My Rock #5 (The Rock Star Romance Series - Book #5) (2 page)

We started out of the room and Susie called over her
shoulder, “No loud fucking. If I hear you, I’m coming in there.”

“Shut the hell up,” I told her. Tristan busted up
laughing. “You shut up, too,” I told him. “There’s not going to be any of that
going on.” He continued to grin as he followed me into my room.

When we got their he said, “I’ve been dying to get
out of rehab so I can fuck you on this bed.”

“Tristan, focus. Why aren’t you in rehab? Did you
get thrown out?”

“Oh ye of little faith,” he said. “No, I didn’t get
kicked out. I got discharged into the outpatient program. He didn’t say it out
loud, but I’m sure the doctor thinks of me as one of his finest students.”

“Oh, well that’s great. Congratulations. What about
the show? Did you get kicked off?”

He looked at me strangely and said, “No, why?”

“Because I did,” I told him. “They let me go and
Clint said he would be talking to you…”

He shrugged and said, “They haven’t called. Shit,
Elly, I’m sorry.”

I kept a neutral expression as I said, “It’s no big
deal, I’ll get another job.”

“Mother fuckers!” he said. At least it was nice to
know he cared…a little.

“Okay, next question, what’s the giant duffel bag
about?”

“Oh, that,” he said with another devilish grin.

“Yeah, that.”

“My doctor wouldn’t discharge me unless I had
someone to stay with that could be a part of my outpatient treatment; you know
go to groups and appointments and generally keep me out of trouble.”

“Sounds like a huge job.”

Still grinning he said, “Yeah, I thought you’d be
the perfect candidate.”

“You want to stay here?”

“Please?” he said.

Shit! This is not a good idea.

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” I told him.

“I don’t have anyone else, Elly.”

I didn’t know he had me. Every time he needs
something, suddenly I’m all he has. I thought we were friends…kind of…with
benefits. More benefits than friends, actually. I thought that was all that we
both wanted. Then suddenly we’re roommates too, and I was part of his recovery
program? Maybe somewhere along the way we became more and I missed it. It
wasn’t my intention when it started for it to go beyond that. Most especially
because I firmly believed that was all Tristan wanted too.

CHAPTER
THREE

TRISTAN

I woke up to banging pots and pans and opening and
closing drawers and cabinets. Damn! A guy can’t get any fucking sleep. I rolled
over and almost fell off Elly’s couch. She really made me sleep there. I
thought for sure she’d be as happy as I was that we could sleep together and
fuck every night if we wanted to—and for the record, I wanted to. I think she
was just trying to prove a point or some stupid female shit though, so I didn’t
argue with her.

I opened one eye and looked at the clock. It was
almost noon. I couldn’t really complain about the noise. I had to be at the
studio in a couple of hours, anyways. I got up and stretched just in time to
see Susie, the roommate walk out of the kitchen. Her eyes got really wide and
she was looking right at my crotch as she said,

“Damn! You should buy some pajama’s dude.”

I looked down at my boxers to see if I was hanging
out. I wasn’t, but I did have some wood going on.

“It’s just a dick,” I told her with a laugh. I
wasn’t shy about it. “I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of them.”

“What’s going on?” Elly asked, sticking her head out
of her room. “Is there a problem?”

“Yeah, there’s a problem. Your boyfriend’s dick is
the problem,” Susie told her. Chick still hadn’t taken her eyes off of it. If
it offended her so badly, you think she’d turn her head.

Elly looked at my tent and laughed. That shrunk it a
little. Then she said, “He’s not my boyfriend.”

“Okay, fuck buddy or whatever you kids are calling
it these days. Just take him in the bedroom and fix it! Quietly though, I don’t
want to hear any grunting or moaning.”

Okay, now it had started to get a little awkward. I
was shrinking more by the second. “Um, if we’re finished talking about my dick,
is it okay if I use the shower?”

“Take a cold one,” Susie said.

Elly shushed her, but still laughing and said, “Of
course you can use the shower. There are clean towels in the cabinet under the
sink.”

“Thanks,” I told her. Susie started to say something
else and Elly shushed her again, this time with a look. I laughed it off and
went to take my shower.
 
I wasn’t going
to take a cold one either. If Elly wasn’t interested, I’d do just fine taking
care of it myself in her shower. I tried giving her a come-hither look on my
way by, but she just rolled her eyes. It looked like it would just be my hand
and me.

After my shower and my relief, I headed down to the
studio. It felt so good to just leave and not have to sign out and check in
with ten people first. I also wouldn’t have to pee in a plastic cup when I got
back. Freedom was sweet. I parked my bike and grabbed my guitar and slung it
over my shoulder. I was on my way down the hall to the band room when that
little shit producer Tony stuck his head out of an office and said, “Hey
Tristan, I need to talk to you.”

Fuck! “Yeah, sure.” I followed the little prick into
his office and we sat down. “What’s up?”

“We had to let our intern go…Elly, the one that sang
with you.”

Asshole acted like maybe I didn’t know her name. I
sang with her and then I fucking kissed her. They fired her for having a
“relationship” with me. All that and I was too shallow or stupid to even know
her name. This guy really needed a beat down.

“Why?” I asked, more to see what he would say than
anything else.

“Because the staff is warned when they get hired against
having personal relationships with contestants. We can’t have that. It looks
bad. She knew the rules and she blatantly defied them.”

Pompous ass. “So are you letting me go too?” I was
trying to stay calm, just in case they weren’t. If he said yes, I was going to
punch the mother fucker in his pinched up little face. Not so much for me as
for Elly.

“No, we’re not going to let you go.” Relief washed
over me as he said, “The competition is too close to being over. It would be a
huge scandal. Elly was an intern, no one is going to miss her. If we kicked you
off, we’d have to answer a lot of uncomfortable questions.” The only drawback
was that I didn’t get to feel the squishy flesh of his fat little face against
my fist.

He looked like he thought I should hug him or
something. Fuck him. Fuck them all for what they did to Elly. I would have loved
nothing more than to tell them all what I thought. No, that’s not true. I’d have
loved nothing more than to kick that guy’s ass and then tell them all what I
thought. But I also wanted their million dollars…I needed it. So I took a deep
breath and held it in. I learned a thing or two from that boring anger
management class the doctor made me go to three days a week.

“Okay,” I finally said. “That it?”

“Yes, just make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”

He thought I was a serial staff fucker, I guess.
“Yeah, right,” I said. I walked out of their shaking my head, wondering how you
got to be such an uptight little fuck.

CHAPTER
FOUR

ELLY

I was lying in bed, studying—or trying at least. I
had a test coming up in my English class. Actually, I was more just trying to
keep my mind on my studies to keep it off of other things. It wasn’t working.
All I could think about was what they were doing at work. It was nine a.m. and
if I was there, we’d be setting things up. I missed Molly. Even knowing that
she wouldn’t judge me, I still hadn’t called her. I needed to do that, and move
past it. I needed to find another job before the next semester started. I
really didn’t want to have to ask my parents for money. They would give it to
me without question, but I was twenty-two years old. It was past time for me to
take care of myself. Sighing, I tried to return my focus to my book. Just about
the time I did, my phone started ringing. Grateful for the distraction, I
grabbed it off the nightstand and looked at it. I didn’t recognize the number.

“Hello?”

“Hello, is this Elly?”

“Yes.”

“Hi Elly, it’s Jake.”

I sat straight up. What is Jake calling me for? Was
it not enough humiliation to be fired? Was he calling to rub it in? Did he want
to tell me how badly I’d disappointed him?

“Hi Jake…”

“I know it’s last minute, but I was wondering if you
had time to meet with me this morning?”

“Um…” What the hell does he want? Of course I have
the time. I don’t have a job to get in the way any longer. “Sure, okay. What
time?”

“Within the hour?”

Damn! I just couldn’t imagine what he wanted. Why
didn’t he just say all he had to say the other day?

“Okay, sure. I’ll be there.” I hung up with a knot
in my stomach. I’d done good not wallowing. I hadn’t cried and I wasn’t
freaking out about money…okay, I was obsessing a little, but still not too bad.
Why did he want to do this to me? Why couldn’t he just talk to me on the phone?
Maybe he was going to offer my job back. No way…maybe? Maybe they were going to
let Tristan go after all and he wanted to tell me it was all my fault.

Shit! I needed to just go find out before I drove
myself nuts wondering about it. I bounced out of bed and quickly dressed in one
of my best business suits. Just in case he wanted to ask me back, I wanted to
look professional. I pulled my hair back and did my make-up. By the time I was
ready, I had convinced myself that since they didn’t kick Tristan off, maybe
they decided it wasn’t fair to let me go. I knew I might be disappointed when I
got there, but for the time being, it was a nice fantasy.

I passed Tony in the hall when I got to the studio.
He gave me a weird look like he was wondering what I was doing there. It was,
in the immortal words of Tristan, none of his fucking business. He looked like
he was going to say something to me but I stepped into Jake’s outer office
before he could. I thought Tristan was right; Tony was kind of a little prick.

“Hi, Jenny,” I said to the assistant who was sitting
behind her desk, “Jake wanted to see me.”

“Yes, he’s expecting you, Elly. Go on in.” Jenny
smiled at me, genuinely. I guess they’re not all pricks.

I knocked first and he called for me to come in.
When I opened the door he stood up from behind his desk and smiled. It wasn’t
the same look he’d given me the last time we met, he seemed sincerely happy to
see me. That was a good sign. Surely he wouldn’t be so happy about the prospect
of lecturing me.

“Hello, Elly. Thank you for coming in.”

“You’re welcome,” I said. Please just tell me what
you want so I can stop worrying about it.

“Go ahead and have a seat.” We both sat down and he
said, “First of all, I have to say congratulations on your performance the
other night. I couldn’t really say that in front of Clint and Tony, but I
thought you were incredible.”

I was flabbergasted, “Thank you,” was all I could
say. He was the executive producer. I had to wonder why he cared what Clint or
Tony thought. I laughed inwardly at myself. I was starting to think a lot like
Tristan.

“I was wondering if you’re still interested in
working the tour?”

Now I was beyond flabbergasted. I almost fell off my
chair.

“You still want me to?” I said. He’d just fired me—hadn’t
he?

“Yes, I still want you to. I think you’re extremely
talented and if there had been more than a couple of shows left, I would have
fought for you. I was disappointed, I’ll admit, but you’re young and things
happen. I just didn’t see the point in all that drama for a couple of weeks
more.”

“Oh, wow! Thank you so much, Jake.” It meant a lot
to me to know he respected my work ethic. I thought that had gotten lost in the
shuffle. “I’d love to do the tour! I’m so excited.” I had already set up my
online classes for next semester after the last time we talked about this. After
they fired me though, I thought that the tour was part of the show and I was
kicked off that, too. I hadn’t even questioned it. Jake was smiling as I
gushed. He slid a pile of papers over to me and said,

“This is the contract. Read it over and sign on the
yellow lines for me and it’s official.”

I couldn’t stop smiling. I probably looked like an
idiot, but I had the job, so I didn’t care. I signed it all, skimming through
it. The salary was at the top of the first page and it was more than generous.
Yay me!

Jake looked them over after I handed them back and
then said, “Welcome aboard…again.”

“Thank you, Jake, sincerely. I won’t mess this up.”

“I know you won’t,” he said. He walked me out and
Tony was still lurking in the hall. I knew that he was dying to know what was
going on. I smiled broadly at him, just to make him wonder more.