Rock Hard: A Bad Boy Rock Star Romance Page 5

  Then again she didn’t know any of that if she really didn’t follow the band. Unless her friend told her about it.

  I shook my head. I was overthinking all of this, and that was a weird feeling too. I hadn’t been this in my head about trying to get a girl since middle school, and that had been a long fucking time ago.

  I needed to impress this girl. I needed to get her attention. Luckily I was sort of in a unique position to do just that considering I was in the middle of an arena about to step back out on stage for another number. Already I could hear the opening strains blasting through the stage as the guys started, and any moment now the hydraulic platform I was on would hiss and I’d pop up out of the floor onto the stage and start singing.

  I listened and figured I had just enough time for a quick text message. I was suddenly really glad I’d grabbed her number. I dashed off a text and was slipping my phone back into my pocket just as I heard a familiar hiss that meant it was showtime.

  In more ways than one. I felt the familiar rush and the clenching in my stomach I got every time I went out onstage, but this time it was accompanied by something else. A burning yearning deep in the pit of my stomach because she was out there, somewhere.

  And I was going to find her and dazzle her with a little bit of star power!

  7: Getting Textual

  The strains of one of the slower songs started up and the lights came on illuminating three of the guys in the band, but no Grant. I hated that I knew it was one of those songs where the singing didn't come in until about thirty or forty seconds in. Kayla had forced me to listen to their stuff often enough that I knew that much.

  I felt a buzzing in my pocket that made me jump. I reached back and pulled my phone out, wondering who could possibly be texting me. It's not like I had many friends in the city, everyone I would talk to knew what I was out doing, and nobody from work would be getting in touch with me. My work life wasn't that crazy.

  So I was more curious than anything when I pulled out my phone. Then my heart stopped when I saw who it was from. Grant. Texting me from wherever he was hiding.

  "Enjoying the concert so far?"

  I was sure to shield my screen while I texted. It was a ridiculous thought, but his number was on display for anyone who might look at my phone. I suddenly realized that I was in the middle of a concert surrounded by women who would probably very literally kill for the opportunity to get at that phone number. I suddenly felt like an exposed target, as ridiculous as that sounded. Even if someone looked at my phone that message was innocuous enough that they'd have no idea what was really going on.

  Still, better safe than sorry. So I kept my phone good and covered as I sent out a response.

  "It's okay so far, if you're into Twenty Promises. Not really my thing."

  "That's too bad," he responded. "I've heard they're a pretty cool band."

  "I guess it all depends on your perspective," I sent back.

  "So have there been any surprises?"

  I looked up at the stage. They were still going through the opening of that song. It felt like our conversation had been going on for an eternity, but it truly had only been a few seconds. Then a giant light flashed on the stage and Grant was out there singing his heart out. And I found myself swaying to the song just a little bit. I found my mouth opening slightly as I stared at him, as I looked on the big monitor. Damn, he really was hot!

  I turned back to my phone and dashed off a quick response.

  "There might've been a surprise or two."

  This time there was no immediate response. Which, of course, made sense. He was up on stage singing, and of course he wouldn't whip his phone out in the middle of a number. It also made me feel sort of reassured that he was wasn't able to respond while he was singing.

  There was a part of me that had wondered if I was just imagining things. If maybe I'd just run into a guy that bore a striking resemblance to Grant the lead singer and happened to have the same name. Only if he wasn't texting back immediately while rock star Grant was up there on stage that meant there was a good chance they were one and the same. Either that or it was wishful thinking on my part, they weren't one and the same, and there was some guy out in the crowd somewhere who was having one hell of a fun time getting my hopes up and dashing them.

  I hoped that wasn't the case, and I wanted to kick myself for hoping that wasn't the case. That was coming dangerously close to territory where I was starting to moon over the lead singer of Twenty Promises. That was the last thing I wanted to do. I definitely was not that kind of girl!

  I looked over to Kayla who was staring at the stage in ecstasy, swaying back and forth with her hands in the air. Then her face lit up and I looked up. Damn. Grant was doing the walk around thing again. I ducked down just in time. It was a good thing I'd noticed the squee on Kayla's face. If that really was him out there on stage and sending me texts while he was backstage then the last thing I wanted was for him to see where I was sitting.

  I looked up and once more I was met with the hypnotic sight of his ass as he made his way down the stage in impossibly tight pants. Damn. The guy must work out, because he looked absolutely delicious. Okay, so maybe I could admit that he looked a little delicious and still hold onto my credibility as a person who was definitely not a fan of the group. Because objectively he was damn hot!

  Grant swung back around on the catwalk and it seemed like his gaze was a laser that set the hormones aflame in every woman he looked at. Every woman but me, that is. Whenever he glanced in my direction I looked away in terror, afraid he would recognize my face. Afraid he would be drawn by me looking away when every other girl in the arena was staring straight at him screaming his name at the top of their lungs to the point that the sound of women screaming was almost louder than the sound of the music blasting across the arena.

  Once again he passed by and once again he didn't seem to recognize me. I breathed a sigh of relief as the lights went down and the music launched into an instrumental bit. Another song that had a long opener. I felt a buzz in my back pocket.

  I pulled my phone out again, goose bumps rising across my body as I did so. I could feel my breath picking up, my body starting to shiver. Why was I reacting like this? He might be a rock star, but he was still a rock star in Twenty Promises. I was not going to go crazy over him like all the other women in this arena! So what if he was really hot? So what if it turned out he was a nice down-to-earth guy when I had a chance to talk to him one-on-one and I didn't realize who he was?

  I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and I turned to see Kayla trying to inspect my phone. I quickly turned so it was angled away from her. That earned a suspicious glance as she swayed back and forth to the music, but she didn't press it. That meant I was going to hear plenty about that later on the ride home which would be a living hell, but I'd just have to deal. There was plenty of time between now and the end of the concert to come up with a plausible and convincing lie.

  At least I hoped there was.

  I looked down at my screen. "Enjoying the show? I'm going to find you!"

  I smiled despite myself. There was something about the eager way he was trying to track me down, like a hot boy with a crush, only this boy was a rock star who was the lead singer of one of the most popular boy bands ever. Despite that I couldn't help but have a goofy grin.

  "You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

  "Do I at least get a hint?"

  I thought about that. There were two desires warring inside me. One was the desire to be a diehard stickler for my distaste for this band. The other was my desire to have a little bit of flirty fun with this guy. It was just innocent flirting. So what if it just happened to be innocent flirting that was taking place in the middle of a massive arena with thousands of women surrounding me who would tear me to pieces at a chance to have the opportunity I had right now?

  Then again that might be the ticket right there. Maybe the only reason he was so interested was precisely because that o
pportunity didn't mean that much to me aside from the opportunity to meet a hot guy. He was just a hot guy when I met him even if he did turn out to be so much more.

  Either way, I realized I was being silly. This was a cute guy who was interested in me. If he was anyone but the lead singer of this band then I'd be all about this. Was it really fair to hold who he was and what he did against him?

  No, it wasn't. At least that was the logical hoop my brain jumped through. I'm sure my sudden desire to warm up to him, just a little bit, had more to do with that warm feeling that was running through my body and between my legs in particular even if I didn't want to admit it. It had more to do with the still fresh memory of his incredible ass and his gorgeous smile walking down that catwalk looking absolutely fucking hot.

  "Fine, since you're so eager I'll give you a hint," I tapped out.

  I waited for a moment. The instrumentals were swelling to the moment when he would burst out onto the stage in song. Damn. I really did know their music better than I thought considering I tried to avoid it for most of my adolescence. Whatever. My phone buzzed.

  "What's the hint?"

  I let it ride. I let him stew for another moment. That crescendo was building. Building. I could imagine him standing somewhere behind the stage sweating. Waiting for my text and knowing that any moment now he was going to have to go out on stage and continue the show. For some reason it sent a perverse pleasure running through me thinking of him waiting on one of the girls out in the audience instead of the opposite which I imagined was usually the case.

  I was cutting it ridiculously close, waiting until almost the absolute last moment. Finally once more I started tapping.

  "Think catwalk."

  I sent the message almost at the same time as the stage lit up and fireworks went off. Then he was out singing and dancing. I wondered if he'd gotten the message. He couldn't have possibly gotten the message. He would've had to be standing right beside the pyrotechnics show with his phone out staring at the screen up until the very last moment, up until those fireworks were exploding around him, to see that. Surely he wouldn't be that eager to track me down.

  Only as I looked up on the stage something seemed off. Something seemed different. All the guys were playing and bouncing around on the main stage, but then Grant broke away and he was making his way out onto the catwalk. Only this time rather than going along with it the other guys stopped and stared at him. There was a break in the music that they recovered from immediately, but it made me think something was definitely up. Something wasn’t going as planned.

  I felt an elbow in my side. I looked over and Kayla was looking at me with her brow furrowed.

  "Something's wrong," she said.

  "What do you mean?" I asked.

  "I've seen the pay-per-views of some of their recent tour," Kayla said. "Grant's breaking the script. He's not supposed to come out on the catwalk for this number."

  I looked back up to the stage. No. He couldn't possibly. Surely he wouldn't risk screwing up the show just to get a chance to test my hint? And yet here he was running along the stage, grasping hands with women as he went along. And as he was grasping their hands I felt a chill. He wasn't just giving a little one-on-one time with the girls lucky enough to be in the front row. No, he was looking at every one.

  He was a man on a hunt.

  Apparently he did get my message, and he was going to make his way to us soon enough. I decided I wasn't going to hide this time though. No, I'd let him see me. I still planned on playing a little hard to get, it seemed like that was something this guy wasn't used to what with his star status and everything, but I wasn't going to ignore him entirely.

  "It's a good thing this is one of the few songs where Grant is the lead!" Kayla shouted as Grant got closer. There was a wave of screaming women and girls following him. Some were crying, all were screaming at the top of their lungs. And then he was on us.

  My breath caught as I stared up at him. As he locked eyes with me and there was instant recognition. He finished with some girls standing next to us and then he was on to me and Kayla. Kayla was reaching out eagerly for him, but I just stood there with my arms crossed looking up at him with an eyebrow cocked. And I realized that all of this was being caught on camera. We were being projected up on the big screens. The girls all through the arena were screaming, and it sounded like they were screaming at me rather than at Grant. I could just imagine what was running through their heads. The girl with her arms crossed not acknowledging the great and sexy Grant.

  Meanwhile he was staring down at me with a goofy grin on his face. He adopted the same posture as me, a serious pout with his arms crossed and one leg stuck out in front of him. The crowd roared in delight and I could hear girls laughing around me. I rolled my eyes and he did the same.

  He did look stunning standing up there. He had lights reflecting off of him creating a halo effect. He was in a button up that wasn't buttoned up very much at all. Maybe one or two at the bottom revealing his muscled chest and his six pack abs. I found myself idly wondering what it would feel like to run my tongue along those abs. I shook myself and tried to regain control.

  Yeah, he looked every bit the rock god as he stared down at me. And I found myself melting. Just a little. To the point that when he got down on his knees in front of me and put his hand out, with the arena screaming around us encouraging me to take his hand, I finally reached out and did just that.

  For a moment it was as though it was just the two of us. The entire screaming arena surrounding us disappeared. We were just a man, a woman, and our arms clasped together as he stared down at me and smiled. I felt my heart fluttering. I felt butterflies in my stomach. I felt weak in the knees as I looked up at this gorgeous man.

  Then reality started to reassert itself. The screaming came back first, then the pumping music, and then I was back in reality and we were surrounded by thousands of screaming women. All of them screaming for him. Some of them screaming at me too, now. He winked and he was gone, moving down the catwalk. Though I noticed that even though he was stopping to make some contact with the women he passed, he didn't stop for nearly as long for any of them as he did with me.

  I suddenly felt an odd emotion as I watched Grant getting a little bit of one-on-one time with other fans in the front row. An emotion that was completely irrational, but I couldn't help it.

  Jealousy.

  Why should they all get a chance with him when he was obviously interested in me? Why couldn't I have a little more one-on-one time? Maybe some more quiet conversation like we had in the diner, away from all this screaming and noise. Away from his element where he was a sexy rock god, though I was starting to warm up to seeing him in that element.

  Grant made his way back up to the stage proper where some members of the band shot him confused glances, but then they were back into the number. The lights went down again and the guys disappeared for what I assumed was a costume change.

  As soon as the lights went down I felt an elbow jabbing me in the side. I looked over to Kayla staring at me. Suspicion was written plain on her face.

  "What the hell was that about?"

  I fixed my best friend with my most innocent look. Granted it wasn't very innocent. I was always a terrible liar, at least face-to-face, and Kayla had an uncanny ability to tell when I was bullshitting. Still, I wasn't going to tell her the truth. I was still hoping I could figure out a way by the end of the night to explain all of this away.

  "I have no idea!" I shouted over the crowd.

  I glanced through that crowd. I was definitely getting some very interesting looks from the women surrounding us. Some were looking at me with obvious jealousy. Others were staring with outright hostility. I suddenly felt very uncomfortable being surrounded by all these women who would kill to have the experience I'd just had. And once more I found myself reflecting on the irony that it was probably precisely because I wasn't willing to kill to have that experience that I'd had the experience in the firs
t place. It was as though he was drawn to a woman who didn't immediately see the rock star.

  Interesting. Very interesting. Not at all what I would have expected from a man who'd probably had women throwing themselves at him for years because of who he was and what he did.

  "You're not telling me the truth," Kayla said. "Out with it. Do you know Grant or something?"

  "I don't know Grant! I swear!" I held my hands up in a defensive gesture.

  What I was telling her was the truth. Mostly. I didn't know Grant. I'd just met him briefly in that diner. So what if what I was feeding her was only the truth from a certain point of view? The fact stood that everything I said was one hundred percent the truth even if it wasn't exactly the truth she was looking for. She just wasn't asking the right questions, and that wasn't my fault.

  "There's something you're not telling me," Kayla said.

  I cocked an eyebrow at her. Let her have her suspicions. It's not like anything else was going to happen. He'd had his fun. He'd come up and embarrassed me in front of my friend and thousands of women in the arena. I figured that was where it was going to end. I hoped that was where it was going to end.

  And yet, deep down there was a part of me that desperately didn't want that to be where it ended. I kept thinking of how wonderful his eyes looked as they stared into mine. I kept thinking about how delicious his ass was in those tight jeans as he walked away from me. I could watch that man walking away all day long and never get tired of it.

  "I'm watching you!" Kayla said.

  I couldn't help but laugh. What the hell was that supposed to mean? Of course she was watching me. She was standing right next to me! She couldn't very well not watch me.

  I shook my head and sat down as the next song started. I figured the excitement was over, and to be perfectly honest I needed to have a seat and rest for a minute. I was still feeling a little shaky, a little weak in the knees, from that brief perfect moment of contact.