Chapter 7

7

" Y ou know, we will need to keep this professional to a degree," said Harper between kisses as the pair crashed through her front door laughing.

"And how do you suggest we do that?" replied Mia.

Harper pulled away and gestured to the sofa as she said, "Please make yourself at home, I'm going to get us some champagne and a fountain pen, let's get your contract signed and then we can really celebrate. We can talk professional logistics tomorrow."

Harper padded into her bedroom and slipped out of her jumpsuit and underwear, throwing a lace, satin night dress over her body which hugged her curves and the hem played just below her butt when stood straight. She reapplied some lipstick and then padded back into the kitchen where she got a bottle of champagne out and two glasses.

"Need help popping the cork? Uh—I mean…"

They both laughed from different rooms.

"God Mia, keep your head out of the gutter!"

Harper turned the corner back into her living room and Mia's jaw dropped and she whispered something that sounded like a prayer in Spanish.

"I know, champagne has the same effect on me."

Mia picked up a small throw pillow and mocked throwing it at her. She eased down on the sofa next to her, and Mia instinctively pulled Harper's legs around to rest over her lap.

"You are incredibly beautiful, Harper, do we really have to keep this so professional?" Mia began gently stroking Harper's legs, the hunger eased down, now full of genuine affection. Harper leaned in and kissed her slowly before resting her forehead against hers.

"Here, take your drink. For now, let's get to know each other a little, then we will hold back while we get your contract signed, re-record all your songs and work on promoting you for tours and live shows. Once you have that steady flow of work coming in, we can see about turning the amp up a little bit again."

"But aren't we signing the contract now? Doesn't that mean we'd have to slow down now too?"

Harper thought on this a moment and then looked down at the girl before her.

"We'll sign now, take a couple of days and then we both learn the true meaning of restraint."

Mia took a slow sip of her drink, maintaining eye contact. She seemed to understand that the Harper she was getting to know was not the Huntress who they whispered about in the boardroom meetings. She just had a reputation to keep intact. Still, wasn't she allowed to have a little fun?

"Shall we do the deed?" Harper said playfully, leaning over to the coffee table and grabbing a shiny black fountain pen. The hem of her night dress lifted in a way that framed her soft thighs, and Mia felt a hunger pool in the pit of her stomach.

Back fully seated next to Mia, Harper fixed her with a smile and handed over the pen, swapping it for Mia's glass and setting it against her lower lip. She watched Mia's face intently, studying the lips whose words had enchanted her that first night they met. Prey in a web—that was how she had felt. That feeling had never left, only intensified.

"It really is an honor to be here with you," Harper said. "To see this happen. This will be a big turning point for you and your career, I just know it."

"Is that the champagne talking?" Mia joked, leaning over Harper to grab the contract. Harper took the opportunity to rest her hand on the nape of Mia's neck.

"Maybe it is," said Harper, crossing her legs as Mia straightened up.

"Wouldn't you love to know what else it has to say?"

"Maybe I would..." Mia mused, leaning over to kiss her briefly. Harper's perfume, rose, iris and oud, lingered in the air between them. Mia took a breath.

"I kinda wish Deborah was here to see this."

Harper raised an eyebrow at that, gesturing to the two of them seated on the sofa.

"Okay, so maybe not this ," Mia conceded, gently sliding one hand against Harper's thigh. "I do wish she could be here to celebrate signing the contract. She's probably told you, but she's the one who's guided me through all of this. The Indigo Lounge is my home, and that's all due to her and Esme."

Harper nodded, understanding in her eyes. Suddenly her smile turned wide and she spoke.

"I should probably thank her too, then. I wouldn't have met you unless I agreed to do her that favor, and then where would we be? You can call her tomorrow and thank her. For now..." She put the champagne glasses on the coffee table and leaned over to put her hand on Mia's waist.

"...We can do a little celebrating of our own."

Mia laughed, before biting her lip. Balancing the contract on Harper's legs, Mia gave it a quick read before signing the dotted line at the very bottom. She exhaled.

"That's it! Congratulations on your first big contract, sweetheart," Harper said while moving off of the sofa to grab the bottle of champagne from the kitchen. She still managed to catch Mia's blush at the pet name, smiling to herself as she refilled their glasses. In the light of the doorway, the gold in her hair sparkled.

"You have been incredibly generous with me, Harper, I don't know how I'll be able to thank you."

"Thank me? Why would you need to thank me? You are the talent and the wonder. You deserve this!"

Harper hoped that she wasn't the only one still thinking back to Mia burying herself in Harper in the back of that smoky jazz club. As she came back in with their newly refilled glasses, Harper settled herself, straddling Mia's lap.

"Oh! Oh, you're very eager," Mia said, taking her glass from Harper as she made herself comfortable. With a sly smile, Harper placed her hand under Mia's chin.

"You really have no idea, do you?"

Face hot, Mia shook her head, allowing herself to be taken in by Harper's golden gaze.

"I have a very specific reputation. I'm the best of the best at what I do. I have been for nearly thirty years, and I can be one cut-throated bitch."

"Don't I know it," Mia said dreamily, going to take a sip of her champagne. Harper gently moved her hand from Mia's chin to her wrist, stopping her.

"In a room full of people who would do anything, and I do mean anything, to get my attention, you had me in the palm of your hand. Let me be clear." Harper leaned in close to continue.

"I am still the one in charge. If I didn't want you there, or if I didn't want you here, I would have said so. You have a... power here. Not just here, but in your music. That version of you onstage?"

Mia nodded, enraptured.

"She's going to need to become more and more common if you turn out to be as successful as, no doubt, we both hope you will. This industry does not deal well with any level of sensitivity. You use that power and it will become your greatest weapon. I, on the other hand..." Harper paused to take a sip of champagne. Mia watched her lips as she swallowed.

"I am looking forward to a repeat performance. Cheers." At that, Mia raised her glass to Harper's. The room was so quiet that the clink felt like a pin drop. Both women were flushed, tension crackling in the air between them as they sipped their champagne in silence for a moment.

"Do you know how hypnotizing you are on stage?"

"I try to do that on purpose," admitted Mia, taking a sip.

Harper nodded, urging her to go on.

"There have been some... nasty stereotypes about women like me, and the women who raised me. Spain hasn't been very kind to gitanos , historically. We have been seen as hypersexual, untrustworthy, or prizes to lust after."

She took another sip of her drink.

"When I first began learning flamenco, I felt that power that you described. Here I was, learning an art form that once-upon-a-time women wouldn't have been considered for at all."

"Really?" Asked Harper. "Any time I've been to Spain, the flamenco dancers I've seen are almost always women."

"That's a pretty recent development, actually. Some of the more complicated or fast dance moves just weren't taught to women at all for decades. Times have changed, of course, but I try to channel that in the way I perform. I'm lucky to be where I am, and I'm grateful to be able to take that bit of my heritage with me."

Harper was listening intently, golden eyes locked onto Mia's own.

"It's not just cultural, either. When I perform my music, my songs, I'm rejecting any power that those stereotypes might have over me. It's like, look at me, I'm sexy and free and you can't do a damn thing about it . It doesn't hurt that I couldn't be a maneater if I tried, either."

Harper laughed, smiling fondly.

Before long they had both drained their glasses, and Mia was circling her thumbs on Harper's thighs, leaning in to kiss her neck. Short, ragged breaths came from Harper as she remembered the events of a few hours prior, and she started to grind in Mia's lap, her hands scratching at her undercut. Mia hummed against her neck, kissing her way up to Harper's jawline and finally meeting her open mouth. Moving her hands as they kissed, Mia began to draw her fingers over Harper's nipples, remembering their sensitivity. Harper gasped into Mia's mouth and went to pull the skirt of her night dress up?—

Bzzt bzzzt. Bzzt bzzzt.

Mia suddenly snapped up.

"Oh shit, what time is it?" Checking her phone, Mia's eyes went wide.

"I'm so sorry but I actually have to go, I agreed to video call with my family in Spain in about an hour."

Harper nodded understandingly, moving off of Mia and going to grab her own phone. As Mia grabbed her things and went to leave, Harper reappeared from her bedroom in a flowing satin robe that matched her night dress.

"I've texted my driver, he'll be able to give you a ride home. Are you going to tell them about the contract?"

"I was actually going to update them on how the recording session went today," said Mia. "This is one of the biggest moments of my career, and since they taught me everything I know I feel like it would be a disservice not to. I'm not totally sure."

"This is a big moment. You're going to need to be ready for a very busy schedule over the coming months, Mia."

"My name sounds so sexy when you say it," Mia said, crowding Harper by the door for the start of what they both hoped would be a very long goodbye. To their disappointment, as they kissed there was a beep from a car outside. Harper nodded, recognizing it.

"That's your ride, Mia." Harper looped her arms around Mia's waist and kissed her sweetly.

"I'll reach out once I have a basic idea of what your schedule will be, and we can go over it in person."

"Perfect. I'll be looking forward to it, Harper ."

Harper rolled her eyes at that, taking the opportunity to smack Mia's butt. Mia laughed and walked down the hallway, and Harper moved to close the door and turn in for the night when she heard Mia say, "Harper!"

Harper poked her head out.

"What is it?"

"Thank you!" Mia was about halfway down the hallway and waved back at her with a smile that could power a block's worth of streetlights, laughing.

Yeah , thought Harper, I'm in trouble with this one.

She shut the door and dimmed the lights in the living room, thinking that one last glass of champagne wouldn't hurt. Mia wouldn't be the only one with a full schedule in the coming weeks, and Harper didn't know when her next chance to celebrate would be.

And this was a moment worthy of celebration. Harper's honed radar for talent meant that she could smell success from several miles off, and Mia would do incredibly well, she could already tell. That meant that she would also do incredibly well, sure, but as she leaned back on to the sofa where Mia was a moment before, she realized that doing well for herself had not been her first instinct here.

Making Mia happy. That was her first instinct. Her delight in the studio, her wonder at the jazz club, the champagne at her own home —none of that was actually a necessary step when working towards signing a contract. Typically, the procedure was several board meetings followed by a no-frills signing, a brief celebration for the act and then recording demos. That's not what happened here, Harper realized, and that's not what she wanted to happen here. She had wanted to woo Mia. From that very first moment she had laid eyes on her. She had wanted to seduce her. She wanted to feel every part of her body, mind and soul.

The thought startled Harper. Despite what her friends at the label had said, this wasn't like what had happened with Felicity. Sure, there was a strong sense of lust there, and an intense connection, but it had never been anything more than that. It had just been sex. This connection with Mia, though, that was different. There was a spark of genuine affection. If Mia's career didn't get off the ground Harper knew that she would be devastated. She wanted to make sure Mia was looked after.

She leaned back on the sofa, closing her eyes for a moment. This would involve calling in a lot of favors. Tomorrow would be filled with phone calls, emails and many instances of assuring organizers that yes, Mia won't flake and yes, she is the real deal .

She was the real deal, Harper knew, a true artist who deserved her place in the spotlight. Her lyrics highlighted her life as a lesbian and her cultural background, and her stage presence was magnetic in a way many of those organizers could only dream of. That blend of unique traits and talent only came once in a lifetime.

Harper finished her glass and was about to walk to her kitchen to clean it when a ping came from her phone. Unlocking the screen, she found it was an email from the studio.

"That was quick," Harper muttered, reading through the email before seeing the files attached at the bottom. Turning the volume up on her phone, Harper tapped play on the first of the files, knowing the rest would play in due time.

She allowed Mia's presence to fill the apartment. As she went from the kitchen to her bathroom to her bedroom, she imagined Mia there with her. Her music filled every corner and crevice, filling Harper's mind with the image of her in the studio, dancing and concentrating her power.

Undressing in her room and turning the lights off, Harper turned down the volume on her phone, lowering the demo to a murmur. Slipping between the sheets, she felt comforted by Mia's presence.

"I might be in too deep," she said to the empty room. She didn't move to turn the music off, though. As her mind calmed down from the events of the day, she allowed Mia's voice to lull her to a deep, satisfying sleep.

When her alarm woke her at 5am the next morning, Harper didn't waste a moment. Dressing and walking to her kitchen, she brewed herself a cup of coffee while her laptop booted up in her office. Mentally, she made a list of nearly every contact she had locally. Photographers, club promoters, event organizers—she would have to contact a PR agency, get roadies together for shows, see if she could get Mia a slot on local television...

None of this work was new to Harper, but as she finished her first coffee and went to sit at her desk, a fire was lit within her. She wanted this to work. With steely determination, she began typing emails to people she knew, timing them to send at 8am. A lot of these organizers didn't have to be up at 5am to work this hard, so she made sure that when they sat down to work, her email would be one of the first they saw. She hadn't gotten into her current position by accident. Hard work, determination and a certain amount of thick skin had made Harper Nightingale into the Huntress in the eyes of the music industry.

Still, her determination was being fueled by something else. She thought about Mia's situation and compared it to her level of confidence on stage. She seemed comfortable, more comfortable on stage than someone who had never been signed really should be, but that confidence faltered once she was offstage again.

Whatever caused it, Harper wanted to give Mia enough experience to allow her to keep that confidence with her wherever she went. She genuinely had no idea how someone with that much talent was living in a room above a bar, working sparse shifts, when she had a gift worth sharing with the world.

It seemed like a question worth asking, she thought. She wouldn't pry, but as Mia's agent, she thought they needed to be able to trust each other. They had both been very frank about their situations and upbringings, and Harper reasoned that they were close enough to justify Mia answering one or two questions.

Still, that wasn't a problem for right now. Once 8:30am hit, Harper received several replies from people she had contacted.

Yes, we would love to have her for an interview, let us know when her schedule is free .

Of course we would be willing to sponsor an event. Your reputation precedes you.

By 10am, she was filling out an online calendar with interviews, recording and mixing sessions, meet-and-greets for later when Mia developed a fan base, and press days. She would need to check with Mia about contacting Stefan, Taylor and Ricky for recording, if they needed any extra session musicians, and if she wanted to use a specific concept for the album, but by the time the afternoon came around Harper was confident that Mia would be very happy with the schedule.

Restraint would be needed, of course. A level of professionalism would be required, especially in public or when working with industry professionals. Rumors were quick to start and even quicker to catch on, and Harper knew that despite her track record, she couldn't risk a scandal like this. Still, once Mia was happy, she could be happy.

Before she could take a break for lunch, she had one last big favor to call in. She began typing, making sure the wording was as convincing as possible. Harper knew she couldn't afford to mess this up.