Backstage with Her Ex by Louisa George Page A

stood watch. ‘And I have back-up.’
    â€˜Oh, Tweedle Dum. How nice.’ She waved her fingers over to his manager-cum-minder, who, true to form, did not move a muscle. ‘Are you two joined at the hip? That must make your love life very interesting.’
    â€˜Aww, he’s very discreet. And he’s not the jealous type.’
    Her eyebrows peaked. ‘Really? Could have fooled me.’
    â€˜Well, maybe just a little bit, but he has my best interests at heart.’
    â€˜He has a heart? Funny.’ Stacking chairs along the side wall, she shrugged. ‘And clearly I’m not on his list of Nate interests.’
    â€˜He thinks this whole project is too distracting.’ That was the polite way of describing Dario’s reaction. At her frown he smiled and went to help dismantle the rest of the rows of plastic seats. He just couldn’t help but wind her up, watch the pink tinge her cheeks. ‘And, for the record, my sex life can be very interesting. As interesting as you like, Sasha.’
    â€˜Whoa. Down boy. Er...girlfriend?’
    â€˜Will you ever listen? There is no girlfriend.’ And that was all she needed to know. Private time needed to remain so. There was sex, which he did, and there was dating, which he didn’t. ‘Is your opinion so low of me that you think I’d do something as crass as run with two women at the same time?’
    â€˜Wasn’t there a leery story once about you and blonde triplets? Really, and I always thought three was a crowd.’
    He smiled at the memory. That had been fun, even though the journalist had exaggerated the details beyond any semblance of truth. But recently he’d lost his appetite for hard and fast with adoring strangers.
    â€˜Don’t believe everything you read. I might be bad but I do have some morals. Like helping hapless choir teachers when I could be doing something infinitely more relaxing. Here, I brought this.’
    He offered her the bag containing way too much paper. No matter how much he’d wanted to scroll through it to find clues about her life he’d managed to keep his eyes away. Her business was her business.
    And her private life? Yep, damn right he wanted to know more about that. Far more than was good for him.
    As she took the bag her line of vision tracked back to the kids on stage. She shifted position, inadvertently stepping a little closer, flowers and vanilla and something...something that made his heart beat a little faster enveloping him. ‘What do you think?’
    â€˜I think...’ She really did not need to know what thoughts were running round his head. ‘I’ll see you at the concert.’ Dario was right: she was distracting. Flirting was all well and good, but with his body reacting so strongly to her the best thing he could do was get out. Fast.
    â€˜Oh. Don’t you like the choir? I realise we could do with some help.’
    Yes, they could. But it was not going to come from him. ‘Well, yes, but I have to go.’
    â€˜Could you at least tell me your first impressions? Some pointers?’ Her shoulders twitched backwards and the beginning of a pout hovered over her lips.
    He huffed out a breath. Seemed she wasn’t going to let him off lightly. She held him there with her teacher stare that simultaneously scared the pants off him and turned him on.
    â€˜Okay. I like the mash-up, it’s a clever mix. But you need to focus more on the harmony in the second verse of “Sunshine Smile”, it gets lost, and that whole riff needs simplifying...’ He paused to watch her bemused reaction.
    â€˜Oh...really? Are you sure?’
    â€˜You did ask. If it doesn’t suit, then don’t change a thing. But you’ll be sorry you didn’t.’ He fought the urge to bury his face in that vibrant hair and tried to refocus on the choir. Not easy. ‘While you’re at it you should drop the tenors just for that