CHAPTER 9

JARED

My tongue swept quickly between my lips as I took in the mouthwatering sight in front of me. Alicia was wearing a tight black shirt that exposed the tops of her tits and made me want to suck on them. Her ass looked fucking incredible encased by a white skirt that didn’t reveal any panty lines, and I was itching to lift it, if only to confirm my suspicions that she wasn’t wearing any.

The very thought that she might be bare beneath the fabric was threatening to make me hard. I sucked in a deep breath and clenched my stomach muscles to keep from popping a boner in her very first meeting with the band. It wasn’t anything they hadn’t seen before, but I wasn’t sure that Alicia would appreciate it.

Somewhere along the line, I’d learned that women didn’t find that kind of thing as flattering as some might think, and from the stern expression on Alicia’s face as she briefed us about her multipronged public relations strategies, it was clear to me that she would probably get as angry as a hornet stuck in a washing machine.

“So,” she was saying when I forced myself to pay attention to her words instead of her body. “I’m really excited to be working on our promotional strategies for your new album.”

We were sitting in the conference room at Gerry’s office, a professional slideshow being projected onto the white screen against the wall showed icons for various social media sites on one side, with arrows pointing to mainstream media on the other.

Nick and Matt were staring off into the distance, hungover as fuck from the party we’d been to the night before. My own head was still feeling a little fuzzy, but I tried to listen to what Alicia was explaining.

Dom and Caleb, both still annoyed with me, were listening closely and nodding at the suggestions that she was making.

Fucking brown-nosers.

“I’m already working on building the fan hype among your online community.” Between the five of us, we had over a hundred million followers on Twitter and God only knew how many across all the platforms combined, and I knew what was coming. “A part of that will have to be you guys also posting about it from time to time.”

It was what she said next that surprised me, since Brad had always had us go the other way. “I’m not going to ask you to post about it every day, like some other people might have. It will build the hype more if people have to wait for news from you. If one of you could post something every couple of days that would be fine.”

“We’re not ready to post teasers about the songs yet,” Dom said, folding his arms across his chest. I rolled my eyes, but in the relative darkness of the conference room, he hadn’t seen it, so I would be spared that lecture, at least.

Like fuck we weren’t ready. We’d recorded nine songs by my last count already and since we didn’t record anything until the song was perfect, we could tease any one of those.

“I understand,” Alicia said, her steady gaze meeting his. Strangely, his intensity didn’t seem to intimidate or bother her at all. Not many women reacted to him that way. I kind of admired her for it.

“What would you like us to post then?” Caleb asked, clearly eager to get into the action.

“Whatever you want, really.” She seemed to realize her mistake, and her eyes flashed in warning. “Anything you want that’s related to your new album, that is. It can be something as simple as a picture of the road when you’re on your way to the studio, a shot of your instrument—”

“She means your musical instrument, Jared,” Nick chimed in, and laughter broke out in the room as I flipped him off. I played the piano like a boss, but whenever anyone said anything about our instruments, a comment like that one was sure to follow since I was the only one in the band who wasn’t up there with an instrument.

That was in addition to the fact that they wouldn’t have any songs to play their instruments to if it wasn’t for me. Sure, they all dabbled in songwriting, and they’d all been responsible for a hit or two, but even that had been with my help.

Alicia allowed a minute for the laughter to die down then continued, an easygoing smile on her lips and her own laughter in her eyes. “Good point. Your musical instrument can be in your posts.”

“What are we doing about seeding hype in the entertainment press?” Gerry asked, almost always the one to bring us back to business when we started veering off track.

She was prepared for his question, just like I was starting to learn she was prepared for most things when it came to her job. She even humored me and answered my unasked questions when I went to see her the other day.

“We’ve already opened lines of communication with them, and they’re writing about the fact that you’re back in the studio, that you will be releasing a new album in a couple of months’ time, and I’m in the process of lining up interviews.”

“You gonna lecture us on what to say in these interviews?” Matt asked. Brad’s coaching had been one of his pet annoyances.

Alicia laughed softly and ran her hand through her loose, blonde hair before answering. “You’re media-trained superstars. I’m sure you can handle a few short, promotional interviews. If at this point, you don’t know what the off-limit topics are or how to deflect questions on them, I’m afraid there’s no hope for you.”

Matt fist-pumped the air while Nick started a slow clap. Even Dom and Caleb were smiling. I had to give it to her. She was doing a great job at winning them over. As she had with me, until she started bringing up all that shit about me ruining my career. That was the one thing that really got to me. That felt like a punch to my stomach every time we were asked about after Destitute. We had enough money to last us at least this lifetime, possibly half the next if we played it safe, but it wasn’t about that for me. If I were to lose the music, my dream, I might as well lose my life at the same time.

“Speaking of which,” Alicia was saying. “Are there any new scandals that I should know about that the press might be digging for? If there are, you need to tell me now so that I can start heading them off and getting out ahead of them. We don’t want anything diverting the focus from the new album release.”

“Whatever do you mean?” I asked innocently, pressing my hand to my chest. “We’re never involved in any scandals.”

My bandmates laughed, Gerry glared at get me, but Alicia indulged me. “Okay, well let’s see. In my experience, I’ve dealt with everything from the ordinary, like a client knocking someone up, to the absurd.”

I leaned forward, elbows on the glass top of the conference table as I steepled my fingers thoughtfully. “You’ve got to tell us more about these absurd situations you’re referring to. You know, just to let us know what qualifies as an absurd situation that we should let you know about.”

Alicia’s eyes grew contemplative before meeting mine, serious determination mixed with amusement in them. She touched her two index fingers together. “One, driving a Rolls into a public pool was a pretty entertaining incident to have dealt with.”

Her index finger moved to her middle finger as her eyes narrowed in thought. “Another one was when it got leaked that a client had called a hotel manager and demanded that something got done about the wind, because it was keeping him awake.”

Even my jaw loosened a bit at that one. I could imagine that once fans saw you as that much of a brat, the music might be a bit ruined for them. “Is that the worst you’ve got? Because that’s spoiled, but it’s not the end of the world.”

Alicia’s eyes flashed. Apparently, she’d heard my unspoken challenge. “That’s on the tame end of the spectrum of the absurd. I’ve had to deal with a client marrying a self-proclaimed witch, another giving a Nazi salute during a press conference, excrement from a tour bus being illegally dumped in the Thames, a married man with three young children at home asking a very famous actress to fuck him on live TV. In his very meager defense, though, he hadn’t realized that the camera was still rolling before he did it.”

“Now we’re getting to the good stuff.” Matt laughed gleefully, shifting forward as he urged Alicia on. “You know, I’m still not completely clear on these scandals you refer to. Tell us more.”

“Well,” Alicia said, a faint smile playing on her lips. “We only have time for a few more, I think. Do try not to run off to join a sex cult, and if you get caught going at it while wearing a seven-foot alien costume, don’t even call me because I am not dealing with that again.”

By the time she was done, we were howling with laughter, while Gerry looked mortified. “All of those were things that your clients have actually done?”

Alicia nodded with a wry half smile tugging at the corners of her lips as she remembered, and I thought that she’d just won the respect of every man in that room. “Tell me about you guys. I need to know about your habits. Alcohol consumption?”

There was a brief pause before Caleb asked, with a hint of disbelief in his voice, “Are you actually asking us if we drink?”

She shook her head. “I’m asking how much you drink.”

Shoving my hand into my hair, I considered her question, giving her the only answer I could. “Too much.”

Nick, Matt, and Caleb nodded their agreement, and Dom motioned around the table. “We all probably drink more than a little too much, and that’s not going to change.”

“I’m not asking you to change,” she assured us. “I just need to get a sense of what I’m dealing with. Okay, so all of you drink, and all of you admit that it’s probably too much. Sex?”

“I’m assuming that you’re not asking us if we have it?” Dom asked flatly, then waved a finger around the table once more. “None of us are in a serious relationship at the moment, and all of us fuck around.”

“We’re all completely honest with the girls we sleep with, though,” Nick said. “They know what they’re getting into before anything happens with anyone. That’s the deal.”

“I tell every woman that I sleep with beforehand that it’s a one-time only deal. You only get one shot at the Emperor.” I winked, but I was also being straightforward. She asked me to be honest with her, and I was. I knew she’d find out sooner or later anyway, and this was all about her being prepared to deal with our shit. I had to be as honest with her as I’d been with Brad, even if my dick hadn’t wanted into Brad something bad.

Accepting what we told her as the truth, Alicia moved on. “What about drugs? Any of you on them?”

We shook our heads in unison. That was the one part of the sex, drugs, and rock and roll lifestyle that we didn’t partake in. We’d seen too many great musicians ruined or dead because of it, and we’d made a pact early on that we wouldn’t fall into that trap. None of us wanted into that club.

“We changed it to sex, booze, and rock ‘n’ roll a long time ago,” Nick said, bringing Alicia into our inside joke.

“It’s kind of like our anti-drug. We get so wasted that we forget drugs even exist.” I was joking, but her eyes were serious when they cut to mine.

“Okay, I think that wraps it up for today then. Thank you all for your time. We will see each other shortly, I’m sure.” The others shot up, clearly grateful that the meeting had been shorter than we’d all been expecting. Brad often made us sit there for hours.

I stayed behind, though, wanting to talk to Alicia before I left. “Tell me something about your personal life.”

It wasn’t a question, and she didn’t look thrilled by my demand. She folded her arms and turned slightly so that she would be facing me head on, curiosity and defiance sparking in those blue eyes. “Why?”

“Because I just spent the last half hour telling you about mine. And that’s over and above everything that you already knew about me. You know all about my personal life. It’s only fair that I get to know about yours.”

“Let me know when it’s your job to know about mine, and then I’ll tell you,” she snapped and started to collect her things.

I wasn’t letting it go. I hated that we’d been drilled about our lives, been honest with her, and she hadn’t given me anything in return. “Come on now. Don’t be embarrassed. You’re a tigress in bed, aren’t you? You can tell me. I won’t tell anyone.”

“You won’t tell anyone anything, because I’m not telling you anything.” She pressed the button on the projector’s remote, and the screen went dark behind her.

Turning her back to grab her laptop bag from the floor, I came up right behind her, my chest close enough to her back that I could smell the heady sweet and spicy scent of her shampoo, or maybe that was a perfume. “Pretty please.”

When she spun round to find me standing right there, her lips parted in a soft gasp, and she took a step back at the same time. “No. Not even if you say pretty please with a cherry on top.”

I smirked. “How about whipped cream and a cherry?”

Irritation crept into her eyes and tone as she shouldered her laptop bag and slipped past me, looking over her shoulder when she got to the door. “Grow up, Jared. Would it kill you to be mature?”

I found myself staring at that ass again as she retreated down the hallway, mumbling to myself in the now-empty room. “It just might, yeah.”