The Complete Groupie Trilogy

by Ginger Voight

  The whole thing had put a wedge between her and Vanni. She had grilled him about specifics with the hospital visits to the point where he grew snippy. This situation was hard on him, too; it didn’t make things any easier for anyone for her to ask questions that would ultimately pain her. He really rather preferred that everything that happened with Holly be a totally separate thing that never touched Andy. And for the first time it wasn’t even because he was trying to juggle both women. He may not have told Holly about the engagement, but he made it clear that he was going to stay with Andy. She had screamed at him to the point where security removed him temporarily from the room. He was waiting just outside when Julian showed up, which made things even more awkward. Julian played the “protective older brother” well, right up to the point he told Vanni if he ever did anything to hurt Holly or the baby he’d hunt him down and tear out his heart.

  “You seem to forget that you have a rap sheet as long as your arm,” Vanni told him softly. He didn’t cotton to being treated like the bad guy in a situation they knowingly created.

  “Just don’t you forget it,” was Julian’s warning before he disappeared into the hospital room. An hour later he exited, and told Vanni – who still waited – that Holly had calmed down and decided he could go back into the room.

  But she reiterated that she wanted it all, otherwise there was no point.

  He gestured around the room. “This is the point, Holly,” he had told her. “You needed me to help you save our baby. Look at how you live. You’re holed up in a roach motel, eating crap, sick as a dog to the point you ended up in a hospital. Are you really willing to risk our baby over where I happen to live?”

  Her chin quivered as her eyes welled up with tears. She wore no makeup and her hair, now washed and combed straight, hung in a half-dyed curtain towards her tiny shoulders. She looked like a child in the hospital bed, and – despite it all – looked genuinely concerned for the health of her baby. She cuddled her stomach constantly as if already holding him or her in her arms. Finally she shook her head. “Of course not,” she said softly. “I’m just scared, Vanni. Scared you’ll cast me aside for someone else. You weren’t thinking about me or the baby you thought I carried when you kissed Andy in that church. You were being selfish. How am I supposed to trust you now?”

  “The same way I’m supposed to trust you,” he said pointedly. “This isn’t about you and me anymore.”

  She nodded without looking at him, and then curled up on her side. “I’m tired, Vanni,” she said. Now that she wasn’t vomiting every few hours, she had finally been able to get some sleep. “But don’t leave until I go to sleep,” she pleaded with the wide-eyed innocence of a child. She was scared, she was virtually alone… and she needed him. He suspected that would always be the case. He sighed as he sat in the chair next to the bed.

  He had to reconcile the fact that she was going to be as dependent upon him as any baby would be; both financially and emotionally. She wasn’t like Andy. Andy had already set up a trust fund for the baby, she had taken out life insurance – she was even going to go back to work. She ate right, she slept and took care of herself, she had been stepping up as a mother ever since she found out she was pregnant. She would never play the victim just so he would take care of her, or force his hand so he could never leave.

  Most of all she wouldn’t lie to him. Usually she did the exact opposite – she always told him the truth whether he wanted to hear it or not. Mostly not. She was a partner in life, not a dependent. It took him a long time to give her his trust but now that he had, there was no going back. He’d never swap Andy for Holly. The only reason he had ever slept with her in the first place was because he thought Andy had chosen Graham. He couldn’t have what he wanted so he opted for the consolation prize.

  Little did he know it would come back, repeatedly, to bite him in the ass.

  But now that he had Andy, he was determined to keep her. Though she wanted details for some masochistic reason he couldn’t fathom, he decided to give her cursory information to ensure they still were able to talk about it, without hurting her any more than he had to.

  He’d hurt her enough over the last four years.

  He didn’t seem to realize that his withholding any information whatsoever did exactly what he was trying to avoid doing. She wanted to be assured that he wasn’t falling for Holly’s old tricks. Andy didn’t buy the poor little damsel in distress routine. She believed everything Holly did was carefully calculated. She had one purpose: to nab a famous baby daddy. Now that she was finally pregnant, there was no way she’d ever let him go.

  And Vanni was driven by guilt just enough for it to work.

  That was why Andy woke up early that Monday morning. This was the week he would tell the press about their upcoming engagement and their own baby. This would make her feel like they had made a solid commitment, one that he’d never been able to make before. He had made it to Lourdes, he had made it to Kat… he had even made it to Holly.

  It was Andy’s turn. And she couldn’t wait.

  Sure, it would make things more complicated. And sure, it would paint a huge target on her back for all those fans who believed Vanni belonged only to them. The presents still showed up on the door, and got increasingly more graphic and obscene. It was scary, especially after looking down the barrel of Talia’s gun. But they would do what they had to in order to keep their family safe.

  She was already looking into new homes, primarily in gated, exclusive communities. As much as Vanni had loved their little beach house, it wasn’t equipped for a newborn. There was only the one loft bedroom, and the security in the neighborhood was lax enough that PING could follow his every move. Andy wanted something large enough they could grow into it, with a studio for him and an office for her, along with a nursery for the baby and maybe even a big back yard for a dog someday.

  It was crazy to think of planning a white-picket-fence future with a husband who was a superstar, but the weight of the heavy ring on her left hand was all the permission she needed to do so.

  She watched it sparkle in the sunlight as her hand slid across the solid muscles of his back. He moaned a little in his sleep as he turned to face her. Their normal loving routine had been curtailed by the Holly development, and suddenly Andy missed her man. She snuggled close and kissed his satiny skin as her fingers traveled over his back and down over his hips.

  His dark eyes opened and focused on her face. He always loved waking up to Andy. It was as if dreams lost their luster when he could wake up to this woman day after day. He had everything he wanted. No words were needed as he reached over to kiss her.

  She pulled him down on top of her. Where her hunger came from, she wasn’t sure. But nothing could satisfy her except for Vanni in her arms. She wrapped her arms and legs around him as she brazenly explored his mouth with her tongue. Each kiss led to another until everything that had kept them apart all weekend evaporated in an instant. Night clothes were discarded quickly and neither said anything as they meshed body and spirit. It was quick and explosive, and much better than any annoying alarm clock.

  He collapsed to her side, sweaty and out of breath. He wore that lovable smirk on his face as he turned to her. “Mornin’.”

  She giggled and snuggled up into the crook of his arm. He pulled her into a tight, possessive embrace. It had only been a weekend, but God, he had missed her.

  She hadn’t gone anywhere in body, but she had definitely kept her heart under glass. He hated that. He never wanted to go back to that again.

  “Looks like you woke up our little Bean,” she said.

  “She’s kicking?” he wanted to know.

  She nodded with a serene smile, and then lay back on her back. He found the pooch on her stomach with ease – that little bundle that grew more prominent by the week. His large hand cupped her abdomen and he waited.

  “I don’t feel anything,” he whispered.

  She grabbed his hand and pressed it down far firmer than h
e would have dared. Before he could ask her if that would hurt her, he felt the slightest flutter under her skin. Tears sprang in his widened eyes as they met Andy’s. “Oh my God,” he said.

  She was laughing and crying as he kissed planted a soft, long kiss on her tummy. “I love you, baby Bean,” he said before he rose up to kiss Andy. “And I love you. Best of all.”

  They shared another long, slow kiss. She dragged herself from the bed before they headed straight for round two. Today was a workday, and they didn’t have the luxury of hanging around in bed all day.

  He pouted as he followed her to the shower, which he insisted they share. He took his time bathing her, and then got even using his fingers to work her into a frenzy. She had to lean against the wall as he gave her something naughty and exciting to think about all day.

  It made meeting up with Graham later that morning even more awkward, especially since Vanni was not shy about staking his claim where Andy was concerned. Everyone at the studio knew they were a couple, some even were privy to the information she was his fiancé. Thanks to a confidentiality agreement, everyone was bound by a code of silence until the official press release was issued that Friday.

  It was a safe little bubble where Andy finally felt acknowledged and valued.

  Shannon wasn’t too keen on the current controversy with Holly, especially when it got back to her that her high-paid celebrity judge was engaged to someone else who was likewise in the family way. She met with Graham and Dixie early to express her concerns.

  Dixie waved it off that, while they didn’t want to focus on it, the controversy could drive initial ratings. “If people see us the first time because of this,” the firebrand redheaded media mogul explained, “then they’ll keep tuning in.”

  Graham nodded, but his investment in Vanni’s remaining a judge wasn’t completely altruistic. He liked the fact that he could see Andy every day thanks to the new show, and it worked to his favor that Vanni was still screwing up the way he had always screwed up.

  There was still a kernel of hope that she’d eventually pull her head out of the sand and see that he was all wrong for her, especially now that she had a baby on the way.

  Graham was thoughtful and attentive when working with Andy, which didn’t escape Vanni’s notice. In fact he watched every encounter and read between every line to see what was really being said between them. The minute the news broke about Holly, Vanni had feared that Andy would run screaming back to stable, uncomplicated Graham. So far she hadn’t, but that didn’t mean he didn’t still harbor some of those fears she might.

  They had been through too much, this past year especially. Andy had finally gotten out from under the oppressive cloud of obligation. If she left him now it would be because she chose another man.

  The more he watched Graham with Andy, the more Vanni understood that there were deep feelings between them, and a connection he wasn’t likely to break.

  Worst of all he couldn’t even make a big deal about it because across town in a Hollywood hospital lay another woman pregnant with his child.

  Andy made the disheartening discovery he was now the one under the oppressive cloud.

  With a sigh he realized she was being far more magnanimous about his situation than he had ever been about hers.

  He truly didn’t deserve her, but somehow she loved him anyway.

  He stuffed down any distaste he may have felt for Graham and his working relationship with Andy, and they got down to business.

  Vanni met the other two judges slated to be on the show. Allison Ewing was an older, country singer who had made a name for herself in the 1980s as a Honky Tonk Party girl. She’d married and raised a family in the interim, but her straight-shootin’ approach to life, music, and even politics, had kept her in the public eye even after she had retired from music. Her hair was still bleached blond and teased to high heaven, and she had a thick Oklahoma accent that could have been annoying and abrasive had it not been for her bright blue eyes and ready, Southern smile.

  Ryder Reed was a producer from New York. He’d made careers out of Internet stars with his own start-up company. He and Graham would be in competition for the contestants that emerged from the competition. Ryder wanted young, urban and marketable, but he was known for championing those other, larger labels might have ignored entirely. A couple of novelty acts had top-ten hits thanks to Ryder’s ability to think outside the box.

  The judges were split apart for the first round of auditions, where they listened to demo tapes only in the privacy of a sound booth, rather than live auditions. Unlike other shows, that often produced train-wreck auditions, these were a little more challenging. It wasn’t a matter of these contestants being talented; it was if they were talented enough based on the strength of their production value alone. Each hopeful sang two songs, one with musical accompaniment, and one without. At that point each judge would score based on their individual criteria to bring the contestants back for the live auditions the following week.

  The original screening process had produced more than two thousand quality contestants for this first round, so it was up to the judges to go through and narrow the field down to a hundred or so semi-finalists. Those contestants would come back the following weeks to perform live with a band, to see if they had what it took to be legitimate stage act.

  Andy left Vanni to do his judging while she worked more with the production team. She had her own office, and that was where Graham found her that afternoon when they all broke for lunch. He brought a sandwich from the lunch truck, along with a box of juice. She gave him a grateful smile. In order to get things up to speed by the following week, they were swamped. She might have worked through lunch had he not intervened.

  “Always looking after me,” she said as she turned away from her computer and opened up her juice.

  “Always,” he promised. He sat in the chair opposite her desk. “So how did things work out this weekend?”

  She shrugged. “It is what it is. I think Holly is just going to be a complication for the foreseeable future.”

  He nodded. “I talked to a doctor about a fertility test,” he said. “They can be done while she’s pregnant but her doctor would have to sign off on it since it comes with certain risks. Since she’s so ill, that may delay things.”

  She gave him a good-humored smile. “I wouldn’t expect it any other way. We don’t do easy, apparently.”

  He nodded. He wanted to add the only reason he knew about the fertility test was because he still held onto the hope she might be having his baby instead of Vanni’s, but it was a futile battle at the moment. He’d just wait until Vanni screwed up – again – and she came running back to him to fix it.

  Again.

  It wasn’t a matter of if. It was a matter of when.

  “My security guy says you have received a couple more suspicious packages,” he said. “Is there a problem I should know about?”

  She shook her head. “Nothing concrete, yet. It’s nothing dangerous, just more and more obscene. Obviously this chick wants Vanni to get the hint that she’s completely and totally available.”

  “According to the world, he is,” Graham pointed out. “When are you going to tell the world your happy news?”

  “This week,” she answered. “At the press conference. He’s just going to get it all out in the open.”

  Graham sighed. “Have you talked that over with Shannon?”

  “No. Why?”

  “This Holly thing has her nervous. She wasn’t kidding when she said she wanted him to keep his nose clean. It’s in the contract.”

  “So what are you saying? That we can’t announce anything until after the show is over?”

  “I don’t know. How forgiving will middle America be if the new judge for a reality show is starring in his own soap opera? Having two babies from two different mothers? That’s a hard sell. To our audience and to our sponsors.”

  “So PING screwed me again,” she surmised. “Because we did
n’t announce my pregnancy first, we missed our window?”

  “You know, it might be a good idea to hold off telling the world anyway. Until you know how this thing with Holly will turn out. Get the fertility test done before you bring the media into it.”

  “The media’s already into it,” she pointed out angrily. “That’s the problem. This isn’t just a personal problem with three private citizens. It’s front page news for every tabloid in the country.”

  “I’m just saying that maybe now isn’t the time to air the dirty laundry. Let Vanni polish his image with the show, and with everything he’s doing to make up for things that happened with the Wilke girl and Holly.”

  She rolled her eyes in frustration. “Do you know how long that’s going to take?”

  “It might not take long at all,” he reasoned. “The Wilkes’ look content to get a payoff, and I’m sure Holly will disappear if you throw enough money at her. That’s all she wants.”

  Andy shook her head. She wasn’t as sure of that. It seemed to her that Holly got a lot out of being linked with someone famous in the press. With his child, she was famous by proxy. She wasn’t going to go away just because they gave her some money. She’d keep coming back like a homeless cat that could turn feral at a moment’s notice.

  Andy scooted out of her chair and paced around to the window overlooking the lot. “I can’t believe this. All these years later and I’m still in hiding.”