Unscripted Desires

by Lawson, Cassandra

  They asked me dozens more questions before finally releasing me for the evening. I think they only stopped the interrogation because I was starting to yawn. I was disappointed to find that Gemma had already left. We were sharing a suite, so I’d see her soon. For the first time in weeks, I was a little excited about the show.

  It still made me nervous. No matter how much I liked her, I didn’t know Gemma all that well, and our business agreement didn’t give me much comfort. If anything, it made me more uneasy, though I couldn’t quite figure out why.

  “Gemma!” I called out after stepping into the suite.

  “Hey!” she said as she came out of her bedroom. Her makeup had been washed off, and she’d changed into lounge pants and a tank top.

  “Did I wake you?” I asked.

  “No, I was still awake,” she assured me. “I haven’t been back in the room very long. How did your interview go?”

  I shrugged as I dropped down onto the sofa in the front room. “It was too damn long after the day we had. I’ve had some long days on tour, but I’m usually too juiced with adrenaline to notice.”

  I looked over my shoulder to see her hand over her heart as she feigned offense. “Are you saying proposing to me didn’t give you the same rush as performing?”

  I chuckled and patted the sofa beside me. “Sit so I can stop looking at you over my shoulder.” Once she took her seat beside me, I continued. “I felt more nervous today than I do when I perform.”

  “How did you talk me into this?” she muttered. “Spending time with you is fun, but dealing with Rich and all of those questions is stressful. I’m not thrilled with the makeup either.”

  “You shouldn’t need to spend that much time on hair and makeup tomorrow,” I assured her. “I think they wanted it for the proposal. You’ll probably also have to do something special for the wedding.”

  She shook her head. “You’d think that was the case, wouldn’t you? It would be if we were really engaged.”

  “We are engaged,” I reminded her. “There will be a wedding and everything.”

  “Right,” she agreed. “It’s not the same as if we’d dated and gotten to this point.”

  “It’s not, but let’s not allow that to ruin all the fun,” I told her. “Who knows? This could lead to something more. Why assume it has to end?”

  “Because neither of us will have time to date,” she pointed out.

  “We have plenty of time now,” I reminded her. “And we can always figure something out after the show. I’m just saying we shouldn’t rule it out.”

  She tapped her chin as she considered the idea. Gemma had made her feelings about dating clear. I suspected there was more to it than not having time, but I didn’t want to push her.

  “Okay, we’ll give this a try,” she agreed. “I have to warn you; I’m not good at dating.”

  “Why do you say that?” I asked.

  “I don’t know how to explain it,” she admitted. “Boyfriends have always felt I was neglecting them. I get so caught up in everything I need to get done that I can’t even keep a houseplant alive. It’s why I never have pets.”

  “Not even a goldfish?” I asked. “They don’t require much attention.”

  “They need to be fed and have their bowls cleaned,” she pointed out. “My sister has an evil cat that I watch sometimes.”

  “Aren’t all cats evil?” I asked.

  “Damien is on his own level of evil,” she told me.

  “So, tell me, Gemma.” I reached out to take her hand in mine. “What have you been doing that has kept you so busy?”

  “I work in HR,” she explained. “The company I work for has a lot of turnover in that department, so I often have to work extra hours because we’re short-staffed.”

  “How did you end up in that profession?”

  “It was an accident.” When I cast her a doubtful look, she continued. “It’s true. One of my friends works for the company, and he got me a part-time job when I was trying to decide what to do with my life. It turned into more than a part-time job, and then I felt stuck there. It pays well.” Gemma yawned and flashed me an apologetic smile. “Sorry. I’m exhausted. We should call it a night since we both need to be up early.”

  I nodded. “You’re right. It’s going to be another crazy day.”

  We both stood and faced each other, her hand still in mine. My other hand moved to her cheek, and I leaned in to brush my lips against hers. “Goodnight, Gemma.”

  “Goodnight, Ben,” she whispered before clearing her throat. “I know I keep saying this, but I really need to get used to calling you Stone.”

  I shook my head. “No, I don’t want you to call me Stone. To you, I always want to be Ben.”

  Chapter 18

  Gemma

  I’d expected to toss and turn all night after such a stressful day. Instead, I was so exhausted that I fell asleep almost the second my head hit the pillow. My alarm didn’t wake me, but rather a call. I grabbed my phone and groaned when I saw Tucker’s name on the screen.

  I’d known Tucker since middle school when I’d had an asshole teacher who often made a scene about what he called my unreasonable demands. He felt that letting me know what he’d written on the board at the front was incredibly inconvenient. That teacher believed I should stand close enough to the board to copy the information while the rest of the class complained that I was blocking their view. Tucker had been sitting next to me and taken it upon himself to write everything down for me each day. We’d been best friends ever since.

  I sent his call to voicemail, even though I knew he’d be mad. I needed coffee and a shower, not necessarily in that order, before I talked to him. When my phone immediately started ringing again, I decided to answer.

  “Why are you harassing me at this hour?” I asked. “Didn’t I tell you to look at the time difference before calling me?”

  Tucker was in London on business.

  “Why didn’t you call me?” he demanded. “And for your information, I did check the time. I wanted to call you the second I discovered you’re going on that ridiculous reality show we always make fun of together.”

  “I didn’t think you’d hear about that,” I remarked.

  “You didn’t think I’d hear that my best friend is going to marry Stone Morrison? He’s my celebrity crush, you bitch,” he accused with no heat. “If anyone is supposed to marry Stone Freaking Morrison on television, it’s me.”

  I laughed. “You aren’t his type.”

  “And neither are you,” he pointed out. “Come to think of it, he’s not your type, either. What happened?”

  I gave him a quick rundown of all that had happened since the wedding.

  “This is what happens when I let you go to Vegas alone,” he told me. “Never again. You need me to keep you from falling down the stairs and getting talked into marrying a rock star.”

  I snorted. “You might have kept me from falling, but we both know you would have gotten me into all sorts of trouble.”

  “You’re right,” he relented. “I’m a bad influence, but you still seem to get into more trouble without me. I never got you to sign up for a reality show.”

  “Are you trying to tell me that you wouldn’t have encouraged me to do this?”

  “We would never have gotten to that point,” he replied. “I’d have recognized Stone Morrison. No disguise could hide all that hotness.”

  “In my defense, I haven’t spent as much time studying him,” I pointed out. “I also had a lot of eyestrain after such a busy day.”

  “I can’t decide if it’s a good or bad thing I didn’t go with you,” he admitted.

  With a sigh, I closed my eyes. “Neither can I.”

  “So, you like this guy, don’t you?”

  “Very much,” I agreed. “It’s also good for my ego to have a guy this hot, practically begging me to be his wife, even if it is fake.”

  “It’s not fake,” Tucker argued. “They call it reality television for a r
eason.”

  I didn’t argue since I had agreed that I wouldn’t tell anyone how scripted the show was. “You know what I mean. He does want to date me, so that part’s real.”

  “And you want to date him,” he added. “So, you’re dating.”

  “I guess,” I agreed.

  “Could you try to show some enthusiasm about dating Mr. Hot Rock Star? At least, for my sake.”

  “It’s hard to be too excited when I’m going to have cameras up my ass for the next few weeks,” I told him. “And don’t even think about mentioning how that sounds like some new fetish.”

  “Would I say something so crude and juvenile?” he asked with mock offense.

  “Every chance you get,” I replied. “It’s not fair for you to say that stuff when you’re not close enough for me to smack.”

  “I’ll be back soon, and you can smack me then,” he offered. “Are you going to stay in Vegas while they film the show? What about your job?”

  “We’ll be in the Bay Area, so I won’t need to miss any more work,” I replied. “Before you get too excited, Ben has a place there, so we won’t be staying with you. Oh, and don’t let that slip to anyone. I really shouldn’t have told even you.”

  “Ben?” he asked. “You get to call him Ben?”

  “That’s his legal name,” I reminded him. “I can’t seem to remember to call him Stone since he was Ben when I met him. He seems to prefer Ben.”

  “It’s disappointing that he won’t be living with us,” he said with a sigh. “I think I’d make the perfect sidekick in this adventure.”

  “You’ll still be my sidekick, but you won’t have cameras up your ass,” I reminded him.

  “What is with you and this anal camera fixation?” he asked. “I never knew you were into this sort of thing.”

  “I borrowed some of your porn,” I replied.

  “Ha. Ha. You are too funny.”

  “I need to get ready,” I told him.

  “So you can go play smoochy face with your hot fiancé?” I heard the grin in his voice.

  “Jealous?”

  “Duh,” he replied. “I’m still pissed at you for not telling me about any of this. You could have at least called me when you were mulling over your decision.”

  “I considered it, but the time zones make it hard to plan a call.” It wasn’t a complete lie. Tucker was moody if I interrupted his beauty sleep.

  “Kiss Stone Morrison for me, and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” he said before ending the call.

  At least, he left me a lot of wiggle room.

  Chapter 19

  Ben

  I heard voices in the front of the suite as I dressed for the day. The crew had already told us they wanted to start filming at nine in the morning, and I’d slept late. Gemma’s voice wasn’t among those in the other room, so I figured she’d slept late as well.

  When I finally emerged from the bedroom, I saw James arguing with Rich while Charity was on the phone ordering breakfast. I wondered if the argument between Rich and James was just a distraction to give Charity time to place the order.

  “There he is!” Rich announced with a bright smile. It seemed he was over being pissed at me about the pizza and the proposal.

  “Sorry for being a little late.”

  “It’s not a problem,” James assured me. “Rich lost his shit a little about the time, but I think this is a great way to make sure we get footage of you eating breakfast with Gemma.”

  “We still need to get them both ready before the catering order arrives,” Rich said with a tight smile.

  “Oh, did you already order breakfast?” Charity asked with a hand over her mouth.

  “Of course, I had someone order food,” Rich snapped. “I always have my assistant order the food.”

  “It must have slipped my mind,” Charity told him. “I ordered breakfast for everyone. We’ll have extras.”

  Rich rolled his eyes. “Cancel the order.”

  “I can’t.” Her voice held no real apology. “They’ll charge us for it even if we cancel.”

  “What?” he demanded. “That’s insane.”

  “Maybe you should cancel your order,” James suggested. “We don’t want to end up throwing away food.”

  Rich muttered something under his breath before pulling out his phone and calling his assistant to cancel the catering order. “Yes, we still need the breakfast order for tomorrow.” He glared at the rest of us. “There won’t be any more misunderstandings.”

  Great! We were back to arguing about food. Rich didn’t like the idea of filming actual meals because he said it was gross watching people eat. In his opinion, we should stuff our faces off-camera and only pretend to eat during filming. Reality TV seemed less real all the time.

  Gemma finally emerged from her bedroom, and she wasn’t alone. Her entourage of makeup and hair people were with her. She looked irritated, but she still tried forcing a smile when she saw me.

  “Why am I the only one who has to go through this?” she asked.

  “You’re not,” James assured her with a laugh before gesturing the crew over to me.

  “Fuck my life,” I muttered. “This whole routine of getting ready like we’re in some movie is going to throw off our game every day. Look how irritated Gemma is.”

  “You don’t look any happier with the idea,” she pointed out.

  “I’m not,” I agreed. “Gemma looks great without so much makeup. She wore less makeup for the proposal.”

  James studied her before nodding. “This is too much. She’s supposed to have a girl-next-door look.”

  “Good point,” Charity agreed. “I can understand why she needed something more for filming last night. It even makes sense for the wedding.”

  “Nothing this extreme,” Gemma added.

  That caused another argument to start up with Rich. This time, the argument was about how they needed to try to make Gemma look more like the type of woman I usually dated.

  I used the crew’s distraction as a chance to grab some time alone with Gemma. She smiled when she saw me make my way toward her. Cupping her cheek, I leaned in to brush my lips against hers.

  “Good morning,” I murmured, still cupping her cheek as our lips nearly touched.

  “It is now,” she replied. “Remind me again why I’m doing this.”

  “Because you like me,” I said with a grin before kissing her. The surrounding noise faded to a hum as I savored her mouth in a slow, lingering kiss.

  When I broke the kiss, she looked up at me with a sweet smile. “You have my lipstick all over your mouth.”

  “You don’t think it’s my color?” I asked.

  “It’s definitely your color,” she assured me.

  When I looked over, I found that James had gotten the cameras rolling. How he’d managed to get the others to stop arguing long enough to film part of our encounter, I didn’t know.

  “I guess this means I don’t need to have my makeup done,” I joked as I gestured to my red lips.

  Only Gemma seemed amused by my joke, not that I cared. Her laughter eased some of my tension.

  “I’m glad you’re here,” she said with a sigh. “While I was having this clown makeup put on, I started to wonder if there was any way to get out of this contract.”

  “You’d ditch me?” I asked. “That could crush a man’s ego.”

  She swatted my chest and laughed again. “Your ego will survive, especially considering I just told you I’m no longer considering bailing after seeing you.”

  “There is that,” I agreed. “Do you hate the makeup that much?”

  “It’s awful,” she replied. “I feel like I’ve been cast as the killer clown in a bad horror movie.”

  “You don’t look like a clown,” I assured her.

  “How about a demented raccoon?” she suggested. “I never wear this much eye makeup. I wore less makeup the day we met, and I was in a wedding that day.”

  I nodded and turned to the others in
the room. “This won’t do. Can we try making this show a little real?”

  “I don’t want to have to worry that my makeup will crack if I smile,” Gemma added.

  “It’s not that thick,” Rich argued.

  “It feels that thick to me,” Gemma pointed out. “How am I supposed to act naturally when I feel this uncomfortable?”

  Rich’s lips pressed together in an irritated line. “The other women on the show enjoyed their makeovers. They felt prettier after we freshened them up.”

  “I appreciate all that you’re trying to do,” Gemma said, clearly trying to appease him. “I can see why you would expect me to want this type of treatment since other women on the show have. This just isn’t my sort of thing.”

  “Well, it’s already done, and we don’t have time to waste on another makeup session,” Rich announced.

  “For God’s sake, Rich,” Charity muttered. “We’ll get her makeup redone.”

  “Gemma’s going to leave me,” I grumbled as she was finally led back into the bedroom.

  Chapter 20

  Gemma

  We flew to Los Angeles for our first televised date. I didn’t understand why we needed to go so far away when there was plenty to do in Vegas. Ben thought they might be doing it to avoid the crowds. Now that people knew the show was being filmed in Vegas and realized that Ben was the groom, there would be more people looking to catch a glimpse of us.

  They were filming us leaving the private plane and taking still shots, but we’d already heard there wouldn’t be any audio due to the background noise. They planned to play music and include this in a short montage with clips from all our dates.

  “There has to be more to this,” I mumbled as we exited the plane on the small private airfield.

  Ben caught my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “You’re beginning to sound paranoid. Are you worried they're going to spring some surprise on us? Let me rephrase that since we already know the details of the date are a surprise. Do you think they plan to spring an unpleasant surprise on us?”

  I shrugged. “Maybe I'm paranoid. It could be that I’m used to knowing what’s going to happen. I’m going to focus on the positive and stop worrying about what Rich or Charity might have planned.”