Dirty Like Me

by Jaine Diamond

  Dirty… Sexy… Crazy!

  (It wouldn’t be Zane’s story without a little crazy in it!)

  Get your FREE copy of Dirty Like Us (Dirty #0.5).

  Or, read more about this prequel novella.

  Dirty Like Me

  Jaine Diamond

  Copyright © 2016 Jaine Diamond

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, uploaded or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotation embodied in reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  The publisher and author acknowledges the trademark status and trademark ownership of all trademarks, service marks, and word marks mentioned in this book.

  Published By DreamWarp Books

  First Edition: November 2016

  Published in print and electronic formats.

  ASIN B01KAKAU2M

  ISBN 978-0-9949843-1-9

  Cover design: DreamWarp

  Jaine Diamond Online

  www.jainediamond.com

  For my best friend, who rocks

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  A note about the Dirty series and the reading order of the series…

  This book, Dirty Like Me (Dirty #1), is the first full-length novel in the Dirty series—a rockstar romance series about the members of the rock band Dirty, and the women and men who love them.

  Each novel in the Dirty series will focus on the love story of a different couple in the larger world of the series. I consider the books in the series interconnected standalones, meaning you could pick and choose which ones you read, in any order, but you will definitely get the most out of the series, the individual books and the relationships within if you read the books consecutively.

  The only exception to the above will be Dirty Like Us (Dirty #0.5). Dirty Like Us is a prequel novella; the events in that book happen in time before the events of Dirty Like Me (Dirty #1), but it features different lead characters. I consider Dirty Like Us (Dirty #0.5) a bonus story in the scope of the series, and you do not need to read it first.

  If you are interested in reading both Dirty Like Me and Dirty Like Us, I would actually recommend starting with this book, Dirty Like Me (Dirty #1). It is probably the best entry point to the series, as it gives a broader introduction to the world of the series and the various characters.

  Whichever book you choose to read first, I hope you will continue on with the rest of the books in the Dirty series as they are released. It will be a hot, wild and sometimes crazy ride as we dig into the love lives of the characters who rock the Dirty universe. I hope you’ll stick with us until the breathtaking end.

  From beautiful Vancouver,

  Jaine

  CONTENTS

  Get Dirty Like Us Free

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Author’s Note

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Epilogue

  Playlist

  Acknowledgments

  Enjoy Dirty Like Me?

  Other Books by Jaine Diamond

  About the Author

  CHAPTER 1

  KATIE

  I didn’t mean to crash the meeting.

  I fully intended to knock before entering, like a civilized person. Max had other plans. For one thing he was a dog, and for another he knew we were dropping in on my best friend, Devi. Devi was a total babe, and Max totally dug hot babes. One glimpse of the door to her office, which was ajar, and he streaked past the front desk, big wet tail wagging, startling a couple of Devi’s co-workers.

  “On it!” I blurted, diving after him, but he’d already hip-checked the door open. By the time I caught up, my wayward black lab was shaking off his rain-wet fur in a flurry of excitement, spraying Devi and the three other people standing in her office. I made a mad grab for his collar.

  I missed.

  Hovering awkwardly on the threshold, I clutched the tin of miniature pies I’d been unpacking in the lobby and mouthed a Sorry! at my BFF.

  “Hey, Katie!” Devi smiled brightly, tussling Max’s ears with a friendly pat. “Max! Aren’t you wet.” She shot me a look that said something like, Nice to see you, but what the hell?

  “Um… hi,” I said. Devi was a talent agent; her agency repped models and actors, so I was used to running into beautiful people in her office. Though I didn’t usually crash her meetings with my dog, wet and disheveled in my paint-stained jeans. “Sorry about my dog. Come on, Max.” I gave Max the get-your-furry-butt-over-here look, a look he knew well but completely ignored, since Devi and her pretty female guest were now loving him up.

  “No problem. We were just finishing up.” Devi gestured for me to stay put, though I really just wanted to grab my delinquent dog and get the hell out of there. I felt ridiculously conspicuous in my white tank top, which I’d regretted wearing about two seconds after it started raining. As Devi wrapped things up with her guests, I took stock. Yep. Purple bra totally showing through my now-transparent tank.

  Great.

  Devi was shaking hands with the built dude in the short-sleeve button-down, and I noticed some tattoos on his muscular arm, but that was about it. My attention had already snapped to the other guy as some unconscious, primal part of me registered his hotness before the rest of me could catch up.

  Plus, he was staring at me.

  Or at least, my see-through shirt.

  Devi strode to the door to see her guests out and I stepped aside, holding my tin of pies, trying to disappear into the wall. He was coming at me. Tall and broad-shouldered, his thick, dark hair in unkempt waves that gave him a decidedly just-fucked look, like some lucky bitch had just clawed through it. Totally worked on him. He wore a fitted black T-shirt, which I swore I could see his well-defined abs through, and ripped, dark jeans molded to his long, hard thighs…

  My brain must have short-circuited, because my gaze got stuck on the package in the front of those jeans. When I looked up, his molasses-dark eyes were locked on mine. He stopped a foot in front of me and stared.

  Fair enough, since he’d just caught me checking him out like a horny perv.

  I cleared my throat, which was suddenly tight. “Pie?” I fumbled with the tin, lifting it between us, blocking his view of my bra. “They’re cherry.”

  He glanced in the tin, where two dozen hand-crafted miniature pies were neatly arranged, my signature cherry filling peeking out through the crisscrossed pastry tops. Then his gaze lifted to mine again. He had the longest, darkest eyelashes I’d ever seen on a man. High cheekbones. Luscious, kissable lips. Strong jaw shadowed with
dark stubble, like he hadn’t shaved in days. And those beautiful dark eyes, smoldering at me and making me blush, big time.

  “Maybe another time,” he said, the deep, sexy rumble of his voice stirring parts of my anatomy that hadn’t been stirred in a crazy long time. I noticed something tick against his teeth as he gave me a faint yet heart-stopping smile. A piercing?

  No. Candy.

  Cinnamon. His breath smelled like cinnamon.

  I glanced over at Devi. She and the others were standing in the doorway, staring at us.

  Max, ever the opportunist, snuffled into the hand of the hottest guy in the world as I stood there, dazed. I noticed the big, silver rings on his fingers as he stroked Max’s velvety ears, and the tattoo on his wrist, a pair of dark wings wrapped around his strong forearm.

  “Come on, Max.” I pulled Max back so he could get by. “Sorry. He, um, likes you.” Normally Max preferred the ladies, but I could hardly fault his taste.

  The hottest guy on the planet said nothing. He didn’t really get a chance before the ever-charming Devi intervened and herded all three of them out the door.

  I set my tin of mini pies on Devi’s desk, feeling kind of windblown, like I’d just stepped in out of a storm rather than a light Vancouver mist. Really, a girl should be warned before a guy that hot gave her the most thorough eye-fucking of her life.

  Did I really offer him pie?

  Cherry pie?

  Ugh. So fucking smooth.

  I tidied Max into an obedient ball on the rug beneath the desk and willed him to stay put as Devi returned, shutting the door behind herself.

  “I know,” she gushed. “So fucking hot, right?”

  Um, yeah. But I knew better than to answer that honestly. The last time I casually inquired about a hot guy I glimpsed at my best friend’s office, she took it upon herself to hook the two of us up on a blind date. And when a hot male model gets set up with someone he assumes will be some equally hot female model, but turns out to be just some regular girl, things do not go well. For the regular girl.

  Luckily, Devi didn’t even wait for my response. “Jesus, Katie.” She strode over, a takeout coffee cup in each hand. “What the hell?”

  “I know. Max just bolted for your office—”

  “Not that.” She gave me a no-contact air hug, then glanced down at my chest. “You look like a sexy drowned rat. Heard of an umbrella?”

  “My hands were full.”

  Devi scowled. “Do not tell me you rode your skateboard in the rain. I hate it when you do that.”

  I rolled my eyes a little. My glamorous best friend had never understood my love affair with my skateboard. Of course, she drove a luxury SUV her parents bought for her and lived in her own suite in their giant house, so she didn’t exactly relate to my thriftiness. In the case of my preferred mode of transportation, she just saw it as risky behavior. Unfortunately, my big sister agreed with her. “Becca already gave me the lecture when I stopped to pick up the coffees.”

  Devi set my cherry-vanilla latte on the desk with a little harrumph and eyed the mini pies with suspicion. “You’ve been baking.”

  “Just some pies.” I flopped into one of the chairs facing the desk, which still had hot guy pheromones all over it. I sucked back a deep breath, savoring the lingering scents of cinnamon, leather, and the faint, intoxicating musk of a warm, clean male.

  “Katie.”

  “What?” I glanced up; Devi was studying me accusingly.

  “Just pie?”

  “And some scones.”

  She raised a slender eyebrow.

  “And a few cookies,” I added.

  “What flavor?”

  “Chocolate chip.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “And pecan butter ripple.”

  “I knew it. What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Bullshit. You look…” Devi looked at me sideways. “Horny.”

  “I am not horny,” I lied. Who wouldn’t be after getting eye-fucked like that? My head was still dangerously deprived of blood.

  Devi sat down behind her desk. She looked gorgeous, as always, her dark hair smoothed out, flawless cappuccino skin set off with velvety red lipstick, sleeveless black top tricked out with a chunky necklace and leopard-print leggings, all of which she’d probably worn specifically for the meeting she’d just had. Fashion was just one of the many ways Devi built rapport with people.

  I, on the other hand, considered myself coordinated if I managed to pull on matching shoes.

  “Spill.” She gathered up the slew of model photos that littered the surface of her desk, stuffing them into a file folder. “I’ve got like ten minutes before my next meeting. What’s up?”

  “Nothing. We just miss you.” It was true; my best friend had been pulling a lot of overtime, which was great for her career but not so great for me.

  “I miss you guys too.” She reached beneath the desk and pet Max. “But that’s not the reason you busted in here.”

  “Again, sorry. Just wanted to talk to you. I figured this may be my only chance to do it face-to-face.”

  “Talk about…?”

  I took a breath and sighed. “I think… I may be ready.”

  Devi lit up, then caught herself and cooled her reaction. “Oh?” She was trying really hard not to jump for joy. It was kind of cute.

  “I know you’ve been telling me this for a long time. I just had to get there myself.”

  “For sure.”

  “For so long I just wasn’t ready, you know? And then maybe I was, sort of, but I was scared. And then it just got easy to keep avoiding it. But now…”

  “Now?” Devi fluttered her dark eyelashes hopefully.

  I sipped my latte. “Are you sure you have time for this?”

  “Hell, yes.”

  “Okay. I think I need to go on a date.”

  “Halle-fucking-lujah!”

  “Alright. Ugh. I’m so bad at this.” Just saying it out loud to Devi made me nervous. Especially when she got all sparkly about it.

  “What? Dating?” Devi sipped her coffee, waving a manicured hand in the air. “You always say that, but you never date. How do you get good at anything unless you practice?” She waggled her eyebrows, making me grin.

  When it came to dating, Devi was a total pro. I, on the other hand, was pretty much a born-again virgin, more or less by default.

  “You’re going to meet someone who blows your lid off, babe. You just have to put yourself out there.” Devi’s cell phone buzzed and she glanced at the screen. “Oh! I should take this.” She picked up. “Hey, Maggie!”

  I wandered over to the stack of magazines on the coffee table. These days, I was getting used to sharing Devi with her other life. Just one more hint from the universe that I needed to get a life of my own.

  I sank onto the couch and flipped through a French Vogue. Max came to lay at my feet and I toed his soft fur with my sneaker. Devi was such a natural with people. She’d forgotten more hot men than I’d ever dreamed of meeting. The concept of not putting herself out there wouldn’t even cross her mind. But for me, the whole idea of exposing myself to rejection and failure made my stomach churn.

  Still, she was right. I wasn’t about to meet guys sitting at home with my dog.

  Not like I hadn’t tried.

  “Okay? Oh. Okay…”

  I glanced up at the odd tone in Devi’s voice. Bad news? Her eyes met mine, but I couldn’t quite read the look in them.

  “Mm-hmm. Right. Okay… no, no problem. I totally understand.” I went back to my magazine while she finished up the conversation, which was brief and consisted of a lot of “Totally,” and “No problem,” and “Of course.”

  I looked up again when Devi hung up. She was staring at her phone, like it might somehow explain to her what just happened. “Well. That was interesting.”

  “A client?”

  “No. Maggie Omura. You just met her. Kind of.”

  “Oh.” Right. The pretty dar
k-haired waif with the hot guy and the even hotter guy. “Max liked her. Didn’t you, Max?” At the sound of his name, Max woofed contentedly.

  Devi leaned back in her chair, assessing me. “You also just met Jesse Mayes, which you’re playing it awfully cool about.”

  “Who?” I slurped whipped cream from the top of my coffee.

  Devi sighed. “Honestly, Katie. Are you kidding me? Jesse Mayes?”

  “What? That guy who just left?” I pretended to be enraptured with a deodorant ad in my magazine. “One of your models?”

  “I wish. Jesse Mayes is only one of the hottest rock stars in the world and as an incredibly cool young person you should really know what I’m talking about.”

  I assumed she added the “incredibly cool young person” comment since last week we got into an argument when she said my apartment looked like an old lady lived in it. And after I’d rigidly defended my music collection (on vinyl), my home phone (on a cord), and my TV (which didn’t exist), I realized she had a point, and maybe she was just scared of losing her best friend to spinsterhood at the age of twenty-four, which was probably a realistic fear.

  I gave her my best stink eye anyway. “So?” Then I went back to my magazine, because in truth I had no idea who Jesse Mayes was. Other than the hottest guy in the known universe.

  “So,” she said, “I thought you liked Dirty.”

  “Dirty what?”

  “The band. Dirty.”

  “Oh. Who doesn’t?” I looked up again. “You mean, he’s in that band?” I knew music. Kind of prided myself on it. But people? People were Devi’s domain.

  “He’s their lead guitarist. And he sings like a sexy beast.”

  That, I could believe.

  “He just put out a solo album and they’re shooting a music video in town. The woman they cast to star in it with him as his music video girlfriend bailed.” Devi tipped her pretty nose in the air. “Not from our agency, of course.”

  “Of course,” I said, but she’d lost me somewhere around sexy beast. I was now trying to recall every Dirty song I knew, and imagining how Jesse Mayes would look playing guitar, and singing under a spotlight all covered in sweat.

  “Anyway.” Devi sipped her coffee, eying me over the rim. “Long story short. I met Maggie at a party a while back. She works with Dirty as the assistant to their manager, you know, the dude with all the tattoos.”