Sweet Temptation: A Players Rockstar Romance (Players, Book 3)

her.
Why the fuck didn’t this woman already have security?
I watched as she shot me a look that I read as somewhere between annoyance and surrender, then disappeared up the back hall to her bedroom.
Brody sighed. “Your guy outside… You’re leaving him here tonight?”
“Andre? Fuck, no. He’s been pounding Crown Royal. I’ve called him a cab.” Then I said the thing I’d been considering without fully committing to it until it came out of my mouth. “I’ll stay.”
Yeah. So, I’d just assigned myself to bodyguard duty.
Something I’d sworn up and down, to myself and everyone I knew, that I wasn’t doing again.
Ever.
Naveen was gonna have a fucking field day with this shit. Half the reason he’d thrown me that “retirement” party tonight was because he didn’t believe for a fucking second that I was never taking another bodyguard assignment.
When I said I was retiring, though, I fucking meant it.
But I just couldn’t walk out of here tonight. Because I knew if I did, I wouldn’t feel right about it.
“You sure?” Brody asked me. Even he was probably wondering why I didn’t just get on the phone to one of my guys and go home to bed.
“Yeah. It’s just for tonight.”
It was just for tonight.
That’s what I promised myself.
“Alright,” Brody said, clapping me on the shoulder. “Makes me feel better to know you’re here, actually. We’ll talk in the morning, yeah? I’ll bring Jude in. He’s in Australia, on tour with Dirty, so he’ll have to join us on FaceTime or something.”
“Sounds good.”
“Get some sleep if you can,” he said, and I saw him out.
I waited with Andre until his cab came, then headed back into the house and locked the door behind me.
Despite Maddox’s assessment, I went through the house and personally checked every door and window, though I left Summer’s bedroom alone. I’d already locked the doors on her balcony before Maddox and I cleared out of her room. And the woman had been put out enough tonight. She deserved privacy now, space, and quiet.
I turned out most of the lights and made myself as comfortable as I could on the couch. Yeah, I’d seen all the guest rooms. But I wasn’t a guest. And Summer hadn’t offered me a room.
Luckily, she had a decent couch.
I sent my trainer a text to cancel our date at the gym in the morning.
Then I reported in to Naveen, via text, to give him the recap of what was happening. I’d call him tomorrow.
I could already hear him, fucking laughing at me.
And maybe he’d have a reason to laugh.
I stared down the dark hall that led to Summer’s bedroom.
Brody had given me her cell number before he left. I wasn’t sure exactly what he’d told her before she went upstairs, but she hadn’t looked happy.
And she’d definitely been crystal clear about her lack of desire to hire a bodyguard.
She probably hated me right now.
At least I knew I wasn’t gonna bill her, or Brody, for tonight. They could pay whoever came on as her permanent bodyguard, starting tomorrow.
I sent her a quick text.
Me: I’m on the couch tonight if you need anything. Ronan.
Then I tried to sleep, though I didn’t, all that much.
It’s just for tonight.
I kept telling myself that, over and over.
For some reason, I didn’t believe myself.
I could already feel that this job, for whoever took the assignment, was gonna be long and messy.
Call it professional instinct.
And I knew I couldn’t risk getting sucked back into a job I’d already mentally put behind me.
I knew that… and yet, for some reason, here I was.

Chapter Five
Summer
I tried, but I barely slept for the rest of the night.
I lay in bed as the sun came up and well afterward, just trying to get some rest so I wouldn’t be a groggy bitch all day. I wasn’t usually an early riser. I was a nocturnal creature. But around eight-thirty a.m., I finally gave up and checked my phone.
There was a text from Ashley, and a couple from Brody.
Ash: Yo what’s up
Brody: I hope you were able to get some sleep. We’re having an important meeting this morning. My place. 10:30
Brody: Ronan will drive you.
So… Ash hadn’t heard about my unwelcome nocturnal visitor yet, and had no idea why Brody and I had been calling him in the middle of the night.
And Brody was out of his damn mind.
Me: I can drive myself.
I sent that to Brody, not even bothering to try to beg out of this “important meeting.” If he deemed it important and he was having it at his home, he considered it very important.
And the longer I tried to avoid it, the more overblown this whole thing was gonna get.
Besides, he had my schedule; my assistant kept it updated to the fucking minute and it synced to Brody’s phone. So it’s not like I could make up some excuse why I couldn’t attend this meeting. My morning, like most mornings, was clear, obligation wise.
I flopped back onto my pillow. Fuck, I’d dreaded this. Everyone’s reaction to what happened last night was half the reason I’d had trouble sleeping.
As the reality sank in, I knew they were all gonna flip. Last night was just the first taste of it. Brody, all gloomy and sympathetic, biting the hell out of his tongue while he traded loaded glances with the other guys…
Ronan, especially.
Clearly, they were all conspiring to put me on extreme lockdown, a team of muscle men shadowing my every move. And that was gonna seriously cramp my style.
After Brody and the other guys had left, Ronan texted me that he was on my couch. Brody had insisted that someone stay with me, and honestly, I didn’t mind that part. I didn’t exactly want to be alone in my house for the rest of the night. Though when I’d said I’d prefer to call in one of my friends, Brody had put his giant managerial foot down and insisted I have professional security for the night.
I then pictured Brody going home to