Ava collected the folder off the table as she rose to stand and straighten again. “We’ll meet back in a few weeks to gauge progress, to see if Rory’s social currency and relevancy shows a spike.”
“Right.” Gina nodded as she scribbled notes into a spiral-bound notebook—what kind of monster still used dead trees, anyway? “Bug and I will keep a close eye on social media followers and engagement.”
Gina was good at her job, but that didn’t mean he had to like any of this.
Ava passed him one final look on her way out the door, closing the door behind her, leaving all eyes on him.
“What? I said I’d try it, but don’t hold your breath. I’m no Dev.”
The chorus of hallelujah’s and nods that followed made his laugh genuine for the first time all day, but inside, he steeled himself for what was to come.
Whether or not he wanted it, the responsibility now fell on his shoulders. He was sure the limelight would kill him, but he would do his best for the band. Because, besides his sister, there was nothing in the world he loved more. It had been there when he’d needed an escape from a terrible home life as a kid. It had gotten him through the tough times of raising a kid sister once he had finally had the balls to walk away from his abusive father and take Cheri-bug with him. And it would get him through this.
If he had to date a bunch of hot girls for the camera, so be it. He had no one serious in his life anyway, and never would.
The band was the only real love he could ever count on or trust in, and it was going to stay that way.
Chapter 2
A glow spread through Gina as the warmth of the early summer sun seeped into her very bones.
Her lips hitched into a smile and stayed there while she soaked in the paradise around her. She was in a place of Zen, stretched out on a poolside recliner on the deck of the swankiest hotel in town—The Silver Inn. She was quiet as the sun beat against her skin.
She knew that, come a few hours after sunset, the pool deck would become a hot spot for the who’s who of the city’s Socialite scene. By nightfall, it would be crowded with people desperate to climb the social ladder, no matter who they’d have to sleep with to accomplish such a feat.
New York was always known for its harsh winters, and then people would complain once the sun came out to play. They said that the heat magnified the city smells. But not her. She loved the city. Loved the noise and action of it, and then the little windows of quiet paradise like this that existed for those who took the time to find them.
She reached outward with her hand to grab her drink that had been fitted with a striped yellow umbrella and pulled it to her lips. She let slip an audible groan when she tipped the glass against her mouth and all she got was ice. Placing the glass back down onto the chaise-side table, she shifted to sit upright in her chair, pushed her white Chanel glasses to the brim of her nose and made eye contact with a server on the opposite end of the glistening pool.
He nodded in her direction and she waved in thanks before dropping back down to a relaxing position knowing she would soon enough be served a fresh new beverage; spiked lemonade, her favorite refreshment on a hot summer day.
She could feel the gazes of several well-off men around her, which was all right. They could look, but they certainly couldn’t touch. At least, not for long.
Gina had rules, after all. They were relatively new rules ever since she caught her piece of shit ex, Peter, in bed with that one blonde girl whose name Gina swore she had forgotten.
The post-Peter rules were simple. Short-term sex only. Relationships were out of the question. Relationships with rock stars? Even more out of the question. It was a quick ride to Hotel Heartbreak and she’d already been there, done that. Peter had made sure she never wanted to go back.
She let out an audible groan as all those glowy feelings and relaxation faded away. Just the thought of that bastard was enough to cut through the Zen.
A shadow fell over her, forcing her eyes open, and she pushed her expensive glasses to her forehead.
“It’s about time.” She grinned and pulled the shades back over her eyes, adjusting herself in the comfortable chaise. “I was beginning to think you weren’t going to show.”
“Sorry about my tardiness,” Cheri said with an amused chuckle, her hands held against her hips. She wasn’t quite dressed for the pool scene, wearing grey jeans and a white tee, but that was the Bug she knew and loved. “It doesn’t look like you minded waiting too much.”
“You’re right.” Gina cracked a grin and angled her gaze towards her best friend. “This right here is one of the perks of a sometimes thankless job.”
“More than makes up for having to deal with my brother and my fiancé, right?” She nudged Gina with her elbow before retreating slightly backwards to grab a chair of her own and then scooted it close. She landed against the firm bed, swung her camera over her head and set it down beside her. “You don’t need to answer that question.”
“Wasn’t planning on it.” Her mind was already way ahead of the day, thinking about the work to come, and she knew it was going to be like pulling teeth. The longer she could stretch out this little window of calm, the better.
“It’s a perfect day for a swim.” Cheri peered over her shoulder at the sparkling pool behind her where a bare-chested man dived into the water. “Are you getting in?”
She sat up slightly, rested the weight of her body on one elbow. “Do you have any idea how long it took me to get pool-ready? I’m not about to ruin this look with a dip in chlorine.”
“If I were stronger, I’d pick you up and throw you in.”
“If you were braver, you mean?” Gina arched one brow, teasing her best friend playfully. “Cuz you know you’re too soft-hearted and I’d kick your ass.”
Bug nodded in agreement. “Believe me, I’m aware. So that makes me a little leery to have to be the one to bring up business, but alas. We’ve got to get this whole thing moving.”
Gina didn’t have to ask what she meant. She was talking about operation “Make Rory into a player extraordinaire”. A job that left a weird sensation in her stomach whenever she thought about it.
“Who would have ever thought that Rory would be the new star of the band?” Bug mused. “My brother.” She wrinkled her nose.
“Did you see that look on his face?” Gina said, managing a chuckle. “I think he was the most blindsided of them all.”
“He’s so…Rory…” Cheri shook her head in disbelief. “Yeah, I can’t quite picture it either.”
“Well, it’s my job to make every lust-filled teenage girl in all the land swoon, and I’m damn good at my job. If the label wants a sex-symbol, well, I’m going to hand them one on a silver platter.”
Cheri grimaced, her teeth exposed for the world to see.
“What about someone like her?” Gina pointed to a bombshell of a woman across the way. A nameless figure who seemed to have it all; large breasts, firm breasts, long wavy blonde hair, deep blue eyes, and a body that would test the fortitude of any man’s jeans. Yeah, she seemed to have it all, except for money it would appear as she dropped into the lap of a balding chunky man hiding beneath a shaded canopy.
“For a one-night thing?” Cheri shrugged. “But that girl is as fake as a three-dollar bill and even if it’s just an act, Rory couldn’t stand to be in the same room as someone like that for more than an hour at a time.”
Gina nodded, taking that bit of information in. That crossed a good percentage of eligible bachelorettes off the list. It was going to be a difficult balance. They needed someone high profile and sexy enough to create a buzz, but not someone with a marriage nice girl next door vibe that would make everyone hate Rory when he moved on to the next flavor of the week.
“Mary Ellis?” Gina asked, shooting off another name that had popped into her head.
“America’s Next Top Idol?” Cheri sighed. “She’s too sweet.”
“Which is why it would be perfect. Can you imagine the
tabloids? They’d go wild.”
“He’d destroy her,” Cheri said deadpan. “We’re trying to give him an air of mystery. You hook him up with someone like that and he’s going to be the most despised man in the world.”
She’d thought that herself, but it was good to see she and Bug were on the same page.“Sylvia Cruz?”
“The tattoo artist? I mean, I heard she’s single now ever since she broke up with what’s his face. Word on the street is that she’s about to drop their sex tape.”
“Doesn’t Donnie have, like, an eleven-inch wang?”
“I guess the world is about to find out.” Cheri pursed her lips and then smiled. “Tammy Carter?”
“A comedian? They’d never be taken seriously together.” Gina drew her thumb to her mouth and chewed at her nail. “I got it.” She jumped to her feet, pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head and threw out a few jabs of her fist. “Ennis Clark.”
“That’s a man,” Cheri pointed out.
“Think of all the publicity, though.” They both stared off, musing on that, before Gina shrugged. The last thing she was about to admit to Cheri, Rory’s sister, was that at least if he was with a man, she’d know she could never compete. It was the thought of him with another woman…other women, that had her chest feeling tight lately.
Which was ridiculous. They were hardly even friends most days. They bickered and joked and got irritated with each other, mostly.
So why is he in your dreams at night, then?
“Okay,” she said, willing the heat to leave her burning cheeks, “instead of focusing on specific people, how about we narrow it down to a type?”
They both went quiet as the waiter dropped off her drink and then melted away as she waved her thanks.
“The problem is that Rory doesn’t so much have a type as he has a non-type.” She reached forward to grab Gina and lower her back into her chair. “Dumb girls? That’s a no go. Fake girls? He’d rather spend the rest of his life with his own hand.”
Gina chuckled, but her cheeks only got hotter as she imagined Rory jerking off. She shook her head and wrinkled her lips as she tried to shake away the image, but it was there. And it wasn’t going away, like she was standing in the Louvre and right by the Mona Lisa was a portrait of Rory’s dick. She fanned her face and reached for her drink. She was one thirsty bitch and she realized she needed to check herself before she wrecked herself, or whatever the hell it was that kids were saying those days.
She threw her head back and downed her drink, reveling in the slight burn against the back of her throat, as if it were scratching an itch she couldn’t quite scratch.
“Are you okay?” Cheri cocked her a sideways glance, a look of equal parts intrigue and confusion.
If she only knew…
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Gina stammered and swung her legs over the side of the chair. “Why would you think otherwise?”
“Because you just downed that entire drink in one go. Maybe too much sun.”
“Right.” Gina eyed the empty glass in her hand and set it down onto the table beside the chair. If she were honest, she would have admitted that she didn’t even realize. She forced a smile and cleared her throat. “Anyways, this is proving to be a lot more difficult than I had imagined.”
Cheri’s eyes practically rolled into the back of her head. “It’s been five minutes.”
“I don’t think anyone’s ever accused me of being a patient girl.” She shrugged. “I like results and I like them fast.”
Gina retrieved her purse from underneath her chair and pulled out a legal pad—she was old-fashioned that way. She clicked the pen in her hand and wrinkled her nose in contemplation as she scribbled a few notes.
“How about someone like my sister?” Gina said.
“Someone who’s not famous?”
“No, they should probably be at least somewhat famous.” Gina sunk her teeth into her bottom lip, her eyes searching the crowd around them. “Someone smart like my sister though, someone that’s more of a brainy-type so they’re more able to play the game.”
“How about Carlene Richardson?”
“That’s perfect.” Gina shook the pen at her best friend. “It’s like the perfect collision of two totally different worlds; a rock star and a senator’s daughter.”
“Word on the street is that she’s got quite the wild side.”
Gina refused to contemplate what that meant or where it could lead, and focused on the topic at hand. Rory was her client, not her boyfriend.
“I can’t imagine Senator Richardson would approve, but he’s a conservative droll so I’m not about to ask for approval. Hopefully his baby girl will take this opportunity to stick it to him a little and take the bait.”
“Rory is going to be so pissed.” Cheri chuckled and slapped her palm against her thigh. “Don’t tell him I had this meeting with you.”
“Why the hell not?” Gina shot narrowed eyes at Cheri.
“Because I’m not taking the blame for any of this.”
“You’re either his sister or my friend in this,” Gina said, shaking her head. “Pick a lane, Bug.”
“I’ve got a lane and it’s right down the middle. I’m those little yellow stripes in the center of the road.” She jutted across the thin space between them and ripped the notepad from Gina’s hands.
“What are you doing?”
Cheri glanced up at Gina with a mischievous grin. “I’m adding someone’s name to the list.”
Gina watched intently as Cheri scribbled something onto the notepad, until finally she couldn’t take the secrecy any longer and stole the notebook back, eliciting an audible gasp from the other girl.
She glanced down at the notepad and then frowned before pointing her finger squarely at Cheri. “Remind me to kick your ass,” she said before striking a black line through the second name on the list, Gina Saldano.
“You know I’m kidding,” Cheri snorted. “Remember, Rory doesn’t like fake girls.”
Gina launched her pen right at Cheri’s forehead.
“Oww,” Cheri scoffed and rubbed the pain away.
Gina grinned as a redness crept across the top of her best friend’s head.
Cheri shot her a death glare and then under her breath mumbled, “Add Jeni Cook to the list.”
Gina pursed her lips, an actual honest-to-God good candidate to fit the needs of Rory and the label. Hell, it was a genius idea seeing as how Jeni Cook had also just signed a new record deal with Ruffian Records. They could cross promote the shit out of the up and coming pop starlet and Sub-Zero.
“I’m going to need that pen back,” Gina said under her breath with a slight grimace.
“Oh,” Cheri chuckled. “That’ll be no problem.”
She bent over at her hip and scooped the pen off the concrete, reached across the short distance between them as if she was going to just blindly hand the weapon back over to her attacker.
Nope.
She flicked the pen, landing it square in between Gina’s eyes.
“Oww,” Gina stammered before ripping her shades back over her eyes. “This is why I’m always wearing sunglasses. It’s not just to protect my eyes from the sun.”
“Karma, bitch.”
Cheri had a point there so Gina just offered a simple nod. “Touché.”
Cheri dug her phone out of her pocket and let out a sigh. “Seven missed calls from Dev.”
“Must be important.”
The photographer rolled her eyes and laughed. “Probably not, but I should get out of here anyway.” She grabbed her camera and swung it around her neck. “I hope I’ve given you plenty of inspiration.”
“Oh, yeah. Lots.” Gina, with notepad in hand, swung her feet back onto the chair and lay back down as her friend prepped herself to leave.
“And Gina?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t set my brother up with some loser or crazy person. Even just for the short-term. He’s a boob sometimes, but I love him and I don
’t want some girl going all Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction on him.” She pointed at Gina as she began a backward pace towards the rooftop door.
“Yeah, yeah.” Gina waved her off and stared up at the afternoon sky that was tinted a yellow hue from her dark shades. “Fuck me, right,” she mumbled to herself as she tapped the pen against the paper.
All that work and she had only come up with one name—well, three, but two were scribbled out. For all intents and purposes she was right back where she started.
She wetted her lips as she glanced down at the list once more and imagined a wild world where she managed to set herself up with Rory. That would never happen for a multitude of reasons, the least of which being that she herself was the furthest thing from being either a socialite or a starlet. But damn, she couldn’t seem to stop imagining what it would be like to be in his arms, even for a night.
She sucked up whatever misgivings she had and began to craft a list of names. Never mind if they weren’t perfect for Rory. She was tasked with setting her best friend’s brother up with someone newsworthy for the week. Ultimately, Rory himself would have final say whether or not he’d hook up with any of the girls presented before him.
Once she was finished, she tossed the notepad onto the hot concrete and rested her eyes. She was going to enjoy the rest of the beautiful day. Because once this list was finalized, she had the most difficult, most impossible task of her career ahead of her.
She had to convince Rory Galveston to embrace his new role as the star of Sub-Zero.
Chapter 3
Arms folded over each other, Rory shot Gina a disapproving glare.
“Hell no.”
“Seriously?” Gina rolled her eyes. “How many of these women are you going to say no to before you’ve even had the chance to meet them?”
“Beats me.” Rory shrugged. “Right now we’re three for three, so the odds are not looking good.”
Which, to be fair, wasn’t his fault—what did she expect when she wanted to set him up with girls like that? Based on the vacant expression in Girl Number One’s eyes, he was relatively sure she’d had a lobotomy, and as for the other two…well, aside from their considerable assets, there wasn’t much to recommend them, either. At least, not according to their profiles.
Hard Sell: A Bad-Boy, Rock Star Romance Page 2