Plain Choice (The Plain Fame Series Book 5)

by Price, Sarah

  His eyes lit up as he pulled her closer, their legs and hips pressed together, as he playfully growled and nibbled her ear. “You show me that tattoo later, sí? And if I can’t see it, I’m going to draw tattoos all over your body.”

  She laughed at him, her hands around his neck, feeling the heat of his skin under her touch. He smelled musky and masculine, already energized and in full Viper mode after the sound check, preshow interviews, and Meet and Greet. In just a few minutes, he would leave her to go perform and she would watch him from the greenroom, knowing that afterward, when they retired to their hotel, she would get him all to herself.

  While he finished getting ready, Amanda excused herself, leaving him so that she could try to call Anna. With the time difference, she figured it was about four o’clock in the afternoon back in Lititz. Jonas and Harvey would be outside in the dairy barn, milking the cows, Lizzie and Anna would be preparing supper, and Isadora would be seated on the bench at the table, her small legs swinging as she colored.

  Perhaps, Amanda thought, Anna would have the cell phone with her in the kitchen.

  She walked into the greenroom, pleasantly surprised to see that it was empty with the exception of a man who was refreshing the assortment of food that had been set out. Amanda curled up on the leather sofa with her phone and dialed the number.

  Anna answered the phone on the fifth ring. “Hello?” She sounded as if she were singing the word. Amanda couldn’t help but smile to herself at the sound of her sister’s Pennsylvania Dutch accent.

  “Anna? It’s me, Amanda!”

  “Oh, Amanda!” Anna must have held the phone away from her ear. “Mamm! Izzie! It’s Amanda!” she called out. There was a scurry of movement in the background, and Amanda could imagine that her mother now stood beside Anna so that they could both listen to the phone. “How are you, Amanda?”

  “Right gut,” she answered, realizing that she had slipped into her old self, the Amish woman who sang her own words, the last syllable usually ending in a higher pitch than the others. “How’s my Izzie doing?”

  “Mammi ’Manda!”

  Amanda laughed as she heard Isadora in the background and realized that she, too, was listening to the conversation. “Izzie! Are you being a good girl, then, for Anna?”

  “Mammi Anna makes cookies!”

  Mammi Anna? Amanda felt a moment of surprise at hearing Isadora refer to Anna as her mother. But just as soon as she felt that emotion bordering on jealousy, Amanda forced herself to appreciate the goodness behind it. Isadora was happy and being taken care of, not missing Amanda because she was loved by her family. She could not begrudge Anna or Isadora that relationship; it was good for everyone in the family.

  “Ja, vell, not before dinner, you hear me now?”

  Isadora giggled and must have handed the phone back to Anna.

  “Oh, she loves those cookies, Amanda,” Anna said cheerfully. “We bake them every afternoon!”

  “Do you now?” Amanda smiled, knowing the joy of baking cookies with her own mother from years past. “Just make certain she’s having her vegetables, too!” They both laughed. It felt good to hear her sister’s voice. “How are Mamm and Daed?”

  “Oh, just about as right as rain,” Anna replied. “Mamm, anyway. Daed’s about the same. Won’t try to talk none at all and barely eats.”

  “Ach! Keep on him. He needs his strength, Anna.” Something new to worry about, Amanda thought. “And you? How are you and the boppli?”

  Cheerful Anna returned, laughing again. “Still jumping around inside of me. It’s such a blessing to feel it move.”

  She felt happy for her sister but still wondered when she’d get the opportunity to experience the joy of life growing within her. She thought back to Alejandro’s reaction when, before the South American tour, she had learned she was not pregnant. While she had felt distress, he had looked relieved—a reaction that had disappointed Amanda. That had been before Isadora entered their life. She could only imagine how he would react now. As he had told her, his life on the road did not accommodate an expanding family. While she could certainly join him, she’d have to leave a baby behind with a nanny, and that was something Amanda wouldn’t consider.

  The guilt of leaving Isadora with Anna still lingered in her mind. Both Anna and Lizzie had reassured her that Isadora was young enough to adapt and adjust. Whenever Amanda spoke with her stepdaughter on the telephone, it was more than apparent that Isadora seemed perfectly content to remain behind on the farm. However, that did nothing to erase the self-reproach and shame she felt over leaving the child in order to save her marriage. Even more important, she missed Isadora, with her large chocolate-brown eyes and angelic smile. Hearing Isadora’s voice only intensified those feelings.

  After she hung up the phone, Amanda glanced at the television screen and saw that Viper was onstage. He wore white pants and a black shirt with three buttons open. With his sunglasses on, the only sign of his emotions was the broad smile on his face as he sang. Occasionally, he would walk over to one of his dancers and stand behind her, his hand on her hip as she bent over, pulling her toward him. Amanda shut her eyes and looked away, disliking the implied intimacy between the two of them.

  “Look who it is! The Princesa!”

  Amanda opened her eyes to look in the direction of the voice. Enrique had entered the room with three women by his side. He had his arm around the waist of a tall blonde who wore a sleeveless blue dress and black platform high heels. Her long hair hung down her back with the exception on one thick strand that hung over her bare shoulder.

  The women were tall, thin, and glamorous, their faces covered in heavy makeup and bright lipstick. Amanda watched them as Enrique lead them sauntering across the room to the table of drinks. He poured each of them a drink that was clear—vodka, from the smell of it. He lifted a glass and looked at Amanda, as if to ask her if she wanted one. Amanda turned her head.

  When he chuckled under his breath, she started to get up to leave the room.

  “¡Ay! What’s this? We come to see you and you leave?” Enrique gestured to the sofa for the women to sit down. After pouring himself a drink, he joined them, making certain that he sat between the blonde and Amanda.

  “I want you to meet my friends,” he said, putting his arm around Amanda’s shoulder. She shrugged it off and he laughed. “The Princesa is an ice princess, sí?”

  The three women laughed at his joke, regardless of its poor taste.

  “I should go watch from the wings,” Amanda said. But Enrique reached for her wrist and held it. “Let go of me.”

  He didn’t. Instead, he pulled her back down so that she was beside him once again. “I asked you to meet my good friends, Princesa.”

  “Do not call me that,” she said again, her voice firm, eyes narrowing. If she hadn’t liked Enrique before, she despised him now. His tone was far too sharp, and his grip on her wrist too tight.

  “Why not?” He held his hands out before him and glanced at the three women. “Everyone else does!”

  She glared at him. “That’s not the same thing.”

  Several more people entered the room, mostly the men who made up Enrique’s entourage. His “yes men,” as Alejandro called them. With so many people in the room, she found it even harder to get away from Enrique.

  “Now, this is . . .” Enrique pointed to one of the brunettes. “What’s your name again?”

  Whatever name she gave, Amanda didn’t understand it. She suspected Enrique hadn’t either. But he likely didn’t care.

  “And her friend . . .” He paused, giving the other brunette a chance to respond.

  “Barbara.”

  He snapped his fingers. “That’s right. Barbara!” One of his friends walked past and Enrique gave him a high five. “And my very good friend, Monica.” He looked at her. “It’s Monica, sí?”

  The blonde woman nodded.

  Amanda felt awful. There was a queasiness building in her stomach. Was this how Alejandro had
behaved in the past? Had he been so callous and uncaring that he didn’t even know the names of the women he selected to be his nightly lovers? She saw Enrique reach out and caress the blonde’s neck, a gesture that Alejandro did to Amanda when they were alone and occasionally when they weren’t. It was an intimate gesture and spoke of something much more than a one-night stand. While Enrique played it off as if he meant it, Amanda knew that, come morning, his very good friend Monica would be nothing more than a memory of Manchester, England.

  “I have to leave,” Amanda said once again and this time successfully stood up.

  “You don’t want to join our party, Princesa?”

  She glanced over her shoulder at him, giving him a look of disdain and disgust. His eyes were large and dilated, making her wonder if he had been partying in private before he entered the room with tonight’s newly acquired friends.

  “There is always room for a fourth,” Enrique said, gesturing to the three other women.

  “You’re repulsive,” she heard herself say and immediately wished she had thought before speaking. She saw anger flash in his dark eyes. If the three women heard her, they gave no indication. The entourage of men, however, laughed, a few of them making encouraging noises, as if urging Enrique to respond.

  Without waiting for Enrique to say another word to her, Amanda hurried out of the room, making her way through the throngs of people hanging out in the corridor and the stage wings. She wanted to find Geoffrey, knowing she’d feel safe with him. When she got close to the side of the stage, she noticed that Geoffrey was standing with the three men Alejandro had introduced her to earlier.

  Safe enough, she thought, and walked over to join them.

  The tall young man with the big green eyes and curly black hair that swept over his forehead smiled as she approached. He stepped aside to make room for her.

  Geoffrey seemed surprised to see Amanda standing there. When he gave her a quizzical look, she merely said, “Enrique’s in the greenroom,” and he nodded his head, understanding the unspoken.

  “You are enjoying England, ma’am?” Green Eyes said to her.

  “Oh, ja, it’s quite nice. So much history.”

  He smiled. “A bit of a far cry from where you come from, I must say.”

  She liked how he spoke. “I reckon so. Our farms only go back to the 1700s!”

  He laughed, a joyful sound, and his eyes crinkled. “I meant the touring.”

  “Oh.” She blushed, feeling naive, even next to this man who was about her age but clearly more worldly. “That too, ja.”

  He leaned over and she caught the scent of cologne on his shirt. He smelled fresh and clean, like laundry that had just been brought in from the clothesline on a sunny day. She decided that she liked him, and then he said, “I come from a small town, too, you know?”

  She wasn’t certain if she was supposed to answer that. She knew better than to admit that she had no idea who he was and had already forgotten his name. “I did not, nee.”

  He nodded. “This is all a bit new for us lads, too. What a difference a few years can make, eh?”

  “You haven’t been singing long, then?”

  He laughed again. “I was going to take over my dad’s shop in town. But I entered a singing contest. One of those reality shows?” When she shook her head, indicating that she didn’t know what that meant, he smiled even bigger. “I lost.”

  “Oh? I’m sorry.”

  Once again, he leaned in close and whispered, “Don’t be. Look where I am now.” He winked at her and smiled again. “Sometimes losing is winning.”

  Geoffrey interrupted their discussion. “Amanda, do you want me to have someone take you back to the hotel?”

  She shook her head. The loud music from the stage stopped, and the audience began cheering and screaming. The eruption of noise distracted her from the men, and she wandered away so that she could watch Alejandro. He stood on the edge of the stage, one arm reaching over his head as he stared into the audience. From her past experience on the stage with him, Amanda knew all too well what he saw: masses of people cheering for him. With all of the bright lights, it was hard to see much beyond the stage unless someone had turned on the main lights in the arena. At this moment, they were on.

  For several drawn-out seconds, Alejandro stood there, absorbing the adoration of his fans. Amanda smiled as she watched him, wondering if he knew that his biggest fan stood in the wings, her hands clasped in front of her and her heart beating rapidly. As if reading her mind, he turned and looked in her direction. He reached up to pull back his sunglasses and met her gaze before he raised his hand to his lips and blew her a kiss.

  The crowd knew who was standing there, so they began to shout and cheer even louder. Viper laughed and waved to her to come join him, a gesture that incited the audience to even louder decibels of screaming. She began to hear them chanting her name, and she felt the color flooding her cheeks.

  Green Eyes walked over to her and crooked his arm, offering it to her. “Let’s see if we can blow the roof off the house, shall we?”

  The other two men flanked her other side, and surrounded by the three members of one of the most popular and influential bands in the world, Amanda found herself being escorted onto the stage. There was a moment of hesitation as the audience realized that their beloved Princesa was not alone but accompanied by Britain’s own celebrities. The noise was deafening and caught Amanda off guard. She knew that the cameras were displaying their images on the massive screens overhead so that the fans even in the far seats could see. Surely they saw how inflamed her cheeks were.

  Once Green Eyes passed her over to Alejandro, he took a step back and joined his fellow band members. Alejandro escorted Amanda to the front of the stage and let the audience have their moment of adoration. She lifted her arm and waved, feeling uncomfortable but not wanting to disappoint Alejandro.

  Behind her, the three men were still standing there, waving to the crowds, when music suddenly began to play. It was a song that Amanda had not heard before, and based on the beat, it clearly was not a song that Viper sang. Suddenly, she realized that Green Eyes and his band members now held microphones and were singing one of their songs, with Viper joining them. She wasn’t certain what to do, but Viper guided her, taking her hand as he sang and danced across the stage. She tried to follow him, but before she could, Green Eyes took her hand and pulled her away from Viper. It was his turn to sing and dance with her. And then it was the next one’s turn and then the next one. She laughed when she realized that the song was about friends fighting over the same girl.

  The crowd drowned out the music while the blond Irishman laughed as he bumped into Green Eyes. Their playful interactions reminded her of the kittens that Isadora loved so much. The three young men teased each other as they danced, ruffling each other’s hair and stepping in front of each other.

  It dawned on Amanda how their rapid rise to fame was so different from Alejandro’s years of struggling to find success within the world of music. From nothing to something, the young men had risen quicker than most artists in the industry. Yet, unlike Enrique and Alejandro, they rose to success together, which allowed them to enjoy it as a team instead of in isolation. No wonder Green Eyes had told her not to feel bad that he had lost the reality show. From that experience, he had met these other young men and rocketed to fame.

  She had never considered that Viper’s world was unique to Alejandro. However, as the song ended and the three young men surrounded her, waving to the audience as they led her off the stage, she realized that her previous conception was naive. Celinda, Justin, Enrique . . . they were all unique individuals and experienced fame in completely different ways. There was no one-size-fits-all formula for success.

  “Blinding!” Green Eyes said to her, a grin on his face that indicated how pleased he was with the response. “That just about takes the biscuit!”

  The Irishman winked at her. “They’ll go on about that for a while, eh?”

&n
bsp; She smiled but said nothing. Between their strange accents and foreign expressions, she wasn’t entirely certain what they meant.

  Geoffrey motioned for them to join him. Amanda, however, stayed where she was, watching as her husband continued performing for the audience. She was starting to understand what Charlotte had said to her earlier that day. There could be no real friendships within the industry because everyone was after the same thing: success. If one artist had it, another thousand people wanted it. Yet in the upper echelon of artists who made it, they had to work together in order to maintain their success.

  Such a fine line to walk, she thought as she watched her husband—as Viper—sidle up to one of the dancers, gyrating his hips against hers while his hands roamed her body. For once, Amanda found it did not bother her . . . at least not as much as usual. The audience got what the audience wanted. As long as he came home to her each night, Amanda decided that giving the audience their fix of Viper was a sacrifice she was willing to make.

  Chapter Eleven

  “¡Che, Amanda!”

  She looked up from where she sat backstage reading a magazine. She was surprised to see Enrique approach her and immediately felt herself put up an invisible wall. The way he sauntered toward her, shoulders slouched forward and his eyelids semi-drooped over his dark eyes, his hands in his front pockets, reminded her of a predator approaching its prey. He was cold and calculating, someone that Amanda knew was worth giving a wide berth at all times. Even though Alejandro had warned him not to touch her again after catching Enrique brushing his fingers against her neck, he continued to find ways to get under her skin.

  “Alejandro sent me to look for you,” he said. He casually crossed his arms over his chest as he stood before her, covering up his red flannel shirt, which was unbuttoned far too low for Amanda’s comfort. Unlike Alejandro, Enrique took a more casual approach to his wardrobe, preferring jeans and boots to suits and ties. Coupled with his bad-boy reputation—not to mention what she had personally witnessed—his informal and rugged appearance made him seem all the more threatening to Amanda.