RUTHLESS: The Complete Rockstar Romance Series Boxed Set

by Vivian Lux

  "It's not that bad," Balzac complained.

  "I think it's cool!" Twitch enthused. "It's got this whole goth-y thing going on."

  "You like it?" A twiggy looking guy--more hair than man--had sidled soundlessly up to us, making Twitch nearly jump out of his skin. "The set designers have been working since four in the morning." He had a sibilant little hiss to his voice, like how I imagined snakes would sound if they could speak.

  "It's great," I told the apparition, extending my hand. "Rane Wilder."

  He extended his slim hand limply into mine, and for half a second I wondered if he expected me to kiss it. "Warlox. But then you knew that, of course."

  "Of course," Balzac intoned dryly. I hid my smirk behind a cough.

  A stocky, short-haired woman in an ill-fitting T-shirt stomped up to us, as noisy as Warlox was soundless. "Okay, talent's here," she barked into a headset. Then she glared at us like we had tracked dog shit into her living room. "Dee. Stage manager. Mr. Wilder, need you in wardrobe, like yesterday."

  Keir appeared at my elbow and shook his flask invitingly. "Better you than me, brother."

  I grabbed the antique silver flask. Our dad had given me one very similar for my twenty-first birthday. I kept hoping it would turn up one of these days. Of all the things I had lost over the years....

  "Mr. Wilder, in here now please," Dee barked.

  "Duty calls." I grimaced at Keir. "You're in the next one."

  "Fat fucking chance. Bye, asshole."

  I flipped him off over my shoulder as I followed Dee into the one undecorated room in the place. An alternative looking chick I thought I vaguely recognized, until I placed her as my buddy Casper's girlfriend, Harlow, was hunched over a pair of legs. As she leaned back from her work, that pair of legs turned out to be attached to the hottest chick I'd ever seen.

  My stomach gathered tightly into itself. She looks like a sunset, I thought, completely nonsensically. But maybe it did make sense. She was all fiery colors, from the coppery red of her short hair, the rosy pink in her cheeks to the constellation of orangey freckles that were scattered across the tops of her truly spectacular breasts.

  She was stretched back in the chair, her eyes lightly closed like a Buddha. I desperately wanted her to open her eyes. They had to be blue, I was sure of it. The color of the autumn sky back in upstate New York. Clear and impossibly blue. But they remained closed. Which was a good thing, probably, because then she couldn't see me staring at her. Even I could feel how creepy I was being.

  The little flutter in my stomach suddenly grew into nausea as my hungover brain began to fit the pieces together. There was only one reason that hot chick would be sitting in the makeup chair. But I just had to confirm it.

  "Who's that?" I asked Dee.

  Dee was halfway submerged into a clothing rack, yanking and cursing on something, but when I asked her again, she emerged panting. "Her? That's your co-star. You mean you don't recognize America's princess over there?"

  I swallowed thickly. "Mad Maddie?"

  "In the flesh." Dee screwed her lips up sourly and stared at Madeline.

  "She looks sane enough," I said.

  "Yeah...well." Dee shook her head, letting her silence do the work. Then she held up a pair of ridiculous leather pants. "Put these on."

  Really? I'm going to kill Keir. "Those aren't going to leave much to the imagination."

  She snorted and looked pointedly at my crotch. "I think that's the point."

  I shrugged. "I'm here to please." I grinned at her. She rolled her eyes, but I could see the blush. Okay, so she was human after all. "What's she wearing?" I asked, looking over my shoulder at Maddie.

  Dee rifled through the rack until she pulled out a beige colored slinky thing. "For the bed scene," she said. "Go lie down, they need to check the lighting."

  The blood rushing to my cock left none for my brain. "Bed scene?" I repeated, feeling myself go slack-jawed.

  "Mr. Wilder, we need to check the lighting, now please."

  I turned like a robot and stalked stiff-legged over to the huge four-poster bed that was lit up like they expected to interrogate me. I flopped down, grateful that I wasn't expected to hold myself upright anymore.

  Without meaning to, I looked back across the room at Maddie, imagining her in that little slip of nothing. A bed scene. With my father's girlfriend's daughter. Who happened to be fucking gorgeous. And fucking crazy to boot.

  I really was going to kill Keir.

  As if she could feel my gaze, her eyelids fluttered open. She said something to the makeup artist and leaned forward. And even from all the way across the room, I could see that her eyes were exactly the blue I'd hoped they'd be.

  Chapter Six

  Madeline

  When the buzz gave way to silence, I let my eyes flutter open. A tense excitement sizzled in the air. "Is this it?" I asked Harlow. "Are we getting started?"

  She wasn't looking at me. Her gaze, like those of everyone else in the room, was focused on the prop bed in the center of the next room. I felt my own head turn like a magnet finding its pole.

  The strange ripple that went through my body... It was far too close to the feeling I had the first time I took ecstasy. The liquid warmth, the need to touch.

  I had learned to fear those feelings. The loss of control was the most terrifying part.

  For some people, it was drugs that got them high. For me, it was my own brain. I knew enough about myself now to be suspicious of every urge, every desire.

  And right now, my urges and desires were in overdrive. Except instead of a little pill doing this to me, it was a person.

  A person sprawled across a bed, staring right at me. The crew was adjusting the spotlights all around him, sending shafts of light across his body so that he practically fucking glowed. I closed my eyes against it, but the afterimage of him was still burned into my retinas. Smooth, tanned, almost olive skin. Thick, dark hair sticking up in wild, unkempt tufts. Rivers of black ink splashed across the hills and valleys of his torso.

  And gray eyes the color of a winter storm over the ocean.

  Calm. Calm. You are a professional. You are here to do a job. A favor to Mom and Mike. This is a job and you are finally working again. Don't lose your grip.

  I blinked, trying to clear my head. The spotlights suddenly flicked off, leaving me momentarily blinded so that I didn't see him get up. Only heard the creak of the mattress.

  I clamped my lips tightly to keep from whimpering.

  He rolled off the bed and walked over to me. Not walked. Loped. Like a tiger or some other caged up animal, all power under its skin. I swallowed, a brief flicker of animal instinct sending a shiver down my spine. The way he looked at me made me feel cornered.

  Then he looked right past me. "Hey, 'Lo." He smiled at Harlow. "Casper on tour?"

  "What's up, Drizzle?" Harlow planted her hand on her hip and adopted an aggressively bored stance. It wasn't fooling me in the slightest. "Yeah, Jax has them off for three weeks in Europe. He brought his new girl along."

  "Jax has a new chick?"

  "Apparently she's the one he wrote Cocky about." I was quietly thrilled that I actually recognized the name of a popular song. Rehab had felt like I was living under a rock.

  Rane wrinkled his nose. "Pop's not my thing, but goddamn, do I wish I had written that song. Fucking genius-level catchy. He must really like her."

  "Likes her enough to spring for accommodations all through Europe. Jax can afford that, but can't afford to fly me out to see my long-term boyfriend for a fucking conjugal visit. I'm stuck here alone."

  "Aw, but you don't want to leave here. Then you'd have missed out on the pleasure of my company," Rane drawled.

  Harlow brushed her bangs back from her eyes, the better to let us see how dramatically she rolled them. For some reason, it made me happy to see her giving him shit. No one had any right to be that gorgeous. "Fucking guitarists. You all think you're god's gift, don't you?"

  "I don't j
ust think it, 'Lo."

  She stuck her tongue out at him. Rane chuckled and turned to me. "So, you must be Maddie," he said.

  I had been chuckling and nodding along to their conversation like an idiot, but the second his gaze fell on me, I felt like he had shone a spotlight directly into my soul. I swear he took up the entire space. The size of him, both physical and, I don't know, metaphysical. I can't explain it. I don't know if words possibly could.

  I summoned the calm, gathered myself together and looked him in the eye. Acting.

  "Madeline. Yes." My voice did not waver.

  "Madeline." He nodded slowly. I swear I could smell the scent of him. I started breathing through my mouth. "Your mom is Sylvia," he continued.

  I wanted him to go away, let me collect myself, get used to his presence. "Good looking out, there," I said sharply.

  A flicker of a smile ghosted across his lips. "My dad's girlfriend," he pressed.

  I needed to move, but when I shifted in my chair, his grin only got wider. Dammit. "Yeah, so it would appear," I growled at him. He knew exactly what he was doing to me. And how wrong it was.

  Asshole.

  "Sylvia seems very nice." He let his sleepy eyes fall to my fingers, which were wrapped tightly around the arms of the makeup chair. "You sure you're her daughter?"

  "Positive." I very deliberately unclenched my fingers and cracked my knuckles. "Mike seems like a pretty chill guy. You sure you're his son?"

  He nodded, his amusement at my discomfort making my blood boil. "Positive," he echoed, his voice slightly higher. Mocking me.

  Harlow darted between the two of us like a boxing referee. She dabbed a last bit of concealer under my eye, then stepped back and cleared her throat. "You're all set, Maddie."

  I tore my eyes away from Rane's and looked into the mirror.

  One thing I had always loved about acting was the thrill of being someone else for a while. I never knew who it was that would be looking back at me.

  But Harlow had made me...myself. Heightened...but myself none the same. My skin glowed, my eyes sparkled and my lips looked somehow fuller, but I was still undeniably...me.

  There was nothing to hide behind.

  The stage manager appeared at that exact moment. "Miss Cole, we need you in wardrobe, now please."

  "Okay," I chirped. I slid off my chair. Rane made no move to get out of my way. "Excuse me," I asked politely, icily.

  He waited. I tapped my foot. Finally, I looked up at him.

  And up.

  And up.

  When I finally found his eyes, he nodded a little. "Be my guest," he said, stepping a few inches to the side. It wasn't enough.

  I pressed my lips together. I wasn't going to ask him again. It was pretty clear he was playing games with me.

  Instead, I squeezed past him, ignoring how every patch of skin that touched him seem to ignite.

  The stage manager tapped her black-booted foot impatiently and checked her clipboard three separate times before I finally stood in front of her. Even with my back to him, I could feel Rane.

  "All right, listen up, both of you. We're shooting the bed scene first. Warlox thinks it'll get you guys used to each other." She paused for a dramatic eye roll. Ice flowed in my veins. "Miss Cole, this is your costume."

  She pulled out a beige slip of lingerie. Somehow, I heard Rane's snort even over the loud pulse of blood in my ears. The bed scene. I would be almost naked.

  "You know, I don't think our parents really thought this through," Rane deadpanned over my shoulder.

  I gasped, and suddenly I was laughing. Helpless, hysterical, gulping laughter. "No," I barked. "It doesn't seem like they did."

  "I'll help you get dressed, Maddie," Harlow volunteered. She was looking at me like I was deranged. I felt like I was deranged. "Hey, Drizz, stop being creepy and give her some privacy?"

  "Sure thing." I felt him again--I was too unhinged to risk looking at him but I sure felt him--as he moved past me and headed into the bedroom set. "See you in a minute, Maddie." He stopped, turned around. There was no avoiding those gray eyes again. "It's very nice to meet you," he said, letting his eyes fall from my face to rake down over my body.

  Pull it together. Calm. Control.

  My mantras were fucking useless. I always wanted the worst things. Craved them. Lying next to him in bed, prop-bed or not, would be the worst thing I could do. So, of course, I craved it with every cell in my body crying out to slide against his naked torso.

  "Nice to meet you, too," I whispered, swallowing hard.

  Chapter Seven

  Rane

  It made no fucking sense. But as I watched her walk barefoot across the ballroom floor, biting her plump bottom lip and refusing to meet my eyes, I felt a very strange sense of triumph.

  I was going to get to kiss this girl.

  Fuck yeah.

  The little slip of nothing. God damn. I write the lyrics for Ruthless, but the sight of her soft, freckled, nearly naked body left me completely at a loss of words. I was already reaching out for her, ready to touch her. I had a sixth sense about how that creamy skin would feel under my fingertips. I had a perverse desire to suck marks onto the tops of her freckled breasts.

  One of the lighting people chose that exact moment to plug in one of the main spots, sending out a bright flare that seemed to light her from within. She looked like a goddamned angel. Forget church, I'm having a fucking religious experience right here.

  An ominous electrical hum grew louder. Then a crack and a shouted, "Fuck!"

  There was a blinding flash. Stinging sparks rained onto my skin and I was rolling out of the way before I knew had happened, landing in a crouch on the marble floor.

  "Fire extinguisher! Now!" Dee shouted. A panicked PA ran up and blasted the flickering satin bedsheets with a spray of foam before they ignited. Crew members ran this way and that, trying to salvage the equipment, save the historical building... completely ignoring me.

  But Maddie wasn't. She stood stock still, staring at me, paler than I thought possible. Her hands fluttered once before she clutched her arms tightly to her chest. "Holy shit, are you okay?"

  I stood up from the floor and patted myself down. "Yeah, seems that way."

  "You could have been really hurt!"

  "Nah, I'm fine."

  This answer seemed to piss her off a little. She looked around in indignation and raised her voice. "What kind of shoddy workplace is this? That was a serious accident!"

  "Hey, calm down." I held up my hands. "Everything's fine."

  She glared at me. "No. It isn't." Her huffy fury was making her tits bounce, which made me grin. "Hey! Eyes up here."

  Whoops, she caught me. "What?"

  "Aren't you taking this seriously?"

  "I don't take anything seriously, Princess."

  I swear it was an accident, calling her that. She was acting like a snot and it just slipped out. Too late, I remembered the show she had grown up on, her nickname. America's Princess. Princess Parker.

  She reddened and looked like she wanted to murder me with her eyeballs. But I was saved from certain death when Warlox came floating into my field of vision. "Looks like we lost one of the main spots," he hissed.

  I turned back and looked at the mountain of foam. "And the bed, too," I observed. I looked back and saw Maddie shivering a little. Bitch or no, the chick was standing practically naked and no one was paying any attention. "Hey, yo," I bellowed to the rushing crew. "Will one of you assholes get this lady a robe?"

  Harlow flew up, swooping a white robe around her shoulders. Maddie clutched it gratefully and I tried to ignore how her flame-red hair and reddened cheeks made her look just like a church candle.

  "Thanks," she whispered to me, barely audible.

  "Yeah, sure." Our words hung there in the air like an echo before she turned away from me. I wanted to yell at her to look at me again, but I didn't know why.

  "We can't start shooting the bed scene until the prop department ge
ts the bed linens fixed and lighting wires up a new spot," Warlox fretted.

  I sighed loudly. "So, fuck it then. Let's do something else. You gotta have something else scheduled for today."

  Dee reappeared. "Some band shots and the run through the ballroom."

  I called over to Maddie. "You up for running?"

  She clutched her robe tighter. "Away, you mean?" At least she was attempting to make a joke.

  I grunted. "Don't tempt me."

  She gave a deep shuddering sigh and hopped from foot to foot. "Yeah, I'm kind of keyed up. May as well use it." She looked off in the distance and the oddest thing happened. As I watched her, it was like a wall grew up around her. That red-faced anger froze over into an icy, frigid calm. Her jaw jutted slightly and her eyes stopped shining. She lifted her chin and her spine and fucking glared at us. "I'm ready when you are."

  "Harlow has your wardrobe ready, right?" Dee prompted.

  Harlow seemed to be mesmerized by Maddie's transformation as well. She blinked. "Yeah, sure. Wanna come with me, Mads?"

  "Madeline," Maddie corrected coolly, then stalked after her like a queen, without even a glance in my direction.

  I shook my head. "Well, okay then..." I muttered to myself.

  Keir was at my elbow all of a sudden, looking half in the bag. "So, those were some intense fireworks. You okay?" he slurred.

  Balzac called from the doorway. "You good, Rane?" Twitch bounced behind him and Pepper managed to add a degree of concern to her slouch.

  "Yeah," I shrugged. "I'm fine." I forced myself to stop staring at Maddie's back like it would explain her sudden transformation into an ice queen and smirked at my brother. "You would have screamed like a girl, though."

  "Maybe." Keir tipped his flask again. "But we'll never know because I'm not the one 'starring' in this video."

  "Thank you for reminding me yet again."

  "They don't need us until after lunch," Balzac called. "I'll make sure Keir doesn't eat your sandwich."

  I nodded at him. "Make sure he eats something, though. I don't want him blackout drunk by two."

  "Oh, fuck off, I already have a dad," Keir mumbled, then clapped me on the back. "You good?"