I forgot she lived so close. Thought I had time to change real quick before I was treated to one of her patented eye-rolls. Truly, I was trying not to piss her off for once.

But when it came to August Waverly, I could never catch a fucking break.

I cupped my hands over my cock and decided to try for charm. "I've had women throw themselves at my feet before," I told her. "But never quite so dramatically."

She glared at me with murder in her eyes, and then looked away again. "Why...the fuck...are you naked?"

"Well let's be clear here. I'm not actually naked per se. Got a shirt on."

"Pants, Jules. Where the fuck are you pants?"

"Don't yell at me, love. It's this clumsy fucker's fault over here," I gestured towards Ewan, who was red-faced holding in his laughter. "Can't hold his liquor. Literally. Spilled it all over my trousers here. I was getting changed. Nothing worse than a wet crotch, aye love? Wouldn't you hate it if I made you all wet like this?"

August looked like she'd swallowed a frog. "You guys are drinking already? It's 9:30 in the fucking morning."

"Cheers. Doesn't much matter if you never went to bed in the first place, now does it?" I looked down at her. "Come on, love. Get up off the floor now."

She swatted my hand away. "Don't you fucking touch me after holding your..."

"Cock, love? Please, you're about to spend two months with us in the middle of nowhere. This isn't going to be the last time you see my dick."

August scrambled up from the floor and smoothed her hands down shirt. Christ but she was stacked, and she fucking knew it too. She lifted her chin in that way of hers, where she's cold as ice and hot as Hades at the same fucking time. "Yes," she said with a look that should have reduced me to ashes on the spot. "It is."

"Ooooh," the boys chorused helpfully from the back.

I shot them the V-sign with one hand, while I cupped my junk with the other as August shoved past me. Seemed like a good idea to protect my most valuable asset around her, lest she either knee me in the balls right now or cut it off with a knife tonight while I slept. August Waverly was fully capable of doing both, I was sure of it. She hated my fucking guts.

And the feeling was bloody mutual.

She'd been a thorn in my fucking side ever since she barged into our dressing room before a show one night and basically announced that she was our manager. The rest of the boys, they seemed to like her brassy, in-your-face schtick, and Lord knows we were in a bind back then with firing our label and having to start again from square one. But I didn't like her. Not one fucking bit.

I mean, I liked looking at her. With her wild red curls that licked up from her head like she was on fire from within, and her mocking brown eyes the color of cinnamon. And I fucking loved staring at her high, stubborn tits, especially on days like today when she wore a white T-shirt cut low enough to reveal that constellation of freckles across the tops of them. And it was fun as hell to watch her screw her pretty little lips down into an angry frown when she got pissed at me. Which was pretty much all the time.

But when she opened her goddamned mouth, that was the end of it.

"Are we still on schedule?" I heard her saying to the driver now. She'd plopped her pert ass in the very front of the bus, for all the world like that eager little shit in grade school who raised his hand every time the teacher asked a question.

"Yes ma'am," the driver said. He seemed to pick up on the vibe as soon as August came on the bus and was now sitting up nice and straight in his seat. "We should be arriving right in time for lunch."

I yanked a new pair of boxers up my hips. I couldn't help but notice the way August's eyes flicked down to my crotch, and I grinned. "Sorry to see it go, love?"

"Don't be fucking gross."

"Can't help it." I pulled on my trousers. "There, now you can look me in the eye again, love. They're up here," I gestured.

She rolled her eyes and looked away from me, back to the driver. She flicked through some paperwork and then back up to the papers in front. "It's two hours north to Bearsville."

"Why couldn't we have booked space in the city?" I asked, sitting down across from her. She shifted, turning her body away from mine and I leaned forward. "Now we have to spend two months in some backwater named Bearsville? Is that because there are more bears there than actual human beings?"

"I booked space there for two reasons," August said with a frosty smile as she looked down her nose at me. "One, because the engineer there is one of the best in the business. You told me you wanted that Phil Spector wall-of-sound feel? Jimmy can do that for you." She reached up and tugged one of her curls, twining it around her finger in that way she always did when she's about to rip you a new one. "And two, because I know that in order for you to actually get some work done, I need to make sure to remove all distractions."

I grinned, letting her know that her attempt at insulting me had failed. "Sound reasoning, love," I said, clapping softly. "You definitely thought this one through."

She beamed, tucking her clipboard primly into her lap. "What can I say? I'm good."

I licked my lips. "I'll give you that. But there's one thing you didn't really think through."

"Yeah?"

"Us lot," I gestured back to the rest of the band. "Are about to spend two months bored out of our minds in the mountains Upstate." I leaned in closer. "And you're gonna be stuck there with us."

She rolled her eyes again and twisted in her seat, whipping out her cell phone and burying her face in it. I leaned back on my seat, not really sure why the idea of being stuck in the woods with August was so damn appealing.

"Ugh," Ewan sighed, getting up and heading to the cooler again. "She just reminded me I'm gonna be spending two months with you lot. I need another beer."