Ruthless Rockstar

by Ava Grace

  “Hey,” he greeted brightly, his smile wide and filled with such warmth, it made my breath catch. “It’s good to see you again. Here, these are for you.”

  It was then that I noticed the flowers in his hand.

  My eyes stretched wide with surprise as I took them from him. I frowned. “Wow, these are so beautiful. Thank you.”

  His grin widened. “Yeah, you like them?”

  Like them? I loved them.

  The bouquet contained two of my all-time favorite flowers—white lilies and peach roses. They were surrounded by lush green foliage and small, peach carnations and sat in a beautiful round, squat vase. The combination was simply breathtaking. But how strange that he should buy not one, but two of my favorite flowers and in my favorite shades, too.

  It was as if he’d known…

  But he couldn’t have.

  When I glanced up at him, there was a hint of laughter in his eyes.

  He nodded to the flowers.

  “Would I get bonus points for admitting I’d wheedled your favorite flowers out of your best friend, or would that be a strike against me?”

  Ah.

  Now it made sense.

  Still, the information made my eyes widen in surprise. “You spoke to Jen?”

  “Sure did. I called by her house this afternoon to see her. I couldn’t get that fall out of my head.”

  The shudder that ran over his body looked completely involuntary.

  “I wanted to double-check that she was alright. I’d never forgive myself if something bad had happened to her.”

  “But it wasn’t your fault,” I said with a frown. “You can’t control what happens in the crowd when you perform.”

  “Actually, I’ve had enough experience to know what crowds are like. My manager told me to do the performance then go straight home, no hanging around afterwards, but I couldn’t resist staying to sign autographs and take a few selfies. I should have listened to him.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  He shrugged. “I suppose it’s because I feel mean for ignoring people when I come off stage. It doesn’t cost me anything to stop and say hello. But after yesterday, I’ll have to be more careful in future.”

  Our brief conversation had given me a lot of insight into the type of man Colton was, between stopping by to check on Jen and admitting that he hated to disappoint his fans. The caring, considerate side to his personality was unexpected and didn’t fit with the persona of wild, fast-living rock star I’d created for him in my mind’s eye. That bothered me more than I’d have been willing to admit. I’d already decided that our ‘date’ was a one-time only deal—I didn’t want to discover endearing qualities about him.

  No good could come from liking him.

  “Um, I’ll just put these over here,” I mumbled, taking the flowers over to the counter then depositing them on top.

  They looked like they belonged there.

  “So, this is your new gallery space,” Colton said, walking further into the room, and eyeing the place with interest. “It looks great.”

  I silently cursed Jen for telling him about the gallery.

  What else had she told him about me?

  “Yes, I open next weekend. I can hardly wait.”

  “I bet.”

  He stopped in front of a large oil canvas and stared at it for a long moment. “This is incredible,” he praised. “You painted this?”

  “Yes.” I nodded then went to join him, looking at the landscape of my father’s cattle ranch I’d painted the year before. “This is where I grew up.”

  “Yeah? It looks a lot like the ranch where my brother and I grew up, too. Come to think about it, this could be the ranch my brother owns now, just a few miles out of town, though I suppose the landscape and the house styles are all pretty similar around here.”

  “My father wanted me to take over his cattle rearing business when he retired,” I admitted. “I considered it for a while. But, I don’t know, ranching might be in my blood, but—”

  “You wanted this more,” he surmised.

  “Exactly.”

  “You’re an amazing artist,” he said, unable to keep the appreciation out of his voice. “I think you made the right decision. It seems to me like you were born to do this.”

  I flushed at the compliment. That was high praise coming from someone who was at the very top of their chosen profession.

  “Thank you.”

  He turned to me and smiled. “You ready to head to dinner?”

  “Yeah, let me just grab my coat.”

  Colton waited for me outside as I went from room to room, switching off the lights. Finally, I put on my jacket then set the alarm near the door before joining him out on the street.

  “Are we going in the car, or—?”

  He shook his head. “I thought we could stay in town if that’s okay with you. The food at the steakhouse used to be pretty good, though I admit I haven’t eaten there in while.”

  “It’s still good,” I assured him. “Jen and I eat there all the time.”

  Colton’s lips stretched into a grin. “Your friend is—”

  “Crazy is the word I think you’re looking for.”

  He threw his head back and laughed. It was a nice sound. “I’m glad you were the one to say it. I’m afraid I might have gotten her in trouble earlier though. I hope she doesn’t hold a grudge.”

  “How so?”

  He frowned and I had the insane urge to reach out and smooth away the lines on his forehead with my finger.

  “She hadn’t told Cody about the fall.”

  I sucked in a sharp breath. “What?”

  He nodded. “She said she didn’t want to worry him.”

  “But, what if something had happened to her in the night as a result of the fall. She should have told him.” I pulled in a calming breath to try to get my temper under control. “Oh, you just wait until I see her.”

  He winced. “If I keep getting her into trouble with the people she cares about, I’m gonna be her least favorite person.”

  “Oh, you don’t have to worry about that. She thinks the sun shines out of your— well, you know.”

  He barked out a laugh. “Yeah? It’s a shame her best friend doesn’t feel that way, then I might not have had to rely on such underhand tactics to get to her go on a date with me.”

  I shook my head but couldn’t keep the grin off my lips. “I bet you’re not used to women who don’t fawn all over you.”

  He shot me an innocent look. “I wouldn’t mind you fawning all over me.”

  “Don’t get your hopes up,” I said, as we crossed the street. “I don’t fawn.”

  “No?” He grinned wide. “I bet I could make you.”

  I let out a giggle that was about the girliest sound I’d ever made.

  The scary thing was, he probably could make me. I shook the thought from my mind. I needed to change the subject.

  “You mentioned that your brother has a ranch near here. Are you staying with him while you’re in town?”

  Colton shook his head. “No, I’ve got my own house here, though not as close to town as Tyler’s. My ranch is about twenty miles further out.”

  “Yeah?”

  I don’t know why it surprised me to hear that Colton had a property here, but it did. I’d known that he was local, of course, that was why Sheriff Baker had asked him to sing at the end of the parade. I suppose I always just assumed that when people became rich and famous, they said goodbye to their old lives and started fresh in a big city like Los Angeles or Nashville or New York.

  “I bought it about a year ago,” Colton said, drawing me out of my reflections. “But I’ve been having some work done on it.”

  “Too country for you?” I said with a grin.

  He shook his head. “Not at all. It’s just that I wanted to spend more time at home, but there aren’t any recording studios nearby, so I had to build one. Now the guys and I won’t have to spend so much time in L.A.” He shrugged.
“It’s a win win.”

  “Not as many swanky parties or fancy restaurants here as there are in L.A though,” I pointed out.

  He shrugged. “There’s only so many red-carpet events you can go to before they get old. Don’t get me wrong, I like L.A, but this is home.”

  I frowned. This new information took me further still from the man I’d believed Colton Young to be. I don’t know why, but I hadn’t expected him to be so down to earth and so…normal. I came to the realization that the image I had in my mind was more of a parody of a rock star—the kind who drank his body weight in alcohol, did drugs and trashed hotel rooms. The man standing beside me was nothing like that—at least from what I’d seen so far. I also came to the realization that I’d wanted him to be like that because if I hated him there was no chance of me ever falling for him.

  “I do own a place in Los Angeles,” Colton said. “But I’m thinking of selling it.”

  “Yeah, how come?”

  He shrugged. “Too many bad memories there.”

  That piqued my interest, but I didn’t want to pry. “I’m sorry,” I said, hoping he’d elaborate.

  Colton nodded. “Yeah, I used to spend a lot of time there with my ex.”

  “Oh, right, and you broke up?” I asked without thinking.

  When he met my gaze and winced, I wished I could take the question back.

  “Yeah, about five months before she went to prison for stalking me.”

  I closed my eyes and groaned. “Oh God, I’m sorry. I didn’t even think. I mean, I heard about that on the news, I just didn’t put two and two together.”

  “It’s okay,” he said.

  But it wasn’t. Not at all.

  How did you get over something like that? She tried to kill him.

  Colton stopped in front of me abruptly then put his hands on my shoulders. “What are you thinking?” he asked.

  I sighed. “I’m thinking that I’ve had some pretty terrible excuses for exes, but all they did was break my heart. I can’t even imagine what it would have been like to go through something like you did.”

  He frowned. “What did they do to break your heart?”

  I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth then bit down on it. I didn’t want to talk about this, but Colton had his eyebrows raised expectantly and it wasn’t as if I had anything to hide. I hadn’t done anything wrong, after all. So why was it I felt almost guilty to admit to the truth? I pulled in a deep breath then told him like it was.

  “They cheated on me.”

  “Then they’re assholes,” he said firmly.

  I couldn’t help it, my mouth tugged up into a grin. “Eloquently put.”

  He let out a deep, booming laugh. “But also true. I don’t believe in sugar coating things. Seriously though, they clearly didn’t deserve you.”

  I tucked my chin, suddenly embarrassed and mumbled a quiet, “Thanks.”

  He sighed. “How about we make a promise not to talk about our exes for the rest of the night?”

  I breathed out a sigh of relief. “That sounds good to me.”

  True to his word, Colton didn’t bring up the topic of previous partners again and the more time I spent in his company, the more comfortable I became with him. We spoke about art, music, television, places we’d traveled to or would like to.

  The conversation flowed effortlessly between us and by the time dinner was over, I’d completely forgotten the fact that I was sitting with Colton Young, lead singer of Rocks Off. At some point in the night, he’s simply become Colton. In fact, as he walked me back to my car at the end of the date, I couldn’t even remember what my objections had been to going out with him. That was going to make it so much harder to tell him I couldn’t see him again.

  “Are you staying in Texas for Christmas?” I asked in an effort to delay the inevitable.

  Colton nodded. “Yeah. The guys and I have a gig in Austin in a couple of weeks’ time. It’s our last during the holiday period then we’ve got about a month until we have to start recording again.”

  “No rest for the wicked, eh?”

  “Exactly. You know, I’d love you to come to the concert as my guest. My brother and his girlfriend will be there, and you can bring Jen, if she’s had her baby by then as is feeling up to it.”

  I opened my mouth to tell him I didn’t think that would be a very good idea, but I just couldn’t get the words out of my mouth.

  Why was this so difficult?

  “Look Colton,” I said. “I had a great time tonight…”

  “Me too,” he said before I could get the rest of my sentence out. “Are you working at the gallery tomorrow?”

  The abrupt change of subject made me lose my train of thought. “No, I’ve got some work to do at home on a photographic piece I’ve been creating, but then I thought I would take the afternoon off,” I explained. “Next week is going to be manic so I figured I’d take the time off while I can.”

  “Great,” he said. “I’ll come by your place in the afternoon to pick you up. I thought I’d show you my new recording studio. You’ll be the first to see it since it’s been completed—not even my brother has seen it yet.”

  Say no. Say no. Say…

  “Oh! I, um…”

  The smile on his face was positively radiant and the strength of it made my breath hitch.

  “Perfect,” he said before I could form the words of my refusal. “I’ll see you then.”

  I blinked, wondering what had just happened.

  Without warning, Colton leaned in and pressed his lips to mine, firm and insistent and I couldn’t hold in my gasp of surprise. He used it to his full advantage by sliding his tongue into my mouth.

  Within moments, my good sense fled.

  I let out a breathy moan and reached for him, my hands sliding around his back. The kiss got heated when Colton spun us around and pressed my back against the car door. He slid his hands over the cheeks of my ass and pulled me to him, letting me feel every hard inch of his body. The kiss was so incredible that I lost myself in it. Hell, I could barely remember my own name. But just as abruptly as it started, it ended when Colton pulled back with a groan.

  His eyes blazed as they stared into mine.

  “Jesus,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “You’d better get out of here before I lose my mind completely and we get arrested for public lewdness.”

  A nervous laugh tore from my throat.

  I couldn’t believe I’d let the kiss get so out of hand.

  In fact, I couldn’t believe I’d kissed him at all.

  I blinked back at him. “I, um, I…”

  Colton chuckled. “Glad to see I’m not the only one affected by it.” He closed the distance between us then pressed a soft, chaste kiss to my lips. “See you tomorrow, Liv.”

  Then he turned on his heel and strode off down the street, leaving me staring after him like an mute imbecile. As I fumbled in my purse for my keys, my mouth fell open and my brow creased.

  What in the heck had just happened?

  Oh, boy. I was in deep, deep trouble.

  Chapter Six

  Olivia

  I couldn’t believe I was going on another date with Colton.

  I still couldn’t figure out how it had happened. I’d been so adamant that our first date would be our only date, and now here I was about to see him again.

  I’d made a promise after I’d broke up with my ex, Jason, that I would give myself a year of being single before I even considered stepping back into the dating minefield. I needed time to for my heart to heal and to get to know myself again without all the angst of a new relationship clouding my judgement. But here I was not six months later excited to see someone who had the capacity to screw up my life far more than Jason ever had.

  What the heck was wrong with me?

  This…thing with Colton, couldn’t have come at a worse time. It had taken me a while, but I was finally in a good place in my life. My art and photography work were selling well—so well
I’d been inspired to buy a building in town to show my work. I was just a week away from opening the gallery. It was as if everything I’d ever wanted was within my grasp. And then Colton Young had come crashing into my life like a battering ram or a wrecking ball.

  I could only hope he didn’t plan on causing as much damage.

  I heaved a sigh. Why did he have to be so nice? Why couldn’t he have been a conceited, arrogant jerk? I could have handled that. In fact, it would have been a good story to tell. But this, this was something else entirely—something heady and dangerous, and completely unexpected.

  My breath caught at the knock on my front door. Was Colton as anxious to see me as I was to see him? I told myself it didn’t matter as I went to open the door. This was absolutely, undeniably the last time I would go out with him. For sure.

  I’d barely got the door opened before Colton had me in his arms and was kissing me to within an inch of my life. My surprise yielded quickly to excitement. I could do nothing but surrender to the kiss, and to the sensations that rolled through my body which managed to be unique, and yet strangely familiar all at the same time.

  “Hey, beautiful,” he breathed against my lips as he pulled back and met my gaze. “It’s good to see you again.”

  I had a brief moment of panic in which I wondered how this was moving so fast, but then Colton smiled and it was as if all was right with the world.

  “Hi,” I replied, my voice a low rasp.

  “You ready to go?”

  Now was my chance to tell him that I’d made a mistake in agreeing to see him again, but I couldn’t get the words out of my suddenly parched throat.

  I nodded instead.

  “I’ll just get my purse.”

  I left the door open as I turned and headed back into the living room, my brain seemingly full of fog. Colton poked his head around the living room door.