“I’m serious. I can take most of the classes online—”

“Have you lost your mind? What a horrible, thankless job.”

Jessica scowled. “I don’t think so. I can’t think of a more admirable job.”

“All that time around that drug addict—”

“His name is Trey.”

“All that time around… Trey… must have addled your brains and given you some ridiculous Florence Nightingale syndrome. You’re going to be a great lawyer, Jess. You’re so smart, and you’re really good at arguing points logically.”

Jessica snorted derisively. It was apparent that Beth had never seen her when she was around Sed. There was nothing logical about her interactions with the man.

Beth patted her hand. “You’ve had a tough day. Sleep on it. I’m sure you’ll see that continuing with law school is what’s best for you.”

“I’m really tired of everyone thinking they know what’s best for me. This is my life and I should be able to do whatever I want with it.”

“Just sleep on it, okay? And promise you’ll go to the first day of classes. For your bestest best friend.” Beth offered an exaggerated pout.

“Yeah, fine, whatever. Now get out of my room and take your nightmare-inducing midnight snack with you.”

Jessica would go to the first day of classes, but just to prove to herself that law school wasn’t for her. It had nothing to do with Sed. The big jerk.

God, she missed him already.

Chapter 40

Jessica found a seat near the front of the lecture hall. Old habits died hard. Because she was taking Ellington’s class with students a year behind her, she didn’t know anyone. That was okay. She wasn’t there to socialize, she was there to decide if she was dropping out or working her ass off to get this grade up to an A. As if. There was no way Ellington would ever give her an A. Jessica knew she was setting herself up for failure. That idea settled in the pit of her stomach and started churning out one hell of an ulcer. It just seemed a shame to waste all her hard work. And all that money. Just to… fail. She took a deep breath. You can do this, Jessica. You can. You are not a failure. But she felt like one. It took a great deal of fortitude just to stay in her seat. If she hadn’t just attended an inspiring Criminal Law seminar with one of her favorite professors, who had reminded Jessica how much she loved studying law, she’d have already been out the door.

An attractive young man sat down beside her. “Hello,” he said, “I’m Curtis. Are you in this class?”

Jessica nodded, not wanting to talk to Curtis. She wasn’t too fond of men, especially attractive men, at the moment. Soon, another young man sat on her opposite side.

“Is Curt bothering you?”

“Not really.” She pulled her laptop out of her backpack and booted it up. She had a sinking suspicion that the reason Dr. Ellington hated her so much was exactly this. Excessive masculine attention. She didn’t ask the guys in the class to surround her, lean toward her, try to initiate her in conversation, but they always did. Always had. Probably always would. She considered getting up and moving to a vacant corner, but doubted that would keep them at bay.

“Would you like to grab a coffee with me after class?” Curt asked.

“No, thank you,” Jessica said.

“But you want to go with me, right?” the guy on her other side said.

“No. I have a boyfriend.” She’d had a boyfriend. She swallowed the lump in her throat. “A big, muscular boyfriend who gets very jealous.” And dumped me for no good reason.

The guy chuckled. “I can see why.”

The young man sitting behind Jessica leaned forward and touched her shoulder. “I think the three of us can take him.”

Dr. Ellington entered the lecture hall, her presence demanding instant attention. The young men surrounding Jessica sat up straighter in their seats. Jessica forced herself not to hide under her chair.

Dr. Ellington glanced around the room. When her eyes fell on Jessica, she smiled coldly. “Good morning, class,” she said. “I hope you’re ready to work hard. I don’t put up with any nonsense in my class.” She pulled her laptop out of its case and hooked it up to a projector. “I assume you’re all well rested after lazing about all summer.”

No one said a word. Already intimidated, just as Dr. Ellington liked them.

“How was your summer, Ms. Chase?” Dr. Ellington asked, her blue eyes hard and punishing as she stared Jessica down.

“Fine. Thank you for asking.”

“Just fine? I think it was probably better than fine. Seems to me you had a rather adventuresome summer. A screen debut of sorts. Would you care to share your internet notoriety with your classmates? I’m sure they’d be interested in how Jessica Chase spent her summer.”

Jessica’s soul drifted toward the ceiling. This was not happening. “No. I’d rather not.”

“Well, I’m sure they’ll look it up online after class.” Ellington turned her back and started to write on the dry erase board.

While the professor’s attention was elsewhere, every person in class popped open their laptop.

They’re just getting ready to take notes for class, Jessica tried to tell herself.

After a moment’s delay, stunned gasps echoed around the tiered seating.

Why wasn’t there any air in this room?

“Now class, this is not the place to view that kind of seedy material,” Ellington said with a cruel smile.

Jessica took a deep breath. She realized she had to deal with this stuff—she had come to terms with that—but not like this. This was too much. Why would Ellington purposefully draw their attention to it?

Jessica caught the video on the computer screen beside her. Sed was thrusting in her body over the Vegas strip. Her vocalizations of pleasure grew louder as Curt turned up the volume. He groaned in torment. “Oh my God. That is the hottest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Jessica slammed her laptop closed and rammed it into her backpack. She shot from her seat.

Curt grabbed her arm. “Hey, baby, we could skip the coffee and go straight to the action, if you’d prefer.”

Jessica jerked her arm out of his grasp and ran from the room. She managed to keep the tears in check until she collapsed into the driver’s seat of her piece of shit Nissan Sentra. It never failed. Even when absent, Sed always fucked up her life.

Chapter 41

On the tour bus, Sed sat at the dining table staring down at Jessica’s picture. God, he missed her. He knew that their breakup was for the best. She deserved to make a life for herself and he wasn’t helping in that regard. Maybe someday they’d make it work. After she finished school and had her career going in the direction she wanted and deserved. He clung to that hope.

Brian took a seat in the booth across from him. “Hey, you okay?”

Sed nodded. “It’s still a little raw, but I’ll live.”

“Need to talk about it?”

“Nope. How are you holding up now that Myrna’s back at work?”

“Can’t stand it.”

They stared at the table in cooperative misery.

“Is it time to head to the stage?” Sed asked.

“We have a few minutes. Did Jerry get the studio reserved for next week?”

“Yeah, we’re all set to record the first few tracks. He wants to get the new single on the shelves.”

“Are we going to add it to the show, then?”

“Don’t know. Probably should. It would help sales.” Rehearsing a new song didn’t hold the appeal it should, however.

Eric wandered out of the bathroom. “Why are we all hiding on the bus?”

Sed chuckled. “Brian and I are avoiding groupies. Don’t know what the rest of you are doing.”

“It’s been a fucking drag around here for the last three days,” Eric said.

“Sorry to ruin your fun, Sticks,” Sed said.

Sed tucked Jessica’s picture into his pocket and headed off the bus toward the concert venue. The small group of fans standing behind the bus erupted into cheers. Normally, Sed would go talk to them, but he wasn’t in the right frame of mind. Brian took up his slack and headed for the fans, while Sed was let into the backstage area of the stadium. He found the dressing room labeled Sinners and went inside.