“Has he touched you?”
“I want to die right now. Why don’t you just run me over with the minivan?”
“It’s in the shop.” She grinned then finally released my phone. “Just be careful with him. He has seductive eyes.”
“Mom, eyes are eyes. His eyes are…normal I don’t even know what color they are.” I was lying. Everyone knew his eyes were blue, an icy blue that, according to one blog, felt like you were getting stripped naked and worshipped all at once. I shivered.
“Uh huh.” Mom sipped her coffee and gave me a total look of disbelief. “Your dad knows the color of Zane’s eyes, and he’s partially blind like my offspring.”
“Okay, first of all, that’s creepy. Second, I’m your daughter. Offspring sounds too medical.”
“Honey,”
“What.” I huffed, stuffing my beanie over my head and crossing my arms. “What is it?”
“Sometimes…it’s okay to be reckless.”
I hesitated, not sure how to respond because, it sounded like my mom just gave me the talk then ended it by handing me a beer and a condom. What had just happened?
“I’m the opposite of reckless.”
“Something tells me, he likes that.”
“Bye, mom.”
I hopped on my bike and shoved my earbuds in as I made the two-mile trek over to the resort.
So what if I was listening to his music?
And had just recently purchased his last album on iTunes?
And was obsessed with the duet he’d done with Gabe Hyde?
The guy could sing.
His last album sounded completely different from what he was writing or working on the day previous.
And even though I tried, the images of his shirtless body invaded every stream of consciousness I had as I pumped my legs faster and faster.
Paired with the taste of his lips on mine.
And his fake orgasm the night before.
Don’t even get me started on the fact that the song I was listening to was called Skin.
By the time I made it to the hotel, I was sweating profusely, pieces of my hair stuck to my neck. I tugged off my beanie and pushed my glasses back up while I locked my bike and quickly ran into the office to clock in.
“Fallon.” Jared was my manager, and he was creepy. As in, he seemed like the type of guy that used way too much hair gel and wasn’t aware that if you smiled too big all the time it wasn’t sexy, just disturbing, and alarming on so many levels. “Rough morning?”
I grunted.
It was my typical Jared response.
And I wasn’t in the mood to make small talk, not with images of Zane still burned in my head.
There had literally been nothing in any of the articles about his new album, just that he was working hard at it after a freak accident on stage last year.
The YouTube video didn’t show much, there was lots of screaming, then the stage had collapsed, and he’d gone into the crowd face first.
A crowd of over eighty thousand people.
The caption read. “Pop star has nervous breakdown.”
He was rocking back and forth, people tried to touch him, he screamed, I’d never seen anyone look so crazed in my entire life.
The worst part was his voice.
It wasn’t confident, smooth, controlled.
It had been terrified, as if someone was trying to hurt him.
I refused to watch the rest of the video. Because really, it wasn’t fair that all of his embarrassing and horrible moments were live for the world to see. If I wanted information I just typed in his name, if he wanted information on me, he had to ask. It seemed hardly fair.
“So?” Mags grabbed my shoulder with her hand. “Spill!”
I glared. “You pushed me off a ledge!”
She rolled her eyes. “Fallon, I say this because I love you, but if I had to push you in front of oncoming traffic, just to get Zane Andrews to notice you, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”
“You’d kill me?”
“A slow moving vehicle, you’d break a leg, hardly something to cry about.”
“Are you hearing yourself?”
She rubbed her hands together. “Tell me every single thing. Don’t leave out any details. Has he kissed you? Are his hands soft? Does he have a big—“
“—Dick?” A familiar male voice said from behind me.
Mags’ eyes widened in horror.
I hung my head. “He’s behind me isn’t he?”
She nodded, gaping like a fish.
Slowly, I turned. “Oh, hey.”
“Casual.” He nodded. “I was curious if you were going to go for the whole casual approach or just turn red, and—oh wait, you’re doing that too.”
He pointed while I let out a shaky breath. “Please don’t hold my friend’s sins against me. She’s medicated.”
Mags snapped out of her stupor and shoved me aside. “She exaggerates.”
“Hey, you can’t be in here!” Jared stomped toward us. He was so Portland, in his North Face jacket and khakis. “Employees only.”
“She’s here.” Zane moved his finger from pointing at my face to pointing at Mags.
Jared glared. “Sorry Maggie, you can’t be in here either. No exceptions.”
“Don’t you have more gel to buy?” Mags said sweetly.
His jaw clenched while Maggie sauntered toward him and then grabbed him by the elbow and led him away.
“So…” Zane rubbed his hands together. “What first?”