“The band shares a bus. The rest of the crew shares another. You and I will be the only people on this one.”
She whipped around to look at him. “I can’t share a bus with you!”
He held up his hands. “I promise to be a perfect gentleman, Ashley. I would never do anything to hurt you.”
“Oh my God, I’m not worried about that at all.” The words spilled out fast in the heat of her mortification that he thought she might be concerned he would take advantage of her in their shared bus. “I just assumed I was going to be with your crew. You’re already letting me join your tour. You don’t have to make any other special exceptions for me.”
“You want to learn about the music business, right? Your father mentioned you’re applying to business school.”
“I need real-life experience for Stanford to seriously consider my application.” For the time being, she left off the fact that it would be her second application.
“My band and crew are great,” he said, “but they’re not the ones you want an inside track to, are they?”
Of course they weren’t. She needed an inside track to him. And yet, how the heck could she play it cool when she’d be this close to him all the time? For all its plush luxury, the bus couldn’t be more than eight feet from wall to wall. And Drew wasn’t a small man.
But in the tiny pocket of her brain that was still able to think clearly around him, she knew he was right—the whole point of her being here was to learn from him, which meant that sharing his tour bus was the best possible thing that could happen. She couldn’t let fear of being this close to a gorgeous rock god get in the way of her goal. She’d never forgive herself if she did.
Desperate to salvage a seriously awkward first few minutes, she forced a big smile. “You’re right. It’ll be great to be on this bus with you. Really great!”
His lips twitched at the corners at her abrupt change of response, and she could feel herself flushing at how she’d managed to make everything as uncomfortable as possible inside of five minutes.
“Good. You can have the back bedroom, and I’ll take the bunk out here.”
“You’re the one who has to play a show every night. I’ll be just fine out here.” She put her shoulder bag with her tablet, notebook, and wallet on the lower bunk to claim it.
“You’ve got more than just that, haven’t you?”
“I do, but since I wasn’t sure if there’d be anywhere to keep my things during your show, I stored my bags at the airport.”
“I should have thought about that ahead of time.” It was quite possibly the cutest thing in the world—he actually seemed upset at himself for not thinking about where she should have put her bags. “Things have been crazy lately, but that’s no excuse.” He pulled out his phone and sent a text. “We should be rolling in just a few minutes. I’ll introduce you to our driver, Max, once we get to the airport.” He opened the gleaming, stainless steel fridge. “What can I get you to drink?”
“You probably have a really important after-show ritual that I’m completely screwing up. I can get myself a drink so that you can get to it.”
But instead of heading back into his private quarters so that she could figure out how to breathe normally again, he held her gaze with his. Yet again, his eyes were dark and intense—and full of so much barely banked heat that it stunned her. Especially since she couldn’t possibly imagine how she could have inspired any of that in him.
“Tonight, I have only one important after-show ritual.” He paused for a beat before saying, “You.”
Chapter Two
Holy hell, she was pretty.
The first time Ashley had come backstage to introduce herself at a previous show, Drew had been knocked over by her beauty. But his memory hadn’t done her justice. Hadn’t even come close.
Her wavy brunette locks were streaked with sun-kissed strands. Her skin was so soft-looking and creamy that when she flushed every time he looked at or spoke to her, he found he could barely keep his hands off her. He wanted to stroke her cheek with his fingertips, wanted to know if her mouth tasted as good as it looked. Because something told him it definitely would. She wasn’t tall, wasn’t little either, and was just curvy enough to make him drool. In her black jeans and long-sleeved shirt, she managed to be a gorgeous combination of sweet and sexy. Although he wondered if she had any idea at all of just how sexy she was.
None of the girls shoving their breasts in his face before or after the show tonight held a candle to her. Ashley Emmit was simply perfect.