Page 2 of Fake Fiancé for the Billionaire Rockstar

I straighten my spine, then hiss, “I’ll be up in a minute. Can’t you see I’m dealing with something right now?” before taking a couple steps closer to the drums that are now abandoned.

“Unless you can’t,” Donny says, that calmness oozing off him in waves that nearly suffocates me.

“I tell myself not to do it.” He’s only trying to trap you.

He wants to prove that he’s right and I’m not, but there’s a few things no one knows about me and one of those is about to come to light. I’d walk away, if it weren’t the way he’s challenging me in front of the other guys and that cocky smirk lifting at the corners of his mouth.

I roll my eyes, then huff in annoyance before marching behind the drums and sinking onto the stool Donny was just sitting on. The leather is still warm, but I keep all my focus on the drumsticks resting in front of me.

“Oh shit,” Evan mutters ahead of me, which prompts me to look over at Donny with a grin of my own.

Brent is blinking at me in surprise and I nod to him. “Take it from the top,” I say, then cut a glare to Donny, whose smile has since dropped from his face. “Therightsong this time, please.”

It takes a moment for everyone to finally listen to my request, but as soon as they start their rendition of a Christmas classic and it’s time for the drums to start, I do it without a single pause.

My father would teach me how to play different instruments each day — Thursdays were the drums.He thought knowing how to play the instruments would somehow help us later in life. I can’t say it’s true, but I guess it comes in handy right now.

When the song ends and I place the drumsticks back where I got them from, I rise from the stool and come to a stop in front of Donny. “Now, are we done? Get to the damn rehearsal set list that I sent strict instructions for, got it?”

Donny swallows, his pupils dilating slightly, then he nods. “Uh, yeah, Carmen.”

My brow furrows as he moves around my petite frame and nearly fumbles with the drumsticks, picking them up. In all thetime I’ve been here, since he showed up to get his job back, I haven’t seen him flustered.

At least there’s some other emotion tucked inside of him.

Everyone else is quiet and staring at me with wide eyes. I tap my foot impatiently on the stage, then shake my head. “What, you’ve never seen a woman play drums before? Just get back to rehearsal. I’ve got another mess to clean up.”

They scramble to restart the song while I make my way through backstage and in the direction of the stage equipment. I knock loudly on the door, in case anyone inside is too occupied, and it only takes a few seconds for the door to be swung open.

Kane, the stage tech whose name I always seem to forget until I see his name tag, blows out a relieved breath and opens the door wider for me to step through to the other side.

He shakes his head with a frown. “No one has found another set of stage lights in the storage rooms. What should we do?”

“I’m sure we can get the priority delivered here,” I say, then turn to face him. “In the meantime, why don’t we see if any other stadiums surrounding us have an extra set we can use?”

“How far away are we talking?”

I arch a brow, then tap a finger against my chin and shrug. “One hundred-mile radius?”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

“Good, if no one has anything we can use, then make that emergency purchase and we’ll just have to hope that they’ll get here before the charity concert.”

After all the tours we’ve been through where something has gone wrong, I’m sure the guys are relieved to be doing something a little less stressful this time of year. Brent and Evan didn’t want to go on another tour so close to the holidays, since they have families to spend it with, and this was the next best thing we could do.

“Sounds good, Carmen,” Kane says, then runs a hand through his shaggy hair. “I didn’t mean to get nervous about things.”

As far as I am aware, Kane is one of the newer techs working on the charity concert and it doesn’t surprise me that he’s getting anxious over a slight malfunction. I would’ve been concerned if it didn’t happen at some point.

I give him a small smile and nod. “It’s alright, we’ll get it figured out. Let’s try not to worry too much unless we absolutely need to, yeah?”

He nods, his cheeks turning a shade of pink.

We wave goodbye, then I step out of the room and take a deep breath. It’s not often that Donny and I clash — normally it’s him frustrating me and he keeps that calm and collected personalityin check. Seeing the challenge in his eyes set something off inside of me that I have no business having there.

He’s my client.

As if that stopped everyone else from doing what they wanted.

---