Page 138 of Dirty Rock

“I just want to love you and let that be the end of it.”

“Life isn’t that easy, Sinatra.” She smiled flatly. “But don’t worry about things. I know when to make the right moves, and when to stay silent.” Her eyes flickered with something I didn’t quite recognise in its entirety, but there was definitely a sprinkling of mischief there. “I managed to quash all that shit with that stripper Candy and her boyfriend Benji without you knowing.”

My face dropped. “What?”

She smiled smugly. “See. I have tricks of my own.”

“What the hell happened?”

“Nothing you need to concern yourself with. It’s over with now. They’re gone.”

“They had pictures, didn’t they?”

“I took care of it, Rhett.” She leaned closer again. “I’ll always take care of it. Nobody will get to you on my watch. And while I adore the way you want to protect me, you need to learn to let me play a part in all of this, too. I know what I’m doing.”

“I hate you for not pouncing on me three years ago.”

With a huff of laughter, she ran a hand through the side of my hair. “I had to wait for you to grow up a little before I made my move, bad boy of rock.”

“I’m sorry you had to see whatever was on those pictures,” I groaned, imagining how it would have looked to her. The mere thought of seeing Julia drooling over some other guy made my stomach tighten and nausea rise in my throat. Jealousy turned me green and angry, and suddenly, I was mad at everything. Mad at myself for being who I used to be. Mad at this shitty world that offered a reward to people like Candy and Benji if they successfully manipulated someone like me.

But mainly, I was mad that Julia was already having to clean up my shit again.

She deserved better than that. I needed to be better than that.

* * *

The recording session went as smoothly as it could have considering my mood. We’d managed to get most of Filtered laid down the way we needed to. The band, Jules, Tessa, and I been sitting around on the leather sofas talking to the sound technicians about everything and nothing when I saw one of the guys—a young, good-looking blonde-haired poster boy for a modern-day reality show—giving Julia the eye. He kept glancing down at his phone and looking up at her.

Jules was oblivious to his attention, but it made the back of my neck prickle as he lifted his phone as though he was about to slyly take a picture.

“Hey!” I called over to him from my slouched position on the studio’s sofa. “You. The fuck you taking a picture of?”

Everyone stopped talking, and the young tech sniffed and lowered his phone as he stared at the screen. He looked up slowly, taking a glance at the others in the room before he focused on me.

“Yeah.” I raised my brows. “You. What are you doing on that phone?”

“Nothing, man.” He scowled, immediately looking guilty.

“Were you taking a picture of my girl?”

“What?”

“You heard me.” I pushed myself to the edge of the sofa and dropped my hands between my thighs. I glared at that slimy motherfucker like my eyes could kill him.

The dude straightened his shoulders. “I didn’t mean anything by it—”

“I fucking knew it.” I jumped to my feet, not caring about the rumblings going on behind me, and I sauntered over to the guy. “Hand it over.” I held my hand out.

He frowned. “But… it’s my phone.”

“Yeah. And she’smywoman.”

He looked behind me to where Jules was before he shook his head, and I saw the panic rising. He held his hands up in surrender. “Look, I swear I didn’t mean anything. I was just trying to score cool points with my mates.”

“By taking a picture of someone who doesn’t belong to you. Yeah, I got that. You think it’s your right now. That she’s public property because she’s with me.”

“I—”

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