When I opened the door, my mouth dropped open.
“What are you doing here?”
Chapter 9
Ben
I’d felt confident in my decision to stop by Gemma’s room, but her reaction gave me pause. Had I made a huge mistake? My instincts told me that, if I gave her too much time to think about the matter alone, she’d turn down my offer. She’d seemed tempted when I’d been with her, so I’d figured spending more time together would help my cause. I wasn’t used to feeling this kind of uncertainty.
During the auditions, I’d met dozens of women who wanted to fill the role of my bride. They all shared the same flaw; they weren’t Gemma.
“Sorry for just dropping by. I wanted to see you,” I admitted. “Do you want me to leave?”
“No, you don’t have to leave,” she assured me. “I just didn’t expect you to show up at my room when you said you’d let me think about your offer.”
“I didn’t promise I wouldn’t try to sway your decision,” I pointed out with a grin.
She returned my smile, a good sign. “How did the rest of your auditions go?”
I let out a sigh and gestured to the sofa. “Do you mind if I sit down?”
She shook her head. “Have a seat.”
“Thank you.” I collapsed onto the sofa with a tired sigh. “The producers are excited about three women, including you. I think you’re their top pick.”
“Me?” she asked. “I wasn’t even there to try out. How can I be their top pick? Are you just saying that to help sway my decision?”
“No, it’s true,” I assured her. “They like the idea of me marrying a future teacher. They think they can play it as a bad boy rocker meets sweet, girl next door story.”
“I’m not that sweet,” she said as she grabbed the room service menu and sat on the opposite side of the sofa. “Before we discuss this anymore, I need to order some food. I’m hungry again.”
“We can go out and grab a bite to eat,” I suggested.
She looked over at me and quirked an eyebrow. “You aren’t exactly in disguise tonight.”
“Right, I didn’t even think about a disguise.” I’d headed straight from the interviews to Gemma’s room.
“You must think I’m a complete idiot for not recognizing you,” she remarked with a sigh. “In my defense, I’m not lying about how badly I see.”
“I don’t think you’re an idiot,” I assured her. “I’m glad you didn’t recognize me last night. It was just what I needed, some time relaxing with a woman who wanted to talk to me, not the rock star. I’m starving. How about if I pay for room service?”
“Since we’re in my room, it will probably go on my bill,” I pointed out. “Remi’s bill. My sister’s new husband is paying for the room.”
“I’ll figure it out,” I assured her. “Order anything you want, and then we can talk. Unless you have plans for tonight? Were you going somewhere after you eat?”
She shrugged. “I was thinking about either watching a movie or taking a bath.”
A bath? That was an image I didn’t need in my mind when I was trying so hard to behave. I’d love nothing more than to offer to help her with her bath. Instead, I said, “How about if we watch a movie together?”
“Okay,” she agreed after a brief hesitation. “You can stay as long as you promise you won’t spend the evening trying to pressure me into agreeing to do the show.”
“Deal,” I replied with a grin. “I’m so hungry. I’m not sure I’ll be able to decide what I want to eat. All I got was a couple of flavorless sandwiches and some carrots today. I might have been better off eating the plate.”
She looked over at me. “You’re the star. Aren’t you supposed to get better food than everyone else?”
“Maybe they figured I’d pick someone faster if I had the incentive of escaping for food.”
“Are you telling me that, if you’d agreed to do the show with the first woman who walked into the room, they would have let you leave?”
“Probably not,” I admitted. “They wanted to film me talking to a lot of potential brides. Back to food. What are you having?”
She tapped the menu under entrées. “The chicken wings sound good.”
“There are chicken wings on the appetizer platter,” I told her.
“Only two,” she replied. “I need more than two chicken wings after the day I’ve had.”
“How about if we get the appetizer platter and two orders of wings?” I suggested. “I could also go for something sweet. Are you interested in sharing the dessert sampler?”
“Sounds good,” she agreed.
I grinned. “I knew you were the woman I wanted to marry in three days when I saw you eating bacon before the auditions.”
“We’re not talking about that anymore tonight,” she reminded me.
“Bacon?” I asked.
“Uh, no,” she replied. “It’s always a good time to discuss bacon. We aren’t talking about the show or any aspect of it.”
“All right,” I agreed. “We’ll save that for tomorrow. Give me a minute to order the food.”
It took more convincing than I’d expected to get the hotel to charge the meal to my room. My stomach rumbled at the thought of finally getting some food with flavor.
“Was that a monster?” she teased, having heard my stomach.
“You thought I was joking about how hungry I am, didn’t you?” I asked.
“I thought you had to be exaggerating,” she admitted. “Why didn’t you grab something right after auditions?”
“I came straight up here,” I explained. “It’s a good thing you’re also hungry, so I don’t have to eat in front of you.”
“I promised to meet my friends for dinner, so I ate light earlier,” she told me. “And then they ditched me.”
“Sorry,” I replied. “That was my fault. I talked them into leaving. I was surprised when Misti answered the door.”
“Is she one of the top three?” I asked.
I shook my head. “No, she seems nice, but I don’t have any chemistry with her. I guess she doesn’t mind you getting on the show since she told me to convince you.”
Gemma made a face. “Yes, she wants me to do the show. She and Kristi were both trying to talk me into it.”
“They are both smart ladies,” I stated.
“Would you say that if they’d told me to stay away from you?” she asked.
“Probably not,” I admitted. “I like it when things go my way.”
“Because you’re a spoiled rock star?”
I shrugged. “That has something to do with it. Things haven’t gone my way the last several months, but I’m beginning to think that might not be a wholly bad thing since it’s how I ended up here with you.”
“You wouldn’t have to do this ridiculous show if things had played out differently,” she pointed out.
“There is that,” I agreed.
“Why is this so important to you?” she asked. “Why the need to repair your image for a part in an animated film? A lot of people who do voice-overs have scandals in their past.”
“How much of the media frenzy did you follow?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Since my friend is a big fan, he shared some of the information he’s read. Your fiancée caught you with several groupies. At least, that’s the story she told the tabloids. According to you, she was the one caught cheating. She accused you of having a major substance abuse problem, and that part must have been somewhat true since you spent eight weeks in rehab.”
“That about sums it up,” I told her. “I had a drinking problem—a big one. I wasn’t one of those people who drank every day, more of a binge drinker. After Debbie started spreading lies about me, I got so drunk that I fell down the stairs in my bandmate’s home. He found me passed out and bleeding all over the carpet. I figured I was going to end up dead if I didn’t make some changes in my life, so I went to rehab.”
“I’m glad you stopped drinking,” she wh
ispered. “That could have ended badly for you and all of your fans.”
“My fans aren’t so happy with me,” I admitted. “I’m the reason my band decided to take an indefinite break from music, and I’m not sure we’ll ever play again. The guys all moved to Southern California. My problems made them realize how much they wanted to settle down. As you probably know, they’re all older than me. It was probably for the best since there’s been some tension between me and the drummer, Rafe, in the last year.”
“How do you feel about the break from music?” she asked.
“I miss seeing my band all the time, but I’m fine with the break,” I told her. “I’m not sure I want to be a rock star for the rest of my life.”
“So, now it’s on to doing voice-overs,” she stated.
“Yeah, I want to give this a try,” I replied. “It seems my reputation needs some work if I want the role. That’s what they told my manager when she contacted them about it.”
“And you think doing this awful reality show is going to improve your reputation?”
“You’ve asked me that already,” I reminded her.
“It’s hard to believe you’d think this is a good way to make yourself look good to the public,” she admitted.
“They’re looking for romance this season,” I explained. “That’s what the producers told me, anyway. They want this to end well, so people will believe the show isn’t all about screaming and people getting shoved in pools. A grand romance wouldn’t be that bad, would it?”
Chapter 10
Gemma
“I’m not looking for a grand romance,” I told him. “And I’m not that great of an actress. How am I supposed to pull off this grand romance?”
He moved to the sofa, sitting much too close before leaning in and placing a hand on my cheek to turn my head toward his. Rather than responding, he brushed his lips against mine. I shuddered in response.
“There’s more to it than sexual attraction,” I breathed out, not making any move to pull away.
“You’re right,” he agreed before nipping my lower lip. “We have to enjoy talking to each other, and we do. If our situations were different, would you want to date me?”
I shook my head and pulled away.
“You wouldn’t want to date me?” He sounded genuinely shocked.
“That’s not what I was about to say. I don’t think dating you should be compared to marrying you. It’s a completely different situation.”
He nodded. “Under normal circumstances, it would be entirely different. These aren’t normal circumstances. We get to set the rules for our marriage.”
A short bark of laughter escaped my lips. “You don’t really believe that, do you?”
He opened his mouth to speak but then closed it and shook his head. “Maybe not all the rules. I agreed I wouldn’t push you on this tonight, so I’m going to stop. Our food will be here soon, and then we can watch a movie. Let’s enjoy the rest of our evening.”
“I like that suggestion,” I replied with a smile.
Two hours later, our bellies were full, and I was cuddled up with Ben on the sofa as we watched a horrible romantic comedy about a couple who got married after a one-night stand so the main character wouldn’t lose his inheritance.
“That would never work,” I remarked as they had their big end of the movie reunion. It was your typical romance. After the break-up, a sad song played while they showed various scenes that took place over the next six months, including the longing looks when one of them saw something that reminded them of the other.
“I’d be pissed,” Ben told me.
“Exactly!” I agreed as I pointed to the screen where the guy was amazed that he was going to be a father. “What is he thanking her for? She’s eight months pregnant, and she kept it from him.”
“And I’m not buying her excuse about how it all should have ended with a one-night stand,” he added. “She lived with him for three months, and she got pregnant during those three months.”
“What about that stupid line about not telling him because she didn’t want him to feel obligated to her?” I added. “It’s his child. He also wasn’t the one who left. That was all on her. He tried telling her they could make it work.”
“Yeah, I don’t get it,” Ben agreed. “I could see if he was a dick or if he’d said he never wanted kids.”
“That would have made more sense,” I stated.
“I guess this means I can count on you to tell me if you get pregnant,” he remarked.
“Since you’re sober, there will be no drunken night of unprotected sex,” I reminded him.
“People slip up sober,” he argued. “I haven’t, but I can see how it could happen. Condoms fail, so we can’t rule it out.”
“We haven’t agreed to have sex,” I reminded him, or I might have been reminding myself. “I don’t think we need to worry about that. Besides, I’m on the pill. Two methods are better than one.”
“Good point,” he agreed.
“If anything like this scenario in the movie ever happened, I’d tell you I was pregnant,” I assured him. “This bothers me because they seemed to love each other, yet she didn’t trust him with something this big.”
“Some people don’t trust easily,” he replied with a sigh.
“Are you one of those people?” I pulled away slightly so I could see his expression.
“I don’t trust easily, but I’m not afraid to trust others,” he explained. “How about you?”
“It all depends on the situation,” I replied. “I’m not gullible, so some might consider that a sign that I’m not a trusting person.” I was more of a skeptic than many I knew, but I didn’t consider that a bad quality, especially in situations like the one I was in with Ben.
“What’s on your mind?” he asked as he brushed my hair back from my face.
“I just started thinking about the show again,” I admitted. “This might be a crazier situation than the one in that movie.”
Ben seemed like a genuinely nice guy, and a big part of me wanted to spend more time with him. Did I want that time recorded for the world to see? Not really, but the idea didn’t bother me as much as I’d have expected. I could even call it one of those adventures I always claimed to want.
I didn’t know Ben well enough to trust that he wouldn’t trash my reputation to help build his up. I still had a lot to consider.
“It doesn’t look like you’re going to give me an answer I like,” he said with a sigh.
“I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do yet,” I admitted. “We should call it a night.” I scooted to the far end of the sofa, away from the temptation of Ben’s touch.
At first, it looked as though he planned to argue with me. Instead, he nodded and got to his feet. When he reached out a hand to me, I took it and soon found myself pressed against his chest as his lips claimed mine.
There was no hesitation in my response; I moaned as his tongue stroked mine. His hands settled on my hips, and I sensed his struggle to remain in control. I appreciated his effort even as I longed to take our kiss further. This wasn’t the time, but that knowledge didn’t stop me from clutching his shoulders as I pressed closer to him.
When he finally broke the kiss, we were both breathing heavily.
“I should go,” he murmured, brushing his lips against mine one last time before stepping away from me. “You’ll give me your answer tomorrow?”
I nodded. “Tomorrow.”
“Sweet dreams,” he said before turning and exiting the room.
As I climbed into bed that night, I still didn’t know what I was going to do about the show. That’s what I told myself even as I skipped checking in for my flight.
Chapter 11
Ben
I woke up the next morning, aching with need. Seriously, my dick was so hard, I could have injured myself rolling over. It was all because of Gemma. Granted, it wasn’t fair to blame her for our goodnight kiss.
I headed into
the shower and jerked off. I needed to try to get things under control before I left my room. I couldn’t wait to see Gemma that day. Thoughts of her got me hard again, so I jerked off a second time. It was like being a horny teen all over again. Despite what the press might claim, I’d gone long stretches without hooking up with anyone. I’m not a total man-whore.
After my shower, I was just about to order room service when I noticed three missed calls from Tamara. Three calls, but no voicemail, so it couldn’t be that urgent. She probably wanted to know if I’d decided on my bride since the show had to get moving on it today. I’d made my decision, but Gemma hadn’t, so I decided to eat before calling Tamara back. Hopefully, I’d have an answer from Gemma soon.
After breakfast, I was tempted to head to Gemma’s room and push for an answer, but I’d already pressured her enough.
When my phone finally buzzed again, I snatched it off the coffee table, hoping it was Gemma and not Tamara. It was neither.
“Hey, Drake,” I said as I answered the call from my band’s lead guitarist.
“How is life treating you in Vegas?” he asked. “Are you engaged yet?”
All the guys from the band thought the show was one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done.
“Not yet,” I replied. “There’ve been some unforeseen complications.”
“Are you about to tell me you realized this is a huge mistake?” he asked. “I say you should bail on the show. They probably have a back-up groom.”
“I’m not going to bail on the show,” I told him. “The complication isn’t their fault.”
“What’s going on?” he asked.
I gave him a quick rundown of everything that had happened since my first meeting with Gemma.
“Interesting,” he mused. “You’ve been closed off to the idea of getting involved with any woman since the big break-up. This is the first time you’ve shown any genuine interest in a woman.”
“I’ve been interested in plenty of women since I broke up with Debbie.” Physically, anyway. “This show involves me marrying someone. That’s pretty damn involved.”
Unscripted Desires Page 4