Insider (Exodus End #1) by Olivia Cunning

the crook of his elbow. Her dazzling smile reappeared.
    Logan stifled the urge to say fuck repeatedly and followed them off the bus. Their entourage of stage crew, security, and band members meandered toward the restaurant. Toni was asking Max how they’d managed to arrange having the entire place to themselves. Questions Logan wanted to answer for her.
    “Sam always does things in a big way. Even before we made it, he insisted on keeping us broke by renting limos and throwing parties we couldn’t afford,” Max said.
    “I’m sure you can afford it now,” Toni said.
    Max chuckled. “Is that your way of asking how much money we rake in?”
    Her eyes widened. “Oh no, I didn’t mean it that way at all. That would be crass.”
    “We can afford it,” he said.
    Logan really wanted to kick Max in the back of the knee. Why should he get to talk to Toni? Just because he was the lead singer. Bassists were important too. Logan scratched his head. Well, bassists should be important. Someone grabbed Logan’s arm and pulled him to a halt. Dare’s piercing green-eyed gaze made him feel about three inches tall.
    “Will you stop?” Dare said.
    “Stop what?”
    “Toying with her.”
    “I’m not toying with her.” Logan tossed a hand out toward Toni’s retreating form. “Max is toying with her.”
    “Max won’t take it too far. You already took it too far.”
    “Why? Because she was a virgin?”
    Dare cringed. “I was hoping my suspicions were wrong.”
    And Logan had just stuck his foot in his mouth. “Just because I took her virginity—”
    “Keep it down,” Dare growled. “I doubt she wants you to broadcast that to the world.”
    “I didn’t know, all right? Not until it was over.”
    “How could you not know, Logan?”
    He didn’t appreciate being berated and belittled by a bandmate. “I’ve never had one before.”
    “Just stop thinking with what’s in your pants and try thinking with what’s in your head. If you don’t stop this now, you’re going to hurt her.”
    “I couldn’t have hurt her too much. She didn’t cry or anything.”
    Dare pinched the bridge of his nose as if he was talking to a toddler and his patience was at its limit. “Okay, let me try this again. You know those girls who you sleep with and they think it means you’re in love with them?”
    “Yeah, naïve girls.”
    “Who are the most naïve girls on the planet?”
    Logan’s face fell. “Virgins.”
    Dare nodded. “So unless you want her to think you’re in this for the long run, you have to proceed with caution.”
    But maybe he wanted to be in it for the long run. Did the month she’d be on tour with them count as a long run? It did for him. “Got it, boss,” he said.
    Once inside the restaurant, Logan was crushed to find that while Dare had been giving him advice he didn’t want or need, Toni had been seated between Max and Steve in a booth at their reserved table. It wasn’t that he wasn’t happy to see her eating with them. What he didn’t like was that she was flanked by two men who weren’t him. He was willing to undergo an experimental cloning procedure just so he could sit on either side of Toni. Reagan was sitting across from the trio chattering away about how she won their rhythm guitarist spot in a contest. Toni took notes on a napkin, her expressive eyes wide with fascination. Max was toying with a strand of Toni’s waist-length, wavy hair, but she didn’t seem to notice. Logan loved how absorbed she got by anything she was focused on. He just wished she was always focused on him.
    He slid into the booth next to Reagan, who paused in her soliloquy to give him a hug. “You look tired,” she said. She touched his forehead with her fingertips. “You’re not getting sick, are you?”
    He smiled at her concern. “No. Just didn’t sleep well.”
    “Are we in a hotel tonight?” Reagan asked.
    “Nope. Bus again tonight. Hotel tomorrow night,” Steve said.
    “How did you get here, anyway?”