by Julia Bright
Panic flared, and he realized that maybe she’d drunk more than he’d thought. He hurried her to the bathroom and held her hair back, making sure it didn’t get in the way of the rush from her body. This wasn’t the first time he’d held hair for a woman, but it was the first time he’d done so with someone who hadn’t been partying all night long with him.
Rose’s breath was heavy as she lifted her head. “Washrag?”
Cam let go of her hair and reached for a rag that was folded neatly beside the sink. He turned on the tap to get it damp before placing it in her hand. He tried to hold her hair back again, but she grunted and waved him away. Cam reached around her and flushed the toilet.
“Thanks.” She slurred the word as she wiped her face.
“No problem.”
“I’ve never…I didn’t drink that much.” Rose reached out and grasped on to the counter, pulling herself to standing. “Oh God, what will Zach think? I look like shit, don’t I?” Rose moved to stand in front of the mirror and picked at her hair before gasping. “Oh God, is that—” she leaned in, staring at a speck of something on her neck. With a squeak, she grabbed for the washcloth she’d dropped and wiped the speck away.
“Feel better?”
“Oh my God, I’m a mess. I’m so sorry. I don’t know what happened. I had a glass in the car on the drive over and then just a few sips. I can hold my liquor, and that wasn’t even hard liquor, just wine.”
Cam sighed and nodded. “You’re better though, right?” He had no idea what Zach was putting into the wine so he had no clue if Rose was allergic to the drugs or if there even were drugs. He prayed she didn’t have a reaction.
“I don’t know. I feel off, but I told Zach—well, I didn’t tell him, but the guys you were eating lunch with—I told them that I would be here for Zach. He’s expecting me.”
Breaking it to Rose that her date with Zach wasn’t a real date was harder than he’d thought it would be. He should just tell her that she’d been brought out here to fuck Zach, but she seemed so innocent and telling her she was a party favor, not a date, seemed wrong.
“Zach is a little busy right now. How about you just sit in here with me for a bit?”
Rose stared at him then her eyes narrowed and her lips pursed. Her cheeks were a very attractive shade of pink. She began shaking her head, and Cam thought he was going to have to block the door to keep her in here.
Her eyes focused and she frowned. “Did you really kiss me or am I dreaming that?”
Cam shook his head. “No.” He wasn’t lying, he hadn’t really kissed her, but he’d wanted to after holding her so close. He was a bastard, no question. “Did you hit your head? You know, maybe you fell getting out of the car.”
“Oh my God, I did.” She gasped and lifted her hand to her forehead. “Maybe I did hit my head. It’s kind of fuzzy now.”
He didn’t think she’d hit her head, at least it didn’t look like she had. She just seemed tipsy and maybe a little drugged.
“That’s okay.” He led her to the bedroom and pointed at the bed. “Here, let’s sit on the bed and watch some TV so you can rest.”
Rose’s face squished up, and she looked like she was trying very hard to concentrate. “I don’t know. What about the party?”
“It will be going on for a long time. Don’t worry about it.” Cam moved to the bed and sat. He patted a spot in the center next to him. “Come on. I’m sure there’s something good on.”
Rose still seemed a little confused as she settled on the bed. She shuffled backward and tried to tug a pillow up but she was on top of it. Cam lifted her and grabbed the pillow, which wasn’t an easy feat, but he fluffed the thing before placing it behind her back. She settled but didn’t relax.
Cam grabbed the TV remotes from the table beside the bed and flicked it on, surfing until Rose yelped.
“Wait.”
“What?” His heart pounded and he turned to stare at her.
“That movie, weren’t you in it?”
Cam shivered and rolled his eyes. It was a bad movie about college guys trying to get laid. It had been painful to film because the script had sucked, but Zach had wanted him to do it, so he’d followed along, acting in the terrible movie as best as he could for his brother’s sake.
“Let’s watch something else.”
“But don’t you want to see it?” Rose’s cheeks were still pink but she didn’t seem drunk.
“No. How about we… Here we go. This is a good one.” He’d stopped on a family friendly film that neither he nor his brother were in. He settled deeper in the bed and so did Rose. They watched for a good thirty minutes before he heard Rose snort. He glanced down, realizing she’d drifted off to sleep.
Whatever had been in that drink had to have been strong, because he was able to get up and use the restroom without waking her. Maybe she was just tired. He hoped that was it.
After washing his hands, he stared at himself in the mirror, wondering just how screwed he was. He moved back to the bedroom and stared at her for a long while. She was beautiful, even in her current state. There was nothing good that could come of this. Rose really thought she had been asked on a date with Zach. A headache setup behind his eyes. Exhaustion filled him, but he couldn’t sleep with her here. She seemed okay, but he wanted to watch her, and he couldn’t risk her leaving the room and being found by the other guys.
Cam settled on the bed and was surprised she still slept. Another two hours passed before she woke and sat up straight, her eyes wide. Relief filled him. He’d been close to calling an ambulance the longer she slept, but fear of being found out, this party splashed across the pages of whatever gossip rag was near, had held him in check. Plus, she’d seemed fine before she’d drifted off. Guilt hit again, making him shrink a little inside.
“Oh my God, where am I?” Rose sat up even straighter and glanced around, her eyes finally landing on his.
“We were watching a movie.”
Rose shook her head and yawned before stretching. “Wasn’t I supposed to have a date with your brother?”
“Listen, about that—”
“Crap, my hair. Why did you let me sleep?” Rose jumped up and ran across the room to the bathroom, flipping on the lights. “Shit, I look terrible.”
Cam followed behind her, leaning against the doorjamb. She didn’t look terrible. Instead, he thought she looked beautiful. Music was playing outside, and he guessed someone had taken the party to the pool. He prayed no one drowned tonight, and drowning was a possibility since the drugs were flowing freely. His brother was stupid, and Cam was even dumber for attending this party.
Rose turned to face him, panic shining in her eyes. “Your brother, he’s going to think I abandoned him.”
“No, he’ll be fine.”
Rose brushed past him and stopped in the middle of the bedroom, turning to the patio door that he’d not even really noticed when he’d first come in.
“They’re in the pool. I’m just going to call down and tell him I’ll be there in a bit.”
Before Cam could stop her, Rose opened the door and stepped out onto the balcony. He followed close and wrapped his arm around her before tugging her back into the room.
Once she was standing on her own, she turned to face him. “What were they doing down there?”
“What did you see?”
“People—no, that’s not quite right, not just people, it was naked bodies all touching and stuff.”
“What do you think was happening?”
As Rose stared at him, her eyes widened. “They were all having sex, right?”
He nodded and waited for her to put it all together. Her brows pinched tight first, then her nose wrinkled just before her lips pursed. The impact of her gaze when it hit his almost made him take a step back. Realization had come to Rose and the fallout wasn’t going to be pretty.
“Wait…” Rose placed her hand on her mouth and shook her head, her eyes going even wider than they were before. Cam opened hi
s mouth to speak, but Rose held up her hand and gave her head a quick shake. “No, wait.”
He felt for her. It wasn’t every day you were at your normal job slinging the best burgers in the country when someone asked you to be a hooker for the evening and join in on a free-for-all orgy.
Her gaze met his again, and she shivered. “I threw up?”
He nodded and gave her a slight smile. “Yes.”
“Then I fell asleep in the bed—” Rose gasped and turned to look at the fully made up bed with just the pillows propped up. She snapped her head back so she could stare at him. “We didn’t, did we?”
He shook his head, desire and guilt twisting through him, but the guilt was winning, overshadowing the lust, tamping it down. “No, ma’am. You slept and I watched a movie.”
Her eyes grew brighter and her cheeks pinker. “Oh God, I’m a whore.”
He winced, trying to hide his reaction from her. “No, you’re not.”
“That tip. It was five hundred dollars. Was that to pay me to sleep with you?”
He shook his head, hoping his denials worked. “No, it—”
“I’m a hooker. I might as well hand in my apron. It’s not like I make that much money anyway. I’ll never get a modeling gig or become an actress now. I might as well start walking the streets. Is five hundred how much hookers are getting paid. I could quit, and—”
“Stop.” Cam was tired of hearing her beat herself up.
“But I’m here, at this…this… What is it? A sex party? An orgy? Oh my God, I’m at an orgy.” She threw up her hands and walked away before turning back to him.
Cam chuckled and shook his head. “It’s not an—well, it might be an orgy, but we’re up here and no one will know we are here if we stay out of the way.”
“Stay out of the way?” She looked absolutely adorable in her confusion. Cam felt for her. She’d had too much to drink. Maybe he should have taken her to the ER, but she’d seemed okay, just drunk earlier. She’d been able to carry on a conversation. Hell, he was stupid. She’d thrown up, and now she was fine—well, she was still probably drunk, just not as bad as she was before. God, his brother was an idiot and he was an idiot for not stopping this.
“Listen, I don’t want anyone to know I was here. My reputation is crap, and I’m trying to rebuild it. Any photos of me in that mess would destroy my chances of getting the part I want.”
“Okay.” Rose held up her hand, her shoulders heaving as she glanced around. “So we really didn’t have sex?”
He smiled and shook his head, chuckling a little. “No, seriously. You fell asleep. I didn’t touch. I didn’t look. Nothing.”
“What was I given to drink? I wasn’t drugged, was I?”
Cam sighed, anger filling him. This was why he’d begged his brother not to invite this woman. The girls at the party knew the score. They’d been hired to have sex and were being reimbursed very well. Those girls knew they would have some happy pills, something to get them to relax and just go with the fun. It was wrong, and he should have stood up to his brother, but he never really could.
Zach had security guys on property to make sure nothing really bad happened to the revelers, but that wouldn’t protect Rose from sharing sex with the other seven guys attending the party. He doubted that she’d had more than a few sex partners in her whole life and if he hadn’t intervened, she’d be in the thick of it, having sex with all the guys.
“You’re awfully silent. Does that mean I was drugged?”
He shook his head and spread his hands, hoping he could get her to think of something else. “Listen, I don’t want you being angry at Zach. He’s—”
She gasped and took a step back, almost losing her balance. He reached out to steady her, heat filling him as they touched. Her gaze flitted over his hand, and she moved away from him and leaned against the dresser.
“He’s a scum bag? Is that the answer you were going to give?”
Her question hurt. He didn’t want to think of his brother as a scumbag. Cam had been labeled that a few times himself and it sucked. Sure, they partied a lot. Neither one of them were saints, but he’d never drugged a woman to have sex. This was new to Zach too. Fuck, he was screwed.
Cam shrugged. “Well, he isn’t the best example of a gentleman. Do you feel okay now?”
She gave him a tight smile. Her eyes finally looked a little clearer, and he figured she really was sobering up. “Kind of.”
“You did throw up fairly soon after drinking the wine and you didn’t get much.”
“How are those girls not asleep down there?” Rose asked as she walked over to the patio door. He caught her reflection in the glass and saw her brows pinch together, her mouth angled down in a frown.
“They’re used to it. They party like this often.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I begged Zach not to have this party, but I have no say over him. And I didn’t think—you just fell asleep. But before that you seemed fine.”
“I am exhausted. I don’t know, so maybe I was drugged or…”
He needed her to calm down. “Um…so how about we watch another movie.”
Rose spun and put her hands on her hips. “Are you serious?”
“Listen, Rose, if you go down there, those guys are going to expect to have sex with you.”
She shook her head fast and wobbled a little. “I don’t want to have sex with them.”
“I’m sure you don’t. So let’s stay up here and relax, watch some TV and hang out.”
Rose lifted her chin, her lip still quivering a little and her brows were still wrinkled. “Why are you being so nice to me?”
“I don’t know. Maybe because I like you. You’re nice and sometimes I just want to hang out with nice people.”
Rose rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Was that a loaded statement?”
“You don’t even know the half of it. I swear, it’s so bad. I love what I do for a living. I mean, really, it’s great. Acting is what I want to do for the rest of my life, which is why I want to switch what type of movies I’m in.”
Her brows shot up, and she bit her lower lip, studying him. “Would it make that big of a difference—you switching what type of movies you do?”
“Huge difference. No one wants to see a graying fifty-year-old man acting like a college kid. I’m getting old and those parts will dry up faster than bread left out on the countertop.”
Rose threw back her head and laughed, the sound a soothing flow that made him relax like he hadn’t in years.
“You aren’t old. What are you, twenty-five?”
“No, God no. I’m twenty-three. Don’t age me before my time.”
“Wow, you’re ancient.” Rose shook her head and pulled her hand up, looking at her fingernails, pretending to inspect them. “You don’t look a day over twenty-one, but gosh, you’re old.”
“Okay, so I’m not like Harrison Ford old, but the types of parts that got me here won’t stick around. It takes months and months to negotiate a role in a movie. If I don’t act now, I’ll be typecast as the oversexed college boy, and I don’t want that. Even now, with the few short years I’ve been in the business, there are directors who don’t want to work with me because they think I’m too shallow.”
“Wow. Really, they’ve said that?” Rose’s face was amazingly expressive, almost like she was acting. The women he’d ‘dated’ in Hollywood kept ‘resting bitch face’ in place all the time. He’d not seen a true emotion from any of them. Rose was a breath of fresh air.
The pounding in his head had lessened and the stress was gone from his shoulders. He could breathe easier, and he relaxed. In Hollywood, relaxing wasn’t recommended. If you let down your guard, someone would try to screw you over. But Rose seemed so nice and sweet. He wished circumstances were different, but he was at a crossroads and dating would have to wait.
Cam moved to the bed and plopped down in the middle, scooting back so he was leaning against the headboard. “Come. Si
t. We’ll find something on TV.”
Rose moved slowly and sat on the edge of the mattress, adjusting the pillow behind her. He smiled, knowing that any other woman would be plastered to his side trying to score some publicity. He pulled up the guide and found a comedy that had a PG-13 rating instead of something R rated. He didn’t need her thinking all he wanted was sex.
The movie began, and about fifteen minutes into it, he could tell she was relaxing. It really was a funny flick with some good situational comedy that made both of them laugh out loud. He’d shifted, settling on the bed. She adjusted and looked more relaxed. Being with Rose was comfortable, like he was just hanging out with a friend.
About an hour into the film, Rose grabbed the remote and pressed paused. “We have a problem.”
Panic raced through Cam, making him flinch. “What problem?”
“I’m starving.”
“Oh, we can just go down…” His voice trailed off as he thought of all the people having sex downstairs. “Oh my, I’m not sure what we’ll do.”
“I’m so hungry. Maybe I should just go.”
“No, no, that’s not necessary. I think I have a plan.”
Rose tilted her head and looked at him like he’d lost a few marbles. “A plan?”
“Come on. Let’s look in the closet and see if we can find something to dress you in.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes. Now come on.” They headed into the bathroom and started opening doors. The first closet they found was empty, then there was a locked door, but it wasn’t locked with a deadbolt, only a thumb lock, and he knew he could break in. “We need a bobby pin. Do you have one?”
“Sorry, no.”
Rose scrunched her hair, and he stared, noticing how healthy it was. Though he’d held it back when she’d been tossing her cookies, he’d not been paying attention. Her hair really was her real hair. There were no extensions or add-ins. She hadn’t pinned anything in to make it look like she had more volume. Her hair looked healthy because she was healthy.
“Let’s look through the bathroom. Maybe there’s one in the back of a drawer.”
He took one row of drawers, and Rose took the other, kicking off her shoes and getting down on her knees. No woman he’d ever been with in Hollywood would act like this. Their gazes met and he smiled. Rose returned his grin and started going through the drawers.