More Than Famous (Famous #2)

by Kahlen Aymes

  He turned to look at me without speaking for a moment.

  I shrugged. "Well?"

  "I just don't think I can do this anymore, Brook. I've tried to be your friend, but I'm still in love with you," he said flatly.

  My breath rushed out. I should have just kept my mouth shut.

  This isn't the conversation I wanted to have right before stepping out for a premiere, and anyway, I wasn't exactly sure what to say in response. I'd already apologized over and over.

  "I don't like fading into the background while you hook up with that British—"

  "Please don’t start," I interrupted. "I'm sorry this has hurt you and I've told you a hundred times that I never meant for this to happen. I thought we were past all of this." I reached out to take his hand but he pulled his back from me.

  His mouth quirked, "I guess you are. Obviously, I'm not." His tone was sardonic.

  "What brought this on now? Why right before one of the biggest moments of my life?"

  He was getting agitated and angry. "I fucking told you, Brook! I don't want to do this anymore! I mean what happens now? I deliver you to his arms again and then pretend it isn't killing me while you go off and fuck him in his hotel room, right?"

  I felt the heat rise under my skin at his words and felt my cheeks burn.

  "You've destroyed me with all of this. I've loved you for years and trusted you when you said you loved me... and yet, you dump me for the first bastard that happens your way."

  My face flushed and angry tears pricked the back of my eyes as I looked at him.

  "Why the fuck are you doing this to me now? You know how I feel, David. You're still important to me! I've told you that again and again."

  David cut me off. "Yeah? Is that what you tell him? That you still love me?"

  I didn't know what to say. What words would make a difference? I shook my head. "I don't want us to end up hating each other, I never did, but I don’t love you like that."

  I put my hand over my eyes and swallowed hard as I tried not to let tears fall. I had to get out and face the crowd in only a few minutes and I didn't need this shit now.

  And worse, Cade would see me struggling with my emotions. He wouldn't know exactly what was up, but he could read me like a book, so I wouldn’t be able to keep the turmoil from him.

  The last thing I need is for Cade to believe I'm crying over David.

  Suddenly I felt David’s arms go around me as he pulled me close. I tried to push against his chest but his hand was on the back of my head, roughly forcing my face closer to his. His mouth was hot as he brought it roughly down on mine. His tongue snaked out and tried to gain entrance to my mouth. I was shocked, but I finally found the strength to push against him again. He was crushing me to him and I couldn't breathe.

  I tried to twist my face away, but his hand only gripped tighter at the back of my head. He was hurting me, his other hand digging into my thigh as he pulled my body closer, and then moving to grip my breast. I cried out in pain.

  Holy shit! This is a nightmare.

  "Does he make you feel the way I did? Does he? Remember what it was like between us?"

  Oh, Jesus God. Not even close.

  His mouth was wet and ragged as he dragged it from my lips, then across my face. I was petrified, and disgusted that he would force himself on me like that.

  My body went limp hoping he would stop; I didn’t move a muscle as I waited for him to stop. David brought his mouth back to mine and kissed me again, but softer this time. Without my resistance, he didn’t need to force me.

  I felt the anger drain out of him, as tears dripped from my eyes. I felt sad that he was so hurt, sad that it had come to this and angry as hell that he would do what he just did.

  “Brooklyn, please come back to me. I’ll forgive you for being unfaithful to me with him. Just please come back to me and we’ll forget any of this ever happened.”

  We were arriving at the theater and the crowds were screaming everywhere around. I shoved him from me roughly after his grip on my flesh lessened.

  My eyes flashed at him and I lowered my voice to almost a whisper. “Don’t you ever fucking touch me again! Do you hear me?” I rasped out.

  I angrily moved to the other side of the car as far away from him as possible.

  I struggled to wipe the tears from my face. I was so upset my body was shaking and my voice trembled.

  “You bastard! I was never unfaithful to you, David! I wasn't with Cade until after we broke up!"

  “You fucking expect me to believe that? I saw how he mooned over you!”

  I tried to calm down and get control of my emotions. The crowds screaming outside the car reminded me that I had to go out there and act like a star, despite my inner turmoil.

  "Look, I never wanted to throw it in your face, but you leave me no choice now. I love him, okay? More than I've ever loved anyone! Nothing you say or do will ever change it! Now, I have to step out of this car and put on a happy face in front of thousands of people. I fucking hate you for doing this right now!”

  He sat back in his seat like I had slapped him, and I ran a trembling hand through my hair, trying to take some calming breaths.

  Jesus… what was Cade going to think? It wasn’t like I was going to get a chance to talk to him about it before all of the bullshit started. David hurting me didn't even matter compared to what Cade's reaction to it would be.

  I took out a mirror and wiped the smudges of mascara from under my eyes and retouched my lip gloss, but my face was pale as hell. Martin was already waiting beside the car for me to join him, along with Ruth, my publicist, but thank God, Cade hadn’t arrived yet.

  David tried to reach for me again, but gentler this time. He’d seen this side of me before and he knew I was dead serious. I flinched away from him, my eyes glaring.

  “I want you off of the red carpet. I want you as far away from me as possible, so the fucking minute I get out of this car and join Martin, you will exit and the guys will escort you out. You wanted this to stop, well, it’s stopping. I’m done!” I took another shaky breath.

  “Brook, I’m sorry…,” he began and I put up my hand to stop him.

  "Fucking save it,” I said. "I’m so over this bullshit."

  His expression hardened as he stared at me, dead calm replacing his desperation. “You know, I could totally fuck you up. I could tell the media everything I know about you and Cade, blow this shit wide open. That’s what I should do. What will the world think of their golden boy, then? They’ll think you’re a two-timing whore.” His face was livid.

  “You know what? Go ahead, David. You'd probably be doing Cade and me a huge favor.” Deep down I was scared shitless, but I couldn’t let him see that. “Do your fucking worst.”

  I was shaking as I grabbed the door handle and pushed open the car door. As I stepped out onto the red carpet, I ran my hand through my hair and tried to steady my legs all the while the fans were screaming around me. It took effort not to fall apart.

  I felt myself literally crumbling, not ready for any of this; especially after the scene in the car.

  Martin came to me and put his arm around me. "Are you okay, sweetheart?" He could see the stress on my face as I struggled not to cry. I bit my lip and nodded, feeling tears threaten again, and shoved my hands in the pockets of the black leather jacket I wore over my dress.

  I inhaled deeply, blowing it out as Cade's car pulled up on one side of me, while David was being escorted out on the other.

  Talk about fucking irony.

  The minute Cade opened his door the screams increased by a hundred decibels, and my hungry eyes sought him out. He was as gorgeous as ever, and my aching heart screamed for me to run into his arms. God, I need him right now.

  I stepped back with Martin to wait as he cleared the car and tried to get control of my emotions.

  I hadn't seen him in ten days. It felt like ten years, especially when I was feeling so fragile. I wanted to feel his strong arms around me,
and his passionate kisses on my mouth, but knew that couldn't happen for several more hours. At least I'd have him standing beside me.

  We had to get through the movie and the interviews before we'd be allowed to retreat to the hotel, when we could finally be alone and I could tell him about what happened with David. My stomach lurched as I worried over his reaction. He would be outraged.

  His eyes searched for me and he smiled when he saw me, but it quickly faded when he saw the look on my face. I knew he could see the angst in my features and he visibly tensed.

  Cade's hand ran through his golden hair again and again as he talked to some of the press on the carpet lined up to interview him, a sure sign that he was agitated as well. He walked a few feet toward me, and put his arm around my waist. Finally.

  He pulled me closer to his side and leaned down to speak in my ear as the cameras began to flash all over again, and the fans increased their din of screams and chants.

  "Brook, are you okay?

  We were both trying to smile for the cameras and I was extremely shaken.

  "Not really. I just had a big fight with David in the car. He threatened to out our relationship to the press. We are so fucked!"

  I smiled stiffly as his arm tightened around my waist as the cameras flashed a million times a second.

  AFTER ALL OF the screaming fans on the carpet and the film had run, we were then ushered into a huge auditorium for the interview session of the premiere. Brooklyn was still visibly shaken and I was worried about her. I'd never seen her so upset, other than the times we'd had to say goodbye. I knew crowds made her uneasy. Maybe as much as they did me, but this... well, I knew this was something else. This had to do with the way David disappeared. When I'd gotten out of the car, I saw Brook's bodyguards walking away with him, but that was all I knew of what had happened.

  During the photo calls, I wasn't near her alone and couldn’t ask questions. I was going crazy not knowing what happened. Being unable to talk to her was maddening and then the interviews created the same problems. I was very happy to see her, but the look on her beautiful face scared the hell out of me.

  She’d been crying and was struggling to calm her breathing for the first twenty minutes on the carpet. I felt her mood as if it were my own.

  When she told me she'd had a fight with David and he was planning on going to the press, I felt a mixture of relief and trepidation. Maybe it would be a good thing if we didn't have to hide anymore. I was very private by nature, and didn't feel the need to parade the truth around, but I was sick of the lie. We needed the chance to be together quietly, without having to sneak around, yet not being overly anxious to expose the details.

  Now, I had this new worry.

  Was she more upset about us being exposed or was she more upset about her fight with David? Given the fact that she'd devised the little bracelet ploy to let out little hints about us, I doubted it was the former. Shit, maybe it was both. Damn it, I wouldn't be able to find out until after the interviews were finished.

  I glanced at Brook as they sat us down on some black leather chairs in front of thousands of screaming girls. I should be flattered by the attention, but really it struck me as annoying. These women didn't even know me and I was the same person that I was when I was in my other films, so what was all the fuss about?

  Brook was shrinking in her chair, visibly cowering from the crowds and the noise. Maybe she was sick. She put on a good front, but it wasn't impenetrable and I could see she was crumbling in the way her shoulders slumped, the paleness of her pained features, and the way she kept running her hands through her hair.

  They had us put on some headphones so that the translators could give us the questions as the crowd asked them. It all became sort of surreal, a blur of sorts as the questions passed between the three of us and the crowd’s roars rising and falling. The standard questions were always asked, you know, “What's it like to work with Brook?”, “Have you read the books?", "Will you do the other movies in the series?" For Brook they were “What's it like to kiss the hottest doctor in the world?", "What's it like working with Caden?”, and the same sort of mindless inquiries. It wasn't fair really, how most of the questions were about me, even if they were directed at her. Her contribution to the film was equal to mine, for God's sake.

  I caught her glancing my way several times, and I longed to reach out and take her hand in mine, to give her reassurance, to take the pain off of her face. I didn't think she was really listening to the girl asking the next question, because her chin was bent down and she was playing with her hair.

  "Cade are you anything like Ryan? Are you romantic to the girls in your life? Is there one special one?"

  Yes, she says I'm incredibly romantic, and that's all that matters.

  I took a breath and smiled as I considered how to answer the girl without giving too much away.

  "Uh... sure, I can be romantic if I’m properly motivated.” I smiled as another blast of screams hit me. “I kind of have the, you know the whole attitude which Ryan has that…” I was stumbling a little bit, but I realized how true the words were that I was about to say. "If you're gonna make an effort with someone, then it has to be with that one person, and that's it. There’s only one true love."

  Brook's head snapped up to look at me and I saw something like fear in her eyes. "What?" Her eyes probed mine for the meaning behind my words.

  The host of the event spoke and broke our little bubble. "The next question will be for you Brooklyn."

  Another girl from the audience stepped up to the microphone; "Brooklyn, what is it like to act?"

  I saw her face twist as she searched for the answer. The question was so obscure there could be any number of answers, and surely it was a very personal question. She threaded her fingers through her hair and I heard the emotion rise up in her voice when she spoke.

  "Um... it's natural. It came easy, sort of like breathing, I guess." She turned it into a question. Her face went down and she swallowed back the tears I knew were so close to the surface. "Sometimes… it hurts a lot. I mean if you really immerse yourself and become the characters, you can’t help it, and I think that’s how we made it work so well." She made a gesture in the air with her hand to indicate she really didn't know what type of answer they were looking for.

  Sometimes it hurts a lot. Was she talking about the movie, the current situation or both?

  Brook didn't look at me for the rest of the interview, which lasted another thirty minutes. I was agonizing over what could be going through her mind; was she sad because she's realizing that she wants to go back to David?

  What the fuck happened in that car between the airport and the cinema? I was going completely bonkers.

  As they finally ushered us down the corridor to the waiting limos, I watched her closely as she walked in front of me. Her resolve was shot, and I guessed the minute we got into the car she'd lose hold of the delicate control she'd maintained for the last four hours of this ordeal.

  Martin was with us and I silently prayed that he'd be taking a separate car.

  "Cade, Pinnacle wants Brook to ride with me, and we'll meet you back at the hotel, okay?"

  This wouldn't do at all. Screw the rules; I desperately needed to talk to Brook, and now.

  "Um, actually, Martin, I'm going with Brooklyn. Please don't ask any questions, it's personal."

  Brook's head came up and Martin shot a look to see what she wanted. Brook bit her lip, and nodded as she looked at the ground.

  "Okay. Can we meet for dinner later, then?" Martin's eyes narrowed as he watched the pair of us. “Discuss the itinerary for the rest of the tour?”

  "Um, sure, maybe. Whatever Brook wants to do is fine with me," I said softly as I put my arm around her waist to lead her out to the car. I felt her body tremble as we whisked past the curb and I held the door as she entered ahead of me.

  Once the car started to move, I reached for her hand and she drew it away from me. My heart stopped. What did this mea
n?

  "Brook, I don't know what happened in the car with David, but I'm here now. Do you want to talk about it?"

  She completely disregarded what I said.

  "Cade, what was that answer in there?" Her eyes filled with tears and my heart started to ache within my chest.

  "What? I don't understand. Which answer?" My voice was low, so the driver couldn't hear my words.

  "The one about being with one person and that's it! Were you trying to tell me you thought I was two-timing you with David?"

  My eyes widened at her words. I never dreamed she'd interpret it that way, but given all that had happened earlier, I should have considered it. Fuck, I still didn't even know what had happened. Her lips were trembling and her brow crinkled as the tears threatened to overflow.

  I took her by the shoulders and turned her to me. "No, love. I said the words because I meant them. You are the one person, my one person. I wasn't accusing you of anything... " She let out a sigh and melted into my arms as the tears fell from her eyes.

  "I'm so sorry if I'm being a bitch, Cade. This trip has just been awful, but it isn't your fault. I've missed you so much."

  I pulled her across my lap and wrapped my arms around her, and she leaned into me.

  Jesus, she felt so good.

  It had been too long since I'd held her last. I turned my face into the hair at her neck and breathed her in. I wanted to kiss her so badly, but knew that would be too much in front of these drivers.

  "I've missed you, too. I couldn't wait to get back to you. I love you," I whispered near her ear and she nodded.

  Her fingers curled into my arm, clutching the fabric of my suit jacket. "Me, too."

  "Do you want to tell me what happened with David?"

  She sniffed against me and slid her arm up around my neck as I traced circles on her back to soothe her.

  "Maybe we should wait until we get up to our rooms?" she suggested.

  I nodded against her head that was tucked under my chin. I was anxious to know what the hell was going on, but I realized the logic behind her words. I settled back in the seat and held her the rest of the way without talking.