CLASS ACT (A BRITISH ROCKSTAR BAD BOY ROMANCE)

by Julia Gardener

  “Is it?” Charlotte asked, her eyes seemingly peeling back layers of my emotional armor. “It’s been so weird between us for the past few weeks. Heath, did I do something to upset you?”

  My eyes narrowed. “Well, have you?”

  “I’ve been keeping secrets from you,” she whispered, her beautiful eyes glistening in the bright lights of the dressing room. “About how I’m talking to management about your grades. They say it’s for your own good… but I can’t help feeling that they’re doing it for themselves.”

  The cat was out of the bag. “I’m glad that’s now in the open. What do you want me to do about it?”

  She looked on the verge of tears. “I just don’t know. Ever since I met you, I’ve been torn between my duty and my desire.”

  “Then pick one,” I said bitterly. “I’ve made my choice.”

  If I was angry at anyone, then it had to be at myself. Charlotte only followed orders from people far above her pay grade. She didn’t deserve to be shut down and given the silent treatment. She didn’t deserve to be the recipient of my spite.

  Charlotte sucked in her lower lip before speaking. “I just want us to go back to the way we used to be.”

  “Was there anything real between us?” I asked. “I figured it was just as much of a good fuck to you as it was to me.”

  “It was more than that,” she stated, confidence in her tone. “Don’t tell me there was nothing real between us!”

  I glanced to side towards the mirror. “Maybe, it’s better this way. It’ll hurt less once this is all over.”

  “If it happens, it happens,” Charlotte whispered. “It’s the same thing with studying. You have to endure failure before you can succeed. We have to try to make this work. No matter what happens, I’ll always be there for you, Heath.”

  I let out a cynical laugh. “Why stay with a guy like me? You’re intelligent, have a wonderful smile, and a thousand other things. Why degrade yourself by being with a hopeless bastard like me?”

  I was an unlikeable prick that should’ve died along with his drunken parents. The only reason anyone gave a damn about me was my ability to make money. I was a living, breathing bank machine for Sterling Records. When my music and merchandising sales dried up, I’d probably be kicked to the curb.

  It felt like I was on an endless treadmill. If I wasn’t making music, then I was touring all across the globe. This job was simply draining. I’d sooner die of exhaustion before the treadmill stropped.

  Charlotte had been a breath of fresh air and I had now fucked up one of the few good things in my life. No matter of a smartass I acted in class, she’d still help me study the material. No matter how pathetic I acted, she was always there to patch me up. She asked nothing in return except for me to give a damn about studying.

  “I want to be with you, Heath.”

  I looked up at Charlotte. Tears twinkled in her eyes. “Your funeral.”

  She laughed. “Heath, you’re not a hopeless bastard. You’re not some unwanted orphan. You’re not some trademarked product of Sterling Records. You’re whoever you want to be.”

  I folded my arms. “Is that from some self-help book?”

  “No, it’s from my heart.”

  The woman could make me feel like a sorry bastard with just one sentence. “I’m not worth the effort.”

  Charlotte touched my cheek. “I’ll be the judge of that.”

  I placed my hand over hers. “Fuck it. Let’s give this a shot.”

  She smiled. “Let’s do it.”

  “Before this, I thought learning trigonometry would be the hardest thing I’d ever do.”

  “Trust me, trigonometry can be pretty hard.”

  I gave Charlotte my signature boyish grin. “Not as hard as how you’re making my prick.”

  She rolled her eyes. “God, you’re a real handful… and don’t make a joke about how your cock is a bigger handful!”

  I sealed our pact with a kiss. It was slow and sensual. Just the way she liked it.

  After locking the door, Charlotte straddled me as I sat on the chair. I quickly undressed her as she did the same for me. She had learned how to get my briefs off in record time. Likewise, I could peel off her dress like the wrapper off of a Cadbury chocolate bar.

  Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. “Heath, are in there? Party starts in ten minutes!”

  I cursed under my breath as my lover got off of me. “Son of a bitch…”

  Charlotte laughed and gathered her clothing. “That’s what we get for getting frisky at a time like this. Well, I suppose we should head to the party.”

  I gave her a mischievous look. “Want to play hokey?”

  Charlotte raised an eyebrow. “What are you up to, Mr. Lawrence?”

  “Let’s ditch the party,” I said, taking her hand. “I know a place where no one will ever bother us.”

  Heath lifted up my nude body and pressed it against the hard wall of the unfinished room. I locked my heels behind his back for additional stability. Nonetheless, the man was more than capable of fucking me while standing up.

  I slid up and down his erection. My back rasped against the flat texture of the wall. His hips gyrated as he pumped into me.

  Our lips became locked in a sizzling kiss. A delicious friction began between our bodies. Soon, we found our rhythm.

  It went beyond the mere physical. We were sharing our deepest secrets through this erotic coupling. We found both solace and release in this act.

  I whispered his name as though it were a powerful incantation. His presence warded away all of my doubts and insecurities. We could make this romance work.

  The amazing sex was just a bonus.

  His hands groped my breasts as his cock basked in the warmth of my sex. His fingers thumbed over my erect nipples. I let out a deep moan when he pinched them.

  Soon, Heath let me stand on my legs as he knelt before my wet sex. When he entered me with his fingers, I felt as though I had been hit by a bolt of lightning. It didn’t take long for me to come quickly and loudly.

  Thank God we were fucking in an empty building.

  I never wanted this to end. I didn’t want to ever leave his side. I could spend an eternity in bed beside him and go from one climax to the next.

  Yet, I knew we were living on borrowed time. Sooner or later, something would go wrong. The media could find out. Or Sterling Records would let me go for fucking their cash cow.

  We’d deal with the consequences later.

  “God, that was amazing Heath,” I said, catching my breath and gathering my clothing. I looked at the empty room and the vacant hallways of the abandoned building. “I wish it was somewhere more romantic. At least we didn’t have any interruptions.”

  Heath ran his finger across a slab of drywall. “Give it a year and this place will look great.”

  I looked out window and at the streets of Santa Monica. It was a city that was less than an hour’s ride from Los Angeles. “What is this place, anyway?”

  “It’s going to be an orphanage,” he revealed to my shock. “It’ll be the biggest one yet. Megan just needs to get the paperwork stamped and sign before we can get this place operational.”

  “Holy crap!” I exclaimed. “We fucked in an orphanage!”

  Heath raised his hands up in defense. “It’s not an orphanage just yet! It used to be a defunct carpet factory before we bought it.”

  “Even better,” I giggled. “We had amazing sex in an abandoned carpet factory.”

  “I’m keeping it a secret until we finish all the inspections and get our licenses checked out,” he continued. “Only Megan and Jared know about its existence. There’s also Mr. Han as well since he handles the security systems for this place while it’s under construction. I suppose now you know as well.”

  “Must be a headache getting all these permits.”

  “Tell me about it,” he chuckled. “Next thing you know is that they’ll have an exorcist check out the boiler room downstairs. That p
lace sounds as though a banshee lives there!”

  I looked at the high ceiling. “This place is huge.”

  “We can house nearly two thousand children and staff,” Heath said with pride. “There will be a swimming pool, an association football field, and an amphitheater for performances. It’s everything I wanted as an orphan but couldn’t have. They’ll never have to worry about food or warmth if I can help it.”

  “What you’re doing here it amazing,” I whispered, stroking his chin. “You’ll change so many lives. Children with no families will now have a future.”

  He shook his head in modesty. “I’m just the money. Megan runs the whole damn the show.”

  I thought about my phone call with Megan about the missing funds. However, I held my tongue since I knew so little. There wasn’t a need to ruin this perfect moment.

  Suddenly, a phone buzzed. I reached out for mine until Heath pulled out his phone. “No, it’s mine.”

  I smirked at him. “Is the band worried about their AWOL front man?”

  However, a look of confusion appeared on his face. “That’s strange…”

  “What is it, Heath?”

  “Jared wants me back for a private meeting with the CEO of Sterling Records,” he answered, reading the text message. “The big man himself flew across the pond to meet with me in person.”

  “Simon McDowell?” I gasped. “Are you in trouble?”

  “No, the opposite really,” he said with a brilliant smile. The rock star put on his coat. “He wants to congratulate me on a job well done. This tour has been our most successful to date. Jared told me to drop whatever I was doing and come alone to a hotel suite up north in Pasadena.”

  I smiled. “It seems like you’re back in the record’s good graces.”

  He gave me a half smile. “And it looks like I’ll have to ditch you here since Pasadena is out of the way. I really wanted to give you a proper tour of this place.”

  “Thank you for bringing me here,” I said, planting a kiss on his cheek. “And I don’t mean just for the great sex we just had.”

  “I should be thanking you,” he said. “I don’t know how I would be able to stay whole for the past month without you.”

  If the record label was happy with Heath, then my time with him would be coming to an end. They might not see a need to have him study and take tests. Or for him to have a private tutor. “I just did my job. I’ll catch you later after your meeting. I hope it goes well.”

  “Santa Monica is a great city,” he said, heading out to the entrance. “I’ll see if I can take you to the beach if we have spare time. The Dungeness crab tastes great this time of year.”

  “I’ll hold you to that,” I replied, walking with him to the exit. “Know any good places to-?”

  I was interrupted by a buzzing sound. Heath pulled out his phone again and sighed. “Sorry, Jared is really getting on my ass about this meeting. There’s no way I can be late with Simon around. I’ll meet up with you later.”

  “I understand,” I said, kissing him goodbye. “Is there a way back to the hotel in Los Angeles? Does the bus we come in head back anytime soon?”

  “There’s an hourly shuttle service,” he answered, closing the doors of the building and clearing the security alarm. “If all else fails, hail a taxi. The company will reimburse you for it.”

  I nodded as we split up at the entrance. “Good luck.”

  He flashed one last smile before leaving me. “I don’t need luck. I have you.”

  I watched as he disappeared in the Santa Monica crowd. In the middle of that mass, he was just another human being. It was strange to think of Heath Lawrence as an ordinary man.

  I started to walk away from the entrance of the soon to be orphanage when I felt cold metal pressed against the back of my neck.

  My heart raced as a man whispered menacingly into my ear. “One wrong move and you’re a dead woman.”

  What a wild fucking goose chase!

  If this was a prank then, I had to admit was a good one. It must have been one of my bandmates pulling a fast one on me. Jared wouldn’t have pulled this crap on me. Nonetheless, I hated traveling all over the city in a taxi.

  Worst of all, it had forced me to leave Charlotte behind. I treasured every second I spent with her. A kind, thoughtful woman like her didn’t need to spend her days teaching a prick me but she did it anyway. She didn’t judge or belittle me. Instead, she won me over with patience and kindness.

  I had no idea what the hell was going on. The hotel in Pasadena didn’t expect a big shot CEO. Hell, they were about to close shop for maintenance.

  I was ready to punch the first person I saw as I entered our crew’s hotel in Los Angeles. I was tired, confused, and angry. Unfortunately, my bandmates were the first people I saw in the lobby.

  “Heath, we’ve been looking for you for hours!” Tyler said, his eyes full of concern. “Where the fuck have you been?”

  “Racing to some hotel in Pasadena to meet Santa Claus!” I barked, barely keeping my anger in check. “Okay, who did it so I can pummel them half to death?”

  Dave shot me a look of confusion. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Who told me the CEO of Sterling Records was coming here to see me?” I demanded. “I know Jared wouldn’t do this so it had to be one of you!”

  Ryan cowered at my outburst. “Heath, Simon McDowell in on vacation back in Scotland. What’s this about?”

  “Then who sent me that text?” I asked in frustration. “I was with- I mean I was alone in Santa Monica-”

  “Cut the crap, Heath,” Tyler laughed, tapping me on the shoulder. “We know you’ve fallen madly in love with Charlotte.”

  My anger turned into discomfort. “It’s not like that at all! I’m just acting friendly with her.”

  “I’m sure you’re being more than just friendly with her,” Dave said, rolling his eyes. “You’ve changed ever since she arrived.”

  I folded my arms. “I haven’t changed one bit!”

  “Well, you stopped treating us like complete shit once Charlotte started tutoring you,” Tyler stated. “You haven’t fought with us. When you came in just now, I thought we were overdue for one!”

  Ryan chipped in. “You’re also drinking way less.”

  “You arrive to practice and sound checks on time,” Dave added. “You actually act like a decent human being-”

  “I don’t need the blow by blow!” I growled, more out of embarrassment than anything else. “Okay, it’s fucking true. I’ve fallen for Charlotte like some sad sap. Happy?”

  “Happy?” Tyler chucked. “We’re thrilled!”

  Dave joined in on the laughter. “We’ve been kicking ass for the past few weeks.”

  “These last few performances were legendary,” Ryan said. “Whatever’s going on between you and Charlotte is working for Double Damage. There haven’t been any more fights or drama during the tour. Keep it up!”

  I had to admit we had really pulled together as a team. We were delivering some of the best performances in Double Damage’s decade long history. Our differences had melted away and we were now a well-oiled machine.