Page 23 of The Temptation of Truth

I quirk an eyebrow. “Different good or different bad?”

She traps her lips between her teeth again before slowly rolling them free. Then her eyes flit shyly back to mine, and she gives me a small, almost playful smile.

“I haven’t decided yet.”

A smile of my own stretches across my face.

“Well, when you decide, let me know.” I take a few steps backward, down the hall toward my room. “And don’t worry about Brynn. I think you two will get along just fine.”

I take three more backward steps, holding her eye contact, and then I turn. When I reach my door, just before I step inside my new suite, I glance over my shoulder to find her watching me. On impulse, I wink, and as I shut the door behind me, I swear I hear that tinkling little laugh again.

5

AURORA

“How’s it going so far?”

Brady’s words echo through the hotel bathroom as I finish getting ready for bed. I recognize the familiar gruffness of his voice. It’s histiredvoice, and if I closed my eyes, I could almost imagine him here with me. He doesn’t sound nearly eight thousand miles away.

“Good,” I say. “I met Brynnlee, the girl I’ll be tutoring. That went...Well, it went fine.”

He yawns, and his words tumble out with it. “Just fine?”

“Yeah. I mean, I don’t think she’s excited to be tutored, but she wasn’t rude or anything. Just a little standoffish at first, but she warmed up to me by the end.”

I turn off the bathroom light and pad my way to the bed in semi-darkness. My body longs for sleep. I’m surprised I made it through the day, to be honest, but I read that napping makes jet lag worse.

“She’s going to love you. How could she not?”

“Thanks.” I pull back the duvet, climb into the soft bed, and sigh as my head hits the pillow. “I think we’ll get along okay. I actually ate dinner in the suite with her and her family.”

“How was that?”

“Weirdlynormal. I don’t know what I was expecting—caviar and thousand-dollar bottles of champagne or something—but we ordered Margherita pizza. If I hadn’t been in the presence of a modern-day rock icon, it might have felt like any other random day.”

“Sav Loveless.” Brady draws out her name. “I had the biggest crush on her in high school.”

“I remember,” I say with a laugh. “You almost peed yourself when you found out Uncle Wade was her manager.”

“I didn’talmostpeemyself.”

“Mmhmm, sure.”

He chuckles. “So what’s the queen of rock like?”

“Gorgeous. Intimidating. Larger than life. You know how her voice kind ofvibratesthrough the radio? Well, it’s like that in person, too, except...I don’t know...more. She speaks and you can almost feel it in your chest. But she’s also really kind and surprisingly down to earth. She was nice when we talked on the phone and all, but I wasn’t sure how she’d be in person. I was afraid she might be a snooty, stuck-up celebrity, but she’s not at all.”

“Your uncle wouldn’t have brought you on to work for someone who was snooty and stuck-up, Auri.”

“Yeah, that’s true. But still. I was worried, anyway.”

My husband hums, and I can hear coffee brewing on the other end of the phone. He had to wake up two hours early so he could talk to me right before I went to bed. The eighteen-hour difference is going to take some getting used to.

“What about the guys? Torren King and Jonah Hendrix. You going to leave me for one of those tatted, broody rock stars?”

The teasing tone in Brady’s voice has me rolling my eyes as I snuggle deeper into my pillow. “I have no interest in those guys, B, and they have no interest in me.”

“I doubt that. You’re hot.”