Heavy Metal (A Badboy Rockstar Romance) Read Online Free PDF Page B

to call ahead and give the management a heads up when I want to go to a restaurant or something.”
    “Oh.  There’s an awful lot of planning involved in your daily life, isn’t there?”
    “Yeah, tell me about it,” Brandon replied, sounding less than impressed.  “Anyway, let’s eat.”
    Brandon and I went inside and, sure enough, the staff knew we were coming.  The manager himself was there to quickly and discreetly usher us to a table at the back of the restaurant.  The logistics of Brandon’s day to day life were mindboggling.  Sure, he was in a famous band.  He was living the dream!  But he was also, in some ways, in prison.
    In some small way, I could relate.
    After scrutinizing our menus, Brandon ordered pancakes and bacon while I ordered a fruit platter with cottage cheese.  As we waited for our food, we visited like we were old friends.  If I ignored the fact that Steve the bodyguard was seated nearby discreetly keeping an eye on us, the whole thing seemed quite normal.
    Talking to Brandon was easy.  He listened intently as I spoke, completely focused on what I was saying.  Having his full attention like that made me feel important, as though what I had to say mattered to him.  He had a way of making me feel like the most interesting person on the face of the planet.  I certainly wasn’t accustomed to that, but it felt good. 
    I found myself blushing every time our eyes met.  It was crazy but I was acting like a schoolgirl with a crush.  I couldn’t help it.  There was something so charismatic and unintentionally sexy about Brandon that part of me just wanted to melt every time he looked at me.
    After some small talk, he told me what was really on his mind.
    “Hayley, I know it’s none of my business but I hate the thought of you going back to that jerk.”
    “You saw Carl at his absolute worst,” I reminded Brandon.  “He’s not usually quite that bad.”
    Quietly, Brandon pointed out, “You don’t have to defend him, you know.”
    I sighed and picked a grape off my plate, studying it intently before setting it back down.  Then I looked up and forced myself to meet Brandon’s gaze. 
    “You’re right,” I told him.  “I don’t know why I always feel like I need to make excuses for Carl.  I guess I do it out of habit.  Most people don’t know about how he can be – he usually keeps his temper under wraps until we’re behind closed doors.  But sometime she slips up and I have to explain away his behavior.  It’s embarrassing.”
    “It shouldn’t be your problem,” Brandon stated.  “Carl’s a grownup, so let him defend himself.”
    “You sound exactly like my friend Angie,” I told him.  Then I explained, “She’s one of the few exceptions...someone who isn’t fooled by Carl’s nice guy act.  She hated him from the moment she met first him, I think.”
    “Maybe she’s good at reading people?”
    “I thought I was, too.” 
    “Maybe you’re too close to the situation to see it for what it is,” he suggested, his breakfast all but forgotten as he regarded me thoughtfully from across the table.  And I had to admit, his guess was probably right on the money.
    “How did you get so insightful?” I asked with a tiny smile. 
    I wasn’t sure how I could possibly be smiling when my whole life as I knew it seemed to have been flipped upside down, but Brandon had that effect on me.  Staring into his eyes made me feel calm, like there was light at the end of the tunnel and everything would be alright in the end.
    “Insightful?  Me?” he snorted.  “No, I’m not insightful.  I’m that moody outcast who spent high school shut away in his room thinking too much and writing songs instead of going out and living life, that’s all.  I’m nothing more than a pitiful tortured artist stereotype.”
    “Well it seems to have served you well,” I pointed out.  “All that writing made you famous.”
    “Yeah I guess,” he said, reaching for his glass