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

Xander’s Corvette were parked in front of Brody’s garage.
Ronan parked on the street and headed over to me. “Were you trying to lose me?”
I turned on him. He looked about as annoyed as I felt. “I sure was.”
“Why?”
“Because it was fun.”
That seemed to leave him speechless. Not the answer—or the sass—he’d expected. “So, you thought speeding like that was a good idea?”
“No. I thought it was a fun idea.”
“Well, next time, maybe you have fun under the speed limit.”
“Yeah. Sounds like a real thrill ride.” I planted my hands on my hips. “Was this your idea? Or Brody’s?”
“What?” He eyed me carefully.
“The ambush.” I nodded over my shoulder. “Ashley and Xander are here, too?”
“I don’t know who’s here,” he said, his stony face blank. “I just got here.”
“Well, let me help you out.” I pointed. “That’s my lead singer’s truck. And that’s my drummer’s car. So. You want to tell me what my whole band is doing here?”
“Matt Brohmer is in Australia,” he said. He actually did it with a straight face, too.
However… The fact that he knew who my bassist, Matt Brohmer, was—and knew exactly where he was right now—told me one of two things. Either a) he knew who I was all along and lied about it for some reason… or, more likely b) somewhere between asking me Are you, by any chance, DJ Summer? last night, and this moment, Ronan Sterling had done his research on me.
“Okay. What is most of my band doing here?” I pressed.
“I imagine they’re here for the meeting.”
I narrowed my eyes, studying him. The man had sass of his own. And he was incredibly dry about it. It could almost slip past if you weren’t looking for it. But I was looking.
Oh, was I looking.
In the broad daylight, I took a moment sizing him up. And as it turned out, I’d seriously underestimated his handsome.
Wasn’t just a middle-of-the-night hysteria thing. The man was hot.
It wasn’t just his body or his size. The strong lines of his face were only made sexier by that lush mouth and the gorgeous eyes as he kinda squinted at me in the sun.
He definitely had the manly-as-fuck thing down.
Physically, the man standing in front of me checked off all the boxes on my hot dude wish list.
And he seemed to be looming just a little too close for someone who barely knew me.
Maybe after all this bullshit was over, in a day or two, I’d invite him to one of my shows and consider fucking him backstage.
If we could get through this meeting without him becoming so damn annoying that even his abundant rugged-and-handsome couldn’t save him.
“Well, let’s not keep my bandmates waiting. After all, they must’ve gotten here early. We sure did.” I smiled, happy to remind him of my fabulous driving.
He frowned a little.
“They must be really keen,” I went on. “Maybe Brody promised them beer.” With that, I turned and strode up to the house.
I wondered if he was looking at my ass. I wore a cropped jacket over my sweater, and it was a known fact that my ass looked juicy as hell in these leggings.
I didn’t even have to knock before Brody opened the door.
“Summer.” He reached to pull me into a quick, tight hug, which caught me by surprise. Brody was usually more of a firm handshake type of guy. At least, he was with me. Two hugs from him in less than seven hours was kinda freaking me out.
He looked me over like he was making sure I hadn’t broken since he last saw me, his deep-blue eyes crinkling in his handsome, tired face—like a worried dad. Seriously; he was two years older than me.
“Good morning,” I said breezily, stepping into the house.
He greeted Ronan, shaking hands. “Let’s go on into my office.”
Ronan removed his leather jacket and his shoes. I pointedly left my ass-kicking boots on as I shrugged off my jacket. I tossed it on the coat rack and followed Brody without another glance at Ronan.
When we walked into Brody’s office, Ash and Xander were sitting in chairs facing the desk. Just a couple of gorgeous, tattooed rock stars in ripped jeans… with nothing better to do on a fine Saturday morning than worry about me.
I stifled a sigh.
Whatever they’d been muttering about had abruptly stopped. Ash jumped to his feet and gave me a hug. Xander got up and waited until I was free, then gave me a hug, too.
“Here, sit down,” Ash said, guiding me to the couch, like my bones were made of glass.
“Thanks. I’m good.” I sat down, and after Brody introduced Ronan to the guys, he sat down somewhat next to me.
The rest of them all took their seats, Brody behind his desk. And that’s when I noticed Jude—Dirty’s head of security, on the screen on Brody’s computer, via FaceTime or whatever… his tall-dark-and-handsome marred by the same expression of concern they were all wearing today. I was fucking surrounded by handsome, frowning men.
It was gonna start bumming me out.
“Hey, Jude,” I said.
“Summer,” he said. “Good to see you.”
“Is it?”
Jude chuckled. So at least someone here still had a sense of humor. Everyone else looked ridiculously morose.
But if Brody was looping Jude in on this, from the road, it was serious. At least, Brody sure seemed to think so.
“So, let’s get right to it,” Brody said. He cranked up the bossy manager routine, staring us down—kinda like a school principal addressing a bunch of delinquents. “Jude and I have asked Ronan to do a security assessment for the Players. He’s gonna help us expedite putting a security team in place for the band, due to the recent… security breach.”
Oh, no. No. He did not just look at me when he said that.
Security breech? That’s what I’d become overnight?
My mouth floated open to say something, when Xander spoke up. “So what the fuck happened, exactly?”
“Nothing,” I said, automatically. “A guy tried to break into my house last night.”
“That’s what Brody told us,” Ash said,