Rock Hard: A Bad Boy Rock Star Romance (33 page)

And this time around I wasn’t going to let him go. No, I’d almost lost him because I was afraid of he was, afraid of what might happen if I got involved with someone famous like him, but I’d realized that bullshit didn’t matter. All that mattered was him. All that mattered was that we communicated with each other and made sure we were on the same page and there were no secrets like a dark past where he thought he was going to be a father and then his world was shattered.

We might have to work up to being that close, but I knew we’d get there. Everything just felt too nice. Too right. This was too incredible for it to be anything but the real thing. I could finally enjoy being in Grant’s arms without worrying that he was going to leave me for another girl because I finally had the full picture.

Finally he pulled away and spun me around to the crowd. “Everybody, I want you to meet Mia!”

Once more the crowd roared in delight and it felt weird. I wondered if this is what he experienced every time he got up on stage. I wondered if he always got a high like what I was getting feeling all that adulation rolling off of the crowd. A girl could get used to that sort of thing, even if I was just getting a little bank shot adulation. I’m sure most of them were out there cheering for Grant. Maybe even screaming because it looked like he was finally off the market. Those crazy girls out in front of the arena were still fresh in my memory even if things had gone impossibly well since nearly getting ripped to pieces.

Grant moved me up to a microphone and gestured towards it. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I leaned into the thing. “Um, hi everybody?”

More screaming. Grant wrapped his arms around me and I closed my eyes. That felt good. A girl could get used to being held like that. Only all too soon that perfect moment was over. He pulled away and I saw people stepping onto the stage to either side. The rest of the band stepping up ready to perform. My time on stage was coming to a close, but I knew this was far from the end of my adventures.

“I’ll see you after the show Mia,” Grant said. “I’m so glad you came.”

I couldn’t believe it as I stepped down from the stage. A part of me hoped we were going straight back to his tour bus for a little fun, but it’s not like they were going to stop the concert just because Grant reunited with the girl who was the inspiration for the song that made this second leg of the tour possible in the first place, no matter how much I would’ve enjoyed it if they did.

I also couldn’t believe was the reception I got when I was back down in the crowd. I’d been prepared for something along the lines of what I faced when I was out in front of the arena, but instead the girls around us were smiling and patting me on the back and generally being very supportive. It was a different experience, but I liked it.

There was something else I was liking about the show. Other than Grant in his tight pants prancing around up on stage, that is. I found myself actually enjoying the concert. Actually enjoying the music. It had been a convoluted road to get me here, but how I felt when the lights went down stayed true even now that I’d had my reunion with Grant and it went so well. I found myself singing along to songs I’d tried to avoid for years. I found myself blushing and screaming right along with everyone else when Grant looked down at me, though there was definitely something a little more special than usual about the way Grant looked at me.

In short it was the perfect concert. It was an experience I never would’ve expected from Twenty Promises, and I loved it. I wanted more of it. More than anything, though, I wanted time with Grant.

When they were halfway through the first encore Jake came up to us and Kayla and I were being spirited along the front of the stage while the band played on right next to us. I noticed Kayla giving Blake the eye on more than one occasion, and he seemed to be returning the attention in kind. I wondered if maybe there wasn’t something brewing between those two crazy kids, though I was far more preoccupied with my own Cinderella story for the moment, as selfish as that seemed.

And then finally it was happening. We were standing at the same backstage spot where we’d been a couple of months ago, only so much had changed since then.

“You two again?”

I turned at the sound of a familiar voice and smiled. It was the same security guard from before who’d almost stopped us from getting into the real backstage area. I couldn’t remember his name, but I wouldn’t forget the way his domed head sloped down to his shoulders with absolutely no neck in between. He smiled for a moment, but only until Kayla and I made to go into the backstage area, the real backstage area, again. Then he stepped forward with his arms out and a frown on his face.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Kayla asked.

“Do you have backstage passes?” he asked.

That brought both of us up short. We didn’t even have passes to get into the concert, let alone backstage passes. We’d been rushed through the arena with Jake watching us closely and presumably our passes were still waiting for us back at the will-call booth with a horde of crazed fan girls surrounding it patrolling for any sign that we were coming back. Not that there was a chance I was going to try and go back to that booth and get those tickets now.

“You’re not serious? You know who I am, right? I’m Mia!”

“Sure you are. Lots of girls have been Mia since that song came out,” he said.

“But I am Mia! Jake, tell him I’m Mia!”

Only when I turned around Jake was nowhere to be found. Somehow he’d melted into the crowd without me realizing it. The guy must have catlike reflexes, though again I don’t know why I was surprised that he was light on his feet given the performance he’d pulled out in front of the arena when he lifted me like I was a sack of potatoes and did a dead run with me and Kayla safely tucked under his arms.

I just really wish he’d stuck around for at least a minute to let this guy know who we were. As it was it was seriously starting to look like we were running through the same song and dance as last time, only this time around there was no Grant around to pull us backstage considering I could still hear him singing onstage. Not to mention that even though the girls around us in the front row had been supportive, I couldn’t help but feel that there was a chance of us running into more crazies the longer we stayed out in the open like this. I felt an itching between my shoulder blades, almost as though someone was going to do their best to land a punch or something there.

I turned back to the guy and blinked. He was grinning. And he’d stepped aside and was motioning for us to go.

“I’m just fucking with you,” he said. “Of course I’m going to remember anyone Grant wants backstage. Nice seeing you again Ms. Mia.”

I breathed a sigh of relief I didn’t even know I’d been holding in. I wanted to smack the guy, but at the same time I was so happy at being let in that I also wanted to jump up and hug him. It was a conflicting set of desires that were warring inside me, and so I decided to split the difference and just smiled at him as I made my way backstage.

“I thought he really wasn’t going to let us in for a minute there,” Kayla said.

“Oh I don’t think there’s any worry of that, love,” a voice said from behind us. I felt a chill, but it was just the chill of hearing a male voice, any male voice, back here. Because all it took was the time for the voice to go from my ears to my brain for me to realize that wasn’t Grant.

No, from the way Kayla’s face lit up she’d realized that voice was for her. We both turned at the same time and there was Blake, guitar still slung over his shoulder, walking towards us with a smile on his face. A pretty damn huge smile. Of course he’d be happy to see Kayla, though. He didn’t get the big moment on the stage pulling her up like I’d gotten with Grant, though he had been making eyes at her all night long.

Kayla didn’t waste a moment, either. She sprinted the short distance between the two of them and jumped into his arms, wrapping her legs around him and pressing her lips against his. Odd that he was back here. I thought I could still hear them playing out on stage.

Kayla came up for air a moment later and she was still grinning down at him. He was still grinning up at her, for that matter. They were staring at each other with something approaching what I imagined Grant and I looked like at the beginning of our romance, and I found myself wondering if Kayla might not be able to tame the infamous guitarist of Twenty Promises after years of being a happy bachelor.

I didn’t even hold a grudge against him for that text message. He probably didn’t even know what he was saying, or that I would see it. He was probably just going off of business as usual behind the scenes with Twenty Promises, and it’s not like I could hold that against him.

Of course not holding a grudge against him didn’t make things less awkward between us. He turned to me and that smile faltered just a bit. He put Kayla down and then he was walking towards me with his arms outstretched. I felt a moment of panic as I wondered what the hell he was up to. Why was he reaching out like he was going to try and hug me? Kayla was the girl for him in this friendship duo. There was nothing for him that I had on offer, and yet he was walking towards me.

He wrapped me in a hug and I found myself being spun around in a most disorienting way. When he put me down he was smiling again, but he was still looking at me as though he expected me to smack him or something. Weird.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

I blinked. “You’re sorry? What are you talking about?”

“That text. I nearly screwed things up and, well best not to dwell in the past, but I am sorry.”

This time I wrapped him in a hug. Talk about a surprise getting an apology like that, but I’d take it.

“Apology accepted, but it wasn’t needed.”

“You might not need it, but I did,” he said. “Particularly since it seems we’re going to be seeing a whole lot more of you around here soon!”

I didn’t know what he was talking about, but that made me feel good. It had the sense of something he’d already talked over with Grant. I thought back to the offer he made in the hotel right before things really went to hell, and found myself hoping against hope that something like that might happen again.

“Well that was something to see,” a voice said from behind me.

This time I did feel goose bumps. I felt fire running from the top of my head where my hair was standing on end down to the tips of my toes that were curling in a sympathetic memory to the way they’d curled when the owner of that voice was on top of me in the back of a tour bus, in a hotel room, filling me with an indescribable pleasure that went so far beyond anything I’d experienced with a man before in my life that there really was no way of classifying it. I closed my eyes and let the sound of that voice wash over me. A voice that I’d hated and loved depending on the moment and my mood over the past two months.

A voice that I desperately wanted to hear again. A voice that was filling me with the most incredibly naughty thoughts as I slowly turned around and saw him standing there. No guitar slung over his shoulder, but he still looked every inch the rock god regardless. Those muscles. That leather vest hanging open and showing off those muscles. The confident way he held himself. That cocky smile on his face.

Yum.

“What are you talking about, Mr. Sexy Rock Star?”

“Oh just you getting so chummy with the lead guitarist for Twenty Promises. Seems a little odd for someone who supposedly hates the band.”

I moved closer to him. Closer. So close that he was leaning down as though he was expecting me to move in for a kiss or something, but I had other plans. I waited until he was almost on top of me and then I put my finger up to my lips in a shushing motion. He blinked and the confusion was plain on his face.

“Shh, don’t tell anyone. I wouldn’t want it to get out that Twenty Promises’ number one hater just became their number one fan.”

Grant cocked an eyebrow at that. “Number one fan, huh? How’d we manage to pull that off?”

This time I did lean in close to him. Wrapped my arms around him and once more I was luxuriating in the feel of his body against mine. Enjoying how fucking incredible he felt.

“Well let’s just say that the lead singer decided to do a little up close and personal persuading to change my mind.”

“Really now? That’s interesting. Maybe he should try that approach with more girls who hate his music…”

“Shut up,” I said. I leaned up and kissed him, losing myself in the feeling of our bodies pressed together for a moment. When I came up for air we were both smiling like a couple of kids discovering love for the first time. “Besides, I hear that guy’s tomcatting days are behind him.”

“Definitely, I hear he fell in love with one incredible girl.”

What could I say to that? Nothing came to mind, so I settled with pulling him into another thorough kiss. One of many kisses we’d share throughout the rest of our lives. Pretty good for an accidental groupie who started the relationship with an unintentional one night stand, huh?

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