Page 4 of Hard Rock Fling
"Cameron! Take off your shirt!" one girl yelled.
"Yeah, take it off!"
A coordinated chanting started up.
"Take it off, take it off!"
Cameron laughed. "If you insist," he yelled back.
He peeled off his t-shirt to display an exquisitely-toned torso. Squeals and swoons could be heard over the music. I would have been drooling along with the other fangirls, but I'd watched Darkest Days in concert so many times I was immune. Cameron spent most concerts half naked to begin with. Besides, there was someone else I was more interested in.
Ian. Jumping on amps, dropping to his knees, flying across the stage with all the force of a raging inferno. Endless, unstoppable energy.
I was in the wrong spot to get a good look at him, but I could pinpoint the exact moment when two guitars went soaring through the air. The crowd went wild, calling out a single name.
"Da-mi-an! Da-mi-an!"
Two cheeky grins flashed across identical faces, two pairs of green eyes glinted with mirth, as Ian caught Damon's guitar, and Damon caught Ian's.
The Twins had just performed their favorite move: switching guitars in mid-song to play each other's parts.
"Hope? What are you doing standing there?"
Janet spoke to me with an annoyed snap. I cringed. I'd been caught standing around watching the band like the shiftless interns I was trying to one-up.
"I was wondering if you had anything else for me to do." I tried to sound eager and attentive.
"Just keep an eye on all the extra accessories," she said. "We don't want people trying to steal them as souvenirs."
"I'm on it!"
I lugged all the boxes to a corner, found a particularly sturdy one, and sat. No one was going to steal anything on my watch.
Although the concert venue was vast, holding thousands, the backstage was small and cramped. Most of the space was taken up by a row of chairs seated in front of mirrors outlined by lightbulbs. All the acts performing that night had their turn in the chairs on the receiving end of Hair and Makeup.
On the far side a small living room area had been set up, with sofas, armchairs, and coffee tables. This venue didn't have a proper dressing room. That set up would have to do. The lack of dressing rooms meant a large portion of the backstage was curtained off to give the artists privacy when they changed. A few staff members were hovering nearby in case any of the artists had requests before they went on. Most of the crew rushed around with headsets, carrying out their tasks with haste.
The band members never knew how much work went on behind the scenes. They never thought about the personal assistant who handed them their towels. They never thought about the errand boy who had to run out at the last minute to replace bottles of expensive sparkling water.
They never thought about the intern who made sure they had the right sunglasses to wear on stage.
Except one rock star had.
I squirmed, remembering the way Ian had looked at me. Concentrating on my job was difficult with the phantom touch of his thumb brushing my lips.
I closed my eyes and took a slow breath in. I had to cool it or I'd end up a sexually frustrated mess before the night was over. The concert was over six hours long, a collection of artists performing for charity. Darkest Days performed second to last.
I resisted the urge to play with my phone. I was paranoid that would be the moment Janet came to give me more work.
That didn't mean I didn't have something else to occupy my time.
Even though I knew I shouldn't have, even though I told myself to put it out of my mind, I'd strategically placed the boxes so I'd have a good view of the stage from the side.
A perfect view of Ian.
Chapter Three
Ianand his brother stood face to face, hips and guitars canted towards each other. Four deft hands maneuvered wildly across strings for a mid-song guitar duel. The fans screamed until their lungs gave out. The Twins pulled on their whammy bars at the same time and jumped away to opposite sides of the stage with matching smug looks.
