Rock Hard: A Bad Boy Rock Star Romance (23 page)

"You still there Grant?"

"I am," he said.

I thought quickly. And on impulse I tossed the price tag over to him.

"Go ahead and pay for this," I said. "I'm going to have to wear it out."

Normally I wouldn’t wear something like this out. I’d go home and wash it. The problem was it’s not like I was going to have time to go home and run a laundry cycle before going out for dinner and maybe an after dinner treat. I’d have to live dangerously this one time.

"Yes ma'am!" The grin was evident in his voice. I heard him disappearing back down the changing room hall.

I quickly put everything in order and stuck my head out. The coast was clear so I made my way to the front where the two girls were still standing and staring, obviously starstruck. One was at least doing her best to help Grant out. Both women turned to look at me when I came out, and the first one actually had the audacity to pull up her phone and snap a picture! The click was audible.

"Excuse me?" I said.

I was surprised she would actually have the balls to do something as audacious as snapping a picture! I couldn't believe it.

"What's wrong?" the girl asked.

I held out a hand, suddenly feeling some angry inspiration. "Your phone. I want to see it. Now."

"Excuse me? I'm not giving you my phone!"

"How about this? You can give me the phone, or I can call corporate and let them know you're snapping pictures of your clients like we’re some sort of circus show. How do you think they'd like that? Do you think you’d keep your job for long?"

The second girl turned and looked nervously at the first one. She was younger, and as I looked at the name tags I realized the older one who snapped the picture was actually a manager. I shook my head. I couldn't believe somebody in management would do something like that, but at the same time I can't say I was particularly surprised. She was the one who looked old enough to actually realize who the hell Grant was, after all.

The manager stared daggers at me, but finally she seemed decide that the idea of somebody calling corporate was more terrifying than giving up her phone. She made a big production of rolling her eyes and handed it over.

I opened her photos and sure enough there was a picture of me looking surprised and pissed off. More importantly there were a couple of pictures of Grant. Pictures that looked like they’d been taken surreptitiously judging by the way he wasn’t looking at the camera or was out of focus. I wondered that he hadn’t heard that click, though maybe he was so used to people snapping pictures that it just became background noise.

Well it wasn’t background noise for me, and I was pissed off.

I held up the phone. "So do you do this with all of your customers, or just the semi-famous ones?"

“Hey…” Grant said, but I didn’t pay attention to him. Momma had bigger fish to fry at the moment.

Manager lady looked stunned, as though she couldn't think of how to respond to that. I wondered if anyone had ever confronted her about something like this before. Then again, how many celebrities did she get coming through here? Either way, it was not cool. It was a glimpse into some of the crap Grant had to put up with on a regular basis, and I didn't care for it.

"Answer me," I said.

I was proud that my voice sounded so calm, because what I wanted to do was jump across the counter and rip the girl's eyes out. Meanwhile Grant was looking between the two of us with an odd smile. He was actually enjoying this!

Then again, how often he was able to get back at people who invaded his privacy? Probably not very often. He had a public image to maintain. I didn't have an image to maintain, so whatever. I could let the claws come out. I hit delete on the pictures. Once I was sure the pictures were good and gone I handed the phone back to her. I leaned forward and looked at her name tag.

"Thank you so much for being so understanding, Megan," I said.

"No problem at all ma'am," she said with a sickly sweet smile on her face. I frowned and glared at her as she smiled at me. That "ma’am" had to be deliberate. I was probably a good fifteen years younger than that bitch and she had the audacity to call me ma'am! It was exactly the kind of petty thing I could see someone doing when they were pissed off but they knew there wasn't a chance they were going to be able to say anything outright.

Grant finished paying and turned to leave, but I held an arm out against his shoulder. I turned to the girl who'd just been ringing him up and she smiled nervously.

"Candace?" I asked. "Is it okay if I call you that?"

"Sure," she said, glancing nervously at her boss.

"You didn't take any pictures for your boss, did you?"

"Of course not ma'am!" she said.

I grimaced. There we were with that “ma’am” again, though Candace at least looked young enough that she could get away with it. She looked like she had to be still in high school.

"Good Candace," I said. "I'll be sure not to mention your name when I call corporate. Have a nice day!"

And with that I took Grant's arm and made my way out of the store. I had the great fun of seeing that stupid bitch reacting as she realized I was going to call her in anyways. Good. Let her deal with the consequences of her actions. Call me ma'am.

Once we were safely out of the store Grant burst into laughter. It started out as a small laugh, but it quickly turned into a hearty guffaw. I looked over at him and cocked an eyebrow.

"What's so funny?" I asked in what I hoped was my most innocent voice.

"Oh nothing," he said. "I'm just not used to seeing anyone stand up to somebody trying to take a picture like that. I think I'm falling in love here!"

I stopped walking. I was stunned. I knew he was just joking around, but at the same time I couldn't help myself. When I heard him say that word it did something to me. It caused my entire body to catch fire in the most delicious way. It was even hotter than what he'd done the night before. It was amazing how just a few words could get that reaction out of me, but there we were.

He seemed to realize just a little too late what he'd done. He stopped, turned to look at me, no doubt got a good look at the absolutely stunned expression on my face, and then a look of dawning fear appeared as he realized what he'd said. His mouth worked silently as though he was trying to think of a way to back out of it, but I'd heard what I'd heard. He’d said what he’d said. Even if it was half joking, it was dangerously close to how I was feeling. So dangerously close that I figured he had to be at least half serious.

"I'm sorry Mia," he said. "Please don't get scared away or anything…"

I decided to be a little mysterious. A little perplexing. After all, he had just said that, and guys seemed to think girls were supposed to freak out if someone said that too early, right?

Only freaking out was the last thing I wanted to do. No, I wanted to shout from the heavens that he'd used that word. Was it crazy? Was it a little premature to be throwing that word around? Sure. That didn't matter though. My mind was telling me one thing and my heart was telling me another. No, that word sounded just fine to me, but I wanted to make him think he was going to have to work for it just a little.

So I smiled. I walked up to him and patted his cheek, and then I was walking past him. I made sure to put as much sway as I could muster into my walk. He could eat his heart out.

When it seemed like he wasn't following I looked over my shoulder and grinned. "Aren't you coming Grant? I thought you had dinner planned at some big fancy restaurant or something? I'd hate to get all dressed up like this for nothing."

That drew him out of the mental blue screen he'd just suffered. He got a huge grin on his face.

"Right," he said. "Dinner at the fancy restaurant. I can't wait to see the look on your face when you see the place!"

"Well come along then," I said.

24: After Dinner

"I can't believe you took me to a burger joint!" Mia said.

We were walking along one of the canals that ran through the downtown area. It really was quite peaceful at this time of night. And, best of all, it was mostly deserted. Sure there were houses and businesses that ran along the canal, but most of them seemed empty. And it was late enough that everybody seemed to be gone.

I just hoped that it wasn't an example of the locals knowing something I didn't. The last thing I wanted was to get mugged in the middle of a date that had been going so perfectly so far!

"What can I say? I heard that burger place is supposed to be one of the best in the country!"

Mia reached out and playfully slapped me on the chest. A playful slap that went straight to my cock. What can I say? Just about every touch from her went straight to my cock.

"That was part of the fun though," I said. “It was a pretty funny joke, too! You should've seen the look on your face when we walked in there!"

"The look on my face? You should've seen the look on everybody's faces staring at me like I was crazy for showing up dressed like that!"

"They were probably just staring at you like that because you showed up with the great Grant Thompson," I said.

She rolled her eyes. "Full of ourselves much?"

I shrugged. "What can I say? It's true, isn't it?"

Mia rolled her eyes and moved to smack me, but this time I caught her hand and held it. I liked holding her hand. It was odd, but holding her hand like this was having almost the same reaction as feeling her body pressed against me.

Weird how I could feel that way just from feeling her hand against mine. I think it said something for how I was starting to feel about her. It was crazy. It was way too early to say anything like what I'd said in the mall earlier, I was still kicking myself over that, but I really did have a feeling that I was falling for this girl. She had a unique blend of hotness and intelligence that I'd never gone for in a girl before, but she was driving me wild.

Not to mention her take no prisoners approach to life. What she'd done with that wannabe paparazzi in the lingerie store was nothing short of amazing. I still couldn't believe she'd been that bold, but it had been an amazing sight to behold.

"So did you ever think you'd be doing this?" she asked.

Walking along a canal on a peaceful night with this beautiful woman I’d worried I was on the verge of losing this morning when she wasn’t there upon waking? "Not really…"

"Really? You wanted to be doing something other than the boy band gig by the time you were this old?"

I blinked and realized we'd been talking about completely different things. I was walking along trying to woo her rather than just trying to get her in bed, but she was wondering how I felt being back in the band after so many years.

"When they started talking about the reunion tour I thought they were crazy, to be honest," I said.

She looked up at me, her eyes twinkling in the light from a street lamp hanging out over the canal. "Really? Because I thought it was pretty ridiculous when Kayla started talking about it!"

I laughed. It was easy to laugh with her. Everything seemed to come easy with her, and not in the way that girls I was with were usually easy, if you catch my drift.

"We were ancient history even if we were pretty popular once upon a time. I wasn't sure people would even still pay for us to get up on stage and do our thing."

Mia winked. "I was impressed none of you were coming out with a walker!"

"Hey now. We’re not that old. Remember I'm only about seven years older than you."

“So why did you guys break up anyways?”

I very nearly stumbled. That was the last question I wanted to talk about. It happened ten years ago and the pain was still fresh. The band breaking up around me. Losing the desire to write anything new. The joy of thinking I might finally have a family. The pain of having it all ripped away.

“Let’s not get into that right now, Mia.”

It was something I’d have to come clean about someday if we were going to have a relationship, but that story seemed like at least third date material. Way too heavy for tonight.

She looked down at the water and then back up to me. We continued to strolling in silence for a moment. I figured she had more questions, but I'd let her ask them in her own good time. I was more than content just being out here next to her.

"What was it like? Getting so famous so young. I just can't imagine…"

I took a deep breath. I let it out in a long slow sigh. What was it like? Well, it screwed me up for the better part of a decade. I felt like I'd only recently started to get my life under control, and then this new tour came along and it was like the universe was giving me one big middle finger reminding me what I didn’t have while also throwing the same temptations at me that screwed me up in the first place.

Of course I wasn’t going to tell her any of that. I didn't want to go with the whole poor little rich boy routine. Poor famous rich boy, for that matter. Something told me she wasn't going to have any sympathy even if there was some truth to it in my case. We'd all gotten too famous way too young, and it did a number on me.