Taste of Love - By Stephanie Nicole Page 0,36

of the day. A lot of the girls looked the same, and they were usually in some sort of compromising position.

Austin made sure that Madison saw the pictures, and often read the articles to her. Little by little, it was eating away at her. She knew that Austin was trying to point out how wrong Cameron was for her.

With every picture and every article, it was more and more evident to Madison that Cameron lived a very different life than the one that she led. Madison was certain that his lifestyle was one she would never be comfortable with.

So, no matter what feelings she thought she may have had for Cameron, reason told her that it just wouldn't work out, and that she should stop wasting her time and move on. Her heart, however, heard a completely different tune.

About a month into Cameron's tour, Madison sat at the all-night Laundromat a couple of blocks down from her apartment. She was reading through one of the tabloids that Austin had left in her office. She was studying the picture of Cameron and some blonde, focusing in on his pale skin and dark circles under his bloodshot eyes, rather than what the girl was doing to him.

Her cell phone rang and she damn near jumped out of her skin. Since it was the middle of the night, she cautiously answered it, even though she didn't recognize the number.

"Hello?" she asked, her heart thumping loudly in her chest. She was always nervous when she received calls so late.

"Hey baby, miss me yet?" A deep voice purred in her ear.

"Cameron?" she asked, with an instant smile on her face.

"The one and only," he confirmed. "Still doing laundry?"

"Yeah, I'm almost done though. But it's kind of funny you called, I was just looking at an interesting picture of you. How're you doing?" She kept looking at the picture, which somehow made her feel closer to him.

"I'm alright. So what's the interesting picture?" he asked, curious, but at the same time a little ticked since he knew how the tabloids were.

"Oh, you know, pretty much the same as every other one I see. Some girl either kissing you or looking like she's ready to go down on you," she told him, with an air of indifference. "You look like shit though. Are you feeling alright?"

Cameron laughed at her honesty. "I'm fine, just a little tired out by my schedule. Every time I feel I'm getting too old for this shit, I keep thinking about the Stones or Aerosmith, and figure if they can do it, so can I."

"When's your next break?" she asked, noting that even his voice sounded tired.

"I think we have one coming up in a few weeks, but I'm not sure. All the dates and all the cities blend together," he told her. Then in a sarcastic voice he said, "But here's some great news. Since we're so in demand, and everyone's loving our show, we've had a few more dates added. We get to tour for at least three more weeks now!"

"And you sound so excited about that," she laughed.

"I'm used to it, but I was really hoping this wouldn't turn into a long tour. For the first time in my life, I really miss being at home."

Madison didn't know what to say. She didn't want to tell him how much she missed him, especially since it wouldn't matter anyway. "Well, at least you have plenty of girls to keep you company."

Cameron sighed. "I'm sure that the tabloids have made it look a lot worse than it actually is."

"Don't forget that I've seen it firsthand," Madison reminded him.

"You saw me kiss a girl. That's all I've done, kiss the girls. I don't sleep with groupies anymore. And still, so many of them claim I fathered their babies, I should keep a DNA sample on record to refute their claims. I've lived and learned, and I'm not going there again."

Madison was hurt. She didn't know if he was talking about her when he mentioned the DNA sample or not, or if he meant that he had learned from her miscarriage. No matter what he meant, she knew she was nothing like those women in the tabloids.

"I'm not a groupie," she choked out.

Cameron could have smacked himself. "No! I wasn't talking about you, Madison. I'm sorry. That sounded pretty insensitive, but I wasn't talking about you. I just meant that I've grown up, and the whole rock star thing is getting a little old.