Prologue

A/N: There are several cuss words in this fic...that's just the nature of some of these characters, so if it offends you, you've been warned.

Isabella Marie Swan dragged herself out of the hotel bed, trying her best not to wake up the naked male still asleep in it. Grabbing her robe from the foot of the bed, she walked into the outer room of her suite while wrapping the robe around her. She sighed with gratitude as she noticed her breakfast was already waiting for her. She quickly made herself a cup of coffee then snatched up a slice of melon before walking over to the windows.

Moving the curtains aside, she stared out at the bleary day, thinking it matched her mood. She wished it was sunny. She was tired and cranky and last night’s lay had been disappointing. Then again, what had she really expected? She’d only wanted to scratch an itch and the guy still sleeping in her bed had looked like he could do it when she’d laid eyes on him the night before.

She should have known better than to drag his ass back to her hotel room, but he’d seemed like the best choice of the night. He was the one who had tried the hardest to get her attention after all. He’d strutted, laughed at her jokes and practically threw himself at her. And the way he wore those leather pants, yeah she was definitely an ‘ass’ girl.

Too bad his performance at the end of the night hadn’t lived up to his looks or his performance earlier that evening.

She took a sip of her coffee, feeling a little better with the jolt of caffeine, but she knew she had a long way to go before her mood improved completely. Her tour was nearly at the halfway mark, yet she couldn’t wait for it to be over. That was definitely a first because she loved touring. There was nothing better than performing her music to her adoring masses except creating her music in the studio.

Bella lived, ate and breathed her music and career. It had become her life, which was why she had no personal life at all. She had long ago said goodbye to family and friends to pursue her dream and now she was living it. There was no room in her life for anything else and the few times she’d tried, she’d failed miserably. So she lived her dream alone and didn’t mind it most of the time.

Of course, she was still a healthy, normal woman, which meant occasionally she liked having a warm body in her bed. Still, her career and her past dictated that any warm body would only be there for the night and then she would move on. Luckily, most of those who came seemed to understand that she wasn’t looking for a commitment or even friendship. Yeah, luckily most guys just wanted to scratch an itch too.

Sure there had been times when a guy actually woke up the next day and thought maybe she would be interested in a second meeting or two. There had even been a couple who thought they could get her to say she’d like a lifelong commitment from them.

She’d done her best not to laugh in their faces. What were they thinking? Seriously? She was Bella Swan! International singing sensation! Why would she want to be saddled with a boyfriend? Didn’t they read the tabloids? After all, even those rags were right about her long-standing reputation as a woman with a revolving door on her bedroom.

As she popped the last of the melon slice into her mouth, she heard a light knock at the front door. Walking to the bedroom doors, she peeked in to see that the disappointment was still asleep so she closed the doors to block the sight from anyone who occupied the outer suite. Then she went to open the front door and was greeted by the sight of her manager, Michael.

Looking a bit flustered, he began muttering as he shuffled into the room with his arms laden with paperwork and a briefcase. “Oh thank God, you’re awake! Lots to do this morning and I thought for sure, you would sleep ‘til noon!”

Bella shut the door behind him and went to sit at the table where she refilled her coffee cup. “I take it there’s a crisis, as usual?”

He set his briefcase down next to the chair where he’d dropped all the paperwork on before plopping himself down on another chair. He gave her a droll look as he whipped out his iPad from his briefcase.

“Technically there’s only one that can be considered a crisis, the others simply require your signature, but since I know you have a busy day it’s much better to get you to do all of this before you take off in a blur of activity. You know I hate chasing you down.”

She arched an eyebrow at him. “What’s the crisis?”

He scowled. “It seems two of the roadies decided that joining a motorcycle road trip was much better than working on this tour. Paul threw a fit and sent them packing without their paycheck since they didn’t give him any notice of their leaving.”

Bella was putting jam on a bagel as she shrugged. “So we lost two roadies, Mike, I don’t see what the big deal is?”

She figured all Paul had to do was go out and hire two new roadies again. After all, the typical roadies were just there to lift and move things anyway and she knew those kind were easy to find.

Michael huffed. “The big deal is that one of them was the technician responsible for the soundboards.”

Bella dropped her bagel. “What!?! Are you kidding me? If he’s gone how the hell are we going to put on a show tonight?”

Michael waved his hand, trying to calm her down before the rant went any further. “Luckily Paul said he knows someone who has a background in being a techie. He may still be somewhat green at it, but Paul swears by the guy, so he called him up and found out he’s available and willing to come join the tour at a moment’s notice.”

She frowned. “If he’s so green, how does Paul think he can do it? Even he has problems with some technical stuff and he’s the Lead roadie!”

“That’s what I said, and again, Paul assured me this guy could get the job done. I was able to get all the info I could about this kid and Paul got him to fax his resume over to me so that we could look it over. He’s already on a plane out here, but if we decide it’s no go, at least we can hold him until we find a better replacement.”

He reached out for a file on top of the pile of papers and handed it to Bella who muttered under her breath.

“Better replacement, my ass! We’re in the middle of a fucking tour! We don’t have time to be dealing with this shit!”

Still, she began to look through the resume in front of her, and the more she looked the more her frown disappeared. Finally, she looked up at Michael with narrowed eyes.

“This guy better be as good as this thing says he is. And Paul’s neck will be on the line too if he isn’t. You can tell him I said so! Especially since this guy comes from his hometown.”

Michael grinned as he picked up a pen and handed it to Bella. “I already warned him, but I’ll be sure to tell him again just so he gets the message.”

Bella took the pen with an evil grin. “Good. You know me too well.”

He winked at her as she began signing on the dotted lines he pointed to. “It’s my job to know you, darling.”

A noise came from beyond the closed bedroom doors, making them both glance up. Michael turned to Bella with a grin and spoke in a voice full of sarcasm.

“Looks like the toy has awakened. You want to get rid of him or shall I have the honors?”

Bella scowled. “You do it, I still have a bad taste from him.”

Michael chuckled as he rose to go take care of the problem. “Told you he wasn’t worth it.”

She mock glared at him. “Not now Michael!”

His laughter remained behind as she went back to perusing the facts on a relatively green techie named Jacob Black.