Page 109 of Hard Rock Tease

Just wandering into places I shouldn’t have. Nothing major.

Still can’t share any details, huh?

Nope. Sorry. What about you? Doing anything cool this summer?

Funny you should ask. I’m working on a film project that—guess what—forced me to sign an NDA too.

What is with these paranoid people?

They think we’re going to blab all their secrets. It’s not like my clients are so interesting I have nothing else to gossip about.

You’re filming something boring?

It’s not really my thing. I’m sure others would find it cool.

Oooh, you can’t tell me that and not give me the details!

Sorry, no can do.

Well, can you at least tell me what you’re doing right now?

Nothing much. Just lying in bed. I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t even think of the time. Did I wake you up?

No. I couldn’t sleep either.

So you’re lying in bed, too? Are you wearing sexy little pajamas? ;)

Wouldn’t you like to know?

I definitely would.

Was Neil… flirting with me? My heartbeat quickened. I couldn’t deny that, for the last month or so, I’d hoped he had feelings for me the way I’d grown to have feelings for him. This was different from just planning a date, though. He’d never flirted this overtly before.

Maybe someday soon you’ll get to see exactly what I wear to bed.

I’ll count down the days.

***

WHEN I SHOWEDup at the Dark Sound Studios office the next morning, the security guard directed me to the parking lot out back. There were a couple large buses and a dozen staff members already there.

My staff badge let me wander around virtually unnoticed. Everyone was rushing around looking harried, trying to finalize the last details before we officially took off for the summer. It was just like being backstage. Everyone seemed to have a job to do, and they were all doing it at maximum speed.

I didn’t want to stand around gawking while everyone else was working, so I pulled out the phone Deena gave me.

For my internship application, I had to map out a general social media strategy. I’d worked on it so hard I could rattle it off by heart. I knew what sort of pictures I needed. This was the very beginning of the tour, the very first morning, and fans would like to see the kind of stuff involved in a big tour like this.

I opened the camera app and snapped away, going from one area to another, trying not to get run over by the people rushing to and fro. None of them paid me any attention. It seemed that as long as I had a staff badge, I was virtually invisible.

“Is there a reason you’re standing in the middle of my shot?”

I turned to find a video camera in my face, the camera operator hidden behind it. He hadn’t been the one to speak. A man stood next to him, arms crossed, annoyance evident on his face. He didn’t have a headset on and he didn’t have a staff badge. I opened my mouth to apologize and was met with the most stunning pair of light blue eyes I’d ever seen. The rest of his face was just as stunning, perfectly sculpted like a Roman statue. With his crisp, light green collared shirt and tan slacks, I had to wonder. Was he a model? What was he doing in a music company parking lot?

“Can I help you?” Maybe he was lost.

The man turned from slightly annoyed to aggravated in an instant. He pinched the bridge of his nose between two fingers, looking pained, as if he had a migraine of epic proportions.

“You can help me by getting out of my shot.”