Page 1 of Defying Ella
CHAPTER ONE
Six hours.
I had to survive six more hours with Jared Michaels, and then freedom would be mine. I’d lasted an entire month on tour with his band, Rhiannon. A couple more hours wouldn’t kill me. I hoped.
“Five minutes to soundcheck,” Matt, the band’s manager, shouted as he barrelled down the hallway.
For some reason, I’d expected him to be like Dan, my sister’s boyfriend. Upbeat and easy to deal with. After one show with him, I quickly realised that the only thing Matt and Dan had in common was the red tone of their hair. The man acted like a drill sergeant, and I’d happily leave his girlfriend to unpack that. I had a wily toddler to find.
One look at Matt’s determined face, and the roadies around me dived out of his way. Hell, I dived out of his way and I wouldn’t normally give standing up to the man a second’s thought. His focus fixed on me nevertheless and I resisted the urge to gulp.Maybe I should have dived further.
“Ella, have you seen Jared?”
No one ever asked me for the manwhore’s location. There was no earthly reason I should even know it.
Except, I normally did because I was a hyperaware idiot when it came to that man.
Five months ago, when Rhiannon decided it was time to grace Wales with their permanent presence after ten years away, I made a big, huge, idiotic mistake.
I slept with Jared Michaels.
Of course, I didn’t know that at the time.
His reputation and his affiliation to Rhiannon were a mystery to me. I didn’t learn that he spent his days playing music until weeks later. He blinded me with the tilt of his flirtatious smile and the intrigued light in his eyes.
The static thrill that kissed my skin whenever he brushed close to me in the club and the tattoos crawling up his neck might have done some sweet-talking too…
I shouldn’t have let him touch me, but then again it was only meant to be a night of fun. A night turned into a week. One amazing week. After which his unfocused flirting ways reasserted themselves pretty damn quick, and I cut my losses.
It wasn’t like I wanted a serious relationship anyway.
What twenty-four-year-old trying to enjoy her life does?
Especially one who hadn’t long returned from a year of travelling and needed to find her feet.
And definitely not with someone like him.
He seemed so ungrateful for the massive career-affirming opportunities chasing his band. It boggled my mind how someone could have their life’s dreams come true and not revel in it. If I had the tiniest clue what I wanted to do with my life and I found myself in his position, I’d hold on tight, nails dug so far into it that no one would ever separate me from it.
Anyway, when I saw that same flirtatious expression resurface and directed at someone else, I kicked myself, but I moved on. I ditched him, deleted his number, and tried to push all thoughts of his almost never-ending store of energy out of my head. Life continued in its weird uncertain way, butthe memories fought suppression. The man had probably forgotten me, yet my dreams wouldn’t let it go.
And then bam!
The bastard sat in my sister’s flat, playing withmyniece and making nice-y nice-y withmyfamily. What theabsolutehell?
“Why don’t you check a storage cupboard?” I sneered.
Matt nodded like it made perfect sense, which it would, because the drummer had a history of doing stupid shit. Matt glossed over the bite of irritation in my voice and brushed past me.
A twinge of guilt settled in my chest for the groupie Jared had snuck in there.
Quit it. She probably knew what she was getting into better than I had.
I continued down the concrete hallway, trying to shake off the tension riding my shoulders.
Mindlessly, I dodged roadies prepping for their final soundcheck of the tour and continued my hunt. For my sister.
I’m not sure how she expected me to babysit my niece when she kept randomly vanishing with her. I joined the tour specifically for that reason, and in the last few days, I’d spent a load of it twiddling my thumbs or sightseeing. It felt weird, being paid to be a childminder and not having a charge.
