Rock Star Ex (9 page)

“We’re
going to let the fans vote on the pictures,” Eve told him.
 
“The final score will depend on the total
amount of likes, comments and shares you get.
 
We’ll total it up in a week when we get to Dallas.”

The
guys grinned and then suddenly Tommy and Drew were vying to go next, their
competitive natures kicking in.

Tommy
won the coin toss.
 
He went out and
snagged some strawberries from the buffet table and pretended to feed them to
Eve.
 
She leaned back over his arm, head
thrown back, long hair cascading down.
 
The position thrust her breasts upward and Tommy ogled them humorously
as Kate snapped the picture.

When
it was Drew’s turn, he had one of the roadies bring in his bass and had Eve sit
on his lap with the neck of the guitar poking up between both of their
legs.
 
He wrapped his arms around her and
put his hands over hers as he pretended to teach her how to play.

Devon
knew it was all in good fun but the sight of Eve in his friends’ laps grated on
him.

“Wow,
she’s really good at this, isn’t she?” Tommy remarked to Devon.

“Yeah,
she’s a natural,” he said.
 
She shot a
look at him.
 
There was friction as their
eyes met, but she didn’t say anything.

 
He watched in silence as they laughingly made
up captions to go with the other two pictures.
 
And then it was his turn.

“All right,
Eve.
 
Now let’s get Devon.
 
All the ladies are dying to know more about
him,” Kate said.

He
stepped over and eased himself down into the chair.
 

This should be interesting
.

Eve
turned to go to him.
 
There was
hesitation in her eyes, but it didn’t stop her from walking towards him.
 
She was about to place herself on his lap
when the dressing room door opened.
 
The
roar of the crowd filled the room as one of the crew poked his head in.
 
“You guys are up.”

Devon
stood, the picture forgotten, and followed the others out the door to take
their places.
 
The rest of the band would
go on first with the intro and then he was to come out from a separate
entrance.
 
A roadie handed him a
mic
and he went to wait alone in the darkened wings for his
cue.

His
earlier apprehension came flooding back full-force as he waited.
 
His skin tingled and his stomach felt hollow.
 
They were playing all new songs tonight. His
songs.
 
He’d written every single one of
them.
 
It was part of the reason he’d
been hired.
 
Would the fans like his
material?
 
What if they didn’t?
 
His heartbeat sped up and there was clamminess
in his hands.
 
He rolled the
mic
between them and took a deep breath and then another.
 

There
were hoots and hollers in the pause between bands, mixed with random shouts
from the crowd, as the roadies completed a few last pieces of setup.
 
And then the house lights went up as they
took their places and started to play.
 
The tidal wave of noise that emanated from the crowd hit him like a
physical force and left him breathless.
 
He bent to one knee, a hand on the floor to steady himself, as he tried
to gain control.
 
Shit.
 
Was it stage fright?
 
Is that what it felt like?
 
He’d never had it before.

“Devon?
 
Are you all right?”
 
Eve was crouched next to him, her hand on his
shoulder, eyes filled with concern.
 
In
her other hand she held her camera.
 
She
must have followed to get some more pictures of him.

“Eve.
 
I…” he held back a moment, not wanting to
appear weak.
 
But he was already kneeling
on the damn floor.
 
There was no way to
hide it.
 
 
Besides, she used to be the one person he
could open up to.
 
He remembered that
they’d once told each other things, embarrassing things that no one else
knew.
 
Ignoring the tension between them,
he decided to open up to her.
 
“What if
they hate it?” he said weakly.
 
His cue
was coming soon and the stress of it locked his muscles in place.
 
Why hadn’t he felt this at the Staples
Center?
 
He’d been singing Arsenal’s
songs then.
 
Not his own.

She
looked shocked for a moment, but then her eyes filled with warmth.
 
She smiled at him.
 
A real smile.
 
Not the fake ones she’d been giving him earlier.
 
“They’re not going to hate it.
 
You’re a star.
 
You were born to be on that stage.”
 
Her gentle voice was deep with sincerity. She
glanced forward at the stage, and back at him.
 
“From what I can hear, they like it already.”

 
He searched her face for any traces of
falsehood and found none, of course.
 
One
thing about Eve, she could never really hide her true feelings, although she
tried.
 
She believed in him, he realized,
and the knowledge struck a chord deep inside.

He
took another deep breath and the constriction in his chest released.
 
Courage flooded back through his veins.
 
Finally, a relieved laugh escaped him, and
together they stood.
 
Her hand remained
on his arm, steadying him.
 
Looking at
her, he realized there was something different.
 
The ice was gone from her eyes and he could see her again.
 
His Eve.
 
She was looking up at him with that soft sea green gaze of hers.
 
He couldn’t resist.

He bent
his head and pressed his lips to hers in a firm kiss, wrapping his arms around
her waist to bring her close.
 
She didn’t
fight it.
 
He felt the familiar spark flare
between them as he molded her lips to his.
 

And
then his cue came and he only had time to give her a meaningful look before gently
letting her go and heading for the stage.
 
The fear and the worry were gone, replaced by the heady feel of her:
That intoxicating arousal he always felt when she was near.
 
He glanced back at her one last time.
 
Her eyes were still soft, and it made him hopeful
as never before.
 
They still had that
connection.
 
Then he emerged onto the
stage from behind the curtains with the
mic
to his
lips, fist raised in the air, ready to rock.

Chapter Five

Both
shows in Las Vegas were a complete and utter success, Eve mused.
 
She snuggled into the creamy leather sofa in
the back lounge of the tour bus, trying to focus on the blog she was writing.
 
Their time there had come and gone in an
unexpected whirlwind of activity.
 
Both
concerts had gone really late, because they’d had to do two encores to appease
the fans.

Eve and
Devon hadn’t been alone again since he’d kissed her backstage.
 
Raising a hand to her lips, she recalled the
heat of it.
 
The way he’d pulled her up
against him had caused the release of a molten glow inside her.
 
She’d never expected it to be even better
than she’d remembered, but it was.

Although
she hadn’t been trying to keep her distance from him, she was kind of glad for
the time to process what had happened.
 
There had been no time for him to try to get her alone anyway––he’d been
constantly surrounded with people.
 
After
the show, there was the standard backstage partying to do.
 
And then after that a group of people had
come to their suite for more.
 
The
celebrating had gone on until sunrise.
 
By the time they had all gotten some sleep in, it was time to get up and
do it all over again the second night.
 
They’d
slept in at the hotel until late morning and then groggily boarded the bus for
the five-hour drive to Phoenix.

It
had only been forty-eight hours since they’d started the tour and a small part
of her was beginning to understand what he had been talking about earlier.
 
Luckily, it was small enough to ignore.

But
what couldn’t be ignored was the feel of his eyes following her everywhere,
sending delicious messages of anticipation.
 

Devon
seemed fine after his initial attack of stage fright.
 
She hadn’t seen any other signs of it
since.
 
Quite the opposite, in fact, he
seemed amped now.
 
Which was natural
after the success of the shows.
 
He was
so alive, so vibrant:
 
A magnet that drew
others to him.
 
He was the Devon she’d
always known he would become.
 
It has
always been there.
 
In a way, she was
glad to be here to see it.

She
gazed overhead at the TV but couldn’t concentrate on what was playing.
 
It had been a big shock to see him that vulnerable.
 
She’d been getting a really cool shot of him
standing there, behind the scenes in the dark, with the glow of the fans out in
front of him, when he’d suddenly gone down on one knee.
 
It had scared the crud out of her.
 

What if they hate it,
he’d
said.
 
It was so unlike him…

Sitting
up straighter, she pulled her gaze back to the computer and closed the blog she
was writing.
 
There was no way it was
going to get done right now.
 
Instead,
she clicked open the band’s Twitter account.
 
It would be much easier to hammer out a few simple tweets.
 
She sat for a moment trying to think of
something witty, but nothing came to her.
 
The fight going on between her mind and her body was too distracting.
 
Her mind shouted caution but the silky
tendrils of desire stirred up by his kiss would not be tamped down.
 

There
was no way she was going to allow herself to be hurt by him again.
 
Absolutely
not,
she told herself.
 
But she couldn’t
stop recalling, over and over again, the delicious taste of him.
 
The
firmness of his lips
…
 
She huffed at
herself in frustration.

Somehow
she finally managed to get some tweets out, and then turned off her
iPad
and went to the kitchen to make some coffee.
 
It was after lunch already, but it still felt
like breakfast.
 
It was a travel day so
there was no show tonight, which she was glad for.

Kate sat
in the front lounge with Tommy and Shane.
 
The TVs were on but they weren’t watching.
 
They were all looking at something on Kate’s
iPad
.

“I
got more than you, ha!” Shane said gleefully, raising his tattoo-covered arms
overhead in triumph.

“No
way!
 
I demand a recount,” Tommy said.

Kate
laughed and rolled her eyes.
 
“I’ve
already counted it twice.
 
You guys can
count again if you want, but as of right now, Shane is in the lead.”
 
She handed her
iPad
to them and picked up the remote.

“What’s
going on?” Eve asked as she searched the coffee pods for Dark Roast.

“They
wanted to see who was in the lead for the lap ratings today,” Kate said.

“I
haven’t checked that yet.
 
How many are
they up to?”

“I’ve
got a total of three thousand, five hundred, twenty three,” Shane announced to
her smugly.

Eve
raised her eyebrows and smiled. “That’s a great start.”

“Yeah,
Tommy is pretty close to that too…” Kate said.

“Hang
on now, hang on.
 
I’m still counting,” Tommy
said.
 
He was crouched over the
iPad
poking at the numbers on the screen as he added,
 
“Ha!
 
Just got two more likes right now.”