by Wild, Bella
Amanda let me do the majority of the talking. It was at Kevin’s direction, and I had to admit, it did make sense. I was the one who would have to remember some of these answers for at least the duration of the tour. I stuck to the scripted soundbites Kevin had cooked up—that Rachel and I met months ago at a coffee shop, and had been swept away, crazy in love ever since.
Amanda played along, smiling and chiming in her excitement at the right places in the conversation. And while it went much more smoothly than the photo shoot had gone, it felt rehearsed and plastic to me. Lanna didn’t seem to pick up on it, so I left it alone. She also wasn’t going to run out of questions anytime soon. Kevin ended up stepping in to cut the interview short.
Amanda changed and we all piled back into the van and raced to the airport. It was two hours behind schedule. Kevin’s assistant had received a call from the charter plane company. We had missed the departure takeoff window. They had sent the road crew and security detail ahead on a commercial flight. It meant our delay did not affect the concert setup.
They were now working on a new time slot for the rest of us. This meant we had to wait somewhere in the nightmare that was LAX. Thanks to my sunglasses and baseball cap, and a hoodie Kevin had on hand for me, we managed to make it into the airport without being spotted. I was relieved, mostly for Amanda’s sake. After the stress of the photo shoot and interview circus, I wasn’t sure she could take a full-on paparazzi swarm.
Fred and Larry were waiting when we made our way into one of the executive lounges. The room was mostly empty, with just a few passengers in business suits sprinkled around the room, all typing furiously on keyboards or talking on the phone. None of them bothered to look up. We walked over to sit with the agents.
“Where should I go?” Amanda asked Fred.
“Stay here in the lounge. It’s easier to manage this smaller space than the entire terminal. You stay close to Johnny. Do normal couples’ stuff. Just keep your eyes open.”
“Right.”
“And don’t go getting lost somewhere, you two,” Kevin added. “We can’t afford another delay.”
She nodded, and I clocked a flash of irritation in her eyes. I wasn’t sure if she was upset with the FBI, Kevin, me, or the whole situation. I didn’t want to be the thing that pushed her over the edge, so I took her hand and led her away. We sat in a pair of soft leather chairs in the corner of the room. For a while, we stared silently out the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking one of the tarmacs, watching the planes taking off. She didn’t say a word.
Kevin came over and broke our calm silence. He announced they were able to confirm a new departure time in two hours, and was not happy about it. Most of his displeasure was directed at Amanda. I wanted to get in his face and tell him to stop acting like an asshole. It wasn’t fair of him to blame everything on her.
Chapter Twelve
Johnny
“We’re going to find some coffee,” I told Kevin, cutting him off before I ended up making a scene.
I stood up with Amanda and placed a hand around her shoulder as we walked to the food and drinks at other end of the lounge.
“Don’t let him upset you,” I told her.
I fixed us our coffees, and she grabbed a couple of muffins from a basket on the end of the counter.
“He’s pissed,” she finally said.
“Isn’t he always?” I mumbled.
We stayed in that section of the lounge, and Amanda settled into the seat next to me. I handed her one of the coffee cups before taking a gulp of my own.
“I guess.” She sipped on her drink, and then looked up at me. “You two are nothing alike.”
“Cheers to that.”
“You’ve been the one person in my corner for this gig. And I…I just want to say thanks.”
“You don’t need to thank me,” I said, tucking a stray lock of her hair behind her ears. “I wish you were walking into a different set of circumstances.”
“You probably wouldn’t need a bodyguard and FBI protection under most circumstances.”
“True.”
She took another sip and licked her lips with the tip of her tongue. I couldn’t help but watch, mesmerized by her sultry lips. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat and reminded myself it wasn’t the time or the place.
“I don’t know how you do this,” she said after another couple of minutes.
“Do what? Deal with Kevin? It gets easier after a while. No, I take that back. He’s a pain in the ass and that’s never going to change.”
Amanda smiled. Seeing her relax was a ray of light in what had turned into a dark, hopeless-feeling day. “That’s not what I meant. How do you tolerate all these people telling you what to do and how to act? Those magazine staff would have had us half-naked and rolling around on a bed if you hadn’t said no. And then the never-ending questions from Lanna. That was intense.”
“It’s the business. This is how it’s always been.”
She stopped speaking and shook her head slightly. “I don’t know how you deal with it. It seems like such an invasion of privacy. Doesn’t it drive you crazy? I don’t think I could bear it over the long run.”
“I’m used to it.” I paused. Her assessment stuck with me. Everything she described was part of my everyday life. And I wanted her to be part of it. She would be forced to deal with the pitfalls of fame too, at least on some level. “Didn’t you have that too, though?” I asked. “I mean, when you were fighting, you had to do photo shoots and interviews, right?” I played it off like I hadn’t seen her photos or read her magazine interviews a hundred times.
“Yes, I did. But it wasn’t about my personal life. It was about my conditioning, what kind of protein powder I was using, what I did to prepare for a prizefight, how mentally prepared I was about my next fight.” She paused, staring off into space for a moment. “No one asked about my boyfriends or love life. And even after all that coverage after my last fight, the media never seemed this intrusive.”
“Well, you did great today,” I said.
Her eyes flicked back to meet mine. She scoffed. “I was awful! A mannequin would have made a more convincing girlfriend in those pictures.”
I laughed at the mental image. “I’m glad it was you. You’re much more responsive to the touch.” I stretched an arm over her shoulder and kissed her cheek. I whispered in her ear, “Can you feel those pretend sparks flying? I never get them with mannequins.”
“Johnny, I think—” she started to speak.
“Stop thinking. Stop fighting it,” I whispered, cutting her off. “I want us to make the most of the hand you and I were dealt. I want you right now, Amanda.”
She let out a long breath. She quickly stood up, said she needed to use the restroom and promised to come right back. The two FBI agents were in sight on the other side of the lounge, so I sat back and waited for her. I looked up a few minutes later. I made her out halfway down the lounge, peering from around a corner, signaling with her index finger for me to go to her. I followed along. She kept a distance ahead of me and disappeared into a family restroom—one of those lockable single bathrooms with the pop-down diaper changing stations. I smiled broadly. I liked where this was going. She knew how to mix things up, that was for sure.
“Get in here,” she said as I stood outside the door.
I slipped inside and she quickly locked the door behind me.
“You’re something else, Amanda. I like the way you think.”
“No. Not really,” she answered seductively. She looked up at me and reached her hands up around my neck. “You’re the one who said you wanted me right now.”
“I do.” I wrapped my arms around her waist and reached one hand down to caress her ass.
“I thought about it. Maybe you’re right,” she said. “I should make the most of…of this. And to be honest, I need a bit of a release.”
“Mmmm. I’m game for whatever you want.”
She pulled from me and stepped back. Without breaking f
rom her sultry gaze, she slowly lifted up the hem of her dress, sliding it up her thighs until it revealed her silky panties. When it bundled at her waist, she turned away from me, facing the far wall. She pressed her hands against it, and turned only her head to look back at me.
“Fuck me from behind, Johnny,” she said, biting down on her lip. “Make me come.”
“Christ,” I murmured, rushing up behind her.
I shifted her hair to the side and leaned down to kiss and nibble her neck. She moaned. I was rock hard. I reached around and placed both hands on her breasts, grinding my bulge on her almost bare ass. She pressed her ass back on my groin, begging me to come inside her. I moved a hand over her stomach, past her mound, and down inside her panties.
“I want you so bad, baby,” she groaned, tilting her hips and grinding on me.
She reached a hand between us, and then turned to face me. She fumbled with my belt, and almost ripped it out of a loop when it gave way.
“Oops,” she said, giggling.
I groaned with need as she undid the zipper, and peeled my pants and boxers down my legs. I helped her to stand up again and turned her back to face the wall.
“How much do you want this,” I groaned, slowly pulling her panties down to her knees.
“A lot, baby. God, so fucking bad,” she said.
I grabbed her hips, and pressed up against her. She tilted her hips as I positioned myself, and slid inside her slowly.
“Fuck. You’re so tight and wet, Amanda” I moaned, easing my cock deeper inside.
She bent lower against the wall, pushing back against my hardness.
“Give it to me hard, Johnny. Fuck me and make me come.”
I kept one hand on her hips and reached the other one around to her mound again. As I drove deep insider her, I matched our rhythm and pressed a finger to her clit. She groaned and writhed on my cock. I sped up the pace, and buried myself deeply inside her tight, wet pussy.
“Oh God. I’m coming, baby,” she cried. “Come with me.”
She moaned and panted, popping up on her tiptoes and bucking her hips back as she began to go over the edge. I caught a glance of us in the mirror. That image drove me to my point of no return. I gripped her ass tightly and pumped hard and fast until she groaned through her orgasm. Her channel clenched around my shaft, and I exploded my release deep inside her as she fluttered and flexed through her climax.
We stood there, panting heavily to catch our breath.
“How do you feel now?” I asked.
“Better.” She moved off me slowly, and grabbed some paper towels for me. “Here.” She pulled another handful and stood at the sink to neaten herself up.
“Just better?” I asked, looking at her as I cleaned up a bit.
“A lot better,” she said. “You’re good. You know what does it for me. And I really needed that. What about you?”
“I enjoy you,” I told her, keeping the rest to myself.
She pulled up her panties and fixed her dress, then looked in the mirror to check her hair. “Good. Let’s go. They’re probably looking for us. You go on out first. I’ll come in a minute.”
She winked at me and smiled. I could have taken her all over again with just that look, but thought against it. I stepped out of the restroom and went to sit in a free row of chairs. She joined me shortly afterward, and I put my arm over her shoulder again.
“Ama—Rachel, Johnny. Time to go,” Kevin called out a few minutes later. He cringed when he realized he had started to say Amanda’s real name.
“Come along, my love,” I said.
I stood up and reached a hand out for her to take. She looked up me with a seductive expression on her face before she did. At the touch of her hand slipping it into mine, my racing heart told another story.
Chapter Thirteen
Amanda
Kevin, Johnny and I were the last to board the private plane. The opulence took my breath away.
“Wow,” I said, taking the first few steps down the wide center aisle.
Kevin had gone ahead of me. He found a seat near Fred and Larry, close to the middle of the plane.
Johnny stood behind me, and rested his hands on my hips. “Yeah. What you did in that restroom was…wow. It was amazing,” he whispered.
I smiled. “Glad you enjoyed it too, but I was talking about how nice this is.”
He released me when I stopped at a free seat near the front. I instantly missed the warmth of his touch, but that was not something I planned to share with him. He placed his hand on the seat beside mine, and I turned to smile at him. We had an audience here. There had to be a happy middle-of-the-road way to be for us to both be comfortable. I just had not found it yet.
I looked around the plane before sitting. There were three sections. It started with the usual seating for takeoff and landings. Halfway down, there were four plush sofas in an L-shape formation, and after what may have been a restroom on one side, it looked like there was a full kitchen at the back. With all the space, there would be no snack cart jamming anyone’s elbow. This long trip would be a breeze, even with a short refueling stop at JFK Airport in New York.
“Don’t you wish there was a bedroom in the back?” Johnny growled into my ear.
I slapped his arm playfully, and laid my head on the head rest. Now that the drama of the day had passed and we were ready to kick off the trip, I started to relax. We were on a private plane, but it was very much like a normal flight. The flight attendants came on, introduced themselves, gave a safety demonstration, and did their pre-flight preparations.
Johnny started unwrapping one of the muffins he had me put in my bag when we were in the lounge. He extended the other one to me, and I took it gratefully. I was starving. Before we took off, I looked over and saw him gripping the armrests of his chair.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’m cool. The muffin might have been a bad idea,” he winced, turning to me.
“You don’t look too good,” I said.
“I’ll be okay in a minute.”
“Just don’t throw up on me,” I joked.
“I won’t. It’s not that bad.” He winced. “Although, that would be a whole other way to get you naked.”
“Ugh,” I said, laughing. “Not a good way at all.”
Shortly after takeoff, Johnny seemed better.
He undid his seatbelt and stood up. “Come with me. I want to show you something.”
“Sure.”
Johnny and I nodded politely as we walked back past the men, all the way to the kitchen. The agents nodded back. Kevin sat across the aisle from them, looking out his window. He didn’t notice us. We got to the large kitchen—large for a plane, anyway—and I looked around.
“This is nice,” I told him. “No bedroom, I’m guessing.”
“No,” he answered, leaning back against a counter.
“Well, that’s a relief. So you wanted me to see the kitchen?”
“No. That’s not all. I wanted to be sure you’re feeling better. Today was not an easy day.”
“Yes. Much better, thanks. I was a bit overwhelmed at the photo shoot.”
He nodded. “Understandable. I’m sorry you have to go through all this on my account. I know it’s not what you signed up for.”
His words dug up a reminder about something Kevin said—that Johnny was the one who arranged for me to get this security job in the first place. I had not thought about it much in the chaos of the day. I was tempted to ask him about how he learned I was looking for a job. I couldn’t come up with the right way to ask. No matter how I phrased it in my head, it sounded like it would come out as some type of unnecessary probing, or worse, as an accusation.
“We should get back to our seats and try to get some sleep,” Johnny said, interrupting my mental rehearsal. “The jetlag from flying from LA to Europe is brutal.”
“You’re probably right.”
“I am. About other things too,” he teased, pulling me into his
strong chest as he brushed by me. “Besides, if we get to Greece well-rested, we’ll have more time to…play.”
His suggestion sent warm tingles through my body all over again. A lot of my rigid behavior at the photo shoot had to do with not wanting to let myself get carried away in front of the cameras. The other part had been due to the dozens of pairs of eyeballs watching our every move, but that was not nearly as alarming as the sensual need that had taken hold of me. It had gotten to where I was aching for him all the time. Being in front of the cameras in such an intimate position with him earlier, with him nuzzling and kissing me for the poses, had only made me want him more. And our time in the airport restroom…all it did was ratchet up my desire.
But now, we were more or less alone back here. As I looked into Johnny’s eyes, I knew that if he had said the word, I would let him take me right here. I glanced up at him. He seemed tired, so I let it go. The truth was I did not want to be the one initiating things. It would only lead him on and give him the wrong message. It was clear as day to me that he wanted a lot more that something physical.
All the half-dressed dates and nearly-naked music video girls they put out to bolster his public image was just that—an image. I could only see him in serious relationships. He was not a casual sex kind of guy, and I should have made that assessment the first time I slept with him. And I was falling for him. Now I was the one playing with fire. At the end of this contract, I had to burn him and hope he wouldn’t take it too hard. After that, I had the extra task of nursing my own heart back to its usual emotionless place.
Johnny stepped away and I followed him back to get some rest. He leaned back in his seat, reclining it back to almost a flat position, and popped up a little footrest as if he had done it a million times before.
“Have a good nap,” he said. He plugged in his earbuds and I could hear him turn on his music.
I turned to the window, staring out into the clouds. The flight was going to be nearly sixteen hours long, including the quick stop to refuel in New York. With the time difference, we would get to Athens in the morning, and take a helicopter to the private island for his performance. As I ran through the travel plans, it seemed surreal ending up here. I was sitting among a group of individuals who were just as comfortable on a private jet as most people were in their favorite La-Z-Boy chair. And nothing about the day had fazed Johnny. I looked over at him. His eyes were closed, and his breathing was even. I watched him sleep for a while. At some point, I nodded off.
