More Than Fashion (19 page)

“Gavin…”

Before I could get another word out, he pulled me off my chair and onto his lap. My arms slipped around his neck, and I fell into his kiss. I turned so I was straddling him in the chair, and a reckless passion swept over us, fueled by pent-up desire and alcohol. I tugged at his clothes, sliding my hands under his shirt and along his chest. He found his way under my skirt, which was pushed up to my thighs, and his fingers gripped my ass. My lips touched his neck, and he groaned softly as I kissed him there. I’d noticed before that he liked his neck touched, and I hadn’t forgotten. His head fell back, giving me better access to him, and my tongue flicked along his skin. I couldn’t get enough of his taste, his touch, his voice.

All my earlier hesitation about sleeping with him vanished. I didn’t care if it was a quick fuck or making love or what—I just needed
him
.

“Take me right here, right now,” I whispered, finding the button on his jeans.

He laughed, low and deep, and it rumbled against my lips on his neck. “You’re drunk again, love.”

“I’m not drunk! Just tipsy. And you’re as drunk as I am.”

“There’s also a camera filming us.”

Oh right. I glanced behind us and saw the camera guy, who gave a little wave. How fucking awkward. And hilarious. I giggled, burying my face in Gavin’s neck, and he laughed with me.

“Soon, I promise.” His lips moved to my ear, and he whispered into them. “And when I’m finally inside you, you won’t be drunk. You’ll be completely sober. You’ll feel every inch of me. And you’ll remember it long after we’re done.”

I shivered in anticipation, half-tempted to say fuck the camera and unzip his pants anyway, but I knew he would stop me. With a sigh, I climbed off him.

One of us
had
to win the next challenge.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

W
e all headed to the design room as usual to wait for Lola and our next challenge. And waited. And waited. No one knew what was going on, and no one would tell us.

Finally the doors opened, but another model walked in: Carla’s mother, Eva Pereira.

She was in her fifties and still stunning, with mahogany hair that fell in waves down her shoulders and a killer body. She was Portuguese and had the same delicate, graceful features as her daughter, but lighter skin and hair that was more wavy than curly. In her day, she had been even more famous than Lola, and together they’d walked the runways for designers all over the world. But she gave most of that lifestyle up once she had Carla and her brother Daniel, instead focusing on raising her family and only doing a few modeling jobs here and there.

We’d met a few times before, but she didn’t react at the sight of me. Good, she knew to pretend we were strangers.

“Hello, everyone. I’m Eva Pereira, and for this challenge, I’ll be filling in for Lola as both your host and as one of the judges.”

I wanted to drop to my knees and thank whoever or whatever it was that had made Lola miss this challenge. Now I might actually have a shot of winning it.

“Today you’ll be working in pairs again,” Eva said.

Some of the other designers groaned, but I locked eyes with Gavin. We
had
to be paired up. Not only for our fake romance, but because we worked well together. It was our best shot at winning or at least being in the top.

And we both desperately wanted to win that private suite.

“For today’s challenge, you won’t be working with your models,” Eva continued. “Instead, you have three very special clients. And they’ve chosen the two designers they want to work with.”

Shit. Being without Carla again for a challenge would be rough, and not being able to pick our partner meant I would probably be stuck with Nika or Jeff. Kill me now.

But when the door opened, three women walked in—and one of them was Maddie! I covered my mouth with my hands to keep from screaming in excitement and surprise. Her eyes found mine, and a big smile lit up her face. What was she doing here?

It slowly registered on me that the other two women were also from bands on
The Sound
. The blonde was Lacey, whose country band, Fairy Lights, had won the show. The other woman was in Brazen, the band that had come in third. They were all on tour together as part of their deal with
The Sound
, and I remembered Maddie had said one of their concerts was in New York. I just never thought I’d see her here, on
this
show.

The three women spread around Eva, who smiled at us. “You’re going to design a rock goddess outfit for these three musicians that coincides with both their personal look and their band’s music. The winning design will be worn on stage tomorrow night at their concert.”

Oh god, I had to work with Maddie or I would die. I’d designed or modified more clothes for Maddie than I could remember, including many of the outfits she’d worn while on
The Sound
. Even the dress she’d worn during the audition for the show was one she’d borrowed from me. I knew how to make Maddie look good, I knew what she liked, and I knew her band’s sound. Plus, I’d gotten to know the other members of her band, Villain Complex, over the last few months and when they’d cosplayed with us at Comic-Con. It was partly thanks to them I was even on this show, since I wasn’t sure I’d have won the prize without their help.

Eva quickly introduced the three women and gave a brief bit of info about
The Sound
and how the bands had competed on different teams to try and win a record deal. Then she said, “Our musicians have looked through your portfolios and seen what you’ve done this season, and they’ve chosen your teams for this challenge.”

Maddie, naturally, picked me. This time I let out a little squeal and did a fist-pump. She chose Gavin, too, and my first thought was: thank god. Then it struck me how odd it was that I was relieved to be paired with him again. A few challenges ago, I would have done anything to not be stuck with him.

Lacey chose Jeff and Dawn, while the Brazen singer chose Nika and Trina. All four of them looked like they might throw up as they moved to join their musicians at their workstations, but I was too busy running to Maddie and grabbing my best friend in a hug to care.

“I can’t believe you’re here!” I said.

“I know! Reunited at last!”

“It hasn’t been that long since we were at Comic-Con, but it feels like forever.” So much had changed in the few weeks I’d been on the show. I was sure Maddie felt the same—she’d been on tour the entire time, traveling around the country and performing.

“I know! I was so excited when they told us we were doing something with
Behind The Seams
!”

“So this is the roommate I’ve heard so much about,” Gavin said behind us.

Maddie’s eyes widened behind her black-rimmed glasses. She took him in with flushed cheeks, in that not-so-subtle way she’d always done when she met a hot guy. You’d think she’d be better at disguising it now that she was with Jared, the lead singer of her band, who was one of the hottest guys I’d ever seen in my entire life. I would have said
the
hottest, but then I’d met Gavin and that English accent edged him into the win.

No, she would always be slightly socially awkward Maddie, even though she was a rock star now. I was actually sort of relieved—it meant her newfound fame and her life on tour hadn’t changed her at all. Actually, I took that back. Being on
The Sound
and joining Villain Complex
had
changed her; it had made her a lot more confident and much happier. Not only because she had fallen in love with Jared, but because she’d found her place in the world. Like she was finally the person she was always meant to be.

“It’s great to meet you,” she said to Gavin, then gave me an even bigger grin. I wondered what Carla had told her about him.

He leaned against our table, smiling at her. “I want to hear all sorts of embarrassing stories about Julie, but first we should discuss what we’re going to make for you.”

“Did you watch their season of
The Sound
?” I asked.

“No, I don’t think they air it in the UK. We have our own version, with different mentors and all that.”

For the next few minutes, Gavin asked Maddie what she liked to wear on stage, including colors, style, fabrics, and what worked and didn’t work when she played guitar. He asked about the other members of the band, too, and what kind of music they played. Meanwhile, I sketched out some ideas I thought she might like. Maddie chose one and gave us her thoughts, and Gavin added his own twist to it, and by the end of our time, we had a pretty good idea of what we were going to do.

“I’ll be back tomorrow,” Maddie said, giving me another hug. “I can’t wait to see what the two of you create together.”

I was dying for Maddie to wear our look on stage in front of thousands of people. Gavin was going to make a chainmail tank top, while I was making some black pants and a leather jacket to go over it. I’d never made a leather jacket before, but I’d made other coats and had an idea of how it should work. Still, I didn’t often work with leather, so I wasn’t sure how tricky it would be. And I couldn’t screw this up. We had to win this challenge—not just for ourselves, but for Maddie.

Not to mention, if we won, we’d get to use that private suite. I couldn’t pretend I wasn’t excited about the idea of that. Talk about some good motivation.

During lunch, Gavin took the first shift this time, while I took the second. When I walked in, Nika and Jeff were already eating together. Ugh, why had I picked this shift?

“Their season of
The Sound
was the best yet,” Nika said. “So much drama. So much romance. So many hot rock stars.”

Jeff popped a grape in his mouth. “You’re lucky. I wish I had time to watch TV. But I’m too busy traveling around the world and designing clothes for all my clients.”

I rolled my eyes as I got my own food. I was so tired of Jeff’s elitist attitude. The guy needed a serious reality check.

Since I’d rather eat glass than sit with them, I sneaked out to the hallway, where I ran into Eva.

“Hello, Julie. It’s so good to see you again. I think the last time was at our Fourth of July barbeque, wasn’t it?”

“Yep. When Carla and Daniel got in a fight over the hamburgers.”

“Yes, I remember. He refused to make vegan ones for her, and she pushed him into the pool.” She laughed and shook her head. “But how are you doing? How has it been on the show?”

“It’s been…rough,” I admitted. “Exhausting and stressful. But good, too. Although I think Lola hates me and I can’t figure out why.”

I quickly told her what had been happening during the last few challenges. For some reason, it was easier to open up to Carla’s mom than to my own. Maybe because she was so warm and kind, not at all what you’d expect from an internationally famous supermodel. Or maybe because she and Carla got along really well, almost like they were friends or sisters, which had always fascinated me. So different from my relationship with my mom, or Maddie’s with her mother.

When I finished my story, Eva frowned. “Oh, dear. I’m afraid that’s probably my fault.”

“Your fault?”

“Lola and I have always had a friendly rivalry. Sometimes not so friendly. When we were younger, we competed over everything. Who was more popular, who got the better jobs, who dated the cuter guys—stupid things like that. But it turned into something more when the actor she was dating, whose name I won’t mention, dumped her in public.” She sighed. “A week later, he and I got together. It wasn’t my finest moment, but I was young and swept away by how rich and famous and handsome he was. And maybe I wanted to make her a little mad, too.

“After that, things grew worse between us, even though that actor dumped me a few weeks later and moved on to the next model he could find. I hoped when I had children and quit modeling Lola would get over it, but it seems she still has a grudge, even twenty-something years later.”

“But why take it out on me?”

“I assume because she knows Carla is my daughter and that I pulled strings with Giselle Roberts to make sure you were paired together. Lola doesn’t really hate you, but you’ve been caught in this ridiculous, ancient feud between us. I’m sorry, Julie.”

I blew out a long breath. “It’s good to know she doesn’t hate me for my clothes, I guess. But what am I supposed to do?”

“I’ll try to talk to Giselle and see what I can do. I’m not sure it will help, but it isn’t fair that my past should hurt you now.”

“Thanks.”

She gave me a hug, and when I pulled away, I spotted Jeff standing at the end of the hallway in front of the bathroom, watching us. Oh, shit. Had he heard that entire thing?

But all he did was shoot me a sharp glance before walking back into the breakroom. Maybe he’d been in the bathroom the entire time? Not much I could do about it, either way. If it got out that Carla was my friend, so be it. I was ready for whatever shit Jeff wanted to throw at me. And there were only two more challenges after this one anyway. What could he possibly do?

When I got back from lunch, Gavin was hunched over our workstation, using his pliers to construct the chainmail for the top, ring by ring. He was doing an alternating pattern of aluminum and rubber rings, which he’d found in the fabric room. The rubber rings were black and stretchy, giving the chainmail some extra movement so it wouldn’t hang so tight and stiff on Maddie’s body.

“How was lunch?” he asked.

“Fine. Jeff was doing his humblebrag thing again.” I neglected to mention my talk with Eva. I’d tell Gavin about it later, when we weren’t on camera and surrounded by other people.

“Of course he was.” He straightened up. “I made something for you while you were gone.”

“You…made me something?”

“It’s nothing big.” He took my hand and placed something cool and metallic inside, then closed my fingers over it. He brought my fist to his lips and kissed it. “I hope you like it.”

I opened my hand, and inside was a bracelet, made from the same aluminum and rubber rings as the chainmail shirt. The way the rings had been woven together gave it a beautiful textured pattern, and the contrast between black and silver made it edgy and unique. I slipped it over my wrist and it fit perfectly.