Read Online Exclusive Contract by Ava Lore - Free Book Online

I'd imagined after the horror of the rehearsal loft—and I had to remind myself that the Lonely Kings were still on their way up. Their names may be everywhere on everyone's lips, but they were still new. Whatever money they were making was only just now starting to trickle in as everyone took their cut off the top. Still, the house was pretty big for Cali. Real estate was still grossly expensive here as opposed to where I grew up.
    Reasoning that the house was now, for all intents and purposes, my home for the time being, I set my things down and collapsed on the couch. I closed my eyes for a moment.
    Kent's hand on my shoulder, shaking me gently woke me, and I jerked out of a shallow slumber to see him standing over me, giving me a tired smile.
    “Thought you might like to use the bedroom instead since you've been sleeping on a couch for a week,” he said.
    “It was a lot longer than a week,” I said. “It just wasn't the same couch the whole time.”
    “Surfing,” he said, nodding sagely. “Well, come on. The guest room is yours now.”
    He picked up one trash bag and I hefted the other, following him down the hallway to the last room at the end. Together we heaved my bags in through the door, and I walked in, surveying the place.
    A nice bed, covered in the ugliest orange and lime comforter I'd ever seen, stood against one wall. An easy chair and a dresser with a TV on it also decorated the room. It smelled a little musty and disused, but I didn't mind. It was clean, and a bedroom, and I could finally, finally sleep.
    “Yeah,” I said. “This is nice. Thank you.”
    Behind me, Kent cleared his throat. Then, abruptly, he said: “Rebecca. We can't touch each other again. Now that you're here, you have to be focused on Carter completely.”
    I almost protested that it wasn't me that was doing all the handsy shit, but when I whirled around to confront him I stopped.
    He actually looked sad. Contrite. His shoulders, normally so hard and set, drooped slightly. A heavy weight, I thought, not for the first time. He had heavy weights to bear, and now I did, too. He'd hired me to help him, not go crazy all over his cock. I had a feeling he was telling himself as much as me that we needed to concentrate on Carter.
    After a moment, I nodded. “Okay.”
    If anything, his shoulders drooped further. “Can you get yourself settled?” he asked.
    I gave him a little smile. “I'm a big girl. When I have to be.”
    He nodded. “Good. You'll have to be.” He turned to go, then paused and looked back at me. “Rebecca?”
    I raised my brows, telling him to go on.
    He hesitated. “Thank you,” he finally said. Then he turned and left the room, closing the door quietly behind him.
    I stripped down in silence, turned out the light, and got into bed, suddenly too tired to even look for my pajamas. I crawled between the sheets and was asleep in seconds.
    ––––––––
    I n the early morning hours I awoke, terrified.
    Panic reigned, and for a long moment I forgot where I was. I was no stranger to waking up in strange places, so that part didn't bother me. It had all been a part of my life with Jason, whenever we ran out of money. Some nights I even slept at the bar. There was a cot in the back for drunks too wasted to go home, but me—I usually didn't have a home. Sometimes I was in a strange bed, or sleeping on a strange floor, or in the back seat of a car or on a couch in a house I didn't recognize. I'd woken many places before, so that did not scare me.
    No, the terrifying thing was the sudden fear that I was back there, back in time, dating a washed-up wannabe rocker, treading water, scraping for the next rent check and failing and moving on.
    What scared me was not waking up in a strange place; what scared me was the thought that I was not done waking up in strange places.
    I sat straight up in the bed, panting, my eyes darting wildly about the room.
    There was a figure in the doorway, and for a second my heart