Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 53466 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 267(@200wpm)___ 214(@250wpm)___ 178(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 53466 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 267(@200wpm)___ 214(@250wpm)___ 178(@300wpm)
I glance at the time on my cell, wondering when the bodyguard I’ve been assigned will appear. I was told he’d meet up with me at the stylist’s studio. Thanks to some creepy, semi-threatening emails sent to Jade’s PR firm, someone is fixated on the opening act. On me, in particular, so the firm hired protection for both Tawny Renee and me, the other runner-up for the opportunity, just as a precaution.
I’m not worried about the threat. There are plenty of crazy people out there who write nasty letters but don’t act out their fantasies. Still, in this day and age, you can’t take a threat lightly, and I appreciate the security. Even if I think it is unnecessary because I doubt I am the object of anyone’s obsession.
“Come. Let’s go to the sitting area,” Rose says, breaking into her thoughts. “There’s a private fitting room where you can try on the clothes, then come out and show me. Good? Good,” she says without waiting for me to reply.
I follow her from the large room filled with racks of clothing into a spacious studio area, and then I go alone into the small back room to change. For the next thirty minutes, I dutifully perform the equivalent of a fashion show, twirling out into the lounge area to show Rose each outfit.
I don skirts, dresses, shorts, and jeans, slip on high-heeled Christian Louboutin heels—gorgeous shoes with red soles that I teeter in because I wear flip-flops in my normal life. Still, I smile and preen my way out to where Rose and her assistant wait to appraise me, and after a while, the excitement of new clothes and Rose’s elation are contagious. After accumulating a wardrobe of daywear for when the paparazzi catch me out getting Starbucks or traveling to and from the recording studio, it is time for the dressier items for the big events.
“Go. Start with the gold gown. I have to take a call,” Rose calls out to me. “I’ll be right back.”
Take your time, I think. I can use a break from being constantly on for the bubbly French woman.
I have just stripped out of my last pair of designer-label jeans and sigh as I reach for the gorgeous gown. Knowing my bra won’t work, I pull it off, unzip the back, and step into the beaded, delicate dress.
Since I can’t reach the zipper and need Rose’s help, I place one hand on my hip, holding the material in place with the other hand, and pivot toward the mirror for a first look. My cleavage spills out from the low V in front, but not in an inappropriate way. In a take-notice kind of way, for sure, but even I have to admit, I look good, I think, excited to show the stylist.
The fitting room is stuffy, so I head out to wait for Rose in the bigger, airy sitting area. I am still falling out of the unzipped dress, but since it is just Rose and her assistant, my nearly exposed boobs don’t overly concern me. I’ll be tucked in soon enough, and Rose will probably come running with Spanx to hold everything else in place.
I step into the main sitting area and stop short, shocked to find a man standing there, leaning against the wall. Jet-black tousled hair, piercing blue eyes, strong jaw, and full lips I once experienced gliding over my body, bringing me to a fevered state of arousal, and kissing me like I’ve never been kissed before. In our short time together, Ben Hollander ruined me for all other men.
I never expected to see him again. Not since our affair while I was on Star Power, and his subsequent firing for fraternizing with the talent. He ignored my calls and disappeared from my life, never to be heard from again.
Until now. He stands in my dressing room, eyeing me with cool detachment, but as his gaze rakes over my body and lands on my nearly exposed breasts, it darkens with a heat I recognize. Because I’ve seen his eyes hooded with desire before.
My nipples harden, but I have no jacket to grab in order to cover myself, so I fold my arms across my chest and meet his steady stare.
I finally find my voice. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m your new bodyguard. And if how easily I got in here is anything to go by, you desperately need one.”
He’d worked security when she’d known him last. Now he was her bodyguard?
“Seriously? You’re worried about how easily you got in here? I thought the PR people were just being cautious.”
He narrows his gaze. “I don’t take anything about my job lightly. Not anymore,” he says pointedly.
Direct hit, and I wince at the overt reminder of our awkward past.
I never did know for sure how the producers found out about my relationship with Ben, but if I had to guess, Tawny Renee tattled. From the minute the other girl and I met early on during filming of the show, Tawny buddied up to me, and I thought she was a friend. Until the night Tawny turned on me, the end result being a girl fight video that went viral—me trying to get away, Tawny going after me for some imagined slight.