Page 33 of Sweet Temptation

“I don’t know,” I said. “He was just some guy who started hanging around. I barely knew him.”

“His name is Blair Sanchuk,” Ronan supplied.

“Blair?” Xander scowled. “You mean that asshole who’s been creeping around your shows?”

“You know this guy?” Jude asked.

“I don’t know him,” Xander said. “He tried to hit on Courteney a few times. Fuck, I should’ve said something. I knew that guy was no fucking good.”

“Yeah. I guess I did, too,” I said. “But I didn’t think he was gonna try to break into my house.”

The scowl fell off Xander’s face. “No, of course not. That’s not what I meant.”

“I know,” I said. “It’s fine.”

It wasn’t fine. This whole conversation was just overblowing things.

Why did we need to relive the details anyway? It was fucked-up, but it was over.

The guys didn’t seem to want to let it die, though.

“You saw this guy at Summer’s shows?” Ash asked Xander.

“Yeah. Real piece of shit. Cheap tats, light-brown hair… Kinda looked like a biker or something. I dunno. He bought Courteney a drink and I didn’t like it. He just looked dirty as shit.”

I couldn’t help it. I rolled my eyes.

“He doesn’t look ‘dirty.’” Christ. Maybe Blair was no rock star, but Xander was just pissed that he tried to buy his girlfriend a drink.

“Why are you defending him?” Ash asked me.

“I’m not defending him. Let’s just not get carried away here, and let’s stick to the facts.”

“Okay,” Ash said. “The fact is he tried to break into your house and the police had to get a dog to drag him away.”

“The dog didn’t drag him away. Jesus, Ashley.”

“I don’t care what the fuck the dog did. Why was this guy climbing your fucking house?”

“Alright,” Jude cut in. “Let’s talk security.”

“Let’s do that,” Brody said.

“Since I’m away and we haven’t yet put someone in place as Players head of security,” Jude said, “Ronan will be assigning one of his guys to you, Summer. Full-time.”

“What?” I gaped at him. At Brody, too. “Security team, fine. But I don’t need a full-time bodyguard.”

“Are you kidding me?” Ash said.

“It was one incident,” I insisted. “I’ve been a touring musician for years. Jude. Come on. I’m nowhere near as famous as Ash or Xander. I’m just a DJ.”

“You can spare us the ‘I’m just a DJ’ argument,” Ash said. “All you ever talk about is this band, and becoming a rock star. Well, this is part of being a rock star.”

“You’re a star to all of us, darlin’,” Jude said, a little more gently. “Afraid this one’s not up for negotiation.”

“Are you all serious?” I demanded.

Obviously, they were.

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