"Well, I don't miss the lights," Jason admitted. "Probably because I have reading lights in my cabin. They're solar lights like the rest of the ones here, but these are little concentrated ones clipped to the bedheads. Definitely enough light to read by."
"So what do you miss?" she persisted.
"I wish I'd brought my guitar, to be honest," he said. "I don't play much. Not in months. But lying there, listening to the waves, watching the moonlight on the water, for the first time in ages, I felt like...playing something. And not just playing. Creating something new. It'll probably be terrible. I'd call it Ode to Camp Romance and maybe sell it to the studio to use in the credits for the show."
Melissa laughed softly. "Given how big the rest of your band's songs have been, I doubt it'd be bad. You'd probably have a new number one hit on the charts within the week."
"Nah." Jason didn't feel like talking about the band, or why his songs would never hit the charts the way Angel's had. He was supposed to be winning himself a wife to take to Angel's wedding, not writing silly songs. "You know what? If you want to read, I'll still be up for a bit. Probably reading, too. You can come use the light in my cabin for a bit, if you want."
Melissa stopped. "If that's rock star for, 'Come over to my place for sex,' you're barking up the wrong tree, pal. We had one date."
Jason shrugged. "Rock stars don't need to use euphemisms. A dick's a dick, sex is sex and a reading light is a fucking light to read your book by. You want it, the offer's there. You don't, your call." He shuffled into his cabin, leaving Melissa standing in the sand outside.
Shaking his head, he stripped down to his shorts and slid into bed. Not sure what to make of Melissa, he reached under his bed for the books he'd borrowed from the resort library. The top one was a recent release, but it was already tattered from being passed around the female staff. Some sort of adventure romance about a plane crash. As long as it beat the billionaire romances he didn't want to touch any more, it would satisfy him. Jason flipped open the book to the first page.
He hadn't even reached the first sex scene when someone knocked tentatively on his door. "Mmm?" he said.
The door swung open. "Is your offer still open?" Melissa whispered. She'd changed into a pair of pyjamas and the strong smell of mint made Jason think she'd probably brushed her teeth, too.
"I'm using this light, but there's another one on that bed." Jason pointed. Yes, single beds on opposite sides of the room. She could make of that whatever she wanted. "There's linen in that locker if you need it." He went back to his book.
Jason heard her messing around in the locker, clicking on the light and finally settling on the slightly squeaky mattress springs, but he didn't so much as glance up. That was the whole point of reading – you got lost in your own little world, and the real world could go get fucked.
Speaking of fucked...
The mattress squeaked as Melissa shifted from lying on her belly to curled on her side, facing the wall. Her knuckles whitened as her fingers tightened around her ereader.
A really scary bit, Jason decided.
Melissa bit her lip.
The penny dropped. "You're reading a sex scene, aren't you?" he blurted out.
Melissa turned red. "And what if I am?" she challenged.
"Is it a good one?" Jason persisted.
"Maybe."
He gave in. "Can I read it?"
Melissa clutched her ereader to her chest. "I don't think so. I'm reading it right now."
A really hot sex scene, then, and a good one. Jason couldn't resist. "I could read it aloud, if you like. Kind of like sharing, only better. I used to do voiceovers for radio ads before the band made it big. I can do deep and sexy, the way a book's supposed to be read."
Melissa eyed him. "A rock star reading romance?"
Jason slid his own romance novel under his pillow. "I'll give it a go. If I suck at it, you can always tell me to stop."
She considered for a long moment, then extended her ereader across the divide between the two beds. "The scene starts from that page."
Jason skimmed the first few lines. Foreplay. Not his usual way of starting a seduction, but if that's what floated her boat...
He took a deep breath and began to read.
THIRTY-SIX
"Oh my God, Jay, stop!" a feminine voice squealed as Penny left the bathroom.
The voice only grew louder as Penny approached Jay's cabin.
"Please! I can't breathe from – " muffled words Penny couldn't discern " – so hard!"
Jay said something, too low for Penny to hear.
"But that bit with the tongue! I seriously thought I'd explode. Oh my God!" Melissa's words disappeared in a squeal.
Let the best bonker win, Penny fumed, stomping back to her tent. Jay really was sleeping his way through the contestants. He hadn't even asked her on a date yet, let alone invited her to have sex. Did that mean he didn't want her?
Penny's heart froze at the sound of a delighted giggle from his cabin.
The world just wasn't fair.
THIRTY-SEVEN
"Please! I can't breathe from laughing so hard!" Melissa gasped.
Jason dropped his voice lower, drawing out each word as he read the paragraph again, trying in vain to imagine the scene the author had described. He was an expert with his tongue, as hundreds of girls had told him, but even he didn't think that was physically possible. He bit his tongue before mentioning that to Melissa, though. She really seemed to like the book.
"I'm going to sleep," he told her. "You can stay there as long as you like. Reading, sleeping, whatever. I don't mind. Not like I need the other bed."
With the practiced ease of a man who could sleep anywhere, Jason drifted off into dreamland.
When day dawned, he found Melissa fast asleep in the other bed, with her ereader pillowed on her chest.
Jason grabbed some clothes as quietly as he could and headed for the shower without waking her.
THIRTY-EIGHT
Penny whisked the pancake batter within an inch of its life, or she would have if it'd had one, as she watched Jay emerge from his cabin and stumble to the bathroom. A few moments later, Melissa slipped out, too, looking like she'd just woken up. Had she and Jay been at it all night? Penny dug her nails into the whisk handle. At least they'd kept it quiet for most of the time. He'd stopped making her squeal after Penny's bathroom break, or maybe Penny had just slept through it. Thank God for small mercies, whichever it was.
There was nothing worse than listening to someone else have sex with the man you wanted and couldn't have.
Wait, what?
Penny almost dropped the whisk, but caught it in time.
She didn't want Jay. She wanted the world to see her cooking. She should get back to it, Penny told herself. The pancakes wouldn't make themselves.
Penny busied herself, firing up the barbeque and finding a bowl for the syrup, so it could warm on a corner of the grill while she cooked pancakes for everyone. She knew it wasn't her job; the camp managers, Bec and lazy Luke, were supposed to cook, but she was calmer in the kitchen. She didn't want to kill everyone, and the need to rip out some bitch's hair or claw her eyes out...lessened, a little, at least. She could forget about everyone else when she was thinking about food.
The grill was hot enough now. Time to concentrate on turning the thick mixture into perfect, fluffy circles. Penny poured a single pancake, just to test the temperature, peering at it as she flipped it, to make sure she had the timing right for the rest, then slid it onto a plate when she was done. She spooned out a dozen evenly-spaced circles on the hotplate, watching with satisfaction at how well she'd measured out the mix. They'd stack perfectly on a plate, ready to be drizzled with syrup. Not maple syrup, like she wanted, but golden syrup would do. If only they had fresh blueberries...
"That smells incredible. Like cake."
Penny turned and found herself face to face with Jay. He wore nothing but a pair of shorts, his perfectly muscled chest
and abs on display for all to stare at. Or just her, right now, seeing as they were alone on the veranda.
"Pancakes," she corrected. "And it's probably just the syrup you can smell." She waved at the bowl.
"I haven't had pancakes in months. This is the last place I expected to get some. I am officially in love."
Penny found herself enfolded in his arms, pressed against that hard body in a hug as hot as it was unexpected. She stared up at him, letting out a gasp as her body melted like butter at his touch. Unable to say anything, unable to even think, she did what her body was screaming at her to do. Penny kissed him.
Jay's hand moved to the back of her head, his tongue tickling hers as he took the lead in this dance. She couldn't suppress a moan as her lips moulded to his, her tongue tingling as it explored his mouth. She wanted to wrap her legs around his waist and beg him to take her on the table, then and there, wreathed in the scent of vanilla and eggs and sweet, sweet syrup...
"Well, good morning," Paige said.
Penny peeled her hand off Jay's bottom, wondering if his searingly hot kiss had actually caramelised her lips. They felt burned, like he hadn't stopped kissing her at all, instead of stepping away to greet Paige and the ever present camera crew. Who looked like they'd caught the whole thing on film...
Penny ducked her head, trying to hide her red cheeks, as she dealt feverishly with the pancakes before they burned. She didn't want Jay. She wanted...
She needed him. Every perfect inch of him, from top to toe and every bit in between. Her mouth parched at the thought.
"You took your time," Jay said to Paige. "I want to get the next elimination over and done with. This morning, if we can."
Penny's spatula slipped, sending a pancake tumbling to the deck. Elimination? Was that why Jay had kissed her? Was he saying goodbye? Sure, he was in love...with someone else.
Lorelei. Or Maia. Or Melissa. The sluts who'd already opened their legs for him, while Paige had interrupted Penny before she could have Jay. Was that her game? Was Paige setting Penny up to be the bitch, because the real bitches were Jay's favourites, so she had to make them look good?
Did Jay know? Maybe that's why he intended to send Penny home. He was too kind to let her be Paige's bitch for the rest of the show, so he was helping her escape. So much for cooking on national television. Paige would hide all the good stuff, and only show the bad, as she tried to make the whole country hate her,
Penny blinked back tears, forcing herself to focus on spooning out the next batch of pancakes. The perfect circles wavered in her vision. This whole mess had been a horrible mistake.
THIRTY-NINE
Jason munched his way through a stack of sublime pancakes while the girls took turns in the bathrooms. They wanted to look good for the line-up. For the first time, he wondered if they did it for him or for the cameras. Were they trying to catch the eye of some talent scout who saw them on their screen, or did they honestly think a perfectly lipsticked pout beneath mascara-slicked lashes would change his mind about sending them home?
He shook his head. They evidently had never paid attention to the girls in the band. Both Angel and Jo had worn enough stage makeup to blend in at a KISS concert. Anonymity after the concerts had been easy for them – just wash the muck off and walk out, without a single fan identifying them.
These girls wanted to be noticed. But could they handle the sort of media attention he dealt with every day? All right, he didn't now, but if he ever made a comeback tour, the reporters would be back with a vengeance. He already had Paige's answer: no. No girl could cope, standing beside Jay Felix in the limelight. She'd be buried in a storm of hate.
Now, Melissa might be able to handle it. She'd probably give as good as she got. He figured Lorelei might manage, too, but in a completely different way. Lorelei would smile for the cameras, bat her eyelashes, and completely ignore anything they had to say that wasn't a compliment. She couldn't really be that shallow – no one could – but if the media bought it...
Then there was Calais and Maia and Penelope. Capable women that he really liked. But Penelope's face mirrored her feelings. She couldn't hide anything from the press. Maia had her son to protect, but it was only a matter of time before the media found out about him, and then the speculation would start. If you listened to the media for long enough, you'd believe that half the fatherless bastards in Australia were the fruit of his loins, and a truckload in America, too. Never mind that he'd never failed to return a negative fatherhood test for every baby. And Calais, who had clammed up so much he'd barely managed to get more than ten words out of her since she'd arrived at the camp...
Jason shook his head. He didn't have to worry about the media today, though. The show wouldn't screen on TV for weeks yet, so there wouldn't be any media waiting at the airport for the girl he sent home today.
He scanned today's line-up. Penelope's face showed outright panic. Calais was intent on her shoes, as usual. Lorelei and Melissa both wore confident smiles, and Maia just looked resigned. Time to put them out of their misery.
Jason marched up the veranda steps, babbling for the benefit of the camera about how hard it was to choose one girl out of all his favourites. He hoped Paige chose to cut that bit when it came to editing. When he reached the girls, he halted a couple metres away, so he could see all of their faces. He didn't need to – he knew exactly whose eyes he needed to meet.
"Maia, it's time to go home," he said softly.
Her breath hissed out in an obvious sigh of relief.
Jason took heart. He'd made the right decision. "I know you're needed at home more than you need to be here. I've had an awesome time with you, especially on our date in town the other night, but I can't be selfish. Life isn't all popcorn and pearl meat. There's the odd Friday the 13th tucked in among all the perfect days."
Maia smiled. She understood the oblique reference to her son, even if no one else did. She strode forward and so did the security guards, but Jason signalled for them to stay back. Maia wasn't going to kill him, he was sure of it.
He was right, too. She flung her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek, murmuring, "Thank you," before she trotted off to her tent to collect her things.
"I'll want to do some individual interviews with the girls," Paige said briskly. "Jay, you stay beside the car with Wes. Wes, you make sure you get some good footage of him and Maia saying goodbye, and her driving off. Right, I'll have Melissa up first, and Penelope next. We'll set up on that rock beside the beach, so there's a nice backdrop. Cole, you come with me."
Calais rushed past Jason, as if she was busting to use the bathroom, but Jason was surprised to see tears streaming from her reddened eyes. What had he done to make her cry?
Jay hesitated for just long enough for Paige to disappear from view, before he made up his mind. It was time to get to know the enigmatic Calais. He wanted to see her smile like she had in their speed-dating interview.
FORTY
Feeling like the world's most inept stalker, Jason followed the girl across the sand dunes, slipping and sliding so many times that he lost his thongs twice before she finally came to a halt at the top of a rust-coloured dune that was higher than the rest. From this vantage point, you could see clear out to sea, and even the western edge of the Buccaneer Archipelago. Not quite as far as Romance Island, but Jason didn't need to see his island to know where it lay.
Oblivious to the view, Calais sank to her knees and wept.
Jason was lost. He had no experience with this sort of heartbreak. Oh, unless you counted Angel in the early days after her abduction, but offering her comfort back then would earn you a knife in the goolies just as surely as saying you'd seen her cry.
So he said what any sane bloke would in the situation: "What did I do to upset you?"
Calais sniffled and peered up at him. "Nothing," she said finally.
Jason squatted on the sand beside her. "So what didn't I do that you think I should have?"
A tiny laugh erupte
d from Calais. "I don't know."
Jason was all out of inspiration, but he didn't want to leave her here, either. So he sat there in silence, hoping she'd break it.
After maybe ten minutes of staring out over the ocean, Calais said, "It's nothing you did or didn't do. It's this whole situation. I hate being in a...harem. At your beck and call, waiting through the boredom until you make your selection of just one of us for a day or a night, then you bring us back here to await your pleasure, whenever that might be."
Jason tried to wrap his head around her words. "A harem? I don't think of any of you like that. Isn't a harem just for sex and babies, where everyone wears those sexy, see-through pants? And there's eunuchs?" He covered his jewels at the thought.
"There's Luke, the camp manager. He might be a eunuch," Calais offered.
Jason shook his head. "Nope. He did Daphne in the kitchen on the first night."
"No!" she exclaimed.
"Oh, yes. I saw them. I got out of the kitchen real quick, before they saw me."
Calais tapped her chin. "So that's why you sent her home. Did Maia sleep with him, too?"
"I don't know. I don't think so." Jason closed his mouth before he betrayed Maia's secrets. "Just not my type, I guess." And her son needed her.
Calais eyed him. "So it's not just a publicity stunt. Are you really looking for a wife?"
"Maybe," he hedged. "What about you?"
She sighed. "No, I'm not looking for a wife. I didn't even enter. Not really. My brother submitted for me when I wasn't going to. I think he was trying to help, but...today just made it worse, not better."
And that wasn't cryptic at all. "So let me get this straight. You were in some woman's harem before, but your brother pulled you out so that you could learn to like men instead, but I remind you of everything you hate about men, or the unfairness that gay marriage isn't legal in Australia yet?"
The Rock Star Wants a Wife Page 10
