Midnight Blue

“Her room ?” He rolled the last word on his tongue like it was a curse. “What business did you have being in her room?”

Lucas cocked his head, confusion marring his features.

“She asked me to lend her my laptop.”

“Could’ve stayed in the hallway. No, wait. That’s a foreign concept, right, Waitrose? Talking to a girl without monopolizing her life, time, and space,” Alex retorted.

I was sandwiched between them, my back to Alex, my face to Lucas, feeling hot, and not just from blushing. Both men released enough heat from their bodies to fry a steak, and it was wrong, especially considering the poor timing, but my pulse throbbed in my neck with arousal.

“Oh, that’s rich, Winslow. If your cock had an autobiography, it’d be thicker than Bill Gates’.” Luc kept his voice light but his intent heavy, offering me his open palm.

My eyes widened in disbelief. This was a blunt provocation, and they both knew that. I sidestepped, my back to the wall. They stared me down, waiting for me to say something. Lucas’ hand was still open, but not at all inviting. Alex pushed it away, making Luc’s arm dangle beside his body. He got into his drummer’s face, and before I knew what was happening, Lucas was glued against the wall beside me, the fabric of his damp shirt gathered in Alex’s fist. They were nose-to-nose now. There was no mistaking the bad blood that ran between them, because it was thick and angry like a river.

“Let’s get one thing straight—this girl was not hired as a parking space for your dick. She is my assistant. She takes care of me , caters to me , answers me , and only me . This means if I ever catch you in her room again—and I’m planning to keep a closer look now, Waitrose—I will throw you off the tour without even batting an eyelash. Don’t forget you’re just a fucking drummer. Any roadie with two sticks can replace you.”

My heart was in my throat. For all the evil Alex Winslow exhibited whenever I was involved, he’d never spoken to any of his friends like this in front of me. Lucas pushed Alex away, causing the rock star to slam against the opposite wall.

“Oh, piss off. You’ve been acting like a miserable cunt since the second you left rehab. If your mission in life is to make everyone hate you, you’re excelling big time, Winslow.”

Alex immediately swung his arm back, preparing to pummel his fist into Lucas’ face, but luckily, Blake appeared down the hall, sprinting toward us.

“Oi! You two, stay away from each other,” he yelled, waving his fisted cell phone in warning. Words couldn’t express how awkward I felt standing there like an idiot and watching the exchange wordlessly. There were many things I wanted to do, including but not limited to screaming at Alex that I wasn’t his possession, then telling Lucas to stop acting like an insecure five-year-old who wanted to get a rise from the hotheaded boy down the street. However, I decided to lecture them both separately when they’d cooled down for better impact.

Blake shoved his body between them and stretched his arms, forcing each guy to a different wall.

“Second time in twenty-four hours. What the hell is happening?” he demanded.

“Same thing that happened yesterday. Waitrose is hitting on my babysitter.” Alex huffed a piece of hair from his sweaty forehead, and damn, he was still shirtless, and I was still trying hard not to ovulate as a result.

Lucas sneered. “Let’s try again, muppet. Officer Cokehead won’t allow Indie to breathe without him around. Apparently, we’re no longer allowed to hang out because of his small dick syndrome.”

“Small dick!” Alex exclaimed, as if Lucas just told him the earth was flat. “My cock already made more money than you this year and will soon need a full staff to manage his career. Don’t you fucking disrespect him.”

Was I really standing there listening to three grown-up British men discussing Alex’s penis?

“Okay, okay, okay.” Blake pushed both of them harder toward the opposite walls as they tried getting in each other’s faces again.

I’d never seen Lucas anything less than calm and poised, and Alex’s feathers had never been this ruffled before, either.

“Listen to me carefully, you two—Alex, Lucas is allowed to hang out with your babysitter, who is not, in fact, in your possession just because she works for you. Lucas, you can try to chase Indie’s tail—no offense, Indie, but that’s quite what he’s doing—without doing it so blatantly in Alex’s face. Am I understood?”

Alex stared at Blake like he didn’t understand nor agree to anything that had left his mouth. His pupils spat fire and his mouth was pursed into a thin line. After a few seconds of silence, he shook his arm out of Blake’s grasp, his eyes never leaving his manager’s. “We’ll discuss this in the suite. I’m going for a drive. Indie. You’re leaving with me.”

“Am not,” I corrected, on the verge of strangling him while simultaneously screaming. “I’m leaving in our SUV with the rest of the guys.”

“Well, then,” he said, smiling, “I guess I’ll have to get going. Scoring coke in a foreign city is always a hassle.”

I was about to stomp in his direction when Blake stopped me, putting a hand on my shoulder.

“I’ll deal with this,” he said.

A dressing room door opened down the hallway and Alfie appeared, pink-cheeked. There was a gorgeous brunette in a red minidress next to him, and they held hands. I didn’t fail to notice that her scarlet lipstick was smeared all over both their faces.

“Can you shut your gobs for one bloody minute? Kinda busy spreading the love here.”

“The love or the STDs?” Alex muttered, lighting a cigarette, his go-fuck-yourself expression on full display.

Lucas folded his arms, yawning. “Sorry, mate, you’ll have to take a rain check. Your boss is threatening to relapse because he can’t take seeing his drummer and babysitter hanging out.”

“Hanging out, huh?” Alfie chuckled.

Stay strong. Don’t hit anyone. You don’t need the criminal record.

“You guys are all idiots,” I concluded, storming down the hallway toward the back door where the SUV was waiting for us. “All of you. No exceptions. Big-ass babies with fat wallets and too much time.” I turned around and stomped away, throwing two middle fingers in the air for emphasis. “I’m going to sit in the SUV and try not to choke from anger. Hope by the time you guys get there, you grow up a little.”