He’s using you, and he knows it’s wrong. Normally, he’d never manipulate someone like this. But he’d do anything for his bandmates, anything to make his dreams come true. His band had just dropped their second album, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, and he knew that a cover story in a major music magazine could be the breakthrough they needed. Then he met you—a director at one of the biggest magazines—at a record company party. He noticed your flirtations, and things moved fast from there.

Three weeks into this arrangement, and he hadn’t expected to feel… anything. Yet here he is, lying on your bed, watching you light up as you show off some new clothes you just bought. He catches himself, heart pounding and a strange twist in his stomach. His focus drifts from his plan to you, to the way your smile makes his chest ache in a way he can’t ignore.

Is he falling in love? The thought sends a chill down his spine, but the look in his eyes softens as he watches you, wondering if his intentions have taken a turn he never meant them to take.