Fairytale Love - Becca & Brian (20 page)

“Okay, Fairytale Lovers.” Lance Sparrow stood in front of the giant rock-climbing wall they’d all be climbing today. “There are always obstacles on the road to happily ever after. In today’s challenge, you and your partner will be scaling this wall together. The couple that reaches the highest point in the shortest time will be safe from this week’s elimination and automatically be continuing on their journey to find fairytale love. But remember, couples—even if you don’t get immunity, your scores matter. So if all the princes and princesses could please step to the wall.”

Everyone took a few steps forward, and Becca wiped her damp hands on her leggings. She looked up and saw the bell both she and Colton had to ring to complete the challenge. Checking down the line, she saw that Madison and Jax were already fighting. She couldn’t hear what they were saying, but it looked to Becca like Madison did not want to do this challenge. The chestnut-haired girl kept showing Jax her nails and Becca overheard the word ‘manicure’ several times. It was comical to see the expression on Jax’s face each time she said that word. He didn’t just cringe—it looked like he was going to throw up.

Most of the couples were going over their strategies. Becca could only hear snippets, but from what she heard, it sounded like the guys were going to go ahead of the girls and then the girls were going to follow their grip path. She tried to lean forward to catch a glimpse of Brian and Brooklyn, but because the mountain that was Jax was standing between them, she wasn’t able to see anything.

“So I’m guessing you’ve never done this,” Colton stated.

“You guess right,” Becca confirmed, looking back up to the bell they were supposed to ring. It looked thousands of feet high. Her stomach was no longer filled with butterflies. Now it felt like there was hardened concrete in it.

How was she going to climb with concrete in her stomach?

Colton moved between her and the wall. His arm wrapped around her waist as he dipped his head and spoke in a low voice so that she was the only one who could hear him. “It’s really not that hard. These are the basics. Don’t tense up. Stay close to the wall. Don’t try and climb straight up—move to the side then up. Make sure to use your legs to hold your weight. Halfway up, your arms will feel like jelly, but your legs will last longer. If you need to rest, rest. I know that this is a race, but giving your muscles a break when they need them will help you perform better overall. Try not to look down and don’t overreach. Just keep your eyes on where you want to go and choose grips that are comfortable for you.”

She shot him a look like he had to be kidding. The only grips that would be comfortable for her were the ones she could reach with her feet firmly planted on the ground. But his advice made sense, and at least she had some kind of a plan instead of just free-styling it.

“You’ll see.” He nodded with a confidence that, although she felt it was wildly misplaced, still made her feel slightly better. He grinned. “You can do this. I know you can.”

That makes one of us.

“All right, Fairytale Lovers,” Lance Sparrow’s voice sounded loudly behind them. “In three, two, one. Climb!”

A horn sounded, and Becca took a deep breath before placing her hand in the orange hold above her head.

Here goes nothin’.

Becca began climbing the wall. She kept the tips Colton had given her running through her mind on repeat. As soon as she’d made her way through the list, she’d start it again. Rinse and repeat—that was her strategy.

Don’t tense up.

Stay close to the wall.

Move to the side then up.

Use your legs.

Take rests.

Don’t look down.

Don’t overreach.

Instead of getting more and more nervous, more and more scared, or more and more unsure, the higher she got on the wall, she found that the opposite happened. Confidence built inside of her. She wasn’t exactly sure how high she was, because she wasn’t looking down, when she felt her hands getting really sweaty and she started feeling like she was going to slip.

“Colton?” She heard the fear in her voice. “My hands are sweaty.”

He’d stayed close to her, climbing at her pace, not going ahead of her like she saw happening with the two couples next to them. She felt his hand on her back, and she turned to him, her breathing coming in pants.

“Relax. You’re fine. I got you,” he assured her.

How he managed to hang on with one hand while he rubbed her back when he had to be at least a foot taller than she was, not to mention close to a hundred pounds heavier, she had no idea.

“Do you want to try to wipe them on your pants one at a time?” he asked calmly.

She, however, did
not
respond calmly. “No,” she snapped as her body tensed. Letting go of one of these holds sounded like a horrible,
horrible
idea.

“Okay,” he said easily. “So let’s just hang out for a minute. Pun intended.”

Becca felt her lips pull up in an unexpected smile as she nodded her head slightly and blew a breath out of her mouth before she looked over at him.

His instructions kept rolling through her head like the ticker tape at the NYSE.

Don’t tense up.

Stay close to the wall.

Move to the side then up.

Use your legs.

Take rests.

Don’t look down.

Don’t overreach.

After a few moments, she was feeling better. She was as relaxed as she could possibly be while dangling from the side of a rock wall. Breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth, she nodded.

“Okay. I’m good.”

“You sure?” His eyes searched hers.

“Yep.”

Becca might be feeling better, but she still wanted to get this over with as soon as freaking possible. So instead of trying to convince Colton that she was actually okay, she just pushed off of her toes and reached for the blue, plastic hold above her head and to the left a little. Once she grabbed that, she lifted her left knee up high and stepped on the black hold that was about double the distance she had been climbing.

Pulling her upper body up, she grabbed another hold then brought her right knee up, and so on and so on. Before she knew it, she was within an arm’s length of the buzzer. She looked at Colton as they both reached up and rang it. Then, leaning back so that she was pressing off the wall in a seated cradle position—like she’d been instructed to do for descent—she pushed off the wall and swung out. When she was close to the wall again, she bent her knees and pushed off again. After three push-offs, she was back, safe, on the concrete floor.

Never before in her life had she been so tempted to get on her knees and kiss the ground beneath her feet. Not even after she got off of planes. She quickly unhooked the rope that was connected to her harness, not wanting to be tethered to it one second longer than necessary.

She was still trying to get her breathing under control when she felt strong arms come around her and realized that Colton had picked her up off the ground and was spinning her around. She squealed in surprise as her arms flew around him.

As he sat her back down, he said, “You did it!”

Becca smiled. She looked up at how tall the wall was, glowing in her achievement, and as she did, she saw that all of the other couples were still on the wall. A few of them weren’t even halfway up.

She jerked her head to look up at Colton. “Did we win?”

He smiled broadly. “Yeah, we won.”

“Really?” she asked, not believing that could be possible.

Colton just nodded with his wide grin still in place.

“Oh my gosh!” Becca cried and jumped into Colton’s arms, wrapping her arms around his neck.

She squeezed her eyes shut the way she always did when she felt overwhelmed or swept up in a moment. Colton’s arms enveloped her as he held her firmly against his body.

They’d actually done it. She’d done it. That was amazing.

When she opened her eyes, she saw that Brian and Brooklyn had made their way down. They’d come in second. That was great! Becca was so happy that…

Wait
. Now she and Colton had immunity and Brian and Brooklyn didn’t.

She froze for a moment before releasing her hold around Colton’s neck. Sensing her shift in energy, he slowly set her down on the ground.

“What’s wrong?” he asked with genuine concern shining through his emerald-green eyes.

“Nothing.” Becca tried to smile brightly.

Colton gave her a strange look, but before he had a chance to comment on her three-sixty, the twelve-year-old-looking kid was back to help her out of her harness.

Becca could not believe that she’d messed up so badly. She wasn’t here to win. She was here to be there for Brian and help
him
win. Honestly, she hadn’t thought for a second that she’d actually
win
. Pass out, maybe. Throw up, yes. There’d been a really good chance of that. But come in first?
No way, Jose
. Not in a million, trillion years had she thought that was a possibility.

She needed to go talk to Brian, to explain. But since their every word was being recorded, she didn’t really think this was the best time. But still… If she could just get five minutes with him to explain.

Leaning forward, she saw him hugging Brooklyn, who looked like she was crying.

Crying?
What did Brooklyn have to cry about?

As if he felt Becca’s stare, Brian lifted his head, and when she caught his eye, he gave her a little thumbs-up behind Brooklyn’s back and smiled a smile that told her he was proud of her. Now Becca wanted to cry. She’d just cost him immunity, but he was happy for her.

Yep. That was Brian.

B
eads of sweat formed on his brow as waves of heat rolled off the large lights that were shining directly on the cast as they stood, coupled up, in the makeshift studio that was originally the ballroom of the castle, where they were filming the first live elimination show. The heat was stifling in this room. Brian had actually been surprised this week at how cool the castle had been. Even when it had been a hundred degrees outside, it had been a comfortable seventy-five inside the stone structure.

As they waited to come back from the commercial break, Brooklyn shifted her hips in front him, rubbing her backside against his groin like a cat in heat. She’d been upping the PDA over the last day or two. Brian knew that it was good for the show. Both Sabrina and Gavin had told him that viewers were going to love their “heat.” He figured he must be a better actor than he’d thought because there was zero heat being generated between him and the blonde who thought she was the hottest thing walking.

Unlike what seemed to be developing between Becca and Colton. For the last four days, Brian had watched them share private moments, inside jokes, personal victories. When Becca had made her way to the top of that rock wall, Brian had felt equal parts ridiculously proud of his best friend and painfully heartbroken that he hadn’t been the one beside her to share in her victory.

No. That honor had gone to her ‘prince.’ Brian had seen her stop halfway up, seen the look on her face. She’d been scared and unsure. Then, he watched Colton rub his hand on her back and calm her down. Center her. Help her get over her fear.

Brian had watched it all play out right in front of his eyes, unable do a damn thing to stop it. Helpless. That’s what he’d felt. Totally and completely helpless.

And he had no one to blame but himself. He’d pulled her into this crazy situation. Becca was here because he dragged her to that audition just because he wanted to spend time with her. He shook his head. That had sure backfired.

She’d met Cowboy Colton because of him.

Looking down the row to where Becca stood in front of Colton, Brian felt his heart breaking wide open in his chest. She looked drop-dead gorgeous. Her silky, dark hair fell in waves around her face. She was wearing a strapless, red dress that hit her just below her knees. The strappy, black heels she had on her feet, showcased her toned calves so perfectly that he thought they should be illegal.

Brian hadn’t just done a double take when she’d walked in with the other girls tonight. He’d done a quadruple take. That dress fit her like it had been made for her; and it probably had been. He was pretty sure Amber had made that dress, specifically, for Becca. He remembered when she’d shown it to him last summer and told him that she didn’t feel comfortable wearing it because of the slit that ran up her left thigh. Brian remembered thinking, at the time, that it was adorable how conservative she was.

Now, he wanted to take her to the nearest dark corner and run his hand up that slit. Dip his fingers between her legs. Slide up the soft skin of her inner thighs, stopping only when he reached her core. Then rub her wet center until she—

“Hmm, someone’s awake,” he heard Brooklyn purr as she rolled her hips against his now semi-hard erection.