Free American Diva by Julia London

not?”
    She did want to sleep. If she didn’t get some sleep, she would crash. So she had taken the pills Lucas gave her, chased them down with a drink, and that was the last conscious thing she remembered doing before sliding off into a deep, peaceful sleep.
    It seemed Lucas hadn’t been gone even fifteen minutes before he was jostling her again, his hand surprisingly firm on her hip. Audrey felt so heavy, she felt almost dead. She forced her eyes open beneath the covers she had pulled over her head—it took a moment for her to remember exactly where she was. “ Stop it, ” she croaked, the fog in her mouth as thick as the fog in her brain. Her face felt mashed on one side.
    “Get up ,” he growled, his voice unusually low.
    Audrey groped for the top of the covers and pushed them back, then rose up on her elbows. She had to push her tangled hair out of her face, and when her head stopped swimming, she turned to look up at Lucas—and screeched.
    It wasn’t Lucas towering over her; it was Jack Price, his arms crossed over his big chest, a frown on his face.
    “What the hell are you doing here?” she cried, scrambling off the other side of the bed.
    “A better question is what the hell are you doing here?” he countered. “You were supposed to be at the coliseum two hours ago.”
    Oh no— oh God . Audrey glanced at the clock just as it turned to 12:36. “ Shit! ”
    “Have a late night?” Jack drawled.
    “None of your business,” she snapped and realized that she was wearing nothing more than a pair of thong bikini panties and a camisole. She grabbed a pillow to shield herself, but it was too late. His gaze was smoldering.
    “I guess it becomes my business when you aren’t where you’re supposed to be. It’s my job.”
    No thanks to Lucas. “How did you get in here, anyway?” she demanded as she backed her way to the bathroom.
    “I’m security, remember? Of course I have a key to your room. Lucas gave me the okay to come in when you didn’t answer the phone.”
    The phone was ringing and she hadn’t heard it? Never mind that—when she got ahold of Lucas, she was going to let him have it. Who did he think he was, giving a strange man permission to enter their room? “Okay. Well. You’ve done your job, I’m up, so you can go now,” she said, pointing to the door.
    Jack laughed and slid his big frame into a chair. “I’m not going anywhere without you, starlight. I will personally deliver you to the arena.”
    “Just send a car!” she snapped at him, which she promptly punctuated by backing into the wall and hitting her funny bone. “ Ouch. Ouchouchouch .”
    He grinned. “I am the car, kid. So if you’ll just hurry up and do whatever it is you do, we can both put this ugly morning behind us.” And with that, he propped his feet on the end of her bed.
    “Get your feet off my bed!” she said as she slid to her right and into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. But then she realized she hadn’t brought anything in with her—like toiletries or clothes. Or even panties.
    Okay, this was absurd. She dressed in less than this on stage. Right . . . but she had makeup and leather and somehow it was different when one guy was looking at her like that as opposed to an auditoriumful. Nevertheless, she was frantic about being late. So Audrey dropped the pillow and threw the door open. Jack Price raised one dark brow as she marched, head up, to the mountain of suitcases in the corner of the room.
    She rooted through her bags, silently cursing Courtney. Why hadn’t Courtney sorted through this stuff? A personal assistant was the one thing Audrey had agreed with Lucas she needed. So where was her so-called personal assistant? Why did she always have the feeling that Courtney was off plotting something?
    Oh, right. She went to get the earpiece Audrey had left on the plane since High and Mighty Security Guy over there couldn’t be bothered.
    She opened several bags before she found what she