Page 48 of Starstruck
I cock a brow. “Sorry, Lenny girl. You’re not getting off that easy. Unless you can look me in the eyes and tell me you genuinely don’t want to see me again, I’m not going anywhere. Can you do that?”
She stares into my eyes, rolling her lips between her teeth as she shakes her head.
“That’s what I thought. So…what do you propose?”
She contemplates for a minute, chewing on the inside of her cheek as she plays with the necklace she’s wearing—a dainty gold heart pendant.
Then she exhales deeply, her lips pursed. “What about a rider?”
I laugh. A rider is essentially a list of items musicians need for their pre- or post-show routines, so to speak. Most artists I know, myself included, have one. Typically, they include normal things, like what music they listen to or food they eat. But I also know some musicians with more absurd things on their rider, such as requesting an entirely separate dressing room for their collection of sunglasses.
“Alright, sure. We can make afriends with benefitsrider.” I immediately lean forward and grab a notepad and a pen off her desk. “So, what’s first?”
Brows raised, she chuckles. “You sure are eager, aren’t you?”
I lick my lips. “I told you I’d keep coming back for more, Lenny girl. I meant it.”
Her cheeks flush pink at my words. “O-okay. Um, first—no more kissing. You said you don’t kiss the women you fuck because kissing makes things confusing. I agree, so no more of it.”
I tilt my head down. Fuck, that one’s going to be hard—kissing her is addicting. But if it means I can still fuck her, then whatever she wants.
I write it down. “Okay, no kissing. Next?”
She glances around the room, tapping her dark red nails on the desk.
“No more sleepovers.”
“Agreed.” I add it to the list, then scribble down my own rule before sharing it out loud. “And we only have sex with each other.”
“Really? I wouldn’t expect you to be into monogamy.” Her brows raise. “Have you never had a threesome?”
Now my brows raise. The last thing I need is to hear Lennon talk about threesomes. “I have,” I rasp. “Haveyouhad a threesome, Trouble?”
A blush rises to her cheeks as she nods. “Once.”
I grunt. “And you want to have one with me and someone else?”
She shakes her head. “No, bu?—”
“Good,” I interrupt. Leaning forward, I add, “Because I don’t plan on sharingyouwith anyone.”
She nods, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth, and moves onto the next item on the list. She names a few more, and I continue to write them down, just happy to be along for the ride.
“Okay,” I say when I finish, passing the notebook to her. I give her a moment to read the list before I ask, “Look good?”
“Almost.” She looks up at me. “We need to have a deadline. This can’t go on forever.”
I clench my jaw. The last thing I want to think of is this thingending before it even begins, but if it’ll give her some peace of mind, I’ll roll with it. “Okay…so what’s the end date?”
She rolls her lips together pensively. “August twenty-fourth.”
My brows furrow. “Isn’t that the day of the concert?”
She jerks her head in a nod. “We’ll have no reason to see each other after that.”
She’s not wrong, but my brows pull together anyway. Because that means after the benefit concert is over…so are we. And I’m really not sure what to think about that.
Nonetheless, I write it down. Four months of this arrangement is better than ending it before it even starts like she wanted to when she walked in here today.
