Page 21 of Ravaged For You

Winston glances at the tea girl. She obviously tries to express to him, with the sheer panicked look on her face, that maybe tomorrow is too short of a time limit for her to compile a comprehensive marketing report, but her boss turns back to Lucas and says one word that seals her fate.

“Done.”

Oh, this is fun to watch. Tea-spiller’s gonna have to work hard.

I shoot her another grin. Just to rub it in.

Our band manager shrugs, clearly happy and impressed to get a report so quickly. “You think you’ll have a plan by tomorrow?” he asks.

“Maddie won’t let you down,” Winston replies. “She’s reliable.”

“I hope she doesn’t,” Drake adds. I can visibly see tea girl’s heart sinking.

She definitely won’t be able to do this, the poor girl.

“Hopefully you won’t spill tea down any report you do,” I interject from across the room.

“What?” this Maddie girl asks, not believing what I just said. Yeah, she heard me. As a rockstar, you can get away with saying anything. That’s why I like little games like this. I have no inhibitions at all, and I like to scare people with my open mouth.

I raise my feet and comfortably rest them on the table as I smugly study the girl standing by the wall. Winston beholds me and my disrespectful act in disgust, but he should guess by now that I don’t give a shit about manners. I do whatever the fuck I want. I’m Axel fucking Stoll.

“I don’t think you’ll be able to handle a band like ours,” I continue to tell Maddie. “We make music for people who like to have fun, and I doubt you’ve partied or held a proper strong drink down in your entire life, though I would love to see you at a party losing your shit. Oh, I imagine that would be fun to witness. What do you think?”

I grin once more at her, expecting her to avert her eyes again, but she doesn’t. She seems pissed at me. She stares me back down. Not flinching.

Oh. Now there’s a little spark of a challenge. A little fire in her. She wants to tell me she doesn’t want to put up with my bullshit.

Yes.

I like a girl with a bit of pushback in her.

My opinion of her instantly changes with that little stare of hers.

I like her.

Today hasn’t been such a waste of time after all.

10

MADDIE

Winston pulls me aside once Ravaged leaves the meeting room.

“You have a lot of responsibility now,” he tells me. Truth is, I can barely hear what he’s saying; I am still in shock and processing that those boys just walked in here today. During the whole meeting I had to resist the urge to pinch myself over and over to check if it was some kind of dream that Ravaged was actually in my workplace. Rockstars like that, flaunting those bodies, shouldn’t be allowed in mundane everyday places like an office, with all the crappy computers and fluorescent lighting and gossip about the latest reality TV show. They should stay forever on stages or private jets or expensive hotels where they belong.

“Responsibility. I got it.”

“You need to really work on getting this report for the band exactly right. There can’t be no mistakes, you got it?”

I nod, trying to take a breath to quiet my beating heart. “Yep.”

“You’re a perfectionist, Maddie. That’s a trait I admire about you. Get this done right.”

“And I definitely have to do it by tomorrow, right?”

“Yes.”

“Ah.”