Ian must have sensed my internal conflict. He gave me a devastating look and cupped my cheek. "No worries, sweetness." He spoke the words out loud in a teasing tone. "I know I'm the only man for you." He ran a finger down the side of my neck, making my insides melt. I suppressed a whimper.
The few assistants and interns who were paying attention to us shook their heads and rolled their eyes. They were used to his antics.
That melting feeling solidified into a lump in my throat. Of course no one thought anything of his flirting. Ian and Damon did it to all the girls.
I took a step back, jerking away. Ian dropped his hand, surprised.
"I see you haven't undressed yet." I tried to keep my voice steady, professional. "We should get you outfitted."
Ian did frown then, tilting his head and examining me closely. I forced a smile on my face, pretending everything was fine. "Let's get started."
I should have left Ian's fitting to someone else, but I knew I wouldn't be able to resist staring at his half naked body. At least if I was the one doing the fittings, I'd have an excuse to stare. And touch.
The fitting went smoothly as Ian tried on the various clothes we'd made for him. He would need multiple outfits to last him the entire promotion cycle.
He was particularly enthusiastic about his and Damon's matching vests.
"This is fucking awesome." He'd put it on over his shirt and looked this way and that in the mirror, getting every angle. "It's like I'm literally covered in shattered glass." He smoothed his hand over the material. "It's not sharp, though."
"It's not real glass," I reminded him. "The fabric was just designed to appear that way."
Ian poked at one of the shards, stabbing with his finger.
"Quit it!" I swatted his hand away. "I've only been able to find enough material for one vest so far. I don't want you poking a hole through it."
Instead of replying, Ian took off the vest and threw it over my head, covering my face. I grumbled and tried to fix my messed up hair.
"If you're mean to me, I won't give you the best part."
"What's the best part?"
I reached into one of the boxes of accessories. "Matching wrist cuffs."
I knew The Twins had some sort of obsession with those things. I'd never seen Ian or Damon without a pair on both arms. I'd used the last bits of material to make the cuffs, using a base of thick black leather.
Ian's eyes lit up as he made a grabby motion. "Awesome. Gimme."
I held the cuff out of range. "I don't know, you've been pretty bad today, what with all the teasing. Do you think you deserve a reward?"
Ian threw me lascivious smirk. "Sweetness, you've got no idea how bad I can be."
My breath caught, both at the words and at the tone in which he'd said them. "Fine, then." I tried not to sound breathless. "Give me your old one. We'll try on this new one to see if it fits." I held out my hand, waiting.
I was taken aback when his whole body stiffened. Ian's eye darted around, as if he were nervous. I had no idea why that might be. I tried to lighten the mood, dangling the bracelet in front of his nose.
"Don't you want to try it on?"
He visibly forced his shoulders to relax. "I'm sure it fits, sweetheart. I'll try it on later."
I paused, looking at him with considering eyes. Why did he not want to take off his wrist cuff? He had reacted the same way at the party.
I'd seen Ian with gauze under the cuff one time during their practice session. He said he'd hurt himself on the hand dryer. Was the wound still sore? Maybe there was a scar. Maybe he didn't want me to see something marring his otherwise perfect body. I knew rock stars could be vain, but I hadn't thought Ian was like that. It was cute.
I decided to let the subject go. "It's fine, you can try it on whenever."
The tension around his eyes eased up. "So what else you got for me? Special rock star underwear?"
"You can wear your own underwear under your outfit."
"Maybe I won't wear any at all." He winked.
Which of course only made me think of his cock. I fought back a flush and shot back. "Then it's your own fault if your skin gets rubbed raw."
"That just gives you a reason to kiss it better."
I was never going to win at this game. Ian held all the cards, all the chips, practically the entire casino at this point. He kept me so off balance, and he knew it. He reveled in it. He was toying with me, just like all the rumors said he did.
The worst part was, I loved it.
When the fittings were done, the rest of the band had to leave and go back to the recording studio. I stayed behind to clean up, leaving me privy to intern gossip.
"They're so talented," one of them, a red head, sighed. Her hair was the same bright red as Cameron's. Probably not a coincidence.
"I still can't believe I got this internship," a blonde girl gushed. "I've loved Darkest Days since the very beginning. I'm so lucky I get to work with them."
"Yeah, there weren't many internship spots to go around, were there?" I asked.
Four girls gave me piercing looks. I blinked. The stares weren't hostile, exactly. More… calculating.
"Word is, you got promoted to some sort of position high up," Red Hair asked.
"I'm just an intern," I insisted, though I still wasn't sure that term applied to me or not.
"You're working with the Directors of Marketing and Product Development," the blonde said. "Janet has been bitching about you for weeks."
"Oh god. What's she saying?"
Red Hair answered. "Just grumbling about upstart interns and no-talent hacks."
I felt oddly hurt. Janet clearly didn't see the same things in me August had. Maybe I wasn't all that special.
"But from what I've heard, the band loooves you." She drawled out the word and rolled her eyes. "Especially Damian."
I fought back a blush. "I haven't been working with them much. Mostly trying to stay out of their way. They probably don't care enough about me to have an opinion." Better to not make these girls jealous.
"Whatever," Red Hair shrugged. "It's encouraging to see there's a chance for something bigger after these internships, you know? If one of us can make it, maybe the rest of us can."
The girls nodded their heads in agreement. They weren't upset at all. I breathed a silent sigh of relief. The last thing I needed was jealous colleagues. I already had to deal with Janet talking about me behind my back. I hoped nothing she said got back to August. I didn't want him rethinking his decision.
"So dish." The third girl's blue eyes were shining and eager. "Give us all the details."
"About what?"
"Everything! What are the guys really like? Are any of them seeing anyone seriously? Do you know if they ever date interns?"
Red Hair swatted her friend. "Date? You think any of them pay attention to one girl long enough to call it dating?"
Blue Eyes pursed her lips. "You're right. There's always rumors about the guys dating models and actresses and stuff, but never fans."
Blondie snorted. "Yeah, groupies probably get the one night stand treatment."
"Hero worship probably gets old after a while," the fourth, who'd been quiet up until now, spoke up with a soft voice.
"Maybe the trick is to pretend we hate them." Blondie faked a grimace. "I'm so not a fan of Darkest Days. Their music sucks. Feral Silence is a much better band."
Red Hair clapped a hand over Blondie's mouth. "Don't joke like that. You'll jinx us or something."
"Guys like girls who play hard to get." Her words were muffled behind the palm.
That didn't explain me and Ian. I'd practically let him molest me from the start.
"Don't suppose you could put a good word in with Cameron for me?" Blue Eyes asked. She had been the one to ask about dating.
"You sure?" I asked. "Cameron is definitely not the dating type."
"I'd take one night with Cameron over nothing." She gave a wistful sigh. "A delicious memory to last me
a lifetime."
My chest squeezed tight. That's exactly what I was doing, wasn't it? Spending as much time with Ian as I could before he kicked me to the curb.
"You've just got a thing for his hair," Red Hair accused her friend.
"So says the girl who dyed her hair the same color as his."
The girls all laughed.
My phone buzzed. The girls were chatting to each other, not paying attention to me. I snuck a glance at the screen.
Cam's having another party tonight. You wanna go?
I thought of what the girls said about playing hard to get.
I dunno, I've had a long day. Maybe I'll just stay in and relax tonight.
He didn't reply for several long moments. I panicked. Maybe I shouldn't have said it. Maybe he didn't like doing the chasing. Would he set me aside as soon as he thought I was too much work?
My phone finally buzzed again. I almost dropped it in my hurry to check it.
I promise I'll make it worth your while.
My heart pounded with relief. I quickly texted him back. I was never going to try playing games with Ian ever again.
If you put it that way, I suppose I could make an appearance.
After all, Ian was supposed to be the one playing with me.
Chapter Eighteen
Cameron's latest party was a lot less rowdy this time around. No trash on the floor, no broken glass, no people making out in corners or puking in bathrooms. Ian told me Cameron had kept the invitations to a minimum.
"Only about a hundred people this time," he reassured me.
Only. I didn't think I knew one hundred people. I certainly didn't know one hundred people well enough to invite them to a house party.
In fact, I could probably count on two hands the number of people I would feel comfortable partying with.
But here I was, surrounded by strangers. Celebrities and rock stars and groupies. The only people I knew were the members of Darkest Days. I was at least on friendly terms with Ian and Cameron, even if I hadn't gotten to know August and Noah outside of work.
As for Damon, well, the less he saw of me, the better.
The moment we stepped through the door, Cameron appeared beside me with a handful of bras strung around his neck.
"C'mon, losers. We're finishing up another round of cards." His bright red hair was wild and untamed as usual. "You should join in on the next hand."
He shoved us toward a small crowd of people sitting around a dining room table with drinks in their hands. Most were in states of half-undress.
"Are you playing strip poker?" I asked nervously. "I don't think—"
"Nah," Cameron waved aside my concerns. "We don't play poker anymore."
"Anymore?"
"It stopped being fun after a while. Noah always won and August always lost pretty much ninety percent of the time."
"Noah doesn't seem like the type to have a good poker face."
"He doesn't," Ian said. "He just always looks pissed off so we can never tell when he has a bad hand."
"And August?"
Cameron snorted. "For such a genius, that man is shit with numbers."
"Idiot savant." Ian smirked.
"It's like he has no concept of strategy. He'll have the worst hand and keep on betting and raising the stakes until he loses everything." Cameron shook his head in mock sadness. "Pretty pathetic."
"If it's not strip poker, why are all these people half naked?"
"We don't play strip poker," Ian stressed.
"So what do you play?"
Cameron let out an evil cackle. "You ever heard of Go Fish?"
I stared at him in disbelief. "That's a game for six year olds."
"Perfect for Cameron." Ian gave the bassist a friendly shove.
Cameron pretended to throw a punch at him. "Don't get cocky, asshole. Everyone knows how much you suck at this game. You're always the one left bare assed naked."
"It's impossible to be bad at Go Fish," I said, still unbelieving. A group of rock stars playing a children's game. "It's literally a game of chance. There's no strategy involved."
"Then I guess he just has shit luck," Cameron declared, elbowing Ian in the ribs.
We reached the table as the group set up another round. August glanced up briefly from shuffling the cards. "You guys want in?"
"I'm not sure—"
Cameron cut me off again, pushing me into a chair with a firm shove. "Hells yeah they want in."
No one listened to my protests. August dealt me a hand. I slumped in my chair, eyeing Ian. He took a seat beside me, pleased and smug. Was he planning to get us both naked? I was fine with that, in theory, but not in front of a room of people.
"It's not fair." There were six people around the table. Ian, Cameron, August, me, and two pretty brunette girls. "The girls are at a disadvantage. We wear a lot less clothing. Panties and a dress, maybe a bra, and that's it."
"Jewelry and accessories count," one of the girls reassured me. She had an oval face and perfectly plucked eyebrows, giving her a classical look. The kind of look I wished I could pull off. "With the amount of bling we wear, sometimes it's the guys who get taken for a ride."
"So how's it work?"
"You know how to play Go Fish, right?" August's usual distant expression was gone. He shuffled and dealt the cards with a laser focus.
"Sure. You ask the person on your left if they have a certain numbered card. If they do, they have to give it to you. If not, they say Go Fish and you pick up a card from the deck. The goal is to play as many numbered pairs as you can until your hand is empty."
"Pretty much."
"But where does the stripping come in?"
Cameron grinned. "Every time you have to pick up a card, you lose a piece of clothing and put it in the middle of the table."
"We don't make it too easy, though," Ian explained. "Whenever you play a pair, you can take a piece of clothing back from of the pile."
"And no one says it has to be your clothing, either." From the bras hanging around Cameron's neck, I inferred that was his main strategy.
"And do those poor girls ever get their clothes back?"
"Only if we ask nicely." The other girl blew a kiss in Cameron's direction with a grin before turning to me. "Hi. I'm Jen. I'm dating Noah."
"Dating Noah?"
I couldn't imagine Noah getting close enough to anyone to actually date them. A one night stand, maybe. But a real relationship?
Jen laughed. "Not exactly the most open or affectionate of men, I know. Still, once you get to know him, he's just a big softy underneath."
Cameron snorted. "His Royal Highness is about as a soft as a brick."
I suppressed a giggle at the nickname. It suited him. The lead singer of Darkest Days did sometimes act like a stuck up prince looking down on his subjects from a lofty throne.
"You just need to learn how to handle him," Jen said. She nodded her head towards the other girl. "And this is Natalie. She's dating Morris from Feral Silence."
My mouth popped open, speechless. An embarrassing squeak left my throat. I flushed bright red.
"Hope's a huge fangirl," Ian explained.
"Don't worry, so was I," Natalie reassured me. "You should have seen the way I freaked when I was first introduced to the guys." She gave me a curious look. "Are you…" she paused for a moment, before continuing smoothly, "…friends with Ian?"
My heart thumped so loudly in my chest, it was a wonder everyone couldn't hear it. "I'm working with the band as an image consultant."
Now it was Natalie's turn to gape. "Oh my god, that's so cool. I wish I could work with rock stars."
"It has its moments. Mostly it's just stressful."
"Dealing with this lot is always stressful," August murmured.
The game went about as well as I could have hoped. We went around the table a handful of times, each of us losing and picking up articles of clothing as our turns came and went. I wasn't doing too badly. I lost a bracelet and both shoes at
first, but I'd picked the shoes back up again with two pairs in a row.
August's turn came again. His ice blue eyes barely blinked, flicking from one card to another as if they held the secrets of the universe.
"Do you have…" He paused for a long moment, staring intently at Natalie sitting to his left. She inched away from him, nervous. The silence lingered, all of us holding our breath as if something of great importance was about to happen. "…a five?"
"Go fish." She flopped back in her chair, relieved the tension has broken.
August unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it into the pile. I let out a small noise in the back of my throat, but quickly cut it off. August was still wearing a thin white undershirt. His toned upper arms were the kind that made girls squeal. He took a card from the deck and slid it carefully into his hand. He hunched over his cards, eyes narrowing in thought, blond hair falling over his face.
"You got a two?" Natalie took her turn, asking Jen to her left, who handed a card over silently. She played a pair and took a shirt from the pile, pulling it over her head.
Jen looked at Cameron. "Do you have a six?"
He chuckled darkly. "Go. Fucking. Fish."
"Ugh. Fine." She took off her sparkly blue sequined tank top and picked up a card, leaving her in a strapless bra.
"Better stop losing or your boyfriend's gonna be upset you're flashing everyone," Cameron said.
"Better stop taking all my clothes or my boyfriend's going to clock you one in the mouth," she said with a sweet smile.
"Wait," I said. "There's a rumor the girl who helped Noah write his song started dating him. Was that you?"
Jen's smile went soft, almost sappy. "Sure was."
From her glowing face, it looked like she really was in love. She must have been something, to be able to work with, and snag, a man like Noah Hart.
"I heard an early leaked version your song," I told her. "It was awesome. I loved it."
"Thanks!"
"Speaking of His Royal Highness, why isn't he here?" Ian glanced around the room. "Shouldn't he be sullenly glaring at any man who ogles Jen's half-naked body?"
Hard Rock Fling: A Rock Star Romance Page 11