Backstage Pass
Page 5

Myrna grinned, her hazel eyes moving to Brian’s face. “I’l never tel ,” she said, but her eyes said I’ll show you, Brian. She was toying with him. She had to be. He practical y had “drunk loser” tattooed on his forehead at the moment. Sed leaned closer to her and whispered something in her ear. She shook her head.
“You’re kil ing me, Myr.”
“Do you have any tattoos?” Eric asked.
“Not as many as you do.” Myrna’s eyes widened. She pul ed Eric’s hand above the surface of the table and released it. “You do not have permission to touch me.”
Brian bit his lip to hold back his laughter and lowered his gaze. Harsh! Surprisingly, none of the guys ripped on Eric for Myrna’s blatant dismissal. This chick was as intimidating as hel . Brian couldn’t remember the last time a woman had rattled his selfconfidence. High school?
“I assume your body art isn’t visible either.” Sed tugged the col ar of her suit to one side to reveal an unmarked col arbone. Her elbow in his ribs convinced him to cease his inspection.
“I am a col ege professor. I have to maintain a certain level of propriety.”
“And you hang out with us in public?” Trey snorted and chuckled.
She glanced at her companions, considering each individual y. “Good point.” She laughed. Delightful. Warm. Brian bet there were other things about her that were delightful and warm. “I need to head up to bed. It’s been a long day.”
“Don’t go yet,” Eric protested.
Brian’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. Hadn’t she just publicly rejected him? And he wanted her to stay?
“Are you coming to our concert tomorrow night?” Trey asked.
Myrna’s jaw dropped. “You’re playing live? Oh my God. I’d absolutely love to go!”
“It’s sold out,” Sed said.
She scowled. “That sucks. Wel , I mean, it’s great for you, but it real y sucks for me.”
“We’l put you on the guest list. Come to the back door and give them the name Myrna Suxsed,” Sed said. “They’l hook you up with a backstage pass.”
Eric snorted with laughter.
“That would be fantastic,” she said.
Brian found it hard to believe that she hadn’t caught Sed’s connotation. Or maybe she had. She hugged Sed’s arm and somehow managed to avoid his questing lips. “Okay, scoot, Eric. I’m going up to my room now.”
“If I refuse to move, you can’t go anywhere,” Eric said smugly.
“Oh real y?”
“Real y.”
“I’l just take a page from Brian’s book.”
Brian couldn’t, for the life of him, figure out what she meant until she crawled up onto the table. She rol ed off the table onto his and Trey’s laps. She smel ed fantastic–coconut, vanil a, and something uniquely Myrna. His mouth went dry, his palms damp. My God, he was a glutton for punishment. He’d already had his heart broken once this week.
Myrna leaned close to his ear and whispered, “I’ve got something for you up in my room if you’d like a little help with your condition.”
His condition? He’d love her to help him with his condition. She’d gotten him in this condition after al . His self-confidence restored, Brian smiled. His hand wrapped around her narrow waist.
“Room 615,” she whispered, her breath tickling his ear. “Don’t wait too long to come up. I want to get to bed soon.”
“Room 615.”
“That’s right.” She climbed from his lap and straightened her skirt before glancing over her shoulder at Eric. He was banging his head repeatedly on the table.
“You’l stick around after the concert tomorrow, won’t you?” Sed asked.
“Of course.”
Trey saluted her with two fingers to his brow. “Good night, Professor.”
“Good night, Trey, Jace, Sed, Eric.” She nodded to each of them in turn. “I had fun talking to you. Thanks for indulging me.”
She picked up her laptop case and left the lounge, the eyes of every man in the room fol owing the gentle sway of her hips.
“And thank you for en-bulging me,” Sed muttered.
“She wears garters under that suit,” Eric groaned.
“I saw that,” Sed murmured. “When she climbed up on the table.”
“I felt that… when I slid my hand up her skirt.” Eric banged his head on the table again.
“You didn’t make much progress, did you?” Sed said. “She’s good at throwing off a guy’s advances without making it obvious.”
“Or in Eric’s case, making it total y obvious.” Jace laughed and ducked to avoid Eric’s wild swing across the table.
“None of that here, Eric,” Sed said. “You’l end up getting arrested again.”
“Why didn’t she say good night to you, Brian?” Trey, ever perceptive, asked.
“She wants me to come up to her room.”
“You lucky bastard.” Eric reached across the table to grab Brian by the shirt. Brian slapped his hands away. He sat there for a moment, fighting the urge to put his head down on the table again. He massaged his face, but it was entirely numb. “I just wish I wasn’t so drunk. Christ!”
“You’re stil going, aren’t you?” Trey crunched his sucker between his teeth and tossed the empty stick into an ashtray. “Rebound pu**y?”
Brian glanced at his best friend and fel ow guitarist. “What do you think?”
“I think we should tie you up and hide you in the tour bus,” Eric said. “She’l think you stood her up. Then I’l go console her and move in for the kil .” He opened his mouth and tapped the tips of his index and middle finger on his tongue.
“Dream on, Sticks.” Brian chugged half his glass of water and checked his breath by blowing into the palm of his hand. He winced. He pul ed a sucker out of Trey’s jacket pocket, unwrapped it, and stuck it in his mouth. Too sweet. Bleh. He started to toss it in the ashtray, but Trey rescued it.
“I was gonna eat that.”
“Anyone have breath spray?” Brian asked. “My mouth tastes like road kil .”
Sed dug various tubes of spray, a tin of breath mints, and some gum out of his pocket.
“Sed’s make-out arsenal,” Eric said.
Brian spritzed some peppermint spray in his mouth, hurled the tube at Sed, the jerk, and then hauled himself to his feet by grabbing the edge of the table. He stumbled sideways into the bench’s back, but quickly regained his footing. Get it together, man. There is a seriously hot chick waiting upstairs to help you with your condition.