Read Rock Starred: Love My Way for Free Online Page B

hotel with Gwen. I didn't want to be a princess, but waiting alone on a dark sidewalk wasn't exactly the VIP treatment I was accustomed to. I dug my phone out of my purse and was about to send Peter a text when a metal door scraped open and a burly guy in a too-small t-shirt leaned out. "Are you Katie?"
    "Yep."
    "Come on. This way."
    He led me down a dingy hall, covered with band names scrawled in pen and marker. We rounded the corner and he stepped aside when we reached a wood door, which he pushed open for me.
    The band's dressing room was packed with people, almost all of them women, a few looking as though they'd answered a casting call for jailbait. At the ripe old age of twenty-eight, I wondered if I was already a relic, an annoying concept considering that Peter was already thirty.
    Every band member had a girl or two hanging on him except for Peter, who sat in the corner with his back to me, strumming his guitar and poring over a notebook. Lead singer Elliot gave me a look of confused recognition as he stood opening a beer.
    Stony caught my eye as a big-chested blonde ran her hand over his bald head. "Yo, Pete," he called out. "Your chica is here."
    Peter looked over his shoulder, his brilliant blue eyes and electric smile flashing when he saw me, causing my heart to worm its way into my throat. He hopped up and set the guitar against the wall, stepping over a few groupies to get to me, stopping to slug Stony in the arm and give him the stink-eye along the way.
    "I was starting to worry." He put his arm around me and kissed me softly on the corner of my mouth. "Let's get out of here." Taking my hand, he led me into the dingy corridor where a few crewmembers and club employees milled about. He leaned me against the wall in a dark corner and gave me a steamy beer-flavored kiss, his fingers twining with mine. "I'm really glad you decided to come." He swept my hair behind my ear. "You look so beautiful in that top. I wish we had time to run out to the bus for some alone time."
    As much as it was my natural instinct to dig in my heels, his words left me unable to keep my hands to myself, my fingers drawn to the patch of his chest peeking out from his black, collared shirt. "Doesn't that mess with your mojo?"
    He grinned and looked at my hand as my finger swirled in his chest hair. "You're thinking of athletes. It actually does the opposite for musicians." He kissed me again, prompting the now regular flutter in my chest. "So Gwen decided not to come?"
    "She wants to stay away from Stony."
    "Probably for the best. He's hooking up with some girl who's been hanging around all day. You know how it is."
    I did know how it was. I'd freaking witnessed how it was, many times, because of my job. The thought of Peter acting like that was wholly unpleasant, even when I knew that he must do it all the time. There was no shortage of available women.
    "I should go find a spot out in the club to watch the set." I hitched my purse over my shoulder.
    "Oh no. You don't have to do that. You can stand on the side of the stage with the rest of the girls."
    I crinkled my lips. The rest of the girls. "Great."
    Peter escorted me to the side of the stage where three other women stood, clustered behind the curtains that were already open. He pecked me on the temple. "Time to make the donuts," he said and walked back to where his bandmates were waiting.
    The girls were all talking, oblivious to me. I checked my phone for messages just to have something to do when I overheard them.
    "I hooked up with him the last time they were in town," the tall redhead said. "Guess that's not happening this time."
    Stony's blonde clucked her tongue. "Elliot is hot and he's the singer. Some people might say that's a step up."
    "Yeah, I guess," the redhead answered.
    My pulse began to thump wildly as I did the math and realized unless she was talking about Mark, the very married bass player, she had to be talking about Peter. That left me with an uneasy roll in my