For One Night Only (Siren Publishing Classic)

by For One Night Only (lit)

  His sudden appearance, combined with the reaction of the fans—fans that seemed insane compared to the ones she was used to—had jangled her nerves. Pretty sure he hadn’t seen her amongst the crowd, she had no time to think on it when Martha turned to her, face flushed with excitement. Asked if she had seen him, she nodded and smiled, trying to mirror her enthusiasm.

  Martha had turned away after giving her the weirdest look—something obviously on her mind, but choosing to keep quiet. Later, she’d pursued it, asking her why she never seemed pleased to see Ruben. Eventually, the answer that she was just naturally shy and didn’t like to be too forward, satisfied the woman, or at least, satisfied her for the moment. The questioning had unsettled her, making it clear she wasn’t blending in as well as she should. So, she’d readily agreed to the night out when Martha had suggested it, resolving privately to act more like ‘them’ in future, to avoid further suspicion. Apparently, it was a nightclub the Spanish girls said the band members always used, even Ruben had been seen there once or twice over the years.

  The club’s interior was shabbier then she had expected although it had a wonderful ambience and an impressive dance floor. After spending a couple of boring hours fending off lecherous advances and dancing listlessly with the increasingly intoxicated group of women, she began to question the accuracy of the information she and Martha were receiving from the local fans.

  Separating herself from the group, she’d been about to leave them to it, when she spotted a few band members congregating around a table in one of the darker corners of the club. The other women had noticed too and reacted in the usual way, huddling together to talk in excited whispers.

  She kept her place at the bar, watching them with an amused smile on her face. The musicians seemed fully aware of what was happening, but they didn’t appear to react. One or two of them scanned the group—looking to see if anyone was worth their effort, she guessed. About to turn away from the display of arrogance she always found sickening, she noticed one of them was staring straight at her.

  He wasn’t one of the regular band members. She didn’t know his name or much about him except that he was Cuban by birth. Dropping his gaze, she turned back to the bar, smiling secretly to herself. Why not? The guy was cute—handsome in the dark, strong-featured way typical of his countrymen. He was no Ruben though.

  One night with a hot guy could be a welcome distraction from her problems, she mused. She would never give up on her quest to reunite with Ruben, but at the moment he seemed farther away than ever—thanks to that whore Bethany—who seemed to go everywhere with him.

  Maybe, once they were all back on home territory, she could put some more effort into making her life very uncomfortable if she hung around. Her foray into Bethany and Ruben’s empty hotel room earlier that afternoon had been a taste of just how much she could get away with if she were audacious enough. She’d been disturbed before she could do much damage except scrawl the word ‘bitch’ in lipstick across the bedroom mirror. She’d heard a key in the lock and toyed with the idea of waiting to see if this was her opportunity to get Bethany alone. The risk that it could be Ruben and blow all her future plans forced her to hide in the bathroom as the person entered, slipping out unseen through the door before it had swung shut. She’d felt elated for a while until she realized it only increased her desire to make Bethany truly sorry for interfering in her life.

  Martha reappeared at her side, flushed from dancing and full of excitement about the guys who had left their table to join the group of girls on the floor. Tugging on her arm, she tried to drag her towards the group of men, begging her to join in. Shaking her head fiercely, she was about to tell Martha exactly what she thought of her behavior, when she was saved by the intervention of the young guitar player.

  Introducing himself as Jose, he offered her a drink. Pulling up a chair to sit beside her, he tried to make small talk, asking her where she was from and why she was visiting Madrid.

  She allowed him to flirt outrageously with her, initially enjoying the attention of a young, handsome guy, before his childish enthusiasm began to annoy her. Downing her drink, she got up and began to excuse herself, saying she needed an early night. Latching onto the one thing he thought would interest her—in a desperate attempt to stop her leaving—he asked how long she had been a fan.

  The guy was keen to impress and she realized that blowing him off too easily would be a wasted opportunity to get some valuable inside information on Ruben and Bethany. Retaking her seat, she smiled at him encouragingly, slipping on the veil of seduction that she knew from experience made men open up to her.

  An hour later, her mood had worsened considerably. Jose had talked openly and explicitly about Ruben’s relationship, all the while plying her with more alcohol and moving ever closer. Sometimes, ignorance was bliss, she thought to herself as he had rambled on and on about how in love they were, and how nobody had ever seen the boss so happy. Laughing, he told her that Ruben and Bethany’s sex life was an open joke amongst the band—the frequency of their lovemaking becoming obvious to all during the long hours they often spent locked together in Ruben’s tour bus. The guys had even coined a catchphrase about it apparently—‘If the bus is a-rocking, don’t come a-knocking’. Jose slapped his leg in juvenile hilarity, barely able to speak for laughing.

  Staring at the giggling imbecile in absolute fury, she waited until he raised confused eyes to hers before slapping the dirty smirk from his face and throwing her drink at him.

  Bethany’s bullshit detector was on full alert, but she couldn’t put a finger on what was bothering her. Ruben’s explanation that he had to fly back to the States for a couple of days didn’t ring true. Pacing around the frankly ugly, minimalist designer hotel room in Madrid, she was annoyed she’d put off an important meeting in London to get back to him earlier.

  ‘It’s just work…nothing important. I will meet you in Budapest,’ he assured her, averting his eyes.

  She persisted. ‘Well, I would love to come home too. I could visit my sister and her family. I haven’t seen them in ages.’

  ‘Beth, you can’t come. Just drop it will you?’ Ruben’s sudden explosion of temper made her jump. She sat in stunned silence for brief seconds before dropping her gaze to hide the threatening tears. Ruben was instantly apologetic. ‘Baby, I am sorry. I didn’t mean to shout.’

  She shunned him initially as he tried to take her into his arms, but gave in, unable to resist his warmth or the gentle pull of his voice. ‘I have been under a lot of stress lately and I shouldn’t take it out on you.’ Lifting his thumb to brush the tears from her cheek, he kissed her. ‘I will be back before you know it,’ he smiled. ‘Will you miss me?’

  ‘No,’ she replied petulantly.

  ‘Well, I will miss you.’ He smiled, slipping easily into the role he knew she liked him to play from time to time. ‘And I will miss this…’ he said, gliding up under her sweater to clasp a breast. ‘And this…’ he said, as he popped the button on her jeans, grazing her abdomen with the back of his hand.

  Beth pulled away. Maybe she didn’t know what was going on, but he wasn’t going to distract her so easily. Ignoring his look of surprise, she straightened her clothing. ‘You can’t miss me that much or you would take me with you.’

  ‘Since when did you become so needy?’ The coldness in his tone surprised her. ‘Did I act like this when you had to stay over in London?’

  ‘That was different and you know it.’

  ‘No, it wasn’t. You had to work and I didn’t question you on it. I trusted you…’ He left the accusation hanging.

  Bethany walked away, unable to argue with him. Maybe she was being unreasonable. He had done nothing, but show her love and respect since day one. Hell, he’d even confessed to snooping into Simon’s life in an attempt to be totally honest with her.

  Sure, it was his stubborn streak stopping him from explaining his trip, but she didn’t want to push it, not at that moment. He’d only just gott
en over the fight they’d had at the party, convinced that she didn’t want to be with him anymore. The last thing they needed was another issue to divide them.

  ‘You’re right, Ruben. Darling, I am sorry.’ She slid onto his lap, running her fingers through his hair the way he liked her to. ‘I do trust you…implicitly.’

  He stilled her hand, bringing it down to his lips. Opening his mouth as if to speak, he stared at her for the longest time before closing his eyes on a groan. ‘Thank you,’ he said finally, an unreadable expression on his face. ‘That means a lot to me.’

  She swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. What the hell was wrong with her these days? All she seemed to do was cry.

  A hand on her hip brought her attention back to him and she looked down to find his finger sliding slowly over the fly of her jeans, following the seam down to where it disappeared between her legs. Grateful for the opportunity to stop thinking and simply feel for a few brief moments, she gave in to him, pushing the doubts to the back of her mind.

  Later, as they lay in a tangle of clothing and limbs, Bethany couldn’t shake a sense of déjà vu. She’d been here before—in love but deeply unsettled. Then, as now, she was never sure whether she was being perceptive or paranoid. Lying quietly as Ruben left her to get a glass of water, she took a moment to break things down logically—an old trick she’d retained from her days in therapy.

  Regardless of the fact that Ruben was a far better man than Simon, the basic truth was, he had no time to cheat on her. She was with him almost constantly. Work kept them apart for brief periods, but they were few and far between and never planned in advance. His life was exhausting. Even during the days with no public appearances planned, he would often spend hours on the telephone conducting one interview after another. When all that was done, he always turned to her.

  She knew he loved her. Ruben had spoken of his childhood and Bethany understood how hard it had been for him to let anyone get close. Every emotion he had showed in his eyes and he could hide nothing from her—not that he seemed to try. Bethany loved him in a way she didn’t think she was capable of again and she wasn’t going to jeopardize what they had by listening to voices from her past. There were only a few hours left before he had to leave and she wasn’t going to waste them.

  Giggling as she wriggled out of the rest of her clothing, she stretched out on the leather sofa, luxuriating in the feel of it against her skin as she waited for him to return.

  A week later, Ruben walked into the bedroom of their Budapest hotel suite, keen to spend some time with her after an exhausting morning arguing with tour promoters. He found Bethany sitting at the window with a newspaper clutched in her hands. Standing as she heard him approach, she flung it into his face. Retrieving the paper from the floor where it landed, he looked at her in confusion.

  ‘Center pages,’ she spat out, as if it hurt to speak.

  A pulse began to beat in his throat. The glaring headline caught his eye moments before he recognized the Brazilian dancer posing provocatively across the pages. The color drained from Ruben’s face. ‘Baby, I can explain.’

  Bethany ignored him as she stared wordlessly at the newspaper he now held. Ruben couldn’t believe he’d gone through all those nights of guilt about keeping such a huge secret from her just to be found out when it was all over. Of course, the child wasn’t his. Not that he’d thought it was for one second.

  It looked like the mother had taken out a little insurance by selling her story. His lawyers had tried to get her to sign a confidentiality agreement, but she’d refused. Any hope that her own shame at trying to pin another man’s baby on him would be sufficient to ensure nobody ever found out was stupid. He guessed the world didn’t work like that anymore.

  She could tell a good story, he’d give her that. By the time he finished reading, he almost believed the dancer’s tale of the worldly pop star that had seduced and dumped a naïve twenty year old who, until recently, believed he was the father of her child. Ruben pitied her baby and hoped that eliminating him as a potential father would at least narrow down the search for the real one.

  ‘You know,’ Bethany said quietly, almost as if talking to herself, ‘it’s not even that you may have gotten another woman pregnant.’ She shook her head. ‘It’s the fact you didn’t tell me. You didn’t trust me enough…that’s what hurts.’

  ‘But I knew I couldn’t be the father, Beth. Don’t you see?’ He tried to lift her face so she would at least look at him, but she shrugged him off. ‘What was the point of worrying you over something I knew couldn’t be true?’

  ‘Oh, give me a break, Ruben. You were never going to tell me. You took the tests over a week ago, what has stopped you telling me since then?’

  He scrambled for an answer. ‘I got scared, Beth. I thought once this had all blown over, it would be easier to tell you…but then the enormity of what I had done began to hit me, and I couldn’t think of a way to make it right.’

  Bethany’s cynical smile chilled him. ‘I am still not a part of your life, am I?’ Her sudden change of tack caught him off guard. He opened his mouth to contradict her, but she cut him off. ‘It’s still your decision what happens between us. You decided that I didn’t need to know the man I am in love with might have fathered a child, so you simply didn’t tell me.’

  ‘I knew it wasn’t mine,’ he insisted.

  ‘How did you know?’

  ‘Because I always use a condom—you know that, Beth.’

  Bethany slammed down the glass she was holding in her hand. ‘Like the night of the party you mean?’

  ‘That was different, we were both out of control that night,’ he said, realizing for the first time she was right. He’d never even thought about it. His only concern had been repairing the damage he’d done to their relationship. ‘Are you ok? I mean, is there a chance you could be pregnant?’ he asked. Cold eyes stared back at him.

  ‘Why on earth would I tell you, Ruben? I mean, it’s not like we are close enough to confide in each other about stuff like that…is it?’ He guessed he deserved the comment, but it still stung. He asked her why she couldn’t understand he’d done it to protect her.

  Bethany’s temper snapped. ‘How dare you pretend you did this for me? You and I both know you kept quiet to save your own ass. I was the last thing on your mind.’

  ‘Beth, I was terrified.’ He turned her to look at him. ‘You know how bad I felt over that fight we had. I was scared I had lost you.’ His voice cracked then as he saw he wasn’t getting through to her.

  ‘That’s just the problem. I told you over and over that I was fine and that nothing had changed, but you thought you knew better. You don’t respect my opinion or allow me to decide how I feel about things that affect us both.’ She pushed him away, taking a step back as she crossed her arms.

  ‘I know I was wrong, but I didn’t want this to come between us.’ Ruben sank onto the bed, sudden tiredness draining his energy. She sat down beside him leaving a gap between them. He ached to close it, but knew he would be rejected.

  ‘You keep things from me all the time,’ she said, raising a hand to stop his protest of innocence. ‘Why didn’t you tell me that somebody had been in your apartment in New York before we moved in?’

  Ruben flushed. ‘Our apartment,’ he corrected, playing for time as he tried to figure out how she knew. ‘There was no need. It was a one off. Probably one of the staff or security.’

  ‘So you decided there was just no need to tell me that I could be in danger or to watch out for some obsessed fan?’

  ‘Byron,’ he said angrily, as he realized he must have been the one who told her. Trust him to create a drama out of nothing. He’d been pretty lucky as far as psycho fans went until someone had broken into his condo and had sex in his bed. Ruben shuddered at the memory, remembering his disgust when he had found the used condom lying on his sheets. There had been no signs of forced entry and the police hadn’t managed to find anything suspicious on the tape
from the surveillance camera in the lobby of his building. Personally, he thought it could be someone from the security firm employed by the building’s management company, but had no proof. Still, he’d insisted they be replaced.

  Bethany got her feet. ‘Don’t blame him; he let it slip when I found him cleaning our bedroom mirror in Madrid. He refused to tell me what had been scrawled across it but I know it was something personal. That’s when he mentioned about the incident in New York.’ She laughed bitterly. ‘He seemed to think I knew.’

  He didn’t know what to say. Crazy fans were part of his everyday life. Being cautious was usually enough to keep them at a safe distance. She had never been in any danger, so why worry her?

  Long minutes passed before she spoke again. ‘This was the worst thing you could have done, don’t you see that?’ Her expression was earnest as she turned to face him. ‘You know it took me a long time to get over my last relationship, Ruben.’

  He leapt to his feet. ‘Here we go again,’ he shouted. ‘I wondered how long it would be before you brought that jerk into the conversation.’ Despite the precarious position he was in, Ruben couldn’t keep quiet if she was about to compare him to her ex again.

  The calmness of her tone surprised him. ‘The point I am making is that Simon also tried to control how I felt about our relationship by keeping things from me. The result of which was that I spent three years without ever really knowing the person I thought I was in love with.’

  ‘That’s crazy, Beth. In no way is this situation anything like that. I am not cheating on you or abusing you.’ She shook her head, rejecting his words. ‘Okay, I made a huge mistake by not telling you about the paternity test, but if you really think about it, you will see it doesn’t have to affect us—’

  ‘Of course it will affect us, Ruben. How can I ever get to really know or trust you if I don’t have all the facts? For all I know, the man I am in love with doesn’t even exist.’ Bethany’s voice broke on a sob.