My pulse began to race, and my voice stiffened. “What?”
She gave me a funny look. “Oh, nothing. Never mind.”
“No, what is it?”
“I...er…I just meant it’s cool how you guys can just act like friends. If I dated some dude in high school who turned out to be one of the most famous athletes in the country, then there’s no way I’d be able to act all cool and professional around him if he came on the show. I’d totally be trying to rekindle something and become a WAG,” she said with a grin. “No, just kidding. But really, you guys seem to get on great. I think that’s cool.”
I breathed a quiet sigh of relief; for a second I thought she’d known about me and Eden secretly being together. “Yeah, it is cool,” I replied. I wasn’t exactly lying; Eden and I were friends as well as lovers, and friendship was one of the most important aspects of a relationship, in my opinion. Still, I felt a twinge of guilt in my guts. I was sick to fucking death of deceiving everyone and not being able to crow my true feelings about Eden from the rooftops.
“They’re almost here,” Candice said.
Tay Drake’s boat was pulling up now, and droplets of salty water sprayed up in the air as it slowed down and maneuvered into the landing deck area. The driver of the boat turned the key off in the ignition and swung a rope over to the deck to hold it in place, and Tay himself stepped out a few seconds later. He was a tall, muscular man with close-cropped black hair and smooth mocha-toned skin, and his pale green eyes sparkled in the bright sun. Christ, no wonder all the ladies liked him so much—he was a handsome dude.
“Tay, hi!” Candice gushed as he came closer. “My name is Candice McClure. I’m a producer on The Stud. Thanks so much for coming, it’s a real pleasure to meet you.”
“It’s a pleasure to be here,” he replied, extending a friendly hand to each of us in turn. “Gotta admit, The Stud is one of my guilty pleasure shows. I couldn’t say no to coming.”
“You really watch it?” Candice said, fluttering her eyelashes.
“Of course. That twist in the last double episode really got me. Who would’ve seen that coming from Blair? She seemed so nice.”
Candice was practically salivating at this stage, and I grinned and let her chat to Tay for a while. Hey, maybe she’d get lucky with him later in the evening.
My smile grew wider as I thought about tonight and all it would entail. After the concert and the picking of the winner, that would be it—my contractual obligations would be finished, and we’d only have to film a couple of lovey-dovey filler scenes to use in show finale TV teasers. Then I’d be free to be with Eden out in the open. Of course, we wouldn’t tell everyone at her work right away (because then we’d just be rubbing it in their faces that we’d lied and got away with it) but still, it felt great knowing that Eden wouldn’t be in danger of losing her job over me anytime soon.
I couldn’t wait for the night to end.
***
Raucous cheering erupted from the other side of the velvety blue curtains near me, and I heard Tay Drake thanking the audience for their appreciation before launching into another song.
The sun was just beginning to dip over the ocean in the beginnings of a glorious sunset, and Tay had been singing and rapping for about ten minutes now on a stage on the upper deck of the ship. It seemed like the crowd was loving it—the showrunners wouldn’t even have to get fake footage of people screaming and cheering like they often did with other events.
Seeing as The Stud execs had booked the luxury ship out privately, the crowd was entirely made up of crew members, paid extras, and the two final contestants. That didn’t make it any less nerve-wracking that I had to go out and there and perform with Tay in fifteen minutes, though. I was used to huge crowds at games with thousands of people watching my every move, but that was okay because I was actually good at football. As for singing…eh, I was only halfway decent. I was totally gonna embarrass myself out there on that stage, but hey, if it was what Glenn wanted to finally finish this shit-show, then I’d do it. Hell, I’d act like a dancing monkey if that’s what it would take to hurry the end of the show along.
I’d decided that I would pick Anya as the winner, because earlier when I’d been chatting to Tay and getting to know the lyrics to our duet song, I overheard Hayley making even more bitchy comments. She’d been standing nearby and chatting to her producer about how much she ‘hated’ one of the interns for being overweight, and when that very intern approached her to give her a drink a moment later, she’d smiled sweetly and thanked her effusively. It’d be funny to see if that two-faced bitchery came out in full force when I picked Anya over her, and surely Glenn would appreciate that sort of drama for the finale. He’d always loved capturing contestant tantrums on camera.
“Boo.”
Two hands covered my eyes from behind, and I smiled as I recognized Eden’s voice.
“Hey, what are you doing back here?” I asked, turning around and slipping my arms around her.
“I came to make sure you aren’t too nervous,” she said. “It must suck waiting back here in the wings and twiddling your thumbs.”
“Waiting to be embarrassed, you mean,” I replied with a good-natured grin.
She smiled. “You’ll do fine, don’t worry, and even if you’re a terrible singer, the editing team will make you sound like Pavarotti before it’s ever shown on TV,” she said, before looking around. “Where’s your producer? Wasn’t he meant to wait back here with you to tell you exactly when to go on?”
I shrugged. To be honest, the guy responsible for producing all my scenes this season (a senior producer named Wren) had barely been around for most of it—he’d usually tell me what to do and then disappear back to his trailer. Now that we were on the ship, he didn’t have that trailer haven to disappear into, but he still had a cabin below decks, and as soon as he’d made sure I knew what time to go on stage with Tay, he’d patted me on the back, said ‘good luck’ and then vanished.
“No idea. In his room, probably. Or at the bar,” I said.
Eden rolled her eyes. “No wonder there’s a position opening up for senior producer soon. Glenn’s probably sick of Wren’s crap and wants to fire him, but he can’t because he’s still doing the minimum work necessary for his contract. Barely, though.”
“No shit. You’ve helped to direct me through this season way more than he has,” I said, tightening my grip around her waist. “You’ve got that promotion in the bag, babe.”
Eden smiled and thanked me, but she began to squirm out of my grip at the same time.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
She glanced around nervously again. “It’s still not over,” she replied. “We can’t do this yet; not here.”
I leaned closer and planted a kiss on her forehead. “No one’s around,” I said. “They’re all out there screaming for Tay Drake. I’m not due on stage for what…twelve minutes now? I think that’s enough time for a proper make-out session, like we used to do back in high school. How about it, huh?”
Eden giggled, but she continued to push me away. “Someone might still come in here and see us. It’s already happened before. Remember when Blair walked in and caught us? And also the time when Glenn nearly caught us in the locker room.”
“That was different. We weren’t in a dark room behind a stage on either of those occasions,” I murmured, desperate to taste those sweet lips of hers for just a moment.
She looked at her watch and finally relented. “One kiss. A quick kiss,” she said, holding up her index finger. “And then I’m going back out there.”
“Good enough for me,” I replied.
I wrapped my arms around her again, sliding one hand to the small of her back as she tilted her beautiful face up, and then I leaned in to kiss her. My mouth closed over her hot lips, and our tongues battled in a clash for domination as we furiously tasted each other like it was the last time. Eden moaned softly into my mouth as I squeezed her harder, and my cock stiffened in my pa
nts at the sound. I loved how easy it was to turn her on, like our bodies were simply made for each other, and I could only dream of moving my mouth further down her body right now. As much as I would love to flick my tongue over her clit until she came, it would have to wait.
Eden took in a big gulp of air when my mouth finally broke the seal over hers, and she touched her lips with her fingers. “Maybe just one more,” she whispered before tilting her chin upwards again.
I kissed her again, and this time it was sweeter, gentler than before. From outside the curtains to our far right, I could still hear the roar of the audience as Tay performed for them, but I was so wrapped up in Eden that I didn’t realize he’d stopped singing and was now speaking until it was far too late.
“I was meant to wait for this, but screw it…let’s bring on our main man right now! You ladies are gonna go wild when you hear him sing with me! So let’s do this…”
The curtains dropped and crumpled to the floor instead of parting slowly like I’d assumed they would, and Eden and I sprang apart like scalded cats.
It was too late.
A collective gasp went up in the audience, and Tay stopped talking mid-sentence and turned to stare at us with wide eyes. For once, even Glenn was completely speechless as everyone registered what they’d seen as the curtains dropped, and Eden let out a low whimper next to me.
Fuck.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Troy
“Wow! That’s not what I expected, but I guess The Stud always delivers with the great twists!”
Tay Drake awkwardly spoke into his mic again, trying to relieve the stark tension in the silent atmosphere, but it didn’t work. Everyone was still staring at Eden and me with expressions of pure shock on their faces. Next to me, Eden began to tremble, and she whispered to me. “Please tell me this is just a bad dream.”
I shook my head. “No,” I replied. “This isn’t a bad dream. It’s a good dream. Because fuck it…now I can finally do what I’ve wanted to do for weeks.”
“What? Troy…”
Before Eden could stop me, I held up a hand and called out to the crowd as the cameras continued to roll. “Well, now you all know the truth. The only woman I love is on this show, like I hoped for, but it’s not one of the contestants. It’s Eden Zamora, and to be perfectly honest, I’ve loved her since the first moment I saw her seven years ago.”
Glenn finally stepped forward, his face like thunder. “You….you….” he spluttered before finally finding his tongue. “You’ve ruined my show, you cunt! I’m going to fucking kill you!”
With that, he began to run full pelt towards the stage, and I grabbed Eden’s hand. “Run!” I said before breaking into a sprint, pulling her along behind me until we reached the steps on the left side of the stage; the opposite direction from where Glenn was coming.
By now, everyone else in the audience had finally begun to make noise again, tittering amongst themselves and throwing dark looks at us. I would’ve thought that Hayley might throw a tantrum upon realizing she wasn’t going to be picked by me, but instead I was surprised to see and hear Anya screaming.
“How dare you, Troy!” she shouted, her face red with rage as she watched us dash away. “You fucking bastard!”
She kept screaming and crying hysterically as Eden and I reached the far end of the cruise ship, and I could still hear her as we headed below deck. “Where are we going?” Eden asked as her little legs worked overtime to keep up with me, her hand still entwined with mine.
“The speed boat on the landing deck. Tay’s driver left the key in the ignition earlier!” I called back to her.
“You won’t find the key there.”
We both stopped dead in our tracks at the sound of another person’s voice, and my pulse began to race even more than it already was as Candice stepped out of the shadows near the white door which led to the landing deck.
“I saw him leave the keys earlier too, and I told Tay I’d go back and grab them for him later, just to make sure no one decided to go for a little joy ride. That boat is worth fifty grand, remember?” Candice said. “You told me that, Troy.”
I nodded, and Eden opened her mouth to speak. “Candice, I’m so sorry. I…” Her voice trailed off, and I knew she had no idea what to say, or how to apologize for all the sneaking around and lying.
Candice stared at us for a moment, and then she reached into her pocket and pulled the keys out, jangling them in the air as she held them up. “So I guess it’s lucky for you guys that I grabbed them before someone else,” she said with a wry smile as she tossed the keys in our direction. “You better hurry. I can hear footsteps above us.”
My eyebrows shot up as I caught the keys. “You’re helping us?”
“Yeah. Unlike everyone else on this show, I’m not a blind, selfish idiot. I could tell how you felt about Eden every time you looked at her for the last two months, and vice versa. I tried to bring it up with you earlier to see if you wanted to talk about it, but you clearly wanted to keep it under wraps,” she said. “And I kept my mouth shut to everyone else this whole time, because you know what? Fuck Glenn and everyone else on this goddamned show. I wasn’t going to see Eden lose her job just because she loves someone.”
She turned to address Eden. “Eden, you’re one of the only decent people I’ve met the whole time I’ve worked on reality TV, and I’ve been here a while. It’s toxic. So fuck everyone else. You deserve to be happy,” she said. She hesitated a little before speaking again. “Also, I still feel a bit bad for not trusting you during the Blair situation. I should’ve known better, and I owe you something like this as an apology. So hurry up and get on that boat! I’ll stall the others.”
Eden jumped forward and tearfully hugged Candice, and I nodded at Candice over her shoulder. “Thanks.”
“No worries. Just put in a good word for me with Tay Drake, now that you two know each other,” she said with a wink.
Eden and I raced through the door to the landing deck, and I quickly helped Eden onto the boat before sticking the key in the ignition and starting the motor. I’d driven one of these boats in a California marina with my friends a few times, which wasn’t exactly the same as driving on the choppy ocean, but I got the hang of it pretty quickly, and soon we were zipping well away from the cruise ship, the sun setting over the horizon behind us.
I was glad my relationship with Eden was out in the open now. Maybe not so glad that it was literally out on the open ocean, but still, a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Nothing felt better than admitting my feelings out loud to everyone back there, and I didn’t care what the world decided to throw at me anymore. The showrunners could sue me for breach of contract, the media could paint me as a complete and utter asshole for abandoning the two final contestants at the last minute….I didn’t care. Not one bit.
All that mattered was Eden.
I could see the coastline in the distance, and I slowed the boat down a bit as we headed towards it. I had a vague idea of where the nearest marina was, because the cruise ship hadn’t headed out too far from the port when we left earlier this morning, and I switched the boat’s lights on via the panel near the ignition as I saw that the sun was almost gone. Eden leaned down and trailed one hand in the aquamarine water as we cruised along, and she let out a sigh.
“The water is still so warm. I feel like it’s a good allegory for my life right now.”
“Because you’re in hot water career-wise?” I said gently, turning my gaze from the ocean to her for a second.
She nodded. “Yeah. I’m screwed. No one will ever hire me again,” she said softly.
“That won’t happen. You’ll be fine,” I said firmly. “I know you’ve never cared about this kind of stuff, but I’m a pretty famous guy, Eden.”
“I can’t live off your money—” she began to say, and I cut her off.
“That’s not what I meant. I mean I know people in the media industry. I can help you get another job; a better job. No ma
tter what, I’ll support you. You know that.”
She gave me a watery smile and nodded, and I squeezed her hand with one of mine as I kept the other on the boat’s steering handle. I knew exactly how guilty she felt—it was the same guilt I’d felt a couple of years ago when I’d stupidly gotten a DUI. My teammates, coaches, and the team owners had been understandably pissed at me for the bad press I’d brought upon the team, and at the time I’d been concerned that my career was already over. But it wasn’t. I kept clean and refused to make the same stupid choice again, and it blew over eventually. This wasn’t the exact same situation, but that horrible guilt and worthlessness I’d felt over possibly destroying my career and everything I’d worked so hard for was exactly what Eden was going through right now.
Whatever it took, I was going to find a way to show her just how much she was worth.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Eden
“Are you ready?”
Troy gave me a concerned look as he squeezed my hand, and I shivered and shook my head. “No. I don’t think I’ll ever be ready.”
“C’mon, it’ll be okay,” he said in a soothing tone. “Even if Glenn verbally tears your head off, you’re already expecting that, so it won’t be shocking. Aside from that, what’s the worst that could happen?”
I let out a heavy sigh and nodded as I stared at the big wooden sign which spoke to our arrival back at Palomar Ranch. It’d been three days since Troy and I had fled the cruise ship down in the Caribbean, and the first thing we’d done was fly back to California from Aruba to sort ourselves out. I’d been dreading returning to the main set at the ranch to get my belongings from my trailer—I hadn’t received word that I’d been fired, but it was pretty obvious that I would be—and late last night, I’d received a short, sharp text message from Glenn.
We’re all back at Palomar. See me in my office tomorrow. Ten A.M. Don’t be late, and come alone.
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