Fairytale Love - Becca & Brian (16 page)

Before he opened his door, he clicked his battery pack on. Then he climbed in just as Gavin was giving the thumbs-up that they were both live; which meant that everything they said from this point on was being recorded. As Gavin closed the door, Brian turned the ignition on and screeched out of the large turnaround. Dust flew up as he did, and Becca grabbed the door.

Everything inside of him was screaming for him to keep going—to get her out of here. Why had he thought this would be a good thing? Why had he been relieved to have her here? He needed to talk to her without it being broadcast to production.

“What are you doing?” she asked, looking up at him, wide-eyed.

Brian shrugged as he shifted and sped down the road that led up to Stone Castle. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to tell Becca what he was doing, what he was thinking. It was just that he didn’t want everyone in the sound room to hear it. Halfway down the long road, he took a sharp left, pulling onto a side road. There was a secret spot he’d been shown by some locals in Whisper Lake when he was a kid. It wasn’t immediately visible from the main road. If you didn’t know it was there, it just looked like you’d drive into the trees. But there was small area that was covered with dense trees, mainly used by teenagers to come park in.

“Bri—”

He lifted his finger to his lips, indicating for Becca to be quiet, and put the Jeep in park. Then, quickly he shut off his own mic before leaning across Becca, slipping his hand up her shirt, and shutting hers off as well.

He was looking down at his hand beside the sexy line of smooth skin on the side of her belly. His heart pounded loudly as he felt Becca’s fingers wrap around his arms, clinging to him. He felt her fingernails digging into his skin.

Without a thought in his mind, acting on pure instinct, Brian watched as he lightly brushed the backs of his long fingers against the softness of the pale skin just above the waistband of her white shorts. Her body trembled beneath his touch, and he saw her chest rise as she let out a small sigh.

His eyes were trained on her bare, exposed skin, but he could feel the heat of her stare and the sweet fan of her breath on his face. He knew that they were barely an inch apart, but he couldn’t bring himself to look up. Seeing her skin beneath his touch was equal parts erotic and precious. Leaning over her, his body surrounding her like this, he didn’t want this moment to end.

“Brian?” she rasped.

Lifting his eyes, he saw the look of arousal and confusion in her eyes. As badly as he wanted nothing more than to thread his fingers through her silky hair and press his lips to hers, claim her with a kiss she
would
remember, he didn’t. Even knowing she felt at least some of the desire he was feeling was not enough to risk what they had.

But he could do this.

“We don’t have to stay,” he gritted out, trying to push down his need. “I can get you out of here. We can leave.”

* * *

“What?” Becca asked as she tried to process the words that had just come out of Brian’s perfect, full lips.

Granted, she knew that her mind was so clouded with lust that having a coherent thought might be totally impossible, but she was hoping to at least try and keep up with the conversation. His fingers moved against her skin again, and the motion sent a tidal wave of tingles flowing through her body.

Nope. There was no way she could possibly talk to him when he was touching her so softly and looking at her so intensely. She’d thought that she’d seen every look Brian Scott had, but this one was new. It looked primal, raw—and she liked it. So much more than she should. Biting down on her lip, she held on to him tighter, terrified that he was going to move away from her and almost just as scared at what would happen if he didn’t.

“Becca.” Brian’s pupils dilated as he said her name, and she could see the tiny specks of gold that were sprinkled around the light brown of his irises.

A loud noise sounded behind them and they turned to see one of the PAs holding up a bullhorn, pressing the button to sound the obnoxious horn before announcing loudly through the electronic device, “Found them!”

“Do you want to go?” Brian asked, his voice sounding borderline panicked.

No way did Becca trust herself to speak, scared that her pesky voice would betray her and scream, “
Yes, please!”
So she went the safer route for everyone and shook her head no. As badly as she wanted Brian to drive her away from this place, she knew she needed to be strong. If she kept having near panic attacks, Brian would keep second-guessing being here, and he needed to have his head in the game. The reason they were here—he needed to win this thing.

Brian sat back in his chair and ran his fingers through his hair, looking as frustrated as he used to look when his team would lose a baseball game in high school. She knew that he always took responsibility for the losses even though she pointed out, on more than one occasion, that it was a team sport. Still, he’d feel like he’d let his team down.

She was just about to assure him that she was fine, that she was happy about being here, when her door opened and the PA, who had blown the horn and announced her great discovery, stood looking more than a little pissed off.

“You need to get up to set,” she said as if they were children she needed to reprimand, which Becca guessed their behavior had warranted. Then, she roughly switched the battery pack to Becca’s mic back on and said, “Keep. These. On,” before slamming the door.

Becca turned to see that Brian was switching his on before turning the ignition. Just as the engine roared to life, Becca’s door flung open again.

“And act
natural
,” she stated firmly before once again shutting the door.

Becca knew that she needed to get Brian to laugh, to lighten up. She had to push down all of the feelings, emotions, and confusion she was feeling and just be here for him, so as they passed the PA, Becca saluted.

The PA didn’t see it, but Brian laughed. It was a small laugh, but it was enough to break the tension in the car. She knew that, normally, Brian would be making small talk. They had been instructed to do that very thing by Sabrina when she’d come into the makeup trailer to prep them on what to expect on their ‘arrival shot.’

“This place looks so much bigger close up,” Becca said, trying her best to sound natural. She was pretty sure she’d just sounded weird or creepy, but hey, she was kind of dealing-with-slash-processing a lot right now. “It’s beautiful.”

She looked over and saw that, as Brian turned the wheel, putting the car where they’d told him to park, he definitely had his ‘serious’ face on. Apparently, her little salute joke had not lightened the mood as much as she’d thought.

Knowing that she had to try a new tactic—and quick—she rapidly ran through the topics they’d been prompted to discuss during their small talk.

Castle, she’d tried. People? No, they hadn’t “met” anyone yet. Love? Ooh, that would get him talking.

“So, Bri, what do you think the chances are that one or both of us will actually find our fairytale love?”

Brian looked over at her and the moment their eyes met Becca’s heart slammed in her chest. His gaze was so intense it felt like he could see all the way to her soul. She had no idea what he was about to say, but she knew that, until he spoke, she didn’t think it would be possible to breathe.

“Good. Very good,” he said.

To everyone listening, it would have sounded like she’d asked him a question and he’d answered it, but to Becca, it was more than that. Somehow, his words had felt like a promise.

“Oh,” was all she managed to answer, totally dropping the ball on the small talk portion of their entrance.

His lips turned up in one of her favorite smiles. It was also one of his rarest smiles. The only way she could describe it was his bad-boy smile. It was the one that had finally convinced her to go into that haunted house a decade earlier. It was the one that had convinced her to scale the fence at the local swimming pool, The Plunge, after it was closed when they were twelve. It was the one that had convinced her to ditch school and go down to the river the day before they graduated with the rest of the senior class. It was also the one that always caused her to follow him, blindly, and she was so happy that it had made its appearance today because, right now, that’s exactly what she needed to do.

“You got this, B?” he asked, the twinkle in his eye making her stomach feel like it did when she’d jumped off the high dive.

“I’ve got this, B,” she confirmed, suddenly feeling more confident and ready to take on this show as just one more of the adventures Brian had taken her on.

As she stepped out onto the gravel for the second time today and took in the massive structure before her (now that it was no longer blocked by huge trucks), she did actually begin to experience some excitement brewing inside of herself.

Before she knew it, Brian was at her side with their luggage and they were making their way up the walkway, which was surrounded on either side by perfectly manicured lush green shrubbery.

As they reached the tall, wooden, arched doors, Brian moved closer and easily pushed open—what looked like—a very heavy door, all while carrying not only her luggage, but his as well.

She would have tried to take her own luggage, but she knew that, with Brian, it would have been a losing battle. He’d insisted on carrying things for her since they had started walking home together in second grade. Every day after school, he’d take her backpack from her and carry both hers and his the entire two-mile trip home.

As they stepped into the foyer, Becca was overwhelmed by not only the beauty of the interior of the space, but also how modern it looked. The intricate woodwork looked flawless, and the stained-glass windows high in the walls gave the space an ethereal feel.

“Woohooo!”

“New people!”

“I think we’re all here.”

“Partayyy.”

Becca turned to where she heard the voices coming from and saw the rest of her cast mates all standing in what appeared to be a sitting room, complete with several incredible paintings hanging on the walls, two couches, and a large fireplace as the centerpiece of the room.

Brian set down the luggage with everyone else’s, and as they walked to greet everyone, they did just as they’d been instructed to do. Everyone was friendly. Even Natalie and Brooklyn—who had been ready to throw down over the seat next to Brian—were talking and laughing like old friends.

Becca did notice that Brooklyn was making herself very cozy next to Brian. Becca tried not to stare since she knew that they were filming. Plus, it was just creepy.

“Welcome, everyone, to
Fairytale Love
!” A familiar voice boomed loudly, filling the entire room and even echoing off the walls.

Becca blinked twice to see if what her eyes and her ears were telling her was actually reality or if the roller coaster ride of emotions she’d been on for the last few days had officially gone off the rails and she was crashing straight into delusion.

“I’m your host, Lance Sparrow.”

Nope, still firmly strapped in and riding the crazy-emotion roller coaster
. Still, Lance Sparrow being the host of this show just made her feel even more like she was in the
Twilight Zone
—or, at the very least, that she was seriously out of her league.

She felt Brian’s head turn towards her and knew he was doing one of his famous ‘visual checks.’ Every few minutes, no matter where they were, Brian would scan the crowd, find Becca, and not take his eyes off of her until he knew that she was okay.

Honestly, she had no idea how long he’d been doing it. She did know when she’d become aware of it—Morp, which was prom spelled backwards, and was HCHS’s version of the Sadie Hawkins dance, where the girls ask the boys. The HCHS twist was, that you dressed the same as each other. It was the first dance they’d gone to as freshmen. Since neither of them had a boyfriend nor girlfriend, they’d gone together, starting their tradition of being one another’s plus-one. Her sisters had also been in high school—Haley a senior, Krista a junior, and Jessie a sophomore.

It was Jessie who had pointed out his behavior, telling Becca that she could almost set a clock to the fact that not five minutes would pass before Brian would start looking for her. Becca had thought it was ridiculous, but when Krista overheard Jessie trying to convince Becca that it was true, she’d challenged Becca to prove their sister wrong. So for almost an hour, Becca and one or two of her sisters moved around the room, playing conversation leapfrog with almost every social circle in attendance at the dance.

Two things had come from that little social experiment. One, Jessie had been absolutely right. Brian hadn’t gone more than five minutes without seeking her out and giving her an assessing look before, once again, turning back to whatever conversation he was having. The other was that she’d made a lot of friends that night she wasn’t sure she would have ever talked to otherwise.

“It’s good to see that you are all getting along,” Lance Sparrow continued.

Were they? Becca hadn’t talked one on one with a single person in the bunch. She shifted her eyes to see if anyone else was feeling the same way she was. Instead of getting her answer, she saw that Brooklyn had wrapped her fingers around Brian’s forearm and was hanging on him like she was an ornament and he was the Christmas tree.