Kevin had cannily booked them a suite with two bedrooms, so they could stay together as far as the hotel and press were concerned but sleep separately. Still, after the last few days, Jay had assumed that they’d share a bedroom here as they had at the cottage. But as soon as they’d arrived, Daisy had taken her bags into the second bedroom and hadn’t reappeared.
Jay wasn’t quite sure what to make of that.
He’d meant to talk to her on the plane, to figure out exactly what this thing was between them, but instead the journey had been taken up with planning ways to level up their fake relationship. It would help, he supposed, if he knew what he wanted from this fling to start with.
Because it was a fling, right? That much he was pretty sure of.
Probably.
Yeah, he really needed to talk to Daisy.
But not before he’d had a proper, long, hot shower. The plumbing at the villa was still a bit hit and miss, and he’d been dreaming of a hotel bathroom for days. Of course, he’d also been imagining all the things he could do to Daisy in a shower like this...
Later. They’d get through tonight, then come back and enjoy all the benefits of this hotel suite. There’d be plenty of time to talk about what it all meant later, on the plane back, or once they were back at the villa, even. Yeah, that made sense. He’d wait until they had time and space alone again. Well, apart from the goat.
The shower went a long way to reviving him, and once he’d dressed in the suit the stylist Kevin had assigned them had sent up for him, he felt more or less ready to take on the real world again. At least fake-engagement-ring shopping with Daisy had taken his mind off the fact he was going to have to smile and play nice with Milli in front of hundreds of thousands of people across the globe tonight.
And even that was easier than seeing her in person, alone. Then, he knew, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself asking her why. Why she’d let him believe that what they had could be real, when for her it was never more than a sham.
He wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer to that.
When they’d met, they’d both been rising stars. But it hadn’t taken long for Milli’s to eclipse his. From that point on he supposed it had been inevitable that she’d move onwards and upwards to something better.
But he wasn’t thinking about Milli tonight. Not until he had to.
Opening the bedroom door, he headed into the suite’s lounge, and found Daisy already there, dressed in a shimmering blue floor-length gown he’d never seen before. Cut high at the neckline, instead it plunged low at the back, baring her spine almost to the curve of her backside.
‘Wow.’
‘Yeah. Apparently now I’m your fake fiancée the stylist decided my wardrobe needed an upgrade.’
‘It’s gorgeous. You’re gorgeous.’ Her dark hair sat in waves against her head, angling down to her cheekbone on one side. She looked like a vintage film star, glamorous, beautiful, untouchable.
‘It’s not exactly my usual style,’ Daisy admitted wryly. ‘But I guess it goes with the ring.’
‘It definitely does that.’ His gaze darted to her left hand, and the huge rock sitting there, weighing her down. ‘Think you’ll be able to play guitar wearing that thing?’
Daisy shrugged, and the dress slid and shifted over her curves in a way that made him want to peel it right off her. ‘Probably not. Maybe I’ll need a stage ring too.’
‘You’re just in this for the jewellery, aren’t you?’ he joked as they heard a knock at the door.
‘Because I’m such a magpie?’ She patted his cheek and crossed the room to answer the door. ‘I’ll have you know I’m just in this for the hot sex.’
‘More information than I needed.’ Harry, standing behind the open door, looked between them, his gaze full of questions. Jay suspected he was going to have to answer at least some of them later tonight. More fun to look forward to. ‘Glad to see you both made it,’ Harry went on. ‘If you’re ready, the car’s waiting downstairs.’
With a beaming, un-Daisy-like smile, his fake fiancée took his arm, ensuring that her left hand was in full view against his suit jacket. ‘Then let’s go!’
* * *
Daisy knew that the photos of her fake engagement ring would be on the Internet before they even reached the awards ceremony. There had definitely been ones of them ring shopping up online by the time they’d got back to the hotel. The media didn’t mess around when it came to Jay Barwell’s relationship status.
She just wished she understood it as well as the media seemed to think they did.
Harry had been shooting them both concerned glances since they’d left the hotel, while Kevin just looked blissful the whole time. Nico had elbowed Jay as they’d got into the car, making a joke about the condoms he’d slipped in his case. In response, Benji had rolled his eyes and pointed out that it was all just for show.
Daisy hadn’t known how to tell them they were both right, so she hadn’t said anything at all.
Jay was quiet too, probably thinking about the impending video chat with his ex. But as soon as they climbed out of the car onto the red carpet, he was all matinee-idol smiles for the cameras, holding her close against his side like a pretty accessory.
God, she hated this, she realised as the camera flashes blinded her. She hated being nothing more than an appendage to some man. She hated that people were more interested in her dress and her ring than her music. She hated that she was lying to the world, pretending to be something she’d never be.
The sort of woman Jay Barwell might marry.
How had it come to this? In some ways, events just seemed to have swept her up and dragged her along. But in others, she knew she’d chosen this. For Jay. To make him feel better.
Because however much she didn’t want to talk emotions with him, she knew she had them. About him.
And that, she could already tell, was going to cause her nothing but problems.
‘You okay?’ Jay murmured softly as they waved goodbye to the press and the crowds and swept into the awards venue. ‘You’re clinging kind of tight there.’
‘Not used to these shoes,’ Daisy replied. Not a complete lie.
Just not the whole truth, either.
Basically exactly like their relationship.
The awards were being held in a theatre, newly refurbished inside, but classically styled on the outside. Daisy had to admire the Italian sense of style and she was glad that the stylist had provided her own outfit. Her usual favourite black dress and boots really wouldn’t have fitted in here. The women were all so groomed and gorgeous, and the men in their suits all looked like James Bond, even if she knew that they were tattooed under their shirts and usually dressed in leather. Everyone seemed to have made a real effort tonight.
But it wasn’t until she saw the signage over the stage that she realised exactly which awards ceremony Jay had brought her to tonight.
The Ascot Music Awards.
Ascot. Viv Ascot. How had she missed that?
Because Kevin had sent all the details to Jay, since he was the one appearing. She was just there as a hanger-on, of course. And naturally Jay had been far more obsessed with the details about Milli than linking it to her mysterious cottage acquisition.
‘You didn’t tell me it was the Ascot Music Awards,’ she muttered as they took their seats. Jay wasn’t needed until much later in the ceremony, so had been told he’d be collected later to have his microphone set up and so on, and that he should just enjoy the show until then.
‘The Ascot... Oh! I guess I didn’t even register it. You think she might be here?’
Daisy shrugged. ‘She was at the Ascot Music Festival in Copenhagen. Why not? And if she is, I want to ask her about the cottage.’
‘About whether she knew what a state it was in? Or why she left it to you in the first place?’
�
�Both,’ Daisy said darkly.
It was hard to concentrate on the actual awards being given out when all she wanted to do was scan the room for the woman she’d met and known only as Viv. She almost missed the moment when the staff came to get Jay to prepare to present his award, grabbing his hand at the last minute as he rose from his seat.
‘You going to be okay?’ she asked.
He didn’t answer, exactly. Instead, he bent down and gave her a searing kiss. One that drove Viv Ascot, and the whole of Italy, from her mind for long seconds after he’d left to go backstage.
Nico leaned forward from his seat behind them. ‘Okay, you’ve got to come clean with us. What’s going on with you two?’
Harry pulled the drummer back. ‘Ignore him. He only wants to know because he’s got fifty quid riding on it in a bet with Benji.’
‘True,’ Benji put in.
‘What’s between you two is between you two,’ Harry finished as the audience applauded the previous award winner.
‘I’ll let you know when I figure out what that is,’ Daisy whispered to herself, her fingers still against her lips.
When he kissed her like that she wondered. She’d not had many long-term relationships in her life, and none lasting longer than a year. But even then, no other relationship had ever felt so passionate, so involved, in so little time.
Except that was just lust, wasn’t it? It didn’t mean anything more than that they had chemistry. And she’d known that from the first kiss he’d given her, onstage in Philadelphia, and that had definitely been just for show. Chemistry didn’t mean anything.
Turning her attention back to the stage, Daisy sat bolt upright. There, just to one side, stood Viv Ascot, dressed in a gorgeous burgundy gown and flanked by a stern-looking security guy. She was talking to one of the other presenters, thanking her probably, Daisy assumed. It would be rude to interrupt.
But then it was pretty rude to leave someone a crumbling building without a single word of explanation, and Daisy had never been particularly polite, anyway. She was almost to her feet and edging her way out of the row towards Viv, when suddenly there was huge applause, and she realised that Jay had come onto the stage. How would it look if his doting fiancée abruptly skedaddled just when he was presenting his award?
Torn, she hovered on the edge of her seat, trying to keep one eye on Viv and the other on the stage as the video link crackled to life and the perfect face of Milli Masters appeared on the screen.
‘Hi there, Rome!’ She waved, smiling wide enough to show off her perfect teeth, and Daisy tried not to hate her. She was the love of Jay’s life.
Except she’d broken his heart. Maybe she was allowed to hate her a little bit.
‘Great to see you, Milli,’ Jay replied, obviously reading his lines from the autocue, since Daisy knew it wasn’t actually great at all. ‘And thanks for joining us all the way from LA.’
‘Wouldn’t miss it!’ Milli replied, looking much happier about this whole arrangement than Jay was. Possibly because she was thousands of miles away.
Daisy tuned out for a second as she watched Viv embrace the woman she was talking to, then turn to leave. No! If she lost sight of her now she might never find her again in the crowd. Maybe if she just slipped out no one would notice...
Suddenly, a bright light zeroed in on her eyeballs. She blinked, made sure she hadn’t been abducted by aliens in the middle of a music awards ceremony, then smiled as she realised it was just the spotlight from the stage. Shining on her. For some reason she’d apparently missed.
‘Looks like they noticed the rock on your left hand,’ Harry whispered to her, so she must have looked pretty lost, too.
‘So I hear congratulations are in order,’ Milli was saying, although she didn’t sound particularly celebratory. In fact, her smile was growing stiffer as she made her way through her lines, obviously read off a screen beside the camera. ‘I’m just thrilled that you’ve found someone else—to sing duets with, I mean, of course.’
Forced laughter burst from the crowd, awkward in the face of Milli’s obviously unhappy delivery, and Daisy tried not to sink back into her chair and disappear. Oh, God, this was awful. Milli’s expression was thunderous, metres high on the TV screen for all to see. And Jay’s was even worse, somehow—just completely blank. As if he couldn’t even react to what was happening.
He pulled an envelope from his pocket. ‘And the nominees are...’
Daisy looked to the side. Viv was gone. She’d missed her chance.
This whole evening was a total disaster.
‘Should have stayed home with Genevieve,’ she muttered to herself as Harry patted her shoulder.
* * *
‘Well, that was horrible,’ Jay said the moment they were through their hotel-room door and alone again. Dropping onto the sofa in the centre of the suite’s main room, he waited for Daisy to join him.
She didn’t.
He opened his eyes to find her still standing by the door, her high heels dangling from her fingers and the hem of the gorgeous shimmery blue gown pooling around her bare feet. ‘You okay?’
‘Yeah.’ Crossing to the bar area, she ditched her shoes on the floor and pulled out two glasses, then reached into the minibar. ‘Drink?’
‘Sure.’ She poured two tiny bottles of liquor into the two glasses then handed him one. Jay didn’t even ask what it was before downing it. ‘I was ready for that.’
‘It couldn’t have been easy. Seeing Milli again.’ Daisy perched on the armchair opposite him, even though there was plenty of space on the sofa.
Jay had to admit that didn’t bode too well for his hopes of getting her in his bedroom tonight. Or his shower, for that matter.
No, apparently they had to have a discussion about his disaster of a love life instead. The perfect end to a horrible night.
‘At least she was on the other side of an ocean,’ he said with a shrug. ‘Seeing her in person would be worse.’
‘Because it hurts?’
‘Because it makes me angrier.’ Jumping to his feet, he headed to the minibar for a refill. This was clearly at least a two-drink conversation.
Daisy was blinking at him in astonishment when he turned around. ‘You? Angry? I don’t think I’ve ever seen that.’
He huffed a slight laugh. ‘I don’t suppose you have. I...used to have a temper, as a kid—ask Harry. But I worked hard to control it. It takes a lot to make me lose my temper these days.’
He didn’t mention that just dating Milli had been a sore test of that resolve. Or the fact that he’d only taken charge of it after breaking his brother’s nose during an argument.
‘But you were angry tonight?’ Daisy pulled her feet up onto the chair, so just her bare toes poked out from under the hem of her dress. In so many ways, she looked just as she did back at the villa, when it was just the two of them and the goat.
Maybe that was why he answered her honestly.
‘Yeah. I was bloody angry.’
‘Because they scripted those awful lines about you “duetting” with me?’
Jay pulled a face. ‘No. I mean, they were dreadful, but that’s just bad writing. I guess someone spotted the ring on our way in and they shoehorned them in. There was supposed to be about another screen and a half of that “banter” between us but I just skipped them. I didn’t want you to have to sit there through that with the spotlight on you.’
‘Thanks.’ Her voice was quiet, no mocking, no sarcasm.
He didn’t like it.
Putting his glass down on the coffee table, he knelt down on the floor in front of her chair, his hands either side of hers. ‘I was angry because it was all so fake. Her and me smiling and joking with each other when I still just want to yell “why?” at her whenever I see her face. She just walked out, then told me she’d gone in a social-media video shared with several mill
ion of our biggest fans and the whole world’s media. I never got the chance to ask her why, to have that big argument that ends a relationship.’
Because for her, it hadn’t been a relationship. It had been a marketing strategy. But he couldn’t admit that humiliation to Daisy—that he’d fallen in love, while she’d just been playing a part. Not tonight, anyway, not in this moment. But he realised to his surprise that he did want to tell her. To tell her everything, actually.
‘The spotlight on me and the ring probably didn’t help either, then,’ Daisy said softly. ‘I’m sorry about that. Maybe playing up to it all wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had.’
Jay shook his head. ‘No, it was. I needed you there with me tonight.’
He looked up into her eyes and found an expression he’d not seen there before. He was used to seeing passion there now, wicked temptation. He’d seen humour and friendship and even blissful moments of creative synchronicity.
But tonight...was that pity? Or just concern?
Jay wasn’t sure. But whatever it was, it drew him in.
‘I’m glad I could help,’ she said, voice quieter still.
He wanted to say more. There were questions he wanted to ask, things he wanted them to discuss, to clear up or decide between them. But right then he wanted something else more.
Rising up on his knees, Jay took her face between his hands and kissed her, gentle and long. And somehow, it felt completely different from every time he’d kissed her over the last few days.
It wasn’t that the passion had changed—he could still feel it, simmering beneath the fancy clothes and the exhaustion. But for the first time, that wasn’t all their kiss was about. He wasn’t touching her to drag her back into bed, to find their mutual pleasure again.
He was kissing her because he was thankful she was in his life. Because she was the one thing that felt real in his crazy fake world right now.
Except, in reality, she was the fakest part of it.
He pulled back, his gaze drawn to the sparkle of her pretend engagement ring in the lamplight.
At least this time he knew that this wasn’t real, however it felt in the moment.
Italian Escape with Her Fake Fiancé Page 11
