She paused to take a step back.
“You’re going to fabricate some sort of family emergency to get out of your contract. You’ll leave this island immediately. And you won’t speak a word of anything that duplicitous asshole Ben ever told you about me, my show, or any of the other contestants or crew. Not one word.”
Shayla finally found her tongue again. “No! You can’t kick me off the show, and you can’t stop me from saying anything to anyone! I have more dirt than you could possibly imagine. I have a tape—”
Ellen cut her off again, her eyes gleaming dangerously. “Shut up, you stupid little girl. You think just because you can fake a Southern accent that you’re smart enough to mess with me and my livelihood?”
Shayla was quiet again, and Ellen laughed. “Yes, that’s right. You aren’t the only one who does her research, Shayla. I do too. I have every little detail of every contestant’s life in dossiers next to the producer’s room downstairs. I’m surprised Ben didn’t show you that on top of everything else,” she said airily. “So I know where you’re really from. Everything about you. I accepted you as a contestant because I admired the lengths you were willing to go to get on the show. Granted, I didn’t realize just how far you’d go, but still…” She waved her hand. “I thought a girl like you would create good drama on the show. But this is too much. You’re threatening the show, and you need to be cut out like the malignant growth you are.”
“You might be able to force me off the show, but you can’t stop me from telling the network and the media what you’re doing here,” Shayla said. Her voice was beginning to sound hysterical. “I know everything. Ben told me!”
Ellen smiled again. “Look in your contract, honey. You breathe a word about anything you heard or saw on this set that isn’t one-hundred percent glowing and kind….I can sue the ass off you. Good luck paying off those pricey Harvard student loans when you’re ten million dollars in debt.”
Shayla’s eyes brimmed over with tears, and her hands began to shake. “You can’t do that.”
“Oh, I can. I guess you didn’t read the contract carefully enough,” Ellen replied. “So do we have an understanding?”
Ellen could be a grade-A bitch sometimes, but I had to admit, I admired her brass balls. She and Liv had almost nothing in common, but Liv had certainly inherited her strong will from her; that much was clear.
I was actually almost proud of Ellen for the way she was dealing with Shayla, but then I remembered how she was holding my little sister’s health over my head to get what she wanted from me, and I realized there was nothing to be proud of. She was simply stomping on Shayla to get rid of something that could create trouble for her. She’d do the same to anyone else who threatened her show and her livelihood.
“Just look at this!” Shayla suddenly screeched, realizing she was done; had nothing left. Well, almost nothing. She held up her little flash drive, and my stomach lurched. Shit. She might be off the show and no longer able to hurt anyone in that sense, but she still had the footage, and so she was still a threat in that regard. “There’s a sex tape on here that you need to see! Just watch it!”
Liv threw me a panicked look. Shayla hadn’t named any names yet—she was probably hoping for the dramatic effect of Ellen only realizing who was on the tape when she first saw it—but as soon as Ellen actually watched the footage, she’d know it was us. Then we’d be screwed.
Luckily for us, Ellen was totally done with Shayla’s shit. She snatched the USB stick from Shayla’s hand and dropped it on the floor before stomping on it, shattering it into a million tiny pieces. “I don’t care about whatever sordid romps you and that moron Ben captured,” she said, her voice dripping with condescension. “Contestants always hook up with other contestants behind their spouse’s backs. No one cares. It’s not cheating. It’s reality TV, darling, not actual reality.”
She clicked her fingers at the other crew member in the room. “Please escort Ms. Mason back to her room so she can pack her things up.”
He practically had to drag Shayla out of the room kicking and screaming, and I breathed a heavy sigh of relief, looking over at Liv. She gave me a tiny little smile, and I returned it, my heart pounding. We’d come so close to losing everything, but we’d managed to avoid this trouble by the skin of our teeth. If I hadn’t discovered the dirt on Shayla via Isobel, it would be a very different situation. Luckily, I had, and Liv and I were still standing. We were safe and clear.
For now.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Olivia
“You know, it’s been four weeks, and I still can’t believe Shayla was such a snake.”
I snuggled up to Dec in bed, and he rubbed my right nipple, making tingles shoot up and down my spine. We’d figured out that the cameras in our shared resort room were only on at certain hours of the day, and we were taking full advantage of the ‘off’ hours.
“I can’t believe it’s been four weeks and your mom still isn’t on to us yet,” Dec replied.
“She’s getting a bit suspicious. She talked to me yesterday and said that it didn’t seem like we were trying too hard to get voted off the show. Mostly because we aren’t trying, but of course she doesn’t know that.”
Dec frowned. “What did you say?”
“I told her that we’ve been trying, but it’s not our fault the viewers won’t vote us off. They like us too much, and all the more boring contestants had to go before we did. She seemed satisfied by that. So we’re still safe for now. Still got another week or so before she starts to seriously suspect what we’re up to.”
A full month had gone by, and with Shayla and her husband gone along with three other couples who’d been voted off, there were only four couples left on the show now, including me and Dec. It was only a matter of time before Mom figured out our plan to win the thing, but we were still skating by for now.
After our narrow miss with Shayla, I was certain we could manage anything—if we could deal with her, we could deal with Mom’s tantrum when she realized what we were up to. If and when that happened, we would need to double down on our efforts to win, because that prize money would be going straight to Dec’s family, who would likely have their funding from Mom cut off as part of her tantrum.
It would be hard, but it would be worth it. Dec was worth it.
He nuzzled my neck. “I can’t wait for all this shit to be over.”
I sighed and curled back into his chest. “Me too.”
His hands explored my soft skin, making me tingle even more. Reaching one hand behind and down, I grabbed his cock as it jutted up, hard and ready for me. I quickly turned around and slid myself down the sheets, unable to resist dipping my head to swirl my tongue over his tip. “Bad girl,” he groaned as I teased his head.
He reached his powerful arms down, gripping me, and with one quick movement he managed to maneuver my body right around so that I was practically sitting on his face, my head still in line with his cock as I faced away from him. “What are you…oh...”
I realized halfway through my question what he was doing. I’d heard of a 69 before, but I’d never done it. I’d never done most of the things that Dec had showed me over these last few weeks, but I was beyond glad that he was my first for so many of them. A man like him was worth the wait.
I took him in my mouth, loving the way his cock leapt inside it. His hands reached up and gripped my ass and legs as his mouth found my clit, licking and sucking at me, driving me close to the edge already. I could feel myself dripping all over his face. I tried to hold back, swirling my tongue against his tip, but then Dec slid two fingers inside me as he sucked at my clit, working my body just right. I was so close already. Too close. Then he slid another finger to the entrance of my ass, just pressing ever so slightly on the tight ring, and my eyes flew open with surprise.
“Have you ever had anything in your ass before, princess?” he asked, pausing the movements of his tongue.
I lifted my head and turned it over my
shoulder. “Um…no.”
“Do you want to?”
He applied a little more pressure, and I went wild. It felt undeniably good, even though I’d never even dared to imagine putting anything…there. “Yes,” I said, my voice coming out in a low hiss.
Dec gathered up my slick pussy juices with his fingers, wetting my little hole, and then he gently pressed his thumb inside me. I let out a cry at the sudden feeling of fullness, even though it was just one finger.
“Feel good?” Dec murmured.
I nodded, biting back another cry. “I think I want…I…” I couldn’t get the sentence out.
“You want me to fuck your ass,” Dec said from under me. It wasn’t a question.
I turned myself around, my cheeks warming. He knew me so well; could always tell what I wanted without me saying it. “Is that bad?” I asked softly.
He smirked. “No. Not bad at all. I want to fuck your tight little ass, princess. Turn around again.”
I did as he said, and he positioned himself behind me, one hand gripping my waist as the other played with my tight hole, wetting it more with my juices and fingering it till I began to relax more. Then I felt his tip at my entrance, and I gasped. “Fuck…”
He slid the tip inside, and I squeezed my eyes shut at the unbelievable pressure as his cock entered my ass. It was impossibly tight, but I knew if I just held on a moment longer, Dec would open me up, make me feel incredible.
He started fucking me, nice and slow. “You feel so fucking good. I’ve never been in such a tight ass,” he groaned, squeezing my hips tighter. He leaned down, licked at my neck. Nibbled it. Sucked at my skin. I let out a moan, and he began to thrust faster behind me, harder and harder as he went deeper.
“More,” I cried out, gritting my teeth at the stinging pain mixing with pleasure. I’d never felt anything like it before.
Dec kept using my ass, thrusting his hips again and again, and I moved my body back against him, relaxing as much as I could so that he could go as deep and hard as he wanted. One hand reached between my legs, rubbing my throbbing clit, and Dec’s hard movements didn’t stop, filling me up so deliciously.
Suddenly it was all too much, and I exploded, moaning like crazy. Wave after wave crashed over me, making me lift my head and cry out as my body shook with one of the most satisfying orgasms of my life. Dec echoed my groan, and then I felt him coming too, filling me up in hot spurts as heady bliss claimed us both.
“Christ, that was good,” he murmured a moment later, once we were cleaned up and relaxing on the sheets again.
“I want to do that again,” I said, still barely able to believe how amazing something like that could feel. It hurt a bit, but it hurt so good.
Dec grinned. “I’d love to, but it’s nearly ten. The producers said they want all the men for a talking head interview thing at ten-fifteen. It’s for the Wed At First Sight website video blog. I better get ready to go.”
I pouted, but he was right. He had to go. The online video blog interviews were an important aspect in making the viewers like the contestants, and we wanted to win, so it was necessary for us to show up to things like the interviews when the producers told us to.
Five minutes later, Dec gave me a kiss and slipped out of our room, and I returned to bed, overcome by a sudden wave of tiredness. It was strange; I’d been sleeping so much lately. Way more than usual. I was averaging about nine or ten hours a night compared to my usual seven. I was about to put it down to stress from still competing on the TV show when I sat up, my head spinning from a sudden bout of nausea. “Oh, no,” I moaned, dashing to the bathroom on shaky legs.
I made it just in time to vomit in the toilet bowl. As I tried to ignore the acrid scent filling the room a moment later, I weakly climbed to my feet, and something suddenly occurred to me as another wave of nausea hit me.
My period was a few days late.
More than a few days, actually. I hadn’t had one in…god, how long was it? Panic filled me as I realized what this could mean. Dec and I first got together around six weeks ago. Or was it less than that? I did some quick mental calculations. It was just before the two week show hiatus during the strike, and after the hiatus was over, we’d filmed four weeks of the show. So yes, it’d been about six weeks since we started our sexual relationship. We used condoms, but hell, they could break, right?
I cursed myself for not being more careful. If the condom had broken on that first time, and we hadn’t noticed, then that could explain why I was feeling so tired and sick now. My mom always told me that when she fell pregnant with me, she had terrible morning sickness which started around the six week mark before she even realized she was pregnant. The same thing happened when she was pregnant with my brother, too.
Shit.
I rinsed my bitter mouth out with spearmint-flavored mouthwash and looked at myself in the mirror, fear and uncertainty reflected in my eyes. On top of all the other stressors I had in my life at the moment, it looked like I had something even bigger to contend with now.
I could be pregnant.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Olivia
I left the room in a panic, heading for the stairs. The show had an on-site nurse and doctor in the resort at all times, so I knew that should be my first port of call. Apart from Dec, of course, but I couldn’t reach him right now while he was caught up with the interview filming anyway.
I rapped on the door of the doctor’s makeshift office on the first floor, and he poked his head out a moment later. “Hi, Olivia. Let me guess, you’ve got the cold as well?” he said with a sympathetic smile.
I shook my head. There was a bad cold going around the island at the moment, apparently, and two contestants and seven crew members had fallen victim to it. Unfortunately, my symptoms definitely weren’t those of a simple cold.
“No cold. Could I come in?” I asked, anxiously twisting my hands.
“Of course. That’s what I’m here for,” the doctor said, stepping aside. “Take a seat and tell me what’s going on.”
I sat down in the small office, my hands still trembling nervously as I rested them on my lap. “I’ve been feeling really tired for the last few days. Really nauseated, too. I literally just threw up ten minutes ago. And I also missed my period. It was due a week ago, I think. Maybe a bit longer. I didn’t even realize I missed it because I’ve been so caught up with all the filming stuff. My boobs are a tad sore, too, now that I think about it.”
He nodded. “Are you on birth control?” he asked.
“No.”
“Are you sexually active?”
I blushed. “Yes. I mean, we use condoms, but still…”
I didn’t elaborate as to who exactly my sexual partner was. The doctor nodded again, and I was glad that there wasn’t even a hint of judgment in his eyes. I already felt stupid enough right now for not being as careful as I should have been to avoid a situation like this, so it was nice that his attitude was so calm and non-judgmental. It made me feel calm. Well, calmer, anyway.
“You’re not necessarily pregnant,” he said. “I know that’s what most people will jump to, but it could be any number of things. For example, stress. That’s a major one. It can wreak havoc on your body, and competing on a show like this, where the cameras are almost always on you…that can hurt. Last season, I had two contestants come to me with the same symptoms as you. They were also concerned about unplanned pregnancy, but they weren’t. It was just stress.”
“Oh.” That made me feel a little better. I was stressed, after all. Stressed about everything Shayla put me through all those weeks ago (I still had nightmares about it), stressed about winning the show…even stressed about my fledgling jewelry business back home.
“I’ll get our nurse to take some blood from you, and I’ll send it off with a request for testing. Because we’re so isolated here on the islands, I won’t be able to get an answer for you right away, but we should have the results in about two or three days.”
I nodded. “What about those tests that you can just pee on?”
“We do have them, but they aren’t as good as blood tests for detecting pregnancy this early. I also want to see the results of the blood tests to rule out anything else. Could always be some sort of bug you’ve caught, or any number of other things.”
“Oh, right. That makes sense.”
“Try not to stress until we get the results back, okay?” he said. “I realize it’s easier said than done when you’re competing on a reality show which gets watched by millions of people every week, but just try for me.”
I gave the doctor a weak smile. “I will. Thanks, Dr. Donnelly.”
The nurse took some blood from me, and fifteen minutes later I was on my way out, feeling a little better already. My stomach was still a bit queasy, but the doctor had really calmed me down. It hadn’t even occurred to me that stress or a simple bug could cause my symptoms. I’d leapt straight to pregnancy like a paranoid basket case.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want kids. I did. Just not at the age of nineteen. I wanted to have my life a bit more settled first. Maybe have Dec as my real husband, not just a fake one.
I smiled at the thought and decided to take a short walk outside. Perhaps the fresh sea breeze would help with the nausea.
“Hey, Liv.”
A familiar voice chimed in my ear as I stepped down to the hedge-lined path just outside the front doors of the resort, and I turned to see Isobel sitting on a garden bench. I smiled and waved. I didn’t like her when I first arrived on the show (and for several weeks of filming, actually) but after the way she helped Dec and me get out of our sticky situation with Shayla a few weeks ago, I’d gotten over any dislike I had for her. Sure, she’d been abrupt and rude at first, but there was obviously a nice person lurking somewhere beneath her tough exterior.
“Hey, Isobel,” I said, stepping over to her.
“You okay?” she asked, eyebrows furrowed in a quizzical expression. “You look a little pale.”
Daddy's Fake Bride (A Fake Marriage Romance) Page 16
