“Really?”
“Not in this job. Not after I’ve only been here a few days.”
“Ah. Trying to make a good impression?”
“Yes. Is it working?”
His gaze slid over my face. “On me, absolutely.”
“All I’ve done for you is fetch coffee so far.”
“True. But you delivered it perfectly.”
I turned in my seat to face him. “That only involved walking a few feet down an aisle. Not exactly impressive.”
“It was to me.” He leaned in close enough that I could smell the shampoo in his fair, a fresh, crisp citrus scent. “Watching you walk is quite a treat for me. Adding the much needed coffee made it a rather perfect moment.”
I sat back and turned away from him, my smile sliding away. “Yeah, well, thanks.”
“Hey, what did I say wrong?”
“Nothing,” I said brusquely, flipping over to the next page in my notebook.
“Becca, please.” He put his hand over mind. “What just happened?”
I don’t know if it was the warmth from his touch or my lack of sleep or the trace of champagne in my blood, but something compelled me to actually answer him honestly.
“It’s you, Dex. I thought we were going to have a friendly chat, but you had to take it to the fake flirting. I get that it’s your thing, but there’s no point wasting it on me. If you can’t go five hours without coming onto someone, Ryan’s niece is cute and would probably love the false compliments from a big star like you.”
His face was frozen in a mask of confusion. “I...bugger. I don’t have the slightest idea what you’re on about.”
“Forget it.”
“I bloody well won’t. Tell me what you think you know.”
Pissed as I was at him for being such a cliché and myself for opening my big mouth, I had to smirk.
“What? What’s funny?”
“Your accent. It’s stronger when you’re mad.”
“I’m not mad. And no it isn’t.” His eyes narrowed.
“Oh really?” Arguing with Dex seemed much safer than any other conversation, so I went with it. “The last time you talked like that was in an interview last month. The guy accused you of being derivative and a wannabe. By the time you stopped arguing you sounded like a character from one of those Guy Ritchie movies.”
“Bullshit.”
“Before you used the word ‘bloody’ and ‘bugger’ in successive sentences. How often do you do that when you’re feeling cheerful?”
“I...shit.” His eyes looked deep into mine. “You’re fucking right, Becca, I had no idea.”
I shrugged. “It’s pretty common. My last boss was Greek. I learned some very colorful phrases when she had a bad experience with a vendor.”
“I bet.” Dex was staring at me in a way that made me very uncomfortable. Like he could see something new on my face that wasn’t there before. “Can we go back to what you said that started this?”
I sighed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have spoken to you that way. It won’t happen again.”
“I don’t care that you said it, I care that you think it.”
“What? Why?”
“Because I’m not that guy. Some false-acting smarmy guy. I don’t want you to think that’s who I am.”
“It isn’t smarmy, Dex. It’s your persona. There’s nothing wrong with that, I was just hoping you could drop it for a little while.”
“I’m not putting you on. I meant every word.” There was real insult in his voice.
“Come on. I’ve seen you. You flirt with everyone.”
“Sure, a bit. That’s just how I am, especially when I’m a little drunk. But I don’t lie. And I’m not drunk at all right now. Which is perhaps part of the reason this isn’t as fun as I’d hoped.”
“Look, it’s fine. You are how you are. I just…I’d rather you didn’t pretend to think I’m…whatever.”
“Whatever? You mean cute. And sexy?”
I shook my head. “Yeah. I know I’m not. You don’t have to pretend I am.”
He grabbed my chin and turned my face towards his. “I just told you, Becca. I don’t lie. You’re fucking adorable. I thought it a few days ago when we met. You were nervous as a kitten but so good at covering. Not to mention gorgeous in a buttoned-up, waiting to be released way. And if we weren’t on this plane and it wouldn’t get both of us in a lot of trouble, I’d kiss you right here and show you exactly how sexy I find you.”
Chapter Four
My heart thudded in my chest and something low in my belly coiled up tight. “Dex-”
“Wait,” he said, sliding closer to me. “Don’t say anything. I know this is crazy and unprofessional and a hundred other things. I’m not stupid. I just want you to know the truth. You’re an incredibly sexy, beautiful woman. That’s not a line, it’s a fact.” He shrugged and sat back. “I’m not going to try anything or push you. But please remember what I said.”
I opened and closed my mouth a few times. It was an entirely new Dex. One I had no idea how to react to. Thoughts and feelings flew through me in a jumble and I wondered how I got myself in this ridiculous situation. Oh, right. Opening my big mouth.
“Y-you should probably go back to your seat,” I managed to say.
Dex smiled and nodded, then released me and stood up. It took every bit of self-control I had to keep from watching him go. Instead, I shoved my face and my attention back into work. I needed to make edits to a timeline for the next few days and hoped it would be enough to make me forget about what he’d said and how deeply it had impacted me.
After a while I shut my laptop and leaned my head back to rest. Silently reviewing my work, I drifted off in a haze of addresses and times.
The flight attendant announcing our imminent arrival woke me. On regular planes a pilot or whoever would tell everyone over the intercom and spur a rush to stow bags and settle in. On the private flight she stepped into the main cabin to tell us and handed out glasses of chilled champagne.
I refused one with a smile and started packing up my bag. Most of the others were also just waking up, stretching or grumbling. I noticed Joe and Liss were missing, but didn’t think much of it. It wasn’t like they could have left while I slept.
Rubbing at my sore neck from sleeping so long in one position, I glanced around again. Dex had moved over to sit next to Matthew. They were huddled over an iPad playing some kind of game. I meant to look away before he caught me, but I was too slow.
Dex’s gaze found mine and he smiled. I didn’t know what to do, but was fortunately saved by Joe and Liss’s appearance from behind me.
The flight attendant frowned at them, but not very sternly. “Please take your seats for landing.”
Liss brushed past me and I saw she was blushing, and her shirt seemed to be on inside-out. That, coupled with Joe’s swagger back to their spot answered the question of what they’d been up to. I wouldn’t have thought both of them could fit in the bathroom for very long, let alone move around in there. But the other thing behind my seat on the plane was the storage area and I knew that was full.
At least someone was had truly enjoyed the flight.
We touched down at Biggin Hill airport, about an hour from the center of London. There had been some documentation about why we were landing there, but I couldn’t remember it now. All I needed to know was that a bus would be waiting to take everyone to the hotel. At least it better be. I’d confirmed the time before we took off. There’d be staff to help load up the bags and important pieces of equipment the band needed to have on the flight, which meant we all would have some time to stretch our legs, and I could find somewhere to pee before hitting the road.
It was refreshing to wait to exit a plane without someone smacking me in the back of the head with a massive carry-on bag, or almost getting trampled by people from the back who couldn’t wait five minutes to move. It bummed me out to remember we’d be flying commercial for the rest of our time in Europe.
I was completely spoiled after one seven hour flight. The thought amused me and I smiled as I helped Joe and one of the suit guys pull thing out of the storage area.
Surprisingly, everyone pitched in and we had the plane emptied quickly. I did find a bathroom and we all piled on the bus to drive into the city. I stayed up front with Ryan, going over a few things and coordinating for the next day, and managed to keep from looking at Dex. Mostly.
At some point I needed to figure out why he’d gotten to me, but all I could see behind my eyes was his sly smile and the way his eyes twinkled when he looked at me. Not that it mattered. Not that anything was going to happen between us. But I had to admit it was nice to remember the way he looked at me.
Three hours later I sank down onto the bed in my hotel room and sighed. In the rush to get everyone settled I hadn’t had a moment to think and that was just fine. And now, finally alone, I was too tired to do anything.
Some of the others were planning to go out, but I begged off. I needed some quiet, and a lot of sleep. We only had two days before the first show and a million things to accomplish first. I shed my clothes and left everything in piles on the floor to be dealt with in the morning.
I climbed into bed and watched the lights of London as I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep that ended all too soon.
When my wake-up call rang I wanted to dive back beneath the sheets and spend the day there. But I couldn’t, of course. So I got up, showered and went downstairs to grab something to eat.
In the light of the morning and after some much-needed rest I could actually appreciate the hotel. All I’d noted the night we arrived was that it seemed to be comprised of a block of old townhomes and it had a bed I could sleep in. It was smallish and trendy, called a “boutique hotel” according to my research. So far that seemed to mean expensive and almost aggressively modern in design and décor. Bright colors and shiny surfaces were everywhere.
Fortunately it also had a restaurant and I could smell the coffee I so desperately needed. I followed my nose to it and saw Ryan and his niece, Mia, sitting at a table together. She waved me over and I said good morning to both of them.
“Sleep well, Rebecca?”
“Yes, Ryan. Thank you. And yourself?” Something about talking to him turned me into some silly formal-talking television character. It irritated me and made me want to laugh at the same time.
“Well enough, I suppose. Mia here is feeling a bit of pain, however.”
“Why’s that?” I asked, nodding as a waiter brought over a carafe of coffee. I thought Brits mostly drank tea, but accepted that was probably a silly stereotype.
Mia groaned. “Unlike you guys, I wanted to spend my first night in London having fun. And I did. Too much fun.”
“I hope it was worth it.”
“It was.”
I grinned. “Good. Let me know if you need aspirin or anything.”
“I will.” She turned her attention back to the plate of toast in front of her and started eating, tearing off tiny pieces and slipping them inside her mouth.
It had been a while since I’d been that hung over, but I remembered the feeling, and sympathized. It made me feel old. Which was silly because I knew Mia was actually five years my senior. But I was getting used to it. Being the responsible, dependable one. I preferred it that way, even if I got occasionally wistful about spending my early twenties working hard instead of partying hard like so many of my peers.
Speaking of working, by the time the waiter had taken my order Ryan pulled out his tablet and was scanning it, giving me notes on the list of things we needed to do and forwarding emails he wanted me to handle.
“I’ve got three conference calls today, Rebecca, so I’m going to need you to take point on things.”
“That’s fine.” I’d been hoping to get something in my stomach before thinking about it, but no such luck.
“Excellent. Also, the bar we promised to visit tonight will need a visit sometime in the afternoon. The manager wants to talk to us about where to put the band for best visibility.”
“The welcome party is a public event? I didn’t see that in the packet.”
“It’s not public per se. They don’t have to perform or sign autographs. They’ll just enjoy the bar in a VIP section visible to the rest of the customers.”
“Okay, I see.” What I saw is he wanted to fool the guys into thinking it was a night off, while getting free drinks from the owner for putting them on show. Crafty, and kind of shitty, if you asked me. Which he didn’t. “I’ll take care of that on my way to the venue for tomorrow night. They said we could load-in equipment today and I’m going to check to make sure the crew has everything they need.”
“Excellent,” Ryan said with a genuine smile on his face. “I do appreciate how efficient you are.”
“Thanks. I try.”
“You’d never think the child of such a creative genius would be like that. Was your mother a secretary or something?”
My blood boiled at the suggestion that I was some kind of mindless drone, but I let it go. “No, she was a teacher.”
“Hmm. Interesting. How strange it must have been for your father. Oh well, they say opposites attract.”
I wanted to tell him my parents were anything but opposites. Wanted to snap about the long nights we’d spent as a family singing together, or how she used to sit next to him while he composed a song. But I had so few memories of them together before she died, they were private and I cherished each one. So I just made a noncommittal sound and went back to drinking my coffee.
The rest of the meal was fairly quiet.
“Well,” Ryan said after we’d all finished eating. “I’m heading back upstairs. Mia, I recommend you do the same, and get some rest. I’ll expect full coverage of the welcome party tonight.”
“Of course.” She smiled at me. “You’ll be there, right?”
“Yes.”
“Good. We can chat then.”
“I look forward to it.”
She stood up and started head off. Ryan stood too. “You’ll handle charging the breakfast to our rooms, yes?”
“Sure.”
“Fine. I will talk to you later.”
I nodded. Once he was gone I sank back into my chair and smiled. With a few shots of caffeine coursing through my veins and a fully belly, I was ready to face the day and the rest of the tour.
That night I barely did make it to the bar. I’d been running around all day and the work of showering, getting changed into something vaguely cute and dealing with my hair was almost my undoing. The same bed I hadn’t wanted to leave called me back, but I managed to fight.
I tried not to admit that part of the reason I spent so much time on my appearance was Dex. In straight-leg jeans and a filmy dark blouse that showed off what little cleavage I had, and my long hair cascading down my back like liquid gold, I had to admit I looked pretty good. Conservative enough to be staff, but casual enough that I didn’t look out of place there. I’d even slicked on some lip gloss and mascara, a truly rare occurrence.
And when the bar started to fill up and the party began to rage, I was glad for all of the preparations, personal and professional. The guys didn’t seem to care that the owner had stuck the so-called “VIP section” on a corner of a glass-enclosed balcony that reminded me of a fish tank, or that people passed by to take photos and just gawk at them.
Of course, it helped that the owner also kept the mobile bar rolled up next to our section fully stocked. I’d seen tons of hard-drinking musicians in the past, but it was still a bit of a shock how much they could suck down in a small amount of time.
Since there wasn’t much work for me to actually do, I spent most of the time just observing everyone. Joe and Liss retreated almost immediately to a quiet-ish corner after greeting me warmly. Matthew sat drinking beer after beer, basically ignoring the series of lovely young women who came over to try and get his attention. Rick managed to control his surly attitude enough to snag a girl for
himself, but from what I could tell, his flirting was barely better than his rudeness. But, considering how the willowy brunette hung all over him, it must have worked for her. And Dex, of course, was the social butterfly, offering everyone a wink or a pat on the arm, flitting around gleefully as he drank his weight in whiskey.
He’d arrived after most of the others, toting a group of five or six people he introduced to me as “family-types.” But they must not have been close because within an hour all but one had disappeared, and she was the latest girl in line to try and drag Matthew out of his shell.
Mia sipped martinis and managed to snap a few photos while Ryan was there, but by the time he left she’d disappeared down to the dance floor, leaving her camera behind. I rolled my eyes and tucked it away for her.
As I nursed a glass of wine and wondered if I’d spend my entire six months with the band feeling like a babysitter, a familiar arm slid around my shoulder.
“Hi, Dex,” I said, hoping to sound casual and hide the flash of fear and excitement that went through me at his touch.
“Hello, love. What are you doing over here all alone?”
“Nothing. Just watching.”
“It’s a party. Not a film, you know.”
“I know. I’m having fun right here.”
“Liar. Join in. Get wild. You must be off duty by now. I don’t see your little book. That’s a good sign.”
“I am, yes. But it’s your party, not mine.”
“Nonsense. You’re part of the family now. What’s ours is yours.”
“That’s very kind.”
“Not at all. I’m always willing to share a party and booze I didn’t pay for.”
I laughed. “Good to know. So, is it nice being home?”
He plopped down next to me on a stool. “I don’t know if this is home to me. It’s familiar and friendly, no doubt. But I think now my home is wherever the road takes us.”
I groaned and looked at him.
“Fuck, that was trite.”
“Yeah, it was.”
“Obviously I’m not drunk enough.” He took a long drink. “Or you bring out the thoughtfulness in me. What little bit there is.”
Hard Rocked (BBW Rockstar Romance) Page 3
