The Reverse of Perfection (Bad Decisions Book 2) by Christi Barth Page B

he’d almost had her convinced that he was different. “I know how you all work. You screw and scram.”
    “‘You’ who, exactly?”
    “Rock stars. In my experience, they’re all the same. They see women as interchangeable. And, like flowers, prefer fresh ones every night, every city, instead of taking just a modicum of care of a perfectly pretty bouquet already in their dressing room.”
    “Whoa. You’re painting with a brush broader than the Grand Canyon right now. I’ve seen Cam and Kylie together. They couldn’t look more solid and long term. Are you saying he’s a serial dater?”
    “Not now,” she said begrudgingly. “But he used to be. All of Riptide. All their friends. How do you think I know?”
    Dylan tilted his head and stared at her. Really stared, as if she were under a spotlight instead of standing atop all the lights aimed at the stage. “I think you know because somebody—maybe a few somebodies—was an asshat to you.”
    “That’s fair to say. Let’s say I’ve done the clinical research. Gone out into the field on experiments. And every time, rock stars treated women like crap.”
    “What about the female rock stars?”
    The thoroughly logical question cut right through her righteous indignation. “Um…I don’t know. I never noticed. Or thought about it.”
    “Right there proves my gender might not be the only one at fault. So now that you’re not holding my being a man against me, let’s move on to the rock-star part. Haven’t I been up front from pretty much the moment we met that I want you? Not a hot piece of ass in my bed, not arm candy for the paparazzi, but you, Ariel?”
    “Yes. But—”
    He cut her off by pressing his hand over her lips. “Hear me out. Have you ever been to See’s?”
    Ariel waggled her eyebrows until he removed his hand. “The chocolate store? Sure. They’re everywhere. Soooo good.”
    Shifting from one foot to the other, Dylan finally said, “My mom used to work there.”
    She thought about the uniform white dresses and hairnets and the long hours spent standing, cramming chocolate into boxes. It wasn’t easy. And it couldn’t pay too much above minimum wage. “Seriously? Your mom worked candy retail? How did she support you?”
    “She scraped and clawed.” He shoved his hands in the back pockets of his black jeans. “My dad was a trucker, but his salary barely made ends meet for all of us. Then he had trouble stopping on a rainy night up near Tahoe and rolled his semi. The insurance just covered his funeral. It was hard. All kinds of hard. It’s why I went to a cattle call for singers at the mall. Not because I loved singing so much. I mean, I do. I always have. But I went to that audition because I knew I was good at singing and hoped I’d get a job that paid enough so that my little brother could quit his paper route.”
    “That’s very admirable.” Her words felt empty. They were a pale translation of the respect brimming in her chest for him.
    Dylan shrugged off the compliment. “It’s not like I scrub toilets for a living. No real hardship touring the world and doing what I love.”
    “Don’t downplay your sacrifice. You support them now, don’t you?”
    “Of course. That’s a gift. I get to give back to the people I love. It’s why I think I understand Cam offering you that job. It wasn’t just out of a guilty conscience for getting you fired. He wanted to share everything he had with you, out of love.”
    Ariel rubbed her thumb along his temple. “How’d you get so smart?”
    “Skipping college?” He gave her that grin that lightened every single corner of her heart. “You didn’t let me get to the point. When you start working at See’s, they let you eat all the chocolate you want for the first week. For free. By the end of the week, you’re so sick of it that you’re never tempted to sneak a piece.”
    “I don’t get it.”
    Dylan laced his fingers through hers. “I spent my teenage years having, yes,