Page 37 of Dangerous Rhythm

“Don’t call me that,” she warned. “It’s not the word or the act itself. It’s being caught doing it by, of all people, you.”

“I think you’re lucky it was just me.”

“You laughed your head off.”

“I was cheering for you!” Curtis claimed.

Lina scoffed. “Cheering? Why would you be cheering?”

“I know what it feels like having extreme gut pressure. You just want it the fuck out. And I’m guessing it must’ve been an emergency for you to barge into a room without checking to pass a big, loud, long…wind like that. You woke me up from a nap.”

“Oh, my god.” She groaned and hid her face in her hands.

Curtis chuckled at her embarrassment, which he found silly but adorable. “I’ve come to know how you do things since then. You don’t enter a room without assessing it. You’ll know every entry and exit point in five seconds flat. But that night, you let your guard down.”

Lina dropped her shoulders as if she’d accepted her fate and peeked out between her fingers. “I don’t know what happened that day. I probably shouldn’t have had that three-bean burrito before reporting to a new job.”

Laughing fully now, Curtis had to fold over his stomach.

“See, you’re laughing at me,” she said, staring at him with her jaw slack.

“You gotta see the humor in this.”

Lina laughed, lightly at first, but then embraced the hilarity of the memory.

When he got his laughter under control, Curtis reached for her hand and held it in both of his as he looked into her shiny eyes. “If we were a real couple, I must say we had the best meet-cute.”

“Technically, we didn’t meet then.”

“Because you ran out of the room so fast as soon as you realized you weren’t alone.”

“Not fast enough because you saw me.”

“You must’ve seen how shocked I was to find this gorgeous woman letting out the most impressive flatulence I’ve ever heard in my green room. And when you travel with a group of men for months at a time, you’ve heard many.

“But when you left without even an introduction, I said to myself, I got to meet that woman,” he continued. “And lucky me to find out not long after that, that woman was taking over the lead of our security team.”

She twisted her lips in a half-disgruntled expression. “Thanks for not announcing to the team what happened.”

“Why would I do that?” Curtis’ brows furrowed.

With a shrug, she said, “There are men out there who don’t appreciate women in lead positions.”

Sensing she wasn’t specifically talking about the band’s security team, he said, “That’s their problem, not yours.”

“It is my problem if they try to undermine my authority.”

“Well, those men aren’t real men,” Curtis said. “I, for one, don’t mind taking orders from a woman.”

Lina smirked at him. “I recall many instances when you didn’t listen to me.”

Curtis sat back and let his heated gaze meet hers directly. “I promise I’ll do whatever you want me to do.”

His double meaning was thick in the air.

Lina’s clear complexion couldn’t hide the pink hue rising in her cheeks, but she held his eyes with a small indulgent look.

“Aquí anem.” The waiter appeared with a large round pan of paella filled with seafood and placed it on the table between them. “¡Que aprofiti!”

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