Twenty minutes later, Rory found himself in the back of the limo with Gina again.

With her head parked against the seat, she opted to stare out the window silently as Rory watched her intently, trying to identify what exactly her problem was.

But then, there was a quick way to solve that particular issue.

“What’s your problem?”

She rolled her eyes. Rory figured she was probably drawing blood from biting her tongue and holding back, so he crossed his arms and waited for her to blow.

“I don’t have a problem,” she finally spoke up, her face expressionless.

“Everyone has problems.” He jutted his elbow against her side, trying to goad her into the particular flustered state he had witnessed earlier. “And you look like you’re brimming with them right now.”

“My problem is you. And since you don’t want to pick a date,” Gina changed the subject and turned to him with a forced smile, “I’ll pick one for you.”

Rory snorted, but then added, “I’m not going out with any of those women in your folder.”

“Either you’re going to step out into the real world and find someone you’re interested in, or I’m serious, Rory. I’ll make the choice. It makes no difference to me. In fact, I’d prefer it.”

She retrieved the women from her purse and began to pass him dossiers one at a time, a stack of women he had no interest in, accumulating in a pile on his lap. He pursed his lips before grabbing the stack and tossing them back into Gina’s lap.

She let out a groan. “This is my job, Rory.” Her nostrils flared as she gathered the reports into a stack and shoved them back into the folder, and then her glare was laser focused on him again. “I’m damn good at it and I know we’ve never been best friends or anything like that, but you need to stop doing whatever it is that you’re doing and work with me here. You agreed with the guys to try. Now start trying.”

“Fine,” Rory relented with a sigh and combed his fingers through his hair. He forced the most sincere smile he could muster, because while he wasn’t happy about it, she had a point. She was only doing her job and her job involved taking the band to the next level. He hated feeling out of control of this mess, but he hated letting the boys down even more. “You pick, then.” It didn’t matter anyway. Now that he’d come to terms with the fact that he was attracted to Gina on multiple levels, no one else did it for him. It was a game at this point. A dog and pony show and he was just one of the players. Just because he went out on a couple dates didn’t mean he had to like the girls he went with.

“You’re so damn complicated.” She flipped open the folder again and parsed through the women, sorting them into two piles.

Rory cocked his head slightly to get a good look and let out a relieved sigh when she placed the porn star into what he presumed was the no pile. “That is the no pile, correct?”

“Yes. The porn star was never a viable candidate.”

“Then why is she in there?” He passed her a glare and pointed squarely at the folder. “If she was never an option—”

“Because,” she said, cracking a mischievous grin, “it was a test.”

“Did I pass?” He cocked his head, eager to know his fate.

“On the very basic level, yes, you passed.” She shrugged. “That being said, it’s hard to know since you said no to everyone else as well. I’m leaning toward like a D minus grade.”

“Damn. Like high school Algebra all over again,” he sighed, pushed himself back against the seat and took a quick glance out the window as they passed Ruffian Records.

The Algebra thing was a joke, but not really. He’d never been a great student. Although he’d liked to read, his thoughts were always full of music and melodies, making it hard to focus on anything else. His father had convinced him he was stupid and would never amount to anything, but he had always dreamed he’d end up somewhere. Maybe at a factory during the day and able to gig on nights and weekends. But he never could have imagined it would’ve been here. Cutting albums, climbing the charts and selling out venues. With his best friends, to boot.

He turned back to Gina with newfound vigor. He was going to do whatever it took to keep Sub-Zero’s dreams alive. “So, what’s the scoop? Who’s the new love of my life?”

She passed him a sly smile that had the hairs on the back of his neck standing up.

“I know I said I didn’t want to pick,” he said, backpedalling, “But—”

“It’s too late for ‘buts’, Rory,” she interrupted as she picked up a folder and pushed the rest of the files into her purse.

Rory groaned as he reached for the dossier. “Please don’t be the vegan.”

“It’s not the vegan.”

“Thank God.” He glanced down at the file, immediately recognizing her as the senator’s daughter.

“Curious?”

His eyes met hers. “Why her?”

“She’s powerful, or rather she’s tied to power. She’s not in your industry, but the word on the street is that she’s dying to get away from her father’s legacy and start one of her own. But mostly because I have a feeling in my gut that she’d garner a lot of interest. She’s the unexpected choice, I think.” She wiggled her eyebrows, teasing him.

He sighed and read through the file for the first time. Back at the café, he hardly put enough effort into just skimming the women’s bios. He was far more interested in making Gina squirm, and boy did he ever. A smile hitched across his lips at the thought of watching her contort, at the memory of the way her hips moved in that white dress.

“See something you like?” Gina questioned, snapping him back to reality.

“Not particularly.” He dropped the thin paper onto his lap. “But she’ll do the trick, I suppose.”

“When you meet her, I’m going to need you to be a little more enthusiastic.”

“I’m a musician. Not an actor.”

“Well, that’s who you used to be. You’re an actor now, too.”

He passed her a curious look. “Remind me…Why can’t Mac do this again? He’s like heartthrob material and I’m just… Not.”

“Mac is a defined entity. He has the looks and the charm, so there’s not a lot of mystery there.” She clicked her tongue against her cheek. “Ava wants mystery and she’s right. I might be damn good at my job, but she’s one of the absolute best, so for the sake of the band, we need to trust her instincts.”

Rory sunk deeper in his seat. The more they talked about this, the more real it became. A fucking senator’s daughter? Yeah, that’d end well.

Gina dropped a palm onto Rory’s thigh. His toes curled in his sneakers at the light touch, and he swallowed harshly. Her touch sent a bolt of heat straight to his cock, making him harder than he’d ever care to admit.

Fuck.

“You’re not going to spend the rest of your life with Carlene Richardson,” she said softly. “Hell, you might not even make it past the first date. And that’s fine.”

“Trust me, I know.”

“That’s not the point of this.” She withdrew her hand. “It’s actually the furthest thing from what the label wants. By my estimation, they don’t want you to fall in love and if you do, it’d probably be best to keep it to yourself.”

“Yeah, I’m not much of a falling in love kind of guy.” He cocked his head to the side, all the while cursing himself for that tiny, fragile bit of truth.

“That much is obvious.”

“Why don’t you like me, Gina?” His eyes were still glued to hers, trying to get a good read on his new frenemy sitting so close to him.

“I don’t dislike you.” She shook her head, still staring out the window at the busy street traffic. “You’re just… difficult.”

“True,” he said, nodding. As much as he hated to admit it, he was a pain in the ass sometimes, but that was one thing he admired about Gina. She told it like it was. The way he did. “And ditto.”

She inclined her head ruefully. “Touché. So now that we've gotten that straightened out, with regard to Carlene. Go on a few dates with her, be seen in public with her.” She braced one hand on the door handle as the car came to a stop outside The Silver Inn. “Have fun. Do what you do, but when there are cameras make sure to exaggerate whatever it is that you’re doing. It’s up to you whether you tell her this is all for publicity or not, but don’t lead her on if you don’t like her. That’s just mean.”

She popped the door open and climbed out of the car. As she closed the door behind her, he climbed out of the opposite side and straight onto the busy city sidewalk. He was careful to remain behind her at all times because the view was breathtaking, so damn perfect that he had to remind himself to breathe.

But, when she went to push through the spinning glass doors, he couldn’t help himself—he darted in front of her, his pulse hammering.

“I’m going to swallow my pride here and ask you something,” he began, hoping she’d come to a stop, but she obviously intended to do no such thing.

“You?” she snorted. “Swallow your pride? Why don’t I believe that?”

“Fine,” he said with an apathetic shrug and shifted to walk at her side. “I’ll keep it to myself.”

“What is it?” she questioned, not breaking her stride.

“Before you throw me to the wolves, are you going to coach me first?”

They came to a stop in front of the metallic elevator and she pushed the up button. “What? If you’re asking me to sleep with you, you must be out of your—”

“I mean, coach me on dating.” He leaned back against the elevator doors with his arms crossed. In no way shape or form did Rory Galveston need help on the dating scene, but Gina didn’t need to know that.

“Are you serious?” she said.

“I can be incredibly awkward,” he lied.

For all Rory knew, everyone was fucked if the band’s success depended on him becoming the star, so he figured he might as well have as much fun as possible before going down in a shower of flames.

“You can also be charming when you want to be.” She adjusted the strap of her purse over one shoulder. “Not that I see that side of you often, but you sure impressed Marsha.”

He stood up straight and then leaned in close to her, making sure nobody was around to overhear—and misconstrue—the situation. “Why do you think I’m still single?”

The elevator door dinged and then drew open. The last place she wanted to be was in a tight elevator with him, and he knew it, but he also knew that this was his best chance to get what he wanted.

He glanced up, taking note of the god-awful elevator music drilling holes into his ears, and began to tap his fingers along the metal railing behind him.

Gina passed him a disapproving glance over her shoulder.

Yep, he had her right where he wanted her. Right where he needed her.

“Why aren’t we talking?” he asked.

“Because I’m off the clock.”

“I don’t think that’s how your job position works.”

She groaned and shook her head.

“You know…” He tilted his head to the side. “This kind of is your job.”

He didn’t know how she managed it, but somehow she made the slits of her emerald eyes even narrower.

“Fine,” she snapped, breaking her composure for the first time. She cleared her throat and straightened herself. “Meet me in the hotel lobby tomorrow evening.”

“Huh,” he nodded, “that was easy.”

“Was it? We’ll see about that.” She passed him one final glare as the elevator doors slid open. “I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

And just like that, she raced from the elevator and made a beeline for her room. Rory, more than satisfied at the most recent development, decided it was probably best to leave her alone for the night.

He turned the opposite direction to go to his room, but twisted back before he heard her room door slam behind her, remembering her strange reaction to the news report about Peter Ebon’s nuptials.

“Hey, what about that wedding?” he asked.

She froze in her tracks and turned to face him. “What about it?”

He pushed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “Are you going to get me an invite?”

“We’ll talk about that later, okay?” she said, and then raced toward her room, careful to place the “do not disturb” sign on her door before closing it behind her.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Rory called out after her.

And he would also do whatever it took to find out why the news had clearly bothered her so much.

He vaguely recalled that she and Ebon had dated before she started working for Sub-Zero, but to his knowledge, that was all in the past. That didn’t explain why she’d looked so upset when she’d seen the story.

But, worse, it didn’t explain why her reaction had made him want to climb through the TV and throttle the smug looking bastard.

Tread lightly, Rory. She isn’t yours.

 Despite the internal warnings, he couldn’t help wonder…

But what if she was.