by Tasha Fawkes
"Oh my god! You cow. I'm hanging up now."
My face reddened at the thought of Chad and I getting into bed together. Why did Kim have to push her agenda so hard? It was bad enough that he was smokin' without my best friend constantly eliciting a mental image of us in bed together.
"Moo. Love you!'
"Love you too!"
I hung up the phone and set it beside me, chuckling. Kim had been my rock since the first day I met her. That was my first day in Vegas too, and my first night living out on my own. I experienced a lot of firsts at eighteen, but I had a feeling I was going to experience even more firsts during this brief three weeks with Chad.
I spent another hour or so by the pool, periodically wading into the cool water to cool myself off. I kept half expecting—and half hoping—that Chad would meander down here and we'd bump into each other, but there was no trace of him or either of his crew. I didn't know if they were still in their meeting or what, but before long I was starting to feel the sun a bit too much and decided to head indoors for a little lie down.
The closer I got to the room, the more my heart pounded in anticipation of what I might find on the other side of the door. Would Chad be in there? I hadn't seen him anywhere else, so it wasn't too outrageous a guess that he might be relaxing in the room. After all, these kinds of resorts were probably quite pedestrian to him now. He'd been living this life for years. Maybe he'd be lounging on the couch, reading a book or a watching something on TV. Maybe I could sneak in beside him and we could just hang out for a bit without any pressure, without any expectations. It sounded like heaven.
The slapping of my flip-flops echoed down the marbled hallway. Everywhere in this place seemed to have an echo. I liked it. It made me feel like I was in some fancy palace in a fairytale land, alone with only the servants and the prince. This fantasy was ruined by the fact that in no way would I ever be considered a princess but hell, fantasies were called fantasies for a reason.
I flashed my keycard over the lock and waited for the green light, then turned the handle and strolled into the room casually, like I wasn't even expecting anyone else to be in there when I entered.
Which turned out to be the case.
I checked the sitting room, bedroom, and even the bathroom, but there was no sign of Chad. His stuff was still untouched by his side of the bed. He probably hadn't been up to the room at all yet, and I felt silly for entertaining such girlish notions. He was here to work, so obviously he was elsewhere working. Or hanging out with his friends. There was no reason for him to stick around in the room. It wasn't like he wanted to spend time with me or anything. And I definitely shouldn't have been wanting to spend time with him.
I started undressing, already dreaming a dream of a warm shower and a cozy bathrobe, when I noticed my pants on the floor. There was a note lying on top of them, scrawled on the hotel's stationary. I picked it up and read.
Dinner tonight? Meet me at the hotel restaurant at 7. No pants allowed.
I gasped at his cheek, but my stomach warmed all the same. I tossed the note into the trash and strolled off for the shower, whistling a jaunty tune.
Seven
Brin
I didn't know whether there would be cameras at dinner or not, so I decided to play it safe and go full girlfriend mode. I figured if Chad was my legitimate boyfriend and he and I were meeting for a legitimate dinner date, I would get legitimately dolled up. So I did.
I picked out my favorite dress, a slinky red number that showed off just enough cleavage to turn heads without garnering the wrong kind of attention. It clung to my hips and fell to just above my knees, making it sexy but still family friendly. I kept my jewelry simple—a pair of rhinestone earrings, a silver chain necklace, and a couple of rings to accentuate my slender fingers. Then, with an artist's touch, I applied a light smoky eye and red lipstick that made the whole look pop. To top it off, I smoothed my waves with some fragrant oil and tousled them until the overall look was that I might have done it on purpose, but might have just rolled out of bed after a tawdry encounter.
I liked messing around with my appearance. I'd learned long ago that the skin you wear can still be your disguise if you play it right, but tonight was one of the rare occasions that my outside matched my inside. I was feeling flirty and fun, and not to mention relaxed. I'd been in Hawaii one day but had already released so much tension and stress. If the rest of the trip went as swimmingly, they'd have to roll me back to Vegas as a big ball of goo.
I slipped on a pair of simple black heels and did another check of myself in the mirror before heading down to the restaurant. Chad hadn't dropped into the room beforehand and I hoped that he would be waiting at the restaurant and that he hadn't forgotten. It would be just my like to get excited and amped up for a dinner date, only to have my date forget I even existed.
I was mindful of the fact that just because I was playing his girlfriend, didn't mean Chad had to afford me any of the usual girlfriend perks. I was essentially his employee and he could forget all about me if he wanted to. Which wasn't a problem, I reminded myself, since I wasn't here for him. I was here for a vacation by the ocean. Why was it so hard to remember that when I was getting dolled up?
I shook off these thoughts. It was okay for me to be excited to have dinner with Chad. He was an interesting guy, and when else would I get the opportunity to casually dine with an internet celebrity? These next three weeks would provide me a bevy of stories to take home and tell Kimberley, and even more memories to keep me going the next time things got tough in Vegas. Why shouldn't I enjoy every second to the max?
I stepped unsurely into the restaurant, scanning the tables to spot that familiar head of light hair. I didn't notice when someone stepped up beside me until they spoke in my ear.
"Looking for someone?"
I jumped. The honey-rich sound of Chad's voice sent a pleasurable shiver down my spine, and the mischievous smirk he displayed when I turned to face him hammered it into place. God, he was handsome. I kept expecting to get used to his good looks but they hit me like a brick each time those eyes landed on mine.
"I've got a hot date," I told him.
Chad did a once-over of my appearance. The faintest tingling traversed my body at the same time.
"You are a hot date," he corrected. "Let's get you at a table before one of the other guys in here tries to steal you away from me."
"Remember our agreement," I reminded in a sing-song voice.
Chad chuckled. "Couldn't help myself." He caught the attention of the maître d', who promptly escorted us over to a waiting table.
Chad pulled out my chair and tucked me in under the table like a true gentleman. He looked the part of one, too, clothed in a fitted navy suit, shirt unbuttoned at the neck. Either he wore that outfit all day or he got dressed in one of his crew's room, which was more likely. It seemed like he was giving me a little space to get settled, not wanting to overwhelm me all at once, and I liked that. Our situation was unique and maybe he sensed that I was a little skittish about the whole deal. I appreciated the thought.
Chad ordered us a bottle of wine and we both turned to the menus. I stared hard at the main courses. It was difficult not to glance up at him while I looked. It was difficult not to look at him in general.
"Did you have a nice day?" Chad asked finally, setting down his menu.
Having made my decision ages before, I folded mine onto the table as well. "I had an amazing day. I feel like I'm in a dream."
A little voice in my head warned me to hold back a little, to not show my hand all at once. It felt over the top to be concerned that somehow this admittance of enjoyment could be used against me in the future. Or at least it would, if I didn't have enough experience with that kind of twisted fuckery.
Another voice, however, told me I could trust him. I wasn't ready to listen to that voice just yet, but I was willing at least to give myself a little bit of slack.
"I'm glad. I've always loved Hawaii, but seeing you take it all in f
or the first time makes it almost like it's my first time too."
The server brought over our wine and took our orders, and then there was nothing between Chad and I but a couple glasses of Chardonnay and the dancing flame of a lone white candle.
I took a nervous sip of my wine then wondered why the hell I was so nervous. This wasn't a real date. It had all the feel of a real date, but it was more like a business meeting. And business meetings didn't end in sex, which was good since that was the kind of thing that would give me nerves.
It had been a long time since I last had sex. Contrary to what most people believed, being a burlesque dancer did not automatically result in copious amounts of freaky sex. In my case and in the case of many of the other girls, dancing took up a separate sphere of my life. When I was on stage, I was a different person. I adopted a persona, a fantasy, to titillate and tease the audience with the thrill of the unknown. I didn't live like that. Some girls did, and all the better for them, but I could only muster that kind of blatant sexuality when I was strutting around the stage in six-inch heels.
I was more of a titmouse than a tigress. The last time I had sex was some drunken one night nearly a year ago, and that experience didn't lend itself to making me want more. It sucked. After that, I figured I had two perfectly good hands and a vibrator, so why bother putting myself out there again only to end up counting ceiling tiles for twenty minutes while some guy "rocked my world"?
Even thinking this, however, I felt something stir in me when Chad gave me those bedroom eyes. They probably weren't even bedroom eyes, they were just his normal eyes but they were sexy just because they were his. And here I was, staring at him, trying not to think about how a roll in the sheets with him would probably be miles better than anything I'd experienced in life thus far.
"What's going through that mind of yours?" Chad asked. "You seem...troubled all of a sudden."
I laughed nervously and took another sip of wine. "I just couldn't remember whether I left my curling iron on. I think I'm just being paranoid though."
If Chad knew that my waves were completely au natural, he didn't say anything. He just nodded along.
"How was your day?" I asked, attempting to steer my mind away from the way Chad's shoulders filled out his suit. "What took you away from the hotel all afternoon? Or is it super-secret adventure stuff."
"Just a couple rounds of golf with Russell and Martin," he replied. "It's not my favorite sport, but I haven't seen them in a while so it was good to catch up."
"Do you guys live in the same city when you're not working?"
He nodded. "LA is where we lay our heads. They left for a conference in San Francisco after our last shoot, and I stopped by Vegas on my way home. They're probably my only two real friends, so even though I see them a lot, I always miss them when we spend time apart."
I frowned. "They're your only two friends? But you're like..." I couldn't quite think of the word, so just waved at him.
Chad laughed. "Devilishly handsome? Freakishly charming?"
"Infinitely modest," I grumbled.
He winked. "You already know me so well."
I couldn't tell whether he was shirking the question on purpose, but I was determined to find out more.
"Seriously though, what's the deal? Do you just not have time to hang out with other people? I would've thought you'd have a huge circle of friends."
He swirled the wine around his glass thoughtfully before taking a drink. Some of his glamor had dulled, like a more authentic piece of him was showing through.
"Relationships can be a lot of work to maintain. To be honest with you, I have a hard time finding people I'm willing to put in that work for. When you're in this kind of business, people always want something from you, but it's never the right thing. And they usually don't have anything to offer in return." He shrugged. "I guess it's just easier this way. I can focus on my work and my fans without any other distractions."
"Friendships aren't supposed to be distractions."
He met my gaze, suddenly more solemn than I'd ever seen him. "When you're pushing hard for success, everything has the potential to be a distraction."
"Maybe you don't have to push so hard for success," I offered. "It seems like you're doing pretty well so far. You should let yourself breathe a little."
Chad was quiet for a moment, the chiseled lines of his mouth set in contemplation. He seemed like he wanted to say something, like it was dancing right on the tip of his tongue and all he would have to do is open his mouth and it would spill out.
And then, like he'd hit rewind on the tape, Chad pulled his goofy grin back up and the moment was gone.
"Let's talk about you. You seem like a tough nut to crack, and I have to say the puzzle is tempting."
The way he said it made it seem like more than the puzzle was just tempting him. An unexpected wave of heat crashed over me and I gripped onto the stem of my glass.
"I'm not a puzzle. Just a girl who likes to dance and dreams of making it big one day. There are a million other girls just like me."
"I don't know you well, Brin, but I do know there's not a single girl like you in the whole world."
"I think you just broke the rules again," I joked, unsure of how else to respond to his statement. It gave me butterflies and I didn’t quite know why.
His lips ticked upward. "I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not great with rules.”
"I would caution you not to break these ones," I said, taking a measured sip of my wine. "Unless you want to wake up with Sharpie dicks all over your face."
Chad tilted his head back and laughed, a deep throaty laugh that made my chest tighten. When he looked at me again, it was with a degree of warmth in his eyes that verged on inferno.
"You're one hell of a girlfriend," mused.
"Don't you forget it."
We stumbled back to our room a little past ten, having consumed enough after dinner drinks to make the elevator ride and short walk an adventure worthy of one of Chad's videos. He was a gentleman the entire way, putting a steadying hand high on my waist when I needed a little stability but not allowing the touch to linger when I didn't. I was almost disappointed. Almost.
In any case, we made it back to the room in one piece. The door slid shut behind us and my eyes shot to the king-sized bed that seemed to stick out like a sore thumb in the room.
Chad caught me looking and chuckled. "There's a trick to that," he said.
"To what?"
Chad was already walking over to the closet, from which he yanked a folded white bundle and tossed it onto the bed.
"To sharing a bed without really sharing a bed." He started to unfold the package and I saw it was a spacious duvet. "Two blankets. Just imagine that we're camping or something."
"Sure," I said, dropping my head a little to hide the flush on my cheeks. "Just like camping."
Sharing a bed wasn't a big deal. I thought it was sweet that Chad was trying to soothe me about it, but it was completely unnecessary. He was reading my nervous energy, but he wasn't reading it correctly. What Chad didn't know was that when my gaze first landed on that bed, with the memory of his hand on my waist still so fresh, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would feel like for him to wrap me in his arms as we drifted off together.
I went to the bathroom to change and splashed cold water on my face.
"Don't be stupid," I whispered to myself in the mirror. "Don't get confused. You set the rules, remember?"
Then, like a soldier heading to the battlefield, I straightened my back and I went to bed.
Eight
Chad
The door slammed closed behind me. I stomped into the room, making as much noise as possible.
"Good morning sunshine!"
Brin groaned.
"My apologies," I said, setting one of the coffees in my hands on the table beside her. "Good morning comrade."
All I could see of Brin above the blankets was a mess of auburn hair. She was lying on her
stomach, sprawling lengthways down the mattress like a steel rod.
"Sunshine is fine," she muttered, voice thick with sleep. "Six am starts are not."
I checked out the watch on my wrist. "Good thing it's 6:15."
Brin groaned again but started to move, slowly inching onto her knees, then back onto her heels.
"I have to say, I've never seen someone get out of bed like that," I commented.
Brin spun her face toward me and I nearly took a step back just from the sheer animosity in her gaze.
"I don't do mornings," she said.
"I can see that." I leaned over and ruffled her hair. "It looks like there was a hurricane on this side of the bed last night."
She glowered some more and I regretted teasing her, slowly inching back toward the doorway. "I'll leave you to it then. Meet you in the lobby in fifteen?"
"Make it twenty."
"Fifteen it is." I grinned. "Wear something you don't mind getting wet. And bring a spare change of clothes."
Brin appeared in the lobby twenty minutes later looking like her normal self. A cheerful smile stretched her cherry lips and her hair was tied up in a cute bun.
"Good morning," sshe sang.
Russell and Martin returned her greeting, hoisting their bags onto their shoulders.
"Good morning to you too," I replied. "I was worried you went back to sleep and that I'd have to send Martin to go upstairs to get you."
We started toward the lobby doors, where a valet was waiting with the Jeep.
"You wouldn't come get me yourself?" Brin asked.
I laughed. "Sweetheart, there are some death-defying stunts that even I'm not cut out for."
She rolled her eyes and elbowed me in the side playfully, and I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her tight to my chest to press a kiss into her hair. I don't know where the impulse came from, but I told myself it was for the cameras. Martin was already rolling since Russell liked to cut together footage from the entire day. Still, it came out of nowhere. It was the kind of thing I never would’ve felt compelled to do with Lori.
