CHAPTER 37

ALICIA

"You guys did great," I gushed, beaming at the boys of Destitute. I didn't even care that I looked and sounded like just another fangirl.

They exceeded my wildest expectations of them during that interview. I was damn proud not only of the praise they'd received for keeping out of the press recently but also for the way they handled themselves and kept it together.

For a second there, I thought Nick was about to lose it at the reference to their troubled past and the drama that followed them, but then Jared swooped in and saved the day. And that wasn't even my crush talking. It was my professional opinion.

After all the warnings I'd gotten from my predecessor and Gerry about this band and how impossible they were, as well as the objections to interview practice from the guys themselves, they'd knocked it out of the park and really paid attention to the pointers I'd given them.

Crew from the show ushered us offstage and back to the dressing room. Caleb fell into step beside me and flashed me his own version of the Larsen panty-melting grin. "Thanks. We couldn't have done it without you."

Surprised by his praise, I could only smile and nod. "You've always had it in you. You only needed some encouragement to let it out."

"If it's always been there," Dom said, his hands in the pockets of his jeans as he smiled the easiest smile I'd ever seen him give. "Then it was buried damn deep. Take the praise, girl. You deserve it."

He and Caleb fist bumped over my head and took off ahead of us. Matt was talking to Gerry further down the hall, smiling and politely shaking hands with crew members as they passed him.

Behind me, however, the jovial and celebratory mood seemed to be escaping Nick. He was walking with Jared, climbing down his throat for letting the interviewer off the hook so easily. "I had us covered. The guy insulted us to our faces, and you just let it go. What the fuck, man?"

"Getting into it with him wasn't worth it. We would have blown the interview, and then we'd have wasted all the time we put into prep and coming down here."

"We should have set the record straight," Nick argued. "He made us sound like a bunch of spoiled, out-of-control kids who couldn't control ourselves once the wheels started rolling."

"Let go, bro," Jared replied, sounding as flippant and nonchalant as ever, but now I knew him better, I could hear and sense his frustration. "Besides, are you planning on wearing some saint cap I didn't know you had once we do get back on tour?"

"Of course not," Nick snapped. "But that guy needs to learn some respect."

"You sound like you're in an eighties gangster movie with that line. Forget it, okay? It's done. We were here to do a job, and we've done it. That's all there is to it."

Nick was usually such a relaxed and carefree guy. He was the last one of them I would have expected to be this upset over what, to my mind, were fairly obvious and routine questions.

As I got to know Jared, though, I was learning there was a lot more to these guys than the faces they wore in public, and while I'd gotten to know them a little, the truth was that they remained mostly a mystery to me.

The guys quieted down as we reached the dressing room, and each grabbed a bottle of water before sinking down on the couches scattered around. Dom and Jared pulled their shirts over their heads and tossed them aside. The two of them were the sweatiest of the bunch after their performance.

Not surprising given that Jared had jumped around and put on a remarkably energetic show given their lack of space, while Dom always worked hard on his drums. The others had a light sheen of sweat covering their arms and faces from the heat of the lights, but they kept their clothes on.

Jared shirtless always stole my breath, but now, after watching the performance, with his eyeliner slightly smudged and his hair sticking up wildly, I was nearly panting. Looking at the guy like this was like porn to me. Or maybe crack.

Clearing my throat, I try to get some moisture back into my dry mouth and tore my eyes away from Jared's bare torso. "You guys did an amazing job out there. To say thank you, the label is letting us stay in New York for tonight for a letting the interview go off without a hitch."

The guys looked smug and happy about the news but didn't say anything. "Also, we’re going to be celebrating. You guys did a great job, and I'm proud of you. I've arranged a dinner for you at six this evening. It's not mandatory. You don't have to be there unless you want to, but if anyone wants to, meet me in the lobby of the hotel at six."

We went over a couple of points to debrief after the interview and then went our separate ways.

It was still early in the afternoon, and I had a couple of hours to kill before dinner.

My hotel room was smaller than the suites we'd booked for the guys, obviously, but it was still really nice. My Emperor-sized bed, the irony of which I appreciated, beckoned to me when I got to my room.

Heavenly soft, the bed welcomed me like a hug from an old friend as I fell onto it. The last couple of days getting all the arrangements for this interview finalized and stressing over how the guys would do, I hadn't gotten much sleep.

I yawned and hopped off the bed before I got too lazy to do it and drew my blackout curtains shut. Wiggling out of my spanks-tight skirt and the rest of my clothes, I dropped them to the floor right there and crawled back onto the bed in my underwear.

There, now that's more like it.

I drifted off to sleep almost immediately and woke just in time to have a quick shower and get ready before I had to meet the others in the lobby.

Gerry was already there waiting for me when I got downstairs ten minutes early, but it was just him. In a suit as always, he stood up from the chair he'd been sitting in when he saw me.

His graying hair was neatly combed back and his eyes relaxed when they met mine. "I'm sorry to have to say this to you since you went through all the trouble of organizing dinner for the guys, and you look stunning, if I may say so myself, but I don't think any of them are going to show up for this dinner."

"Honestly, I wanted to do something nice for them, and I'm hoping they show, but I'm not expecting them to either."

"It's good to know your heart won't be broken when they don't show up." He said, his smile uncharacteristically kind. "That being said, I know them and don't wait around for them all night, okay? Go out, have fun. See the Big Apple. They might deserve a good night off after all this, but so do you."

"You're not staying?" I hadn't thought of the fact that Gerry might not want to join me for dinner either. He and I still didn't see eye to eye on most matters relating to the band, but we worked well together. We balanced each other out.

While I would never have freely chosen him as my dinner companion, he was better than no one, and I'd been counting on having at least him around. I'd never wandered around New York, and as thrilling a prospect as it was to do it by myself, it was also something I would much rather have shared with someone. Anyone.

Gerry smiled contritely and shook his head. "I have some old friends in town, and I don't want to miss out on seeing them. You have fun tonight, Alicia. Incredible job with the guys. Keep it up. I'll see you in the morning."

Giving me a friendly wave, he turned and made his way across the crowded lobby.

Glancing at my watch, I saw that it was only 5:55, and I decided to settle in for the wait regardless of how unlikely it was that someone was going to show for dinner. I took in Gerry's vacated seat, a hard, upholstered single-seater that couldn't have been much more uncomfortable if it tried, but I stuck it out.

Six o'clock came and went, and my eyes stayed glued to the bank of elevators across the lobby, but none of the busy cars deposited anyone I knew. I wasn't ready to give up all hope just yet, but I was getting there fast. Another twenty minutes later, my ass was numb from the terrible chair, my shoes were squeezing my toes, and my stomach growled.

Waiting around was useless and only making me cranky. I grabbed my purse from the floor between my feet and headed to the elevators. A nice, long bubble bath and room service would do the trick. It wasn't exactly the night out on the town I had planned, but after the week I had I wasn't going to turn down the chance to hang out with my e-reader and the never-ending supply of hot water a hotel offered.

I pressed the call button, relieved to see that one of the cars was only three floors away. Its doors slid open noiselessly and a familiar smile greeted me from inside.

"Jared?"

"The one and only. Who were you expecting? You ready to go or what?" He stepped out of the elevator car, his hair still damp from a shower. He smelled clean and spicy, mouthwatering.

Having decided to forego the leather pants, he was wearing faded, well-worn blue jeans and a white V-neck T-shirt. He also wasn't wearing any jewelry, his intricately designed tattoos all the more striking for it.

Dark eyes warm and intense on mine, he tilted his head slightly to the side and said, "Well? Dinner? We still doing it?"

"Yeah." I couldn't hide the smile creeping onto my face. A night alone with Jared in New York? It was the stuff romance novels were made of. In our case, the ones that were light on romance and heavy on erotica, but I'd take it with a smile anyway. "Let's do it."