Fairytale Love - Becca & Brian (17 page)

She looked back at Lance as his voice lowered, which she was pretty convinced was purely for effect.

“This journey is not going to be an easy one. Over the next few weeks, we will be testing you, as couples, to see if you have truly found your fairytale love. In order to pair you as couples, I’d like you each to come and pick a card, at random, from the bowl.”

Oh, the bowl.
Yes! Finally, something Becca had remembered and been expecting. The PA—Jennifer, she thought—had explained that the couples had already been selected, so each person was supposed to look down at the blank, white card—where a name would be edited in for the viewing audience—and make sure that they had look of surprise, excitement, or even “seductive plotting” on their face.

Becca knew there was no way she could pull off
seductive plotting
, mainly because she had no clue what it was. As she watched her cast mates go up one by one and take a card out of the bowl, she decided that she was definitely going to go with excitement. When it was her turn, she began walking up to the bowl and searched for the tape that, they’d instructed her earlier, was going to be on the floor, so she would know where to stand. Easy-breezy-beautiful-Cover-Girl…right?

Wrong!

Her knees were shaking so badly that she was instantly regretting the choice to wear shorts that day. At least if she had material covering her legs, the jelly-walk she was doing might have seemed less obvious.

Somehow, by the grace of God, she made it up to the front by Lance Sparrow. He smiled, encouragingly, as she reached to pull a white, plain card out of the pristine, glass fish’s house, and she noticed that her legs were not the only things that were shaking like a leaf. Her hands had also joined in the party and it looked like the anthem was ‘shake, rattle, and roll.’

It must have been the cameras that had her body feeling so out of sorts.

Becca tried to take steady breaths and not lock her knees as she pulled the card out. The last thing she needed to do was pass out. That would be beyond humiliating. When she flipped it over, it was, as promised, blank. She smiled brightly as she turned back to crowd, who were definitely split down the middle. The men all had pleasant, even friendly expressions on their faces. The girls did
not
. She suspected she would not be doing much bonding with any of the girls here. There would definitely not be split-heart necklaces exchanged with ‘Be Fri’ on one and ‘st ends’ on the other.

After shooting one last glance over to Lance Sparrow—who, up close, almost looked like the wax figures she’d seen at Madame Tussauds in Hollywood—she took her spot back in the pack.

Leaning down, Colton whispered encouragingly in a barely audible tone, “Good job.”

Becca grinned, feeling ridiculously proud of herself. Had she cured cancer, uncovered a drug ring, fed starving children? Nope. All she’d managed to do was follow directions that were easy enough for a child to perform. Still, it felt nice to hear Colton say that she’d done well anyway.

Her attention was, once again, pulled to the center of the room as she watched as Brooklyn made her way to the front. The pretty blond wiggled her fingers at Lance in greeting before making a
big
show of digging into the bowl and selecting a card. When she turned to the group at large, Becca found out exactly what ‘seductive plotting’ looked like. Brooklyn had nailed it as she looked at each one of the guys, in turn, like she had plans of the sexy variety in mind.

It was impressive. No way in a million gazillion years could Becca have pulled it off, but she had to give credit where credit was due.

After each contestant had selected their blank cards, Lance Sparrow held his hands out much like she remembered seeing Mr. Roarke do on the television show
Fantasy Island
. “Welcome to Stone Castle, where one lucky couple will find their fairytale love.”

He held his too-big smile for several seconds before dropping his hands down by his sides. The second he did that, his entire demeanor switched right before her eyes. It was bizarre.

His face fell and he spoke—to whom, she wasn’t sure because he wasn’t looking at anyone in the room. He was looking down at the ground as he said, “Do we have it?” There was a pause, and then, without another word, he nodded and turned around, disappearing to…somewhere.

Becca looked around to see if anyone else thought that this was odd. And by anyone else, she meant Brian. What she saw was that his head was leaned down as Brooklyn whispered something in his ear.

The sight made Becca sick to her stomach.

“Okay. We need everyone to grab your luggage and head upstairs to find your rooms. The girls are in one suite and the guys are in another. There are cards with your names on them above the beds you’ve been assigned.”

Everyone moved back to the foyer, and Becca was, once again, struck by just how breathtaking the castle was. She couldn’t get over how much the entryway looked like what she imagined a Roman cathedral looking like.

Just as she was reaching for her bag, she saw Brian’s hand reach for it.

“I’ve got it,” she heard herself snap.

He froze, and she looked up at him. Obviously, he was taken aback by her tone.
She
was taken aback by her tone.

“I got it.” This time, her words came out sounding much friendlier.

It looked like he might have a follow-up question for her, but Brooklyn showed up beside them and started talking to Brian. Becca took the opportunity of him being distracted to grab her bags and head upstairs.

Halfway up the grand staircase, Becca couldn’t help herself. She looked over her shoulder to see if Brian was still talking to
her.
He was. And not only that, but Brooklyn also had her hand ‘casually’ resting on Brian’s chest.

Turning her head back around so fast that she was worried she might have given herself whiplash, Becca decided no more looking back. Best to keep her eyes straight ahead from here on out.

T
he doorway rattled as all the men made their way inside the dining hall. Brian tried to take in the amazing works of art hanging around the room, but he was having a hard time seeing since his eyes were watering. He was practically choking on the intense smell of aftershave and cologne. Apparently, most of these guys did not operate on the ‘less is more’ philosophy. At least, down here in the dining area, there wasn’t a cloud of the stuff like upstairs. In the guys’ suite, Brian had barely been able to see a foot in front of him.

There was a quiet rumble of trash talk going on. The guys in this group seemed highly competitive. Not that Brian wasn’t—he absolutely was. He just didn’t usually talk out his ass. And since he had no idea what the next few weeks would entail, he didn’t feel like making an idiot out of himself by predicting that he would be the last guy standing, especially when everything they said was being recorded for posterity.

“Okay, fellas.” Jennifer, the PA, walked in looking down at her clipboard. When she looked up, she stopped up short. “Wow. You guys look nice.”

Brian looked at the other four guys and had to admit that they had all cleaned up pretty nicely, himself included. Tonight, they’d been instructed to dress in cocktail attire. He was wearing a maroon button-up shirt, dark gray slacks, and black dress shoes. Most of the other guys were wearing variations of the same thing. With the exception of Colton, who was wearing cowboy boots, and Jax, who was wearing a white button-up shirt—which he had decided not to button up—and cargo shorts with tennis shoes.

Brian had seen Gavin’s expression when he’d seen what Jax was wearing. For a moment, Brian had thought he was going to say something about it, but instead, he’d just briefed the guys on what to expect the first night in the house and once again went over the ‘no sex in the champagne room’ rule that he’d said would only be lifted on the final overnight dates the two remaining couples would be going on.

Brian didn’t blame Gavin for not saying something to Jax about how he was dressed. There was no way he’d want to get into it with Jax. Not only was that guy huge and a professional weightlifter, but he also seemed like he had a short fuse. Not a combo anyone in his right mind would want to agitate. ‘Don’t poke the bear’ fit better in this situation than any he’d ever encountered before.

“Sorry.” Jennifer shook her head, looking a little embarrassed for making that observation. “The girls are running late, but they should be down any minute.” With that declaration, she spun on her heels and was out the door so fast that her ponytail trailed after her as she sped through the door.

When she was gone, Jax turned and threw his arms up. Even in this massive space, he filled the room. “Of course they’re running late! Probably caking that shit all over their faces. Don’t they know all we care about is tits and ass? We don’t give a shit about anything from the neck up. It’s all the same when the lights go out.”

As Jax moved to give Blake a high five, Brian noticed that all five of the women were now standing in the doorway of the dining room. He had no idea how much of Jax’s little speech they’d overheard, but from the looks on their faces, they’d definitely caught a sentence or two.

“Excuse me?” Brooklyn crossed her arms and looked like she was about to spit fire from her eyes.

Jax’s face froze in horror as he stared at the other guys, his eyes pleading for a little help. None came.

You’re on your own big guy
.

“What?” Jax turned to the girls, a huge smile on his face. “I was kidding. I knew you were there.”

All of the ladies looked at him like they knew exactly where he could put that apology, and it involved someplace where the sun don’t shine.

Brian tried not to laugh. He didn’t want to make the situation any worse or add fuel to the fire. He was rescued when Gavin stepped into the room, speaking quietly to both Lance and Sabrina. Lance was holding his script in his hands, rehearsing his lines under his breath. Sabrina’s eyes were glued to her iPad, and it looked like the only one listening to Gavin was Gavin.

“All right. So here’s the deal, kids.” He clapped his hands together loudly, and it felt like it shook the walls.

Brian was still getting used the acoustics in this place. The smallest noise could sound a thousand times louder, and the opposite was true as well. In the staircase and foyer, someone could be right next to him talking in a normal voice and it sounded like they were whispering.

Continuing, Gavin said, “You’ve all been paired up, and from now on, you will be doing things as couples. You’ll eat together, compete together, and play together. But please, let’s keep it PG-13.”

Brian noted that Gavin stared pointedly at Brooklyn when he made that statement.

“All right. So here are the couples. First, we have Madison and Jax.”

Jax looked over at Madison, who looked not so happy about the prince she’d been given.

“Next up is Leah and Blake. Then Brian and Brooklyn.”

Brian heard Brooklyn say, “Yes,” under her breath as she turned and winked at him. He also saw Becca’s entire body tense at the announcement. He was glad that Becca hadn’t been paired with Jax. That guy was an asshole. The other guys seemed fine. The only one he really wouldn’t want her to be with was—

“Becca, you are paired with Colton.”

Colton.

Even though he knew he should be happy that Becca was going to be competing with a good guy like Colton, he wasn’t. If there was one guy here who Becca would actually fall for, it was Colton. Tall. Good-looking. Built. Cowboy. Business owner. The guy was like a girl’s wet dream come to life, and from the short amount of time that Brian had spent around him, Brian knew he was actually a good guy.

None of that would have even bothered Brian except he’d seen the two talking earlier when Colton had whispered something to Becca after she’d taken her card and her face had lit up the way it did…with him.

That old, familiar tightening in his chest was back with a vengeance.
Shit.
He felt like an elephant was sitting on his rib cage.

“Okay, so this is the first ‘family dinner.’ Take your seats—you’ll find place cards on the chairs. You will sit in that same location every time we shoot a scene here. Even once couples start leaving, you do not switch seats. Capisce?” When no one answered him, Gavin clapped his hands together again and exclaimed happily, “Capisce!”

Everyone turned and made their way around the table to find their seats. When Brian located his, he looked up and felt exactly like he had when he’d gotten bucked off the horse he’d been riding at the carnival in first grade. He’d fallen flat on his back and the wind had been knocked clean out of him.

Becca stood facing away from him, and for the first time tonight, he got a glimpse at the back—or more accurately the back
less
—part of the dress she was wearing. It was deep purple, and from the front, it looked like a normal dress she would wear. It was sleeveless with a conservative scoop neckline, and it hit her just above the knee. But now that he’d seen the entire thing, he knew it was not like any dress he’d ever seen her in before. Her
entire
back was exposed. The scoop in the back was not nearly as conservative as the one in the front. It stopped just below the indentation of the bottom of her spine.