How To Have Surprise Quadruplets (Book Three): How To Have Surprise Quadruplets, #3

By Layla Valentine

He's the red-hot rockstar with a secret
Even if he doesn't know it yet…
I've got a shocking surprise for him
Quadruplets, and they're his!

I'm a model, top of the catwalk, and top of my game
So why do I feel like I'd prefer to be elsewhere?
Photography is my passion, and I've just found the perfect thing to photograph…
Rian Cassady, rock god among men
And I'm ready to worship him, alright
We hit it off immediately,
And that's before I'd even found out about his fake 'showmance' girlfriend…
Only now the fun's about to stop
I've got a surprise for my rockstar lover
Four inconvenient, adorable, beautiful babies…
SURPRISE!

This is the third book in the How To Have Surprise Quadruplets series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Layla Valentine
• Release date: Apr 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201066468

Book preview

HOW TO HAVE SURPRISE QUADRUPLETS

Book Three

LAYLA VALENTINE

Copyright © 2022 by Layla Valentine

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

CONTENTS

1. Rian

2. Alexis

3. Alexis

4. Rian

5. Alexis

6. Rian

7. Alexis

8. Rian

9. Alexis

10. Alexis

11. Rian

Epilogue

CHAPTER 1

RIAN

Istared out at the crowd, which was full of people who were already jumping around to the opening band—a small, local group I’d insisted have the chance to play tonight’s gig before us. It was a small joint, with an audience of five-hundred max, and I should have been ecstatic. I should have been jumping with the crowd, getting into the energy of the place, sharing in their joy and pumping myself up for the show.

Instead, I felt…empty. Empty and sad and like I would rather be at home in my apartment, eating macaroni and cheese (the good kind, where you added shredded cheddar and actually baked it in the oven, not the boxed stuff) and reading a book.

Well, it was more than that, if I was being honest. Because I didn’t want to be at home alone, and I couldn’t make real mac and cheese myself—I usually stuck to the easy stovetop one. I wanted to be there with someone specific, laughing as we made dinner together, discussing what movie we wanted to watch that night, maybe even arguing about whether we would have rosé or red wine with dinner. Laughing about something that had happened during the day. Teasing each other about something someone had said. Pausing to kiss over the first forkful.

Dammit. I was slipping. This was not the right mindset to have when I was going into a show. It was the opposite of the right mindset—and I owed my fans a whole lot more than I was giving them, if I went onstage in this funk.

The venue around us had walls papered with the posters of the bands that had played there before, and it looked like some of them were even signed. I made a mental note to go around after the show and see whether they had anything good—but I knew that would probably never happen. Even in a club this small, security was so tight that it was almost impossible for me to go out onto the floor, even hours after a show was over. This place served drinks and food, which meant a lot of people might stick around afterward with their friends, and if I got out into an open space, I’d get mobbed.

They wouldn’t mean any harm by it. They’d just be excited. Wanting to take selfies, get autographs, ask me about our next album, that sort of thing. But I’d seen too many of my friends get overwhelmed and stuck for hours in situations like that, and I’d learned a long time ago that it wasn’t worth the risk.

Just another of the many deals I’d made when I’d signed the contract to become a musician, I thought with a mental shrug. Just another part of me that I’d sold away without ever realizing I was doing so.

Damn, I was really morose tonight. This shit had to stop. I looked at the audience, watched them jumping around for a moment, and finally picked up the rhythm they were jumping to. A moment later, I was jumping with them, going through the process of winding myself up and forcing myself to get excited. Pretty soon, my bandmates were jumping with me, and we were all shouting and cheering, working ourselves up toward the energy it took to be onstage for two hours, giving our all. Even Haley was getting into it, her eyes flashing with excitement, her hair—now bright green—swinging behind her in a high ponytail. She shot a smile at me—totally fake, I knew, but I returned it, anyhow. It was all about the act. All about keeping that balance. The moment either of us let it go, the whole thing might come crashing down.

And I didn’t think either of us wanted to deal with the fallout.

Then the stage manager turned around and gave us the get it together sign and flashed us a palm with all five fingers extended. We were on in five minutes. Five more minutes to get myself together, put the last week—and the empty bed, the Alexis-shaped piece missing in my life—out of my mind, and get ready to perform.

By the time that five minutes was up, I was ready. I had my mask in place, and my heart was racing with the excitement that only came when we did live shows. This was it, the thing I would never want to give up. Being up there in front of the audience…that was what made it all worthwhile. That was when I truly loved the music