A Rocker's Melody (Dust and Bones) Read Online Free PDF Page B

so he decided to try a different tactic. “Do you know what a female bass player suddenly joining us on tour would be?”
    “Betraying Snake,” Rip muttered under his breath.
    “A smart decision,” Craig corrected him.
    “Our only choice,” Jesper said, with his trademark quiet intensity.
    “It’s a gimmick,” Dylan said. “A distraction. Do you think anyone’s going to care about the music when they can gossip about which one of us she screwed to get the gig?”
    “Kid, you are treading on very dangerous ground,” Craig warned.
    “No,” Melody said. “He’s right.”
    “I’m what now?” Dylan asked shocked that the only person giving him an assist was the one he was trying to throw under the proverbial tour bus.
    Only because she doesn’t like you and you want to screw her...and, even weirder, kiss her.
    “They’re going to say I’m sleeping with one of you,” she said, looking back and forth between the guys. “That’s what they do. Throwing a woman into the mix with rock stars is like printing copy for them.”
    “Exactly,” Dylan said, though he felt confused. Was he missing something? She wouldn’t be making his case for him unless she had another angle he wasn’t seeing. Then again, maybe she’d realized that she hated him so much that even the exposure the tour would give her wouldn’t be worth spending two months with him.
    It was incredibly perverse that her hatred bothered him more than anything else. He had bigger problems to worry about—why was he so hung up on her opinion?
    “We’ll be the top story everywhere,” she continued. “People will blog, Tweet, Like, and Comment us into the hottest act in every city we hit. Yes, at first the gossip will eclipse the music...but when the media sees that nothing is going on, they’ll drop it and move on to their next juicy story, like the vultures they are. They’ll move on...but we’ll still be there with sold out shows and the last laugh.”
    The theater was silent. Dylan couldn’t believe how well she’d played the situation—played him . He had to admit, he was pretty turned on by her spirit. There she was: his rare breed, the one that kept getting away. He’d been wasting his breath arguing. She had set her mind on being on tour with them, and he’d been a fool to think he’d have any say in the matter.
    Who are you ? he wanted to ask her. Why do I want you so much?
    Jesper broke the silence first. “I want her,” he said, his tone professional and precise, leaving no room for argument. He’d always been the unofficial head of the band. He was smarter and calmer than the rest of them, and he sure as hell made better decisions. He wanted Melody because she was good, and because her inclusion would give Dust and Bones the kind of press that money couldn’t buy.
    “Looks like we’ve got us a little sister,” Tank said. Rip didn’t speak, because he’d made it apparent that he didn’t want any one replacing Snake. So they all turned to Dylan, who had been the loudest dissenter. He was sure that if he really pushed it—if he dug his heels in and threw an epic rock star tantrum to rival anything in Elton’s documentary—they’d fold. Melody would be out, they’d get a YouTube sensation to play shitty bass, and the tour would probably be fine; a footnote in the Dust and Bones legacy.
    But Dylan didn’t want the tour to just be fine. He wanted it to be legendary. And he didn’t want Melody to be out. He wanted her, period. Maybe if he stopped stewing over her rejection long enough to man up and show her what she was missing out on, he’d get to have his cake and eat it, too.
    “Alright, well, it is what it is. Welcome aboard, little sister,” Dylan said, his lips curving into a smirk as he imagined her staring up at him as he thrust inside her for the first time.
    Melody’s lips pursed briefly before she smiled back at him, wide and insincere. “Thanks.”
    “All right, chica.” Tank sprang up from his