“But I don’t like champagne.”

Melanie smiled and kissed the tip of Nikki’s nose. “Drink it anyway. Wait here,” she said. “I’m going to go talk to Gabe about the limo. Okay?”

Nikki nodded and the instant that Melanie stepped away, two guys tripped over each other trying to get to Nikki’s side, as if the first to touch her could claim her as a prize.

Melanie found Gabe slumped forward in a chair, his elbows resting on his knees and a bottle of beer between his palms. He was staring at the spot between his impressively large feet with a scowl on his handsome face. The high forehead, square jaw, and long straight nose would have looked good on anyone. His lower lip was slightly larger than the upper and just begged to nibbled on. Every visible inch of the man was long, lean, and hard. Masculine. Lord, he was gorgeous. And he was even better looking when he smiled; his perfect grin lit up his mesmerizing grass-green eyes from the inside. Melanie intended to put that smile back on his tasty lips as soon as possible and keep it there. She hated the glum expression he was currently sporting, especially since she knew she was responsible for it. It didn’t suit him. Or her.

She squeezed onto his chair, resting on one hip until he scooted over to give her more room. He gaped at her as if stunned to see her. He didn’t really think she was going to give up her weekend with him to coddle Nikki, did he?

“I need your help,” she said.

“With?”

“Nikki.”

“I don’t know any hit men, but Adam might. He runs in some rough circles.”

“Not to kill her,” Melanie said. “To get her to the hotel. Can she ride in the limo?”

“The rest of the band should be coming here from the hotel now,” he said. “She can ride back after the show.”

Melanie crinkled her nose and shook her head. That was not what she had in mind at all. “She’s leaving now.”

“And you are…”

“Staying here with you. But that’s why I need your help. I can already feel myself slipping up with my intentions to stay strong, just to make her happy. I need you to do my dirty work for me and make sure she gets to the hotel because if I see her looking all depressed and crying, I’m going to cave in to her wishes again and she’s going to end up sleeping between us and hogging the covers all weekend.”

His brow furrowed with confusion. “You want me to ride with her?”

“No, baby,” she said. “I want you to play your rock star card and get someone to do it for you.”

“Oh.” He grinned, and she melted beneath the warmth of his smile. “Now that, I can do.”

“Well, hurry up about it. My lips are lonely.”

He gave her a sample of the company his lips could provide hers, climbed from the beige club chair, and handed her his beer. “I’ll be right back.”

She shifted into a more comfortable spot in the chair and took a swig off his beer. “Maybe there are still some knights in shining armor left in the world,” she said, and tipped the neck of the bottle toward him in a silent toast to his heroics.

While waiting for Gabe to return—she owed him big time for handling Nikki for her—Melanie scanned the room, feeling as out of place as she had the first time she’d been backstage with the band. She couldn’t help but notice people were staring at her with curiosity. Was it because she had just bossed Gabe around or because her attire was unlike anything else in the room? She really liked Gabe, but this scene was a rude reminder that they came from entirely different worlds. She didn’t fit in his reality and he didn’t fit in hers. So why did she feel that they fit together so well? Maybe she should try a little harder to blend in with his crowd. She lifted the beer bottle to her lips and took another swig. It was going to take a lot more than half a beer to help her with that.

As Shade gave his big-boobed companion a parting hug, his gaze landed on Melanie over the woman’s shoulder. He was wearing the sunglasses that had obviously been welded to his face at birth, but Melanie could feel his eyes on her, his gaze was that intense. It took an actual effort to turn her head and not stare at him. She couldn’t stand the guy. Or, more specifically, she couldn’t stand the way he treated women, Nikki in particular. But she also couldn’t deny that there was something mesmerizing about him.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see him crossing the room in her direction. The man didn’t walk, he prowled. And that pissed her off for some reason. Melanie’s body stiffened involuntarily and she reminded herself to be civil to him if he approached her. If she wanted to be with Gabe—and she very much wanted to be with Gabe—she was going to have to learn to tolerate this man. She didn’t have to like him though.

Shade perched himself on the arm of her chair, and she glanced up, as if surprised to see him.

“I get the feeling that you don’t like me much,” he said.

“I wouldn’t say that,” she said, turning toward the door in hopes of spotting a tall, lean drummer with a red and black mohawk headed in her direction.

No such luck.

“Okay, then I get the feeling that you don’t like me at all,” he said.

She stared up at him thinking he was incredibly perceptive, and he did something that completely threw her off guard. He removed his sunglasses and hung them from the neckband of his T-shirt. He had the bluest eyes she’d ever seen. Not a pale blue but a startling cerulean, with dark rims around the irises that made the color appear even more astonishingly bright. Why in the world would anyone hide those gorgeous eyes behind sunglasses?

“I get why you’re defensive of your friend,” he said, “but I spent a lot of time in her company last weekend and I learned quite a bit about her. She’s a manipulator.”

Nikki wasn’t a manipulator. Melanie opened her mouth to defend her, but then snapped it closed. Okay, she was, but Shade had no right to talk bad about her. He had slept with her—um, had sex with her—several times and hadn’t even bothered to call her the next day. Assholes had no right to judge anyone. Especially not people Melanie cared about.

Shade lifted a hand to stop her from interrupting, and she could see the concern in his pretty blue eyes. What exactly did he have to be concerned about?

“It probably pisses you off to hear it from me.”

“Yeah,” she spat.

“But you know it’s true.”

“She’s just misunderstood.”