Chapter One

Sadie Harrison walked into the living room to see her younger sister Jude on her guitar, again. She rolled her eyes and felt a twinge of jealousy. This was the one thing Jude could do well and she could not. In fact Jude had somehow made it into the finals for the Instant Star competition that was actually on T.V.! Tomorrow night the winner would be decided. Jude had already taken too much of the attention from Sadie, from their parents, to the kids at school who actually noticed her slightly different sister. She could not imagine how much worse it would be if Jude actually won the recording contract. Life would be unbearable, because Sadie always had to be the best at everything. Jude continued to sing the song she had written, and would be using, strumming her guitar and then stopping to start again, trying to perfect it. Sadie wondered if there was any way to distract Jude from her goal and a subconscious plan started to form. Sadie remembered the first time she had gotten plastered and how awful she had felt the next day.

"You know you've already nailed it." Sadie spoke causing Jude to look up sharply. She had been lost in her own world of music and had not even noticed her sister's presence. Jude frowned to herself. Sadie rarely spoke to her, in fact at school she usually chose to ignore her existence. Jude's freshman year Sadie had claimed she was a distant cousin to her snobby Barbie friends. In fact since Jude had entered this competition Sadie had been even bitchier if that was possible. "You're just going to mess up if you keep stressing like this you know?" Sadie continued.

"I can't help it."

"Come out with me tonight. The girls and I are going out and then sleeping over Diana's." Jude was shocked. She couldn't understand why Sadie was suddenly being so nice. "It'll take your mind off of the contest and you have all day tomorrow to practice." Jude found herself agreeing, even though she didn't even really like her sister's friends.

.

Tommy Quincy shrugged on his jacket and grabbed his house keys before heading out the door for the evening. He checked his purposefully messy gelled hair in the hallway mirror once more before opening the door to leave. He had just gotten back yesterday from an extended vacation in L.A. where he would still be if not for the call he had received. He was of two minds as to whether or not he was happy to be back. His old friend Georgia Bevans owned a small record company and had run a singing contest to find a new artist and to garner more publicity. She had called in a favor a few months back and asked him to produce the new 'Instant Star'. With the finale about to take place she had told him it was time to return to Toronto to start work. That was how he found himself back in Toronto on a Friday night, searching for a girl to amuse himself with before he got down to business on Monday. He had no illusions that he would find producing the winner of some television singing contest to be a pleasurable experience.

Jude and Sadie stood in front of Balthazar's and Jude looked over at her sister in shock.

"Sadie this is a bar!" Sadie gave her a 'no duh' look and started for the front door. "They're not going to let me in here?!"

"Relax, Zoë's cousin is the bartender. Where do you think we go every weekend?" Jude felt slightly uncomfortable as Sadie insisted she take off her jacket. Underneath she was wearing a very small black silk camisole, courtesy of Sadie, and her one good pair of non-holey skin tight jeans, that her good friend Kat had once insisted she buy. On her feet were high heeled leather boots that brought attention to her slender legs. Sadie had done her makeup and her hair, so a few strategic curls hung down by her cheeks, but the rest was gathered in a kind of ponytail, but fancier, with her natural curls tumbling down her back. Jude felt ridiculous, but Sadie said it looked great and made her look older.

They went inside and straight to the bar where Zoe's cousin Ray greeted Sadie by name. He placed two drinks in front of the girls and left them alone to deal with his other customers. Jude sipped at the funny green drink and was pleasantly surprised. It didn't taste alcoholic, so she drank some more liking the sweet and sour melon taste. Sadie's friends beckoned them over to their table, where a couple of men were already hitting on them.

Tommy stood next to the red head by the bar, and signaled the bartender. He ordered and looked over at her. She seemed to be contemplating her bright green drink with a preoccupied expression on her face.

"Hey..." He said, the women he had left at one of the tables completely forgotten.

"Hey..." She said looking up in surprise. She had been basically ignored all night as the guys flocked around Sadie and Sadie's friends. She didn't know why her sister had insisted she come.

"Can I get you another...?" She looked at her almost empty drink and nodded, giving him a small smile. She had lost count of how many she had already had, but oh well...He was caught for a moment in her big blue eyes. She looked young, but he figured she must be old enough if she was drinking here. "I'm Tommy..."

"Jude..." He waited for the flicker of recognition, but was relieved when none came.

"Jude huh... I..." As he started to comment on her name she stopped him

"Yes Jude like as in the Beatles..."

"Actually I was going to say I like the name..." He looked at her with amusement and she blushed. "It was really all McCartney though wasn't it?"

"Most people don't make that distinction." He nodded and gave her a sexy grin that made her breath catch.

"I'm not most people...I know a little bit about music..." He said making the understatement of the year.

They started talking about music, mainly rock and Jude tried to stump him with trivia, but he did pretty well. Tommy found himself actually listening to her speak, instead of simply picturing her with her clothes off.

"So I take it you're not a big boy band fan." She gave a laugh that he liked because it was real and not forced like with some of the women he hung out with.

"Not on your life." No wonder she hadn't recognized him. He was glad she hadn't because he had the feeling that his past would not win any points in her book.

"Do you want to get out of here?" She bit her lower lip and he found the action distracting. She finally nodded as she looked over at her sister and her group of friends. They had not noticed her even talking with Tommy. He held out his hand and she took it, the contact surprised both of them as they looked into each others eyes. Her fingers were a little rough surprising him. He knew exactly where calluses like hers came from and it intrigued him that much more. A jolt of electricity traveled through Jude's fingers from his skin. She got up a little unsteadily and said goodbye to Ray before they started out of the bar. The bartender didn't think much of it figuring she was 18 like all of his cousin's other friends. Sadie didn't even notice her baby sister leaving with a strange man.

.

Tommy had not brought a car knowing he would be drinking tonight. They sat in the taxi, thigh pressed to thigh and his hand tangled in her soft hair as he pulled her in for a kiss. It was her first kiss, not that she would ever tell him. Her mouth opened at his insistent tongue and he took advantage, tasting the sweet concoction she had been drinking. The only time Jude had ever stopped thinking like this was when she was lost in her music. This was different though, because she had never felt the sensations he was forcing out of her. She moaned into his mouth and the tax driver looked into his rear view mirror with interest.