Page 23 of Backstage with a Billionaire Rockstar

He might be joking, but he has no idea how right he is… and he won’t find out.

9

Mia

The morning light filtering through the dingy hotel curtains woke me with a start. For a moment, I forgot where I was, but the warmth of Evan's body next to mine quickly brought reality crashing back. We'd shared a bed, but nothing more – though the temptation had been almost unbearable.

An hour later, we were back on the tour bus, the memory of our night in close quarters still fresh in my mind. I desperately needed coffee to clear my head and refocus on my job.

When I walk out of the tour bus, prepared to get a ride to find some decent coffee somewhere, there’s a tall man leaning against a brick building across the street with a large camera slung over his shoulder. As soon as he catches sight of me and my dark hair blowing wildly in the wind, he immediately starts walking over to me with a smirk on his face.

The wind blows again, sending a large chunk of my hair in front of my face and blocking my view of who I assume is paparazzi. At least they didn’t get the nickname wrong – Windy City is definitely the right name for Chicago.

I push the hair from in front of my face, then quickly pull it into a tight ponytail in record time – the perks of being in the army – right before the man comes to a stop in front of me. He’s still smirking, the sight making my fists clench, and he clears his throat.

“He doesn’t want to talk to you,” I say with my emotionless stare, not even giving him a chance to introduce himself. “So, you can go right back to where you came from.”

“Always so hostile, Miss Summers, aren’t you?” He says with a soft chuckle.

It throws me off how quickly it fades and is replaced with a glare that almost rivals my own. “I’m not sure what you want, but it doesn’t matter.”

“The name is Travis, and I’m sure you’ll want to remember that here in two minutes.”

“Travis,” I mutter. “That doesn’t change the fact that the band isn’t taking any type of interviews at the moment.”

It doesn’t surprise me that he found us, considering Carmen’s itinerary is the one Evan’s previous manager had drawn up. Everywhere I looked before I started working for them, there was something new about one of the members on the front page of a magazine—whether it be good or bad.

Almost as if Mack purposely put them into the spotlight, even though it never once looked like that’s what they wanted. I’ve barely been around the guys, and I can already tell that’s the last thing on their minds. Don’t get me wrong, they don’t mind the occasional shot while out in the public or interviews during special events – the guys know what they signed up for – but there’s no way anyone would know where we were at if Carmen had listened to me.

I told her to change the itinerary, but she claimed that it was too close to the tour to be able to do that with everything she had to manage.

I’ll blame this on her.

“What if it’s not them I want to talk to?”

That makes my eyebrows jump, and I frown. “I’m not sure what you mean. Of course, they’re the ones you want to talk to; stop trying to get one over on me.”

“That’s the thing, Miss Summers, I’ve already got one on you… and that handsome bass guitarist you seem to enjoy being around.”

My blood runs cold, and he smiles, his pearly whites joining the party.

It can’t be… can it?

“Wh–what are you talking about?” When he doesn’t answer me, I take a tentative step forward and glare at him. “You have five seconds to talk, or you’ll be lying on the ground knocked out cold.”

His jaw ticks in response, and he huffs out an annoyed sigh. “I know you have a history together. How would everyone take it if you and the rockstar were all over the tabloids?”

This cannot be happening right now. I’ve done everything I could to make sure Evan wasn’t aware of how deep our past goes, and now this Travis guy is going to blow it all up in my face. My cheeks flush with anger and I grind my teeth together hard enough that I’m sure a tooth will crack.

Sensing my reaction, Travis smiles and clears his throat. “Of course, I could always make the story go away with a little bit of push.”

He’s not serious.

Just as I go to answer and ask him what his terms are, the door to the bus gets pushed open, and a shadow casts over me. “What the hell is going on out here?”

Travis flicks his gaze over my shoulder, his mouth popping open, and it doesn’t take long for the money signs to show in his eyes. They’re like flashing neon lights.

“Evan,” I say without looking back at him. “You need to get back inside. Now.”

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