Things had changed in the months that followed the band’s last tour. Namely, Bill, their shady son of a bitch of a manager who had stolen from them, was out of their lives, and they had finally gotten their money back.

Rory Galveston considered that a win.

Also a win? He and his band mates had just signed a new deal with Ruffian Records, one of the biggest and most respected names in the business. They stood on the edge of the stage, on the edge of bigger and better things.

But some things had stayed the same in the months that followed the band’s last tour. Connor and Quinn were still pains in the asses and totally obnoxious. Mac was still Mac. And Gina and his sister Bug had deepened their friendship to the point of besties partners in crime.

What had been the kicker of it all, though, was that Rory’s best friend since grammar school, Dev Lachlan, had gone and hitched his wagon to Rory’s little sister. And now Dev and Cheri’s names were suddenly splashed across the pages of tabloid magazines in a way that screamed that all of their lives were changing. It was one thing for him to have to get over Dev’s deceit for sneaking around. Rory had come to terms with his best friend sleeping with his baby sister and had only kicked his ass a little bit in the process.

But getting over all this new drama with the impending marriage affecting the band?

That was going to be harder.

As far as the limelight, Rory was more than content hiding in the shadows. It was easier there, less pressure and all that. For better or worse, Dev was the face of the band. But ever since Dev had been marked “off the market”, sales had started to decline. Rory had the sneaking suspicion that was why they’d been called in for this meeting.

The entire gang was there; the band, Gina, their PR person, and Bug, who did their social media. At the request of the new label’s public relations director, they’d all shown up, but the topic of conversation had remained a secret.

Rory hated secrets almost as much as he hated techno music.

He was seated comfortably near the end of the table with only Mac to his right. To his left sat Dev and Connor, and Quinn finished out his side of the table while Bug and Gina sat on the opposite side whispering to each other. Rory couldn’t help but to roll his eyes as they chuckled in unison, cupping their hands over their mouths as their eyes shifted to Gina’s phone screen.

He dragged his gaze away, knowing that looking at Gina only led him down the wrong path, and shot a glance to Connor and Quinn. They were engaged in their own brand of mischief, wasting time.

Ava Collins—Ruffian’s publicity manager—was due to arrive within the next five minutes. By Rory’s watch, that meant she was already late. Didn’t she know they had more important things to do, like, say, write music?

He drowned out the noise of the girls across from him and the boys beside him, and got lost in his own head. That was never a difficult task for him. No matter the noise or the distraction, he’d always find a way to drift off into his own little world. It was an escape mechanism—hell, survival mechanism—he’d turned to as a kid when things got tough. One that had served him well then, and even more so when he was up on stage. It was the one place where he felt whole.

With two pencils in hand, he began to tap against the wooden table. And though most people would only ever hear the sound of a pencil slapping wood, in his head he could hear it all; rain drops on metal, the ringing that lingered with every smack of his drumstick against a cymbal.

His lips curled at the corners as the song unfolded in his mind. He began again from the very beginning until it was solidified in his memory, and then he started to play to a different tempo.

The door off to the side of the long conference room finally swung open, tearing him back to reality. High heels clicked against the wood floors, and he nodded in approval at the beat that went along with them inside his head. He penciled in a mental note to emulate that very same sound into the band’s next song.

His eyes drifted to Ava Collins as she dropped into a seat at the end of the table. She was pretty in a chilly way, with long slick black hair contrasting harshly against her white pantsuit—and not the kind of pantsuit Hillary Rodham Clinton was famed for. This one fit her gaunt frame perfectly, like high fashion.

She smiled, but it didn’t fill Rory with ease. In fact, quite the opposite. It filled him with a sense of dread. She sat there, hard as ice, as she flipped open a folder and stared down the center of the table. She cleared her throat, checked her phone and then dove straight into business.

“As you may have already guessed, I’m Ava Collins. Your new publicity contact at Ruffian Records.” She smiled again, and it was forced just the same. “Any questions.”

Connor shot his hand into the air, knowing damn well this wasn’t a classroom, but also knowing that that was the point. You could take the child out of adolescence, but you couldn’t take the adolescence out of a child.

Ava reached across the short distance that separated her and Connor to push his hand down. “Truly, Connor, that’s not necessary.”

“Right.” Connor folded immediately, realizing he was obviously no match for Ava. The band might have been called Sub-Zero, but Ava was Sub-Zero.

“It’s nice meeting you all,” she said. “I’m familiar with all of you from both the television and your dossiers. Now, you’re probably wondering why I’ve brought you all here today and, I’m a busy woman, so I’m just going to skip to the point.” Her eyes trailed to Bug first and then shot over to meet Dev’s gaze. “Ruffian Records is beyond excited to be working with Sub-Zero, but right now we need to let you know…you guys are in the midst of a huge publicity crisis.”

“Crisis?” Gina questioned, leaning slightly over the table. Rory couldn’t quite stop himself from taking notice of the way she always had to insert her nose where it didn’t belong; she was bossy like that. But he also couldn’t stop from taking notice of her spectacular cleavage. He ignored the heady rush of blood to his cock and forced his gaze back up to her face as she spoke. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“Relax,” Connor suggested with a chuckle. “She’s not stealing your job.”

Gina simply scoffed at him, refusing to give him the attention he craved. Instead, she remained laser-focused on Ava.

Did Rory sense a rivalry stewing? It was certainly an amusing thought. He loved seeing Gina get all worked up. She was always hot, but Gina mad? It was a sight to behold.

Not that he was looking.

“Congratulations Dev and Cheri,” Ava said. “The whole world is looking forward to the wedding. But, as exciting as all that was, and despite the amazing proposal, now that the dust has settled? It’s a problem.” She pushed her chair back and rose to stand, her heels clapping against the hard floors as she towered over the mere mortals beneath her, her hands placed carefully on the elongated table.

“Since you chose to do things so publicly,” she continued, almost snidely, “someone else is going to need to step up and become the new face of Sub-Zero. Someone’s going to need to get into the limelight a little more, because, no offense, but you’re no good to us if the star is off the market.”

Right about then, Rory started zoning out again. He had already made his peace with Dev and Bug’s engagement. This had nothing to do with him, so he went back to working out the melody for their next hit, the one he was sure would send them into the stratosphere. His eyes narrowed as he got lost in his own head until the talk around him became muffled.

He could see his band mates and his friends engaged in conversation but was too far gone in his own thoughts to hear most of what they were saying. A pencil tap here. A pencil tap there. His wrists flicked as if the pencils were drumsticks and bam, there it was, he had finally worked out the melody to Sundown Margarita.

He smiled, proud of himself, but quickly noticed that the chatter around him had stopped. Just like that, he was back in the real world and everyone was staring at him.

Why?

He cleared his throat and tried to erase the grimace on his face. “What?”

Ava frowned, her cheeks flushing just slightly, with twin spots of irritation blooming there. But she was already pale, so Rory figured it couldn’t have been too difficult for someone to fluster her. “It looks like the band is nominating you to be their new Lothario, Rory.” She stood up straight and crossed her arms over each other, looked him dead in the eye. “What do you say?”

“Uhm…” He folded his lips together as his eyes danced around the room, trying to get a good read on which son of a bitch had put her up to this. Though he was surrounded by friends and family, he felt like he was Caesar in the moment. He just needed to figure out who was his Brutus.

He knew he wasn’t as funny or outgoing as Connor or Quinn and wasn’t as traditionally good looking as Mac—fucking boy next door—so he struggled with why his name had even been thrown out there and by who.

“Why me?” he questioned, sinking just a little bit into his chair.

“Women are attracted to an air of mystery.” Ava pointed to Dev. “He was larger than life and now he’s off the market.”

“I nominate Mac,” Rory said, hoping to take the eyes off him. After all, if anyone besides Dev was going to be the new face of the band, it should’ve been someone who’d fit right in to the typical teen fantasy.

“The band has to put someone new into the public eye, and it has to be someone who isn’t trying to match Dev’s charisma but has their own brand of sexy. That’s you, Rory,” Ava said.

Rory was taken aback, like hell he’d admit that though. His eyes shot to the first amused snort, courtesy of his younger sister, and then to Gina, who also let loose a light chuckle. He forced a laugh too, but he wasn’t thinking any of this was funny.

“The label execs are serious about this rebranding and feel that it could make all the difference for the success of the next album.” Ava wasn’t backing down. Her stare was so intense, he found himself wishing for a shield.

He caught sight of Dev and could tell by the hopeful look in his eyes that his best friend was about to take the final stab into his back. “Just keep an open mind, Rory.”

“Let’s just see what she has to say,” Bug added with a shrug, turning her attention to Ava at the forefront of the table.

Rory flexed his jaw but nodded. “Fine. Let’s hear it.”

Ava bared her teeth into something he imagined she passed off as a smile. “So basically what we’d want to do is get you in front of the camera more. Do some more solo interviews, and be seen around the world at big events either solo or on the arm of various famous women.” She chuckled and bit her lip. “We need to turn you into a bad boy player, or at least give you a public makeover that screams that you’re a bad boy player.”

“Well,” Gina scoffed under her breath, “that part shouldn’t be too hard.”

To which Bug nudged her bestie on the shoulder with her elbow.

And then Judas—err, Dev—jumped into the conversation, helpfully filling Ava in on the joke.

“He is notorious for hook ups that don’t end in a relationship.”

“I think this is a wonderful idea,” Gina interjected and clicked her tongue against her cheek.

Rory laughed along but he was secretly making a hit list. He also wasn’t thrilled about Gina being gung ho about the entire affair either. Or maybe he just wasn’t thrilled with Gina, period, lately. He mentally ran through the list of her qualities.

Super irritating?

Check.

Bossy?

Check.

Though he couldn’t deny that ever since the tour had ended a few months back that he couldn’t stop thinking about her. It was a love-hate relationship. He had had some sexy dreams starring the two of them, no doubt the soundtrack scored by himself as he undressed her first and then…

Now wasn’t the time to be fantasizing.

Ava dropped back into her seat with an amused smirk, though Rory couldn’t deduce if she got off on making him uncomfortable or if she was simply smitten with the idea of making millions off of him and his friends.

“Gina, you should handle the day to day of this and feel free to contact me at any time if you need my help with anything.”

“For sure,” Gina responded. “I’ve been taking good care of these boys for a while now…”

Rory rolled his eyes again and began to drift back into his own little world, a world that was a safe haven for him, but also a world where Gina was standing before him stark naked. Dark, wavy hair framed her face. Her curvy body a silhouette against a sunlit window. Perky breasts…

He pushed those thoughts away and nudged at the erection in his jeans. He cursed himself for even letting his mind go there and focused back in on the conversation.

Ava collected the folder off the table as she rose to stand and straighten again. “We’ll meet back in a few weeks to gauge progress, to see if Rory’s social currency and relevancy shows a spike.”

“Right.” Gina nodded as she scribbled notes into a spiral-bound notebook—what kind of monster still used dead trees, anyway? “Bug and I will keep a close eye on social media followers and engagement.”

Gina was good at her job, but that didn’t mean he had to like any of this.

Ava passed him one final look on her way out the door, closing the door behind her, leaving all eyes on him.

“What? I said I’d try it, but don’t hold your breath. I’m no Dev.”

The chorus of hallelujah’s and nods that followed made his laugh genuine for the first time all day, but inside, he steeled himself for what was to come.

Whether or not he wanted it, the responsibility now fell on his shoulders. He was sure the limelight would kill him, but he would do his best for the band. Because, besides his sister, there was nothing in the world he loved more. It had been there when he’d needed an escape from a terrible home life as a kid. It had gotten him through the tough times of raising a kid sister once he had finally had the balls to walk away from his abusive father and take Cheri-bug with him. And it would get him through this.

If he had to date a bunch of hot girls for the camera, so be it. He had no one serious in his life anyway, and never would.

The band was the only real love he could ever count on or trust in, and it was going to stay that way.