Page 26 of Undeniable Temptation

Unless Ryan’s private life started interfering with the band in a more detrimental manner, who he slept with wasn’t any of her business. Just like it hadn’t been her business throughout his marriage to Julie. And just like it wouldn’t be if he was single and sleeping his way through the millions of groupies wishing to get laid.

Ryan—his heart and cock included—wasn’t her concern.

“Don’t worry. I’ll mention something to him.” Sean moved close and gave her a hip check. “I don’t want his drinking to get out of hand either.”

“Drinking?” She should’ve shut her mouth and walked from the stadium like a manager on a mission to get more exposure. But no, she had to ask. She had to open her damn mouth.

“He’s not drinking that much.” Mason scoffed. “We all need to cut him a break.”

Sean nodded. “I agree. But drinking while on stage or during practice has always been a no-go.”

The look on her face must’ve said it all.

“I said don’t worry.” Sean gave her a half-hearted smile. “He’s not drunk. I think he’s merely taking the edge off a little more than usual.”

She looked at Mitch, Blake, and Sean in turn, noticing the concern she hadn’t seen before. “Has he taken the edge off this morning? Do you know if he’s been drinking today?”

It was already after lunch. Mid-afternoon was an acceptable drinking hour for most, but not when your days started at noon and ended after midnight. This was early morning for them, and the fact they weren’t meeting her gaze meant they knew how concerning it was.

“Let it go, Leah,” Mason warned. “He’s earned his stripes. He deserves to fuck up every now and then. We’ll pull him into line if we need to.”

That wasn’t good enough. She wasn’t going to entrust Ryan’s safety into the hands of Mr. Manwhore and his posse of merry men. “Why doesn’t your leadership fill me with comfort?”

“Maybe because you’ve got more of an invested interest in Ryan than you should.”

Fuck. Me.Where the hell had that bitch slap come from? “Excuse me?”

She’d kept her ‘invested interest’ to herself. The way she was acting was no different from when Blake or Sean or even Mason himself had gone off the rails. It was her job to be invested. Her duty to care.

“Ahh…” Mitch took a step toward the stage. “I’m gonna go see what Ryan’s doing.”

“Yeah, I’m coming.” Blake followed.

Then Sean bailed, too.

She waited until she was alone with Mason, his smug grin increasing her fury to an apocalypse-inducing level. “Have you been spending time with Scott?” she asked. “Because he seems to be rubbing off on you.”

“That’s a low blow.”

“Well, you’d know what it takes to make one.” She rested on her hip and tap, tap, tapped the toe of her shoe on the stadium floor. The desire to kill him was clogging her arteries, no more than it usually did when he was an asshole, but the subject matter on this occasion was uncalled for. “Do you want to explain why you’re being such a cu—”

“Whoa. I can’t believe you were about to say the c-word.”

“And I can’t believe you would be so fucking rude.”

“I’m being rude?” He pointed a lazy thumb toward his chest. “Because here I was thinking you were the one disrespecting us by hiding out in your hotel room and communicating through fucking email. Then you come back and try to work us into a frenzy over Ryan when there’s nothing wrong with him.”

“Oh, my god.” She threw her hands up in the air. “Are you kidding me?” She didn’t know where to start. Didn’t know whether she should verbally chop him down at the knees or end this argumentative dance by punching him in the face. “I’ve got a whole new workload now that I have to babysit Slicker’s sales. And not only do I have to ensure the tour is perfect, I also have to put out my feelers—” she made quotation marks with her fingers, “—because you want to see what other labels have to offer before you consider starting one of your own.”

He opened his mouth but she shoved a finger at his sternum.

“And you think there’s nothing wrong with him turning up to sound check drunk? Are you insane?”

“He’s got a lot of shit on his plate. Don’t expect him to eat it with a smile on his face.”

“I don’t. I expect him to hold the same work ethic he’s had for years because any deviation is a sign there’s something wrong.”

“There’s nothing wrong with him,” he grated. “But maybe you should start scrutinizing things closer to home.”

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