I waited until the crowd near the back thinned out before heading in that direction. Groupies don’t like it when you try to push your way to the front. Some are downright vicious, and I was quite fond of my hair and eyes. I didn’t blame the groupies. All the members of the band were attractive. Gage, the lead guitarist, was a couple of inches over six feet tall with the sleek build of a runner. He had brown eyes and dirty blond hair that was always a little messy. The drummer, Austin, was bulkier than Gage but about the same height. He had long blond hair and blue eyes. Xander, the lead singer, was around six feet tall with a lean, muscular build, black hair, and brown eyes. Harley’s hair was naturally blonde, but it had been dyed pink for more than a year. At five-foot-eight, she had a slender build and a badass personality.
“They aren’t seeing anyone in the back, but they’re coming out to the main area later,” a cute strawberry blonde in dark skinny jeans and a Reckless Release t-shirt told me as I passed her.
“I know the band,” I explained.
“I tried that,” she replied with a laugh. “They aren’t buying it. It’s not exactly a lie. I saw them play in LA when I was only sixteen, back before they were famous.”
Her response made me smile. “Ah, so you’re a truly dedicated fan.” I liked meeting other devoted fans.
“Definitely,” she agreed. “My boyfriend told me they’d never let me backstage, but maybe I can talk to them in the club later.”
“Come with me,” I urged.
“Wait!” she said with a hand up. “You really are friends with the band?”
“I am,” I replied. “Please, don’t end up being some crazed stalker. They’ll never forgive me if I bring a deranged fan backstage.”
“I’ll do my best to act sane,” she assured me. “I’m Natalie.”
“Cami,” I replied before walking her up to the door. “Hi, Corey.” Corey was head of security at all Reckless Release shows, and he was manning the door to the back with one of the club’s bouncers.
He greeted me with a nod. “Who’s your friend, Cami?”
“This is Natalie,” I replied.
“No one mentioned anything about you bringing a friend with you.” It wasn’t a question, but Corey was still waiting for a response.
“Natalie won’t be a problem back there,” I assured him. “She’s okay.”
“She’d better be,” he warned as he opened the door for us. “I don’t want to lose my job.”
“I hope the band isn’t annoyed that you’re bringing me back with you,” Natalie said as she spared Corey one last glance on our way back.
“They won’t mind,” I assured her. “Everyone is really down to Earth.”
“They seemed that way when I first saw them play,” she replied. “I was way too shy to go up and talk to them back then.”
“I know what you mean,” I told her. “Even though I saw them play years ago, I didn’t talk to them until my best friend started dating Gage.”
Natalie stopped walking and pointed a finger at me. “I know who you are! Wow! I can’t believe I didn’t recognize you.”
I shrugged. “There aren’t too many good pictures of me with the band, so I can see why you didn’t recognize me.” Most people who recognized me had spent time researching me after hearing about my connection to Reckless Release. That didn’t happen often.
Everyone was already in the band room near the back, and I could hear them talking and laughing as we approached.
“Yeah?” Xander called out when I knocked.
“Waffle delivery,” I responded.
The door was jerked open, bringing me face to chest with Xander in nothing but jeans and sneakers. It was a good thing I could easily hide my reactions since every time I saw Xander I wanted to fan myself. While I had no plans to date him, I could appreciate his appeal. He was toned without carrying much bulk, something I preferred in a man. His chest had very little hair and a lot of ink, ink that also traveled down his arms and across his back. His hair was messy after the performance, and amusement lit his eyes.
“You had better come through on that waffle promise,” he crooned.
“Poor, Xan,” I taunted with a grin.
“Woman, you are going to push me too far one day,” he warned.
I laughed because, when asked, he couldn’t tell me what would happen when I pushed him too far, just that it was going to happen.
Xan stepped back and let us enter. “I hope you guys don’t mind that I brought Natalie back with me. She seems harmless.”
Xander sighed. “Harmless but with no waffles.”
“The show tonight was fantastic,” Natalie gushed. “I really love you all, just not in a stalkerish way. Maybe I should start over. I’m Natalie, and I’m not as crazy as I sound.”
Harley greeted her with a warm smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Natalie. I’d start introducing you to the band, but I assume you already know who everyone is.”
“I do,” Natalie chirped. “Before you signed with a label, I saw you play in LA, and everyone who follows the band knows Piper and Bentley.”
“A fan from the beginning,” Xander said as he slipped an arm around Natalie’s shoulders.
Xander was a flirt. It didn’t mean anything, most of the time. It was also none of my business. I certainly had no reason to be jealous since we were just friends. Still, I decided someone should mention Natalie wasn’t interested—to avoid any misunderstandings, of course.
“She has a boyfriend,” I snapped.
So much for my calm response to Xander’s flirting.
Chapter 4
Xander
My arm fell away from the cute redhead’s shoulders as I turned toward the blonde who’d played a leading role in all of my recent solo sessions in the shower. In the beginning, she’d only starred in a few. There had even been several where she’d shared the leading lady role with another woman. That hadn’t been the case in more than a month. Now, my fantasies were all about Cami. She had light blonde hair that went to her chin and deep blue eyes. Her features were delicate as was her build. She wasn’t too curvy, but she was still feminine and hot as fuck. Her reaction intrigued me.
Natalie smiled at me and moved out of my reach. “I do have a boyfriend. He’s out in the club waiting for me.”
“Why didn’t you bring him with you?” Harley asked.
“It was hard enough getting back here alone,” she explained. “Cami helped me.”
“We fans from the early days of Reckless Release have to stick together,” Cami replied.
“I was wondering if you would all sign my CD.” Natalie had pulled a CD from her bag and was holding in both hands.
“Absolutely.” Gage reached out to take the CD. When she handed it to him, his eyes widened. “I haven’t signed one of these in years. Where’d you get it?”
“I love that one!” Cami shrieked as she came up beside Natalie.
“That’s an old one,” Austin remarked from Gage’s side.
The CD was from our early days as a band. We’d rented space to record a few of our songs and sold the CDs at club shows. While I still had some, no one had asked me to sign one in years.
“I got it at a show,” Natalie admitted. “That night, I wanted to ask you all to sign it, but I was a little intimidated.”
“Why?” I had to ask.
“Yeah, why?” Harley asked.
“It was obvious you were going to be big,” Cami answered for Natalie.
“Exactly!” Natalie agreed.
“I had such a crush on Austin,” Cami admitted. “I wanted to talk to him when I first saw them play, but I chickened out.”
“Austin?” I frowned. “You were into the rebound guy?”
Until Austin had convinced Piper to give him a second chance, he’d been the ultimate rebound guy. Even when Reckless Release had been relatively unknown, women had flocked to him to mend their broken hearts.
“I would have even made him waffles,” she teased.
; “Don’t even joke about something like that.” I stepped closer and leaned in until I could whisper close to her ear. “I’m the only member of Reckless Release who deserves to get his hands on your waffles. Why don’t you give me a taste, babe?”
Cami’s breath caught in her throat.
I might have smiled if I wasn’t so turned on just from breathing in her sweet scent. My situation was complicated. If I turned around, the whole room was going to see the bulge in my pants. I had no doubt Cami was also turned on, but she could hide it easier.
“We just need your signature, Xan,” Gage announced as he tapped me on the shoulder with the CD.
I took it from him, and Cami moved away from me.
“We should head back out,” Cami told Natalie when I handed back the CD.
I grabbed my shirt from where it was sitting on the sofa and held it in front of my dick. Yeah, it was about as obvious as holding a binder in front of my jeans to cover my boner, but I didn’t have a lot of options. “We’ll be out there in a few minutes. I need to cool off a little more before I put my shirt back on.”
“They only let us go shirtless on stage,” Austin explained.
“Such a shame,” Piper said with a sigh.
“They are nice to look at without shirts,” Bentley agreed.
Harley looked us up and down before shaking her head. “I’ve seen better.”
“On that note, we’re going back out to the main club area,” Cami said before hurrying toward the door to make her escape.
Chapter 5
Cami
“Are you and Xander dating?” Natalie asked as I practically ran from the band room.
“No!” When I answered a little too forcefully, I decided to try again. “No, we aren’t dating. I can see why you might think that since there’s been some social media speculation about us, but we’re just friends.”
“Does he know that?” she asked. “Sorry. I hardly know you, so you don’t need to answer that question.”
“He knows,” I assured her. “As you may have noticed, Xan likes to flirt. If they made flirting an Olympic sport, he’d win a gold medal.” As the words left my mouth, I almost groaned at how lame they sounded.
“Your interaction was intense,” she added.
Intense accurately described my interaction with Xander. “We’re just friends,” I insisted.
She nodded, still looking doubtful. “That may be the case, but I won’t be surprised if I see #XanandCam trending soon.”
I laughed and shook my head. “Stranger things have happened.” I was a firm believer in never saying never. I waved at Corey as we passed him. “Thanks, Corey.”
He nodded in response. Corey was a man of few words.
Once we were in the club area, Natalie threw her arms around me. “Thank you so much for getting me back there. It was amazing.”
“You’re welcome,” I replied. “You made their day by having that old CD.”
“I’d better go find my boyfriend,” she told me before disappearing into the crowd.
“There you are!”
“It can’t be,” I muttered to myself when I heard Mitch’s voice. Sure enough, when I turned, he was standing right behind me. He looked out of place in the club in his dark suit and striped tie. Most would consider Mitch handsome. He was just shy of six feet tall with an athletic frame and almost boyish features. His pale blond hair was always perfectly styled. “What are you doing here?”
I wasn’t usually rude to my exes, but Mitch refused to accept that we weren’t getting back together. In the ten days since I’d ended things with him, he’d called me dozens of times and even stopped by both my office and home to talk to me.
Mitch frowned. “We agreed to go to the show together.”
The kicked puppy expression wasn’t going to work on me. I’d done nothing to make Mitch think we still had a date for the show.
“And then we broke up. I thought you were going to sell your ticket.” He’d said he was going to sell his ticket.
He shrugged and moved closer. “I just wanted to see you. Let me keep you company. We can talk and have some fun together.”
Since we were in a loud, crowded club, there were good reasons for him to move closer, but I didn’t want him closer.
“I’m here with friends,” I said with a tight smile.
He looked around. “You look like you’re alone. We need to talk. You owe me an explanation.”
“I gave you an explanation,” I reminded him before turning to walk away. Mitch caught my arm to stop me.
“Don’t walk away from me, Cami.” He sounded angry.
“Get your fucking hands off of her.”
When I turned toward the sound of Xander’s voice, I saw that we were attracting a crowd—no surprise since they’d come to see Reckless Release.
Mitch didn’t release me right away; instead, his eyes locked with mine. “Come on, Cami. Let’s go somewhere to talk. There’s no reason for this to turn into some ugly scene.”
Corey, having seen what was going on, was at Xander’s side.
“Let me go,” I told Mitch.
Mitch’s gaze shifted to Xander and Corey. Xander looked pissed, while Corey looked curious to see what would happen next. “Fine,” he finally spat out before releasing my arm and storming off.
Xander slipped an arm around my shoulders, bringing even more attention to the scene. “You okay, babe?” He leaned closer so he wouldn’t have to yell.
“I’m fine.” It was a lie. Mitch’s behavior shook me. He’d never acted that way before. Still, we had an audience, and I wasn’t interested in adding to the gossip. There would be pictures of us on social media the next day. It wouldn’t be the first time. There had been more than a few articles written about my relationship with Xander—bad pictures and all. In most articles, they assumed I was dating him. In a few, they came up with more elaborate stories about me being a long-lost sister or Xander’s therapist. The last was the most laughable since I only worked with children. In general, the speculation didn’t bother me, but I preferred to avoid the love triangle stories our situation might inspire.
Xander removed his arm from my shoulders and took a step back, possibly envisioning the same scenario I was. It was hard to tell with Xander.
Bentley came to my rescue, getting me away from the gawkers and Xander by grabbing my arm. “Crazy exes always make me want to drink. Let’s hit the bar.”
“I shouldn’t have come tonight,” I muttered to myself. It’s easy talking to yourself in a club. Unless you speak loudly, no one can hear you, so I continued talking to myself.
“I see your lips moving,” Bentley told me when we reached the bar. “Would you like to go somewhere quiet to talk to me instead of talking to yourself?”
“No,” I replied. “I think I’m done talking to myself.”
“What the hell is Mitch doing here?” Piper asked as she came up beside me.
“We were originally supposed to come together.” I paused, deciding to give them the highlights. “He’s a dick who can’t take a hint. Why pretend there’s some other story to explain his presence?”
“How many times do you need to tell him it’s over?” Bentley asked. “I’m beginning to think you need to get a restraining order.”
“Restraining order?” Piper asked. “What have I missed?”
Bentley was the only one who knew the problems I’d been having with Mitch. He hadn’t threatened me, but he wouldn’t leave me alone, no matter how many times I told him I wasn’t interested.
“Mitch keeps calling and showing up,” I explained. “I’m not sure that’s enough to justify a restraining order, but if he keeps pushing, I’ll look into it.”
“What is his problem?” Piper asked.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “The first time I broke up with Mitch, he didn’t seem phased by it at all. This time, he refuses to accept it’s over. His behavior makes no sense.”
“It does seem crazy,” Piper replie
d.
We ordered our drinks and chatted for a few minutes while we waited. When I turned away from the bar, I let out a little squeal as I came face to chest with Xander. At least, it wasn’t his bare chest again. I’d expected him to be busy with his fans.
“Don’t sneak up on me!” I shouted.
Xander chuckled, putting his hands up in surrender when I smacked his belly. “I wasn’t sneaking up on you. It’s loud, so you just didn’t hear me. I wanted to make sure you’re okay and to let you know Corey walked Glitch out of the club.”
“You guys forced Mitch to leave?” I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. It would only feed into the drama, but I was still glad Mitch was gone.
Xander shook his head. “He was already heading in that direction. Corey just followed him to make sure he left. It was also so he could keep an eye on Glitch if he stayed. Are you okay, babe?” he asked, placing a hand on my shoulder.
The heat from his hand shot straight through my body as my voice of reason reminded me it wasn’t okay to get turned on by Xander. My body wasn’t listening, and I felt a dull throbbing ache of arousal in my core.
I forced a smile. “I’m fine. Mitch is a jerk, but I’m not about to let him ruin my night.”
Based on Xander’s expression, he wasn’t buying my answer, but he didn’t call me on it. “Let’s go have some fun,” he coaxed.
“I want to dance,” Bentley announced as she grabbed my arm to lead me to the dancefloor.
One of the beautiful things about having Bentley as a friend was she knew me well enough to recognize when I was feeling out of sorts. I wasn’t sure if she could tell I was turned on by Xander or not. It didn’t matter since she was still rescuing me.
As Bentley led me out to the dancefloor, I felt Xander’s hot gaze on my back. It was all I could do not to turn around, but I knew that would be a mistake. I needed a little space from Xander before I did something I’d regret.
Rocking Perfection (Reckless Release Book 3) Page 2
