Misadventures with a Rockstar

by HELEN HARDT

  “You don’t want to try the filet?”

  “I don’t eat a lot of red meat.” What a big lie. I was a carnivore of the highest order.

  “That’s too bad. It truly is amazing.” Alicia didn’t pick up her menu but took the last sip of her second martini. Then her smile widened. “Oh my, look who it is!” She stood. “Over here, Jett, darling.”

  Nausea threatened in my throat, and I knew. Alicia had planned all of this. It was all too…convenient.

  Warmth crept up my cheeks, and I knew they were turning pink. I was no actress, but I was determined to play the part of the woman who didn’t give a damn. The woman who was not in love with Jett Draconis.

  It didn’t help that he looked absolutely magnificent. His long hair was up in a messy man bun, and he had a day’s worth of stubble on his cheeks and chin. I had seen the beginning of that stubble this morning…

  No. I was not going there. Time to turn on the charm. I forced another smile.

  Alicia stood and wrapped her arms around Jett’s neck. “What are you doing here?” She turned to look at me. “I guess I don’t need to introduce you to my dinner companion. You obviously know Heather, since you carried her out of the concert hall last night during the bomb threat.”

  Without meaning to, I let my gaze meet Jett’s. His hazel eyes were sharp, and they glittered with something I hadn’t seen in them before. Was it anger? Was he angry with me?

  That couldn’t be. I hadn’t done anything to invoke his anger. He was the one who had kicked me out of his bed.

  I waited for him to say hello. To say something.

  Alicia pulled him to our table. “You must join us for dinner. We haven’t even ordered yet. Here, you can sit by me.”

  The way she was gushing over him made my guts boil. A spear of jealousy shot into my body. Alicia Hopkins had slept with Jett. No surprise there, but it was written all over her face.

  I couldn’t figure out exactly what was written on Jett’s face. His eyes still glittered with what I thought was anger, but also a bit of… Was it sorrow?

  Before he sat down, he looked at Alicia. “Can I talk to you in private please?”

  “Later. I’ve asked Heather to dinner, and you wouldn’t want me to be rude, would you?”

  I opened my mouth, hoping my words wouldn’t come out in a stammer. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll just go to the ladies room for a few minutes. Then you can talk to each other.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of having you leave on our account,” Alicia said.

  “It’s okay, really. I do need to use the ladies room.” God, did I ever. I wasn’t the least bit sure I could keep my martini from coming back out the way it had gone in. I left the table in a hurry.

  When I got to the ladies room, I walked down to the last stall, entered, locked it, and then leaned against the wall, breathing hard. Calm down, Heather. This is nothing. You can deal with it. When my breathing didn’t slow down, I grabbed a paper bag from the dispenser for disposing sanitary supplies and breathed into it. In about a minute, I had reversed the hyperventilation.

  I had to go back out there. I had no choice. Like an idiot, I’d left my purse at the table, so I couldn’t sneak out of the restaurant. Not that I would have anyway. I’d hate myself if I did. Plus, what better way to show Jett Draconis I was fine with his treatment of me than to go back out with a smile on my face and chat animatedly about…well, anything.

  Never mind that I wasn’t sure I’d ever chatted animatedly in my life. Time to learn.

  When I felt I had a grip on myself, I left the stall, washed my hands, and assessed my appearance in the mirror. My lipstick was still okay, since all I’d had so far was a drink. I would do. Of course, I couldn’t help wishing that I looked like…well, like a rock star, and that Jett would be sorry he ever let me go.

  When I reentered the dining room, I looked over to our table. Jett still hadn’t sat down. He was conversing with Alicia from a standing position.

  I inhaled and let out my breath slowly. Then I walked toward the table.

  And stopped abruptly when—

  “You fucking bitch!” Jett shouted to Alicia.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Jett

  “What the fuck are you doing?” I said in an urgent whisper.

  “Taking a promising young screenwriter to dinner. What are you doing here?”

  “You knew I’d come when I got your photo. Stop the games, Alicia. What are you after?”

  “Just a little reminder. Remember who made you, who you belong to, and what can happen if you betray me.”

  “Don’t you pull that shit with me. We had a deal. I could sleep with whoever I wanted.”

  “Yes, we do have that deal. But you are also mine, and I don’t want you to forget that.”

  “What makes you think I forgot that?” God knew I hadn’t. And God knew I wished I could, now that I had actually fallen in love.

  “Your little redheaded slut.”

  “She means nothing to me.” The lie tasted terrible, like stomach acid and bad wine. I felt like I needed to wash my mouth out with soap like my mother had when I was a kid.

  “You really think I’m stupid, don’t you? You risked your life last night. You jumped off the stage when I know damned well you were told to leave the back way.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Don’t you? You jumped off the stage to rescue the little redhead.”

  “I was acting on instinct.” That wasn’t even a lie. My instinct was to get Heather out of there safely.

  “I don’t buy it. But don’t worry. I took care of it.”

  “What did you do?” I said through clenched teeth.

  “Oh, nothing much. I simply told her that you orchestrated the bomb threat so you could save her and get her into your bed. It worked, didn’t it?”

  “You fucking bitch!”

  “Lower your voice,” Alicia scolded. “Heather is coming back.”

  I looked toward the restrooms. Heather stood, her mouth dropped open. I didn’t know how much she had heard, but she had at least heard me call Alicia a bitch. I didn’t want to upset Heather, but I couldn’t bring myself to be sorry the words had left my mouth.

  Alicia smiled and looked at Heather. She motioned for her to come forward.

  Heather walked slowly, biting her lower lip. God, she was so beautiful. She didn’t deserve any of this. She didn’t deserve to be a part of my fucked-up world.

  She sat down as if nothing were amiss and then took a drink of the martini in front of her. Her cheeks were pink, her lips were red, her long auburn hair was in a bit of disarray around her shoulders. She was wearing a peach-colored camisole, and her nipples protruded through, as if asking me to bite them through the silk.

  I was still so fucking angry, yet my groin tightened.

  I took a seat next to Heather, and Alicia looked at me with poison in her gaze.

  The waiter came to take our order. Heather robotically ordered some sort of pasta, and I ordered the filet mignon and a bottle of their best Bordeaux. Alicia might never pay for what she was putting Heather through, but she would at least pay for a rock star dinner.

  “So…” Alicia began. “Any news on the bomb threat?”

  Heather arched her eyebrows at Alicia. I opened my mouth to tell Heather that Alicia had fed her a pack of lies, but then Alicia arched her eyebrows at me.

  Somehow, I had to figure out how to let Heather know that Alicia had lied to her. But how could I? The bomb squad and the cops hadn’t uncovered anything about the bomb, so there was nothing I could say.

  “Not yet,” I said. “The bomb squad thinks it was a hoax, same as the one in Philadelphia.” There, that should help. I hadn’t rushed off the stage to rescue anyone in Philadelphia. Plus, I was telling the damned truth.

  Heather took another drink of her martini. If only I could get her alone. Make her understand what kind of person Alicia was. Tell her I’d had nothing to do with t
he phony bomb threat.

  And then it hit me. Alicia herself had orchestrated the threat. Who else? Somehow, she had figured out I was interested in Heather.

  If only I could turn the tables on Alicia and prove that she had been behind the bomb threat. If I were the only one at risk, I wouldn’t hesitate. But I wasn’t the only one at risk. Two people I loved dearly would go down if I did.

  Alicia Hopkins was the worst kind of evil. She had grown up with a platinum spoon in her mouth and was used to buying everything she wanted as an adult.

  Like an idiot, I had let her buy me.

  Heather was moving in a stiff way, as if a cape of frost blanketed her. I could easily sense her discomfort because I shared it. I remained stiff as a board when all I wanted to do was turn, grab Heather, and kiss her.

  I didn’t usually mind silence, but this silence was icy and awkward. Alicia chatted on and on about some charity benefit or another. The words sounded like a garbled radio signal. I was thankful when we had all finished and the waiter brought the check.

  Out of habit, I reached for it, forgetting for a minute that I wanted Alicia to pay.

  “It’s my treat.” Alicia swept the check to her side of the table. “I’m the one who invited Heather here, after all.”

  “Yes, and I can’t thank you enough.” She rose. “But if you’ll excuse me, I do need to be going.”

  I stood. “I’ll walk you out.”

  But Alicia had other plans for me. “No, Jett. Please stay. I have something I really need to discuss with you. I was going to call you later, but since you’re here…”

  She had told me she wanted me in her bed. Alicia was not one to back down. So I would fuck her tonight—not that I had a choice—and figure out what to do about Heather tomorrow.

  An odd emotion enveloped me as I watched Heather walk away from our table for the exit.

  She didn’t look back at me. Not once. Not that I expected her to. She certainly didn’t owe me anything. And then it hit me like an asteroid hitting the earth. That emotion I was feeling. It was loss. Profound loss.

  Out of the restaurant marched my one shot at happiness in this life.

  When I was twenty-five years old, I hadn’t given a thought to tomorrow. Zane and I were a package deal with Alicia. She would take us both to the top in exchange for…basically indentured servitude. We could fuck whomever we liked as long as we made ourselves available to her as an escort—or more often a fuck—whenever she demanded it. Not falling in love wasn’t an actual part of the deal with Alicia, but what woman would agree to let us fuck another woman whenever she called? Falling in love was off the table.

  Zane’s situation and mine were not identical, however. He could walk away whenever he felt like it. She didn’t have anything on him to control him besides her promise to keep him at the top, which was enough for him. I required a little more. So Alicia had dived into my past and found a secret my family and I had hoped to keep buried forever.

  Alicia scribbled her name on the credit card receipt and then turned to me. “Shall we go?”

  I stood. “Yeah.”

  Might as well get it over with.

  She wanted to be tied up tonight. Tied up and whipped hard across her ass and thighs. She particularly liked it when I left marks. Once she was good and bruised, she liked to be fucked hard, first in the pussy and then the ass.

  As much as I had grown to hate Alicia, I didn’t like leaving marks on her body. Though I loved playing the dominant role in the bedroom, hurting someone to the point of marring her body felt abusive to me. But she demanded it, so I complied.

  She had a dungeon in her mansion that made mine look like a child’s play area.

  I knew what she required, so I sucked in a breath and began.

  “Undress, bitch.”

  “Yes, Sir.” She smiled and slowly stripped for me.

  Although she was well into her fifties, Alicia was a great-looking woman with a smoking-hot body—lots of liposuction and Botox. I had stopped finding her attractive about a year ago, though, when I had begun to regret the deal I had made with her. Still, fucking her had been no hardship, and I had never imagined I would fall in love, so I continued.

  Right now, though? I wasn’t sure I could get an erection.

  Alicia’s pussy was freshly waxed, her clit ring dangling.

  “Go to the wall,” I commanded. “Get me the black snake whip.”

  Her body flushed pink. “Yes, Sir.” She turned and walked slowly to the wall.

  “Faster, bitch. Bring it to me and then get on your knees.”

  She obeyed, handing me the leather whip and then kneeling before me.

  “Would you like me to suck your cock, Sir?”

  That was the last thing I wanted. My poor dick felt like it was going to shrivel up and die. “No. You said you wanted to be whipped. I intend to whip you.”

  “Oh, yes, Sir. Please whip me hard.”

  “Don’t talk again unless I instruct you to.” That was one way to keep her quiet.

  She nodded.

  “Go to the table and lie facedown.”

  She complied, and I bound her wrists and ankles to the poles at each corner of the leather-covered table. The hard cowhide of the snake whip was warm in my palm.

  Alicia squirmed on the table. “Please, Sir. Spank my ass. I can’t wait any longer.”

  “I told you not to talk. For that, you will wait ten minutes until I touch your body with this whip.”

  She let out a gasp but did not say another word.

  And I got a ten-minute reprieve.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Heather

  Exhaustion weighed on my shoulders as I unlocked the door to my apartment. That dinner date had taken more out of me than a ten-mile run. But why should I be surprised? Everything Alicia had told me had made a twisted kind of sense.

  I sighed and opened the door, planning to grab a glass of water and head straight to my bedroom.

  Those plans went by the wayside when I walked into my apartment and saw Susie on the couch with Janet, the woman I’d found in Jett’s bed.

  “Oh, good, Heather. You’re home,” Susie said. “You know Janet, right?”

  Janet smiled. “We’ve met. Great to see you again, Heather.”

  “Janet actually came over here to talk to you,” Susie said.

  “Yeah?” I said rather shortly. I didn’t mean to be rude, but this woman had been in the bed of the man I had fallen in love with. God only knew how many times they’d fucked.

  “Susie and I have known each other for ages,” Janet said. “She speaks very highly of you.”

  “That’s nice.” So what?

  “Jett has obviously taken a liking to you,” Janet continued. “Susie and I were just talking, and we thought it might be fun if you and I got together to do a show for him.”

  I raised my brow and then picked up my jaw from the floor.

  Janet kept talking. “He loves seeing a black girl and white girl together. It’s kind of a fetish of his. And babe, you’re hot. I could totally do you.”

  Speechless. I said nothing.

  “Susie said you might be a little resistant. Would it help if I told you that Susie and I have been together?”

  “What? No. Christ. I’m not into girls.”

  Janet and Susie giggled. “That’s not what Susie says.”

  I shot daggers at Susie with my glare. A couple of months ago, after we’d had way too many margaritas, I had confessed to Susie that I had a girl crush on the actress Lupita Nyong’o. She had such exotic beauty, and I loved her dark, flawless skin.

  And truthfully, Janet made Lupita look average.

  I loved Susie like a sister, but I could already tell the way her mind was working. If I thought Lupita Nyong’o was attractive, surely I would jump at the chance to hop in bed with a woman as gorgeous as Janet.

  That was the groupie mentality—fuck whomever you had to in order to get your prey’s attention. Never mind that I h
ad no desire to sleep with Lupita Nyong’o. I just thought she was amazing-looking. And I had even less desire to sleep with Janet or Susie or any other woman.

  “What I was thinking,” Janet went on, “was that the two of us could sneak into his bedroom and surprise him tonight.”

  “Breaking and entering?” I shook my head. “I don’t think I want to get arrested, but thanks.”

  Janet laughed. “We wouldn’t break in, silly.”

  “Then how would we get into his house?” And why had I just asked that question? It wasn’t like I was actually considering this.

  “Lindy and I are good friends with his maid. She lets us in whenever we want.”

  “And Jett’s okay with that?”

  “Are you kidding? She wouldn’t do it if he weren’t. She’s not going to do anything to jeopardize that cushy job.”

  “So let me get this straight. You’re suggesting that you and I sneak into Jett’s bed, and when he gets home we put on a little show for him?” The whole thing sounded absurd to me, but heck, we were in Hollywood. Anything went here.

  “That’s exactly what I’m suggesting, babe.” She winked at me. “Though we can start before he gets there if you’d like. You’re fucking hot.”

  I looked around my living room. No hidden cameras that I could see, though I could’ve sworn I was on some kind of reality TV show.

  “I told Jan that you probably wouldn’t want to do this,” Susie said. “After all, you wouldn’t make out with me after the concert the other night to get his attention.”

  “I told you. I’m not into girls.”

  Janet smiled. “Baby, all women are into women. They just don’t know it. And honey, I haven’t met a man yet who’s as good at licking pussy as another woman is. But hey, I get what you’re saying. I love a good hard dick as much as the next woman. Right, Suze?”