I Want You to Want Me (Rock Star Romance #2) (12 page)

Reaching for a fresh seltzer and lime on the bar, Violet felt arms belt around her waist, and a familiar scent filled her senses. “Dance with me.”

God, he felt good. Those strong arms, that silky hair sliding across her cheek. She wanted to turn in his arms and just hold him. “Shouldn’t you be working?”

“Slater can do the rest of the interviews.”

She gestured to Pete. “He’s high.”

“I know.” He tipped his head toward Ben and Cooper. “But they’re watching him.”

She’d been so preoccupied with Pete she hadn’t noticed the way their gazes flicked over to him every so often. It warmed her, knowing they were all in this with her.

“The place is crawling with press. You need to be my girlfriend. Dance with me, make out with me. Show the world you’re my girl.”

A sharp sting of awareness burned in her chest. She’d never been anyone’s girl. She could have—she knew that. She could’ve been Randall’s. But she always took too long, waiting for something. Sparks? Trust? Something that never came. Well, either it never came or she talked herself out of it.

He lowered his face into her neck, breathed her in. “You want to know why I sleep in your bed?”

She held her breath, waiting.

“All day long, you’re vigilant. You’re the consummate professional, calm, in command. But at night? You soften in my arms.” He swayed with her, still holding her from behind. “You relax into me, and I love it. I love being with you. I could stay awake all night just to be with the Violet I get under the covers. Now, I want Violet on the dance floor.” His hands pressed into her stomach, and he kissed the corner of her mouth. “Dance with me.”

See? See what he does?
The man was so dangerous. No wonder she couldn’t turn him away. Had anyone in her life ever made her feel this good about herself?

Screw it. For this one night, what could it hurt? He was right, the media was everywhere, and she was supposed to be his girlfriend. So she drew in a deep breath and turned in his arms. He led her to the dance floor, belted his arms around her waist, and held her close.

She tucked her head against his chest and sank into him. And he gave her just what she wanted—a tight, intimate hold.

She hadn’t known what safety was until she’d stepped in his arms. Never in her life had she felt she could really, fully relax.
Until him
.

“All right?”

She answered by snuggling in even closer.

His hands pressed at the small of her back. “My sweet V. You feel so good.”

She gazed up at him, sifting her fingers through the hair at the back of his neck. “You overwhelm me.”

“That’s probably a good thing.”

She laughed. “That’s never a good thing.”

“With you it is. I’ll bet you push away all the guys. And they want you so much, they’ll do anything to have you, so they back off, give you time. What they don’t realize is during that time? You’re coming up with excuses why you don’t want them or can’t have them. So I think you need a guy like me.”

“A pushy bastard?”

“A guy who sees right through you. Right into here.” He placed his palm on her heart, the heel of his hand touching her breasts. “You need me, Violet.” His teasing smile fell away as his features seized. Fear flickered in his eyes before he closed them and muttered, “Shit.” And then he brought her close, so close she could feel his heart thundering, his body heating up.

“Derek?” What just happened? What changed his mood?

But he fisted a hand in her hair, tilted her head back, and gave her a look filled with hot, churning need. And, oh God, was he going to kiss her? Blood roared in her ears because she . . . she couldn’t kiss him. He couldn’t kiss her.

But he didn’t. He just tipped his forehead against hers.

“Fuckin’ Slater,” he breathed. “It
is
you
.
”

•   •   •

The
music pulsed in his veins, bodies slammed into him, but the only thing he could process was this woman in his arms and the fact that she was his.

Something happened when they were together. When he was with her, his heart opened up so wide he actually felt things.

What he understood in that moment was that neither of them would willingly open up their hearts. Not when her mom had given her up, her grandmother had died, and one foster home after another had let her go. Not when his dad had fucked with him his whole life.

Neither would willingly trust anyone again.

Until they’d found each other. Christ, he’d found
her
.

She pulled back. “You should be with Gen.”

Her voice tore through his thoughts, dunked his heart into icy cold water. The rejection stung—made his heart slam shut like a fist.

But she saw it, he could tell. She knew what she’d done to him. Her fingers dug into his arms, and her brow creased in concern. She brought her hand up to scrape the hair off his forehead.

“You’ve got her key card. She wants to spend the night with you. Isn’t that what you want?”

“You know what I want.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck and swayed with him, screening out the beat and the people thrashing around them. He wanted so badly to grab her ass, pull her up tight against him. Instead, he planted his hands right at the top of those gorgeous globes, his fingers digging into her flesh as he forced himself to go against his every instinct to make this woman his.

“Where’s Pete?” She looked up at him.

But he clutched her close, not ready to lose her yet. “Stay. Just . . . fucking stay with me.”

Those big hazel eyes gazed at him, and he could see it all right there. She wanted him, too. Her clear complexion gleamed with perspiration. Damp tendrils of hair stuck to her forehead. And she looked sexier than any woman he’d ever seen.

Gen appeared just then, giving him her seductive smile. She pushed her hand in between them, gripping his shirt. “About that room I mentioned . . .”

He caught the fleeting look of dismay on Violet’s features, and Gen took a step between them.

“Damn, you’re one hell of an actress,” Gen said to Violet. “I love it. You’re definitely worth what they’re paying you. Now go on and take care of the other guys, while I take care of
my
guy.”

“No.” Derek held on to Violet, unwilling to break the moment. “I’m dancing with V.”

“It’s fine,” Violet said. “I have work to do.” And with that, she turned and disappeared into the crowd.

“Finally. Now I’ve got you all to myself.” Gen stepped close, giving him a seductive smile.

He caught her arms before they wrapped around his neck. “We have to talk.”

•   •   •

Violet
didn’t see Pete anywhere.

She’d kept tabs on the other guys, and she didn’t want to bother Cooper and Ben, who were deep in conversation with the guys from U2. Not yet anyhow. So she did another tour of the rooftop before heading to the bartender.

“What can I getcha?” the dashing older man asked.

“Are there VIP rooms here?”

“With this crowd?” He gave a chin nod. “You bet. Go back to the elevators. You’ll see an exit sign. Take those stairs down a flight. That whole floor’s reserved for tonight’s party.”

“Great, thank you.”

“Too late to reserve one now, though, so unless you’ve got an invitation, you won’t be gettin’ in.”

“I’m looking for someone.”

“Then you talk to Angie. Hang on.” He pulled a beer, handed it off to someone, then made a gin and tonic. Coming back to her, he reached for the bar phone. “Who you lookin’ for?” he asked, holding the phone between his ear and his shoulder.

“He’s with Blue Fire.”

“Record company?”

“Amoeba.”

She waited as he turned away from her, talking on the phone.

When he hung up, he said, “Room 1345.”

“You’re awesome. Thank you so much.” Dropping a ten onto the bar, she headed into the building. Hopefully, she’d find Pete there. If he was with people from the record company, he couldn’t get into too much trouble.

“Everything okay?”

She swung around to find Ben and Cooper heading her way. Relief flooded her. It was silly. She could do this alone, obviously. But just knowing they were in it with her . . . it just felt good. She drew in a breath, pulled herself together. “I’m looking for Pete.”

Ben tensed. “He’s not out here?”

She shook her head, pushing the door open. “But I might know where he is.”

•   •   •

Derek
pounded on the door, so wired he was ready to shoulder it open.

“Jesus, man.” Slater edged in front of him, sliding in his key card and pushing it open.

He found Ben and Cooper sitting at the table. Ben’s fingers tapped a frenetic beat.

“Where’s Violet?”

Ben swung around. “In her room.”

“What happened?”

“It’s okay, man, it’s cool.”

“Bullshit. Why did Violet have to bring Pete back to the hotel?”

“He was having some fun in the VIP rooms,” Ben said.

Oh, fuck. What had she seen?

“He was in the bathroom.” Cooper shook his head, confirming how bad it’d been. “Violet, man, she’s got balls of steel. She looked everywhere for him. Then she heard these sounds from the bathroom. It was locked, so she called us over. Had us pound the fuck out of that door until someone opened it. She’s serious as shit.”

“I told her to let me go in,” Ben said.

As he should have. “What happened?”

“Derek.” He felt Emmie’s hand on his arm. “She’s okay. I talked to her. She’s fine.”

“They were doing lines.”

“Fuck. He did blow?”

“I don’t think he had the chance to,” Ben said. “Violet found him pretty quick.”

“Where is he now?”

Ben jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Bedroom. Pissed.”

“Guys,” Emmie said. “You know this has to stop.”

Standing behind her with his hands on her hips, Slater whispered in her ear. She leaned back into him and nodded. “I’ll leave you guys to talk about it.”

But instead of heading into her room, she headed into Violet’s.

“Where you going?” Was there a reason she needed to check on Violet? Fuck, he needed to see her.

“I want to find out when we get the results back.”

“What results?”

“She had him drug-tested.”

Good for her. “Let me talk to her.” Derek started for the room, but Slater blocked him.

“No, you need to be here. We need to work this out. As a band.”

He understood but watched as Emmie lightly knocked, ear to the door, then stepped inside. Derek couldn’t believe Pete was this out of control. “What did she see?”

Cooper looked away, thumbing his lower lip.

Ben let out a breath. “I guess they were all naked. When she got in there, they were, you know . . .”

“Fucking,” Cooper said. “She walked in on him with a bunch of girls.”

“Shit.”

“She handled it like a pro,” Coop said. “I mean it. She took everyone’s phones, checked for pictures.”

He caught the look that passed between Cooper and Ben. “What? Just say it?”

Ben suddenly looked weary. “He was getting a blow job. From Mike Caldwell’s girlfriend.”

Derek’s gaze shot to Slater. Shit. That was bad.

“Violet got him out before anything really happened.” Ben looked apologetic.

“But like I said, she made sure there were no pictures. We’re good. It’s all good.” Cooper didn’t look like he believed it.

They didn’t need the kind of press that would come if someone from Blue Fire was caught screwing the longtime girlfriend of one of the most famous rockers in the world. But there was no point in talking to Pete about it just then. Not when he was so high.

“Pete’s pissed,” Ben said. “That’s why he’s in his room. He was yelling at Violet, telling her he wants to ditch Irwin. Says we don’t need him.”

“‘Fuckin’ A&R guys’ll be lining up to sign us,’” Cooper said in Pete’s higher voice. “‘We’re fuckin’ superstars, man.’”

“We’re nothing,” Slater said quietly. “We just started out. The only reason we were at that party tonight was because of Irwin. The only reason we got to play the festival was because of him. And it won’t go down well if he finds out one of us was fucking Mike’s girl.”

Motion out the corner of his eye had him turning to find Violet peeking out of the bedroom. “Everything okay?”

Derek hurried over to her. “You all right?”

“Hey, man, sorry Pete went off on you like that,” Cooper said.

“It’s called grandiosity.” She moved past him. “I don’t need the test results to come back to know he did coke tonight. It makes them feel invincible, special. It’s one of the characteristics of an addict.”

“He’s not an addict,” Cooper said. “He’s just getting carried away. This is new to us.”

“This might be new to you two, but it isn’t new to him.”

Derek watched both Ben and Cooper look away, clearly embarrassed.

“I don’t know you guys well, but I’m willing to bet you two don’t have addictive personalities. At this point, you can probably walk away. But Pete can’t. He needs help.”

An unbearable heaviness weighed down on him, and Derek knew his friends felt it, too.

“I’ll leave you guys to talk about it. But just know, it’s only going to get worse.” She gave them a gentle smile. “I’m going to shower and go to bed. Unless you guys need me?”

“No,” Slater said. “You’re right. Everything you said is right.”

Emmie gave a weak smile to the guys and headed into her bedroom.

Once the women were behind closed doors, the guys just stood there for several moments.

“What do we do?” Cooper asked quietly.

“We drug-test him every day.”
Dammit, Pete.
Why’d he have to take it so far? And how did Derek get through to him? “And the first time we see it in his system, he goes to rehab.”

“And if he won’t go? Then what?” Cooper asked.

Derek didn’t appreciate the challenge in Cooper’s voice. Like he
wanted
this? “What do you think, man? Then he’s out of the band.”

“You’re taking it too far,” Cooper said. “It’s too soon.”

“So how far are we willing to take it, Coop? What has
to go wrong before you think it’s time for us to do something? Because I say we’re hitting pretty close to that line.”