Rock Star Romance Ultimate: Volume 1

by Olivia Cunning, Jayne Frost, RB Hilliard, Crystal Kaswell, Michelle Mankin, Emily Snow, Athena Wright

  But maybe he wanted to be in it for the long run. Did the month she’d be on tour with them count as a long run? It did for him. “Got it, boss,” he said.

  Once inside the restaurant, Logan was crushed to find that while Dare had been giving him advice he didn’t want or need, Toni had been seated between Max and Steve in a booth at their reserved table. It wasn’t that he wasn’t happy to see her eating with them. What he didn’t like was that she was flanked by two men who weren’t him. He was willing to undergo an experimental cloning procedure just so he could sit on either side of Toni. Reagan was sitting across from the trio chattering away about how she won their rhythm guitarist spot in a contest. Toni took notes on a napkin, her expressive eyes wide with fascination. Max was toying with a strand of Toni’s waist-length, wavy hair, but she didn’t seem to notice. Logan loved how absorbed she got by anything she was focused on. He just wished she was always focused on him.

  He slid into the booth next to Reagan, who paused in her soliloquy to give him a hug. “You look tired,” she said. She touched his forehead with her fingertips. “You’re not getting sick, are you?”

  He smiled at her concern. “No. Just didn’t sleep well.”

  “Are we in a hotel tonight?” Reagan asked.

  “Nope. Bus again tonight. Hotel tomorrow night,” Steve said.

  “How did you get here, anyway?” Logan asked Reagan.

  “Sinners picked up their breakfast here half an hour ago. They left me here to wait for you lamewads.”

  Dare slid into the booth next to Logan. He leaned forward so he could talk to Reagan. “I’m surprised my brother let you out of his sight. He knows if he lets his guard down, I’m going to steal you away from him.”

  Reagan rolled her eyes at him. “As if I would go for a square like you, Dare Mills.”

  Dare laughed and covered his chest with one hand. “Ow. Wounded.”

  “He and Ethan were still in bed when I left.” She shot a nervous glance at the journalist in their midst. “All the men on Sinners’ bus sleep until noon.”

  There was a tense moment of silence as Toni stared at Reagan, her pen practically quivering with scandal above her stack of napkin notes. Several of the wait staff arrived with their food just then. Reagan released an audible breath of relief.

  Toni stared at the servers in confusion. “But we didn’t order yet.”

  “It was called in two hours in advance,” a waitress explained as she set a plate in front of Steve.

  Today was egg white and veggie omelet day. Tomorrow was fresh fruit, oatmeal, and yogurt day. The next day was scrambled egg whites and turkey sausage with whole grain toast day. Sam fed them more like underwear models than rock stars. Your bodies are a part of your image, he’d said as he’d introduced them to their new personal trainer who seconded as part of the road crew. They wouldn’t have time for a workout today, but tomorrow Kirk was sure to kick their asses into shape. He always did.

  A plate was set in front of Toni. She stared at it as if her omelet was crawling across her plate. “I don’t think I can eat this,” she said. “It looks disgustingly healthy.”

  “It’s good for you,” Max said. “Try it.”

  “I’d rather have biscuits and gravy.”

  “Me too,” Logan said as his own disgustingly healthy omelet was set before him.

  Toni met his eyes across the table and smiled. Logan’s heart thudded in response and then galloped in his chest. Dare’s warning echoed through his thoughts, but he told it to shut the hell up. He wanted her. He would be proceeding without a modicum of caution.

  “So where are you from?” Logan asked, craving her attention.

  “A rural area outside of Seattle,” she said. “Ever heard of Enumclaw?”

  Logan shook his head. “Can’t say that I have.”

  “That’s near Mount Rainer, isn’t it?” Steve asked.

  Toni lit up with a brilliant smile, and Logan wanted to punch Steve. “Yep. I have the most spectacular view of the mountain from my bedroom window.”

  At the mention of a room featuring Toni’s bed, Logan’s jeans seemed to shrink a size in the general crotch area.

  “I stayed in a cabin there once,” Steve said.

  “Mountain climbing?” Dare asked.

  Steve shrugged. “What else?”

  “Steve is part mountain goat,” Max said. He only looked up from his self-appointed task of organizing sugar packets by color in the small container on the table when his plate was set before him by the server.

  “More like part monkey,” Logan said, which earned him a well-placed kick to the shin.

  “Do you climb?” Steve asked.

  Logan pictured Toni all bundled up like a snow bunny, standing at the foot of a mountain at Steve’s side. He didn’t like the idea of her having something in common with Steve, and he was very confused as to why he gave a shit.

  Toni laughed. “I’m not dexterous enough to climb it. I just like to look at the scenery.”

  “It is a gorgeous mountain,” Steve said. “Not too challenging of a climb, but I wouldn’t recommend it for a beginner.”

  “So what do you do for fun?” Logan asked, trying to regain her attention.

  “Me?” Toni met his eyes across the table.

  “You’re the only one here I don’t know well,” Logan said.

  She shrugged. “Not much. Studying. Reading.”

  “You study for fun?” Logan had never heard of such a thing.

  “I like to learn things.” She chuckled. “I guess that’s why I kept changing majors. So I could stay in college for as long as possible.”

  “She’s too smart for you, Lo,” Steve said. “He barely made it through high school.”

  School had never been his thing, but he admired those who succeeded at it.

  “Some people are good at school,” she said. “Some people are good at other things.”

  She ducked her head, and Logan noticed the blush spreading up her throat and face. She peeked at him from beneath her long lashes, and he could only hope that she thought he was good in bed, because he very much wanted to impress her with his skills.

  “What did you major in?” Logan asked.

  She laughed. “The more appropriate question is what didn’t I major in?”

  He reached across the table and took her hand. He needed to touch her. Needed all the other jack-offs at the table to disappear so he could have her all to himself. “So what didn’t you major in?”

  “Physical education.”

  He grinned. A subject he excelled at. Getting physical. “I have some expertise in that subject if you’d like lessons.”

  “Ugh.” Reagan groaned. “Will you stop with the lame come-ons? I’m trying to eat my disgustingly healthy breakfast.”

  Toni squeezed his hand. “If I ever decide I need more physical education, I know who to ask.”

  He grinned. “I’m more than happy to teach you all I know. What kind of things can you teach me?”

  “Nothing physical.” She laughed. “I started as a pre-law major, tried Russian literature for a while, then changed my focus to computer programming and graphic arts. At the end of my second sophomore year, I decided I liked to write, so I switched to a double major in English and journalism. I ended up with a pretty worthless liberal arts degree.”

  “Do you have a hard time making up your mind about things?” he asked.

  She shrugged and poked at one of the avocado slices on top of her omelet. “Not really. I just have so many interests.”

  “Am I one of your interests?”

  “Ugh!” Reagan cried and started hitting Logan repeatedly in the arm. “I can’t take it. Stop hitting on her at the breakfast table.”

  “I think you’re the one hitting on me,” he complained, unable to avoid her blows since he was trapped in the booth by Dare.

  “Logan,” Toni said, “you can hit on me later. In private.”

  He grinned. “Can do.”

  She
tore her gaze from his, and he released her hand so he could concentrate on his breakfast.

  “So,” she said, shoving the avocados aside and poking at her spinach and tomato omelet with her fork. “I did all the background research on how the band formed and everything, but I’d like to hear you guys tell it. I don’t want my book’s introduction to read like a Wikipedia entry. I’d love some insider information that has never been shared with the general public before.”

  “The band was started by Dare,” Steve said.

  “Why didn’t you start a band with your brother?” Toni asked Dare.

  Logan had always wondered why Trey and Dare were in different bands. They both played guitar, but Dare had always played lead and Trey played rhythm, so it would make sense for them to be in the same band.

  “Because Trey sucked,” Dare said.

  That earned him a smack in the back of the head from Reagan. As Logan was sitting between them, he got caught in the crossfire. “Hey, now. Watch it.”

  “Trey does not suck.” Reagan chuckled and rolled her eyes to the heavens. “Okay, he does—in the best possible way—but the way he plays guitar doesn’t.” She blew out a flustered breath. “What I’m trying to say is he’s amazing at both sucking and playing.”

  “Now who’s getting inappropriate at the breakfast table?” Logan said.

  “I said he ‘sucked.’ Past tense,” Dare said. “Trey didn’t figure out how to produce a unique sound until he was sixteen and then he really only sounded good with Sinclair. Trey and I never had a complementary sound, not even when my mom first taught us to play folksongs on acoustic guitars. Our sounds competed rather than complemented each other. It sounded like shit when we played together.”

  “So no chance you’ll ever play in a band with your brother?” Toni asked.

  “I wouldn’t say no chance, but fairly slim. We both love where we are now. Why would we change bands?”

  “So Steve joined the band next?” Toni asked. “He answered your ad in the LA Times for ‘a drummer who isn’t afraid to break sticks and heads.’ ”

  Dare chuckled. “He wasn’t the only one who answered that ad.”

  She sat up straighter and gazed at Dare in rapt attention. Logan had a million stories that weren’t public knowledge. If that was the best way to get her attention, he was happy to supply her with enough insider information to fill a semi-trailer full of napkins.

  “How many answered it?”

  “Just three,” Dare said. “The first guy, who is now the drummer for Waylaid, thought I meant he had to know how to fight. He was more interested in breaking human heads than drum heads.”

  Steve laughed. “Are you serious? You never told me that. Is that the only reason you picked me?”

  Dare shook his head. “I picked you because your wife was hot.”

  Steve’s smile faded. “Well, that’s the only thing she had going for her.”

  Damn it, Dare. Really? They all knew how maudlin Steve got when his thoughts turned to his ex-wife. There was no reason to bring up Bianca at breakfast.

  “I thought maybe she had some hot friends she could introduce to me,” Dare said.

  “You fuckin’ liar,” Max said, shaking his head at Dare.

  Dare turned his attention to Max, who sat at the opposite corner of the table. “Why do you say that?”

  “You told me that when Steve auditioned, every hair on your body stood on end and you knew you were in the company of greatness.”

  Dare chuckled. “How drunk was I when I said that?”

  “That’s the story I heard too,” Logan said.

  “Yeah, well maybe.” Dare shrugged. “It was fifteen years ago. I tend to forget the details.”

  Toni was scribbling furiously on her napkin, drawing little boxes with words and linking them to other boxes with arrows. Logan tried to read it upside down, but couldn’t figure out what all the boxes were about.

  “So a drummer and guitarist does not a band make,” Reagan said. “Who was next?”

  Steve kicked Logan under the table. Logan tore his gaze from Toni and found Steve grinning at him as if he were dumber than a rock. “Uh, Steve asked me if I was available to start a new band,” Logan said. “I wasn’t actually—I was playing with Last Cannibal—but the lead guitarist was a tool, so I decided to give Exodus End a try. Steve and I had both been playing the Southern Californian club scene in different bands for a couple of years, so we partied together a bit. We never played together until Exodus End, though.”

  “Last Cannibal broke up as soon as Logan left. He was the only one in the band who knew what he was doing,” Steve said.

  Logan shrugged. “That’s because the rest of them were too lazy to schedule gigs. When you’re first starting out, you have to network constantly. They wanted to skip directly to the after-parties.”

  “Logan got us most of our gigs when we first formed,” Dare said. “If he wasn’t such an awesome musician, he’d have made a great manager for some lucky band.”

  “I hated doing that shit,” Logan said. “A necessary evil to get noticed.”

  Logan glanced at Toni and found her gazing at him with adulation. Awesome. Keep talking me up, guys. He was all about getting noticed. Always had been.

  “So when did Max join?” Toni asked.

  “We’ve been through a couple lead singers,” Dare said.

  Logan tried not to feel too bitter about that since he’d been the band’s first and shortest-lived vocalist.

  “It’s hard to find the right voice sometimes,” Dare said. “You know after a few shows if they’re right for the band or not. Since they get most of the attention and glory—”

  “But have the easiest role,” Steve interrupted.

  Max leaned across Toni to shove Steve halfway out of the bench. He was the only one who’d finished his breakfast. That explained why he’d been so quiet throughout their story.

  “—you have to find someone who can sing and incite a crowd,” Dare continued. “Especially if you plan to make it as a live band. Plus he played bad-ass lead guitar.”

  “Wait,” Toni said. “I thought that until he hurt his wrist, he played rhythm guitar.”

  “If that’s what you want to call it,” Dare said.

  “When we first started we had two leads,” Max said. “The record label made us tone our sound down a little. Have you heard our first album?” he asked Toni. “The one we produced ourselves? It’s hard to find. We only pressed a few hundred copies. But we sounded quite a bit different then. Very guitar heavy.”

  “I don’t think I’ve heard any of your early work,” Toni said. “Is there any chance we can share some of it in the book?”

  She was so excited her voice squeaked. If Logan hadn’t already been crushing hard on the woman, that little sound of joy would have done it for him.

  “Maybe,” Dare said. “We’ll have to check with Sam. We have to worry about record contracts and no-compete clauses and all that legal bullshit. That’s why we never rereleased that album digitally.”

  “Oh,” she said. “Well, I hope we can at least share some clips, but if not, I’d really like to hear it just for personal enjoyment.”

  “It’s not as polished as our record label stuff. You might not like it,” Max said. “Two lead guitars is a bit overpowering.”

  “Sinners pull it off in their solos,” Reagan said. Her entire body was quivering with the excitement of possibility.

  Logan wrapped an arm around her shoulders and squeezed. “Now don’t you let that boyfriend of yours give you any ideas. We stick with what works for us, not what works for Sinners.”

  She sighed in disappointment.

  “She wants to play lead so bad she can taste it,” Max said with a soft laugh.

  “Sorry, Reagan, that’s my gig,” Dare said. “You’ll play lead in your own band someday. You’re too good not to.”

  This seemed to placate her for the time being. Logan loosened his hold. Toni released a loud breath. H
mm . . . Did she not like it when he hugged Reagan? Or was she sighing in relief for some other reason? Logan rubbed Reagan’s bare arm and watched Toni for her reaction. Her eyebrows drew together in a harsh scowl. So she didn’t like him to touch Reagan. That was a certainty. The elbow jab to the ribs told him Reagan wasn’t much appreciating his familiar fondling either.

  Logan dropped his arm and located his fork. He picked the tomatoes out of his omelet, eating them one by one, before he repeated the task on the avocado slices. He liked the components separately, but wasn’t a fan of their flavors blended with eggs and spinach.

  “How did you know Max was the right singer for the band?” Toni asked.

  “The first night Max sang onstage with us, we all got laid,” Steve said.

  “Weren’t you married at the time?” Toni asked, her doe-like eyes wide.

  “Yep,” Steve said with a curt nod. “Bianca had stopped fucking me regularly by then, so when she jumped me backstage that night, I knew Max had what it took.”

  “To get you laid?” Max frowned.

  “To get us all laid,” Steve said.

  “Max does get the ladies hot and bothered,” Dare said.

  “You all get the ladies hot and bothered,” Reagan said. “Frankly, I don’t see the appeal.”

  Knowing she was teasing, Logan grabbed her thigh just above her knee and squeezed repeatedly until she was thrashing about in the booth and laughing. “Reagan lies,” he said. “She’s totally boy crazy.”

  “I totally see the appeal,” Toni said.

  “Are you hot and bothered, Toni?” Max said near her ear.

  She stared at Logan as she said, “You have no idea.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  * * *

  Toni tried not to geek-out in the limo, but it wasn’t easy to play it cool. Especially since Logan had taken the seat next to her and she could feel his body heat from knee to shoulder. Every time he moved, his scent engulfed her and it was all she could do to keep herself from burying her nose in that tight blue T-shirt and inhaling his subtle cologne like a cocaine addict.

  She’d gotten lots of great material for her book at breakfast. She hoped she’d be able to share some of Exodus End’s earliest songs as part of the introduction. She was already thinking of ways to connect the MP3s to the stories of the band’s inception. Maybe different songs could play in the background as a reader made their way through the book. She wasn’t sure if using their recorded music was possible. Their record label probably held the rights to all the band’s songs tightly within its grip.