Rock All Night(89)

Three hours later, after a few short hikes (and a few stolen kisses with my new boyfriend), Ryan turned to Killian. “We good?”

“We good,” he answered, and we rode out of the park and back towards San Diego.





73




The first thing I did when I got back to Derek’s hotel room was take a long, hot bath to wash away the sweat and the dust. (There might have been a certain rock star in the water with me, and a little bit of sex, too.)

The second thing was to return phone calls.

The first call, I was looking forward to.

Shanna picked up immediately.

“What up, superstar celebrity journalist! Any big scoops?”

“Is that Shanna?” Derek asked as he got ready for a band meeting.

“Holy shit, is that the rock god himself? Put me on speaker!”

I sighed, knowing where this was probably headed… but I did it anyway.

“Shanna?” Derek said.

“DEREK! Oh my God! How have you been?!”

“Famous,” he quipped, and she laughed. “How have you been?”

“Horny.”

“Same as always, I see.”

“The more things change… so, D, you tapped that ass yet?”

“Repeatedly.”

I swatted him for that one.

Shanna about lost her mind.

“WHAAAAT?! Hahahaha! YES! How long did you hold out, Kaitlyn?”

I blushed crimson. “Two days.”

“Not even,” Derek grinned. “You got into town, what, Friday afternoon? Saturday night, so… 36 hours, tops.”

“Hahaha – you SLUT!” Shanna cackled. “You really ARE embedded with the band! Get it? Em-bed– ”

“I got it, I got it,” I snapped.

“Come on, now, that one was clever. I was saving it up for when you finally put out. Sooooo, how was he? Enquiring minds are dying to know.”

I looked over at Derek, who was grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

“Enh,” I said to the cell phone.

“You little – ” he laughed, and tickled me until I shrieked.

“Hey! Knock off the foreplay, you’re making me jealous!”

“Shanna, you should totally fly out and see one of our shows,” Derek said.

“Hell-ooooo, why do you think I called? First, you totally promised me that four years ago – ”

“Oh yeeeaaah,” Derek recalled. “Backstage passes, right?”

“Hell yeah. Plus, it’s the least you can do, seeing as how I hooked you up with a prime piece of ass.”

He frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“WHAT?! She didn’t tell you?!”

“Tell me what?”

“I’m the one who hooked her up with Rolling Stone!”

“What?! Really?”

“Yes! Kaitlyn?!” she said in a ‘scolding Mama’ tone of voice.

“I forgot…” I protested meekly.

“Bitch! Stealin’ my byline, not givin’ credit where credit is due – ”

“I’m sorry… there was a lot going on…”

“Like a lot of sweet lovin’, apparently. And not only that, Derek, but she didn’t want to come see you, and I talked her into it.”

“She mentioned that part.”

“That I talked her into it?”

“That she didn’t want to come.”

“But she didn’t mention anything about ME.”

“Uhhh… no.”

“Kaitlyn! Are you removing ALL my contributions to the story?!”

“You know I’m not. It’s just been a little… busy around here.”


“Unh-huh. I hope I get ‘busy’ tonight, too.”

Derek got a look in his eye. “Hey Shanna – seeing as I owe you twice over – ”

“Damn straight!”

“ – how about we fly you out to San Francisco for our next show, all expenses paid?”

There was a long pause on the other end of the line.

“Are you f*ckin’ with me?” she finally asked.

“No, it’s the least I can do for hooking me up with such a prime piece of ass,” he grinned, squeezing me playfully. I slapped his hand away.

“Oh my God – that would be – oh, wow! I mean, I was only talking about when you come to New York!”

I’d never heard Shanna so flustered.

“It’s cool, just give me your info and I’ll have my manager get you a plane ticket and the hotel reservation.”

“Are you – are you sure? That’s a lot of money – ”

“I’m a rock star, Shanna. I got it.”

“He bought a car the other day because he didn’t want to rent one,” I said disapprovingly.

“Haha! What’d you get?”

“A 1969 Mercedes convertible.”

“Ooooh… sounds nice. But no Ferrari, no Porsche?”

“That would have been the obvious choice,” he joked.

“True dat… are you sure you don’t mind?”

“Not at all. Give me your info, I gotta go do a thing, but I’ll take care of it.”