Manage Me (Toven's Circus #1) (2 page)

"Okay kids dial it back." Crane stands and loosely grabs Nell's arm dragging her over to the chair next to me. Crane gently shoves her into it, then leans back on to the edge of his desk. Nell's arms are crossed over her amazing chest, as she pouts, looking anywhere but at me.

"Look my Nell is amazing. She knows music and she knows how to handle a petulant artist or band. She's organized and dependable. Mostly she is smart as hell and knows how to handle herself." As he sings her praise, Nell relaxes and smiles towards her father.

"It's not that I doubt her skills, I just know that we are a bunch of crude, smelly, and at times disrespectful assholes." Turning toward Nell, who still won't look at me, I continue, "You are beautiful, well mannered, young, and from the looks of you, fairly innocent. I don't want a bunch of disgusting rockers to tarnish that."

Flashing her angry eyes toward me, I realize that while her demeanor may have relaxed, she is still plenty pissed. "You met me 5 seconds ago and you have no right to say, how or when I get "tarnish". I will be the best goddamn tour manager you have ever seen, despite your disgusting habits.” She bites out then pauses with a look of confusion. “Wait, isn't your bass player female?"

"Ashton grew up with us, she's used to it. Besides she's more dude then chick half the time." I shrug.

"Look, the worst thing that could happen is I don't work out, why not give me a chance to see what I can do. If the band decides I'm not the right fit after the first few shows, then I will leave and my father will find you a seasoned, big dicked male, tour manager." Thrusting her hand my way I can do little but shake it. As my hand is about to meet hers a visible spark arks causing Nell to gasp, me to frown, and quickly shake off her hand.

"Okay, well, I guess we can try you out. The tour starts this weekend in Portland, Oregon. The band is going to head up on Thursday to give us couple days to see family before we head out for the next 3 months. Pack light, Princess, it's going to be pretty cramped."

Fire shoots into her eyes again but I stand and shake Crane’s hand. “We can talk about the song after the tour.” I grab my guitar case, and make my exit.

Chapter 3

Nell

What an arrogant, infuriating, fucking asshole! How was I supposed to spend 3 months in a cramped tour bus with Jaden and his huge ego? I stomp into my shared office and slam the door.

"Calling me princess, what the freaking, fucking fuck?" I gribble under my breath.

“Everything okay, Nell?” Comes the nails-on-a-chalkboard-voice I’ve grown to hate over the last few month. Cammie, was the rare unicorn like groupie-slut, she was a smart-groupie-slut. She figured, why blow roadies and security to get backstage, when you can work for a record label, have full access to artists, and no competition. Even as a non-groupie-slut, I was pretty impressed.

“I just had the pleasure of meeting Jaden James.”

“Oh, My, God, Jaden James is here? He is number one on my “Top 20 Must Fuck” list.” I just stare at her in stunned shock. There’s a list? This girl is serious about her groupie-ing. The OCD groupie-slut.

“Would you fuck a dead rock star just so you could say you did?” I ask randomly, truly wondering about the psychology of this girl.

She actually sits there thinking about it for a couple seconds before asking, “Do you think the penis becomes hard again at some point? If so, then definitely Cobain.”

“Pre or post Courtney?” I ask, falling down the rabbit hole.

“Doesn’t matter.”

Sick is clearly the answer to her psyche.

Shaking my head, I plop down in my desk chair, I need to figure out how to get through this. Jaden questioning my ability to deal with a bunch of gross men just makes me more determined. If I can do a good job on the tour with Toven's Circus, maybe my father will finally give me a shot at producing, instead of just grabbing coffees and doing crap jobs for James. Looks like I will have to suck it up and make friends with the asshole. Deciding on a game plan, I figure I should head home and start making arrangements. Grabbing my ivory Louis Vuitton, Pont-Neuf GM bag, and my car keys. I say bye to the necro and head for the elevators.

After waiting only a few seconds the doors open and leaning against the back rail stands Jaden James, looking entirely too sexy for my own good. The man makes faded blue jeans and a tight red tee-shirt look better than most men in Armani. That notorious smirk is back and makes my jaw want to tighten but I nibble my lip instead. Those mossy eyes narrow as I step into the car and turn my back to him, pushing the button for the basement parking lot.

It's too quiet as the car begins to descend and I try my damnedest not to turn around, when the air unexpectedly changes and sifts as Jaden enters my eye line.  He steps in front of me, I try holding my breath so his spicy scent will stop assaulting my brain cells. The smirk is gone and his eyes have turned emerald with a seductive edge. My brain is yelling at me to step back but before I can, his hand reaches out, grasps my chin with his rough calloused finger tips, and with a light tug, pops my lip from between my teeth.

"You should really take care of this lip." His face is close enough I can feel his minty breath brush my cheek.

Unable to speak at first, it takes me a few seconds to come to my senses and respond, "Oh? And what does it matter to you." Mentally patting myself on the back for not sounding too breathy, despite my heart hammering, and tingling spreading through me directly from his fingertips.

And that fuck me smirk is back. My lower stomach clenches and I feel my panties dampen. He starts to lean forward, my body trembles. Fuck, I am putty in his hands. Luckily the elevator comes to a stop and the doors slide open. Jaden has stopped moving forward, drops my chin, and steps backwards out of the elevator.  Winking he turns away towards the flat black motorcycle with Ducati scrawled across the gas tank. He slips on the black leather jacket then puts on his helmet. He throws his leg over, and the bike roars to life, just as the elevator doors start to close.

"Shit!" I dive forward trying to hit the open doors button but miss and the elevator starts to rise. "Ugh! Damn it!" And what the hell was that? Was he about to kiss me? I know I decided to try to make friends but where the hell did he get off thinking he could kiss me? Not that I fought him off or anything but still we  didn't even know each other. Since I was fully absorbed in my mental tirade, I forgot to push the button to go back down and the elevator was heading back up the building.

20 minutes later, I make it back to the garage floor and actually step out this time. The intimidating black motorcycle and its rider are nowhere to be found. Digging around in my Louis for my keys and I smile down at the fob. The car is the first thing I bought with my inheritance when it kicked in on my 21
st
birthday this year.

I walk around the corner and the beautiful electric blue Tesla S convertible comes into view and I grin. Opening the door and sliding into the buttery white leather seat, I take a deep breath, grinning even more. I absolutely loved my little blue Tesla. And not just because she goes from 0-60 in 4.2 seconds but she is also entirely electric, getting about 100 miles on a single charge. Turning the key, the engine roars to life, I hit the button making the top slide down. I put on my super cute Gucci sunglasses, before backing out of the space, and speeding off.

Chapter 4

Jaden

Okay, so I know it’s kind of creepy and stalker like, but I tell myself I am being a gentlemen by making sure she gets to her car safely; by parking my bike around a corner, hiding behind a SUV by the elevator, then following her all the way to her car. It’s a fucking impressive car at that. Not girlie but sleek and sexy. It’s also powerful, much more car than one would expect the Princess of a record label would have. One would have to be blind to miss the excitement and pride on her face as she grinned like a teenager in love as she drove off.

Making my way back to my bike, I try coming up with a plan for dealing with Nell for the next three months. I know that I pissed her off already but I was trying to help her save face. She looks like she just finished high school, how the hell was she supposed to be able to handle a bunch of drunken horny jackasses. I love my bandmates but we are all single and fucking rock stars, innocence has long since passed. But if I’m honest, it’s the pull I feel towards her. I’m a dirty old man at 28 but there is something about her. Christ, I'd almost kissed her in the elevator.

Peeling out of the parking garage, I head to my house in the Hollywood hills. I’m excited to go home to Oregon for a few days. I get to see my nephew, whom I haven't seen enough of in the last few years. Every break I get, I go home. I go watch him play whatever sport he was in at the time, I take him with me to rehearsals, and I get the whole family a box for every home town show. And despite being a bunch of disgusting pigs, everyone from the band to the crew knew to keep it clean in when we were in Portland.

Thinking about home makes me think about how the guys and I met. Ryker, Finn, Ashton and I grew up together. Ryker, Finn, and I met on the first day of sixth grade.  A huge kid was picking on Ryker, which escalated to him threatening Ryker with a broken nose if he didn't give the bully his Sex Pistols button pinned to his backpack.  As I was a fan of the band, too, I told the bully to fuck off and leave the kid alone. Ryker and I were both on the skinny, awkward side then, but shit, who wasn't in middle school. We thought we got off lucky when the bus pulled to a stop in front of the school. The bully, who was twice our size put together, told us to meet him at the flag pole after school at 3pm, before he stalked towards the front of the bus, shoving random kids back into their seats, then thumping down the steps.

I looked at Ryker saying, "Well shit, we have to show up. If we don't, this will never end." Ryker just nodded.

The wait for 3pm was miserable. I hadn't seen Ryker since we parted ways that morning and I was starting to worry that he took off. But when the final bell rang and I stepped out the doors, he was leaning cockily against the flag pole. Feeling slightly relieved, I headed towards him just as Finn, the bully, rounded the corner behind him. He must have noticed my gaze because he turned around to face Finn.  There were kids everywhere but no one was paying attention to the three of us, and Ryker, without a word, lunged for Finn, driving his fist right into Finn’s nose. Blood started gushing everywhere and Finn's tough guy persona dissipated, he dropped to his knees with a yell, and covered his bloody face. Girls started screaming and the busy area parted quickly.  

"Oh shit!" I cried and ran forward. Ryker looked shocked and a little scared but he leaned forward to see if Finn was okay. We ended up hauling him to the nurses’ office, where she patched him up before turning to us.

“What on earth happened to him?” she demanded.

Before we could respond, Finn jumped off the table and said, “I ran into the flag pole out front. We were goofing around, I was running while looking over my shoulder, I turned to look, and SMACK! Right into the pole.” He sends her the lady killer smile that he still uses to get pussy today and she smiles back at him, before turning to look at both of us for confirmation. She lets us all go but says she will have to call and let Finn’s parents know that he was hurt on school grounds.