Meeting Trouble (New Adult Rock Star Romance)

Sabrina can’t believe her luck—she’s always dreamed of front row seats to see her favorite band, “Trouble,” but when she bumps into lead singer, Rob Burns, and he invites her backstage, she finds herself hoping her luck doesn’t run out—and that maybe, just maybe, all her dreams will come true.

Full 45,000 word novel from New York Times and USA Today Bestseller Emme Rollins

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Warning: This title the ultimate fantasy come true when a female fan meets a sexy rock star guitar god with enough pluck to make the g-string on your Stratocaster quiver for days. (Note: This title was originally published as “Happy Accident”)

Meeting Trouble

By Emme Rollins

Table of Contents

Chapter One

The damned door was locked!

I pounded on it, but there was no way anyone could hear me over the steady beat of music. I actually felt it—
thump-thump-thump
—when I pressed my ear to the door. I pulled my coat tighter, legs numb with cold. At some point tonight, I had been convinced black fishnet thigh highs and a miniskirt were a good idea.

“
If that isn’t the opening band, Katie, I’m going to kill you!”

Katie stood there with our
e-tickets in her hand, ready to give them over so we could get in to see
Trouble
. Breathless, I looked down the long flight of steps we’d just climbed in high heeled boots.

“
They must have closed all the other entrances but the main one when the show started,” Katie speculated, tucking the tickets safely into her purse. “Come on, we’ll have to go around!”

“
Shortcut my ass! Katie, I could be sitting in the front row listening to Rob sing right now if it weren’t for you and your iPhone map!”

“
I think that’s still
Blue Jeans Metal
playing,” Katie soothed, taking my arm and pulling my coat sleeve.

“
It better be!” I shook her off, looking at my watch. “This is all your fault!”

She crossed her arms and glared.
“It is not! I’m not the one who took an hour and a half deciding which tramp-wear would best attract Rob’s attention!”

“
Oh, please!” My crossed arms mirrored hers. “You could have thought to get something to eat before we were on the road!”

“
Fine, Sabrina!” She rolled her eyes. “It’s all my fault, okay?”

“
Okay, let’s go.” I sighed, eyeing the steep stairs again. “Maybe we can still make it before they start.”

The door opened behind us. I heard it before I saw it from the corner of my eye, my chest swelling with the hope
of our salvation. It opened hard and fast, catching me in the shoulder and the side of my head, a tall figure barreling through, calling behind him, “I think it’s this way!”

For a moment, I saw stars as I groped for something solid. I found the handrail to the stairs, my heel slipping backward off the first step. That
’s when I knew I was going to fall. I screamed and saw Katie’s face, a perfect expression of horror—eyes and mouth wide, hands reaching out—but she wasn’t close enough to catch me.

“
Oh, damn!” It was the dark-haired guy who had hit me with the door, and he
was
close enough to reach me. His hands gripped my wrist and yanked so hard it felt like my arm was going to be pulled from its socket. “Are you okay?”

“
The door!” Katie groaned as it swung shut behind a second guy, this one blond, who had stepped forward to help the first as they pulled me away from the stairs.

I touched my throbbing head, rubbing it.

“I’m okay!” I said it more to reassure myself than anyone else as I stared behind me at the twenty-foot fall I could have taken down the cement steps.

“
The door’s locked!” The blond guy pulled futilely on it.

“
We know.” Katie sighed.

“
Hey, are you sure you’re all right?” The dark-haired guy touched my head, and when he pulled his hand away, I saw my own blood on his fingers. It made me woozy, and I grabbed the handrail again. He pulled me away from the stairs, blocking them with his body as he propped me against the door. I noticed he didn’t have a coat, just jeans and a t-shirt. When I looked at his face, I recognized him as I collapsed fully against the door, sure I would pass out.

The whole world tilted and I went with it. He grabbed me again, this time holding my shoulders and upper arms, as if he could keep me from going down. For a moment, he did, but then I slid through his hands and landed at his feet on the cold concrete. He knelt beside me, swearing again under his breath.

“Tyler, try the other doors!” he called over his shoulder. I looked at Katie and knew she had just realized it too. “Listen, we have to get you inside.”

“
You’re Rob Burns,” I breathed, heart thrumming like a caged bird in my chest, a slow heat tingling its way through my limbs in spite of the cold.

“
Oh, Christ…” He groaned. “Yeah, that’s me.”

“
You’re Tyler Cook!” Katie pointed at the blond guy trying to open the rest of the row of doors, swearing each time he found one locked. “From
Trouble!”

“
Yeahhhhhh…” Tyler drew the word out as if she were going to have a problem understanding him. He nodded and put his hands in his pockets as he came toward us. “That’s right. And we’re supposed to be playing a show right now.”

“
We’re… fans. We’re supposed to be… watching it.” Katie looked as dazed as I felt. And she hadn’t even been hit in the head!

I stared at Rob, who looked at me like he was trying to figure something out, and my heart did that fluttering thing again. Me, face-to-face with Rob
Burns! My mind screamed it, and my body was screaming it too. I felt it from my throbbing head to my tingling toes. He still had his hands on my shoulders, gripping me like he thought I might slip through his fingers. Ha! Not likely! In spite of my injury, I could have stayed there on the cold cement all night long, just staring at him.

“
All right, so we’re locked out.” Rob stood, holding his hand out to me. I took it, thrilled at the continued contact, feeling lost in a surreal dream. He helped me stand, then steadied me at my elbow when I wavered again. I pressed against him, pretending it was to keep me upright, or for warmth. I just wanted to be near him.

“
I still have to take a piss, man.” Tyler laughed.

“
Me, too.” Rob grinned. “Let’s figure out how to get back in.”

He had his arm around my shoulder now, and I let him hold me up, looking at Kati
e’s wide eyes and trying not to look as thrilled as I felt. Rob had to be used to star struck girls fawning and cooing over him. I didn’t want to be that girl. I’d imagined it a million times, in at least as many ways, meeting this man—but never like this.

“Hey.” Rob turned me to face him, an arm around my waist, pressing me close enough he could have kissed me. I thought I might actually faint. He smelled like aftershave and leather and sweet cloves. It was a heady scent and made me even more dizzy as I met his bright, hazel eyes.
His brow knitted as he looked at me, his finger touching my forehead, and I winced, suddenly aware of the place where the door had hit me.

“
I’m so sorry, sweetheart. Are you okay?” His mouth turned down even more when he lifted my hair, clearly not liking what he was seeing. It made me a little scared. Sure, it hurt a little, but not that much. How bad could it be? Besides, Rob Burns had just called me sweetheart. That alone was surely enough to anesthetize an elephant. If that elephant happened to idolize Rob Burns. “Are you feeling faint? Dizzy? Nauseous?”

I just nodded, although the reasons for all of those things had his hips pressed to mine and his fingers tangled in my hair.

“We need to get you to first aid.” He reached around and pulled a black bandana out of his back pocket, folding it and gently pressing it against my forehead. I gasped at the pain—it really hurt! He let up a little, mumbling another soft apology. “What’s your name?”

“
Uh…” I drew a complete blank with his dark licorice eyes staring right into mine. God, he smelled so good. I wanted to eat him up. With a spoon. Oh hell, who was I kidding? I didn’t need utensils. My fingers and tongue would suffice.

“You can’t remember your name?” His eyes widened slightly, pulling the bandana away to look at my wound again.

I shook my head, any words stuck in my constricted throat. He put the bandana back, more gentle this time, brushing my long, dark hair back over my shoulder and out of the way. I was shivering, I couldn’t help it. I knew it was cold, but that was hardly the reason. Rob noticed, zipping up my jacket, and I saw his gaze fall momentarily on my cleavage, appreciating the view before it disappeared. When his eyes met mine again, there was so much heat between us I nearly melted into a puddle on the concrete.

He cleared his throat, looking a little taken aback by his own reaction, checking my wound again. “What’s your name, gorgeous?”

Oh God. Gorgeous? With monikers like sweetheart and gorgeous, I was never going to tell him my name. I pursed my lips together, shaking my head again, making him frown. Seeing his brow knit like that, making wrinkles on his forehead like that, made me desperately want to smooth them out with my fingers.

Then Katie piped up from somewhere behind Rob.

“I’m Katie and that’s Sabrina.”

She rose
up on her tiptoes so she could peek over Rob’s shoulder at me, where I was still pinned to the door by the man’s weight—quite happily, I might add.

“They’re all locked.” Tyler reappeared, panting, out of breath. “Every damned one of these doors is locked.”

There was a whole stretch of them—I had counted every one as Katie pulled on the handles before the two men had appeared—an even dozen.

“Duh!” Katie rolled her eyes. “You don’t think we tried them all?”

“Sabrina.” The sound of my name from Rob’s lips, his breath against my cheek, made my knees weak again. “Such a pretty name.”

“Is she okay?” Tyler leaned his shoulder against the door
, arms crossed, frowning at me and then raising his eyebrows at his band mate’s proximity to their wounded fan.

“She’s fine,” Katie protested.

“Are you a doctor?” Rob’s head whipped around and he glared at her. “She could have a concussion. Head injuries are nothing to mess around with. She doesn’t even know her own name!”

Katie blinked at him. “She’s just star struck.”

“Is that it?” Rob’s mouth curled up at the corners, amused, turning his face back to me. He was so close, I could see the light flecks in his dark eyes, like moonlight reflecting off the ocean at night. “Are you just star struck?”

“
I’m…” I shook my head again, wondering if maybe the door had knocked some wiring losing in my head because I couldn’t think, not with him so close, not with his body against mine and his hand pressed to my forehead. “Fine.”

“Fine?” Rob snorted, looking under the bandana again. “Typical female response. You must be all right.”

“I’m not a typical female.” I raised my eyebrows, reaching for the bandana, putting my hand over his. Something electric passed between us, a hot spark that traveled up my arm, into my shoulder, making my chest flush and my nipples harden. I don’t know if he heard my sharp intake of breath but he looked at me again with all that dark heat, reminding me why I’d been a
Trouble
fan since the first time I’d seen them open for U2.

“
I can see that,” he replied as I pulled the bandana away from my forehead, trying to gauge how much blood I’d lost, but the fabric was too dark to really tell. “You are a fine female specimen, one of the finest I’ve ever seen.”

I laughed, touching my forehead, feeling a fat goose egg, but my fingers came away clean, no blood.

“Rooooooob!” Tyler groaned, smacking his own forehead. “We don’t have time for this!”

“What, you think they’re going to start without us?” The l
ead singer looked over at his lead guitarist, amused.

“
Fine, let’s try this.” Tyler turned and started banging on the door, yelling, “Hey! Let us in!”

Kate watched
him for a moment, shrugged, and started banging too, yelling along. I expected Rob to join them but he turned back to me, shaking his head.

“Seriously, how is your head?” he asked, cocking his own at me.

“Fine.” I touched it again, tentative—I was going to have quite a bruise. “Really, I’m fine. I won’t sue you or anything, I promise.”

“Is that what you think I’m worried about?”
Rob straightened, for the first time moving fully away from me, and I felt the instant chill of the wind on my nearly-bare thighs and shivered again.

“Isn’t it?” I blinked, taken aback by the fire in his eyes. If I’d thought they were heated before, that was a little candle compared to the forest fire I was seeing now.

But his voice was cool as he turned toward Tyler, ignoring my question. “Any luck?”

“What does it look like?” Tyler stopped and Katie did too, their breath streaming into the cold, both of them pondering the doors. Then Tyler glanced at Rob. “We could use a little help!”

“You really thought these doors led to the bathroom?” Katie giggled.

“
It’s dark back there!” Tyler defended his poor choice. “Want me to just whip it out and take a piss right here? I’ve
really
gotta go.”

“
Feel free!” Katie flipped her blond hair over her shoulder and wrinkled her nose at him. “Nothing I haven’t seen before.”

“
C’mon.” Rob took three steps toward them, leaving me leaning with my back against one of the doors. “Let’s try this one more time, and then we’ll have to look for another entrance.”

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