Free His Rock & Roll Girl (Emerald City #2) by Allyson Lindt

Chapter One
    Was this night ever going to end? Then again, once it did, it would be tomorrow. Roz’s gaze drifted to the calendar, pinned to the edge of her glasses-screen so she only saw it when she turned her head. Her newest prospective client’s name glared back at her, taunting. When he’d made the appointment, several months back, she’d told herself it gave her plenty of time to work past any anxiety about seeing him again.
    Yeah, that hadn’t happened.
    Maybe she could make tonight last forever, and then she wouldn’t have to deal with tomorrow. She dropped her face into her hands and rubbed, trying and failing to chase away the exhaustion. She needed to focus on work. Payroll wouldn’t approve itself. Which kind of sucked. With all the technology out there, she was a little surprised—and relieved, if she was being honest—they still hadn’t written an app that read minds.
    A chime sounded in her ear. Someone had joined the open chat channel she shared with her friends. “Voice,” she said to the empty air without drawing her attention from her work.
    “Hey, girlie.” Ana—one of her best friends, and her ultimate partner in all things that seemed like a good idea at the time —greeted her. “Why are you still working?”
    Roz tapped the empty air, clicking another couple buttons on her infrared keyboard. “Why would you assume I am?”
    “You’re on voice, not text or video. That means you’re not paying full attention, and your keyboard is dedicated to other things.”
    “Mhm…” Roz scanned another employee name, and clicked another button. At least this conversation would help take her mind off things. Damn Ana for knowing her so well. “I’m actually working, you know. Not just dragging my feet.”
    “Go home,” Ana said in a voice that brokered no argument. “Staying up late is only going to make tomorrow worse.”
    Another chime blipped through the line. Dorothy’s, “What’s tomorrow?” broke into the conversation.
    “Tuesday.” The moment the sharp word passed her lips, Roz regretted it. “Sorry, I’m not trying to be bitchy. It’s just…deadlines.”
    “Ya know, Dorothy”—a teasing twang slid into Ana’s voice—“if you weren’t halfway around the world, too wrapped up in your new guy to talk to us more than once a week, you wouldn’t have to ask.”
    “Don’t listen to her.” Roz clicked through a few more links. Finished. She paused, waiting for relief to push away her tension. She was done with work. She should feel better, right? No, the dark cloud of anticipation still hung over her head. Speaking of… She pulled up her auto notifications in a new window, replacing the payroll software on her glasses. “She’s just jealous you have a good guy, and she can’t even find a human vibrator.”
    “I am not jealous.” Ana’s mock indignation echoed over the chat line. “I just want to know if any of his band-mates are… You know.”
    Yeah, Roz did. Ana was talking about whether or not any of the guys from the band checking out the studio tomorrow would have synthetic limbs. Poor girl had a hard core fetish for how fast mechanical fingers moved.
    “Don’t know, don’t care. Even if everyone was going to be here, and not just him, it’s not like you’d act on it, anyway.” Roz tapped her fingers in the air, making sure to keep her chat link intact while she scanned any auto notifications with her or her company’s name. The last three bands they’d had in-house, someone had leaked that they were going to be there. The bands hadn’t been happy with the crowds waiting at the front door, and she didn’t blame them. She let out a tiny sigh of relief when she didn’t see anything incriminating. At least that would go right.
    Ana’s sigh filled the channel. “This is about fantasy, not whether or not I make it real. I just want details; that’s all. There’s no way that bassist is playing like that with organic fingers.”
    Without her trying,