Rock Me: Sexy (New Adult Rockstar Romance) (New Adult Rock Star Erotic Romance) (12 page)

There was one person in the room;
however, who didn’t appreciate Hugo’s larger than life personality. Tyler. His
eyes were flashing with a barely suppressed anger.

Hugo put his arm around my shoulder and
pulled me against him. He whispered secretively in my ear. “Don’t get me wrong;
you’re dazzling to me every day, darling. But it’s on nights like these when I
ask myself why, in Heaven’s name, I haven’t ever made it into your panties
yet.”

I was well used to Hugo’s outrageous
comments, but still, I blushed. I tried to pull away from him, but he held me
tightly at his side.

I snuck a peek at Tyler and could see his
jaw was clenched tightly. This was hardly the reaction I wanted to get from him
tonight, but at least I could see that he wasn’t completely indifferent to me.

It was only a matter of seconds before a
crowd gathered around Hugo and that’s when Tyler slipped away.

Hugo’s warm hand rested gently on my
back. He leaned in so only I could hear him again. “Oh my, Kaitlyn. Did I
interrupt a lover’s spat? He was staring daggers at me. Please tell me you
haven’t fallen into the sack with the rock star.
Please
. It would just
utterly crush my ego.”

“Mind your own business, Hugo. Why didn’t
you tell me that you were coming tonight?”

I could only speak with Hugo for a few
more minutes, before the demanding crowd pulled him away from me. I separated
from the pack and looked around for Tyler.

“Ms. Winston?”

I nodded as an older man approached me.

“Mr. Thornton would like to address the
gathering at this time. He would like to acknowledge you in his speech and ask
you to make a few remarks. Are you ready now?”

I spotted Tommy out of the corner of my
eye. “Yes, I’m ready.”

The man left and I caught up to Tommy.
“Where are those shots you promised me?”

Tommy offered up a shot. “Only one
survived the trip back.”

I downed the harsh liquid that I couldn’t
identify and waited while the crowd began to hush around me as Jeff Thornton
stepped in front of the ballroom with a microphone in hand.

I made my way to the front of the crowd
during Jeff’s long speech. He said some great things about Rock Star Diaries,
including information that market testing had indicated the show would be a
huge success, especially with the demographic groups they prized the most. Jeff
spent far too much time thanking various Vibe employees, many of whom probably
hadn’t done a thing to contribute to the show’s success.

Finally, Jeff motioned me to his side.
“And now, let me introduce to you our secret weapon, the magic behind the most
highly anticipated new series in television, Kaitlyn Winston.”

I took the handheld microphone from Jeff
while the audience politely clapped. “I’ll keep this short, so that we can get
back to having fun. First, I’d like to take the time to acknowledge the Rock
Star Diaries’ crew. They have been toiling endlessly to put together a first
class show. Their dedication, work ethic and expertise have been so
impressive.”

While the audience clapped, I searched
for Tyler. I found the other guys, but Tyler was gone. “Many people have come
together to make this show a success, but let’s not forget, it certainly
wouldn’t be a success without Cold Fusion. I would like to thank the band’s
manager, Scott Boyd, for all that he has done to help us. And I’d like to wish
Cold Fusion continued success with their tour. I want to personally thank
Tyler, Tommy, Nick and Alex. They’re really an interesting and extremely
talented bunch of guys. I can’t wait for the world to get a peek into their
diaries. Thanks everyone.”

Well-wishers surrounded me when I was
done. It was over an hour later, after continuously scanning the crowd, when I
finally admitted my bitter disappointment. Tyler had taken off.

Tyler hadn’t budged in hours. He had
heard Katie’s speech from a small bar that was tucked away in an alcove on the far
side of the ballroom. After the speech, Nick and Allie had disappeared. Shortly
after that, Tommy and Alex had left to head to a local bar somewhere off the
strip. Tyler had made up some lame excuse that he was going to drink for free
until he nearly passed out and then stumble up to his hotel room.

Now he was pissed that he stayed behind.
There was nothing for him here. The party was beyond dull and he didn’t even
have any drugs to take the edge of boredom off. He doubted anyone at this party
would be able to help him out, either.

Deep down he knew why he stayed, to fucking
torture himself with Katie, a girl who wouldn’t even have sex with him. A girl
that he didn’t even like.

Despite the denials to himself, he had
been looking forward to seeing her at this party. By the time she had shown up
looking so stunningly breathtaking, he was almost ready to forgive her. She had
just been doing her job. She hadn’t betrayed him as he had originally imagined.
It was his own fault that he was too naïve to understand how everything really
worked in the TV business.

But then that pompous ass had shown up.
Tyler had seen the possessive way he had acted towards her, touching her with familiarity
and whispering secret promises in her ear. He must be the boyfriend she had
spoken so dreamily about, the one who treated her like a princess. Jealousy, an
emotion he wasn’t used to, slashed through his gut like a carving knife,
cutting him to pieces.

 What killed Tyler the most was what
he saw in Katie’s eyes when she looked at him. She looked absolutely star-struck
when she saw him. And it made Tyler nauseous. He saw that look from his fans
all the time so he knew exactly what it was. Tyler wanted Katie to look at
him
like that, not that prick.

His night had soured so quickly that he
was well on his way to doing exactly what he had told Tommy and Alex he would
do, get blasted and stagger back up to his hotel room. It seemed a shame to
waste a rare night in a hotel room without any girls to keep him company,
especially when his rotation in the back room of the tour bus was almost over. It
was hard to have good sex in a small bunk. He knew he could wander the strip of
Las Vegas and have a handful of beautiful girls at his beck and call within
minutes, but it just didn’t seem appealing to him. In fact, fucking random
girls had become somewhat of a chore he did to uphold his reputation. He wanted
to get back to normal where he didn’t question everyone’s motives. What the
fuck, he hated feeling like this. And it was all Katie’s fault.

He signaled for another shot to the bored
looking bartender when he felt a presence at this side. It was Katie’s
assistant, Michael.

Tyler glanced at the frazzled looking
man. “Back for another? You seem to be hitting it hard tonight, man. What’s the
matter? Woman problems?”

Michael ordered a drink from the
bartender and then answered him. “No. I just hate socializing. Thank God Katie
is being so nice. She’s helping me out. Without her, I’d be hiding under the
tables by now.”

Tyler took a sip of his beer. “I’m
surprised she even notices you, bro. Not with her boyfriend here.”

Michael creased his brow. “Hugo? That’s her
boss. Well, her old boss. He’s a legend. A freaking genius. He was the one who
got me on Rock Star Diaries. This is a huge opportunity for me and it wouldn’t
have happened without him.”

Katie’s boss?
“He seems overly friendly. He doesn’t
act like a boss.”

Michael laughed. “Oh yeah. Hugo’s a force
of nature. He can do whatever the fuck he wants and nobody would blink an eye. Women
fall all over him all trying to get in the sack with him. Hell, I would… er,
never mind. Let’s just say he has a way with the ladies and leave it at that.”

Tyler saw how bombed Michael was, so he
pressed for more details. “Has Katie slept with him?”

“That’s the rumor – that Katie
slept her way up the ladder. They do seem to be exceptionally, uh, close. But
now that I know her, I don’t believe it. She’s really talented; she doesn’t
need to do that. But I wouldn’t blame her if she did. In this business, you
have to grab your opportunities when you can. Hugo’s a powerful man. He has
seduced more young women than anyone could ever keep track of.”

Tyler downed the shot that the bartender
had placed in front of him. He was fuming. Katie acted so smug and superior,
turning him down over and over, when all along she was sleeping with her boss
just to advance in her career. The way she had talked about her boyfriend,
though, made it seem like she really loved and respected him. Or at least she
thought she did. And all along her ‘boyfriend’ was a bigger pig than Tyler was;
at least he never took advantage of anyone in a vulnerable position.

The bartender returned with Michael’s
drink. Michael grabbed it off the bar. “Ah. Liquid courage. I gotta go back out
there now and rub elbows. I wish I could do it as effortlessly as Katie does.”

Tyler barely acknowledged the man as he
left; he was too busy nursing his growing anger.

Not soon after, the bartender started
shutting down the bar. “I’m done serving, buddy. You can continue drinking at
the main bar on the first floor if you want.”

Tyler looked at his watch. “Ah, hell.
Already? I’m not even half way plastered yet. It’s still early.”

The bartender shook his head. “The party
is clearing out. The staff will chase you out of here soon.”

Tyler plunked down twenty bucks to tip the
man and got up. When he made it the few steps into the ballroom area, he saw
that half the crowd had already left. With the main bar at the back wall of the
ballroom also closing, it looked like the other half of the crowd was soon to
follow. He noted bitterly that Katie and her lover were nowhere to be seen.

Was he really going to go back to his room
this early? Half sober and alone? Trawling the streets of Las Vegas to pick up
a girl for a cheap thrill didn’t hold too much appeal either. Since the cameras
were off for the night, maybe he’d take a night off, too. No sex, no drugs, no
rock ‘n roll.

He stealthily slipped out of the
ballroom, hoping to make it back to his room without anyone stopping to talk to
him. He followed the corridor to the bank of elevators. He made it just as an
elevator door was sliding closed. It closed, but not before he saw Katie.
Hugo’s hand rested possessively on the small of her back.

He froze to the spot as his eyes
connected with Katie’s, right before the door closed, mercifully blocking the
agonizing sight. It felt like he had just gotten punched in the gut. Hurt and
disappointment mingled with his brewing anger.
Fuck, he didn’t need this
right now.

There was no way he was going to sit in
his hotel room all alone now. He pulled out his phone and called Tommy, hoping
like hell his friend would answer. He needed to go out and get loaded. Score
some drugs. Drink himself silly. He needed sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll in really
big doses. Anything, so that he could forget about Katie.

All the elevators were occupied on other
floors so Tyler decided to find the staircase, since he was only going one
floor down to exit the hotel. Tommy wasn’t answering so he punched the End
button and tried calling Alex.

He was halfway down the hall when he felt
a hand on his shoulder.

“Wait Tyler! I didn’t know you were still
here. I thought you left hours ago.”

Tyler disconnected his call and turned to
Katie. They were alone in the hall. “I’m just leaving now.”

“Oh.” Katie looked disappointed. “Where
are you going? Maybe I can come with you? I’m not tired yet.”

“Where’s your boyfriend? Maybe he should be
the one babysitting you.” He knew he sounded childish, but he couldn’t contain
his hostility.

She bit her lip. “Hugo is an old friend.
Tyler, what’s going on with you? I thought we were friends?”

She looked so vulnerable and innocent;
for some reason, it made him even madder. His anger bubbled to the surface as
he replied heatedly; “We were never friends, Katie.”

Her eyes widened. “Tyler, what’s wrong? I
want to help- ”

“You can help me by leaving me the fuck
alone.” He had backed her against the wall in his anger without even realizing
it. “Don’t pretend to be my friend, Katie.”

She was upset. Her lower lip trembled.
Hell, it looked as if she were about to cry. That look was his undoing. He had
felt months of repressed lust pent up with wanting her. Just being near her
gave him a raging hard-on, even though he pretended he couldn’t care less about
her.

He didn’t plan it. Suddenly he was
kissing her. He couldn’t stop himself. It wasn’t a gentle kiss. They were
kissing like their very lives depended on it, with an urgency that inflamed his
desire to unbearable heights.

He was lost in the kiss and didn’t come
to his senses until Katie was pulling away from him. That’s when he realized
that his hand was no longer stroking her bared back, but was slipping inside
her dress.