“What are you doing here?” I finally asked, ignoring the dry mouth that he induced every time that he walked into a room with me.
Jared shrugged his broad shoulders and dropped into a seat across the desk from me without waiting to be invited to do so. “Technical difficulties at the studio. We practiced for a couple of hours and then decided to call it quits for the day.”
“Okay, I’m sorry to hear that. But it still doesn’t answer my question. Why are you here? As in, here in my office?”
It was imperative to me that I never showed him what he did to me, or let him know that something as simple as the way he was twisting one of his big silver rings around his finger turned me all the way on. He couldn’t know the effect his scent, musky and masculine, had on me.
Jared’s eyes found mine, his delicious looking lips curling up into a lazy, sexy smile as he shrugged again. “Do I need a reason to come talk to my favorite PR agent?”
I rolled my eyes and tried my very best not to think about what it might feel like to kiss the corners of that smile or to be held by those arms. My fingers itched to trace the lines of the dark tattoos on his arms and those on his chest, hidden by his shirt at the moment. I drummed them on my desk to keep from reaching out and letting myself feel whether the shaded cross on his forearm really had ridges or whether the tattoo artist was just so good at his job that he’d managed to make it look that way.
Instead, I replied to his question with a dry comment. “I’m your only PR agent, which means that I’m not only your favorite, but also your least favorite.”
Jared’s smile widened, and his eyes filled with laughter, along with what I was sure was a good couple of snarky thoughts about my statement. “Nah, even when you’re my least favorite, you’re still my most favorite, too.”
“That doesn’t even make any sense,” I told him, shaking my head, leaning back in my chair, and giving him a pointed look. “Why don’t you tell me what you’re really doing here? Is it about the marketing campaign? Those shots of you guys in the studio the other day look great. “
I’d arranged for a photographer to go down to the studio while they were practicing to take some shots of the band to be included in our online campaign, and I’d be lying if I said they were great. They were better than that. They were fantastic.
There was one of Jared that I seriously considered keeping for myself. In it, his eyes were closed, his mouth open as he no doubt belted out his lyrics. His fingers were twined on the microphone, gripping it like he was about to come, and the almost tortured look on his face matched.
He’d lost his shirt by that point, and it was stuck into his back pocket, revealing miles of lean, muscled abdomen. In the print the photographer had given me, he’d managed to capture the fine layer of sweat that covered Jared’s skin, and he’d altered the lighting in a way that made the shot seem private.
It made me want to keep it that way, which was the very reason why it was going to be the first shot released for the new campaign. If it made me feel that way, knowing what an ass he really was, the fans were going to go wild for it. For him. But I was trying not to think about that.
The Jared sitting across from my desk was every bit as dangerously sexy as the one in that photo, shaking his head in answer to my question. “No, I didn’t come about the campaign. I saw some of the pictures, though. That photographer was halfway decent.”
“Halfway decent?” I couldn’t believe him.
Jared’s lips pressed together, and I could see that he was battling a smile, probably only keeping it back because agreeing with me on anything so easily was against his religion or something.
“I think the shots’ll be good for your precious hype,” he said. “Let’s just leave it at that.”
My eyes narrowed on his. I was honestly confused about the way that he was acting, and confused about why he was here if it wasn’t about the campaign or the pictures. “My precious hype is doing great things for you. I hate to say I told you so, but I told you dropping that single with no build-up a couple of weeks ago was a mistake. The hype is growing by the day.”
He waved off what I was saying, looking completely disinterested. “You don’t hate saying that you told me so, but whatever. I don’t care. I actually find all of this campaigning and shit boring as hell.”
Sighing, I reached my hand up to massage the back of my neck. A couple of weeks ago, it looked like he wanted to launch himself at me, and not in a good way. Now, he was completely nonchalant about it and finding it boring.
“Well, what is it then, Jared? You might find it boring, but it is still my job, and I’d like to get back to it if the only reason you’re here is to waste my time and chat about nothing.”
“I’m not here to chat about nothing, actually,” he said, the intensity from when he’d walked into my office returning to his eyes. “I’m here to find out when I can take you out.”
My hand stilled on my neck, and my eyes popped wide open. Before I could stop it—or even knew what was happening—I was laughing right in his face. “Are you kidding me? You’re not the first rock star to hit on me, and you’re probably not going to be the last. Just because you’re bored and I’m the only woman who’s a constant in your life doesn’t mean that you have to try get with me.”
Jared’s head tilted, and he ran his forefinger and thumb over his goatee as he shifted forward slightly in his seat. “That’s not what this is, Alicia. I didn’t come here because I was bored or because you’re the only woman who happens to be a constant in my life. That’s also not why I’m trying to get with you. You’re hot.”
I’d seen pictures of the women he was seen out with, and inevitably probably got with. There was no way he found me hot. “Stop messing with me, Jared. How many times do I have to tell you that I’m busy and that I have to get back to work?”
He muttered something under his breath that I couldn’t hear, then something about him changed. I hadn’t seen him move, but it was like his shoulders were wider, his back straighter, and the blatant sexuality he possessed started rolling from him in waves that hit me with the force of a tsunami. That, combined with the way that he was looking at me, eyes dark and wanting, almost hungry, suddenly made each and every single one of my nerve endings come to life.
As if there were actual waves rolling over me, my skin sparked to life from the tips of my fingers and toes to filter through my limbs and down my spine, before settling right between my legs. It was incredible that he could dominate my body without even touching me.
My thighs pressed together in an attempt to provide some relief for my throbbing clit, but it only made it worse. Although I was trying my best to hide my arousal, I was sure that Jared knew.
He was watching me carefully, continuing before I could put a stop to this madness.
“You don’t believe me that I think you’re hot and that I want you? Just look at me. I know you can see I’m not lying right now or messing with you. How could I not want you? Your body has been tempting me from day one, and whether you realize it or not, sometimes when you look at me, I can see you begging me to fuck you. I’m dying to get my hands on that ass, and my lips on those perfectly round breasts. I need to see what those beautiful eyes look like when you come all over my cock.”
Holy. Shit. Holyshitholyshitholyshit. If he kept talking like that, while looking at me like he was already deep inside of me, he was going to see what I looked like while coming all over my chair.
But there was no way I was letting that happen. I tore my eyes away from his and looked out over the ocean for a second to compose myself. “Flattery will get you nowhere with me, Jared. The answer is still no.”
I was surprised to find that my voice was only slightly breathy. I doubted Jared would pick up on it. I actually managed to sound almost completely normal, and I gave myself a mental high-five for the successful effort.
There was a slight twitch in Jared’s jaw, but that was the only sign that he’d even heard what I s
aid, or that he’d been at all affected by whatever the hell had just passed between us. “How about a bet?”
This time, I couldn’t stop myself from gaping at him. “What?”
“You heard me. I said, let’s make a bet. If I win, you have to go out with me. If you win, I’ll never bother you with anything like this again. “
“What would we even bet on?” I asked him, beyond confused about where all of this was coming from. “I have nothing you want, and you have nothing I want.”
It wasn’t entirely true, but he definitely didn’t need to know that. Jared waggled his eyebrows at me and sat back with a satisfied smirk. “Au contraire, favorite PR agent of mine. There is something I can give you that I know you want. What about a month without any incidents?”
That was something that I would be interested in. Damn. He had my number, but surprisingly, it had been a relatively quiet month, and the guys hadn’t gotten into anything newsworthy. I hadn’t had to clean up one mess so far. “That might have gotten me to agree, but you haven’t gotten yourself into anything lately.”
“You mean, I haven’t gotten myself into anything that you know about,” he said, looking mildly amused again. “I’ve gotten into a lot. It just hasn’t gotten out.”
Irritation that I’d been kept out of the loop simmered in me, mercifully wiping away the last lingering traces of arousal. “Why haven’t you been keeping me up to date?”
He shrugged. “Didn’t see a reason to give you a headache about stuff that I could deal with by myself. Most of the incidents have been related to some of my more questionable extracurricular activities. Trust me, no one has had any complaints about those. Well, no complaints that my PR agent would’ve been of any use to the complainant whatsoever.”
“The size of your ego astonishes me.” Crap. I’d walked straight into whatever thought was putting that arrogant, cocky smirk on his face.
“Then you should see the size of my—”
“You’re impossible! And getting predictable, just so you know. You know what, I agree to the terms of your stupid bet, because there’s no way that a guy as arrogant as you is going to be able to go without incident for much longer, and this way, as soon as there’s any incident of any nature whatsoever, you’ll be out of my hair.”
Jared rose from his chair and walked slowly to the door, providing me with more than enough opportunity to check out his firm ass—something I was sure he was doing on purpose—and looked back at me over his shoulder once he reached the door. “We’ll see about that. I love winning.”
CHAPTER 13
JARED
“Why am I even here, man?” Caleb asked me, his eyes darting around the private room of Club Navarro. He looked somewhat confused as he raised his shot of Patron. I mirrored his actions, clinked my glass to his, and slammed it back, both of our glasses double-tapping on the table when we were done.
“Why not? I invited you because I wanted to spend some time with you. What’s wrong with that?” Club Navarro was one of the hottest clubs in town at the moment, and scoring a private room was a feat that I was proud of. Caleb didn’t seem too impressed.
The room was decked out with its own bar, a small stage in the center, a couple of booths around it, and the same music that was playing in the club pounded through sunken speakers. There was the option to choose your own music, but Caleb and I had agreed on keeping it this way for now.
Lights with red shades around them were affixed to the wall, causing everything, including Caleb’s hair, to take on a faintly reddish glow. Combined with the scowl on his face, it made him look slightly devilish. Funny as fuck. Not that he’d think so.
Taking a long pull of his Beringer’s, a crease appeared between his dark eyebrows as he repeated my question back to me. “Why not? Because we haven’t hung out, just the two of us, in forever. So why now?”
My feet tapped to the rhythm of the music as I spun my tumbler of Scotch on the table between us. “Things have been strained for a while now. I know that. I just want to be on good terms with my brother. That’s all. I need to know that you’re okay, little bro. I haven’t liked the way that things have been going down between us lately, and I thought partying together would help us work shit out.”
It was just Caleb and me tonight. I hadn’t invited the other guys. The booze was flowing, and while one of my missions was making sure that Caleb and I were okay, the other was getting him laid. I was preparing to invite some woman into the room with us, but Caleb was fidgeting with his drink and looked like he needed to get something off his chest.
“What’s eating at you?” I asked him, pouring the last of my drink down my throat and signaling to our personal bartender for another. “Talk to me.”
The faint light in the private room played off Caleb’s features, making him seem more like my little brother and less like the brooding, moody rocker that the world knew him as now. He seemed to be thinking of how he wanted to say whatever it was he needed to.
“I just kind of liked it better before, you know? Before we really made it big, when we knew we had enough money to keep us going and enough gigs lined up to keep us on stage, but without all the drama and fanfare.”
“The last few years have been kind of crazy, haven’t they?” It had been just over two years since we had our first big break, but time had both flown and crawled by in the meantime. In a way, I thought we were all still coming to grips with fame, while in another way, the old days felt so far off that they almost belonged to a different lifetime.
Caleb nodded, his eyes locked on his drink. The bartender delivered my new one and had the foresight of mind to bring another for Caleb as well. We both nodded our thanks to the man and nursed our drinks as we thought.
“Crazy is one way of putting it,” he said, taking another long drink. “Downright fucking insane is another. But it never seems to overwhelm you.”
“I just don’t think about before, all that often. We busted our balls to get here. I remember a time that your fingers actually bled from practicing for so many hours nonstop. This is what we were working toward. Why doesn’t it look like you’re enjoying it?”
“I am,” Caleb protested, too fast to be entirely believable. “It’s just, I know how much we wanted this. I remember how hard we worked for it. Sometimes, everything we went through to get here is nothing but a vague memory. It just feels like everything is going so fast.”
“Life in the fast lane.” I smirked. “It’s what we wanted.”
“I know, but it all feels so new sometimes. I guess I’m just still settling into the insanity of all this, and it gets to me.” The heavy weight of admission seemed to lift from his shoulders and make him sit a little bit taller.
Nodding slowly, I was relieved that his profile was a little less hunched, and I was determined to make him leave here never having to carry that weight again. “I know. It feels like one day we were nobodies, and the next, we were this sensation that everybody wanted a piece of. Doesn’t matter whether it’s a piece of our bodies, money, or fame. Everybody wants a part of us. I get how that feels.”
Caleb’s elbow was propped on the table, his glass hanging from his fingers as he took in my expression. “If you get that, why does it always look like you’re having the time of your life and never worried about any of it?”
“Because I am having the time of my life. I’m trying to enjoy every fucking second of it. It doesn’t get to me because I don’t let it. I just don’t let myself think about it that way. I drink, I get laid, and I don’t worry about everything so much. I’m strapped into this rollercoaster, I chose the front seat, and I’m not hanging onto the safety bar, wishing it will be over soon.”
Caleb shifted in his seat, took a sip of his drink, and tipped his chin to give me a meaningful look. “It’s not that easy. And it’s not like I’m wishing the ride was over. I’m just struggling with not wanting to grab onto the safety bar. The world is watching, so it’s not like I can hang onto it and scream like
a little girl.”
“Of course, you can. Fuck what anyone else thinks. Pretty sure anyone who knows you can see that you’re struggling. It doesn’t matter what anyone who doesn’t know you thinks, anyway. You want my advice?”
He didn’t say anything for a minute, didn’t nod or shake his head. He simply stared at the clear liquid in his glass before lifting his eyes to mine. “Sure, why not? Have at it.”
Taking a sip of my drink, I was relieved to find that we were past the point of the evening where it burned on its way down, my throat numbed by all the drinks and shots that had come before it. “Follow my example. Drink whatever you want, fuck whoever you want, and try not to worry about things that are out of our control. We made it this far, and we have the album coming out soon. Beyond that, man, just live your life and try to enjoy it a little in the meantime. Hang onto your balls and jump in.”
“Okay, let’s say that I agree to trying to do things your way. Where do you suggest we start?” If skepticism had a face, it would’ve been my brother’s right now.
I downed what was left in my tumbler and stood up. “We go find some women to fill this room with, and we have a good fucking time. Stick with me, bro. I’ll make you famous.”
Caleb laughed, tossed the rest of his drink down his throat, and slammed his glass down. “Isn’t that kind of the problem? But yeah, let’s go find some girls to party with. I’m getting kind of bored with you, anyway.”
Delivering a light punch to his shoulder, I led the way out of the private room and back into the crowded club. “That’s what I’m talking about.”
Caleb and I made our way to the dance floor, where bodies were writhing to the pulsing beat of the dance music under the flashing lights overhead. It didn’t take us long to zero in on some targets and invite them back to our room.
After more than a few selfies taken with fans and a couple of body parts autographed, we had at least a half-dozen women in tow, and we made it back to the safety of our private enclave.
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