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

in the grass with his boot. “You see that?”
I looked where he indicated, and sure enough, there was something there. Bits of broken glass, kinda hidden in the grass. “What is that?”
“It’s a crack pipe,” he said. “A broken crack pipe.”
“What?” I craned to get a better look at it.
What the hell was that doing in my yard?
Ronan poked around in the grass with his boot a bit. I wasn’t sure what he was thinking. Yes, I had a lot of house parties. Great house parties. But I knew my guests. I had wild friends. Not stupid friends.
I really, really couldn’t picture anyone I knew sneaking back here to smoke crack, then coming back inside to mingle and drink martinis.
I wasn’t even sure what to say. Ronan was feeling up the wall again; he seemed to be searching for finger holds.
“You’re telling me one of my friends is a secret crackhead?”
He looked at me. “Where, exactly, did the police dog catch Sanchuk?”
I looked at the wall, right where we were standing. Beneath my bedroom balcony. “Right… here,” I said, touching the window. “Wait. You think it’s his?”
“He probably dropped it. On purpose. He knew the cops had him, so he ditched it so they wouldn’t find it on him.”
“Shiiit.” I thought about that, and I really wasn’t liking the conclusion I was drawing in my head… “A few of my girlfriends told me he offered them meth at my shows.”
We both looked at the shattered pipe.
“Could be for smoking meth,” he said.
Fuck me.
I looked up into his eyes again, feeling fucking stupid for some reason. The fact that Blair had offered meth to my friends at my shows was one of the reasons I’d tried to distance myself from him; but I hadn’t told Ronan about that. “I guess I should’ve mentioned that to you.”
“I heard,” he said. “You had Flynn bounce him out of an event a couple of weeks ago?”
“Yeah…” I said, realizing that I probably didn’t need to tell him anything. Brody or Flynn or whoever had beaten me to it.
That irritated me. That they’d been talking about me.
But of course they’d been talking about me.
Summer makes pour choices.
Summer has crazy stalker methhead friends.
I looked around in the grass. “There’s nothing else here, though.” Then I looked up into Ronan’s eyes again, and I could see the gears turning behind his eyes. “He didn’t ditch any drugs to go along with the pipe…”
“No.”
“Which means… he smoked them already? Right before he climbed my wall?”
“It doesn’t mean that.”
“Meth is a stimulant. That means… it increases sex drive, right?”
Ronan didn’t answer that. He didn’t really have to.
And the thought of Blair smoking that shit and then trying to climb into my bedroom…
“We don’t know he smoked anything that night,” he said firmly.
But it didn’t make me feel any better.
I looked at the broken pipe. “What do we do with it?”
“I’ll take care of it,” he said. “Just don’t step on it.” Then he continued his fine-toothed combing of the yard.
I went after him, watching for more drug crap in my grass as I followed him around the back and the other side of the house.
“I really don’t understand what you’re looking for. I can get the fence post fixed or replaced or whatever. This house is totally safe. I’ve never had a break-in…” My words faded off as he found the coffee can under the bushes.
He picked it up. “What’s this,” he said, like he knew exactly what it was.
“Nothing.” I plucked it from his hand.
“Nothing,” he repeated. “So, you’re telling me that’s just random garbage?”
“Guess so.”
“That’s strange. Wonder how it got tucked under the bush like that. The rest of the yard is so pristine.”
I planted one hand on my hip, the other one holding the coffee can. “There’s a kid in the neighborhood who takes care of it for me. Mows the lawn and pulls the weeds and stuff. He does a great job.”
“And yet he missed that somehow.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine. I put it there,” I admitted, because clearly he already knew it. “And I told him to leave it.”
“Please do not tell me you keep a house key in there.”
I turned the empty can over and shook it dramatically. “No key, Magnum P.I..” Thank God I’d thought of it today, and pulled it out of here. It was now safely in my bedroom.
Really should’ve taken the whole can.
Ronan stared me down with his light-brown eyes. They looked all golden, like melted caramel, in the sun. There was a glimmer of fire in them, though, a sharp contrast to his stony expression. “Where’s the key, Summer?”
I sighed. “No one knows about it but my friends.”
“I hope you know not everyone is your friend,” he retorted.
“Obviously.”
“What about your yard boy?”
“He’s fifteen and as pure as the driven snow. Really, you’re overthinking this.”
He made a skeptical little growl sound in his throat.
“Fine. No more key in the bushes.” I gave the empty can another little shake for effect.
Then I turned on my heel and took my precious coffee can back in the house, where I tossed it in the recycling bin.
Damn, I didn’t like him winning that one.
While Ronan was still outside, I heard a vehicle in my driveway. It was a work van. I watched from a window as Ronan greeted Maddox and the other guy who got out. They shook hands and talked in the driveway for a bit, looking up at my house and pointing at various parts of it.
Then Ronan brought the guys into the house. I pretended to be doing something in the kitchen, for some reason. I went over to meet Maddox’s co-worker when Ronan introduced him to me.
Then Ronan showed the guys around, without my help, while I eavesdropped, listening to them discuss the security concerns in my house.
Apparently, Ronan had many.
They headed into the garage and I headed upstairs to change out of my yoga clothes.
It was incredibly aggravating how men kept making decisions about my life and my