Too Many Rock Stars (Access All Areas #1) by Candy J Starr

against the bike, taking it all in. The helmet dangled in my hand until Razer took it from me and put it away. Nature could be okay sometimes. I spend far too many hours in that dingy club. Carlie had been right. I needed to get out in the sun. I'd forgotten things like that existed. The sun, the beach, the birds flying in the air. Life wasn't just about bands and planning rosters.
    Razer stood beside me with that annoying grin. I bet my hair was an absolute mess from the helmet and my clothes were all over the place. I pulled down my skirt because it had ridden up. God knows how much I'd been flashing while I was on that bike.
    "I didn't know you had a bike."
    "It's not mine. I couldn't afford something like that. It's my cousin's and he loaned it to me in return for teaching him guitar. You've been so looking so stressed lately, Violet. I wanted to get you out of the club for a while to have some fun."
    To be honest, if he wanted me to have some fun, he could've thought of something less dangerous. How was I supposed to be less stressed when he tried to kill me?
    Our bodies almost touched. I waited for him to try to kiss me again. I prepared to fight. I didn't want to kiss him. I didn't want him to make those kinds of moves. I didn’t want him to make me feel those kinds of feelings.
    Our breathing fell into time with each other. My heart still beat so hard. I wanted to move away from him but my legs had turned to jelly. From that ride, of course. I'd been clenching my muscles so hard they no longer worked.
    A bird squawked in the distance somewhere. The wind blew through the trees. The smell of eucalyptus filled the summer air. I stayed perfectly still.
    The moment drew out and he didn't move. He just stood beside me until my anticipation turned to disappointment.
    I didn't want him to kiss me but he could at least try. Maybe he'd lost interest in me and only saw me as a friend. That's what I wanted. That's the only thing I wanted. So why did my heart feel like a big, heavy stone weighing me down. I couldn't handle this tension and walked away from the bike, my footsteps crunching on the gravel.
    "It sure is pretty here," I said. Anything to break the silence.
    "Yeah, I came up here the other day when I needed to sort some stuff out in my head. It really helps to just sit and watch the sea."
    I nodded. I'd thought he had all kinds of ulterior motives but he was just being kind. He'd not even mentioned that bloody competition, thankfully.
    "I guess we should get back," he said. "If you want to be back at work on time. Of course, we could linger and I could actually drive fast on the way back."
    He winked at me. I gulped.
    "Let's go."

Chapter 14   VIOLET
    "Have you seen today's paper?"
    "Jeez, Chuck, let me finish my coffee before you start pestering me. What the hell?" I'd just gotten in to work with a coffee in one hand and a bag containing my breakfast muffin in the other. If I didn't get something to eat on the way to work, I'd starve to death. And I didn't want my appetite ruined by a paper being waved in my face.
    I grabbed it off him and headed to my office.
    Luckily, Chuck had opened it to the right page because it wasn't front page news. It wasn't even in the front half of the paper but buried right at the back. A tiny story saying “local rock club is doomed”.
    "Did you read it?"
    "I'm reading it now but what does it matter? No one reads the papers nowadays. Definitely not the kind of people who come here. If it's not in the music papers, they don't even know it exists."
    Chuck sat on the arm of my office sofa.
    "That's the thing, kiddo. We just need one of those kids who write that crap for the music press to pick this up. Then what's going to happen? No one wants to hang around a rotting carcass. Well, except for some maggoty flies. But everyone else stays the hell away."
    "Can you stop with the rotting meat metaphors until after I've eaten? This is the only chance I'll get to have solid food and I don't