Page 125 of Hard Rock Tease

“I have too many inspirations to name. There is one artist who just blows my mind, Miyavi. He was originally in a rock band, Dué le Quartz. That was more than a decade ago. Miyavi went solo and released some amazing stuff. He has this great style of playing, like he’s slapping the strings.”

“Have you ever met him in person?”

Ren laughed. “God, no, I’ve never met Miyavi in person. Only in concerts. It would be a dream come true, though.”

“Jayce, how do you and the guys juggle work with your personal lives?”

“When you’re touring all the time or stuck in a studio recording, it’s easy to forget there’s another life out there. It’s important to have down time to reconnect with the people you love. It helps ground you.”

“Yeah, so you don’t get a swollen head like me,” Kell interrupted.

“And is there love in your life, Jayce?”

I nearly bit my tongue. Why the hell was Deena asking that? I tried to catch her eye, but she wasn’t looking in my direction. Did she know? Did she suspect? How had she found out? Was I going to lose my job over one forbidden moment?

The corner of Jayce’s lips twitched up. “I did have a little something with one girl,” he admitted. “But that’s over now.”

“Do you think you’ll ever get back together?”

He fought back surprise. “I don’t know. I’m just focusing on the music right now.”

Nausea rose up in my stomach as I feared the worst, but Deena moved on and didn’t seem interested in pushing the matter further. I let out a breath of relief. Hopefully, the question was just a routine one. There was no way anyone could know what happened between me and Jayce. For all I knew, Jayce wasn’t even talking about me. After all, we’d only shared the one kiss. It made more sense for him to be talking about a previous girlfriend.

I was just being paranoid.

Chapter Nine

Even though Iknew I needed to put it out of my mind, I couldn’t stop thinking about what happened with Jayce in that stairwell. I was positive he didn’t see me as just another groupie, but that was exactly what everyone would think if they found out we’d kissed. His fans would think he’d chosen someone and they would die of jealousy. Who knew what the crazy ones were capable of?

I stared down at my phone, pretending to work, when really I was trying to gather my thoughts.

Besides, what kind of relationship could I possibly have with someone like Jayce? He was a rock star, practically a god in the eyes of many fans. I was a lowly social media girl, just an intern, not even out of college. He was so far above me in status, I couldn’t understand what he saw in me.

It was better to just forget we’d ever been more than work colleagues. Jayce and I had agreed that was the safest thing for both of us. I would have to put it all out of my mind. Jayce and I had our moment, but that was it. No one was going to find out.

I looked up from my phone and saw the producer, Cornelius Connor, directing a cameraman to shoot something from backstage. He wasn’t the director, but he was always telling the camera operator what to do. How much of a control freak was he, anyway? I’d never seen him just standing around, relaxing, not working. He was always doing something, always in motion.

I hadn’t gotten around to collecting that content for him yet. He wanted to shoot the band’s reaction to weird fan stuff, but I still hadn’t gone trawling through the depths of the internet to find some. I hoped I wasn’t inconveniencing him because of it.

He swung around and pointed a finger in my direction. I ducked out of the way before I ended up in the shot. He saw me, and instead of looking irritated, he gave me a nod and a wave. I returned it, feeling guilty.

I went back to my phone. I’d start gathering that content now. It wasn’t too hard, since I was already heavily involved in monitoring and engaging with fans on several different social media platforms. I didn’t know exactly what he was looking for, but I found a piece of fan art that someone had posted. They’d drawn the band members in a cute cartoon style, which was interesting enough, but the cherry on top was that they were all wearing the costumes from the Japanese anime Sailor Moon, miniskirt, tiaras, and all. I stifled a giggle and quickly emailed the picture to Cornelius with one line:

Weird enough for you?

I heard his phone ping from across the room, and he pulled it out. He must have gotten my email because he looked up and gave me a thumbs up. Looked like I was on the right track.

I sent back another email:

I think Kell would make a better Sailor Moon than Jayce, don’t you think?

He threw me a grin when he got the email.

I thought the picture was too cute not to share. I didn’t want to post it from the band account, not without asking the band members what they thought of it first, but it was definitely something AudioAiley would share with her followers.

@AudioAiley:This artist, while talented, is mistaken. CLEARLY Kell would make a better Sailor Moon. Blond hair? Check. Excitable and hyper? Check. Secretly a princess? …Jury’s still out on that one.

Isent it off, hoping my followers would find it funny.