Incite (Sphere of Irony 1)

I shake my head and curse myself. I can be as pissed off at him as I want, it was no one’s fault but my own for everything going arse over tit that night. Why he blacklisted me I may never know, but I’m the one who went off on Ellie and sent her running.

“Adam, are you listening to me?”

“What?” I turn my focus on Kiera who is standing by the bed with her hands on her hips, her blue eyes narrowed and a scowl on her gorgeous face.

“Have you heard a single thing I’ve been saying?”

“Sorry love, no,” I admit. Kiera loves to talk about herself, so much so that I’ve gotten in the habit of tuning her out when she’s on a long-winded discussion about how perfect she is. She still gets angry when I do it, which is silly, because I tune her out all the time.

She pouts and stomps over to the bed, snatching up her handbag and giving me the side-eye as she sulks. “Well, let’s go,” she says sharply.

I ignore her attitude, something I’m also very good at doing, and give her a quick peck on the lips. “Alright, after you love.”

Kiera squints at me as if she’s finally figured out that I’m completely mental, then turns and leaves the suite. Smiling at her irritation, I trail behind, eager to get this weekend over with so she can go back to Los Angeles and I can stay here and work on the new album.

The novelty of Kiera looking like Ellie has worn thin, no longer holding the sick fascination it used to. She’s such an unbelievable bitch sometimes, it’s a wonder that anyone can stand being around her. Of course, I think of it as a fitting punishment for my past sins, but even that excuse is getting old. I’ll have to do something about Kiera soon, maybe after the tour.

Kiera prattles on about herself the entire ride to the party. It’s at some big music producer’s house on Long Island, so Kiera has a captive audience, me, for an hour in this bloody car and she’s not likely to let it go to waste.

I tune her out until I catch a few words that spark my interest, and not in a good way.

“I’m sorry, what did you just say?”

Kiera rolls her eyes and huffs as if I’m the most annoying person in the world. “I said, my next co-star will be there tonight, Adam.”

“Yes, but who did you say that was?”

“God Adam, you never listen to me!”

This is true.

“Kiera, just tell me who the fuck it is and cut the whinging,” I snarl. She gives me a dirty look for my outburst. I almost never lash out at her no matter how bitchy she’s being. Usually I have on my ‘fun happy Adam’ personality for her, but it’s getting more difficult to keep up every single day. It’s easy to be fun happy Adam around Leah and Sydney, just like it was when I was with El

lie. Around Kiera? Not so much.

“Andrew Forrester, you know, the hottest actor around. I’m going to be his co-star. Full headlining role with one of the biggest leading actors out there. It’s huge for me,” she says slowly as if speaking to a small child. “Especially since they announced last month that he’s the ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ again.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose between my finger and thumb and press down. My head might well explode from the stress. “You’re going to be working with that tosser?”

Kiera gives me a strange look that I catch briefly when I lower my hand from my face. “Of course I’m going to work with him. You don’t say no to Andrew Forrester, Adam.”

Naturally. Fucking wanker. And he got the cover of the Sexiest Man issue again, twice in four years. I don’t really care to have that title, but I had daydreamed once or twice that Ellie saw me on it and it made her realize what she was missing. Stupid, I know, but that’s where my mind went.

“God, now I really hate that arsehole,” I mumble. Do I even care about Kiera or who she works with? I think about it for a minute. No, not really, I just don’t want Forrester to ‘win’. If we’re having a competition of who’s the bigger douchebag, he’s miles ahead of me.

“What? I didn’t hear you Adam,” Kiera asks absentmindedly as she types on her phone.

Sighing, I lean my head back on the seat and close my eyes. “Nothing. It’s nothing.”

The drive up to the massive house is lined with fancy cars, with valets in black trousers and red sleeveless cardis running all over the place to get them situated. Our driver rolls up to the front and an overeager employee opens the car door so we can get out, his frosty breath halting when he gets a good look at Kiera and her heart-stopping beauty.

Yeah, she’s attractive mate, but get to know her and it’s not as pretty. Trust me.

Kiera ignores the valet, because that’s what she does, and walks through the front door as if the party were being thrown just for her. I chuckle under my breath and nod at the wide-eyed man. She’s only here because I invited her, yet she feels entirely too comfortable with attending. She instantly spots someone ‘important’ that she needs to suck up to and leaves my side without a second thought.

I wander over to the bar, stopping to exchange polite words with different industry people and other familiar faces. Since rehab, I usually stick to water or juice at these things, but I can handle a beer or two without any problems. It’s only the hard stuff that I have to avoid completely.

“Water with lime, please.” He nods and seconds later, hands me my drink. I decide not to push my luck by drinking tonight, especially since I’m already in a shitty mood. Plus, I want to have all my faculties if I run into that Forrester prick.