My Rock #5 (The Rock Star Romance Series - Book #5) by Alycia Taylor Read Free Book Online Page B

were getting numb. I
looked down and saw something pink. As I bent down to get it, Tristan held onto
my waist with his hands. It wasn’t sexual at all, it was to steady me. It was
nice. He’d never actually touched me for the sake of being protective before. I
liked it. I was thinking about how much I liked it and then I chastised myself
for it. He wasn’t my boyfriend, he was barely my friend…I had to stop thinking
about him like that. It was only going to lead me to getting hurt.
    The shell I picked up was coral in color. It was
perfectly shaped and intact with its condyle’s and spirals twisting around its
outer surface.
    “Look,” I told him, “a perfect seashell.”
    Tristan stepped closer and I held it up towards the
moonlight so that he could look at it. I could see the reflection of it in his
eyes and feel his warm breath on my hand. I felt my stomach flutter, and for
the second time that night, I wondered what we were becoming to each
other.  
    “Nice,” he said. “You ready?”
    “Yeah,” I said, putting that wondering what we were
to each other stuff out of my head for now. We got back on the bike and just
when I thought we were headed back home, he turned onto Sunset Blvd. and then
parked in front of a bowling alley. I got off the bike and said, “Bowling?”
    “Nope, karaoke,” he said.
    I laughed, I thought he was kidding. He took me by
the hand—that was another first, and it didn’t do anything for me being able to
tell myself that we were nothing but fuck-buddies to each other. He led me into
a dark little bar that was attached to the end of the bowling alley. There were
only about ten people there, four of them were belly up to the bar and the
other six were spread out across three tables. There was a tiny little stage in
front of the tables and a big sound system.
    Tristan led me up to the bar and said, “Two club
sodas.” I had to smile at that. It was something I was sure I’d never hear—Tristan
ordering soda in a bar. The bartender poured our drinks and we carried over to
a little table next to the stage.
    Once we sat down I said, “You’re kidding about the
karaoke, right?”
    He laughed and said, “Why? Are you a virgin?”
    “What?”
    “A karaoke virgin. You’ve never done it before?”
    “No,” I told him, “I have stage fright.”
    He laughed again and said, “A week ago you sang in
front of nine million people and now you’re nervous about singing in front of
ten? Besides, look at them. They all look about half dead anyways.”
    I shook my head. “It’s worse this way, I can see
them looking at me.”
    “Picture them in their underwear,” he said. He was
still teasing me.
    “You too?” I asked him.
    He grinned and said, “You can picture me in mine any
time you want. I picture you in yours all the time.” He was always one ahead of
me. “You’ll do fine,” he said.
      I started to
protest again when loud music suddenly blared out of the speakers and a man
came out of the door at the back of the stage.
    “Hello all and welcome to Kyle’s Karaoke night! How
are ya’ll doing this fine evening?”
    There was a low rumble of response across the bored audience. Kyle, if that was who he was, would not be
deterred,
    “I said how is everyone doing tonight?” That time he
yelled it and people clapped just to keep him from asking again. “Great!” he said,
once again overly enthusiastic. “We have some great prizes tonight for those of
you who are brave enough to come up on the stage. The audience will vote after
each performance, and the end, the person with the highest number of votes
wins. He hit a button and there was a drumroll—it was all very cheesy. I looked
over at Tristan. He was looking up at Kyle, but he didn’t seem to be watching
or listening to him. I couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking.
    “What I need now, are guinea pigs…ah…I mean volunteers…”
    Tristan must have been listening. He put his hand in
the air and looked