Page 9 of Dirty Like Zane
How the hell was I gonna get throughthis?
Hiding from Zane the entire tour… Was that really myplan?
I stared at the ceiling, which was actually the underside of Talia’s bunk, and sighed, because yeah. That was myplan.
My ridiculous, futileplan.
I heard someone come onboard and I didn’t even poke my head out to see who it was. I just lay here, breathing slowly in and out, my head still reeling from thatkiss.
“Good morning! Why’s Zane on our bus?” Talia appeared. “I thought it was no dudesallowed.”
“It is,” I said, sitting up. “It most definitely is. He’s got the memo on that now. Feel free to kick his ass out if you catch him sniffingaround.”
“Okay,” she said, though she sounded uncertain. Probably didn’t love the idea of having to tell our lead singer to take a hike, but she’d learn; sometimes telling Zane Traynor to fuck off was the only sensible move a girl couldmake.
“Where’ve you been? We leave in likefifteen.”
“I was here half an hour ago.” She looked stricken, worried she was in trouble. “I was just talking to thecrew…”
“Oh.” I slid out of my bunk and stood up. “Sorry. I didn’t sleep much last night…” I muttered a lame apology and headed out to the lounge. Talia followed. “Can you find Joanie and Sophie, and get them in here? We should have a quick meeting before we rollout.”
“Of course. I just saw Joanie pop into Elle’s bus, and Sophie was with Pete. I’ll get them.” She dashed out thedoor.
So… my ladies weren’tlate.
Well,good.
I forced myself, again, to breathe. Why was it so damn hard just tobreathe?
It was like Zane did something to the oxygen, made the environment inhospitable to femalelife.
I sipped my mochaccino and tried to regroup. To start this day over again. Just pretend Zane’s little invasion into my sanctuary had neverhappened.
But itdid.
He’d touchedme.
He’d kissedme.
On day fucking one—no, moment one—of thetour
And now my whole system was out ofbalance.
I lit more incense to burn away the lingering smell of him. A little meeting with my lady crew to start this tour off right was what I needed—so I could go over the rules of the Lady Bus withthem.
Rule number one:Nodudes.
That meant any dudes, for anyreason.
Boyfriends.
Hookups.
Pushy leadsingers.
Unless this bus caught on fire and we needed someone to ax us the hell out… from this moment on, absolutely no dudes were setting foot on thisbus.
Only problem with that plan was I couldn’t exactly hide in here forever. And I’d still have to deal with Zaneoutthere.
