Rock Star: The Contest (Book 2 of a Bad Boy Romance)

BOOK: Rock Star: The Contest (Book 2 of a Bad Boy Romance)
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Rock Star: Book 2
The Contest
Kate Ward
Lakeside Publishing

C
opyright
© 2015 by Kate Ward

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Rock Star 2: The Contest
is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

F
or my Family

Love distills desire upon the eyes, love brings bewitching grace into the heart.

Euripides

Also by Kate Ward

R
ock Star
: The Song

Rock Star: The Contest

Rock Star: The Deal

A
ll of the
Rock Star books are stand-alone reads, however, you may find they are best enjoyed in the following order so that you can see the change of the characters over the course of the series.

For more on the author visit
www.katewardbooks.com

Synopsis

M
eghan's opportunity
is knocking but can she rise to the occasion?

Everything that she has wanted is on the table but so is the life she might lose.

The harsh reality of being in the spotlight and living the life of a rock star isn't as easy as she thought, but to Chase it is.

The chemistry between Chase and Meghan is hot, and undeniable.

But she's unsure if Chase is ready to change his old ways.

This might be the open door that solves her finances and gives her real love, if she can just win the contest.

Prologue

I
was waiting
for my turn to sing when I got my first glimpse at the crowd.

Standing there behind the curtain in the narrow aisle of the huge stage, I froze, gawking out at the faces of people I knew from the town of Lakeside. But it wasn’t just residents. People had come from every city and state to see
The Next Country Star
live.

There had to have been over a thousand people crammed into a venue that was being held down at Marlin Park. The park was originally built by the town in hopes that it would attract live bands and draw in more people to the town. Instead it failed miserably, and people began using it for a place to walk their dogs.

The Next Country Star
had been going for three seasons. What initially started as a way to give unknowns a foot in the door, had morphed into a huge TV show that ran every week. They occasionally brought in popular artists who would co-write songs for each contestant to sing. Sometimes they performed duets. Viewers lapped it up. In the first two seasons if you wanted to be one of the ten lucky contestants who reached the finals, you had to show up and audition in one of various cities across the United States. They would then hold the finals in either Los Angeles or New York.

By all accounts, I should have been in New York but Chase had convinced his friend, Thomas Parker, the show’s coordinator, that it would boost ratings if they held it in an unknown, small town.

Looking out at the crowd, I figured he was right as the place was packed.

Seated just beyond the main stage were the judges. Amber Rose, a well-known country artist who had made a name for herself almost overnight. Brad Urban, who was more rock than country. But then again a lot of country had become that way. The new wave of country balanced between hard rock riffs and country twang. Radio stations ate it up, and those who usually wouldn’t have touched country with a ten-foot pole, soon became fans.

Seated beside him was Chase Bryan, all hot and sexy.

I had barely seen him since we kissed outside the Steamy Beans Coffee House. I had berated myself for several days after that. Allowing myself to be suckered back into his world with a kiss. Allowing him to wiggle his way back into my heart when I had tried so hard to push him out of it.

This is insane,
I thought. What am I doing here?

Leann Turner came up behind me and nudged her hip against mine, almost knocking me out onto the main stage.

“When I’ve won this, I’m going to love being on tour with Chase Bryan.”

Oh, that was the prize. Little had I known that whoever won the contest, not only landed themselves a record deal, and would be featured on national TV, but they would end up on tour with Chase Bryan. There wasn’t anything bigger than that. It was like going from zero to one hundred in a matter of seconds. All the time singers were having to put in going from bar to bar around Nashville, you got to skip that. It was like going to the front of the line and not having to pay for your golden ticket. Who wouldn’t have wanted that?

I certainly didn’t want tight-ass Leann winning it. Over the past few weeks I had got to know my competition. Guys and girls. I had to admit, they were really good. Leann was the bitch. If it wasn’t for her voice, she would have been booted out a long time ago, as the attitude she threw around was larger than her mouth. And damn she had a mouth on her. She didn’t know when to keep it closed. Always yakking about how she had been singing since she was a fetus in her mother’s womb.

“Do you mind?” I said.

She laughed at me while standing in my spot and flicking her hair over her shoulder. She was the kind of girl you hated because everything was in place. Gorgeous blond hair with curls you would die to have, a tight body that looked as if it hadn’t seen a cheeseburger since the day she was born. Perfect features. Not a single eyelash out of place. The girl could have been a model if she wanted. But the worst part was, she knew it, and she flaunted it every chance she got.

I wanted to slap her silly.

What didn’t help was Chase had noticed her, and had definitely taken a liking to her. I could see his eyes wandering over her body.

But for all the things she had going for her, her attitude wasn’t one. It was the one thing that had kept me from jumping her and knocking a few of her well-proportioned features out of place.

An announcement came over the speaker. “And that was Teddy Lexington. Give him a round of applause.”

Teddy was a nice guy. A country kid at heart. Only a couple of years younger than me. You could tell he lived and breathed music. It was in his blood and his voice which was larger than life. If there was going to be one person who I would be glad to lose to, it would be him.

He ran backstage, and slipped passed us. Teddy was a short kid, full of muscle and extensively easy on the eyes. Though when I spoke to him, it always felt as if I was speaking to a brother.

“Ladies?” he nodded and flashed his pearly whites which would have made any girl weak in the knees.

“Teddy, nice performance. Pity it won’t stand up to mine,” Leann said.

“Maybe next time I will show more of my chest. Seems to be working for you.” He winked at me, and I stifled a laugh.

Yeah, just another reason why I liked him. He could also see what a total cow Leann was. Truth was, Leann had been flaunting her tits like they were going out of fashion. Blogs and video websites were abuzz over them. One group defended her, saying she had a good voice and that was why she was still in the contest. Another called them out and said that if it wasn’t for all the skin she’d been showing, she would have been gone in the first round.

Maisey Conrad slapped me on the ass and dashed past me with a smile on her face. Short dark hair, jeans, cowboy boots and a heart full of confidence, she was a great girl. A California sweetheart through and through, she always wore a smile. I knew that if she didn’t win this contest, she would still get a record deal. There was no way on God’s green earth that anyone could deny her talent. She was the total package. She had the look, she wrote her own songs and could play guitar and piano. Despite Leann’s blatant dislike of Maisey, I hadn’t heard her ever say once, that she couldn’t sing. No one could say that. The girl was on fire when she picked up that mic.

“Break a leg.”

“Thanks, hon.”

“Yes. Break a leg, please do,” Leann said while scowling.

Maisey shot her the middle finger.

The fourth contestant reminded me of Chase, in more ways than one. Luke Claybourne was the same age as me. He hailed from Kentucky. A farm kid. He had muscles in all the right places, and a lean figure to boot. It wasn’t his devastatingly good looks, dark wavy hair that hung down by his face or his uncanny knack for saying the most inappropriate things at the wrong times. It was his ocean blue eyes and husky voice, and humor that was utterly captivating.

Then, of course, there was the fact that Leann had been flirting with him since he’d arrived and yet he’d been showing me more attention. That pissed her off to no end and made me laugh.

He laid back. And took everything in his stride. He had said on more than one occasion, he couldn’t care less if he won the competition. It was all overrated to him. If he didn’t get it, he would return to the farm.

“Hey Leann.”

She turned around, batting her eyelids.

“You have a hole in your ass.”

Her face went a deep shade of red, and she rushed off to check her jeans. He began laughing. Everyone else caught the joke, but she was so wrapped up in how she looked, I think she believed the hole was in her jeans.

“You are bad,” I said.

“Ah, Meghan Sullivan, when are you going to let me take you out? Show me around this pretty town of yours?”

I snorted, and tried to remember the words to the song that I was about to sing. I was up next. I looked out and saw Chase had diverted his gaze from Maisey to me, he flashed me that winning smile of his, in an instant I forgot what Luke had asked.

Yep, a lot had changed since the first time I had met Chase.

Now, here I was with Leann, Teddy, Maisey and Luke in the final rounds. Two more songs for each of us, and one of us would have more than a record deal. We would skyrocket from being unknown to famous overnight.

Maisey finished up, skipped past me. I took a deep breath and walked out into the spotlight.

Chapter 1

One Month Earlier

S
tanding
in the crowd of twenty-four contestants each morning was overwhelming.

Even though Chase had reassured the show’s producers that I had written the song, and could sing it as good as, if not better than the girl who everyone had heard on the radio, they still had required that I attend a private audition.

Long before the other contestants arrived, I had gone to the White Hart Hotel, entering a room that usually catered to businesses. Standing there, feeling like a complete ass hat, and suffering from a bit of a cold, I sang my heart out. It had been quite a while since I had sung the song. The one that Chase and I wrote together up at Rita’s Cabins.

However, this time Chase wasn’t there.

Thomas Parker and a few of the producers, along with an unknown in the music business, had gathered together in the hopes of hearing what Chase had said was a new voice. What he meant by that was anyone’s guess. Nervous, shaking slightly, I downed a glass of water they had on a side table before I sang it.

After, they didn’t sit there speechless, or groaning. They whispered among themselves and told me they would be in touch. I didn’t know what that meant. If it was the old “let me blow you off” routine. Don’t call us, we’ll call you.

A few days later Chase phoned with the good news. I was in. They had loved it and were eager to see what I would come up with. One of the prerequisites this season was that you had to write your own songs. Previous to that, they had always selected a number of songs that everyone had to sing. It was a way of being able to assess your ability based on basic to advanced songs that they were familiar with.

This time however, it was a different kettle of fish. They wanted singers who could write and sing. Being able to play an instrument wasn’t essential but if you could do that, it would only help boost your chances.

In the beginning there would be twenty-five contestants. Over the span of four weeks the judges and the general public would vote to dwindle it down to just five. Out of those five, one would win the grand prize of a record deal. The winner would record an album in the studio and go on tour with Chase Bryan. There would be two runner-up prizes, which had yet to be announced.

Now as I stood among the twenty-five in a large room at the White Hart Hotel, I felt a sense of excitement and dread. It was hard to describe. I felt like throwing up. I wasn’t used to this many people. Our town had literally been invaded. Every cabin, hotel and inn within a fifty-mile radius had been filled up with friends and family of contestants as well as those hoping to catch a glimpse of their favorite judges.

It was a circus. Media clogged up the roads, which I hadn’t seen since the drama with Chase. The upswing to it all was business was booming. I had now hired Spike full-time to help Sophie at the coffeehouse. I couldn’t be there all the time because every night I would be singing.

Spike still hadn’t forgiven me for allowing Chase to come back into my life. Sophie had got used to the fact that she and Spike weren’t going to be together. Though I had to wonder if she would have got over it as quickly as she did, if I hadn’t introduced her to Teddy. I saw her eyes light up the moment she saw him.

As for Spike, well, he was still Spike. Putting his foot his mouth and confessing his love for me, and hate for Chase Bryan.

Mornings were spent with the other contestants. Warm-ups, co-writing sessions and getting to know each other. Once people knew that I had written the song that had catapulted Chase Bryan back into the number one slot on iTunes, you could see the look on their faces change. I didn’t know if it was fear, surprise or jealousy.

I’d even overheard some saying that they didn’t think it was right that I should be in a contest when clearly I had been in a relationship with Chase. Surely that would skew the votes. I had told Chase about this and he had made it clear that no preference would be shown by him. However, what he said, and what the general public thought were two different things entirely.

The media windstorm that had blown through the town had kicked back up once they learned that I was now in the contest. Honestly, I couldn’t believe it when I saw a live debate on YouTube about whether I should have been allowed to be in the contest.

Some said yes, others said no.

They all felt though that it was an odd move to have the finals in the same town where I lived.

“It’s quite clear to see he still has a thing for her,” one of them said.

“I disagree. We all know that Chase thinks with his cock. She is one of many women that he’s had a fling with,” another said.

Fling? I guess it could have been taken that way.

“Let’s face it. Everyone knows that she didn’t have to go through the process that the other contestants did. So why should she get a free ride? Just because she wrote a hit song? It’s preferential treatment. No matter how you look at it.”

I sat listening to them jabber on about me.

Was this what it was like to be famous? Was I experiencing a sliver of what the future might hold? People dissing me, dragging my name through the mud and accusing me of things that I had no control over?

“Cheer up, it could be worse,” Sophie said, wiping down a table.

“How so?”

“You could be featured in a sex tape. You know one of those dirty ones that ends up on all the porn sites and…”

“OK. OK, thank you, Sophie.”

“Well you did have sex with him, didn’t you?”

I nibbled on my bottom lip as I recalled our time together. It did seem quite a while ago that we had been with each other.

I hadn’t fully allowed him back into my world. While appreciative of him entering the song under my name into the contest and getting me back in, I still didn’t trust him entirely. Mia, his manager, was still around. She had blown into town a few days back. And like the witch that she was, she showed up at my coffeehouse and acted as if nothing had happened. As if she hadn’t lied or done anything wrong.

I could have torn her limb from limb. But I knew it wouldn’t have helped. Chase had developed a long working relationship with her and despite him being pissed off at her, he couldn’t drop her as a manager, which meant I would still be seeing a lot of her.

“Hello Meghan,” she said.

I spun around and glared at her.

She wore a tight-fitting pencil skirt, black blouse and an oversized hat. By all accounts she looked as if she had just returned from a funeral.

“Mia.”

She cleared her throat. “Chase told me you and he are on good terms. I’m pleased to see that. These things get so difficult when people’s feelings get hurt. I hope you know that it wasn’t personal. Strictly business. And for what it’s worth, it looks as if you have come out of this pretty good too?”

“Yeah. Maybe.”

“Anyway,” her eyes swept around the room as if she was trying to make sense of the décor. A look of disgust as though she had just inhaled smelling salts came over her.

“Well, I should let you know that Chase will be very busy with his work as a judge, so I don’t imagine you will be seeing a lot of him.”

“Really? Oh, I don’t know about that.”

I came around the counter and squared up to her. I got the sense that she knew I wasn’t scared of her. No doubt, she scared the living daylights out of other women who had been in Chase’s life. But she wasn’t going to do that with me. Her big-city attitude didn’t go down well here.

“We are getting together tonight, for dinner.”

“Oooh,” she said.

“What?”

“A judge involved with a contestant. Um, I’m not sure if that will go over too well. I might have to have a word with Chase.”

“He seems fine about it.”

“Has he cleared it with Thomas Parker?”

Thomas, the coordinator for the entire event, wasn’t around much. He had shown his face that day at the White Hart, but that was it. Apparently his job kept him on the road a lot.

“I imagine he knows. Now can I get you a coffee?”

She sniffed the air as if trying to determine if our coffeehouse carried the vintage she liked.

“No, thank you. I actually have my assistant bring me a Starbucks from Ashton Falls.”

Ashton Falls was forty minutes away. Could she be more of a jerk?

She smirked. “What can I say, I like big franchises.”

I was about to make a comment regarding her dress and big. But before I could say anything she turned on her heel and left.

“That woman is like the Wicked Witch of the West,” I said.

“All those fancy city folk are like that,” Spike said with a clear disdain. “Like Chase Bryan for instance.”

Here we go. I knew he couldn’t stop himself. He told me he wouldn’t speak about Chase, but he just couldn’t resist it.

“Now take a guy like that. Blows through this town, like he’s Johnny bloody Cash, except minus the talent.”

“Spike.”

“Yeah. Yeah. I know you are all wet for him.”

I gave him my death stare and he immediately went back to serving a customer.

* * *

I
returned to my writing
. I had to admit I was struggling to come up with several songs. I had never been under such a tight deadline, or required to produce high-quality material within such a short time. Songs came when they came. That’s always how I had approached writing. But now I was beginning to feel what Chase must have felt. Pressure. Stress. The need to write another great song.

I was in the middle of screwing up my ninth piece of paper, when I got a text from him.

“Meet me at Rita’s, number seventeen in twenty minutes – Chase.”

Without even a few lyrics down, I tossed the balls of paper into a wastepaper bin and grabbed up my bag.

“Shooting out for a little bit. Be back later.”

Sophie nodded while chatting to Teddy. Spike was busy serving someone, but not busy enough to fail to notice both Teddy and then myself. Somewhere inside of him, I had a feeling, he still had feelings for Sophie. Now he got to watch her warming up to Teddy.

It had been a while since I had swung by Rita’s. With Chase at the White Hart and no longer needing to do out-calls, I was getting used to mornings not being as rushed.

By now all the leaves had changed. Bright reds and yellows lined the winding road up to the cottages. Winter would be upon us soon and the lake would be frozen over.

I pulled my truck in, he wasn’t there. Rita’s Cottages were full except for number seventeen. The most secluded and enclosed by trees. It had been the perfect place for Chase the last time he was in town. However now he was at the hotel. I wasn’t too sure why he wanted to meet there.

I hopped out of the warmth, into the cold October air. Brown leaves blew past like tumbleweeds. The steps creaked showing their age as I made my way up to the door. The place really need a good lick of paint.

The sound of gravel spitting caught my attention and I turned to see Chase driving in. He was driving one of the latest F-150 Ford trucks. It was a beautiful deep red. My truck looked bad on the best of days, but beside his it would have made anyone think it was ready for the scrap yard.

He was wearing a thick, grey peacoat jacket. Dark blue jeans and stylish brown boots. He offered a warm smile and I returned it.

“Hey you.”

“Hi.”

We locked lips. He mushed his warm mouth over mine and leaned into me.

“So what are we doing here?”

He dangled a pair of keys.

“You moving in?”

“No. But I need a place to see you. I can’t exactly invite you to my room at the hotel.”

“About that. How’s this going to work?”

I watched him as he unlocked the door and gestured for me to go in first. A flash of memories flooded my mind as I stepped in and smelled the pine and polish that I had the first time I had been there.

“I don’t think many people are going to be heading out here.”

He shut the cold fall air outside.

“Maybe Mia will.”

He slowly turned and leaned up against a set of drawers, all cool and collected.

“Don’t worry about Mia.”

I dropped my bag down. “Yeah. Have you forgotten?”

“No, but c’mon. She’s harmless. Anyway, she’s too busy with business to worry about us.”

“That depends if her business is us.”

“I think you are overthinking this, Meghan,” he said, coming over to me and pulling me in tight against his body. I pushed away.

“She came by today. She knows you and I are seeing each other, or at least have begun.”

“Why do I sense that you’re not particularly happy about this arrangement?”

I took a seat on the bed, my eyes dropped.

“Meghan, if it’s about the song, and what Mia said, I said sorry. I didn’t know about all of that.”

“I don’t know what it is. I can’t put my finger on it.”

He came over, took a seat and touched my knee. He knew how to work me. It didn’t take much.

“Listen, just say the word, and I’ll be out of your hair.”

I frowned. “Do I mean that little to you? That you could just do that?”

“I know you have a lot on your plate right now with the contest, so do I, I just wanted to spend some time together, but if you think it’s going to interfere, we can wait until after.”

BOOK: Rock Star: The Contest (Book 2 of a Bad Boy Romance)
2.88Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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