Managed 4
Book 4 in the Managed: A Rock Star Romance series
copyright 2017
All rights reserved
http://clarissacarlyle.com
Copyright 2017 by Clarissa Carlyle (http://clarissacarlyle.com). All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the author.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons either living or dead, as well as any events or locations is entirely coincidental.
In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, any means of reproduction, either electronic or physical, of any part of this book, without written permission is unlawful piracy and deemed a theft of the author's intellectual property. You may use the material from this book for review purposes only. Any other use requires written permission from the author or publisher.
Cover Design by http://www.StunningBookCovers.com
The Managed series is a spin-off from the popular Entertainment with Jem series. Not required to follow this story, but highly suggested you read that series first. If you missed it, you can find the links to each book in that series here.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Author Info
Chapter One
“Wait here. Let me see what’s going on.” Jasper moved slowly into his hotel room as Hailey waited in the hall.
Someone banged into the coffee table and then a low giggle followed. Jasper pictured some crazy girl with a Weeds t-shirt and a knife waiting to chop off some of his hair. For a minute he thought about calling the police and letting them handle it.
Now he imagined every fan a potential threat. He’d watched a documentary on stalkers one night and now it was all he could think of as he slowly moved into his room. It was too late now, he was going to face whoever was in there alone.
“Autumn, what the hell are you doing? Come in, Hailey. It’s not a stalker.”
“Jasper,” Autumn giggled. She wore a purple nightie that was completely see-through with black lingerie beneath it. She hadn’t left anything to the imagination.
Hailey backed out of the room. Her face was beet red, and she averted her eyes from Autumn’s ensemble. He almost wondered if he should have let her stay in the hall, but that would have been just as awkward.
The bottle of vodka in Autumn’s hand and the way she was swaying were dead giveaways to her drunkenness. It was his; she’d gone poking around and found his Grey Goose. Jasper watched her mouth open and then close, she shook her head as if the thoughts were wrestling inside. Autumn moved toward him and wrapped her arms around his neck. The vodka was strong on her breath, and she swung forward and backward, like a monkey swinging from a branch. It made him struggle to keep his balance, and he stagger stepped to keep his eyes on Hailey. He broke away from Autumn, who giggled as she bounced onto the couch.
Hailey backed out of the door
“No, please don’t leave.” He grabbed her arm stopping Hailey from walking back into the hallway. “Just let me call her a cab. I want you to stay.”
Autumn was dancing around the room, humming off key to herself. Hailey still pulled at him. It looked bad. He was begging her to stay while his practically naked girlfriend danced around behind them.
Hailey jerked her arm free. “It’s ok. I can tell you have your hands full here. I will talk to you tomorrow.”
Jasper couldn’t stop her, the door shut, and she was gone. He ran his hands down his face and stared at the door. He took a deep breath and swung around to face the tiny intruder.
“What the hell are you doing here Autumn? Please tell me you didn’t drive yourself?” He pulled the vodka bottle out of her hand.
She put up a fight but after a strong tug, she lost her grip and tumbled over onto the sofa. “I came to see you silly.” Autumn let out another playful giggle as she tried to lift herself up but failed. She rolled over onto her back and propped her head onto the armrest. “Actually I called your driver to come get me. I was going to call an Uber but then I thought looking like this,” she waved her hands up and down her body, “he might try to take a picture for the blogs.”
“I just don’t understand you sometimes. You’re too impulsive. One minute it’s like you have your head on straight and then another minute you do something like this.” He gestured in front of him.
Jasper couldn’t deny that she looked good, but her drunken antics made her unattractive to him. When someone tried too hard, he didn’t like it. She was trying too hard to be a bad girl. That wasn’t who she truly was. With Tara, she was a bad girl. She could be effortlessly wild and mean like it was part of her God given talents, but Autumn was different. This behavior made her look sloppy and out of place.
“Well I thought you might want to see me. I just bought this set, look how good I look in it.” She pushed herself up and attempted to spin around but fell back on the sofa face first. Her legs flew up in the air and it was almost comical. She flopped to her back and lost control of the bottle trying to catch it by flailing her arms in the air as it went down. It rolled under the coffee table, which she found hilarious.
He didn’t feel like laughing. She flipped over on her stomach and crawled like a crippled cat to the edge of the couch, pushing her arms together so her boobs poked out.
Jasper rolled his eyes. She was drunker than he thought. He grabbed a cup from the cabinet and filled it with water. Autumn’s giggle was really getting under his skin and the fact she took it upon herself to call his driver didn’t make the situation any better. Underneath it all, he was glad she was discreet about it. Since he now knew she was trying to spice up her image, he was actually surprised she wasn’t in the lingerie out in the middle of the street. He could picture her posing in the lights from the passing cars and yelling obscenities at anyone who would listen to her.
Jasper handed Autumn the glass of water. “Take a sip of this. I am going to get you some aspirin.”
Before grabbing the cup she tried to reach down to take off her matching purple pumps. Jasper couldn’t help but laugh as she struggled to undo the clasp. Slowly the silky fabric of her slip slid her to the floor, and she sat defeated in front of the couch, one heel half off.
Jasper returned from his bedroom with the pill bottle and a wet washcloth to find Autumn cuddled up with one of his Misfits throw pillows, halfway asleep. Jasper pushed her hair out of her face and behind her ear.
“Here you need to take this. You don’t want to have the world’s worst hangover in the morning.” He helped her to sit up and placed two pills in her hand.
Autumn could barely keep her eyes open. He found himself wondering how long she’d been there.
He laid her back down and placed the washcloth on her forehead. He went to grab the trash bin from the bathroom, in case she needed to throw up. He needed to make sure she was taken care of. He felt bad for yelling at her; it wasn’t her fault. She didn’t know she was ruining his night with Hailey. It wasn’t fair for him to be mad at her, and they were still dating.
“I’m sorry.” Autumn said softly. Her doe eyes looked up at him, looking incredibly innocent and vulnerable.
“No. I’m the one that should apologize to you.” Jasper grabbed the cover and laid it over her. He was being terrible to her being that dating her w
as a decision he’d made. She didn’t ask to be part of his sad, twisted plan to get Hailey scrubbed from his mind.
“I was just trying to surprise you and show you a good time. I thought this is what you wanted.”
“Autumn, you don’t care if I pay attention to you any other time.”
She lifted her head and looked into his eyes. “Jasper, you could have any girl in this world, I have to do something to stand out. I’m usually trying to give you the I don’t care attitude to keep you interested.” Her words slurred together.
This surprised him; she was putting on an act? He felt bad he’d been leading her on as long as he had. Maybe he could have a real relationship with her if she continued to behave. He considered she might be having a breakthrough.
He reached up and grabbed her chin to make sure she was listening to what he was about to say. “You’re a good girl. You’re beautiful and caring. You don’t need to do all of this to get any attention. You don’t need validation from any man. I don’t understand why you want to be something you are not for the attention of others. If they don’t like you for who you are, then they don’t deserve you. You certainly don’t have to be a bad girl or change your image.”
Tears were starting to form in Autumn’s eyes. Jasper wiped them before they started rolling down her cheek.
“Now get some sleep.” He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. She snuggled into the pillow and was softly snoring within seconds.
***
Even though some time had passed since the incident in Jasper’s hotel room, Hailey was still a little embarrassed about running into Autumn in her intimate wear. Maybe embarrassed wasn’t the right word. Uncomfortable from it. The woman was perfect even tripping over herself from liquor.
One thing that made her happy as she looked through her emails was a message from her new client. Kaira Simms was a big deal.
Bill had called her into the office and had her sit. She’d assumed he was going to tell her she needed to change clothes, or she’d done something that miffed him. He’d simply told her congratulations.
“You’ve landed a big fish. I always knew you could do it.”
Hailey didn’t believe for a minute that he thought so. It didn’t matter though, he’d say whatever when money was coming into the company. He hadn’t even tried to give Kaira to Matthew even though she’d seen him lurking outside the door.
It was great to be busy and proving Matthew wrong was a good feeling. She was a little nervous she’d not heard from Missy for a while; the last conversation they’d had was about Dustin.
“Guess what,” Missy had yelled when she answered her phone.
Hailey hated even trying to guess, so she didn’t. “What?”
“Dustin is finally deciding to grow up and step up. He called to actually talk about the baby, and he was civil about it.”
“That’s great, Missy.” Hailey was truly happy. When Missy was in a good place, it was a lot less work for her.
“We even talked about selling the first picture to a tabloid and buying a beach house.”
That didn’t sound responsible to her at all. She’d told her she was happy for her and maybe be cautious planning to sell pictures of her newborn, seeing as how she didn’t know how she’d feel as a mother.
Her office phone rang, bringing her back to the present and out of Missy-land. It startled her, and she spilled her water all over the papers on her desk.
“Shit, I mean hello,” she said.
“Hailey, it’s Peter, I was calling to ask if you wanted anything from Marco’s.” Peter had recently entered the firm, another male in the office. He was nice though. Bill and Matthew would never think to call and see if she wanted anything.
“Actually now that I think about it I haven’t eaten anything all day.”
“Great! They have a minimum twenty-five dollar order for delivery and what I’m getting is not enough.”
“Let me get the full shrimp Caesar salad and also a giant chocolate chip cookie.” She was trying to stay away from sweets but she couldn’t help herself when it came to Marco’s cookies. “And a Dr. Pepper,” she added feeling a little naughty.
“Ok I’m going to call it in and I’ll bring it to you when it gets here. My treat for helping me out with that dilemma I had last week.”
Jasper was actually the one that introduced her to Marco’s. One of their first brain storming meetings after the big scandal had been there. Thinking about Marco’s made Hailey realize that she had been focusing on her new clients and had been neglecting Jasper. It seemed like it had been so long ago when they’d gone to Marcos. How long had it been since they talked? She was avoiding him partly on purpose. Every quiet moment she had, she saw Autumn’s perfect scantily clad body. It haunted her like a tiny ghost showing her everything she wasn’t.
She needed to get some things on his schedule and make sure his reputation was staying intact. She sent a couple of emails and made a few phone calls. She got him an interview and performance on a morning show for the next week, a late night show, and a couple of charity event appearances.
She kind of thought it might be too much, but it was her job to keep him busy.
Peter popped in with the food. She gestured for him to sit, sensing he was trying to put it down and run away. He folded his tall, lanky form onto one of her chairs and took the food out of bags. He took each item out and opened it, checking and arranging them on the desk before going back for the next.
“I’m just going to call Jasper while you’re setting everything up.”
Peter nodded still concentrating on what he was doing.
“Hello,” Jasper answered the phone with a low husky voice.
“I’m sorry, did I wake you?” Hailey looked at the screen of her phone to see it was a quarter past one. She was used to him sleeping in, but it was not like him to sleep past noon.
“Yeah,” he said simply without any emotion.
His short response caught Hailey off guard. “Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to. Is everything ok? You’re usually up by this time,” she said after about ten seconds of silence from his end. Usually when she woke him, he would always lie and tell her he was waking up anyway.
“Yes, Hailey. Is this why you called?” He had an attitude as though he was talking to an annoying telemarketer and not his helpful PR agent.
“No, I was calling to tell you the stuff that I have lined up for you.” Hailey allowed the hurt she was feeling to creep into her words without meaning to.
“You could’ve emailed me this.”
Hailey’s face got hot. She hoped Peter couldn’t tell. She didn’t understand what had changed. Sure, she’d not been as hands on with his stuff as she had been, but she thought he’d be happy she had lined up some great spots for him. She straightened up in her chair and cleared her throat, “Well don’t forget you need to be at the venue by seven thirty for sound check. Don’t be late.”
Hailey hung up the phone not wanting Jasper to have the last word.
“So tell me about this new client.” Peter handed her a plastic fork. He had gotten a sandwich that appeared to be about five layers. How he was going to fit his mouth around it? But somehow he did. He took a large bite and didn’t even get mustard on his lips.
She’d been starving, but Jasper’s attitude had left a bad taste in her mouth.
“She’s on a show where they solve mysteries with their minds.” It was the simplest way to explain the show, which was actually complicated according to the brief she’d read from Bill.
“Like the show where the guy pretends to be psychic?”
“No, this is more like they have powers and can read minds or move things with their minds. I’m not sure which. I should probably watch the show. She’s a big deal though. It’s exciting to see what a following she’s already getting.” Hailey smiled, and speared a large shrimp with her fork, she was proud of this client.
“I used to watch Kaira Simms on Salem’s Little Wizard. It was one
of those shows that balanced on the line between kid show and teenager show. She was pretty then, but now she’s hot. I’m sorry,” Peter said. “That was really unprofessional of me.” His face was bright red, and he looked down at his sandwich. It threatened to topple over from its height but he managed to continue eating it while keeping it together.
“No, it’s okay. She is pretty. I’ll introduce you next time she’s in here.” Hailey smiled and tried to push Jasper’s cold shoulder out of her mind. Maybe he was just tired. She’d see him at the event and everything would be back to normal, or so she hoped.
Chapter Two
Kaira Simms had asked Hailey to meet with her and a representative from Guru Sugar. It was a new place in town she’d never been. They sold candy and they wanted her to be on the poster. She wasn’t sure if it was a good move for her because she didn’t want kids to get fat. Her heart was in the right spot. The representative insisted when she heard his proposal she’d want to jump on it so Hailey was sitting in a booth with her waiting on the rep to show up and wow them.
“If you don’t want to do the candy ad Kaira, you don’t have to,” Hailey said as she flipped through Instagram liking things for Jasper.
“I know but he said they like, give money to little kids or something.” Kaira said and she took pictures of herself with the straw coyly to one side of her mouth as she sipped tea. “Ugh this hair, these extensions are so heavy. If they give money to kid’s charities, I’ll feel bad for not doing it.”
Hailey once again thought about how she was well intentioned. Kaira made quick work of her waist length blonde locks and fought them into an elaborate braid.
“This guy is late,” Hailey said. She looked at the door of the restaurant and then at her phone. She’d been waiting for the event planner for the event where Jasper was supposed to be at to message and say Jasper hadn’t shown up yet, or something. She knew he was serious about his career, but felt like he might do it to spite her.
Managed 4 (Managed #4) Page 1
