Seduction by Song (31 page)

“You’re
finished
,” Romeo growls. His hands are balled up tight into fists, and it’s taking two young roadies to hold him back. “If you open your mouth and say one more word—.”

“Yeah? Oh, yeah? Then I’d better make it a good fucking word, huh.” Dante snarls, pushing the stagehand holding him back aside. “How about this:
Louise
. What do you have to say to that, huh? Your
wife
, Romeo.”

If it were possible for my already frozen blood to freeze more, it probably would have. Although I knew and understood that they were separated, it still stung every time her name was brought up. Especially now—after all, Dante
did
have a point. I
was
the other woman. Tears well up in my eyes, the only part of my body that will move at all.

“You shut your fucking mouth,” Romeo says, his voice suddenly lowering to a calm growl. “Louise and I have been over for years. You know that. Hell, you were the man who came to me with proof that she was sleeping around on me—
you
! You
helped
me out of that hell of a relationship!”

“And
this
is the thanks I get for it,” Dante mutters, shoulders hunching over with fury.

“
This
?” Romeo asks, incredulously. “What is
this
? What the fuck is
this
supposed to be?”

“You! Runnin’ around with your fucking ladies—
all
the ladies.”

Romeo is shocked into silence by the strangely honest confession of frustration. I feel my heart start to thaw a little for Dante, too—he was still a petty little man who I couldn’t claim to like, but he was
lonely
. That was more than enough of a reason, though not an excuse, for someone to lash out.

An idea strikes me, launching me into action. I step forward and clear my throat, making them all turn their heads towards me as I move to stand next to Romeo.

“Hey Dante,” I say, keeping my voice as gentle as I can while he turns his enraged glare to me. “do you remember my friend, April?”

The glare fades. He furrows his brow in concentration for a second before registration appears on his face. He nods, slowly, as though he thinks this is some sort of trick.

I try to smile, feeling more reassured when Romeo takes my hand. “Well, I shouldn’t be saying this, but she has a
huge
crush—well, maybe crush isn’t the right word when it comes to April, but she really enjoyed spending time with you. Maybe—we could fly her out to meet us here, or at our next stop. I know she would
love
to hang out with you again.”

I almost felt bad about using April as a bargaining chip in this battle, but it wasn’t as though she would ever complain—she
did
have a thing for the baddest of bad boys. Namely, Dante. She would probably be
thrilled
, even if she would never admit it, to jump back on the tour after being left behind with the other girls (they all had real jobs the needed to return to, after all) some stops back.

Dante seems pretty pleased by the idea, too, tension starting to ease out of his shoulders. “Yeah?” he asks, trying to keep his voice gruff. “Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad. She’s one cool chick.”

I smile a bit easier, feeling victorious. Romeo seems to relax next to me, too, as I nod and pull out my phone. “I’ll give her a call. She’s going to
love
this.”

With the situation diffused, the guys that had gathered around the brewing fight begin to return to their own duties. Romeo pulls me along with him into his dressing room once more. He waits for me to finish texting April about the change in plans before dragging me closer to press a firm, deep kiss to my mouth.

“You are so fucking gorgeous when you take charge, you know that?” he says, breathing the words out against my mouth like it’s a great secret.

I can’t help but smile, practically beaming with pride. “I am, huh? Should I be doing it more often?”

He huffs out a laugh and shakes his head. “No way. With other people? Sure—
always
stand up for yourself. But with me? I’m
always
in charge.”

The promise is as exhilarating as any other coming from him. I wrap my arms around him and pull him down once more to seal it with a kiss.

Chapter Thirty-five

The band makes nice over the course of the night, going out for a dinner on the town and taking me with. Dante keeps his hands to himself and even respectfully sits a few seats away from me. If mere anticipation of seeing April again could tame him this much, I couldn’t
wait
to see what getting into an actual relationship with her might do for him.

We all crash at the nearest motel—nothing fancy this time, but the rooms are clean and the beds are soft and I don’t have a single thing to complain about. Romeo and I fall asleep in each other’s arms and wake up still entwined.

That, of course, is when the shit hits the fan once more.

Romeo turns the TV on to catch up on the news as we order room service for breakfast, but the first thing we see is enough to make us both lose our appetites.

“Romeo Ortiz, lead singer of the Rocks, announced late last night that his encore was delayed due to technical difficulties,” the pretty reporter on the entertainment news channel says, her eyes twinkling with mischief, “but
our
sources say the sexy singer was having a little romp in the hay with his newest lady—Erin Gouchet.”

My picture flashes across the screen, drawing my back ramrod straight as I gasp.

Next to me, a low growl rumbles up out of Romeo’s throat. He’s gone, flinging the door open, before I can even ask him what he intends on doing. I follow him, padding out into the hall in my bare feet as he storms down towards the room Dante and Vince were sharing.

Their door is cracked open, the sound of guitar chords floating out from within. The music comes to a crashing halt when Romeo slams the door wide open and strides into the room with purpose.

“Think very carefully about what you say to me right now, Dante,” he says as I stop behind him, unable to even put a hand on him—he’s literally
shaking
with anger. “Did you speak to the press last night?”

There’s one terrible moment of silence before Dante sighs, his shoulders slumping.

That must be answer enough because Romeo snarls. “You son of a
bitch
!”

“It isn’t
like
that!” Dante says, standing to meet Romeo’s glare with one of his own. “Look, man—I was pissed as hell before we had that talk after the show and, yeah,
fine
. I leaked the story. I’m
sorry
!”

Romeo’s eyes darken. His muscles are completely tense and coiled when I lay a hand on his arm, trying to placate him. “You’re
sorry
? Erin’s face is plastered up on the trash stations today and you’re
sorry
?”

Dante turns to me, eyes full of genuine frustration and guilt. “I’m sorry. I truly am.”

I nod, slowly, believing him as no sign of deception appears on his face. I curl my fingers at Romeo’s arm and tug him back more insistently. “Romeo, it’s okay—it’s
okay
. If the media didn’t make a scandal out of this, they would have found
something
to make a scandal out of. What’s done is done, right?”

Romeo looks at me, his anger still not quite fading. “You aren’t mad?”

I pause for a second. Of course I was
mad
—how
dare
Dante reveal something so personal, so
none of his business
, to those media vultures. Being mad wouldn’t help anything, though. It had been so hard getting the band to stop bickering that I didn’t want anything to come between them right now.

“
It sucks that I’m going to sift through hate mail again,,” I say.. “But I just want you guys to stay together and keep a good relationship and not fight over this anymore.”

Dante nods, a bit sullenly. Romeo glares at him for a moment longer before he finally relaxes, at least a little.

“This is your last strike,” he says, his tone indicating that he is
completely
serious.

I shoot Dante a stern look over my shoulder as Romeo turns to leave, taking me with him. The band spends the rest of that morning separated once more, but Romeo unwinds as much as he can with all that pent up anger inside of him as we settle down for breakfast.

Afterwards, we take the RV to the airport to pick April up. I’m confused at first to why they would want to take the bus when we would all fit just fine in a car, but Romeo just sighs and bops me lightly on the nose with his index finger before smiling at me.

“Don’t ask such unimportant questions, Erin,” he says as he kisses me to distract me. “You’ll ruin the surprise.”

I perk up at the mention of a surprise. Even though I used to
hate
surprises on principle, I had started to get used to them—Romeo’s surprises were always the
best
surprises.

And this time proved no different.

We find the gate with a few minutes to spare and I’m not left waiting for long. I gasp when I see April, tailed by both Maddie
and
Juliet, exiting the gate. I beam up at Romeo and drag him down for a passionate kiss.

“How did you know I missed them?” I ask.

He laughs. “They’re your best friends. Of course you would miss them.”

I smile at him for a second longer before turning my grin to the girls, opening my arms wide to greet them. They don’t return my smile, though, instead looking rather…
gloomy
. I blink and drop my arms instantly—did they not want to come? Oh,
God
, did someone
force
them here against their
will
?

I blink at myself. That last thought was the most ridiculous I’d had all year—maybe all
decade
. Of course they would want to be here. Not long ago, they were all bigger fans of the Rocks than I was.

So why would they look so—hesitant?

The answer strides out from behind them a second later, as though on cue. My eyes widen and I take a quick step back, instinctively grabbing Romeo’s hand, as I see my brother storm out of the gate towards us. I know that look—it isn’t his worried look, it isn’t his protective look.

He’s
furious
.

Romeo is looking at me with confusion when I flinch as Logan stops in front of us, shooting a disgusted look at our joined hands before fixing his scowl on my face.

“How
dare
you,” he says, spit flying out of his mouth as he grinds the words out. “Your fucking face is on the news, Erin. With your
name
. With
our
name—and a label that might as well say
slut
.”

My stomach clenches with guilt. I had been embarrassed to have my sex life aired in such a public place, of course, but I hadn’t considered what impact it would have on my family. Even though I knew Logan had no right to speak to me this way, maybe he did have a point—what if this media circus found my dad? What if they attacked him for information?

Before I can work myself up into a true guilty fit, Romeo squeezes my hand and steps in front of me. The familiar look of anger is flooding his features again, and I knew that this could get dangerous—he already had so much pent up anger from all the fighting with Dante that I didn’t even
know
what he was capable of now. I had to stop him, tell him that Logan didn’t mean any harm—well, he didn’t
think
he meant any harm, anyway.

“Hey, asshole,” Romeo says before I have the chance to explain. “I don’t know who the fuck you are, but don’t you dare speak to Erin that way.”

Logan jerks his head up, turning his glare to Romeo. They’re almost evenly matched in height
and
rage.

“Get your fucking hands off of my sister,” Logan says.

Romeo squeezes my hand again, reassuringly. “Look, your family isn’t my business—but Erin
is
. And I’m telling you that you need to apologize to her. Right. Now.”

Logan stares at him for a moment before laughing, loud and throaty. “Oh, yeah? Who’s going to make me?
You
? A pansy, pampered
singer
who gets everything he wants at the wave of a finger?”

I flinch, wanting to tell him that that wasn’t true at
all
. Romeo worked so hard to get where he was today and he never abused his fame or fortune. The words are lodged in my throat, though, the intimidating presence of the two men next to me rendering me speechless.