“I can’t believe you convinced me,” whining would do me no good now as I sit in the passenger’s seat of Ethan Reed’s Porsche Panamera GTS. Ethan just smirks, “If it would make you feel better, just think of it like you didn’t have a choice.” That part is true. After walking all the way out of the compound, there still aren’t any taxis around, not even on booking apps. I seriously considered hitch-hiking, when a white Porsche pulled up beside me. “Get in,” Ethan says through the lowered window. And now, here I am, admiring the white interior of Ethan’s car. I feel so embarrassed now. I protested about riding with him and in the end, I still had to. “I’m sorry for the trouble, and thank you.” He really didn’t have to do this, but Ethan’s a pretty good guy. Though I’m still very much worried about how this is all going to play out, I’m grateful for his help. “Hey, it’s no big deal,” Ethan replies taking a quick glance at me. “I’m the one who insisted, remember?” That makes me smil

“And when you make those sounds in the microphone? Oh, fuck it’s just magic.” I try my hardest not to blush, but it’s impossible. How do you react to someone telling you your moans sound like magic? I wish I could freeze this moment, frame it, and keep it next to my bed forever. Ethan spends another five minutes praising me as Brandy and how he’d want that for himself too. And honestly, there is nothing more I want to do than help him, but I don’t know what to do. He says he’d shadow me, but that’s too risky considering he’s an idol with a load of paparazzi waiting at every corner. “Ethan, you need to think this through,” I start after putting my coffee mug down. It’s already my second mug of coffee and I’m pretty sure I would need another one very soon. “Everywhere you turn there’s a camera in your face. Just one photo of you spending time with me would immediately be bad publicity for you and Raze. I can’t be the cause of that, I’m sorry.” No matter which angle I look at this, at

KeiraI blame it on reflex when I shake Ethan’s hand away a little too violently. Well, reflexes and panic.“What are you doing?” I whisper-yell at him, my head whipping side to side to check if anyone saw. About half a dozen people are walking the halls but no one was paying attention to us, thank God. “This isn’t what we talked about!”My irritation grows when Ethan holds his hands up in surrender, but he doesn’t look even a little bit sorry for what he did.He and I agreed that we’d keep it lowkey. To be honest, I didn’t think we’d have to interact this early on after we made that deal. Shit, should I have asked for a written contract? That way I could set some limits. If even a tiny rumor starts, Ethan would get scolded a bit, but I would get fired. I literally have everything to lose, and this asshole is acting like everything is right in the world.“Relax,” he says chuckling at my reaction. I may have overreacted a little, but it was his fault for being careless in the first pla

KeiraSweat drips down my chest under the strobing club light, drunk on the energy in the room. It was times like these when I really love my job despite how taxing it is. There’s no greater feeling than seeing so many people grooving to my music.“What is it?” I ask when a staff member taps me on the shoulder to whisper in my ear. “VIPs? Sure, I can do that.”I do a quick search on my laptop, looking for the perfect song to play. Found it.“I heard we got a couple of VIPs on the floor tonight,” I say into the mic, flirtingly. “Let’s give them a warm welcome, shall we?”Moving to the turntable, I spin then a couple of times, building up the song until I reach the perfect moment to transition into RAZE’s newest dance song. ‘Like it.’The opening chorus pours in through the speakers and the crowd goes wild! However, this time I know it’s not because of my music, but the hype in knowing there are celebrities in the club. Whoever they are, they made a pretty good request. ‘Like it’ is one

Keira After that encounter, I turned my phone off and stayed at home for the next two days. Thankfully, it’s a weekend. I guess the universe is still on my side. I spend that downtime focusing on my music. I manage to produce two complete beats, undistracted before my mind wanders back to my encounter with Ethan. Why the hell did he do that? But I really can’t come up with anything so I blamed it on him being drunk. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have done that. He wouldn’t have held me like that. He wouldn’t have tried to kiss me. However, despite all my best efforts, I can’t get him out of my head. “You know what? Fuck it,” I mutter to myself as I make a dive for the bedside table where my phone is. I turn it on and ignore all the other notifications except those from Ethan. ETHAN REED [12:40 AM] Hey, can we talk? ETHAN REED [12:52 AM] Keira, I’m sorry for earlier. Why do I never run out of things to apologize for? ETHAN REED [1:30 AM] Keira, please call me back. Thank fuck f