Too Hot for TV (12 page)

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Authors: Cheris Hodges

BOOK: Too Hot for TV
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“Imani?” he asked, breaking into her intimate thoughts. “Are you listening to me?”
“What? What did you say?”
He placed his hands on her shoulders and she felt more fire building inside her. “I didn't catch what you said,” she replied, then looked at his hands on her shoulders. “Raymond, maybe in another time and place we would've been perfect together and we would've been able to . . .”
“But we're here right now and I'm sorry if I came off judgmental about your career,” he said. “Being an actress is important to you and I can't hold it against you because you want to get ahead. I just wish you felt as if you could be open with me and let me in more.”
“Let you in where? In my bed?” she asked, nervously trembling because if he kissed her right now they would probably head right there—cameras be damned.
“Why do you keep bringing that up? You know I'm attracted to you and would like nothing more than to pull that robe off and take you right here. But I know you're scared. Maybe you're used to men using you, but I don't get down like that. When you want to join me in bed, you'll know where to find me.”
“Huh?” she asked, taken aback by his statement.
“I don't know who he is or what he did to you, but I'm not him and I'm not going to do what he did to make Imani the way she is now.” Raymond stroked her cheek and smiled. “I'd better go and get ready. See you on the beach.”
She blinked as he walked out of the room. Was he serious? If Imani had her way she'd drop her robe and head across the hall.
And do what? Lay there and give him the worst experience of his life? You wouldn't know what to do with that man and you're not doing this on TV. Stop letting this man pull at your heart strings when you know that nothing good is going to come from this.
“But how can I keep ignoring what I really want? Maybe having someone like Raymond in my life is more important than being famous,” she muttered as she dropped her robe and put the wet suit on.
 
 
Raymond pulled his production note off his hotel room door. He knew what it said and wasn't sure he wanted to play these games, especially when he thought that he was finally getting somewhere with Imani. The way she kept bringing up sex, the bed, and trying to discern his intentions with her let him know that someone had hurt her and she was hiding that pain.
Maybe he's an ex who didn't believe in her talent and that's why she was so hell-bent on becoming a superstar.
Nothing motivates a woman like revenge or heartbreak. I think Imani's been heartbroken,
he thought as he pulled on his wet suit. “She needs to get to know a good man, and here I am,” he muttered as he reread the production note.
Chapter 11
The beach was filled with cameras, contestants dressed in pink and blue wet suits and curious tourists trying to figure out what was going on or get a look at the women in their supertight outfits. Tres glanced at her watch and then out at the assembled group and smiled. But her smile quickly turned into a scowl when she noticed her stars, Raymond and Imani, were nowhere to be found.
She grabbed Elliot as he walked by. “Where are they?”
“Who?” he asked.
“Raymond and Imani,” she replied with a smack on his arm. “I know damned well they didn't leave the show.”
Elliot rubbed his arm and pointed toward the hotel. “Here they come. We have fifteen minutes before we start filming. Will you calm down?”
“Calm down? Calm down? You do realize that after this we're going live? America is going to watch the drama between my favorite couple every night as it happens. Elize gave me the news after I sent her what we'd already recorded and the network has already canceled that police drama. This is my chance to shine, Elliot. My chance to get a real show. Where I go, you go. So you make sure my stars are always front and center.”
“What happens if the viewers like another couple?” Elliot asked. “I thought the purpose of the show was to allow America to vote for the couples.”
“That was until I saw the magic these two have on camera,” Tres said as she watched Imani and Raymond join the others. Elliot looked at the couple and shrugged. He didn't understand what was so special about them. All she did was whine about not wanting him and wanting to be a movie star. How were they supposed to be the stars of the show? And if Tres thought that Elize was going to give her a scripted show to produce, she was out of her mind.
“All right,” Tres said as she walked over to the contestants. “Thank you all for doing the show. I have a few production notes before I turn the controls over to our host, Galen Edwards. People, we're going live, and today's taping will air next week. So, have fun and let's see who's going to get married.”
The contestants cheered, everyone except Imani and Raymond. Galen Edwards walked over to the contestants with a camera crew in tow. Edwards, a once-upon-a-time teen idol with thinning sandy brown hair and a slight beer belly, smiled at the twenty-four players. Imani leaned over and whispered to Raymond, “He must think this is 1986.”
“Play nice,” he replied.
“Who wants to get married?” Edwards called out. “The secret to any good marriage is being able to work together and that's what we're going to do out here today. We're looking for diamonds. There are four diamonds hidden on the beach and you and your partner have to find them. But first, you're going to need a partner.”
Edwards waved over a bikini-clad woman carrying a box. “In here are the names of the couples. Of course, if you stay together, that is up to America.”
Imani shook her head, then looked for the camera so that she could offer America a sparkling smile.
Channel your inner Gabrielle Union,
she thought as she spotted the camera. She smiled, then ran her fingers through her hair. Raymond glanced over at her as the host pulled the first name out of the box.
“Couple number one, Lucy and Murray,” Edwards called out. Imani couldn't help but giggle when she saw Lucy was paired up with Murray, a short and slightly stocky man who didn't need to ever take his shirt off. The look of disgust on Lucy's face elicited a genuine smile from Imani. As Edwards continued reading off the names of the couples, Imani felt a hitch in her stomach. They were not going to team her up with Raymond, were they?
“And our final couple, Raymond and Imani,” Edwards said. They stepped forward and took a shovel from the host.
Imani and Raymond exchanged heated glances, but didn't say anything as Edwards began going over the rules of the search.
“We're going to handcuff each pair together, give you a map, and you're going to have to navigate your course until you find the hidden treasure. Again, there are only four diamonds. Couples who find fool's gold will be up for elimination,” Edwards said. “If you see another couple with a diamond, you have the option of getting it away from them. No violence, however. Are we ready to see who's going to be on the road to matrimony and who's just going to be on the road home?”
“Yes,” everyone called out. The production assistants walked up to the couples and placed the handcuffs on their wrists.
“Good luck,” Elliot said to Imani and Raymond as he locked them together.
“Thanks,” Imani said, then rolled her eyes.
“It could be worse,” Raymond said. “I'm left handed.” He held his arm up. “So, if we have to dig, you're going to be in control, TV wife.”
“I guess you're going to learn how to dig with your right hand today,” she said as they headed to the box near the shore to grab a map.
As Imani reached for the map, Lucy snatched it from her grasp. “Enjoy your time with him now, because once the voting starts, you're going to be sent packing. Maybe you should do a sex tape.”
“Maybe you should go to hell,” Imani snapped, then grabbed the map from her. “Let's go.” She started to run, but Raymond walked slowly and nearly caused her to fall.
“Raymond?” Imani asked, putting her free hand on her hip.
“If we're going to win this thing, we need a plan,” he said, then took the map from her hand. “You know how to read a map?”
Sighing, she replied, “No, but if I didn't get away from Lucy, there might have been a fight.”
“That would be a sight, but you're not a fighter in that way,” he said.
“You're right and I refuse to be a stereotype on this show,” she said as Raymond struggled to hold up the map. Imani grabbed the edge flapping in the wind. “Better?”
“Yes. Looks like we might make a good team, after all,” he quipped.
She raised her right eyebrow but didn't say a word. Raymond pointed to a spot on the map. “We need to start moving in this direction, toward those rock formations.”
“Why couldn't they just give us a GPS?” Imani asked as she and Raymond started toward the rocks.
“Where is the fun in that?” he asked as they walked. “Besides, women have built-in GPS when it comes to diamonds.”
“That's true,” Imani said. “But I'm not into the bling.”
Raymond raised his eyebrow as if to say, “Yeah, right.”
“I'm serious,” she said. “I do flashy on the screen and on stage, but in real life, I'm just plain old Imani.”
“So, how many diamonds have you turned down?”
“How many have you given away?” she tossed back at him.
“None,” Raymond said. “When, and if, I ever decide to get down on one knee, it's only happening once.”
“Unless you win the show,” Imani quipped. “I imagine that Lucy will expect you to go all out when you make her Mrs. Dr. Ray-Ray Thomas.”
He laughed and shook his head. “Like that would happen.” He held their shackled wrists. “Who knows, I could be linked to my spouse right now.”
Imani shook her head. “Please, we'd never last. You'd never sign the prenup.”
Raymond stopped in his tracks. “Prenup?”
“I'm going to be a star. If I get married, I'm going to have to protect what's mine.”
Raymond chuckled and shook his head. “That's a hell of a way to go into a marriage. This is mine and this is yours. What happened to two becoming one?”
“Did you really just ask that question as we walk through the sand, handcuffed together looking for a diamond on a reality show about getting married?”
“Come on now,” he said. “Neither one of us is here to get married, and I still believe in that oldschool thing that my parents had.”
Imani rolled her eyes and slowed her gait. “My parents showed me one thing about marriage.”
“What's that?” Raymond asked.
“If you want to be happy, don't get married.”
“Seriously?”
Imani nodded. “Maybe that's why I jumped into acting. When I was ten, my parents decided to separate. When they stopped living together, everything changed. My mother became the best attorney at her firm and my dad went back to school and started an interior design firm in Georgia. The only thing they agree on is that I'm wasting my time trying to be an actress.”
“You don't like being told you can't do something, huh?”
She shook her head and pointed to a half-buried box. “What's that over there?”
Raymond looked down at the map, surprised that he and Imani had made so much headway, then said, “That might be the diamond.”
“Get ready to dig, doc,” she joked as she handed him the shovel.
“Remember what I said about us making a good team?” he asked. “I was wrong.” As Raymond dug around the box, Imani looked to see if any other couples were coming their way and she saw Lucy and her stocky partner barreling toward them.
“Knock the box open and let's get out of here, the gremlin and the witch are coming our way,” she said. Lucy locked eyes with Imani and tried to run, but Murray fell in the sand.
“Bend down here and help me with this,” Raymond said after digging more than half of the box out of the soft sand.
“Okay,” she said, dropping to her knees beside him. With her unshackled hand, Imani unsnapped the closure on the box. There wasn't a diamond inside, but a key. “What the . . .”
Raymond grabbed the key and stuck it in the lock on the handcuffs. They popped open. “Come on, let's go to the next box and see if we can get the diamond.”
“I have an idea,” she said. Then she shouted, “Yes! We got it.” Imani looked toward Lucy and Murray. Turning to Raymond, Imani kissed him slowly and deeply.
She meant the kiss to be a swipe at Lucy, but when Raymond pulled her closer to his chest and deepened his kiss, Lucy wasn't even a thought in the back of Imani's mind. Her tongue tangoed with his, her spine tingled like a sparkler.
Pull back, pull back,
her inner voice yelled. She ignored it as Raymond cupped her bottom and pressed her against his erection.
“That's not a convincing act!” Lucy yelled out, causing the couple to break off the kiss.
“I don't know what I did to deserve that,” Raymond whispered, “but I liked it and expect another kiss just like that when we find the next box.”
She smiled nervously. “Let's go,” Imani said. They took off, not looking at the map. They had run for about a half mile when Imani tripped over another box.
“Are you all right?” he asked, dropping down beside her. He took Imani's leg into his hands and looked over her ankle, making sure she wasn't bleeding. “Do you feel any pain?”
“No, just my ego's a little bruised,” she replied. “Look on the bright side. Me being clumsy may have found that diamond.”
Raymond looked at the box, which didn't appear to have been found by another team, so he nodded in agreement, then started digging. “Crack it open,” Raymond said after uncovering the top of the box.
Imani opened the box and expelled a deep breath when she saw the diamond in the box. “This can't be real,” she said as she picked up the rock.
“Damn,” he said, taking a look at what had to be a huge piece of glass or the Hope Diamond. “I'm guessing we don't get to keep this. If we sold this, you could buy performance space and the clinic would be in the black for years.”
“It's so not real,” Imani said as she held it up. “There would be no need to finish the show. Let's get back to the host and see what we win.”
“Sure you can walk?” Raymond held his hand out to help her up. Imani stood up and did a little dance.
“I think I can make it.”
“But,” he said, “you owe me something.” Raymond wrapped his arms around her waist, drawing her against his chest, and brushed his lips across hers. He felt her tremble in his arms and leaned in for the kiss, but Imani's next move, running her tongue across his lips, made him shiver in the sunlight. She captured his lips with a quick move and drew his tongue deep into her mouth. Imani moaned softly as he licked the inside of her mouth, seemingly touching the depths of her soul and heating her body like an oven. Raymond lifted her leg and wrapped it around his waist. It was as if they'd both forgotten about the cameras, the task at hand and that fact that they were in the middle of a competition. The diamond tumbled from Imani's hand as she was lost herself in the taste of Raymond's mouth. Feelings that she'd never experienced flowed through her body like a raging river. She could feel the wetness between her thighs, she could feel her heart beating like a drum playing a song that she'd never heard before.

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