky appeal. Cassidy’s stomach twisted in agony at the sight.

  “Shut this off now.” Cassidy’s sister-in-law picked up the remote and clicked off the television.

  The silence was a blessing. “I didn’t hear you come into the room,” Cassidy muttered.

  “Because you’re too busy watching trash TV.” Sasha, her dirty-blonde hair tied into a messy bun, glared at the now blank screen.

  Cassidy couldn’t argue the point made by the woman who wasn’t just Cassidy’s sister-in-law. She was also Cassidy’s former roommate, the world-famous actress who’d given Cassidy her start in Hollywood as her personal assistant, her boss since Cassidy had begun work for K-Talent, and her best friend. It was the best friend role Cassidy valued most.

  “Please don’t tell me you believe a word they’re saying.” Sasha closed the break room door, giving them privacy.

  Cassidy shook her head. “No, of course not. But hearing the rumors and seeing the photos when Dash and I can barely connect for more than five minutes at a time makes the innuendo really hard to ignore.” The time difference between the East Coast, where she was, and the West Coast, where his shows were, had made their availability to talk difficult to say the least.

  Cassidy pulled out one of the comfortable chairs around the table and settled in to talk to her friend.

  Squeezing her shoulder in commiseration, Sasha sat down beside her. “How are things when you do speak?”

  Cassidy shrugged. “Rushed. We don’t have enough time to catch up let alone bond on any emotional level. It’s like two friends saying a quick hi before one or the other is called away.” She blinked back unnecessary tears, born more of frustration than fear.

  She missed her husband. They’d had so much time together before the band went on tour, the six-month separation had been more of a shock than she’d anticipated.

  “Look, I get why the gossips are talking. I knew who and what Dash was when I married him.” After all, he’d all but ghosted her after a one-night stand, and the next time Cassidy had seen him, he’d been dealing with a potential, thankfully mistaken, paternity scandal. “But he changed.” Even if the media and tabloids tried to make the world believe otherwise.

  Sasha nodded, her blue eyes firm in her agreement. “He did. He changed for himself and for you. So hang on to that belief in him.” Reaching over, Sasha squeezed her hand. “I know better than most how damaging it can be to let yourself believe what you see or hear. Unless it’s from your husband himself, I wouldn’t put too much stock in it.”

  Cassidy nodded, aware Sasha and Xander had broken up for a long time when he believed he couldn’t trust her. As an A-list actress who’d risen to sudden fame, she’d been subjected to the same scrutiny Dash was now under while on tour. Thankfully, Sasha and Xander had had their second chance and were now happily married and working together at K-Talent. In addition to being a screenwriter, Xander was also a best-selling thriller author.

  “Good advice as always,” Cassidy said, doing her best to pull herself together and trust what she knew.

  In the years she and Dash had been together, she didn’t believe he’d ever cheated. Not in their early days, when they were living near each other in the Hamptons, and not now, when he was away on tour.

  “Anyway, I saw you staring at the television and came to do damage control, but I need to make a few calls.” Sasha stood just as the break room door creaked, indicating someone was walking in.

  “Guess who came to visit!” At the unexpected sound of her brother’s voice, Cassidy spun around.

  She squealed and ran for Axel, flinging her arms around his neck. “I missed you!” As the Original Kings’ drummer, he’d been traveling with Dash and the band. “What are you doing in New York?”

  Axel set her down. “I grabbed a free twenty-four hours and came to see Tara,” he said of his veterinarian wife.

  “Hi, Axel,” Sasha said with a smile. “Good to see you.”

  He treated her to a grin. “Always nice to see you, too.”

  Sasha tipped her head toward the door. “I was just going back to my office. You two catch up.” She waved and walked out of the room.

  “I can’t believe you’re here! Was Dash able to get away, too?” Cassidy asked, excitement filling her at the prospect, and she looked past Axel to the empty doorway.

  Her brother shook his head as he slid his leather jacket off his broad shoulders and hung it over the back of a chair. “There’s a lot of backstage drama going on and Dash has been handling it.”

  She narrowed her gaze. “What kind of drama? Because if the tabloids are to be believed, he’s busy with Peyton.” Cassidy despised the bitterness in her tone. It wasn’t like her, and the only reason she was feeling insecure was the damned media hammering home Dash’s supposed infidelity.

  Axel met her gaze and shook his head. “No, Cass. Just no,” he said, obviously talking about her husband and the young rock star. “It’s ugly drama we’re trying to keep under the radar until the tour ends. Dash will explain when you two talk, I’m sure.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “Make that if we talk. Neither one of us has had the time. He’s called away; I’m needed on set.” She sighed. “It’s hard to hear the gossip and see the photos, Ax.”

  He pulled her into a hug. “Dash would rather be here with you. Trust me, if I thought otherwise, I’d rip out his vocal cords, the band and the money be damned.”

  She grimaced at the visual, but she believed her overprotective brother and relaxed for the first time since hearing the gossip-based news.

  Axel had been her rock since their parents passed away in a car accident when she’d been five and Axel seven. They’d gone to live with their grandmother, who they’d lost to cancer when Axel had been eighteen. He’d taken over as Cassidy’s guardian when she was sixteen-year-old. As a result, she and her brother were tight. If Dash was cheating, Axel would tell her and blow up the band, just as he’d said. He would have no qualms about violating bro-code; his loyalty was always with Cassidy first.

  “Dash also has a photo shoot today he couldn’t get out of or he’d be here. He tried,” Axel assured her.

  Cassidy let out a rough breath.

  “Feel better?” he asked.

  “I do. Thank you.”

  He held out his hand and she bumped his fist with hers. “You and me first,” he reminded her.

  She nodded. “You bet.”

  He changed the subject to Tara’s business and the new doctor she’d hired because the practice was growing. Whatever was happening on tour, Axel obviously didn’t want to talk about it. Cassidy would just have to make time to discuss it with him and see that he did the same. Whatever the issue was, she would support him fully in whatever way she could.

  She turned her attention back to her brother. “Where are your constant companions?” she asked of the dogs, Walter, his and Tara’s shelter adoptee, and Dakota, their Samoyed. Axel had once borrowed Xander’s golden retriever, Bella, to win over Tara, and when he was in town, he never went anywhere without their pets.

  “I flew in last night, surprised Tara, and spent the night with her. She was called into emergency surgery and I spent the morning with the dogs. I’m here to see you before I leave for the airport again in a couple of hours. Can we grab a bite to eat?” he asked.

  “We sure can.” Cassidy smiled. “You do realize your wife is a lucky lady?” With one night free from a concert, he’d traveled across the country to see the woman he loved.

  “Nah. I’m the lucky one. Now come on. Let’s go eat. Food makes everything better.” Axel picked up his jacket again and hooked it over a finger, wrapping his free arm around Cassidy’s waist and leading her out the door.

  She spent a couple of hours with her brother, listened to the funny band stories, and ate away her worries. Axel settled her into her ride to the movie set where she was needed, and he left for the airport.

  Hours passed, and by the time evening rolled around, Cassidy’s feet hurt and she couldn’t wait to go home, eat dinner, take a hot bath, and crawl into bed. It was only once she’d settled in the back seat of the vehicle taking her home that she had time to look at her phone.

  Once again, she’d missed a call from Dash, and though the message was sweet, a glance at her watch told her he was now on stage. She sighed in frustration. He never called her after a show, knowing she’d have been sleeping for hours. Sleep she needed since she had an early day on set. She shot off an I miss you text, knowing there’d be no talking to Dash tonight, either.

  * * *

  Dash hadn’t been awake for more than a couple of hours and he was already beat. The tour was wearing on him, much more than it had when he was single and into the partying scene. He missed his family, his home, and most of all, his wife.

  On top of it all, he had a young singer who was being sexually harassed by her manager to deal with. Peyton reminded Dash of his half-sister, Aurora, when Linc had found her in Florida and brought her home to her family in New York. Young, green, and alone. Peyton needed protection, and for some reason, she trusted Dash and the guys in the band with the fact that her manager had propositioned her and was pushing her to sleep with him.

  No matter how many times Dash or the others threatened to reveal the slimy bastard’s demand for sexual favors, Peyton made them promise to wait. She didn’t want negative attention during the tour. Or what she called the opportunity of a lifetime.

  The news would overshadow the tour and possibly make her a liability in the eyes of another management company. The entire band vehemently disagreed. Anyone who didn’t want to work with Peyton because she went public about the bastard wasn’t a company she’d want to associate with anyway.

  But in the end, the timing was Peyton’s choice, not theirs. Dash had offered to hire a bodyguard, but she didn’t want to trust her safety to an unknown man. The female bodyguards at the company the Original Kings used were already on assignment.

  Peyton was shaky and insistent she didn’t want a stranger around her. Axel had already planned his trip home, Mac had a sick grandmother in the area, and it was obvious to everyone Jagger was avoiding being alone with Peyton.

  He wouldn’t say why. But having been in the man’s position after sleeping with Cassidy, Dash had a clue. And it was none of his business. But the situation left Dash as the sole person the young star trusted to have her back until their shows came to an end.

  Dash and the band no longer had a manager, having fired their manipulative handler a few years ago. But Dash had an old friend he trusted, and he’d already spoken to Alicia about potentially representing Peyton. But the young woman’s refusal to fire her manager or go public with the allegations kept Dash tied to their concert sites because Russ Holmes was always around.

  He had five minutes before he had to leave for a photo shoot, one he had no desire to do, but he took the time to try his wife. He needed to hear her voice but the call went directly to voicemail. He left her a message and met up with the bodyguard who stood outside his hotel suite to escort him to the car that was waiting.

  He sat in the back of the limousine, tapping his foot impatiently as the driver maneuvered through LA traffic. When his cell rang, startling him, he pulled it out of his pocket, grateful for the distraction.

  “Axel! How’s home?” Jealousy filled him at the thought of his drummer being in the same room as his wife, not struggling to connect long distance.

  “Everyone here is good. But have you seen the tabloids?” Axel asked.

  Dash frowned. “You know I avoid that shit like the plague.” Ever since a pregnancy scare a couple of years ago had dominated the news, he’d cleaned up his act. Part of that had included bringing Cassidy into his life to rehab his reputation on social media. Once they’d gotten together for good, he’d hired a good social media manager and let them handle the necessary band posts. He didn’t need to linger on trash.

  “Well, you’ve got a problem. You and Peyton have become the main topic of gossip on national news, and your wife isn’t happy.”

  Dash closed his eyes and groaned. “Cassidy has to know there’s nothing going on between me and a twenty-two-year-old. Hell, me and any other woman.”

  For years, he’d taken advantage of what the groupies offered—free pussy in whatever city or town the band played. He’d enjoyed it… until he hadn’t. His brothers and sister had started to settle down, and his own restlessness had kicked in.

  The night they’d met, a stalker who’d been terrorizing Sasha had gone after Cassidy by mistake. Dash had looked into her dazed green eyes, and his life had never been the same. Not that he’d realized it immediately. They’d spent one night together and he’d panicked. The sex, and their connection, had been that good.

  Genius that he was, he’d bailed before she’d woken up. Then a near baby scare with a woman he didn’t remember had almost derailed his future. Still, despite him having been an asshole, Cassidy had stepped up and helped save his reputation. And he hadn’t let her go.

  “She knows you wouldn’t cheat,” Axel agreed. “But I think the distance is wearing on her. She misses you and that makes it easy for doubts to creep in.”

  Her brother had a point and Dash’s chest grew heavy. “I’ll do something to let her know I’m thinking of her.”

  The silence on the other end didn’t bode well.

  “What’s wrong?” Dash asked.

  Axel let out a groan. “How well do you know your wife if you think an expensive piece of jewelry or flowers is going to fix this?”

  Dash hung his head. “No. It won’t.” He ran his hand through his hair, trying to come up with something that would help. “I can’t get out of these commitments. The photo shoot, the concerts. Hell, I’m sure you’re on your way to the airport now for tonight’s show.”

  “True. Okay, look. Go do what you need to and we’ll talk when I get there.”

  Dash disconnected the call and dialed their tour manager. He didn’t often make demands, but it was time he put his foot down and his wife first.

  Chapter Two

  Although it took Naomi, Dash’s PR person, to juggle events and cancel an interview, Dash planned a surprise trip home after the weekend’s concerts. Though he was on stage in body, every other part of him was home with his wife, and he was surprised he hadn’t flubbed the words or notes. It was a miracle he’d kept up the pretense of joy his fans paid to see.

  His family’s private jet waited for him after the event, but a storm in the east delayed his departure. Unable to fly, he did the ritual post-concert breakdown with the band, and he made sure the guys would keep one eye out for Peyton and another on her dirtbag manager. Eventually, the storm passed, letting the pilot take off, and Dash landed at Teterboro Airport late in the afternoon.

  His brother Xander was waiting when he stepped off the plane. The humidity of New Jersey hit him hard, but he was damned glad to see his sibling.

  Xander slapped him on the back and pulled him into a hug. “I missed you, man.”

  “Same.” Dash stepped back and grinned at his older brother. “But you don’t miss Axel borrowing Bella when the band is in town.”

  “No more than I miss you living in my house when you have a perfectly good one of your own nearby,” Xander said with a chuckle. “And Axel now has his own dogs, so Bella’s safely at home with us.”

 

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