by K. A. Linde
“Oh my God, B, I almost forgot to tell you. The whole club is abuzz about it. Guess who is up in VIP, asking for you?”
Bryna’s eyes went wide. Not good. Hopefully, it wasn’t some guy. She couldn’t think of any who would be asking for her specifically by name, but she never really knew what could happen.
“Um, who?”
“Gates Hartman!” Maya cried.
Bryna relaxed. “Oh! Gates.” She breathed out heavily. “What is he doing here?”
“Wait, like the movie star?” Cam asked. He looked between Bryna and Maya like they were speaking gibberish.
“Um, yeah. We’re close friends from home.”
“You’re close friends with Gates Hartman?” he asked in disbelief.
“Yeah, how come I didn’t know this?” Maya asked with a pouty bottom lip.
“Sorry. We fell out of touch after Broken Road released and got back in touch this summer.”
Cam opened his mouth and then closed it. She wondered what he was thinking. She was kind of laying a bomb on him.
“Where exactly are you from?”
She sighed. Cat was out of the bag. “Beverly Hills.”
His eyes widened. “Wow. Okay. Beverly Hills and Gates Hartman. I think I need to process this. What do your parents do?”
Bryna blushed. She couldn’t meet his eyes. She had been dreading this very conversation. Everyone else already knew who she was, so she never had to tell anyone that her mom was a famous actor and her father an even more famous director.
“My dad is Lawrence Turner.”
“The director?” he sputtered.
“Yeah.”
“So, your mom is Olivia Bendel.”
She nodded.
“And I took you to a food truck.”
Bryna laughed heartily. “Yeah, you did.”
“I feel kind of like an idiot.”
“Don’t! It was fun. I had a really good time.”
He shook his head and stared at her with all new focus. She hoped it was a good thing.
“I can’t believe this. I grew up watching your dad’s movies, and your mom’s movies are classic.”
“Don’t tell her that,” she joked.
“No. I didn’t…that’s not what I meant.”
“This is still me though, Cam. You don’t have to explain yourself. I haven’t suddenly changed because you know who my parents are.” At least she hoped not.
“I know. Right. Of course not. Just a surprise.”
“Yeah. I try not to lead with that. It’s a bit intimidating.” She shrugged. “Come on. I’ll introduce you to Gates.”
“How do you know him again?”
She bit her lip. “He went to high school with me, and we’ve known each other for a long time. He’s a close friend of the family.”
She didn’t mention that they had dated for over a year and that he was her first real boyfriend. Those things were behind them, and all that mattered was that they were friends. Gates wasn’t trying to get back with her. That ship had sailed.
“I have to admit, I haven’t actually seen any of his movies, but I know of them.”
“That’s fine. He’s more than his movies.”
Bryna took his hand, and they climbed the stairs to VIP. The bouncer ushered them inside. Once she crossed the threshold, she was tackle-hugged by a rather drunk Gates.
“Babe!” he cried, picking her up and swinging her around.
“Gates, put me down!”
He laughed and obliged her. “Surprise!”
She shook her head and sent him an exasperated look. “What are you doing here?”
“I had a free weekend and thought I’d come spend it in Vegas with my favorite girl.”
“You’re ridiculous and drunk.”
“Pleasantly tipsy,” he joked.
“Gates, this is my…Cam,” she said, stepping back so that he could see she had another guy in tow.
Gates held his hand out. “Hey. Nice to meet you.”
Cam nodded his head as they shook and assessed each other. “You, too. Bryna was telling me that you guys went to school together.”
“Yeah. We go way back. Bri’s awesome when she’s not acting like a total bitch. You know what I mean?” he asked.
He nudged Bryna, and she put her hand on her forehead.
Dear God, Gates!
“No. I guess I haven’t seen that side of Bryna.”
“There’s another side?”
“He’s joking. Aren’t you, Gates?”
“Yeah. Totally. Where are all your hot friends?” he asked.
“Downstairs. Want to join the masses?” She was thankful for the change of subject.
“Sure. Think people will recognize me? I brought a baseball hat.”
She shook her head. “It’s packed down there already since it’s a home game weekend. I think you’ll be fine.”
“All right. Let’s go.” Gates fell into step next to Cam and asked him a million personal questions. Gates was a very energetic and talkative drunk. He was so much more chill when he was sober.
She wasn’t sure what Cam thought of him. He kept sending her furtive looks as Gates continued to talk. They made it back downstairs and over to her group of friends. Gates hugged Stacia, who he had hung out with some over summer break. Trihn had never met him, and Bryna thought Trihn was going to faint.
“He’s even cuter in person,” Trihn whispered to Bryna.
“I know.”
She beamed. Everyone was getting along. Despite the one Eric hiccup in the car, this all seemed to be going better than she’d anticipated.
Gates grabbed her around the middle. “Let’s dance,” he whispered in her ear.
She gave him a meaningful look, and he sighed.
He let her go and then looked up at Cam. “Hey, Cam. Do you mind if I borrow your girl? Dance floor is calling my name.”
“Uh…sure. I don’t really dance anyway,” Cam said.
He looked at Bryna for confirmation, and she shrugged.
She wanted to dance. If Cam wasn’t going to dance, then it would be fine to dance with Gates.
She would take some assurance just in case. “Trihn, Stacia, come on.”
“Oh!” Stacia cried. “Queen Bee leading the way tonight.”
Stacia smacked Trihn’s ass as she passed by and beckoned her on the dance floor. Bryna got lost in her friends’ silly behavior. They shimmied and swayed and shook their asses in time with the music. It was like freshman year all over again before any of them had been dating anyone and they had just been carefree.
Gates came up behind her, grabbed her hips, and ground against her. They moved like one fluid motion. She had known him for way too long, and she’d had sex with him way too many times not to automatically get his rhythm. Stacia moved behind him, and Trihn was in front of her, bent over at the waist, doing unbelievably dirty things with her body.
Bryna dropped her head back in laughter as she shook her ass. She rested her head on his shoulder and threw her hands up in the air, getting carried away with the music.
“Missed you,” Gates breathed into her ear.
“I missed you, too,” she said. “This is fun.”
“You should be careful with me, Bri. I think that guy really likes you.”
“I like him, too,” she said hesitantly. “He’s nice.”
“Yeah. Then, you should probably switch out with one of your girls. The way your body is moving…”
She swirled her hips around against him, and he groaned.
“You’re killing me here.”
“The great Gates Hartman reduced to nothing by little old me?” she joked.
“You’re having too much fun with this. I’ll have you know, I’ve fucked a whole lot of celebrities since you.”
She turned around to face him and winked. “No one does it like me.”
His eyes confirmed what she was saying. “That guy isn’t your type.”
“He’s not,” she said, unper
turbed.
She glanced over at Cam. He was talking to Neal and Pace and not even paying attention to her.
“But I think it’s good.”
“If you say so.” Gates’s hand returned to her hips, and he drew her in closer. “Get over here.”
She giggled and pressed herself up against him. Their movements were completely in sync, and they danced like that through the next three songs. Her eyes drifted over to Cam, and she saw he was staring intently at them now. She bit her lip as she decided to just dance through the end of this song and then go back to spend time with him.
Then, her stomach plummeted. She took a step back from Gates. “Shit!”
“What?”
“Eric,” she whispered.
He walked right up to Cam and put his hand out.
Oh no. No, no, no. She didn’t even say another word. She bolted toward them.
What the hell?
He had said that he wasn’t going to be here.
She roughly grabbed Eric by the arm, and he staggered back a step.
Fuck!
He was drunk off his ass. She normally wouldn’t have budged him a step.
“What are you doing?” she snapped.
“Hollywood!” he crowed.
She crossed her arms and stood her ground.
“I was introducing myself to my friend, Cam, here.”
“Bryna?” Cam said.
He looked confused, and she didn’t blame him.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured to Cam.
“I’m not really sure what’s going on here.” Cam’s face was set in a stern line.
She couldn’t read him. She didn’t know what he was thinking, but she didn’t think it was good.
“Well, let me tell you what’s going on,” Eric slurred.
“Another time,” she said. She latched on to his arm and pushed him in the opposite direction. “I’m so sorry, Cam. I’ll be back in a minute.”
“Okay. And then you’ll explain what all of this is about?”
“Bri doesn’t explain herself to anyone,” Eric said. “Least of all, herself.”
“Jesus Christ, Eric!” Ignoring Cam’s look of confusion, she hauled Eric away from him before Eric could do any more damage. She dragged him through the door to the patio and as far away from anyone else as she could possibly get. The place was packed, so it had been a feat.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” she cried, shoving his drunken ass backward and into the side of the building.
“Came to make friends,” he joked.
“You said you were going home, and you weren’t going to torture yourself! You asshole!”
“I’m not torturing myself. But fuck if I’m going to sit at home either. I’d rather make better use of my time.”
“How the hell is this a better use of your time?” she demanded. She planted her hands on her hips.
“I’m assessing the competition.” He shrugged, and that signature smile graced his lips. “Seems meager at best.”
“Oh my God!” She shook her head and took a step back from him. “You’re drunk and being an ass. You should go home.”
His hands reached out and grabbed her hips. He was more deft than he had appeared seconds before. She stumbled forward against him, and in a second, he had her flipped around, her back pressing into the building and his hands pinning her to the spot.
“Come home with me.”
She stopped breathing for a second as she stared up into his face. It was so raw with emotion. His eyes were so hungry for her. “No,” she murmured. “I’m not playing right now. Let me go.”
“You’re going to need to do better than that. There’s none of the Hollywood spunk in your voice.” He leaned forward and rested his forehead against hers. “Be here with me right now. Don’t be with him. Don’t be with anyone else.”
His lips hovered inches from hers, and she promised herself she wasn’t fantasizing about kissing him—the memory of what his lips tasted like, the feel of them moving against her, the way everything else shut down.
“I’m here with my…Cam,” she managed to get out.
“But not your boyfriend,” he said. He sounded triumphant. “It’s never bothered you before to kiss other guys…fuck other guys when you didn’t have a boyfriend.”
His fingers pushed up into her hair, and he dragged their lips together. She could taste the alcohol on him. Whiskey. Dear God, it was like a shot of adrenaline to her system.
Yet she shoved him away.
“This is different. I’m not the same girl that I was when I did those things. I want to be different. I want to be…good. Fuck, I don’t know. Stop making this so damn difficult. Just go home! You’re drunk and making a fool of both of us.”
She stormed away from him because she knew if she stayed another second, he would kiss her again. He did every chance he could get now. It was like a drug neither of them seemed to be able to quit.
It terrified her. She wasn’t still angry with him for what had happened with Audrey.
She was angry with herself. For falling for him when she had promised herself she wouldn’t. For putting her heart in his hands without even knowing she had done it. For giving him control over her with just a touch.
She had given those things away once before, and it had ended in catastrophe. She couldn’t love him.
She sucked in a deep breath. Love wasn’t supposed to exist.
WHEN BRYNA WALKED BACK INSIDE, she ran into Gates.
“Hey, what happened? Where did you go?”
“Eric is back there. I hate to ask, but will you make sure he leaves? He’s drunk and causing a scene.”
“Yeah, I will. But what’s going on? Are you with Eric now? What about that other guy? What’s his name?”
“Cam,” she volunteered. “No, I’m not with Eric. He’s just…I don’t know.”
“Hmm…I think I understand. Let me go talk to him.”
“Thanks, Gates.” She gave him a hug and then back to Cam.
He was waiting for her at the bar. He had his arms crossed, and she could tell now he was pissed. She hoped he hadn’t seen her with Eric outside. She hadn’t meant for any of that to happen. But she never meant for anything with Eric to happen, but he kept weaseling his way back into her life over and over again.
“Hey,” she weakly said to Cam.
“What’s going on, Bryna? I feel like the girl I’ve been hanging out with over the past month disappeared tonight.”
“I’m still here. We’re still getting to know each other. I don’t know everything about you,” she said. “I have some baggage…I guess. It’s not all going to fix itself overnight.”
“Well, I don’t expect it to, but I didn’t think I’d get bombarded with ex-boyfriends.”
“Eric isn’t my—”
“And Gates?”
“Um…yeah, we dated.”
“I thought as much,” he said, looking away. “It’s fine. I know everyone has a past. I have a past and ex-girlfriends. I just want to be prepared when they come up and introduce themselves to me or you start basically having sex with them on the dance floor.”
She opened her mouth to object, but what he had said was the truth. She hadn’t wanted all of this to come out tonight, but it wasn’t as if she could hide it all forever. If they were going to date, then he needed to know.
“I guess you’ve seen the worst of me tonight.” It was a lie.
She hoped to God he never truly saw the worst of her. Her gold-digging status wasn’t that well-known. Most people just thought she liked to date older guys. That wasn’t so crazy.
“Come on. Why don’t you dance with me then?” she asked.
He shrugged. “I don’t dance much but okay.”
They went out onto the floor and spent the rest of the night there. Gates resurfaced sometime later and nodded his head at her. That must have meant that he’d gotten Eric into a cab. She breathed a sigh of relief and was glad the rest of the night would be u
neventful.
Cam offered to drive her home. He hadn’t been drinking in a while, and they still had to walk across campus to his car. She went to the restroom before leaving, and on her way out, she ran into Pace.
“Hey,” he said with a smile.
“Were you waiting for me?” she asked, suddenly suspicious.
“No. Just happened to run into you. I like Cam.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Why?”
“He’s a nice guy.”
“And?”
“And nothing, Bri,” he said with a smug smile. “He’s just nice. Seems good for you.”
Her guard was immediately raised. “What the fuck did you do?”
“Nothing! Christ! I can’t say I like the new boyfriend? Don’t jump down my throat.”
He disappeared inside the men’s restroom, and she glared after him. She didn’t trust him to be so cavalier. He had looked way too pleased with himself. She bit her lip, trying to figure out what he might have done. Had he told Eric to come to Posse? No, Eric knew better than to listen to Pace. Had he said something to Cam?
Grr. I don’t know.
She walked back to Cam with her head full of all the schemes Pace could have enacted. She knew if it were herself, a million things could have happened. He could have seen her and Eric kiss. He could have videotaped her dance with Gates and sent it to TMZ. He was probably the one who had told Cam that she and Gates had dated. She didn’t know what else Pace might have done, and it made her nervous.
Cam took her hand as they left the club. Their walk across campus was silent. Presumably, she should have been enjoying his company, but she was too caught up in what Pace could have done. Maybe that was what he had wanted all along. He could have totally been bluffing. She nearly groaned with frustration.
If Cam recognized her mood, he didn’t say anything. She got in his Mustang, and he drove the short distance back to her apartment. As they walked up to the top floor, he wrapped an arm around her waist and squeezed her side. It brought her back to reality, and she instantly felt bad for letting her mind wander.
“I had a good night,” he said once they reached the door.
“Me, too. Despite some of the setbacks.”
“Water under the bridge.”
His lips touched hers, and she felt this weird sensation creeping through her stomach. It felt like sewage was being poured directly into her gut. She had never felt like this before. Horrible. Awful. Wretched.