Rock All Night(91)

“No, I mean…”

“What?”

“I slept with him.”

“I heard you the first time.”

“But… that was totally over the line! It was a major breach of journalistic ethics!”

He chuckled. “This is the real world, Kaitlyn. Not that I condone what you did – not officially, anyway – but you gotta do what you gotta do to get the story.”

Now I was starting to get pissed off.

“I didn’t do it to get the story,” I said, irritated.

“Well, then, it’s just a happy by-product.”

“Uh-huh,” I said. The fact that he was more concerned about getting Derek to pose for pictures, rather than my lapse in professionalism, was making me angry.

I know it might sound stupid to most people. After all, I was the one who had slept with Derek (and kept sleeping with him), and here I was, mad at my boss for not ripping me a new one.

But… his attitude made me feel cheap.

And I don’t like feeling cheap.

“What else have you been up to?”

“Well,” I said, my hackles fully raised and caution thrown to the wind, “I spent all yesterday tripping on mushrooms with Derek and Killian Lee.”


“AWESOME,” he hooted. “Oh my God, this is great. I imagine THAT yielded some fantastic material.”

“…I guess…?”

“Excellent. Look, when do you think you can wrap up and head back to New York?”

“Um… I don’t know… I hadn’t thought about it…”

Mostly because I didn’t want to wrap up and head back to New York.

“Most of our interviews occur over three to six hours or a series of short meetings. Considering who your subject is, and how press-averse he is, and the sort of stuff you’re getting, I’m not going to pull the plug – yet. But wrap it up as soon as possible. Expense accounts aren’t unlimited, you know.”

I didn’t feel like pointing out that I was probably going to be staying in Derek’s room from now on, and that I hadn’t exactly been busting the budget anyway.

So I just grit my teeth instead. “Yeah. Okay.”

“Alright, good job – now get back to work!”

And then he hung up the phone.





75




Twenty-four hours later, we were in San Francisco. Technically the concert was at the San Jose HP Pavilion, but close enough.

Shanna’s flight didn’t get in until later in the day, so we didn’t see her until right before the show. We were all hanging out in the ready room, eating filet mignon and Big Macs, when one of the security guys popped his head in.

“Hey, Mr. Kane, there’s a woman out here says you flew her in from New York?”

“Shanna, is that you?” Derek shouted.

“Hell yeah!” echoed around the corner.

She came in the room like a giant ball of energy, shrieking happily as she jumped into Derek’s arms. He twirled her around, and she laid a big kiss on his cheek.

“Careful, somebody’ll get jealous,” he said, and shot me a little smirk.

He was right. Even though I knew it was harmless, the green-eyed monster still dug its claws in me pretty good.

She was dressed in typical Shanna fashion – meaning, hot to trot. She wore skin-tight Daisy Dukes that hugged her ass, cute little brown boots, and a backless 70’s-style halter top that tied around the neck – and managed to show off plenty of sideboob. She looked great.

Riley was certainly taking an interest from across the room.

“There she is! My slutty little journalist!” Shanna laughed as she ran over and nearly bowled me over with a hug. “Let me take a look at you – daaaaamn, girl, hot rock star sex agrees with you!”

I blushed and laughed it off. “Glad you could make it.”

“First class, too!” she marveled, and turned back to Derek. “I really, really, really appreciate it – that was awesome.”

“My pleasure.”

“All the champagne I wanted – damn, I am SO wasted.”

Derek laughed. “Ah, Shanna… how I’ve missed you.”

“Hey – fly me out for every damn show!”

At this point Ryan walked up. “Hey, Shanna.”

“Oh my GOD!” she gasped, and fanned her hand in front of her face like the temperature had suddenly risen dramatically. “Holy shit, Ryan, you got hot!”

He just laughed. “And you’re beautiful as always.”

She stood up on her tiptoes and looped her arms around his neck. “Tell me more!”

He leaned down and hugged her, and she kissed the side of his face, too.

Strangely enough, I felt a tiny prickle of jealousy when she did that, too.

What’s WITH me, anyway?

Riley appeared at my elbow. “Who’s your friend, Blondie?”

“Riley, this is Shanna, my college roommate. Shanna, if you can tear yourself away from the boys for a second, this is Riley.”

“Hey,” Riley said, all suave and cool, and stuck out her hand.

“Oh, you can do better than that,” Shanna said, and POW! laid a kiss right on Riley’s mouth.