Ace (Playtime Series Book 1) by Gemma Arlington (distant reading TXT) 📕

and messing with my body even more. Having him this close was wrong. He was a client and I never ever mixed business with pleasure. ‘You are to go above and beyond in order to satisfy a client.’ The big boss’s words reminded me that my so called ‘business and pleasure’ rule was total bullshit. If I wanted to keep my job I would have to go the extra measure, which is why I was dating Jake, just for show.

I was a woman with basic needs and right now I had a burning fire that needed to be put out, and Eric seemed to be the only guy who I knew could douse it.

I had promised him a good night kiss and so I gripped him by the scruff of his collar and pulled his body into mine before slipping my hands around his neck and hauling his lips to mine.

~Chapter Thirteen~

Ace

I still couldn’t seem to get that one kiss out of my head. Eric’s lips held the perfect combination of soft, yet commanding. He knew how to work that wicked tongue of his, to do some magical things and I now knew why people called him the bad boy.

I was lucky that I had previously packed my luggage for the tour and organized every last detail so that this trip would run smoothly. Jake seemed somewhat sympathetic. He hadn’t made eye contact with me, but I knew eventually I would have to smooth things over if I was set to spend the next couple of months on the road with these boys.

Elle was a little jealous. She wanted to come on tour, but I didn’t need her company as much as Dash Records needed her, with their current workload and the increasing amount of new clients they were signing up.

Admittedly I was a little worried.

I was going to be the only girl with five

rockers, a haul of male security, including Forman, and only the open road ahead of us.

It reassured me knowing Forman would protect me and watch over me if anything happened.

The first stop on our tour was Texas. The tour bus which had been provided by the company with JED splashed across the side of it, was set to meet up with us in Texas. In the meantime the rest of the band, Forman and I boarded a plane. I was somewhat happy that at least I would start off the tour in luxury, even if I knew this small bit of comfort wasn’t going to last long.

“Is this seat taken?” Jake asked, looking down at me. I contemplated saying yes and ushering him on to sit somewhere else but it seemed he had things on his mind.

“I’m sorry,” we both mumbled at the same time.  I let out a chuckle and turned in my seat to look at him better.

“I just wanted to say I’m sorry, I don’t want to be that guy that fucks up all the time.

But I can’t help it, sometimes my dick runs away with me,” he smirked. That made me chuckle even more.

“Jake, the good guy is in there somewhere, you just have to find him and hold on to him for dear life. I know you have potential to be great and not just with your

music, because let’s face it, you’ve nailed it in that department. You also have potential to be a decent guy, to be a guy that women want to be with. You’re only twenty four and still have a whole lot of life to live, but throwing it away by fucking your way into every groupie’s bed isn’t the way to go,” I sighed.

He smiled and looked at me. Our eyes locked for a brief second before he looked away. There was something there, a small mutual attraction we had towards each other. I would be lying to myself and the others if I said I didn’t think he was hot.

Jake had everything going for him; the lead singer in a rock band and a ripped body with piercings and tattoos… I could see his appeal. The whole point of us faking a relationship, was so Jake could clean up his act and seriously focus on music. I just hoped he was serious about it, because I was willing to try to help out as best as I could.

˜*˜

Eric

Kissing Ace was both right and wrong, because now I was confused. I didn’t know what to do. I still felt like I needed to protect her from Jake, because as much as he was serious about cleaning up his act, that threesome he’d had and what Ace had witnessed in that bedroom last night was only a taste of the real him.

Lacey’s lips had kept me up all night and away from the party, full stop. Once she had fled from me, like a bat out of hell, I headed to my room and called it a night. To be honest I wasn’t in the mood to party, not when I had a million thoughts running through my mind and Ace was topping the list.

I couldn’t understand why she had run off after kissing me, or why I found her attractive, because let’s face it she wasn’t my usual type of woman. There was just something under all that control, that façade of being a ruthless manager and savvy, fiery vixen. She knew what she wanted and went for it, but there was an underlying quality she hid and I suspect she hid it from herself just as much as others.

Ace possessed not only beauty, class and bravado like most women wish they had, but

she also held an innocence I wanted to learn more about.

She wasn’t innocent in the sexual nature, in fact I could guarantee by the way she kissed me that