Ruthless Rockstar Read online

  Copyright Ava Grace 2020

  All Rights Reserved

  This book is a work of fiction. All characters, places, and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons living or dead, events, or places is purely coincidental.

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  Warning: This book contains material that some readers might find disturbing or objectionable and is intended for mature readers only.

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  Back Cover Information

  As lead singer of the rock band Rocks Off, I can have pretty much any woman I want, so why do I want the one woman who acts like she wouldn’t touch me with a ten-foot pole?

  Since I became famous, my love life has left a lot to be desired—the last woman I dated went to prison for stalking me.

  It’s difficult to tell if a woman likes me for me, or because I’m Colton Young, Rockstar. But when I meet artist and photographer, Olivia Martin, the attraction is instant. For me. She, on the other hand seems decidedly uninterested.

  So of course, I want her all the more.

  I’m convinced that beneath Olivia’s beautiful, but standoffish façade there’s a woman worthy of my time and attention and when I want something, I go for it whole-heartedly.

  Olivia Martin had better look out because I always get what I want.

  And I want her.

  Ruthless Rockstar

  Ava Grace

  Chapter One

  Olivia

  “Oh my god, he’s freaking gorgeous!” My friend, Jen, sighed dreamily, gripping hold of my arm as if it was the only thing keeping her upright.

  It probably was.

  She’d already told me that Colton Young, the lead singer of the band Rocks Off made her knees go weak and with the way she was swooning over him as he strutted around the stage singing his band’s most popular song, I wouldn’t be surprised if she actually fainted like some overexcited teenager. I couldn’t keep the worried expression off my face as I looked across at her.

  “Will you calm down! If you go into labor here, I’m going to murder you.”

  And then her husband, Cody, would murder me.

  “Pfft,” she said, not taking her eyes off the makeshift stage. It had been erected in the center of town especially for Colton who’d been drafted in to switch on the Christmas tree lights and perform at the parade. “I’ve got a week left before I drop. This little sucker isn’t going anywhere yet.”

  I eyed her dubiously.

  Jen and I had been best friends since kindergarten and I’d never known her to do anything the easy way. She glanced across at me then sighed dramatically.

  “Will you relax and have some fun. Please.”

  “I am having fun.” I plastered a fake smile on my face. “Look, this is me having fun.”

  I wasn’t having fun.

  Large crowds made me uncomfortable. I felt out of place in them. I’d much rather have been curled up at home with a good book and a cup of hot chocolate, or working on my latest art project, but I wasn’t about to tell Jen that. She’d been on at me lately to ‘get a life’ as she liked to put it.

  The fact that I was introverted wasn’t the only reason I preferred to stay at home rather than go out, I just had a preference for a quieter life. I didn’t do parties or clubs and concerts. I preferred coffee shops and libraries and small, intimate restaurants. I was only twenty-eight—not old by any stretch of the imagination, but I’d been this way for as long as I could remember. I’d never been a party girl and that suited me just fine.

  Sometimes, I wondered if Jen was right and I needed to lighten up. I just didn’t know how. I mean this is who I was intrinsically. My personality was ingrained in me and I couldn’t just change it on a whim, even if I wanted to. Which I didn’t. I liked my life just fine the way it was.

  Jen rolled her eyes. “Right. Sure you’re enjoying yourself. You know, I just don’t get you, I mean this is fun, Liv. And look at that man—he’s a freaking god. You can’t honestly tell me you’re immune to his charms.”

  I lifted my gaze to the stage to where Colton was literally singing his heart out. He was leaving it all up there, holding nothing back and the crowd were eating it up. I couldn’t deny that he was attractive.

  Okay, maybe slightly more than attractive.

  At over six feet tall and with dark hair and brooding dark eyes, Colton oozed confidence and charisma. When you added all that to a chin full of stubble, the voice of angel and the lean, muscular body of an Adonis then, yeah, okay the man was something else. But he was a bad boy rock star who partied hard and went through women as quickly as I went through books. He was my total opposite in every conceivable way and so far out of my league it was unreal.

  “He is good looking,” I conceded, hoping that would be enough to get Jen off my case.

  She glanced over at me and blinked. “Good looking? That’s it?”

  I huffed out a laugh. “What do you want me to say? I mean, I don’t go all googly-eyed over celebrities and unattainable rock stars. I prefer to live in the real world.”

  “Uh huh,” she said, eyeing me closely. “Tell me, how many real-life men have there been in your bed lately?”

  “I haven’t got the time to date,” I said dismissively.

  That was the second lie I’d told her in as many minutes and the way her eyebrows shot into her hairline informed me that she was well aware of the fact.

  I did have the time. I just didn’t want to date. My last three relationships had left me with nothing but a broken heart, an uncomfortable sense of insecurity and an unwavering knowledge that men were lying, cheating scumbags who didn’t know the meaning of words like honor or integrity. So, forgive me if I couldn’t get excited about a hot rock star who was the very embodiment of the love-em-and-leave-em heartbreaker type I so desperately wanted to avoid.

  She shot me a narrow-eyed gaze. “Is this about Jason?”

  I flinched at the mention of love rat number three.

  “No, this has absolutely nothing to do with him.”

  Jen rounded on me. “That’s the third lie you’ve told me since we got here.”

  I heaved a sigh.

  Sometimes it sucked having a best friend who knew me so well.

  She reached out, took hold of my chin and tilted my head so that I was looking at the stage again.

  “You see that man up there? He’s a fantasy, Liv. Someone you daydream about when you’re doing the dishes. I’m not asking you to jump up on the stage and beg him to have your babies.

  “I just want you to hear his voice and listen to his lyrics and maybe let him get you a little hot under the collar to remind you that everything is still in good working order down there.”

  I sputtered a cough, checking right and left to ensure no-one had heard. “Jen!”

 
She shot me an innocent glance. “What?”

  I opened my mouth to tell her that everything down there was just dandy thank you very much, but then the music changed, and the opening beats of my favorite love song, Sweet Embrace, rang out. My gaze snapped to the stage and as Colton sang the first few lines of the song, I was suddenly riveted. My heart beat faster as I mouthed the words under my breath. When Colton reached the chorus, I held my breath as if I was waiting for something, although what that something was, I had no idea.

  I was rooted to the spot, transfixed—mesmerized.

  Anticipation was a living, breathing thing inside my body.

  Just as the chorus finished and before the next verse kicked in, Colton looked down at me and a warm, wide smile stretched across his lips, making my pulse skitter. He winked and a shudder of excitement rolled over my body. We stared into one another’s eyes for a long moment and it was as if we were alone, as if no one around us existed. But then the next verse kicked in and Colton glanced away, walking to the other side of the stage and just like that, the spell I was under broke.

  “Oh my fricken Christ!” Jen shouted, snapping me out of my trance. “Did you see the way he just looked at you? You lucky bitch! I hate you!”

  Despite her choice of words, there was no malice behind them and when I glanced over at her, she was grinning from ear to ear. She lifted her hand then fanned her face.

  “That was hot!”

  I couldn’t argue with that. Just one glance from him Colton Young had me practically panting.

  I felt as if I needed to take a very long, very cold shower.

  Maybe I wasn’t as unaffected by the rock star as I’d first thought.

  Chapter Two

  Colton

  I sang the last line of the song Always Alone I’d written for my band about a year ago, and when the music came to an end, the crowd went wild. The five hundred or so people who had turned up to watch me switch on the Christmas lights and sing a few songs, were not the massive stadium crowds I’d grown used to, but the small, intimate concert felt far more important because it was on my home turf. I was surrounded by old friends and family—people I’d known my entire life, and when push came to shove, these were the people who really mattered.

  As the crowd continued to clap and cheer and whoop and holler, I couldn’t keep the silly-ass grin off my face. I’d have been a liar if I said I didn’t enjoy this part of performing, it was a rush and a definite stroke to the ego. I turned to the band behind me—a few local session musicians who had stepped in to play back-up—and gave them a thumbs-up.

  It felt weird performing without the guys from my band, but as our last tour had ended recently, they were all taking a much-needed break. I’d only agreed to switch on the lights and sing at the holiday parade as a favor to my brother and his old friend, Joe Baker who was now the town sheriff.

  I looked to the left of the stage and caught my brother, Tyler’s eye. He’d been watching the show from the wings, arms wrapped around his girlfriend, Daisy. I gave them a quick salute. He and Daisy had only been dating for a few months, but they were blissfully happy together.

  I’d been unsure about Daisy at first—especially when my brother had told me how old she was. She was closer to my age than she was to Tyler’s and at thirty-four, I wouldn’t even date someone as young as her. I’d thought that either Tyler was going through some sort of mid-life crisis, or that she was a gold digger, looking to get her hands on his ranch and money. But my opinion had changed the second I’d met her and seen them together. Daisy was as sweet as candy and she seemed just as smitten by my brother as he was about her. I suppose when you found the one, inconsequential things like age ceased to matter.

  It was good to see Tyler happy again. God knows he deserved it. He’d lived through more than enough heartbreak than any one man should have to endure. His wife’s cancer and eventual death had hit him hard—so hard there were times I thought I was going to lose him too. But he’d pushed through the grief to carve out a new life for himself and it seemed as if Daisy was his reward for getting through the difficult times.

  My brother’s wife had died over ten years ago, but Tyler had never seemed to get out of his funk over losing her. To put it bluntly, he’d been a miserable bastard for the past few years, but now, he seemed almost back to the man he used to be before life had kicked him in the balls.

  I said my thanks to everyone in the crowd who had stayed to watch the concert after the parade then thanked the band for helping me out before handing the mike over to Meredith, a local business woman and one of the organizers of the event. I made my way over to my brother and Daisy.

  “Hey, what did you guys think?” I asked when I joined them.

  “I think you have a new fan,” Tyler said, nodding at his girlfriend.

  I shot her an incredulous look. “You mean you weren’t a fan before tonight?”

  I spluttered a laugh when a blush spread across her cheeks.

  “I’ve never really been into rock music,” she admitted in a quiet voice. “I guess I’m more of a country girl.”

  “I used to like her,” I said to my brother, trying but failing to keep the grin off my face.

  He chuckled then clapped me on the shoulder. “You did good.”

  “Thanks. You headed home now?”

  “Yeah. We’re both zonked.”

  I spluttered a laugh. “I could believe that about you, old man, but Daisy’s not even twenty-four.”

  They shared a look that I couldn’t interpret then Tyler threw me a mock glare. “Less of the old man quips. I’m not old, I’m mature, like a fine wine.”

  “Or a stinky old cheese,” I mused.

  He shook his head, grinning good naturedly. “You headed home yourself?”

  I nodded. “Sure am.”

  I loved performing. I was good at it and I was kind of a junkie for the adrenaline rush it provided. But at the end of a gig, there was nothing I liked more than going home to relax.

  How very rock and roll, right?

  It wasn’t that I felt too old for all the partying and hell raising we’d done in the early days, but I wasn’t getting any younger, that was for sure. It was more a case of been there, done that, and now I wanted something different—something more. Plus, a couple of the guys in the band were in relationships now. It seemed that all around me, everywhere I looked, people were in love and settling down.

  There was a time I’d wanted the same thing, and I thought I’d found it for a while, but I couldn’t have been further from the truth. The last woman I’d dated, Lori, had turned out to be as crazy as a pet coon. It had just been little things at first, accusing me of staring at other women and flirting—which I hadn’t. Then I’d caught her trying to get a look at my text messages and snooping in my things. She’d always managed to come up with an excuse, but the nagging, the accusations and the snooping just got worse until I finally came to my senses and ended the relationship.

  That was when the real trouble started.

  I got constant phone calls, text messages and emails after we split up. I’d see her everywhere I went—a couple of times she stood across the street from my house in L.A for literally half the night. I thought she’d get fed up eventually then leave me alone, but it only got more and more intense. Things quickly escalated from begging me to take her back to death threats—if she couldn’t have me, no one could.

  I suppressed a shudder at the thought.

  At my agent’s request, I hired a private investigator to look into her past to see if she had a history of this kind of thing, and it turned out, she did. I should have gone to the police right then, but I waited, still hopeful she would come to her senses. It was only after I went out on a date with another woman and Lori attacked her physically, that I finally went to the cops and got a restraining order against her. Shit got real bad then, including an attempt on my life with a loaded gun. She was serving five years now in a state prison and I could sleep a little easier at ni
ght.

  Mostly.

  Now, every time I looked at a happy couple and thought I might like to have the same thing one day, I reminded myself of what that woman had done, and the desire disappeared in a flash. Sometimes I felt bad for Lori because she was clearly unhinged, but that was life I suppose. There were a lot of crazy people out there and when you were famous, it could often be difficult to weed them out. I mean, how was I supposed to know when a woman was attracted to me and not just the persona of the lead singer of Rocks Off she’d seen on television?

  I nodded to the two bodyguards who’d been standing watch behind my brother and Daisy.

  “We good to go?” I asked.

  They nodded in unison.

  I didn’t need a security detail everywhere I went, but when I was performing, my manager insisted upon it. His reasoning was that my band could whip the crowd into a frenzy, and when people were high on adrenaline, they were liable to do crazy shit they might not do if they were thinking clearly.

  I didn’t mind all that much.

  It was the nature of the beast—something I signed up for when I put the band together and we worked like dogs to get a recording contract. I could take a little hysteria. It was worth it to be able to make music for a living. I still got a buzz every time I turned on the radio and heard my voice booming out of the speakers.

  I followed my brother and Daisy down the steps at the side of the stage, my security guys bringing up the rear. One of them grabbed hold of my arm when I reached the bottom then moved in front of me, sandwiching me as we headed between the short metal barriers that had been erected to hold back the small crowd of people.

  Men and women called out my name as I passed, some holding out their hands for me to touch, others holding a pen and paper to get an autograph. Other still had their cell phones out trying to grab a selfie with me in the shot. I stopped and posed for a couple of photographs and signed a few autographs.